DS Adventures

OK, So I'm about halfway through Pokémon FireRed's story. Then I've got to breed and evolve to catch them all. Then I need to find out what still remains and link up to a LeafGreen. Fun. I was price checking Emerald and found out that it is around $30 used! I could buy a DS game for that. It's crazy to image the lengths I'll go to in order to have most of the Pokémon in Diamond. It's a good thing it comes out on April 22 so I have time to catch them. Yes, I do realize this is pathetic but at least there isn't a marketing explosion to capitalize on them. It's all about the game.

It's nice having a DS on me at most times. It makes lunch and dinner the most exciting times of the day. It's sad when we can spend time in PictoChat which is not a game in any way and we can see each other. I am glad I bought the thing, though. It's true, I have neglected my Nintendog for my Pokémon. But don't worry, (he isn't real).

I am looking forward to Pokémon Battle Revolution for the Wii. I'll preorder that one sometime. It's in June and uses Diamond and Pearl connectivity with the DS. It's also online so it will be interesting to see Wii on Nintendo Wi-Fi. As long as it's better than Sony's service. Yuck.

Hey, does anyone watch Ghost in the Shell? I know it as the show that's on after Robot Chicken most nights and when I just leave the TV on for no particular reason. I'm wondering if it's good. All I know is it has a neat opening theme before I turn on my iPod and roam Wikipedia. I am so random. One of the hard things about having free time is the lack of anything interesting to contribute.

Call of Irony

I took my PPST this morning after months of putting it off. I also had to handle my passport items as well to get that done. So in my crusing through Omaha I head over to Toys 'R Us because I forgot to go there last week. I walk in and there's a nice large Spider-Man 3 display. I check out the figures and realize my tax refund did get in so I went shopping. I picked up a Sandman, Symbiote Spider-Man, and New Goblin along with a Spider-Spud and Marvel Guess Who? As I was looking around my phone rang. Oh by the way, I guess I lost my service this past week. Thanks Cingular for the notification. So my phone rang and I answer and it's a recording from "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" telling me to head to my nearest store because the toys are in today. What timing!

I also headed over to my favorite GameStop and picked up Pokémon FireRed and preordered Diamond. I went over to the Apple Store to see if I could get my earbuds replaced. The right one is making a static-y noise and it's quite annoying. They asked where the iPod was and I said it was in the car and they needed to see that to make sure it's not the iPod making the noise. Do they honestly think I would check that? Do they think that I have no other headphones besides the Apple ones? I love the Apple ones because they sound the best but seriously, I'm not one to deal with silly, condescending customer service...today. Thank you Cingular and MicroLnk. I might go back next week, though. I also visited Wal-Mart to get Venom. There's no Spider-Man 3 Sorry but there is a really stupid door alarm thing that is not the New Goblin, I don't care what it says. He shouldnot be that happy.

I bug Book Lady to play the items and get giddy. I did notice that the new action figures are not to scale with the 1 and 2 figures and are actually more to scale with the Batman and Superman figures. I'm not sure itf they're trying to standardize or what and Doc Ock towers over Venom somewhat. That's OK. I wonder if the rereleases are to scale...

Oh, hey: Katamari for Wii, 360, PS3 coming soon!
Also: Guitar Hero for Wii

7th Generation Insights

If a game for the Wii doesn't use motion sensing, the game will be criticized because it doesn't use the Wii's primary feature.

If a game has added motion sensing, the game will be criticized for adding a gimmicky feature that doesn't really enhance the game.

EA Sports games will rock on the Wii and will be exempt from determining whether or not the motion sensing enhances the game.

Nintendo recognizes that you have a DVD player and a CD player so why would they charge you extra for it if you don't need it?

Nintendo wants you to figure out whether or not you want HD-DVD or Blu-Ray and doesn't make the decision for you.

Nintendo needs to make DS Download Play for the Wii very soon, but probably won't happen until June when Pokémon Battle Revolution is released.

Nintendo should not have reduced its support of the GameCube as people like me who never had a GameCube can finally play these games on the Wii.

Buying a GameCube, considered to be a failure amongst its generation, to play its games is preferable to buying a Wii and playing GameCube games that you didn't want to own prior.

Considering this criticism, the Wii is only GameCube 1.5 anyway, so why is it wrong to play previous-generation games on it?

Nintendo needs to make Wii Shop Channel like Xbox Live Marketplace. Will we get the Battlefront additional characters? Will we get the Marvel Ultimate Alliance: Heroes and Villians expansion pack? C'mon Nintendo, support those third-parties!

Wii60: You buy a Wii and a Core Xbox 360 for less than a single PS3.

Xbox Live is awesome, Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection is decent, PlayStation Online is lagging currently.

The PS3 looks no better than an Xbox 360 when not on an HDTV screen.

Why didn't Sony learn from the failure of the PSX, a PS2 with a DVR available in Japan only, which flopped based on poor sales? Adding many, many features doesn't make people want it more.

The PS3 is improperly marketed as a gaming system. Its primary draw is its ability to function as a gaming system, supercomputer, and entertainment system; however, it is the most expensive item in the gaming system aisle and that turns people off.

The PS3 needs to be marketed as a Blu-Ray player primarily until a killer game is developed. It is the cheapest item among the Blu-Ray players and it also happens to play games. Oh, they kinda did...

As neat as HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are, they're fighting over 1% of the market.

Sony wants your money. They have developed a credit card reader for the PS3 and I have heard that they may charge you for virtual furniture in PlayStation Home.

Sony is willing to give away HDTV's in Europe in order to sell the PlayStation 3.

Sony should recognize the popularity of the PS2 and the unpopularity of the PS3. I am no technical developer, but it would be neat to see Sony expand on the PS2's expansion bay. They should make an attachment that goes into the back containing a 360-comparable processor, hard drive, networking and yet still look decent while attached and cost between $100-150. They should market new games as PS2+ or something similar as some form of intermediary step between PS2 and PS3. Unfortunately, the time it would take to develop is insufficient to make a profit and the slim PS2 will be out of the picture.

Board Games

The other day I was at Wal-Mart and I saw something interesting that immediately took my attention. It was a Spider-Man Origins Operation game. Apparently, based off the box art, you are Doctor Octopus and you must remove Spider-Man's problems so you can fight later, I guess. Don't touch the sides! If you know me, I like revamped versions of board games. I have Pirates of the Caribbean Battleship, Star Wars Game of Life, Batman Monopoly, Lord of the Rings Risk, Star Wars Clone Wars Risk, Batman Begins UNO, Superman Returns UNO, and The Batman UNO. The Pirates of the Caribbean Life and Star Wars Original Trilogy Risk escape me for the moment. Luckily, I found out that I will have to add at least one more game to my list. Looking at images from the Hasbro Toy Fair, it seems there will be a Spider-Man 3 Sorry. Whoops, sorry Venom! What I'd like to see is a mixed up version of Clue that isn't The Simpsons or the Haunted Mansion. I'm just not sure of what except for that DnD Clue, that's just cool.


Additionally, there seems to be some sort of Spider-Man Mr. Potato Head a la Darth Tater, Spudtrooper, and Artoo-Potatoo but I can't make out what it says...

Spring/Winter Break

Friday, there was a wonderful blizzard keeping people from traveling. Spring Break was to start then and the dorms were to be closed at 5:00 pm. Classes were not cancelled, but the college was willing to let people stay until Saturday at 5:00 pm. Morey was an exception. They put up a big sign that said that we were welcome to stay as long as needed to get home. I really appreciate that. Later Jodene put up a sign that said we could stay as long as necessary until we could get home for free. She rocks! Faye braved the weather on Friday, which, in my opinion was stupid because there was so little visibility. Steph and Daniele headed out this morning but Steph got stuck so the roads were crap. So basically it was down to me, Heidi, Sarah, and Jared (among others) remaining with nothing but time. I had the shortest drive, but Highway 77, which I live on, was closed today until 4:30 pm. We didn't get cabin fever, just a severe case of boredom.

It's no different than any other weekend when people go home. The difference is you're really not supposed to be there. There's a skeleton crew in the dorm and there's no food service. There's no rules so escorting, checking in, quiet hours are all gone. A nice concession if you can't go anywhere. There is Campus Security if you get stuck on campus, which is nice. I drove to McDonald's and the in-town roads were nice especially the highways. The out-of-town was supposed to be nasty. After more time passing we went to Pamida by foot. I wanted to pick up a Nintendo DS lite this weekend but since I wasn't near Omaha, I decided to buy yet another gaming system at Pamida in Wayne. They had the model I liked, luckily, buy games were sparing. I didn't want a piece of crap and I don't want too many games since I don't intend on playing it nearly as much as a Wii. I was able to find New Super Mario Bros. which was on my list of 4 games to get so I was happy. We also went to Quality Foods to get some, well, foods. We then went to Movie Gallery to look for games and possibly a movie to rent. While we are out and about on the roads of Wayne by foot, we notice the relatively nice weather and roads here. It's very much a negative reinforcement to see this, yet know you cannot leave this town.

I like my DS. It's pretty. The game is fun too, but there's still a lot I need to learn. The other games I want are Nintendogs, Mario Kart DS, and Brain Age. For now, that is all. This wasn't just a random purchase. I've been contemplating either an Advance SP or a DS for some time now. But when I got my refund check, that pretty much settled the argument. We still got bored so eventually Heidi and I got around to playing Wii Sports and Mario Kart 64. I also hopped into Animal Crossing to get a song from Totakeke [I bought that highly-addicting yet utterly pointless game last week, I just realized I never blogged about that, more to come on that escapade later.] because he only appears on Saturday nights. Sarah then joined us for some Super Smash Bros Melee. Then Heidi and I, still bored by the way, watched Fantastic Four and then got tired.

So now, I wait to see if conditions improve. My mom was stranded in Fremont last night and stayed at my uncle's house. She got home tonight but advised to wait another day. I want to get home but I don't want to be trapped there. Irony of course is that if I had skipped class on Friday as I wanted to and went home on Thursday, I would be home, but trapped with a closed highway running low on food like my dad was. I'm not sure yet if that would be an improvement.At least my laundry would be done. It should be obvious by now how bored I am due to the rambling about very, very inconsequential information but when nothing else happens, you have rights to blather. I really hope the weather improves at home so I can accomplish the things I wanted to do. I want to get the ISP out to our house to rework the connections because they're 6 years old and horrible to network. Only my laptop receives the Internet wirelessly. No Wii, and probably no DS. Not even other laptops. I wanted that fixed while I was home but now I'm not sure if it's cruel to ask them to come. I also wanted to go to Lincoln but who knows if that's going to happen! Oh well, I'm sure to find ways to enjoy my Spring/Winter Break.