G4 Rewind

I suck at updating, eat me. Anyway I found this neat little site called G4Rewind.com that goes into the history of the network we all love to hate. It is really disheartening to look back on what the channel once offered compared to the utter shit that fills up the schedule today. Good to know that most of the former hosts have moved on to actual tech blogging careers, and hopefully Morgan Webb will follow suit. Everyone knows she's looking to jump off this sinking ship.

New Releases

I finished Metal Gear Solid 4 on Sunday and I don’t think anything is going to top those eighteen hours for a very long time. Of course this week we get fifty new releases, and some rather popular ones at that. Nintendo gets some music love on both consoles and everyone else gets a nice mix of genres. I have two picks this week; Final Fantasy adds another game to their tactics series on the DS while war lightens up with Bad Company on PS3 and 360. A little something for all the gamers on your Christmas list, only 6 months to go!

DS Releases

Guitar Hero: On Tour (Activision)
Play Guitar Hero on the bus, because you won’t look like a tool using the packed in peripheral. Let me know when they release Rock Band on the DS.

Top Spin 3 (Take 2)
Didn’t I talk about you a few weeks ago? Wow release dates, you sure do get pushed back often.

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift (SquareEnix) Handheld Pick of the Week
With over 400 quests to complete this is going to take almost a hundred hours to complete. Say goodbye to your family and friends, they never liked you anyways.

Mega Man Star Force 2: Zerker X Ninja (Capcom)
There are about thirty different Mega Man games for the handhelds, three of them are playable. This barely falls into that category; wait for the rumored Mega Man 9.

Wii Releases

Rock Band (Electronic Arts)
Five bonus tracks are included! Get the most out of them, because there aren’t any downloadable tracks for the Wii. Hey Nintendo, thanks for not having a hard drive.

Alone in the Dark (Atari)
Split into episodes, the game that started the Survival Horror Genre goes for the action and does it averagely. Just rent it, we’re talking an 8 hour game.


PS2 Releases

Alone in the Dark (Atari)
Atari got all up in arms about early reviews, maybe if the reviews were decent Atari wouldn’t be complaining. Sadly the reviews aren’t that kind.

PSP Releases

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 2: The Phantom Fortress (Namco Bandai)
A Naruto fighting game, ummm… let’s just move on.

Hellboy: Science of Evil (Konami)
Movie tie-in alert! Gamestop offers free movie money with the game, so you can see the film for free; you know they made a Hellboy sequel right? What, you didn’t know there was an original Hellboy?

PS3 Releases

Top Spin 3 (Take 2)
Andre Agassi was married to Brooke Shields, they got divorced. Good for Brooke Shields!

Overlord: Raising Hell (Codemasters)
You control a bunch of evil minions, like Pikmin with more village razing.

Battlefield: Bad Company (Electronic Arts) Console Pick of the Week
Fully destructible environments, open ended game play, dark humor, just like a real war. The reviews have been pretty fantastic for this game so if you’re done with MGS4, pick it up.

Hail to the Chimp (Gamecock)
Get it; the president is a monkey, like our president!

Hellboy: Science of Evil (Konami)
See, he’s a demon, but he’s good. Selma Blair is in the movie, she’s kinda hot…kinda

Xbox 360 Releases

Command and Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath (Electronic Arts)
Don’t piss off Kane, he has a nasty wrath. What? I haven’t played C&C in years. Stick to the PC version though, the games deserve to be played on their native home.

Battlefield: Bad Company (Electronic Arts)
I want a squad of war buddies, but without the war.
Supreme Commander (Aspyr)
Déjà vu this week, I know I talked about this before. One review so far and it isn’t exactly glowing.

Alone in the Dark (Atari)
The PS3 was delayed so 360 owners are the only people getting the pretty visuals of Central Park getting sucked into hell!

Top Spin 3 (Take 2)
I wasted my tennis material a few weeks ago, sorry.

Hail to the Chimp (Gamecock)
Wow, a politically themed party game. Gamecock has been known for their wacky antics, which is good, because they won’t be known for their games.

Operation Darkness (Atlus)
Vampires and werewolves were instrumental in World War II, if only this strategy game had gotten better reviews. Not even the story can save it.

Hellboy: Science of Evil (Konami)
Just pick up some of the comics, they’re cheaper.

Stupid blogger

I may try to switch this over to a better blogging server because blogger has some jenked up formatting. Unless I'm hired by 1up, then I'll be far too busy with my new job. Perhaps I should start a campaign.

Get Dan on 1UP!

What the hell?

Sean Malloy is leaving 1up, dammit. My plans are falling apart before they even begin. Although that means a job has opened up...right?

My new life goal

I've decided that 1Up, owned by Ziff Davis (Yeah I know how to do keywords) is the place in which I need to be hired, like right now. I can do some freelance writing for you all, hell I'll work for free for a bit as long as I get room and board somewhere, Shane and I would make good roomies, or Sean Malloy, I have a corgi as well, they could be friends. So get in touch with me people, you've read my stuff here, here, and here. So c'mon guys, we're not playing around anymore, lets get this going.

World of WifeCraft

And to think I'm this close to getting back into WoW

Because Midway is doing so well in the midwest...

Wisconsin has be historically known for their cheese, and people you'd never want to spend more than twenty minutes with (I kid my northern neighbors). Well if IGN is to believed, Wisconsin is looking to become a new home for game development. They state is offering a 25% tax incentive for qualifying game developers. Wisconsin is aware that people don't film games, they make them on computers, in large buildings. Mobile game studios have yet to catch on so don't expect to see Naughty Dog supporting the Packers any time soon.

Full Story

The Ziff Davis gang is going to be oh-tay

Kotaku is reporting that Ziff Davis' bankruptcy plan as been accepted and the company hopes to be out of Chapter 11 by July. Full story is here.

My only question, why is the staff still dropping like flies?

A look back...

I am going to be taking a break from the hard-hitting commentary this week to instead share with you, my six loyal readers, a short story about my younger days as a gamer. Most of you probably have a similar tale of being a child gamer, and here is mine.

When I was younger I had this scam type thing I would use on my parents. Well maybe scam is the wrong word, but anyways here's what would happen.

I would happily volunteer to accompany my mom or dad or both to Target or the mall or wherever. The goal was to be somewhere that sold videogames. So I'd sit in the car with a smile on my face, being the perfect angel. Throwing a fit was no way to ever get your way in my family so I always took the other route. We'd enter the store and I would set my plan into action:
"Can we look at videogames? I don't want any but I like to look"

How could they say no? I basically flat out told them I wasn't looking to buy any, I would sometimes add in there that I had all I wanted or I was still very much addicted to the last game bought for me. So of course they would say I could, this usually happened at the start of the shopping trip, big mistake on their part. We'd walk over to the games; I'd look at them with a slightly bored look on my face, making them think I would soon be ready to move on. But then I would say it:

"No way! I didn't know this game was out! I've been looking forward to this forever!"
This was only partly true and only part of the time. I knew when games came out; I did subscribe to several magazines as a child and would read them cover-to-cover, several times. Sometimes though I hadn't even heard of the game, or had no intention of wanting it when I saw ads and articles for it in Nintendo Power or EGM. Yet I needed to have a videogame, and I knew I could get one if I stuck to my plan. My parents would of course open with a line about almost being Christmas (only worked if we were in October or later) or that they didn't have any money. Did I yell and scream then? No freaking way. Instead I would simply give them the wide-eyed Bambi look that only brown-eyed children can fully pull off. My happiness would be shattered and for the rest of the shopping trip I would mention how the graphics in the game were awesome or how everyone at school would have the game before me (Always a lie, I had the best games, nobody ever came close). This would break them down bit by bit, this wasn't about buying their son a videogame, no, for my parents this became part of their duty. They knew that if I didn't end up with the game I was going to mope about it for days, and I'd do it to. So before we reached the checkout counter, my mom would fold and go back with me to the videogames to pick out my new toy (If I was just with my Dad my plan was simplified to "Mom said you could buy it for me cuz I raked leaves or something")

What was the first thing I did when I got into the car? Opened the game and read the instructions; yeah I didn't need to, game controls were hardwired into my brain at birth. The point was the car ride home would last forever but I knew that when I got there I would be able to pop in my new game and be satisfied...until the next trip to the store.

If you have your own stories send them in and maybe I’ll compile them into a future column. Oh, and let me know if you like this little musing, I have plenty more. Have I told you about the time I quit my job as the video game reviewer of my junior high newspaper over issues of censorship?

MGS4 Sells a billion-ish copies in Japan

This is fast becoming the offical MGS4 site. Japan has reported that nearly 500,000 copies of Metal Gear Solid 4 has been sold in the country in one week, making it the fastest selling PS3 game. Time will tell if the game achieved a similar milestone in the States, but we're going to assume yes.