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Stone Age Gamer keeping the good old days… good
By Stephen Munn | November 18, 2008
Old school gaming may be experiencing a bit of a renaissance here on Aeropause thanks to neat brick-and-mortal retailers like PlayNTrade, but it’s common knowledge that the Internet is an excellent place to find old gaming goodness. If you haven’t heard of Stone Age Gamer, this is my chance to crow about them a little bit, because I recently had an experience that might make you think less of me, but much more of Stone Age Gamer.
Here’s how this went down. Read the rest of this entry »
Topics: Aeropaused, Articles, N64, NES, Retro, Reviews, Super NES |
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By Joe Fourhman | November 18, 2008
Remember what I said before Sony seeking to create a unified, character-driven brand, a la Nintendo? The trend is continuing and LittleBigPlanet appears to be petri dish number one. Today SCEA announced FIVE LocoRoco-themed costumes for LittleBigPlanet. They are positively killer. The pack of five is available starting this Thursday for $2.99. If this keeps up, they might as well put me on a $3/week subscription plan.
As for this week’s free costume, it’s another contest submission entered by a fan. Although I think something was lost in the translation…
The original version is far cooler. Kinda Shocker-lookin’.
There’s no telling how long this will last, but SCEA is vowing to deliver FREE LittleBigPlanet costumes every week. I’m sure they’ll continue to deliver the pay stuff too.
Source: PlayStation Blog
Sony throwing wrench in Netflix Xbox launch? (Updated)
By Jeremy Yerby | November 18, 2008
Those of us in the New Xbox Experience preview have been enjoying playing Netflix movies on our Xbox 360’s for a little while, and I was all nice and ready to write up a laundry list of praises. However, I (and others) noticed some movies disappear from my Instant Queue on the Xbox. I didn’t think anything of it at first since the product is still technically pre-launch, however, the sad truth is that it appears intentional.
All movies produced by Columbia Pictures, a wholly-owned Sony subsidiary, are, as Netflix puts it, “Not available on Xbox” as of today. This was not the case previously. This includes many of the most worthwhile movie on the service. I had a sinking feeling that something was going to spoil the party.
Read it and weep. More on this as it comes.
[UPDATE] Word from Netflix via the Netflix Blog.
Hello. Steve Swasey, here, Catherine Fisher’s colleague in Corporate Communications. Following up on Catherine’s post, a comment on title availability to watch instantly:
As watching instantly becomes a more prominent part of the Netflix service, our goal is to have all of our streaming content licensed for all of our partner devices. We’re doing well in this area, but it will take some time before we fully achieve that goal. Today, titles regularly come in and out of license and there is a natural ebb and flow to what we have on license at any given point in time. In the case of Xbox 360, a few hundred titles are temporarily unavailable to be streamed via the Xbox game console. Those titles are still available to be watched on subscribers’ computers and on TVs via other partner devices, and we hope they’ll be licensed for Xbox 360 shortly.
Sure, its a BS answer, but it at least brings some hope that this is just a temporary situation.
The First Thirty: Socom Confrontation
By Richard Windsor | November 18, 2008
Sometimes I forget the games that I put in my Gamefly queue. This is a problem because sometimes I end up buying a game and then 2 days later I end up getting it in the mail as well. I never planned on buying Socom Confrontation, so luckily I was not upset when it arrived on my doorstep unexpectedly. I was however upset after playing one of the worst excuses for an online shooter I have played in a long long time!
Socom has been getting some press for issues with online stability and glitches, but for me these are the least of its problems. Almost every aspect of Socom is mediocre and drab. The controls feel 10 years old, the inventory system was designed by a retarded baboon, and some of the maps are way to big to be fun at all. The game is just mediocre in almost every regard. If this was 1999 then maybe this game would feel fresh and new, but with so much better on the market I don’t know why anyone would want to play this game. It pained me to even play this game for thirty minutes, but to be fair and see if the game would eventually grow on me I gave it much more time then that. But at the end I was never so happy to seal up a game in its return envelope.
This all is very depressing because there is no single player, which means they actually spent all there time working on this piece of garbage. How could an entire development team spend over 2 years working on a game that feels this outdated? It just boggles my mind that they would let this happen, but I guess that it all comes down to money and time. Speaking of money…don’t buy or even rent this lame excuse of a game. Save up your money and buy Gears 2 or Resistance 2.
Aeropodcast #58: It’s All About Netflix
By Joe Haygood | November 18, 2008
Dialing it back a bit from last week’s mega show, it is just Joe and Fourhman talking up the new Xbox Live Experience, and a little bit of Fallout 3. Also, we take some time for community questions, and have an emotional moment with some of our favorite games. And somehow, Reservoir Dogs comes up.
Music this week is from Revolution Void, and can be found at www.revolutionvoid.com. The podcast is put together by the Aeropause Mixmaster, Stephen Munn, and his twin turntables of steel.
Download the podcast from here or subscribe to the podcast using one of the services below: Also make sure to review us on iTunes.
The New Xbox Experience Review
By Richard Windsor | November 18, 2008
When I first saw the NXE the thought crossed my mind that Microsoft was trying to make the 360’s new dashboard pretty just for the sake of being pretty. The dashboard we had was already very functional and miles ahead of the competition. So why would Microsoft completely change the dashboard? After spending the last 4 days knee deep in the NXE I realized that there was room for much improvement in the overall experience, but could the new dashboard really deliver on that? Let’s find out!
Rare teases sequels to their catalog of lost games
By Joe Fourhman | November 18, 2008
Jordan sent us a tip to a Cranky Gamers UK post containing a tantalizing screenshot from Banjo Kazooie on 360 (I assume the Nuts & Bolts version, right?) Although the Cranky article doesn’t say where they found this bit of dialogue, the screenshot says:
They’re all in the pipeline, you know. New Killer Instinct, Battletoads and Jet Force Gemini games. Even Ghoulies 2! Oh, you’ll never believe that. I’ve ruined my own humorous jape.
With just one screen, I have no context for this info, but I have to wonder if it isn’t just Rare screwing around with the fanboys. We haven’t seen a new Killer Instinct game since Killer Instinct Gold (N64, 1996), and plenty of other fighting franchises have since stolen that thunder. Jet Force Gemini was a mostly well-reviewed 1999 N64 game, but you don’t see huge levels of buzz about it today. And Battletoads… well, I know there’s a lot of fan support for the series, but I never saw it as anything more than a Ninja Turtles ripoff. Yes, yes, it was mad hard and one of the best-looking SNES games… but still. Turtles rip.
It’s the Ghoulies ref that seems to kill the rumor before it even has time to get started. Grabbed by the Ghoulies is the biggest flop in the Rare line and made many people wonder just what happened to the company.
Do any of these contain enough fan cred to warrant a sequel? Rare has a spotty history as of late… do we really want them focusing on a new Killer Instinct? Is Rare’s clout anywhere near what it once was? You guys tell me.
Secrets of the Strategy Guide: the Good and Bad of Animal Crossing City Folk
By Joe Fourhman | November 18, 2008
I’ve been picking my way through the Animal Crossing City Folk strategy guide to see just how the game is going to surprise - and disappoint - me. Even as a longtime fan of the series, I have to admit that Nintendo has NOT moved the needle very far. It’s not the barely-improved graphics that bother me; it’s the repetition of structure. Why should Tom Nook’s tutorial be identical to the tutorials of both Wild World and the GameCube original? How tough would it have been, Nintendo, to come up with a different series of tasks to introduce players to the controls and possibilities of Animal Crossing? Instead of having to deliver packages to local villagers, how about Nook requests you catch a bug? A change as subtle as that would have acknowledged the legion of fans who played the previous games, while still providing simple starter tasks for the newbies.
Nevertheless, there still are fun features and cool tricks that enhance the experience… albeit sprinkled with plenty of “Oh come on, they didn’t fix THAT!?!” moments. I will try to keep things spoiler-free, but if you’re a lapsed/curious Animal Crossing fan, follow me inside and see if there’s any reason to sway your decision one way or the other. Please keep in mind that this is mostly from the printed strategy guide, a document that sometimes ends up incorrect due to last-minute changes or writing/editing ineptitude.
The PlayStation 3 Turns Two
By Paul Munn | November 17, 2008
Two years into the PS3 and the system seems to have finally gotten some respect from publishers and, surprisingly, from gamers as well. It’s been grudging respect, to be sure, but the system has seen some excellent titles launch this fall, including competitive cross-platform ones. The Trophy situation has improved markedly since the capability was added this summer — EA has basically written the book on how to patch them in with Burnout Paradise, Mercenaries 2, and Battlefield: Bad Company all getting them post-launch — and the in-game XMB support for text messaging is likely as far as Sony will go in trying to match up against XBox Live. The rest of the system’s media features continue to grow and the PlayStation Store revamp and the launch of the movie store including both the game and movie stores being available on the PS3 and PSP have all been impressive accomplishments this year.
Read the rest of this entry »
Peta Makes Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
By Levi Thornton | November 17, 2008
Thanksgiving is coming up and Peta is ready for another campaign against the evil meat eaters of the world. Before, they gave us comic books about how your mommy kills animals and how your daddy kills fish. Now we find out how cooking mama kills turkeys! In the latest battle against the evil meat eaters, they have created a flash game where you pluck, cut, stuff, and cook a turkey.
So does this really accomplish anything except making Peta look like self righteous idiots?
