Its advertising is no exaggeration: the iPod Shuffle is smaller than a standard household key.  Holding 4 gigabytes of data (up to  1000 songs in AAC format), the storage doubles its predecessor.  In order to keep the device so small, Apple placed  most of its buttons on a separate cord that connects from the iPod Shuffle from one end to your headphones.

The iPod Shuffle is priced at $79, comparable to $300 and $400 iPod models, and  seems ideal for joggers or workout routines if the device is properly stored away.  Due to its size, the iPod Shuffle can easily be lost.  While the clip on the back side seems sturdy enough to clip on to most articles of clothing, consumers may want to view the device in a store to see its size.  Less than 46 millimeters in height and less than 8 millimeters in depth is quite small.

The device also features VoiceOver, a program designed within the iPod to tell you what song and artist is playing through a computer-generated voice.  Using the latest iTunes software, each song will generate its own unique vocal label.  To support international music pronunciation, Apple announced that 14 languages support VoiceOver technology.

The VoiceOver feature may feel a little silly for the average consumer, as most people who download and purchase their own music are inclined to know what songs are playing on their own iPod.  The feature may be more appropriate for consumers who burn entire CD collections that they haven’t heard in a while,  or learn the correct pronunciation of most international music, or friends willing to swap iPods for new music.

The iPod Shuffle can last up to 10 hours and requires up to 3 hours of charge time.  The iPod is only available in black or gray.  Apple has not planned any announcements for multiple colors, such as the nine available colors on the iPod Nano.

I’m an optimist when it comes to personal matters.  Life sucks, but it gets better.  Life gets good, then it sucks.  But then it gets better.  And even if it sucks again, life will still turn out good.  So you can be a pessimist, you can be an optimist, but whatever you choose to be, you have to remain confident in a tomorrow.

So what will happen to www.robgalbreath.com ?  Well, cutbacks.  In an effort to find a job, I will not be posting here quite as often in the coming weeks.  I will try to maintain a regular schedule next week, but I don’t know how far that will go just yet.  It’s rather uncertain, and things seem a bit crazy.  But I do have goals.

Number one, job.  Find a job.

Number two, money.  Make money.

Number three, bills.  Pay them.

Number four, return to recreation.  This includes World of Warcraft, all console video games, and dedicating myself to this blog again.  Every week day, just like I’ve been providing for a while.  But for me to get to this step, I need to accomplish one, two, and three first.

I admit, I will have to think about my priorities.  So the more comments you post, the more I’ll feel dedicated and commited to putting more up on this site after all of the woes and troubles are over.  If there are zero comments, I probably won’t update any longer.

Save Completed.

So I’ve been visiting Facebook regularly this past week.  I must say, minus the interaction among a couple cool people, and it’s worth it, I’m rather annoyed by all of these programs that keep popping up everywhere.  I have 120 programs recommended to add.  I don’t want to add any of them.  I’d like to socialize and get out there with meeting people again and all, but seriously?  A program that connects to friends through friends through pre-existing friends channels on a friends network?  Little overkill, huh?

There’s so many useless programs.  I don’t want to bother with werewolves, vampires, ghosts, zombies, or crazy games on there.  I’m just not interested.  The same goes for all these crazy clubs of people who I don’t know — why are you inviting me to this?  Don’t you filter the number of people you invite?

And don’t give me that crap about getting me a cyberdrink, or whatever creepy exchanges that go on there.  If you want to get me liquored up, you come to my house with a bottle of Bacardi Select and a 2-liter of Coke.  Giving me some 100×100 icon isn’t going to get me smashed.

I wish there was a way (maybe you know of one?) where I can just turn off all these applications altogether.  No more invites, no more crazy notifications about not just one, but every one of those apps.  I just want a social atmosphere where I can keep updated on everyone’s lives and post a little bit on my own.  Hell, that’s why I posted this blog on Facebook as well.  It just makes more sense to do so.

Eh, still better than MySpace!  Tootles!

Save Completed.

Bacon Explosion.  Two words that have apparently hit the Interwebs with a profound impact that even major news publications are picking up on it.  What the hell is a bacon explosion?

2 pounds thick cut bacon
2 pounds Italian sausage
1 jar of your favorite barbeque sauce
1 jar of your favorite barbeque rub

I did not make this up, you can find it here:

http://www.bbqaddicts.com/blog/recipes/bacon-explosion/

I’m just… floored.  I mean the end product looks really good and all, but dear heavens is that heart attack hell.  I think my heart stopped after I looked at it.

Just look.  I won’t include any photos, I’ll just tell you to go and let those guys get all the hits.

Save Completed.

Harmonix was figuratively bitchslapped by the realization that Guitar Hero: World Tour is selling better than Rock Band 2 in the recent month.  Strange, considering all the reviews, critics, message boards and gaming world was abuzz about Rock Band, not Guitar Hero.

So people report it, but here’s where I’d like to go the extra mile: why?  Why did such a copycat not-as-great game manage to overtop Rock Band in such a recent time?  Let’s rationalize.

1. Strategic Location — Did you know that companies pay for the advertisements and billboards and product placement for most stores?  It’s true!  When a company wants to sell their game, they have been known for doing some under-the-table dealing to ensure their product is clearly in front of your face.  I won’t name any particular stores, but think about all the Guitar Hero boxes you’ve seen out during Christmas.  Where were they?  Can you remember what displays were up?  That influenced a lot of gamers, particularly parents of gamers who knew there was some music game that was good.

2. Brand loyalty/familiar recognition — Even though Harmonix built both giants, Rock Band is still a very new name.  Guitar Hero has been around since the PlayStation 2.  In all things considering, Guitar Hero is still a name that is renowned by the gaming community regardless of how well it’s performed recently.  The Nintendo DS managed to get a very exciting version, and you’ve seen Guitar Hero on all three current consoles along with previous-generation consoles.  Not everyone liked Super Mario Sunshine, yet Super Mario Galaxy made quite a few leaps and bounds.  It’s the name that matters, and parents hear Guitar Hero far more than Rock Band.

2b.  Television — So attractive men and women are seen in commercials for Guitar Hero dancing in their underwear with a Guitar Hero controller.  Bingo, sex sells.  Not only that, but South Park made a spoof called Guitar Queero.  It wasn’t Cock Band, or whatever witty variation you can think of, it was Guitar Hero.  So you can imagine that South Park fans would recognize said game as the better of the two.  After all, it was on South Park.  It has to be good, right?

3.  Reviewers aren’t getting the message across — Take it how you will.  Maybe the industry is becoming more casual (or more apathetic to some loudmouth reviewer, face-to-mirror).

4.  Hotel California and Jimi Hendrix.  Enough said.

5. “You can make your own music!!” — Whatever that’s worth.

Once again, anything is possible in this industry.  That’s why it makes it such a great industry.

Save Completed.

This past month has felt a bit different for me.  Almost like a need to settle down and try something new.  Yet I can’t seem to figure out exactly what I’m trying to get at, let alone get the wording right.  I’m not sure how I want to approach a new direction in the personal world — I’m ready for a change, but I don’t know how to go about it.

Hm, perhaps I’m being too vague.

Have you ever felt something different about someone, but you weren’t quite sure what it was or what it even meant?  I mean sure, all the old cliche’ crap of love or hate or adoration or lust.  But what if you passionately felt several of these things about a person?  What if it was frequent?  A constant never-ending feeling of an emotional and mental rollercoaster of twists, turns, bumpy wooden rails and quick gliding drops?  Love to love?  Love to hate?  Hate to love?  Hate to hate?  Cold when hot?  Hot when cold?

A never-ending theme park.  You can’t help to be afraid and scream, but you do so out of excitement and joy.  How do you even express that?

The feeling is strange.  But it’s overhwelming.  So you can’t help but say what’s on your mind, even if you’re not sure what will happen.

Life is exciting.

Save Completed.

-Kun Lan (from memory), Killer7

It’s an exciting time in the world, because the Age of Aquarian (a time of great information, at the expense of being locked away in ivory-tower existences, which has been predicted by astrologists for hundreds of years) is finally coming into effect in PCs, the Internet, and too many kids being locked away without a social life but knowing every awesome video on YouTube.  Whether or not you believe in astrology is  a moot point, but we can be assured that times have changed and continue to do so.

Believe it or not, I spent over half of my life without the foggiest idea what a cell phone was — they didn’t exist.  In fact, I was around when people owned brightly-colored rotary phones (they spin in a strange brass-knuckle sort of contraption separate from the phone itself, not buttons like we’re used to today).

Then came the Internet, which blew away the world.  Everything we ever thought about time and distance no longer mattered — you didn’t need a payphone and someone sitting in front of the other phone in order to make a call.  And the Internet allows thousands, millions of people to interact together in ways nobody ever imagined.  We found a world of people outside of our towns, and the world kept getting smaller and smaller.

The Vatican just recently posted up videos for people interested in the Catholic Church, and President Obama has issued almost weekly YouTube videos to speak directly to the American people.  Before this generation, we were lucky if we heard from the president more than once every six months.  But the size of the world has changed, and the pope or American president is in your home any time you want to hear him.

Astonishing.

The world keeps getting smaller, and this is evident with how technology is evolving.  Wireless networking has reached levels where no one dreamed.  Your television will receive downloads?  Are you serious?  Not even a box, but the TV itself?  Come onnn, COME ONNNN!!  No waaaaay.

This is the Information Age, or at least one can hope they keep with that title for our generation.  We are the citizens of one another, the greatest grassroots commitment to a universe where we are always socializing but never really socializing at all.  Many of you have never had a conversation with me, but you’ve stood by for the past three years listening to the radio shows and blogs and reviews and news and message boards.  It doesn’t even matter if I’ve ever spoken to you or not, you already know who I am.

The White House has already gone past the president, showing how the system works and the daily lives of a senator.  It shows people the thoughts and ideas that were never voiced before.  Suddenly, people who never mattered finally do matter.  And an idiot who can pull off a stunt that would have people otherwise committed in a mental institution receive favorites and YouTube views spanning into the millions.  Take that, structured government!

This is truly the time to live, and the time to be.  For once, the entire planet feels unified.  When there are wars among strong countries, it won’t be us versus them.  It’ll be us seeing some people who are radicals, and the others will be online making posts about how they hate their government for doing such crazy things.  Perhaps it was even the spark of online discussion that placed Bush into such a predicament — think of all the other presidents who could have gotten away with so much more if people weren’t informed!

Of any time to live, it’s today.  Tomorrow will get better, despite all the harsh times we predict, and things will continue to progress.

Change doesn’t begin with a government or president or national influence.  It begins with us, and we will change the world.

Look at Wikipedia.

Save Completed.

Microsoft had a similar problem, but they’re taking action.  Five thousand people, the size of some small villages, were completely wiped from the Microsoft legacy.  Financial advisors, sales, research, technology workers, you name it.

Microsoft may be a little better off for this economy than Sony.  The losses from Sony are rather high, considering their risks in PlayStation 3, Blu-ray technology, and high-definition televisions.  Despite the changeover to digital television, government coupons are still allowing people to upgrade their televisions for free — not spend thousands of dollars on a television.

In comparison, LG Electronics only lost $500,000,000.  Sony lost six times that amount.  Then again, Dr. Evil didn’t demand that amount, either.

Panasonic isn’t doing so well, either.  700 billion yen loss, oooh, ahhh, which makes no sense to you until I convert it: $8 billion, wow.

This is not the time to be spending thousands of dollars on a color TV and a stereo, is it?

So I try to bring everything back to video games, emphasis on the try, and I can’t help but wonder if — hypothetically — anyone would give a rat’s ass about a new console coming out in the next two years.  My immediate response is no, because an investment like that could cause some massive rifts in the industry and lead to an eventual downfall of the gaming industry altogether.

If Sony and Microsoft are enduring such losses, it would be even worse of a risk factor to unveil a new console coming soon.  Affording such a device, especially if it contained high-definition components, would be outrageous in a dying economy.

Ah, but cue the Wii.  Now there’s a gem that could still make some profit with affordable components — but even then, the base market of their existing console is so good that it’d be a disaster to change their product.  The DSi alone is making great strides in Japan, but won’t come out here until the market slows down purchases on the DS Lite.  That will also well, because the old games still work on the DS and the market of games available right now isn’t a risk.  Why make a new product when you can tack something cheap on it and make even more money?  And a camera of that resolution is beyond low for standard cell phone cameras, so Nintendo is definitely making out on this purchase.

If Wii 2 was just an upgrade, just like the DS Lite or DSi, Nintendo could be raking in even more money — assuming they haven’t already betrayed the hardcore gamer and this little stunt pays off well.

But Nintendo doesn’t receive all the criticism; Sony and Microsoft would be true failures to abandon their existing consoles.  Both companies have the right idea by selling their same systems with upgraded hard drives or downgraded mechanics.  PlayStation 4 does not need to come out; PlayStation 3 needs to prove itself as something useful.  And no more HOME components — you truly failed on that one, Sony.

All three companies need to be working their asses off to ensure that the video game crash of 1982 does not happen.  We need all three companies to focus all of their efforts on maintaining their existing consoles while pushing research and development to levels above and beyond.  Only when we innovate can we change, and only when we amaze can we find store shelves empty.

Save Completed.

“Cutting the fat” is a rather crude phrase used in some businesses.  It’s the practice of removing the people that are not profitable.  This means that anyone making a not-so-solid game with a record of bad reviews is likely to be canned.  Not very nice to the developers who make the games, but that’s the plague of the beast.

Speaking of crappy games, Doritos has released the winning game on Xbox Live.  You can feel free to play it, and I emphasize the word free.  If you haven’t figured it out already, it’s free.  Try it out.  I haven’t had a chance to see it yet, but I’ve been told it’s akin to a funny Atari 2600 game with a dinosaur chasing after a bag of Doritos.  A couple generations too late in terms of graphics, but how can you critique a developer who isn’t even really a developer and without a strong development team?

I’m expecting most development projects to be held off for the first part of this year.  The economy is smacking a few development companies now, as things take a while to catch up.  Consumers spent a lot of money on this past holiday season, which makes sense considering most people can travel or really do anything when there’s no money to go out.  At least video games can keep people happy for a couple months before the next one is needed.

As for me, World of Warcraft still continues on.  Level 35, I believe.  It’s been an uphill battle running a guild and wanting to level every day.  I’ve only had one day where I was just so sick of playing and didn’t touch it, but otherwise I’ve either been leveling up non-combat skills (herbalism, etc.), leveling up my skills (combat), leveling up everyone else (guild), or just gaining lots of money.  I should be near 300 gold by now.

There’s been a few changes and patches lately.  What annoys me, however, is how much lag there’s been recently.  I’m not talking about a few steps, either.  One Mississippi, Two Mississippi, Three Mississippi, Four Mississippi, Five Mississippi, Six Mississippi, Seven Mississippi, Eight Mississippi, Nine Mississippi, Ten Mississippi, Eleven Mississippi, WHOAAAAA 300 attacks going on at once and people are dead!!

Fail.

I think that’s it for the day.  I wish these days were a bit more eventful.  Come onnn, games.  Come onnn, games!

Save Completed.

I was trying my best to find material about video games today, just so I wasn’t going to go on another rant about politics, but it seems like everything is standing still today.

I mean I could talk about PSP updating to version 5.03, but guess what?  All it says is that it improves stability on the system and no explanation of what it does.  Great, so it’s updating without any known benefit.

Nothing new for DS, nothing new for Wii beyond making money, nothing for PS3 or Xbox 360 other than the fact that Final Fantasy XIII is being delayed until next year (didn’t everyone see that coming, after over a half of a decade making Final Fantasy XII?), and really nothing new for WoW.

So here I sit.  Thinking about what else to write about other than politics.

Steve Miller Band’s Space Cowboy is coming next week on Rock Band 2!  “Some people call me Maurice,” if anyone cares…

Otherwise, we have our first black president of the United States of America.  But let’s be honest: nobody expected that five years ago.  Or even two years ago.  A lot of people thought the black guy was the first to go, just like all the horror movies where the tokin’ black guy dies first.

If the situation came to be where we weren’t in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, I really doubt a black man would have made it into the White House as it is… I’m dead serious, racism is ridiculously rampant in our country.  I’ve never heard so many concerns of assassination attempts when a president is being SWORN IN… he hasn’t even done anything yet!  He wasn’t even president yet!

But just in this past hour, on this very day, I can tell people 20 or 30 years from now what it was like having the first black president enter the White House… you can too, although our stories might all be a little different and overly opinionated.

So instead of chatting any more about a subject I am completely tired of discussing, I’ll post a video of a really freaky Chinese video.

I dare you to try to make sense of this video.  Go ahead.  That’s your goal for the day.

Save Completed.

Then Rock Band: AC/DC Live came out.  And it is nothing short of shit.

You probably know it’s a dumbed-down version of Rock Band 1, with no character creation, no World Tour, no special effects, nothing even worth remotely playing.  But I didn’t care about that.  I love Rock Band, and I love AC/DC.  So it would only make sense that this game was for me.

I love that playlist listing of all their best songs, but those songs on Rock Band don’t sound anywhere near as good.  It is nothing short of an abysmal live performance that should have never been recorded.

Here’s the problem: you’re used to the original recordings.  Back in Black should have a lot of energy.  It’s an amazing song we’re all used to hearing.  But in the live version, he’s quiet and fading in and out.  He’s not as passionate.  He sounds like he’s out of breath after playing too many songs.  And you’re supposed to imitate an out-of-breath singer?  What kind of crap is that?  And don’t get me started on the “Big Finish” at the end of Back in Black — the BAND DIDN’T EVEN HAVE A BIG FINISH, and you’re supposed to play the instrument like crazy when there’s nothing going on??  I stopped hitting the buttons just to hear the dead silence of instruments.

Not to mention how poorly it feels they put these songs in here.  Every song they tried to put on this disc is amazing elsewhere — Thunderstruck, Hells Bells, TNT, you name it — but I can’t stand playing any of them on here.  They’re so damn bad.

And where the hell is the song “Big Balls?” It’s one of their most popular songs ever created!  It’s not in the game?  Seriously?

Sometimes I’m disappointed in a game, but this one really makes me angry.  It makes me angry that Harmonix sold out.  I love this music on the radio, and they managed to ruin all of the songs by playing a live recording of old singers who should have been in the recording studio, not about to fall asleep on a concert stage.  This is the sheer laziness of both Harmonix and AC/DC, who clearly didn’t bother to put time or effort into the music.

But what’s even worse is that the songs are now on Rock Band, so it’s extremely unlikely that they’ll ever release the original recording versions.  They’re trying to milk in money for a mediocre game and have truly placed some of the best music in the crapper.

Now I know what you’re thinking: “Let There Be Rock” on Rock Band 2 is an awesome song.  I’ll go above and beyond that, I think it’s a legendary song deserving all the credit in the universe.  I absolutely love playing that song on Rock Band 2, and I couldn’t possibly be any more happy with that original recording.  It is so much fun, and it’s not drawn out by ridiculous crowd cheering or a band clearly getting tired.  But what you hear on AC/DC Live is nothing, NOTHING, like the song you play on Rock Band 2.

This purchase makes me really, really angry.  I’m so mad that I don’t want to play Rock Band 2 for another week.  It was such a horrible waste of money, and even then they charged nearly double for all of the shit you get on these tracks.  It wasn’t worth it at all.

Even if you are a Rock Band fan, and you’re a fan of AC/DC, this game is not for you.  Don’t support crap like this, and if you need to play the songs at least once, rent it.  And if none of your local rental stores are allowed to rent it out, then don’t.  Rock Band fans have been spoiled with high-quality samples of all the songs on the games, and this one clearly has failed.

Next time, Harmonix, and I’m looking at you, Alex Rigopulos, make some sort of effort and bitchslap the artists and managers who say they give permissions to do some live recording — and listen to every track first, seeing how well it plays.  Get beta testers in, especially ones who love the music, and see if they get into it.

Otherwise, you’re left with this game.  Something that truly should have never been.

But let’s take it even farther.  Thunderstruck is the first song in the game’s solo “tour” — which you’ll find is exactly like the old Guitar Hero setup of a list that keeps appearing.  THUNDERSTRUCK IS ONE HARD EFFING SONG FOR THE GUITAR!!!  I failed it in the first ten seconds, and I’ve been playing on Expert since LAST GENERATION.

Overall rating: 1/10, for lacking everything that makes Rock Band amazing, and a complete failure on Harmonix’s part.  I really don’t even think it deserves that, but at least the songs are challenging for people who want to listen to awful renditions of a tired band playing songs over a loud audience.

Save Completed.

Not Wii Sports.  Not Wii Play.  Wii Music.

$41 million dollars on the game.

When Nintendo can sell crap games like this at levels that make this the 35th top-selling game of the year, it can only make you wonder what Wii 2 is going to be like.

God save the Hardcore.

Save Completed.

I remember doing a report in college about how our involvement with Afghanistan and our record of ignorance led to the war and the bombing of the towers.  Needless to say, I was slightly too radical to have come up with such a report within the month of it happening.  I was bound determined to get the real story, and the fact of the matter is that every party involved leading to the events of that day were failures.  Republicans, Democrats, radical idealists, they were all at fault for not addressing the issues that should have been dealt with from the beginning.

George W. Bush, and I still have yet to put president in front of his name, did a lot of wrong.  He flew the bin Laden family back to their homeland without question because of his involvement with the family’s oil reserve.  He caused unholy rifts among the religious by incessantly oppressing his own values against other countries.  He went after oil in Iraq when the real war against terrorism was still being fought elsewhere.  We made a big deal about capturing Saddam, but he wasn’t the one who bombed and killed Americans.

His attempt now is to ensure that he isn’t labeled as the worst president in history.  As far as historians go, they don’t know what to make of him until 20 years down the line.  As far as journalists go, he’s a surefire winner for failure at life.  As far as the American people go, well, the Republicans are out of majority and the country is on a new road for hope and change.

Bush made a very interesting argument about all the things he prevented from happening, which in all seriousness could have been worse.  But considering our borders are hardly the most protected barriers in the world and he’s based his entire system on a “what if” construction in his head (which could have been made up from any one of the kindergarten kids he was with when the bomb hit), it’s hard to follow anything he says after claiming all sorts of world-devastating weapons existed and never did.  Fool us once, shame on you.  Fool us a hundred times, time for a new president.

What irks me is that Obama doesn’t want to open up this can of worms and begin the investigation against Bush.  Why?  Is there something so top-secret that it would destroy the very fabric of America if all the lies were put on the table?  Eh, I don’t get it.

Then again, people want to focus on the future right now.  People are hurting pretty badly, and Obama has found the Internet to be the most ideal way to get out weekly messages to Americans.  So what’s more important, eight years of justifying past failure or 4-8 years of promising future?

Save Completed.

Quality control for Nintendo’s gaming console, even with benefit of the doubt, is god-awful shit.  Let’s be frank (or a sally, if you prefer): the games coming out for Wii are not up to par with any expectations.  There’s a few great games, let’s not forget them, but they are completely lost in a sea of worthless demonstration software that should have never been released to the public.

What was Nintendo thinking?  I’d like to call it Anti-64.

Anti-64, for the intents and purposes of this article, is to remove the issues found with the Nintendo 64.  In it, Nintendo was not welcoming enough with their third party support.  Nobody wanted anything to do with Nintendo (namely due to a President Yamauchi who alienated the entire market), and thusly PlayStation won the console war by leaps and bounds — except in the eyes of the fanboys who cling to a Nintendo console like their mother’s breast during feeding time.

But let’s not add insult to injury, the real issue is that Nintendo did not want to alienate the companies again.  They pushed for record sales, just as a company should, but they did so following the model of the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).  The NES was the savior of the gaming industry, found in a time when everything was collapsing around them.  Similarly, they found salvation in this model with the Wii.  But the NES and the Wii had a lot of awful games.  Luckily, NES had enough good games to trump any naysayers and made “the Nintendo” a household phrase which carried on for over two decades.

Anti-64 is the opposite of Nintendo 64′s model, which was “quality over quantity”, “quality over quantity”, “quality over quantity”, again and again and again — MY GOD NINTENDO STOP SAYING THAT!  And they did.  They realized they were falling into third place in their console wars, and this followed suit with the Nintendo GameCube.

So Nintendo abandoned that.  They killed off their “quality over quantity” crap and moved to “quantity over quality” — which is where we are now.  Nintendo fans complain that there aren’t enough good games, but at least there are games this time around!

Now why did Nintendo make a decently-powerful console to rival the others?

Money.

Nintendo has been in third place these last two generations, meaning that they needed money and fast.  Their console sales weren’t enough to push for the best and most powerful systems — and they sure as hell could not expect the consumer to pay a ridiculous amount of money to keep up with two companies as established as Microsoft and Sony.

So Nintendo pushed off the most successful marketing campaign in the history of the company, and pushed Wii sales through record-breaking momentum.  Nintendo refused to spend more money in their production because they weren’t going to make enough profit to hold them over.  Now they probably would have made a lot more money if they had kept up with demand, but it’s possible that Nintendo felt that structure could be for nothing if demand suddenly dropped — and every month they saw their sales figures and kept things as they were.  Not a smart move for the impulse buyer, but maybe they’ll rethink this next time they have a stellar and cost-effective idea.

Nintendo’s next move is a plan for another console, but their market is already established in the casual player (I no longer think they are deserving of the word “gamer” if they don’t buy games).

I don’t think Nintendo’s future is too bright for the hardcore gamer.  I think Sakurai is bored with Smash Bros. until a new innovative idea comes out (and he said this, by the way); Metroid isn’t doing so well, it keeps passing from one hand to the next and the future is rather uncertain; Mario, heavens love him, is really needing a facelift and changing the model of how the game is played (HOW ABOUT SOME CHANGE OF PLOT LINE?  GIVE LUIGI SOME CREDIT BEYOND A DAMN HOOVER VACUUM!); Star Fox hasn’t been too fantastic since two consoles ago; Kirby keeps getting rehashed, which is a shame for such a great character; Pikachu needs to just die, in a tub of water… I believe Nintendo can change, but I don’t see them pushing hard enough.

Wii feels like a transition console.  Nintendo is changing.  Something is new, and I think they’ll keep following that model.  They’d be insane to abandon all of the money they’ve made to compete with Sony and Microsoft, but they’d also be insane to abandon the hardcore gamers who make their software sales.

Maybe a reverse SEGA?  Less games, more hardware?

Who knows!  The future is always interesting in the gaming industry!

Save Completed.

I have a serious question and a silly question

Serious: Are you and/or Shawn starting up a website and/or podcast in the near future?

Answer: the plan was to start one, although Shawn had several personal issues to deal with and we haven’t been in touch for the past six months.  We both had ideas for a new site, but it would require both of us to be in top shape to pull something that unique and revolutionary off.  It’s not impossible to make it happen, but would require us to make some life changes to pull off such an idea.  And no, you’re not stealing the idea.

Silly: Pie or cake? And which flavor/type?

Answer: Cake.  Chocolate cake.  It’s a lie, a chocolate lie, and lies are good.  Which is why you need to keep reading on my cakes… I mean pies…

# Bill Says:
January 13, 2009 at 5:43 pm

Sure I’ll dart off a few from the top of my head.

Number one, did you accept my friend request over XBL (IIRC, you haven’t been on due to WoW, but I could be wrong)?

Answer: If you sent the request in within the past two weeks, no.  However, I accept all friend requests if they have some form of “Harman sent me” in their profiles.  Otherwise I’ll respond with “and you are…?” — I hated Perfect Dark adds from people who didn’t know who I was.  I will add you, however.  Guaranteed.  And Rock Band 2 must be played.

Do you still follow The Wiire at all (check site, chat, podcast)?

Answer: I’ll visit maybe once a month, if that.  I am more often in the chat room than anything.  The site’s direction isn’t the path that I wanted, and it kills me to see that much dedication changed so drastically.  As for the podcasts, I tried to listen to one or two.  It felt like something was missing, not enough passion any more.  And with all the work that Shawn, Eric, and myself did to keep the reviews going, it hurts to see that section chopped off.

Why exactly did you leave? I totally felt your resignation-thing was out of far left field and never really caught why.

Answer: I left the same time Shawn, Eric, myself, and a few others did.  There are so many reasons why The Wiire simply wasn’t heading in the direction we wanted.  I won’t speak for either of them on their behalf, but I will say this: I wasn’t happy with the new direction, all the ideas, all the plans, all the cutbacks, and how the site was planning to reshape itself.  And I did not appreciate the proposal of cutbacks on funds from gaming conferences and events.  I wanted more for the site.

Do you still keep in contact with any Wiire staff?

Answer: Shawn I need to get in touch with, Eric I just heard from two days ago, James and Scott lost contact the night of the 100th podcast, Ian wrote to me once about how he wanted me to reappear on the podcast but I’ve never heard from him again, Jesse also disappeared off the face of the earth from video editing, Terrell and I speak on an almost daily basis, John fell off the Earth, I see Andrew in the chat room every so often, I haven’t seen Aaron since our last meeting up in Los Angeles, and I’ve been in regular contact with most of the mods.
Where the **** has James been lately?

Answer: No idea.
Do you like the band Oasis? Rate /10.

Answer: 8, mainly because I can still listen to their music on the radio without changing it — but I have yet to purchase a single album beyond music on Rock Band.

Are mainstream media publications like IGN corrupt?

Answer: Do you read this blog?  Srsly?

Opinions on Left 4 Dead? (my GOTY, but I haven’t played much)

Answer: I have watched my brother play it, who adores the game and wanted me to keep it for two months — but I was already investing time into too many games and had to pass.  It’s not that I don’t think it’s a bad game, it’s that I already invested way too much money on all of these other games and I don’t want to forget about them.  I did this with Final Fantasy XII, and to this day have not beaten it.
Opinions on the film “Milk”

Answer: I really, really want to see that movie.  And nobody else does!!  Damnit, I guess I’ll have to wait until the DVD.

Hope that wasn’t too much.

# Canad Ian Says:
January 13, 2009 at 6:36 pm

I second the call for the full story on the Wiire debacle and the “where the **** is James?” questions.

Answer: Your call will be monitored for quality assurance purposes.

Also, on a completely unrelated note I think you should watch the show jPod. It’s a TV series that aired up in Canada on our national broadcaster and is about 5 programmers who work at at a giant game conglomerate called Neotronic Arts (a spoof of EA). Check it out free at cbc.ca/jpod. It has way to many gaming references so it’s funniest for people who know the industry (and also why it got canceled, who knew that’s a huge niche?)

Answer: I shall have to check that out!  Remind me at home on MSN or something similar.

# Matt Says:
January 13, 2009 at 10:41 pm

What do you think about the end of Heroes Season 3?

Answer: Angry.  Angry angry angry.  The series ended very well, but I didn’t expect it to be the season finale!  I thought they were saying this was the last Heroes of the “year” — they didn’t say “season”!  Then it gets really, really good and BAM, it’s over!  WHY?!?!!  WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!!  It finally moved into the right direction and it was over!!  You can’t do that!  And this next season looks like just another rip-off of X-Men 3 of hide-your-powers-in-the-closet mentality — which has been done many times in comic books.  I want some really badass villains!  I don’t want crazy headtrip people who create portals and commit suicide, I want dangerous people who are out to destroy and make The Company look like a bunch of children playing cops and robbers… Now this next season looks worse, because everyone’s going to be running and hiding their abilities.

How was that?

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I’ve created a guild on WoW, which was strange.  Among the gamers available, they felt I was the most experienced in leadership and control.  I guess, but I still don’t know a thing about guilds!  Apparently there’s a bank, and leadership positions, and all kinds of crazy things to add to the experience.  Plus the amount of money to create enough bank room is up in the thousands!  Who can afford something like that?

But I’m content as of right now.  I have my icon all planned out, I’m just waiting for the rest of it to fall into place.  Korialstrasz just became a more friendly home!

I also had a delightful PlayStation 3 Rock Band 2 experience, and I must say that I truly appreciate the number of players who have invested their time in this game.  It seems like the more time that passes, the more people play the game.  The more they play, the more familiar they are with the songs.  And in that, the Hard and Expert play has become a very engaging experience.  No longer do I feel like I’m saving everybody else.  It was impressive to have someone save me enough times for a change!

I received my Xbox 360 back, but I’m not going to hook it up for a while.  The moment I turn it on, I’ll start spending money on Xbox Live.  I do not have any money to spend for another two weeks, as things get more and more difficult.

Someone needs to fix this economy!  But props to Obama for scheduling that meeting of former presidents (Bush 1, Bush 2, Clinton, etc.), that was rather historical!  I’m very glad to hear that the most influential republican and democratic presidents unified together to meet.

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Okay, actually I really didn’t have anything interesting to post today.  But I was hoping to stare at a blank white page for a few minutes and come up with something interesting.

It would be nice to talk a bit more about Windows 7, the new operating system that will likely release in another two years.  But the touchscreen system does draw a lot of concerns for how the computer industry is trying to push for technology that might not need to be.  We shall see.

I don’t like the fact that Microsoft makes a good-then-shit-then-good lineup of operating systems and expects people to buy every one.  No wonder why they have so much money!

- Windows 95 — good!

- Windows 98 — shit!

- Windows 2000 — good!

- Windows ME — shit!

- Windows XP — good!

- Windows Vista — shit!

- Windows 9 — ______!

Seeing a pattern, here?

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The death of magazine publications has been whispered for a while, but no one really thought it possible.  Until now, EGM has proven to bring in some very powerful and influential writers over 20 years.  In fact, former EGM writers influenced me into becoming a video game journalist.

But this chapter seems to be closing, and without hesitation I must admit that EGM proved to be the most solid gaming publication over the course of this industry — none could rival the in-depth coverage.  Definitely not the anonymous writers at GamePro, that’s for damn sure.  (Though I admit, you guys at GamePro have improved from the absolute crap you vomited up 10 years ago!)

What concerns me is evident from the title: the death of video game journalism.  We are now left with Fox Interactive Media, the owner of IGN.  That’s it, folks.  The company that’s owned by Fox and related to members of the public relations of the gaming companies themselves has no more competition capable of standing on their own two feet without selling their souls — and no where near enough money.

While this might feel like an overexaggeration of the future, the reality is rather scary.  Journalism, like all businesses, is based on competition for better services.  One organization — and a single reviewer for each game — has more pull and power than anyone in the history of the gaming industry.  Think about it: one reviewer, one idiot’s concept of a game, has the power to influence millions of gamers.  The only people who can provide a valid second opinion read by those millions are the other guys standing in the same room.

What I can’t stand is how a single company can buy everyone else out and take the industry on by the horns.  The lesser publications have no chance to compete in terms of credibility, and the voices of the smaller organizations are being wiped out by lacking exclusives and game review arrivals days after IGN receives them.  For Christ’s sake, the entire transcript of the E3 events were on the IGN site seconds after speakers said them, and the video was taken from over 15 cameras built on every side of the podium!  They uploaded all that footage before a single camera could finish converting on our previous site, and our video worked non-stop throughout the day to upload that.  Who has the money and feed for such a project?!

Luckily, the Internet is a big place.  Message boards are becoming more popular for reviews than the reviewers themselves.  This is an optimistic future for the sales of games without influence of any other companies.  In time, one can only hope that the linear news system, after hundreds of years since the birth of media, will expand to what gamers think — not what a single opinionated person says.

With more and more demos arriving on next-generation consoles, we are finding that there’s less and less need to hear someone else’s opinion — we can finally formulate our own.  And in that, there is hope for a new future of gaming journalism: us.

While there is still a strong need for gaming journalism today, we can push beyond the barriers we had 20 years ago and evolve to a new experience.  If anything, IGN has been posting press releases in a copy-paste fashion to keep their readership high (most journalism professors would attack and kill any reporter who did this — we’re supposed to filter bullshit, not copy and paste it)!

I wish IGN would split in half, take away their monopoly and compete with themselves.  It’s the only way to keep this industry healthy, and it’s the only way they’re going to find multiple reviews from multiple locations — not some central office nearly on top of the gaming headquarters.
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Meanwhile, my Vaine in World of Warcraft has proven to be quite a powerhouse.  He’s managed to receive a lot of “WTF?!?!” with his fire magic, burning 10 enemies at a time.  Oh yes, this game is a hardcore delight after level 25.  And now that I’m a level 30, I purchased a Chocobo… errrr… Blood Elf mount… and he’s firey red.  It’s very exciting.

I’ve managed to bring in quite a few players on to Korialstrasz server, and I’m very happy about it.  I enjoy meeting new people, as well as playing with local friends.  It’s quite a wonderful experience to maintain a social life while trying to destroy the world.

Playing through WoW, I’m realizing how to successfully manage a true MMORPG, and that’s to make the game seem as offline as possible.  By this, I mean maintaining entertainment value.  The real problem with Final Fantasy XI was tremendous downtime and chore-like leveling.  It felt painful to level, and de-leveling was a consequence that should have never been.

What I enjoy about WoW is that there are dungeons, RAIDs, and a variety of instances where players come together and beat the crap out of an entire civilization — not just stand in one spot and rely on one another to do a very painful and mundane job.  Slash, slash, slash, combo.  Or, heal, heal, heal, benediction.  Or, Fire, fire, fire, rest.  The only redeeming value of Final Fantasy XI was that it was, in fact, Final Fantasy.  Without the name-brand characters and magic, the game would have been a really horrible failure.

If you’re wondering, I do not own Wrath of the Lich King.  I don’t care about it, and don’t need something that won’t affect me for another 30 or 40 levels.  There’s no reason to bother with that game if you haven’t made at least halfway through the game, and even less reason if you’re not sure if you’ll make it that far.

There’s a possible draught of games this year, or at least a couple months here and there that won’t be too phenomenal.  In any case, I have to recommend at least trying out WoW.  And for those who have and hated it, I did too.  I played a rogue, and I’m not a rogue.  I’m a magic user, always was, always should be.  I don’t like sitting there slicing things, and being invisible isn’t all that cool if players of higher levels can still see you.

Try it out.  There’s a 10 day free trial for all players (original, Burning Crusade, and Lich King) so you can jump in without paying a dime.  It’s worth it, and the download is free to trial.  — If you are just starting out or don’t have WoW on your PC, remember to download the trial version only — it’s much much faster to play, like within a half hour of downloading as opposed to two hours!

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More and more signs are pointing towards hardware-based storage instead of discs when it comes to movies.  It started with TiVo, moving to Netflix downloads, passing on to Vudu, and now LG Electronics is making televisions with built-in boxes to save movies without needing to ever buy a player again.

Imagine that: a television that saves movies.  Unreal.

We’ve covered this issue a couple months ago, but more and more evidence points to a hard drive future.  We’re finally exploring the world of microscopic space, taking billions of images and hiding them into chips that are no larger than a thumbnail.  And with scientific research continuing to go above and beyond, we can only expect greater things.

The Xbox 360 managed to pull off this service before people purchased HD DVD and Blu-ray movies.  No one wanted to spend an extra few hundred on a new system, they had one!  Hell, the upconverters of today are doing a spectacular job and can’t be faulted for a wonderful compromise — and upconverting is built in the new consoles.

What excites me about the LG Electronics idea is that televisions will be built with the capacity to save movies, freeing up an additional HDMI plug and improving televisions not only by hard drive space, but by increasing the television’s worth using only one remote.  What a marvel!

But there’s a downside to this: technology like this must be adapted immediately before Blu-ray players gain ground.  The Dark Knight sold some record numbers in the Blu-ray format, and now Sony is claiming 2009 is the year of the Blu-ray… wait a minute, wasn’t 2008 the year of the Blu-ray?  Well, that year just might create unexpected competition!

We have to worry about all consumer electronic companies building this technology into their televisions (and making it universal, as an LG stand-alone service would be horrid without Netflix support as they have — add in some TiVo, too!).  If Samsung isn’t fully backing this right now, LG’s efforts will be in vain.  The two leading consumer HDTVs are Samsungs and Bravias — which are made by Sony, who also make Blu-rays.  Uh oh, competition in itself?

Now to make things more interesting, Samsung proverbially bitchsmacked Sony a couple months ago by stating they don’t think Blu-ray will last long — WOW!  And hopefully, Samsung has been planning this little Trojan Horse attack with LG to keep their opinions backed up.  But nothing has been rumored — it just seems like a logical step from here.

There’s also one more issue I have with this, and that’s storage space.  We all know that the Xbox 360 has blatantly ripped people off with a hard drive that costs WAAAAAAY too much money with hard drives moving up to terabytes of data.  I can buy a cheap 1,000,000,000 hard drive, but it still costs that much for 120 gigs?  Puh-lease!  Highway robbery!

But what if that highway robbery set foot in this supposed LG Electronics system?  What if HDTVs killed themselves by forcing people to only use the hard drive built into the television, not allowing people to use external hard drives from the start (aka Xbox 360) or use barely adequate space with no external hard drives (aka Wii), and charge people up the arse?

Certainly possible — wouldn’t put it past anyone — but why would you want to jeopardize your chances of investment when the leading consumers purchasing HDTVs are tech geeks who know what they’re doing?

Blu-ray is not dead; the real issue isn’t death, but the fact that it really hasn’t been born yet.  Blu-ray sales are matching what the DVD managed in its first years, but the struggle isn’t another decade but innovations to make the investment worth people’s time.  And in this instance, another kid can be born and raised as the favorite.  With the incredible sales of DVD/TV combo systems, and DVD/VCR combos, it’s evident that people like to buy an end-all system without too many frills.  LG Electronics has the perfect idea for this type of consumer, but it will take a lot to make it convincing.

Personally, I’m a fan of media I can take to a friend’s house.  I don’t want to lug my entire TV around just to watch a movie.  But if they find a way to make a setup convenient for the common man, all props to them.

And quite frankly, I don’t think HDTVs are nearly as loved as they should be.  HDTVs should have skyrocketed in sales in 2008, but I don’t see enough of them in people’s homes — Walmart cheap brands if anything!  Even all of the people I know who love television refuse to see the clarity of an HDTV.  Bad economy, my friends, and a bad time to be thinking about spending thousands of dollars on movies with a clearer picture if you can watch the same movie for $20.

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The most I can think of writing about is a New Year’s Resolution, of which I have none.  Not by protest, but by lacking anything that I want to change about myself.  I’m pretty confident that I look at myself every day and think, “wow, this blows — we need this changed now.”  Normally it happens; if it doesn’t, then one has to try again or give up.

I looked through my old resolutions, and I wasn’t too thrilled about them.  I made goals without really looking too far into the consequences of said goals.  I guess all people do this for New Year’s Day.

Two years ago, my resolution card said I wanted to leave Buffalo.  I hated living in a dead city, and it’s even harder to find a job in a city like this one.  But fortunately I found a job.  It’s not a video game reporter one, but it allowed me to continue my efforts in the gaming community.  For that, I was happy with a low-rent home ($350/mo all utilities included) and capable of enjoying myself all the more.  Even better than spending $1000/mo in Los Angeles!

One year ago, my resolution changed again.  I wanted to find out where I wanted to be and how I wanted to live.  This had to be my best resolution, as I completely altered all of my priorities and focused more on my own life than everyone else’s.  I gave up the confines of the Web site I dedicated three years of my life on, and found this blog to be far more personal and unrestricting in nature.  I can finally talk about the Xbox 360, the PSP, the PS3, the PC games I play, and even give a blog like this one which bears nothing at all about games — and still, people read it!  I also stopped looking for a relationship, as it used to be a priority — but times have changed, and you don’t need someone else to make sure you’re happy with yourself.

This year, I managed to fulfill that resolution — partially.  People don’t ever learn about themselves in a year or two or five or ten.  Every year, a person or instance in your own personal history changes everything.  Maybe the economy hurt your Christmas, maybe you have a better understanding of your limitations, maybe you know what you love more and found a new obsession somewhere.  Maybe there’s a video game that has changed the way you play games, or possibly a person that gave you new influences.

New Year’s Resolutions are about change, but we’re always changing.  So really, New Year’s is a great way to think about who you were a year ago, and figure out how you have changed.  Even if there are only minor changes, you can look back five years, or ten years, and see the evolution of yourself in an entirely new way.

Maybe you’ll buy a PSP2!  Hey, don’t laugh — I’ve seen far more amazing things to convince me that nothing is set in stone — and everything is bound to change.

Happy New Year’s!  Drive safe, don’t drink without a safe place to stay, don’t do anything that you’ll regret — unless you make sure you’re drunk enough to forget about it the next day!

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I’m wary of that.  I mean, I encourage safe driving and blah blah blah, but do they really have to overcharge us in a dead city with nothing going on?  I mean come on now, the bars are far more exciting than the non-alcoholic, freezing-cold balldrop around here.

If not for tomorrow, this may be my last post of this week.  I have Thursday off, and used Friday as a vacation.  I hope to relax and enjoy the New Year.

Any exciting plans for New Year’s Eve?

Let’s start with the review:

Final Fantasy Dissidia is a very exciting and involved game, one that could certainly take up 100 hours of a player’s time with all of the extras, bonuses, unlockables, summons, and leveling every one of the 20 characters of Chaos and Cosmos.  As each character levels up, their strength increases and new spells become available.

It’s very exciting to randomly choose a character set of Japanese and suddenly get a magic.  The problem is that you have no idea what magic you’re buying!  And magic isn’t cheap in the long run, so you’re taking a chance on a treasure chest that may or may not hold what you need.

Fortunately, GameFaqs at least covers you on the unlockable characters and items.  It may not have magic (yet), but you can figure out which of those crazy Japanese combination of letters means “Unlock Kefka” or “Alternate Costume Sephiroth” — major love to the people who contribute to these faqs online!

The game itself is solid.  There could have been a lot more stages, but the ones that are available are very high on replay value.  Each one has its own levels of tricks, breakable stage objects, wall climbing, rail grinding, and pits.  There are alternate stages apparently, but I guess they’re not available from the beginning.  We’ll see what that means as the game progresses.

The music is very reminiscent, the character models are very good for PS2 quality, and there’s enough content to keep gamers very very happy in mid-2009 when it releases in North America.  Definite recommendation for any obsessed fan.

But this isn’t to say that the Japanese version is the end-all version.  This is strictly for the obsessed (as I am) and the American version may be a lot better.  For one, I’ll have some idea as to what the story is about.  I really have no clue what these characters are saying to one another.  Their facial expressions show doubt, concern, etc., etc., but what is going on?  NO idea.

Another issue is the dreaded save in mid dungeon mechanic.  One of those yes and no decisions means your temporary data will be deleted and have to start the character all over again!  Having experienced this myself, I was not particularly happy.  However, my character’s level remained the same and I was able to go through the stages much easier.  Not a huge loss, and perhaps better for my character in the long run.

But you do have to challenge all of the enemies with all nine heroes and one heroine.  It’s an interesting system on the board, but again, I don’t completely understand what’s going on.  Destiny points are good, sure, I get that, but how do I unlock that summon behind that wall?  Please tell me in English, please!!  A pretty picture would work, too!

And here’s another thing: I always thought that the voiceovers with bad lips/mouth moving in Japanese RPGs was because it was translated from Japanese to English.  You know what?  It looks just as awful in Japanese as it does English!  Kefka’s mouth does not move with the squealing you hear in the Japanese voiceover.  I was rather disappointed in knowing that, but oddly more optimistic that it will look better in the American version!

Let’s talk the action, since it’s what you want to hear.  Yes, it plays like Kingdom Hearts — but it’s a lot better than Kingdom Hearts.  The ability to hold up and press O to do a different move for every direction is a lot like Smash Bros., so I’m excited that there’s so much mapping (and customizing what does what!) to what was otherwise not so innovative in Kingdom Hearts.  The evasion is really good, too.  The final attacks, spells, etc., they all seem fair — although running speeds do affect who gets the EX Mode, changing your character into the beast limit break thingy you remember from the games.  Some of the slower characters have a much easier final attack than the ones who are fast, so it may or may not even out.  I don’t really feel anyone to be hugely unfair over the other.

By the way, all of the bosses feel awesome.  Surprisingly, so do all of the heroes!

The game is really a lot like a combination of Super Smash Bros. and Kingdom Hearts.  It’s a remarkably customizable game where you can adjust levels accordingly and play fair matches wherever you are.  I’ve found myself wasting hours and hours on the game.  Buying equipment and accessories is also very engaging.

I would personally find myself playing this game a lot more often than Brawl.  The reward system feels tight, but to Brawl’s credit I do love how everything you do unlocks another item similar to this game.   They’re both impressive feats, and I can’t wait to buy the American version to challenge anyone who wants to play.

Mind you, if I buy the American version, I have to give up all of the levels I’ve built up over the next six months.  Maybe I should wait for the American version before going too high?

Overall, I expect Dissidia to be a surefire winner for any PSP owner — and a very awesome reason to own a PSP for newcomers like myself (who sold the system two years ago, by the way — and bought it again!)

Japanese version score: 9.6/10

Import-friendly score: 2.5/10

My holiday was rather boring, so let’s talk more about the New Year’s!

There’s speculation as to whether or not this year was better for gaming than last year.  While we had some great games this year, it’s hard to compete against last year’s megaton.  Metroid, Zelda (for DS, at least), Mario, BioShock, Halo, No More Heroes, Orange Box, Crysis, Rock Band… these were all of last year’s games.  And while we had some great sequels and impressive recreations this year, I can’t help but feel that this year was living more in the shadows of previous generations.  All of the Square-Enix remakes are from the success of previous years, Rock Band 2 wasn’t the most groundbreaking game of the year (albeit an awesome soundtrack), and Animal Crossing: City Folk was just a bad port from a great DS game.  However, there’s still gold this year.  Grand Theft Auto IV topped the charts, Super Smash Bros. Brawl kept Wii gamers happy, Fable II rocked our individual fatass characters in their own worlds (eat more f@#$ing celery!), and LittleBigPlanet convinced a lot of gamers to go out and buy a PlayStation 3.

To me, 2008 feels more like the calm after the storm.  It was still a good year for gamers, but it wasn’t anywhere near as amazing as 2007.  But mind you: great games take quite a while to come out.  No More Heroes 2 is coming, as is Dissidia, as is Arkham Asylum, as is Punch-Out!! and the promise of the PlayStation 3 finally living up to its trophies and HOME experience — although I doubt Sony really can pull off an experience after that abysmal release.

So what do you think?  Were there better games in 2007, or 2008?  I’ll let you decide.  Comments ahoy!

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I’ll leave you only one intriguing spoiler: Sephiroth is a good guy in this one.  Believe it or not, it’s pretty convincing.

It’s nice to see how the roles change in this one.  And I especially like the FMVs with the voiceovers.  If this Sephiroth makes it into Dissidia, I am sure to wet myself with joy.

The holidays are right around the corner.  Did you buy all of your gifts yet?

I have fought for all of you.  Not just Barack Obama, not just Biden, but for everyone who believed in change in the Democratic party and the supporters of this presidency.  I spent hours phoning in to other states in order to help out this campaign to give Obama the presidency over McCain.

But I am sickened with you all.  To think you would choose Rick Warren to deliver Obama’s invocation is not just a terrible decision, but indication of a liar, a two-faced campaign that I should have never spent all of my cell phone minutes for out-of-state calls on.  I have put my heart into this campaign and delivered long passages online through my own site — my trusted readership, people I believe should know the truth — and see a decision such as this one.

Rick Warren is a terrible man who advocates hate and bigotry.  This is a man who tears down people to build up his own cult followers.  Not even elected, and this is the man to bring to the table?  People aren’t just “deeply disappointed” as American Way Kathryn Kolbert said, it is an outrage.

In light of this, I realize that this e-mail will likely be thrown away to some trash bin — not if I can help it.  This grassroots campaign was built on the foundation of trust from people who believed in you, and it’s only fitting that a terrible decision like this is placed in the faces of everyone who has supported you.

You will see a copy of this e-mail on my own site, RobGalbreath.com — because I’m not going to be just another citizen who is ignored, I refuse to let every good politician get away with whatever they want.  If this is the presidency you will bring to the table, then the economy is the only thing you’re going to really save.

I’m hoping that Dissidia isn’t this slow.  I think they could have upped the speed of the game and maxed the framerates with the level of detail in each of the characters — not excitingly high, but whatever.

I also noticed something else interesting about the PSP: it’s only 480p.  That’s right, that little bugger screen can’t do any better than the Wii.  And I had such high hopes on buying those component cables.  Oh well, at least I don’t have to squint on the 40″ screen.  Or maybe I do.

And for my own self interest, I found a link to the Dissidia Import thread on NeoGAF, quite possibly the most successful message board community next to 4Chan and other horribly cultish sites… I mean loved and adoring fans.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=345440

Enjoy yourselves.  Today’s a hectic one for me.

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What went wrong: Too Expensive. Why did the Wii gain so much success, and why did the DS prove to be the prophet of Nintendo’s savior? The answer is affordable innovation, and this is what Sony completely lacked this generation. By reinventing the wheel (UMD), offering no new ways to interact (lousy buttons), an overly expensive portable (which got dusty and scratched often), and not enough support from consumers (money).

But what was right: third party support. Why is the prequel to Final Fantasy VII on PSP? Why is one of the greatest Final Fantasy fanboy games on the PSP? Why are some of the most fun PS1 and PS2 games reinvented on the PSP? That’s called loyalty, and dedication, and determination. Sony needs to keep that.

I don’t know if the publishers and developers felt that the money was worth the time invested, but it’s likely that they did. After all, the same developers came up with new and innovative ideas time and time again on the portable, meaning something was right.

The real issue faced for PSP2 is fighting for the DS market, and I don’t think they’re going to have that hard of a time. The DSi, the supposed sequel to DS, is nothing more than a repeat of the previous console with some camera ideas. Not exactly the most innovative method of play, but it could work for their market — after all, Wii did.

Now let’s be fair, Nintendo has some great ideas here and there. The Nintendo DS has the popularity, but it doesn’t have the graphical capabilities to compete with the PSP. Nintendo DS is designed to amaze with Nintendo 64 graphics on two screens, and Sony PSP is designed for PS1 and (kinda) PS2 graphics.

What amazes me is that Sony won both console wars, and Nintendo was in last place. But on their handheld market, Nintendo managed to triumph on a based-on graphical engine that lost from their consoles and still won on the handheld. And to make it even stranger, the engines are pretty damn similar in terms of what they could produce then and now.

So what won? Cost. Nintendo DS was more affordable to jump into, and the Sony PSP was not. Nintendo DS required a paycheck at most, Sony PSP required some heavy investment in disposable income. Holy crap, so did the PS3! Trends, anyone?

Sony needs to up their graphics, but only enough to make the games look like high-definition versions of a portable. This should not be difficult, but the ridiculous methods of making the PSP have proven to be lousy at best. First it was a bulky console (version 1000), then it was a ghosting issue (version 2000), now it’s a crappy interlacing issue (version 3000) — and not once have they bothered to find the real issue behind the system.

We need the following:

- A battery that supports high-end graphics. One was promised, and delivered, but became the cause of some firmware alterations and illegal downloads. Bad Sony, bad.

- A graphical system that works. Redefine the system a bit more, and exercise those beautiful graphics from the PSP-3000 on a more stable system designed for those sorts of graphics.

- Reuse the UMD, Ugh I can’t believe I said that. Make the PSP games backwards compatible, just like the Sony home systems. The reduced cost of the systems are a great way to take the Walmart consumers (about five years behind on everything) and want the system when the price begins to drop. You failed at this on the PS3 because you pushed too hard on Blu-ray and its new graphics engine, managing to destroy backwards compatibility on some games and god knows what you were thinking with the 40GB system — but you can make up for it this time.

- Make games reliant on SD cards, and give people one again. This is vital. Your load times suck, and you need to up the ante. In order for games to perform well, they need to be installed on a hard drive and cooperate with the system. This gives you the best of both worlds: high-end graphics running off the disc with polygons and faster loads in-between game time. And these babies are up to four gigs now, you can at least use two of them to create some virtual RAM for even more going on with the screen. Take advantage of these things!

- YOUR INTERFACE SUCKS!! The PSP and PS3 interface is quite possibly the most boring and unsatisfying experience you can have. The Wii is fast, the Xbox 360 is fast, and your system? Slow, boring, and lacking creativity. Use those two analog sticks for something! Try some Six-Axis action if you’re dying to steal from Nintendo again! Put some thought into it, and send out the beta testers to tell you that you suck! That way it will be even better when it reaches consumers.

- Steal the spotlight with advertisements! You need to have better ads. Your advertisements have been so bad these days, and they cater no one but the idiot wanna-be racist sexist homophobic classless gangstas who have defiled your Home system like a pile of shit thrown into a Poland Springs water purifier. Seriously people, read a fucking book!

- Update your console regularly with things that people want to see. And put your avatar system in from day one to make it personalized. Take it to the PlayStation Network with free services, and hell, steal the camera idea if you need to market it as something else!

The sky is the limit, Sony. You are powerful enough, now get on it!

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Instead, I want to bring up Biggles’ point back in http://robgalbreath.com/2008/12/11/psp-2000-purchased-yikes/ and how new developers are struggling with the endless array of sequels.  He brings up some interesting points, and I’d like to briefly explain them.

In the commentary, he noted that developers are screwed with the need to constantly create sequels to games that people already like.  In such a case, they’re bound to certain marvels and the industry likely dismisses any innovative concepts in order to fan lucky series games.

I’m going to argue for and against this idea, because it’s true and not true.  In the Wii, we have found several games that have energized the market.  Wii Sports is no doubt a marvel at the industry, and has taken a simple demonstration game into a full-fledged service to our industry — one that many have tried to copy since!

But this industry is like any other.  There are millions of books at your local book stores and libraries.  How many have you honestly read?  How many do you buy a year?  What’s the best book, and where do you get it?

Most people don’t own several rooms filled with books, and they’re much larger than most disc cases — and cheaper, no doubt!  So why are books, games, movies, and the like often neglected because of sequels?

Because people don’t like taking chances, that’s why.  People can get library cards for free, and still don’t bother taking chances with books!

Let’s try movies, which only cost about $10 or less to view.  We don’t go out to every movie that interests us, we ask for reviews and recommendations from other people.  “How was that movie you saw last night?”  “Oh it was awful, I don’t know why I wasted that money.”  Aha, money wasted.  That’s not good at all.

But what about movies like Harry Potter?  “How was that Harry Potter movie?”  “Oh it sucked.”  “Oh, well I’ve liked all the rest of the movies so I’m going to have to try this one out.”  AHA!  Sequel!  You have found something you liked before and you’re giving it a second chance.

And you wonder why the Final Fantasy series is so popular, even if they’re hardly related to one another — and not ever even in the same universe as one another!

The same goes with most.  Rock Band 2 was amazing because it catered not only to new content, but it took everything you loved about Rock Band 1 and moved it over to the new game with special features.  Something that people liked was destined to be good.

The same applies to Chrono Trigger DS.  The game has more raving reviews from the Super Nintendo than even Miyamoto’s greatest efforts.  That’s pretty impressive, and people are bound to take interest in the DS version.

Do sequels disappoint?  Sometimes they do, but people don’t care that often if they really loved the previous version.  They want to know what’s going to happen, and there’s familiar characters to associate with in a new adventure.

The example of Halo 5 came up as a future competitor, so let’s go with it.  Speculatively, Halo 5 will no doubt be popular, even if Halo 4 sucks, because there’s a large enough following behind the franchise for people to maintain interest.  People won’t even care about the reviews at that point, as the game can make promises for something new and different.  And by then, people will want to try the game regardless of how bad the reviews are.

We call this brand loyalty.  And the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis were the foundations of this loyalty.  Since then, competition among brands has proven to be a vicious and difficult struggle.  It’s a necessary evil, since the video game crash of 1982 almost destroyed gaming altogether.  Without this sort of high-end competition, there’s no industry to be had.

I feel for developers, I really do.  My brother has spent years working hard as a developer, but I have to scold him often when I see mistakes in his design choices.  A few years ago, he asked me, “what the hell do you know about games?”  To which I told him, “the success of your game is often more on my shoulders than it is yours.  You build a great game, but it’s the word of mouth that makes your game worth the trouble.  Who do you think is the first person to tell others about how good your game is?  Us.”  He then gets extremely pissed off and returns to making games that caters to the industry’s needs.

Is this fair?  No, it’s not.  No industry is fair.  It’s up to new game developers and new game reviewers to change the industry in a matter that the common gamer wants.  It’s one big game of politics left and right, and these politics are swayed so often by greed and under-the-table dealings and incestual practices that it’s hard to trust anyone’s opinion any more.  I can’t tell you how many reviewers I refuse to trust or listen to any more.

When I realized all of these things as the editor-in-chief of my old site, I started saying something very often on the podcast.  If this is the sort of game that interests you, you should try it.  Don’t listen to me or anyone else.  If you want to play it, then you need to try it.  End of story.

But even then, gamers don’t listen.  It’s easier to listen to someone else’s opinion than to waste their own money to make their own.

I have always been completely honest with you and my stories.  I’ve never accepted a dollar or penny from a developer.  I’ve never been swayed no matter how many free games they want to give us.  That’s been my policy when I worked on the site.  That’s what you expected from all of the reviewers, too.  But to be honest, we do not represent your opinions.  We can only represent ours, and they’re not everyone’s.  So we used to push everything into our reviews, often taking 3-4 completely revised edits to get the point across fully — but we were still at the mercy of one person’s opinion.

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