buttonmashing

Mashing buttons since 1984

Archives for 2006

Back on track.

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I’m back from spending a nice weekend at my parent’s house, mostly unplugged. I didn’t touch my feeds or emails all weekend long. It was great. My sister’s wedding was nice, too. Spending time with family is always good.

Now that things are starting to ramp up, video game wise, I’m getting ready for things to get busy around the game-o-sphere, and here at buttonmashing.com in particular.

I’ve got some impressions for Contact, Ouendan, and other games I started talking about but never followed up with.

Then a look at the upcoming avalanche of games and systems. That whipering sound you hear is my wallet, in the corner, balled up in the fetal position and quietly sobbing.

I’m also still working on a review of a bunch of video game-related podcasts. Hopefully that will be done soon, as the Wii/PS3 release will probably dominate things for foreseeable future.

The next two months look extremely exciting.

360 Demo Thursday (Wedding Edition)

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There will be no 360 Demo Thursday this week for a number of reasons. My sister is getting married this weekend, so I have been occupied with wedding festivities all week long, reducing my gaming time. What little gaming time I’ve had has been spent with the DS playing Contact and Ouendan. Things will return to a relatively normal schedule next week.

I’m glad we had a successful Carnival, thanks to Jason for hosting another edition of the traveling freak show. Next month’s host is currently up in the air. I’ll be getting in touch with those that have volunteered to host a Carnival and I should have the schedule updated soon.

Now I need to go put my tux on.

Gamemaster: Will Wright

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An excellent (and long) article about Will Wright at the New Yorker.

I’ve played a lot of games. A lot. But I think Sim City and Sim City 2000 consumed more of my gaming time than any other game I’ve played. I’ve avoided picking up any of the other Sim City games out of fear for my sanity. Spore looks like it could be another soul-destroyer. I’m finding it hard to resist.

I have nothing!

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I’ve been sent this one a few times today, so for the few of you who haven’t read today’s Dilbert, it hits home for us cube rats:

Dilbert Xbox.gif

(Although, in my case, you should replace “Xbox” with “Nintendo DS”)

In my hands…

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OuendanI know I just mentioned I picked up Contact, but my copy of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan showed up over the weekend and I’ve been able to get a chance to play a couple games and I’m already hooked. In fact, if I wasn’t watching Prison Break and Heroes right now, I’d be playing it right now. It’s consuming my thoughts. I hear rhythms in my brain and see targets converging. I can’t wait to get back to it.

Thing is, Contact is starting to get fun, too. So now I have to strike a balance with my DS time. Luckily it seems like Ouendan is definitely a pick-up-and-play kind of game, without much of a time commitment. I like that.

Detailed impressions of both games to come.

In my hands…

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B000035XQ6-01-_AA280_SCLZZZZZZZ_V59349705_.jpgAfter reading some mostly positive reviews I was intrigued by Contact. Then I started hearing some serious buzz on a couple video game forums and decided I’d give it a try.

As always, impressions to follow…

Halo 3 News

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This isn’t coming from Bungie, so no way of knowing how accurate it will end up being, but I know a lot of you are Halo 3 fans but might not have seen this.

A lot of new features it looks like, but nothing super suprising. I’m sad to see there’s no bots, but honestly who needs them? Everyone who owns a 360 will have this game, so finding other people to play with shouldn’t be a problem. Of course, playing with bots is probably more enjoyable than playing with 99% of the people on Live, so there’s that.

My only request – bring back Hang ‘Em High!

360 Demo Thursdays – Lost Planet

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Lost PlanetI’m posting this late, but with good reason — this demo is FUN. I decided to download something I’ve heard a lot of good things about and ended up with the Lost Planet demo. I should have quit an hour ago but I was having too much fun to stop.

Lost Planet, by Capcom, looks very promising. Capcom is on FIRE right now! Dead Rising was fantastic and now Lost Planet is looking even better.

I actually should have said Capcom is cool. I mean real cool. Freezing, even. Lost Planet, set in the 22nd century, is one cold place. Everything is buried in snow and from what I gather, you have to maintain a certain amount of thermal energy to keep yourself alive. It seems you have a life meter and an energy meter. Defeated foes drop glowing orange energy that you collect. This energy can be converted into life as well as maintain heat. This is what I gathered from the demo — I haven’t read any previews or the like. Just going strictly off what I experienced.

The demo consists of two missions — destroy the hive of the Akrids (the bad bug-like creatures that have infested the planet) in one and take out the Pirate’s stronghold (there’s good and bad Pirates. You can guess which kind you’ll be) in the other. Both end with boss fights that are challenging but not cheap.

The game controls well, with little details I really like. While fighting a larger monster, the closer I was to it as his claw came crashing into the ground, the more it made me stumble. I couldn’t shoot or even manuever myself while I was stumbling. It’s attention to detail like this that always gets me. The animation of your character (the game is played 3rd-person) is excellent. The guys that did the animations for Just Cause could learn a thing or two here. Trudging through the snow feels just like that — plodding and tiring. The weapons in the demo are standard shooter fare – a machine gun, a shotgun, rocket launcher, the works. You can also mount armored mechs. While I’m not a huge Mech fan, this was fun and again, easily controlled.

Maybe I was a little too harsh earlier dismissing the 360’s future line-up. Lost Planet looks like it will be a great game, one that I’ll definitely be adding to my wish list!