Long time, no see

So, it’s been awhile since I’ve made a blog post. Sorry about that! A few reasons might be because my internet kept crashing when I tried to make a post, and also because I’ve been busy with other stuff, including playing Bully, which I just finished. So, I do plan to continue to update this blog. I also plan to get a real link such as… oh, nevermind. I’ll reveal that later.

I do have a Gamespot account just to let everyone know, but I will be leaving Gamespot soon. Those reasons will be explained around the end of June and begining of July. Just click HERE. On that note, I will continue to post reviews there (and still here!) until the day that I consider possibly coming back. Yes, I will still be watching stuff sometimes like Tournament TV and even some reviews just to see how f’d up they are, but I won’t be doing stuff like forum or blog posts. I still have yet to consider using or not the PM system.

I will leave on these notes, but from now on, I pledge to update this blog more often. Sorry, WAY MORE OFTEN.

What Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft don’t get about each other

Recently, I’ve read an article that describes some stuff that they don’t get. Mostly, it was true. This is what they just don’t know about each other.

WHAT NINTENDO DOESN’T GET
Nintendo doesn’t get what Sony and Microsoft are doing. The third-party support for Nintendo has been falling, that is, on the Wii. They say it’s all about gaming on this system, but that being the case or whatever being the case, should there be not a wider gaming library? Although there has been nonstop selling, what will Nintendo do if this keeps up? Keep your eyes open on a new system folks.

WHAT MICROSOFT DOESN’T GET
It’s a console war between 3 systems, but Microsoft doesn’t see it like that. They only see it between themselves and Sony. They do not understand how powerful the Wii really is. They don’t understand that some of the audience just want casual games, which Microsoft doesn’t have much of. They don’t understand that the Wii has way outsolded the XBOX 360. Even though Nintendo has had some problems with game development, Microsoft needs to get a move on for some other gamers.

WHAT SONY DOESN’T GET

And you know Sony is hell no not innocent when it comes to the war. The president even said that he does not see the Wii as a next-gen console or Nintendo as an enemy. Plus Sony does way worse with meeting the casual gamers needs. Plus the gaming library is pretty tiny. Most of it may be good, but that doesn’t help here. Quantity is beating quality, unfortunate for Sony. They had better hurry up, Microsoft and Nintendo are ahead.

Nope, we aren’t totally stealing the ideas of Harmonix

It has been recently been confirmed that yes, Guitar Hero IV will have more than the guitar in it. It will basically clone Rock Band simply. I mean if you take a look at the drums and how different they look, wait. They don’t look much different.

If you ask me, the Activision drum set needs to lose some weight. It looks a little big, and at the same time, retarded. They actually came up with the name Guitar Hero World Tour, which doesn’t seem that exciting. Activision, is that the best you can come up with? Well, we will just have to wait and actually see what this is like. It is scheduled for Fall 2008.

Oh, by the way, Konami is also making a rhytm game called Guitar Freaks, or something like that. It just seems like a rip off version. They once created one, but it looks like they are remaking it. Let me know how stupid you think it is.

 

Remember to keep your nose clean!

Jimmy Hopkins is one naughty little boy who doesn’t always keep his nose clean when it comes to being at Bullworth in Bully: Scholarship Edition. He returns from the classic on the PS2 and has brought more hijinks than any other student, or game has ever brought.

You start out as Jimmy Hopkins, a boy who was recently expelled for the year, returning to Bullworth academy. If you watch the first little movie, you’ll see the secretary already reconizes you and informs you that the head master is expecting you. Obiously, he has had lots of old memories of you. Vandalism, truancy, simply fighting or using weapons. He’ll be keeping his eye on you.

After that, you’ll head to the boys’ dorm to change into your school uniform. Somebody will be trying to become your friend already. Well, somebody who’s nobody. The boys’ dorm is a lot of fun, simply because you cannot get in trouble in there. You can cause as much havack as possible, but that doesn’t mean people won’t fight back. It’s probably where you’re going to be if you’re skipping classes.

There are quite a number of people. There are jocks, nerds, greasers, and more. Some have different personalities from the rest, but be warned. If you attack them, they, especially jocks, greasers, and sometimes nerds, will fight back. Some can be depicted from the rest. Others, you won’t remember which is which.

In Bully, there are 8 subjects; Chemistry, Art, Music, Gym, Biology, Math, and more. There are 5 classes in each subject, and you can repeat the last one as many times as you want. If you pass, you’ll go onto the next class when you have that subject again. If you fail, next time, you’ll have to redo it. Each time you pass a class, you’ll recieve an item or unlockable. Chemistry seems like the must-attend as it completing different classes will unlock 3 different items; the Firecracker, Stink Bomb, and Itching Powder.

Prefects are the officials. As in, if they catch you doing something you shouldn’t, they’ll come after you. There is a ! bar around the radar that shows how much trouble you’re in. As you do more bad things, the bar increases. As time passes, the bar decreases. You can also get in trouble from the secretary and teachers, but prefects will likley be the people getting you to justice. If you are caught during class, they’ll catch you and send you to class no matter what. If class is not in session and you do something bad, they will get you and you will end up with the principal, outside the office, or around nighttime, your room.

There is time in the game. Classes are from 9:00 am to about 3:30 pm. If you are in the school house after 7:00 pm, you’re trespassing. If you stay up after 2:00 am, you pass out. You wake up at 8:00 am everyday. There are no dates, but sometimes, special events like Halloween will occur. When that happens, some exlusive tasks only available that day may happen such as pulling a prank on the Gym teacher.

Yes, there are girls in the game. It’s limited to what you can do with them as you can’t go in the girls’ dorm and they are quite mean. The most you can really do with them is harass them or kiss them. But you need to give them flowers in order to kiss them, every time.

The multiplayer may not attract you as much as the story mode. I myself had no interest in it whatsoever.

Bully is a great sequel to the PS2 edition, but where does it come flat? Well, the multiplayer may entertain some, but not as much as the story mode. Especially when there is no online play. There also is not much interaction with the girls. Stare all you want, you dreamers. Also, a big pile of things need to be unlocked. The moves, the weapons, the town. If you only have a day to play this, don’t expect too much.

Bully: Scholarshop Edition is a fantastic, well put together game that marks a great sequel for the original. It is very funny, especially in the boys dorm. Jimmy is also a likeable character most of the time. Not as in friends, but as in you know the kind of guy he is and you think he’s pretty cool. You probably won’t be drawn to multiplayer, but many of the things in story will be amazing enough that it won’t matter. If you are a fan of free roam sort of adventure/action games, this would definently be the game to add to your library.

Cracking open: Mario Kart Wii bundle

This is our new cracking open series. There is no basis, but when we get a game in a box or something, we will take a series of pictures and show you what it looks like. This time, we got Mario Kart Wii. It’s a little late, so let us crack open the box.

Here we go! Since Double Dash, here is the overlord of Kart racing!

Check out the sides!

And lets not forget the top or side description!

When you open it, all you’ll see so far is cardboard and plastic. Wow.

Let’s see what’s in this bad boy.

Warning: Minors may choke on the thing covering a wheel.

There it is. A plastic house.

Now that’s style!

Here’s the back. Empasis on the Wii logo in the blue circle. Sweet!

You may not see the B, but it’s there. Yes, this is the B button. I don’t see why that thing’s here.

I spent $49.99 on a game, not for plastic. Let’s see…

Of course there’s a game!

Here’s your description. We have confirmed it is licensed by Nintendo.

Here’s inside the case.

And there is of course online play. I paid $49 after all. I want more than just 1-4 player on one TV.

Nintendo’s little advertising place.

Manuals? Ha ha! Funny.

Wii would like to play.

THE BOX HAS BEEN EMPTIED!

Well, that’s it for this edition. Remember, there is no basis. We could have another one tomorow, or in 3 days. Or next week…month. Maybe even 1/2 a year. No, not that long! But everytime I get a game that comes in a bundle in a box, I will post one of these. See you soon!

Mario Kart Wii review

Last year, Nintendo shook the industry, especially Nintendo fanboys about a new installment to the predecessor in the Mario Kart franchise. This was then known as one of the most highly anticipated Nintendo Wii games in the gaming universe, and Mario won’t disappoint.

The game doesn’t come along as it comes with a new peripheral specifically designed for any racing, the Wii Wheel. In two words, it’s a plastic home. But it does a nice job of holding the Wii remote and making gameplay more fun. Although it’s simple to use, it does take it’s share of getting used to.

One quick noteable new thing to the game is the addition of motorcycles in the game.

The best time you’ll find when playing is in multiplayer, but being lonely doesn’t disappoint one. The variety of options helps make single player just as if you were playing with other people. There are a few modes, the most used one probably being the Grand Prix. It still pits you against 11 other players and you still want to win. But you are more focused not on winning, but on making sure the other players rank as low as possible as the winners are determined by point totals. If you manage to be successful in a 150 cc race, you will unlock a specific cup, which unlocks another 4 tracks. There are a total of 32 in the game, 16 of which have to be unlocked via Grand Prix.

There is also the battle mode in single player along with Time Trials and quite some more.

There is still of course the multiplayer mode. You aren’t competing in cups, but in specific tracks. You can have 2-4 players locally, but there are still 12 racers total. Every player of course chooses their character then their kart and then, a player will determine a cup to race in, and then a track. There is also still the battle mode, which contains a balloon battle where you want to pop the most balloons via items and the coin battle where you want to collect as much points as possible. But unfortunately, now it is exclusively, in teams on both modes of 6.

You don’t need a room full of people to have fun against other human players as Nintendo has added online play to the mix. You can choose to race against people worldwide, people in your region, or just against friends. You can only choose from either a kart or a motorcycle, but that doesn’t ruin all the fun. There is a VS mode (a normal race) or the battle mode. A track is determined by a vote, and then the computer takes all the votes and chooses one.

During online play, there is a point system which is very simple but fun. If you win, you get more points, but if you lose, you’re deducted points. Every person starts out with 5,000 points. It was annoying sometimes the fact that you can lose points when you won or someone else can win points even after losing, but they don’t effect any gameplay at all (unless someone maybe makes fun of you from halfway across the world!)

There is also a Mario Kart Wii channel, where you can view stats from ghost data and all sorts of stuff. You can also add this to the Wii menu and use it while the game disc isn’t even in. It is easily accessable while you are playing the game still, so there is no trouble finding it.

There are still the items. There are all the classics plus some additions, but not all the additions work with older tracks. What seems disappointing is that unless you are in battle mode, the items are extremely unbalanced. You might even be afraid to be in 1st place being that in less than 10 seconds, you can drop from 1st to 10th place all because you are continiously hit by items. It has become more unbalance than ever, which can turn Mario Kart Wii into a Mario Kart Brawl.

The graphics are overall the same as the previous installment in the series. Although they are great when you have the whole screen to yourself, you will easily notice the graphics have turned into the N64 version as everything seems all fuzzy and stuff.

There are new characters. All of them are unlocked in some way, usally by winning a race. But from Super Mario Galaxy, Rosalina can be unlocked if you have a save file from Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii after a few races. Some characters seem lame and disappointing like Dry Bones, but now you can be your own character as the game now lets you put yourself in the game with Mii support.

When you wonder if you really need another Mario Kart game like this, the anwser is probably going to be “Yes, I always need more.” There are many differences from previous installments and this one, many of which are positive. The controls are very simple but may take some getting used to along with some patience, but in the long run will definetly define the Wii Wheel’s real power.

When you take Mario Kart and a Brawl, you get madness but take exciting multiplayer without taking up so much space and more people to play as along with Mii support and many more tracks and a free Wii Wheel that’s worth $10 for just the same price of $49.99, you will definitely add Mario Kart Wii to your game collection.

Mario Kart Wii and other stuff

Mario Kart Wii is just around the corner, maybe even closer than that. I and fans have all awaited this game for over a year maybe, and it’s finally coming. The first control scheme I’m probably going to try is the Wii Wheel. I’ve always thought it looked sweet. I mean it’s nothing more than a plastic house for the Wii remote, but it does help a lot I’ve learned. Then I’ll probably do every other scheme exept the classic controller one.

My MP3 player or whatever the hell it is (it’s a PHILLIPS thing) was acting up just now. I was trying to download something on to it. It only takes Windows media and that’s exactly what I put on it. Oh but no, it only supports AVI, not WMV. This isn’t the first time it acted like shit. Just last night, I was downloading the Giant Bombcast from Giantbomb.com and about 5 times, it only played the first minute of the almost 2 hour podcast. I’m thinking about just getting rid of this crap and buying an IPOD. Why haven’t I? Because I got this crap for Christmas not too long ago.

The PlayStation Home BETA has been set back to Fall 2008. The quote was very confusing, but in my corperate-to-English translator, Sony wants more time to put more stuff in the PlayStation Home. What now are they adding? Best Buy? Forclosing? An option that lets you be a robber? A Microsoft jail? Or maybe even Mii support! Well, whatever it is, Sony is saying it will have more than most gaming technology has today. People, if you want virtual life so bad, just get the Sims 2.

Nintendo is not planning to cut the price of the Wii or DS this year. According to the president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, “It would be unfair to those who already own one.” He also noted the possibility of a refresh of the handheld platform if sales momentum does not continue.

Lastly, Grand Theft Auto IV will be coming out not far from now on April 29th. GTA IV is going to be leaving Nintendo in the dust this time as the XBOX 360 and the PS3 go head-to-head in sales. The game is expected to bring in around $400 million during the first week of sales, an analyst said.

Less than 3 days - - Podcast dated

Not even 3 days until Mario Kart Wii comes out. Yes, I will be getting it and reviewing it, duh. But it might not be out exactly on Sunday, but I am really looking forward to this game. The first things I’ll probably do are race single player and go online. I can’t wait to get my hands on the Wii Wheel also. It’s just a holder for the Wii remote, but it’s a very good one. And if I’m not using that, I’ll probably be rocking the GameCube controller.

New podcast date, next week by Tuesday is when I will have the podcast up. Unfortunatly, I can’t post it on this blog. Fortunatly, I got a site where I can and will only post podcasts. Nothing more. I’ll get a link right when it’s out.

New instuments in Guitar Hero

It has been announced that sometime, possibly in Guitar Hero IV, the series could bring new instruments. Well that’s what they announced in 2006. In fact, just this past February, the soon-to-be megapublisher trademarked “DJ Hero.”

Even though it was announced a while back, they didn’t announce when it would come and to which game it’d debut. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick decided to promote that YES, Neversoft is working on going past the lead guitar/bass peripherals. YES, we hope to expand as far as possible. But no, no date or game title is available.

“The age appeal is something we’ve never seen before: Seven-year-olds who have no idea who Aerosmith is are playing the band’s music on Guitar Hero,” Activision CEO explained. “So are 45-year-olds who spent a good portion of their lives following the band around.” He also gave a guess that around 40% of them are woman.

Hopefully, hardware reliability issues will slow down or stop as with Rock Band, many have experienced problems including the microphone not registering notes properly, the kickpad on the drums busting, and many more.

Later this year, Activision will merge with Blizzard Entertainment in a deal around the value of $19 billion

Super Smash Bros Brawl night #1

This is my first night for playing Super Smash Bros Brawl late at night. My friend code is right above this post, so maybe if you register it, we might come across each other!