Broken Taboo + Nobody Miniviews

Yes I know the Platinum rerelease art is disgusting and ruins any style that boxart would otherwise posess, but for $15 it is hard to complain for something that will be this awesome. Of course I wont get much chance to play until after my rerun through Assassins Creed (for research purposes) but considering how long it will take to download all the new updates, I'll still be waiting for them to finish in 2011.

On the topic of reviews, since no one is calling shots on me at the moment and I've been looking for an alternative to just giving games random numbers out of 5 I will be introducing Miniviews starting this weekend.

One thing that I feel many reviewers overlook is the first impression that games give players. Like a publisher digging through a slush pile of writers, if a game fails to capture its audience early on, there is little incentive to pursue further. The idea is to avoid analysing gameplay mechanics and leaving a number at the end to rate my experience. And like a good piece of writing should, it wont go on for longer than it needs to (250-350 words is more than enough for this) This doesn't mean no more traditional reviews, but until I find a format that I feel suits my writing it is gonna be this kind of stuff instead.

Look forward to the experiment!

Cheers

All aboard the hype train, choo choo choo!

A cold Wednesday night. I'm still trying to recover from previous night of alcohols but I must belong to the masses that call themselves fanboy- opps, I mean gamers.
 
Anyways jokes aside, the Nintendrones were there in the masses. Kinda strange considering how much these same people condemn the DSi and its Nintendo-style of features on the interwebs. But when Nintendo calls, peoples come - it just happened that the Womens Weekly and Cosmopolitan readers were washing their hair on the night.

Already stocking DSi accessories

While the event was't quite starting up until 10pm, people were already there in preperation for the big event and for last minute pre orders of the system.  In order to entice any on the ropes people or parents of 11 years olds who had already pre ordered their own system, EB were throwing in free copies of the 'Training' games with every DSi purchased that night. And what better way to push a cynical game writer over the edge than making the price $150 when you pawn off your DS Lite. I guess I could cave in tonight.

One last photo for memories (or lulz)

As I stood in line, removing my copy of GTA: Chinatown Wars from my almighty DS Lite, I decided I would have to live without the possibility of playing my GBA games (oh yea, and Jessie's Girl on Guitar Hero On Tour). When it came my turn to be served I announced that they had won and I was trading in my Lite. Then came the turning point. "Do you have the charger with you?" As this was an impulse moment of course I didn't have any stinkin charger with me. Oh sure I could have spent $15 on a charger to trade in with the Lite, but by that point I was looking for any excuse to back out. Dodged a $150 matte black bullet with that wall in front of me. Oh wait, its time to start up that whole event thing

There is, but one ring, to rule them all!

The velvet rope was removed. It was time for the nintendrones to march up the stairs and experience the Nintendo...experience. A bunch of Nintendo Wii systems are set up for the nights Mario Power Tennis tournament (aka. an easy way for a person to score a second DSi in the night). That said, yours truely was sure to get his rear end handed to him in the first round, by someone he knew from high school to make things worse! On the bright side, despite not serving V/Red Bull/Mother/Poison as the choice of beverage, Nintendo knows what its audience digests.

To quote someone from the night "they're doing well - they have us eating out of dog bowls"

Long story short, no one told Nintendo that daylight savings was a week late and this 'midnight' launch was more of an 11pm launch. Not as charming I know, but whatever gets me home before I miss the last tram. I tried my luck at haggling the EB employees for a DSi without that bullocks trade in, but the best I could get em down to was $299.95 which was too much for me so I moved on and proceeded to snap pictures of the lucky people who could afford the rrp and still sleep at night. Enough talking now, time for pictures acompanied by my dry, unfunny wit.

The lucky first two showing off their DSi's - Don't ya just wish you were them? Yea, me neither.

Too busy enjoying that DSi to notice the free ice cream being handed to her right now.

Yea he has a DSi, so what? Smiling is for the weak after all!

But thats not a...oh I get it! Even more ironic - he wasn't playing a PSP game (oh snap!)

At least this guy has a DSi, and he seems happy about it too

Two nerds and only one DSi? Hope they learn to share

You gotta admire the nerds that take the time to inspect their goods on the spot. They just DO NOT trust Nintendo to give them that second styli

The closest I will get to a DSi for quite some time (at least a DSi without security restrains trapping it on the EB tables)

At the end the boxes were empty and the dog bowls were nothing but holes with bits of sugar sitting on the bottom. And that is pretty much it. Nothing that wouldn't have been covered by others by now since I am a couple days late in reportings. All thats left to do is say 'Cheers' and go get my 8 hours.

Cheers

PS.

Outdated!

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

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!