No, not the D-toid Char Aznable. The fictional one. Many of you may not have heard of it, but Mobile Suit Gundam: Operation Troy was released in Japan for the 360 last month and did indeed manage to boost the 360's sales a bit. In actuality though, I just wanted to bring this game to the attention of some of you guys.



Whether you're a Gundam fan or not, I think many people can agree that the idea of a Battlefield style game with huge robots is pretty badass. You start the game out on foot, and have the option of picking from 3 different classes. However, the on foot stuff is rarely used, even though it seems like theres a decent amount of weapons to use. The meat of the game begins once you get into a mobile suit. The game is mostly team-based, with 2 factions(Federation and Zeon) battling it out. You pick what your mobile suit is equipped with beforehand and it seems that theres a ton of customization options. If you ever get tired of the normal mobile suit gameplay, you can even jump into a tank, or just take out mobile suits with a homing missile while on foot. Also, you have the option to play the game in first person or third person view.



I would tell you guys to check out the demo using a Japanese XBL account, but after having downloaded it about a week or so ago, the demo has mysteriously disappeared off the Japanese marketplace. Even so, the demo already has quite a few dedicated players in the U.S. Personally, I didn't think the demo was too impressive, given the fact that you're restricted to one stage, one game mode, and one of 2 mobile suits total, but at least you can be assured that there will be a decent community when the game comes to U.S. shores.

On a somewhat unrelated note, if you do already have a Japanese XBL account you can check out the demo for Armored Core: for Answer.

So, according to Official Nintendo Magazine UK, a new Animal Crossing game for the Wii will be revealed at E3.

I'm not too huge of an Animal Crossing fan, but I've gotten into the games for short periods in the past. With added online capabilities and the inevitable waggle-controlled minigames such as fishing, Animal Crossing Wii could be a pretty fun game. That is, of course, if Nintendo doesn't do anything retarded, such as charging fees for the game or something of the sort. That said, there will probably at the least be microtransactions for in-game furniture and such.

I just hope this isn't Nintendo's biggest announcement. What do you guys think of Animal Crossing Wii? Yay or nay?

Me being the cheap ass that I am, I'm always looking for good games that I can pick up for a relatively low price. So, found some sweet ones today that I thought I'd share.

Castle of Shikigami 3, which looks quite badass, is now available at Gamestop for just 20 bucks. I will probably pick this one up soon.

Amazon has Unreal Tournament 3 for $45 as their Deal of the Day. Grab this one quick if you're a UT fan.

Also, Call of Duty 2/3 are $10 each at Amazon.

And last but not least, Gamestop/EB has a coupon for 25% off used 360 games. It's good until tomorrow(or at least I hope the expiration date includes tomorrow).


Thanks to CheapAssGamer for all the info.

Checked out this movie really not knowing what to expect, only knowing that I really liked the work of both Danny Boyle(director) and Alex Garland(writer) on 28 Days Later. With that said, this is quite the departure from 28 Days Later.



The plot follow the crew of the Icarus II, a space shuttle sent to reignite the sun before it completely dies out. Of course, given the enormity of this task, many problems inevitably arise, and the characters must attempt to avoid meeting the same fate as the previous ship, the Icarus I. The characters are well thought out for the most part, even though a few characters are pushed out of the limelight. Constant macrocosmic questions are posed and there is of course the fear of the many dangers involved with the mission. Also, great acting all around. I found the characters to be quite believable and the movie gave a fairly good grasp of the stress the characters were under. Be aware though, if you're a fan of realism in sci-fi movies, this might not be your cup of tea. There are a decent amount of science-related plotholes and a few things that don't make sense, but nothing so extreme that it would detract the average viewer from being immersed in the film.

There is, however, somewhat of a change of pace near the end of the movie(due to a somewhat unusual problem which I won't spoil). A lot of people said that this ruined the movie for them, but I'm on the side that thinks it was an interesting plot development. Despite the way certain scenes were presented, this problem that arose was merely one of many that the astronauts had to deal with.



Sunshine also contains quite a few impressive visual effects. If the prospect of cool, up close vantages of the sun and whatnot interests you, you'll definitely enjoy the cgi renders of the sun.

In short, if you're looking for an entertaining sci-fi flick with well thought out character drama, Sunshine is definitely worth giving a try.

Wow, I've really been procrastinating with this. At first, I thought I would write about only one particular game, but decided I wouldn't be able to say enough about any particular game, so I've decided to give a brief rundown of some of the experiences(mostly involving playing games with other people) that have made me so attached to games.



Oddly enough, my fascination with games began before I could even read or write properly. Some of my earliest memories are of sitting down with my father by our old MS-Dos computer and playing Lemmings. Oh how I loved those quirky little suicidal Lemmings. I must have been about 4 or 5 years old, and I remember how my father helped explain each level for me, and would help me write down the password after each level. Sure, Lemmings was pretty simple, but I will always remember the fun I had and the sense of accomplishment I received from guiding those little guys to their destination, their "heaven" as the game would seem to imply.



For a few years after that, my exposure to games was limited to playing the shit out of Outrun and a few other games on my Uncle's Sega Master System whenever I would visit him. Eventually, my dad bought me a Sega Genesis. I only owned 3 or 4 games for it, but I'll always remember the times when me and my dad would play the multiplayer modes on great games such as Sonic 2. Playing games with him was a great experience, even with not so great games like the Aerosmith endorsed "Revolution X" and some mediocre Batman Forever game that had come out at the time. It is through this bonding experience, that some of my most memorable games-related moments have occured. This bonding that video games provided has always meant something to me, especially since not too long after those times playing my Genesis with him, my father had passed away.

This was about a year after the N64 came out, and in the following couple of years, I built up quite the game collection. I guess that must have been part of my reaction to my father's death, as I delved deeper into my choice form of escapism. I remember having about 32 games, which even now is more than I've had for any one console. Of course, like many others, I fell in love with games like Ocarina of Time, Banjo Kazooie and the sleeper hit Space Station Silicon Valley. Most of all, Ocarina of Time was the main game that helped me see games as a truly immersive experience. I remember being truly amazed by the atmosphere, amazing boss battles and challenging puzzles(Hey, I was like 10 and the Water Temple was fucking hard). Often times, however, I could become just as immersed in a game when competing with my friends. Great multiplayer games like Goldeneye and Mario Kart in particular provided lots of great gaming memories.



Looking back on my gaming history, the times I would spend hours at a time playing with these friends provided some of the best moments I've had related to games. A few years after the N64-era of consoles, I would stay over at my best friend's house for a day or two, usually in the summer, and we would just hang out and play games. Often times we'd play Smash Bros. Melee(or Street Fighter 3, or King of Fighters, or random competitive games) till the wee hours of the morning, go to sleep, and then wake up to once again challenge each other in whatever game we were into at the time. Even the times when we would take turns playing great single player games such as Metal Gear Solid 2 and Ninja Gaiden, we always had fun.

Throughout the past couple of years, I've grown apart from these friends for a variety of reasons(college, various life drama) and I've truly been missing some of these great bonding-through-gaming moments. Xbox Live has somewhat remedied that, but I'll never forget those hot summer days, huddled up with good friends on the couch/floor.

So, today I received my copy of the Japan-only Gamecube game, Gundam: The Ace Pilot(supposedly one of the best Gundam games, and only $30 on Play-asia). I planned on using the Swap-disk trick I had heard about that supposedly lets you play import GC games on the Wii. After many futile attempts at doing just that this morning, I looked online to discover that Nintendo disabled this exploit in the latest firmware update.

Needless to say, I'm pretty pissed off. I really don't see what major harm could come to Nintendo from keeping the damn thing region free. This just encourages more people to mod their systems, and simultaneously be tempted to pirate games, given that they now have the ability to do so.

Whatever happened to the good ol' days of cartridges? Back then the only thing stopping us from playing any weird, exotic games from foreign lands was the language barrier. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to wait for a homebrew app that unlocks the region coding on GC games much like the one that has been released that does the same for Wii games. Either that, or buy Datel's Wii Freeloader which I hear is compatible with some GC games, but that would be a bit pointless seeing as how I already have a homebrew alternative to that in regards to Wii games and Datel's Freeloader wouldn't be guaranteed to work with every GC game.

Right now, I just hope I don't end up having to buy/borrow a Gamecube just to play this one game.