Let's pour some salt into that wound...

I think Wander posted this trailer for Halo 3 awhile back. Obviously, this game has been out for quite some time, so this isn't the reason why I'm posting the video again. I'm really just putting it up to remind us how awesome a big-screen version of Halo might have been with Neill Blomkamp directing a full-on movie since he was in charge of this trailer. And when you see his movie District 9 this weekend, you'll probably be cursing Microsoft even more for screwing the potential movie deal up a couple of years ago. Oh, what could have been.

Maybe you're just a little too good with that Wiimote...

So I got myself a Wii last week, but I'm not sure I'll look at it quite the same after this SNL skit from the last show:

Has the Halo Series Been Knocked Down for Wild Willie?

Many of you know that in my past I was a huge Halo fan, but the birth of my daughter squashed all video games in my free time. I am almost ashamed to admit that I haven't even seen Halo 3 in action. Last week an interested thing happened. I got to play a video game. A couplemy wife and I know have the game Rock Band and convinced us all to play. I found it wildly addictive and massive fun. I would venture to say that it wouldn't be much fun alone, but I can't make that assessment because I have never played that way.

The game is played at most with four people. There is lead guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. It is really pretty simple. For the guitar and bass you have to hit the right button and strum the guitar at the same time as a button passes a certain point on the screen. Similar to the guitars are the drums, except that you pretty much just hit the appropriate drum head or foot pedal at the appropriate time. Vocals tests your pitch as you sing into the microphone. Your first goal is to make it through any song of your choosing (at least the 25 or so that you start with) ranging from 60's rock all the way up to present. (I got to play lead guitar for Boston's Foreplay while my wife played bass.) To make it through a song you have to hit so many notes right or the crowd boos you off stage. If anyone in your band sucks, another member can save them by playing really well. But get this ... playing really well won't do it alone, you have to throw some physical flare into your play like playing your guitar in an upright position. Your second goal is to score points through perfection. One thing that really drew me in was how unsatisfying it was when you missed a note. Your sitting there playing your guitar solo and you miss a note and the sound coming from the tv misses the note too.

I would highly recommend anyone from the Kool-Aid gang picking this up and playing it with friends. And on our next get together, this is going to be a must for wherever we are all staying.

There's a reason why we were called band geeks...

Super Mario Bros. - The greatest video game ever?

Apparently, the existence of Super Mario Bros. 2 is the stuff of legend. After the success of Nintendo's break out game for the NES gaming console, the designer of Super Mario Bros., Shigeru Miyamoto, came up with a sequel much harder than the first. His sequel, however, either looked too much like the original game or was too difficult, and an alternate sequel game was eventually released for the American market instead. The American version is generally forgotten, but the legend of the real sequel game lived on.

Recently, this mythic version was released for play in the United States on the Nintendo Wii 20 years after the original game was released. Entitled Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, it almost seems to solidfy Miyamoto's stature as a true artist based on this review by Slate:

In most games, you trust that the designer is guiding you, through the usual signposts and landmarks, in the direction that you ought to go. In the Real Super Mario Bros. 2, you have no such faith. Here, Miyamoto is not God but the devil. Maybe he really was depressed while making it—I kept wanting to ask him, Why have you forsaken me? The online reviewer who sizes up the game as "a giant puzzle and practical joke" isn't far off.

That sadistic torment, however, is central to the game's appeal. Unlike most game designers, who make sequels that are identical to their predecessors, only with better graphics, Miyamoto used the Real Super Mario Bros. 2 to do something new and dangerous, turning his original and beloved game on its head. Once you accept that mushrooms and warp zones can be punishments rather than rewards, you start to question the nature of the game and to ponder strategic gambits you would never have considered while playing the original Super Mario Bros. Upon discovering the Warp Zone to World 1, I contemplated letting the clock on Level 3-1 expire—a tactic that would have caused Mario to lose a life but would have allowed him to stay on the third level.

Perhaps there is some reason to all of that Japanese quirkiness after all.

I'd hate to see what a real life Centipede would look like. Eeeeeew...

I never played much of The Legend of Zelda, as Wild Willie did according to his post yesterday, but I did throw down a bunch of quarters on Donkey Kong back in the day. Who knew you could play a real life version of the game?

Skip to about 1:40 to see the actual game in action:

Those were good times ...

Today, I was trying to be clever in an email to some friends. How can you not be clever when you throw in an obscure reference about blue darknuts from The Legend of Zelda? This got me to thinking about how there were a lot of great times together and alone playing this game. This game was probably the first game I could ever sit and watch from the sidelines to pass time and not complain too much. Anyhow, I ended up watching all 9 minutes of this video below without realizing that I had just wasted 9 minutes.


Interesting side note: I never conquered this game. As a matter of fact I rarely conquered any games growing up. I never did it with Super Mario, Zelda, Metroid, the list goes on and on. I came really close on Zelda my freshman year of college, but my Nintendo glitched on me when I made it to Ganon. Already late for class I saved the game. When I came back everything had been wiped clean.

Oh no, they di'int...

Since Take-Two Entertainment couldn't get NFL permission to use current players and teams for their All-Pro Football 2k8, they looked to the past to resurrect great retired and dead players to use instead. Now, I don't have a problem with them using O.J. Simpson--he was quite the running back in his day. But to raise a little buzz and controversy I guess to publicize their game, O.J. plays for a team called the Assassins. Check out the knife-wielding mascot at the end of this clip, too. Clever gimmick or just poor taste--you decide:

If anyone was still in doubt that video games could be a bonefide addiction...

I can understand getting so wrapped up in online video games that you'd maybe stop hanging out with your friends or forget to spend time with your spouse, but those are adults. Hard to believe some people would forget to take care of their own children:

Nev. couple accused of starving infants while playing video games

RENO, Nev. (AP) -- A couple authorities say were so obsessed with the Internet and video games that they left their babies starving and suffering other health problems have pleaded guilty to child neglect.

The children of Michael and Iana Straw, a boy age 22 months and a girl age 11 months, were severely malnourished and near death last month when doctors saw them after social workers took them to a hospital, authorities said. Both children are doing well and gaining weight in foster care, prosecutor Kelli Ann Viloria told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Michael Straw, 25, and Iana Straw, 23, pleaded guilty Friday to two counts each of child neglect. Each faces a maximum 12-year prison sentence.

Viloria said the Reno couple were too distracted by online video games, mainly the fantasy role-playing "Dungeons & Dragons" series, to give their children proper care.

"They had food; they just chose not to give it to their kids because they were too busy playing video games," Viloria told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Police said hospital staff had to shave the head of the girl because her hair was matted with cat urine. The 10-pound girl also had a mouth infection, dry skin and severe dehydration.

Her brother had to be treated for starvation and a genital infection. His lack of muscle development caused him difficulty in walking, investigators said.

(More)

Not having any video games to play is now officially becoming torture...

I found myself up at 3:00 AM last night after staying up to get my latest Netflix DVD (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby) watched and ready for the mailbox, as my wife had no interest in another inane Will Ferrell movie, and wanted the next disc on our queue sent to us as quickly as possible. As is typical when I'm still awake at that hour of the morning, I end up delaying sleep even longer by channel surfing, and today I ended up on the G4 network watching a recast of the Microsoft press conference from the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3), the major yearly video gaming conference going on this week in Santa Monica, CA. If Wander ever wanted to sell me on an Xbox 360, he should have just had me watch this conference--them games are super cool!

The Microsoft presentation ended with news about Halo 3. I have yet to play Halo 1, but by the enthusiasm of the crowd and the fact that everyone from serious gaming addicts like Wander to even casual players like Scratch were big fans of the game makes me think that the release of the third sequel is a huge deal. As is typical of Microsoft, though, they had a dramatic announcement of the Halo 3-branded Xbox 360 which was met with the sound of crickets. Why anyone thought simply coloring an Xbox green and printing Halo 3 on it would bring down the house is beyond me.

Anywho, they showed a couple of videos related to Halo 3. The first was a live action trailer that I think was a teaser for what would have been the Peter Jackson-produced (complete with Weta Workshop special effects) Halo movie, had Microsoft not gotten so greedy and basically made the whole project fall apart. The second is the official trailer for Halo 3 the video game. Wander, I suggest lining your floor with plastic and having Tellulah ready with a mop before watching because I'm afraid your head might explode:


Online Videos by Veoh.com


Online Videos by Veoh.com

They're not just for kids...

Just to show you how mainstream video games are becoming, an Oscar-winning actress like Nicole Kidman would have been the last person on Earth I would have expected to be promoting games for the Nintendo DS Lite:

Just in case Firecracker George ever falls off the wagon...

We used to call Nintendo "kiddie cocaine," and I guess we weren't that far off the mark. The American Medical Association this weekend for their annual policy meeting where one of the planned agenda items is a discussion of whether video game addiction should be considered a separate and unique psychiatric condition to be included in the DSM-V, the anticipated latest edition of the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual that comes out in 2012:

The telltale signs are ominous: teens holing up in their rooms, ignoring friends, family, even food and a shower, while grades plummet and belligerence soars.

The culprit isn't alcohol or drugs. It's video games, which for certain kids can be as powerfully addictive as heroin, some doctors contend.

A leading council of the nation's largest doctors' group wants to have this behavior officially classified as a psychiatric disorder, to raise awareness and enable sufferers to get insurance coverage for treatment.

In a report prepared for the American Medical Association's annual policy meeting starting Saturday in Chicago, the council asks the group to lobby for the disorder to be included in a widely used mental illness manual created and published by the American Psychiatric Association.

Man, imagine being holed up in detox for treatment of World of Warcraft addiction. What would happen? Would you just be yelling "LEEEEEROOOOOY JEEEEEENKINS!" all the time till the tremors and sweats stopped?

Haloid

Although not representative of Halo play at all, this video is indicitive of the incredible user created media that is being released more and more from within the gaming community. This video speaks volumes to me about what we will be watching in the future, both from private citizens and the entertainment industry as they slowly merge. There is goodness out there Gentleman, and soon we will reap its rewards.

Edit: This is the original video, much larger and clearer then the bastardized 'digity' YouTube copy.

Edit Edit: While editing to add the last edit I deleted the video itself. Sorry, I suck.

Edit Edit Edit [from Swany]: I fixed the video. I am awsome.. ;-)

New Year's Resolution #1 - Play Nintendo for 30 minutes/day?

David Pogue from The New York Times posted a short blog entry about the potential of using the Nintendo Wii to help children get more exercise. He even mentions a new blog about a guy who will be monitoring his weight and other fitness measures over a six week period as he plays the Wii for 30 minutes a day.

Seems kind of ironic that the gaming console maker that was responsible for keeping kids indoors and glued to their TV sets all day could now be an answer to making video games part of a daily exercise routine.

Hmmm. Since my wife's comments about my Buddha belly are coming around more frequently, and I'm feeling my man-boobs jiggle more and more each day, perhaps I can justify getting one of these. That, or I could actually use that gym membership I keep paying for each month. ;-)