lazy-fox.net

So, I bought a Wii. Why? Well, there are simply some games I really want to play that have only been released on the Wii. I don’t really understand why because the Xbox 360 and PS3 are both beyond capable of handling anything the Wii can, but that’s not my business decision to make. Games like No More Heroes 2, Sin and Punishment: Star Successor, Punch-Out!, Rune Factory: Frontier, Monster Hunter Tri, Metal Slug Anthology, etc. There’s also some WiiWare and Virtual Console stuff I wouldn’t mind having. This doesn’t change my disposition on “waggle gaming” that’s become so incredibly common (and somehow popular) with the Wii (I don’t like it). The experience should be interesting, assuming the thing doesn’t break. I personally know someone who has gone through five Wiis now and, because of the horrible way Nintendo handles accounts/DRM/whathaveyou, all of his purchases from the WiiWare/Virtual Console go down the drain with the console since they’re not actually tied to any one account. Absolutely dreaded way to handle that stuff, but there’s nothing you can do.

I feel like I had a lot more to post about but all this overtime is really frying my brain. I surge in between a raging fire and a tiny fizzle that’s really tired and wants to go to bed at 8 o’clock.

I think The Last Airbender might get the worst score of all time over on Rotten Tomatoes. As of this post, it has a 6% rating which is the absolute worst I’ve ever seen a movie get on that site. The really bad part? My taste is generally dead on with the scores that films get over there and I was interested in The Last Airbender…

Oh, and if you’re crazy and don’t have Portal yet, you can snag it for both the PC and Mac (that’s right Mac users, Steam is here for you!) for free until May 24th at SteamPowered.com.  If you don’t have it, get it.  You will also understand the title of this post and the hilarity that comes out of my TomTom GPS with the GLaDOS voice mod.

Also, holy crap!  There’s some really good stuff going on right now!

Torchlight is only $10 right now!

The Telltale Steam Play Pack (Latest episode of Sam and Max and the complete Monkey Island collection) is only $30.

If you’ve only got $10 burning a hole in your pocket or want a really pretty Diablo 2-ish clone, get Torchlight hands down.  It’s great.

What I’m currently playing:

Playstation 3: Final Fantasy XIII

Playstation 2: Okami

Playstation Arcade: MegaMan 10, WipeOut HD

Xbox 360: Darksiders, Eternal Sonata

Xbox Live Arcade: MegaMan 9

PC: Borderlands, Sam and Max Collection

MAME: NeoGeo – Metal Slug Series

Nintendo DS: N/A

iPhone: Plants vs Zombies

I’ve been sick for about a week now and am still struggling with a fever, sinus infection, seemingly louder tinnitus, and just feeling generally crappy.  I think this is due to a mold or dust allergy and something in my bedroom since the house I’m currently living in was built in the late 60s/early 70s.  I’ve moved my bed into the same room as my computer and TV and seem to be doing a lot better which leads me to believe it’s an allergic reaction.

Besides trying to put up with everything as best I can at work the past week or so has consisted of going to bed really early, taking scaling hot showers to break the fever, downing ibuprofen, and watching movies and various episodes of Futurama, Arrested Development, and the Japanese version of Iron Chef (the only version as far as I’m concerned, Iron Chef America is a joke).

I’ve started up (literally just bought the domain name, installed wordpress, and copied over the theme I use on lazy-fox.net) a website called ShamanisticRage.net.  I hope for it to be similar to BigRedKitty but from an enhancement and elemental shaman point of view.  I’ll probably do a podcast soon talking about the new enhancement talents and changes coming up in the new expansion, Wrath of the Lich King when I’m feeling better.

As the title states, Samurai Showdown 2 is coming to Xbox Live Arcade presumably tomorrow, for 400 Microsoft Points.  Pretty good considering Braid and Castle Crashers were both 1200.  It’s hard to really put a label on a game that SNK pumped out as their “best” but the Samurai Showdown series is definitely good.  Some other things you may know SNK from (pretty much a majority of the popular arcade games of the late 80s/early 90s): Metal Slug, Fatal Fury, King of Fighters, World Heroes, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, and the Neo-Geo.

The second wireless bridge has been flashed with dd-wrt, setup to connect to my existing wireless network, placed in a location, and is working fine.  I gave it a quick test by turning on my 360, loading up the Arcade games list and cycling through the menus.  Performance is much better than the old 802.11g bridge I was using and it connects to the main router at 208mbps.

Blizzard has released the opening cinematic to the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Litch King (viewed here).  The video is stunning, in classic Blizzard cinematic fasion.  Watch it.  I emplore you.

So, I’ve been writing posts, really.  I’ve just been doing it via e-mail since WordPress supports posts via a POP3 account.  Unfortunately, it apparently doesn’t like the login system my server uses and, as such, hasn’t made a single post.  Lame, I know, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles and it means I’ll just have to do the posts manually again.  I did want to try out the remote posting functionality but am completely unable to find software that supports the Atom Publishing Protocol and gave up after picking through Google results for almost an hour.

I come to you with two games to keep an eye on.

The first is Battlefield Heroes, made by DICE, the same guys who have done all of the Battlefield series.  Basically, it looks like DICE’s own interpretation of Team Fortress 2‘s cell shaded graphical style but on a much larger scale, typical to the Battlefield series.  It looks like it’d be a blast and, apparently, is going to be free so be sure to keep an eye out for it.

The second is Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3.  Like most RTS nuts, I’ve been a fan since the original was first released on the PC and have been waiting for a third installment to hit.  After looking at several screenshots and movies on their media page, I’m pretty excited for this to come out.  I’m also really happy EA has gotten Frank Klepacki back to compose the music.  Anyone who played the original, or even remembers it, would know Mr. Kelpacki from the famous “Hell March” track.

I found this cool little WoW addon called OPie.  Basically, you can bind it to show a ring of buttons around your character whenever you click/hit a hotkey.  Overall, the concept looks interesting and I might use it on my shaman for those rare totems or my mage for portals/teleports or for setting up quick gear switches on all of my characters.

More of a personal note to myself but here’s the upcoming games on Xbox Live Arcade:

• Geometry Wars 2 – July 30
• Braid – August 06
• Bionic Commando: Rearmed – August 13
• Galaga Legions – August 20
• Castle Crashers – August 27

I’ve already purchased Geometry Wars 2 and Braid and have gotten a lot of entertainment out of them.  I’m kind of iffy on Bionic Commando as I never played the original version on the NES but it looks rather interesting.  Maybe I’ll buy it with extra points on my account, assuming I get enough.

Galaga’s a classic and the new and improved graphics look great, much like the redone 1942: Joint Strike which was released earlier.  It reminds me a lot of a top-down version of R-Type Final.

Honestly, I’m most stoked about Castle Crashers.  It’s basically Golden Axe but cell shaded and, as far as I can tell from the screenshots and trailers, absolutely rediculous.  My kind of arcade game.