Mashing buttons since 1984
At some point today, someone I follow on Twitter (I don’t remember who it was and I’m too lazy to look it up) linked to a wikipedia page of Joseph Ducreux, an 18th century French painter. As part of the article was this picture:
I love this painting so very much. I imagine him greeting someone with an 18th century version of “Sup, brah?”
This won’t replace my favorite internet thing ever, but it’s in the top 5.
Time for a look back at another month here at ButtonMashing HQ.
We had a somewhat of a down month of posting with 22 posts and 66 comments. Traffic for the month was down a bit from from July, but that’s to be accounted for with the reduced posting frequency and end of the summer. As usual, most people are visiting with Firefox and Windows XP. The monster monitor award goes to the guy with the 800×5000 screen resolution. How is that even possible?
The following posts garnered the most eyeballs in August (outside of the regulars):
5. 2-Minute Review-Bully Scholarship Edition
4. Funny Game Glitches
3. Pic Lens
2. Is Too Human Any Good?
1. Customizable NCAA 09 Covers
A year ago, I was playing some Bioshock.
Two years ago, I was talking about The Ultimate DS Library. What an amazing little machine that DS is.
Three years ago I was busy on the warpath, defending games and trying to dispel myth of a correlation of Violence and Video Games. The fight continues…
Four years ago I was talking about games I own that are gathering dust. Four years later and we’re still dealing with this.
Let’s laugh at the weird people on the internet:
“video of a girl being tickled that is compatible with the psp” – You, sir, have requested something strange.
“tea leaves and turnips” – Sounds like a wonderfully horrible breakfast.
“penny arcade hates fatal1ty” – I was not aware of this. Do they?
“leon and krauser have sex story” – Since I saw it and can’t unsee it, you have to see it, too.
I’ve played so much lately that I should probably dedicate a separate post for that one. Stay tuned.
UCLA just upset Tennessee, so my work here is done. I should probably wrap this up and go play some games.
Lately, I’ve been trying to list every game coming out for the major consoles and the PC. I think from now on, going forward, I’m just going to list the games I think would be of interest to the buttonmashing-dot-com audience. I’m guessing the majority of you guys and gals aren’t interested in Pony Palz 3. Let me know if I’m missing my target audience.
Without further ado, the month of releases:
Week of September 2nd
Infinite Undiscovery
Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise
Warhammer: Battle March
NFL Head Coach 09
FaceBreaker
Week of September 9th
NHL 09
TNA Impact!
Zoids Assault
NHL 2K9
Week of September 16th
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Rock Band 2
Armored Core: For Answer
Pure
Battle Fantasia
Week of September 23rd
LEGO Batman
BAJA: Edge of Control
Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts ’09
Week of September 30th
Silent Hill: Homecoming
Legendary
Guilty Gear 2: Overture
Samurai Warriors 2: Extreme Legends
Week of September 2nd
Rapala’s Fishing Frenzy with Fishing Pole
Defendin De Penguin
Week of September 9th
Active Life Outdoor Challenge
The Price is Right
NHL 2K9
Hell’s Kitchen
Ten Pin Alley 2
Cabela’s Legendary Adventures
Week of September 16th
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility
Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party 2 with Dance Mat
Zoo Hospital
Offshore Tycoon
Crazy Golf
TNA Impact!
Ocean Commander
Week of September 23rd
LEGO Batman
Wario Land: Shake It!
Samba De Amigo
SimCity Creator
Lost In Blue Shipwrecked
Pitfall: The Lost Expedition
Yamaha Supercross
Brothers in Arms: Double Time
Week of September 30th
Carnival Games – Mini Golf
We Cheer
Monster Lab
Army Men: Soldiers of Misfortune
Brave: A Warrior’s Tale
Week of September 2nd
Defendin De Penguin
Week of September 9th
Mystery Case Files: MillionHeir
The Price is Right
Spore Creatures
Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise
Hell’s Kitchen
Lock’s Quest
Week of September 16th
Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Line Rider 2: Unbound
Mazes Of Fate
Week of September 23rd
My Japanese Coach
LEGO Batman
Kirby Super Star Ultra
Disgaea DS
SimCity Creator
Shaun The Sheep
Week of September 30th
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
Monster Lab
ZUBO
Di-Gata Defenders
Week of September 2nd
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
Flatout: Ultimate Carnage
Spore
What’s point of listing anything else this week?
Week of September 9th
Week of September 16th
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
Crysis Warhead
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky
The Witcher Enhanced
Week of September 23rd
LEGO Batman
Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway
Guild Wars Trilogy
Week of September 30th
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel
Etch a Sketch
Week of September 2nd
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
FaceBreaker
NFL Head Coach 09
Week of September 9th
NHL 09
TNA Impact!
NHL 2K9
Week of September 16th
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Armored Core: For Answer
Pure
Week of September 23rd
LEGO Batman
Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway
Week of September 30th
Silent Hill: Homecoming
Legendary
Week of September 2nd
Brave: A Warrior’s Tale
Week of September 16th
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Yggdra Union
B-Boy
Week of September 23rd
LEGO Batman
Valhalla Knights 2
Not a bad month for games. Nothing blockbuster except for a couple DS titles and Mercenaries 2. Are you planning on picking anything up this month?
A review copy of Soul Calibur IV showed up yesterday. So coupled with yesterday’s post, I am loaded down with a plethora, nay, an abundance of games. Many first impressions to come, but it’s time to play some games!
On my hard drive: Geometry Wars 2
Also thinking about getting into my hands: Braid, Bionic Commando, Galaga Legions
I’m finally plugging back in after a week of almost complete disconnectedness. The missus and I took a week-long vacation with no kids and no connections. The only communication I had were brief posts to my Twitter via text messages from my cell phone. I never checked email, the site, nothing. It felt great. Untethered and fancy free.
But now it’s back to the real world. I’m behind on my emails and what-not around here, so if you’ve emailed me recently — I’m getting to it, I promise. I’m dreading the pile of work awaiting me tomorrow. Not fun. On top of all that, my daughter starts kindergarten tomorrow. Things are going to be crazy around these parts for a little while.
But after the trip, I’m feeling refreshed and ready to get back to normal. At least until the next trip.
Speaking of GTA IV and cheats, I recently uploaded a set of three maps to Flickr that have the locations of all the pigeons in the city (again, there’s an achievement for that). Now that I’ve finished the game and Niko has done what he needed to do, I suddenly feel a responsibility to clean up the pigeon problem in Liberty City.
If you’re like me and you’re interested in exterminating all the flying rats, you can check out the Flickr set here. I’ve embedded the images after the jump.
Should I break a sweat playing a sports game?
Well, I maybe didn’t break a sweat, but I did cramp my brain.
DO: Play possibly the most realistic tennis game ever. Overhand smashes, drop shots at the net and grunts that would make Maria Sharapova proud. (Okay, maybe that was just me)
TYPE: Tennis (hopefully that’s obvious).
PLATFORM: Xbox 360 (also available on everything else but the PC).
PRICE: $59.99
MEAT: On the surface, it’s another sports game. Where Top Spin 3 really shines is its complexity. At times it can be extremely difficult and hard to get used to, but it becomes second nature pretty quickly. The tutorials are very well done, and get deep fast. It may be a surprise, but I’m not a professional tennis player. So I can’t say if this “feels” right, but some of the shots definitely feel like they should.
There’s a career mode, of course, which I spent most of my time in. There’s nothing new here. Play some matches, get some points to get better skills, rinse, repeat. It’s fun, it’s addictive and I’ll be playing this much more. Oh, and the character creator? My daughter could have played with that for hours. Yay for electronic paper dolls!
PERKS: We’re getting dangerously close to the uncanny valley. Not sure if that’s a perk?
SCREAMS: Nothing new? Even though this is the first Top Spin game I’ve played, I’ve played enough sports games to know there’s only so much improvement can be made. It also can be insanely complex if you want it to.
VERDICT: For most gamers, this is a rental. Tennis fans and sports fans know what they’re getting and are more likely to pick it up. It’s a good buy for a specific group of gamers. You know whether you are in that group or not. If you’re not, you probably won’t be playing this.
Yes, this is a video game blog and yes, we do play games. Honest! Here are a few I’ve played in the last few weeks.
This was my first game from GameFly. I’ve never been an Unreal guy but I gave UT3 a try nonetheless. It wasn’t a bad game, I just don’t think it was for me. I gave the single-player campaign a try, but it turned out to be a series of multiplayer matches, only against bots. There was an over-arching story going on there, but I couldn’t follow it. Having Ice T narrate didn’t help things.
I gave the online play a try, but it was total mayhem. The games we played (I tried multiplayer with my bro-in-law) were just total chaos. It simply wasn’t fun. Jumping into other games resulted similarly. If I’m going to play an FPS online, I’ve already invested enough time in Halo 3. I sent UT3 back a couple days after it showed up.
After reading Nat’s review, I had to give it a try. This game is a blast. The re-imagining of Space Invaders was done perfect. The sound and music was great, very reminiscent of Meteos. I love the way the rhythm was worked into the mechanics of shooting. Very slick stuff. I definitely give S.I.E. the thumbs up.
Top Spin 3 is hard. I haven’t played a tennis game since Mario Tennis on the Gamecube, which isn’t a fair comparison. TS3 is no Mario Tennis. It’s complex, its moves and controls are deep and the gameplay is over my head. Nevertheless, it looks great and plays fun.
I still wish I had some Mario-like powerups (I’d like to shoot a tennis ball through a cannon, Donkey Kong style) but it wouldn’t feel right. I should have a review of TS3 up soon.
So that’s what I was playing. Now that I beat GTA IV, I feel like a big weight has been lifted and I can get back to playing games scatter-shot like I did before.
Ever want to play your 360 on a HUGE screen, say, one as big as a theater screen? Now you can (via Global Nerdy). (If you live in Canada and near a Cineplex):
Beginning on Friday, gamers will be able to book two-hour sessions at 29 Cineplex theatres across the country for $179 plus taxes. Up to 12 people will be allowed into the session to play their own games, or those from a supplied library, on the theatre’s giant screen with surround sound. The Xbox 360, however, can only accommodate four players at a time.
Why just the 360?
