I went on vacation this month and during the LOOOOONG plane trips, I wrote two different videogame blurbs.  So I thought it'd be cool if I let you, the Gamecola Blog readers, decide which one they want to see get expanded into a column for next month.  Your options are:

• My drunken review of NHL 2K8, which basically copies the trailer word-for-word
• My playa-hating comments about Final Fantasy Six

Do you want to see one over the other? Both? Neither? Your votes will choose which review gets seen!

I don't even own ANY version of Guitar Hero, but when I saw that I could get this with just six proofs of purchase from various Kellogg's cereal---including ones I actually eat, like Frosted Flakes and Pops---I just had to bite. (Literally. Because it's cereal. Oh man, that was a good one!)

Many bowels of deliciousness and just a few weeks later, it arrived:

Monday:
Animal Crossing: City Folk (Wii)
Cradle of Rome (DS)
EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey (PC)
Forgotten Worlds - $8 (Wii Shop)
Gallop and Ride (Wii)
Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades (DS)
Hello Kitty Big City Dreams (DS)
Left 4 Dead (PC, Xbox 360)
Merv Griffin’s Crosswords (Wii)
Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe (Xbox 360, PS3)
NCAA Basketball 09 (PS3, Xbox 360, PS2)
Need for Speed: Undercover (Xbox 360, PC, PS3, Wii, PSP, DS)
Robocalypse (DS)
Rock Band Track Pack Volume 2 (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2)
Shaun White Snowboarding (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP, DS)
Space Invaders: The Original Game - $8 (Wii Shop)
Spore: Creepy and Cute Parts Pack (PC)
Strong Bad Episode 4: Dangeresque 3 - $10 (Wii Shop)
Target Toss Pro: Bags - $7 (Wii Shop)
Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff (DS)
The Sims 2: Mansion and Garden Stuff (PC)

Wednesday:
AMF Bowling World Lanes (Wii)
Agatha Christie: Evil Under the Sun (Wii)
Alone in the Dark: Inferno (PS3)
Bolt (DS, PS2, Wii, PS3, Xbox 360)
CSI: NY: The Game (PC)
Castlevania Judgement (Wii)
Championship Foosball (Wii)
Cooking Mama World Kitchen (Wii)
Cradle of Rome (DS)
Dynasty Warrior 6 (PS2, PC)
Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods (PC)
Imagine Movie Star (DS)
Imagine: Ballet Star (DS)
Iron CHef America: Supreme Cuisine (DS)
Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore 2 (Wii, Xbox 360, PS3)
Legendary (PC)
Lips (Xbox 360)
Luminous Arc 2 (DS)
Metal Slug 7 (DS)
Monkey Mischief: Party Time (Wii)
Mortimer Beckett and the Secrets of Spooky Manor (Wii)
NPPL Championship Paintball 2009 (PS2, Xbox 360)
Naruto: The Broken Bond (Xbox 360)
Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir (PC)
Petz Crazy Monkeyz (Wii)
Petz Monkeyz House (DS)
Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party (Wii, DS)
Rune Factory 2: A Fantasy Harvest (DS)
Skate City Heroes (Wii)
Skate It (Wii, DS)
Ski Doo: Snowmobile Challenge (PS3, Xbox 360)
Ski and Shoot (PS2)
Sonic Unleashed (Wii, PS2)
The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria (PC)
Tomb Raider: Underworld (PS3, PC, Xbox 360, Wii, DS)
Winter Sports 2: The Next Challenge (DS, PS2, Xbox 360)
You’re In The Movies (Xbox 360)

Thursday:
American McGee’s Grimm: Cinderella (GameTap Gold)
The Last Remnant (Xbox 360)

Friday:
Beyond Protocol (PC)

My sister forced me to go to Target the other day, so I thought I'd check out their games section.  It turns out they have THREE distinct gaming sections!  Who knew?

Popular Games.  This is the section with all the bestselling games that they advertise for.  I took a quick look at the three Wii games that were on display: Super Smash Brothers Brawl (crappy!), Super Mario Strikers (what's next? Super Mario Volleyball?), and Wario World Wii (when you port a GBA game on the Wii, nobody can tell the difference, right?). Oh, and the High School Musical Three game.  Needess to say, I skipped this section.

Discount Games.  AKA "games we haven't sold in the past two years".  They've got a good deal on Happy Feet and UNO for the GBA.  All you interested gamers should head over before they're all out, because I have a feeling those games won't stay on the shelves for long.

PC Games.  I had no idea this row of games existed until just now.  It is loaded with awesome PC games, and equally awesome B-level PC games.  Lots of them are $10, too.  Next time I go to Target, I think I'll pick up a copy of Mysteryville.  That's a game where you go to a village and solve a bunch of mystery puzzles, starring such memorable characters as Adam Sandler, Internet Stalker, and Crazy Scientist.  It's like Professor Layton, except not British.  Or Japanese.  How can you say no?

GameCola friend and contributor Britney Brimhall passed this along to me, and I thought I'd pass it along to the entire world, via this blog:

Hello,

This is Britney Brimhall. I'm the Chairman & CEO of Himalaya Studios, LLC and the President of AGD Interactive, LLC. I've developed adventure and adventure/RPG hybrids for the PC, including "Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine" and remakes of the Sierra's Classics, "King's Quest" and "Quest for Glory". You can find out more about these projects at www.agdinteractive.com and www.himalayastudios.com .

I just wanted to let you know, this weekend (November 15th, 2008), I'm embarking on a REAL LIFE adventure, riding my pedal bicycle from Phoenix, Arizona to Panama City, Panama. It's about 3,500 miles through 8 countries, and I'll be carrying everything on my bicycle like a pack mule. It'll be my home for the next four months. I'm hoping to gain some media exposure, as I think it may be interesting to the gaming community, and also, my friend and I are doing it for a good cause. I'd be happy to participate in any email interviews, even while I'm on the road. You can contact me at herosquest2008@gmail.com --I'll be checking that email at internet cafes while on the road.

My friend and I are attempting to raise money for a charity I support, which is the 100 Club. They provide financial assistance to the families of police and firefighters who are seriously injured or killed in the line-of-duty. I used to work for the police department, and recently spent time in private security as an armed guard, and it's a way for me to support the people I care about. If anyone is interested in donating, or knows of anyone who would like to donate, please do such at:

http://www.firstgiving.com/herosquest2008

All donations are tax deductible and 100% goes to the charity. My friend and I are paying for the entire adventure ourselves. We're attempting to raise $50,000 for the cause.

We have an online journal, which we've already started posting in, and will be updating it as frequently as possible with stories and pictures from our journey. You and your readers can follow along vicariously at:

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/HQ8

You can also check our official website to find out more about the adventure itself:

http://www.herosquest2008.com

Again, please feel free to email me at herosquest2008@gmail.com while I am traveling by bicycle through the SW of the USA, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. I'd be happy to answer any questions and participate in any interviews.

Sincerely,

Britney

Actually, I only have one:




That person is Ranju Tomu, and she---SHE!---will be starring in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – The Truth Comes Back to Life: A Phoenix Wright musical.

Read about it here.

Source: VideoGamesBlogger

Monday:
Avatar The Last Airbender: Into the Inferno (DS)
Brain Challenge - $10 (Wii Shop)
Call of Duty: World at War - Final Fronts (PS2)
Mega Man 3 - $5 (Wii Shop)
MLB Superstars (Wii)
Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia (DS)
Populous DS (DS)
The Three Stooges (PC)
Winx Club: Mission Echantrix (DS)
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 (PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, DS, PSP)
Yummy Yummy Cooking Jam - $10 (Wii Shop)

Tuesday:
Amazing Adventures The Forgotten Ruins (DS)
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts (Xbox 360)
Big League Sports (Wii)
Block Party (Wii)
Bratz Kidz: Slumber Party (DS)
CSI: NY (PC)
Call of Duty: World at War (Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii)
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (Xbox 360)
Eternal Poison (PS2)
FaceBreaker K.O. Party (Wii)
Fantasy Aquarium (Wii)
Guinness World Records: The Videogame (DS, Wii)
Hasbro Family Game Night (Wii, PS2)
Luxor: Quest for the Afterlife (PC)
Luxor 3 (Wii)
Mirror’s Edge (Xbox 360, PS3)
Monkey Mischief: Party Time (Wii)
Mortimer Beckett and the Secrets of Spooky Manor (Wii)
My Stop Smoking Coach with Allen Carr (DS)
National Geographic Panda (DS)
Pet Pals: Animal Doctor (Wii)
Petz: Horsez Club (PC)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, PSP)
Rock Revolution (Wii)
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel (PC)
Sally’s Salon (DS)
Secret Service (PC)
Six Flags Fun Park (DS)
Star Wars The Clone Wars - Lightsaber Duels (Wii)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Jedi Alliance (DS)
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World (Wii)
Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff (DS)
Testament of Sin (PC)
Zoo Vet Endangered Animals (DS)

Wednesday:
-Candace Kane’s Candy Factory (Wii)
Hello Kitty Daily (DS)
Top Chef The Game (PC)
TrackMania DS (DS)
FuturU: The Prep Game for SAT (DS)

Thursday:
Age of Booty - $10 (PlayStation Store)
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (PC)

Some of you who have already graduated high school might remember a movie called "The Pagemaster", starring Christopher Lloyd, Macaulay Culkin, and others.

They made two games based off the movie, one for the SNES and one for the PC.  So few people have seen the PC game--which is a real shame, because it's one of the few movie-based games that doesn't totally suck--that I made a video walkthrough for it.  So watch and be amazed! Watch Richard come face-to-face with Moby Dick, hook Frankenstein up with a babe, and throw a hissy fit to defeat Mr. Hyde.  Revel in memory of the days when game audio and video never matched up!  Marvel at the fact that the game takes up less than two MBs of memory!

---

Fun bonus: Waiting for the audio to sync up took so long, that I made a music video.

Hee hee...all my Nancy Drew fans are disappointed and confused.  They've never heard of the Pagemaster before. And Lord knows that kids nowdays don't know there's such a thing as music without computer-generated bass.  Sucks to be them right now!

Source: Video Games Blogger

Monday:
AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack (Xbox 360, PS2, PS3)
Alien Crush Returns - $8 (Wii Shop)
Exit (DS)
Home Sweet Home - $10 (Wii Shop)
Pony Friends: Mini Breeds Edition (DS)
Space Harrier - $5 (Wii Shop)
Space Trader: Merchant Marine (PC)
Top Chef: The Game (PC)

Tuesday:
Army Men: Soldiers of Misfortune (PS2)
Bratz Kidz: Slumber Party (Wii)
Disney THINK Fast (PS2)
Dragon Ball: Origins (DS)
Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World (PS2)
Goosebumps HorrorLand (DS)
Guitar Rock Tour (DS)
History Channel Civil War: Secret Missions (PS3, Xbox 360, PS2)
Imagine Interior Designer (DS)
Imagine Wedding Designer (DS)
James Bond: Quantum of Solace (Wii, PS2, Xbox 360, PS3, PC, DS)Korg DS-10 Synthesizer (DS)
Legendary (360, PS3, PC)
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (PC, DS, PS3, Wii, PS2, Xbox 360)
Monster Lab (PS2, Wii, DS)
Movie Games (Wii)
My Baby Girl (DS)
NHL 09 (PS2)
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm (PS3)
Operation Mania (PC)
Petz Dogz Pack (DS)
Petz Sports: Dog Playground (PC)
PopStar Guitar: Guitar Grip Bundle (Wii)
Princess on Ice (DS)
Real Soccer 2009 (DS)
Resistance 2 (PS3)
Rubik’s Puzzle World (Wii)
Secret Service (PS2, Xbox 360)
SingStar Legends (PS2)
Tom Clancy’s EndWar (Xbox 360, PS3, PSP, DS)
Valkyria Chronicles (PS3)
Winx Club: Mission Echantrix (DS)

Wednesday:
Dora The Explorer: Dora Saves the Snow Princess (DS)
Little Red Riding Hood’s Zombie BBQ (DS)
Vigilante 8: Arcade - $10 (Xbox Live Arcade)

Thursday:
North America Hunting Extravaganza (Wii)

Friday:
Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360)

Halloween is this Friday. Still haven't found a good costume yet? Never fear, there are tons of video game characters you can dress up as! Check out this video and get inspiration for your very own video game-based Halloween costume!

Source: Video Games Blogger

So a few weeks ago, I went to a job fair, and who should be hiring but the video game developer Namco?  I decided to stop by and see if my work at Gamecola could help me wrangle a job.  Unfortunately, the woman there didn't seem to know anything about the company.

Woman: Hi!  We're Namco!  We make video games like...um...Pacman, and...uh....
Me: Burgertime.
Woman: Yeah, and...Pacman! So, yeah, we're like a really famous video game company!
Me: Yeah, I've heard of you guys. So, what projects has Namco been working on lately?
Woman: Well...um...uh....we just released Namco Museum, which contains all of our classic games like, uh, Pacman, and, uh....Mergertime, like you said, and uh...uh...
Me: ?
Woman: (sweating) Ummm....uhhhhhh....
Phoenix Wright: Objection! Your honor, this woman clearly has no idea what she's talking about!
Me: She can think of a third game her company has produced!  She just needs more time!
Woman: Ummm...uh...
Me: ........
Woman: Uh...MRS. PACMAN!!!!  Yay!  I did it!

So as it turned out, I didn't get to submit my resume to Namco, because they picked a random person off the street to be their Job Fair Representative.  On a positive note, I did get a flyer with a creepy picture of the Japanese guy who owns Namco-Bandai. That what I like to call a win-win situation.

It's like Christmas, Chanukah, St. Patty's Day, Thanksgiving, the 4th of July, and my birthday all rolled into one package! Over the weekend, the fan translation for Mother 3, or Earthbound 2, was released! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I'm going to get to it later today, but for the rest of you: grab a copy, download the English patch, and get to playing. And if you've never played Earthbound, play it now!

Source: Video Games Blogger

I've just finished making a video walkthrough for Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy, a game where Nancy goes to Ireland and solves a mystery.  Along the way, she does a bunch of stuff like shear sheep, mix drinks, play a drum version of Guitar Hero, and use a jetpack to help find a crazy bum who lives in the middle of a bog.

Now all I have to do is use the videos to write a text walkthrough, and submit that to GameFAQS.  But nobody tell Paul, all right?  Otherwise he might not buy my excuse that I can't write a Ten Reasons about the game this month.  So don't let him know I've got access to all the game's screenshots and that I have the game fresh in my mind.

At least, I think that's what's going on here, unless Richard "Lord British" Garriott took more than one space voyage on this date. (For those of you just tuning in, Michael, via posting Nancy Drew walkthrough videos on PWNorDIE, won a contest to have his DNA launched into space and preserved in the international space station. He wrote about the experience in this month's Inside the Guide.)

Hey Gamecola Blog fans!  I'm writing to let you all know that I just posted a guide for Time Hollow.  That's a DS game where you follow Ethan Kairos in his time-based adventures.  It's like Phoenix Wright, in that it's a "too short" game where you mostly watch the plot unfold while solving a few simple puzzles.

One of the best parts of the game, in my opinion, is how the fans reacted to the ending on the various boards.  At the end of the game, a unnamed girl (probably Ethan's cousin) comes up to him and says, "Hi!  It's a nice day, don't you think, Ethan?"

The board members, of course, reacted like this: HOLY SHIT!!! ETHAN'S HAVING SEX WITH HIS COUSIN!!!  INCEST AHOY!!!  Because, you know, if a girl asks you if you think it's a nice day, that means she's sleeping with you.

Then the more intellegent board members responded with It's not incest; it's Japanese!  Because in Japan, you can marry your cousin.

Ah, random board members.  Sometimes, you're more entertaining than the games you're talking about.  The best part is, I put a Gamecola advertisement in the header for my guide, so we may get some new incest-loving readers next month!  Boy, won't that be fun?

Source: Video Games Blogger

The person who wrote the blog post already took all the good jokes, so I'll just leave you with the link: http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/12/one-wow-player-controls-36-characters-simultaneously/

Let's see...how can I tie this into videogames....

I bought that around Halloween last year, and it's the one thing I'd save if my apartment was on fire.

I am sorry to say it, but there is a factual error in this month's Ten Reasons.  High School Musical 3 does NOT come out on October 11th. It comes out closer to the end of the month.

How do I know this? Well, besides from the 50 million commercials about it, I just got an angry letter from Zac Efron:

Dear Michael Gray,

How DARE you put down the wrong date for the opening of High School Musical Three? That movie is going to be the greatest movie ever and everyone's going to love me for it!!! Like, seriously!!!!  You messing up the opening date is SO BAD.  I mean, it's SO HORRIBLE that it's...it's...it's like even worse than my acting!

Zac...Efron, Not Rich

Sorry about that, Zac ol' pal! Everyone, make sure to change your calendars for the correct opening date, so you can watch the movie yourself and hear computer-generated voices the real actors sing like there's no tomorrow.

Fallout 3 comes out at the end of the month, and I'm filled with restrained hope. I love Fallout and Fallout 2. LOVE THEM. They were my first PC games and what inspired me to continue gaming on the platform. I've lost count of the times I've played through them, and each time they manage to be a fresh, invigorating experience (thank you modding community!). Then Black Isle stopped making the games and was disbanded, leaving us with the simply "meh" Fallout Tactics and the utterly disappointing Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. When I heard Bethesda picked up the rights to Fallout a while back I was apprehensive at first, and when I saw the media they've been putting out I became really excited. But I've been burned before, and I don't know if my heart could take another Fallout related disappointment. When I met some Bethesda guys at and game developer's seminar a while back I told them as much and warned them that I would "hunt them down if they f@!#ed up." They laughed, but at this point even I'm not sure whether I was joking or not.

One thing I do know is that on Oct. 28 I will be playing Fallout 3. It's up to Bethesda whether I spend the week after elated or crying.

And you know you're out there---after all, we reviewed the comedic strategy title in the 2008 JANISH.

Hey everyone! I just got finished making a video walkthrough for Nancy Drew: Danger on Deception Island, because six people asked me to do it.  Gosh, those Nancy Drew fans can get pushy sometimes.

Here's a funny part of the game for all of you non-Nancy Drew fans to enjoy.  It's at 5:55 to 6:16 in this video, where Nancy is talking with the Hardy Boys, and Joe Hardy unleashes an awesome insult on his brother.  Enjoy!

So much for not caring about it's loyal fanbase! Actually, by releasing yet another iteration of one of its portable consoles, one could argue that Nintendo is further not caring about its loyal fanbase by forcing them to shell out another two hundred bucks or be behind the times, but that would just put a damper on their announcement.

Wii:

Like probably a lot of people, I've recently bought, played, and beaten Mario RPG on the Wii's Virtual Console. And it left me with a question: Is Mario's quest a worthwhile quest?
Well, here's how I see it. The game tries to put forth the idea that people's wishes will never ever come true if the Star Road isn't rebuilt; but that's clearly not true, because people can still make their wishes come true themselves. If someone wishes for a shiny new mushroom, now they won't just be given a shiny new mushroom---now they'll have to actually go out and get their shiny new mushroom themself.

But why is that a bad thing?

I think the world could stand to live without the Star Road for a while, get people to really work for what they want to achieve. Maybe the results of their wishes would give them greater joy that way, or maybe they'd just learn to be a little more independent and self-sufficient.

Unless it's a wish that literally isn't possible for someone to achieve on their own, e.g., "I wish I could grow a pair of wings and fly." Here, I'm not sure if I know enough about the Mario RPG universe---does the Star Road allow for impossible wishes to be granted? If so, maybe that gives it a little more purpose.

Straight from Joystiq straight from John Davis, the movie's producer: