When Will Gamers Wake Up to the Wii?

When the Wii was about to release, it was popular opinion amongst game journalists that not only will people who've never been gamers own one, but it will sit alongside the PS3/360 in hardcore gamer houses as well. While I'm pretty sure that's the case nowadays -- as it would explain the ridiculous Wii sales numbers -- it doesn't seem to be translating to the game's sales.

This generation of gaming has been drastically different from those of the past. The Xbox 360 is turning five years old in November -- an age that usually means the death of a video game console -- and a successor has yet to be even announced. The industry is finding new ways to remain profitable at a time when the economy is hurting and people aren't rushing to buy frivolous things like new game consoles.

This sort of thing is playing out in development houses as well. The exclusive title is almost non-existent. In the past, third party companies would frequently pick a system and develop only for that. Ever play a Final Fantasy or Mega Man game on your Sega Genesis? Nope, because Squaresoft and Capcom were dead set on sticking to Nintendo, and didn't shop their games around to other systems.

Now, however, pretty much anything that isn't from a first or second party developer is spread out to every platform available. But one place this isn't happening is on Wii. Companies like EA are making Wii-specific prequels -- like Dead Space: Extraction -- to their franchises instead of porting over the original games. This is entirely because of the radically different control scheme and processing power. Yet, third parties aren't just releasing shitty versions of their big titles, they are thinking outside the box to make full use of the Wii.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Dead Space: Extraction, Zack & Wiki, MadWorld, No More Heroes, Fragile Dreams, House of the Dead Overkill, Boom Blox, De Blob, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, A Boy and his Blob, etc. -- Coupled with all of Nintendo's releases -- Metroid: Other M, Mario Galaxy 1 & 2, Zelda, Punch-Out!, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Super Paper Mario, Wario Land: Shake It, etc. You're telling me that isn't a good enough line-up for the "hardcore" to jump on?

Wake up, people! Dead Space: Extraction sold something like 9,000 copies in the first month despite rave reviews nearly across the board. Just look at all of these 80-100 scores, and tell me that isn't a game that the hardcore gamer would want to play. You own the system already! Dust it off and start using it as the companion piece that game journalists once thought it could be. It has certainly held up it's end of the bargain, now it's our turn.

Video Round-Up: Little Help from My Friends Edition

Video Round-Up is a weekly post collecting an assortment of videos from around the web. Whether they be music videos, creative viral marketing, just plain cool, or just plain ridiculous, they will all be found on Video Round-Up.

Internet friends are a funny thing. I talked in a previous post about how I hesitate to call them friends, because that seems sad when I've never met them in real life. But if they do anything cool -- or know someone who does something cool -- then I'm immediately telling people I know them as if we're best friends. Well guess what?! I know two of these people!




Chris's articles on Bitmob are always hilarious, even when he is making really though-provoking discussion of gaming as a whole. Plus, his Twitter account (CasualAlcoholic) is just as amusing. So it should be no surprise that he's funny in real life as well. Anybody that can work a Pokemon reference into a joke about barraging his girlfriend with tennis balls has forever won my heart.




I've never seen an episode of Tim and Eric, which this video is based entirely on. Therefore, the beginning part is confusing and weird to me. But then a sexy dance by my gay-internet love Jeff segues to some funny game renaming. I don't know about you, but I think if Nintendo had named it Triangle Hunt, it would have sold infinitely better.


EMBED-Epic Wheel Of Fortune Fail - Watch more free videos


You know when you're watching a game show and you think, "I could do better than that"? Well, a trained monkey could probably do better than these guys.




Professional Wrestling is one of the few jobs that you can show up this high and fit in almost perfectly. SNAP INTO A SLIM JIM!



My cockatiel was never this badass. It just hissed and bit at me. My favorite part of this video is when the owner tries to help the bird and the bird shuts him up.

Paranoia in the Digital World

Recently I've been wondering just exactly what I'm doing with services like Twitter. I broadcast each and every little stupid thought I have, and I'm starting to worry that my quirky sense of humor is killing my respectability as a writer. What does the world in which we can tweet our thoughts at any given moment, or post them as our Facebook status, mean for our futures?

I'd like to think that as the masses glom onto the trend, they will be more forgiving of people saying stupid things years before online when they are voting for our politicians, but you never know how things will play out. While I've been skeptical of just how much of myself I put out there lately, Nick Gates has always worried about that. His views on technology seem to be much more extreme then mine, so I though we could have an interesting conversation. Maybe I'm getting in way too deep and will be wearing a tinfoil hat by the end of this. We'll see.

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Trailer Park: March 5th

Trailer Park is a weekly post, every thursday, where we feature trailers for the upcoming weekend movie releases.

The summer blockbuster season slowly approaches. Until the onslaught of big budgets and terrible scripts finally makes landfall, we've got these few tiny storms. I'm crossing my fingers that they are entertaining. Though, most of them are aimed toward kids. I really wish my kid was older so that I could go to movies with her and not look like the socially-stunted adult I really am. It felt weird to go see TMNT in the theater, BUT IT WAS THE NINJA TURTLES!

Alice in Wonderland



There was a time when I was excited for a Tim Burton movie no matter what it was. Now though, I've grown tired of the Burton remakes. It's rumored he's going to be redoing Sleeping Beauty next. STOP! Make another original movie! I enjoyed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Sweeney Todd, and I will probably enjoy Alice in Wonderland, but I would love to see him do something new again.


Brooklyn's Finest



A solidly acted albeit cliche cop flick? Sure, that'd probably be an acceptable weekend time killer.

Other Releases:
The Secret of Kells [NY Only]

What will you be seeing?

February Music Wrap-Up: The Floodgates Open

The Music Wrap-Up is a monthly summary of my favorite and other notable new releases. The songs are for sampling purposes only. Artists or labels notify me with any complaints and I will remove the song as soon as possible. Please support these musicians as that's the reason I'm featuring them in the first place.

This is just the beginning. There was so much great music released in February, but March is looking just as amazing. Apart from already dated releases, like Jonsi Birgisson's (the singer of Sigur Ros) solo CD, and She & Him's second album, I'm curious to see where previously announced but yet to be dated albums will land.

Will Devo's first release in 20 years be listenable? Will the next Minus the Bear CD follow their current trend of being wonderful? Will I ever be able to shut up about The Paper Chase's Someday This Will All Be Yours Vol. 2? The answers to these questions and more will come in time. Oh... but the answer to that last one is no.

For now, enjoy February's spectacular line-up of music. Listen to Eluvium, The Album Leaf, Shearwater, and plenty more by just clicking that link right below this sentence.

MUSIC!

Insufficient Funds: Jordan Jesse Go!

Insufficient Funds is a regular post in which we feature a free, or very close to it, piece of media that you can enjoy without overdrafting your bank account.

I'm trying to get away from always featuring games with Insufficient Funds, but I didn't feel like searching out any pay-what-you-want downloadable CDs or short films on YouTube. Instead, I'll turn to what I know, and I know podcasts.

Jordan Jesse Go has no real set purpose to inform or to educate, only to entertain. Any topic of conversation is on the table with Jesse Thorn, host of The Sound of Young America, and Jordan Morris from the deep cable channel Fuel TV.

Hilarious guests like Chris Hardwick, Paul F. Tompkins, and John Hodgman add to the show, but Jordan and Jesse are the main draw. With improv backgrounds, they can easily play off of each other completely unprompted.

I started listening around episode 90, and have recently gone back and downloaded all of the back episodes. I am now into the 80s, and have enjoyed every second. Even episodes several years old are still hilarious, which means you've got 125 to work through should you need entertainment on a long, long, long car ride.

But I lied before when I said they didn't inform. I've certainly been informed of amazingly ridiculous things like this from listening:



Subscribe in iTunes here or go to the website.

Music Review: Shearwater's The Golden Archipelago

Shearwater have a masterful ability to hold themselves back, straddling just on the edge of bursting into some sort of euphoric splendor of sound. They reserve themselves to a hauntingly touching beauty, almost ready to explode forth, and then when you almost start to think they won't, it all comes out.

Started as a side-project by Jonathan Meiburg and Will Sheff of Okkervil River as an outlet for their "quieter" songs, they have really grown into their own sound. Meiburg's low, soulful voice fits the music perfectly, and while I wouldn't say they've left the "quieter" label behind, they certainly aren't afraid to be upbeat now.

I only discovered the band on their 4th full length, Palo Santo, and while I adored that CD as well as it's follow-up Rooks, I think The Golden Archipelago is my absolute favorite. I just can't seem to take it out of my CD player. I just let it cycle through again rather then putting in a new CD. I would venture to say it is their most accessible to date, and highly encourage new fans to start here and work their way back.

Score: 5 out of 5
Confused about our scoring system? Read this explanation.

Video Round-Up: That Just Happened Edition

Video Round-Up is a weekly post collecting an assortment of videos from around the web. Whether they be music videos, creative viral marketing, just plain cool, or just plain ridiculous, they will all be found on Video Round-Up.

More in the vein of psychedelic drug-induced hallucination, this stop motion is also unique because of its dry-erase-board canvas. It allows the artist to do some funky animations, and the high frame rate increases the quality even more.




It's an honest satire, this one. I wonder myself why manufactures don't just switch to new templates and mass-produce stuff more people will like. But instead of simple, straight-edged, black picture frames -- which are en vogue -- I still see disgustingly garish, fake-gold, ornate ones. And also: This video is hilarious.




After watching this video, did you expect what you saw? That the video imitated Coldplay's; that it mostly took itself seriously; that it's solemn message at the end was quite poorly written; did you expect any of that? To me, it's quite good. It makes me wonder why more video editors haven't tried to put a serious spin on a frivolous franchise in AMV form. I'd like more of these. Although this one could certainly be better, it has merits.




This is one of my favorite Super Bowl commercials this year. Which was your favorite?




Lastly, I've shown you a video whose production quality put the rest to shame. Sorry other videos: You're all great too, but this one is original and high-quality. The unique interpretation of music creation might scare you or inspire you. Either way, don't thank me; I'm just the messenger. No wait, thank me. I like praise :)

Music Review: Thunder Buffalo

All that is old will eventually be new again... or something. What I mean is, lo-fi is a way to describe an artist that purposely records their music on inferior audio equipment, or adds heavy distortion or hum to the sound. It's a scene my cousin is deeply steeped in as part of his obsession with 70's soul/garage/psychadelic music.

Thunder Buffalo is very lo-fi, and slightly grunge. It is a sound that may initially turn off new listeners due to the sound quality they are used to in modern music. I had no misgivings about the band's sound as I've become accustomed to similar music from the aformentioned cousin and garage bands like The Dirtbombs out of Detroit.

Still, if you are under 40 and have yet to be introduced to this type of music, I don't think you need much help getting adjusted. Most of these bands have enough of a soul influence that anyone can enjoy it on first listen, and Thunder Buffalo is no exception -- as I write this, my two year old daughter is on my lap dancing to the CD.

I would highly recommend checking the band out to judge for yourself on their MySpace, and should you enjoy it, picking up their self-titled debut on Amazon or iTunes. I've certainly been enjoying it the last few days.

Score: 4 out of 5
Confused about our rating system? Read this explanation.

Bonus! Video proof that my adorable daughter Emerson also loves Thunder Buffalo now.

Game Review: Critter Crunch (PSN)

The animal kingdom is a ruthless hierarchy. Wherever a creature treads, there is sure to be another, stronger creature, waiting to helplessly devour it. The never-ending cycle of the food chain is around us and now the harsh realities of it all have finally invaded the puzzle genre in Capybara Games' Critter Crunch.

Originally made for the iphone, Critter Crunch has been ported over to the PS3's online service, the Playstation Network (PSN). The game has received a definite upgrade in visuals in comparison to its iphone counterpart. The graphics are both vibrant and colorful lending itself nicely to the deceptively cute innards of the game.

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