Good morning/afternoon/evening, it's been a LONG time since I last posted.

Well, it's been a rather uneventful ten weeks since my last post, and to tell the truth not a lot has happened. Three employees were fired at the office and my department can't afford to hire replacements. I have two positions now (a team leader position and a promotion to Fixed Assets - but no extra pay thanks to Jefferson's overspending in beautifying the campus). Not much in the way of new video gamesthat I've played, even though Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 for Wii is really testing me no matter what control scheme I choose. And yep, Need For Speed: Undercover still stinks.

With only one week to go until I finally purchase a Mac and lock away my Vista laptop for school, things are still pretty upbeat. I bought the Apple keyboard (wired, with numeric pad so that I can bring work home if needed and also because of the two USB ports on the keyboard), a mouse and a mini-DVI-to-VGA adaptor in advance so that I could take a Friday off, go to the nearest Apple Store, pick up the Mac, eat lunch and then bring it home and set it up. I plan to take pictures as I open it and post somehing up on my usual site (see the updated About Me link for the site location) and I'm willing to share what I'm learning in the Mac realm so stay tuned. I plan to upgrade the RAM by the end of the month so that I could do Gamespot videos again - at least Patrick likes them.

That's pretty much it. I basically save most of my energy for the site and for my Twitter account but hopefully that will change next week. Right now I'm cleaning out as much junk as I can out of this laptop to prepare it for educational use only. To end this short post, here are a few game-related summations:

1. GTA: Chinatown Wars moving to PSP? I thought it was GREAT on the DS. Too bad parents thought otherwise. Oh well...

2. Suikoden Tierkreis is one of the best Nintendo DS games that I've ever played...I just need time to sit down and FINISH it!

3. REALLY looking forward to Muramasa: The Demon Blade in September. As a Wii owner I feel that we deserve it, especially since Xbox 360 and the PS3 have better libraries (that I just don't have time to play).

4. I haven't bought The Conduit yet, but I will in three weeks as I was waiting for it all year.

5. Seriously, New Super Mario Bros. Wii? Sure I'll buy it because it looks fun and NSMB for DS was a blast (and still is). However, that's exactly the type of Wii software that adds fuel to Sony and Microsoft fanboy attacks. Oh God...

6. Metroid: Other M - Tecmo better not mess this up. Where's Retro Studios?

7. Dragon Quest IX, SaGa II, Phantasy Star Zero and Blood of Bahamut - yet more RPG goodness for the DS.

8. PSP Go: $249.99?!? Wow Sony, just...wow. All you had to do was stick with the PSP 3000, lower the price and have your marketing department hype the fact that Nintendo's DSi retails for $179.99 but is still "low tech" while your gorgeous, slim super handheld tears larger holes into Nintendo's handheld market dominance while delivering a better holiday library. And the way that the Start and Select buttons are positioned, mimicking the shape of the analogue nub...DOES SONY READ THE F-ING FORUMS?!? The last thing you want to do is design something in such a way that it shows that a second analogue COULD have been inserted, but instead "we'll just put the Start and Select buttons here!". Then again, the placement of that analogue nub just looks so uncomfortable, sitting too close to the middle of the bottom of the unit.

You know what? No. Just...no.

9. A PS3 Slim? If it's not $299.99 then I don't care. In my opinion, game consoles (and I don't care what Sony says, even though it can play Blu-Ray movies, surf the web and tell me to get a haircut, it's a freaking game console) should be between $299.99-$349.99 USD, and price equivilant in other countries (in other words, cheap). I refuse to pay for Sony's mistakes, and with Microsoft now stealing FFXIII, FFXIV (and maybe) MGS4 it looks like gamers don't have to.

10. A tenth summation...well...thanks everyone for reading?

James

Good morning/afternoon/evening, it's been a while but I really don't have much to say...

It's been a crazy two months of learning new tasks at work, my DSi purchase, playing WiiWare games and expanding my DS library - but despite all of the games that I've been playing, the photos that I've taken with the DSi, the podcast episodes that I've put out and my plans on moving into my first apartment, I just don't have a lot to say. I could just bore you with text and images of games that I've been playing, or write an needless editorial about how downloadable games provide more artistic freedom as well as lower cost to the consumer over some of the better fully-priced, packaged physical content, but honestly - who wants to read more of that? Some of you might, but a lot of you wouldn't. So while I'm sitting in front of my laptop deciding what I want to say after not appearing on Gamestop for two months except for light discussions on the DS forums, I've decided to go with what works - a "what'cha been playing" type of blog.

Onslaught (WiiWare, 1000 Wii Points) - I'm willing to admit right off the bat that this is not the best first-person shooter available on the Wii, but as far as WiiWare is concerned it's merely okay for ten dollars. You control a surveyor separated from his group on a soon-to-be-colonized planet withcyberneticbugs gone rogue. Comparisons to Starship Troopers and other cheesy 1990s films can definitely be made, but the game sports two decent points which make the game worth playing: full online play (no deathmatch due to Hudson Soft's philosophy of not allowing players to kill or harm each other in-game) and online leaderboards for high scores. All of this from a WiiWare download. Gamespot doesn't have a game review but you can read a lengthy review from WiiWare World here.

Bit.Trip Beat (WiiWare, 600 Points) - This is the one game that I've been playing every time I get the chance. It takes a game for the early 1970s and doctors it up. You tilt the Wii Remote towards the television (up) or towards yourself (down) to guide a paddle and stopping "beats" in the manner of the ****c game Pong. Each ball (beat) that you hit not only adds notes to the accompanying music but also adds to a meter at the top screen, once that meter is full, a remixed version of the background music starts playing (Mega mode) and now you're aim is to fill up the scoremultipliermeter while hitting more beats (I've managed to get themultiplierup to 34x just this morning). If you miss a single beat then the amount of points earned is reset to 100 points per beat hit times whatever your multiplier is, but after ten beats can start back up. Missing too many beats has it's price as they fill up a not-so-cool meter at the bottom (called Hyper or Nether depending on what screen you're on).

Hyper is the mode in which each stage starts, and from here the player must hit enough beats to advance "up" one screen to Mega (remixed music and score multiplication). Mess up here and it's back down to Hyper mode, which is a not-so-thrilling screen with 1970s Pong-like sounds and effects. What you DON'T want to do is mess up in Hyper mode as doing so would send you to Nether mode, which is a boring black-and-white screen with no music, which could be hard to time the paddle's movements to hit the beats. Mess up in the Nether mode and it's game over, but concentrate on hitting the beats and you'll quickly emerge from Hades and see colors and hear music again.

The game has only three stages, each with it's own boss at the end - however the stages can run up to fifteen minutes long. The music is catchy and the gameplay is addictive, and for only $6.00 US it's a great title to pick up.

Gradius Rebirth (WiiWare, 1000 Points) - This game (I guess) is for the hardcore Gradius fan only; no budget-conscious Wii owners need apply. I purchased this title due to purchasing Gradius II: Gofer's Ambition on the Virtual Console which played exactly like the PSP version. Rebirth, though isn't exactly an original product, borrowing from several stages of other Gradius games and melding it into a ten dollar title. The game is okay...(shrugs), it's just another Gradius that I thought would bespectacular, but isn't.

Pop Em Drop Em Same Game (WiiWare, 500 Points) - I thought that this game would be a decent Collapse clone for my younger sisters to play as they were scared crapless when I showed them Bit.Trip Beat. It turns out that the game is, kinda - but at the same time isn't. Unlike the popular Collapse flash games, Hudson's Same Game punishes you if you don't clear every single block from the screen. You also don't have blocks constantly appearing in the stage as you attempt to clear as many as you can to fill up a meter - in fact, there is no meter, to fill. The point of the game is to click on groups of blocks to clear them, and (depending on whether you've chosen whether or not to include bombs in the puzzles) use bombs to clear any remaining debris. Bigger points are awarded based on larger clusters of blocks cleared, with audience fanfare praising the player's actions.

Yep, the colors, the background music...definitelyHudson. They've been making a killing on WiiWare development and have even established a site dedicated to WiiWare developments. I'm waiting for Adventure Island: The Beginning.

Moving away from Wiiware and the Wii, I want to state that yes, the Wii can't compare to Xbox 360's many accomplishments, some of them I've had to finally sit down and witness first-hand while my brother-in-law demonstrated Microsoft's NXE interface on a 32" Vizio running everything in 1080i (no 1080p unfortunately) but Call of Duty: World At War, Midnight Club: Los Angeles and the available demo of Red Faction: Guerilla lookedunbelievableon his set-up.

When I shudder to think that his set-up costs around $1,100.00 (Xbox 360 Arcade unit, separate 120 GB HDD, Xbox Live Gold, HDTV, accessories), I've shied away from the cost of ownership, but with the Arcade unit as low as $199.99 USD, several spare ethernet cables, Grand Theft Auto IV and too many ways to spend money (HDD needed obviously) it's starting to look like a good deal. Hmm...

Before I close out this near-pointless blog I feel I need to give a few remarks regarding my DSi purchase:

The Pros:

*Better sound; you can hear my DSi playing halfway across the house.

*SD card support and internal memory - greater expansion of DSi-related software, AAC support (sorry, no WMA or MP3 playback) newer upgrades to the DSi interface.

*More powerful hardware - the 133 MHz ARM CPU and will allow the DSi hardware and future DS software to accomplish MUCH more than the previous DS versions. The DSi's extra video RAM (four times more than previous DS units) should aid more in elimination distortion, tearing of polygon models and eliminating some of the "N64-ness" of many of the three-dimensional based games. Imagine Phantasy Star Zero using the DSi's features...ohz yeah.

*Brightness settings - now armed with five settings instead of four, the DSi can be as bright as my laptop (but only for four hours). The third, fourth and fifth settings make games such as Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, Suikoden Tierkreis and Trackmania DS (all games using three-dimensional modeling in some shape or form) look and play better than the DS Lite or original DS.

*Plays music while the unit is closed - you have to have headphones plugged in of course as otherwise it would go into sleep mode, but this is handy for my commutes where I want to take a break from Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2, Chinatown Wars and even Chrono Trigger and just listen to music while taking a nap on the bus.

The Cons:

*DSi development alienating DS/DS Lite adopters - will we see games with dual DS/DSi features in the same manner that Game Boy/Game Boy Color titles were released ten years ago? Many developers have stated that the cost of this method is prohibitive at this point and time. Will this mean that the DSi's bumps in hardware will be a short-term waste?

*Cameras - low-res and pointless, as far was western markets are concerned. I could see the potential for the Japanese audience, but North American gamers are stuck in the "bigger, better, more" philosophy...I just don't see the cameras being used for much. That's not to say that I haven't taken photos at all with the device, it's just that the cameras don't have a primary purpose for NA games besides the likes of Wario Ware and messaging.

*AAC only audio playback - AAC is a superior format, but what about the podcasts that I need to catch up on? I need my 1Up, Press Room and Wiire podcast information, not to mention test the episodes on my DS Jim podcast feed. The only AAC podcasts available that aren't encrypted? MacWorld. No thanks.

*High price - even though I saved almost half of the money before using part of a paycheck to pay the other half on April 5th, $169.99 USD is still a hard cost to swallow, as that's $40.00 USD more than a glossy DS Lite, and just $30.00 USD from an Xbox 360...maybe I should have waited...

*No Game Boy Advance support - since I'm giving my second DS Lite to my mother on Monday for her fiftieth birthday (along withPhoenixWright: Ace Attorney, Pokemon Diamond, Brain Age and Tetris DS) my much-beloved GBA titles such as Pokemon Leaf Green, Yggdra Union and Golden Sun I & II have no home...unless I pay $40.00 USD to play them as they're meant to be played - an actual Game Boy Advance. However, say goodbye to the DS Rumble Pack, any Guitar Hero gaming or Pokemon trades from GBA carts to the newer DS versions. Oh well. Time to move on...

That's it for now. I have friends that I've kept up with outside of the Gamespot world such as Vexx, Platyphyllum, Houtx1836, Darth_Homer and TempleTrio - hi to all and hope that this post was entertaining. Platy, I read your blog this morning, glad that you saw TONS of places in New York that I never TRIED to see, and New York City is only ninety minutes from where I'm typing. TempleTrio...your Twitter name...we need to talk. Houtx's kids are keeping him busy as well as his office not liking his new Blackberry - good luck with the integration. Feel free to follow me on Twitter or my podcast website to keep tabs on me as I'm not eaxctly an active member of Gamespot anymore. If you take a look at my Twitter account, you'll see that I'm following Dan "Shoe" Hsu and "Weird" Al Yankovic.

Later

James

Good morning/afternoon/evening - I can't type long...

I see that after almost six years and several C|NET-related controversies later I have finally reached the rank that one of my first gaming friends (Comthitnuong) had reached back in 2002 (I think), level 30. I'm guessing that Gamespot members regardless of subscription type (paid or free) may or may not be judged as "semi-uber" members of the gaming community and may be judged as the gaming wisemen simply becuase of their rank. Well, before I get a swelled head due to finally reaching my goal despite not contributing anything meaningful in weeks, I want to point out something:

Please note that I've gone from posting extremely long blogs with images about three times a week to writing about six times a year, so no, I'm not one of the best contributers to Gamespot. While Gamespot is a decent site with a vibrant gaming community many of the mature gamers or gamers who hold down work and school are ostricized by their younger gaming peers for not taking every waking minute to post. I've had older friends such as BenSr who wound up being an unpopular Gamespot member because he's a gamer with a lot of priorities. Another is NekoTheSpook who has priorities and is going through family-related issues with no time to post. Her audience is starting to disappear because she just doesn't have the time despite her participation level.

To be honest, why do we even HAVE a levelling system? It victimizes some at the benefit of others. And what exactly is the reward (besides patting myself on the back)? "Congratulations, you have now reached a level that proves to the world that you are a know-it-all, game-playing lifeless schmuck. Good for you, gaming geek!" Oh boy...

(Looking at my rank name): "Wicked Sick!"? Is that all I get for almost six years of semi-loyalty? Can somebody tell me how I'm supposed to feel? Am I now supposed to mentor less-experienced Gamespot members? Will moderators get off my back if I get angry at a console fanboy and tell them to sc.rew themselves because I have experience and they don't? Can I now give the finger to trolls spewing garbage in the comments section of the news postings? No? Then what will level 30 do for me? And more importantly, what has it done for any of you?

____________________________________________________

Moving away from my nonsensible rant, I'm on vacation until next Sunday night (the 15th), so I'll be visiting parts of South Jersey such as Woodbury and Atlantic City with my overtime pay (working six days a week for the past month preparing our 1099 tax information for the IRS), taking pictures of Philadelphia's 60-year-old street cars (eighteen were sent to Brookville, Pennsylvania and stripped to the skeleton and refurbished at $1.3 million each) funding and expanding the DS Jim podcast and website and finally watching the entirety of the first season of Miami Vice. Oh, I want to go see the movie Taken because it looks to be the first movie worth my time and money in about six years (no seriously, I don't like theatres because I was pickpocketed while watching Beavis and Butthead Do America in the mid-1990s and later experiences were not much better) but Taken seems worth the risk.

And finally, for all of you fellow North American gamers/electronics geeks you may already know that Circuit City is in the process of liquidating EVERYTHING (even though they're still stingy as Scrooge with those HDTVs), and while scouring the aisles of my local Glouchester Town Center Circuit City I've found that all DS games were marked 30% off. I picked up Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword (I played the demo but have not purchased the game until today, Platyphyllum had posted about this game a LONG while ago when it was released)and Nanostray 2 (I didn't have a two-dimensional shooter in my rather heavy DS library yet and this game was only $8.99 USD before the 30% reduction). No Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations or Appollo Justice: Ace Attorney. Crap!

One more thing before I go: despite 1Up being a mere shadow of it's former self, Brok3n Pix3ls (Mystery Science Theatre 3000 but for bad games instead of bad movies) is still receiving new episodes (it could have been footage that was saved, but Shane Bettenhausen, Crispin Boyer and Seanbaby [Sean Riley] are still cracking jokes). This episode is better than the lackluster Spider Man 3 episode (the previous one), so take a look.

Okay, that's it. I have to stop and put on Married With Children Season Three (I now have eight seasons) while playing Nanostray 2...after adding new games to my "currently playing/currently own" lists on this page. For the people who responded to the previous post thanks a lot - some of you I didn't get a chance to talk with but I'm free for most of the week. Patrick, we need to talk about a special guest appearance for the podcast (you). Vexx, it's been awhile, Houtx1836 I'm still waiting for that Tetris Party challenge and Platy, hurry up and get that wireless access so we can communicate via the WiiSpeak Channel (yes, I now have the microphone). If you want to hear my voice regularly then find DS Jim, otherwise see you in...two days? Two months? When I'm level 31? Who knows?

James