10/27/2006

The Secret To Selling Pasta Sauce In Japan? Scaring The Crap Out Of White Children.

by Matthew Edward Hawkins

This one’s for Mike: So I recently came up with an awesome new game, which works well if you live and work in New York, though I would imagine that it also works in any major city. Next time you come across one of those lame ass Asian “fusion” restaurants, check and see how many dudes there are inside that look just like Moby. You know, frail, emo-nerdly white dudes with shaved heads and huge, horn-rimmed designer glasses. I’ll bet you that there’s at least three. Bonus points if they have an Asian girlfriend.

Speaking of, before I get into video game talk, here’s a WACKY JAPPY batch of YouTube vids, including…

… red pandas!

… break-dancers!

… and pretty much the most strangest/craziest/amazing ad campaign for pasta sauce of all time.

Here are some regular spots:

insane pasta sauce ad #1

insane pasta sauce ad #2 (EDIT: It’s gone! Awww…)

insane pasta sauce ad #3

insane pasta sauce ad #4

Plus somme footage of those… things in the street.

Anyway…
________________________________________________________________________________

- So last night was another IGDA sponsored event in NYC dubbed Playing The Game in which various folks from the NYC game dev community shared their thoughts about making games in the Big Apple. I’m going to be preparing a very throughout overview of the night’s events for the new IGDA NYC website, which goes like this weekend I believe, but till then I’ll just say that the definite highlight of the evening was hearing everyone’s favorite Greg Costikyan say “Basically, gamers suck.”

Since I wasn’t feeling so hot (I’m actually fighting off a cold… the same one that floored MK last weekend, but its not at that stage… yet, so long as I keep with the massive doses of Airborne I guess), I decided to skip out on the after-party and just go straight home. Which also meant not heading to Jersey for some drinks with Dave (Mauro) and Colin, though it was nice to know I was missed when I Colin sent me a text message that simply said “HABOKEN!!, which is drunk video game humor for those who couldn’t tell (or didn’t know such a thing existed). So if you’re reading this guys, sorry I couldn’t make it.

- Time to talk about Guitar Hero! Its been announced today that a new wireless guitar controller is being produced by Red Octane that will be compatible with Guitar Hero 1 and 2. No word on how it’s going to work… one has to assume that it connects to the PS2 via USB, since that’s the only way its going to work on the PS3 (again, the choice to not included a PSone/PS control and memory card port is fucking retarded, and nothing is going to convince me otherwise). And before you ask, there’s like zero perfect chance that it’ll be compatible with the Xbox 360 version. Sorry.

Also yesterday morning some folks at the Gaming Age Forums passed along word of how Wal Mart broke the street date for Guitar Hero 2. At least in a few stores; most are just setting them up and are refusing to sell any till the official date of release, which is November 7.

I also discovered via the thread that Red Octane is going to sell the game by itself, which as some might recall, was something they weren’t going to do, at least when is spoke to them last. Which is I guess is good news, that they listened to folks such as myself and others (if you check the thread, you’ll see one of NeoGAF’s “denizens” busting my chops for supposedly being out of the loop… ah, message board trolls).

- And speaking of, here’s what happens when world collide, at least mine. Specifically the Gaming Age Forums and Nickelodeon Magazine. Oh, and no, I didn’t write the piece in question. I just think it funny that the folks there fucking read EVERYTHING.

- Back to Guitar Hero, check out Frets on Fire, which is the same basic concept and gameplay, but using a keyboard as a guitar (which is HIGHLY reminiscent of what Nullsleep does during his chiptunes performance).

But anyway, I haven’t had a chance to try it out, but apparently its really neat, with the best part being that you can use whatever song you want in the game. And it’s sorta popular as well; here’s a video of someone playing the “Lost My Music” from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, a popular anime with the kids these days.

- Yet another game related YoutTube vid, this one for the old Japanese only PSone title Pepsiman. I’ve known about this game for ages, but this is my first time actually seeing it in action. And now… I really regret all the times I passed it up.

- I forgot to mention previously that Rockstar’s Bully, the game that had to potential to topple the entire industry here in America and send it back to the stone age (at least according certain parties) came out last week, and it apparently hasn’t turned every kid out there who’s played it into homicidal maniacs. And some folks in the mainstream press actually get the point of the game as well.

And the fact that it managed to get reach store shelves means that everyone’s favorite video game hatin’ screwball Florida attorney, Jack Thompson, was unsuccessful in his attempt to get it legally banned. Though he now has a new target: Mortal Kombat. It seems the latest game included him with the rest of the cast of undead ninjas, cyborgs, four armed dragon men (along with a ?sexy? counterparts), and mall cops, and he ain’t happy.

That Gamespot story btw also has a link to Destructoid’s hidden camera footage of Thompson as he makes an ass of himself in front of a judge.

- Speaking of Bully, when I first heard of the game a whiles back, it reminded me of Kenka Banchou, which is the same basic thing, but in a Japanese high school, which means awesome Japanese punk hair styles for the win. Well, a sequel is on the way.

- So Coleco is coming out with a finally coming out with a new system! The name came back onto the scene last year and made cryptic promises that they had something new in store. And this is it: a handheld device… that plays Sega Master System games. Yeah. So, it’s basically another Game Gear. Yeah. I know.

- Remember me bitching about the lack of the CONSOLE Xbox 360 faceplate recently? Plus I’ve long wondered after all the hoop-la, why only a few were designed (I’ve only seen the all silver one, the blue one with the green lines, the wood grain one, and a football related one in stores). Well apparently, there’s been quite a few design that were created, though most are pretty hard to come by.

- And do you also remember all the times I’ve said that I wish I could write off the PSP completely, but I can’t due to all the Tetsuya Mizuguchi games? Yeah well… I’ve got another reason to maybe still get one; check out these vids of his Q Entertainment’s revamp of Gunpey (either the last game created by, or created in tribute to, Gunpei Yokoi, the man who created the NES and the Game Boy, as well as Metroid, and who was also unceremoniously fired by Nintendo due to the Virtual Boy’s failure then later killed in a freak auto accident, when he was working on Wonderswan games), Gunpey-R.

Not shown is a skin featuring elements from Every Extend Extra, which is… sexy as hell. There’s also a DS version in works, which looks decidedly… different (be sure to check out the commercial).

- How about some more trailers: first here’s Monster Madness, which has a real Zombies Ate My Neighbors vibe (and yet another reason why MK will want me to get a 360 as soon as possible). I also love the vague elements of Katamari.

Next, check out the trailer for Pimp My Ride. Seriously. I just get off on watching white people explain all the intricacies involved in creating and selling urban youth culture crap, as well the (I bet contractually obligated) explanation of how some rapper or athlete was involved in the creative process… really, they were! But easily the best part of the trailer, and reason why I may actually get the game is at the 3:30 mark. You just have to see it.

Third is something that John passed along yesterday and which also has a strong element of Katamari in it, this time in 2D (and yeah, its also like the official two-dimensional iterations of Katamari as well). It’s called Tasty Planet, and you basically start out super small ball of “out-of-control nanotechnology” and your goal is to eat everything around you. You start small, and can only eat small as first, but then you grow and… you get the picture. It looks like lots of fun, so I might actually be pre-ordering it.

Though I will admit that the trailer sorta freaked me out since there’s a part of it that sorta looks like Spready Bear, that Flash game that I’ve been working on forever (but as God is my witness, it will get done).

- Robin gave me the head’s up on this one: with Halloween just around the corner, the Angry Nintendo Nerd has a new seasonal game review online, this one featuring Friday the 13th. And the thing that kills me is that if done properly, a Friday the 13th RPG, which is what the NES basically was, would be SO FUCKING INCREDIBLE. Same thing if you used Nightmare on Elm Street.

Which reminds me… I was actually working on a proposal while at Ubi Soft of a Friday the 13th/Nightmare on Elm Street/Texase Chainsaw Massacre game (at the time, Ubi thought it has a shot to grab all three licenses, and I figured “why not combine all three?!”). And trust me, it would have been awesome (a gory, action-RPG).

- On, and here’s someone else doing the same basic shtick that the Angry Nintendo Nerd does, just… not as good. Check out this guy’s review of Total Recall. It’s also funny, for somewhat different reasons; this dude is less angry and more surly, in a typical average Gamestop shopper who ties up the line by bitching at the clerk why there’s no Killer Instinct 3 out yet kind of way, if you catch my drift.

- So everyone knows I like video games, and toys, along with video game related toys, right? Unfortunately, most are not that hot. But here’s one that definitely is, and is right up there with the SOTC figure. Check out Skull Kid from Majora’s Mask…

- Now for some box art. First off a look at a pair of bizarreo shovelware DS games, like Wiffle Ball, cuz you know baseball, even in video game form, can be a bit too dangerous for kids, and Hamsterz Life. That’s hamsters with a Z (so is it all gangsta?)…

… truth be told, its nice to see Ubi Soft give all the shitty Nintendogs knock-off’s a break. And, I’ve long been looking for a whole that the cancellation of Virtua Hamster created, so I might actually pick this one up.

Check out the box for Konami’s Wii game, Elebits which looks quite nice…

… As I mentioned previously, I had a real hard time playing it at DigitalLife, but I’ve since discovered that almost every Wii game shown at a tradeshow always have their sensitivity knocked way the hell up for some reason.

And despite with the advent of the next-gen in gaming, we still have some of the same problems as we’ve always have, like games with Awesome Japanese box arts getting gimped for Americans, such as the latest Monkey Ball Wii title…

Plus, here a few of the boxes to some of the Burger King themed 360 games that I’ve mentioned in the past…

… That first one is f’n awesome, and pure Burt Reynolds. And for those who might interested, sharing the limelight with the King in the second one is the Subservient Chicken. Man, when did Burger King become so fucking awesome with the mascots?!

- Finally, this one’s for MK: guess what honey, TIME TO GET A DS.

2 comments

10/25/2006

I Hate You Dad: The Video Game… American Style!

by Matthew Edward Hawkins

Since I’m still so annoyed by the whole Sony causing the death of Lik-Sang, here’s what Mike (O’ Connor) had to say about it over at the Gamer’s Quarter forums, who also did a great job of sheding light on Sony’s decision to go after the retail outfit legally via the United Kingdon’s legal system:

“sony really is one of the most blundertastic game companies on earth… not that this will deter piracy, of course, but sony is notorious for never, ever ever learning from its mistakes. (betamax –> umd, etc etc)….

… it’s just that the uk has what one might consider, from an american perspective, a uniquely proportioned sense of liability in certain contexts – which is why if you’re going to sue a tabloid for saying you’re awesome, you sue them in the uk.

couched in terms of “safety issues” (which again, from even our debased american perspective in the age of the safety kid, the uk and eu are absurdly obsessed with, especially with things like these where the safety issue is negligible – but the ability to section off and control trade isn’t) sony can say “lik sang was putting people in danger AND violating our right to control our physical IP AND enabling counterfeiting AND are not very nice people at all.” this is the same company, of course, which thinks that users hacking the OS on the psp apart to install linux on it and run homebrew software is a bad thing. they do not understand how audience participation will create sales no matter what kind of roadblocks you put up, which is why people bother spending lots of time and money importing consoles in the first place to play games in a language they can’t actually understand.

if sony were a more intelligent company – that is to say, more interested in long term health rather than trying to save their asses from what may very well be their last tap dance on this stage as a market leader – they would realize that people spend millions trying to create these kind of “user communities” and for every act of piracy – unpreventable piracy, mind you – there lies a possible entrance for a new customer. who cares if a uk user wants to import an american game and play it on a japanese console? outside of power restrictions may cause damage? motherfuckers buy the shit; if they can’t be bothered to figure out how to make it work, too fucking bad. refuse to repair out of region consoles even, or more intelligently, charge a small fee for warranty replacement on out of warranty transactions (like import consoles, modding, etc). the piracy will not be stopped through physical preventive measures; the utter lack of respect for the concept of ownership when it comes to digital media is mitigated, however, by the aging of your audience, the perks of packaging and a hack-free gaming experience.”

The thing is, I thought the whole point behind the PSP in the first place was for it to be the ultimate “do anything” device. And if Sony had indeed allowed people to do precisely “whatever” from the very beginning, instead of using firmware to string people along (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say that they refuse to buy a new game because they would be forced to upgrade and therefore loose all the cool shit they can currently do), Sony would have indeed had the “iPod killer” they have so desperately longed for. But again, they fucked it up.

In the realm of video games, one will be hard pressed to find a better example of a company that continually spits in the faces of its supporters. And again, there’s just no plausible reason for Sony to go after Lik-Sang. Previously they were shut down by Nintendo for selling flash carts for the GBA, and a valid argument could be made on the behalf of Nintendo. But considering that there’s no plausible means to pirate PSP games, then what was the point? Sony just hated someone selling games from one region to another? I’ve always been curious at people who defend such thinking since, in the end, Sony or whomever got their money somewhere to procure the game in the first place to sell via whatever means.

Maybe they just realized this simple face this morning, hence the statement from them earlier this morning in which they re-iterated that PS3 games will be region free. Either that or they’re just trying to save a little bit of face from this latest bit of embarrassment (which they are also claiming they are not a part of).

Though regarding the region-free thing, they also reiterated that its ultimately up to the game companies to make the final call, which is the same exact position that Microsoft has with their Xbox 360. Hence why the system, which is supposed to open a whole world of possibilities for you is not able to play Senko No Ronde X.

Anyway, I guess I have yet another reason not to support Sony any further. I know I’ve long said that I really don’t want to pay $600 for a video game system, but call me again when I see the latest game from the folks behind Ico and Shadow of the Colossus has a game up and running for it and see if I’ve changed my tune. But seriously, as I type this, if I look immediately to my left and behind me, there’s at least thirty PS2, Xbox, DS, even a few GBA and GameCube games that I have barely touched, so I have really have no reason to bother.

And with that, I think I may have totally ruined my chances of getting a PS3 from Sony. Oh well.

In other news, again, its been another busy day, so I haven’t had any real chance to look around, but I do know that someone over at the Gaming Age Forums has compiled all the music from all the bitGeneration games, and that 4 Color Rebellion is hosing the tunes

Oh, and I know that this is SUPER old, but since I don’t think I recall anyone talking about this since coming across the blurb via Cinescape (yes, they do report on games as well) that Sega will be doing the video game adaptation of the His Dark Materials trilogy. One has to wonder if it’ll be based more so on the books or the upcoming movies. Unfortunately, it will more than likely be the latter, which will be severely castrated iterations of the source material. Which is a shame since the original books embody so much of what jRPG folks have grown to love. You know, the whole “I hate you dad, let’s kill God!” thing. It would be nice for Final Fantasy freaks to get an American treatment.

Plus, according to MK, the video game version of Reservoir Dogs, which she’s been watching her brother play since getting it yesterday, is apparently not that bad (looking). This actually corroborates with earlier reports from folks at either the GAF or IC, I forget which, that it actually has some interesting elements. I’ll have to check it out myself. I also forgot to mention that I played the Urbz this past weekend while looking after MK; she got it at a Toys R Us for just $6. She’s been really interested in the game since forever, hence why I didn’t have the heart to tell her that everyone I’ve talked to has said it sucked. Plus it was only $6. Though I will say that I do like hearing Black Eye Peas in Simlish.

Finally, and also from the Gaming Age Forums, though not video game related, this is simply hilarious (thanks to cvxfreak for the head’s up)…

1 comment

10/24/2006

Teen Wolf’s Dad Was Pretty Cool, Right?

by Matthew Edward Hawkins

- First things first: my latest Cinema Pixeldiso piece for GameSetWatch went live late Friday afternoon. Oh, and just in case anyone was wondering or noticed, yeah, my GSW column was originally slated to be for every other Wednesday, but since the first two ended up being published on Thursdays, it was then moved to that day officially, but when the moment of truth arrived, I got wrapped up in a ton of crap (long story short: sorry Apple fans, but viruses for Macs do exist), hence why it went live late Friday. But the plan is to be ahead of schedule next time: next Tuesday, Halloween will be a special edition, with reviews of two feature length movies, each horror themed. And then the following Thursday, instead of a regularly scheduled Cinema Pixeldiso, I’ll be doing a special report regarding comics books…

Anyhow, the latest piece is all about the original Super Mario Bros movie from back in the early 90′s which, at least in my humble opinion, isn’t that bad! It was at least… different. And you know, if you’re gonna have Mojo Nixon in your movie, you may as well make him a folk-song singing toadstool that gets transformed into a brainless dinosaur with a harmonic, right?

- Back to the subject of Halloween, its now officially a week away and I’ve been so busy that there just hasn’t been any time to work on my originally planned costume, that being the Hamburglar. Plus, I probably won’t be around town this upcoming weekend to hit any parties. Instead I’ll be at Great Adventures, and maybe riding roller coasters in a big goofy outfit might not be the best of ideas (okay, maybe it actually is).

Though I’m now thinking of just dressing up as Teen Wolf’s Dad. Why? Because it should be relatively easy enough to whip together. Plus Dave (Mauro) is going to be Teen Wolf, so I guess if we’re able to hit a party together, we could make a decent team, but I’m pretty sure that Teen Wold’s Dad is pretty awesome all by himself.

- Anyway, as for the rest of last weekend, Friday night was Jay’s birthday, which was a bit lite on the Japanese punk rockers and dockworkers, but it was still lots of fun nonetheless. Just sat around with Jay, Joe, and June plus other peeps, drank some beer, eate cocktail weenies, and cake, plus watched some game shows. I finally got to see Deal or No Deal, and Jesus Christ, how the in the hell did such a shitty show get so fucking popular?! At least Match Game was on later in the evening; I forget if it’s been mentioned before, but I am a fanatical diehard fan of that show. It?s sorta hard to describe why… I would have to assume that the brilliance of a entire game show built around contestants trying to guess six B list celebs complete dirty limericks, and while totally drunk off their asses, is pretty obvious.

We also decided to get into the holiday spirit by carving pumpkins, which most of us hadn’t done since we were like seven. It was lots of fun. We were at our friend’s Russ’ place and he got a new kitten, and I had lots of fun playing with a cat that wasn’t morbidly obese (unlike the 60 pounds sacks of fur and cat fecees I have to live with), but like a total idiot, I touched my eyes immediately afterwards without washing my hands, and I had a allergic attack immediately (though June had some allergy meds on-hand to help take care of the situation). We also got to check out Russ’ HD projector, as well as fuck around and take pictures, like this one of the birthday boy.

Since there was work at SVA the next morning, I decided to head out early and hail a cab, and I had easily one of the worst taxi related experiences in recent memory. And the thing is, I generally like cab drivers and am more than up for a conversation (almost everyone has countless awesome tales), but this one guy had a shitty attitude right from the start when he asked where to. When I responded with Brooklyn, he got all pissy with “Oh? And how do we suggest we get there?” It’s like, listen asshole, I know you don’t like going out to Brooklyn, but its part of the fucking job, deal with it. Besides, I fucking hate that question since, are they supposed to know how to get anywhere? So when I said either of the bridges, he then got even more irate with “Don’t you know that all the bridges are totally clogged?!” Like I would fucking know that? When I then suggested the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, he then went “That might not be much better”…. Again, I’m the fucker who’s getting charged here, why the hell is he complaining? The more time I spend in his car is more money in his pocket!

A few minutes later as we’re on the east side highway, he asks me…

cab driver: “So did you hear?”

me: “No… About what?”

cab driver: “Some guy earlier tonight fucking raped and killed his daughter. Can you believe that?”

And I didn’t have much of a response, other than “Gee, that’s messed up…” Then for the next fifteen minutes, he just went on and on and on about one horrible tragedy from the news after another. Until finally…

cab driver: “So hear about those 9/11 victims? Can you believe that bullshit?”

me: “Okay, you know what? I get it, the world if f’d up. So could you please be quiet for the rest of the ride? Because you are seriously bumming me out.”

cab driver: “Bumming you out?!?!?!”

Then he got all pissy at me and started bitching, and I argued for a bit, then grew tired and put on my iPod, and I think he rambled on for a bit more till he ran out of steam. And dickface wondered why I gave him such a shit tip.

- The next day, after work, I headed up to the Bronx along with Jason to finally check out Fordham Game World, which I had been hearing about for literally years over at the Gaming Age Forums, as the truly last great indie game store in the Big Apple. And… it more than lived up to the hype. It was like Game Express on 32nd near Penn Station all over again, with a ton of older, and hard to find PS2, GameCube, Xbox, and GBA games. I was actually hoping for older systems, like PSone and classic GB games, but the place is rather small and already overflowing, plus with the DS, PSP, 360, and more on the way, I guess beggars can’t be choosers. But yeah, I was totally floored by the selection… I almost bought another additional copies of Rez and Guitaroo Man “just in case”, and if I had the cash to spare, I would have, but till then I’ll just keeping doing what I have been, which is let no other human being touch my precious copies. I was also strongly tempted to pick up a few PS2 import titles; there’s wasn’t too much, at least not compared to Chinatown, but their prices were insanely good. But again, I should maybe wait till I get my PS2 chipped.

But I did pick up a pair of rather hard to find GBA titles: Gekido Advance and Mr. Pants. Gekido Advance, which was been just perfect since I’ve been on a real (portable) fighter/beat ‘em kick as of late (maybe someone can tell me if the GBA King of Fighters games are any good) and Mr. Pants has been decent thus far, though I need to play a bit more I make a final call on it.

- Afterwards I went out to Jersey to see MK who was pretty ill. And because of her sickness, we really couldn’t do much, but I personally didn’t mind just sitting around, watching DVDs, and just resting on the couch (which we both managed to catch some z’s on, despite it being the worst, most uncomfortable thing on this planet Earth; we were that out of it). We mostly just watched Little Britain, which I’m quickly discovering is the new Benny Hill, in the sense that most Brits I’ve talked to simply doesn’t want to talk about it.

We also caught Saturday Night Live, and… holy shit, it was actually funny! Seriously! Though I somewhat expecting it since Tina Fey is no longer writing for the show, thank God. Which meant stronger, funnier sketches overall, plus Weekend Update wasn’t some 35 minute femi-Nazi borefest like its been for the past couple of years (I really hate to use a Rush Limbaugh term, but I honestly can’t think of a more appropriate term, and trust me, I tried). Also really helping was guest host John C. Reilly who’s just an awesome actor who made virtually every sketch work (even their pretentiously coined “digital short” was pretty funny thanks to John). My fave had to be either him as the dumb blonde chick that couldn’t stop stuffing tacos down her throat or the series of angry dad sketches, which you can ask MK, had been in hysterics for a solid two minutes straight each (maybe because they hit so close to home). Oh, and My Chemical Romance was the musical guest, which was interesting to watch for assorted reasons.

On a side note, I am curious why they decided to go back to the early 80?s (81-84?) SNL logo.

- I was also happy to return some stuff that MK had lent me a whiles back. I recently finally finished reading the last two Sandman collections; from what I gather, many people really enjoyed book nine, The Kindly Ones, which I liked, but I really dug the final volume, The Wake. I just love good endings. And yeah, I guess I’m weaksauce comic book guy for not reading Sandman back in the day, but in my defense, I read Watchman well before all my peers; when everyone got handed a copy in my 4th year storytelling for cartoonists class at SVA, I was completely shocked, and even a tiny bit disgusted, that virtually almost no one else in my class had read it beforehand. I also returned some Fart Party collections, which MK left behind at my place which was what got me into Julia Wertz‘s comics in the first place. The one where she gets so pissed off at a dude that she rips the guy’s head off and shits in his neck hole… classic.

Also finally checked out the issue of Clamor Magazine which has a nice and big expos? on American Apparel. I know a bunch of folks who from the clothing world and I’ve heard a lot of crazy stories regarding the company, so it was nice to finally get some hard info on the man behind the company, Dov Charney. Man, what a worthless piece of shit. I want to just say that I hope he gets AIDS, but that would mean that all the poor twelve-year-old girls he fucks would get infected, so instead, I hope he gets his cock cut off somehow. Anyhow, the whole article made me want to throw away all the AA shirts that I have at home.

But aside from the asshole who runs the place, their bullshit business tactics, the extremely obnoxious ad campaign, and how people are such suckers for it (especially “progressive types”, the ones who also buy into the same sort of bullshit that Starbucks and Whole Foods also tries to sell, which the article also does a great job with giving shit towards), I just hate the fact that their shirts are not only too small, but inconsistently sized. I have some American Apparel shirts that are Large and that are too tight, and others that fits me just perfectly. Anyway, from this point on, I’m getting Extra Large just to be on the side…

- Not too much to report from Sunday, though I did finally get the chance to play Mega Man ZX. It’s pretty awesome. Oh, and I finally got Guitar Hero yesterday. It was the last one they had at the Best Buy near work. Which means when part 2 comes out, I will have gotten some practice in, plus have a second guitar for co-op play. And even though I still suck at it… dear God is it amazing.

- Also yesterday, I stopped by the Nick Mag office to check out a demo and I tried selling my editor on the idea of doing a story about the super sweet robot at DigitalLife, and even though I didn’t have enough time to pass along the specifics, there did seem to be some interest, though I was asked “Are these genuinely cool robots that kids would like, or just the kind YOU like?” which I found sorta funny.

I guess I sorta have a robot monkey on my back in relation to Nick Mag, dating back to the time I “met” a robot at some robotics show and was so blown away by the AI that I sold the idea of doing an interview with it to my editor (at the after party, he was chit-chatting, even dancing, with tons of folks, and totally shooting down wise-asses, all in multiple tongues), but I would later find out it was a stand up comic in the booth that was saying all the words, which was sorta embarassing. A stand up comic who apparently knew seven different languages fluently.

- Once again, I find myself out out of loop in regards to all the breaking game related news, though with so much shit going on, its almost impossible to really be on-top of things. Case in point, I’m pretty confused as to what the deal is with the GBA, DS, and PSP versions of Cave Story. First, according to this, the PSP version of Cave Story is not bullshit and is in-fact approved by Pixel. And I too feel that it’s bullshit. Next, here’s a long awaited up on the GBA port. Which was then followed by a question from the guy doing the conversion to all the folks waiting, in which he wonders is a DS port preferable? And it seems that the overwhelming majority favors a DS port, and I’ve now heard that it will indeed be changing platforms.

I’ve also heard about YesAsia selling PS3′s for $1,500 and $1,900. Ahhh…. no.

Plus how Sony got Lik-Sang shut down. Such bullshit. I hope to God Play-Asia is not next.

And here’s a few other things I basically forgot or haven’t had the chance to pass along, like…

… word that Clover Studio has been shut down. Such a shame. I haven’t gotten a chance to pick up Okami yet (maybe I’m “part of the problem”?) so I hope it doesn’t become insanely hard to find in the coming weeks.

… The winner of the Mortal Kombat ultimate fan contest. Though as pointed out by some over at the IC forums, this dude’s death metal rendition, and accompanying video is entertaining as well (that is, if you’re really into the game and therefore can get all the references… otherwise, its sorta gay).

… yet another example of how ill-informed the “gaming press” can be, according to some. I’m not clear of all the details, but apparently it was some big joke and many are upset that Destructoid never bothered to do the research to realize this, which is a valid gripe; most folks in the “gaming press” rarely do any real investigation, espeically the blogger types. But then again, it’s somewhat of an honest mistake. Cue any one of Mike (O’Connor)‘s “Japan = so-so-so-soul cancer!” jokes.

Though it makes me wonder, if I were to send those folks this, would it too get a nice article out of it as well?

- Oh, and I also (and finally) updated my links page, so some of my friends can expect a 2.45% increase in page-hits (maybe), mostly from gamer nerds. I’ve also decided to bring back the mystery square, which I will change periodically. Expect mostly links either pertaining to video games, robots, and backyard wrestling. Maybe even porn (which will hopefully combine all three of the previous things).

5 comments