Now this is some kick ass news! I mean, the announcement of GameTank's real guitar using, Guitar Hero-like game called Guitar Rising was awesome in its own right, but now Fat Wreck Records let loose that longtime punk rockers No Use For A Name are directly involved with the game! The Fat update uses the word "developing" instead of "involved," which I can't find any info to back it up, so maybe that's a misunderstanding. Maybe its not, someone know?

Either way, I love No Use For A Name and if they are able to push forward even a fraction of a punk rock agenda into the rock gaming world, I'm all for it. I'm sick of punk rock getting the bitch treatment in Guitar Hero/Rock Band, as they continue to put in songs that just aren't fun to play from crusty bands that are important to the history of the genre but not necessary noteworthy guitar-wise. Plus it would give me an excuse to put some new strings on that dusty guitar in the closet. ;P

Professor Layton came in stock today at work and the puzzler sucker that I am immediately went and picked it up. Using a mix of British charm, light humor, awesome cartoon-style graphics and enjoyable puzzles, it doesn't take much time with the title to figure out why the series is so huge in Japan.

Here is the first 8 minutes or so of the game if you are interested to see what its like, get a taste for the English version or whatever. Yes I realize I fucked up the first, extremely easy puzzle - its not as easy trying to play it through the view-finder of a camcorder though, but I will take your abuse nonetheless. ;P

Just don't miss out on it next week if you enjoy your brainteasers and mindbogglers!

How does this happen. Oh wait, I know how it happens, why do people believe it? Its like playing telephone on an elementary school playground - what was originally said is never what is at the end. This isn't the X-Files, conspiracy does not exist at every fucking turn.

TheTanooki.com, a blog I like to check on every couple days or so, is running a rumor they pulled from some other random site called DPad that is buying into a rumor about Square-Enix being the cause for the initial Smash Bros Brawl delay due to copyright issues over the Super Mario RPG character Geno. Supposedly he was a playable character and Nintendo had to remove him far into development because Squenix owns the copyright and they couldn't close the deal.

This is based on pure scuttlebutt and that the random spot on the character select screen is under the two 3rd party characters. Some douche bag made it up and now its spread. The fan base is so rabid for this game and the outcry for every 3rd party character ever created to be in there that these ramblings and rantings of fans are getting out of control.

These are facts that must always be remembered:

1) THERE ARE NO OTHER 3RD PARTY CHARACTERS IN BRAWL - ANYWHERE.

2) The playable character list has been set for months upon months - the most recently delay had nothing to do with adding/subtracting playable characters, and I am almost certain - 99% so - the delay before that didn't as well. Content-wise, the game has essentially been finished since Novemberish - the testing process just took forever because Nintendo is anal and wants every one of their titles - especially one of this magnitude - to be polished to a point where the sun's reflection could blind small animals and infants in a matter of seconds.

After Sonic was announced as a playable character, all the massive secrets were out of the bag. That's it peeps. So stop believing the lies, put down the torches that Cloud or some other jerk is in the game and focus on honing those Smash Bros skills with the characters that ARE in the game.

Kotaku posted this supposedly 'real' box art for the upcoming Mario Kart Wii game, wondering out loud if it is real or not. I, for one, have never seen the box art in person, but I have seen enough of the game to say that the images, font and logo are all legit, and it has a very sterile 'Wii' quality to it. So I'd say yes, for real.

Doesn't make it seem any less stupid that Luigi and Mario seem to be piloting invisible jets ala Wonder Woman. Should it come as any surprise though that Mario is the one of the pair with the obvious road rage problem? A life of mushroom addiction has a way of putting you in an awful mood when you're on a real bad low, I imagine....

Just finished Bioshock - for the first time. Yes, I realize how uncool that makes me, to just be finishing it, but that's how the life of a married, full-time working at a game publisher, game reviewing on the side man goes sometimes. You just don't have time to play anything for yourself if its not portable. But at least the first thing I did when I shed my account manager duties and went on a writing hiatus for AceGamez.us.com was bust open Bioshock. And had it not been for more tragic events in a month than I've experienced in my 25 years of life, I'd have had it done weeks ago. But alas, it could only happen today.

I didn't harvest any of the Sisters, so I got a happy ending that was so sugary sweet. Sarcasm aside, it was a nice ending, even if it says NOTHING about the "Kraut." The final boss was a bit lame too, as I just powered through that shit. Frag grenades, ho!

But it was relieving to actually finish a game from start to finish (which my wife and I also did two nights ago with Zack and Wiki), its not too often I accomplish that anymore. When reviewing, I had a rough time line where I had to have a game played and written about in so many weeks so the publisher got the most out of sending us a review copy, which meant that I would log between 5-10 hours into each game (depending on the game's length and how much I needed to play to make a fair opinion on the game). I played some pretty awesome games over the year and a half I was reviewing full-time and maybe finished a fraction, at best, of them. Which hurts, because I invested well over 20 hours in both FFXII and Twilight Princess and have yet to return to them because of the need to play and review other games until just now.

I'm not complaining, it was a choice I made without a fight, but there is this satisfaction and closure that comes with completing a game - especially a good or excellent one - that can't be beat. And I began to lose a bit of interest in gaming because I was beating so very few of the games I was reviewing, not to mention the overload of games I play through at my day job every week.

Anyone looking to pick up Bomberman Wii this week only need to know this - single player is a ton of mini-games that use a variety of control and waggle schemes stuffed into a retarded story about some douche bag Bomberman douching around a resort. But multiplayer is tried-and-true Bomberman with loads of options (play modes, items, maps, etc.) and does a nifty thing in allowing one player to use a Wii Remote and the other to use a Nunchuk for two players using "one controller" action. Very smart of them and makes it so you don't need 8 controllers (especially since the Wii can't handle that many at once). Just make sure you like the person next to you or they don't smell. Graphics are meh, single player is meh, but multiplayer and its bucket of options are so much fun that if you are into that, it's hard to ignore. I'd give the game a 5 out of 10 if you don't plan to multiplayer much, a 6.5 if you do plan to multiplayer the hell out of it.

All the Brawl news that's been making its way out already is pretty neat, especially since I've seen every secret character in photographic proof form except for Wolf (but I'm sure there's proof out on the Web somewhere). Brawl really is an amazing game, as long as you like Super Smash Bros. There is NOTHING there to convince anyone who didn't like the series before that they should change their mind. Its just Melee but bigger, tighter and prettier. So if you love Smash Bros, you will love to no end Brawl. Me, I love the hell out of the Smash Bros series and having spent time with much of the single player modes as well as a few four player brawls, its easily a 10 out of 10 game. Fighting is as over the top and simple to enjoy as it ever was, none of the control schemes really bother me (though I still prefer the Gamecube controller), the addition of the Masterpieces is brilliant (especially after U.S. fans find out what's coming in theirs), and when people put this much love into a game, its hard to not feel it coursing through your veins while you play. Just the sheer about of shit to do, not to mention all the characters, options, modes, secrets, etc. make Brawl such an easy purchase that will last until the next Smash Bros game comes out for whatever Nintendo's next system ends up being, since Melee proved that you don't need to release sequels every year to keep selling and selling and selling.

Now that Bioshock is done, its time to finally hit up another crictially-acclaimed game I have yet to ever play - Resident Evil 4. I've got the Wii Edition and its time to finally play it.

Son of a bitch. You spend some time away from the computer, you don't bother to visit CAG when you do get on and look what happens! What looks to be a cool RPG gets an incredible special limited edition and the shit is sold out before you can even think about if you have enough money to afford it. All of that for $49.99...?! NIS America really knows how to convince you to not wait and buy their games right away. I can only hope that they produce something as awesome as this when Ar Tonelico 2 comes over here (*crosses fingers that that is even a true statement*).

If I have to, I might just hit up eBay for one of these, overpay a bit if I can't get someone on CAG to sell me theirs. The collector in me just can't let it go, especially since I've been on such a vinyl collecting kick, I can't help but indulge. Not even the Shinra UMD case that comes with a preorder of Crisis Core can ease the burn.



Son of a bitch! Maybe beating Bioshock today (FINALLY) may ease my pain.... ;P