| March 29,
2006... Graciously Accepting Defeat (also,
N-Gage
gripes) |
I have seen the
bottom of the handheld mountain, brothers and sisters... and I
call it the N-Gage.
For the right
price, I was willing to give the system an honest chance.
I finally had that opportunity when I spotted an N-Gage
QD and three games on eBay for just under
seventy bucks. I've spent more money on dumber things
(like the gargantuan Tekken 5 controller that's gathering dust
in my entertainment center), so I figured I'd take the plunge
and add the system to my growing collection.
I just
received my N-Gage in the mail today, and after spending
some quality (?) time with the system, I'm starting
to wonder why I didn't save that money for that other
embarassing handheld blunder, the Gizmondo. Sure, the
software selection is even worse, but it's a much more
exciting conversation piece... what other game system can
claim to be the product of a money laundering scheme by the
Swedish mafia?
It's not the
hardware that holds the N-Gage back... judging from the three
games I own, and the time I spent with Pandemonium! at a
mall kiosk several years ago, the system is about as powerful
as a Playstation. That's as much as anyone can
reasonably expect from a portable game system, especially one
as small as the N-Gage QD. Games like Tony Hawk's Pro
Skater and Tomb Raider are faithful to their console
counterparts, and look just a little sharper on an LCD
screen.
So it's not the
hardware that's the problem here, but the cumbersome shell
wrapped around it. The N-Gage QD shares many of the
flaws of other cell phones with hastily tacked on support for
video games. There are way too many buttons (c'mon,
Nokia, game systems with numeric keypads are soooo 1983),
the joypad is stiff and unyielding, and even the power switch
is more difficult to use than necessary, hidden under a
rubber bumper on the side of the unit. It's as far from
ergonomic as you can make a game system.
But wait, there's
less! The screen is agonizingly small, about the size of
a Game Boy Advance cartridge, and the interface borrows a
little too heavily from other cell phones, with menus and
context-sensitive buttons complicating its use. There
are even load times which, while not as obnoxious as those on
the PSP, shouldn't even be here at all when you consider that
all the games are on cartridges. So yeah, the N-Gage
experience isn't quite as awful as Penny
Arcade made it out to be, but those guys exaggerate
practically everything. It would have been impossible
for Nokia to meet those outrageously low expectations without
poison-tipped blades popping out of the sides of the N-Gage
every time you turn it on.
So, now that you've
got seventy dollars that you won't be spending on an N-Gage,
where should that money go? Into the hands of the
developers of Under Defeat, of course. Sega claims that
this will be the last Dreamcast game... just like the last
one, and the one before that. However, unlike all the
iffy vertical shooters that came before it, Under Defeat is a
real keeper, and the perfect way to top off your Dreamcast
collection.
It not only offers
the commercial-quality polish that Radilgy and Chaos Field
lacked, but it's fun to play, with just the right amount of
bullets and an aiming system straight out of the Capcom
shooter Gun.smoke. The three-way cannon fire isn't as
versatile as Zero Gunner's omni-directional aiming,
but it's also not nearly as confusing! If this
really is the last commercial Dreamcast release, the system
will have gone out with the spectacular bang that it so richly
deserves.
| March 26,
2006... Jammin' with the Brews
Brothers |
Recently, I
interviewed several members of the homebrew gaming community
for an article published on the 1UP web site. There was
a lot of material I couldn't use in the
feature, so after receiving permission from 1UP's editorial
staff, I've decided to print the interviews in their entirety
here on The Gameroom Blitz.
The first interview
in this four-part series is with translator Neill Corlett, the
man who brought Seiken Densetsu 3 (the TRUE sequel
to Secret of Mana) to an entirely new audience. In
later installments, we'll chat with Atari game developers Kirk
Israel and Ron Lloyd, as well as Nathan Lazur of the promising
but ultimately cancelled Chrono Resurrection project. If
you're at all interested in the underground gaming scene,
you'll want to stay tuned for all four interviews!
I'd like to thank
everyone who participated, along with Jeremy Parish for giving
me clearance to publish the interviews on The Gameroom
Blitz. Kudos to you all!
| March 22, 2006... Doko
wa Origami Desu Ka? |
It seems that the
already crowded handheld market will have to make room for one
more competitor next year. Microsoft's planning a
portable game system of their own, and it's not the tablet PC
Origami. Not much is known about the miniature Xbox at
this point, but it's probably safe to assume the
following...
* The
hardware will be more powerful than what's in the
Nintendo DS.
* The hardware will be LESS
powerful than the 733MHz processor in the original
Xbox.
* As usual, Microsoft will "borrow"
all of Sony's marketing strategies when promoting the device
in 2007.
* The portable Xbox will be designed with
convergence in mind (hey, just like Sony's PSP!).
* A
handheld Halo (the only thing that kept the
Xbox alive during its freshman year) is a
certainty.
* Viva Pinata will most likely be another
launch title, even though the junior Xbox will be geared to
adults.
* Microsoft's perplexing support for the
Nintendo DS will just as mysteriously vanish sometime this
year.
* Steve Ballmer will throw a fit at a
stockholder's meeting, loosening the bladders of everyone there.
*
The editor of The Gameroom Blitz will complain endlessly about
yet another handheld glutting the market.
| March 16, 2006... The
PSP Strikes Back |
Holy
crap.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=15358
Between this
announcement and the release of top-notch games like Pursuit
Force and Mega Man: Powered Up, the future is looking a whole
lot brighter for the PSP. So Nintendo, whatcha got
planned in response?
| March 11, 2006... Hot
Pursuit (oh yeah, and a bunch of other games,
too) |
And now, a quick
round-up of the latest games I've purchased...
GOD OF WAR: Producer Dave
Jaffe has taken a very cinematic approach to your typical
action game... but I mean that in a good way. Rather
than stalling the battles with endless cut-scenes, he uses the
fast-paced and often brutal fighting to tell a story as the
game progresses. Classic shooters like Gunstar Heroes,
Metal Slug, and Gradius V scratched the surface
of story-driven gaming, but I have yet to play a game
that does it as effectively as God of War. Fights with
major enemies often require Kratos, the burly hitman of the
gods, to use the surrounding environment to his
advantage, slamming the mythological beasts against walls
and impaling them with the broken mast of a ship on the verge
of sinking. If GOW's high retail price left you thinking
twice about a purchase, there's good news... its new,
lower price tag should make the decision a whole lot
easier.
NINJA GAIDEN BLACK: This
pumped-up, budget-priced version of the Xbox's only Japanese
killer app mirrors the gameplay of God of War in some
respects... most of the time, you'll be running from room to
room, lopping off the heads of rival assassins. However,
Ninja Gaiden's hero Ryu prefers speed and style to
Kratos' brute force, running along walls and over water on his
way to the next bloody confrontation. Ninja Gaiden
Black's storyline isn't as well integrated or as
entertaining as the one in God of War, and its vicious
difficulty level makes the game less approachable than Sony's
smash hit. On the other side of the coin, Ninja Gaiden
Black's got sharp, vivid graphics and a generous helping of
unlockable content, including all the previous titles in
the Ninja Gaiden series. Yes, even that arcade game that
nobody but myself liked.
PURSUIT FORCE: Oh man,
was this ever worth the wait! I had high hopes for this
outrageous racing game, and it has yet to disappoint
me. Pursuit Force is packed with more adrenaline
than a king-sized Snickers bar, Jimmy Carter, and the entire
state of Georgia has peanuts, borrowing its best ideas from
arcade favorites like Roadblasters, Hydra, Spy Hunter, and
Chase HQ. It even takes inspiration from an unexpected
source, Taito's underappreciated Wild Western. If you're
close enough to a criminal's vehicle, you can take it from
them by leaping from your own car onto theirs! The
graphics are spectacular (moooove over, Burnout Legends!), and
the sound is straight out of a campy buddy cop film. If
there's anything wrong with Pursuit Force, it's that the
gameplay is sometimes a little too mechanical... you can't
draw your weapon unless you absolutely need to have it, and
once you leap to another car, you just can't miss it... it's
like you're magnetized to its roof. Nevertheless,
it's doesn't matter how many racing games you've got for your
PSP... there's still plenty of room for this
one!
THE INCREDIBLE WIZARD:
We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of
Astrocade! Did I mention that I absolutely detest the
new title of this conversion of Midway's Wizard of Wor?
Well, it bears repeating. However, a rose by any
other name still smells as sweet, and no rose- er, game-
on the Astrocade has a fragrance this alluring. Don't
let anyone tell you that this is a perfect port... the
voices are absent, and so is that ominous percussion in
the background that raised the tension of this heart-pounding
action title through the stratosphere. The somewhat
blocky enemies also seem to be a little stingy with their
laser fire as well, holding it in until the sixth stage on the
normal difficulty level. None of that matters, though,
because the game is still the BEST conversion of Midway's
classic you'll find on a home game console. Not
even the emulation of Wizard of Wor on Midway Arcade
Treasures 2 is as satisfying as this finely aged
translation.
BANJO PILOT: What, you
didn't think I'd like ALL of the games I've reviewed here, did
you? Banjo Pilot sounds like a promising concept at
first... after all, Diddy Kong Racing was one hell of an
impressive Nintendo 64 release, once you got past those
aggravating boss battles. Unfortunately, while Diddy
Kong Racing was able to soar to the top of the N64 library,
Banjo Pilot can barely get off the ground. It's not just
the flat Mode 7 scaling, but the paint-by-numbers
gameplay and incredibly lame Banjo-Kazooie cast that
makes this one a big letdown after the exhilirating highs of
Rare's last versus racing game.
| March 9, 2006... The Money
Pit |
I've got mixed
feelings about my recent purchase of the Neo-Geo AES and its
disc-spinning counterpart, the Neo-Geo CD. While I take
great satisfaction in finally sinking my claws into the
systems that I so desperately wanted as a teenager and young
adult, both consoles were costly additions to my
collection... and it's become clear to me that this was not a
one-time investment. I'm starting to feel like I'm
trapped in that film starring Tom Hanks and the snooty chick
from Cheers...
It's no secret to
collectors that Neo-Geo cartridges are jaw-droppingly
expensive. The high production costs and state of the
art technology used to make the carts resulted in high prices
and low supply right out of the starting gate. Fifteen
years later, many of these games have become more valuable...
and costly! If you had told me back in 1993 that we'd be
playing video games with Jurassic Park-quality computer
rendering, carrying around full-color 32-bit handhelds no
larger than my fist, and that Neo-Geo games would be selling
for well over their original retail price of $200, I would
have laughed in your face. Over a decade later, it looks
like the joke's on me!
It's almost as
funny that the Neo-Geo and its accessories aren't nearly
as sturdy as their high price tags would lead you to
believe. The Pro joystick that came with the system is
exactly one half of a great controller... the stick itself is
made from quality parts, but the plastic buttons are well
below the standards of a genuine arcade machine, and even
most sanely priced game consoles. The one I purchased
from eBay was broken right out of the box... it turned out
that a grounding wire had dislodged itself from the solder on
one of the circuit boards. It was nothing that couldn't
be repaired with a touch of a red-hot soldering iron, but even
after the wire had been returned to its rightful place, the
stick still wouldn't function properly. It was just a
little LESS broken than before.
So there you have
it. The Neo-Geo is unquestionably the most impressive
game system of its time... but it's not going to win any
stress tests from Morgan Von Webb.
| March 7, 2006... A
Portable-Packed Post |
I'm just wild about
handhelds... and they're just wild about me! Pundits
have been crowing that the future of video
games lies in online interaction and distribution, but it
seems clear to me the path of this industry will lead
straight to our pockets.
Just look at the
Game Boy Micro! When I first slapped
down the hundred bucks for this system, I
thought it was the dumbest gaming purchase I ever made.
Months later, I've quickly come to realize that it was one of
the smartest. Its tiny size means that there's no
stopping you from taking the best games ever created anywhere,
and when you couple it with a flash cart like the Supercard
SD, the Game Boy Micro's already massive library grows even
larger, including all my favorites on the NES, Game Gear,
Master System, and ColecoVision.
Then there's the
Nintendo DS, and the PSP, and this little
bugger from
GamePark (it's the second of the two systems shown). You
might remember GamePark as the creators of the open-source
handheld, the GP32. Apparently,
the XGP mini will be the new model of this
system, with all the power of the original but a lot less of
the bulk. This is especially exciting news
for PSP owners reluctant to upgrade their
firmware... there are more emulators available for the GP32 and
its tiny cousin than any other handheld, finally giving PSP
fans the excuse they need to fully devote their system to
official releases.
There's still room
for the console market to grow, but in this writer's opinion,
it will be far more exciting to watch handheld game systems
evolve over the next ten years. We've already
seen some pretty amazing advances since the original Game
Boy debuted in 1989... battery life has improved by leaps and
bounds, hardware has advanced to near-console levels of
performance, and the color screens which were once considered
impractical have become an industry standard.
You can't help but
wonder... what's next? If technology continues to
improve at its current rate, in another ten years we
could find a handheld as powerful as the Game Boy Micro and as
thin as a credit card at the bottom of a box of Fruit
Loops.
| March 2, 2006... Manhandle That
Handheld! |
Now, it's time for
America's favorite game show, Manhandle That Handheld, where
we void the warranties of popular portable game systems in the
hopes of improving their functionality!
Here comes
our latest contestant... introduce yourself,
please!
"Hi, I'm Jess
Ragan, and I'm a freelance writer and disgruntled PSP owner
from the state of Michigan. My hobbies are playing video
games, then writing smarmy reviews of them for my site, The
Gameroom Blitz."
Thank
you! Now, let's begin the game, shall
we? In a valiant effort to improve his
handheld experience, Jess has attempted to graft
a new D-pad onto his Playstation Portable.
He's taken the faceplate from an, ahem, "retired" system,
then used a soldering iron to burn a
hole through the left side of the plate, where the PSP's
directional pad rests.
"Not one of my
better ideas. I probably got fifteen kinds of cancer
breathing in those plastic fumes..."
He may not play
wisely, but he plays to win, folks! Jess then opened a
Sega Arcade Pad, then pried off its D-pad and sanded down the
shaft on its underside. Finally, he took a dab of Super
Glue and set the shaft of the pad firmly in the center of the
PSP's directional pad, holding it there for several minutes
until it dried. After a good night's sleep, he put the
system back together.
"So, how'd I
do?"
Not so good, I'm
afraid. The D-pad is a bit more responsive, but not
enough to justify the permanent damage done to the PSP's
faceplate. Plus, your system's a whole lot uglier and a
lot less portable, with the D-pad sticking up like a sore
thumb hitching a ride to the nearest doctor's
office!
"Aw, man!
C'mon, I tried!"
Trying's not enough
in this game, my friend! That's all right, though...
we've got a lovely consolation prize for you. How's a
year's supply of Rice-A-Roni sound to you?
"Sounds like I'll
be eating seasoned rice for the next 365 days."
Stay tuned next
week when our next contestant presses his luck and tries
to replace the firmware on his Nintendo DS! He's
putting his system in jeopardy for faster access to his flash
cartridge... will the gamble pay off, or will he be left with
a really dark, really expensive makeup mirror? Come back
next week and find out!
| February 27, 2006... Attack
of the Phantom
Post |
No idea what
happened to this post!
| February 25, 2006... One State
Pissed Off, Fourty-Nine to
Go! |
In a rumored act of incredible
arrogance
(its latest), Sony plans to challenge the Nintendo
Revolution... by dropping the price of its Playstation 2
and introducing a few me-too peripherals for
the aging system. Sure, the Revolution's going to
be the least powerful of the three next-generation consoles...
even Nintendo isn't denying this. However, Sony's
seriously underestimating the Rev if they think
they can directly compete against it with the least powerful
of this generation's consoles.
In other news,
Utah, land of suffocating theocratic rule, is set to treat
violent video games like pornography, complete with stiff
penalties for sales to minors. Oh, those wacky Mormons
and the unlawful enforcement of their backward, repressive
beliefs! If it's any consolation, maybe there's a
loophole in the law that lets kids buy a whole bunch of games
at once...
| February 23, 2006... Oh,
Reginald? I
DISAGREE! |
The only thing that
makes me angrier than the recently announced delay of Zelda:
Twilight Princess (the latest of many) is peoples' complacent
acceptance of it. "Oh, well that's OK... I'm sure it'll
be out eventually! Reggie says so! In the
meantime, we can always play Chibi-Robo, and, uh... Chaos
Field, and... well, Dora the Explorer..."
What is wrong with
you people, anyway? You're so eager to accept anything
that comes out of the mouth of the husband from Bewitched that
you don't mind that your GameCube has become a purple
doorstop. Where's the outrage? This was supposed
to be the console that fixed all the mistakes Nintendo made
with the N64, yet the software support is still just as thin
and Nintendo's relationship with third parties developers is
still just as strained.
Sorry, Nintendo,
but I'm not dazzled by the empty promises from tough-talking
apologists with an eerie resemblence to Dick York.
Reggie's told us that he's all about kicking ass and taking
names, but we've been seeing a lot more licking from the
GameCube than kicking.
| February 19, 2006... Prime Rib and
Squirrel Burgers |
It took a decade
and a half, but the future is finally now for The Gameroom
Blitz. The Neo-Geo CD I'd purchased on eBay arrived at
my house yesterday, and I'm expecting a Neo-Geo AES (the more
desirable cartridge-based system) sometime next
week.
You'd think I'd be
too busy sitting in front of my television playing Samurai
Shodown to tell you about my latest acquisitions, but there's
just one problem... I don't have an AC adapter for either
the Neo-Geo CD or the machine I'll be receiving shortly.
I thought I could sidestep this issue with a universal
adapter, but wouldn't you know it, the Neo-Geo CD has a funky
port on the back that's designed exclusively for SNK brand
power supplies. Knowing SNK's outrageous price structure
from back in the 1990's, they probably cost at least fifty
dollars, which is likely why I've had no luck whatsoever
finding them online.
In the worst case
scenerio, I'll never get to actually play my Neo-Geo
systems. Even if that turns out to be the case, I'm
still glad I have them. They're the most prized of all
the trophies in my gaming collection, and the next best thing
to having an arcade cabinet in my living room (without the
hernias or the massive shipping charges!).
| February 16, 2006... One Stake,
Not So Well
Done |
After many
months, The Gameroom Blitz finally has its fight back.
Specifically, Fighter's Misery, the feature that dares to
examine the filthy underbelly of fighting games and pick
off the bloated ticks clinging to it. The latest
parasite on display is Stake: Fortune Fighters, an Xbox
release with a lot less meat on its bones than its hearty
name would suggest.
Dig in while it's
hot, folks! It might be a while before you get a second
helping.
| February 14, 2006... LAN in the
Place Where You Live (Now Place
Second) |
After competing in
a tournament held at a local LAN party, I've discovered
that I'm the second best Mario Kart player in Mount
Pleasant. That's worth a bandanna and a Serious Sam II
poster, if the prize I received is any indication. I had
a shot at first place, but there was a twist at the end of the
tournament that would have made even M. Night Shaymalan
jealous!
Instead of the
usual Double Dash race, the other finalist and myself were
pitted against each other in the battle mode of the very first
Mario Kart game! To say I was unprepared for this would
be an understatement... it's been years since I've played an
honest-to-goodness Super NES! I started out strong, but
an inability to properly use the feather power-up was
ultimately my downfall.
Win or lose, I had
a whole lot of fun at the party, and met some pretty cool
people there. I'll certainly make it a point to attend
the next one!
| February 10, 2006... Warning:
Recession Ahead |
I
don't usually talk about the business side of gaming, but
fortunes are changing so wildly for several industry leaders
that even I can't resist getting in my two cents.
Take-Two, Electronic Arts, and Atari have all been rocked with
heavy losses, while Capcom is finally raking in the big bucks
after limping through most of the 21st century with
stagnant licenses (Street Fighter, Mega Man) and innovative
but ultimately unsuccessful new franchises (Phoenix Wright,
Viewtiful Joe).
It would be easy to
predict an industry crash at this point... even Nintendo seems
a little worried that it could happen, if this report from Joystiq is any
indication. However, I've been making that prediction
every year for the past thirteen years, and it has yet to
happen. There will be changes in the future, for sure...
old industry giants will crumble, and new ones will arise to
take their place. However, I have a funny feeling that,
even after all the chaos, the gaming industry will be
around for many years to come. It may be a completely
different animal in a decade, but it'll still be
here.
So, what's new on
The Gameroom Blitz? There's a fresh batch of
reviews on the cartoon page... in this installment of Frame by
Frame, we witness both the thrill of The Boondocks and the
agony of Camp Lazlo. You can't blame Cartoon Network for
trying to capitalize on the success of Spongebob Squarepants,
but next time, let's hope they try a little
harder...
| February 5, 2006... Get Equipped
with Mega Man
Collection |
This update is all about The Man, you
dig? I'm talking about none other than Mega Man, that
squeezably soft battle droid who's kept the world safe
from the scheming Dr. Wily for nearly twenty
years. Here are my observations on the latest batch
of games starring Capcom's Swiss Army robot.
First on
the menu is Mega Man Collection. I'm late to the party
on this one, I know... it was released nearly two years ago,
and I only recently added it to my personal library,
after the price of used copies dropped to a reasonable fifteen
dollars. I've spent about an hour and a half with it so
far, and it seems like a pretty solid collection of Mega Man's
earliest adventures, with only a few minor flaws.
Of
course, those flaws don't seem so minor when you're itching to
use your favorite game controller, and Mega Man Collection
refuses to acknowledge its existence. Like Namco Museum
50th Anniversary, Mega Man Collection actively searches for
analog joypads, and refuses to operate without
them. And just like Namco's latest Museum release,
there's no logical reason to limit the player to a controller
poorly suited to games that required, at most, a single
joystick and four buttons.
If you
can stand being anchored to a Dual Shock 2 while playing these
games, you're bound to have a good time with them.
Atomic Planet's done a fine job with the emulation... I
played through the original Mega Man in its entirety and all
my old strategies worked perfectly. I even managed to
develop a few new ones while fighting the Rock Monster,
beating him for the first time ever without using the Select
button as a crutch!
Fans of
the series know that Mega Man is even more fun when he's
powered up, and the upcoming release for the PSP confirms
it. After playing the demo version of Mega Man: Powered
Up on the Mega Man X: Maverick Hunter disc, I'm very much
looking forward to the final release. Capcom's done a
great job of balancing the old with the new... the polygonal
graphics give the game a 21st century sheen, while retaining
the cartoony charm that was a signature of the original
series.
Maverick
Hunter's not too shabby, either. I gave that a quick
spin as well, and was impressed with what little I saw of
it. Mega Man X is probably my least favorite of the four
Mega Man series, but I can't deny that Capcom has put a lot of
effort into this remake... a lot more than they invested in
Mega Man Legends.
Out of
all the Mega Man games for the PSP, Legends is the
least likely to make an appearance in the United States, and
when you see the blocky textures and rough polygonal edges,
you'll understand why. It's hard to say why
Capcom chose to port Mega Man Legends directly to the PSP
without any improvements to the outdated visuals...
a little cel-shading would have done wonders for the
game!
| February 1, 2006... New Site
Design: The Blue
Period |
After
years of stubbornly sticking with the jet black layout first
introduced in 2003, change has finally come to The Gameroom
Blitz. Function takes precedence over form in the
latest design of the index page... flashy graphics and
loud colors have been reduced to a minimum, replaced with
easily accessible links to the site's best content.
I've
also used some of the real estate on the sidebar for links to
my favorite sites, including fresh entries like Joystiq, Higher Voltage, and the incredibly useful
online reference guide Wikipedia. This should satisfy peoples'
requests for linkbacks; at least until I can add more detailed
descriptions of their sites to the main links
page.
What's
been sacrificed in the new design? Well, the archives
have been shrunken down a bit... the links to each month of
news from the past four years have been condensed into color
bars, each labelled by year. To read what appeared on
the site that month, just click the appropriate section of the
color bar. If a section of the bar is missing, either
the site was on hiatus that month, or it just hasn't happened
yet!
I've
also removed the art section, simply because it wasn't getting
updated frequently enough. I considered developing a
seperate site for my collection of drawings several years ago,
but I've since settled for an account on the DeviantArt website (the name might make you a
little uncomfortable, but trust me, it's a lot less
scary than VCL!). The comics page will remain on
this site, but only as an archive of my past work.
Oh
yeah, one other thing! I've created a news scroll
at the top of the page. The news will be taken from
sites like Joystiq and my buddy Chris Larson's
Stage Select, then injected with GRB's unique brand
of world-weary sarcasm. The news scroll appears in
Mozilla Firefox, but not Internet Explorer 6.0, giving you yet
another good reason to switch browsers... if you haven't
already!
Finally,
there's the issue of content. What should you expect
from The Gameroom Blitz as it enters its tenth year
online? I can't make any promises, but I'm hoping to
update the site more regularly than I did last
year. 2005 was not kind to the Blitz, but now that
the index page has been streamlined, it should be
easier for me to add fresh material to it. I'll also be
more active on the forum, because heaven knows it could use
some new activity!
I guess
that's all to report for today! If you like the new look
of the site, drop by the forum and let me know. Even if
you don't, stop by anyway and tell me what you think it's
missing. This layout's going to be around for a while,
but I'm sure there's room
for improvement!
| January 20, 2006... Ein,
Zwei, Drei, Endy! |
Here's a little something to keep you
occupied while I retire the Christmas site design for another
year and bring back the traditional Blitz layout...
it's the 2005 Endy Awards! I don't usually do features like these, but
I've played enough of last year's games to make this
article at least somewhat credible. In addition to
the usual awards for the best games released last year, I hand
out a few prizes that nobody would want!
| January 13, 2007... Full
Automatic for the People |
In the year 2006, there is room for only one
racing game on store shelves, and in the hearts and minds
of Xbox 360 owners. There is no Project Gotham
Racing 3, no Need For Speed: Most Wanted, and certainly no
Ridge Racer 6. There is only Full Auto. Sega's
soon-to-be-released masterpiece has no equal. It takes
the excellence of Burnout 3 and elevates it to a state of near
nirvana by giving you missiles, machine guns, and the ability
to tear apart an entire city as you race. What is mere
wallpaper in other racing games is yours to demolish in Full
Auto... not even the highest neon sign nor
the tallest skyscraper can escape your wrath!
The title of the game does not lie...
Full Auto truly is the complete arcade racing experience, and
the Xbox 360's first killer app. Watch for the
final release next month.
| January 2, 2007...
Reflections on the Past, Present, and Future
of Technology |
As I sit back and reflect on the past year,
the thing that amazes me most about 2005 is just how far
technology has advanced. We've reached a point where
color LCD displays, once available only in the highest end of
products, are included in toys retailing for thirty dollars or
less. MP3 players like Apple's iPod line let people
bring their entire music collections along with them on their
morning jog, and digital cameras continue to rise in quality
while dropping in price. Even camcorders can fit in your
pocket, being a small fraction of the size and cost they were
in the 1990's.
Twenty years ago, the rise of home computers
had left people convinced that they were living in an advanced
age. However, it's not the mere existence of technology
that proves the future has arrived, but when that technology
becomes so small, so widespread, and so cheap that it's taken
for granted. Now that the average man or woman can burn
DVDs at home for less than a dollar a pop, and buy a portable
media player for every member of their family, including their
kids, it's safe to say that this day is finally
here.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to
tomorrow. |
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