The BennyBenso Blog

Nintendo Wii: My waste of $250

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Benson) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:30:00 +0000

I'll start off by saying that really do consider myself a Nintendo fanboy... Seriously, I loved pretty much every minute of my childhood that I spent playing the NES, SNES, N64, and many many hours in college even playing the Gamecube.

Back in 2007, I waited before a Circuit City opened and rushed in to buy a shiny new Nintendo Wii. I bought a couple of nunchucks and an extra Wiimote to go with it, as well as Metroid Prime 3 and Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess.

For a while, it was great. "How cool is this! Look you actually have to swing the Wiimote to swing the bat!" I played through Metroid Prime 3 and the Zelda game and they were both pretty good (well, except for the wolf parts in Zelda... I hated being the damn wolf).

Since then I've enjoyed quite a few games... But I can't see to make them last more than a couple of weeks. Mario Kart Wii was fun... But considering I'd played about 10,000 hours of Mario Kart Double Dash on the Gamecube there really wasn't much more to do on it. Super Smash Bros. was also fun... But after you get through the rather lengthy and repetitive solo campaign what were you supposed to do? Both of these games had a problem related to what I think is Nintendo's biggest failure on the Wii. Multiplayer.

Seriously, would it kill Nintendo to implement a current-gen multiplayer system? Mario Kart Wii was alright, but I had to wait 2-3 minutes between matches in order to play again... When the matches themselves were only 5 minutes long. I really think that Nintendo needs to take a page out of Microsoft's and Sony's book and implement a damn multiplayer network already.

I then got Super Mario Galaxy, and things were looking up... Amazing gameplay, creative levels... Even the Wiimote gimmicks seemed to be fun, until you beat it. That was the problem. Once you beat Super Mario Galaxy, what were you going to play next? Everything else just seemed lame. So now they are releasing Super Mario Galaxy 2.... Which is the same game with new levels. Really Nintendo? You're going to just build new levels, and then somehow shoe-horn a plot in? Kinda disappointing if you ask me.

The other thing that drives me absolutely nuts is the constant barrage of accessories you see to have to buy for the Wii. Want to play original console games? Gotta get a classic controller (unless you just want to play NES). Want to play Mario Kart Wii like it was supposed to be played? Gotta buy this $10 wheel that the Wiimote sticks in. Want to play Wii-Fit/any of the fitness games that work with the Wii-Fit Board? Gotta have that too. Now they've released the Motion-Plus Controller... So there are now small little attachments that you have to hook up for certain games! Its like I have to build a lego model in order to play a damn game. I hope that you have lots of space, because I know that I had to devote an entire drawer to just holding the various accessories I need to play the Wii.

I don't know, maybe I'm just jaded or I've been spoiled by the experience that I get on my Xbox 360 but I haven't played the Nintendo Wii in probably 8 months. Maybe one of these new games coming out (Metroid: M seems promising) will make me pick it up again, but I gotta say... I think the Wii magic is lost for me.

Zero Punctuation: The 2nd Annual E3 Hype Massacre

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Benson) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:22:00 +0000

I am big fan of a video that comes out weekly on the Escapist website called Zero Punctuation. The latest video that they came out with was so on-spot and completely accurate that I had to share.

Zero Punctuation: The Second Annual E3 Hype Massacre

WARNING: Definately NSFW (Not Safe for Work) due to lots of language.

My personal thoughts are in complete agreement with most of his statements. Does anyone else think that "Project Natal" is going to be anything but a gimmic? Yes, the Wii has sold about a bagillion units... But I'm pretty sure no one older than 10 is still playing the console.

Keyboard Cat plays off Mario

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Benson) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:57:00 +0000

There's been a "Keyboard Cat" Meme going around, that for some reason I just find hilarious.

I had to share a couple of my favorites:

First, Mario... Love the fact that it turns into MIDI music:

The other I liked is with Leo Laporte (Host of TWIT, as well as numerous other shows)

Had to share.

What are you most excited about from E3?

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Benson) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:32:00 +0000

Now that the E3 conference is over with... I wanted to sum up some of the stuff that I thought was either very cool or innovative.

First off, Microsoft.

Being a 360 owner I was very excited to see what Microsoft had in store for us this year, and I think they didn't disappoint. Here's a list of what I liked:

1. Facebook, Twitter comes to XBL. I will say that I'm more excited about Facebook then I am about Twitter (who's going to tweet from their xbox?). The idea of leveraging my already large number of facebook friends and finding out automatically which ones have gamertags would be very cool.

2. Halo: Reach, and Halo: ODST. First, they showed a cool trailer for Halo:Reach. Its good to know that Bungie is creating another Halo game, and hopefully this one will be just as cool as the trilogy.

3. LastFM coming to XBL. This is a cool radio service similar to Pandora. I'm glad there'll be an easy way to get some music on my XBox 360 now.

4. New FFXIII trailer. Am I the only one who thinks this is completely awesome? I think it may be enough to turn me into a Final Fantasy fanboy again. A target of Q1 2010 is being made.

Second, Nintendo had a few big announcements of their own.

1. New Mario Galaxy game (Mario Galaxy 2). I LOVED the first one, as I thought it had some really innovative gameplay. The new game is going to be set in the same universe but with 90% new content. Check out this gameplay video:

2. Metriod: Other M. Metroid is going to retrun to is 2-D roots with a new side scroller for the Wii. Check out the info so far here.

3. New "The New Super Mario Bros. Wii" This is a new game that is similar to the hit on the DS. Check out more info here.

There was a ton of other stuff that was announced, and you can check out the full list here on Kotaku:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

What are you most excited about?

New Star Trek Film Gets Bashed

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Benson) — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:57:00 +0000

Loved the latest video on the reviews that Trekkies have been giving the new Star Trek movie.

Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

Trekkie: "If I wanted to see young, attractive people doing exciting things I'd just watch sports"

Nice. Kinda want to see this picture now.

We Didn't Start the Flame War

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Benson) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:59:00 +0000

Way to go College Humor... Probably funniest video I've seen in a LONG time.

UPDATE: Came to my attention that this doesn't look right so here's the original site link.

Catchy Video Game Themes

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Benson) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:07:00 +0000

They just don't make them like they used to... Found an article here that counted down their top 10 catchy video game tunes. I went through them and forgot how much I loved some of those songs! Here are my favs:

Mortal Kombat (Movie Theme)

You could not have grown up in the 90s without this song just making you want to perform a fatality on someone.

Final Fantasy Victory Theme

This song was in EVERY Final Fantasy game and somehow I never got tired of it. Kudos to the words though, I always wondered why the characters danced after winning.

Tetris Theme

One of the few games I owned for the original game boy, I swear I could recite the whole damn song! Crazy Russians and their incredibly addictive game!

The Legend of Zelda Theme

I totally agree with the article putting this at number 1. As soon as it started playing again I had the urge to go play Legend of Zelda on the SNES in my closet (Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past = best Zelda game ever BTW)

You Bastard! You've Summoned the Fail Whale

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Benson) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:33:00 +0000

So here's a cartoon about Twitter that I found hilarious:

Please, if I start twittering everything I'm doing at all times... Kill me :-)

Thanks to @cbonanne on Twitter for the link (I know, the irony doesn't escape me).

Jarts are back!

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Benson) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:14:00 +0000

So do you remember Jarts? My family always used to have them setup where we could play Jarts at any reunion or BBQ... And I always remembered how I thought they were ridiculously dangerous considering they were basically weighted flying projectiles of injury. Apparently the United States government also thought they were dangerous because on December 19th, 1988 they were banned from being sold in the U.S. after the deaths of three children.

But that hasn't stopped a company called "Jarts in the Heart" from selling then online now thanks to some legal loopholes (apparently by selling the metal tips seperately)! The best part is their description of the product:

"These Jarts are NOT toys. They should be kept out of reach from children. They should be treated as you would a bow and arrow. These have and will puncture a person. If you have the IQ of a monkey please don't buy lawn darts. I will not sell to anyone under 18. I do not have many sets left so when they're gone they're gone [..] Jarts in Your Heart will not be held liable for any death or injury caused by these Jarts. By purchasing from Jarts in your heart you agree to these terms. Again, I can not stress this enough. If you're an idiot just don't buy Jarts, stick to playing Horseshoes, Baggo or that ladder ball game."

All I have to say is awesome. Unfortunately it looks like the website is now down so you can't actually order them... But it was great while it lasted!

Thanks to rebatemachine @fatwallet.com for the pointer... link

Happy St. Patty's Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Benson) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:01:00 +0000

Don't you just love St. Patty's day? I think its the best holiday of the year. What other holiday is completely about drinking and partying? Here's my five favorite reasons:

1. No cards, no presents... Its all about drinking.
2. The food. Irish food is all about meat and potatoes, and veggies flavored like meat and potatoes :-)
3. If its on a weekday, no one questions why you're drinking a beer at lunch :-)
4. The Chicago River being dyed green... What better way to show your support for a drinking holiday than dyeing a main waterway radioactive green?
5. Guinness. Its the stuff of gods.

What do you love most about St. Patty's day?

Microsoft releases Bitlocker to Go with Window 7

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Benson) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:38:00 +0000

We all remember Bitlocker in Windows Vista (well, the geeks do at least. Well now Microsoft has improved the version that will be release in Windows 7.

The coolest thing about Bitlocker to go is that it will allow you to encrypt removable drives (read: flash drives). You can then take that drive to another Windows 7 computer and it will ask you for a password before it will access any of the data on the thumbdrive. Another cool thing is that they will be offering a Windows XP and Vista "Bitlocker to Go Reader" piece of software that will allow you to read the keys on the older operating systems. Unfortunately it will only be available on Windows 7 Enterprise and Ultimate, but once you create the key it can be read on any Windows 7 version.

To read more, check out the Microsoft page here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/enterprise/products/windows-7-bitlocker.aspx

Hackers are some sneaky bastards

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Benson) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:48:00 +0000

I was listening to the "Windows Weekly" podcast (Great show btw: link) and I heard them talking about a new way that hackers are getting on your system. Basically they will send you spam emails with a resume attached that says "I'm sorry, we just don't have any positions available right now, attached is your application."

Being the curious person that you are, you open up the file to check to see if it was really you (after all, you didn't apply for any jobs lately)... And boom! Your PC is infected.

Another way they've started to use that I found interesting was using fake parking tickets... Basically they would leave fake parking tickets on a car, with a website to go to in order to get it paid off. That website would direct you some to software to pay the ticket... and guess what? That software was malware designed to hack your computer.

Sneaky bastards.

24 Solid State drives used in tandem.... Rediculous!

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Benson) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:27:00 +0000

This is pretty damn rediculous:

Granted, its a Samsung marketing piece... But impressive none-the-less.So

**I move away from the guitar to breathe in

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Benson) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:30:00 +0000

So this guy either has waaaay too much time on his hands, or he's an incredibly talented guitarist. He plays a continuous compilation of 32 songs in 8 minutes... Check it out:

Watch 32 Songs in 8 Minutes on CollegeHumor

I love the rendition of "Harder, Faster, Stronger" by Daft Punk and the addition of "Numa Numa". Great flow from one song to the next... Who knew "Smoke on the Water" could flow into "I Can Show You the World" so well? Ok, as I watched more... My favorite is definitely "Chocolate Rain" at 6:05.

NASA launches Kepler telescope!

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Benson) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:56:00 +0000

Another very cool telescope was launched into orbit by NASA on Feb. 27th

The purpose of the Kepler mission is to look for rocky planets that could support life such as our own. Its going to do that by looking at a field of view that is really dense with stars and watch for the slight dimming that signifies a planet passing in front of it. This will help to understand the frequency of planets that are approximately the size of Earth.

Check out the official NASA website here: http://kepler.nasa.gov/

Ah, Billy Mays... So easy to parody.

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Benson) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:11:00 +0000

So apparently there's a guy (Screenname Jabo0odyDubs) on YouTube that has been making some parody dubs of the famous Billy Mays commercials. I thought they were hilarious, so I figured I'd pass on a couple of my favorites:

Kaboom!

Neverscrub

Zorbee's

The last is my favorite...

Control your iPod... With your face?

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Benson) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:04:00 +0000

I saw an article on Gizmodo today that said that Japanese inventor Kazuhiro Taniguchi has created a pair of earbuds that will register the motion of your face to control whatever gadget its hooked up to.

Link: http://i.gizmodo.com/5166575/ear-switch-earbuds-control-gadgets-with-hilarious-facial-expressions

Though this is kind of a gimmick, I think its a step in the right direction. Wouldn't it be awesome if you could change the track by doing a motion? I realize that facial expressions might be a little much, but maybe just being able to detect finger motions or something? It would be very cool to be able to control an ipod that's in your pocket.

DSi Release date: April 5th, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Benson) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:03:00 +0000

April 5th, Nintendo DSi is coming! Looks pretty cool... I like the blue one, and I love the fact that they aren't doing a white version.

Definately gives me an excuse to replace the DS I have that my dog decided was a chew toy :-)

The Onion Sums Up the Gadget Industry

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Benson) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:27:00 +0000

LOL WOW! (Warning: Definitely NSFW due to tons of cussing)

Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking Work

Yey another reason I love The Onion.

My favorite Commercials From the Superbowl

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Benson) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:14:00 +0000

First off, this Bud Light one was awesome:

But then this video was the only one to make my wife and I physically cringe:

But my personal favorite:

Ed McMahon + MC Hammer = Hilarious!

New podcast to listen to...

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Benson) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:50:00 +0000

One of my colleagues has started up a podcast... Check out the first one:

http://manfightsback.blogspot.com/

Definitely has potential, I'll be tuning in (if that's what you call listening to podcasts regularly...

If Movie Posters Were Honest

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Benson) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:23:00 +0000

Hilarious... My personal favorite is:

Check out the rest here: link

Star Wars: The Summary

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Benson) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 14:15:00 +0000

I came across this summary of the Star Wars Original Trilogy by someone who has never seen Star Wars. I found it hilarious, mostly because I think my wife would have just about the same summary... Check it out:

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

Check out the original site here: link

Nintendo Dsi: Pricey!

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Benson) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:07:00 +0000

So I blogged about the Nintendo DSi a while ago... and it looks like there is now an (unconfirmed)official U.S. release date of April 4th. The kicker though, is that it will cost $180! That's $60 more than the current DS. What do you get for that premium price you ask? Well you will get a 2nd camera, ability to play DSi specific games, the ability to buy games off of the "Nintendo Game Store"k a little larger of screens, and a little thinner of a form factor. You lose the ability to play GBA games... Do you think that's worth $60? Its up in the air for me...

"March of the Delicious, Delicious Penguins" - Ha!

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Benson) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 03:46:00 +0000

God, I love the Daily show.