Xbox dead.
Tooth chipped.
Side mirror cracked.
Headache from lack of sleep.
Still better than living in Bahdad.

Aargh, I tell you!

I’m playing Just Cause at the moment, and it’s not that bad. Too easy, a bit glitchy, but very pretty and a nice chill-out game. There are pickups throughout it that, unlike GTA’s, are conveniently marked on the map. Drive to spot, have a quick look around, collect, repeat. They’re divided into multiple sets, sometimes being boxes washed up on the beach or parts of a random item that a faction would like collected. I was doing a pair of large collections, one in the water and another on the beaches, making good headway, and just about to finish. And then…

Power flicker. 20 minutes of mindless collecting done more because I wanted to play with fast boats and sightsee a bit than any intrinsic fun the process entails gone in one surprising split-second. The blinking red lights on the front of the 360 were a bit disconcerting too.

A bit of mindless collecting can be relaxing, but doing it twice is a chore. I’m just glad I’d saved as recently as 20 minutes ago, and that I’ve got a warranty on my 360 in case something went *fzzt!* inside. It seemed to power back up ok, but that kind of thing is always a bit disconcerting.  Frustrating too.

I’m all for helping to spread the word on newsworthy events that would have significant interests to our readers, but certain PR agencies should really spend a bit more thinking about what they sent out to gaming enthusiasts.

I received an email from G4 a few days ago, informing me about their ratings for Attack of the Show. It reads as follows:

I wanted to let you know about the recent ratings success for G4’s ATTACK OF THE SHOW. ATTACK OF THE SHOW: TOKYO ‘06 followed the show’s intrepid hosts on a tour of Tokyo as they scoured the city and the Tokyo Game Show for the latest in games, gadgets, comics and other cultural oddities. On-the-scene reports from the floor of the annual video game show gave viewers in-depth access to all the eagerly anticipated new games and consoles.

As a result, AOTS’ ratings for the week of September 25 were the highest since the show’s re-launch on May 15, 2006. The week of special episodes shot in Tokyo gave the show a 55 percent HH rating increase and M18-34 rating’s were up 22 percent compared to the show YTD averages (since the May re-launch). Average total viewers also nearly doubled (+98%) for the week.

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ORLY? O_o Tell me more!!! (NOT!)

It ended with “let me know if you have any questions…” Why the hell would I want to ask them about their ratings or the show. I already know what it’s about. Seriously. Emails like this have about as much importance as those Viagra and animal porn ads that clutter my inbox. Send me things that matter like G4 is creating a new affiliate program or G4 is shutting down its operations …anything but “hey, did you know our ratings kick ass!” Congrats, but please — stay away from the shill crap.

News has become little more than a fond memory for Wii’s Super Smash Bros. Brawl. However, this doesn’t mean that speculation can’t happen! Taking into account the history and recent actions of gaming history, here are some of my predictions what new characters have a chance to make it into SSBB, and I’ll start this series with my stabs at guessing what 3rd Party characters have a chance of sneaking into Brawl! (more…)

Stumbled upon this at my old forum stompin grounds. One of the talented folks at Joystiq came up with a Flash recreation of the user-avatar system based on what we’ll all be doing with the Wii!!! (Click here to check it out).

Below is an attachment created by our very own, Rocca (Patrick Butler). So yes, you too can virtually create a character based upon your likeness. Edit Here’s a pic of myself that I created.

Try it out! You’re welcome.

Click to enlarge

Here’s my pic if you’re just too lazy to click on the link above :p