With the new Metroid game releasing next week, I thought it might be a good time to show off my autographed copies of the previous two Game Cube releases. I thought it was interesting to see the vast change in the amount of signatures between Prime and Echoes – surely evidence of just how quickly Retro Studios took off and secured their place in the gaming industry.

For those of you that don’t know, I’m a huge Guitar Hero fan. Since my life has been fairly busy and hectic as of late, it’s pretty much the only game I ever get to play, since it doesn’t require a massive commitment. Here is how it normally goes down: I’m home alone, I start the game, grab the first of many a beer from my mini fridge, and rock out. It seems, at least to me, the longer I play (i.e. the more I drink) the better I get. The high score boards in the game also reflect this, so it isn’t just me thinking I’m awesome – or is it? Thus, an experiment is born.

I have composed a list of ten songs, the ones I play most regularly. I will take part in two separate play sessions – one without any beer at all, and the other whilst partaking. Here are the rules I have set into place:

1. Songs Must Be Played In One Sitting
2. Songs Must Be Played In Order
3. Songs Must Be Played On Expert Difficulty (Free Bird On Hard)
4. A Minimum Of Four, And Maximum Of Six Beers Consumed
5. Results Based On Number Of Notes Hit – Not Final Point Score

I decided to base the amount of total rock awesome on the ratio of notes hit for each song. There are certain factors in the game that contribute to your final score per track, but this should provide a nice constant to go by. Other statistics for each song will be listed – just for shits and giggles.

UPDATE 1: Round One Completed! (non-drinking)

UPDATE 2: It All Came Down To Free Bird…

It appears that the rapid flow of notes towards the end of Free Bird was just to much for my drunken head to decipher. However, my stage presence, while drinking, more than makes up for the missed notes!

I know I have been M.I.A. on here lately but it really wasn’t my fault. You see, last week marked the arrival of not one, but two new video game systems. Thanks to the magic of pre-orders, I didn’t have to camp out or wait in line – but that’s not what I’m here to talk about.

Wii Sports. More to the point, Wii Bowling. Not only can I get the most authentic virtual bowling experience from the comfort of my home, along with the fact that I can wear my own shoes and drink all the free beer I want, I’m awesome at it! If I even approach the 150 mark at the end of a real game then the rails over the gutter lanes must have been up. But in Wii Sports, I’m a mad ass bowler.

The photo above was taken at the end of a game I just played. All strikes with the exception of one spare. I was this close to a perfect game and the funny thing is, I felt just as excited and adrenaline filled during it as I would have in an actual bowling alley. I don’t know how long the whole intrigue of the Wii with it’s magic motion sensing remote will last, but at this exact moment it doesn’t matter.

Lucky for me, I have no problem rolling on Shabbos.

I knew it was an incredibly bad idea to get mixed in with the Nintendo fan boy crowd, but Engadget had a story today that I just couldn’t pass contributing too. After forty back and forth comments between people I think I am going to take my hat out of the ring and bring it over here for my one reader to ponder.

I don’t want to go down the road of taking up space here for information you can get from the link above but basically what was a story about Nintendo not showing their new system at E3 turned into a “Visual Style Over Game Play” or “Game Play Over Visual Style” debate.

Any one that knows me knows which answer I jumped on first… I am an eye candy whore! And on top of amazing visuals I want realism, and if possible and warranted in the game: gore, violence and cursing would be nice additions. I want my “Next-Gen” hardware to surpass all my expectations and I am all about the specs and numbers and the greatness it can pose to my future gaming experience. I expect my XBOX 2 and PlayStation 3 to be at the $300 mark and I know that Microsoft and Sony will make me want it.

So taking that into account, and my various comments in the discussion on the Engadget site, why did I do one excruciating 19 hour play through of Doom 3 and eagerly put it back on the shelf but yet gave an entire year of my life to Animal Crossing and its horrid visuals? Doesn’t Doom 3 possess everything that I wanted in a video game as mentioned above? The closest thing you can do in Animal Crossing in regards to telling another animal to “Fuck Off!” is to not fetch their damn notebook that they left somewhere. Why did Mike and I fight over who got to go to Nook’s store every morning when he opened at 9:00 to get first dibs on furniture?

So is game play more important than visual style? And do games make up the ultimate future of a game system and not how many polygons it can push? For me it is a tough call. Using Animal Crossing as an example, if Nintendo would have released another version for GameCube I would have bought it in an instant and kissed another year of my life goodbye. But do I give a shit about the portable version they have coming out for their handheld system? Absolutely not… because I loathe the Nintendo DS.

I really don’t see where I am going with this conversation which is the exact reason I stopped posting on Engadget and brought my feelings over here. Maybe “Player From Day One” Dwayne or “Game Developer” Karl can help me realize my true feelings here.