Despite going down 3 - 0 early in the second period and being 7 points behind the Canadians in the standings, the Rangers came back to win 5 - 3. It looks like Montreal's hopes of catching up with Ottawa and passing San Jose for third in the league are faining, but hey the long NHL season is only just over half over. Gotta love hockey. Most exciting sport in my book.
I did some math and it looks like the Rangers are going to have to go 18 - 1 in the next 19 games to have a reasonable chance of winning the Atlantic Divisions. Which isn't that much of an achievement anyway, I don't think; they can do it.
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Time to abuse the small sections of Grade Nine math I paid attention to...
The new date says it's being released in March, but they're full of shit. Mathematical trends, which I can prove by putting on a graph, say it looks more like June.
They first announced a December release date in July 2007, six months ago. So at that point it was anticipated as five months away. With two delays, it is now January 08 and set for March 08, two months away. So six months have passed and it's only three months closer. Therefore, it's getting a month closer every two months on average. So it will take an estimated four months to get through these last two.
So, despite the current release date, the "line of best fit" (I think that's the right term) demonstrates that the most rational prediction of when Brawl will really be released is June...
I mean, this may be an estimate, but I've let you down two times fewer than they have.
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No, things didn't start out the way I'd have most liked for my ambitious endeavour to beat a game every week through 2008. But I'm pleased that I fufilled my obligations for week one (Jan. 3 - 9) despite starting out the whole plan just two days before, and am looking forward to fufilling my mandate more impressively for most of the next 51 weeks.
For more information on what this is all about, go to the link above.
Busy as hell early in the week, Wednesday evening at 10 left me with only two hours to beat a game by the end of week one. Street Fighter II for SNES on the Wii Virtual Console seemed like the quickest option, but being as mediocre at fighters as I am, an hour passed and I was still on the second of the three harder opponents you face after defeating the main seven. Knowing that M. Bison, the boss, always took a thousand tries, I entered panic mode. Considering it more shameful to give up than to do what you have to, I ended my game and went to options, switching the difficulty down to zero before waltzing my way through everyone.
The only opponent I didn't cream 2-0 was Ken, my own character's (Ryu's) clone, who I've always had trouble with and who was the last of the main seven, making me lazy and careless by that point. After defeating him 2-1 I knew I had to get serious and not embarass myself by losing a match against anyone on the easiest difficulty level, I had no problems with the three second-teir fighters. M. Bison was not as lucky as Ken, either, and went down 2-0. Oh how strange it felt to take him out with my simple newbish fireball/jump/high kick/fire ball as he gets up routine, after almost exactly a year earlier I had to stay up all night to defeat him on the game's default 5 out of 7 difficulty.
I did learn something, though. I did not get the cinematic that I had when beating it legitimately, which suggests that, seeing as difficulty 0 doesn't give you the ending that 5 gives (or one at all), 7 must give you. This tempts me to train hard at SFII to beat it at that eventually; and please, don't tell me if and what cinematic you get if you beat it on difficulty 7.
I'll try my best to keep the illegitimate "old-style fighter on easy mode" defeats at a minimal through the rest of the year, and to provide more interesting information in my future summaries, but hey, you got to start somewhere?
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Hello, Destructoid. And welcome to my new feature, and my new ambitious plan.
Yes, my plan is to complete a video game every week through all of 2008, and report my results here. In doing this, I have several unique resources at my disposal: a load of Wii Virtual Console games, a share of the ten free rentals a week that a relative of mine that works at Blockbuster gets, and a passion for fun, ambitious endeavors. A not too unique resource is my many gaming friends and their willingness to lend me games. Oh, and, I really, really love video games.
As 2008 ends on a Wednesday, the weeks will be Thursday to Wednesday, to make it round evenly to the end of the year. As there aren't exactly 52 weeks in a year, this means that the first two days are cut out. So my first "week" is from Thursday January 3rd to Wednesday the 9th (that's tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow for people who are up really late and for whom it feels like Monday like me). I could have cut the last two days of the year off instead, and based the weeks on the first seven days of the year, but seeing as I only thought of this whole plan half an hour ago and the first "week" by that format is already over, I choose this option.
The rules are:
- The game didn't have to be started that week, but it has to have been started in 2008, and finished by the end of 11:59pm Wednesday that week. (But I predict most of them will be primarily played through in that week alone as in past weeks I will have been usually worrying about frantically finishing that week's game on time.)
- This does not require 100% completion status (i.e. I have to beat Gary, not catch every Pokemon) but it must be a reasonable interpretation of "beating" it.
- In games that have multiple facets that should reasonably be called beating the game, I have to finish all of them. A good example of all this will be Brawl. I will have to beat both the regular fighting CPU enemies one at a time mode, as well as the Subspace Emissary Adventure mode, but I don't need to do anything crazy like get every trophy or beat both with every character.
- I can include games I've beaten before, but it has to be the first time in 2008 to count.
- Co-op counts, but it has to be the sort of co-op where I'm at least roughly as significant as the other person, and I have to have been involved in the entire thing. Example: if I play Halo 3, I don't have to have gotten the most points every level or to have played as the chief, but I have to have gone through every level, and I can't, say, watch someone beat Galaxy while being the little second player hand that pokes enemies and picks up star bits.
- Although I won't restrain myself from easy or older games, they can't be just silly flash games that by no rational interpretation should be taken seriously.
- Weeks where I beat multiple games can't be carried over.
- I promise to use my honest judgment in the interest of the fun and legitimacy of this plan if there's any gray areas.
So, I have to finish my first game by the end of tomorrow. Let's start with some short-term predictions. The current first-tier candidates are both old school fighters: Punch-Out!! and Street Fighter II, each of which I have been playing on the Wii VC with an SNES controller. If tomorrow it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to finish either of those, I'll rip out the original Super Mario or Kirby as a safety net, but as the year progresses I'm going to run out of those sorts of titles quick, which should make things interesting. I'm also pretty far in Phantom Hourglass, but that I'm going to either have to start over or not count this way through as I started it a couple days before January 3rd. The two other games listed in my "currently playing" section of the side-bar are also probably going to be included at some point: Metal of Honor Heroes 2 for Wii and Gunstar Heroes. I guess I am a hero-worshiper.
In my weekly reports, which I will try my best to keep a healthy length (i.e. shorter than this post but not a one-sentence burb) I will describe my experience with the game, what other games I've begun or continued to play, how good I thought the game was, etc. There are a lot of idiosyncrasies of mine that will interact in an entertaining way with this plan, as well as a lot of new ones I can imagine developing because of it, but instead of trying to predict and describe them all now I'll save that for my weekly updates.
Well, with one exception. I've already realized that this is going to cause me to start putting off finishing a game to save it for a later week, if I've already completed one that week. And I'll probably be starting over all the games I'm currently in the middle of from last year. There's so much to be said, but I guess I have 52 posts with which to do it, so it can wait.
There are several reasons I'm going to enjoy doing this. To start with the most superficial facet, it'll give me a bit of hardcore status. In the best game of 2008 debate, I can slyly mention "well, I did beat 52..."
Referring to deeper reasons, I sometimes find myself strangely overwhelmed by the many games I'm playing simultaneously, and am somehow dejected from truly enjoying the experience because I lack consistency or a way to decide which to go through. It's like the dog that starves because it can't pick which bowl to eat out of. This, however, will be an overwhelming fun project to game with, giving me a sort of basic drive and plan to surround all my games, that makes me feel like every little thing I do is culminating in a final product. I love that sort of integrated feeling when I accomplish something. It'll also give me more incentive to try new games and to borrow friend's games, and managing my time around different titles will be a game in itself.
I also love writing and recording my gaming experiences, and this is the perfect format to do it in. In the story of my quest I will be indirectly recording the story of many games and what may be a nail-biting endeavor. Finally, general neat projects like this are fun, and I've always wanted to do one this ambitious.
Now, time to get my game on.
The list.
Jan 3 - Jan 9: Street Fighter II (SNES)
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We all know Nintendo did the right thing by allowing us to pick from four options in choosing our Brawl controller. I expected a degree of debate about which is predicted to be superior, but it seems that everyone hardcore is going to be using the GCN controller. Although I enjoyed myself a healthy amount of Melee, this is not my way. Nor will I be using the Wiimote, or the Wiimote and Nunchuk, or even the Classic Controller as I had originally planned. What, then, could I possibly be using, you may be wondering?
Tah-dah...
Yes, using my retro adapter and the fact that Brawl will allow GCN controllers, which it will "think" this is as the adapter goes into the GCN port, I will be playing with the ultimate controller: the classic SNES pad! The one I grew up with, that I played as far back as I can remember! That I threw across the room when I got worked up as a little five year-old! That made me twitch my thumbs in my sleep as my mother and grandmother have reported.
I will be able to compensate for the lack of a Z because Brawl is going to allow custom button layouts. Here is my current plan...
Up to jump turned off.
B for special.
Y for smashes.
A to jump.
X to grab and super shield.
R to shield.
L to taunt.
Hopefully the hours poured into Street Fighter II and Punch Out!! (played with this because I haven't bought an NES controller yet) will pay off. I already use it for certain GCN games like Ikaruga. The only thing I won't be able to do in Brawl is walk slowly, as the directional pad doesn't have degrees of pressure like the GCN controller but... er, I can live with that.
I think this will give me a tactical advantage, as well as an explosion of nostalgia and hardcore points. It will be easier to roll or charge smashes accurately, as timing will be easier because it doesn't take the extra moment to push right like it does on the GCN's joystick. Also, on the SNES controller, unlike the GCN, you can have your thumb touching all four side buttons at once, not having to move it at all to transition from certain ones. Unfortunately when I master Brawl with the SNES controller, I probably won't be allowed into MLG or other highly organized tournaments because of my unofficial adaptation, but screw them I'll make my own tournament!
So... jealous? Going to steal my idea? Think I'm crazy?
(PS the next person who tells me "LOLZ USE THE ATARI OR NES CONTROLLER TO BE THE MOST HARDCORE!" gets stabbed. I have weapons.)
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This past couple of week's huge technical problems on Xbox Live, the announcement that Warner Bros. plans to exclusively support Blu-Ray, and the cancellation of an important conference concerning HD-DVDs has sparked a lot of "official" announcements from some random bloggers that the 360 has "lost" (or will soon) and, somehow, that so has the Wii.
First, let me conveniently put aside the idea that the Wii is going to be outsold because of this, as it has, as most of you should know, absolutely nothing to do with the HD-DVD v. Blu-Ray conflict, or Xbox Live, and how these news stories led anyone to predict the downfall of the Wii would probably require me to posses some unfathomable sixth sense, yet I've still heard this prediction from several people. The Wii uses original DVDs, and it seems to me this is the way to go as that's outselling the fuck out of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD combined right now; just like the PS2 is outselling the 360 and PS3 each.
In fact, I bet the Wii DS and PS2, and original DVD (these also being what I'm using right now) are going to sit up top on their pedestals and drink Pepsi while watching all you new-fangled fancy high-hardware guys kill each other off. But, er, anyway, back to business.
For the 360 v. PS3 debate and those predicting the PS3 is going to pick right up now on account of all this, we should all think back to a year ago. A certain system's atrocious launch, inflated price, lack of good exclusives, lack of proper online, etc. all had the media, including the independent media up in arms that "New Playstation," if you'll excuse my pun, was already a complete failure.
But a few months passed, Home and Littlebigplanet were announced. Big PS3 exclusives like Uncharted and Rachet and Clank came out, and Metal Gear and Final Fantasy seemed closer. Not to mention the price drop. Sony fans, at least the ones who weren't deluding themselves about the "failure to launch", breathed a big sigh of relief through the last half of 2007; things were going to maybe be okay after all. Suddenly some of what had been said before seemed a little absurd, certain Nintendo fans (I won't name anyone) did some atrocious things involving arrows and the PS3 in MS Paint that shouldn't be spoken of, and we realized we had jump to conclusions about the triple too soon.
Remember Sarcastic Gamer's "How You Killed Your Brand"? How much easier it was the find a PS3 in stores than a Wii? And all that stuff?
In that same vein, we shouldn't be doing the same thing to the 360 (or, er, the Wii, if you're that insane and arbitrary) right now. Or even the HD-DVD. If there's one thing we've learned in the HD-DVD v. Blu-Ray issue, it's that every time something happens to favor one, something else quickly makes it roughly even again. In the Cold War of formats, let's not draw any conclusions until the Berlin Wall has really fallen.
The 360 doesn't really need the HD-DVD, as that feature is only a peripheral and its games use the original DVD. Even if it did, although people wouldn't buy the 360 to play movies, they could have still used the HD-DVD for its games. Whether or not the PS3 will really push ahead because of its higher disc capacity will come up in the next few years, and if you predict the 360 "losing" because of that, fine, but we've known that difference between them since the PS3 was announced to be using Blu-Ray two years ago. So far, with games like Heavenly Sword and Lair not breaking any records yet using nearly the entire Blu-Ray disc, it doesn't seem to be too important.
As for Live's technical problems, we all know that systems can survive this. It's happened before on Live and didn't send anyone over the edge. From "disc read error" on the PS2, the best selling console yet, to two years of a sailing 360 despite red rings, my opinion on the 360's technical problems was summed up by some random forum contributed who said something along the lines of "The PS3 is a masterful piece of cutting-edge technology, the 360 a piece of shit glued together that has a chance of falling apart every time you sneeze, but I prefer it because its games are tits."
I think this is going to be the closest "console war" ever. With Sony getting its shit together, all three systems have its advantages. The PS3 has its huge potential because of its superior hardware, the 360 has its larger library and better-known online system, and the Wii has its unique controls (which, though allowing for a lot of gimmicky games, can still be used in awesome ways.) I think it's perfectly fine to debate which is objectively superior, which one we prefer, which one an individual should buy, etc. but from a marketing perspective, the trends show that all three look like they'll do okay financially.
Let's not get all worked up because we think the system we don't prefer is going to do badly. If gamers aren't all in this together, who's going to protect us from psychos like this?
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will be just like 2007, except I will pwn at games.
Oh, wait, that means it will be just like 2007. Nevermind.
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Finally a game that truely simulates being a soldier.
It comes with a plastic gun with colored buttons, which simulates the firing of the gun, and you hit the colored buttons along with colors that come down the bottom of the screen to the sounds of grenades and gun fire. If you don't hit enough of the buttons with proper timing, your soldier dies. You'll really feel like you're in battle!
And anyone who really knows how to use firearms who tells you that's not realistic is just jealous that you're a real Gun Hero and he isn't!
In other news, dprime really needs a blog that's not a joke.
Attached photos:
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You heard it here first.
His choice of running mate will certainly be controversial, but no less interesting...
Although there is an alternative! Look at the end of my last post for the heads up on the real gold ticket.
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As was reported on the front page, Video Games Live will be doing a Canadian tour in February. This will include a stop in Toronto, Ontario on February 9th. I will be making an appearance, so those of you who would love to finally meet Dprime in r/l (yes, I do exist in real life; I'm not just generated by software,) be there! I expect many screaming fans, and will be giving autographs; I'll even bring my own sharpie.
Toronto's stop will be at Massey Hall, where I saw Dreamtheatre and where Rush recorded their first live album. It's my favorite concert venue and I'm looking forward to seeing it used for VGL.
Also, I'm running for president.
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