Cathode Tan

Nothing To See Here

2009-07-09T15:19:00.000-07:00

Barely enough hours in the day to get work done, much less thoughtful blogging - so expect posts to be sporadic. Appease yourself with the Cathode Tan News in the meantime.

TV Watch: Harper's Island

2009-06-30T12:49:00.001-07:00

So a quick side story here, The Girl and I jumped on this show via Netflix Instant thinking it was a show that had already aired and passed, but it turns out this is part of Netflix's program to air recent material, and Instant gets the episodes after they air on television.

Most of the season is done with only what appears to be the two episode conclusion to air this weekend. Instant is a great way to catch up on the show to date, especially if you can grab the HD stream (say on your Roku).

The show itself is a pretty by the numbers murder mystery, feeling a bit like a good beach read. And it is good, don't let that factor in as much of a negative opinion. There's a great backstory that the show allows to breath and by the middle act there is quite a lot of fun to be had in trying to guess the various parts of the mystery.

Island is also relatively violent for a network show, so this doesn't feel like a sanitized made for TV affair, but manages to actually offer up some scenes with real teeth to them.

Highly recommended, and we're looking forward to seeing the ending.

Pirate Bay Going Legit

2009-06-30T12:40:00.000-07:00

Well known and recently battled in court torrent site The Pirate Bay is being bought and going legitimate:

Pirate Bay Acquired, Will Compensate Content Providers
by Kris Graft
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June 30, 2009

Pirate Bay Acquired, Will Compensate Content Providers
Advertisement
Embattled file-sharing site The Pirate Bay has been acquired by game networking company Global Gaming Factory for $7.8 million, and will turn the website into a legitimate operation that compensates content providers.

"We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site, " said GGF CEO Hans Pandeya in a statement. The acquisition is slated to close in August.

Pandeya said that Sweden-based The Pirate Bay is one of the "top 100 most visited internet sites in the world." He added, "However, in order to live on, The Pirate Bay requires a new business model, which satisfies the requirements and needs of all parties, content providers, broadband operators, end users, and the judiciary. Content creators and providers need to control their content and get paid for it. File sharers need faster downloads and better quality."

It will be interesting to see what changes this will cause, if the kind of content is radically different or if the legal issues will be handled by the new company or what.

For Sunday: '9' Trailer

2009-06-25T17:51:00.000-07:00

Burton's Alice Looking Amazing

2009-06-25T17:45:00.000-07:00

Wired has a great preview of Tim Burton's upcoming Alice in Wonderland adaptation:

Game Play: Sims 3 for iPhone

2009-06-24T08:04:00.000-07:00

The Sims is one of those iconic franchises which will get a lot of buy-in pretty much no matter where it gets ported, so it is nice that EA has put a lot of polish and presentation to the iPhone implementation of Sims 3.

I don't have the PC version of this latest installment, so I can only compare it to the original Sims and the Sims 2 that hit the PlayStation a while back. How well does this ultra-portable take on the game hold up? Well, there's good and bad.

All of the tamagotchi style play remains intact, you still have to make sure your Sim's bodily functions are being appeased as well as a long chain of wishes that (very) randomly come along. You'll get a house that you can upgrade and furnish, but you can't modify the layout (just buy bigger houses). Those wishing to trap Sims in one room prisons with a stove and waiting for them to catch on fire will need to look elsewhere.

Only one Sim can be controlled, the one you create with various personality traits and some chosen fasion statement. There's no family dynamics save for marriage, although like many things in the game marriage seems to be mostly a status update as my current SimWife has no problem with my romantic interludes with my LiveInSimGirlfriend, even when performed right next to her.

In fact, the game seems to be a lot easier when you more or less try to have sex (oh, sorry, WooHoo) with everyone you meet. I went from the bottom rung on the politics to the top in a single Sunday afternoon by just repeatedly asking my boss (who I was sleeping with) for a promotion. I almost quit right there on the spot.

Jobs are a bit odd, actually, because promotions are slow unless you're a whore and you can earn five to ten times more by fishing than going into work any given day. Fishing is done via a quick mini-game which is about as challenging as playing tic-tac-toe alone. All of the mini-games, which include cooking and repairing things, are about as difficult. Oddly getting better at cooking is less rewarding because it ends up making even a grilled cheese more annoying since you have to juggle four pots instead of two (yes, in the world of Sims, grilled cheese sandwiches are a stew).

In just a few days of playing on and off, I've made friends with everyone, made a nemesis, slept with half the women in town, got fired, became Vice President (who knew towns had Vice Presidents?) and own a pretty snazzy house. Except for fulfilling all the possible wishes, which apparently unlocks the Pawn Shop in town, I've more or less maxed out the game.

So bottom line question - is it fun? The short answer is yes, and addictive as all get out. The long answer is yes, but ultimately somewhat shallow. I miss the wide variety of goods you could buy in previous versions. I miss being able to cultivate multiple Sims in different directions at the same time (in the same house). I miss well established goals which might take longer than an hour to accomplish. There's a serious lack of depth in both the interactions with the game itself, like the minigames, and with the Sims (like not being able to annoy your wife by moving in with another woman).

Recommend, but with a but of a shrug. I'm still playing it, and Sim fans will have already bought it and have made their second or third Sim by now. For those not already into some kind of Sim fetish, though, you might be cautious.

Book Read: Anathem

2009-06-22T09:45:00.000-07:00

We just finished Neal Stephenson's Anathem on audiobook last week. We've been fans since Snow Crash, and loved the audio adaptations for both that book and Diamond Age

First, a side note that I'm a bit of fan about audiobooks. It fits easily with the fact that I rarely have time to read for fun anymore and The Girl and I can share the book in tandem. It helps that production of audiobooks has gotten a thousand times better (we can probably thank a certain Jim Dale for that a bit).

Anathem is a fascinating book and a little hard to talk about without getting to far into spoilers. This is partially because one of the interesting things Anathem is a bit of a word game. Stephenson actually opens the book with a bit of a preface about that, but what follows is an interesting set of rules, some ruses and a lot of word play that fits neatly into the book's themes and manages to make some interesting twists and points on the genre in large.

Compared to his other books, the story starts off slow (OK, slower than Snow Crash and Diamond Age at least) with a lot of explanation - this is not just for exposition but also sets up foundation blocks for questions and mysteries that crop up in the second and third acts of the book. There's some work to stick with, but there is a great deal of payoff in the end.

Highly recommended.

Amazon's Gold Box Loves PS3 Today

2009-06-22T09:42:00.001-07:00

Amazon has some great PS3 game deals right now.

Anathem Book Trailer

2009-06-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

I didn't even know this kind of thing existed, but this was a promotional trailer released for Neal Stephenson's Anathem:

The World of Anathem

Diamond Age Miniseries

2009-06-18T08:52:00.000-07:00

This is one of those bits of information that's so old, it's new to me. George Clooney's production company is working on several things with SciFi Channel, including a Diamond Age miniseries. Diamond Age being a novel from Neal "Snow Crash" Stephenson. That was announced in 2007, and apparently development got wrangled up in the writer's strike, but production continues.

We're about finished with the Anathem audiobook here at the Cathode Cave, so it couldn't come any quicker.

Lost News Clippings: Natal, Pachter, and Digital TV

2009-06-16T06:36:00.000-07:00

Posting is going to be slow for a couple weeks, peeps, thanks in large part to a heavy workload. I have a few emails I need to catch up, but I thought I'd catch up on some news stories of late.

The news mill has pretty much announced and denounced that Microsoft is issuing a new 360 to coincide with the Natal launch next year. I'm siding with the latter, as the former feels like a) pretty high noise to signal interference that stemmed from an excitable quote about how big the Natal launch will be and b) the real launch is still a bit too far away to know how big the Natal launch will be. Big, I'm sure, but there's a lot of factors involved and I don't really know why Microsoft would be doing anything other than a bundle for the new product. Redmond is going to have enough work on Natal adoption itself, they don't need to compile that with new console hardware as well.

Pachter hit the news again, with both decrying and then apologizing about decrying Sony's PSP Go price. I'm rather with Pachter here, I think the Go pricing is a bit odd. Sure, they're going up against the iPhone - but why go up against the iPhone if you don't need to do so, especially with the 3GS just being announced. Hopefully Sony is trying to balance out some PS3 losses and has done some decent math. Honestly, they could make $99 and they still wouldn't have convinced me to get one. My DS is gathering enough dust as it is.

And I don't think any link is necessary here - digital TV took over analog this weekend in the much reported and recently delayed rollout which kills the analog signal for more bandwidth for digital providers. I can't really complain, we've had cable for years and anything we would get over the air would be digital at this point as well, but I do still remember watching the Dukes Of Hazzard in my brother's room on a tiny black and white set. So let's hope it goes quietly into the night.

Game Play: Boom Blox

2009-06-16T06:16:00.000-07:00

Boom Blox is one of those games that will remind you why you got a Wii. You could sparsely describe it as "Jenga with bombs", but that simplifies a deceptively complex gameplay structure which include several mechanics revolving around the basic theme of "fun with physics".

Players can take turns tackling the blocks, depending on the subgame you'll pull, throw, explode or shoot at the things in an attempt to score as many points as possible - and each of those actions have variations of their own like bowling balls and water hoses. With others, you can either cooperatively try and take down structures or go head to head for the most points.

There's very little flaw in the game. I'm not a huge fan of the shooting aspects of it, since it seems a bit like a cheap light gun game to me, but nearly everything else about it plays great and makes for an excellent multiplayer experience as well.

Highly recommended.

Zero Punctuation Reviews InFamous

2009-06-12T06:39:00.000-07:00

So posting has been slow this week, in due largely to a long week at work. So in lieu of more posts about Wii-nis envy, here's Yahtzee:

Game Play: Sacred 2 (PS3)

2009-06-09T07:18:00.000-07:00

I've already posted about Sacred 2's bizarre coop setup (bizarre being a friendly term there), but since we got past that weirdness, we've been able to jump into the game with more earnest.

Let's deal with some of the bad first. Framerates drop. Bugs crop up here and there - we had one instance where our characters stopped responding to our control and nobody could take any damage. The Girl resurrected once somewhere she couldn't move, until she was knocked aside by a giant squid. When working correctly, the game's rules are a bit arcane and sometimes even when it is working - it almost feels like it isn't. We've been playing it on and off for a few days now and I think we're finally getting a hang of the statistics, what some of the items do, managing the characters, etc.

So this is not a pick up and play kind of game. You have to put in some time just to get the hang of it. While still using a very much a Diablo-style format, the game employs some pretty serious mechanics to it.

The good is that once you get the hang of it, Ancaria is a huge and well realized world. Few games in this genre, especially for the console, allow you to roam so freely about, picking up side missions and honestly just exploring. The non-linear aspect is a huge bonus, compared to the specific chapter flow of most games of this ilk. There is a decent amount of diversity that we've seen so far, although at some point you wonder what in T-Energy made the rats just so darn mean. Still, you get the impression you are adventuring across a vast landscape, not just fulfilling task A which will be followed by task B.

Truth is, now that we're in the thick of it, this is honestly one of the better two player hack and slash RPG's we've had on the console. The game shines when you head down a hill and meet an army of monsters and get engaged in brief but somewhat epic battles. In fact, the game is better at throwing ten or more creatures at you than it is at boss fights so far.

I have an armload of fixes and tweaks I'd like to see in a patch at some point, but the game is definitely recommended for fans of the genre - with the caveat that it takes a little bit of time and frustration to enjoy.

For Sunday: Scotty Got An Office Job (The Cliffhanger!)

2009-06-09T07:06:00.001-07:00

This is the latest in a long running series. Excellent, if not a bit tragic - but bonus points for the use of the word bung:

Michael Pachter Claims Wii-nis Envy For Sony ( and something less insulting for Microsoft )

2009-06-08T11:43:00.000-07:00

Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan, clearly not a Cathode devoted reader:

“Sony and Microsoft each fired cannon shots across Nintendo’s bow, with Microsoft’s Project Natal and Sony’s Motion Controller (based on the Eye Toy). We view Microsoft’s proposed offering as intended to provide a user-friendly interface for Xbox Live dashboard access, and view Sony’s offering as Wii-nis envy. We do not expect either to displace Nintendo’s Wii from its leadership position,” he said.

-- Analyst: Rival Motion Control Tech Won't Break Wii Dominance

Pachter's been doing this a while, and has also said that Sony could see a price cut in April, that this is the final generation of consoles and the Wii should lower prices to "be strong again".

(Note: this is why I try not to predict much of anything)

So penis jokes aside, I'm not entirely sure what he's smoking. OK, yeah - Sony is clearly coming up with a solution akin to the Wii's motion controls. I'm missing the bit of the analysis where that equates to being doomed. Because other portions of the PlayStation 3 which have emulated other console features, like the PlayStation Network, have been miserable failures.

No, wait. The opposite is true. In fact, if anything Sony has showed that it is almost better off emulating other companies (PSN) than trying to come up with new ideas (Home). Not to mention that this is the game Microsoft perfected like over a decade ago.

Speaking of Microsoft - while Pachter's comment on Sony might invoke a 'duh', the Microsoft bit is a 'huh'. Microsoft has made of point of getting Natal games in front of the press. Microsoft has shipped development kits to every one of their partners. Does that sound a bit odd for a dashboard upgrade? Not to mention a pretty cost ineffective way to solve a non-problem?

I'm hoping Pachter's being quoted out of context or something. Because while being quoted with the word "Wii-nis" by your name probably does something for traffic, but I was under the impression that an analysis made use of facts.

Movie Watch: Terminator Salvation

2009-06-08T06:21:00.000-07:00

I'm going to through in some spoilers here because, well golly, as I've said before some things just deserved to be spoiled.

Terminator: Salvation starts off pretty strong. One of the early action sequences is actually a pretty impressive showing of cinematography and directing. A lot of the premise elements make it seem like the movie is trying to build into something more than just an action movie - something almost like a Philip K. Dick novel in places.

And then, about half way through, the entire movie gives up completely on all of the above and turns into a vapid Hollywood blockbuster before turning the corner to being blind, stupid and annoying.

I'll try to be vague, but let's just say that about the time John Connor decides to napalm an entire forest - it's about time to bail. It doesn't entirely make sense, and just serves to set up another (this time much more banal) action scene and worse - opens the plot to numerous blunders of the movie's progressive downfall.

For one thing - it begins to baffle the viewer as to why John Connor, who should have more advanced knowledge of Skynet, Terminators and hacking phones for free service (though that last bit is probably of little use anymore) acts like such a dimwitted grunt for most of the movie. Gone is the intelligence that we've seen in previous movies, in its place is a role that feels like a boilerplate from every other action movie. Bale's strategy through all of this is to give us his angry puppy dog look through most of the movie.

When the movie reaches its "twist", the wheels have officially come off the bus. There's the right way to do a twist - which is the careful seeding of hints and foreshadowing, and there's the Terminator: Salvation method which is to just wait until you need a nifty plot moment, make up a bunch of crap and hope the audience is still impressed with all that napalm blowing up.

As the movie moves into Skynet Central, you might think to yourself: "this can't get any worse". Surely all these computer interfaces designed for humans in a machine world gone made is bad enough. Or maybe that in a city full of human killing machines, the incredibly powerful AI decides to send a lone robot to kill off its most wanted prize. Or maybe the revelation that all terminators are, in fact, just walking nuclear bombs. Or the "salvation through electrocution" scene.

I won't spoil the ending - but I will warn you. Yes. Yes, it gets worse.

It's a horrible movie. Highly, highly not recommended. Seriously, Terminator 3 was much better if only because it knew it was just a stupid action film from the beginning.

Sacred 2: Offline Coop - Nearly A Fail

2009-06-06T09:06:00.000-07:00

The Girl and I were big fans of the Baldur's Gate and Norrath games (and their clones like Justice League) because they offered a good method of couch coop. The best implementations made it easy to create a new character, start a game, and join in and out of current games.

Sacred 2 just recently released for the PS3 and I was pretty excited to get something like the above for the new system. It's a shame that the offline coop nearly wrecked the whole thing.

So for people in our position, there's a trick to doing offline coop right. You won't find it in the manual and the game is of now help. Not sure who figured this out online, but hats off to them.

To play two characters on the PS3 and be able to save them:
- Make sure you have two users on the PlayStation 3 system. That's right, get out of the game, go to the system menu and create a new user. Just for this game.

- Log in as one user, create a character.

- Log in as the second user, create another character. You can now start a campaign and when the second controller hits start, select the first user.

- Now you can select the first character, play and save together.

There's a few odd things that still hang around offline coop - like not being able to trade with the other player. But at least with the above you can play together.

Overall opinion on the game forthcoming, but the above is just a terrible concept.

Update: Review up now.

More Signs Nintendo Is Demented

2009-06-05T08:04:00.000-07:00

Reggie "Terminator" Fils-Aime, interviewed by CNet:

With their announced new motion-sensitive control systems, Sony and Microsoft seem to be planning to aggressively go after the elusive mainstream audience. But perception-wise, at least, Nintendo maybe has the opposite problem: You've got the mainstream. How do you reach that core gamer?

Fils-Aime: We have near-term, mid-term and long-term opportunities. The near-term opportunity is the consumer who owns an PS3 or an Xbox 360 and has been bad-mouthing Wii to their friends. We can reach that consumer with games like The Conduit or Tiger Woods with Wii Motion Plus. The mid-term opportunity is the more mainstream consumer who saw Wii at a friend's house but just needs a little extra incentive to get into our game. That's what Wii Motion Plus and Wii Fit Plus and new Super Mario Bros. Wii will hopefully achieve. And the long-term opportunity is that person who currently says, "I don't play video games and I have no interest in playing video games."

The problem Nintendo has is that if that is seriously their near and mid-term strategies - they're pretty fscked. I don't care how impressive previews of the The Conduit may be - you can count the number of Halo fans who are getting a Wii to play it on your right hand. Especially when any gamer compares Nintendo's networking with Xbox Live.

And this fascination with Tiger Woods, a long running EA Sports franchise which sells will on every platform as some kind of Wii Motion Plus catch is just fascinating. Perhaps for the hardcore golfers who just loves to actually practice their swings ... maybe.

Honestly, I think you can sum up Nintendo's philosophy with this: "That's what Wii Motion Plus and Wii Fit Plus and new Super Mario Bros. Wii will hopefully achieve."

Hardware, hardware and more Mario. That's their plan. Meanwhile, Sony and Microsoft have technically competent motion sensing solutions coming down the pipe and all the high def glory that gamers do (sorry Reggie) care about. In particular, Microsoft's lower price points will be able to put pressure on the Wii marketshare. Just wait for the Xbox 360 Arcade + Natal + 360 Sports package.

That's really the Wii's best hope - that Sony and Microsoft charge too much for their solutions.

Interview continues:

Can you talk about what you saw from Microsoft and Sony when it comes to the motion-sensitive controllers. It will be a sort of a new arms race.

Fils-Aime: The only thing I'll say is a rhetorical question. Is it fun? If it's fun, then I tip my hat and say, "Well done." But what's happening sounds to me a lot like, "Who's got the prettiest picture. Who's got high-definition. Who has the best processing power?" It sounds like technology, when the consumer wants to be entertained. Our focus is how do we take active play and make it entertainment. And that's what we're going to continue to focus on. And I think we've done a great job with Wii Motion Plus, and the Balance Board. And we're going to continue to push the envelope in ways to make it more fun.

When this gen of consoles took off, the Wii was innovative. A year from now, or maybe less, it will just look inexpensive. Which isn't nearly as brand friendly (though it doesn't hurt). Nintendo got here by pushing the envelope - but now they think pushing the envelope is measuring your heart beat and painting the Wii black.

Nintendo needs a better answer - and here's a tip: it is not more hardware.

Armchair Analysis: E3 2009 Keynotes

2009-06-02T14:16:00.000-07:00

I will probably never attend E3, as I am unlikely to shell out for it myself and don't foresee an employer willing to do the same.

Should not stop one from reaching from afar and being highly critical.

Nintendo (Joystiq Coverage)
Let's play a game. Let's strip everything from Nintendo's keynote which is not either a) a rehash of an existing Nintendo icon or b) requires a new piece of hardware to play.

We get:

Dead Space: Extraction
Conduit
Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles
Flipnotes Studio (DS)
Style Savvy (DS)
Cop: The Recruit (DS)
Women's Murder Club: Games of Passion (DS)
Golden Sun DS (DS)
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10

Now, a magic trick. Stare at that for a bit and then mentally remove DS games, light gun games and sequels to other well known franchises. It's like those 3D things at the mall, but in reverse. Ok, so that last one might not be entirely fair - the industry is pretty franchise driven all in all, but we're talking about Resident Evil, Final Fantasy and Tiger Woods for fsck's sake. It's not like a sequel to Crackdown on the 360 - there's already what, like 50 Resident Evil games for the Wii?? And Tiger Woods? You actually show Tiger Woods during a keynote? Let me guess - it looked like a damn golf game.

For me, the message from Nintendo is - love our hardware and love our characters. Or piss off.

Microsoft (Engadget Coverage)
Microsoft had Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney? Wow. If only it was a game I cared about.

Oooo, look - Felicia Day...

OK, so would it be fair to play the same game here with Microsoft? Depends on your level excitement over, say, a new Halo game versus a new Metroid game. If I went by number of sales, I'd say a lot more people are excited by a new Halo game, and a new Crackdown game, and a new Left 4 Dead game, etc., than a new Metroid. Maybe Mario is a bigger draw, I don't know. I didn't finish Galaxy.

And that's accounting for the Wii outselling everyone by what, like 2 to 1 every month? Plus, Microsoft had goodies to add to Xbox Live, and Xbox Live Arcade. Did Nintendo announce a new buddy system? Better networking? Better lobbying? No. They did not.

And of course, Microsoft has this Natal announcement. Motion sensing by camera, no other hardware required. There's some impressive videos and as mentioned before on Cathode, early opinions are pretty high. ~~I think Natal's microphone seals it for me as a show stealer for E3 - even if Nintendo had it with Wii Talk first. Sony needs to step up there.~~

I'm not a 360 user, and I still thought Microsoft had a pretty good showing.

Sony (Joystiq Coverage)
Sony's done an excellent job of shoring up their software glut - even if they haven't been able to stave off Microsoft's exclusivity attacks completely. Again, if we play the same game here - Sony still showed off some interesting new titles like ModNation, MAG and Agent. The big franchises are going more cross-platform and what exclusive Sony shows seem pretty darn good.

Sony's pushing the PSP Go pretty hard, and I'm just not that interested. Seems like a good evolution, even if it is a bit late and still about $50 too expensive. The Motion Controller might look a bit like a sex toy, but I can't deny their argument that some games just need buttons. ~~I still think they need an EyeToy update that includes a microphone, however~~ (I'm an idiot).

PSN has been good to Sony and I'm glad to see them pushing it - but there are some key developments, like Netflix integration, missing from the deck. And we can all agree Home needs some serious work. Added involvement is nice and all, but some structural changes (like not having 50 people and bubble machines crowd a Silent Hill lobby) would have been nice.

No slim PS3 announcement, interestingly enough.

All in all, a decent showing - but a bit mixed for me.

Signs Nintendo Might Be Losing It

2009-06-02T10:38:00.001-07:00

Microsoft showed off Project Natal to the press at E3 and the opinions seem to run from the positive to the wildly optimistic. Camera-based, Microsoft's motion solution doesn't require waving any hardware around. While products for the device (as well as the device itself) aren't expected until around 2010, it is reported to be quite functional and user friendly already.

Rumors abound that Sony has a motion trick up its sleeve as well, either an adaption of the Sixaxis (a more Wii like solution), or camera based like Natal. However, it looks like it might be a no show for E3.

Nintendo, on the other hand, has announced Wii Vitality. This is a heart rate monitor that hooks into your wiimote.

Let me say that again: it is a heart rate monitor. For your wiimote.

Microsoft has a potential Wii-killer (or at least a Wii-beater-upper) and Nintendo has a heart rate monitor. For your wiimote. OK, so technically they also have Wii Motion Plus with exactly zero titles I can think of that would really make me want to buy it.

Gamers are begging Nintendo for a better software library. While some gems, like Boom Blox (review pending), might be going unnoticed - the amount of shovelware on the Wii is rather embarrasing. Aside from Nintendo's own first party titles, which often ship with some new hardware gimmick, the Wii has some pretty slim pickings. While titles like Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party make excellent use of the Wii Fit Board, there are precious few developers looking to go outside the nunchuk as an accessory.

So why does Nintendo insist on making more of them? And then... even more?

They're still making money hand over fist, but Wii Fit can only sell for so long - and I don't think a heart rate monitor (for your wiimote) will help that. If Microsoft delivers a decent Wii Play clone in early 2010, Nintendo might be picking some Wii Teeth off the floor.

Update: Sony just showed their motion solution - a wand combined with EyeToy to deliver "1:1" sensing.

For Sunday: Zero Punctuation Reviews Duke Nukem Forever

2009-05-29T13:15:00.000-07:00

DNF is one of those things I feel like I should have a comment on - but seriously, I can't even muster the time to act surprised/shocked/involved/caring.

Potential Buffy Film ... Sans Whedon

2009-05-27T11:35:00.001-07:00

What with vampires and franchise relaunches suddenly all the rage, plans for a new Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie have inevitably come to pass, with the rights holders of the franchise announcing plans for a new Sunnydale-set film.

But there is a catch.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the film, which will neither be a sequel nor prequel but a relaunch, is moving ahead with absolutely no involvement from film and series mastermind Joss Whedon. It will also fail to feature TV's Buffy herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and will in fact have no connection to the long-running series—meaning Angel, Willow, Xander and Spike will also be MIA.

-- Buffy Relaunching Without Whedon, Gellar...Regard for Fans?

Trying to think of a better recipe for disaster, but oddly none comes to mind.

Get Brutal With Tim Schafer

2009-05-27T07:37:00.000-07:00

EA is holding a Twitter event with Tim Schafer, the man behind the potentially most awesomest game Brutal Legend (if not the most awesome, most likely to have the biggest hair at least).

The event coincides with E3 and EA has a site online (http://e3.brutallegend.com) with details on how to get in the action.

Urban Retro's 8-Bit Wallet

2009-05-25T08:38:00.000-07:00

Urban Retro sends word of this product, The 8-Bit Wallet, which is I guess more or less what is advertised...