The timeless trance-shooter game REZ, easily one of my top 3 PS2/DC games, finally re-released on the XBL Arcade today in a new HD version. For those not familiar, REZ is a shooter-on-rails game that can really only be described as a surreal experience of sights and sounds. It all comes together perfectly in a package that no game has really matched since.

After playing the HD version, I must say that it looks and plays phenomenally, and definitely stands the test of time. The only thing the game could really benefit from is some improved surround-sound effects, but it still sounded perfect otherwise. Graphically the HD version is a nice overhaul of the original, it still looks nearly identical in appearance (ie, no funky changes with the improved graphics, they just look much sharper in HD and include widescreen action)

It was also nice to see my REZ skills still remained intact, in fact i didnt even get hit once till the 3rd boss fight. Alas passing the 3rd level was all I had time for at lunch, but tonight I will return and finish the rezt of the game.

If you've never played REZ, grab this game immediately. If you have, then be happy to know this version is superb, and definitely worth re-visiting.

So I finally got to hoon around a few hours in Burnout Paradise last night. My first thought was this is like the Oblivion of racing games... you can kinda just go wherever and do whatever you want off the bat, but there still is a path to progression.

I also really dig the soundtrack, it's probably one of my favorite EA trax to date. Of course music is all personal pref, so some will hate it, but it is right up my alley. One funny thing i noticed was a few songs were rehashed from the original 1994 Road Rash release on 3DO - notably "Rusty Cage" by Soundgarden, and "Duel" by Swervedriver.

One of my favorite aspects so far is the ability to instantly switch into Showtime mode, which is the replacement for an organized crash mode - its great if you get into a big wreck unintentionally too, and just want to explode into crashing action, as you can activate it mid-crash (or any time you want really).

The only thing that seems like it could be irritating later in the game is the inability to restart a race instantly - you have to drive back to the starting grid. While at first this doesn't matter too much, as there is so much to do, i can see it being annoying later on when there are like 1 or 2 races you are trying to knock out.

Anyway, the game is better than I expected from playing the demo, so I'm happy about that.

My white DS Lite was kinda jacked (left shoulder button started acting flakey), and I decided rather than pay $75 to get it fixed, I'd just buy a new one. So I figured, why not mess around with the old one a little since it wont matter if I screw it up.

Enter a chrome case from some shady canadian aftermarket DS site. Took a bit if time, but I got it all put together, and oddly enough, somehow fixed my button issue in the process.... so now I dont even need to buy a new one! (tho I may still get that Zelda edition one just for kix.)

Anywhere, here's a pic!

So here's the sad panda situation.

I beat Portal and unlocked the advanced maps, then the following day I beat the first 4 advanced maps. Took a break, played some HL2/other games, went back to finish the last 2 maps a few days later. I noticed after I started on the 5th map that for some reason it had reset my achievements back to 0/6 completed.

I thought that was sorta weird, but I kept playing (probably a big mistake). Anyway, I beat the 5th and 6th maps, but the achievement score didnt register my total of 6 completed, and not only that, but now the achievements show 4/6 done (the first 4 I assume from before) and I cannot access advanced maps at ALL anymore.

I've tried loading my save at the end of the game and beating it again, but the advanced maps dont re-unlock! So basically i'm screwed on my Portal save forever

While this is nothing new, the pricing on XBL has sorta been bugging me lately. I feel like I'd be buying many more games if things cost about 50% of what they do right now. For example, Tetris Splash or Pinball FX, both fun little games, but I cant be bothered to drop 800 pts on the 15-millionth version of Tetris. If it was 400 pts, I'd be much more inclined to purchase it.

On a similar note, I was on the fence about purchasing Puzzle Quest on XBL. I enjoy the handheld versions a lot, but part of the appeal is the portability - I dont know if I'd get the same enjoyment sitting in front of the TV, and the multiplayer on that game is a joke. Even so, the hopes of a revamped multiplayer and HD graphics had me debating a purchase (assuming 800 pts). But when I found out it was 1200, that pretty much sealed the deal for me and killed any hopes of a sale.

Likewise, older, unimproved games like Streets of Rage 2 dont seem worth the standard 400 pt cost to me either. I'd play through it once; maybe twice with a pal online, then never touch it again. Those kinds of games just beg to be released in some sort of 5-pak ****c collection for like 400 pts, or maybe just 100 pts a piece. I can see charging 400 pts for improved/upgraded arcade games, but a 16bit console game with no improvements does not seem to fit that bill.

Unfortunately as it stands, if people keep paying the premium prices, then they probably wont be adjusting pricing anytime soon - so they may miss out on a few sales from me and some friends, but not enough to stop the machine. I guess I can hope for 'bargain bin' discounts on older XBL titles, but given the digital distro scheme, that seems unlikely.

Hi friends!   Here's my HDTV setup, newly revamped and ready for action.  I've created a labeled pic so you can scope out the madness and see what each device connected is.

The X360 Elite, PS3, and DVD player are all hooked up via HDMI.  Wii/PS2 are via component, the regular X360 is via VGA, and the older consoles are all chained in through S-video/composite switchboxes.  

The HDTV is the new Samsung HL-T6189S 61" 1080p LED based system, which features HDMI 1.3 with 3x HDMI ports (one of which can be used as DVI->HDMI in), 2x Component, 2x Svid/composite, 1x VGA, 2x standard coax, a USB port, bluetooth support (for headphones/printers/etc), and other doodads that I cant think of at the moment.

It is how we say... good times? 

I meant to post this a few weeks ago when it happened, but forgot.  So here it is now in shorter form: 

A friend and I were playing MK2 on the PS3 online, but since it has no voice support, we ended up using our Xbox 360s to host a private chat while we played our PS3s.   The whole situation just had us both chuckling.   Best part was the 360 I was using for it wasnt even in the same room.  Praise wireless.

You'd think by now Sony would have some sort of native chat support that carries beyond the dashboard...  Oh well.

The day has finally come friends, the day the world has been waiting for. An online console verison of Mortal Kombat II, one of the greatest fighting games in the history of the world.

The game is now avail for $5 from the PS3's network store, and rings in at over 200MB. Sort of surprising considering UMK3 on the Xbox 360 was only 50MB, but hey, no limits means they can go hog wild, right? Sure. Except the menus are more ghetto than UMK3 on the 360, and the network setup has something to be desired... but I guess that's just the PS3 network in general.

Anyway, onto the game! Yes, it plays fantastic. Aside from a few glitches graphically like missing shadows, the game is nearly arcade perfect. Online play is excellent as well, nearly lag free even running over a wireless connection with questionable speed. I played against Jeff for about 30 matches tonight, and we only hit a small lag spike maybe 3 times, nothing that lasted more than a second or so each time... amazing for any game, let alone a fighting game. The handful of public games I joined ran smooth for the most part, tho one game was a little laggy, overall it seems to do the game justice.

Some additional features would have been nice, and I'm not exactly sure how the whole leaderboard points system works (I've won a good 90+% of my games and yet my score is just in the middle there somewhere), the core game is fantastic and that is what really matters. All in all I'm very pleased with this version, and here's hoping we'll see MK 1 sometime in the future!

Look me up on the PS3 Network (gamertag: Raidy) and lets duke it out!

A sad event happened this Friday.   My precious friend, the Sega CDX, fell prey to Marky Mark during Aaron's latest video feature.  I warned him that putting such dirty business into such a quality item could cause nothing but trouble, but little did i know it would actually cause DEATH.

All attempts at revival failed, including trying to boot the wounded fella up with a delicious copy of Road Avenger or The Terminator.   Sadly, nothing succeeded.   Today is the day we mourn the CDX, the legend, the hero. 

Oh well, at least i still have a working LaserActive.

So as per our tradition, we gathered up 8 peeps around 3:00pm for our usual daily Mario Kart DS battle. But today was a little different - since many of the staff are heading out on vacation starting next week, we figured we should wrap up the year with one huge, insane, 32 track (all tracks!) race bonanza battle!

Let me tell you, Kart battles are already pretty crazy with 8 players rollin through 10 races or so (our usual daily allotment) - but 32 races is just completely insane.

After many furious battles the race finally came to a close, though it was a pretty close race score wise near the top. We all came out winners - though maybe a little more insane than we already were going in.



Just to break it down (because i know people will ask), here are the peeps in the game:

stanman = Stanley Lin (Associate Producer)
Raidy = Dave Toister (Data Producer)
Brad (in Japanese.. dont ask) = Brad Shoemaker (Editor)
Alex = Alex Navarro (Editor)
FoOdz = Andrew "foOdz" Anderson (Live Testing Engineer)
Hex = Tom Magrino (Copy Editor)
Nubz = Lark Anderson (File Producer)
babymilo = Raheem Wright (Facilities)

http://knytt.ni2.se/

Awesome little freeware game in the vein of Out of This World or ICO... you are stranded on an alien world and must adventure around. Really great gameplay and atmosphere, with simple but effective graphics. I highly recommend it!

Last night I had the whoppertunity to play the trifecta of Burger King games for the Xbox / Xbox 360. For those unaware of the greatness (or terribleness) of these games, check out  this link for the set of 3. These games offer pretty much what you'd expect from a $4 game from BK, but here's my take on them:

Sneak King easily topped the bunch as "best", and if you're thinking "best" actually means "worst", well... it's hard to say. The intro to Sneak King was amazing, a FMV sequence that reminded me of SegaCD days, both in quality and cheese-factor. The game itself is pretty basic, as the summary indicates - you sneak up behind peeps and hit the A button to deliver a delicious meal - different missions deliver different types of eats, but the delivery method is the same. The people have a vision cone in front of them, and if you move too quickly and raise your sneakmeter (such as by using the run button) they'll turn to face you with a MGS-style ! mark and you'll be spotted. The way the King sneaks around and does his little dance after delivering a level 3 flourish meal is pretty hilarious... for the first couple times you see it. Then it gets old pretty quick, as to be expected.

Next up, Pocket Bike Racer. Probably the most solid 'game' of the bunch, it offers your typical race-around -the-track gameplay and use of weapons found in the majority of mario kart clones. You can pick from a variety of BK characters plus a few generic humans, but the bike choice seems to make all the difference as far as control goes. Some of the characters are pretty zany, such as the King with his wavering cape and the giant Whopper Jr., and of course the Subservient Chicken. Aside from appearance however, the characters don't seem to offer anything special. The race types vary from standard "win the race" events to battle events where you try to be the first to hit someone X-amount of times with a weapon.

The worst game in the bunch (and I do mean for-reals worst) is definitely Big Bumpin', worst in both gameplay and lack of silly-factor. It is basically like a single minigame from Fuzion Frenzy with a few slight variants - except that is the entire game. You control some bumper cars and the object ranges from bashing off the edge to playing 'hot potato' with an invisible bomb. The gameplay is pretty unsatisfying and it lacks the quirky BK-ness that the other games have, since the characters really aren't as prevalent in this one.

All 3 games have the standard 200 achievement points, 12 total for each game, and they range from extremely easy to time-consuming - however none of them seem overly difficult. The majority of Big Bumpin's points come from online play it seems, while Pocket Bike Racer is pretty much split down the middle between online and single player. Sneak King's points all come from ranking well and unlocking missions/levels/etc.

Anyone expecting more than a game made for a BK promo may be a little disappointed, but IMO for $4 a piece you cant go wrong in picking these up for the novelty factor - especially since they'll only be available for a limited time...just be sure to grab a whopper while you're at it, to seal the deal.

Sometimes you enjoy a game so much that you just must experience it in all the glory that it should be experienced. For some it could mean an new HD TV for their copy of Oblivion or Gears of War. For others, a surround sound system, or a special gaming chair or accessory.

For me, to fully make the most out of one of my favorite games of all time, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (now available on the Xbox Live Arcade!), I needed an arcade stick. Not wanted one. Needed one. So shortly before the game was released, I went about researching various options and decided the only way I could get what I truly needed was a custom made stick. Finally the time has come.

Behold.






The box hardware itself I had commissioned by "dreadedfist", a popular custom arcade stick maker famous for Street Fighter sticks. For more details you can find his site @ http://home.comcast.net/~dreadedfist/

After receiving the stick in the mail, I then went about wiring it up via the diagram from here. I used a standard wired MS control pad for the board, as shown in the diagram. It took me a couple hours to get it all rigged up, but it was well worth it. Testing the stick was made easy by using my PC, since Windows recognizes the Xbox control pad in the PC Game Controller control panel, it was easy to test each button out and see if anything was not working correctly.

The stick works flawlessly for MK, bringing the control back to its true form... and is also pretty nice for Xbox Live Arcade titles such as Contra and the like, as well as working on the PC, so it was an investment that goes well beyond its primary function.

Oh... and when Ed Boon was in the office for the MKA tourney... I had him sign it!

After the terrible SF2 Hyper Fighting presentation, I was a bit concerned about the upcoming Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 XBL release.  Would it turn out buggy? Would the speed be off? Would the online play be horribly laggy?   All valid concerns...  and all alleviated!

UMK3 is a nearly arcade-perfect port, sporting the same solid gameplay that the arcade version did, with no noticeable slowdown or missing graphics or sounds, and basically an all around perfect conversion.  A few bugs? Sure.  Online the backgrounds don't change as they should, because the matches reset after each fight.  Apparently people are running into problems saving the hidden characters, but of the 30+ I've turned it on, I only lost them once when I powered my Xbox off in the middle of a single player game.  Minor issues when put up against the fact the game plays nearly flawlessly, both offline and on.

That's right, the online play is great!  We finally get a 2D fighter on consoles that actually doesn't lag to hell in the majority of the matches.  Sure, maybe 5% of the games have a little bit of lag, but that is 95% of perfect games we're talking about here - not a bad result for ANY online game, let alone a fighter.  Capcom vs SNK2 on the original Xbox is probably the next best I've played, but even that had lag for me on probably a good 40-50% of the games, even if it wasn't terrible, it was still noticeable.  But with UMK3, most matches run almost as smooth as offline, or just with minor lag that does not really affect the game too much.

Another nice thing is there seems to be a good amount of competition online, more than I would have expected for UMK3.  Sure, not everyone is rockin' all the characters, or knowing all the combos, but the majority of people I've run into at least know the basics of what and what not to do to win a match.  I've only run into a few players who really had no clue how to play, but on the flipside I've run into more than a few that really knew what they were doing, not just skating along with the basics.

All-in-all its been a great experience so far, and I've tried to get a handful of matches in at least every other night since it came out, with the same quality of results each night.  Here's hoping the next batch of online fighters (Fatal Fury Special?) turn out to run as smooth... it at least has been proven possible! 

We await his arrival. 

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/sneakking/similar.html?mode=universe

So a few days back, one of the most anticipated XBL games came out, Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting. I was one of the legions of eager SF fans waiting with fingers crossed hoping they'd pull this one off right, because 2D fighters are my bread and butter, and online action just means infinite fun. So I waited up till 1am, passing the time playing Marble Blast and the N3 demo. Finally, it hit...

Much to my dismay however, the game came out less than perfect. As someone who plays the actual arcade version every day here after work, the differences were immediately obvious. First and foremost, the game runs at a notch or so too fast. Even offline, which is perfectly lag free, still feels amiss. While something I could adjust to, the speed change affects all move timing, so while the gameplay is still solid, it's not a perfect port, which is what I was hoping for. Bummer.

Sad thing is, that's not even the worst part. The online play, which is the only reason to even consider buying this game after a billion other releases, is sorely lacking. I can handle the bland interface, but the biggest problem is the way the lag works. Rather than slow everything down a bit, like most fighting games, your moves simply come out late. So on a really laggy fight, you may not even land a jumping kick unless you mash on the kick button immediately after leaving the ground - needless to say that is not how SF is meant to be played. It requires precise timing which is ruined due to the lag, altering the character balance to favor the more mashy characters (Read: things like E. Honda's slappy hands, which are more easily avoided in the real arcade version, are now more powerful because lag makes it harder to pull off counter moves that require the right timing.) Even simple stuff like repeated crossup/sweep combos, which you could easily get around in the arcade, are now a more viable tactic because of the delays in blocking/countering.

After a few nights of playing, I adjusted to the lag timing, but it worries me that I adjusted - it means I'm playing a different game than what is meant to be played, and it may throw my arcade skills off a bit when I play the real thing. In practice it may not be a factor, if I treat the 2 games as completely different entities and just accept the fact the XBL version isn't the "same" game. But that also makes me a little sad. It also makes me wonder how UMK3 will turn out, which is probably my most anticipated XBL game now, followed by Contra.

All said and done, I think our review is spot-on about the problems with the XBL version. However, I'm still having a blast playing it online, because I enjoy competition in 2D fighters, even if it's not an arcade-perfect port. And for those people not intimately familiar with the real arcade version, it could be pretty easy to overlook its faults and enjoy playing it.

So I picked up this pack of mini Sega consoles on the interweb somewhere, and they showed up yesterday. They are freakin' tiny, and yet they still come with various accessories that are even smaller... tiny carts, little game cards, controllers, CDs - heck, even 2 VMUs for the dreamcast that fit into the controller, into each other, and even have removable dust covers. The CD systems open up so you can put the tiny CDs in them. Madness!



Here are some pix:
Here's a link to my user vid:

Here's a quick user vid i made, demonstrating how to obtain infinite lives in New Super Mario Bros for the DS.  Starting from the level halfway point, you can get a mushroom + fireflower powerup as well as an extra life on the way to getting infinite lives, making it a smooth and easy process to repeat.  Well, here's the vid with the full demo:

I got the chance to play a few Wii titles this morning before the big crowds poured in, and i must stay i was impressed.  While the original concept of the control scheme seemed fairly cool, i was still a bit skeptical of how fun it would be.  After getting my hands on some of the titles though, my worries subsided quite a bit.

While i had an idea of which games i wanted to play in which order, the shorter lines and closer booths ended up guiding my path. 

First up was Red Steel, and my first interaction with the Wii controller.  While the game itself seemed a bit average, the control did make for an interesting experience.  The shooting wasnt that great, it was a little hard to aim using the wand, but the swordplay was pretty fun and intuitive - actually swinging the controller parts around definitely felt more interactive than your average button mash.

Next up was Excite Truck, which actually did live up to its name - it was exciting!   Actually of all the games i played, this one probably felt the most exhilarating as far as controller integration and just a general feel of innovation goes.  Using the controller tilt to both steer and level out your track for landings, plus the frantic high speed arcade style racing really gave the game an intensity that went beyond most racing games, and i really felt sucked into the gameplay.  How long that feeling will last when playing the game a lot over a period of time though, is still questionable.  But for what i played it was a blast, and i could really identify with what Nintendo is going for.

I then checked out Project HAMMER, which was pretty fun as well.  Using the controller to swing the hammer around to smash dudes worked really well, and the gameplay was pretty fun.  Plus, who doesnt like smashing stuff with a big 'ol hammer.

Finally i made my way to my #1 choice of game i wanted to try out, Super Mario Galaxy.   And wow, i'm pleased to say that not only is the game amazingly fun, but the control is done exactly how it should have been.  The Nunchuk controls Mario via the analog stick, like Mario64 style, and you have your jump/stomp etc buttons to use - the wand targeting device is used to wave over these little meteor things to collect (i forget the name of them at the moment), and if you wiggle it quickly in the transport stars, you warp to the next little miniplanet.

Graphically the game was impressive, keeping the Mario64 style to it but vamping it up a notch, plus the ability to run around the round planets in all directions - read: you will be upside down at some points, and as crazy as it sounds, it still plays great.  The only downside to this game was that i finished the demo too quickly, leaving me wanting more.  This is going to be the next 'killer app' from Nintendo, and i really hope it is a launch title.

Ironically the biggest disappointment for me gameplay wise was Zelda.  While it certainly did not have poor control, you could tell the game was not designed for the controller from the ground up, like other titles.  It could just as easily be played without it.  While aiming the bow with the wand is neat i guess, the game has a lot of functions that are needlessly slowed down due to the way the controller interface works - for example you need to basically 'mouseover' your icon for the special skills and hit a button to reassign them - it would be faster and easier to just hit a pause button and do it from that screen or something.  I dunno. Maybe i just wasnt used to the controller enough, but of all the games, Zelda's control was the only one i really felt like it was tacked on rather than fully integrated.  The game is still great though.

All in all, my biggest concern when the Wii details were announced was that the novel controller might result in some games that just have the extra aspects thrown into them as a novelty, making for a poor gameplay experience - (much like some games' poor use of the DS's touch screen) - rather than fully revolve and integrate around the control scheme.

I can say after playing most of these titles though, that it does not seem to be the case so far with the Wii.

All in all, i left with a true feeling of fresh gaming and innovation, not just an awe of graphical improvement, but a real change of gameplay experience.  I'm definitely looking forward to getting my hands on the Wii when it launches, and sitting down to play some of these games in their final state.

Well, with the new PS3 controller, now all your friends who turn the controller to the side while their tongue hangs out, can actually TURN for once.  Next step - a tonguepad.