Breaking Windows

The English LocoRoco site is up. If you haven't been there yet, you owe it to yourself to visit. LocoRoco is an upcoming PSP title that we previewed in May. It has that Katamari Damacy vibe to it, and will be a hot game when it hits store shelves in September.

From the amazing Canadian who brought you Daily Dinosaur Comics, Whispered Apologies, the exhaustive list of Things That Don't Exist, RSSPECT, the OhNoRobot webcomic search engine, and a host of other good things: The Amazing Regret Index.

The concept, based on this comic, is simple: People post and vote on regrets, which are rated on a 0 to 1 scale. Regrets range from silly ("Finding out the Princess was in another castle" 0.89, "boobs" 0.02, "masturbating to a picture of yourself masturbating" 0.47) to sincere and bittersweet ("not bringing your camera" 1, "being pressured into a job instead of being a free spirit" 1, "agreeing to still be friends with your ex" 0.5).

Great way to spend a wistful and hilarious afternoon.

Mainstream reporters seem to have a thing for portable video game systems. A few months after a mess of a story on Nintendo's DS, Fox 9 out of Minneapolis has apparently exposed a serious problem with Sony's PSP: It can show porn. Worse yet, it can show porn inside a school where innocent young minds will forever be warped by the mysteries of the internet.

I cannot say I am exactly sure what the Nintendo Amusement Park is, based on the lo-fi website, but the video speaks for itself.

This week, Microsoft's Vice President of their video game division Peter Moore made a statement that sent video game fans, specifically Xbox 360 owners, into a frenzy. He stated the company was done with backwards compatibility for the Xbox 360 as there was no interest in it. While the emulation team designated to develop the software to run Xbox games on the new hardware stated they were still working on this aspect of the system, it's time to step back and realize Peter Moore is right.

The little blue pill that was supposed to breathe new life into seniors has caused a boom in STDs at one Florida retirement community... It seems old folks can be just as dumb and slutty as their grandkids.

You know, when I think "blue pill" I think The Matrix. Of course I am not 80 years old. This is sad when you think about the fact that they don't know any better, and are spreading STD's like BGSU students.

New research commissioned by the IAB and presented at its board meeting this week shows that as many as 12 percent of consumers don't accept third-party cookies--that is, the cookies set by ad servers and analytics companies that track the Web sites that consumers visit and the ads they view, among other data.

So the IAB is looking into an ad campaign to educate brain wash us into not blocking ads. This is a brilliant idea. Why don't you yahoos get a clue that people block cookies and firewall known ad servers because we don't want to see the ads -- especially the f'ing Flash ones that blink fast enough to give even a normal person a seizure.

Microsoft has been in an uphill battle since before Day One of the Xbox. They need to sell consoles. And right now the Xbox 360 is again facing an uphill battle, this time against the PS3. They might have been first out of the gate, they might have the software right now, but Sony is not going to give up their market share without a fight.

I have a question for the regular readers of this site, all three of you. Actually BW averages between 2000 and 4000 unique visits a day, with anywhere between 6,000 and 10,000 page views. Why? I have no clue. But I do know that the majority is coming from search engines (Google) and not from regular readers. This is a question for those regular readers.

Movable Type 3.2 was installed successfully. Their upgrade process is getting better and better. Rebuilding the site takes much less time, so they worked on that for this update.

TypeKey authentication has been turned on. This means you cannot comment on Breaking Windows without first logging in. If this does not stop the comment spam, then I will have to get creative.

A (PSP) picture is worth a thousand words, right? Since this is Matt's PSP I will let him explain. But he told me he turned his PSP on after a couple days of not using it (not uncommon). He turned it on to update to 2.71, but he couldn't even get that far, as this is the first thing he saw!

Oh, and at first he could not find any English on the screen at all.

Click image for a closer look.

My DS is up for sale on eBay. My shipping is cheap and you get two absolutely terrible... err, near classic games too! If you're looking for a DS, this is the best one on eBay*. Oh, and check my other auctions for horrible... err, near classic DVDs!

The Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is, without a doubt, a big selling point for the Xbox 360. Some people might not look at it this way, but it has been one of the best reasons to own the system.

Far be it from Microsoft to turn "hard-core" games into "casual' gamers, but that is exactly what they have done. Xbox Live Arcade appeals to both hard-code and casual crowds, and is also a big reason for its success.

Pakistan on Saturday banned the controversial film The Da Vinci Code days after protests by the minority Christian community.

Of course we ban Catcher in the Rye and Of Mice and Men here in the U.S.

The Xbox 360 is a different piece of hardware. Backwards compatibility is an issue because of this, and the cost to implement new emulators for games isn't cheap. Ken's right to say that newly released titles for the original Xbox should be ready to go on the 360 when they launch.

The guys at GameVideos and 1UP have a preview of sorts up for Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting -- the game that will hopefully be the next to hit the Xbox Live Arcade. They say it is Street Fighter, but without the Hyper Fighting part. I guess it is a good thing they didn't go with Street Fighter Alpha 3 after all.

This is not the best press before the game even hits XBLA. A sparse interface and slower play while in Xbox Live seem to be the main complaints. Not being able to change the video or button controls in Xbox Live play are some pretty big oversights, too. Take a look for yourself.

MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- A Russian Web site that lets visitors download albums for less than $1 is a smash hit with music fans -- but not with U.S. trade and music industry officials.

If this was Slashdot, this would be filed under the no-shit-sherlock department.

I bought this product from Lik-Sang, and was going to review it. I still might, but this is not a review. It is more like a rant. While the promise of a huge boost in battery life is a plus, the design is not so good.

When it works, it rocks. It doesn't add too much bulk to the already bulky DS. The problem lies with the fact that it is not secured well enough to the bottom of the DS. If the connection wiggles out, your game is toast.

You also have to toggle a switch to change from one battery to the other. You also have to remember to toggle this switch when charging to charge both batteries.

But 20 hours of play time does rock. Just don't bump your DS or it is lights out!

Luckily this thing was cheap. Maybe that should have been a warning sign.

Last night, I had the pleasure of giving a guest lecture at Trinity University in San Antonio... But the more I thought about it, the less I wanted to talk about the future. Instead, I wanted to focus on one of the biggest challenges of today: in our celebration of the amateur, we kind of forget what it means to be professional.

This is a very long, but quite good speech that the author posted, even in PDF. It is really worth a read, and has a bunch of stuff to digest.

The 360 achievement system gives the casual gamers and the hardcore gamers one more outlet of addiction. For years I have been playing games and occasionally beating the games but the end result is always the same: shelf the game for life. The 360 achievement system changes all that by making games full feature set more desirable.

I have been meaning to post this for a while, as the site is right up my ally, "a web site for gamers over 25."

Generating reports of Xbox 360 Achievements and Gamertag data has become a cottage industry overnight! Matt sent me a link to Top360Tag.com. So far it offers the most ways to slice and dice the data. It offers a lot, so go check it out.

Whenever someone asks what the greatest video game commercial of all time is, I waste no time in saying "Syphon Filter 2 Taser Spot." Well, I found someone who has it online for all of us to enjoy. I still lose it whenever Gabe points to the weapon selection to show the the guy his choices.

Craig has a review up of the GP2X Mark II unit, the one shipping now. It has a different screen (some say it is better, others say worse) and a new joystick cap that is actually usable. That's quite handy, and would save you from buying one to actually be able to pull of fireball and dragon punches, for example.

It doesn't matter who stars as long as players are pushing through the various hazards of the Mushroom Kingdom in 2-D. In this case, Princess Peach has finally avoided being kidnapped and has chosen to take on the burden of defeating Bowser alone. She'll do so in classic fashion, making this one of the best additions to the Mario universe in years.

There is no denying the fact that the Nintendo DS has some of the best games on the market today. I just wish it were a bit more aesthetically pleasing. To see my point on this, take a look at the soon to be released DS Lite.

Editor's Note: This is a Point/Counter Point discussion between Matt Paprocki and Ken Edwards on the backwards compatibility of games on the Xbox 360. You can keep up with the entire discussion at Blogcritics. I encourage you to read the other articles in this series.

Microsoft will provide what their customers want. They will bend over backwards, especially in Japan, to get an Xbox 360 (and a nice Samsung HDTV) into your living room. Granted, they are working against an unknown (the PlayStation 3) but until Sony drops to Number 2 in the market, Microsoft will always need to match, and exceed Sony any way possible.

I F****** HATE BURNOUT CLIPS! I just got one. I am not about to put in Burnout Revenge to see your burnout clips. Hint: you do not need to send them to get your achievement.

And while I am on a rant here. STOP SENDING ME HALO 2 MESSAGES. I cannot read them in the Dashboard, and again, I am not going to put Halo 2 in the drive just to read the message.

And for god sakes, get a better game to play online. Hint: Halo 2 sucks online.

Today was the last straw. I was thinking of still double posting, but today I have had it.

I had to make an edit, thanks to the eagle eye of Jordan (thanks) on the BW version and the yet-to-be published BC version of my latest entry in the discussion between Matt and myself on Xbox 360 BC.

The McDonald's on Wooster is getting renovated. At least that was what I hear. No, they tore the place down. There is a hole in the ground where McDonald's used to be. Odd way of renovating, if you ask me, but we will be getting an entirely new McDonald's out of it.

A while ago I read on Digital Press a thread about DS v. PSP collections. Since DP is going through some growing pains... or something, and I cannot search or post, I will post here.

Without even counting, I am sure my PSP collection is bigger. This is just for the fact that I just recently bought a bunch of used PSP games at rock bottom store-closing prices. So lets take a look:

Here are the instructions on the US PlayStation site.

As if you need something other than Allofmp3.com, you could try out Mp3search.ru. Although I have never used Mp3search.ru before, has anyone else? And are they willing to admit it?

5. On September 1, 2006 the changes to the Russian copyright legislation will come into force. Since January 2006 the site has been making direct agreements with rightholders and authors at the same time increasing the price of the music compositions and transferring the royalties directly to the artists and record companies. The aim of AllofMP3.com is to agree with all rightholders on the prices and royalties amounts by September 1, 2006.

What does this mean? Do all your Allofmp3.com shopping before September 1? There are five other bullet points, and a recap of the events leading up to this at the link.

Controversy in the press surrounding "Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown, just beginning to fade, will likely revive later this week when the July issue of Vanity Fair hits the stands. According to an advance copy, the magazine's contributing editor Seth Mnookin alleges -- in a massive article titled "DaVinci Clone?" -- two new instances of possible plagiarism in Brown's past. Two textual analysis experts also tell him they believe Brown borrowed the plot for his book from Lewis Perdue's "Daughter of God."

Huh? Do we have the next James Fray? Did Opera interview Dan Brown too?

Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin acknowledged Tuesday the dominant Internet company has compromised its principles by accommodating Chinese censorship demands. He said Google is wrestling to make the deal work before deciding whether to reverse course.

Come on, you just gotta laugh at this folks. It is a Google story on Yahoo! News? Wha? That is just priceless. You can find it using Google News, but its just better reading it on Y! News.

They did it because their competition was doing the same thing, and they want in on the action too. Duh!

Yes, arrantly, they do. After what they did with the New Super Mario Bros. box, I am not surprised.

But I will have to wait until tomorrow to hear that glorious trumpet coming from my FedEx'd box. I have been told, by two GH folks actually, that I should get it then.

Don't hate me because I am one lucky SOB. Unless you are Njiska, of course.

And if you think I am going to take video of opening my DS Lite box, you are out of your gourd.

I really don't know why they don't add a checkbox in the search/filter box for searching for unread emails. This is the uber geeky way to do it, and frankly I should not have to search this way.

In the field "Has the words" put "is:unread" (without quotes of course) and hit Search. Since I am a Labels whore, I now have Labels setup for unread mail by Label.

GMail rocks, it would just rock a lot more if it was more user friendly. I should not have to search the GMail Google Group to find out how to search for unread email.

While I am at it, I should be able to create a Filter based on a Label.

My DS Lite arrived at about 11:38:27 this morning. I didn't get the nifty packaging though! Just the DS Lite box in a FedEx bag. I guess I am not "special" enough.

I turned it on and went blind immediately. You will have to wait for my full review for more.

Sometimes the simplest plans are the most effective. One gamer managed to steal 60 PlayStation Portable games from a Myrtle Beach Blockbuster yesterday, not by digging a tunnel or using some secret spy equipment--he simply stuck them in his pants, reports Myrtlebeachonline.com.

Wait, the PSP has 60 games?

Umm... go buy it! But please read my review first.

"Wait a minute, I thought the rumors about Apple buying Nintendo were false."

"Hold on, is Nintendo selling iPods now."

"Makes a great iPod accessory."

"So this is that rumored Apple portable gaming device I have been hearing about."

"They could not have come up with a better redesign of the iPod video."

"It's about time Apple finally caved to user demands and added a stylus to the iPod."

FiringSquad decided to contact journalists from a variety of well known national mainstream news outlets to get their opinions on covering the game industry from their perspective. Overall, we found that they are all making a bigger push to cover the industry and that could affect how video and PC games are perceived in the mass media in the future (there is one rather large exception to this trend, however, which we will get to later).

Interesting read, I'll put it that way -- check it out.

From the attack-of-the-bullet-points department:

• After going on sale May 15, New Super Mario Bros. sold at a nonstop rate of roughly one every four seconds nationwide during the reporting period.
• New Super Mario Bros. emerged as the No. 1 game of the month, even though it was in stores for just 13 days of the four-week reporting period.
• Just two days after Nintendo DS Lite went on sale in the United States on June 11, the new lighter, brighter portable system sold more than 136,500 units, with many retail outlets reporting sellouts.
• By comparison, DS Lite is outpacing 2003's launch sales of Nintendo's juggernaut Game Boy Advance SP by more than 12 percent.
• Major retailers report that sales of Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day tripled over the previous week.
• Retailers also report that New Super Mario Bros. sales doubled over the previous week.

A very unattractive, mean actin' woman walks into Wal-Mart with her two kids. She has a nasty looking tattoo on each arm and rotten teeth. To make it even worse, she's wearing flip flops, has a bright green thong hanging out, and has long, filthy toenails.

The Wal-Mart Greeter, asks, "Are they twins?" The ugly bitch says, "No, the oldest one, he's 9 and the younger one, she's 7. Do you think they look alike?"

"No", replies the greeter, "I just couldn't believe that you got laid twice!"

Warning: The following is an angry rant. You probably won't like me when I'm angry, but I only rant when I know I'm right.

As such, the following piece would likely come up in a Google search when you're looking for certain types of porn (especially in Njiska's case). It should not be read by children, animals, or sponges. Especially not sponges. Those things are scary.

That disclaimer aside, let the ranting begin!

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories retails for $19.99, everywhere. In fact, that is the MSRP, stated on a press release from Take Two. But Amazon wants you to think you are "saving" 33% on the deal.

The List Price, according to Amazon, is $29.99, and they are, of course, selling it for $19.99. This is total bull, and a practice I have never seen before from Amazon.

I noticed this while posting my Liberty City Stories review on Blogcritics, and will now pay closer attention to the List Price stated.

"Paid $315 for Xbox360 Got no response for a week. Had to call his mom for refund"

Xbox 360 Fanboy ran the story. Simply priceless.

I've received two press releases in the past two days, each asserting that one of the portable consoles is currently kicking the ass of the other...

So, who's lying? In a sense, neither of them are. Sony points out that PSP just squeaked by Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance in hardware sales this past May: 160k units, 146k units, and 152k units respectively. Of course, the question is: once the Game Boy Advance stops selling, to where will those dollars migrate?

Funny thing is, I got the same two press releases. I just think that Nintendo hired a better writer.

(That was a joke, people.)

And does it ever look incredible. Check out the screens and the trailer too. Now, give me Mad Dog Mcree!

Oh, and for $60 they can keep their HD Dragon's Lair.

You might have seen this ridiculous ad from Best Buy over at Gamespot. It's pretty hard to miss.

However, we should always leave things up to CAG to give us the real inside story. They have a far better eye for these things.