I liked this game much better when the context was much more vague...

NiGHTS, everyone who owned a Sega Saturn knew about this game, for better or for worse, and it came with a really bitchin' 3D Controller. It was a surreal little game, in which you flew around a Rail and- hell. I don't even remember, some crap about collecting balls, and you could make vortex's or some shit like that when you flew in a circle. Look, I don't even know the back story to NiGHTS, partly because the game offered us some FMV that featured background music, and that's it. The game was fun as all hell, and that's all that matters.

Fast foreward to 2007, right before Christmas, and this little nostalgic game "NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams" is released, for the Wii console. Well duh I'm going to buy it without any investigation, a.)Sega b.) Sega Saturn. I don't think I really need to expand on this idea.* After skimming over some reviews at work, I gleamed that the Wii Remote controls we're pathetic, which was no sweat off my back, I would only assume this much after my previous journeys into the world of guiding characters with the WiiMote (Point in Case: Red Steel)
When I got home, I quickly ripped open the case and jammed that fucking disc into my Wii as fast as I could (not helped by the Wii not wanting to give me back my copy of Ghost Squad, understandably so.) and was delighted to hear a vaguely familiar soundtrack, I pick my save files name, and this is where things go downhill.

Upon being presented with my selections on screen, I couldn't help but notice how sluggish the WiiMote's responce was to my motions, which seemed peculiar to me because my cursor was fast and chipper when I was on my main menu, either way, I make my way into the Main Game, and am presented with a nice looking FMV, wow that hair looks nice! Following the FMV, I'm now shown the actual game graphics.

Oh... is this what I was looking at 20 seconds ago?

The game looks... well... aged. You can tell immediately that the characters are probably based off the exact same models as their FMV counterparts, only the Wii couldn't render as well, so we're stuck with less vibrant, less lively characters (Animations do look jerky at times). Beyond the graphics... what the hell- some owl's talking to me or whatever, and I can't skip it. Agony. Honestly, thats the only word to describe what I was feeling. My childhood memories were... well... a hell of a lot less creepy. The game just has a much less mysterious, much more stupid feel to it, it was much better off as a silent film, as far as I'm concerned. Point of the matter: I don't care what the owl has to say, I want to fly around and kill shit.

On to where the game actually matters, and thats gameplay. It's... NiGHTS? That's really the only way to describe it, it shares much (if not all) of the exact same elements that we were treated with, even down to that crazy A-Life system :) Nostalgia at it's best! Where this game falls flat on it's face is the "default" control scheme. Everyone was right, controlling NiGHTS with your WiiMote sucks. Ass. Lucky for us you can use your nunchuck, or if you're so inclined, the Classic Controller. Either works well, and the option to switch to a use-able control getup is presented to you immediately (almost as if the dev's knew that no-one was going to use the native controls? Weird, ne?)

Conclusion: It's creepy, but if you liked NiGHTS, or are up for something new(?), give it a shot, it's a fun little game, if even for just a little while.
*(Note: I have a hard on for all that is Sega Saturn)

Alright, this was sent to me in GTalk by a friend
http://www.mariokartwii.com/showthread.php?s=d782d2f9af6c44d2a26091ff26f6eea1&p=29825#post29825
This link, has details of Mario Kart Wii lifted from Nintendo Power (supposedly), and pretty much states this:
We don't need any fucking details for this game, the game is "fuckin' wicked"!, and thats all that we really need to know. I personally, think this is hilarious. Anyone else on this?

It dawned on me today, between classes when I looked in my school bag that carrying around 5-6 DS games cases suck (I carry them in the cases because they're tiny). Fitting them on one nice little flash cart and strolling around with just me and my little DS Lite would be much easier than the extra bulk.
R4DS' site is no help whatsoever, and you guys are up in arms about this product. So who wants to recommend somewhere to buy this? :D Personal experience is a perk, I like to hear that you actually got your product from these places ;P

When I feel like posting something else, by god, I'll post about something else. But I already wrote a 8 page paper for Psych today, so you guys get shafted.

In any event, My Rock Band replacement Guitar came today, and appears to be very much similar to the original, except that the strum bar feels much less... how should I put this... like it's sitting in pudding? It's got some strength behind it, and so far, I've been rockin' pretty damn hard with it, instead of going to Com 100. So yeah.

Just because I got my guitar nao (which is shit because I ordered it last Sunday. with the 2 day shipping), I best not be left out of this whole "Free EA Game" ordeal, because I want fucking Madden in Spanish, fuck- I don't even LIKE American Football.

And with that, I'll leave on the note that Manchester United won against Fulham, and Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice, brilliant!

Well whoever "figured out" this "great mystery" needs to be smacked. Smacked for making me think that I was going to have to actually do work to get my Rock Band Drums to work in Windows. I'm gonna show you ladies and gents a little picture.

Whats that? Why thats the "Controller (Harmonix Drum Kit for Xbox 360)" that Windows recognized within 10 seconds of me plugging it in!

How, you ask? Because I have the Xbox 360 Controller Drivers installed! (I have 1.0 because the later ones have given me lag with my wireless controller, but any should work). I'd really like to know why no one tried this before, because I'm seriously happy that I no longer have to copy/paste/edit anything. Shouldn't this have been peoples first step? I mean seriously people...

I figure, now that I've had Rock Band for the Xbox 360 for almost a week now, I can safely give my two cents on the release without any hesitation. In core, the game play is much like you'd expect. It's "Guitar Hero" with different shaped notes, and guitar lines that don't look like a 12 year old just kind of took the Lead Guitar and Rhythm Guitar lines and took the most prominent parts and mashed them together. Oh, and you can actually play the Bass Guitar on any song, along with the option of Singing or Playing the Drums, and those are fun and all, but I'm going to go on here about how great and terrible it is that Harmonix was gobbled up by EA, and separated from Red Octane/Activision.

Lets start with the first of their old partnerships, Red Octane. A mighty fine company, and if you're going to make a music based game, I think there is no finer company to go to for your peripherals. They've been making quality products for as long as I can remember the name, and they're built to last (their DDR Metal Pads are second to Cobalt Flux, but you're also paying out the arse for a Flux). Which could mean one of two things for Rock Band. EA would either do a bang up job on the controllers, or they would choke and die. The drums have been rockin' pretty hard for me, at a pretty consistent rate on Hard/Expert, with absolutely no issues, the guitar, on the other hand, has been an absolute nightmare. Much like everyone else, I've been suffering from the "Red Strum of Death", I.E. my down strum is shot to ballocks. From what I've read, It's a really stupid issue, and something that EA should have known better than to do, and put the proper craftsmanship into, I'm pretty impressed with the Drums outside of the flimsy unrealistic Bass Pedal. I've heard people complain about the Mic, but let's be completely honest with ourselves- if you REALLY want a good quality microphone, you're gonna go out and buy a USB Mic. I've had no problem playing around with the Mic. EA has been very responsive about the Guitar issue, and I'm currently awaiting a new Controller (Free 2 day shipping!), let's just cross our fingers that they've made the connection stronger.
I'd love to give EA points for effort but it's quite apparent that they didn't put the necessary play testing into it, or any at all (It appears that 4-6 hours is the average life span of these things...)

Lets move onto the change of publisher, EA compared to Activision. I feel like it was a good move. You've got a talented team, now backed by one of the largest video game companies in the market, who seems to be willing to lets Harmonix have their creative freedom. I fail to see how this can be bad. I could turn out to be wrong, and EA could turn into the big terrible monster that kills games, but as of yet, the downloadable content for Rock Band done much more to impress me than Guitar Hero's bundling of different songs, and forcing you to buy bundles. I'm thinking this was by choice of the publisher, rather than developer, means we're seeing pick and choose individual songs downloadable through Rock Band. Also with the variety of downloads, and vast selection so close to launch, it's only more fuel to the theory that EA is a better publisher for these kinds of things, I mean, c'mon, when was Atreyu "indie"? Big kudos to EA for giving us the freedom to pick the songs we want, along with releasing packs of songs from different artists.

I'm going to end on a note, a completely irrational complaint. Where is my Ska, bitches? I want a Keasbey Nights download. NOW (the Streetlight Manifesto one, not the Catch 22 one. Much MUCH cleaner.)

Oh, and HAI DESTRUCTOID!