Wow — it’s been about a half a week and no new posts? Where is everybody? O_o

…just saying. *smirk* I’ll have some stuff to discuss in our latest edition of GotGame slated to appear tomorrow afternoon as we say good-bye to another “exciting” month and prepare for a surge of awesome pre-holiday goodies. And if I have enough energy, perhaps I’ll drop on here and pick a random gaming topic or two to discuss.

In other news, did anyone catch the season premiere of Smallville? Man, I thought it kicked ass, although I wasn’t expecting Clark to return from the Phantom Zone so quickly. Michael Rosenbaum did an awesome job portraying Zod who possessed his body. Lana once again found herself in the middle of another horrible crisis. I tell ya — that chick has the worst luck out of all the women on that show. She’s been stabbed, hit by a bus, possessed, and heartbroken on several ocassions. Chloe didn’t get too much screen time in this episode but we can count on seeing more of her in this season now that Jimmy Olsen (played by that kid who portrayed Iceman in the X-men flicks) is back at the Daily Planet. (Can you say love in in the air?) It’s too bad Clark and Chloe won’t be hooking up, I mean — it’s so obvious that they want to (I may never see you again — *smooch*) And then, Jimmy steps in and they act like they’re just friends. Boooo! Sorry, it’s so easy to get caught up with the show. If you haven’t been watching it by now… check out the “usual online sources” or better yet, help support the show by running out and picking up the DVD sets. Season 5 is now available too for those of you who want to catch up on some key events that will make a LOT more sense — trust me. Anyways, it’s late and the demo for Lego Star Wars II has finished downloading. I’m outta here.

My opinion on the PS3 is completely turned around. Kenny K totally fumbled the ball at the Sony press conference, but what they had on display on the show floor was jaw-droppingly stunning. Virtua Fighter 5 (looks to be arcade perfect, OMG), Lair (wow), and even Devil May Cry 4 (which doesn’t really switch up the gameplay at all) astounded graphically, and the ways in which MGS4 will use the tilt functionality of the PS3 controller look great. Also, let us not forget White Knight Story, from Level 5. Any doubts I had about the PS3 were erased by this TGS. Maybe Sony just decided rush their shitty keynote and let the show floor speak for itself. Plus, HDMI will now be in the 20 GB console! There is now no need to go for the $600 model.

As for the Xbox 360, MS actually provided a decent showing for the Japanese crowd. Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, and Trusty Bell all look fantastic, and at least I know I’ll be buying them when they hit the U.S. Really though, they’re just holding out on their big guns (literally– all the stuff that will appeal to Western audiences) until X06.

Nintendo already held their event in Japan a week or so ago, and by now everyone knows about the American, European, and Japanese pricing schemes. Personally, I’m super excited… for Zelda. Now that Wii Sports will be packed in for “free,” I can only see myself getting Twilight Princess and the component cables at launch. Screw getting an extra controller for now, I gotta get a PS3 (somehow… it will happen)!

(Yes this blog title is an indirect knock on Justin Timberlake’s “Sexy Back” song… which I’m almost ashamed to admit that I actually like now. Oh noes.)

Now that I’m starting to settle back in a “normal” groove, it should be noted that my interest in drawing has not been neglected. It’s been great to hear from a few people that have been keeping an eye on me (you know who you are!) The latest feedback comes from my newly added DA buddy, Hypes whose support has been particularly encouraging. I’m going to have to think up something special or something to do for him as he’s pointed out that much of my stuff has a unique cuteness to it! ^^;

Meanwhile, I’ve been trying to get back into my gaming sessions on a regular basis. Yesterday I spent time with Test Drive Unlimited, a new game published by Atari. It’s pretty cool for those of you who dig RPG-style elements in racing games. It didn’t do much for me although the customization options and ability to get behind the wheel of real-life vehicles is a great touch. I took the new Saturn Sky for a test-drive and think I’ve found my new dream car for when I grow old and retire. I joked the other day with my fiance that the only cons to the car is apparently, it’s not a convertible and it can only seats two ppl. That means we could never give our friends any rides, unless they sat inside the trunk. *L*

So here’s a somewhat silly question — but who’s looking forward to the Wii? No really? I mean, the buzz is pretty high from what I can gather. Nintendo has really played their strategy out well and I’m just counting the days (Nov. 19 still seems so far away). I’m eager to get my hands on Super Mario Galaxy, Excitetruck and Metroid Prime 3. WiiSports also looks nice, if only for the fact that it will make for an awesome party game with friends and family. And I can’t forget to give a nod to Zelda: The Twilight Princess in spite of the fact that we may well not end up seeing it this year. I ain’t trying to jinx things — but we all know how Nintendo has been with their “unexpected” delays. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

In other news, I’m supposed to get back my car sometime next week. Its absence is… so painfully apparent whenever I take the Dodge Stratus (the rental) out on the road for my weekly commute. Ugh… MUST. GET. BACK. CAR! I’ve finally got over the fact that in a matter of days, I’ll be forking over a nice chunk of cash just to get it out of the shop. I was especially grateful to have some support from a very good friend — a miracle that I never saw coming. Really put a smile on my face. And speaking of smiles… I’m rather curious to see what MS has loaded on the Marketplace. Right now, they’ve got a “Bringing it Home” campaign dedicated to the Tokyo Game Show and X06. At the time I posted an article and went online– there wasn’t too much available, making me wonder what was taking so long for them to present the “exclusive content”. If I recall correctly, the press release proudly spoke of getting access to content before it was posted anywhere else. Hmm… I must of missed it. :p

My guess is that it’s all going to be time-released over the course of the next several days. So yeah, while the stuff we’ll be getting IS free — we’re still better off going to the usual sources for in-depth impressions.

I downloaded NBA 2K7 last night and man, this game is making me love video game b-ball all over again. Last year’s version was awesome, but 2K is taking the visuals and gameplay to a whole new level. My impressions wouldn’t really do it justice, so drop over to IGN or 1up as I’m sure they’ve got some extensive reports… or if you’re lucky — perhaps one of our guys will show some editorial love and bang out a review when the game makes its retail release.

Wow — amazing how much you can start writing once you get going. It’s nearly 11 p.m. and I’ve still gotta tend to my laundry and use the last hour to get in a quick gaming session on 360. Till next time!

Is Metal Slug SNK’s most beloved series? It is in my eyes. It stands above the fighters and other 2D masterpieces as one of the few 2D series that I will be able to play for the rest of my life. Of course there’s the oddities, such as Slug 3D, and the weaker sequels such as 4 and 5, but overall, there’s nearly unlimited replayability across the many entries that span the Saturn, Neo Geo, Neo Geo Pocket, GBA, PSX, PS2, and soon to be Wii (did I miss any systems?).

Though I didn’t get to spend too much time with the latest in the series: Metal Slug 6 (recently released on the import PS2), what I did experience was good old Slug action; crisp, clean graphics; and tight controls. There’s 6 selectable characters this time around, 2 popping in from SNK’s old school Ikari Warriors, and each character has stats that better suit them say for straight up power or taking out slugs, among others. I didn’t yet get to test out the various characters in depth and simply played a bit with Fio.

Some surface things I noticed: you now can hold 2 weapons and can switch between them on the fly AND when you die (notice I didn’t say if!), you save the weapon that wasn’t being used. As for difficulty, there’s easy and hard. Good old Japan, never one to hand us the ending. I forsee a lot of work to master this on hard, and of course no one would dare play this on easy. At least they wouldn’t admit it in a blog

There’s also a new power meter that builds as you take out bad guys. Once it reaches max, you get a couple seconds of beastly firepower before it resets. I didn’t explore the other game mechanics in my brief time last night, so I’m excited to see what else SNK has up its sleeves.

The missions themselves branch very nicely and contain a lot of detail in the foreground and background as is usual for the series. There’s a polish here though that I didn’t notice with earlier entries, no doubt attributed to the new system the game runs on. Early reports suggest that the port is faithful and honestly, even though the game is still low res and looks only slightly better on an HD set than its predecessors, it shines in good old low res RGB or heck, in s-video/interlaced component as well–one of the many reasons to still hold on to those old Commodore monitors and interlaced sets.

I know these impressions are pretty barebones, but as I play it more through the weekend, I plan to post more thoughts to see how it stacks up to my favorites: 1, X, and 3.

-Andrew

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