Dear Sony

I understand you wanting to give we consumers a choice in a nation where our internet downloading capabilities are ... let's say, limited. And it's great for those collector nerds such as myself who like to display pointless cases for games that I will never sell and probably only come back to 3-4 times in my life.

But really Sony, how much more would it have cost you to make plastic cards with PSN funds and supply them to local Australian retailers? Heck, they could sell these pre paid cards to consumers who want to actually BUY YOUR GAMES but have no access to credit cards. I can only live so long off the single demo track available for Wipeout HD - although if you are still releasing PSN games on disc, I wouldn't mind it on my shelf. And this new PSP Go! If it is going anywhere IMO, its straight to eBay for most Australian users when we discover little Timmy needs mummy and daddy to give out important credit card info so he can play Patapon.

We are not asking for blood Sony, just a way for us disgruntled Australian Playstation users to give you more of our dipleating stimulus packages (does anyone still have $$$ from those?) Anyways, please get on this issue immediately so everyone can get back to the important issues, like bitching about how expensive the systems themselves are!

signed in virtual blood

Australian Playstation users

PS. I'll be heading down to the Connection Tour sometime this weekend, stay tuned for pics and pointless bitching about Wii Sports Resort.

Just when I finally KICKED the habit!

Seriously, I was pretty much going to snuff out the idea of Pokemon Platinum since it has done little to win me over from the last game (which I prematurely ended after growing bored trying to train my dream team) But announcing remakes of Gold/Silver is a guaranteed way to put me back in the waiting line to give Nintendo my money.

I still consider Gold/Silver/Crystal to be the pinacle of the series. It literally built on everything that Red/Blue/Yellow had, and did so without losing any charm that the series had. While the series never really focused on this idea, there was a continuation of the R/B/Y storyline with characters moving on after their brick gameboy adventures. And most importantly, it still had MOTHERFUCKING TEAM ROCKET! And so, while I doubt uppity Japanese developers will pay attention to the ramblings of a madman, here is what I want to see happen with these new games

DITCH EVERYTHING POST-251!

It's not a new generation pokemon game without new critters to enslave, and to me the G/S/C generation of pokemon were the best designed. They still had a feeling of originality while feeling in place with the original 151 designs. Since then the new pokemon have gotten more and more bizzare designs to distract the fanboys that they have been playing the same game for 10 years. In short: The new pokemon suck and should not be seen anywhere in the Johto or Kanto regions. Even if it means the Starly family is nowhere to be seen.

SPEED THE WHOLE FUCKING THING UP!

A fairly new problem for me. When I started Poke Diamond I found the inclusion of 3D sprites to have really 'wiped off 5' even when holding down the run button. Sure the GB games were also slow, but 2D sprites still got along faster than anything the beret-wearing snail could do. In fact, now I get that whole beret thing! The DS male trainer is a French snail! And yea, who likes the French anyway? Give the guy a can of Red Bull to speed him up.

MAKE IT POSSIBLE TO GET THE REMAINING LEGENDARIES!

Well, maybe not the new legendaries, since that would conflict with request #1. But having to fill Pokemon Ranch with 1000 pokemon to obtain a Mew is fucking insane and whoever thought this up should be shot, stabbed and left to rot on Haley's ranch. In fact, NO MORE buying spin-off games to obtain a single legendary pokemon! So make it possible to get all 5 birds, all 3 dogs, those 2 Mewthings and a fucking Celebi! If those GBA-DS era legendaries MUST be featured, throw in items to make them accessible in the Diamond/Pearl/Platinum so they don't dirty up my Johto journey.

Of course Nintendo could do none of this and fill this remake with nothing but DSi minigames and Bidoof's and I would still buy it like the good whipping boy I am. But one can't help but dream, can they?

What the fuck Kotaku!?!?!?!

Seriously Kotaku, what the hell!? How come I had to find about about a DS Haruhi game, and Wii Hare Hare dancing through other websites? Standard Kotaku policy dictates regular posts regarding all things Haruhi related, followed by a embedd display of Hare Hare Yukai.

Guess it's time to pick up Bashcrafts slack

Seriously, this is just fucking cruel!!

Just when you start getting used to being as broke as the US economy, this has to remind you that the drip of new releases is about to go full blast til December. But even with my experties in bargain hunting, all I can afford for a while is the train ticket to get to my local game retailers to look at the boxes. Maybe if I'm lucky I can pick up the box and hold it for a little while too *fingers crossed*

I mean, come on! If I don't get out there and grab myself a copy of Petz: My Monkey Family, I just might have to kill someone.

And now for the fun part..

"Deck the halls". "Jingle Bells". "Theres no chance in hell I'm kissing you, even under the mistletoe" I've pretty much heard them all, meaning that xmas is lacking in sufficient surprises. What is always a pleasent jump every year is the 26th, a.k.a. Boxing Day.

Last year was pretty disappointing when it came to Boxing Day sales for me. Just out of high school, unemployed, almost no holiday money, no online purchasing ability and not getting to shops until late in the afternoon. Oh sure I managed a single obscure PS2 rpg, but in the days of 'HD' and 'sixaxis' more was needed.

Now that the budget has opened up to cover almost all major platforms, the excitement bug is jumping around inside me. Or maybe its because everyone at work is complaining about how much they hate xmas that Boxing Day is the last holiday of 2008 that hasn't been hated on by the masses. But all these 'happy holidays' n 'merry hanukkah' aside, there is something that is sorta bugging looking at potential purchases this week. There is too much shit to buy and play released every yearly fourth quater!

In short, I will have to skip on most of the big AAA+ hype releases. And for once its not about cost factor, there just isn't enough time to get through them all. Now that I can finally get off my rear end and start reviewing again its asking too much of one man to deal with an entire holiday release schedule (and all the other stuff throughout the year that he's missed from not having a PS3)

I'll have to just play it out and see what ends up in my shopping bags on Friday, so til then

Cheers

Anybody Home?

I know what you are thinking. Yet another 'zomg home is broken!' rant to join the other eleventy billion out there, cause we just needed one more don't we < /sarcasm >

However, my experience with home today, while brief, was a lot less broken then others. So suffice to say, while I was quick to get into Home, I was quick to get out of it. I guess when you are an Australian on our internet, 3D virtal worlds aren't going to be embracing us with open arms so much as keeping us out of the Town Square while taking half an hour to download the area.

Before realizing that I would be stuck in my apartment for my visit to Home, the system itself seems quite simple, if a bit limited. While trying to create a virtual nobody to match my own likeness I realized something: The character creation tools made available barely surpass the Mii Channel in variety and you would have to be VERY drunk to mistake the virtual me for the real deal. Hopefully more freebie options are made available for character creation, since I don't want to pay real world money just to get my correct hair/eye colour (and one more thing Sony, why do all but 2 of the face options look like neanderthal men?)

As I'm too cheap for a headset and too lazy to find a USB keyboard I spent about 5 minutes running around my lightly furnished apartment (that I could only dream about matching in location and style) yelling to the room that I do not have a headset of keyboard. By the time I realized the men in the crazy mobile wern't coming to put me in a straight jacket and socially interact with me I proceeded to dance the robot and leave Home until the day when my internet connection can manage the task of getting me out of my apartment.

So in short, hopeful and potential. But even for a day 1 beta over 2 years in the making I feel a little disappointed. But at least I can sleep easy at night knowing that Senator Conroy is jumping for joy at the idea of Australia with an internet so broken he could spend his days in office swimming in piles of hate mail/death threats.

Cheers for now

Desparadooooooooo

Just when I thought I had made up my mind and was proudly touting I would be buying a Playstation 3 sometime after xmas, Microsoft have to make me turn my head and notice their crazy new Australian price drop on all Xbox 360 models. Now it goes something like this

Xbox Arcade - $299

Xbox 20GB Pro Console - $349

Xbox 60GB Pro Console - $399

Xbox Elite Console - $549

While the Elite is still incredibly overpriced for its only redeeming features (being the 120GB hard drive and black colour) the other systems are looking very appealing. Even though I'm still committed to my plans to buy a Playstation 3 sometime between boxing day and start of my 2009 classes, I can't help but 'want' to jump into the Xbox gaming pool and see what I'm missing now that the systems are coming down in price this fast. I guess I should get all the details lined out about why I have been pro PS3 this whole time

Playstation 3

pros

-80GB HDD, easily upgradeable to anying from 120-500GB

-Built in Wifi

-Free online play via PSNetwork

-Already have Rock Band equipment for PS2 (meaning no new hardware required)

-System does not use a prehestoric disc tray

cons

-AU$699!

-Stripped backwards compatibility for PS2 games

-Trophies don't apply to all games

-Where the hell is Home!?!?

now heres the factors for the Xbox 360

pros

-Cheaper than a Wii

-Achievements/Gamerscore

-New Xbox Experience will help save my discs

-Avatars

-Xbox Live Arcade

cons

-Consoles stability reputations

-Disc tray is still a threat to my games pre install

-Paying for Xbox Gold

-No built in Wifi (and no way in hell I'm paying extra for a Wifi adapter)

Now the situation for me about built in Wifi is a big one, since I don't use a wired connection for anything in my house, and the internet connection is pretty far from where the console would be living. Meaning I can pretty much pass on Xbox Live Gold/Demos/DLC/Live Arcade. Of course now that games can be installed onto the harddrive I'll have a use for the 20GB/60GB storage. All this means is that I will still buy third party software on PS3 just to make use of online play n such, but theres still the matter of Microsofts exclusives.

With no other way to say this I'll just put it out there. Is it worth buying an Xbox 360 Pro Conosle (I'd be gunning for a 60GB deal) for single player experiences in games like Halo/Gears of War and single player exclusives like Fable 2/Ninja Gaiden 2? 

I really need to sleep on this, its hurting my head. The only cure for a sore head would be to go play some more Rock Band so I'm out for tonight

Cheers!

Tis the season...to put up with xmas carols in the workplace!!!

One good thing about having a real job while whoring yourself out as a writer is recieving a regular sampling of cash money for materialistic desires. With only a few months of holiday work to look forward to at the overly twaty David Jones I gots a lot of shit to stock up on. Of course this means dealing with Christmas carols being played in the food court while running around delivering foodstuffs to the stalls. After one day I'm about ready to stab someone in the eye, so hopefully I can drown this stuff out for the rest of the season.

While I was originally planning to wait until after I picked up a PS3 for this, I'm really considering jumping into the Rock Band wagon with a PS2 bundle. Sure the game itself is stripped down the hell and back again, but since the hardware is identical over the 2 systems I wouldn't feel so guilty warming up on the PS2 now for when I have a spare $700 to blow out my rear hole (damn these Aus prices!!!) Fingers crossed Big W/EB (if it comes down to price matching) don't disappoint next week in finding my $217 band bundle + game.

As for other newish releases it is bleak until previously said PS3 comes into my life, which wont be until after the holidays most likely. Guess this makes things easier though since after Disaster and Fire Emblem DS there are no must buys. Ideas are always welcome from the masses, especially since I need to get off my hiney and actually WRITE some new reviews. Now since I don't have anything useful to say tonight I shall take my leave.

Cheers

Repent or thou shall be forsaken!

Yes people, it has finally happened. Some flare has gone off inside the head of the mother creature and she took me out with her to purchase Wii Fit. Not just any Wii Fit, but a FULLY PRICED copy of Wii Fit! Sure the only catalogue that had it on sale was Myer (which doesnt stock games in our one) but she doesn't care since this looks to be a nice impluse buy.

I will admit however that once I got the balance board set up and registered both of our Miis through background shoutings of 'Hurry up, I want to play!' that we both had this strange feeling when we played. I think this emotion is called...fun? Well whatever it was, it made both of us put in a full 30 minute session each of yoga, muscle excersies and hula hooping. Now I give myself about a month before I banish Wii Fit back into its case and never speak of the balance board again (unless I pick up Skate It or some other equally gimmicky piece of software) and as for dearest mother, I give her a week at most. 2 if she finally learns how to turn on the Wii and start up the game herself.

On a more positive note I was able to pick up a little something for myself during the trip to JB Hifi as you can see in the picture below. Now that I'm wrecked for the night I guess I'll start playing this before bed and hopefully finish it in a day or two. 

Developing the Game Down under follow up

A couple days late, but better late then never to show off the rare occasions in which I nab software in its intial launch period. Review should be written up in a day or two after I spend some more time with the game, but since Eco Gamer reviews only go up at a rate of one per week it may be a while. Outside of the game itself I did have a couple of little annoyances that I just need to get out of me now instead of surpressing them like my inner carnal desires.

In a sort of followup to my 'Developing the game Down Under' piece published in The Box I feel the urge to talk more about the Australian made game. Back when folks from Krome were in Melbourne showing off Hellboy and Star Wars at the ACMI center I discussed with them if they felt their game was identifiable as Australian (or even just Krome itself) made. Sure enough they were confident with the hype they had been generating for the Wii game thanks to their exclusive content and multiplayer modes, even making it sound like the 360/PS3 devs were trying to play catchup. Now quality of the games aside, after nabbing my copy of TFU I couldn't help but notice how easy it was to miss the Krome logo on the back of the box while Lucasarts was plastered right on the front.

While the name Krome doesn't generate as much hype (or even casual acknowledgement) as something like Lucasarts, I can't shake the feeling that this is just a dick move in advertising the brand over the artists who put time and effort into this game. Sure in retrospect the Wii game was always going to be sitting in the shadows of its tech heavy bigger brothers, but the point is why do the developers get pushed to the back of the box while someone else takes their credit away. The people at Krome were doing more than porting a PS2 engine to the Wii, they were making an entirely new game seperate to the 360/PS3 showoffs with their own talents. Ranting here wont get Krome front page of Hyper magazine and an appology from Georgey boy himself; thats what hitmen and big bags of money are for. The point is unless you are 'in the know' about the scene, Australians will once again let another locally developed title slip away from their graps while the government continues to ignore the countries potential in the industry. 

What about me?

Writers block is the enemy of every professional tosser with ink in their pen and a blank page on their desk. To update this and make it a 21st century comment perhaps it should be 'Writers block is the enemy of every professional crybaby with a livejournal and their fingers hovering over the keyboard'


Now if I was someone important, i.e. a professional analyst, or a renowned critic on a specific subject, then anything I say would be eaten up for breakfast by the reading public. Alas since I am a nobody writing mostly on what is still deemed a 'niche' subject by the televised media the amount of people who will take my words to heart is minimal at best, and non-existent in reality. I've been bugged by this for several months now, but after being knocked back by my own teacher about not following 'standards' in writing I feel the need to bitch about it discuss the matter.

When starting up with reviews for Economical Gamer, the final review scheme was still undecided and open for discussion. Now it doesn't take a famous analyst to figure out that opinions on the current standards of game reviews point towards the entire system needed an update past the number based metacritic scores. Since the site is based off getting your moneys worth with games it seemed like a great chance to create a unique review system (or completely ripoff Kotaku's new setup ,whichever one is easier). Obviously this didn't happen and the site went with a traditional number rating, but hey who am i to complain? I'm still writing reviews and such so it would seem unfair to say the reviews all suck.

Next complaint stems less from the interwebs and instead from my own classroom. Complaints about my writing course almost completely passing up the subject of online writing/publications now withstanding, after almost a year in the course it feels less like 'developing your own writing' and more like 'learn to please the teacher'. Despite been given the OK to take a fictitious satirical view on space travel for a crummy travel piece (which I have no real passion for trying to publish) I still receive a talk about having to not trying to do anything different when writing for an audience. At least thats what I think teacher was trying to say, all I heard was "crush any unique creativity in your writing and stick to the standards you pretentious douche".

So here I am stuck in mundane writing position with nothing to brag about. But what do I have to do in order to make it 'big'? Obviously its either conform to the point where standard writing is referred to as 'doing a Steven .J' or do something so incredibly original that its concept will be stolen and driven into the ground faster than you can say Bullet Time. As a starting point for the latter, feature writing seemed like an easy way to express some ideas that are not typically expressed in gaming journalism. One heavily required point for most of my features that are still in the 'early planning' phase are interviews and comments from various important peoples/peoplettes. Of course after a couple months trying to get in contact with said people I now know that these features are a lost cause, since none of them care to return emails or messages I'm gonna have to face dropping these features and look at different ideas.

Now there are still ways for me to move my writing forward. Obvious methods would be to move past this small blog and create a whole website dedicated to sticking it to conventions and 'the man'. But since Eegra does that with more proficiency then I could ever hope to display by myself I'll leave that to those magnificent bastards. Then theres a more unique conspiracy to write/design my own video game; guaranteed press from any site claiming to give a damn about the 'indi' crowd and a promotion into the somebody crowd. However then reality slaps me in the face and I realize that I know nothing about coding up my own game, and my ideas would be impossible with a budget of $23 sitting in my bank account.

Guess all I can do is conform to the masses for a while longer while crying over a livejournal, fingers floating just 3mm over the keyboard letters D U M B A S S (yes there are 2 fingers over the letter 'S')

School's in session, should've learned my lesson...

Nothin' quite like a GTO marathon to stay awake instead of sleeping. Maybe its because I'm sick of constantly sleeping in and running late for morning classes, or that I'm just trying to become an insomniac for attention but I'm finding it pretty easy to stay awake instead of crawling into bed at 1-2am and trying to wake up in 6 hours. Of course by the time the sun starts setting I'm just about beat and ready to crash, but since I don't have morning classes on Tuesday IT'S ALL GOOD!

Anyways, its not like I'm doing anything important on Mondays. Oh sure I go to class and pretend to give a damn about whatever books we are looking at (this week its On The Road) but its just sitting in a chair for 3-4 hours. Not very fun, yet I still show up for every class. Sometimes it would be fun to have a teacher like GTO, but at the same time political correctness would keep this guy locked up forever. Note to self: If I ever become a teacher, make sure to be at least half as awesome as Onizuka!

Anyways, new stuff new stuff....well, I'm buggered! Oh yea, IGN got my hopes up for Madden 09 All-Play being available last week only for EB and GameFAQS to strike me down and tell me to wait a whole extra week. Since I'm not planning to pick up any new games until Force Unleashed, this was supposed to pass the time (and give me something new to review) for the week, but now I'll have to fall back on unpublished reviews. And if that fails, just download a couple small WiiWare games to bitch about. Sometimes it would be nice to have a 360/PS3 just to have some variety since WiiWare hasn't really won me over yet with the exception of Strongbad's Cool Game For Attractive People.

All hope is not lost though peoples! If lady luck is on my side I may be seeing paying holiday work within the next month or two. This of course means $$$ for my own PSP (finally stop borrowing other peoples) and maybe a PS3 if the price is right. Following some new toys, new games to expand my reviewing prowess and make me look more professional and less like a Nintendrone. Gotta look the part this week for the interview so its time for a haircut and to pull out the fancy suit.

Well thats it I guess for this little while. Its just after 3am and Nao is just entering the GTO anime! Why couldn't real life have super hot school nurses like in anime...

Paper or plastic? "This blog is kindda sad"

Never nice to hear bag things about your own creation, but I can see my reader(s) complaints about this place being worthless. Doesn't help that I don't have much to report in trying to avoid this being a current news blog, but since I must conform to please the crazy masses here I go:

The Box - got a bunch of music cd reviews to finish over the next week and a bit. Now without a pair of working headphones I'm denied the possibility to listen to these tunes on the go so now I must sit my ass in front of my computer and listen through the crummy speakers. No idea when (or if) they will be in print form, most likely they will be up on the online version of The Box magazine, which I never pay attention to, sorry Jade. Also going to see advance screening of Pineapple Express this Monday, and luckily I don't have to waste time reviewing it.

Eco Gamer - Yet another review game straight from 2K in the form of Go! Deigo! Go! Safari Adventure has arrived at the door of gaming cheapasses. Wont get a chance to play through this until this weekend, but expect the review to go up sometime in August. In other review news, reviews of My Pokemon Ranch (WiiWare) and Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS) should be next on the list of reviews going up. Seem to be getting positive feedback on last couple of reviews so I must be doing something right, when I figure out what exactly it is then I'll be sure to put it into all my writing.

R18+ Rating Debate - Sadly I got out of bed to watch that Insult to gamers discussion on Australia's lack of an R18+ rating. Unbeknown to me, the poor sucker who was dragged in to ask the question was Joab from Bigpond GameArena whom I have become friends with annoyed and added on Facebook in a bleak attempt to network with these gaming journalist masses. If anyone cares about MY opinion on this issue, I say we wait it out until our generation grows up and become the suited twats of government and we have a new whipping child to cover the asses of neglectful parents everywhere. I personally nominate a revival of the tabletop gaming scene to be blamed for the next decades worth of school shootings, drug overdoses and random suicides.

Guess thats all for now, I'm outta here to go cry in a corner about a single person saying this place is shite!

Cheers

The Price Is WRONG!

While I can brag about being super lucky with contests and charitable donations, when it comes to actual bargain bin/sale hunting I am one unlucky son of a bitch!

Going back last year to the one day Big W sale just following the release of Guitar Hero 3 on Wii (game+guitar for $98), arrived 20 minutes after store opened because I waited for mates before heading to the store. According to the store clerk, they had lines of people buying up the bundles as soon as the store opened. The end result was me running through 4 EB Games, 4 JB Hifis, 2 Dick Smiths, 1 Target, 1 K Mart and a Myer. Since then Guitar Hero has been dead to me and I haven't looked back!


This year hasn't been any better. Going through 3 K Mart stores trying to find Scarface: The World Is Yours on Wii (marked down to $2o) only to find every store was sold out within a day of the sale being on. In the end I gave in and paid an extra few bucks to get it from JB for a passable $30. It was during this time that Dick Smith decided to throw a little clearance sale on, with games on all platforms down to crazy prices! All I wanted was a copy of Phoenix Wright Justice For All ($5) and every Dick Smith I went to didn't have any copies left, even the stores that claimed to have stock according to the store website (went to the Preston store 3 different days and never found a copy there!)

This week I'm hoping to have some slack cut for me. While I don't expect to find a copy of The Dog Island at Target ($15 starting Thursday) going by stock I saw today, I'm hoping I can find one of these rumored $24 Nintendo games at K Mart tomorrow. Mario Strikers Charged, Endless Ocean, Advance Wars Days of Ruin or Batallion Wars 2 would all be fantastic for me. While it is likely I will find no stock once again I have to have some hope, after all this is the same K Mart that sold me DK Jungle Beat w/Bongo controllers for $29 a couple years ago. Wish me luck you ignorant masses!

UPDATE: Looks like I got lucky with this K Mart once again. Found 2 copies of Battalion Wars 2 in stock (of course I only grabbed one for myself) so I got something for my efforts!