So now you've all heard the big news - GameCola's final issue is out before it will be changing format. I've been working hard to bring you guys an all-new GameCola. It's coming, and it will be big. There's quite a lot of new features to look forward to. Aside from the fact that authors can post content at any time, meaning there's always something to look at (as opposed to our once-a-month format now), we're going to be breathing life back into some old features and bringing you some new features to look forward to.

As Paul said, we do have a timeline for the transition, but even today, nothing's perfect. We'll be bringing you updates routinely to let you know what's going on, right up until the final launch.

That said, out of my busy schedule, I've got a large block roped off just for GC. Of that, I've been spending a lot of time focussing on getting the new GameCola launched & ready to go - and I'm happy to say, there's been a lot of progress in that department. In addition to this, one of things I have had to do was move the GameCola Interactive (RSS, blogs, forums, comments) stuff over to a new server, to get it all ready to be integrated with the new GameCola. The downside to this, however, is that I've been so busy, and as a result I've been neglecting to keep up on some of the more routine stuff that I usually do. As a result, I am aware that there are some bugs in the older parts of GameCola that have surfaced recently. Some of the comment boxes have disappeared, some of the flash videos embedded in blog posts are no longer working and the forums are once again being spammed. (Although this is nothing compared to what some of you remember from the past when we've had to deal with forum spam). Any of you familiar with web programming may have also noticed that, at the moment, we're being visited by the notorious PHP escaping bug. (For those of you not up with the programming, there's some rude little backslashes barging their way into various posts, particularly around apostrophes and quotes). 

I wanted to take the time to apologise for these bugs, and let you know that I am aware of them, and I intend to fix the more severe ones as soon as I can. The less critical ones - these would be bugs that are annoying, but don't hinder use of the site - may have to wait until the relaunch, since that should rid us of any old bugs laying around. I ask that you bear with me while I deal with all these issues, old and new.

If you wish to help, all I ask is that you keep an eye out for anything I haven't mentioned, and if you see any bugs I'm not yet aware of, post on the forums and let me know, and I'll address them shortly. Additionally, if you see any spam on the forums, take 5 seconds and click the 'report to moderator' link, and I'll ensure it gets removed shortly.

Thanks everyone!

Kevin

UPDATE:

• The backslash/escaping issue should now be resolved on all future posts made.
• The issue that caused the comments on the blog to disappear should also now be resolved.
• No more flash/shockwave errors should appear when reading the blog page.

These are the ads showing up in Michael Ridgaway\'s \"Quantum Geek\" article right now:

About a minute after Michael posted about how awful Damnation is right here in this blog, and how glad he is he\'s not working for them, I saw this news article pop up in my RSS reader, courtesy of Joystiq:

No, this isn\'t a post about my anger about my eventual sentence to the lower reaches of Hell for all of my earthly transgressions (I\'ve already accepted that as an unavoidable fact), this a rant about the new game Damnation by Blue Omega studios. I was interested in this game for a while, ever since I actually applied to Blue Omega for a job (they\'re based in Central Maryland). They never called, so I decided that Damnation would be a test as to whether I should have been about this fact.

YE GODS, THIS GAME IS TERRIBLE.

Seriously, I feel like I dodged a bullet with this one. In Damnation, Blue Omega takes a potentially interesting setting, a post-apocalyptic steam-punk Civil War America, and introduces terrible third person combat and platforming mechanics. The controls and difficulty are so incredibly unbalanced and poorly designed that I wasn\'t even able to get past the first freaking level. If a game wants to be successful, it has to abide by three very simple concepts:
1. Easy to learn
2. Difficult to master
3. Addictive
Damnation succeeds in none of these things, and you would think one of the QA testers would have pointed out some of the flaws, especially those that are evident AS SOON  AS THE PLAYER BEGINS THE GAME. Seriously, do not buy/rent/play this game, it\'s not worth it.  And Blue Omega? I\'ve got a riddle for you. Who has two thumbs and is very glad he doesn\'t work for you?

This guy.

Source: VideoGamesBlogger

Monday:

Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa - $5 (Wii Shop)
Reel Fishing Challenge - $8 (Wii Shop)
Rise of Flight: The Great Air War (PC)
Silver Star Reversi - $5 (Wii Shop)
Sudoku Master - $5 (DSi Shop)
Water Warfare - $5 (Wii Shop)

Tuesday:
8 Ball All Star (DS)
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger Limited Edition (Xbox 360, PS3)
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
Fuel (PC)
Grand Theft Auto Trilogy (PC)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: The Videogame (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PC, PS2, DS, PSP)
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (PS2, Wii, PC, Xbox 360, PS3, DS)
Mega Man Star Force 3: Black Ace (DS)
Mega Man Star Force 3: Red Joker (DS)
My Dress Up DS (DS)
My Make Up DS (DS)
Mytran Wars (PSP)
Roogoo Attack (DS)
Roogoo: Twisted Towers (Wii)
Steamboat Chronicles: Battle Tournament (PSP)
The Orb and the Oracle: Dungeon Lords (PC)
Treasure World (DS)
Ultimate Game Room (DS)

Wednesday:
The King of Fighters ‘98 Ultimate Match - $10 (Xbox Live Arcade)
Worms 2: Armageddon - $10 (Xbox Live Arcade)

Thursday:
Infernal: Hell’s Vengeance (Xbox 360)
Runaway 2: Dream Of The Turtle (GameTap Gold)
The Punisher: No Mercy - $10 (PlayStation Network)

Friday:
ArmA II (PC, Steam)
Trine - $30 (Steam)

News!  My walkthrough for Mega Man: Dr. Wily\'s Revenge is officially completed.  This comes about one month after my video walkthrough for the same game.  Yes, it took me a month to type up a walkthrough when I had video footage showing what to do.  I am apparently very lazy.

In other walkthrough news, I think I might try making a walkthrough/guide for Treasure Mathstorm! or another Learning Company game (provided I can find a copy). Maybe I\'ll do The Oregon Trail, just for the heck of it.  I\'m not sure.

Source: VideoGamesBlogger

Story Title: Writer\'s Block
Story Category: GameCola Fanfiction
Story Type: Angst

---

Sweat poured down Paul\'s forehead as he stared at his computer screen. His Word document for The Gates of Life was still blank.

\"Paul, are you still up?\"

Paul turned his head to see Lizo standing there with a worried look on her face.

\"It\'s past midnight. It\'s time to go to bed.\"

\"I have to finish the Gates of Life,\" Paul said.

\"You can do it tomorrow.\"

\"NO!\" Paul shouted, his frustration getting the better of him. \"I was supposed to have it done LAST WEEK! You know I have to write it early so Kate can get the pictures in on time!\"

Lizo frowned. She hated to see Paul like this. \"Well...don\'t stay up too late.\"

Paul turned back to his computer. The screen was still blank.

Curse his writer\'s block.

Writing The Gates of Life every other month was the hardest thing Paul ever had to do. Sure, some people said it looked like he wrote down whatever random crap popped into his head, like, flying polar bears or whatever, but nothing could be further from the truth. Paul poured his soul into every edition of Gates of Life. His SOUL. It was his baby, his child, his very meaning for existence.

And now...it was nothing.

\"WHAT\'S THE POINT?!\" Paul felt like screaming. All this work, all this frustration, all for a column that only three people read...the three people who worked on The Gates of Life.

Paul needed a distraction, so he opened up his GameCola email. No new mail, except...

Crap.

An email from Kate, Subject: The Gates of Life Pictures

Here it was. An angry email from Kate, yelling at him for not being done yet. Calling him an incompetent Head Editor, a horrible writer, a hopeless fool, and whatever nasty insults she could come up with, because Kate, unlike Paul, didn\'t have the Writer\'s Block to End All Writer\'s Block.

His hand trembling, Paul clicked the mouse and opened the email.

Hey Paul, here are the pictures for this month\'s Gates of Life! Matt said he\'ll send you the finalized story tomorrow. -Kate

Paul blinked. What? But it was May! What was Kate thinking?

Oh...that\'s right. Even though it was May, he was writing for the June issue. So it WAS Matt\'s month! Paul didn\'t have to write anything! The Gates of Life would continue!

Paul put his head down on the keyboard and cried for a long, long time.

I was watching a DragonBall Z DVD with Japanese subtitles the other day...and it looks like the class is studying about GameCola staff member Richo Rosai, who writes "Low Rent Adventures in Japan"!

Coincidence? Unlikely.  Looks like Richo has some very devoted fans!

Michaels Gray and Ridgaway have been hard at play to bring you more Final Fantasy on the GameCola YouTube page. You'll notice two ongoing projects:

- Michael's continuation of his blind playthrough of Final Fantasy VI Advance

- Michael and Michael's cooperative playthrough of Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time

Bear in mind that there are more videos on the way, so keep checking back!

Also, stay tuned... my run of Mega Man 4 is on the way, so expect to hear more about that in a week or two.

I'm not sure how many people are interested in this, but I finally finished my long Phoenix Wright fanfic called Feelings Turnabout.  What happened is that I was playing the last Phoenix Wright game, and I noticed Iris makes a throwaway comment about Maya being Phoenix's girlfriend.

I could see that this was a potentially hilarious situation--one where everyone thinks Phoenix and Maya are secretly dating.  So I wrote a short story about it, labelled it as an alternate ending to the game, and listed the story as complete.

But then the fans of a Phoenix/Maya relationship forced me to continue the story, until eventually it become a 50+ page romantic epic.  But I threw in a lot of funny stuff, like Pearl becoming mini-Franziska, just to keep things interesting. So if you're interested in that sort of thing, make sure to check it out.

If you're not interested in that, you might want to check out my short story about Edgeworth and Franziska writing their wedding invitations, or the story about Paul's totally incorrect theory that Mia was planning on setting Phoenix up with Maya in Case 2.  Both of those stories are ideas that were discussed in GameCola podcasts, if you really want to go back and check.

Source: VideoGamesBlogger

Monday:
EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis (Wii)
Fish’em All! - $8 (Wii Shop)
Genghis Khan II: Clan of the Gray Wolf - $8 (Wii Shop)
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! - $8 (DSi Shop)
MySims Racing (Wii, DS)
Swords & Soldiers - $10 (Wii Shop)
The Legendary Starfy (DS)
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP)
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 Wii MotionPlus Bundle (Wii)

Tuesday:
Class of Heroes (PSP)
Dream Series: Teacher (DS)
Etch A Sketch (DS, Wii)
Go Play Circus Star (Wii)
Go Play Lumberjacks (Wii)
Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits (DS)
Indiana Jones and the Staff of the Kings (Wii, PS2, PSP, DS) — includes Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis in the Wii version
Lego Battles (DS)
Miami Law (DS)
Petz Fashion: Dogz and Catz (DS)
Pool Hall Pro (Wii)
Prototype (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
Puzzle City (DS)
Rock Band Unplugged (PSP)
Vertigo (Wii)
Virtua Tennis 2009 (Wii, Xbox 360, PS3)
You Can Draw (DS)

As some you know, this past weekend I went up to Philadelphia to participate in the 2009 Pokemon Video Game Championships. Essentially it's a big tournament where Pokemon trainers face off against each other in two divisions, junior and senior, with the winners going to the Nationals in St. Louis. It was supposed to be a really fun event, but a new development in this year's rules made the whole thing pretty disappointing. This year, instead of letting everyone participate, they had entrants sign up and then randomly chose 128 people to participate in each division. This wouldn't have been so bad if around 256 people had attended, but as it happened NEARLY 600 PEOPLE SHOWED UP FOR THE SENIORS DIVISION ALONE.

Needless to say at this point, I didn't get in, but that's not what has me angry. What really ticks me off about this is the fact that people came from as far away as MILWAUKEE and didn't get in. All in all, this was just a really poor way to handle an event like this. They could have AT LEAST set up some sort of online registration where participants were chosen ahead of time so people wouldn't have had to waste time and money on travel. And don't tell me Nintendo can't afford the expenses associated with a bigger event or planning ahead: they're making money hand over fist right now. Nintendo, if you want to do a Pokemon tournament do it right, otherwise contract it out to someone else who will. This is no way to treat the fans of one of your most popular franchises.

GameCola Podcast #11: Paul's Beard is Awesome

There's a trailer for the new Nancy Drew game out.  Apparently, we are going to see George in this game, which is fancy because you could only call her in the previous games.

Also in Nancy Drew news, Nancy made #17 on EW's list of coolest pop-culture heroes. #18? Batman (who came up with this list?). Beating both of them were 1938's Robin Hood and ten people I've never heard of. James Bond gets the #1 slot for inventing the action-adventure genre. Dang. Must be niiice to get credit for something you didn't do.

But in any case, Mr. Bond gets 1,000 awesome points for his "worst line ever": ''That's as bad as listening to the Beatles without earmuffs.''  It makes me almost want to watch one of his movies someday.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/gamers/ (Obviously not my first choice of a source, but the site I've been using decided to skip this week. You might be able to trust this list.)

Crazy Chicken - Atlantis Quest (DS) 
Crazy Chicken - Pharoah’s Treasure (DS) 
Crazy Chicken - Star Kars (DS)
FUEL (360, PS3) 
Imagine: Boutique Owner (DS)
Johnny Bravo (DS)
Knights in the Nightmare (DS) 
NARUTO Shippuden: Ninja Council 4 (DS) 
Powerbike (DS) 
Red Faction Guerilla (PS3, 360) 
The Sims 3 (Mac, PC)

Nintendo DSiWare
Mighty Flip Champs!™

WiiWare
FINAL FANTASY® IV: THE AFTER YEARS™
Texas Hold’em Tournament

Virtual Console
Boulder Dash®

---

Two things:

1) Does anyone else think that The Sims 3 came totally out of nowhere? The next core game in The Sims franchise, and there's been no hype? Or have I just somehow missed all the hype?

2) Whoa, a sequel to FFIV.

So I was flipping through the San Jose Mercury News in order to see the comics, when I found an E3 Day One Recap (the Mercury News has shrunk to only three sections), and I thought I could get a blog post out of their column on E3.  Basically, they say three things happened at E3:

1. Double Fine Productions is Doing Something

Personally, I'm still a little miffed at how Double Fine totally ignored my resume, so I skipped over that part.

2. Beatles Rock Band

The Beatles reunited at E3 to promote Beatles Rock Band. This was the biggest picture in the article, becase most newspaper readers are over sixty.  Paul McCartney and his buddy Ringo Starr (who, I presume, wrote the song "There was a farmer had a dog / and Ringo was his name-o / R I N G O! / R I N GO") sang some sort of song together.  I am guessing that they did not use Rock Band instruments.

3. Project Natal

Not happy enough with the Beatles, Microsoft also brought out Steven Spielberg to promote Project Natal: their 3D motion sensor camera. "This is not about reinventing the wheel," Spielberg said.  "This is about having no wheel at all."  Spielberg, of course, is an old pro at driving without wheels, if anything is to be gathered from Indy IV.

The article went on to say that "Other companies have started to build on the idea of having gamers interact with games using natural movements and gestures, rather than punching buttons. Gamers can play Electronic Arts' 'Rock Band' and Activision's 'Guitar Hero'".  Yes, that's right.  Guitar Hero is a prime example of game which does not involve punching buttons in any way, shape, or form.

If you've just finished reading the latest edition of "Versus Mode," and you're really interested in checking out the Square-canceled fan-made sequal to Chrono Trigger, Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes, then I have some sort of good news for you: You can kind of check it out.

To see more videos of the game, go here.

This isn't meant to be a comprehensive list of everything that was announced/shown at E3 today---just the things that interest me. In no particular order:



 

That's right! Michael's video walkthrough series for Episode 4: Turnabout Goodbyes of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is now available for your viewing pleasure on the GameCola YouTube channel. Enjoy!

• GameCola Podcast #10: The Big E3 Preview
  
  It's the tenth episode of the GameCola Podcast! Our E3 Spectacular! Listen as Marianne Fenwick, Paul Franzen and Michael Gray discuss E3 and get far off-topic! The podcast starts off right, with Marianne refusing to join the podcast because she's too busy playing with the puppies that Michael is dog-sitting for.
• 
  
• ·         Paul is pretty hesitant about Bioshock 2 and Ghostbusters the Videogame.
• ·         We argue whether or not Rick Moranis is lazy.
• ·         Wikipedia is awesome.
• ·         Paul did not like Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, but since Miyamoto is working on Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, it might be good.
• ·         Michael wants to see a Wii Zelda. This leads to discussion on Twilight Princess, Link Rides a Train, and the Zelda series in general.
• ·         Are there more Wario games than Mario games nowdays? Yes.
• ·         Marianne wants to see "a Hyrule that hasn't gone through the Industrial Revolution".
• ·         Once again, we have rumors that Sony will drop the price of the PS3.
• ·         Paul explains why the point-and-click adventure genre died.
• ·         Paul thinks Nintendo is going to announce Kid Icarus Wii.
• ·         Please don't attribute the success of the Fire Emblem series to the fact that there are Fire Emblem characters in Super Smash Brothers.
• ·         We will never see an English version of Mother 3.
• ·         Will we ever see an English version of Professor Layton 2?
• ·         The in-depth summary of the Case Study of Fable II's Localization has been removed from the Internet for some reason, but it turns out that they know localization increases sales, because they have released games in certain parts of the world, then re-released localized copies of the same games, and the localized copies consistently sell better.
• ·         Michael talks about localizing Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door.
• ·         Paul wants Rock Band: Weezer. Michael wants Rock Band: They Might Be Giants. Marianne wants to play with the puppies rather than participate in the podcast.
• ·         Michael's mom calls, and we ask her about Rock Band: Beatles.
• ·         Unlocking Sonic in Super Smash Brothers Brawl takes about fifty hours.
• ·         Capcom and Telltale Games are Friends of Gamecola (tm) [Note to editor: can you make the official TM thing appear after this phrase?]
• ·         Miis are fun on the first day, but it's impossible to make one that looks realistic. For example, check out this Harry Potter Mii that looks nothing like Harry Potter: [Harry Potter Mii]
• ·         Michael wants the ability to play his DS on the TV.
• ·         Marianne is wrong--speedruns are NOT impressive when someone does it on a computer and lets the computer do all the work. END OF DISCUSSION.
• ·         And as the dogs leave for the backyard, so the GameCola Podcast Crew must leave you.
• 
  

This will be a short one because you're either with me or against me on this and I doubt any amount of arguing will help. Yesterday in GameFAQ's "Best. Game. Ever." contest (GameFAQ's contests really are fertile ground for my anger) Final Fantasy VII beat Chrono Trigger. No. Just no. Final Fantasy VII, while an interesting game, is no where near the level of Chono Trigger. Hell, Chrono Trigger is best game Squaresoft ever produced. I don't know whether these people have never played CT or are just idiots, but something is fundamentally WRONG here.

Now if you'll excuse me, I think my brain just vomited. I should probably go to a hospital.

Anyone who's tried to listen to the latest podcast has probably noticed that it's only fourteen minutes long and cuts off in the middle of someone's sentence. Apparently, that wasn't actually the entire podcast; a big chunk of it got sliced off somewhere on its journey down the Information Superhighway. It's fixed now, though, and you can listen to it here, on the original post.

When I was younger, my family used to watch old Disney Sing-along-song VHS tapes.  You know, the ones where they'd show clips from Disney shows/movies and you could "follow the bouncing ball" while singing.  Sort of like Disney Karaoke.  Nobody in my house sang to the tapes, but we liked watching them anyway.

Well, I was shopping for videogames yesterday, and it turns out that Disney has TWO sing-along videogames.  One has all the High School Musical songs, and another has sixteen Hannah Montana/Jonas Brothers/Camp Rock songs.  The idea is just like the old sing-along-song tapes: they show footage of the movie with the song lyrics as subtitles, and you can sing along in the microphone.

I was sorely tempted to buy the High School Musical game, just so I could force Marianne to play and get some hilarious video footage.

So here's my demand: The sing-along videogame is a good idea, but stopping at sixteen songs is bad. Only using songs made in this century is bad, too.  I want to see a massive Disney sing-along game with pretty much all the Disney songs ever.  It would be an awesome family game, and best of all, it wouldn't be hard for Disney Interactive to make.

GameCola Podcast Mid-May 2009: The R-Rated Podcast

Section I: Witty (sort of) Banter

-Mike, Michael, and Zach talk about random stuff before finally getting down to business.

-Zach Rich hates Dragon Ball Z.

Section II: Video Game Moves (7.03)

-First up, the greatest movie ever, THE SUPER MARIO BROS MOVIE!

-Next, THE WIZARD, where Michael and Zach make Mike feel really old.

-Michael is uncertain about the differences between men and women.

-Check out the Angry Video Game Nerd here: http://www.cinemassacre.com/new/

-For the record, the only drugs I’m on are for my allergies.

-Zach and Mike like Pokemon and its movies. Mike still watches it regularly.

-Michael has some interesting ideas on how to make a healthy relationship.

-Mortal Kombat movie vs. Street Fighter 2 movie. FIGHT!

-Check out Zack Huffman’s review of Tomb Raider here: http://www.gamecola.net/4-7.htm#oth

-Mike still has nightmares about the double Dragon movie. SPOILER: It’s terrible.

-Meteo is totally going to keep Michael from becoming a priest.

Section III: Final Fantasy VI

-Michael has a terrible sense of direction and is blind.

-Our recording went past Zach’s bed time.

-Michael and Mike expound upon the nature of the mythological ferryman of the dead, Charon. Mike is long-winded and rarely knows what he’s talking about.

-Michael has some ideas about how Final Fantasy VI will end.

-Mike totally think Final Fantasy VI has well defined themes.

Section IV: What We’re Playing, Banjo-Kazooie, and the GameFAQs game battle (48:15)

-For the record, we could do with a bit more organization.

-Mike has been playing Pokemon, MadWorld, Braid, Resident Evil 5, and PuzzleQuest: Galactrix.

-Zach loves Vangie, Michael fears her.

-Michael is playing Professor Layton.

-Zach is playing Banjo-Kazooie, Outrun Arcade, and Mario Party.

-Zach explains Stop N’ Swop in Banjo-Kazooie.

-Mike and Zach lament the outcomes of the GameFAQs “Best. Game. Ever.” contest.

   

Source: VideoGamesBlogger

Monday:
Adventure Island: The Beginning - $8 (Wii Shop)
American Popstar: Road to Celebrity - $8 (DSi Shop)
Bubble Bobble Plus! - $6 (Wii Shop)
Photo Clock - $2 (DSi Shop)
Clay Fighter - $8 (Wii Shop)

Tuesday:
Crimson Gem Saga (PSP)
Cross Edge (PS3)
Damnation (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
Fallout 3 Game Add-On Pack - The Pitt and Operation Anchorage (PC, Xbox 360)
Imagine: Makeup Artist (DS)
Infamous (PS3)
Jake Hunter Detective Story: Memories of the Past (DS)
Necrovision (PC)
Personal Trainer: Walking (DS)
Puffins: Island Adventure (Wii, DS)
Rolling Stone Drum King (Wii)
Secret Agent Clank (PS2)
Space Camp (Wii, DS)
Speed Zone (Wii)
The Muchables (Wii)
UP (PC, PS2, Xbox 360, DS, Wii, PS3, PSP)

Wednesday:
Boggle (added to Hasbro Family Game Night) - $10 (Xbox Live Arcade)
Wallace & Gromit Episode 1: Fright of the Bumblebees - $10 (Xbox Live Arcade)
Yosumin Live - $10 (Xbox Live Arcade)

The latest videos on GameCola's YouTube channel, all by Michael:

- A video walkthrough series for Episode 3 of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney for the Nintendo DS

- A blind playthrough of Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge for the Game Boy

So, one of those nerdy people with too much free time has made an NES-version of Super Mario 64.

Does anyone else remember Museum Madness?  An old 1994 point-and-click game about a museum where all the exhibits come to life?  Well, I just made a video walkthrough for that game.  Unlike some other point-and-click games that people have made walkthroughs for recently, this one has real historical facts about George Washington.  That's because it's made by MECC, the same people who made Oregon Trail, so you know it rocks.

Well, half of it rocks. The other half is just jigsaw puzzles. But the point-and-click half of the game is good.

Something that I cut out of my article on the Game Developers Conference was the part of Mr. Iwata's speech where he promoted the latest Nintendo game called "Rhythm and Beat" or something like that.  According to Iwata, it's a music and dancing game that Nintendo created when a famous Japanese musician came to Nintendo and said, "Hey! You should make a videogame about music!"  Nintendo responded, "Okay!", dropped everything they were doing, gave him a development team, and thus the game was born.

Now, if that story sounds familiar, that's because it is.  That's the same story they gave about the Professor Layton games--the Japanese Martin Gardner visited Nintendo, so they made him a videogame.  Same with the Japanese brain scientist who they made the Brain Age DS games for.  I get the feeling it's a story made up by Nintendo's marketing department, designed to give Nintendo a "we go out of our way to make games people want" image.

Now, I'm just wondering if Americans have a reason to gripe about this image, because Nintendo sometimes comes across as caring more about Japan than foreign markets.  There are games that people wanted/want, like the other games in the Professor Layton series, Secret of Mana 2, Mother 3, and so on.  But despite high demand, these games remain untranslated into English.  So I guess I'm wondering...how do people feel about Nintendo's "we go out of our way to make games people want" image?

Source: VideoGamesBlogger

What will happen next?! Stay tuned for next month's exciting conclusion of Real Virtuality!

If you liked what you read in Matt's review of Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic last month---and you have a PS3---you'll be happy to know that you can now download the game for free. 

We recorded a podcast yesterday (one that I'm kinda scared to listen to because I was apparently R-rated last night), and I learned three things. One, I need to watch The Wizard because it is the most awesome movie ever.  Two, Michael Ridgaway and Paul Franzen need to hurry up and propose to their respective girlfriends, because my mom says that if a guy doesn't have the guts to propose in two to three years, you should dump him.  And three, we here at the GameCola podcast never coordinate about topics.

For some reason, all the topics we picked were topics that not all of us knew about. When Michael G. and Zach Rich talked about Banjo-Kazooie, Michael R. was silent. When Michael R. and Zach Rich talked about Pokemon, Michael G. twiddled his thumbs. When Michael G. and Michael R. talked about Final Fantasy VI, Zach Rich fell asleep.

And it's not just last night's podcast either.  When I planned the podcast, I figured we should have an in-depth discussion of a game.  I didn't want to pick a game that someone hadn't played, so I gave everyone three options.

1. Phoenix Wright, because I just finished playing it.
2. Banjo-Kazooie, because it's awesome, and I knew Zach was going to be on the podcast.
3. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which is the one I wanted to talk about, but I gave the option of talking about the other games so I would look less like a control freak.

And it turned out that Paul Franzen, Mr. GameCola himself, hasn't played Ocarina of Time (which is an even greater travesty than the fact that I haven't played Super Metroid yet. YET!). So instead of following my original plan, we started a Phoenix Wright series which quickly devolved into a discussion of which Phoenix Wright characters should date each other. And, of course, get married within two to three years of dating. Hint, hint.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that we here at the podcast need some sort of coordinating system. Maybe we should bring back the top-ten favorite videogames list, or have everyone turn in an unofficial "games/topics I'm able to talk about" list, so we can better coordinate topics based on who's participating in the podcast.

Or we'll just wing it like we always do because we're lazy.

Now playing on the GameCola YouTube page:

- A video walkthrough of LucasArts' classic adventure game, Day of the Tentacle, courtesy of Paul and Lizo

- Two more Shirley Temple videos, courtesy of Michael


...That is all.

Source: VideoGamesBlogger

Monday:
Desktop Tower Defense (DS)
Family Pirate Party - $5 (Wii Shop)
Galaxy Force II - $8 (Wii Shop)
Girl Time (DS)
Magician’s Quest: Mysterious Times (DS)
Mission Runway (DS)
My Farm: Around the World (DS)
Real Soccer 2009 - $8 (DSi Shop)
Short Track Racing: Trading Paint (PS2)

Tuesday:
Age of Pirates 2: City of Abandoned Ships (PC)
Battlestations Pacific (Xbox 360, PC)
C.O.R.E. (DS)
Civilization IV: The Complete Edition — includes Civilization IV, Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword, Civilization IV: Colonization.
Dreamer Series: Shop Owner (DS)
Garfield Gets Real (Wii)
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus (Wii)
Help Wanted (Wii)
History of the Great Empires: Rome (DS)
Imagine Music Fest (DS)
Johnny Bravo (DS)
Left 4 Dead: Game of the Year Edition (PC, Xbox 360)
Pirates vs Ninjas Dodgeball (Wii)
Puzzle Kingdoms (Wii)
Raiden Fighter Aces (Xbox 360)
Rollin Rascals (DS)
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel (Xbox 360, PS3)
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha versus King Abaddon (PS2)
Sid Meiers Civilization IV: The Complete Edition (PC)

Wednesday:
Fantasy Aquarium (Wii)
Heroes of Mmight and Magic V: Epic Edition (PC)
Hinterlands: Orc Lords (PC)
Star Trek: D-A-C - $10 (Xbox Live Arcade)
Texas Cheat’em - $10 (Xbox Live Arcade)

Bitmob is Dan "former Editor-in-Chief of EGM" Hsu's new Web site. Bitmob is also a huge theif. Their columnist, Seanbaby, recently started an advice column for gamers.

Anyone who's listened to the GC Podcast or talked to me for even a few minutes since last October knows my opinion on Fallout 3: an excellent but fundamentally flawed game. One of my biggest problems with the game is the ending, but apparently in the new DLC expansion Broken Steel the finale has been completely changed. I won't spoil the plot for anyone with specifics, but essentially they made all the plot changes I was griping for and allow you to continue after finishing the main story quest.

Honestly, I'm not sure how to feel about this. On one hand, I'm glad to hear that BethSoft has finally fixed what was one of the biggest problems with the game and I feel validated in my assertions about the game's ending. On the other hand, I feel ripped off that, if I want to actually play the game AS IT SHOULD HAVE ORIGINALLY BEEN RELEASED, I need to pay extra. It's quite a racket BethSoft has going on here: releasing incomplete products then charging you outrageous sums of money for the fixes and marginal expansions to the game. I remember a time when an expansion to a game was a whole game within itself, not just little bit of tweaking here and there. Call me a luddite, but I remember those day quite fondly.

I haven't purchased any of the expansions yet, nor do I plan to do so until they package them together with a price cut. There was a time when tempation would have driven me to get download them as soon as they came out, but between my stubborness and GameFly (mainly GameFly) I think I should be able to hold out. Not to mention that, at least until June 6, I have bigger fish to fry.

Here's a video that I had on my mind most of the time I was playing Final Fantasy VI.

If you need something to watch this weekend, we've got you covered. The GameCola YouTube channel is now featuring a blind run of Final Fantasy VI Advance and two clips from the 1937 Shirley Temple movie Heidi.

Now, something to note: Michael doesn't actually finish FFVIA; he gives up part of the way through and makes his funny predictions about how the game will end. Even if you're familiar with the game, if you're not planning on seeing all the videos, at least watch or skim through the first three videos or so and maybe the second half of video #29 before watching Michael's version of how it all ends in video #30.

And, yes, he does name the characters after GameCola staff members.

Hey everyone, I'm going to try out a new little blog series I've entitled "The Anger Dome." Essentially, it's me ranting about a topic that has proved particularly provoking to my ire. Today's topic: Portal vs. MGS4 in the GameFAQS "Best. Game. Ever." contest.

If you're not familiar with the contest, it's essentially a huge popularity contest where visitors to the site vote for which of the four games featured that day are the best. The top two move on to the next bracket, and then 4 new games are featured. Yesterday the contest was between BioShock, Little Big Planet, Metal Gear Solid 4, and Portal. When I visited the site yesterday I said to myself "Ah, well surely Portal will win, it's as near a perfect game as I've ever seen." So consider my surprise when, after voting, I see that MGS4 has a huge lead over it. Portal still advanced to the next round, but only barely, with MGS4 winning nearly 50% percent of the vote.

This is bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit. I played MGS4, and I sealed it up and sent it back to GameFly after half an hour. The game is simply not fun. First off, Snake is OLD. Someone might want to tell Kojima this, but somehow trying to sneak around as an old person with obvious health problems kind of kills the whole coolness factor. I kept feeling like I was going to break his fucking hip. Secondly, they tried to do too much with the combat and sneaking systems, so much so that both felt clunky and underdeveloped. Focus on one or the other and make them really good, but don't make me choose between two crappy alternatives when I want to play. Finally, after sending it back, I checked the plot summary on Wikipedia just to stifle any curiousity I had. Ugh, Jesus Tap-Dancing Christ. The story has plot twists that would make even M. Night Shaymalamadingdong cringe. Seriously, when did the developers decide to just stop making any sense? I'm guessing it was around the time of MGS2, when they made the GENIUS decision to make you play as Raiden for 2/3 of the game.

On the other hand we have Portal, sweet magnificent Portal. The game featured a brilliant new mechanic, great music, a great story, and superb voice-work. Also, it never felt tiring; as soon as the portal mechanic felt like it was starting to get old the game was over. The timing worked out perfectly, yet there are some people out there who claim the game was too short. HEY DUMBASSES, if you're playing videogames to waste time, by all means go play something like MGS4. If, however, you'd like a game that is an actual enjoyable experience, maybe you should take your heads out of your asses and try Portal again. It was the first game in a long time that just made me smile while playing and afterwards left me feeling like I had broadened my horizons. I see Portal as one of the few games that can qualify as a work of art, not just a video game. Yet somehow, SOMEHOW, people compared the two and found MGS4 to be better. Are you kidding me? Are these people completely brain dead? It's like saying you prefer the new Star Wars trilogy to Battlestar Galactica just because of love for the original Trilogy. Well guess what, the new trilogy is shit and Battlestar Galactica has set the standard for modern sci-fi; the same is true for MGS4, Portal, and modern action/adventure games.

Before yesterday I thought Portal might go all the way in the GameFAQs challenge, but now with my faith in humanity completely shattered I seriously doubt that will happen. Judging from the predictions page it will most likely be MGS4, Final Fantasy VII, or Ocarina of Time. Hopefully the winner be the latter. If not, I may have to hurt someone.

1. The Graphics Team Will Do Nothing

The graphics for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix were utterly awesome.  The graphics team took the monumental job of taking all the various locations from the books and movies and melding them together into a videogame overworld that actually works.

This was the major problem with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, oddly enough. They spent so much time making the overworld perfect that they sorta ignored other features, like gameplay and controls.

But for Half-Blood Prince, EA has nothing to worry about.  They just have to copy/paste the Order of the Phoenix overworld into Half-Blood Prince, and they're good to go.  This will free up so much time in production that the gameplay department will get a major boost.  And trust me, it needs it.

2. The Game Was Supposed To Be Shipped in November

The game was set to be shipped in November, along with the movie.  Well, the movie got delayed nine months, and so the game was delayed, too, even though both the movie and the game were completed.

Think about that. The production team finished the game, and then they were given an extra nine months to work on it!  That's probably about as long as it took for them to make the game in the first place!  Nine months is plenty of time for them to improve the gameplay, add a bunch of more stuff, and make the game loads more awesome overall.

Unless, of course, EA decided to set the project on the shelf, and they didn't do any work on the game at all in the past nine months. In which case, the game will probably suck.

When videogames are ported from one system to another, sometimes things are changed or added or taken out, for better or for worse; the same holds true for when videogame reviews are ported from an Instant Messenger conversation to a GameCola article.

That's exactly what happened with this month's Gamer2Gamer review of Final Fantasy. And we're now offering a unique, behind-the-scenes look at the completely unedited original conversation between Meteo Xavier and Nathaniel Hoover.

The formatting has been adjusted for improved readability (GameCola: The Difference Is Readability), the screen names have been changed to protect the AIM identities of those involved, and a little bit of unrelated banter has been trimmed from the very beginning and very end, but otherwise, what follows is a completely untouched, unaltered presentation of the original conversation between Meteo Xavier and Nathaniel Hoover.

Click here to read the whole thing.

Source: VideoGamesBlogger

Source: http://ninja-pizza.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-turtles-in-time-game.html