Last night, my trigger finger acted faster than my frugality could intercept.  Sony finally lowered the price of the PS3 a few weeks ago which made it irresistibly tempting.  The complete lack of compelling 360-specific games coming out doesn’t help, either.  Then, I spent several hours this past weekend helping a friend get UPnP/DLNA media streaming to his PS3 from a NAS.   If I’m going to tech support a device, I mean, I might as well own one, right?

Who am I to fight all of these reasons?  Uncharted, Fat Princess, Resistance, Little Big Planet, I await thee.

The two adversaries stood just a few feet apart.  Swords drawn, seemingly lazily and without regard for the danger just outside parrying distance.  Their eyes betrayed their caution as they flicked from sword to opponent.  Waiting.  The crowd, drawn around the spectacle in a semicircle.  Old & young, they anxiously awaited the imminent hostility.

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It has struck again.  Other than a few weeks about 1.5 years ago, my trip to Vegas last October, and the annual Superbowl poker tournament I play in with friends, I have focused my attention elsewhere since my last trip to the WSOP Main Event in 2006.  For better or worse, I started following poker again in my news feeds and the hype of the 2009 WSOP caught up with me.  The 2009 Main Event just whittled down to the “November Nine” with 2 major pros surviving to the final table including the Tiger Woods of poker, Phil Ivey.  So I decided to give it a go this past weekend.

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In between Tiger Woods and Grand Slam, I found time to check out my most recent GameFly arrival: Ghostbusters (Wii).  It’s gotten some modest reviews across the board but in my time with it, I’ve enjoyed it.  Not only does the Wii-mote work quite well as a Proton Pack but the dialog between all of the characters, voiced by the “real” Ghostbusters, really carries it.   Definitely worth a rental or purchase once it comes down a bit in price — it seems a bit too short for a full price game.  If nothing else, it’s a quick diversion to remind me how great the Ghostbusters movies were.  Now, if only 2012 would hurry up and get here…

About the big 3 consoles…

• Microsoft still has money to burn – Microsoft is throwing money around at an atrocious rate and are continuing their agenda to buy out as many Sony exclusives as they can.
• Sony is still incompetent – The base price for a PS3 is still too high and, despite superious hardware and more, better game exclusives, Sony is playing catch-up on too many things Microsoft is getting right — e.g. online integration, Netflix.
• Nintendo is still content to mint money – Ever since the Gameboy came out, Nintendo hasn’t had to succeed on the home console front to make gobs of money.  The additional runaway successes of the Wii and Wii Balance Board have only reinforced their corporate mentality to ignore conventional wisdom.  The results of their lackadaisical approach have mixed results but pretty much universally infuriate Nintendo fans.  However, Nintendo showed no interest in changing their ways as indicated by the announcement of the mind-numbingly pointless Vitality Sensor device.  That said, they have another monster success in the making with the Wii Motion Plus.

On the “Wii is eating us for breakfast” hardware side of things…

• Sony Wand – In its attempt to compete with Nintendo, Sony wants to add a Wii to it’s massive collection of underutilized features instead of trying to compete with games.  Attempts to seize the award of “Worst Accessory Name” from the Wii-mote but loses to the other hardware upstart…
• Microsoft Natal – Not content to mimic Nintendo, Microsoft tries to out-do the Wii with a whiz-bang, controller-less device.  End result: Microsoft throws a lot of money into advertising Natal.  It amazes at some things and fails at more.  No one writes games for it and ultimately becomes a pointless afterthought like the Live Vision Camera.  Microsoft throws more money at it and incorporates it into the XBox 360².  It does, however, take the title of “Worst Accessory Name” from the Wii-mote… seriously?  Natal?
  

Wait, weren’t there games there, too?

• 360 is still for shooters, PS3 is for variety – Despite Microsoft’s best efforts (see above), the PS3 still has a larger variety of games, more exclusives, and shares all but a couple of the must-have games with the 360.   On the other hand, the 360 will continue to churn out FPS’s at a mind-numbing pace and benefit from the best online multiplayer experience.
• It’s a good time to be a Wii owner - After a bit of a drought, the next year is set to be amazing for the Wii.   Tales of Monkey Island, Super Mario Galaxy 2, New Super Mario Bros. (2 new Mario games?!), BoomBlox Bash Party, Punch Out!, Swords & Soldiers, Little King’s Story, Overlord: Dark Minion, The Conduit, and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories are all on my radar as must-play games. In addition, Wii Sports Resort will be a monster success and …
• Unlike Natal & Sony Wand, the Wii Motion Plus add-on is taking motion-control gameplay to the next level now - If they are ever released in a functional state, Natal & Sony Wand may supersede it eventually but they are each at least a year or more away from release.  Wii Motion Plus integration with games like Tiger Woods and Grand Slam means that for the first time in a very long time, sports games on a Nintendo console are now the best ones to get.
• Monkey Island! As far as I’m concerned this was one of the biggest announcements of E3.  Not only is LucasArts creating an updated version of the Secret of Monkey Island with updated graphics and voiceovers but TellTale Games, the same development company that makes the excellent Lego Star Wars games, is creating Tales of Monkey Island, all new episodic adventures in the Monkey Island storyline.  I’m giddy and practicing my sword fighting insults now.
• For non-Wii/DS gaming, Assassins Creed 2 is the game I’m most looking forward to. The first AC was a brilliant game marred by repetitive missions.  If AC2 can maintain the same quality of gameplay while fleshing out some of the missions, it will be an instant classic.
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat 2 looks amazing but… I’m finding myself lacking enthusiasm for a sequel.  I think I’ve played one too many shooters on the 360.
• The 360 is looking mighty thread-bare these days.  Other than the aforementioned Secret of Monkey Island SE and Assassins Creed 2, there are very few 360-specific games on my radar.  Overlord 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Bioshock 2, and Dragon Age Origins are the only games I can think of that look interesting off-hand and most of those are available on PS3 as well and, other than Dragon Age, not necessarily more compelling than a rental.
• If Scribblenauts is half as good as it sounds, it’s going to be amazing.  A game limited by only your imagination, it’s no wonder many publications are declaring this game the best in show.  The legend…
• Speaking of DS games, is there any more successful product than the DS that is as under-appreciated?  The stable of truly compelling, great games on the DS is massive, still growing, and puts every other video game system to shame.  Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, and Golden Sun DS were, rightfully so, crowd-pleasers on display at E3.

I’ve been messing around with several different games recently so I figured I’d toss out random commentary about some of them.  Some games were great, some poor, and one that involved lots of hugging Brian.

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My own idiocy, that is.  

Dear Shawn,

We recently received your return of an empty sealed envelope and game sleeve for game, The Godfather: Blackhand Edition. To enable you to return the game, we will send you a new pre-paid shipping envelope.

If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.

Sincerely,

GameFly Customer Service

Oops…

This morning, I had to get up a bit earlier than usual and not being one to rush into work, I decided to finally try out the Shaun White Snowboarding game for the Wii. Last week, I had returned the Godfather to Gamefly so imagine my surprise when I saw it on my Wii channel list, beckoning me to play. Gamefly acknowledged that they had received it but obviously, there was confusion all around. I quickly checked my other Wii games in panic, worried that I had sent back one of my other games instead but all seemed to be accounted for. As it stands, I’m pretty sure I sent something back, I’m just not sure what. Whoops!

Stereotyping the whole human population, I’m going to go ahead and throw this out there: Boys and girls enjoy different things.  Girls like to shop, talk, and follow pop culture.  Guys like action, sports, and games.  There isn’t all that much overlap and since the dawn of time, guys and girls have been searching for ways to do things together where one side or the other isn’t going to die of boredom.  

No, Christina, I don’t care who <insert random athlete here> is engaged to.  But you don’t care about that amazing play he made last week either so why don’t we agree not to discuss either one?  

– if only it was that easy…

One of the areas where we have been able to come to some sort of agreement is on our regular board game nights.   I feel board games are usually more suited toward guys who appreciate “defeating” his opponent in a match of sorts but the games we tend to settle on are more crowd-pleasing, party-oriented games than the ones I would have otherwise chosen.   I think this perpetual effort to get girls involved in board games, and thus something guys will enjoy as well, is what led to the creation of Battle of the Sexes.

If the goal of any game was to put guys “in their place” and pump up girls interest in gaming, this was the game.  Battle of the Sexes is the most ridiculously unbalanced game I’ve ever come across.   The nature of the game is simply that guys must answer questions about “girlie” things while girls answer questions about “guy” things.  However the disparity between the difficulty and details of the questions is absurd.  Guys simply do not stand a chance but if they’re looking for something to play that will make their significant other feel better, this is the game.

My ongoing efforts to broadcast my life continue.  It’s a bit bizarre as I’m such a private person in general. I’m so fascinated to play with all of the technology involved I suppose I’m willing to sacrifice a bit of privacy. For now.

Anyway, I played Carl in my SEC Dynasty in NCAA last night and not only did I broadcast the game, I also recorded it to my gergi-TV channel.  
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