Games! Games! Games!

I just published a new build of NetSudoku. This version includes a number of new features:

I was so incredibly frustrated with FE: Blazing Sword that I totally just gave up on the game for now. Ah well, that’s what I get for playing on hard mode. Instead I restarted my Pokemon Sapphire game. You know I’ve owned that game since like a year after it came out but I’ve never actually beaten it. Same thing with FFTA. I always get near the end and then suddenly lose interest. That’s got to be like some sort of Murphy’s Law of video games or something.

When it comes to Xbox Live arcade games it ’s inevitable that Mutant Storm Reloaded is going to be compared to the popular and addictive Geometry Wars, and with good reason. Both games share a similar style of play and control system but there are many important differences, some good, others very very bad.

Like Xbox Live Arcade, the Xbox Live Marketplace is another underappreciated aspect of the Xbox 360 experience. Using a form of currency dubbed “Microsoft Points,” gamers can buy Arcade games, gamer icons, console themes and other digital bric-a-brac to customize their gaming experience. Microsoft Points can be purchased at a rate of 80 per $1 USD.

The hottest topics in game console industry should be xbox360 and PS3. While people is looking forward for more advanced and enjoyable gaming experience, there are some who still staying behind working silently. Linuzappz and his team members are working out to PS2 emulator - PCSX2.

Even less well known, a title developed by Novalogic called “Super Mario’s Wacky Worlds” for the CD-i, which was never fully developed, a lost Mario game. Programmer on the project, Silas Warner comments “Novalogic was seeking work from Nintendo, we had already produced one Nintendo cartridge. A Nintendo sales executive came up with the idea that maybe simple Nintendo titles could play on the CD-i. I suspect he was thinking of some kind of adapter to plug a Nintendo cartridge into a CD slot! But it set off a frantic race at Novalogic. The project was to put a popular Nintendo game, Super Mario World onto a CD-i disk.”

Some time last year I purchased the GameBoy Color Tetris cartridge from eBay, and because it was previously owned, (by a lovely lady called Pam) her records are still on the memory. I could’ve taken the easy way out, I suppose, and deleted all her records, and then set my own. But where’s the fun in that? With the aid of a better lighted GameBoy Advance SP, I spend gaps in my time crushing these records, seeing my name go up in the Hi-Scores, and then of course, try and beat these Hi-Scores.

The upper two versions of Windows Vista will include Media Center functionality as part of the package. Microsoft's thinking with how this will work is not that folks will have a PC next to their TV, instead they will have a home network with a media center PC (the family PC), and a Media Center Extender such as the XBOX 360 in the TV room. The Media Center PC will host the app code and will simply send the UI to the extender to be rendered on the TV. This is cool for geeks like us, but I think mom and pop are going to need a simpler setup to really make this catch on. Then again, they're not really the audience for this, so maybe that is a non-issue.

And on June 7, 2006, Chris Bennett and Pablo Guzman will give a presentation on IP in video games at the Video Game Industry Business Forum in Montreal. The brochure for that conference is here. We hope to see you there!

So I bought an Xbox 360 on launch day. Long story short, it was defective and messed up in less than a month. The funny thing was that I looked at the sticker on the back of my 360 and it said, ‘Pronduct Id: xxxxxx’. I’m sure it was supposed to say ‘Product’. Don’t believe me? If you are one of the few who has one despite the poor availability, look for yourself. Of course, they probably caught the mistake by now, so newer models might not say this.

So the guy next door to me just bought an NES and 10 games off of eBay….. why is it I’m more excited about that than playing the Xbox 360 down the hall?

Meanwhile, Microsoft has been busy with the gaming industry annoucing that they have purchased the UK game studio company Lionhead Studios. Lionhead is known for games such as Fable, The Movies, and Black & White. With this purchase, Lionhead will exclusively design video games designed for the Xbox 360 and the Windows platform. As is typical with many of its game company purchases, Microsoft will more than likely keep stay out of the way of Lionhead Studios while giving them far more resources than they ever have. Here’s more info on the purchase.

Resident Evil 5 for the PS3: This looks so beautiful. I love zombies that can scare me. RE4 was so freaky! I hope that RE5 will be even better!