buttonmashing

Mashing buttons since 1984

Tony

I am free!!

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I'm freeI was in need of help. I had subscribed to every RSS feed I found – blogs, news sites, Yahoo Search results. You name it, I subscribed to it. I suffered under an avalanche of new posts/items on a daily basis. I had close to 300 subscribed feeds. It was out of hand. But I couldn’t resist! I read them religiously, afraid that I’d miss something. Most of the time, it wasn’t even enjoyable — I was looking for “material” to blog about. A post here or there that others might have missed would be my next “big post.” But I realized my posting activity (and just about all other activity) was suffering because I was too busy “cleaning out my unreads.” I was so worried I’d miss something that I was simply spinning my wheels. So I decided to whittle down those feeds, to unshackle myself from Bloglines.

I’ve completed my first pass through, removing a lot of feeds (junk and otherwise) and I’ve worked it down to about 130 feeds. Another pass could get me under 100 feeds. It wasn’t easy. Even as I was removing them from my list, I wondered what I’d miss after they were gone. I took out a couple big ones (Digg and Engadget) but I figured if there was something of value there, someone else would pick it up. I just couldn’t keep up with everything that was getting posted. If every feed averaged 3 posts a day, that was close to 1,000 new items a day. It was a lot more than that. That’s simply too much.

After I worked out of that funk, I turned my attention to my collection of unplayed games.

I came to the realization that I simply won’t get to every game I currently have. Games like Viewtiful Joe 2 and Metal Gear: The Twin Snakes sit on my shelf, unplayed, while I spend my third week with Dead Rising. I know that I’m missing out on some great gaming, but I just can’t do it all. With next generation upon us and the excellent DS library growing, I simply can’t get to everything. I still couldn’t bring myself to do something about it. Just like my stack of feeds, I was afraid I’d miss something. With more demands on my free time (real job, kids, golfing) I simply can’t can’t get to it all. I’m not a 40-hour gamer anymore.

So while I used to operate under the delusion that some day I’d get to it all, I realize it’s simply not doable. And worrying about it didn’t do any good. In fact, it probably made procrastinating even easier. So after deciding to cull my “daily reading,” I will also take a hard look at my library. I’m not sure what I’ll do with some of my games that I have yet to play, but I no longer look at them, there on the shelf, and feel guilty. I don’t know if my “Queue” of games will ever exist. I don’t need to feel like I have to play them all. Some I’ll get to, at some time, but others will probably never be played. They’ve got to go.

A weight has been lifted. And I feel free!

Buttonmasher’s Theorem 1

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Buttonmasher Theorem 1 States:

The amount of content generated by the video game blogger will be inversely proportional to the amount of good gaming said blogger is engrossed in.

Proof:

1. The Buttonmasher is a video game blogger
2. The content on his blog, buttonmashing.com has decreased recently
3. He is currently playing Dead Rising for a second time through.
4. Dead Rising is considered a lot of “good gaming”

Therefore, an increase in good gaming causes a decrease in blogging output.
Q.E.D.

Wii release details

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You can’t walk around the gaming blogoverse without falling over the release news for the Nintendo Wii. A few details from the New York Times and few thoughts:

  • A release date of November 19
  • Retail price is going to be 250 dollars
  • Shipping with Wii Sports
  • 25-30 launch titles, including Zelda Twilight Princess
  • Games will still retail at 50$
  • Retro game downloads between 5-10 dollars (30 games initially available)

The 250 dollar price tag is very reasonable but it’s a first for Nintendo. Coming out just before the holiday season is going to making getting your hands on a Wii difficult, no matter how much inventory they ship. Launching with 25 games will be nice, but I hope there are more than 30 games available for download.

Having just bought an Xbox 360, I wonder how Mrs. Buttonmasher will take to yet another video machine going under the TV. She’ll just have to learn what it’s like living with a gamer (and confessed Nintendo fan-boy). And I’ll have to figure out a way to justify a $250 purchase on top of possibly getting a new TV around Christmas time.

And in closing, I’d like to quote a Forbes.com article, reporting on the Nintendo news conference in Japan, with a quote from Satoru Iwata that is wrong on numerous levels:

‘With these new features, I believe that anybody, regardless of age or gender, will be urged to touch our Wii at least once,’ Iwata said.

Right…

Xbox 360 First Impressions

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So it’s been a little over a week now since a new Xbox 360 has taken up residence in the spot formerly occupied by the original Xbox. So far — it’s been McDonald’s. I’m lovin’ it. A few initial impressions with the system:

The Hardware – I went with the premium package, so I have the harddrive and wireless controller. The hardware design is actually quite nice. I remember scoffing at the new ‘look’ when they first revealed it, but it has definitely grown on me. It’s a slick looking machine. The controller, which as you probably already know, is very similar to the S-controller of the original Xbox, with the black and white buttons being replaced with shoulder buttons. I’m not a huge fan of them, but they beat the old design. I hated the black and white buttons. I have the wireless version of the controller, and it is comparable to Nintendo’s Wavebird (the peak of controller design). I do like the option of having a rumble feature on the controller. Being able to turn the console on and off from the controller is also killer. So far my only gripe has been the heat. It gets really hot in my entertainment center and I have to make sure and leave one of the doors open for increased air circulation.

Graphics and Sound – I have a decent TV, a 27″ Sony WEGA but it’s not HD. It’s a standard definition TV (SDTV) with 4×3 aspect ratio. I currently have the Xbox 360 hooked up to the composite video connection (the Yellow RCA hook-up). I have component video inputs, but I have my DVD player hooked up to those. After testing the Xbox 360 component video to see if there’s a difference, I switched back to the composite hook-up as I didn’t see a huge improvement. I also have an older Pioneer receiver (with Dolby Pro-Logic, it’s old school) and it sounds fine.

Since I’m almost exclusively playing Dead Rising, I can attest to the complaints of the game text on a SDTV — they suck. Outside of the text, though, the game looks great. This is next generation, of course, and Dead Rising has done a good job of ushering me into it. It’s got the little details that matter. More on Dead Rising later.

Backwards Compatibility – I’m not sure where I stand with Backwards Compatibility. It’s definitely a nice feature to have, but I wonder how much I’ll actually use it. If I can get my Halo 2 fix, I should be fine. Halo 2 was the first game I tried to test the backwards compatibility, and it worked without a hitch. After updating the 360 to handle it, I jumped into the single player game and everything looked and felt fine. I jumped on Live and that’s where the problems started. I tried to download all the map packs and it crapped out trying to download the last one. I’m hoping it was just network congestion (or something) but I’ll give it another try later.

I also played Forza Motorsport, which also looks and plays just like it did on the Xbox. Backwards compatibility looks solid.

Xbox Live and Live Arcade – This is definitely where the Xbox 360 shines. The interface (which is soon to be updated) is clean and easily navigated. There are a ton of options — downloading demos, movie trailers, themes, everything. The friends system is still great, being able to chat, text message, and invite friends to games is excellent and simple. The Xbox Live Arcade is another great system. Being able to demo just about anything has become mandatory and the options for what you can get are constantly expanding. Right now I only have Hexic (which I think comes bundled with the system) and the demo version of Smash TV. The interface is slick, the downloads are fast and I can see myself spending a lot of time (and probably money) in the XBLA. I love the scoreboards as well.

Gamercard/Gamerscore – Here is where Microsoft has hit it out of the park. They know gamers are a competitive bunch and almost all of us love statistics. With that in mind, the Gamercard and Gamerscore are right up our alley in this department. Say hello to the worldwide “High Score” screen. Each game has a set number of “Achievements” worth a certain number of points. Each time an achievement is earned, your Gamerscore increases. As you can see from my Gamercard, I’m at 185 points, mostly from Dead Rising achievements:

It’s a perfect way, really, to sell games. I know there are a handful of “Achievement Whores” on the Evil Avatar forums, who will rent games for the sole purpose of getting easy Gamerpoints. I know that I’ll fall into the category at some point, where I’m playing a game I hate because it has some easy achievements

Couple this with the interface of Xbox Live on the web, and you can easily compare your achievements to your friends, brag about how you are a serious Zombie Slayer and let the trash-talking begin.

There are actually quite a few little websites and apps that are springing up around the Xbox 360 and specifically the Gamercard. I’m using My Gamercard.Net and the Xbox Live generated card here on the site. There are others, like Glop, LiveCard.net, you can get a Dashboard Widget for your Mac or Konfabulator for the PC, and of course there’s the handy WordPress Widget for your Gamercard. Customization is the way to go. We’ll be seeing tons of new looking Gamercards all the time.



i aint yer pa's Gamercard

Get your own Gamercard Sig.

There’s another site which will graph your Gamescore:

And of course, as agentgray mentioned in the comments, your Xbox 360 can have a blog. 360 Voice takes data from your Live account and tells the world how bad you are at video games. Here’s mine.

Of course there’s a downside to all this data and interactivity — people can keep tabs on you in a whole different way. I remember listening to a podcast where the guy was supposed to be reviewing a particular game, but was actually playing another all the time. His boss (or maybe the PR guy from the review title’s company) noticed that his recent activity hadn’t included the game he was supposed to be reviewing. Busted! So maybe all this cool Live data is just gonna get us all in trouble. Especially when Halo 3 launches. “No honey, I was at work. Honest!”

Conclusion: The honeymoon period is still in full effect. I have very little to complain about here. Microsoft has really put together a slick console that is firing on all cylinders. The online components, the improved look and sound, the excellent wireless controller, and of course, great games. I am extremely pleased with my new purchase and I look forward to some serious gaming in the near future.

Xbox Live Gamercard and Gamertag

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Since migrating my Xbox Live account from my original Xbox to a 360 “Gold” Account was a cinch, I was able to keep my old Gamertag (which I’m quite fond of) and I’m up and running on Live without a hitch.

Here’s another link to my Profile: http://live.xbox.com/member/I aint yer Pa

So as you can see, my gamertag is “I aint yer Pa”. If you’re on Live and your a Buttonmashing.com reader, feel free to drop me a friend request. I still need to convince my current Xbox buddies to get on the 360 bandwagon and talk those who have a 360 to get connected as well!

Coming attractions

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In lieu of new content, I’m going to post my to-do list here, so each time I see this post I’ll be motivated to actually produce something more than three word sentences about zombies. I actually have a lot of “stubs” for posts, in draft form, that I will be finishing. They’re little snippets and ideas about things that are interesting me at the moment. I wish I had more time to work on them, but I have been busy with Real Life©, my new 360 and other blogging endeavors that require a lot of my Buttonmashing time. But I don’t want to neglect my readers, so this is a little teaser of things to come.

  • I’m almost finished tagging all my old posts and fixing the Archives Page so it actually works properly
  • I’ve got a few code and theme tweaks I’d like to add
  • Finish adding content to my snazzy Side Bar Modules (including my Gamer Card)
  • Initial impressions of the Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade, and of course Dead Rising
  • I’ll soon be importing Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan and hopefully that will arrive by next week, so expect a post or two about that
  • A page for my gaming “Queue” will finally materialize
  • I’m working on a post about “meta-gaming” which I think is looking good
  • Finish my About Page with contact info (I enjoy getting feedback from readers), including my DS codes and Xbox Live Gamertag
  • I’ve been listening to a lot of Podcasts, so I’m working on a big post of thoughts and reviews.
  • I still haven’t posted my impressions/reviews of Meteos and Age of Kings DS

So yeah, that’s a lot of stuff. I’ve got my work cut out for me. I’ll be pounding away at this list for a few weeks but if I can pull myself away from the 360 for a bit this weekend (after the amazing OSU/Texas game Saturday night and the Cleveland Browns opener) I’ll get some of it done.

Thanks for sticking around and hopefully the new stuff will be worth the wait!

Lazy Sunday
I’m not lazy, I swear!

Xbox 360 Imminent?

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I am this close (and by “this” I mean the space between two pixels that make up the “i” in the word “this”) to getting an Xbox 360. My local Micro Center is offering $100 dollar rebates to purchases of both Xbox systems (the premium and core). On top of that, they’re offering a $200 store voucher for signing up for a year of Vonage. That brings the price tag of a Premium Xbox 360 to $99 which puts it right in a place I like to call my “wheelhouse.”

Switching to Vonage has been something I’ve been investigating for a few weeks now anyway, so the stars are aligning, as they say. Mrs. buttonMasher seems to agree that this might be too good of a deal to pass up. Of course I couldn’t agree more, know what I’m saying?

So I will be at Ohio State’s opening game tomorrow afternoon and it’s very possible I’ll be heading to Micro Center shortly after their dominating victory.

It will be mine.

wayne1.gif

Oh yes, it will be mine.

“Max”imum blood

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Max Payne GBAA while back, during one of my CAG-fueled shopping sprees, I picked up a copy of Max Payne for the Game Boy Advance. I had never played Max Payne on the PC (which, by all accounts, was a great game) or the sequel. In fact, my copy of Max Payne sat on my shelf, untouched and unopened, for months while I wasted time on losers like Tiger Woods PGA Tour for the DS. It’s a shame too, because Max Payne is the most of fun I’ve had with a GBA game in a long time. (Even though I’m playing it on my DS Lite)

Max Payne is an undercover cop who’s life is torn apart after his wife and child are brutally murdered, killed by a couple junkies high on a new designer drug called “V.” Max quits the police force, joins the DEA and goes undercover to infiltrate the drug rings pushing V on the street. He’s framed for a murder he actually witnessed and is now on the run. He’s basically got nothing to lose. The story is told from Max’s point of view, and is a spiral into the depths of organized crime, government conspiracies, and Norse mythology. If that alone is not enough to convince to pick this game up, hopefully the rest of the review will.

The hallmark of the Max Payne series has been “bullet-time,” the time-bending film technique used by John Woo and over-popularized in the Matrix Trilogy. It’s basically slowing down time, except for your trigger finger, so you can manuever, mid-flight, to send bullets flying in all directions. From what I’ve read, it works great in the PC version of the game. I wasn’t sure how it’d translate to the GBA version, but it works excellent. Jumping into a room, a 9mm in each hand and dispatching all the bad guys in a matter of seconds while your jump for cover is pure fun.

Max Payne

“Dodge this.“

The game is played from the isometric, 3rd-person view. On the pixelated GBA screen, 3D games often suffer from slowdown and flicker but this isn’t been the case with Max Payne. The controls take a while to get used to, seeing how the movement is at an angle and the directional pad isn’t, but once you’re used to it, it’s not a big problem. Visually, they’ve somehow fit everything from the big screen onto the little GBA screen, which is quite a feat.

As far as sound is concerned, I don’t think this much mileage has been squeezed out of the Game Boy Advance. The story is delivered in stylized cut-scenes, each narrated by Max himself, and they sound suprisingly good. There’s only a few musical themes, but they create a gritty and dark atmosphere.

But the most striking aspect of the game has been the amount of blood! Every gunshot, every explosion, ever swing of the lead pipe solicits a spray of blood. With the lack of gory detail, those little red pixels splattered on the wall are still able to invoke quite a visceral experience. Couple that with the blast of a shotgun and the grunt of a man injured and you’ve captured the essence that is Max Payne. A man after revenge, with nothing to lose. It’s fierce.

So fierce that I’m surprised it’s a GBA game. On the system where Pokemon and Sponge Bob rules, it was interesting that Rockstar would port such a violent game over to the kid-friendly GBA. Max Payne is anything but kid-friendly. But it is rated M, so any parent would be wise to avoid it.

And any “mature” gamer would be wise to pick it up.