The Stupid Gamer

While it’s not really gaming-related, Isotown is a cool project that’s steadily growing in support and size. Ran by a single artist/author, Isotown is a site that chronicles the growth of a digital town from a single home to a much larger community. The site updates regularly, and you can follow it with RSS support.

Check it out here: Isotown

The Link I provided goes to the first page of the project, make sure to check them out in order to get the full experience.

Jack Thompson loves sending out letters…let’s see how he likes receiving them. Here’s his contact info:

Jack Thompson, Attorney
1172 South Dixie Highway, Suite 111
Coral Gables, Florida 33146

Phone: 305-666-4366
Cell: 305-588-3005

Note: If you are going to contact Jack, don’t make us, the gaming community, look worse with your choice of words. Be sincere, be tactful, and limit yourself to one letter/email/phone call.

It’s being reported that Sony threw a rather interesting party to promote God of War 2 in Europe. According to witnesses, the party featured men dressed in skins, topless women, and a goat that was beheaded and partially consumed raw. Seriously. Witnesses say that the goat was beheaded and that attendees were invited to reach into the goat to pull out its innards to eat.

You can check out the full report via Joystiq here: Sony’s God of War 2 Party

Who thought this up? Who thought that this would get any kind of attention that could be deemed even remotely positive? Remind me not to show up at the Sony party to promote the next World War II shooter or the next Grand Theft Auto. I don’t want to think about the danger I could be in at one of those.

The latest week of Japanese hardware sales are in and it’s pretty much more of what we’ve been seeing. The DS is dominating everything while the Wii is rocking the console front.

Hardware - This Week | Last Week | Year | Lifetime
1. NDS - 172,440 | 133,471 | 2,347,137 | 16,352,816
2. WII - 77,913 | 75,759 | 1,248,330 | 2,167,973
3. PSP - 29,459 | 24,850 | 770,363 | 5,302,492
4. PS2 - 11,398 | 12,872 | 297,205 | 20,452,064
5. PS3 - 11,000 | 11,948 | 391,291 | 848,849
6. 360 - 2,307 | 2,900 | 87,183 | 351,885
7. GBA - 1,364 | 1,297 | 33,529 | 15,331,608
8. NGC - 266 | 167 | 6,202 | 4,175,670

On the software front, Super Paper Mario for the Wii was the best selling title with the top 50 breaking down like this:

1. NDS titles: 34
2. PS2 titles: 8
3. PSP titles: 4
4. Wii titles: 4

Special thanks to NeoGAF community for helping to pull the numbers together and translate the titles.

Ken Kutaragi, the father of the PlayStation, has resigned. After two wildly successful generations in the home console market, and a third in its infancy, Ken Kutaragi is deciding to step down as CEO of Sony’s game division. There is a lot of speculation whether or not Ken was forced out, due to the PlayStation 3’s poor performance at retail, but nothing has been confirmed. Ken will remain with Sony as an “honorary board member”.

Personally, I think Ken was pressured to resign before being fired. He’ll probably spend the rest of his days at Sony working on completely useless projects and being used once in a while to recruit developers. The guy is definitely well set financially for the rest of his life, but I’m sure he’s going to have a tough time watching the PlayStation brand live on while he’s basically on the sidelines.

Source: Yahoo! News

It’s late. I’ve had a long day. I’m hungry. Sounds like an Arby’s night.

Last week the wife and I had a late indoor soccer game and we didn’t feel like cooking. So, to placate our ferocious appetites, we stopped into Arby’s to dine. I decided, however, to pass on some of my favorites that can be found on the Arby’s menu to try something new: The Arby’s Sourdough Ham and Swiss Melt Sandwich. It looked awesome. The picture showed two thick slices of sourdough bread grilled to a golden brown that were struggling to contain a king’s portion of ham and melting swiss cheese. Oh yes, this sandwich would do just fine. After exchanging money for food and drink I sat down and began to dig into Arby’s newest offering. Read on for the full review.

Over the years Arby’s has become one of those places that you either love or hate. Most kids aren’t too keen on Arby’s because they lack the kid-friendly menu and toys that you’ll find at McDonald’s, Wendy’s, or Burger King. However, many adults prefer the chain due to its more filling menu and more flavorful selection of meats, sides, and desserts. They have had their blunders (Oven Mit mascot being a prime example), but they’ve had many successes as well (the Market Fresh line). Unfortunately, the Arby’s Sourdough Ham and Swiss Melt falls into the category of blunders.

First of all, the way the sandwich is marketed is enough to drive your expectations through the roof. The ad shows perfectly toasted bread, copious amounts of ham, and melted cheese. When the sandwich is unwrapped in person, however, things look a bit different. The sandwich is a total lightweight. The meat isn’t even visible without lifting the top slice of bread. Talk about a total downgrade from expectation.

At this point, I felt like crying.

I pried the top slice of bread off to get a look at the insides, hoping that my eyes were deceiving me. This, is what I happened to find:

Before passing a final verdict on the sandwich, I chose to ask the manager if the correct amount of meat was placed upon the bread in the preparation phase. I was told, “Yeah, it does look kind of funny though, doesn’t it?” I had no words. The sandwich tasted ok, but the flavor of ham was completely overpowered by bread. When one has a hankering for ham, one does not seek a bread-dominated experience; and this is exactly what the Arby’s Sourdough Ham and Swiss Melt Sandwich provides.

Score Breakdown:

• Flavor: 4/10
• Presentation: 1/10
• Hunger Satisfication: 1/10
• Re-order Probability: 1/10
• Overall Score (not an average): 4/10

Reviewing games is a true double-edged sword. Just last week I had Pokemon show up on my doorstep; a full week before the official release. Unfortunately, two days later, Wiffle Ball did the same. Many of us have fond memories of playing wiffle ball in the backyard with friends. With such awesome rules as “ghost runners”, beaning the base runner causes an out, and hitting the ball over the fence is an out instead of a home run (who wants to jump the fence into old man McGurney’s yard anyway?), wiffle ball was one of the best ways to wittle away summer vacation time. On the DS, however, the wiffle experience is kind of a punishment. Actually, I undersold it, it’s like a jab in the face with a hot poker. I’d rather watch the title screen for an hour than to actually play the thing. Here’s the rundown:

Graphics: Terrible
Sound: Grating
Gameplay: Painful
Replay Value: Retardiculously Low

So, unless you hate yourself, gaming, and/or freedom, avoid Wiffle Ball like you would your wife’s senile grandma when she starts handing out sloppy kisses. Don’t destroy your fond childhood memories.

Well, it’s not so much a review that I’m posting here as much as my feelings on the new Pokemon releases as a whole. As a 26 yr. old guy, I’m supposed to recognize that Pokemon is for kids and move on to more “mature” gaming experiences, right? After a few minutes with the newest Pokemon release, however, I find that the series still provides one of the deepest and most satisfying RPG experiences on either a console or a handheld. The game hearkens back to an older time when players expected long periods of level grinding, a semi-defined path, and a formula that doesn’t change too much from start to finish.

My time with Pokemon Pearl has been great; but it seems that Game Freak is starting to get a bit eco-friendly and engaging in some intense recycling efforts. While there are plenty of new Pokemon, the adventure is still mostly more of what we’ve seen in the past few Pokemon releases. I’m not asking for the series to be overhauled, but it’s time to update many aspects of the adventure.

Here are my “second opinion” comments from AMN’s official Pokemon Diamond and Pearl review.

At the risk of infuriating fans and supporters across the globe, I think it’s time we start to recognize that the Pokemon series is starting to enter the “milked” category. Sure, Diamond and Pearl are excellent games, but as the series makes its appearance on a third handheld (Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, DS), it’s not unfair to expect greater leaps forward in the genre. Game Freak put out a high quality product, I don’t want anybody to get the impression that they haven’t. There are just a few missed opportunities I see with Diamond and Pearl. First of all, the battle system, while highly entertaining, needs to be sped up a lot. In a game that relies on level grinding and getting into a lot of encounters, the series could benefit from a much quicker pace during battles. Secondly, the creativity is starting to wane in the naming and overall design of the new Pokemon. While there are some real gems, most of the designs feel kinda half-hearted in nature. I’d rather see ten really interesting new Pokemon than many more that are somewhat forgettable. These two aspects would be my biggest gripes with the newest pair of Pokemon packages.

On the other hand, the series is still a blast. Making your way through the Sinnoh Region is great fun, and there are some new things to experience (like snowy areas and online play). I hope I’m not coming across as overly negative, because I really enjoyed Pokemon Pearl, and I don’t find myself feeling like it’s time to move on yet. There’s no reason to think that I won’t be searching out battles for many months to come, thanks to online play. While small in nature, the graphical upgrade is appreciable, as is the touch interface. Whether you’re a long-time “Pokefreak” or a first-timer, I think you’ll find that Diamond and Pearl are enjoyable RPG adventures worthy of your time and money. I only hope that when the next pair comes around, that we can see a more streamlined battle system and a huge innovation or two added into the mix.

I still encourage anybody out there to pick the game up.

So there you have it. Pokemon Diamond and Pearl are excellent games. Despite the heavily recycled nature of the game, it’s still something that every RPG fan should experience.

Here are the hardware sales chart, courtesy of the NPD group. It seems that supply constraints are continuing to limit Nintendo Wii sales, just as they have in other countries. It would be interesting to see how sales would be if there were a) systems on the shelf, and b) more than 3 or 4 games worth playing. The DS numbers are absolutely insane. 500k in a usually slow time of the year is just mind boggling. This is all before Pokemon is out too (which is already over 533,000 preorders). Here are the numbers:

• Nintendo DS: 508,000
• Sony PlayStation 2: 280,000
• Nintendo Wii: 259,000
• Microsoft Xbox 360: 199,000
• Sony PSP: 180,000
• Nintendo Game Boy Advance: 148,000
• Sony PlayStation 3: 130,000
• Nintendo Gamecube: 22,000
• Microsoft Xbox: RIP - No longer tracked

This puts the Wii total at over 2.1 million, the 360 at 5.3 million, and the PS3 at just over a 1.2 million in the US. It’s crazy to see that old clunker GBA still outselling the PS3. Sony is going to have to do something soon in regards to their pricing structure or the Wii will run away with things once a proper amount of supply is in the retain channel.

Oh yeah, special note to Nintendo: Run your Wii manufacturing lines for more than an hour a day.

Haloid is a new fan-made video that popped up on the Gametrailers.com web site. I’m sure you can find much more primitive versions of this project if you opened up any geek’s sketch pad right next to the Mario vs. Sonic drawings. You can see it here: Haloid

I can’t be the only one that thought, “Wow, some nerdude (new word!) spent a ton of time and energy to create pure weirdness.”

The idea was interesting, but a few things really bugged me. First of all, the Samus/Jedi thing was dumb. Secondly, The Samus rocket boots were WAY overdone. Thirdly, it was The Matrix with a Spartan and Samus instead of Neo and Trinity. Finally, the crotch sparks and emotional embraces were too much. TOO MUCH. Oh, and I guess there’s that ridiculous dancing at the end…

Still, neat idea, just horrible execution. The kid is talented though…I’ll give him that.