Breaking Windows

Okay, I know. "So does my grandma!" Well, I suck at this type of stuff. Not only did I manage to get it up on YouTube, I captured it myself using this nifty, uh, it's a uh.... crap. Hang on. Let me find the box.

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Ah, Neuros MPEG 4 Recorder. Easy to use and you can now see some nasty Street Fighter II Turbo 3DO skills I captured all by myself.

Wow, do I wish I joined Last.fm sooner. I signed up two days ago, and I love it. What is Last.fm? Its a social networking music site. It is Internet radio that is better than iTunes. It really is a rockin' service.

Check out my profile as well as the Blogcritics group page.

There are iTunes/iPod plugins for Mac and Windows, the Mac one seems to work just fine.

The site must use less bandwidth than iTunes, because it drops and has to re-buffer far less than iTunes. Sunday had a lot of hiccups, but I have to assume that the site sees a spike in traffic then.

You basically search for music to listen to, ay Pearl Jam. It then streams a radio station (no commercials or irritating DJ) with music like Pearl Jam. I only wish it played Pearl Jam more than often then it does.

But the "Artist Fan Radio" stations seem to play more of the target artist.

Simply wonderful service, I cannot recommend it enough. One final note - it's free.

WITI-TV, MILWAUKEE -- Nintendo's DS hand-held gaming system was a hit during the holidays. However, it's also attracting some darker elements. FOX 6's Brad Hicks examines how your son and daughter could get caught up in the range of a child molester.

Oh this is rich, just go watch the video...

So what I got from this "report" was that parents don't read the instruction manual to the things they give their children, and this is all Nintendo's fault. Riiiiiiiiiight.

So WTF happened to the old adage "Don't talk to strangers," did parents stop teaching that to their children all of a sudden? From watching this video, it appears that the two girls were absent that day in common sense class.

The kid gave a total stranger -- a creepy reporter -- their street address. Now how about reporting on the fact that parents are absolutely clueless to what their kids are playing, and how they can be used.

That fact was painfully obvious of the two mothers used in this segment, yet MyFox Milwaukee isn't pushing for parents to wise up, they go for the alarmist angle -- one that has been done before, on Pictochat, before.

Wake up, this is the responsibility of the parents. Why not do a news segment focused on teaching parents about DS and PSP communication features, and drop the alarmist strategy, because it is getting old.

As if I don't contribute enough to BC, DJR has a new feature, The Listening Room, which I will try to contribute to as well. This week's Listen feature goes live tomorrow on BC, but here is mine (and everyone else's):

"The Golden Rose" from Highway Companion by Tom Petty

I am late to the Highway Companion party because someone took a number of months to gift this gem to me. But this gift was worth the wait.

Highway Companion as a whole reminds me of older Petty, and that is just fine with me. The instrumentation is so warm and rich, a stark contrast to his last record with The Hearbreakers - which makes this album all the more enjoyable.

"Saving Grace" may be the hook to bring you into this album, but one of the slower songs, "The Golden Rose," really brings back that slow-burning, mellow Petty vibe. It is such a relaxing tune to listen to, and a great way to end the album.

Even if you don't own Playback (wait a minute, you dont?) and are not a die hard Petty fan, you can still get a lot out of this album. Sadly there are far too few albums released these days you can listen to from beginning to end, but this is one of them.

We just reviewed this game, and I gotta say, it makes for a solid purchase. And this is not PR speak, this is a fun game, for Mac and Windows.

It is a simple shooter, arrow keys to move your ship, mouse to aim. It draws on the influences of games like Crystal Quest, and has great use of vibrant colors.

Be sure to read our BC Feature for more on the game!

The more "original programming" for BC Magazine, the better. Game du Jour Deals is all about buying casual games on the cheap.

The partnership is great. We get some great casual games to review, and newly formed GameDuJour.com gets some nice exposure. They even feature a quote from our reviews on their site!

The best part, for me, is that I get BC writers involved in writing game reviews that would normally not be writing for the Gaming section. Sneaky, I know.

Just got another site done for Jason Duff. Check out Mr. Concrete, also look at the old site.

Now, I don't think I have to say it, but this site is not safe for work (NSFW). This is a small PayPal driven site I just completed. Now go over and buy a shirt :)

I am a little late on posting about our newest BC section, Tastes. It is all about food! And is led by our cigar and wine expert JJ.

Dawn Olsen (who along with Eric, throw one hell of a great BBQ) has a thing for writing about celebrity gossip. You can tell it is her passion. The BC Culture section has birthed yet another spin off (Gaming spun in 2005) GlossLip.com.

Right now GlossLip has two writers, but I am sure that will grow in no time.

Side Note: Dawn liked my reworked GlossLip logo so much that she has Phillip put my logo up on GlossLip.com! I think it looks pretty good ;)

Now, the forums are not public yet, but we just announced them to the writers today. I have been creating the themes for the forums. The sections will have colored themes just like he main BC site. When I am done. You can see what I mean by looking at the Index and the GlossLip section.

Those clever PR people...

Sorry the photos are crap, I was in a hurry -- but it was funny so wanted to post it.

You know, when people don't use real names in interviews, it looks rather dumb. Of course I would not have posted this on the IGN blog either, but I guess they are trying to look "hip" and have some "street cred" -- whatever. But thats just my opinion.

Check out this informative interview on the upcoming PS3 game.

Kellee: We have only tapped about a fiftieth of the potential of the CELL for flOw. It’s definitely a different way of developing. The main processor isn’t as beefy as a modern PC’s processor, but the CELL has 7 SPUs! So, coming from PC development, you have to plan for the CELL very well in pre-production. You want to have an idea of the systems you’ll be running, and how best to split them up, so you are fully utilizing the PS3.

Like I was saying before, the great part about developing for a console in general versus PC is that it’s a stable platform. The difficult part is that each system has its own quirks. So you go through a period of figuring them out before you are really able to cook with gas.

My thoughts on this game: You can play it for free. This would not sell on Xbox Live Arcade, even with achievement points. Nintendo already did this, it is called Electroplankton. The only reason it will sell well on the PS3 Network is because of the utter lack of any software for the entire PS3 platform. If they try and shove this down our thoughts for $9.99 they are insane (well, okay, so they are already).

Truly bizzare story about a man who sat dead for over a year in his home in front of his TV, which was still on. They have no idea why he still had power, and I have far more questions than that. No one noticed this? The mail wasn't piling up? No phone calls unanswered?

Proving that YouTube truly has it all comes this three part look at one of the earliest third party gaming companies. This has to be one of the first in-depth reports on the home gaming market, if not one of the last before the crash. Well worth watching if you have any interest in the classics.

The BBC has a wonderful interview with two of the most prolific "hackers" in the PSP homebew scene. Be sure and check it out.

I almost downgraded my PSP to the Open Edition firmware, but when I read that 3.10 OE was giving Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters serious fits, I decided against it.

If I had a second PSP, I would install the OE firmware, but not on this PSP, as I need to review games using it. Plus I have a GP2X, which emulates pretty much anything I would want (besides GBA).

I really don't know why he hasn't posted this yet, but he just got a new HDTV. It is a Westinghouse 37" LCD that does 1080p. I bet he wishes that was a PS3 standing vertical next to the Wii and not a PS2 right now.

Congrats on getting a HD set over a year after you bought you Xbox 360. Just think of all the games you missed out on seeing in their "Full HD" glory.

This always happens when we get a new console. The first batch of games come with some rather plastic looking textures. Dead or Alive 4 had this same issue on the Xbox 360 in December 2005.

There is no question this game is an achievement in graphics. The stages are just breathtaking. Granted, you do not interact with them like in DOA4, but they have been kicked up a notch in VF5.

The plastic skin textures on Akira, El Blaze, and Wolf really stick out because the rest of the game, and the overall presentation, is just perfect.

Anyways, I will have a full review soon.