Originally reported by Joystiq, Nintendo of Canada is auctioning off a ton of new and sealed games for the NES, SNES, and GameBoy. These are all in perfect collector’s condition, so they’re going at a high price. All the proceeds are being donated to charity, so feel free to indulge. There’s a good mix of both 1st and 3rd party offerings, as well.
Ubisoft has never been shy about milking their franchises. I mean, c’mon, how many Tom Clancy games can they put out per year? Anyway, one of the best new franchises of the past generation was Beyond Good and Evil. The game was amazing, and fans of the game have been clamoring for a sequel for quite some time. Sadly, the original didn’t sell well, and years passed by with fans having a pretty negative outlook on their chances. Well, just a couple of days ago (sorry I’m late, folks), Ubisoft showed the teaser trailer for Beyond Good and Evil 2. Yes, it’s really coming. Below is the teaser trailer that should get you all giddy.
For those of you that missed out on the original, tracking down a copy isn’t always so easy. The GameCube version is the best out there, but if you have to “settle” for the PS2, I still think you’ll be happy. I do kind of wish that the visual look from the original had carried over to the sequel, but I’m so happy right now that I’ll just take it any way it comes.
Here at The Stupid Gamer we’ve given away several games, some gift cards, and even some really crappy gaming-related swag. Well, it’s time to dig into our pockets once more and give back to our faithful readers (yeah, even the ones that call me a ******* ***** in the post comments). So how do you go about getting this game? It’s easy. All you need to do is submit a design for the new Stupidgamer.com header. We’ll pick our favorite, use it for a while (unless it totally sucks), and we’ll ridicule the crappy ones! Below are the details:
Submission Details
Image must be exactly 670 x 200 pixels
Image must be submitted in either .psd, .ai, .jpg, or .bmp formats
Try to fit in the existing color scheme, but feel free to be creative
Feel free to use popular gaming characters
No nudity, foul language, or otherwise disturbing content
All images must be submitted by June 7th
Multiple entries are ok
All entries must be emailed to me at jar155 [at] gmail.com and put “New Header Contest Entry” as the subject
Prize Details
Winner may choose any game, $60 or under that will be shipped directly to the winner’s address
Prize will be shipped out the day after a winner is chosen
Winner can take more than one game as long as the total price does not exceed $60 (for example, two DS games might qualify or a couple of used titles)
Once prize(s) has shipped, decisions are final
Winner must accept prize in product, no cash or gift cards offered
Sound pretty easy? It is! If you need inspiration, check out what I spent the better part of my afternoon and evening on. You’ll have some competition, because mine is looking HOT! To see it at full size, drag and drop it to your address bar.
I’ve said on numerous occasions off the blog that I feel that GTA IV just might go down in history as the most overrated (in regards to review scores) game of all time. Currently the Xbox 360 version of the game is the highest reviewed game ever, with an average review score of 97.632%. Now, I don’t ever have a problem with a game getting high praise, but I really need to feel that the game deserves it. I need to feel like the review process was thorough, objective, and free from tampering.
Does GTA IV deserve the title of “highest reviewed game of all time”?
When the GTA IV reviews starting rolling in (starting with the first exclusive handing out a 10/10), I figured reviewers were either caught up in a whirlwind of hype, or the game might really be that good. After playing it for 20+ hours, however, I’m baffled how even the most hype-driven reviewer could be handing down perfect scores. Well, Simon Parkin, a British journalist, offers a few ideas why early reviews for GTA IV were so overwhelmingly positive (including his own), despite the game’s obvious flaws. In his article, found at Gamasutra, many reasons are offered up. Here are a few choice snippets:
Judgments cast before they’d been adequately weighed; words sold before they’d been properly valued; shallow opinions that should have been presented as the first word in a conversation but were dropped with the clacking gavel pound of a conclusion. Yeah, every writer has regrets.
But what’s really nagged and irritated me over the following weeks is that, with a little distance and perspective, the bold proclamation was so obviously made, like so many from within our industry, with the aim of elevating video games to the respectability of more established media via bald association.
The opinion piece [speaking of his own review] was written following a short weekend’s playing of the game just prior to its release and, as I’ve played on through the rest of the story, the fault lines in that specific claim have become ever more apparent. While I adore the slow pacing of the first few hours, the way Nico starts off on the straight and narrow and is dragged into the shadows of the American Dream by forces of poverty and necessity, the game soon enough swings into full adolescent-posing-as-adult narrative fizz.
In the weeks prior to GTA IV’s release, Rockstar made promises that print and online publications would receive early review code so that they might fully ingest and digest Liberty City in order to deliver mature and balanced opinions on its day of launch.
In reality, this was not the case, with precious few publications getting to spend prolonged time with the game ahead of release. The first review of the game came from the UK’s Official Xbox magazine bearing the worrying caveat “based on unfinished codeâ€.
At best then, by the time the game had been played, copy written and subbed ready for the Tuesday morning, most journalists (both in the UK and the US) had played for only a few hours, experiencing just a fraction of the game’s content, a situation testified to by various admissions in professional reviews.
Time Magazine dubbed their piece Grand Theft Auto IV: The 6.24% Review while the Associated Press reviewer, Lou Kesten, admitted to having spent only spent eight hours with the game.
Slate Magazine’s excellent Chris Baker admitted he only had chance to ‘scratch the surface of the game’ going on to say in a comment on N’Gai Croal’s Level Up blog: “I couldn’t even attempt to be definitive…it was kinda liberatingâ€.
The BBC noted the phenomenon saying: “Most reviewers were not sent advance copies of the game, and instead had to attend Rockstar offices or sit in booked hotel rooms to play the game,†where Rockstar could keep an eye and some pressure on them. While these few admitted the partial and necessarily subjective nature of their reviews, how many passed off their impressions as being definitive of the whole?
The piece goes on to offer some suggestions of what can be done with big title reviews, and it offers a little more detail into what went on with the GTA IV review process. Personally I feel that the writer hits home with several points. Here’s the link to the full story: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=18761
My own review for GTA IV is still on its way. While I’m not completely down on the game, it’s safe to say that I’m not about to gush over it. I’ve spent careful time with the game, and I feel that I’m in a position to give an honest and straightforward opinion on the game. Look for the review later this week.
Hmm, nothing real exciting out this week, but I’m sure Quake Wars has its interested parties. Metal Slug on the VC service is pretty neat, but I’d advise just buying the Metal Slug Anthology for the Wii instead.
Xbox 360:
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition
PlayStation 3:
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Nintendo Wii:
Death Jr.: Root of Evil
Monkey King: The Legend Begins
Kawasaki Snowmobiles
Emergency Heroes
Virtual Console:
Metal Slug (Neo Geo)
City Connection (NES)
Sony PSP:
World Championship Cards
Nintendo DS:
Super Dogdeball Brawlers
USA Today Crosswords Challenge
Well, we’ve seen Wii Fit getting quite a bit of press on some of the daytime or early morning news shows, but the indoctrination of mommies across America has really kicked in. On her show, Ellen DeGeneres gave out Wii consoles and Wii Fit to every member of the audience, and the mom-infested crowd went nuts at the news. Below is a YouTube clip ripped from the show…it’s madness I tell ya (sorry for the Sex and the City bit at the beginning of the clip)!
There has been a Nintendo Wii love-in at my home over the past few weeks with several interesting and enjoyable titles hitting the console at a steady pace. Boom Blox, a game that has received decent buzz since Spielberg first revealed that he was working on a Wii title just after E3, is still receiving praise and hype well after it’s release. For anybody that’s played the game, they know it’s all for good reason.
Boom Blox is really best summed up as the anti-Lego experience mixed in with a bit of Jenga. The game has several different modes of play, but essentially each one revolves around the strategic deconstruction of blocks of various types.
Bomb blocks doing their thing in Boom Blox.
One mode has you tossing a baseball, or other types of projectiles, into a stack of blocks to try to bring them down completely with the least amount of throws. Most of the puzzles are designed that you can bring them all down in one well-placed toss, so finding that weakest point is an interesting and addictive challenge. Other modes have you taking aim at exploding blocks that can chain react with each other, hitting point blocks while avoiding negative point blocks, or pushing and pulling blocks while trying to avoid knocking other blocks down (think Jenga).
The game also incorporates a solid story mode and a very frantic and riotous multiplayer mode. Each one of these offers something completely unique from just pushing through the individual puzzles. Just make sure that when you challenge a buddy to a two player match that you leave enough room to avoid black eyes, dead legs, and banging elbows.
Spielberg and Miyamoto enjoying Wii Sports at E3.
Graphically the game is simple, but anybody expecting more is looking for the wrong experience. The game really shines when you examine the physics engine that drives the gameplay. Bomb blocks chain react and send other blocks flying out just as you’d expect, and toppling towers will fall in a manner that’s easily predictable if you have any idea on how physics work.
The presentation takes a very light-hearted and family friendly tone. Blocks are given life in the form of anthropomorphically realized animals, but they don’t really add or detract from the overall experience. While it might be a bit sugary for the self-proclaimed manly man, really anybody else should find the game attractive from a presentational aspect.
Simply said, Boom Blox is a great experience and is executed very well on the Wii. The controls are simple, yet solid, the gameplay is a blast (no pun intended), and the variety of modes will keep you coming back until you’ve mastered each one. Boom Blox is a great example of the type of content that Nintendo has been hoping to get from its 3rd party partners and is a great sign for the future of the console.
So I’m officially a chubby and sad specimen. Despite being labeled as “obese” by Wii Fit, however, I really enjoyed my first workout with Nintendo’s newest sensation. The balance board is an excellent peripheral that’s solidly built, responsive, and easy to work with. The workouts in Wii Fit are simple, but they really get the job done while providing a good amount of fun. I’ll chime in with a full review later down the road after I’ve been able to put several workouts in, but for now, I can see Wii Fit being a big hit in my home.
Yeah, when I did that one I didn’t look so calm. My wife on the other hand nailed it.
Awesome news! I loved BioShock and picked it as my #2 game last year (just a shade behind Super Mario Galaxy), and I’ve been hoping that PS3 fans would get a chance to play through the game. The story, the graphics, the art style, and everything about the game just scream must-have. No word on additional content so far, but EGM is saying that there might be some graphical improvements made when the game makes the leap to PS3.
PS3 owners, show your appreciation to 2K for bringing this game over and pick it up. Don’t be lame.
Well, it’s obviously down between Wii Fit and Garfield: Lasagna World Tour this week. Who will win?! Haze has been getting tons of TV ad time during the NBA playoffs, we’ll see if that helps drive sales. and Singstar has been very successful in Europe, so the PS3 might have a good week/month, but I’m pretty sure Wii Fit is just going to destroy everything. Yep.
Xbox 360
UEFA Euro 2008
PlayStation 3
SingStar
Haze
UEFA Euro 2008
Nintendo Wii
Wii Fit
PlayStation 2
UEFA Euro 2008
Garfield: Lasagna World Tour
Sony PSP
Nintendo of Canada auctions off sealed NES, SNES, and GB games
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