Dear all -

In case you haven't noticed, updates have slowed to a glacial trickle in recent weeks. The truth is, daddy's had his head in too many places at once, and blogging may have to take a back seat for the next hundred miles of the road trip or so. Thanks for popping in to check up on us, as ever, and don't worry, you're in good hands with the bazillion other excellent gaming blogs out there.

I'll leave you with this heart-pounding, toe-tapping, jaw-dropping music video remix for the incredible Mega Man II soundtrack.

All the best.

Then I'd prolly watch football:

When Wii-remote related injury is already a well documented risk... why the eff are people making things that completely guarantee a near-fatal maiming of your siblings and loved ones?

Happy shopping!

Designer Jennie Maneri did what I've been secretly waiting for someone to do for ages, and made a real-deal Katamari that you can roll around in the real world. Check out the detail! In her own words:

"I've recently become obsessed with the latest installment in Keita Takahashi's brilliant Katamari Damacy series, Beautiful Katamari. I created my own real-fake Katamari from an assortment of dollhouse furnishings, hobby shop accouterments, and toy stores oddities. Additionally, I hand made Pocky and Milky packages using inkjet prints on tiny boxes. The entire replica is made from miniatures down to the hand-felted Katamari at the core, with all the items glued, pinned, and sewn. Approximately 12" high at a 1:12 scale."

Yay!

I love Zero Punctuation's rants. I really do. But hating on Phantom Hourglass seems like hating on puppies to a certain extent. He makes good points, but I feel like this game practically came with fair warning stamped on the box about the gripes he had... you decide:

FFX vs. DOA? Bring the awesome.

Some bits from the legal side of gaming, and of course most of it focuses on Jack "gayrotica-is-important-evidence" Thompson.

You see, in an effort to keep his ability to practice law, he submitted a whole file of hardcore gay porn to the judge presiding over his case... it's complicated. Read all about it here.

Also (no shocker here), he's convinced that the dubious hit-target lawyer in GTA IV is modeled after him (as if he gets to claim he's special and say that every sleazy lawyer portrayal is a JT reference - what an ego!), and wants to block the release of the game. Like he wasn't going to try anyhow.

Also, the gaming industry got a big first amendment pat-on-the-back from an Oklahoma judge this week, when the state moved that games were a form of creative expression, and could not be regulated by the state any more than any other type of media (again, movies are a thousand times more gory - any theaters block Hostel from showing?). So win one for the (less un)equal measures team.

It just doesn't stop! Nintendo's tiny money-printer, the DS, just saw the 50-millionth addition to its family get sold, which helped to push the stock to an all-time high after a very favorable rating from Goldman Sachs. No surprises there - they're doing well.

In other Nintendo/Wii-related news, as it turns out female gamers are alive and well and glued to their Nintendo consoles. After all the Xbox Live I've been playing, I was starting to think they didn't exist anymore, but I guess I haven't been playing enough Wi-Fi Mario Kart DS. Here's the rest of the good bits in snippets:

- An amazing Samus Wii-mod from that amazing modder-guy
- Okami is coming to the Wii!
- In the ain't-it-cool/they'll-get-sued-for-sure department, a Wiimote for your cell phone!?
- Wii party Evites now available...
- Wii're number one! Wii're number one...
- Samba de Amigo coming to Wii?
- Gears of War, robust 3D engines never coming to Wii :(

Also, hit the jump for the longer trailer to NiGHTS, and listen for the sound of my heart dropping throughout the bullshit cheese.

So with the introduction of the Falcon chipset, the RRoD issues were supposed to be a thing of the past, but....

Anyhow, here's the latest in the ongoing Super Puzzle Shopper game that is buying a 360. Too see if you have a Falcon chipset, check this link (more here); and just so you know, there's more new chipiness on the way, code named Jasper.

Look, just buy one with a second heat sink, and use it till it breaks. You've got three years before the RRoD becomes an out-of-pocket repair cost, so...

So I've been getting progressively more and more foaming-at-the-mouth hooked on (which also means equally increasingly frustrated by my current level of suck at) NBA 2K8 for my 360. Before you start firing off game invites, let me just say that (as mentioned), I'm not good. At all. But did that stop me from getting totally mesmerized by this game? Nooooooo. And how come? Two reasons: I want to beat the pants of the computer more than I want my next meal, and the game so, so incredibly beautiful to watch. As in breathtaking - there's not much difference if you flip back and forth between the game and a NBA HD broadcast in 1080p.

I mean, look at that screenshot. Christ.

I remember popping in NHL 2K into my Dreamcast years ago and thinking "man, these guys have motion capture dialed..." and while obviously the hardware has come a long way since then, the motion capture and facial mapping is utterly, truly both unprecedented and peerless in this release. The movement of the characters is fluid, natural, and most importantly the movements and animations flow together in a way that makes you really squint to find the polygons or jerky movements that remind you this is a sim.

But it is a simulation, and a damn good one at that. The controls are totally intuitive, not overly complex, and you get into the action fast. That's not to say the learning curve isn't steep, but for once, rather than it being a controller learning curve, it's a game learning curve, as in I'm not a baller (soccer is my sport), and so I don't run my team well. The controls will let you work the team, but with the usual barrier of the controls out of the way, the challenge becomes, as it should be, to beat the other team by being a better bball player, not a better gamer. In short, 2K studios tweaked the shooting, passing, play calling and every other aspect of the game to put all the tools you'd need to run your team seamlessly any way you want - all that's left for you to provide is a solid understanding of how to play an unbeatable game of team ball.

(Which I'm still working on - it's been a while since I rode the pine in HS)

There are oodles of other modes to keep you coming back: seasons, a super fun (and hard) slam-dunk challenge mini-game, online play, street ball 1-on-1, 3 point shootouts... you get a LOT for the money. It's like the Orange Box, for hoops. Plus the soundtrack is pretty badass to boot.

Overall, this title has surpassed 2K's NHL series and every other sporting title I own aside from my beloved soccer sims (2K? Wanna pick up another sport?) in terms of play rotation on my rig. It's amazing to watch, and if I ever somehow morph into a sick court-dominating virtuoso, it'll be even more fun to play the better I get. Slick work, 2K - way to keep the goods coming for almost a decade.

Made all the sweeter by the fact that Mike Patton will be doing the voice-acting!

This interesting bit via Boing Boing:

"Jesse Brown from CBC Radio's SearchEngine sez, 'This week's Search Engine is a special episode that may be of particular interest to BoingBoing readers. It's entirely devoted to the political and cultural impact of video games in China. We cover the gamut: anti-gaming laws, 'internet addiction' paranoia, propaganda games by the state, and the most thoughtful documentary about gold-farming I've yet heard.'"

[link to story, podcast, etc. here]