Welcome to the Holiday Edition of Blog Between Blogs. I'm turning this into a reoccurring series since I still don’t have anything remotely coherent to write about, except maybe a review for Audiosurf Tilt, but that can be summed up in a few words; Audiosurf, mobile, motion control, Zune HD, AWESOME.

There, now on with the rest of the blog.



Speaking of Zune HD, I got one over the holiday weekend with the money I pulled in. Since games have been pretty much banned in my house, I decided to blow $220 on other forms of entertainment. I buy nothing but the absurdly-expensive-to-my-parents for me.

Needless to say, it’s been an amazing experience. The Zune HD is really a nice piece of work, the touch screen is really responsive, video quality is great, music quality is amazing, and it just looks sexy in my hands. Wireless sync is like a gift to the gods, and the Zune Software has inspired me to NOT torrent discographies so I can watch the screensaver update with pictures and info on the artist currently playing. I’m on Basement Jaxx right now, shit is amazing.

The only things that worry me about this wonderful machine is the lack of Flash support (no Youtube, shoutCast, Pandora), and the lack of App support. The apps that are available (and free!) are nice, as I said before, Audiosurf Tilt is amazing, PGR: Ferrari Edition is actually quite fun and looks REALLY good, and of course, Hexic is addicting as cocaine, but there just needs to be more stuff available. There is currently a Twitter app for the social networking crowd, but I can’t get the damn thing to work, and besides some board games and MSN Weather, not much available on the Marketplace front. There are lots of third party apps strewn out across the vast reaches of the interwebz, but they require XNA and all that, which is not a problem, but the restarting every time you load an app on the Zune is a problem, a problem I don’t want to deal with right now.

Overall, I’m impressed with the Zune HD. The Software puts iTunes and anything else to shame, and the hardware itself, with some additions and some goddamn marketing, could be a major contender to the iTouch monster wagon. For me, $219.99 well spent.



2009, Game of the Year and stuff, huh? I think I’ll kind of state my own and reasons why and all that jazz, because I’d still like to feel like part of the community even though I’m here less and less do to massive restrictions of personal time. All I can say is college can’t come soon enough.



Anyways, 2009, let’s see, lots of stuff happened, yup. A lot of stuff I was excited for this year, such as Fuel, and it’s “WHOLLY SHIT THAT’S A LOT OF SPACE” driving area. The time I had with the demo made me rent the sucker, but I wasn’t that impressed with the full product. Yeah, there was a lot of space and tornados (which was awesome, by the way), but other than that, its race, drive around, do nothing. Not a lot to do in the world of Fuel, but still, a fun game.



There was Killzone 2, which I wasn’t actually excited for. I doubted the game a lot; I just didn’t trust GG after playing Killzone. GG did manage to surprise me with Killzone 2 though, and even if the aiming controls didn’t feel right, it was still an excellent comeback from 2004. If what Jim Sterling says is right though, it’s pretty sad to hear that the online community has basically gone to hell and never come back. Killzone 2’s online was where it shined, and with some tweaks and additions, it could have been something to really enjoy well into 2010. Oh well, always Killzone 3, aye?



Then there’s Scribblenauts. I cried a few weeks ago, as it seems, I can’t find my Rooster Hat, but I still have the photos, so I can kind of remember what it was like. Anyways, Scribblenauts was a hit with my classes, everyone asking me what to input and see what would happen. Eventually, we just started throwing black holes in random places to fuck with the game, but hey, shit was fun man. Whatever 5th Cell tries next, whether it’s an iPhone version of Scribblenauts or a sequel or something new and even more interesting, I’m sure it’s going to be awesome.


He get's a big picture, because he's a big dude...

A clap of hands for Brutal Legend, and a moment of silence. The game is good, nice, funny, fun, but missed the top ten by two slots in the month of October, and hasn’t seen good sales since. I’m glad it got some recognition though, seeing better sales than Psychonauts, but still, I wish the game did a little better than what it showed. I’d like for Tim to be able to make bank, and that may seem kind of fanboyish of me, but I really do like Tim and his work. Plus, I want a Psychonauts 2, so yeah.


It's also Soundtrack of the Year...

And finally, oh hey, what’s this? BlazBlue, my game of the year? Blasphemy, you say, why not something like Demon Souls, or Modern Warfare 2, of Assassin’s Creed 2, or Uncharted 2?

Well, first off, I haven’t played ANY of those titles, save for Uncharted 2, which is a really nice game from what I’ve played. And second off, BlazBlue got me back into a genre I hadn’t touched in 9 years.

The last fighting game I had owned before BlazBlue was MvC2 for the Dreamcast, and it wasn’t even my Dreamcast. I haven’t properly played, much less owned a fighting game since, nor had I any need too. Sure, I dabbed with Melee a lot, and watched a whole lot of Evo, but never did I ever sit down and try to better myself. Not until BlazBlue came along.

BlazBlue changed me; I started playing again, hours non-stop. I started training, I was beginning to memorize combos, I was actually winning matches, I was frames away from beating Yojimbo once (he’ll deny it to hell and back, but deep down, he knows he’ll never play with Ragna again), I was beginning to be good at a fighter. Hell, if it came down to it, I would have bought a fight-stick to really get down and dirty with. I think I spent more time with BlazBlue over the summer and into October than any other game I had on the PS3, save Burnout Paradise. So yeah, saying it's my GOTY is nothing short of being right for me. Because of BlazBlue, I’m looking forward to trying Super Street Fighter 4, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, and any other 2D fighting games anyone wants to throw at me.

Oh yeah, and BlazBlue PSP. I’ll jump on that as soon as I want buy a PSP.



And well, that’s it for the Holiday Edition. I think this Blog Between Blogs thing might be a starting series for me as I try to get my ass in gear and write something that deserves its own title. Plus, it allows me introduce little things I can say I invented for this blog series on my own, such as this thing I like to call “the Hitlist”:

• WELCOME TO THE HITLIST MOTHERFUCKERS
• Found this really great TF2 podcast called “Kritzkast”. I subscribed on name alone.
• Bayonetta is going to be awesome. Using “Fly Me to the Moon” as an opening cut scene theme means greatness.
• Really looking forward to Bad Company 2. I hear it brings teamwork, which means I can do other things besides getting killed and trying (and failing) to kill others.
• PodToid is recognized on the Zune Marketplace. Robotic Takeover is imminent.
• The Jet Set Radio Future soundtrack is golden.
• THIS IS THE END OF THE HITLIST BITCHES

Yeah, I think I like how that turned out.

Anyways, I’m out till 2010. Merry Belated Christmas, Happy Belated Hanukah, Happy Holidays and have a Happy New Year.