An astoundingly short 2-game Release Recap

This has been the most dead week I have seen in gaming in a LONG time. Um.....about 1000 UMD videos came out. Also, King Kong PSP was released. This is probably an exact port of the other versions even though it's taken a month longer to be released. The only other game released this week is the worst copycat game i have EVER seen. They're trying to port the amazing success of Nintendogs to the GBA with the amazingly horrible Pocket Dogs. This game will breed a hate of puppies inside you, so please, for the puppies, don't buy it. Since about no games came out this week, I have included a picture of a kitten. Enjoy.

Marked Down Monday

Deals, da deals deals deeeeeeeaaaaals! I found a few pretty good ones for this week. This one you probably don't need if you are rich enough to have gotten a 360 already. Anyway, if you buy 2 360 games, you'll get a $10 gift card to Best Bizzuy. Next, I have a GREAT deal for you PSSP owners out there. You know those 1 gigabyte memory cards, the ones you can use to store stuff in....or maybe eat. Well, I found a 1GB MS Pro Duo mem card for $59 after mail in rebate! That is an awesome deal! You better get them quick, because they'll probably be gone by the time you can say SONY 1GB Memory Stick Pro Duo. Oh yeah, the sale's over on the 21st too. Our last act of the segment is Amazon's Big DVD sale. They have 100's of DVDs discounted to anywhere from $11 to $7. Make sure you check that out, there are some good ones in there.

"Mommy, What Games Came Out This Week?" "I Don't Know Jimmy, Let's Ask Release Recap!!"

Zam here with another great edition of Release Recap! Not a lot came out this week, but some good did, and some bad did. First, let's start with the good. I have heard a lot about this game, but I haven't played it. So seeing as how it is so popular, I will put it in the good part. I am talking of course about Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows. Apparently in this game, the story starts with.... centuries ago, four immortal heroes set out to kill the most powerful emperor their age had ever known. They failed, and for their crimes, three were crucified on a great tree at the bottom of the world. Then the dude they tried to kill haunts them and they try to kill him again. Intersting story. I might go rent this one, but you can do whatever you want for it. Next, the ever famous Final Fantasy has a new edition for the GBA. It is the third part of the ports to the GBA (third because I & II were in the same cartridge.) This one is Final Fantasy IV: Advance. If you played this one on another system, it is pretty much the same, for the rest, it is pretty much the same as all Final Fantasy games (most likely) like all of them are. So if you are a big, big fan like a lot of people are, go and get this, but for people like me, get it on console. Finally for the good stuff, big, tough, ripped guys slamming each other against ropes and caged walls. Yes, I am talking about WWE Smackdown VS. RAW 2006 for the PSP. Now, I have played 2005 at my friend's house and let me just tell you, it is good, but I don't know how it will be on a PSP. It is pretty much like all wrestling games, you fight with big people. So yeah, there you go. That is all for the good stuff, next up, the stuff that is just starting out that no one has played yet so there is no opinion (AKA: new stuff that is unjudged.)

Ok, here is the new stuff that is unjudged. This first one is actually not a new one, but is for the US. It was very popular in Japan and is now being transferred here on the PSP. I am talking about Armored Core: Formula Front. This looks like a mech-game, but I don't know having never played it. Next, Chaosfield for the Gamecube. This is like an advanced Galaga, or Galaxium (that style of game.) Yes, it is a vertical shooter. You get to shoot missles and bla.......probably just a 3-D Galaga. Finally, a GTA clone. It is called Crime Life: Gang Wars and it is for the PC. It is a free-roaming, crime-based beat-em-up. You are a gang leader and you try to get away from the cops, hmm, sound familiar. Yes, a clone. Ok, that is all for the new stuff that is unjudged, next up, crap.

Yes, now it is time for everyone's favorite part of RR, the crap. The first game is for people with no lives who cried when this show ended and knows every last part of what happened. This is of course, Friends: The One With All The Trivia. This is of course a trivia game. It is not even a game, it is pretty much console Jeopardy about a very popular tv show. Not really something you would give up a limb for, but ehh, if you like the show. Next is the PC game Big Kahuna Reef. This is a bunch of puzzles based underwater with many frames such as a fish. One of those budget titles that take up a bunch of your time. Nextly is the PSP game Ultimate Block Party. I didn't find any screens, but this looks like a port of Bejeweled. From the description I read, it sounded exactly like Bejeweled so we will see, but it still looks like crap. Going on, we have another PSP game called Pinball Hall of Fame. Of course you know from the title this is a pinball game. Just a pinball game. You get the idea, very self-explanitory. Nextlyfied is another PSP game, more specifily, a sequel to a series that didn't get that good of marks. This is the Midway Arcade Treasures this one with the subtitle Extended Play. This is a port form the console games to the PSP. It has a bunch of old arcade games on it, but still, they are old and a lot of them suck. So, it is crap. Finally, something that is not on the PSP, but on the PC. It is called Heavyweight Thunder and it is a boxing game. You are a boxer and you box people while doing to boxing all over the boxers while beating some boxing ass. Yeah, it is just boxing. VERY self-explanitory. Ok, this next one is not crap, but I really am on the line of the concept of the game, poker. It is World Championship Poker 2 for, once again, the PSP. I don't know about this game, but some people live for these games. I really didn't get this much into the now very popular game (ok, "sport" happy?) This is just a poker game in my eyes, but to some people, it is game of the year. So, I am on the line. Ok, that is all for this amazing edition of Release Recap which I know that you all enjoyed, well, I did. Yippee.

Website Wednesday

Ok guys, this is gonna be a quick WW, I've been doing a lot of research today on stuff like dual-core videocards, so I don't have that much time. However, I do still have 3 sites for you. First off is a site called SurveyMonkey. This is pretty cool for all you bloggers out there. Now you can ask your readers if they like licking their ears in survey form! Ok, next. A cool site called Someth;ng. They have the low-down on new things that are works in progress like guitars that run off speech. Also, they have stuff like Someth;ng going on and Someth;ng happened.I think it is better viewed in browsers like Opera though, not Firefox. Ok, last is something for all you artists out there. A comic strip maker called StripGenerator. Sure, the names of the items might be in portugese, but there are a ton of them. And it sure is worth it if you're going to be the next big comic creator, who would like to thank the StripGenerator. By the way, once again, don't use Firefox on this. It simply won't show up, use Opera.

Marked Down Mondays.......YAY!!!

It is time for a great new edition of MDM. I am going to fly by deals here so hold your hats. First, I have two deals on those pesky, expensive memory cards. First the little one, a 128MB SD memory card for only $0.99! Wow, what a steal. The next is a BIG one. A 1GB Sandisk SD memory card for the low, low price of $47.99. I have seen these go for $30 over that! Crazy. Ok, two more deals, starting with the ever popular Motorola RAZR. Amazon.com has their ever so famous deal of a FREE RAZR with 2-years of T-Mobile service. If you are in the market for a good phone and good phone company, T-Mobile and the RAZR is the way to go. Dude, you can't argue with Catherine Zeta Jones so just get it. Finally, have you been trying to listen to music, but there are those pesky people talking around you? Well that is when you need noise-cancelling headphones. Now, I have looked around and these things go for a lot, but I have a deal for you to where you can get a nice pair of noise-cancelling headphones for the low, low price of $19.99! Really good deal. That is all I have for this wonderful Marked Down Mondays, remember, deals are your friends.

Creative vs. iPod?

Back in 2000, Creative marketed the first digital music player, the Nomad. Later on, Apple introduced a similar player known as the iPod. They have been rivals ever since with Apple leading in the digital music player market with Creative trying to keep up in a close second. In August, Creative won the US patent for a system used to navigate music on digital players (more specificely, on the way music tracks are organised and navigated on a player through a hierarchical sytem using three or more screens.) The brand new iPod Video has a strikely close resemblance to the look of the brand new Creative Zen Vision: M. Although the iPod Video came out before, Creative's founder and head honcho Sing Wong Hoo claims that Creative didn't copy iPod because Creative had the look already made for over a year now. This is causing Creative to start leaning towards a lawsuit against Apple. This has not been confirmed but Sing Wong Hoo has hinted towards BBC saying that they are going to "persue aggressively" on their US patent. Creative is probably going to wait to see if their new system sells as they are saying that the technology is much better than the new iPod because of its FM tuner and built-in microphone. If Creative does sue Apple, that would be an amazing lawsuit. You can read what BBC has to say at this link. So, what do you think, will Creative try to take a bite out of the all powerful Apple?

Pandemic + Bioware

I ran across this when surfing the web: Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic developer Bioware and Star Wars Battlefront's developer Pandemic are joining forces. That's right, the creators of 2 of the best Star Wars games ever are merging. However, this isn't like most merges. The companies aren't going to have the same name or the same facilities. But, they will be making games together. So, this could mark the beginning of a great line of Star Wars games! YAY!

Some More Firefox Tips

Yay, it is time for some Firefox Tips. Today I have an easy way of getting to Wikipedia, the free online Encyclopedia, and to get to DMOZ, an Open Directory Project. This trick is very simple, just like my recent ones. Just simply type in Wiki into your address bar along with the thing you would like to get history on. Very simple tip. The same pretty much goes for DMOZ, just go to the address bar and type in dmoz and the thing you would like to get results on and it will take you right to it. Again, a very easy tip. Now before I finish, let me ask you guys to do something. Go to the address bar and type in gamermania2 in one word. See if it brings you right to our blog. It worked for me, but I don't know if that is because I visit it so much. So go do that and remember, FIREFOX PWNS IE because of Firefox tips.

Black

I absolutely had to do a preview of this game (for PS2 and XBOX) when I saw that it was being made by Burnout developer Criterion. However this time Criterion isn't out for takedowns, they're out with guns. They aren't trying to make an ordinary FPS game either. They want to make the best shooter the Playstation 2 or XBOX has ever seen, at the expense of a story. This is definitely risky, but if they can take gameplay to the next level like they did with Burnout, I think it will be a hit. Ok, now the actual gameplay. There will be 13 guns in Black. Criterion's designers are paying a lot of attention to details like loading the guns and their rate of fire. One kind of sad thing is no dual wielding. So, the guns are going to be great.......great. Where Black really gets interesting is the environment, the graphics, and the sound. Black is destructive. You'll be able to blow the environment to shreds. Doing things like blowing doors off their hinges with shotguns, blasting letters off buildings and making them fall on enemies, and doing the same with signs. That's only where Black begins to break away from average FPS games. In most shooters, if someone were hiding behind a car, you'd have to walk around and kill them. Black doesn't want you to have to do that much work. They want you to have fun. They want you to be creative. So, in Black, if you are faced with the scenario of killing enemies behind a car, you have a few choices. Blow out the tires so the car lowers enough to get headshots on the enemies. Fill the car so full of bullets that it explodes, destroying everything relatively near, including your targets behind the car. Blow the doors right off the car and shoot straight through. That's probably only half of what you could do. Adding to the creativity of executing kills, you can do things like ricochet bullets off of things and still have them kill enemies. The graphics are....well......next-gen...on Playstation 2 and XBOX. Seriously, some of these screenshots make me wonder how a PS2 could possibly run this. Then again, that's what I said about Burnout Revenge, and Criterion made that work. But how are they going to manage when there is going to be such an onslaught of dust and debris coming from every single explosion (and this game is full of those)? Once again, it's Criterion. The sound that will accompany Black should be just as spectacular, with every shot sounding crystal clear. So, Ton, you said Black wouldn't have a story, right? Well, that's not totally right. This game is based on the extreme missions that you won't see on CNN. You are playing the role of Jack Kelar, a member of the elite military force named Black, which only takes the best soldiers. You're in Eastern Europe, trying to kill America's biggest threat, who's a traitor to his own country. In Criterion's quest to create a kick-ass shooter for these consoles, they have dropped the multiplayer features. This may sound like a bad thing, but it means that they will be focusing all of their time on the single player, which should prove great. My one issue with this game as of now is the fact there are only going to be 9 levels. However, if you think about it, it would be worth playing them over to see what kinds of kills you could do. I can't wait to get my paws on this game. As a matter of fact, this it the first non-team based FPS game I have been truly excited about in a LONG time. Sadly, we have to wait till February to check this game out.

Revolution Price?

O.K. Rumors are coming around that the Revolution will be selling for just $100! When I first saw this, I was like "no way". Now that I think of it though, if you look at the specs, this could be about right. So, it won't be as powerful, but hey, if it's $100, it's gonna sell. If these rumors are true, the Revo could be big. Most people have enough money to buy a PS3 and another console if it's only $100, which is probably what's gonna happen. So, this price would make it a console that everyone would be able to afford, which is just what Nintendo wanted with the Revo. I know I'm not the only one who hopes these rumors are really true, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Houston, we have forums

This is a BIG announcement. We now have GM2 Forums! So come on in and join us! We assure you that these forums are gonna get very cool. So, make sure you join! Click yourself on over here to get to 'em (or just type www.gamermania2.8lo.net into your address bar). If you already tried to join but couldn't get in, sorry. That problem is fixed now, so give it another try.

New shows on iTunes!

I'm probably not alone when I say Apple needs to add to their catalog of videos for iPods. Well guess what? iTunes has begun selling more shows! They have many different current shows for sale like The Office along with older shows like Knight Rider. This is great for the Video iPod owners. Still, they need even more. I'm waiting for full-length movies. Also, did you know that iTunes is now the #7 music retailer in the country?

Google Earth

I dunno why, but today, I felt like playing with Google Earth. I realized they have a new version (3.0). Man, have they made it good. If you haven't downloaded this yet, make sure you do. In this version, of course there's the globe. In this one, all of it isn't flat! They have actually made some of the landscape 3-D, which is really awesome. For instance, you can actually fly through the Grand Canyon! So it's really cool and stuff. Aside from that, they have streamlined the interface a lot. Also, now there is a GE Community in which you can download little thingies that pinpoint certain locations on the map such as lighthouses. It's pretty cool considering the level of detail the maps provide. Of course you can use it to get directions to some place from your house or wherever. That's pretty good for free software. You can also do searches like "Hotels near Los Angeles" and it'll show you any hotel hear LA and give you links to stuff about them. So overall, it's pretty cool for a free program. So do yourself a favor and download it here.

I hate you Sony

I was looking around and I saw some stuff on Sony and their security patches. Oh yeah, this is all to block putting old games on PSP via emulators. I don't even get what their problem is, it's not like people would buy the games if they sold them. Well...I knew they were putting security patches in their firmware updates. Obviously they want to be extremely hated so now they're having them install through games. I mean, come on Sony. They're classic games that no one would actually pay for. Just forget about it and let us play these games.

Release Recap

Some pretty awesome games came out this week. I'll start off with 2 portable games. First off, we have Mario and Luigi 2: Partners in Time on the DS. According to people I know that have played it, this game is awesome, so make sure to pick this up, I know I will. The other portable game is Burnout Legends DS. Like I said a few days ago, Nintendo Power said this game is horrible. So, avoid it if you can. The biggest release this week would have to be Prince of Persia: Two Thrones. I mean come on ppl, it's PoP. If you've seen pics of the Dark Prince, you probably already know it's awesome. But if you haven't, I'll tell you. It's awesome. There, happy now? Ok then. Here's a sports game for all you sports fans out there - College Hoops 2K6 on PS2. I don't know what to say about this game. If you like College basketball.....go get it I guess.....I don't know....Stop asking me. Now I come to Guild Wars Special Edition. The game looks great - I mean come on, free MMO just like WoW. However, it isn't worth the extra $20 for the special edition, you don't get much extra. Here's another portable game called PoPoLa Crois. I think it's some kind of puzzle game for the PSP. I wouldn't bother with this, just go get the king of all puzzle games - Lumines. What? Another puzzle game? Oh! It has Mario in it! Must get game, must get game. It's called Puzzle League. WAIT! That's not the Mario part. It also has Dr. Mario on it. So, 2 games in one. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that this is for GBA. I can imagine that any and all Mario/puzzle game/classic game fanboys will pick this up before you can say Playstation Portable. Ok, now here's a hardware release that I think I mentioned a while ago. The Mario Kart DS bundle. This is great if you like A) Like red B) Don't have a DS and C) Want Mario Kart DS. Heck, you even save $10. Guess what? They even included little racing decals for all the 5 year olds out there and the adults who act like they're 5. La la la....ooh what's this? A 2 GB PSP Memory stick? Cool...hmm...let's seeee...where's the price tag? Oh here it is....la la la...WHAT?!?!?! $200?!?!?! I CAN GET A 4 GB PSP HARD DRIVE AND AN EXTRA BATTERY NOT FROM SONY FOR THAT MUCH. Screw you Sony. That's pretty much it. It was a pretty quiet week this week. So thank you and sionara (I spelled it wrong on purpose to make you think I'm an idiot. Wait a second....DID I spell it wrong?).

I see psychic people!

Industry analysts working for Piper Jaffray are calling themselves psychic. So, here are two of their predictions. These guys are professionals so, it could mean something. The first one is about World War 3 - the Console War. They are predicting that at least until 2008 the XBOX 360 will be winning with 19.6 mil units. The PS3 will be in second by 15.5 mil units. Then the Revolution will be sadly losing with 5 mil units. I don't know if I believe that though. I think the PS3 will beat the XBOX 360 by miles and kilometers for metric people. Then the second one is about the handheld scene. They think the PSP is going to finally pull ahead of the DS, especially when they release the version with the hard drive.

Zelda to Revolution?

I can't believe this. After Nintendo came out with a Zelda release date, now they are thinking about changing it to a Revolution game. I am REALLY ticked about this. I think they should come out with TP on Gamecube, then make a new Zelda on Revo. I mean, it'll take forever to remake it for Revo. Who was it that said it would definitely NOT be on Revolution? Oh yeah, that was Nintendo.