Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition Review (PC)

It’s funny to be here a year later and having to review the exact same game that I reviewed last year, but for the most part, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition on PC is the exact same as its console brethren.  The only thing that truly sets it apart from those releases and what gives it the “Ultimate Sith Edition” title is the addition of three new missions that were not available in the original console release.  Whether this is a worthwhile addition will depend on your love or indifference to The Force Unleashed and Star Wars brands.

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First Thirty: New Super Mario Bros Wii

After spending weeks whining about how I had a hard time considering New Super Mario Bros Wii a good value at $50, I bought the game yesterday. The explanation is even worse, I suppose. I was expecting a heap of them on a display at my local Best Buy, and when I didn’t see the distinctive red box anywhere, I realized they must have sold out. It turns out someone had picked up a copy at some point and set it in the wrong place in the store, perhaps changing their mind, and when I picked that up I had a hard time setting it back down.

The handful of Best Buy coupons didn’t hurt either, nor did the insistence from my wife that she’d play the game with me.

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Read-a-long with Nintendo Power #249 (Holiday 2009)

It’s time again for your special thirteenth yearly issue of Nintendo Power, your last chance to double-check the 9.0 review for New Super Mario Bros Wii before hitting the Black Friday deals. There’s also plenty on the new DS Zelda, a taste of Epic Mickey, and a look back at five years of the DS… so read-a-long!

Issue #249, Holiday 2009
featuring The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS), Monster Hunter Tri (Wii)

All I need to hear about Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is that they did away with that horrible repeating temple crap that ruined Phantom Hourglass.

They did.

Set 100 years after Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks recently hit the big time by revealing the game’s key spirit: Zelda herself. Her body kidnapped and her soul left as a ghost only Link can see, Zelda is the cutest in-game item since the Tingle Tuner. You’ll use her intangible form to possess guardians, leading to the usual weapon-beats-puzzle adventure dynamic. She’s afraid of mice, however, so I imagine bombchus are right out.

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Weekend AeroProTip: Mega Man X2

GAME> Mega Man X2 (1994)
SYSTEM> Super NES
SOURCE> Nintendo Power #75, August 1995

These days, they would release this code as a GameStop pre-order exclusive.

Latest Comment

StephenJMunn @ 2009-11-22 14:37:04
I wonder if there's some way to execute this in my copy of Mega Man X Collection for Gamecube. More..

Topics: AeroProTip, Nintendo, Super NES | Comments

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UK intelligence organisation places ads on Xbox Live

And I thought that the average Xbox Live gamer and intelligence were diametrically opposed. UK intelligence agency GCHQ (Government Communitcation Headquaters, thank you Koss!) has been putting adverts, like the one pictured, on the Xbox Live dashboard (the Guardian reports). GCHQ answers to David Milliband (the UK’s foreign secretary) and deals with MI5 and MI6 (the British security and secret intelligence services. But it’s easier to say spys.) So, spys (or to be more precise, the advertising agency TMP) are using Xbox live to recruit new members because they “reflected in game-play experiences on Xbox, such as quick thinking, problem solving and team work”. (Insert obvious joke about spys pwning n00bs and teabagging corpses). Apparently, as well as conventional threats, they’re looking for 18-35 year olds (the Xbox’s target demographic) because “GCHQ’s work is also about helping government departments, such as the Ministry of Defence, to protect their information and communication systems.” So, protecting the systems against 1337 h@XX0rz then. I’m not quite sure what to make of this story. My experiences with Xbox live would suggest that the sort of people who congregate there are not the sort you’d want national security to depend on. On the other hand, it might get them out of their mother’s basements.

Pokemon Rumble has spawned a card game

Just in case you thought the Pokemon Trading Card Game’s complexity was prohibitive to younger players, there’s a new easy-play edition on the way that ties directly to recent WiiWare release Pokemon Rumble.

The Pokemon Rumble TCG ($10, coming early December) comes with sixteen cards and plenty of dice and token accessories, bent on simulating Rumble’s Battle Royale mode. The cards are fully compatible with the “regular” Pokemon TCG, but feature artwork done in the cute low-poly style of the Rumble WiiWare game. The thumbnail description (I haven’t seen an actual rulebook yet) makes it sound like a controlled guessing game where you wager which pokemon will survive based on how you roll the dice and what attacks are currently available.

The official Pokemon Rumble website has launched, and it currently offers a fourth code for owners of the WiiWare game. Unbelievably, the code unlocks the ultimate Gen 1 fanbait critter, Mew. The site promises more codes to come soon, including some that must be discovered by playing a matching game.

PS3 Firmware Update 3.10 Up and Live

It is always a nice surprise to log into your PS3 and see that there is a new update for your machine.  I was unaware that a new firmware update was coming to the PS3, but it seems that the 3.10 update has been in the works for a little while now.  So far, I do not see much change in the interface, save that I can change the background of my display card that others will see in their friends list.  Also, it now tiles up pictures, according to the notes, but I had no pictures on the system to see if this was true.

Another item that I cannot verify is Facebook integration.  I have read on several other sites that there is some basic Facebook integration, but I could not find it anywhere.

If you want the latest firmware, just head to the System Update selection under the Settings section of the XMB.  It is a small update, and took about 15 minutes max to download and install.

The Final Installment of Tales of Monkey Island Coming Dec. 8th

Telltale Games announced today, that the final chapter in the Tales of Monkey Island series will release next month on December 8th.  The episode will be entitled “Rise of the Pirate God” and will follow up on the events that were presented in the previous episode. 

It seems that there are reports everywhere that the heralded pirate, Guybrush Threepwood is dead, and more innuendo followed that speculated on the reformed pirate, LeChuck having a hand in the evil-doing.  Confused.  Well, if so, head over to Telltale Games, where you can pick up each individually wrapped episoded for $8.95.

Check the jump for the highly amusing press release.

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Spend 2010 playing the WiiWare versions of the entire Phoenix Wright library

Although once an only-in-Japan punchline (WTF LAWYER GAME?!?!?), Phoenix Wright has become fairly ubiquitous here in the West. Even as the Ace Attorney DS series passed the lawyering torch off to Apollo Justice, Phoenix still seems to hold the giant OBJECTION finger of our hearts.

Today Capcom announced that the three Phoenix Wright DS games will arrive on WiiWare next year. January will see the four-chapter “Ace Attorney” for 1000 points, plus you have the option of getting the fifth AA chapter for another 100. “Justice for All” appears in March, and “Trials and Tribulations” is scheduled for May.

We’ve talked about this on the podcast once of twice, about Phoenix Wright being an odd little beast. A tad too trial-and-errory for me; a little too nonsensical for Haygood. But at $10, you could do a whole lot worse. Given that this series is much-loved on DS (and remember that the DS releases were ports of popular Japanese GBA originals), I’d say we’re getting a pretty ripe plum for WiiWare.

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Kane and Lynch 2 Confirmed

I/O Interactive, part of Square Enix Europe (or Eidos, as it used to be called) has formally announced what some had suspected – there will be a Kane and Lynch 2. Subtitled Dog Days, the game will apparently “take players on an even more intense story experience, following two of gaming’s most disturbed criminals, through the gritty Shanghai underworld.” We don’t have a great deal of information, but apparently the game was “inspired by documentary filmmakers and the user-generated era,” they say. “Every aspect of the game has been designed to deliver a fresh perspective to the words ‘intensity’ and ‘realism’ in video games.” However, I suspect the question on everyone’s lips is: Will this game get Jeff Gerstmann fired from Giant Bomb? Hit the break for the spin!

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