Breaking Windows

Stupid, stupid flash game. Filler is addictive. Fill the screen with growing balls (heh) and avoid the smaller ones in the process.

Dear god. Get this series out on DVD tomorrow guys.

The final chapter is freakin' hilarious, especially the outtakes at the end. Without spoiling anything, the two guys on the street fighting with the pan shot going up was too perfect. Total geek out moment.

Funny little clip of what would happen if games to life in the real world. Tetris, the Metal Gear theme, and the ending GTA parody are priceless.

Oh, and in contrary to what the chick says in the opening, you CAN go through college gaming. You won't do well, but it can be done.

I've begun writing for two new sites in the past month. One is Multiplayergames.com, a blog focusing on, well, mutli-player games (duh?). This includes downloadables and such as well. The other is Gameargus.com, a more professional site trying to bring some cred to the journalism side of things.

Visit them often or I'll... uh, hmm... let me see. I'll think of something. Really. So just do it. Now, preferably. Remember, I have a Gamerscore of 50K, and that's me important.

I hate Flash sites. This is ancient history on this blog. I loath Flash sites for video games. Especially when they crash my browser on repeated attempts to load the site. All I want to do is copy the system requirements for an email and I have to sit through a flipping Flash preloader.

The Flash site for the game Ancient Wars: Sparta will not load in Safari 2.0.4 or Firefox 2.0.0.3 on the Mac. Its not like I have an ancient computer (har har).

My 1 Ghz PowerBook with 1 GB of RAM, while old, can handle some rather Flash-intense Web sites. But not this one (which I am not even going to link to).

Every last one of these sites should have an HTML version. This is utterly ridiculous. I can't wait to test this site out on my G5 and Dell Inspiron tomorrow, just to see how bad it is.

Monkey + Sharp object + Balloons - Cheese = Greatest Flash Game Ever.

Yea, you read that right, Dragon's Lair on Blu-ray will set you back $50.

It has a lot of extras. Is it worth it? Does nostalgia + extras + frame-by-frame cleanup = $50?

Digital Leisure is obviously betting on it. Space Ace and Dragon's Lair II are up next for them too.

It has some nice options, such as Home or Arcade game, as well as a hard difficulty mode.

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.

Those clever PR people...

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

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.

...

...

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.

My roommate and I are addicted to A&E's Intervention. We're the type of sickos who find it a little funny. Sure, sometimes it's heartbreaking, like when a young girl prostitutes herself to buy heroin or some mother's eating disorder is beginning to be mimicked by her infant daughter. These are serious, socially recognized addictions, handled in a stark and very sincere way.

So I couldn't stop laughing when they featured a kid addicted to video games.

It's a ridiculous rant with tons of great comments, oddly similar to the just as awful on Bill O'Reily made a few weeks back.

This page has a few different shmups you should try. Windows only of course, and free. Thanks to Andy for the link.

He shoots, and the game locks up completely!

That's the scenario when your kina/sorta close to launch day Xbox 360 decides it doesn't like working anymore. Mine is gone without warning as I kept getting an odd checker board-like pattern on my screen before it quit completely. I though it was Viva Pinata, but then it died during Blitz the League and Rainbow Six. Called support, tried their troubleshooting (it locked up without the hard drive too), and it's going back.

This all of course happens the day before a new Arcade release, the new gameplay-filled Halo 3 trailer, and the day I get Viva Pinata. Surprise, surprise. Of course this couldn't happen during the summer when nothing new is coming. Ah well, thanks for your help woman whose name wasn't Jean becuase you were obviously in Win Pon Puu, China. Texas, here comes another one that one of your customers have to pay shipping on!

When we started PS3 pre-orders, I snagged a small interview with some of the kids waiting outside our store. That interview turned into a story for the Free Press. If you ever wanted to know what these people (like Ken) are thinking, this is a pretty good indicator.

Interesting article on the format war. Why pull the discs when two of the cheapest players (360 and PS3) hit the stores in the past few weeks?

Bowling Green is not big. If it were not for the college, it would just be another farm town. The estimated July 2005 population sits at 29,793. That's small potatoes.

Console launches are never fun here. There is Meijer, and Wal-Mart. Those are the only stores that we have now with a dedicated video game section (we had a Sam Goody, but they went the way of the dodo). There is 2 Play and C & C Games, but they won't be getting any PS3s at launch.

There is a GameStop going in next to Wal-Mart, but that won't happen until after the PS3 and Wii launch.

Wal-Mart told me they will have 10 units. It is a Super Wal-Mart, so it is open 24 hrs. I suspect getting there by Thursday at 8 AM will be the bare minimum to get a unite on Day 1.

Meijer can't even tell me how many they will get. "One or Two" was the best I could get, and that was a guess. This is not a surprise. They got four Xbox 360s at launch, and six PS2s when it launched.

There isn't going to be a snowball's chance in hell of picking up a PS3 on Day 1 in Bowling Green.

Long before I write a review, which will be extremely difficult to do, I need to get this out there:

Gears of War is one of the best games ever made. Period.

As amazing as it may sound, my launch day PS2 is still in full swing. It was fine until a few months back, the dreaded DRE showed up on blue bottom (CD-ROM) discs and started giving me trouble. This week, it finally said enough and stopped playing them entirely. Of course, this was also the week of EB's B2G1 free sale, and the three games I bought are all blue bottom.

That led me to Google, and this glorious link. It works. Your PS2 may not look exactly like that (that's a later model in the pics), but the solution is a perfect fix. Now, back to Riiiiiidge Racer! Sorry. I had to.

I think it should be known that I am much farther than Matt in Tiger Woods 07. This simply does not happen. It is akin to Matt playing over 100 hours in Oblivion, while I only have 20 in.

Oh, and the last three matches we have played on Live ended with me winning. I am waiting for a rematch, Matt.

Tonight I completed the Tiger Challenge, beating Tiger on his "Dream 18" course. This was not easy by any means, I beat him just as I beat the opponent before him, in double sudden death.

I have no reached "Legend" status with all my attributes maxed at 100% plus those stupid stat bonuses they put on clothing and such.

This did not unlock Sunday Tiger, however, so I am not sure what does. They had better not stripped it out of this version only to make you buy it for an outrageous 240 Microsoft Points.

Some other stats: 8 Trophy Balls obtained, and 1 Eagle Trophy Ball obtained (so far). And thank god there are no random people yelling "I love this game" on almost every hole (See: Tiger 07 on Xbox)

Now where did I put my checkbook...?

The least they could do is toss in a few PS3 Entitlements at no extra charge.

A three part video from Gamepolitics from a British TV station. The first part is simply hysterical. "I'm powerless to stop him!" Gee, that power cord coming from the wall wouldnt be a solution now would it? And then the mother who has a kid that screams when he stops. She blames the games, and then says shed rather have the quiet so she let's him keep playing. At least it's not only Americans who are this stupid when it comes to parenting.

Right now you can only upload photos to TDU.com in the game, you cannot retrieve them yet. On the TDU.com message boards, there are instructions on how to get the images from the Xbox 360 hard drive.

Here is an image I took in the game. I was lucky enough to have my Atari PR contact email it to me. The community site, which will have the ability to download the photos you took in the game, is not complete. At this point the photos do get uploaded to the TDU servers, that is how I got the image below.

I was not given a date as to when the community site would be complete, only that the European Atari team is working on it now.

WARNING: The full sized image is 1280x736.

I had lost this distinction/badge a while back after having it for about a week. Once more people found the site, I dropped off. Well, the past week, I decided to get my "Elite Score Whore" badge back. As such, after over a thousand points, I got it right back. It's bad enough the achievements are addictive, and now these bastards decided to add "badges" to the mix. That's just what I needed.

On a side note, I no longer have the Call of Duty complete badge since it no longer exists. Not sure why they deleted badges.

Today I received a nice care package from Atari. It has a copy of Test Drive Unlimited for Xbox 360, but came with some unexpected stuff too.

A DVD containing the five videos on Xbox Live Marketplace, as well as high resolution WMV files of the walkthrough videos. The video content was embargoed until today, but where would Blogcritics find the bandwidth for that? I don't think those will go online.

Even more suprising, the Prima strategy guide for the game, was included. While this does include a lot of useful info, including stats for every vehicle in the game, I don't think it was required. But it sure was nice of them.

The two demos of TDU didn't do it justice. The lighting model is fixed (something I did not like in the demos) and the game is much better in the full version. I guess it is really hard to depict a MMO "CarPG" in a demo.

Full review soon. But my first few hours of play have been great.

GolinHarris always comes up with great packaging ideas for Nintendo products. This time with a mini hoop for Mario Hoops 3 on 3 (which is a lot of fun, by the way).

Dead Rising is such a great game! YouTube walkthrough.

What a great map this is.

The guys at GameVideos.com have put together a video showcasing ways to get PP and weapons in Dead Rising. We all know how important PP is (sorry, I couldn't resist). Hit the jump for the video.

Have you seen the new trailer yet? Check it out after the break. My guess is that this trailer is all in-game, with replay cameras and actual game footage shown with no HUD. There are a lot of things that say "in-game footage."

I can't tell you how excited I am about this game. Well, I could, but then you would call me a sick and deranged human being. Forza for the Xbox was one of my favorite games for that system, a game that I still play.

You could click "continue reading" to see the Flash video, or check out the HD footage on GameTrailers.com.

There is one person out there that I know will agree with me on this one, without hesitation. Matt, who has gone through four of these things, has really been screwed over with the 360's headset.

Today mine broke. I went to put it on and it fell apart at the point where it swivels. So mine lasted 10 months. A far better average than Matt for sure, but still, that is horrible. I take very good care of my headset, especially after enduring the stories of Matt's malfunctioning ones.

So right now I am using my AX360 for voice. I am not about to buy another wired headset. I will wait until the wireless headset comes out and hope to God that for $60 that it is not a piece of shit.

At least I did not have to go through the fiasco with Microsoft Support that Matt did with all his headset/controller issues. Knock on wood.

I am not even going to call Microsoft support. I am sure they would tell me that I was mishandling my headset, and that is why it fell apart.

I bought a used copy of Bleach DS. Resetting the data is not a trivial task, as none of the menus are in English (of course).

To delete the Bleach DS data, there are no button combination at the startup screen, but rather you must go into the menus.

SCREEN 1: On the menu screen choose option (second from the bottom).
SCREEN 2: On the option screen select the third option from the top.
SCREEN 3: Select the last option, Save data.
SCREEN 4: It will show four options: Game Data, Record Data, Wi-Fi Data, and All data. Select any one of them and it will then give you a (yes/no) prompt if you want to delete the data.

Thanks to Carlson at Mad-Gear for help on this.

When I got back from the ECGXpo I had three games waiting for me. Madden NFL 07, which goes to Matt (since he already reviewed two versions of the game) Saints Row, and Starfox Command.

I am happy to say that Saints Row is even better than the demo, and even has some surprises for the beginning that were not in the demo.

Starfox Command is equally impressive. You control the ship entirely with the stylus, which is something I was not expecting. Like Metroid Prime Hunters, it takes a little time to get adjusted to.

The photo below is the box that Starfox Command came in, complete with two bags of peanuts and an "Air Sickness Bag." They love their packaging.

Last night we got back from our trip to Reading, PA. Let me just say that that town has some messed up streets. The hotel, and subsequently the expo, was a bitch to find.

But I had fun, and got a bunch of stuff I have been looking to get. I didn't pick up anything retro, as I spent all my money on imports and funding my friend's loot too. Note to self: don't forget about loan to Christina.

Pictured:

Castlevania "WMD" shirt
Resident Evil "Umbrella Corporation" shirt
ECGXpo '06 shirt
ECGXpo '06 poster (10 of 24)
ECGXpo '06 hot sauce (16 of 24)
Donkey Konga 1+2 Bundle Pack
NEO GEO Battle Coliseum
Jump Super Stars
Bleach DS
Osu! Tatake! Ouenden!
Mawashite Koron
Tokobot
Naruto 4
Confessions of the Game Doctor (autographed)

I am curious about Just Cause. It is a good thing there is demo, or it might just fly under my radar. I think others feel the same way.

The big new demo is a Test Drive Unlimited demo #2. From the press release:

The new demo gives players a sample of online and offline play on 40 miles of open roads on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Players will find prime real estate, three cars – the Ferrari F430, Ford Mustang GT Coupe and AC 289 – and one motorbike, the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R.

The Test Drive Unlimited demo offers various challenges, including four offline challenges and two online challenges, allowing up to eight players to race simultaneously. In addition, gamers can launch instant challenges against anyone they encounter on the road, or just burn gallons of virtual gasoline tearing around the lush tropical roads in free ride. Other demo enhancements include gear changes, customizable speed blur effects, optional in-car camera vibrations, fully operational vsync, and handling refinements.

My latest batch of gaming goodies from Play-Asia arrived Friday. One of which is Kururin Squash! for the GameCube. I have played the GBA game Kuru Kuru Kururin, this being a sequel. It is even better than the GBA game.

This is also my first GC import. Does anyone have any recommendations for others? I would love to find Donkey Konga 3 but that looks like a hard to find one.

Home Media Retailing has a write up on retailers problems with both formats, one even calling it the "worst execution of a new technology." Maybe this won't play a role in the 360/PS3 war?

One of those "why didn't I think of that" scenarios, this guy has made a buisness out of teaching people "da skillz" in Halo 2. Yes, people are paying $45 AN HOUR to become better gamers. Maybe they should head to EB and get a strategy guide for $12?

We here at Breaking Windows have discovered a new mini-game inside the DS title Super Princess Peach that brings with it entirely new ways to enjoy the touch features of the DS. It could be an entirely new threat to modern civilization.

Actually, I found it browsing a message board. And it's only a phony photoshop. Still pretty damned funny after the break.

GameSpot has a head-to-head of Prey on PC and Xbox 360. If anything, it makes me happy I paid for a $400 Xbox 360 and not a $400 graphics card.

Desktop Stats has two different Widgets available for OS X. Desktop Stats Viewer is the newest, and most customizable. The Gamercard Widget just displays a gamercard. Both are great at what they do, and I encourage you to download both of them.

The developer is working on newer versions of both Widgets, and has said will incorporate some suggestions I have made. Here is a screen of the DSV Widget:

The games industry has a long hours culture that is burning out young talent, UK union Bectu has warned.

To be honest, I have not ever heard of someone working less than eight hours a day, when working on a video game.

They smile at junkets, exchange pleasantries at E3 and treat the enthusiast press exceptionally well, but behind closed doors, many game developers take a dim view of videogame reviewers. Media Coverage looks at the key reasons why and asks you for more.

Yet another link I bookmarked a week ago or so. The short version:

• Developers hate game reviewers that only play their games for a few hours
• Developers hate game reviewers because they don't understand games that are targeted for a specific audience
• Developers hate game reviewers who review games in proxy for an entire genre.
• Developers hate game reviewers who have no idea what it takes to make a game.

This is a good discussion on the effect patents have had on video games. I could quote something, but I am feeling rather lazy right now.

Microsoft's director of global platform marketing tells us why some games make the cut and others don't, and what Barbie has in common with Tommy Vercetti.

This was posted at the beginning of June. I am cleaning out my bookmarks. But this is a good interview to read.

We've all read about how they completely changed the game, but here's what it used to look like. In all honesty, if it wasn't for the camera, I'd probably like this version better. Tons of scares in this video alone.

Sweet video of two guys "playing" Tekken. Far more entertaining than the game itself. You can skip to the 1:30 mark and miss nothing.

It's an older clip, but still funny as hell. His thoughts on State of Emergency are by far the best.

Ever wonder what Pac-Man would look like as a pizza, like how the original idea came about? What if games were done with everyday objects? Well, this nifty little short shows us. Check out the afterburner on the Asteroids ship!

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.