anyone in here have one of those PSPs? if so recomend me some good sports games for it.

I'm getting this for review, yesssss

How much trouble can it be to review a DDR game, really? Aside from the new eyetoy capabilities, aren't the differences between the various versions minimal? Aside from different songs, or remixes of old ones, what is there?

No trouble, really, but I've gotta do 1200 words.

It's essentially business as usual, but it apparently has online play, so I'll talk about that and also the EyeToy support. Also, it has more American songs than previous versions (Fall Out Boy, anyone?), so that'll be something worth mentioning.

I need to pick up a new dance pad... I think I threw out my old one.

Oh, and I've got these on the way:

Has anyone played any of the new NBA games this year for PS2 yet? I'm thinking about getting NBA 2K7.

I haven't, but that's probably your best bet. There aren't a whole lot of reviews out there for any of 'em yet, but GameRankings puts 2K7 a full 17 points ahead of Live 07. NBA '07 from Sony is a little higher than Live, but you're probably still best off with 2K7.

We should REALLY nerd out some time and all play some DS game over wireless.

Gotta find a good enough game that uses the Nintendo WiFi connection. Tetris DS is probably good, but I haven't picked it up yet.

I've got StarFox: Command, but that's... meh...

I'm going to try to reserve a PlayStation 3 this morning. EB/GameStop starts taking 'em at 10am, and each of the local stores is taking 16 reservations, no more. My friend and his buddy are going to wait outside one at 6am. He's going to call me then, though I'd prefer to not wait outside for 3-4 hours. Actually, I'm going to go drive by it now and see if anyone's camping out. I couldn't get to sleep.

EDIT: Three people outside at 12:40am. I don't think I'm going to be reserving this tomorrow.

Oh well. I'm really not excited about the system launch, but I'd like to have one so I can review the games and know the system well enough before I'm looking for a full-time writing gig in the industry in a couple of months.

It might be easier try to make out with a Mako shark than it will be to preorder a PS3. I'd assume a good chunk of those precious few units given to every store will be snatched up by employees, who usually get first crack at those things. That might drop the number down to 8 or 9 per store.

Supposedly, only two employees per store are able to reserve 'em, but Kotaku had mentioned some possible shenanigans at a store, and I'd imagine several had similar issues. I've been on a heinous sleep schedule lately where I pass out at 6am, so I slept through it all. I called a few stores this morning and they were all out. Oh well.

I'm checking my writing contacts to see if I can buy one direct from Sony. Otherwise, it may be a small-town Wal-Mart at midnight or waiting til next year. I'm alright with either at this point.

i played some madden last night and lost (as the Bears) in the NFC Championship game to the Eagles. I was none too pleased. fucking madden.

Gamestop/EB Games are taking Wii preorders tomorrow, 10/13.

http://www.gamestop.com/gs/wii/wiipre_ebgs.asp

They use the same limited supply warning as they did with the PS3, which is curious since Nintendo is planning to make many more systems available at launch.

Yeah, it looks like the local stores are taking 12 each, which is shady, but they apparently don't have final numbers and are playing it safe.

I may still end up getting one from Nintendo, but if I don't, I need a backup plan. I may camp with my buddy George outside the one he works at in the morning.

WIISERVED!

Ugh, so I waited outside for four hours in the freezing cold, so that sucked... and they ended up taking 3x the reserves, so I could've showed up at 10am and gotten one... but fuck, I'm number 3, bitches. Should anything happen, I'm way close to the top.

Also reserved an extra Wiimote, Nunchuck attachment, Legend of Zelda, and Trauma Center. I should be getting review copies of both, but fuck, I want to be prepared just in case.

I got the last pre-order at my local Gamestop. They had 12 slots, three were set aside for employees. I got to the store 5 minutes before it opened and there were 6 people in line, 2 already in the store, 4 outside. By the time I got in it was 10:05, so this store sold out their pre-orders in 5 minutes.

I then stopped by my local EB Games on the way home. I got there 15-20 minutes after the store opened and they were sold out of pre-orders. The store was locked. Inside there were 6 people in line and I was told that they were getting the last pre-orders.

Crazy. This store was initially told to take 12 pre-orders, and 4 went to employees. So after eight of us were lined up, we were telling people to leave. Then it ends up being that they could take 30 reserves! WTF!? But I'm #3, so I'm pleased.

Wii is probably the nextgen system that I am most interested in, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to wait awhile to get it. Not just so I don't have to deal with pre-order craziness, but also because there aren't really any games at launch that I'm interested in. I'll probably get it when Mario comes out.

I'm pretty pumped about Wii Sports, strangely enough. Bowling just seems potentially amazing.

On that note, I picked up Clubhouse Games for DS last night. Bowling is not so amazing, but Darts is!

Yeah, I also picked up Clubhouse Games. Haven't played it enought to get a full impression. Hearts and Spades seemed OK, typically mediocre AI, but I didn't notice it playing completely stupid moves. The implementation of the games was pretty good, moved along reasonably fast. One big problem was that before each card was to be played, a graphic window flashed on the screen telling whose move it was. Got annoying REAL fast. Chess was unplayable, four moves in AI was making ridiculous moves. The Othello AI was very good.

i've got Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Gears Of War pre-ordered right now. i am super-excited for Marvel. if it's even close to X-Men Legends 2 (which i played on the PSP, nausiating as the framerate was) i'm a happy man. gears of war forget it; i'm sure i'll get slaughtered online much like what happens in Halo 2 but it looks like gold. the slick ass xbox live ratings at least keep me from getting completely pwned.

Just got these in the mail yesterday:



I played a bit of Mercury last night and found it to be pretty solid. It takes a lot of influence from Super Monkey Ball, but adds an extra level of puzzle-solving with often having to combine different colors of the mercury blob to finish the level. I'm holding off on Test Drive until I finish up my review of Saints Row, which could be a while. Test Drive showed up five weeks after release, and though we appreciate it being sent to us, it's not a priority title anymore.

thinking about getting the new splinter cell for 360...anyone get it yet??

I've been meaning to download the demo. I've never played more than a few minutes of a Splinter Cell game before. Double Agent looks nice, but I doubt I'm going to get around to it.

I think I may buy Lumines Live for the Live Arcade tomorrow. I can't believe they're charging $15 for it, but I loved the PSP version and will probably get my money's worth. Then again, Lumines II hits PSP in two weeks, and I intend to get that too.

EDIT: I know I've mentioned this before, but if there are any solid writers who would be interested in reviewing games for Static, please let me know. We have about ten writers for the section now, but some only contribute once in a while, as school/work permits. We've got eighteen games available for review right now (nine came in today) and expect the numbers to rise as the holiday season progresses. PM me if interested.

I always bust this baby out when football season starts



Also played a bit of this yesterday as well too.

this reminds me. i should have that review on those acessories hammered out by night's end for you. if not tonight, tomorrow night fo' sho'.


and if you want i can pick up writing once again when i go on winter break from school. ill have nights free to play video gamez and write about said gamez. i could probably hammer 2-3 out over the course of that month if you want. we'll chat. we'll discuss. we'll talk. we'll do all those things.

ps....we really need to get a review copy of SD! ive been jonzing to throw someone through a table lately.

i got the demo and haven't played it yet. it got good reviews, but stealth games haven't really been my cup of tea.

I grabbed it last night. Best graphics so far on 360 so if your a graphics whore then grab it. Never played any splinter cell games before, so its gonna take some patience on my part.

Ok next up: Gears, Vegas, FEAR, CoD3, possibly the new Marvel game and Blitz the league. oh and the new tony hawk.





Whew!

Demo for Tony Hawk's Project 8 goes up on Live tomorrow. I'm pumped.

I may be getting Bully for review next week. Looking forward to that. Right now I'm struggling to make progress in God Hand. The unintuitive control scheme topped with shockingly difficult gameplay (even on Easy) makes me a sad panda.

right on with all the hot 360 stuff. downloaded Lumines this morning. Marvel is next week and gears of war is going to kick my ass in a few more. HIGHLY looking forward to the new tony hawk; the create-a-trick mode looks HOT.

I passed on Lumines. It may just be $15 for the core game, but to unlock all the modes, you'll end up paying just shy of $40 with the eventual add-on packs. I've already got Lumines for PSP and my cell phone, and I'll be getting Lumines II for PSP in a couple of weeks. I'm not shelling out $40 for a digital-only copy of anything.

These should be showing up on Monday for review:



I should try to get some other stuff done this weekend so I'm ready to start Bully right away.

So I've been playing this all weekend, even though I had no intention to start it for several weeks. Though the original demo made it out to be a PGR3-style ultra-realistic racer, a quick adjustment in the options menu makes it more managable, almost like Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Granted, it lacks the flair of that game, but the wide-open island setting and heap of missions makes it an enjoyable experience.

I've driven 400+ miles so far and have picked up over 200 Achievement Points. Some of the advanced Achivements are absolutely insane. 5000 miles driven? Not fucking likely.

i bought NBA 2K7 yesterday for the 360. the little bit I played of it I felt was pretty solid. I think the D in the game is a bit too tough at times. They were forcing turnovers left and right. It was not pleasant. I should play this more if i ever have the time.

Oh and I also went to Gamestop and felt like offing my Gamecube so that I could easily pick up 2K7 without having to shell out a bunch pf bucks. I wound up going in there with the following items....

~ Gamecube
~ One wireless controller
~ One 3rd party controller
~ One original GC controller
~ Legend of Zelda (GC)
~ Metroid Prime (GC)
~ One GC memory card
~ One 3rd party GC memory card
~ WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2006 (PS2)
~ Dragonball Z somethingsomething (PS2)

Yeah, by selling that shit, I somehow made 110$ off of Gamestop. Whether it was a glitch in the system or just some luck gracing me, I wound up having enough to not only buy 2k7, but also preorder/pay off a copy of Guitar Hero 2. So yeah...it was all coming up Milhouse yesterday.

lumines is good and i don't mind paying $40 for the whole thing. DRM gaming doesn't bother me. it's mine, i bought it and if my system breaks it's logged on MS servers that i paid my money. no bfd.

Andryoo, nice Brand New icon. the new album art is pretty hot.

The N64 is up and running again, and I was all pumped to jump back in this. But after a couple of hours (spread out over the past 3 weeks, mind you) I'm feeling terribly bored of it. This is the first time that's happened and it's troubling.



So then it was on to...



It's a better game in so many respects, but the weapons and the levels just get too wierd for their own good. It's pretty hard, too, or at least it doesn't let you cheat in the same way that Goldeneye does. The AI is better, or something.

Thank you. Indeed it is!

Bully and Gitaroo Man Lives! arrived today. I plan on spending several hours with Bully tonight, but I already got a chance to check out Gitaroo Man. It's pretty neat; more Um Jammer Lammy than Guitar Hero, that's for sure. Character-driven, bizarre... I can see why it was a cult hit.

Alright, so I caved. I bought Lumines Live today.

I had no intention to, but I need to start preparing some unpublished writing, and that means reviewing games I obtained on my own. In that respect, $15 didn't feel like a bad investment. I'm going through and nabbing the easy Achievements right now to soften the blow a bit more.

I'm thinking about applying to review games for PopMatters. They don't have much of a games section, but it would be great exposure and a fantastic resume entry. I'd have to focus my reviews a bit more on cultural impact and "feeling," but I tend to touch on that anyway. Something I'm considering. I'll do the Lumines review and see how I feel about it before I send anything.

Oh, and Gitaroo Man Lives! is way, way cool. It's no Guitar Hero, but it's pretty intense. Perfect for the PSP.

i'm trying to nab some Lumines achievements too. but Aeris called me today and said that my copy of Marvel Ultimate Alliance is in so i won't be playing much Lumines.

I nabbed 60 points pretty quickly last night. There's no way I'll be able to get the extremely advanced Achievements from the timed mode, but I can probably get some of the high-scoring ones in time.

I'm mainly working on Bully right now. It starts kinda slow, but I'm starting to get a little more interested it. I just want to finish everything I'm working on by next Tuesday so I can start Final Fantasy XII. Or at least stare at it and tell myself I'll start it someday.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance on the 360 is awesome.

anyone grabbing FEAR or the new NFS on 360 this week?

I think I'll wait on FEAR since Gears and CoD3 are only a week away!

Gears of War is gonna be soooo SICK!!!!!

I get the review copy of Need for Speed: Carbon if WorthPlaying gets it in.

I probably won't have time to do Call of Duty 3 this fall, but I'll definitely check it out after Christmas. Static is supposed to get a Gears of War copy at some point, but who knows.

I'm picking up Final Fantasy XII tonight/tomorrow.

Here's the list of confirmed games for the Wii's Virtual Console. Not sure if they'll all be available at launch, but definetely by the end of the year.


NES -- start at $5

* Mario Bros.
* The Legend of Zelda
* Donkey Kong
* Donkey Kong Jr.
* Ice Hockey
* Pinball
* Soccer
* Tennis
* Urban Champion
* Wario's Woods
* Baseball
* Solomon's Key

SNES -- start at $8

* F-Zero
* SimCity

N64 -- start at $10

* Super Mario 64

Sega Genesis -- start at $8

* Sonic the Hedgehog
* Altered Beast
* Golden Axe
* Columns
* Ecco the Dolphin
* Gunstar Heroes
* Space Harrier II
* Toe Jam & Earl
* Ristar
* Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine

TurboGrafx16 -- start at $6

* Bonk's Adventure
* Super Star Soldier
* Victory Run
* Bomberman '93
* Dungeon Explorer

Wow, decent initial list.

I would only assume in time that Earthbound will make its way on to the Wii. It has such a cult following and was just a phenomenal game start-to-finish. I definitely would nab that shit up faster than fast.

Hey, they put Ness in Smash Bros., so why not the Virtual Console?

My faves on the list besides the Nintendo mascots are Gunstar Heroes, Golden Axe and Ice Hockey.

Ice Hockey ruled. I will probably eat that up and also Bomberman 93. Bomberman used to be so unstoppable.


I really hope somehow Mutant League Football and/or Mutant League Hockey end up on there. I tried playing them a few weeks back on someone's modded XBOX that had tons of old games on it, but they didn't work for whatever reason. It was sad. I wanted to push some aliens on to landmines and watch their limbs fly everywhere.

My favorite part was bribing the refs with cash, then watching them penalize the other team for picking their nose.

I've been playing a lot of Hexic HD lately.

Picked up the 1,000,000 cumulative points Achievement last night... topped all of my friends on the leaderboards... such an amazing game.

I played Lumines Live! til I hit about 325k last night and gave up. With the PSP version, you could just pause and turn the system off and come back to it. Too bad you can't do that with the 360.