I went a little DVD crazy today since I haven't bought any in awhile. I picked up via Amazon:
Repo Man
Dead Man
Control (couldn't find it locally, looking forward to this movie the most)
The Ice Harvest (Criterion)
Eyes Wide Shut (Blu-Ray, haven't seen the unedited version yet)
Muppet Show S3
Rambo
Semi-Pro
The Onion Movie
After next week, it'll be a dry spell for a long time.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Some Weird Games!
I posted this on http://www.digitpress.com/ recently, figured I'd put it here too:
LSD: The Dream Emulator
Sony Playstation (Japan Only)
1998
This is my holy grail game right now. I've got a copy of it now and have been looking for it off and on for the last few years. You essentially navigate a dream environment and all sorts of bizarre things happen to you. There's virtually no real interaction.
Panic! (aka Switch!)
Sega CD/Mega CD (US/JPN), Playstation 2 (Japan Only)
1994
One of my most treasured games. You simply navigate through strange and stranger rooms by pressing random buttons located on each screen. Some will advance you through the stages, most will do very odd things. No real game here, but this is an experience not to be missed. If nothing else to just be shocked that is was ported over here in the first place.
The Rub Rabbits!/Where Do Babies Come From?
Nintendo DS (US/JPN)
2006
The game is pretty much just a collection of odd mini-games but its the whole package that really makes this game something special. The first game, Feel the Magic XX/XY delivered an excellent experience but the sequel brought everything over the top. There's a great deconstruction on love and life to be found in the little flash cart.
Katamari Damacy
Sony Playstation 2 (US/JPN)
2004
What more can be said? It's cliche but man is it still great.
Killer 7
Nintendo GameCube/Sony Playstation 2 (US/JPN)
2005
Suda 51's master work. Undeniably odd and undeniably awesome even if the actual gameplay is suspect.
Doshin the Giant 2
Nintendo 64DD (Japan Only)
2000
Video needs to say it all
Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland
Nintendo DS (JPN/EUR)
2006/2007
I’ve never played this game either but just looking at some of the screenshots has to throw it up on any self-respecting weird game list due to just the protagonist. Arguably the weirdest character Nintendo has ever cranked out.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Atari 2600 (US)
1982
Though the game itself doesn’t really measure up on the “weird” front, playing it as a 5 year old kid, you sure are left dumbfounded by what the hell is going on. Even playing it now, it’s impossible not to notice how strange a VCS take on the definitive adventure movie is. Dots and lines flying around, black squigglies running after you, and strange blobs of land litter the landscape. While other VCS games are just as headscratchingly strange (Riddle of the Sphinx, Swordquest) without any context, I feel that Indy did it first, and best
Electroplankton
Nintendo DS (US/JPN)
2006
I was so sure this wasn’t going to see a release over here, I went ahead and imported it. I was wrong. Not really a game so much as an experiment in sound and visuals. It found an extremely small audience on this side of the Atlantic and commands respectable prices on eBay as a result. Totally unique on the DS and well worth experiencing.
flOw
Playstation 3 (US) (Download Only)
2007
Its been called an interactive screensaver. Its been called genius. Its been called boring as hell. To me, flOw sums up what can be exciting about games these days. Beautiful, unorthodox, and haunting experiences that can transcend genre and classification. They don't have to be complex or deep to be compelling. Breaking games down to their essentials and opening doors to new types of "play" are going to help evolve the next lines of exciting games that will directly correlate to the next swash of mega titles. That Game Company is on the front lines (along with Grasshopper Manufacture and Q? and many individuals like Keita Takahashi, Fumito Ueda, and Tatsuya Kando) of pushing game design forward. And this is very, very exciting.
LSD: The Dream Emulator
Sony Playstation (Japan Only)
1998
This is my holy grail game right now. I've got a copy of it now and have been looking for it off and on for the last few years. You essentially navigate a dream environment and all sorts of bizarre things happen to you. There's virtually no real interaction.
Panic! (aka Switch!)
Sega CD/Mega CD (US/JPN), Playstation 2 (Japan Only)
1994
One of my most treasured games. You simply navigate through strange and stranger rooms by pressing random buttons located on each screen. Some will advance you through the stages, most will do very odd things. No real game here, but this is an experience not to be missed. If nothing else to just be shocked that is was ported over here in the first place.
The Rub Rabbits!/Where Do Babies Come From?
Nintendo DS (US/JPN)
2006
The game is pretty much just a collection of odd mini-games but its the whole package that really makes this game something special. The first game, Feel the Magic XX/XY delivered an excellent experience but the sequel brought everything over the top. There's a great deconstruction on love and life to be found in the little flash cart.
Katamari Damacy
Sony Playstation 2 (US/JPN)
2004
What more can be said? It's cliche but man is it still great.
Killer 7
Nintendo GameCube/Sony Playstation 2 (US/JPN)
2005
Suda 51's master work. Undeniably odd and undeniably awesome even if the actual gameplay is suspect.
Doshin the Giant 2
Nintendo 64DD (Japan Only)
2000
Video needs to say it all
Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland
Nintendo DS (JPN/EUR)
2006/2007
I’ve never played this game either but just looking at some of the screenshots has to throw it up on any self-respecting weird game list due to just the protagonist. Arguably the weirdest character Nintendo has ever cranked out.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Atari 2600 (US)
1982
Though the game itself doesn’t really measure up on the “weird” front, playing it as a 5 year old kid, you sure are left dumbfounded by what the hell is going on. Even playing it now, it’s impossible not to notice how strange a VCS take on the definitive adventure movie is. Dots and lines flying around, black squigglies running after you, and strange blobs of land litter the landscape. While other VCS games are just as headscratchingly strange (Riddle of the Sphinx, Swordquest) without any context, I feel that Indy did it first, and best
Electroplankton
Nintendo DS (US/JPN)
2006
I was so sure this wasn’t going to see a release over here, I went ahead and imported it. I was wrong. Not really a game so much as an experiment in sound and visuals. It found an extremely small audience on this side of the Atlantic and commands respectable prices on eBay as a result. Totally unique on the DS and well worth experiencing.
flOw
Playstation 3 (US) (Download Only)
2007
Its been called an interactive screensaver. Its been called genius. Its been called boring as hell. To me, flOw sums up what can be exciting about games these days. Beautiful, unorthodox, and haunting experiences that can transcend genre and classification. They don't have to be complex or deep to be compelling. Breaking games down to their essentials and opening doors to new types of "play" are going to help evolve the next lines of exciting games that will directly correlate to the next swash of mega titles. That Game Company is on the front lines (along with Grasshopper Manufacture and Q? and many individuals like Keita Takahashi, Fumito Ueda, and Tatsuya Kando) of pushing game design forward. And this is very, very exciting.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Gaming Update
Been playing some Grand Theft Auto IV with varying degrees of success. Multiplayer ranges from amazingly fun to unbelievably annoying. I guess it's the new soup du jour for XBox Live. Single player is pretty good, but isn't a quantum leap forward from previous titles. The world is extremely detailed but still just as interactive as the last iteration (which is to say, minimally).
The World Ends With You on the DS is absolutely fantastic though. It really makes the DS come alive. The (so-called) emoish story actually works very well and is keeping me pretty engrossed. All the extra features piled into the game really sing and bring a lot of different looks on how to play the game the way you want to.
Baroque on the Wii is more successful as an intellectual exercise than it is as a game. I've had the Japanese import (Sega Saturn) for awhile now, but I was never really able to play it as the mechanics are obtuse to say the least and the language barrier made it almost impossible to attempt. Now that I (kind of) know what's going on in the game, it certainly takes a lot of risks that fly much more in the Japanese market than our own. It's already bombing here, but I give all the credit in the world to Atlus for bringing this over here. Especially with what had to be an amazingly difficult translation job for the sparse text in the game (it's very, very strange).
I'm also currently playing Diablo 2 again and having a damn blast. It scratches the loot itch left behind in the wake of World of Warcraft but without all the guilt and self-loathing that comes with playing it.
I very recently bought two games off of eBay. Switch on the PS2 and Pu-li-ru-la on the Saturn. I've looked for the former for a LONG time. Years. Naturally I grabbed it as soon as it was available. I'll need to replace my Japanese PS2 very soon to try it out.
The World Ends With You on the DS is absolutely fantastic though. It really makes the DS come alive. The (so-called) emoish story actually works very well and is keeping me pretty engrossed. All the extra features piled into the game really sing and bring a lot of different looks on how to play the game the way you want to.
Baroque on the Wii is more successful as an intellectual exercise than it is as a game. I've had the Japanese import (Sega Saturn) for awhile now, but I was never really able to play it as the mechanics are obtuse to say the least and the language barrier made it almost impossible to attempt. Now that I (kind of) know what's going on in the game, it certainly takes a lot of risks that fly much more in the Japanese market than our own. It's already bombing here, but I give all the credit in the world to Atlus for bringing this over here. Especially with what had to be an amazingly difficult translation job for the sparse text in the game (it's very, very strange).
I'm also currently playing Diablo 2 again and having a damn blast. It scratches the loot itch left behind in the wake of World of Warcraft but without all the guilt and self-loathing that comes with playing it.
I very recently bought two games off of eBay. Switch on the PS2 and Pu-li-ru-la on the Saturn. I've looked for the former for a LONG time. Years. Naturally I grabbed it as soon as it was available. I'll need to replace my Japanese PS2 very soon to try it out.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Haven't posted in awhile. Been playing a lot of 360 games with some WoW on the side.
Enjoying Beautiful Katamari, Guitar Hero III, and Halo 3 right now. Zelda: Phantom Hourglass on the DS is also completely amazing. Just bought Phoenix Wright 3 and Disgaea on the PSP. I'll probably be getting Virtua Fighter 5 very shortly too.
I'll play some Guitar Hero with Brandy this weekend; looking forward to some co-op on GHIII.
Also bought Tony Hawk's Proving Ground and skate. during the Toys R Us sale. I haven't had a chance to play any of them.
Read through a few books while I was out training as well. Ropeburns: Stories from the Corner by F.X. Toole and Can I Keep My Jersey by Paul Shirley were my favorites.
SAP training is astoundingly boring. The travel was also breaking my brain after awhile. Las Vegas was fun but not very productive. Chicago was probably my favorite place out of the gambit. Food was awesome, people were great, and the sights were fantastic. Too bad I missed that Ween concert though.
Got dressed up for Halloween last night. Well, to be more accurate, Brandy did. I didn't. I was going to go as Space Ghost, but the costume didn't fit. Then I was going to go as Miles Edgeworth but it was really close to Halloween and I couldn't find a suit that would work right. Lots of kids came and got candy. We were out by 7:45.
Monday, June 4, 2007
June 4th, 2007
Games Played: World of Warcraft (PC), Orbital (GBA), Pocket Ninja (PC), Twin Star DX (PC)
Games Bought: Forza Motorsport 2 (X360) [$59.99], Gitaroo Man Lives! (PSP) [$39.99], Resident Evil: Deadly Silence (DS) [$30.00]
Well the games I got were pretty much done through "trading". I returned a Disgaea 2 I picked up at CC to EB for my Forza 2. I traded a bunch of doubles in my game pile for Gitaroo Man and RE:DS. So those were pretty much washes.
I've been checking out some free games recently on the PC. Two I enjoyed were Pocket Ninja (get it from: http://www.harveycartel.org/metanet/downloads.html) and Twin Star DX (see google for a link).
PN is kinda a puzzle/platform game. Very good level design though control with a keyboard leaves a lot to be desired. Twin Star DX is a doujin (fan made) bullet hell shmup. One of the interesting mechanics is "bullet grazing" which rewards you by just barely avoiding enemy projectiles. And since the boss encounters leave the whole screen covered, this isn't too hard to accomplish.
On the WoW front, we've done pretty great in Karazhan with a few hiccups. We beat The Shade of Aran last night which is the last boss before the last boss. We took a few tries on an optional boss (Terestian Illhoof) and called it. A bit too much beating of our proverbial heads against the wall on Shade made things kinda tense. We had him to like 8000 hp (way less than 1%) and due to some stupid mistakes we wiped. I think I pulled the trigger on the situation (go figure), but we did kill him next try. Tough love really does work!
My Druid is 49. Raiding 3 nights a week is slowing down my progress but blah. Karazhan is fun too.
I got subscribed to the Zune "all you can eat" service and have been enjoying it to a frightening degree. I swear that even casual music lovers should be on this thing. They've got a HUGE catalogue of music you can access for $14.99 a month. Granted, you cancel the subscription you don't get the music anymore, but for the cost of a CD a month, this is an awesome deal. And frankly having access to all the music in a great front end is a far better deal than bothering to pirate the albums. I'll actually be getting my Zune later this month (Halo 3 Zune). I need to find out if we can get a second Zune for my wife and use the same subscription. That would be quite rad.
Side note: Tom Petty is the man.
Went hiking this Saturday too. Up at Gem Lake that runs through Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a great hike for us to kick off what amounts to "our season". It was a little cold at the top of the hike, but overall, the weather was fantastic. We also met a nice couple who were out hiking and were pretty much on our pace. He was a World of Warcraft player. Go figure...
Games Bought: Forza Motorsport 2 (X360) [$59.99], Gitaroo Man Lives! (PSP) [$39.99], Resident Evil: Deadly Silence (DS) [$30.00]
Well the games I got were pretty much done through "trading". I returned a Disgaea 2 I picked up at CC to EB for my Forza 2. I traded a bunch of doubles in my game pile for Gitaroo Man and RE:DS. So those were pretty much washes.
I've been checking out some free games recently on the PC. Two I enjoyed were Pocket Ninja (get it from: http://www.harveycartel.org/metanet/downloads.html) and Twin Star DX (see google for a link).
PN is kinda a puzzle/platform game. Very good level design though control with a keyboard leaves a lot to be desired. Twin Star DX is a doujin (fan made) bullet hell shmup. One of the interesting mechanics is "bullet grazing" which rewards you by just barely avoiding enemy projectiles. And since the boss encounters leave the whole screen covered, this isn't too hard to accomplish.
On the WoW front, we've done pretty great in Karazhan with a few hiccups. We beat The Shade of Aran last night which is the last boss before the last boss. We took a few tries on an optional boss (Terestian Illhoof) and called it. A bit too much beating of our proverbial heads against the wall on Shade made things kinda tense. We had him to like 8000 hp (way less than 1%) and due to some stupid mistakes we wiped. I think I pulled the trigger on the situation (go figure), but we did kill him next try. Tough love really does work!
My Druid is 49. Raiding 3 nights a week is slowing down my progress but blah. Karazhan is fun too.
I got subscribed to the Zune "all you can eat" service and have been enjoying it to a frightening degree. I swear that even casual music lovers should be on this thing. They've got a HUGE catalogue of music you can access for $14.99 a month. Granted, you cancel the subscription you don't get the music anymore, but for the cost of a CD a month, this is an awesome deal. And frankly having access to all the music in a great front end is a far better deal than bothering to pirate the albums. I'll actually be getting my Zune later this month (Halo 3 Zune). I need to find out if we can get a second Zune for my wife and use the same subscription. That would be quite rad.
Side note: Tom Petty is the man.
Went hiking this Saturday too. Up at Gem Lake that runs through Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a great hike for us to kick off what amounts to "our season". It was a little cold at the top of the hike, but overall, the weather was fantastic. We also met a nice couple who were out hiking and were pretty much on our pace. He was a World of Warcraft player. Go figure...
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