Blah, blah, blah
Howdy.
Been a bunch o' time since I've posted, for which I apologize. Here Phyxie leaves the site in my hands and all I can do is bring people here under false wardrobe pretenses. Shame on me! Work has been a bitch, and I've been too busy bringing the gladiatorial smackdown on satyrs and mongrel shaman at home. My life is a kaleidoscope of activity. Somewhere in there I think there's a wife and child. (what's funny is that post was supposed to come on Monday, but then my kid got pinkeye and I haven't had time to continue writing it. That's what I get for mocking the existance of my family.)
So, let's see, where to start? Ah, E3. Another E3 has come and gone, and the prevailing opinion seems to be it was just "eh". I'm not sure what people were expecting. We're on the downslide of the current generation of consoles, but too far out to be getting hard details on the next generation, so what is there to be surprised about? EA being on Live? Nope. MSFT ditching their sports games pretty much sealed the deal on that one. The PS2 price drop? Ah, no. Sony can't be the most expensive, and technologically least impressive console on the market. That would be silly.
The unveiling of the Sony's new handheld, the PSP, and Nintendo's new handheld, the Nintendo DS, was interesting. Personally, I'm a Nintendo whore, and as such, am powerless to resist a new handheld from them, so I lean towards the DS. At the same time, I'm not all that thrilled with the touchscreen aspect. When I want to play portable games, I want to play games, not poke things with a stick. I'm old enough to remember a time when poking things with a stick was a portable game. Metroid looked pretty fucking good though, so there's that. Now, for the PSP, it's hard to deny that it looks good. I mean, Sony knows how to make good looking appliances and the PSP just cements that fact. They're likening it to this generation's Walkman, something I would disagree with. The Walkman did one thing, play portable music, and did it extremely well, to the point that buying other portable tape players was an exercise in folly that would eventually lead you to their open, yet mildly chastising arms. I had a bunch of faux-walkmen that I beat the crap out of before finally buying a Sportsman. That thing was a fucking tank, and worked for years, until cd's eased it out of my personal marketplace. The PSP, with it's games, movies, music, Wi-Fi, mixed drinks, bird calls and anti-gravity boots is trying to do too much to be as focused as the Walkman was. Price will also be a big issue with a lot of people thinking that there's no way Sony can sell this thing for less than 300 bucks. 300 bucks is a lot to pay for something that you can accidentally leave on the metro and will probably have a game library consisting of 85% PS and PS2 ports. Not to mention the fact that most likely, the PSP will debut about 6 months or so before the next generation of consoles. There's only so many 300 gaming purchases that one's wallet can bear. I've already started planning how I'm going to swing getting the next Nintendo and MSFT consoles at the same time. I don't have all the details worked out yet, but it involves monkeys.
Halo 2 was at E3, and from what I've read, it looked and played damn good. This also comes as no surprise, as H2 is MSFT's way of continuing interest in a console that, when H2 comes out, probably only has 6 - 9 months left on it. To get people to buy a "new" console when an actual new console is less than a year away, and may not be backwards compatible, you need a game that is the pixellated equivalent of the second coming. Personally, I've always liked Halo multiplayer, but mostly because that's what we play when we all get together, and not so much because of what it has in it. The single player game is still unfinished at mi casa and probably will be when the second one comes out. I find it to be quite repetitive and as a result, only palatable in short bursts. I could understand why people liked it so much at launch, because it was either that or swing your controller around your head and pretend it was a lariat. But since launch, with such good games as Knights of the Old Republic, Beyond Good and Evil, Prince of Persia and the Splinter Cells, I don't see it holding up as well. That's just me though, and personally I think Metroid Prime knocks the taste from Halo's mouth.
Speaking of Metroid, and other things Nintendo, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes was at E3 and didn't it look like the shit? I haven't played my GameCube since buying my Xbox, so this game will be welcome in my house to breathe some life back in the little purple box. Nintendo also showed off a trailer for the next Zelda game, including a "realistic" looking Zelda, keeping in mind that he's an elf who fights lizard beast, none of which are real. Me, I think they should stick with the engine used in the Wind Waker as it's cel-shaded appearance made my heart skip beats with joy, but the fans demand realism. Also, they wanted to portray Link as older, since he's a teenager in the game, so a more "child-like" engine isn't appropriate. Whatever. It's Zelda so I'll play it if it's done in crayon and shadow puppets.
That's it for game ramblings. Quite a lot of information on a convention I was 3000 miles away from, huh? What can I say, I'm a sad, pathetic, little man.
Tonight is the last episode of Angel. This angers me as I've seen the other tv that's on, and none of it, with the exception of Gilmore Girls, is putting out episodes of the same caliber. Maybe it's because the writers know that everything has to be wrapped up, so they're pouring their very souls into these episodes, but they've been banging on all cylinders for weeks now. I'm concerned, that once Angel leaves, the WB will turn it's eye to Gilmore Girls, realize that it's the best written show on television, wonder how they allowed that to happen, and scrap it for "Drug Rehab Reunion".
And finally, Guster put out a live DVD/CD combo yesterday. It's quite good, but at 26 bucks, it's a little pricey. You could look at it as you're getting a concert DVD with a free cd, but 26 is even pricey for a single disc concert DVD. And the cd is the same concert as the DVD, so all you're getting is the ability to play it in your ride, pre-pimping. Personally, I would have appreciated had they split them up, so I could just buy the one I'm going to listen to most, but they didn't. Despite my reservations with the price, I gladly purchased it, as it's Guster and their music makes my soul take flight. And it's not like Guster is a financial juggernaut like Led Zeppelin who can put out a concert cd set and concert DVD at the same time, for similar prices and have them be completely different. Guster's about 15 years, 8 albums, and several dead drummers away from that.
Wow, that's a lot. I promise to be less wordy next time. I mean honestly, who has the time for all this?
Been a bunch o' time since I've posted, for which I apologize. Here Phyxie leaves the site in my hands and all I can do is bring people here under false wardrobe pretenses. Shame on me! Work has been a bitch, and I've been too busy bringing the gladiatorial smackdown on satyrs and mongrel shaman at home. My life is a kaleidoscope of activity. Somewhere in there I think there's a wife and child. (what's funny is that post was supposed to come on Monday, but then my kid got pinkeye and I haven't had time to continue writing it. That's what I get for mocking the existance of my family.)
So, let's see, where to start? Ah, E3. Another E3 has come and gone, and the prevailing opinion seems to be it was just "eh". I'm not sure what people were expecting. We're on the downslide of the current generation of consoles, but too far out to be getting hard details on the next generation, so what is there to be surprised about? EA being on Live? Nope. MSFT ditching their sports games pretty much sealed the deal on that one. The PS2 price drop? Ah, no. Sony can't be the most expensive, and technologically least impressive console on the market. That would be silly.
The unveiling of the Sony's new handheld, the PSP, and Nintendo's new handheld, the Nintendo DS, was interesting. Personally, I'm a Nintendo whore, and as such, am powerless to resist a new handheld from them, so I lean towards the DS. At the same time, I'm not all that thrilled with the touchscreen aspect. When I want to play portable games, I want to play games, not poke things with a stick. I'm old enough to remember a time when poking things with a stick was a portable game. Metroid looked pretty fucking good though, so there's that. Now, for the PSP, it's hard to deny that it looks good. I mean, Sony knows how to make good looking appliances and the PSP just cements that fact. They're likening it to this generation's Walkman, something I would disagree with. The Walkman did one thing, play portable music, and did it extremely well, to the point that buying other portable tape players was an exercise in folly that would eventually lead you to their open, yet mildly chastising arms. I had a bunch of faux-walkmen that I beat the crap out of before finally buying a Sportsman. That thing was a fucking tank, and worked for years, until cd's eased it out of my personal marketplace. The PSP, with it's games, movies, music, Wi-Fi, mixed drinks, bird calls and anti-gravity boots is trying to do too much to be as focused as the Walkman was. Price will also be a big issue with a lot of people thinking that there's no way Sony can sell this thing for less than 300 bucks. 300 bucks is a lot to pay for something that you can accidentally leave on the metro and will probably have a game library consisting of 85% PS and PS2 ports. Not to mention the fact that most likely, the PSP will debut about 6 months or so before the next generation of consoles. There's only so many 300 gaming purchases that one's wallet can bear. I've already started planning how I'm going to swing getting the next Nintendo and MSFT consoles at the same time. I don't have all the details worked out yet, but it involves monkeys.
Halo 2 was at E3, and from what I've read, it looked and played damn good. This also comes as no surprise, as H2 is MSFT's way of continuing interest in a console that, when H2 comes out, probably only has 6 - 9 months left on it. To get people to buy a "new" console when an actual new console is less than a year away, and may not be backwards compatible, you need a game that is the pixellated equivalent of the second coming. Personally, I've always liked Halo multiplayer, but mostly because that's what we play when we all get together, and not so much because of what it has in it. The single player game is still unfinished at mi casa and probably will be when the second one comes out. I find it to be quite repetitive and as a result, only palatable in short bursts. I could understand why people liked it so much at launch, because it was either that or swing your controller around your head and pretend it was a lariat. But since launch, with such good games as Knights of the Old Republic, Beyond Good and Evil, Prince of Persia and the Splinter Cells, I don't see it holding up as well. That's just me though, and personally I think Metroid Prime knocks the taste from Halo's mouth.
Speaking of Metroid, and other things Nintendo, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes was at E3 and didn't it look like the shit? I haven't played my GameCube since buying my Xbox, so this game will be welcome in my house to breathe some life back in the little purple box. Nintendo also showed off a trailer for the next Zelda game, including a "realistic" looking Zelda, keeping in mind that he's an elf who fights lizard beast, none of which are real. Me, I think they should stick with the engine used in the Wind Waker as it's cel-shaded appearance made my heart skip beats with joy, but the fans demand realism. Also, they wanted to portray Link as older, since he's a teenager in the game, so a more "child-like" engine isn't appropriate. Whatever. It's Zelda so I'll play it if it's done in crayon and shadow puppets.
That's it for game ramblings. Quite a lot of information on a convention I was 3000 miles away from, huh? What can I say, I'm a sad, pathetic, little man.
Tonight is the last episode of Angel. This angers me as I've seen the other tv that's on, and none of it, with the exception of Gilmore Girls, is putting out episodes of the same caliber. Maybe it's because the writers know that everything has to be wrapped up, so they're pouring their very souls into these episodes, but they've been banging on all cylinders for weeks now. I'm concerned, that once Angel leaves, the WB will turn it's eye to Gilmore Girls, realize that it's the best written show on television, wonder how they allowed that to happen, and scrap it for "Drug Rehab Reunion".
And finally, Guster put out a live DVD/CD combo yesterday. It's quite good, but at 26 bucks, it's a little pricey. You could look at it as you're getting a concert DVD with a free cd, but 26 is even pricey for a single disc concert DVD. And the cd is the same concert as the DVD, so all you're getting is the ability to play it in your ride, pre-pimping. Personally, I would have appreciated had they split them up, so I could just buy the one I'm going to listen to most, but they didn't. Despite my reservations with the price, I gladly purchased it, as it's Guster and their music makes my soul take flight. And it's not like Guster is a financial juggernaut like Led Zeppelin who can put out a concert cd set and concert DVD at the same time, for similar prices and have them be completely different. Guster's about 15 years, 8 albums, and several dead drummers away from that.
Wow, that's a lot. I promise to be less wordy next time. I mean honestly, who has the time for all this?
posted by Brandon at
7:23 AM
