buttonmashing

Mashing buttons since 1984

Archives for May 2008

Me, an Apple user?

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I’m not quite sure when it happened, but after my Dell laptop died a few months ago, I secretly began lusting after an Apple computer. A MacBook, to be exact. It seemed unnatural, me being a PC guy since the days of my parents’ 286 (it had a Turbo button, people!) and 4-color monitor. For 18+ years, it was DOS and Windows. Sure, my uncle had a Macintosh, but that thing was weird. The screen was black and white! I couldn’t use one of those things. I had four colors, man. And so continued my blind devotion to the “PC” world unabated, even mostly unscathed by Windows ME. Nevertheless, gears were recently set in motion that I could not control.

Somehow, I ended up here, typing this post up on my brand new MacBook. Something happened. I’m pretty sure it’s not all that bad.

Where I’ve been

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I have literally fallen off the grid the past couple of weeks, and the culprit is obvious: A little 360 game you might have heard of.

If you’ve been following my Twitter feed I’ve been playing a lot of it. I was also out of town this weekend and haven’t played for a few days, so now I’m jonesing again. As soon as the Cavs/Celtics game is over, I’ll be back in the comfortable confines of Liberty City.

I have a bunch to write up about the game, but I’d rather be playing it then blogging it. Sorry about that.

Monday Madness?

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This is going to be a big madness. Due to recent excitement, we’ve got to catch up three weeks worth.

GAME: Gamers With Jobs featured a game a while back called Ether Cannon. It’s Asteroids with pretty visuals, concussion visuals.

PICS: Ever heard of the website PostSecret? Gamers With Jobs (again) started the same thing with games. The Teamfortress 2 pyro is my favorite. Post 1. Post 2.

GAME: Luminara, a much better take on Asteroids—much better. Now with trippy visuals, excellent controls, and a catchy soundtrack.

GAME: Do you like the Civilization games? Then you’ll love this FREE, dumbed-down, web-based version. Call it Ikariam. I’ll be sharing the server I’m on eventually.

PICS: Somebody took some screencaps of Metroid Prime 3 and made them 3D. I’ve got some glasses and I’ll admit: awesome. Thanks, Kotaku.

GAME: Audiosurf has recently added some new features. Why do I keep coming back to this game? Oh, yeah, because of allowing me to use my own songs. I don’t have to pay for each and every new song. Zing?

VIDEO: I usually cannot stand watching sportcasters, but somebody at TNT is teh phunny.

GAME: Zombies. That’s all I’m going to say. The Last Stand gets a sequel.

GAME: 1up has the first footage of Gears of War 2. Can you say $60 expansion pack? Sure you can.

GAME: Make your own Ouendan (Elite Beat Agents) clone for the PC. They’ve got video. N-E-A-T.

PICS: Warning! LEGO! I have two excellent posts. These guys have skills we should all have: the Germinated Ruby and the works of Izzo.

Well, the post was not as large as I thought after I weeded out some links I’d like to dedicate time for their own posts.

Apple copying Nintendo?

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When the DS Lite and the Wii were unveiled, there was a lot of chatter of how Nintendo and Apple had a lot of similarities. There was even talk of how the two companies would benefit from working together. Now it looks like Apple could possibly be copying the Wii concept for Apple TV gaming.

It doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen any time soon.

GTA IV microblog

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I just picked up my girlfriend for a date. In a city bus I hijacked on my way to her house. She did not seem bothered by this.

I believe she is what they call “a keeper.”

She was, however, bothered when my Uzi went off accidentally inside the Cluckin’ Bell during our previous date. I’m getting mixed signals.

Mario Kart Wii First Impressions

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This picture says it all:

Corinne meets Wii MarioKart

When a game can produce “the smile” (parents of young kids will know what I mean by “the smile”), it is okay in my book.

A lot of Mario Kart was played this weekend. It was played by kids 5 years old and 65 years old. Everyone had a great time. They say Nintendo has “dumbed down” Mario Kart for the Wii. They’re wrong. They didn’t dumb anything down. They distilled an already great game to its essence and made it accessible to the masses.

This is not a bad thing.

Nat and I will have more Mario Kart thoughts later.

(Look how much concentration this game takes!)

A Reason for All the Perfect Scores?

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I’ve not had one viable reason to trust the reviews from the big boys when it comes to GTAIV. Recently, I came across this: something from somebody I trust—a person who actually used to be with the big boys.

The story is what I came to see. And I’m having trouble putting my feelings for this game’s story into words right now. I’ll spare you the fumbling and just say that it’s probably the greatest game story of all time, both in content and how it’s integrated into the rest of the game.

I’m curious as to what others (even here) may say about the storyline. This statement comes from a guy who plays games for a living—a lot of games. If it’s a tale of redemption, I will be greatly impressed. However, if the story is so brilliant, how come almost none of the reviews mention how excellent plot is?

Comic Watch – GU Comics

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If the integrity of mainstream video game reviews was in a coffin and all but one nail had been driven home, the reviews for GTA IV was a big mash hammer that drove the last nail in, but bent it totally out of shape before smashing it home, making it all but impossible to pull it out.

Stick a fork in ’em.