Dare to Play the Game

The Wii Saber, A Smaller PS3 & some Sonic fun – Welcome to the column that promises to push innovation and technology but in the wrong direction known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. Well since last week, the 360 service center people have been doing things a little differently. I received two phone calls. The first was from the manager lady that said she was working on my signature issue and wasn’t able to change the address but she would get me a tracking number once it was fixed. So yesterday, I’m sitting in the car and get another phone call. They have my tracking #? What?! My X-Box 360 in a mere two weeks from when it hit McAllen is being shipped back all fixed. *RAH RAH RAH* I guess kindness and following up actually works. I should see my 360 back this week. :), I also got my birthday presents from my group this week; to the tune of Smackdown vs Raw 2007 for 360 and Morrowind Game of the Year Edition for XBOX. Fun, fun stuff. To be truthful though, I’ve been watching movies lately and not playing video games. More on that later.

Morgan presents the column today in a nice yellow ensemble. Normally I don’t like yellow. But what do I care about color when its being used to highlight the ummm features of a lovely woman? I tend to like harsher colors like Green, Red, or Black. But Viva Yellow, yellow is good and Morgan is good *sigh*, moving on.

PS3

While I’m completely skeptical here, Ars Technica’s mole, who previously tipped them off on HDMI for the 360 and wired Xbox 360 Rock Band controllers is now telling them that Sony will be releasing yet another version of the PS3 for the holidays. This time it is a 40GB system for only $400 with a possible Spider-Man 3 Blu-ray pack-in. Also in the cards is a supposed price drop to $99 for the PS2. Here’s what the mole says the holiday season will look like for Sony consoles:


* 80GB PlayStation 3: $499.99
* 40GB PlayStation 3: $399.99
* Spider-Man 3 Blu-ray movie pack in with one, or both
* PlayStation 2: $99.99


While the 80GB price drop has been predicted by multiple analysts, I don’t get why they would go to all the trouble to phase out two smaller hard drive versions of the system only to release a third. The PS2 is still selling strong, but the drop to $99 could very well make it the best-selling console of the holidays, especially if Wii shortages continue. Hopefully come TGS we’ll have confirmation one way or the other. Until then, grain of salt people.

Even though this is mostly rumor, there are always a little bit of truth to rumours. $99 for a PS2 is crazy and actually if I could pick up a silver job I might pick up another one just in case. However, one has to question why the 60gb PS3’s are being discontinued only to have one with less capacity debut at the same price (and a SP3 movie isn’t worth two cents; just like the Talldega Nights or King Kong HD offer). Does somebody at Sony have OCD? Seriously when you have to get your consoles to line up by offering a 40 and a 80 instead of a 60 and a 80; you need therapy. Actually I need therapy. Because I continuely scratch my head trying to figure out why Sony keeps up with the bonehead decisions. Of course, this could all be crazy talk and Sony could be releasing a 20gb version for $299. Wait, that makes some sense; okay 160gb PS3 and on my doorstep by Christmas with something resembling a decent game. Nevermind, Christmas day miracles don’t really happen for me anyhow.

Xbox 360

Games Radar has posted an interesting interview with Editor-in-Chief of Official Xbox Magazine, Francesca Reyes who apparently has gone to Bungie and played through and beaten the entire of Halo 3. When asked about the experience, Reyes who lives in San Francisco, had this to say:

…I thought to myself: Wow. I can’t believe I just did something that hundreds of thousands of people have been waiting years to do. I can’t believe I just did something that I’VE been waiting years to do. It was one of those epiphany moments when I got really, really happy and realized how much I loved my job.

Reyes is under embargo and can’t talk about the game of course, but all will be revealed when her massive ten page review comes out in OXM later this month. I must admit that I don’t have any real burning desire to play Halo 3 given my infamous inability to play FPSs, but reading this little interview made me just a tinge green with envy. I can only imagine how it will make a true Halo 3 die hard feel…

Pompous bitch, anybody, anybody? Maybe I’m the only one that feels like that, but it really has that air to it. Okay, so its cool she already beat the game (probably with cheat codes) but to go out and have an epiphany about it? Ummm *wave*, its a game. It ain’t Rez for pete’s sake, oh wait that would be a seizure. She writes for OXM, so regardless of whether she likes it or not, it’s going to get 9.8’s or better. So this is really kinda pointless. It isn’t Official Xbox Magazine for nothing. Anyhow; she realized how much she loved her job at the same time. I love my job too, I get to slam execs like you who are pratically handed games while I have to give publishers a hand job for them to even breathe in my direction *sigh*.

Wii

Everyone knows the Wiimote’s Ultimate Purpose, and it’s not tennis. It’s badass Jedi lightsabering. And while we’ve had faith the Wiimote would one day transcend to lightsaber status (beyond waggling), LucasArts’ Mark Montuya has gone on the record to endorse the dream after recent silence on their front, calling the LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga “just a taster” for a future release of motion controlled lightsaber combat.


I feel bad in pointing out that the Wiimote’s lack of relative motion sensing is probably making the job a programming nightmare. And if developers don’t nail the project, it’s tough to predict who will look worse: Nintendo or LucasArts. On a lighter note, we’re getting Wii Lightsabers! Hooray!

Wait, a Wii Saber? Think of the possibilities (and not just the casualities to pets and television sets). Lego Star Wars in an awesomely wonderful game to begin with, I just think if they can even come close to duplicating this; we could be in for a great experience. Now if they only come up with a Wii Saber for the office, a device that would be sure to get you to the top of the corporate ladder with only a few shakes and noise making. That’s another point, if they make the Wii Saber, they need to have built in sound. I need that; I also need the original trilogy in anamorphic widescreen. I need much and get little.

XBOX Live Arcade – Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (400 MS Point)

Kinda a slow week for XBLA. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is actually a fun game if nothing more you get to play with Tails for the first time. (I played with Tails this weekend, but that’s another story *whistle*). But more Chaos Emerald action on XBLA is a good thing. However, I hope they don’t continue the trend too much longer and keep releasing Sonic games; that could be scary. I cringe if we ever get to Sonic Spinball or Sonic 3d. Question is, where is Golden Axe 2? We got the Sonic/Golden Axe combo a few weeks ago, GA 2 was a pretty decent game to boot. With any luck maybe we’ll see the Phantasy Stars, Shinings or perhaps a more reclusive title like Gain Ground.

NES Play Action Football was the first football game I really got into besides Tecmo Bowl. I never played Ten Yard Fight or that John Elway game. They were just boring, but NES Play Action was awesome and you had to think inspired Madden on some level. The diagonal screen was hard on the eyes sometimes but the fact it was authentic and offered you the chance to go at it with 3 buddies was truly fun for all to see. I’m wondering how they will handle the player names though. But like Tecmo Bowl, they kinda skated around the issue by not using the full name. So maybe that’s how they’ll get around it. Would be nice to see them update the rosters though. Wonder if EA would pitch a fit, ha…there is a thought.

So is it Sonic week or what? More Sonic, More Tails and a little Knuckles (Saturday night all over again). All jokes aside; you would think that Dr. Eggman would give it up at this point even after gaining the services of Knuckles. It’s interesting that he’s the bad guy here where he would return in other games and be a good guy who would fight along Sonic. Even Eggman can’t keep anybody happy with Sonic around.

The sequel to the Zelda clone. The nice thing about this game as opposed to Zelda 2 was that they didn’t abandon the original top down view which was the big disapointment for me with Z2. This game was a clone in every way where you had to navigate dungeons, save the princess and collect coins for better equipment. It was an action rpg thru and thru and a good game for anybody who is bored of Legend of Zelda or the original Neutopia. I recommend all three games this week as they are all solid. Hopefully this trend continues.

PS2
Dot.Hack G.U. Vol 3 Redemption
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core
NHL 2K8
NHL 08

PS3
NHL 2K8
DiRT
NHL 08
Heavenly Sword

Xbox 360
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion GOTY Edition
NHL 2K8
Fatal Inertia
Kengo: Legend of the 9
NHL 08
Skate

DS
Drawn to Life
Jam Sessions
Pet Luv Spa & Resort Tycoon
Spelling Challenges & More!
Zoey 101: Field Trip Fiasco

Interesting release week, if you have a console that got releases; you got a boatload of them. Only 4 systems had releases but each one had 4 or more games. NHL both the 2k and EA version make their rounds. What frustrates me about these is that the PS2 gets them at $20 and $30 collectively. 360 or PS3? $60 for either one. Not even a $10 discount for the 2k version. Well as anybody knows, wait 6 months and you can get either one for under $30. Just a shame they don’t try to get more players on release week. Heavenly Sword comes to the PS3 in what might be the first awesome wonderful game for the console. It has a red haired beauty kicking ass with a sword, what’s not to like? Of particular interest to me is the Oblivion GOTY edition which has the added Shivering Isles content which is $30 by itself. By the time I’ve played through a good part of Morrowind and gotten maybe a tiny bit bored of Halo 3, this should be down to about $40-$45 (one would guess). Then its a steal.

I had waited until this week to talk about this. At this point two weeks ago, I had no idea what was going to happen. Then what actually happened was something that I couldn’t make up in years and I’m the creative one. I met a girl named Sarah through Myspace this past weekend. She had moved to Houston and we got together on Friday night. I really had thought love at first sight was something forgotten by time. I’ve had it happen once in my life. Unfortunately due to life and my own screwups, I never got a chance to make that one happen. However, here it was completely mutual. She felt the same way as I did and we had a wonderful weekend together. I dropped her off on Sunday around 6pm. However, there was a couple of weird things that happened that I had to pick her back up at roughly 3am that morning. In that period of time since then, we have spent the night at my parents place; she spent a day with my mother (and they got along well), and now she is living with me at my house. Furthermore, we are both extremely happy about it. While most would think it be too soon (even based on the events on how it actually occurred), it actually is very good timing. We completely love each other and I have not felt like this (and she concurs from her own experience) in years. She is absolutely wonderful. I truly mean that. So I share this picture at the end of my column this week and say to every one of you; true love can exist; even for people who were ready to give up (we both were). I hope I can be wonderful to her for the rest of my life as she’s already shown me she’s willing to be there for me in every single way. (She even likes my writing so there! :-P) Byie kiddoes.

As Always,
Kedrix of Aldrianian
(*The Forgotten One*)