Robbway's Blog - 2old2play

Mario Kart Wii Cheat: A Theory

I've been reading about these "cheaters" with the ridiculously fast times. I haven't played the game, but from what I've read, the low-timed game is done slowly. This most likely means the "cheaters" are actually exploiters of a rollover glitch. After the time reaches 59:59.99, perhaps it goes 00:00.00? That doesn't explain why all three of the top scores were identical. I understand those scores were removed, but unless Nintendo forces an update to the Wii, they'll just do it again.

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Ikaruga, Rotated

Here's a simple tip in enhancing your Ikaruga experience on XBLA. Rotate the screen 90 degrees right AND rotate the controller 90 degrees right. Using the R analog stick, A and B buttons, and the RS, you now have a side-scroller in maximum detail. Have fun!

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Pac Man Comes Out of the Maze

Ms. Pac Man is "more than Pac Man with a bow." Above shows scientific statistical proof that the species Homoconsumous Superior is infact a monosexual species. The confusion lies in the public assertion Ms. Pac Man that she is more different from Pac Man than just a bow. An inside source, who spoke to me on the condition of anonymity (shoutout to Packy!), says that statement came from the Pac Legal Team (PLT). It is true, actually. Ms. Pac Man is more than just an additional bow, she also uses false eyelashes and a fake beauty spot. Remove those three things and *GASP*!

After this startling revelation, Pac Man, now a "D-Lister," has finally decided to quit his power pills humbly on Dr. Drew's "Celebrity Rehab 2." Looks like a fresh start for Pacster. This blogger is behind himmer 100%!

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Goth Emo Isn't Cool Anymore

So I tried the timed-demo of Devil May Cry 4. You go around killing things and destroying objects for Crystallized Demon Blood. That's it, along with some grappling-hook puzzle elements. As you learn the combos, you start to hear some of what your stereotypical goth emo androgenous Nero says as finishers. One I heard was "Slam dunk!" Okay, I'm playing in what looks the world of Dracula-in-the-Future killing bad-ass demons, and the first thing that comes to your mind is a basketball term? What a mood killer! There wasn't much variety in the demo, either. Kill badass demon, grapple, kill badass demons, grapple, lather, rinse, repeat. Also, to kill these badass demons, you just hit buttons until they die. This is simply not a game for me.

Nero should play acoustic guitar at a coffee house singing songs about why he can't keep a girlfriend. Maybe if he stopped trying to be prettier than a girl....

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Another Shot At Halo 3 Legendary Deal

Amazon is doing it again, the Halo 3 Legendary Edition for $60! I got mine this way, though I don't know where I'm going to put that helmet.

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Fantasy Life: Mabinogi for PC

The makers of the extremely popular Maple Story are currently having a closed beta test of Fantasy Life: Mabinogi. I have the NDA on the actual beta test, so I can't talk about it that way, but they want to promote the upcoming game publically with a trailer. The trailer shows many different battles and situations for the game, and the 3D gaming aspect shown in the trailer makes it more impressive than Maple Story. (Full disclosure department: this embedded trailer enters me into a contest!)

[VIDEO DELETED because it was driving me and other readers CRAZY]

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700: Personal Milestone

I have finally finished the first 700 deals of the MS Freecell. I was a lot less eager to finish. I discovered that if you do not finish a deal the first time, move on. What you know hurts your chances, because it didn't work the first time. Then, if the deal continues to be trouble I take the following tactic:

1) Start with the left column.

2) Dump as many (hopefully ALL) cards in that column by either building on other column or using the cells.

3) If you're not blocked, try to finish.

4) If you get blocked, repeat with rows 2 thru 8.

This method cures a "solver's" block by putting you in dire situations. I found all but one of the deals to be solvable using this method. So I did that one the hard way, persistance.

Now, on Archway Solitaire, part of XBLA Soltrio, I can't seem to win! It is embarrassing how much time was spent on it.

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2 Old 2 Defect?

Good News/Bad News. I've starting writing for the Gaming Steve blog. Nothing up yet, but soon. If something is about being old, I may still post it here.

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My Spanish Coach (NDS): The First Three Hours

This is not exactly a review, because I haven't played it long enough. I can say that I'm really impressed by this game. All Spanish words are pronounced in the game. You can record and playback your voice with the Spanish coach. The games are pretty effective, too. So far, I have played multiple choice vocabulary quiz, the whack-a-mole game, and the word search. There are many more games to unlock. According to the game, it has about 10,000 words and 700 phrases. It is also a English-Spanish translator. That is significant. Oddly enough, even though I knew every vocabulary word in the "placement test," it started me at the elementary level. The beginner in Spanish will have no trouble. The game emphasizes repetition and pronunciation. Just to help it stick, I pronounce the words alound as I play, if I can.

Overall, this was a solid game for $30! It's not as fun as a typical game, but it lives up to its name as a Spanish Coach. There are other language coaches as well as My Word Coach to help Americans speak better English. These are the type of genre-busting cartridges that will bring in all sorts of players. If this catches on, there will be many more languages, My French Coach is already available. There will also be tons of competition. I'm expecting Rosetta Stone to enter the ring with their language software soon!

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Race Awhile...Race Forever!

Pssst! Hey, kid! Do you want to race forever? Trackmania United (PC)is the latest in a series of games specifically built to do just that. Despite the screenshots, the game is not a driving simulator like Gran Turismo or Forza. It is arcade racing at it's best. It has everything: flatout racing, beautiful environments, stunts, a playful physics engine, replays, and extensive online racing with tournament modes. Best of all is the track editor which is only limited by the memory model and your imagination.

The game, which can be downloaded from the link above, may seem expensive at $40 USD, but it comes packed to the hilt with features. There are many built-in levels to keep you racing for hours. There are three main modes in the Solo Career: Race, Puzzle, and Platform.

Race is what it sounds like. Get the best time on the track. You race against Nadeo (the publisher) ghost runs for the bronze, silver, and gold medals. Beat the ghost, win the medal. You unlock the harder races by placing at least at the bronze level in all races. The game requires you to finish the 5 practice (class A) races to play the easiest level, and completing the Easy mode unlocks the next set of tracks and more in a new environment. You can quickly unlock all environments this way.

Puzzle is unique to the driving genre. It takes the level editor and makes it into a game. Each puzzle is the same goal: go thru the checkpoints (if there are any) and reach the finish. The setup is pre-defined, so things like water, ditches, track sections, and obstacles are already in place and cannot be edited. Then, in the parts box, you are given a limited amount of building blocks from which you connect thru the checkpoints to the exit. That's it, but the solutions tend to be unconventional to reach the finish in a medal-earning time.

Platform is another race mode that I've only seen in the games Gripshift and Crazy Taxi Crazy Box. You race as normal, but the levels are setup such that several jumps must be navigated to reach the end. There is no time limit in platform mode, and when you play it you'll see why.

In addition to all of these, Trackmania United encourages and rewards online play and collaboration. You can race online, create your own team pages (there's an internal browser functions), share tracks, place in official events, and make official runs to put your best time on the leaderboards. The game even localizes your experience in your chosen country and state/province--complete with the correct flags. The French...they are thorough! Sharing and competing will earn you Coppers to share and compete online even more.

"Why have I never heard of this game?" You may ask. That would most likely be because you are a US citizen. For some reason, this game just rules all of Europe, but marketing in the USA was sparse. Let's face it, sales in the USA are just icing on the cake for Nadeo after they make all of their profits in Europe. Trackmania United is the most recent in the series, so it offers the most features and probably the least invasive DRM. So loop, jump, flip, compete, challenge, communicate, and even create machinima your way to race forever.

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Good Deals for Today

Deals from the bargain hunter

- I broke down and bought the Halo 3 Legendary Edition. It is only $60 today only at Amazon Gold Box. ~~It sold out as I wrote this post!~~
- Limited Edition is only $50 today only as the Video Game Deal-of-the-Day. (Sometimes the Legendary Edition pops up instead!)
- I also got my copies of Mercury Meltdown Revolution for the Wii. It is cheap everyday, currently at $18 on Amazon. It's a great game for the price.

I've also been playing

- Zack & Wiki for the Wii. It is a point-and-click puzzle game that seems pretty difficult at times. Cutest Monkey, ever. It is a very fun game, especially Zack's facial expressions.
- Prism (Big Fish Games ver., PC). This puzzle game is also on the Nintendo DS. The first 16 puzzles are so easy that you're genuinely shocked at the learning curve. I can't remember which level, but you'll get to one that will hand you your ass on a silver platter. The concept is to take the light-beam-emitter creatures and place them anywhere on the board so that you mirrors, beam splitters, color filters, and prism splitters send the right-colored beams to the corresponding target creatures. The most amazing thing about the game is that you can place any object, other than the targets, anywhere on the 8x10 board that isn't covered by a wall. This makes the game seem simpler, but it isn't!
- Mystery Case Files: Madame Fate (Big Fish Games, PC). This fourth game seems to be using a new-and-improved engine. No longer must you wait to click the next object you find. Also added are objects you must construct to find. The word puzzles are kind of easy, though. There are also large portraits of all of the carnies with a surprising amount of hidden objects.
- Flipper Critters (NDS). This game is a nice 3D pinball, it's fun, and it's cheap.
- Pogo Island (NDS). Have a Pogo.com account? You earn tokens and can transfer them to your online account! Word Whomp has a weak vocabulary, though.

EDIT: Gold Box has it in stock again!

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You Have to Break Some Easter Eggs To Make An Omelet

Cake, cake, cake. We are all cake-obsessed now. It's little secret that the recipe for Portal-promised cake is in the game. Several people have extracted the recipe and even baked it! A cake recipe is an odd Easter egg. Yet, this is the second recipe I've spotted as an Easter egg. It's not very well known that the credits for the PSP version of GripShift contain a chili recipe. That is because the credits are looooooooooooong. If you read this and know of other recipes hidden in games, let me know.

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Big Ol' Ad for Uwink

Electronicdesign.com has a story where Nolan Bushnell, one of the people responsible for bringing Pong to the Arcade, says "Video games today are a race to the bottom. They are pure, unadulterated trash and I'm sad for that," says Bushnell. The reason being they're not social. Before I continue, this story amounts to a big ad for uWink. Hey, the restaurant sounded interesting before I read this article, but I just don't live in the LA area.

I'm afraid Mr. Bushnell is in denial. Dave & Busters is extremely social. Gamers even meet there for sharing of common interests. I just missed the CAG/Goozex Meetup at D&B's near Washington, DC. Gaming leagues and clans are examples of people embracing the social aspect of games to improve their competitiveness and basically improve their quality of online play. And their are friends/address lists. That's just for starters. There are tons of competitors for uWink.

I actually think the article makes uWink look bad. Trash talking others down to improve your own business ventures doesn't work real well when the readers of the article are very much aware that it's just wrong. I'll still go to Uwink if I get the chance, but now it will have to dazzle me after the ill-timed comments.

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Practical Math--The Big Picture

I just noticed that if you are planning to buy either Rock Band or The Eye of Judgement for the PS3, you will be essentially buying a new gaming system. Think about it:

Rock Band (Bundle) $200
PSP 2000 ("lite") $170
Eye of Judgement (bundle) AND 5 themed decks ($15 each) $145
DS $130

The DS is the most bang for your buck. The PSP 2000 isn't bad either. Both of those have hundreds of games. Rock Band and The Eye of Judgement will only work with one game at release. The only other problem with Eye of Judgement are the boosters (8 cards at $4 per pack), which you will undoubtably buy. The starter pack with EoJ is only 30 cards. Luckily, the entire set is 110 cards for the first edition. Also lucky is the official website has a list of what cards are in what pre-made decks to help you choose.

I made this post because I was doing the math on EoJ, and it was a little disturbing to think about the money pit it would become. It looks fun, though, so I'm a little on the fence.

(Sorry for the quad post, I hit the space bar 4 times before I realized the Post button was being pressed. A really huge BOO! to everyone who trolled my repeat posts before I was finished! If it has only been a few minutes and the post is obviously incomplete, let the author finish.)

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The Artist Still Known as the Guy Who Wrote "Still Alive"

Jonathan Coulton is credited with Portal's closing song, Still Alive. You may sample all of his music in its entirety from his website. You may purchase thru his site or iTunes. Unfortunately, the new song from Portal is unavailable.

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