Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! Dress up, get/give out candy, and play some scary video games! Since I'm pressed for time today, I'll start off by being a cheapskate and linking to last year's article on some fun suggestions for Halloween gaming. But here's a brief listing of a couple more to get you in the Halloween spirit, and they're free indie games to boot!


Cottage of Doom
Cottage of Doom takes an old school gaming approach by offering pixel sprite graphics and a simple, arcade like challenge of seeing how long you can stay alive and getting the high score. You're stuck in a cottage that's quickly being surrounded by zombies, you've got a shotgun and some furniture with which to barricade the doors and that's about it! Grab it here!


Forbidden
If Cottage of Doom is an old school style, Forbidden is more of an art house take on an indie game with impressive results. Once again, the concept is simple; click and drag your avatar through these passageways, but be careful not to touch the walls as your pursuer will run full speed after you! It's kind of like a horror themed Operation game. With only about five levels it's a simple and quick distraction. Go here to get it!

So what games are you playing to celebrate Halloween?

The Orange Box wants my money!

Wow, I apologize for the long absence. So let’s get right to some griping, shall we? ^_^

As you may recall from a previous post, I have been pretty enthusiastic about Valve’s puzzle title Portal, which started life as a freeware game made from a group of students titled Narbacular Drop. I’m also a big fan of the Half-Life series. I don’t really like many first person shooters, but Half-Life 2 completely sucked me in, which is a testament to how immersive and enjoyable a game this is. When Valve first released the next installment, Half-Life 2 Episode 1, I was anxious to try it, but the $20 price tag seemed a bit steep to me. Thankfully, CheapAssGamer.com discovered that Circuit City was selling Episode 1 for only $7.99! Now that’s more like it!

So today marks the release of the Orange Box. In case you weren’t aware, the Orange Box contains Half-Life 2, Episode 1, Episode 2, Team Fortress 2 and Portal, all for $60. All in all a good deal. But I already own Half-Life 2 and Episode 1, and while Team Fortress 2 looks really great, I’m not really itching to play it. I only want Episode 2 and Portal. So I went on Steam to see how much they are individually, and I couldn’t believe it. Episode 2 is $30! And Portal is $20! While I’m normally not one to complain about a game’s length in terms of price or what we should expect from it, Portal is only supposed to last about three hours Now that’s a pretty expensive three hours. And it looks like there’s no chance of getting a good deal on Episode 2 the way I did Episode 1, because they’re not being sold individually in stores!

So I guess I’ve got to re-purchase two games that I’ve collectively spent $60 on already! Not cool, Valve. If your games weren’t so freaking brilliant I’d have half a mind not to support it with my hard earned money.

Inafune-san and NY!

So for those of you who didn’t know, Keiji Inafune-san, the creator of Megaman, was doing a signing at a Gamestop in New York on the 7th. My friend L and I decided that this would be a good chance to plan a grand New York adventure trip around the day, which would culminate in the meeting of one of gaming’s most legendary designers. We grabbed our laminated NY map and started plotting out the day.

Our first stop was someplace we had talked about visiting for quite a while, but it was always pretty out of the way when we were in New York for other reasons, normally to hit up Nintendo World and the surrounding area. Since I’m about as geeky for Ghostbusters as I am for Nintendo, the firehouse is a must-visit. Hook and Ladder 8, as it’s called, still looks every bit like the GBHQ as it did in the movie, and it was very thrilling to stand in front of it! There’s even a firehouse logo on the sidewalk in front of it that mimics the “no ghost” logo. The large sign that the Ghostbusters had hanging in front of the firehouse is actually right inside the building, though it was a bit too difficult to see inside.


After taking a stroll through Chinatown and checking out some fun anime and game shops, we stopped by Video Games New York, an import and retro store that I’ve frequented via booths at a few anime conventions. The inside is densely packed with every type of game you can imagine. While it was exciting, it was also quite intimidating, as I simply didn’t know what to look at! There was a wall of Game and Watches, a whole wall of Dreamcast imports and much more. But today I was looking for just one tiny piece of equipment that has eluded me for almost as long as I’ve been blogging. Some of you may recall my earlier blog to find an Famicom to NES adapter by means of a Gyromite cartridge. After that proved fruitless, I bought a few more Gyromite carts. I’m now the owner of four copies of Gyromite, and no converters! Oh, and no R.O.B. to play the Gyromite games, either. I asked the good shopkeep for said converter, and was handed a tiny piece of plastic, charged ten dollars, and merrily went along my way. However, fate got the last laugh, because after I went home and planned to play my Kid Dracula Famicom game, I discovered that I have actually bought a converter that lets me play NES games on my (nonexistent) Famicom. Well played, Fate. Well played.

Happy as a clam at what I then thought was the completion of my years-long search, L and I stopped at a little Japanese noodle restaurant. Rai Rai Ken was quite a pleasant place to eat, the food was great (I had the beef curry) and the look of the place was making me geek out a little. Finally we decided to make our way to the Gamestop and begin our long wait in line. We arrived around 3:30, with the signing planned to start at 5. During our wait some guy with a video camera was going down the line interviewing people, and I did my best to look like I was completely uninterested in speaking with him, which seemed to work. I now know however that it was someone from Kotaku, as they’ve posted the video on their site. I feel like he should have made that a bit more clear as it looked like he was just shoving the camera in people’s faces and asking the odd question of “What are you doing here?” which I felt was odd, because he knew darn well what we were doing here!

Eventually we slowly marched into the Gamestop and around the perimeter of the store. Before Inafune-san was Mega Man! Or rather, Mega Man from his Starforce games, which I’m not familiar with, but he still looked cool nonetheless. I had brought along my copy of Mega Man Legends for the PS1 for him to sign, knowing how much he enjoyed that series and wishes to continue with a third game. I’ve only recently acquired the game, for the specific purpose of this signing, but I have played a little of it and so far I’ve liked what I’ve seen and intend to finish it quite soon. After a bit of stumbling on my part (I nervously took the booklet out of the case, then dropped the case which went under the table, making me feel like a complete fool as I knelt down to search under the table), I got his autograph on the game, and one fantastic picture of the two of us. Just Inafune and me, hanging out yo.

Thus ended a fun filled day with L as we traipsed all over New York. Guess I’ll start looking for more copies of Gyromite...

Almost Perfect Wii Bowling game

I've had this video on my phone for quite some time and thought I should do something with it. Something like post it. Here. It's the closest I've gotten to a perfect game of Wii Bowling. It may be the closest I'll ever get, I don't know. A strike in every frame, except for a 9 spare I get in the tenth. Here it is, my almost-legendary game.

The PSP trend to come

Sometimes I save things on my hard drive for weird reasons. I might see a picture of a figure standing in an interesting way, or with great lighting and save it with the intention of drawing it later on. Or as is the case here, I might see a picture that Sony created in total seriousness that is the most absurd thing I've seen and will want to look back on it and laugh one day. Well, I guess that day has come, as I came across this picture on my hard drive recently, and it's still as crazy as the day it was posted for millions to see online.



This was the first image Sony released for their new PSP unit, trying to convince us how fashionable it will become to wear your PSP around your neck with a lanyard. For some reason I really enjoy the ultra-serious fellow to the right. Anyway, I still have to really see this trend catch on in the way that Sony was hoping, which I guess is good since all our necks would probably be permanently destroyed after two years of that hanging on us. But who knows, maybe after Sony announces their PSP redesign, suddenly it will be all that rage to watch movies and games will going up and down stairs instead of looking where you're going, and glancing with deadly serious over your shoulder all while wearing our fasionable PSPs.