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Asides

Real life.

March 4, 2005 by Tony Leave a Comment

I’ve been busy this week, lots of things going on so I haven’t had much time to blog. I’ve been able to do a little gaming, I’ve made some good progress with the single player campaign in Halo 2 and I’m really enjoying Mario Power Tennis. I rented Zelda: Four Swords, but have only had a little chunk of time to play that. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve played but I doubt I’ll get to play much more before it has to go back. I really like the style of graphics they started with Wind Waker (I know, that’s a minority opinion) and I love the look of Four Swords. I wish I had some friends with GBAs to try out the multiplayer, it looks like it would be a lot of fun.

I’ve been thinking about some topics I want to mention but it’s getting late now, so I’ll check back in soon with some links and some razor sharp wit. Prepare to be dezazzled.

Or, at the very least, mildly amused.

Filed Under: Asides Tagged With: Blogging, Real-Life

Oops

March 1, 2005 by Tony Leave a Comment

I seem to have deleted my last post about blogging from AFKGamer. I was setting up a friend with WordPress for his blog and accidentally deleted one post to many. Oh well, no biggie there. You should be reading AFK anyway.

In blogging news, WordPress has hit 50k downloads of their new version. Good for them. I whole-heartedly recommend WordPress to any blogger looking for robust, solid, and FREE software.

Filed Under: Asides Tagged With: WordPress

New and improved!

February 23, 2005 by Tony 2 Comments

After fighting with mySQL for the first time (surprisingly painless after I realized what I was doing) we have a new version of buttonmashing. It’s late, so I’ll be going to bed now, but I’ll be trying all the cool WordPress widgets later, starting with the import of my Blogger posts. We’ll see how that goes.

I’m sleepy.

Filed Under: Asides Tagged With: Blogging, Site News, WordPress

Some more light reading.

February 18, 2005 by Tony Leave a Comment

Today we are going to look at couple articles with differing points of view on the direction Nintendo is heading. The first comes from the venerable hardware site, Tom’s Hardware. (NB: I love Tom’s Hardware, a great place for hardware reviews. I haven’t read much in their video game section, but I’ll be keeping my eye on it now.)

Titled “Why is Nintendo Ignoring American Men?”, Christiaan Allebest (Tom Hardware’s video game editor) talks specifically of the future of the DS but talks about Nintendo in general. He, like many others, feel like Nintendo is ignoring the “mature” audience of us American men, video gamers who were brought up on Nintendo. After complaining about the lack of DS games that would appeal to the male gamer, Christiaan closes with

Nintendo needs to reach out to older American gamers, not with the gloved, 3-fingered hand of Mario and his balloon animal friends, but with titles that deal specifically with what fascinates American males most: shooting things, blowing $%#@& up, and scantily-clad ladies.

I like blowing stuff up, just like the rest of us males, but I just can’t agree with this completely. There’s more to gaming that shooting and destruction. For me, I’ve got to think about who’s sitting next to me when I play. I have to be selective of what’s on the screen. The next article explains why.

From PC Magazine (WHAT!? PC Magazine? Bear with me, it’s worth it) we get this article by Jim Louderback, titled “For Families, Nintendo Slams Xbox”. He’s talking about his gaming experience with his son. From the article

Very few Xbox games so far have managed to hold our attention, though. The only one of note: Shrek 2 from THQ.

Shrek 2? That can’t be good. He continues

I’m using my Xbox less and less these days, and playing the GameCube more and more. I love console gaming, and I’m really glad my son does too. Someday we’ll be playing Madden NFL, Halo, and the rest. But not today.

Microsoft would love for the Xbox to become the center of home entertainment. But if the company can’t get its family-games situation together, that won’t happen. And based on what I’ve been playing, they have a long way to go. Without a family-game strategy, the Xbox will remain the province of older boys and men. My solution: Buy Nintendo.

There’s the key, at least in my case. Nintendo has always been my system of choice, and it grew up with me, for a while. People are always saying that Nintendo didn’t grow up enough and embrace us older gamers. But here’s the hitch – gamers like us have grown up. And now, some of us are getting married and having kids. I want some fun, gory games like the rest of us. Resident Evil owned me for weeks. But that’s not the kind of game I would sit down and play with my kids until they are much older.

“Mature” games are an important part of the spectrum of gaming. But Nintendo’s kid/family-oriented games are, too. Games like Paper Mario and Animal Crossing are currently influencing gamers that are as old as we were when we played Super Mario Brothers for the first time. I know after a kid turns 13 it’s all about playing Halo 2, but up to that point they should be playing games that are less serious and more about fun. Like it or not, Nintendo has the section of the market cornered. In the process, Nintendo is building another generation of gamers who know Mario and Luigi and don’t really care about Leon and Master Chief.

Filed Under: Asides Tagged With: Gaming, Nintendo, Xbox

The big Three-Oh

February 8, 2005 by Tony Leave a Comment

The day I never thought has arrived. This day, thirty years ago, my sweet mother was in the throes of labor, thrusting the cruel world upon me in a most unceremonious way. That’s right, today is NOT my un-birthday. It is officially my birthday. But not just any birthday, this one is the big three-oh. While it’s not the end of the world, it sure feels like I’m supposed to have grown up and matured, but sometimes I still feel like I’m twenty. And not just because I still play video games. I guess I can wait another ten years to see if I’ve “grown up”.

Of course you, as a loyal Button Masher, would like to shower me, your fearless Head Button Masher, with gifts and well-wishing. Alas, I would be remiss to accept said gifts, but send ’em any way. I’ll just be remiss and deal with that myself.

As I looked back on the past thirty years, I can say I’m happy where I am at. I wouldn’t change any of it. Here’s to thirty more!

Filed Under: Asides

Some light reading.

February 6, 2005 by Tony Leave a Comment

I know it might be hard to believe, gamers do have other interests. For me, I am fascinated by the financial world, with a particular interest in the world of investing. I’m pretty green (pun somewhat intended) when it comes to investing, but over the past 3+ years, I’ve been doing dollar based investing through ShareBuilder (a great service and a great way to get your feet wet). I’ve done fairly well, but I’ve got a lot to learn. As such, I try to follow as much stock-related news as I can. Currenlty, I’m subscribed to the Motley Fool newsletter for their insight and tips. It’s nothing great, but a couple weeks ago, this article was highlighted. As I read it, I was reminded of this, which I read over at Video-Fenky. I think these articles really get to the point of what can and needs to be changed over at Nintendo.

I think we can also throw this little tidbit (hat tip, Joystiq) as well. Nintendo has definitely embraced the kid-friendly image but maybe the embrace has turned into a bear hug and Nintendo can’t let it go.

Filed Under: Asides Tagged With: Nintendo

I Heart Bloglines

January 23, 2005 by Tony 2 Comments

If you read blogs or maintain one yourself, I hope you’re using Bloglines. I’ve been urged many times to give it a try and I’m only now beginning to see its usefulness and flexibility. I’m already using it to keep track of almost all my links on the right. Being able to make folders to store your various feeds is perfect and highly customizable. Being able to share/publish your links is equally brilliant. I am really liking Bloglines and I guarantee that, if you’re a blogger, you will dig it too.

In fact, I imagine the majority of ButtonMashing readers are and intrepid bunch, so you’re probably using it already!

Filed Under: Asides Tagged With: Bloglines

Bad back = no games

January 10, 2005 by Tony Leave a Comment

I threw something out of whack in the vertbrae area this weekend and so haven’t been able to do much gaming. I didn’t feel like sitting for any extended period of time, so I avoided gaming for a little while. Right now the laptop is propped up on my legs while I search for a comfortable pose to write this.

On a non-gaming note, I love the show 24. With the first four hours out of the way, we can now get down to business. 24 is hands down the best TV show out there. Lost is a pretty close second, but 24 wins out for me. I don’t watch much TV, but I don’t miss my 24.

Filed Under: Asides

New Year’s Resolution

January 6, 2005 by Tony Leave a Comment

I’m a few days late on my resolutions, but I do have some. I wanted to share them here.

  • First, lets get these out of the way: lose weight, exercise more regularly, eat healthier, get to bed early and get up earlier, you know the regulars.
  • Post here at ButtonMashing at least once a day
  • Spend less time playing games when I could be with my family
  • Make the time I do have to play games more enjoyable
  • Add more humor to my posts. I’m a funny guy, really, I am. I think of funny things all the time! I just struggle to articulate them.
  • Kick some serious butt all year long

There you have ’em. Will I keep ’em? You better believe it. There will also be some changes around here. Nothing major, but I’ll keep everyone updated. Here’s to a great 2005. Thanks to all my regular readers, I appreciate your patronage and hope you enjoy your visits here. To any new readers, I hope you come back often. You never know what you’ll find.

Filed Under: Asides Tagged With: Blogging

Happy New Year!!

January 1, 2005 by Tony Leave a Comment

2005 gets two exclamation points!

Happy new year to all you ButtonMashers! We here in the ButtonHouse are looking forward to a prosperous and gaming-filled 2005. We will be in a new ButtonHouse by February, so things will be changing for us here, but hopefully thinks will stay the same in the gaming (and gaming blog) world.

The new year has already started off with a bang, having my pathetic stats reset over at bungie.net. I heard chatter last night in a few Halo 2 games that there was going to be a reset, possibly to counter cheating going on? I was once accused of playing with a lag cheat, but I figured the kid was pissed becuase I was repeatedly whacking on the head with my bazooka, whack-a-mole style. I had no idea there were Xbox Live! cheats. That’s too bad if there are but I’m sure Bungie will fix it.

Stay tuned, as I do what everyone else has been doing, roll out my 2004 awards and look to 2005.

Filed Under: Asides Tagged With: Holidays

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