pewpewmatic

GAMES: The X360 Spring Collection

Alexandre — Wed, 14 May 2008 02:03:51 +0000

So here’s my take on the titles just announced by Microsoft to be part of the spring collection for the XBOX 360 console:

Ninja Gaiden II – Didn’t really enjoy the first, but alot of people did, definitely a solid rent.
Gears of War 2 – Again, didn’t really enjoy the first one all too much, but alot did, so I figure we all owe it at least a rent to see if it jams our bread.
Too Human – Not really too excited about this one, and it seems like only the people who cover games for a living are, rent maybe, but I’ll probably pass unless a friend forces it upon me.
Fable 2 – I loved the original, and I hope sincerely that much of the formula remains intact. If you like RPGs or killing shopkeeps to take over a town, it’s a buy.
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts – Apparently far different from the first 2, so I’d advise a rent or at least hope a demo hits before plopping down the cash.
Viva Pinata 2 – God… Pass.
Penny-Arcade Adventures On A Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One – Just buy it and you’ll thank me later.

HEAT: May 12th to 18th

Alexandre — Tue, 13 May 2008 02:21:07 +0000

GADGETS: Blackberry BOLD

Not since the iPhone have I seen this much buzz on the techblog scene about a smartphone. Engadget, Gizmodo, Slashdot, and Wired can’t all be wrong now can they?

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MUSIC: M.I.A – Paper Planes

This song, the theme for the upcoming comedy/crime flick Pineapple Express, is being played quite a bit around here, and with good reason. (‘I got more records than the KGB, so no funny business’ one of my favourite lines from a song in a while.) And remember kids, pirating is bad.

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GADGETS: DataStorm v1.0

This thing, and the associated video have keep me and my pals chuckling all day. Just think of what 2.8 mbps of data transfer could do for your office, helmets are, however, advised.

GADGETS: DataStorm v1.0

Alexandre — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:04:53 +0000

Slashdot has found this little gem: a fully automatic 3.5″ floppy disk cannon. Video after the jump.

Bob Loblaw, the mad scientist behind said floppy cannon says “I ran across a huge stash of floppies at our office, and after some discussion, it became clear that rather than throw them away, we should build a gun that fires floppies.”

Here is the glorious product of that ingenuity, special marks for making the video awesome:

EDIT: Embedded video isn’t working at the moment, thumbnail link will have to do while I investigate.

GADGETS: Blackberry 9000 (BOLD) Now Official

Alexandre — Mon, 12 May 2008 04:46:42 +0000

Gizmodo reports that RIM has officially listed it’s new model of the popular line of smartphones on it’s website.

Gizmodo originally predicted that it would be made official May 12th and be called ‘the Bold‘, good call boys. [RIM via Boy Genius]

By the way, for those keeping score, Engadget was about 40 minutes slower on this breaking news piece.

GADGETS: Zune Growing… Slowly

Alexandre — Mon, 12 May 2008 04:30:20 +0000

Engadget is reporting that Microsoft’s Zune MP3 player recently broke the 2 million units sold mark (having hit 1 million in May 2007). That brings the Zune’s estimated market share to roughly 3-4%. Seems most of that market share was taken from Creative Labs’ line of MP3 players, as they dropped from 4% to 2%, but it still leaves Microsoft far behind #2 SanDisk (at 11%) and the reigning king, Apple (with some god-awfully high percentage of the market).

GAMES: Virtual Console This Week…

Alexandre — Mon, 12 May 2008 04:22:18 +0000

This week sees a few VC titles dropping, including: Double Dragon (NES, 1988), Pokemon Puzzle League (n64, 2000), and Renegade (NES, 1988). The thing that excites me more than these particular title is this line from VIRTUAL CONSOLE News that landed in my inbox:

‘Hi Alexandre, the content of your weekly Virtual Console News email is about to change in a good way. In addition to the weekly Virtual Console game information, stay tuned for information about WiiWare, an upcoming new addition to the Wii Shop Channel where you can download new games directly to your Wii console. The name of the email will also change to the “Wii Shop Channel News.”‘

To be quite honest, I don’t play my Wii all to much anymore, but downloadable titles that aren’t just ROMs of old titles is something that might pull me back, and pull more smaller, indy, developers to the platform, and hopefully, result in some awesome stuff.

Gadget: The NES Controller Coffee Table

Alexandre — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:30:02 +0000

Engadget brings up an interesting scoop on a coffee table(srsly?!?!). This coffee table is essentially a very scaled up NES controller, the best part being that it actually works.

Apparently, ‘Kyle spent months putting this together, starting with a scanned image of his original NES control. This he then simply scaled up, carefully crafting each piece out of MDF and hacking his own wiring onto a broken old controller board. The glass top was the final touch’. [UltraAwsome via Tech Digest]

Hot Tip: GTA MMO in the works?

Alexandre — Fri, 09 May 2008 05:20:10 +0000

Kotaku is reporting that Realtime Worlds, the company behind Crackdown and headed by the man who created the GTA franchise, is currently working on an MMO GTA-style game called ‘ABP’. The rights to the game have recently been bought back from Webzen, a Korean publisher, and the rumor is they plan to build the game and try to sell it to Rockstar so it can be rebranded as GTA: Online. Kotaku’s tip comes from Eurogamer, credited to ‘a credible inside source’.

Heat: May 5th – 11th

Alexandre — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:05:09 +0000

Okay, before I hop into this feetfirst maybe I should intro this. The plan is to make this a weekly post, typically on Monday, the goal of which is too kind of make a quick list, maybe 3 things, that were hot this week.

GAMES: GTA4

6 million copies. $500 million. Numbers don’t lie. Engrossing single player, and some creative gametypes in multiplayer, coupled with the legendary GTA franchise and the good ol’ hooker killing fun that entails.

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FASHION: Bamboo A Spring Line Leather Sneaks

Bamboo A’s leather spring line definately has the style. Good look for the spring, I picked up a set of laceless Black/Tan on White sneaks for $185 CDN downtown and I am definately loving them.

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GADGET: PSP Skype Headset

If you’ve got a Sony PSP (as alot of 20-somethings do), and you’re feeling the urge to Skype it, you’re in luck. (Scoop: Engadget)

Hello world!

Alexandre — Fri, 09 May 2008 02:22:55 +0000

So, while I work on some of the stuff, like opening posts, finalizing layouts, and so on so forth, this ‘Hello World!’ post will have to do.

-Alex