I am what I have come to describe as an “informationaholic”. This does not mean that I read books while sipping coffee in public, but it does mean that I will spend hours on Wikipedia researching useless information to a very strenuous extent. My friends and coworkers have come to rely on me for all sorts of knowledge that nobody should ever, ever know so much about. Because of my attempts to recover from this addiction, I no longer research absolutely everything I talk about. As such, I did not know that Nintendo’s Art Style series actually began as a series of Japan-only GBA games that are abstract puzzle games. I did, however, know that I have rather enjoyed Art Style: Aquia on the DSi, and this peaked my interest to the Art Style games on the Wii’s WiiWare service. I downloaded the lot: Orbient, Cubello, and Rotohex. My lack of researching however served to backfire on me as Orbient and Rotohex are straight GBA ports with haphazard Wiimote control mapping. Given that the Wii is infinitely more capable than the DSi technically, I expected the games to be at least as beautiful as Aquia. I was mistaken. Imagine if you took a GBA game, made it really fuzzy, and then put it on your TV. I will admit that there is still some intrigue to be had in each game’s gameplay mechanic, but the games are just downright ugly. I suppose I expected more from something with “Art” in the title. Cubello however was not a GBA convert but rather an original title, or so I have read. I have not actually played it yet as a result of my distaste for the other two. Perhaps I will. The process of random selection can sometimes cause me to save the best for last.

But do play Aquia. Its quite good. The sounds the game makes during gameplay can be truly appreciated with headphones and they haunt me at night.

I’m amazed that we live in a time where someone saying “We will show stuff at E3” can be considered an announcement, however when coming from the prolific id Software, I suppose that’s all that needs to be said. Curiously, Doom 4 in fact not only is it not a sequel of Doom 3 (don’t let that ‘4′ trick you!), it is also not a reboot of the series! Oh the times we live in. This is all especially entertaining if you remember id dropping out of the ESA last year, and as such they will not be able to have an official booth at the new and improved E3. Awkward!

If you are interested in such things there is an insider account of Blizzard pre- and post-merger with Vivendi Universal, which caused the new offspring company Activision Blizzard. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise to anyone that things at Blizzard changed for the worst when the company with what is perhaps the most annoying CEO in the business took over. The entire business philosophy of Activision of late seems to be “do everything that made EA unpopular”. EA is on the rebound for sure in the eyes of gamers, but Activision’s constant slips of the tongue and ‘exploiting’ of beloved franchises has put them pretty high on my shitlist.

I think the constant rumors of a new PSP being released is the only excuse anyone has to talk about the PSP (unless you are John Koller of Sony, of course). I keep hearing these fantasies of a new sliding screen design that it will not have a UMD drive. I don’t know about all of these things but this newest bit would support at least the latter theory: Patapon 2 will not come on UMD. Supposedly the game will only be available through PSN and download cards at retail. Now all they need is a rumor that good games will be coming to the PSP on a more regular basis and we’ll be all set.

Oh and I suppose I should mention this. We are freaking metal, afterall. Hope to see some of you show up.

Some of my favorites: (click any thumbnail to see the larger version)

Check out the rest here! [NeoGAF]

What you’re seeing here is the beginning of a new thing I’m going to start doing on a regular basis. I hesitate to call it a “column”, simply because columns tend to have a train of thought that is somewhat connected or at the very least travel along the same tracks. Up until now my role at Aeropause has been that of a news monger, essentially regurgitating things I read and hear from people and writing it up, adding some sort of snippy remark wherever I can fit one in. But, honestly, it just isn’t me. I’m not the guy who you should send into the eye of the hurricane with a camera — I’m the guy who takes the footage of the hurricane and adds zany sound effects to it afterwards. There are plenty of better, more connected people (even on this site!) to feed you the day’s news. I hope to offer something else that nobody else is. With time what I am offering will become more clear. I won’t lie to you: my inspiration draws heavily from the writings of Jerry Holkins, also known “on the street” as Tycho from Penny Arcade. I don’t intend to completely rip him off, but I do aspire to be more than “PA but without the comic”.

Glad that’s over.

Let’s talk about the DSi, something I’m sure you’re sick of having shoved in your face by now. The television ads for this thing have eaten up at least fifteen minutes of my life being repeatedly thrown in between my favorite shows. Both ads are somewhat strange and uncomfortable to watch, but the one for Rhythm Heaven strikes me because at the end they announce that the game is available for “Nintendo DSi and DS”. I mean I do get it: they are trying to aleviate confusion amongst those who may not understand that the DSi also plays standard-issue DS games, but this wording would imply to the uninformed that the DS and DSi play different games. This is something that will be true in the future when DSi-only games come out, but why needlessly confuse the masses ahead of time? I suppose this is a problem that Nintendo signed up for when they decided to reach out to the non-gamer.

I did purchase a DSi, and much like when I purchased the DS Lite, I am almost ashamed to admit it. When I purchased a DS Lite I got some heckling mainly because I had a perfectly functioning DS “phat”. But I couldn’t go back to using the original DS after seeing the Lite any more than you could go back to living in a cave and hunting for food with a pointy stick.

The DSi was a different experience for me, though. With the Lite I knew what I was getting into right away. With the DSi, I honestly don’t; mainly because the true value of DSiWare — hence the value of the DSi itself — has not yet been fully revealed. On the surface, I actually lost some ground as the DSi does not feature a GBA port, so I’m somewhat ashamed to say I traded a system that plays two kinds of games for one that plays half that number. But, truly, the DSi is really quite different from the DS or Lite, and I dont know if Nintendo is doing a good enough job of really telling anyone that.

It almost feels like the DS grew up and got a job. Theres a new interface that flows like the bastard child of XMB and the Wii Channels System. Theres a built-in web browser. The camera utility is more robust than it has any right to be (even if the cameras themselves are not). But the star of the show to me is the DSi Shop and the ability in general to upgrade your DSi with “apps”. The comparison has been made to the iPhone but considering the DSi has buttons and the iPhone does not I feel like I can take the downloadable games on the DSi more seriously.

Aquia (I refuse to place the Art Style Series moniker in front of it) is in the running for my favorite puzzle game since Lumines. If this is the type of thing I can expect from DSiWare then please sign me up. It has old-school style mixed with a pretty sharp presentation both visually and audibly. It doesn’t hold your hand, however, but it is customizable to your own difficulty desires and shape and size of the peices you work with. If you like puzzle games and you don’t mind the difficulty curve please use some of your 1000 free points on this game.

My DSi has assumed the throne my DS Lite previously occupied atop my Wii. I keep my charger over there and whenever my DS is not being played I place it atop the Wii (after brushing away the cobwebs and dust) to hibernate and to heckle the Wii in general about how much more use it gets than the Wii. My Wii assumes a very specific role in my life: Virtual Console player. When I get that burning itch to play Ocarina of Time I will play my Wii. But then the stars fall out of alignment and the Wii goes back to dormancy. If Nintendo releases this service for the DSi then my Wii is well and truly screwed.

I keep hearing about Bioware’s intentions of releasing upwards of two years of DLC for Dragon Age: Origins. I can’t recall feeling the same blind joy that most people expressed… I suppose I am too cynical and skeptical but this is exactly the kind of thing I recalled expecting when EA took over Bioware. If done correctly, they will make a truly complete and epic game and allow us to expand on that later. If done “The EA Way” (patent pending) then we’ll get the barebones game for our $60, and the rest sold to us in bits and peices as time passes. I don’t say this lightly as I am really looking forward to the title, and I have enjoyed many of Bioware’s past efforts, and I’ll even give EA credit for the past two or so years of not being quite as much as a douchebag company, but if you are reading please don’t sell us half a game for full price.

Oh and last month I put out a story about OutRun Online Arcade coming “next week” and seeing as how that passed nearly a month ago it appears I either got a bad tip or I was lying. I’ll let you decide. However, the game is supposed to come next week again, except that this next week is not in the past. I suggest checking it out.

Image care of Joystiq

Yet some more Nintendo news from GDC: Wii received a system update today during the keynote. New things of interest: the long-awaited “storage solution” for those who have filled up that internal memory and are tired of playing musical chairs wih their memory blocks (read: nearly everybody who owns a Wii). There is a new menu called the “SD Card Menu” and it lets you launch the games directly from the card. Finally! Oh, and as an added treat, Wii’s software is now capable of recognizing SDHC cards, which gives you a potential memory boost up to 32GB!

And then something unexpected: “Virtual Console Arcade” was announced and launched today with 4 titles in yet another expansion of the Wii’s digital offerings.  The service will offer classic arcade games that are not found on other consoles.

• Gaplus | 600 Wii points
• Mappy | 500 Wii points
• The Tower Of Druaga | 500 Wii points
• Starforce | 500 Wii points

Two more titles, Solvalou and Space Harrier, were mentioned but as of writing have not released and a date has not been announced.

Looks like Nintendo may have finally awoken from their slumber.

It appears to borrow liberally from Phantom Hourglass except now there is this fetish with tracks and paths. The trailer showed a player navigating a train using the touch screen and stylus, and similarly using the stylus to draw a path for various things in the combat, including giving directions to a guardian you apparently have command of.

No details on the story have been thrown out there, but I’ll keep my eyes peeled and update the post when I find anything new. For now, enjoy the trailer care of Kotaku:

Nintendo announced today during the GDC summit that there are two new game card types coming along with the launch of the Nintendo DSi: DSi cards and DSi-enhanced cards. As the names suggest, DSi cards are designed only to play on a Nintendo DSi system, and DSi-enhanced cards will play on any DS system however extra functions and features will be present (most likely ones involving the camera or downloading to DS) when used on a DSi.

I’m still holding my breath on whether or not I will splurge on one, but now I’m closer than I was to doing so. I know Nintendo, and I know some Mario or Zelda games in the future will require a DSi, so I may as well bite the bullet now. (Although I will likely keep the DS Lite around for GBA games at least >_< )

The Xbox 360 exclusive Ninja Gaiden II is getting the Sigma treatment, according to Famitsu. The game will be ported to the PlayStation 3 with extra material, similar to that of the original Ninja Gaiden being ported from Xbox to PS3. Dead or Alive’s Ayane, a friend of Ninja Gaiden’s Ryu Hayabusa, will be making an appearance as a playable character. Other than confirming the game would support PSN in some way, no other details about the “enhancements” this version will receive were given.

Interesting that this is the second time one of Itagaki’s creations has been ported to the PS3 without him being involved. Itagaki was an outspoken supporter of the Xbox platform from the beginning (a rarity from a Japanese developer), bringing his acclaimed Dead or Alive series to Xbox making it one of the first great fighters for the system early on, in addition to serving as a graphical showpeice for Xbox. He continued his support of Xbox and Xbox 360 with Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive 4, and Ninja Gaiden II, before leaving Tecmo after a long-standing dispute with the President of Tecmo over his compensation and contract.

According to the article, the game is currently halfway through development.

Famitsu scan after the break.

Leading video game developer BioWare, a division of Electronic Arts Inc. today officially announced Mass Effect 2, the highly anticipated sequel to the multi award-winning 2007 hit, Mass Effect. The Mass Effect trilogy is a masterful science fiction adventure set in a vast universe filled with dangerous alien life forms and mysterious uncharted planets. In this dark second chapter, Saren’s evil army of Geth soldiers has just been defeated, and humans, who are still struggling to make their mark on the galactic stage, are now faced with an even greater peril…

“We’re going to surpass the extraordinary gaming experience we brought our fans in Mass Effect by delivering intensified combat and expanded weapon options as well as increased depth of planet exploration, all while delivering a powerful, emotionally engaging story,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, General Manager and CEO, BioWare and General Manager and Vice President, EA. “Mass Effect 2 is shaping up to be an unforgettable RPG-shooter experience, taking players on a non-stop roller-coaster ride filled with stunning plot twists and no-holds-barred action.”

Mass Effect 2 is coming to PC and the Xbox 360 video game system in Early 2010. To see the exclusive new Mass Effect 2 teaser trailer check out the website here: www.masseffect.com.

Interesting that it is only being announced for Xbox 360 and Games for Windows. Many speculated EA’s influence would see the sequel release on at least the PlayStation 3, if not giving it the Madden treatment and putting it out on anything with a screen, but regardless one has to wonder what purpose announcing a game so far from release is other than being a big, fat tease.

(Thanks to Kotaku)

The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are media altars, if you know what you are doing. You don’t even need to go out buy any sort of discs to make these the spotlight of your entertainment center. Both systems can grab videos off your computer and play them on your big screen, both supporting a wide range of formats. Awesome. Both systems have a video rental store. Sweet. The Xbox 360 can stream Netflix movies and TV shows, and the PS3 can play Blu-Rays. So, yeah, both systems are quite capable. But I still found myself spending alot of time watching TV shows on my computer instead of my big screen.

That’s where PlayOn comes in. PlayOn is a simple little media server that runs on your Windows (more on that later) computer and actually allows your PS3 or 360 to play internet videos from YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, CBS, ESPN, and more. It works very much the way you would stream videos off your computer. The software “tricks” the system into thinking those videos are local on your PC. What is actually happening is your computer is rapidly streaming, saving, and encoding the video in a format the systems can understand. If you have a decent computer, it should be pretty seamless.

Doesn’t the Xbox 360 already do Netflix? Yes, it does, however, the “official” Netflix client, while very sleek and usable, requires an Xbox Live Gold subscription in addition to your Netflix subscription. For alot of us that isnt a big deal since we already had Gold accounts, but, for those of you who don’t and don’t want to pay and extra $50 a year ontop of your Netflix subscription, this is a good alternative.

So I can use Netflix on PS3 just like the 360? Yes and no. You don’t get the fancy client that the Xbox 360 has, but, you are able to stream any show or movie from your instant queue on the PS3, you just have to scroll through it on the XMB the same way you do media that is shared on the network. However, HD is not supported through PlayOn, and the official 360 Netflix client seems to be slightly better quality since it is a direct connection and not having to stream off your local computer. However, the quality is still very watchable, and its better than no Netflix support at all.

Does this work on a Mac? Unfortunately there is not a Mac version of the PlayOn Client, however some people have reported success using the Windows Virtualization products such as Fusion and Paralells. However, I have found that while slightly inconveinent, using Boot Camp to setup a Windows XP or Vista partition provides the best performance. Thats the way I ran it on my MacBook before we upgraded the family computer to a new Vista machine that was actually technically proficient enough to run the software smoothly.

What about the Wii? MediaMall has made a vague promise to add Wii support sometime in 2009. No more details have been revealed.

What do I need to know? First of all check out the official site and make sure your system is beefy enough to handle the streaming. Our machine is nothing special and it does the job just fine. You can use PlayOn free for 14 days, and it is a $29.99 one-time licensing fee after that. Be aware that occasionally the content providers such as Hulu and Netflix sometimes change the way they do their feeds and sometimes this temporarily “breaks” the way this program works, but MediaMall is usually pretty quick to fix these problems and they even have a user support form just for such things.

Do I have to keep going back to my computer to make it work? You have to setup your Netflix queue ahead of time, but other than that, you can browse videos right on your console without having to go to your PC to “Select” a video. You can browse the entire Hulu catalog, for example, by genre, alphabetically, and by category. It takes a little getting used to, but it is certainly usable. You may occassionally have the update your client, and whilst you can view many YouTube videos that are in the various “top” lists, if you wish to watch a specific one you can just add it to your favorites in Youtube on your computer, and then it will show in your favorites on your console.

So, that’s about the end of my pitch. I seriously have spent hours watching TV shows and movies on my Xbox and I keep finding new things to watch through Hulu and Netflix. The license is $30 after the 14 day trial ends and I felt it was worth it.

Check it out!

Public Service Announcement: Before you ask, no, I am not affiliated in any way with the people who make this product. Also, some of you may already know about this product, so good for you. This product has existed for some time (found out about it from Tycho at Penny-Arcade some time ago). However, the software has just recently gotten stable enough for me to give it a whole-hearted recommendation. I feel this is a product many of our readers would be interested in and I have nothing to gain by endorsing it.