.... I think. I've never been a big fan of Gurstman (as in I think they should go ahead and sell him to G4), but the Zelda affair just pushed it over the line. Far over the line. I couln't even look at the site without feeling severe distrust. And it was extremely amplified after I bought and played the game for the Wii. It really hurt, after how much I defended Gamespot's review scores from the naysayers. And yet, from Gurstman, it didn't surprise me.

But after a while, I've dropped back in for gaming news, found tons of awesome stories, humor, and no gurstman except on the video features, where he belongs. So I guess I'm giving it another go.

Before the Wii came out, I heard a lot about how it was supposed to attract new gamers. I heard that it would be easy for new gamers to pick up and play, and that Wii Sports would be a hit despite it's mediocre review scores from the gaming media. Though I hoped for it, I never thought it would really be that attractive to non-gamers, particularly my family.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

I picked up a Wii at midnight launch (fun story, another time), and took it home, set it up, tossed around a few balls at Tennis, and went off to bed as it was 3:00 A.M. The next day, my parents ask what is so great about this new console that I would go to such lengths to get it. So I take them downstairs to the Wii, and try to show off what it can do. They seemed less than impressed. I thought this was a bad sign for the new gamers.

Later that night however, my sister and her boyfriend dropped in from college. I decided to test out the photo channel with her fancy digital camera's SD card, so I borrowed it from here and got to work, while she took a nap. The photo channel is quite nifty, and the automatic puzzles are cool, so later I decided to show it to her after she woke up, since I did use her card. "That's the Wii? I thought it was a handheld thing," was her response. Obviously not a gamer. She loved the features there. So much in fact, that I decided to show her the Mii channel. At the moment I'd only had two Miis, mine and a friend that had dropped in unexpectedly (another good story for another time).

She took to it immediately. I had to go to a meeting, but I told her to try out Wii Sports with her Mii when she was done, and she called her boyfriend down as well. He'd seen the Wii in his dorm, and apparently Wii Sports had become a bit of a common pastime there as well, so he could show her around pretty well.

Two hours later, I came back from my meeting, amazed to see that they were still playing! My sister had hardly played anything more than flash games and tetris her whole life, but she was hooked on the simple interface and fun technique. So, I joined in, and we played quite a few games of Bowling. Then we played most of the Training minigames, with three players. And then I left them alone again, and came back later. They had ended up playing it for the whole afternoon and well into the night: over 6 hours. This was definately a first.

Lol, apparently my recent burst of blog posts and my videos gave me quite a bit of Gamespot XP. I'm up to lv 16, and then some. A Magician Lord. I'm tempted to remain here for a while if possible. If you're from TDS, you know that this would be humorous.

Edit: Ok, nvm, my vides and blog posts rocketed me to the next level aready.

Oh my god. The trailer for valve's new FPS-Puzzle game, Portal, just blew my mind. Booom. That was my mind being blown. Go watch it now, it's amazing. It had better have a level editor.

Also, New Super Mario Bros is great. Loving it. However, it seems short. I have had it for two days and have already gotten to the last level, and indeed beaten the false end. Obviously I still have a ways to go, two hidden worlds and lots of hidden levels to go, but the main quest is quite short.

All right. So after watching the most recent On the Spot, I rushed to download this predecessor to Portal, Narbacular Drop. I've got to say, it's loads of fun. It's just a very short game, but the portal aspect could not be more interesting. I look forward to the decidedly awesome version of the concept Valve has taken on. The Source engine and Valve's developer power should make this absolutely incredible. So, I spent about 30 minutes in game and in a video editor recording and piecing together some footage of me messing around with the game. Hope you enjoy.


[video=cHExwTX_5bMLvT8]

On a side note, I finally had the opportunity, for the first time in quite a while, to erase a game from my formidable Games Backlog list I keep on my computer in a notepad file. It's been very sizable and growing for quite a while, and it feels quite nice to finally take something off. Unfortunately I also added two more to the list at the same time. Two games I am placing on pre-emptively, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin and Elite Beat Agents. Of course, it's entirely possible the later may be removed because of song selection after it is reviewed and more information is available.

Well, I uploaded another video, and I'm really happy about this one. It's the intro to my favorite game of all time, X-COM: UFO Defence. The new video system on gamespot is really starting to impress me. When I added this video, it became the first in the video category on X-COM's gamepage. Nifty. I captured it using Fraps and pasting together a few 30-second clips (since fraps won't let you record more at once unless you pay them), so you will probably notice in one spot where it's a bit noticeable, but with Windows Movie Maker as my editor, that's about as good as I needed. I'm also impressed with the quality of the player here at Gamespot. I'm suprised I'm the first to upload this video, or any X-COM video for that matter. Think I'll do a few more on gameplay.

[video=I3E1kmP45bMIuTE]

As it so happens, I've also just recieved my DS Lite from Japan. I'm quite happy about this. In celebration, I bought the New Super Mario Bros. game. Take a look.

I've been keeping suprisingly busy this summer, and it seems like I've had almost no time to sit down and play some video games until recently. So much has happened, yet condensed, it all seems rather insubstantial compared to the length of time it took place in. I've been gone much of the summer, ususally without internet access, causing me much stress, but also causing me much relaxation at times. I went to two camps, church related and Boy Scout camp, but most of my time away has been spent at my dad's house across the state doing manual labor. Obviously, being quite a geek, all of this has been... interesting, but not usually in a good way.

Church camp. Dear god, this one was by far the most interesting, and by extension the most troubling. It's strange really. You hang out with people, most of which you have any real contact with only one week a year, yet you're like old friends. And the social context was intruiging. I became somewhat more sociable that usual in this environment, even though I was not particularly well-suited for it. It turned out well for the most part, with the exception of my own 'incorrect vibing' leading to a quite uncomfortable and inexplicable female-related situation... They added a couple Xbox 360s to the rec room, but being church camp they had only sports games pretty much. Useless.

Anyway, Scout Camp was actually pretty relaxing. Comparing of WoW and GW was frequent thanks to a few video game-inclined friends. One of my best friends tired out pretty much every quotable phrase from Anchorman, and then beat the dead horse the whole week. Pretty standard.

And of course, time across the state. Luckily I managed to take my computer with me on this excursion, even though there was no internet access. I had downloaded quite a few campaigns for my current (second) favorite strategy game, Battle for Wesnoth. Even without internet access that proved quite enough, as I found a campaign with an extraordinarily good storyline and concept to drain the time out of the days and nights.

However the fruits of my labor payed off, as I got just enough extra money out of that to order my new Enamel Navy DS Lite from lik-sang. It should be here within a week, hopefully much less. Ever since I, *ahem*, lost possession of my DS, it's been very boring, especially on my favorite DS centered forum. Even though I get a DS now, I still lost three good games in that fiasco... Mario Kart, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and Sonic Rush. I'll just be happy to get back at Meteos and Advance Wars though, and with any luck NSMB in no time.

Oh, and one more thing, I uploaded a video, mostly just to test out gamespot's user video deal.

Edit:
A couple more recent noteworthy events. After staying up all night, I managed to get my driver's license this morning. My mom is quite excited, but I'm not all that much. Not a big deal to me really, since I don't go very many places, though it will be much more convenient now to say the least. A bit freeing now that I think about it. Also, my grandparents are over, and it was quite humorous when she was inquiring about some vacation locations she's thinking about in Canada, and how she marveled as a quickly and effortlessly found them through google and google maps, found their websites, ferry information, ect... Old people are funny.

It's madness I tell you! Madness! So, I will simply update this post for the Pre-E3 conferences.

The WiiS3
If there was every any doubt, the PS3 has once again stolen Nintendo's controller design. Let's chalk up the score.

1. Dpad (Though no one can blame them here)
2. Analog Stick (Unless you consider adding a second "Innovation)
   
3. Force Feedback
4. RF Wireless Controller
5. Motion Sensing

That is pretty much a comprehensive list of the latest Dual Analog controller's features. Yep, that's bad. Heck, their online service has been described by one of their reps as an "xbox live-like service." So, what innovations has Sony made after all? The PS2 was technically unimpressive compared to the competition. The PS3 intends to rectify that with their "Cell Processor", and may do that, but what good is that to gaming? It has been admittedly much harder to develop for. Sony themselves has never been a real game developer, they've been entirely dependant on third party support. They're playing a very dangerous game.

I'm suprised they had the gaul to release this so late in the game. It launches in just over half a year, yet they've made this open declaration of war. Without this move, where would sony be? Nowhere. The MGS4 trailer would have been the most impressive thing of the entire conference. Heck, they only gave the Warhawk developers 10 days to make their game do this, yet they claim they've been planning this for years. This is a stunt, but I fear it may succeed.

Nintendo
Finally! It's hard to believe, but George Harrison was much more difficult to understand than Miyamoto or Iwata. Screwy. Anwyay, they showed off some awesome stuff. No big suprises, but lots of wonderful gameplay. 27 playable Wii games on the floor! Wow! Also, tons of DS games announced.

Well, all the games look GREAT! Obviously they're going for a whole series of games like Wii Sports, like Wii Music, and I'm sure others. Mario Galaxy was awesome. Simply amazing. It really proves that graphics don't matter so much anymore.

Yeah, so it's been quite a number of months since my last blog post. Half a year? Really? Well, I suppose.

Anyway, E3 is coming around again shortly, and I'm sure this year will be a big one. The buildup isn't the normal frenzy it seems though, possibly because of a simple hype overload. Everyone's just waiting to see what REALLY happens. After all, we know that the Revolution won't bend reality, the Xbox 360 doesn't cause a "lucid dream", and the PS3 isn't the promised Photorealistic gaming device promiced, but no one really knows what any of these will end up showing at E3.

Personally, I think the 360 will somehow still manage to be anti-climactic. It's already out, there's no more suprises, the only thing to see is new games. The only thing I can possibly imagine that would make it a major feature this year would be if they had PLAYABLE Halo 3. Fans would go into a frenzy. Then again, a good trailer for Halo 3 would probably make more hype that actual playable demos.

Revolution, Wii, whatever, it's going to be interesting. There's more likely than not to be a decent presence of playable games, since Red Steel has already said that they will have a playable demo. Hopefully Nintendo will have some of their own games for show there. I doubt you'll see Smash Bros there, they'll wait to reveal that until it's more solid, if you recall the last two. I'm guessing Mario 128, Pikmin... Who knows. Just have to wait and see.

And PS3. Dear god, they'd better have playable games. It's just getting annoying to have all these people freaking out about admittedly fake footage. That's all I have to say about that...

So, what of the Holy Handheld Wars? I havn't seen a damn thing about either of them in a while, at least gamewise. However I have had an odd argument about the use of the PSPs graphical power due to the lackluster appearance of Killzone for the PSP. It's very comparable to a PC game from 2003, UFO: Aftermath, though they are very different games. This troubles me, since anything claiming to be near as powerful as a PS2 should be able to do much better...

The DS continues it's reign, soon to be releasing the very awesome DS Lite. I've been waiting for the price to drop to more reasonable levels to import one, but with the recent news that it will be coming stateside at such a nice price ($129), I may just wait. Then again, I want the Enamel Navy one, and so far it seems that they will not be available in colors other than the white at the US launch, so I may end up importing anyway. Gameswise, there's been some releases, but no major news since the revalation of Phantom Hourglass. That's ok though, the DS crowd is still riding on the success of Hunters, and that's a very good thing. There's still a bright future in store for the DS.

Why the hell not. Let's go with something slightly obscure, more upbeat, and much more interesting. As it so happens, the Library of Congress is considering the addition of video game materials as part of America's cultural heritage. This is obviously great news for us gamers. Recognizing the cultural effect of video games over that past 20 or so years is inevitable, yet people persist in thinking so little of video games. Perhaps this will change some minds. I personally think this is pure awesomeness, but will it include Japanese games? I mean, they've played at least as big a role as any American-made video games in the cultural effect.

<This ends the gaming section. Now the personal blog part. Gamespot gave up on calling it a Journal, so might as well use it as a blog>

In my personal life, things are as strained as ever. Rediculously annoying, considering how much time I spend playing video games, yet still can't relax. I swear they're the only things that keep me sane.

I'm pretty sure that a chick in my second period likes me... quite badly. Yet I have absolutely no feelings toward her whatsoever. Despite attempts to appear as uncaring, nuetral, and generally indifferent as ever, she persists. I frankly don't know how to respond to that, it's not like I'm in high demand, or have any experience in the area. I don't really want to go out with a female I have no attraction towards. Of course, nothing against her, it's not that she's unattractive or anything, she actually is fairly good-looking, but I'm sure you can understand my resistance.

So ends my bloggage for tonight. Though I very well may think of other things to add.

All right, you all know the facts now, so it's time to write up my opinions.

First up. FPS games. I'm a big fan of FPS games, even though you have to be quite picky with them these days. Metroid Prime 3 should make for an amazing combination of Adventure game and FPS, that I am dying to play. I despise the dual-analog controls, they're so very counterintuitive. I love the PC controls, so obviously this will make a good fit for me.

I also have a solid theory that Luigi's Mansion will make a good appearance on the revolution. Thinking about the mechanics of the game, and the abilities of the revolution controller, it would be even better! Not to mention, there was some flashlight mechanic demonstrated in that teaser video, and this quote from a July Shiggy interview just solidifies it.

"EGM: What about Luigi's Mansion? Is that series over, or will we ever see another?
Miyamoto: The director often says, "Make another one! Make another one!" and I want to use Luigi again."

All right, another thing on the agenda... Smash Bros Revolution. I have theories about this already forming in my head as well. Being an avid user of marth (well of course), I can imagine what this will be like.... I think. Imagine you're playing as Marth, or another swordsman. You dash toward the enemy using your analog stick, jump and vault over them, and then, just as you pass above them swing the controller downward, and watch the sword smash your oponent. Or alternately, imagine using ranged moves like Zelda's guided attack. With the proper controls, you could take a running jump, launch one of those attacks, and while you continue to somersault onto a platform guide the projectile right into your enemy. Or link's bow. You could now actually aim it with the controller rather than having to rely on timing it just right.

Well, I might update as more ideas dawn on me, but for now, peace.

 

Well, seeing that one of my friends that very rarely posts in their journal did, I'll just commemorate this entry to random crap that pops into my mind while writing this. Well... Ok, so 90% of that is about my recent conversation with a certain girl, but I'll leave that out... especially if you've read my other journals. Btw, it's a positive change if you care.

Hmm... Touchds is certainly slow today. I spend way too much time on those forums... DSDude is starting to affect my spelling of the word "the". Oh well, maybe I can put that time to good use and become a mod sooner or later. Would be fun.

The next gen sonic stuff (w00t) just came in, and it is certainly drool-worthy, so here goes.

Mmmm, next-gen....



It does look amazing, but considering how the other "Next-gen" sonic games have turned out... I don't think it'll be anything other than a really flashy sonic. We'll see though. Also on the next-gen front, nintendo is said to reveal their big controller secret soon enough. Personally, I don't think it'll be THAT amazing, but I'd be happy with just about anything NOT exactly like the other two... God, can't you have some originality?

It appears Lunar: Dragon Song for the DS is coming by the end of the month, and that sounds just wonderful. This and advance wars will seal the deal for one of my friends waiting to get a DS. About dang time. This new trend of naming games with an acronym for DS is pretty nifty. At least they're not just naming them "blah blah: DS", it's "Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow". A list of those games courtesy of the IGN mailbag...

"In the last mailbag, it was brought to my attention that there were DS titles with the abbreviation DS in them meaning more than just the system name. What are all the games you know of that have that? The ones I've noticed so far are Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Resident Evil: Deadly Silence, Advance Wars: Dual Strike.

Andrew

We've also got Lunar: Dragon's Song, Dig Dug: Digging Strike, and Guilty Gear: Dust Strikers.

-- Craig"

Prettty creative, but they're going to run out of those sooner or later. Until such time, I'll have fun laughing at pun after pun.

Well, on that subject, I can't wait for Castlevania. It's looking amazing as well, and It's been quite a while since I've taken up a good 2D adventure... probably Metroid Zero Mission. I've nearly finished up Final Fantasy (yeah, illegal...), and it's an amazing game. I've got all four of my characters promoted and I'm in the final dungeon... 2000 years in the past. Cool storyline, but that game is freaking tough. Castlevania... yes, the last many games have borrowed heavily from the metroid series in the upgrade style, so I'm sure I'll be happy with it.

Hmm... I'm really hopping around here. Downside of a completely random post. Oh well.

What better time to throw out some of my screenshot collection on GW. I've had a lot of fun just stopping here and there to collect a good photo, so I hope you enjoy. The graphics on GW are stellar, so it makes it quite fun to just stop and pic the roses. I've got dozens of these, so I'll just show off a few recent ones.

I finally convinced a couple friends to get the DS thanks to advance wars...


I have just returned from a short boy scout trip and also a video game party, and I took my DS to both. I played some of a friend's nintendogs at scouts, and it was fun, but the great stuff came from Advance Wars' hotseat mode. At the beginning of the party, two people had PSPs, there were three PSP lovers, and I was the only one with a DS. They were very nice guys, and quite open minded (even though in recent years two of my friends have turned from Nintendo fans to owners of all three, players of none), and after laying out the facts, they were quite ready to believe how good the DS really was.
After that, we played several more Hotseat games, and we had tons of fun. Heck, one of my friends picked up the strategy rediculously fast. He played amazingly well for the first time. I had lots of fun, and by the end of the party, one person was on the way to get a DS, my friend that played excellently had played campaign mode for 6 straight hours, and the PSPs remained... unplayed.
Talk about a happy ending. About dang time my friends listened to me. Now who's the Ninty fanboy, huh?