From what I hear, all this nonsense about getting canned for a low review seems legit. I didn't believe it when I heard it. If it's not true I would suggest GameSpot, or CNET speaking up, b/c a lot of people are disappointed and angry right now.

Even though a lot of folks I really enjoyed reading/watching had left GameSpot prior to Jeff's getting fired, I still came to the site a lot. I have a lot of respect for several of staff here. It's been my primary game news site for many many years now. And despite the occasional rumor you hear about there being pressure on reviewers to inflate scores, I never believed it.

Jeff's Kane and Lynch review was scathing. But I walked away from reading/watching it with an understanding of what the reviewer viewed as the negative and positive of the game. It informed me about his opinions of a product, all while entertaining me. If I saw Jeff reviewed a game I generally watched or read it, even if I wasn't interested in the game. But you know what, in doing that I also watched the advertisement that came with it...or so the ads smeared all across the site.

Is it that Gamespot can't secure advertising sales as a result of negative reviews? Here's a theory I have: "If a game sucks, words going to get out anyway." If a reviewer inflates ratings what's going to happen? They lose credibility, that's what. Then they lose hits, then they won't sell any ad space b/c people don't give a @#$% about their site or it's reviewers. That's the message CNET is giving now.

It is absolutely about money (and it should be). If you're credible you'll get a fan base. If you get a fan base you will sell ads. If a publisher complains the response of the parent company should be: "You're selling exposure of your product to a market that might be interested in it. That market is there for you b/c of the types of our writers." Done.

For those of us who as of yet do not have a 360 or a PC that can run Bioshock. There is an excellent little title out on the DS. Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon, is perhaps one of the most interesting games I have played on the DS as of yet. It's one part, Animal Crossing, one part Pokemon, and one part Lunar Knights (b/c I can't think of another decent action/dungeon crawler on the DS).

I had never played the Harvest Moon titles before, and from what I have read, I don't really think I would enjoy them. This game however, by incorporating a dungeon crawl and animal taming aspect, has really given a point to the whole farming, collecting, building side of things. I think a lot of people brushed it aside as another anime-esqe Animal Crossing/Pokemon rip and it's actually a really, really entertaining game. Just don't listen to the intro theme music. It's terrible. Absolutely horrendous.

I am not sure how many hours I have spent juggling the many components of the game. There are just so many parts of this game one can delve into, and I am pretty sure you can complete the game from more than one angle. Here is my little list of what I understand to be the different aspects of the game at this point.

1. Social - Making friends with the people of the village. You give gifts, engage in conversations, or complete story components and your friend (and perhaps love) rating will increase. This allows you to eventually marry one of 11 different female characters in the game.

2. Farming - obviously, as the other games have made significant, you plant seeds, water them appropriately and harvest them after the right number of days. This provides on of many sources for income and ingredients for your cooking.

3. Mining - you hit rocks with a hammer and get various metals and gems. Sell them, upgrade your weapons, or make trinkets.

4. Crafting - you can make accessories, armor, weapons, potions, cook food and probably other things...

5. Combat - with your weapons you fight monsters and things

6. Animal Collecting - you can tame animals and have them do a number of things: help you fight in the caves, harvest your vegetables, water your fields, harvest various goods (milk, honey, wool), or you could ride them. You have to take care of your pets by feeding them and brushing them too.

7. Fishing - ohh yeah, you can fish

On top of that there seems to be a story of your character finding out where he is from and solving this mystery of monsters being in the dungeons.

But with the good there is alway something right? In the case of RF, I really only have two complaints. The first is that they really don't explain a lot of their systems very well. I have had to go to the FAQs or a forum a number of times to get back on track. Secondly, there are some nuances with the button scheme and the interface where I have found myself accidentally wasting either harvested or purchased goods by throwing them away. I have gotten used to it at this point, but it's certainly a bit of a headache when starting out.

Beyond that, the game has been great fun and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone looking to put some hours in on the DS.

My experience with the Wii thus far has been a little...meh. I love the DS and hope that one day soon the Wii will follow in it's footsteps and hopefully learn from some of the mistakes.

Until recently I had been in a rental type of relationship with the Wii. None of the games were, in my opinion worth spending $40-$50 dollars for. Resident Evil 4 is a different story though. Being the only person on the planet that hasn't played through the game, and being a fan of the series, I found myself in the target audience. And now that I have it I would just like to say: holy #$%! I love that game.

It's a perfect example of how the Wii's control system can beused without shoving the Wii-mote down the players throat. So many games (Zelda, Red Steel, Call of Duty, SSX) have attempted to use the motion sensing of the Wiian extra button. Being able to control a light-saber fluidly is one thing,having to swingin a vertical or horizontal direction to block a samurai swordattack is something else entirely. RE 4 makes you actually forget how well the game controls. I don'tsit there and think: Man, I am using the Wii remote to aim atzombies knee-caps!That is what I am looking for in a game, the seamless integration of this new type of technology into games. I actually though when I played this - "They need to make all future RE games just like this - with these exact controls."

RE 4, though as linear as anyof the RE games, gives you a sense that you are making real decisions when it comes tokilling zombies. Do you run around them? Take them all on wiht a pistol? Group them together and lob a grenade? It's a nicefeature to have. Thespeed of the Wii remote in combat reallygives youan even greater sense of control.

I recall the GC version I previously played being excellent and somewhat difficult. The funny thing is though, when the difficulty of a game is a result ofthe controls (something I didn't realize at the time) it's an artificial difficulty. It's almost as if we lacked a word in our vocabulary to describe a certain process, and instead were being verbose to describe something simple.

This, in my opinion, is the second successful use of the Wii's new technology, after Wii Sports.

What's happening everyone? It's been some time since last I posted. I just haven't been in the mood recently. Recently however some blog worthy things have happened.

1.I played and beat Red Steel

2. The Queens of the Stone Age's new album: Era Vulgaris came out a couple days ago.

Yes, I beat Red Steel. And you know what? I didn't have that bad of a time playing it either. I think this is really just a testament to the lack of quality story based games on the system at this point. I had issues with some of the sloppiness in production and poor level design but for the most part I enjoyed myself. It was a rental, a free one at that... I don't mean to spoil anything for anyone but if you don't beat the ending a certain way the first time you don't get the option to load the level and try again. You literally have to play through the whole game again. That was stupid. If Golden Eye had done that junk I wouldn't have minded, seeing as that game was completely awesome. But Red Steel? Nuhuh. When I realized that I couldn't get the alternate ending without playing through the game again I went straight to You Tube: "Red Steel Ending". Problem solved.

If you haven't listened to the Queens of the Stone Age and you enjoy music of the rock type, you're missing out. Lucky for you there happens to be about four major CDs of theirs worth checking out. Their latest, Era Vulgaris is, in my personal opinion, completely awesome. Some would argue it's not the masterpiece that Songs for the Deaf (their second major album) was. And it's certainly not as grandas that album. But I appreciate the direction they are going and have listened to that mother constantly since it's release. In their single, Sick Sick Sick, The Stroke's front-man even has a cameo (I thought it was a strange combo, but it works). It's good - listen to it. They were streaming the whole album on their site...I'm not sure if it's still up there though.

In my morning peruse through game-related sites I came across this little videoon Destructoid.  Kind of funny.  I really enjoyed Shenemue when I played it way back when.  I wouldn't mind seeing a game of that type coming out on a current gen system. 

On a side note, DMC4 looks rad too.  I really enjoy those games - since the first one I have been really impressed (well, the second one wasn't so hot if I recall).  I am also glad to hear it's going to be on both 360 and PS3.  Choice is always a good thing.

In other news, I am still catching Pokemon.  I don't think I am at a very good point to offer much to trade at the online trading place (the name escapes me).  I have heard concerns that the game is a grind-fest.  The concerns are valid.  For people who haven't played Pokemon games, the combat is very simplistic from RPG standards.  Even I get put to sleep by the grind between towns.  So there comes the question, is the driving point of the game even worth it?  I mean, if you have a compulsive nature like I have, catching as many pokemon as you can can be a lot of fun.   But the implementation of online, though an improvement on the previous offerings (nothing) still leaves something to be desired.

For example, from what I can tell, anyone with Pokeman worth a damn want to trade them for exclusive creatures.  Like the startup guys you have to choose from at the beginning of the game.  Talk about lame.  There should be a way to get ahold of those creatures besides trading.  If anyone's like me, they won't want to part with their Monferno - Rufus.  There's just a bond there.  I won't trade you fire monkey!

I guess I should just work on getting Pokemon exclusive the the Pearl version and trading them off for Diamond exclusives.  That's a start at least...

So yeah, I was surfing the web earlier and saw a link to these screens for the Wii Dragon Quest game. I guess that would be the first RPG on the Wii. May be pretty good. I mean, it's Square and all, you know?

Only thing is, there are these funny markings on the screen instead of writing. I don't know if this is some kind of joke or something but there's no way I can read that... I suggest they get on it quick like.

Pace

I know, I know.  I am always complaining about this or that Nintendo.  I always have some pet-peeve about how things are done.  I am a terrible person, I understand. 

I've even ranted about Nintendo's online mistakes before.  It's not a new problem, friend codes are bad - we know this.

 I have recently been rocking out some Pokemon, which I really enjoy (even as a grown man, yes), and I noticed a very Nintendoian move on their WiFi service.  Aside from the obvious Friend Code nonsense, which I am growing used to, Nintendo has a way of making it overly difficult for friends to communicate online, in game.  The Voice Chat is neat, I don't mean that.  I am refering to the simple fact that I have to go out of my way to find out if a friend is online in their Pokemon game.  It's like playing Star Craft over IP.  "Hey man, wanna play some Star Craft?  Yeah, just a second let me get my IP.  Ok here it is, what's yours again.  Ohh yeah. I had it written right here.  Alright, I'll see you in there."  It's just archaic.

So it looks like we are stuck with Friend Codes.  Ok fine.  It's silly, but whatever.  Now, what would be so hard about having friend lists in games to let you know who was and wasn't on?  Just stay connected when you start up a game.  What's the problem with that.  At least that way I wouldn't have to use another means of communication to confirm if a friend was getting into their Pokemon game.  Either that or I wouldn't have to walk into the little read Pokemon building, take the escalator downstairs, talk to the lady behind the counter, "Yes I would like to connect to Nintendo WFC.", wait 30 seconds...No one on huh?  Alright, I will try again later.  I'm sorry, but that sucks.  Does it take too much battery power?  Is that the problem?  Are there too many rays emitted from the DS that you don't want prolonged exposure to?  I haven't heard a good reason why they don't implement something like that...  

Killjoi did suggest it may be b/c of Nintendo's desire to minimize cost.  A buddy list type system, constantly live, may require more resources to upkeep and stuff.  I don't know.  It seems like a small price to pay for a really useful feature.   If the Wii doesn't do something like that I am going to seriously regret my purchase.

I don't play the Wii much.  As Killjoi put it: "It just sit's there and ocasionally glows blue..."  What a sad fate for a system I was so excited about.

One day it will do something good, I just know it.

Until then I have my DS.

What a terrible thing.  I am so sorry for the people who lost anyone in that event. 

I have a slight personal connection too (though nothing like students and family of those lost). I am currently a graduate student at NC State.  In the process of deciding which school to attend I visited VT.  I was, and still am, completely in love with that campus.  The students and faculty were amazing.  The research fit wasn't perfect at the time though and I ended up here in Raleigh.  While there though I did get to meet a wonderful faculty member by the name of G.V Loganathan.  Unfortunately he was one of the victims of the tragedy. He was an extremely interesting person who very clearly loved what he did. I hope that one day I can teach with the passion he clearly had. I am sure he and everyone else will be greatly missed.

I have played Rayman Raving Rabbids for a little while now and I don't care much for it.  It's funny, the characters look funny and they do funny things.  The mini games are random and sometimes interesting.  But I just don't really care to keep playing it. 

The time input/reward element to the game seems unbalanced.  If I don't do well in a mini-game I usually don't want to play it again.  When I do well in a Mini game the benifit of doing so seems negligible.  I had a similar feeling about Wario Ware Smooth Moves (I beat that game with my brother-in-law and had no desire to play it again).  I guess I am just not a Micro/Mini game kind of guy. 

Actually, that's not entirely true - I really enjoy Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales.  It's basically a bunch of Mini Games, some of which are way better than others.  But they alleviate the pain of repeated failure by having success rewarded with the continuation of an interesting story.  That's what I need, a story - a point.  So far Rayman has been apprehended by the Rabbids, of whom I know nothing.  They take him to an Arena, you do mini games, you get plungers.  The plungers help you get out of your holding cell.  A bird craps on you frequently.  That's all there seems to be and though silly, it's not interesting to me.  Am I wrong?  Some people will certainly think so.

Folks can keep making Mini-games, that's fine.  They are a friendlier to new gamers than some genres and they seem to be a nice fit for that crazy Wii controller but please, don't stop making games that I enjoy.  I liked Zelda, that was a nice game, let's have another one of those.  I liked the God Father game, that was interesting - though slightly buggy.  If people do the micro/mini game thing, take Square's path and keep me interested please.