So my copy of MechAssault 2 Lone Wolf came with a free XBox Arcade disk. I was curious as to what it was so I popped it in the ‘Box.

Basically its a framework to give you an MSN Zone or Shockwave.com kind of experience on the XBox. It comes with Ms. Pacman, but there’re a decent selection of other games to demo or buy.

I actually ended up buying a Breakout clone for $9.99. It runs in high def and is just gorgeous to look at, and it comes with a lot of typical uber-breakout gizmos like power-ups, moving blocks, exploding blocks and the like.

The problem with the rest of the games is that they’re too expensive. Most of them are $19.99. To me, that’s a bit too much. Mind you, a game like Zuma or Bejeweled (both of which are available) will cost the same on the PC, but I think that’s too much there, too.

$10.00 is like the cost of a movie ticket and a soda, so I can see d/ling a little ‘lite’ game for that much. I’ll play it for a few hours right away and then once in a blue moon thereafter, but for $10 that’s ok. $20…well, I may demo some of them and if they’re really really great, who knows? But they’d have to be top notch for me to buy them.

And sadly, no strategy games yet. Maybe they’ll convert Settlers of Catan to XBox Live!

Oh, and the single player games have online scoreboards so you can see how you rank against the XBox Live community, or just the people on your Friends list.

Its a cool idea. They just need more games and lower prices. Heck, let me buy a 1 week license for $5.00 or something… I can see doing that, too.

Bare-breasted teen in video game sues to stop sales

Here’s an article on the girl who is now claiming she was 17 when she posed for footage to be shown in “The Guy Game.’

Call me a cynic, but I still think this is Night Trap all over again. The game is tanking, badly. So what better way to get horny kids to buy it than to get a juicy lawsuit going, saying Her breasts are exposed in a manner that is “sexually suggestive, lewd and lascivious,” Hell, suddenly *I* want to play this game!

So a temporary order takes the game off store shelves for a while, demand builds, and when the order expires, a bunch of people buy it all at once. That bit is important, because once they have bought it they’ll be online talking about what crap it is. Alternatively, they’ll buy it and not even open it, keeping it as a collector’s item just in case.

Back when the Sega CD game Night Trap came out, it too died. It was a terrible game. Then congress started using it as an example of how horrible video games were for kids, and suddenly it became a hot seller. There’s no such thing as bad publicity, folks.

Nintendo to bring music, video to DS game machine
Apparently Nintendo is bringing out an adapter for the Gameboy SP and Nintendo DS that will allow them to play MPEG-4 video and MP3 audio files. The media will be on a memory card which is stuck into the adapter. Exactly how you get the media onto the memory cards isn’t yet clear.

No plans, as of yet, to market the device in the US.

Is EA/NFL deal a touchdown or fumble for gaming industry? - Dec. 14, 2004

I nice overview of the downside of EA’s getting the exclusive license for NFL and NFLPA. And yes, once again I post the link weeks after the article went online!

I just finished my second, and probably not last, read through of volume two of Janice Kim’s ‘Learn to play Go’ series. It is, for a neophyte Go player, an excellent read. Her first book had to spend a lot of time on the mechanics of the game, but here she’s talking tactics, mostly.

Perhaps you’re a better student than me, but after a single read-through I knew I hadn’t absorbed it all. And even after a second, I think there are points I’ve missed. I’ll revisit the book again later.

Her first volume is a great start to learning the game, but if you know basically how to play, Volume II is the place to begin learning how to play well.

This is the first book in what I’m told is one of the better Star Wars series. It takes place after the classic SW movies (Episodes 4-6). The Empire is shattered but still survives, and a new leader is rising to power there. In the meanwhile, the Rebellion, now known as the New Republic, is suffering growing pains of its own. The cast of characters includes those we came to know in the movies, which makes it all feel very solidly Star Warian.

I’m not really a Star Wars fan, so I’m going to call it a decent sci-fantasy read. Real fans of the genre (Can I get away with calling Star Wars its own genre?) would probably like it a lot.

What a great film. Max Pomeranc will charm you to death with his portrayel of 7 year old Josh Waitzkin, who reveals an incredible talent for playing chess after watching some speed chess being played in Washington Square park. Laurence Fishburne plays homeless player Vinnie, who takes Josh under his wing, while Ben Kingsley plays Josh’s ‘proper’ instructor, Bruce Pandolfini. Joe Mantegna play’s Josh’s father, who like so many parents, gets too caught up in the competition and starts taking all the fun out of playing.

It’s a chess movie, sure, but it could just as well be a Little League (or insert any sport/activity with parents that get overly involved to the detriment of the children playing) movie in a lot of ways. In any case, it was very, very good. See it.

Thanks to Benedict for pointing this out:

Giant robots in the backyard

First it was privately built spaceships, now one lone inventer is building a mech in his backyard. These are fascinating times!

Thanks to Irata for passing this along.

First, read the article in the NY Times about a young hacker that made a “Commodore 64 on a single chip” product and turned it into a plug & play video game system.

Then go and buy yourself one!.

Neat stuff!

Last night we sat down and watched the new Extended Version of Return of the King. It was incredible. Now, I really enjoyed the theatrical cut, but this version blows it away. Not only are there a few big chunks of new material (most notably a confrontation with Saruman) but all through the film were little snippets that just enriched the experience and smoothed out the pacing of the film.

There’re still things missing and in a few parts the added footage just raised more questions for people who haven’t read the books.

I’m looking forward to watching the 2 DVD’s full of ‘Appendix Material’ as well.

The only downside to watching this movie is knowing that this is it for the forseeable future. Hopefully at some point Jackson will release a super-extended version. But for now, the journey is completed. And that’s kind of sad.

Check this out: ESPN.com - SPORTSBUSINESS - Shutout: EA Sports corners NFL video market

Basically, EA faced some competition this year from NFL 2K5, so rather than making better games, they just bought up exclusive use of the NFL & NFL Player’s Association licenses for 5 years.

Goodbye competition. Now EA can rest on its laurels rather than striving to make a better game every year.

Shame on the NFL and NFLPA for contributing to the squelching of competition in the marketplace.

This is kinda neat: Scientists make phone that turns into a sunflower

Basically, a company developed a biodegradable plastic, and they’ve proposed a cell phone cover that has a sunflower seed embedded in it. So you toss the cover away, it rots, and degrades into nitrates that fertilize the sunflower seed.

“I’m not comfortable with this,” says Isabella Starbard (not her real name), girl on the street. “I don’t want a sunflower growing in my ear!”

I just realized I never wrote a post here about the Nintendo DS. Well, I bought one (actually I bought 3, but the others are gifts) and so far I’ve been very impressed.

Rather than re-write what I’ve already said, let me just link you to an article I wrote for Computerworld. They called it a ‘review’ but really its more of a first look.

Regular readers of this blog know I’ve been a PSP fanboy of sorts; frankly I wasn’t expecting much from the DS, but I’ve been very surprised. Its a sweet little machine.

CNN.com - DVD developers set for format war - Nov 13, 2004

Yeah, I’m way behind again. But this is a great summary article on the Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD battle. Well worth reading, even if its slightly out of date.