Ahh... home at last.

Well its over another 3 days of video game excess are history. About half way through Friday is when it hit me, I was at the point of overload. I didn't feel like waiting in line, or pushing through a crowd, but I stayed with it and finished out the day. I did get to the point though where I was trying to judge if my time spent in line was worth the "swag" in the end. Glad I didn't wait 2 1/2+ hours in the Zelda line as they were out of the shirts on the last day anyway. It seemed like a mix this year I think my swag level was about the same but was more spread out over the three days. I won a mouse (thanks Logitech!) and for the second year never won anything at the Nvidia booth. :(

I'm still pissed about how much better "Media" attendees get treated at the various booths. They can print/show all the hype you want to build up your product, but in the end it's the drones at the retail level that are going to be pushing people to your game. On another note if "Absolutely NO ONE under 18 will be admitted" was true then why are there UNDERAGE badge holders?? I saw alot more kids this year than last year.

Okay enough hate, where's the love?

I did like the way the Xbox 360 controller felt in my hand, it was very comfortable.

I enjoyed Virtua Tennis (PSP), Trauma Center (DS), Lost in Blue (DS), Top Spin (360), Ultimate Spiderman (Xbox), and Alan Wake (PC) wasn't playable but this game is gorgeous.

Things that I need more time with (meaning I wasn't overly thrilled with the game, or it just seemed like more of the same) Burnout Legends (PSP), Condemned (360), and Coded Arms (PSP).

The what were they thinking award goes to the GBA Micro... I guess if they find a niche market it will do okay (I'm thinking kids, or people with small hands.). The one I played with had an RPG in it and the text was so small. The screen is nice and sharp but man I couldn't imagine watching it for long periods of time.

E3...

Well it's Thursday, second day of E3. My feet hurt. :( Been in town since Tuesday, and L.A. is so wild. I've seen two bands play live Alaska! and AudioSlave, went the wrong way on the subway at least 3 times (but 1 wasn't my fault).

As for the show it's huge just like last year, swag seems to be at a minimum (sorry Jason) but I'm still looking. I've played some DS games Animal Crossing, and Nintendogs are going to rock. I haven't gotten the urge up yet to wait in the 2 hour Zelda line, although I've waited in line for 30 minutes for a shirt (You've got to have your priorities straight!). OMG the GBA micro is sooooo small I've taken some pictures, but probably won't post until I'm back.

Well off to do some actual playing this afternoon, more later.

MTV blows :P

Well the MTV Xbox 360 show sucked. I didn't have high hopes, but that was really bad. Out of a 30 minute show we got to see maybe 5 minutes of actual 360 game footage? Wow that was a good idea, I learned more about PIMP MY RIDE and the Killers than I did about the new Xbox.

Anyway I found this link to a wmv video that I guess originated from the OurColony teaser site. It's about 6 minutes long, and 100x better than that MTV crap.

More Xbox 360, the end of TV, and more...

Don't forget the Xbox 360 MTV special airs tonight at 8:30pm (CDT) tune in to see the next gen console. More info and pictures have found there way onto the web from the actual event last week so there probably won't be a lot of surprises, but I'll watch it anyway.

I found some pictures someone scanned in from a German magazine that are screens of Ghost Recon 3 for the Xbox 360. They look pretty nice! I'm not a GR fan, but I do like some of the other Tom Clancy games (Rainbow 6, Splinter Cell) and I'm sure those will have future installments on the 360 also.

It's a sad time in the TV season most all the shows season finale's are airing this week or have already. Veronica Mars is over for the season, and I must say I think it was my favorite show this year. LOST would probably get that distinction but there were too many times when there wouldn't be a new episode for 2-3 weeks at a time. I was thrilled with Amazing Race (Yay! Uchenna & Joyce). I'm glad Rob & Amber didn't win, but I did enjoy watching them race. And just in case anyone wants to keep score I rank C.S.I. in the following order C.S.I. (Las Vegas), C.S.I. New York, and finally C.S.I. Miami although Miami looks the best in HD. :)

I played a little Hot Shots Open Tee the other day, and really liked it. It will be my next PSP purchase. Tried out Smart Bomb, and while I enjoyed it more than Mercury it still won't replace Lumines at any point. E3 is fast approaching! Only 6 more days until the festivities. I will try to post daily if computer access is available.

Xbox 360 revealed!

Well it didn't take long, someone leaked a snapshot from the MTV special that was taped thursday night in LA. Notice the "Eyetoy" and redesigned(?) headset? Probably not the final boxed product (there are no logo markings on the unit itself (ie. DTS, Dolby Digital, etc...)).

Coming Soon & Now showing...

Not much this week to write about, but the countdowns are on.

Star Wars Episode III opens in 13 days... (While I'm looking forward to it, it's not as big of deal to me as some. At this point in time I don't even know when I'm going to see it.)

E3 exhibits open in 12 days... (Yeah! I'm so looking forward to this, probably because I'll be off work for 5 days! All the games will be cool too.)

Microsoft Unviels the Xbox 360 in 6 days on MTV (I guess the show was taped last night at the Avalon Club in Los Angeles. You can see some pics here, of the green carpet celebs that showed up. Looks like someone would have smuggled a picture or two of the console out, maybe they'll pop up later this weekend.)

On the Now Showing front, I watched House of Wax this morning, and its okay. To sum it up it start off really slow, Paris dies way too late, overall gore factor is good. It seems to be along the same lines as the other Dark Castle movies I've seen.

Next gen games, and EB Stop...

There has been a lot of next gen activity lately, starting with the supposed Xbox 360 picture leaks (see below), and now some next gen game screens. There have been a couple posted like Steel monkeys (Click on 2 Days to Vegas), and these from an upcoming PS3 game called Possession. If some of these are really close to what the next gen graphics are going to be, I'll spend more time looking at the scenery and forget I'm playing a game (kinda like the first time I booted up Half-Life 2).

On a different note 1up has put up an article about the merging of GameStop & EB, what it means to gamers.

PSP, and DS...

I finally got a hold of a used copy of Lumines today (YAY!), was really starting to think I may have to buy a new one. Doesn't seem to be a lot of them traded in anywhere, usually a sign of a really good game. :) With the Lumines purchase that pretty much covers my PSP want list (I have Untold Legends, and Wipeout already). Although Hot Shots Golf comes out soon, and will probably find its way on the must buy list.

I tried Pac-Pix (NDS) this week for a bit (just the first chapter), and enjoyed it. It's a fairly simple game as Pac has gathered all the ghost in a book, but unfortunately gets sucked in himself. You have to clear the pages (ie. levels) of the ghost to advance to the next. Each page has it's limits (number of Pac-men you can draw, and time) that you have to work within. You control Pac by drawing him on the screen (a set movement, think of it like graphitti on the palm) he moves whichever way he was facing when you drew him. You draw lines (walls) to make him change direction, and you can stop him momentarily by holding him with the stylus. I don't think I would pay full price for it, but it a pre-owned one shows up I may pick it up.

Mini Movies... PSP UMD's

Well the movies on UMD are actually surprising me, I know we've sold more than I thought we would, and more companies are supporting the format. Personally I feel they're to high especially when I already own most of the DVD's. I would like to see them sell through two versions of the DVD, one regular, and one bundled with the UMD for a bit more (~$10). This of course, would only work on new releases that aren't already available on DVD, but I think I would pick up one of these over paying $15+ for just the UMD release. Anyway here are the current release dates I compiled of upcoming UMD's:

5/03 National Treasure, Hero, Reign of Fire
5/17 Spider-Man 2 (Guess for those who missed the initial PSP launch?)
5/24 Are We There Yet?, Charlies Angels
5/31 Hollow Man, Boogeyman
6/07 Terminator 2, Saw, Van Wilder, Punisher, Open Water
6/14 Spider-Man (Animated Series), Daddy Day Care, Hitch
6/21 King Arthur, Hostage, Cursed, Tron
6/28 Grudge, Anacondas
7/19 Kill Bill v.2, Armageddon, Gone in 60 Seconds, From Dusk Till Dawn

The Lion's gate releases on 6/07 are all listed as 6/24 on Amazon.com, but that is a Friday so I don't know which date is correct. I also read that they plan on putting out 12 titles total so there are others coming from them.

Untold Legends & Xbox sneak peek?

I picked up a copy of Untold Legends the other day for PSP, and I must say I really like it. If you ever played Diablo this game is for you. So far I'm up to level 13, and seem to gain about 1 level per "quest". The only difference is in Diablo (and other RPG's like FFXI) there are newbie zones where lower level players go, Untold Legends seems to tailor the monsters in whatever area you are in to your level, so your always gaining experience.

On another note, this shot was released and it is supposed to be the Xbox 360 design. I guess we will know for sure in a little over 3 weeks.

PSP goodness...

Well it's been in my hands for 5 days now, and I like it. :) Of course, I'm talking about the PSP unit.

Well I think my initial views on the games was correct, there just isn't that much out there I'm dying to play. I still haven't picked up Untold Legends, trying to find a pre-played one (saving money for E3), and haven't really had a chance to look for one yet. I did try out both Lumines, and Mercury. While I enjoyed Lumines (enough to warrent a purchase at some point), Mercury left me feeling down. I wanted to like it as it shares similarities to Monkey Ball, and even Marble Madness. In the end it felt like there was too much other stuff to worry about, almost like they over complicated it. I just didn't enjoy playing it. I already own Wipeout Pure (bought because of the web browsing) and have been playing it, and found that it's quite fun (and great looking) in it's own rite. Although I'll be the first to admit I *enjoy* racing games, I do ultimately suck at them, so they usually aren't high on my wish list.

It didn't take long for the last episode of South Park to make it too the handheld (I lost the link where I found it but search for episode 904 "Kenny gets a PSP", and you'll probably find it.). I watched it last night, and thought it was really funny, I wonder what the release date for "Heaven vs. Hell" is?

I found this site makes a great PSP starting point.

Temptation wins!

Well I give up, after playing with the PSP last weekend, I broke down and bought one. It just happens that I came across a sweet deal on a pre-owned unit that I couldn't pass up. Got pretty much everything that was in the value pack with the exception of the wrist strap, the manual, and the SONY soft case. I got a different case, extra earphones, and a UMD case so I figure it was ok.

I'm probably in the market for a new case as the Intec one I got is a only so-so. I like it better than the SONY soft case because it does have some storage room, but want to look at the logitech case that's coming out.

On the plus side there were no dead pixels! yay! Course that's pretty easy to check on a pre-owned unit. Also, I've already come to the conclusion that the 32MB stick is waaay to small. :(

Here are some sites I found for PSP formatted video downloads...
Misc. Trailers & Videos
South Park Episodes
Misc. Trailers & Videos
Older Star Wars spoof - Troops
Sony's Trailers & Videos

White PSP

Oops, I forgot to mention I found a picture of the Gran Turismo PSP unit. I remember hearing there was going to be a GT Pack which would include a White PSP, and the Gran Turismo game. Don't know if it is or isn't Japan only, probably will get a clue by the time E3 rolls around (just a little over a month!).

This week's adventures... PSP love and WiFi

Well, Friday slipped passed and I didn't write a blurb. But, got some "hands on" time with a PSP, and man do I want one. Although, it isn't the games that are pushing it over, it's the Wipeout Pure web browsing hack (google it). The PSP has built in 802.11b wifi capabilities out of the box, and as you may or may not know there are a lot of wireless access points (WAP) out there especially if your in a city of some size. Now most of these are secured/encrypted, but some are not. :)

I picked up Wipeout early this week (yet I don't own a PSP?!) and was really excited thinking about portable internet. The PSP will scan for WAP's when setting up a new infrastructure connection, and show you there name, encryption, and signal strength of the ones found. What your looking for is ones where whomever controls the WAP forgot (?) to set the security features. I thought I would see if any of my neighbors were "leaking" wireless signals, but unfortunately they were not. If/when I get a PSP I will have to buy a wireless router for the house. Since I still had the PSP this afternoon I decided to check around work, but it's a business area so all of the WAP's I found were encrypted although some had interesting names (Exit Wi-Fi = Wal-Mart?) . For example in the parking lot I picked up 5-8 WAP's depending on where I was standing. Another interesting place to check is an apartment complex, I drove through one, and found 20+ easily with I'd say only 1/2 with encryption turned on.

OK now for my PSA, if you hook up a wireless router take the time to change the name, and turn encryption on! Do you want anyone to come along and use your internet bandwidth, or gain access to your network? Okay some people don't do this, and you would be surprised how many units are still named default. Anyway enough of that. To make this extremely long story short(er) I surfed the web through one of the PSP portals, and damn it was cool! It's not without some problems (big pictures won't load, most pages aren't designed for the screen size, and the PSP's text entry method is kinda tedious.) but overall its really neat.

Another week...

Well it's been a week since the last post, Friday's seem to be a good day to update. I watched Upside of Anger this morning and enjoyed it. Drama with a light layer of comedy, there were a couple of really good laugh out loud moments.

PSP thoughts, DS magazine

Okay first off the PSP hit the market yesterday. I didn't get one personally because of the price, value pak stuff that I didn't want or need, and the fact that only one game stood out as something I would play (Untold Legends). After looking at them yesterday for a bit, I will say they are really sexy handhelds. I have watched Lumines being played and it looks cool (I'm a puzzle game junkie), as does the fore mentioned Untold Legends. I just can't bring myself to pay $250 for a handheld gaming system, considering I didn't get an Xbox till they were $200, and a PS2 until they were $150.

I guess maybe it boils down to I'm not a big early adopter in the console arena, the original PlayStation, Nintendo Gamecube, and the DS are the only units I've ever bought at launch. I'll probably pick up a PSP when one of the following conditions is met, I find a used one for ~$200, Sony drops the value pak and sells the unit by itself, or some awsome game is announced that I just have to play. Out of those I'm guessing the first will be met sooner than the other two, I don't look for a unit only solution until Christmas time.

On another note I found a site (Dualscene.co.uk) where the guy puts out a DS magazine (in .pdf format). He just put up issue #2, and I've read through it and enjoyed it. He reviews about 7 games, including imports so take a look.

Video game musings

I picked up Yoshi's Touch & Go today for the DS, and I'm really enjoying it a lot. It is one of those games that you can just pick up and play for a couple minutes, or get engrossed in, and keep trying to beat that last score.

I've also been getting really pumped for this year's E3 Expo. I went last year for the first time, and was overwhelmed by it all. I did gain some valuable experience last year, so this year should be a breeze. I spent too much time wandering around, and didn't actually get as much hands-on play time as I would have liked. I'm thinking that this year there will be some big news (especially in the hardware area) like Xbox 2, the GBA successor, Nintendo Revolution, and hopefully lots of playable upcoming DS games (Animal Crossing!).

Welcome, to my little piece of the web.