I’ll hold him you grab his wallet, dawg!!

This past weekend, on a break from a self-imposed “24″ marathon, my girlfriend and I decided to fire up a game. This left the eternal question, “What to play?”. Do we go back to the old standby of World of Warcraft? Lots of fun for each of us but not really a “together” experience…not while we’re separated by 16 levels, anyways. How about a little Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory co-op? Certainly fun and challenging, but just a little too slow-paced and methodical…not what we were in the mood for. Hmmmmm….Fast-paced action in a co-op title with an easy enough learning curve that we’d be having fun within 5 minutes?

Enter Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks.
(Read on …)

Oh, the bullets outside are frightful.

OK, so it’s been a while since I’ve formally made a post but I’ve acquired several games in the last few months (hurricanes make me want to spend money on electronics). Thus, here is my Winter Games ‘06 list.

Resident Evil 4 - On order from Amazon
World of Warcraft - Get to Level 40 by the Ides of March (et tu Dragnut)
Hot Shots Golf 4 - On order from Amazon
Return to Castle Wolfenstein - Halfway finished - had put it down - but urge to murder germans has returned

Happy Gaming and Happy New Year, everyone.

So here it is - the final update to the ongoing Prince of Persia: Warrior Within experiment. (I swear, honest-like.)

I’ll cut to the chase: given the horrible (am I being too kind?) experience a fellow editor here had with the Xbox version of this game, I’m frankly flabbergasted I enjoyed the PC version so much. I finished the game long before my co-editor was driven to smash said game with a hammer. I went back to make sure I wasn’t simply too inebriated the first time around to notice the bugs which he detailed.

Nope, none. (Aside from the useless ‘map’ feature that is supposedly there to help you - but thats more a poor design choice than a bug.)

In fact, I went so far as to go back and replay to unlock not only all the available life upgrades - but also the mysterious hockey stick & water sword.

How’d it go? You tell me.
(Read on …)

We’d heard about the poor Xbox 360 sales in Japan for the past few weeks. But I found in hard to believe that even the Gamecube outsold the Xbox 360 in Japan for the week ending on Dec. 18th. Only 8,623 Xbox 360 machines were sold. Youch.

I know we could say that Microsoft probably messed up the marketing to the Japanese gamers, especially since there aren’t any RPGs yet for the new console (the Japanese really love those RPGs). But still, it’s amazing that a console that’s sold out in the U.S. can hardly sell at all overseas. And this even during one of the biggest shopping times of the year.

I don’t think the Japanese are biased against U.S. products; they like the American culture and haven’t hesitated to buy American products in other markets. I think the Japanese are either pretty smart and haven’t given into the hype around the Xbox 360—perhaps they’re waiting to see what the offerings are from Sony and Nintendo before they make their purchase.

Either that, or perhaps the difference in preferred gaming styles between the U.S. and Japan is much larger than we had ever imagined. It’s hard to believe things would be that incredibly different; after all there is quite a lot of overlap in games released in Japan and the U.S.

But with the sales difference is so large between the U.S. and Japan, the Japanese are certainly sending a message. In the end perhaps this will mean more interesting and original variety of games released in both countries.

Happy Holidays to all of our editors and readers. May you all be showered with game-related gifts this year. Want to know what Bucho got you for Christmas? A Ghost Recon outing at 10:00pm Eastern. Grab some eggnog, a rifle, and a stocking full of ammo. It’s on!

First, I’d like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas - happy holidays & happy gaming.

Second - I have to turn you on to a Mod for one of my favorite Space based games (Homeworld 2) - its Tactical Fleet Simulator. It adds hours of replay to a game I found to be great fun to look at as well as play. There are plenty of mods for Homeworld 2 out there - but this one really gives new content and changes some of the play dynamics that were marginal in the original game.

Third - I will be back tomorrow to (triumphantly) post my completion of Prince of Persia: Warrior Within - having reached the alternate ending and obtained the mysterious “water sword”. TBC…… (side note - i think this has turned into a interesting contrast in gameplay experience across two different platforms - given Dodongo’s less than stellar time with the Xbox version of the game)

I have an embarrassing truth to admit. Since moving to the west coast I have been web disabled at home. Thankfully there’s a cure for such a condition, and the good folk at Time-Warner cable hooked me up for a resonable price. My left kidney.

To celebrate my internet access and loss of a redundant organ, I joined the other editors for some multi-player Ghost Recon. I tend not to play online because of the high occurrence of chumpfoolery, but I have to admit there’s nothing more satisfying than shooting your website admin. In the dark.

I also discovered the intense joy of rocket overkill. Why pop someone with a rifle? It’s so functional and efficient. Why not maul them with a rocket launcher at close range? Even if he brings along a buddy you can get them both! And probably yourself! Nothing says scorn like a shot in the back with a slow, awkward, and possibly overcompensating weapon.

My rusty FPS skills - excuse me, “skillz” - paved the way for me to excel at team kills, which is to say I killed my own teammates more often than anyone else. I had this guy all lined up with the grenade launcher and laughed at his instant demise, but it turned out to be Scrimpnut. Sorry, fella.

Yes, Mary Kate and Ashley’s Licensed to drive is on my Winter Games 2006 list

Woohoo! I’m pumped for this year’s Winter Games 2006. Perhaps this year I’ll even finish a few games. For my Winter Games list, I tried to pick a mix of old and new games, and tried to get a bit of multiplayer and solo games on there.

• World of Warcraft — level 58+. Yes, I know I really should shoot for 60, but it gets really hard to level up once you get into the 50’s (I’m currently a level 49 right now). Plus, there really isn’t an end to this game anyhoo. At least that’s my excuse for just shooting for level 58.
• Mary Kate and Ashley’s Licensed to Drive — Yes, I know, what is this doing on the list? But you may remember this was a Secret Satan gift, and I am obligated to play the game and write about it here. I know have at least some incentive now to play it.
• Parasite Eve — A classic RPG for the PSOne, I want to complete this game, and finally learn what happens to Ava and Eve.
• Stubbs the Zombie — I’ve asked for this game for Xmas; it’s a brand new title that I definitely want to check out. Hopefully Wideload Games can create great games just like Bungie did back in the day.
• Eternal Darkness — This is a GameCube-only game, back a couple of years ago when the GameCube had a lot of great exclusive games coming out for it. I’ve heard a lot of great things about this game, including how your character goes more and more insane as you play. I can’t wait to feed it the bomb.

Let’s see if I can knock these five great (er-well four great, one lame) titles at this year’s Winter Games!