Mashing buttons since 1984
If you’re not watching “The Show” with Ze Frank, well, you should be. You’re missing out.
Yesterday’s show was Ze talking about playing with his new Wii. Sure, he makes all the obvious “Wii” jokes, but he also brings some funny stuff, too. Heck, he even found some new games you should check out. “Don’t Wake the Bees” sounds like a great game.
I’ve finally uploaded pictures of the unboxing of my new 50″ Samsung DLP HDTV. (For those interested, here’s a link to my TV on Samsung’s website) In all honesty, my pictures don’t really do justice to this TV. It is, quite simply, a beautiful thing that can not be captured by a camera and distilled into bits and bytes. It needs to be experienced. But since I can’t have you all over, pictures will have to do.
Hit the jump for the rest of the pictures:
[Read more…] about The unboxing of the Samsung
Okay, fellow 24 junkies, I’ve had a chance to digest the four-hour season premier of 24. (If you were wondering, yes, 24 kicks some serious butt in HD). So far, I have mixed feelings about the way this season has started. There are some things I like and some things I have a problem with. I do, however, have a few questions (– SPOILER ALERT –):
How did Wayne Palmer become President that fast? I thought he had no interest in serving in office? Maybe I missed something.
And what about his sister? Years have elapsed in the “24 Universe,” yet there was never a mention (that I can remember) of a sister. Sounds Star Wars-esque.
Where are Aaron Pierce and Mike Novick? We all know that Jack and Aaron are the only ones that will survive the apocalypse. Curtis is obvious proof of that. Jack and Aaron are like cockroaches. They can survive fricken nuclear winter. So where is Agent Pierce?
Speaking of Curtis, Holy Crap on Stilts! Who saw that coming?! I thought Curtis was, like, a Jack Junior or something. Mrs. buttonMasher was very disappointed to see Curtis buy the farm so early.
I’m not as steeped in 24 Lore as some of you may be, so if you can enlighten me, I’d appreciate it.
I was surfing the blogosphere, wishing I had a Wii and seeing how much fun other people were having with theirs. I came across this guy, who is using the Wii as a fitness tool. I’m sure he’s not the first person to use the Wii in such a way (there’s the whole fitness mini game as part of Wii sports, right?), but if it works, good for him. He’s using wrist weights, which should help with the actual exercising aspect of his plan.
But what really caught my eye was a link he has on his latest update, a link to a studio by the Mayo Clinic (a rather reputable source) that basically says that video games (of the physically interactive persuasion, like DDR and Eye-Toy games) can be beneficial. The study was of a small group of children, but showed postive results. What surprised me the most was this:
Screen time (both TV and video games) now averages eight hours a day among children.
That sure seems like a lot of time in front of the TV. I’d say the first step in getting kids to exercise is to get them away from the television. Nevertheless, this is good news, that people are recognizing that video games can be a healthy part of a kid’s life. Let’s hope the trend continues.
This has also prompted me to keep an eye out for more positive stories like this. I’ve often commented on stories that show that video games aren’t harmful, but now I’m more interested in stories that show video games are helpful. I hope there will be more to come.
Now that both of the little mashers know how to open the DS Lite and use the touch screen, you might not want to leave games like Animal Crossing: Wild World cartridge in the slot, especially if the saved game represents a lot of time spent on the game. It’s bad enough that they open and close the case with recklesss abandon (yes, you’ve been cursed with the hinge crack), but now they’ve gone and erased your Animal Crossing town. The sleepy village of Pamplona is no more, having been banished to the Luminiferous ether.
So it looks like your days of playing Animal Crossing: Wild World are over. It’s doubtful you’ll be going back any time soon, now that you’ve got a pinata garden to tend to. The animals in the Wild World will miss you, for sure, but someday you’ll make it back to see them.
Meddling little kids!
I’ve now spent a few hours with Viva Pinata and I like what I see so far.
Visually, it’s very pleasing and really entertains the two little mashers. My daughter loves naming the pinatas, which is a lot of fun (but I must admit that I was hesitant to name two pinatas of the same type with my daughter’s name and my name. Seeing “[Daddy’s name] and [daughter’s name] are romancing” was disturbing. If you’ve played the game, you’ll know what I’m talking about.) The sound and music are also pleasing. I’m getting a serious “Zelda” vibe from the music. That’s not a bad thing.
I love the variety of the new pinatas and watching the bigger pinatas feast on the smaller ones is comical. I think my garden is getting cramped, because my pinatas are getting testy. Fights break out among the same pinata type all the time. Getting them to “Romance” and do other things isn’t always straightforward, but the in-game “encyclopedia” answers just about question you have, and once you get the hang of it, it’s not a big problem.
This is definitely a “kids game” (plural, not possesive) as in, “I can play it with the kids.” That is a very good thing. It’s slow enough that they can follow it but deep enough that it keeps my interest. It also get a thumbs up from Mrs. buttonMasher. I’m looking forward to lots of fun in my pinata garden.
Blogging has been and will be light around these parts the next couple days, as tonight is the BCS National Championship game between my Ohio State Buckeyes and the Florida Gators. I’ll be blogging the highlights of the game at my OSU site, Men of the Scarlet and Gray (there’s an Open Thread at the site, all about the game, if you’re interested).
I’m super excited about the game, so gaming will be minimal until the euphoria (or heaven forbid, depression) after the game has worn off. Once I come down from the high of victory, we’ll resume the video game blogging as normal. I’ve got plans to revisit some of the DS games I’ve neglected (Contact, EBA, NSMB) along with my Christmas haul. I’ll also have site and Carnival updates. And a TV update, as well.
Speaking of TV, I can’t tell you how excited I am about seeing the Championship Game in HD. Fox seems to be doing a great job of sports in HD so I’m assuming this will be no different. It’s hard to watch programming now that isn’t in HD. That may sound like HD-snobbery (which it is) but I can’t believe the difference it makes. I think my buddy explained it best when he compared it to how our parents must have felt when they went from black and white to color TVs in their day. It’s that dramatic.
Update
Yeah, we lost. Yeah, it sucks. Yeah, I’m over it.
I’m ready to get back to gaming.
Even though we’ve been in 2007 a few days now, I figured it be a good time for some reflection. I took a look back at my archives from the last year and realized I didn’t play a ton of games this past year. I was quite surprised. I spent a good chunk of the beginning of the year playing EVE Online, which started out slow, was fun for a while, then just sort of petered out. The summer was pretty dead, and things really didn’t pick up until the fall, when I finally joined the next generation with my Xbox 360. Even with the lack of variety, I still wanted to have my “Best of 2006” list, so here it is.
I really wish I had more time to play a wider variety of games, but I don’t have that luxury, so I really try make sure the ones I actually play are good ones. It’s hard to avoid all the duds, but I did a pretty good job this year. I’ll look at the two systems that I actually played this year.
Xbox 360
Dead Rising was definitely my favorite Xbox 360 this year. The story wasn’t great, the save system was severely broken, and the fighting system was simple, but Dead Rising was a blast to play. Give me a inventory full of two-by-fours and let me whack zombies until I can’t buttonmash any more and I’m happy. Simple, mindless fun is what Dead Rising was for me. I’m still playing it, trying to get some more achievements. Dead Rising is my pick for the Best Xbox 360 game for 2006.
Runner-ups would have to be Viva Pinata and Burnout Revenge. I’ve only played Viva for a few hours so far, but I can already say that it’s going to be a great game and will probably suck up a lot of my time. The kids love it, which is always a plus. The kids also love “the crash game,” so Burnout got a lot of play time this year. Both are great games.
Biggest 360 disappointment was Just Cause. That game was such a colossal turd, I couldn’t last more than an hour playing it. Avoid it at all costs.
Nintendo DS
DS was definitely my console of choice during 2006. I played a ton of DS. It was tough to pick the best game, but I have to go with Elite Beat Agents. I discovered the greatness that is Ouendan this year, so Elite Beat Agents was definitely the next step. It doesn’t have the quirkiness of the Japanese game, but with stories I can actually follow and music I actually know, EBA is a great DS game. Besides, any game that has music from Jamiroquai is okay in my book.
Runner-up would have to be Brain Age. Even though playing Brain Age was a great game (and a lot of fun), it was the Sudoku puzzles that really keep me coming back. I hadn’t played a single Sudoku game before I played it on the DS and I don’t think I could ever do them on paper now. The DS is the perfect system for the Sudoku puzzle.
Biggest disappointment would have to be Metroid Prime Hunters. It pains me to say this, because I’m a huge Metroid fan, but MPH just wasn’t that great of a game. I never got used to the control scheme, the online games were never enjoyable and it failed to hold my interest. Hopefully Metroid Prime 3 will return Metroid to it’s glory.
If I had to pick the game I had the most fun with last year, it would easily be Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, by far. Sure, it didn’t come out in 2006, but I couldn’t put it down. The music, the rythms, the quirky stories, everything about it was pure enjoyment. Ouendan will be getting a lot more play in my DS. Overall, 2006 was a pretty good year for gaming. Surprisingly, I didn’t play any new PC games. I’ve never been a huge PC gamer but I normally pick up a PC game or two each year, so this year wasn’t a great one for my PC.
I had a pretty good year here at buttonmashing.com, but there’s always room for improvement. Visitors were down near the end of the year, but I think a lot of people are “visiting” via RSS feed readers, which is perfectly fine with me. As far as what I want to do with the site this year, I’m looking to continue to provide good content while improving my writing. I’m always trying to balance what I provide with the site. I can’t compete with the bigger blogs to get all the news stories that come out each day, so I have to pick and choose what to blog about. That usually ends up being Xbox and Nintendo related items, which may limit my audience to a degree, but I still enjoy working on the site and hope you, the reader, are enjoying it, too.
So, how was your 2006? What games stood out for you? Which ones stunk? What about the site? What would you like to see here at buttonmashing? Comments, questions and criticisms are all appreciated.
I know this is no way to start off the new year, but with my busy holiday schedule, I never lined up a January host. So the Carnival will be taking a break this month. If you’ve previously volunteered to host a carnival, I’ll be contacting with you shortly. If you’re interested in hosting a carnival, drop me a line. You can use the Contact page to do so.
Keep an eye on the Carnival HQ page for updated information.
If you’ve got an Xbox 360 and you’d like to pick a new “Dashboard Theme” for your Xbox Live Dashboard but you’re not sure how it would look, check out Dashboard Themes, a new site from Matt Brett and Andrew McTeer. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, the Xbox Live Dashboard is the “hub” of the 360’s online service. It’s where you access your friends list, your gamer profile, Xbox Live Arcade games and pretty much everything else you do on the Xbox Live service. It’s also customizable. You can purchase “Themes” for your dashboard to personalize them. Unfortunately, there’s no way of actually previewing themes to see how they look, before you buy them. You’re making a purchase before you ever see what it would look like. Not exactly the best set up.
With Dashboard Themes, you can preview all the current themes available for purchase. You can browse and rate them with an easy interface. It’s very cool to see some 360 fans make something this useful. Make sure you check it out!