Breaking Windows

There's no point in writing something on this disaster. So many already have, not to mention it's almost impossible to find the words. Head over to BC for a master post to each piece and donation links. It's impossible to even turn on the TV without seeing something on this, and it gets even more brutal by the day. When people begin SHOOTING at the help coming in helicopters, it really does make you lose hope for humanity, but it's impossible not to feel sorry for the millions upon millions who have nothing right now.

As the hype from the first Godzilla film to hit US theaters in nearly 15 years had died down, Godzilla 2000 became a rather forgotten entry. It's lagging pace, dull final battle, and occasionally spotty special effects left it behind. With the follow up, Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, the series returned to fine form.

Dashboard, menus, and features discussed. About the only thing there I didn't like was the feedback system on Live. What's there to prevent a 12-year old from dropping negatives because you beat him in a game? There will need to be extensive safeguards. Other than that, sounds great.

I'm not one to comment on politics. I think I've made one or two posts on the topic, mostly for humor (excluding game violence rants). I find the process ridiculous, annoying, and aggravating. I have no idea about what the left, right, up, down, north, south, etc. believe. But Bush, let me ask you this:

What the fuck are you doing?

I am just gonna come right out and say it: I better not hear anyone say something like, "If [such and such does/doesn't happen], the hurricane has already won."

Ken asked me to talk about the Canadian angle on this whole thing [Katrina disaster] (I just moved to Montreal the other day). As soon as I walked in the door of my apartment, my roommate was watching the constant coverage on CNN.

Bad Boys: Miami Takedown features Will Smith and Martin Lawrence on its cover. It's obviously a shot from the action film sequel, and it gives fans of the movie false hope. There is nothing here that has anything to do with the movies, including the actors.

With eight new starters on defense, the Badgers had a tough time slowing Bowling Green's prolific passer, junior Omar Jacobs, who picked up right where he left off last year (4,002 yards passing with 41 touchdowns and just four interceptions) by racking up 305 yards passing and four touchdowns in the first half.

We all knew it was going to be a high scoring game. And most figured BG would lose. It was looking pretty good with a 35-35 tie at halftime though. For the past few years BG has had these huge games for the opener. I have no idea why. Who do we play next year, USC?

In other college football, it was nice to see Urban Meyer, Charlie Weis and Steve Spurrier win, especially with all the other upsets. Ah Urban Meyer, the Larry Brown of college football. Where would BGSU be today if Meyer would have stuck around...

Qualifying for the World Cup is done.

The United States is headed to next year's soccer championship in Germany after beating Mexico 2-0 last night thanks to goals by Steve Ralston and DaMarcus Beasley five minutes apart in the second half.

I love that Nike commercial running right now that starts out something like "OK, lets talk about soccer for two seconds because that's two seconds more then it deserves..."

It's a shame how the US has never embraced soccer as a major sport on the same level of football, basketball and baseball. Especially as USA Soccer has been competing well in the world arena, something the NFL, NBA, and MLB don't do.

It was a great game, though I am sure you missed it. It was on ESPN 2 which I was happy to see. Sure was choppy. The US and Mexico like to get physical. Great to se USA qualify for the World Cup first of the Americas for the first time since 1934.

It would probably make more sense to give $20 directly to the Red Cross, but this little Halo shirt is a pretty nice piece, and $15 makes it to the victims.

OK so maybe I'm not the only one who turned to his roommate days ago and sarcastically remarked, "Gosh, wouldn't it be kind of funny if all these third-world countries started sending us help?"

In recent months Breaking Windows has added a couple writers, and I would like to formally welcome them to our growing family.You may have already read their bylines by now (this is a late introduction).

Jordan Fouts graduated BGSU and is now going to college in Canada for Russian. Makes as much sense as a screen door on a submarine I know. He has a passion for pirate games, and helps with the mod community and helps with the conversion of Russian games.

Tyler Willis is the first at Breaking Windows to not have dropped out or graduated from BGSU. Tyler graduated from Baylor. I learned about Tyler from Matt. Other then that, I just know he likes video games, but that's enough for me.

Its always nice adding friends to the site. Its a shame not all of them write. So far Jordan and Tyler have been contributing reviews and commentary. I hope they continue. They make this site more diverse, and Breaking Windows is better for it.

Thanks fellas.

* Plug: If you want to write for Breaking Windows, you can contact me, ken (at) meancode (dot) com.

How many video games can you say you have played consistently for a full six months - and still intend to play for many more months to come.

That is the best compliment you can give a game. Not a Game of the Year award. Not a review with high praise. No, the best thing you can say is that you are still playing the game months after the shine has worn off.

Now that I have a memory card that holds more then Wipeout Pure downloads and save files, I actually have had the chance to use and abuse all the capabilities the PSP has to offer. The 2.0 gives me even more reason to have a large Memory Stick.

With 2.0, Sony released the web browser. It is pretty complete too. It has javascript support, and you can use three tabs. There is no Flash support, but I wasn't expecting it. There are a couple screen viewing modes to adjust the web pages to the PSP screen. The controls are pretty good too. The only thing I would like to see in the future is ad blocking.

Hollywood (CA) - At the Entertainment Media Expo in Hollywood California, Sony executives touted the success of their Universial Media Disc (UMD), specifically movie UMDs. Millions of these 2.3 inch-diameter discs that hold either movies or games have been sold to PlayStation Portable (PSP) owners. Sony believes that movies will make more than 60 percent of UMD sales in the near future.

It may well hit 60% sooner then Sony predicts if they don't start releasing some games. Thankfully we will start to see releases starting at the end of September, and continuing on through the holiday season. This slump in PSP games has forced us to become aware of the multimedia capabilities the PSP has to offer.

I am very surprised that UMD movies have been a huge splash (as is everyone else). And I mean huge. Selling a near 1:1 ratio of games to movies is more then anyone expected, probably more then even Sony predicted.

It amazes me that a format that is so closed has become so popular with PSP owners. It is pretty impressive for a DRM'd format that can only be viewed on a PSP.

I get the feeling that the lack of video games have fueled this crazy UMD buying frenzy. But it is obviously more then that, as sales figures have shown.

I am now waiting to see a UMD Audio disc that have not only a full album on it, but a bunch of music videos too. That would sell. Even if it costs more then a CD in the store. At least by the logic of the UMD movie blitz, sure, they would sell like hotcakes too.

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Former President Bill Clinton on Monday said the government "failed" the thousands of people who lived in coastal communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and said a federal investigation was warranted in due time.

You can read the interview, or watch it - only on Windows though. I think it is sad that the Bush Administration and the State Government of Louisiana is playing the blame game over this. I think the logical way to look at this is that it started out as a Louisiana problem, and escalated into a very quickly into a national problem. It's just FUBAR all around, and instead of blaming people, action needs to be taken. This is because things are getting to the unhealthy state, E. coli etc, etc.

CNN's free video was a good call, but they need to realize we have Windows Media Player 9 on the Mac too.[/rant]

Today during a special session of Congress legislation was passed and immediately signed by President Bush that demotes the former State of Louisiana to federal territory status.

I just had to post this. I thought it was well written, and pretty funny.

Strategy gamers are arguably some of the most hardcore amongst us. They spend hours managing the slightest of details, manipulating troops, and delving into hundreds of pages of an instruction book. Advance Wars however, is for the rest of us. Critically praised awarded, and recognized, the series (in just two installments) has become one of the most memorable of this entire generation.

You can read it here, but I've pasted it for easy reading:

"No, the PSP can't download DS games on the PSP. That would be considered stealing, since Sony doesn't own Nintendo games or it's characters. And, if Nintendo employees joined Microsoft or Sony, Nintendo characters will go on to PS2 and XBox and make them kiddy systems, which you all PSP fanjerks hate so much. Then, they would both be as much of a "failure" as Nintendo (no offense, Big N). So, if Nintendo gets bankrupt, you can kiss Sony and Microsoft goodbye as well. (A big cookie to the first person who can any sense out of that)

If Crash affects you the way it's intended, you'll never want to see it again. That's the best possible compliment the movie could receive. It runs the gauntlet of emotion, from anger, sadness, frustration, to aggravation, fun, and melodrama. There's nothing missing, and it's a large enough emotional drain that you'll never try to sit through it twice.

For a short time only, you can see the old site, and here is the new site. We have been talking about going live since Friday, but there is still some content to add to the new site.

This is a two step process, and the first step is all but complete. First I am putting the site in the University's Dreamweaver templates. This has taken little time at all. Step two will be putting the site into the Content Management System that the university owns. This on the other hand is gonna take a lot longer.

I have used their CMS, Rythmix Percussion, for the Student Publications site. Student Publications is a small site, less then 10 pages, and it took me an unexpedify long time to put into the CMS. I can only guess as to how long it will take to get the Department of Chemistry site into the CMS.

We shall see.

My favorite web application, Basecamp, just got a huge upgrade. Plus and Premium users now have the ability to use time tracking. I was looking at another web based solution, Blinksale, but having time tracking within Basecamp is so much better than using a separate application.

Basecamp is a web based project management application. It has an elegant design that is easy to understand by my clients, and extends beyond the web with support for RSS, iCal and FTP.

The PlayStation Portable puzzler Lumines and the Nintendo DS sensation Meteos are coming to mobile, courtesy of Gameloft. The mobile maker has signed a long-term exclusivity agreement with Q Entertainment, developer of the original titles. Both games were ushered on to their respective portables by famed producer Tetsuya Mizuguchi.

Great news to mobile phone users everywhere!

On Wednesday, at a special event in San Francisco, Apple took the wraps off the long-awaited iTunes phone from Motorola, the ROKR. Apple also updated iTunes to version 5.0 and introduced its replacement for the iPod mini: the iPod nano.

In Europe at least. This is probably from the delay, and people going crazy for this as American gamers talk about the emulation and such. The test is time. Let's see if it keeps up since they actually have "new" games to play. You know, like the opposite of America.

Briefly, I just saw this at snopes.com: A National Geographic article from a year ago basically predicted the entire Katrina/New Orleans scenario.

I feel a little late noticing this, but I was shocked and pleasantly surprised to find out a movie based on Alan Moore's 1980s dystopian-anarchy short series "V for Vendetta" is soon to be released, directed by the Wachikowskis no less.

Why have video game magazines become painful to read? It's because my peers write things like this (from this months Official Xbox Magazine):

From the Delta Force: Black Hawk Down Review:

"The Somalian rebels are so indistinguished and repetitious that gameplay can become reminiscent of bad SNES platformers like Double Dragon"

Ok people. You know you have a copy of Cracked Rear View. It sold 16 million copies, so just admit it. Now, their new album, Looking for Lucky, it's not doing so well. In a month, less than 40,000 copies have been sold. That's bad, and this is their best since their major debut. The lyrics are powerful and timely, and it's still that classic Hootie sound. This isn't a popularity contest, it's about music. In case you need some refreshing and want to buy it (and you do), here's some links:

Interview with Mark Bryan
Totally biased album review
Totally biased concert review
Their website
Amazon link
Best Buy link
Hootie Store link

You were there. You rushed into the store and snapped up the subtle box. You knew what you held in your hands was "thinking." You knew Sega finally pulled through with a winner.

Had some issues with them a LONG time ago and communication broke down. But, here I am, featured as they wanted my collection. It's a great site outside of this too.

Come on Arnold... you're smarter than this. Don't sign this one. It's too vague, and Leeland Yee would win. We don't want that.

This shouldn't be fun. It's obvious to anyone playing it that this should not work. It's going to be a guilty pleasure to some and unforgettable classic for others. That's the Nintendo hook with Nintendogs, an impossibly good title that uses everything the DS has to offer, with at times mixed results.

The decision to order Brown back to Washington from Louisiana — he remains as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency — marked the administration's latest attempt to assert leadership in the wake of the devastating storm and its aftermath, including the weakest public opinion polls of Bush's time in office.

Michael Brown is going back to Washington and will get a slap on the wrist. Hell, he might end up with a shiny medal out of this. He should get fired. With inaction by FEMA and reports of discrepancies in Brown's resume, the Bush administration finally seems to be taking the action it needed to in the aftermath of this Katrina catastrophe.

The top three officials of the Federal Emergency Management Agency share at least one trait: they had little or no experience in disaster management before landing top FEMA posts.

According to a Sept. 7 Chicago Tribune story, FEMA Director Michael Brown was commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association and had virtually no experience in disaster management.

David asks a great question: Why isn't the Bush Administration getting any heat for putting together a FEMA team so lacking in experience?

Also just learned of an impending film version of Philip K Dick's "A Scanner Darkly." Not my favorite of his stories but the diaspora of talent (it may be that I use the term loosely) working on it may make for an interesting combination.

The premise is here. Man with the Screaming Brain puts Bruce Campbell into the role of a rich pharmaceutical company owner who ends up with only half of his brain after being killed. The other half comes from a Russian cab driver.

If Death Jr. is fortunate enough to receive a sequel, especially on a home console, it will be worth playing. It features a great sense of humor, lots of destruction, and energetic gameplay. The restrictive nature of the PSP doesn't allow this portable original any room to breathe. It's stuck without any camera controls, crammed corridors, and far too many enemies to handle (of course made even worse by the camera).

Credit as always goes to Cheapassgamer. Full list below.

George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld are flying on Air Force One.

The President looks at the Vice President, chuckles, and says, "You know, I could throw a $1,000 bill out the window right now and make somebody very happy."

The Vice President shrugs and says, "Well, I could throw 10 $100 bills out the window and make 10 people very happy."

Not to be outdone, the Secretary of Defense says, "Of course, then, I could throw 100 $10 bills out the window and make a hundred people very happy."

The pilot rolls his eyes and says to his co-pilot, "Such arrogant asses back there. Hell, I could throw the three of them out the window and make 56 million people really happy."

Theatrical bomb Stealth will be $39.99 on UMD, but... it will have exclusive Wipeout Pure playable items, including the jet from the movie as a playable ship and an exclusive track (not to mention all the features of the regular game).

Have you heard or seen the advertisements for these accelerated college degree programs? They are everywhere. I kept hearing them and getting all these emails. They looked too good to be true, but I thought I would look into it.

Just a quick note, BGSU's Department of Chemistry site is now live. It is not in the CMS yet, but it is now in the BGSU site style. It is a huge improvement, and so far I have heard nothing but rave reviews. You can also still look at the old site to compare.

If you have one of the slim models, you need this new cable apparently. They seem to enjoy following Microsoft a little too closely, given that companies recall earlier this year.

Granholm prematurely announces signing of violent-game laws, signs laws prohibiting display of sexually explicit games instead.

Democratic Michigan Governor Jennifer M. Granholm today announced that she signed into law legislation that prohibits the "sale or rental of mature or adult-rated video games to children."

None of these yahoos can get this done right. I also saw on the news that this does not go into effect until Dec 1, so it could get overturned by... you guessed, the 1st amendment - just as so many of these types of video game bills have fizzled in the past.

Taking the exact engine from the Game Boy Advance entries of the Castlevania series, Shaman King: Master of Spirits brings with it fantastic platform gameplay and then ruins it all with a ridiculous stage progressions system. The great feel of the action, intriguing magic system, and beautiful graphics almost make it for it. They're enough to keep you going in the start, but not enough to keep moving to the end.

Obviously tired of passing in video game football, EA's Madden team introduces cone vision passing in 2006. This new feature stands out as the biggest tweak to the game, and it's one that adds an unnecessary, yet realistic, twist. It's going to be a love it/hate it feature.

I've heard their new single One Love performed live at least 15 times now, and this was their best. Real Player required.

Until I picked up a copy of the paperback the other day, my familiarity with Max Barry's ubercorporate dystopian Jennifer Goverment came only through its corresponding web site, Nation States. The site, where you can design your own little government and shape its fate, was meant to generate interest in the young Australian novelist's 2003 book, which was much applauded by critics, named a notable book by New York Times and a Campbell Award finalist for best sci-fi of the year. And even before publication, Soderbergh and Clooney's Section 8 films optioned the rights, which they and Warner Bros. recently renewed.

If you're only reading my game reviews here on BW, you're missing 90% of what I write. All of my reviews for non-current consoles appear on Digital Press. There's a reason I normally don't post this information here (I'd be doing it every week), but this update is a special one.

We broke the record.

When it's time to burn music, photos, or movies to CDs and DVDs, many Mac users turn to Toast, which has just undergone a major overhaul from Roxio. Sure, this latest version bears some resemblance to Toast 6, but Toast 7 Titanium features some of the most substantial changes to the program in years.

Why write a review when someone else has done it already? But Peter is right. One of the other most substantial changes is that it has a manual. Make that a printed manual. I don't remember seeing such a well put together manual (read: more then 5 pages) since Toast 3.

Exclusive to the Gamecube, Geist becomes one of the last highly anticipated games for the fledgling console, and it was hyped because of its concept. A basic first-person shooter, Geist doesn't stay very long in the shooting gallery phase. It spends most of its time in the supernatural realm, and the idea behind it is the best in years.

I think this is as good a time as any for a rant about BGSU's insanely outrageous pricing in their dining centers. Their grocery store pricing is equally outrageous as well, but that is another post all together.

I try and brown bag my lunch as much as possible, because of BGSU's need to ream their students over everything they buy on campus.

Today was not a brown bag day - I have no food in my fridge at the moment. So I got a burrito at the Student Union. This is my usual lunch when I do not bring my own lunch.

Its setup like Subway, you tell them what you want on it. When I get down the bin of guacamole, the preparer of the burrito kindly informs me that the guacamole will cost me 50¢ extra. To which I asked "Have I always been paying 50¢ extra?" Her reply was "No" thankfully. This new condiment charge was just added, today.

I can't flipping believe it! This burrito is overpriced as it is, and now they want me to pay more just to have guacamole on it?

They are out of their minds. Yes, indeed they are.

That title is all you really need, but here's a link anyway.

This has got to be a joke, right? Nope, its real, and IGN has a hands-on article.

Half of this is sad, but I guess mostly it's good news.

Then again, we really have to balance our short-term interests with what's best in the long-term. Those gold chains will be missed.

Taking the concept from a short lived Godzilla series on the Game Boy Color, War of the Worlds is a fun shooter, even without the full control players would want. It's extended to say the least, and for a cell phone game, possibly too long. There's plenty to play with here, though that initial shock over the gorgeous graphics wears off about half way through.

Rogue Ops is one of those games that blatantly steals from far better software. It doesn't offer a single idea that's original, and it doesn't perform as well as the games it's trying to emulate. It's a lost budget title, and Splinter Cell has nothing to worry about.

It has been almost six months before we had a wave of PSP titles to talk about. It was barely a trickle between March and September. But the middle of September is finally here, and now starts the second wave of games for Sony's portable Playstation.

Suresh Joachim broke the Guinness world record for the longest time spent watching TV. He finished Friday with 69 hours and 48 minutes.

After passing the previous record of 50 hours and 7 minutes Thursday, Joachim continued until shortly after 7 a.m. Friday morning (EDT).

I wonder what the record for playing video games is? Probably would not want anyone in South Korea to try for that record, those people seem to be dropping dead left and right from playing video games non stop.

Maybe it's just because I'm tired, but I've missed an entire quarter of the Chiefs/Raiders game because of this commerical. I can't stop watching it, and I've been on the floor in tears because of laughter twice. If anyone has a link to it in another format other than Quicktime (which the one I supplied is), let me know. I would pay to have this on DVD. No really, I would.

Just to note, if you've only seen it on TV, you're missing half of it. The 60-second version is MUCH better. When he hands her the tree I lose it every time, both because it's funny and next because this has better special effects than all of King Kong Lives which tried the same stunt.

Released in five different editions on the Playstation, the Namco Museum set was a decent collection, though the price was hard to swallow ($20 a disc). That collection was remixed onto a single set with the most popular titles. That has been making the rounds for some time on the current generation of consoles. On the PSP, that set has been broken down, revamped, and added to. The games are as follows:

My iPod shuffle is broke. One day, out of the blue, when I pulled the shuffle from my G5 the case came unattached from the metal USB port. There is a ribbon that attaches these two pieces. It has gotten progressively worse, it just falls out. I need to find/buy some super glue to put the thing back together. But I bet when I do that the warranty (if any) will be null and void.