Media Play has a bunch of games for $8.99 a piece (but apparently not online). Not just crappy, years-old sports games, either. I’m thinking about picking up Eternal Darkness (Gamecube) and X-Men Legends (Xbox). Not too shabby for less than twenty bucks.
Archives for 2005
What I’m playing
The past couple weeks haven’t really been conducive to a lot of video gaming, but I’ve been able to get a little gaming in when I can. The game I’m playing the most right now is Far Cry: Instincts for the Xbox. I never played the PC version but the Xbox version is a lot of fun. I’m just playing the single player right now but if I have enough time before the rental runs out, I want to give it a whirl online as well.
I’m still playing a lot of Mario Kart DS. I haven’t been online as much lately (I’m trying to unlock everything) I still try to get on a couple nights a week to see if anyone else is on. So far I’ve only played one “Friends” match, but I’m still on the lookout!
Aside from those two, I still try to get a little Metroid Pinball in, a little Halo 2 (I’m looking forward to the playlist update) and I’m going back to my stack of games. Next up is Metroid Prime 2. I’ve also been neglecting Guild Wars.
I wish I had more hours in a day!
Buckeye Blogging, Bowl Selection Edition
Who’s next?!
That’s right, sports fans, I will invoke Bill Goldberg. That’s basically what the Buckeyes are saying right now. Three of the past four Fiesta Bowls have featured the Buckeyes. It’s become their personal wood shed, where they take the opposition out to put the wood to. In 2004, the Buckeyes dismantled the cowboys of Oklahoma State Wildcats of Kansas State. 2003’s Fiesta Bowl was the best football game I have ever witnessed, EVER. This year’s bowl looks like it will be shaping up for another classic.
First I wanted to say I still think the BCS is a sham. How an 8-4 team can play in one of the four BCS bowls (arguably the four “best” bowl games) when Oregon, Auburn, and countless other teams with better records, that have beat better teams, and could probably beat Florida State. That being said, I was impressed with FSU against Va. Tech. I’ve said all along that VT was overrated and I was glad FSU beat them convincingly. Hopefully now we can officially get of the Vick bandwagon (Mike is an average NFL QB, Marcus won’t fare any better).
It’s clear that Texas and USC are the two best teams in the country. That much we already know. I’m still mulling over who I think wins that game. Right now I’m going with Texas, but that may change. I will say that if Reggie Bush doesn’t win the Heisman then I will have lost all faith in humanity. As for the other bowls – the Georgia/West Virginia Sugar Bowl doesn’t interest me. Georgia will win big. FSU/Penn State is intriguing mostly because of the coaches. If you would have asked me who would win this game last week, I wouldn’t hestitate saying Penn State would. After watching Florida State last night, I’m not so sure. This is a toss up. Penn State’s defense is tough and that’s what I think will be the difference. Penn State by a field goal.
So we come to the Fiest Bowl. I may be biased, but outside of the Rose Bowl, this bowl has the best matchup. Two storied programs, two teams one (or two) plays away from greatness. Notre Dame and wunderkind Brady Quinn are in for a shock. I think Quinn, being from Columbus, will have a big target on his back. I don’t think many fans are bitter he went to Notre Dame but the players may feel different. He’ll be harassed all day long by Hawk and Schlegel. OSU’s defense will dominate. I don’t think Notre Dame’s defense will be able to stop OSU’s offense. Troy Smith will play big and I predict that Ted Ginn Jr. will break something big. Maybe a punt, maybe a long pass. I think they will be more than Notre Dame can handle. Write it down – OSU wins big.
Fear the spear.
Carnival of Gamers #9
Is now up, looking great as ever.
If you’re a Digg user, here’s the Digg link.
Update: I was pleasantly surprised at the turn out of this, the last Carnival of 2005. The guys at TGC did a great job, hopefully they’ll be up for another round in the future. The next Carnival stop is at Kill Ten Rats. After that, the schedule is wide open. Are you interested? Drop me a line!
Green with Envy
There, I said it. I’m envious of those lucky enough to already be playing on the Xbox 360. I stated earlier that I wasn’t interested in getting an Xbox 360 at launch. I had convinced myself the launch lineup was weak, I didn’t want to wait out in the cold, I didn’t want to be nickel-and-dimed to death with the Live Marketplace, I didn’t feel like paying for old arcade games and I most certainly didn’t want to drop sixty bones a pop for games. I thought my arguments were pretty convincing. Why do I feel an empty space in my gaming soul, then? Why do I want one when there are cases of crashes, power bricks overheating, unscrupulous bundling, disc scratching, shiny graphics with shallow game play improvements?
I didn’t get a console on launch day for a number of reasons. The main one being I didn’t preorder and I didn’t want to hassle with limited supplies. I won’t go into the perceived supply shortages. Intentional or not, it looks like MS had the foresight to hold on to some extra units for replacements. And according to the mucky-mucks, there will be more arriving weekly (there’s hope for us afterall!). Nevertheless, some people had interesting experiences getting one and unfortunately others had their pre-orders cancelled. Bummer. Will has his. Lucky! Gaming Steve has some nice Best Buy launch pictures. So no launch console for me, but as I said, there’s hope! JCPenny offers this sweet deal (ht: Team Xbox). If paying four hundred dollars for a couple extra pieces of plastic and silicon doesn’t appeal to you, there is this interesting way of getting one. One could always get a Core System. Noob! This guy (ht: Pixel Dujour) speaks for a lot of gamers – I’ve got the cash but a lot of good that does me. So there’s that. A lot of people want them and not everyone is getting them.
A stroll around the gamingsphere has a lot of people gushing about the 360. Nick at G-Pinions might as well be a salesman for Microsoft. The guy’s pitch would have sold me one. Bill at Dubious Quality live-blogged his hour long sessions with most of the release titles, finishing up with his rankings. Just go to his site, scroll to the bottom and start scrolling up. Color me jealous. Apex had a lot to say (again, just start scrolling), including some things for the naysayers. There are more out there (I’ll try to add them as I find them) but it just makes me sad to read about people’s early Christmas. Let me know if you how your first week has been (so I can hate you without ever meeting you)
All the hype and excitement abound but I still haven’t completely put my finger on the true source of my yearning. I could say it’s jealousy but that’s not exactly it. I think it’s Xbox Live. Everything I’ve read about it sounds fantastic (re-read Nick’s piece). Live leader boards, game demos, classic arcade games. (I do find it ironic that the game most people gush about is not Pefect Dark Zero or King Kong, it’s Geometry Wars.) Gamer cards look awesome. Heck, I even set one up for myself even though I don’t have anything to show off. (But beware of the FBI! Right.) Anyway, I look forward to all the fragging and bragging that will go on with the new pissing contest cards. The new Xbox Live really seems to be a giant step in the right direction (even if everyone isn’t down with it). So maybe it’s more than just Live. More than just the allure of a new shiny gadget.
I want to be part of the hive. I want high scores and co-op Smash TV. I want to play on a new TV with high-definition resolution and I want to have wireless controllers and I want wireless headsets. I want I want I want. That’s just it. It’s part of my core as a gamer. I don’t want to miss out.
I want one, plain and simple.
Ugggh
Hello, America. I want to be your next President. Why should you vote for me? Look at all the things I’ve done for the children. Won’t you please think of the children?
Back in the saddle
Well, it’s back to the old grind for the buttonMasher. I’m about 5000+ posts behind with my bloglines subscriptions (why do I do that to myself?) and I still haven’t unpacked my suitcase and I’ve got to go to work tomorrow.
A lot of stuff has happened over the past week, including the Xbox 360 launch (and subsequent problems and successes), so I’ll be slowly catching up with all the goings-on in the gaming world. But I do want to remind everyone about the next Carnival of Gamers over at The Game Chair. This is the big end-of-the-year, Christmas, Xbox 360, whatever-you-want Carnival. Should be great!
I haven’t had a chance to play Mario Kart DS online for over a week so I’m looking forward to throwing down some Mario Kart soon and Animal Crossing drops soon so I’m really looking forward to some more DS gaming.
Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving weekend. Feels good to be back.
Oh, and the ending of Prison Break? BIG disappointment.
Blogging will be light…
With family in town and the Thanksgiving weekend almost upon us, blogging here will be spotty at best until next week. I’m interested in seeing the reaction to the Xbox 360 launch around the gamingsphere, there won’t be much more going on here. No launch 360 for me.
I’ll be playing copious amounts of NCAA 2006 (my bro-in-law’s favorite game) and some other stuff on the side. I will hopefully be playing MKDS in the every once and a while but even that will be hard to do. I did play my first “friends” game against n0wak (the-inbetween.com). We both won two races and all four races were close. Hopefully I’ll see some of you other guys on soon!
Buckeye Blogging, Week #12 (9-2)
“Drive, drive on down the field, Men of the Scarlet and Gray!”
That’s exactly what Troy Smith and the Buckeyes did twice in the space of 6 minutes to overcome a 21-12 deficit. While Michigan played pretty good football for the first 54 minutes they didn’t step up when it mattered most. The Buckeyes defense was put in a number of sticky situations but held strong. That D is STOUT. It looked for a while like the Buckeyes were going to give another game away (see: Penn State) but Troy Smith rallied the troops. He’s easily the Buckeyes offensive MVP. And Mr. Clutch? He looks like this:
That’s clutch. Gonzales plays in the shadows of Ginn and Holmes all season but he comes through when he’s called on. He scored the first touchdown against Michigan last year and he broke their back again this year. Smith + Gonzales = Wolverine Killers.
It was a shame to see Bobby Carpenter go down in the first quarter to injury. He has been such a huge part of the D. Schlegel played his best game of the year and the Buckeyes shut down the over-rated Hart once again. What a game. Say hello to the 2005 Big Ten Champs.
So now we play the waiting game. I fully believe OSU will be going to a BCS game. I’d love to play Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, as most people are predicting. Bring ’em on and watch ’em fall. I can’t wait.
More Mario Kart
Yeah, so Mario Kart DS? It’s fun.
I think there’s a single player game but I wouldn’t know it. I also think there are unlockables to get better racers in the single player game but I’m too busy playing online to unlock them. One of these days I’ll get around to that.
There was a message on Nintendo’s forum about not sharing friend codes. I thought that was odd. I’m assuming it’s just for the Official Nintendo Forums (probably for some legal reason that defies logic), but the how do you “make” new “friends” if you can’t share your code? Anyway, like I said, I think it only affects the Nintendo.com forums, so feel free to post your friend codes here. Thanks to everyone who already has, I’ve added you and am constantly looking for a friends match! I haven’t seen anyone in my list online yet. Hopefully it’ll happen one of these days.
There is some good stuff on the forums, though. The most helpful for me was this one. Getting that super-start is crucial.
I’m also using this site to make a new logo. I’m thinking Block-O from OSU. I know, real original. I’ll post whatever I use later. Hope to see you out there!