If you logged into Steam in the last few days, you likely saw this ad, in which they poke a little fun at the asteroid ’2005 YU55,’ which passed inside the orbit of the moon on November 8th.
Regardless of its potential threat to humanity, the folks at Steam decided it would be a good chance to have a 33%-off sale on the recently released iD game, Rage, with the coupon code ‘”2005 YU55″ LOL.’ Now, it may just be me, but rubbing the little asteroid’s face in the fact that it just missed us by ‘laughing out loud’ seems to smack a bit of hubris. But hey, if you can’t laugh at potentially hazardous space objects wiping out large groups of people, what can you laugh at?
There’s a twitching at the corner of your vision. Are you asleep or awake? How many days are left? The time is dragging and I’m beating a dead horse. New games are released every month, but how many really catch your fancy? A game that has had your hands itching for the sticks. A game that’s going to rebuild your faith in developers all over again. Anything specific come to mind yet? I have two this season, and hunger for every bit of knowledge I can get my grubby hands on has bled over into most of my sleeping thoughts, to match my waking ones. My recent conquests have divulged that there are multiple countries in Skyrim(in which infamy does not transfer from one to another), and that the hardline perk works with the specialist strike package in Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer. I’ve found myself guiltily trying to find new articles on my phone during commercial breaks while watching X-factor with my wife. The craving for a game that cannot yet be acquired must be akin to a crack addict craving whatever it is they crave….butthole? Maybe a center should be established to help people deal with the devastating disappointment of games that fall well short of lofty expectations. However, that is a major positive with my two game conundrum. Hopefully neither will be flops, guess we’ll all find out in the next week or so. Until next time, I’m hasty and I’m Hasty. You ceep it klassy, Dan Siego. Also, I wrote this while watching Vampire Diaries because I’m really cool.
So, I only played the Battlefield 3 beta once, but I managed to fall through the ground twice, apparently dragging my entire team with me. Good thing this is a beta!
If there was one place in the world that I am least likely to think about when purchasing a game, it’d have to be Big Lots. But thanks to twitter, (sorry, can’t remember who clued me into this deal) I was made aware that Big Lots is selling the DJ Hero 2 Turntable Edition for both Wii and 360 (maybe PS3? I didnt’ see it) for only $20, which is quite a steal.
While I love rhythm and music games such as Dance Dance Revolution and Rock Band, I had decided to pass on the DJ Hero series (especially after Activision killed it.) Frankly though, I’m glad to have picked it up — it is a thoroughly fun and engaging experience… and that turntable doesn’t take up nearly as much room as five or six plastic instruments!
So, if you have a Big Lots in your area, go check it out. The one here in Nashville had over a dozen for the Wii and only a couple for the 360. (And after you get it, challenge me to a DJ battle! My gamertag, as always, is SCAD.)
If you bought a 3DS and accessed the Nintendo eShop before the price-drop, you can now download ten free NES games, which are: Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong Jr, Balloon Fight, Ice Climber, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, NES Open Tournament Golf, Wrecking Crew, Zelda II – The Adventure of Link, and Yoshi.
The process is a bit obscure; you have to enter Settings in the eShop, then click ‘Your Downloads,’ and finally download all of the games from there with the ‘Redownload’ icon. If you get confused, head over to Nintendo’s official page explaining all things Ambassador.
Now, if you’ll excuse me… I now have an excuse (and easy means) to play Zelda II again. Maybe this time I’ll actually finish it!
Along with the natural excitement that is ensured with the release of any Halo game, there is also quite a bit of vitriol floating around the ‘net about Halo Anniversary. I have some dissent to throw in as well, but my arguments run against the majority’s contention. Most of the anger has been levied toward the lack of the original multiplayer being left intact along with the campaign. 343, the studio overseeing all things Halo now that Bungie has moved on, argues (and rightly so, in my opinion) that it would only serve to fracture the current population of Halo Reach players. Because of this, they are recreating some of the best maps from the original for Reach’s multiplayer, which will be accessible from both Anniversary and Reach’s matchmaking lobbies. The prevailing troll-sentiment is that if the game’s mechanics are being preserved for one, then why not the other? I agree, but in an opposite manner.
If the multiplayer’s mechanics are essentially getting an update (by staying with the new Reach standard), then why not the campaign as well? 343 says they wanted to stay true to the original Halo as much as possible, and have done so by retaining the engine from Combat Evolved so that it plays exactly the same. I fail to grasp the logic in this move. If someone wants to play the original Halo, they likely still have the disc (which works fine in the Xbox 360) or they can buy it through Xbox Originals. All 343 and Certain Affinity have done is throw a shiny new veneer over the old game, and they even let you toggle to the decade-old graphics if you so choose.
This just seems lazy to me. Don’t get me wrong; I know the artists and technicians worked hard to pretty the old girl up, but shouldn’t we expect more of remakes? Take the Resident Evil remake as an example. On top of the stellar new graphics, they also overhauled the gameplay, changed puzzles, updated the storyline and played with the mansion’s layout, even going as far as to add new areas. When a movie is remade, most fans don’t want a shot-by-shot duplicate with better visual fidelity, but instead a re-imagining with new characters, new plot-devices, new music and sounds. The same holds true with games. If a remake is to be truly new, it must have new and changed gameplay along with the visual upgrades.
Halo Reach, in my opinion, is a pinnacle in the refinement of Halo’s mechanics. Were Halo Anniversary to be a completely new experience, I think the engine from Reach (and not just the visuals) should have been imported. Now, I don’t think that armor abilities should have carried over, for instance, but the intricacies of movement and aiming are honed so finely that I think it will actually be fairly jarring for people to go back to one that’s a decade old.
Halo Anniversary is just a disappointing product, and I think Microsoft knows this or else they wouldn’t be pricing it at $39.99 on release-day. I also understand that 343 is hard at work on Halo 4, so they probably just couldn’t take the time to remake Halo CE in its entirety… which is a shame. I guess the price-cost analysis said it would be better to do a quick remake that raving Halo fans are sure to buy for 40 bucks, than a full remake that the same amount of people would buy for only $20 more.
Whatever the case, I’ll be getting some hands-on time with Halo Anniversary this weekend at PAX’s Halo Fest, so check back for my afterthoughts on that.
Like a lot of other Americans, I’ve been out of a job for over a year now. I’m always looking to do freelance writing and art jobs, but I also have the problem of putting myself out there, building a name for myself, etc. So, I ran across this cool little website a few weeks ago called Fiverr.com, in which you can sell a good or service for $5-a-pop. I figured I’d try it out… and below are the results.
You can join the undead Bachmann (don’t worry, all political leaning goes right out the window once you start eating people) by visiting my gig on Fiverr.com — I will draw you as a zombie for $5!
If you logged into Steam in the last few days, you likely saw this ad, in which they poke a little fun at the asteroid ’2005 YU55,’ which passed inside the orbit of the moon on November 8th. 
