Happy 146th Birthday Canada! :)

Billy and Jimmy's bane, and my rank's namesake. Thrower of barrels, tosser of protagonists into watery death traps, master of the killer three punch combo. I'd love to see the mighty Abobo celebrated as a guest character in one of Capcom, SNK, or Namco's fighting games! All hail ABOBO!!!

All the best in the new year!

I've been enjoying a few movies over the past few days, just enjoying some entertaining stuff, nothing too cerebral, just fun.

But, my FIRST film of 2013,

The PREDATOR!

"What's the matter, the CIA got you pushing too many pencils?"

This movie contains THE MOST MACHO handshake ever caught on film. Period. Hell, the whole movie has more machismo than everything releasesd COMBINED over the past ten years! I wonder what ever happened to Carl Weathers, if Arnold can still make movies, then Carl sure as hell has a few more left in him! :)

Happy New Year everyone! :)

A couple of old favorites of mine that I wish would make a reappearance in the all too predictable world of FPS games, the annual, nominally rehashed spots titles, and the new but not too different than the last game I loved so much sequels...

Robot Alchemic Drive

and...

Trapt (Kagero: Deception series)

Two really cool titles that you need to dust off your PS2 for if you haven't already enjoyed them! :)

Robot Alchemic Drive is a great idea, and a title that should not be missed by fans of 70's-80's (and beyond) Japanese Mecha anime/manga or fans of the infamous Godzilla/Gojira movies! You play the part of a young mecha pilot who controls a giant robot from a distance via REMOTE CONTROL, fighting off invaders looking to destroy or otherwise take over the Earth. One really cool aspect of the game is that you need to keep your "pilot" in a safe place (i.e. on the top of a building that will not end up getting trashed in the battle!), so if nothing else, it's something different, and adds a bit of a frantic element to the game as you start to scramble to get away from the destruction, all the while fighting to keep your mecha functioning! Also, who hasn't wanted to play a game that allows you to fire your giant mecha fists across a cityscape and have them slam into your enemy?... :)

It surprises me that Trapt (Kagero: Deception) hasn't made it into the current generation of console games. The idea is a sadist's dream, and there's a lot of fun to be had in luring bad guys invading your castle into a series of traps! The traps can be linked together, allowing you to construct combo attacks based on the timing of trap activation. Sometimes the game feels like a high stakes version of Home Alone, especiaily when you drop an empty vase on some poor guys head, and he wanders onto a spring loaded panel in front of an enormous fireplace big enough to park a truck in, containing a blazing fire... Bear trap at the bottom of a set of stairs, with giant flaming boulder rolling down from the top of the stairs... Getting the idea yet? At the end of each wave, you can go back and examine your enemy's profiles, and enjoy the fruits of your labour when you read the cause of death of each intruder. Such a fun game. :)

Also, a PS1 title I'd love to see an HD remake/re-imagining of...

Silent Bomber

Silent Bomber is still a favorite of mine, and would work really well on iPhone/iPad, and especially as an XBLA or PSN game. There are so many REALLY BAD PSN/XBLA titles out there, and yet Silent Bomber is sitting there, fading into obscurity, and yet even now, it would quickly become a favorite among this new generation of gamers.

Now to drain another couple hundred hours into Skyrim (says the guy who dislikes safe sequels...) :P

So, I got home today and decided to unwind with a little MW2 and DJ Hero. I got torn to shreds in MW2 as usual, and had a blast doing so, but I knew it was time to switch over to the wheels of steel, uh, plastic! I was enjoying myself, rippin' it up pretty good, when suddenly, to my disgust, I noticed something in the background, and totally started screwing up.

There was a mcdonalds add on one of the billboards in the background. I wanted to puke. $60 a year for XBL, $120 for the game, and I'm STILL pounded with these stupid ADVERTISEMENTS!!! I play games to ESCAPE crap like TV, and its steady stream of ads. I listen to my MP3 player to avoid annoying radio ads (and crappy music). I see ads on buses, inside and out. Ads along side the roads. Ads in newspapers, magazines, at school, in malls... WHY ARE THEIR ADS IN MY GAMES?!?!?

I'm seriously considering trading in DJ Hero after seeing this crap today. I was so stoked about Tekken 6, and I haven't been able to play it since seeing the TAPOUT (PUKE!!!) clothes available for King!!! I seriously can not bring myself to play the game for that very reason!

I know there are arguments for games in ads, as far as I'm concerned, there are NONE, but some people think they add realism, and everyone is entitled to an opinion (even if it is sad and makes them look like another member of that flock of sheep out there... ;) ), but I DO NOT WANT THIS CRAP IN MY GAMES!!!

If a game is to be filled with ads, the savings should be passed on to the consumer. Make the games $15 if you're going to force me to look at that crap! Or, at least give me the option to TURN THEM OFF!!! There are options to turn off blood in games, I'd like to see an option to turn off something FAR more offensive to me, in-game advertising.

I avoid EA games mostly because of their ads and the extent to which they nickle and dime you with DLC (see Dragon age, DLC on release day... Are you SERIOUS?!?!), and now I'm thinking activision needs to go, too. Damn, I'm running out of developers!!!

PS: Happy 2010!!!

Just a thought, but how did Deadliest Catch: Alaskan Storm ever come to be? It frightens me to think that in the real world, there are people who have no homes or food to eat, or can't afford tuition to continue on to post secondary schooling if they wanted to, but yet someone got paid to hold a meeting and make the decision that CRAB FISHING would make for a viable video game theme. Money and time had to have been dedicated to this project, and aside from the experience that the programmers got from the process, the money spent on Deadliest Catch may as well have been flushed down the toilet.

It scares me to think that people will actually buy this steaming heap, not only because it will likely be one of the worst gaming experiences ever, but because a few sales will indicate to publishers that people are stupid enough to throw money at anything that they recognize from TV. The really funny thing about Deadliest Catch is that the same people that will buy this game will scoff at and insult anyone who would pick up a game like Cooking Mama, a game that is far from perfect, but one that understands the concepts of ORIGINALITY and CREATIVITY. I kinda miss the days of video games flying under the radar, the days where there were no Spike TV video game award shows (which are really just ads for new movies and a chance for "stars" to see themselves on TV), no celebrity voice-overs, no in-game ads (*shudder...*), and NO TV FRANCHISE BASED GAMES!

Oh well, while some of us wait for the re-release of Earthbound, and translations of the other MOTHER games, I guess we can tide ourselves over with the promise of a high calibur gaming experience in the form of a Big Brother, Flavour of Love, or Celebrity Rehab game?... :P

And put together a REPUBLICAN SPACE RANGERS game. NOW!

Republican Space Rangers

If you don't, you'll register on everyone's Insurgiscan in a big hurry, like EA does now! ;)

Wow! Another rank change is going to happen for me within a day or so! What wondrous rank will be bestowed upon me next? I wonder what the hell a "Defias Brotherhood" is, anyway?

Wow, a new rank AND another DS Advance Wars title, and the drop of No More Heroes. This week might just be too much to take! I wonder if EB accepts popscicle sticks and bottle caps as a form of payment? :(

Hey!

For the two or three of you that look in this direction from time to time, I'd like to wish you all a safe and happy Christmas, and a very happy, successful, and healthy 2008 for you, your family and friends! I hope you get some down time from your busy schedules to spend time with your families and friends, or just to relax and rejuvenate. Take care, and we'll see you around!

TongLong!

When I log on to Gamespot to see what new ways game developers have concocted to part me from my nearly non-existent supply of money, I find a small wave of excitement washing over me when I see that I have either "messages" (Another caption contest! WHOOOOO-HOOO!), or "updates". In my simple mind, an "update" begins an uninhibited cascade of tangents of thought, almost always leading to something like "Ooh! There has to be a new SUPER DODGE BALL game coming out!", or "Hell yeah! AKI is making a next gen NES Pro Wrestling game for the Wii!", or some other entirely impossible, but highly desirable gaming fantasy. Unfortunately, more often than not, an "update" is nothing more than a monthly profit report that is somehow attached to a game that you've been tracking.

Last time I checked, this site was not the Financial Post's business and stock report site. The name "Gamespot" includes implications of, oh, I don't know, something zany like, maybe, videogames? I like the game tracking feature, I don't like seeing how much cash has been bled out of gamers desperate to collect EVERY blockbuster title there is (and this year has been a year of bounty for gamers on every system!). Will we ever get updates like "Hey you! You know that game you bought and sort of liked, but there were a few things that sucked about it? Well, we're removing the suckage, andadding 75% more win and awesome!" or, "Guess what!? Next year, we won't fleece you for $60.00 for the SAME GAME we release every year, but we'll make a ROSTER UPDATE available to you free of charge!", or even better "Street Fighter 4 will star SKULLOMANIA!". Wow! Short of online Super Dodge-Ball and/or Fire Pro Wrestling tournaments, those would be some pretty sweet updates!

So yeah, I don't know about anyone else, but I sure wouldn't miss the financial reports where my awesome GAMING RELATED updates belong. :)