Fun Friday: Comics Are Cool Too

Most of my Fun Fridays are videos, and while this week's saw Zero Punctuation rip into Super Smash Brothers Brawl, this comic from Dueling Analogs really tickled my funny bone. Enjoy!

Two T-Shirts I Want

Back to Our Semi-Regular Broadcasting

March/April have been crazy. Between buying a house, preparing for a baby and my grandmother's passing, it's been rough. The emotionally highs and lows have left me vulnerable to two colds (the current one which seems to not want to go away). Work has been no different, with the stress of getting another Disney-Pixar game to market day and date with the movie, the Wii Summit in Hollywood last week and I'm ramping up to head the newest SmackDown! vs. RAW Wii game. Needless to say, it hasn't been a picnic. Fortunately, I prefer to be busy as opposed to sitting idle. I plan to return to posting on a more regular basis, with more quick posts as opposed to more rambling ones. A lot has happened over the last month or so, but I'm not going to go back to rehash anything that has been beaten to death in the mainstream. I may comment on a few things but mostly I'm looking forward. Talk to you soon!

Fun Friday: I've Been Busy Edition

I haven't been posting much over the last month because, well, I've been rather busy. On Wednesday, I closed escrow on a house. Almost every day leading up to that moment was spent working towards and stressing over what I've been looking forward to for a very long time. It was probably for the best that my Xbox360 had moved on to the afterlife, as it wouldn't have garnered any attention anyway. Oh, I'm only about a month away from being a daddy as well. And everything is changing at work, hence the title change in my profile. I will be amongst a group of testers who are spearheading a new direction for QA at THQ and it has us all very excited. I hope to talk more about that soon. In the mean time, here's this week's Zero Punctuation review. He looks at No More Heroes and quite enjoys it. I absolutely fell in love with the game right out of the box, but quickly feigned interest. I must buy a Wii so I can play these games at home instead of on my lunch breaks, it's killing any sense of enjoyment. At least I think that's the problem, as I had the same issue with Killer 7 as well.

Fun Friday: Favorite April Fools Joke Edition

This fake trailer for a Legend of Zelda movie is simply amazing. A lot of work went into creating this, and quite frankly, it's a shame that it's not real because it looks a lot better than most of the trailers for this upcoming summer movie season. With the exception of Indiana Jones, Wall•E and the Dark Knight, there's not much I'm excited about right now. Oh well, I'm sure that Grand Theft Auto IV will carry me into the the holiday game season anyway.

Fun Friday: Larry King Edition

I was going to post Zero Punctuation's review of Zack and Wiki, but then I found something way cooler. One of my friends at work created Larry King, including his entrance and custom move set, in SmackDown! vs. RAW '08 for a television interview between himself and WWE stars, including Vince McMahon and Triple H. The highlights are quite funny. You can also see more of the action here with commentary from the man himself.

Fun Friday: Spoiled for Choice Edition

This week saw a lot of great videos come through my reader. It was hard to choose, so I made all my favorite videos of the week available in my new shared links section. Posted below is probably my favorite of the lot; someone recreated the opening overworld and first dungeon from The Legend of Zelda using the level editor in N+. Not only is this an exercise in dedication, it's one of the most awesome things I;have ever seen.

Fun Friday: Late, Late Edition

Not only am I late to post my Fun Friday from last week but the following video is pretty old. Oh well, I just saw it for the first time last week. It was apparently banned. I guess finger pointing is terrible and will make terrorists of us all or something. I like it because my friends and I use to play "guns" until the street lights came on and we had to be home. And that's what Live is all about, right? Having fun.

R.I.P. - My Xbox360

3/21/2006-3/17/2008

I was in denial, but this day finally came. Your life must have flashed before eyes much like the three red rings flashed before mine. You are survived by an unused DS and a dusty PSP. You will be missed...

but never forgotten. :'(

Free Street Fighter 2 HD Beta (Commando 3 Purchase Required)

Capcom will be providing an eight week, online beta for the highly anticipated Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. Sounds awesome, what's the catch? You have to purchase Capcom's other upcoming XBLA title, Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 for $10.

You remember Commando on the NES, right? I still have my copy. It was a top down, vertical scrolling shooter (I vaguely remember it being fun, but it has been a while) that is also getting an upgrade in this new age of digital distribution gaming.

I can think of two other high profile instances of this tactic: Crackdown with the Halo 3 beta and Zone of the Enders with the Metal Gear Solid 2 demo. This tactic of packaging demos of highly anticipated games with second tier games is an intriguing one. On one hand, the full game sells really well. On the other, despite the game's critical and fiscal reception, the series usually dies pretty quickly. Usually when games sell as well as these, sequels are usually in order. Crackdown doesn't seem to be getting one any time soon and, while Zone of the Enders 2 did arrive, it sales were much lower. Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 will probably suffer the same fate, as I don't think nostalgia is as strong as many other Capcom properties. Now, if they packaged this with the Bionic Commando remake, I'd be sold in a heartbeat.