Fun Friday: Go on Rooney! Edition

If there is one thing I love more than video games (besides my family), it's Manchester United. This should be obvious if you look at my Gamertag and Gamerpic on Xbox Live. However, my two passions haven't really intersected in about 6 or seven years. FIFA, as a series, has significantly changed over the years. It used to be quite arcade-like in game play, with a lot of "punching it in the old onion bag." As Pro Evolution has commanded a stronger following and therefore greater market share, FIFA has had to adapt. In doing so, they have built the game to be more realistic, but along the way, they lost something important: the fun.

Each of the demos for the current-gen FIFA titles have been unable to lure me back in. But this video does a good job of getting me excited for the possibility of 10v10 online play. Still, I'll have to hold out for the Pro Evolution demo, as they've finally snatched up some UEFA licenses, including the Red Devils.This year may the one that I finally pick up another football game.

Summer Has Finally Ended

Posting has been light as of late, but I'm glad to say that while Summer is officially over, so is our ridiculous summer in QA. Since, as a company, we try to submit about 90% of our titles between the months of June and September, needless to say, saying it was crazy is an understatement. But it's appears to be finally over. I helped get SmackDown Wii out the door in early August and it passed Nintendo of America first try with Wi-Fi (I don't think too many other publishers can say that). The two other projects I was working on our now out the door as well as of today. August saw us work some crazy overtime but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel and Fall should be significantly less stressful.

On the other hand summer was as usual, light on releases, so I was thankful for that. I finally crossed the 15k GamerScore threshold thanks mostly to Civilization: Revolution and Lego Indiana Jones. Civ:Rev was a lot of fun and hope to back to again soon. This is saying a lot because I absolutely loathe real-time strategy games. This game was fun and accessible and did away with a lot of micro-managing. The game was deep enough for me to feel that my decisions, for better or worse, were actually affecting my society without burying me in data and options. Lego Indiana Jones was a blast to play even though I was uninterested in the Star Wars games after playing the demo. A lot of the achievements were a grind but most were cleverly named and the humor throughout the game kept me motivated.

Xbox Live Arcade also saw a lot of releases in August. I started playing Braid and absolutely loved it until a save killing bug popped up and wiped my data. Bionic Commando was awesomely retro and brutally difficult. Castle Crashers is beautiful and humorous, but the same bug popped from Braid and I'm waiting for the patch. Needless to say, I will be returning to all of these games soon.

I just picked up Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, mostly because the original was a guilty pleasure and they priced it at only $40, I could not pass this one up. The game was everything I hoped for: more adorable pinatas, more environments, more everything but the same addicting game play with a few new twists. However, a word of warning: watch out for Hemlock! After cultivating a healthy garden of pinatas (some of whom I had become quite attached to), I became afflicted with a massive outbreak of Hemlock. This weed spreads incredibly fast, attracts pinatas like nerds to boobs and makes them poop sour candy when they eat it. After about ten minutes my entire garden population was decimated; all of my pinatas became sick faster than I could help and when I ran out of money, Dastardos swooped in and killed them all. This was one of the few times I absolutely despised autosave.

In the end, I skipped Too Human and Force Unleashed. I'll probably borrow them from friends, but with the likes of Fable II and Fallout 3 coming out, who knows when I'll get to them.

Oh, and go buy de Blob if you own a Wii. It's awesome and I want to work on more games like this

Fun Friday: Poor Bob Edition

Voter Registration Coming to Xbox 360

This is great. I would have never expected anything like this but kudos to Microsoft for making this happen. This is an extremely important and historic election coming up, and now there will be no excuse for everyone on Live to register and make a difference. Gamers' voices need to be heard; get involved and make a difference.

Now the real challenge will be getting gamers to the voting booth. Maybe Microsoft could set up Street Fighter IV cabinets or Gears of War 2 demos (I think it comes out the same week as the elections). Or better yet: Voting Booth Babes. Sorry, I was just thinking out loud here.

Pwn the Vote: Register to Vote on Your Xbox 360

Massive Damage

It might look pretty...

...but they're not pushing game play forward if it solely consists of quick time events. It seems like Quantic Dream, who also developed Indigo Prophesy, may need to start directing actual cinema instead of tacking on button presses and calling it interactive. At least it isn't porn.

Congrats to 5th Cell!

For those of you who don't know, 5th Cell is the developer for THQ behind Drawn to Life and the upcoming Lock's Quest. I had a chance to work on both of these games and, while not perfect, they both demonstrate what a developer can do when they understand the platform they are working on. They are both unique in style and design and are a worthy addition to any one's DS library. Drawn to Life did well for us and I imagine Lock's Quest will do the same. I eagerly look forward to their next project. Good job on getting the credit you deserve and keep up the good work!

Gamasutra - The Gamasutra 20: 2008's Breakthrough Developers - 5th Cell

Capcom Has Gone Mad (Catz)

Street Fighter II is one of my all time favorite games. If I could afford it, my house we be furnished with an original arcade cabinet. I played the arcade version every morning for about a year at a donut shop near my bus stop in junior high. I played the crap out of the Super Nintendo version when it came out as well. Needless to say, I was excited when the XBLA version was released two years ago. But it was missing something: a quality arcade stick.

Capcom recently hinted that they would be releasing an arcade stick to coincide with the release of Street Fighter IV (which I am very much looking forward to). This made me very excited, as I had visions, as may others I suspect, of high quality Hori arcade sticks that would make playing the game pure bliss without spending about $4000 on a cabinet.

Then the official announcement came today: Mad Catz will be making the official Street Fighter IV fighting sticks. Ughhh. I associate Mad Catz with cheap crap. They're like the WalMart of gaming hardware. While we have yet to see them yet, I don't have my hopes up. And in the mean time, this is very disappointing.

I guess I'll have to try and make my own. Oh, I just found out that Hori does make a 360 arcade stick. OK, all is well.

I Think I Found Kaiden's Halloween Costume

All I need now is some tights for my King of all Cosmos costume.

Katamari Damacy King baby-hat - Boing Boing

See...

I told you so.