Massively Multiplayer: Gaming In The New Millennium

[Paradox-less]

will world of Warcraft exist?

Already does.

and what happen to everquest?

I think a Sony game took its place. Not sure, so don't quote me on that.

 

[Nivek]

I think a Sony game took its place. Not sure, so don't quote me on that.

A Pirate based oen called PirateQuest, is still online and Sony is planning and update in the future, but that is PC only so don't expect it in a console.

 

[CaseMonster]

Once again I'm saddened by seeing PSO2 and being reminded Sega still hasn't brought it to the States despite it being on both Vita and Switch in Japan. Also six Seganet games a month is nuts, would have loved that back in 07/08

 

[Paradox-less]

A Pirate based oen called PirateQuest, is still online and Sony is planning and update in the future, but that is PC only so don't expect it in a console.

HAH! Nailed it!

 

[RySenkari]

Once again I'm saddened by seeing PSO2 and being reminded Sega still hasn't brought it to the States despite it being on both Vita and Switch in Japan. Also six Seganet games a month is nuts, would have loved that back in 07/08

We do currently get six free games a month on PSN, though I think that started later than 2008 IOTL. But yeah, six free games for SegaNet subscribers started with the launch of the iTwin in 2007 (before that people got four). Half of them are retro games normally priced below $15 (usually below $10), but yeah, it's still a heck of a deal.

 

[CaseMonster]

We do currently get six free games a month on PSN, though I think that started later than 2008 IOTL. But yeah, six free games for SegaNet subscribers started with the launch of the iTwin in 2007 (before that people got four). Half of them are retro games normally priced below $15 (usually below $10), but yeah, it's still a heck of a deal.

To be honest I haven't usually been a fan of PS Plus' offerings since they transitioned to the PS4. We used to get AAA games before they were a year old on top of a selection of a dozen games that would remain a whole year and a good amount of downloadable games to complement them which suddenly shifted to two per platform and generally picking far less interesting titles. Plus Sony focuses on mostly indie games while Apple ITTL is focusing on retro classics and the second is more to my style. Hell, I spent more money on Virtual Console my first year owning a Wii than retail games. Not to say I'm against indies either, just prefer them on the Switch and when one's a dud there's nothing interesting. When an old game I'm playing for the first time doesn't grab me I can still enjoy myself imagining what it would have been like playing said game when it was new.

Plus this would have been high school me loving it, where my issue was not enough money to play everything I wanted and would have loved to catch up on 20 years of Sega. Not modern me who has more than enough money to buy games I want without Plus it but not enough time to play everything I want to even without Plus, Humble Monthly, and XBL.

 

[RySenkari]

Counter-Strike: Shadow

Counter-Strike: Shadow is both an expansion to the 2007 Xbox 2 Counter-Strike game and a stand-alone game in its own right, featuring an expanded campaign mode and new weapons and battlefields for the original. As a DLC expansion, it's $19.99, whereas it's $29.99 if purchased as a stand-alone game. It essentially doubles the content of the original game, making it quite a good deal for those who enjoy playing 2007's game, and an especially good deal for those who were disappointed with the original game's short campaign. The campaign in Shadow is a combination stealth/FPS game where a team of operatives must infiltrate and destroy a rogue terrorist nation. The plot itself is fairly straightforward, but the missions themselves are very fun and intuitive and can be played in either single player mode or online co-op, with teams able to compete for the fastest times and highest scores. This expansion is focused more on cooperative multiplayer, so the ability to play with a team of likeminded players communicating over headsets and microphones is the biggest draw. In a way, it's reminiscent of Nintendo and Sony's SOCOM series, though it's more strategic and stealthy and arguably requires more communication. The expansion to the competitive multiplayer mode is another highly welcome addition. Counter-Strike: Shadow is one of the most detailed and well thought out DLC expansions of its time, and increases sales of the original game, which is eventually released as a compilation title with the DLC included. Shadow makes Counter-Strike one of the most played online FPS games on the Xbox 2, and is considered a resounding success.

-

U.S. Army Rangers: Confrontation

The sequel to 2006's U.S. Army Rangers: Lead The Way, Confrontation is an Xbox 2 exclusive and has been designed from the ground up with the next gen hardware in mind, with vastly superior graphics to its predecessor. It features an all new campaign headed by an all new protagonist, and a revamped team-based multiplayer mode as well. Like its predecessor, it features a heavy focus on realistic AI and gunfire, similar to the free to play PC game America's Army. Getting shot is usually deadly after just a few bullets and it's sometimes possible to get shot in the head and killed instantly. Enemies aren't bullet sponges, but it's often difficult to get a clean shot in the chaos of battle. The campaign itself features an Army Ranger squad deployed to a breakaway African republic in order to take down a powerful warlord who has taken dozens of American tourists hostage. The campaign is written to be a bit more nuanced than the writing of the previous game, which was claimed to be too jingoistic and dehumanizing toward the enemy. In this game, the player is rewarded for treating civilians with respect and using discretion on the battlefield, with the player even able to convince certain enemies to flee the battlefield. It's also essential not to let any hostages die, which can lead to some frustrating mission failures if a hostage manages to run into the line of fire. The game is fairly good about preventing this from happening, and working with one's squadmates is usually the key to victory. Though the game does have a campaign mode, the multiplayer is the main event, with a number of unique co-op missions and of course the opportunity to battle it out against other players in a wide variety of modes, from standard deathmatch to hostage rescue and more. The game's multiplayer battlefields are the best aspect of the game: they're huge, full of strategic locations, and they encourage players to make bold but intelligent moves. The game launches with 14 competitive maps, with 4 made available via free DLC later on, and then a few more being sold even later. The game would ultimately get numerous DLC missions for both single player and multiplayer, though there's plenty of content on the base game, especially when combined with the free stuff offered to players a few months after launch. Confrontation would ultimately get stronger reviews and better sales than the original game, becoming one of the top selling Xbox 2 games to date and proving the strength of online shooters on the Xbox 2.

-

Competitive online shooters have been a bright spot for the Xbox 2, just as they have been for the original Xbox. It's one of the main reasons that the Xbox Live service continues to have more players than SegaNet or Nintendo's online services, and it's driving heavy sales for games that feature strong multiplayer communities. Even The Covenant 3, a critical disappointment, has been achieving strong sales legs so far in 2008 due to its multiplayer mode, which is getting patched with new content, balancing patches, and bug fixes practically every week. Other games such as Counter-Strike and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare are also seeing huge amounts of players on the Xbox 2, with Modern Warfare now one of the top three overall Xbox 2 games in terms of sales.

With online gameplay continuing to pump new blood into the Xbox 2's sales numbers and player base, it could be this summer's release of Cyberwar 3 that turns things around for the troubled console. Cyberwar has been the Xbox's premier FPS franchise, and the trailer for the game, which aired during the Super Bowl, drove hype for the game to a fever pitch. With HD graphics and a massively expanded competitive online mode, Cyberwar 3 looks to be this generation's premier online FPS, and has become one of the year's most anticipated games. It's expected to sell more than three million copies in its first week of sales, and could also drive Xbox 2 sales in a way that The Covenant 3 failed to do over the holidays. Microsoft is banking big on Psygnosis' futuristic shooter, and it's sure to have a big presence at E3 2008, along with the brand new Amok and Michael Bay's Gray Zone.

-from an article on Games Over Matter, posted on February 12, 2008

 

[rick007]

The Amazing Race: Season 12: More to Come

Confession time folks. This was the first season I ever saw as it was first broadcast. The seasons prior to this I saw as either reruns or on DVD. So this was the first time I experienced the thrill of finding out which team got which place. Anyway, like I said last time the show got a reduced budget this time around, which caused the producers to reduce the number of legs to 11. There was also a rumour that they would also eliminate non-elimination legs, but that turned out to be unfounded.

Instead, they got rid of the Intersection (except for one time in Season 16) and replaced the Yield and the non-elimination penalty. The show replaced to Yield with the U-Turn. The U-Turn was something that had one team force another team to do both sides of a Detour. Like the Yield, it only appears in a few legs. And teams can only use it once. The non-elimination penalty was changed from having to sit by the Pit Stop for 30 minutes to an extra task that only that team had to do called a Speed Bump that the last place team had to do in the next leg. Which I like. It was cast in April 2007 and filmed in July 2007.

The Cast

Azaria and Hendekia: Brother and sister team. They are among the most competitive teams that the show has ever had. But they also have a sense of humour too.

Ari and Staella: Best friends. They can be annoying, even if they were somewhat funny as well.

Nathan and Jennifer: This season's bickering dating couple. I imagine that it would have been worse as the season went on.

T.K. and Rachel: Dating hippies. I know that these two might seem like B.J. and Tyler from season 9 but they are more likeable than those two were.

Ronald and Christina: Father and Daughter. They are using the race to try to improve their relationship. Which they do, for the most part.

Shana and Jennifer: Friends. Shana is probably famous for being Ryan Seacrest's on-again/off-again girlfriend. These two fight a lot on the race.

Nicolas and Donald: Grandson and grandfather. They are the son and father-in-law, respectively, of singer Robbie Fulks. They get along quite well.

Kynt and Vixen: Dating Goths. You read right. They are an interesting pair. Thought I didn't think that they would be as popular as they were.

Marianna and Julia: Sisters. They are a fiery pair and manage to get incredibly far.

Kate and Pat: Married ministers. I like these two, in spite of their brief time on the show.

Lorena and Jason: Dating couple. They have a good attitude going that doesn't last long.

The Race

Leg #1: "Move your ass, you ass!"

Original Air Date: November 4, 2007.

Starting at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, California, teams get $200 for the leg. Teams are told to fly to Shannon, Ireland. Once there, teams have to take a ferry to Inishmore. Then they have to sign for a ferry that leaves the next morning. No Detour, at least that made it to air as it didn't really affect team placement. After picking up their cars the next morning, teams have to drive themselves to Cleggan Farm. It is here, after riding a tandem bike there, that teams face the Roadblock.

In this Roadblock, one team member has to ride a bike while suspended over a 200 foot ravine on a tightrope, while their partner is eight feet below them. After that, teams have to pick a donkey and fill the two baskets it's carrying with 15 pieces of peat. Then teams go to the Pit Stop: Connemara Heritage and Cultural Centre in Clifden.

1. Azaria and Hendekia 2:34 P.M. Won a trip for two to Banff Hot Springs in Alberta, Canada

2. Lorena and Jason 2:47 P.M.

3. T.K. and Rachel 3:12 P.M.

4. Kynt and Vixen 3:24 P.M.

5. Marianna and Julia 3:43 P.M.

6. Nicolas and Donald 3:44 P.M.

7. Shana and Jennifer 4:01 P.M.

8. Ronald and Christina 4:09 P.M.

9. Kate and Pat 4:22 P.M.

10. Ari and Staella 4:50 P.M.

11. Nathan and Jennifer 5:15 P.M. ELIMINATED.

Leg #2: "That's on me."

Original Air Date: November 11, 2007.

Getting $250, teams are told to fly to Amsterdam. Once there, teams have to travel, by train, to Amsterdam's Central Station and search for their next clue. It's the Detour: Hoist It or Hunt It. In Hoist It, teams have to use a rope and pulley system to haul five pieces of furniture into a traditional Dutch apartment. In Hunt It, teams have to go to a bicycle parking lot and search through thousands of bikes for two with colours that are in their clue. Once they do that they have to ride their bikes five miles to receive their next clue.

After that, teams have to travel by train to Ransdorp then drive to a rural field. There teams run into the Roadblock. In this Roadblock, one team member has to complete a 12 foot pole vault over an irrigation ditch and land on both feet. It's harder than it looks and Donald ends up doing it in his underwear. Now that I've put that image in your head, teams now have to get a bakfiet (a bike with a cargo hold on the front) and one team member has to pedal their partner to the Pit Stop: the Durgerdam Yacht Club.

1. Ari and Staella 2:11 P.M. Won a sports bike for each team mate.

2. Lorena and Jason 2:13 P.M.

3. T.K. and Rachel 2:36 P.M.

4. Azaria and Hendekia 2:38 P.M.

5. Marianna and Julia 2:48 P.M.

6. Kynt and Vixen 3:16 P.M.

7. Nicolas and Donald 3:30 P.M.

8. Ronald and Christina 3:57 P.M.

9. Shana and Jennifer 4:02 P.M.

10. Pat and Brenda 4:28 P.M. ELIMINATED.

Leg #3: "Just calm down would you?"

Original Air Date: November 18, 2007.

Getting $340, teams have to fly to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Once there, they have to take a train to Bingo (though they have to listen for an announcement of it). Then teams search the area for the next clue, which is the Roadblock. In this Roadblock, one team member has to milk a dromedary camel to a line in a bowl. If the camel they choose runs out of milk, they have to wait for one of the other teams to finish and hope that that camel is not empty.

After completing the Roadblock, teams have to walk four camels along a path and deliver them to a group of nomads. Teams then get the Detour: Teach It or Learn It. In Teach It, teams have to teach schoolchild who don't speak English and teach them ten words in English. In Learn It, teams have to learn ten words in the local More language from the schoolchildren. In either case, once the teacher is satisfied with the results the teams will get their next clue. It's then time to go to the Pit Stop: The Outskirts of Bingo.

1. T.K. and Rachel 2:13 P.M. Won a five night stay in Bermuda.

2. Azaria and Hendekia 2:14 P.M.

3. Kynt and Vixen 2:22 P.M.

4. Lorena and Jason 2:35 P.M.

5. Ronald and Christina 2:56 P.M.

6. Marianna and Julia 3:08 P.M.

7. Ari and Staella 3:15 P.M.

8. Shana and Jennifer 3:43 P.M.

9. Nicolas and Donald 4:03 P.M. ELIMINATED.

Leg #4: "Let's name our chicken Phil."

Original Air Date: November 25, 2007.

Receiving $45, teams are told to find the village chief and get a chicken from him. They have to carry this chicken with them for the rest of the leg. Teams then have to go to a field outside a nearby town. Here teams face the Detour: Shake Your Pans or Shake Your Booty. In Shake Your Pans, teams have to use traditional methods to pan for one ounce (28g) of gold. Once it's handed in teams get their next clue. In Shake Your Booty, teams have to learn and then perform a local dance. If they are successful, they get their next clue. If they are bad or aren't creative enough, they get a ten minute penalty.

Teams then have to then travel by foot to the local market where the U-Turn is. Ari and Staella U-Turn Shana and Jennifer. Teams then head to the Tampouy Goat Market in Ouagadougou. Here teams face the Roadblock. In this Roadblock, one team member has to get a bike with a small trailer and load it with some cumbersome things, including a small goat. After delivering it to a specific address teams get their next clue. Then teams head to the Pit Stop: Hotel de Ville.

1. Azaria and Hendekia 1:11 P.M. Won a Yamaha Motor Scooter for each team member.

2. Ari and Staella 1:33 P.M.

3. Ronald and Christina 1:43 P.M.

4. Marianna and Julia 1:59 P.M.

5. Lorena and Jason 2:14 P.M.

6. Kynt and Vixen 2:39 P.M.

7. T.K. and Rachel 2:46 P.M.

8. Shana and Jennifer 3:17 P.M. ELIMINATED.

Leg #5: "That's not funny!"

Original Air Date: December 2, 2007.

Getting $180, teams are told to fly to Vilnius, Lithuania. Once there they have to get to St. Anne's Church. There was a Fast Forward in the area but, since no one took it, it never made it to air. Anyway, teams now have to get to Old Town Vilnius to find the Roadblock. In this Roadblock, one team member has to deliver a package to the correct person in the Vilnius University courtyard. Then they have to deliver a second package to one of four locations: Gabi Kavine, Saint Germaine Restaurant, Hair Salon Sidabrynas or the Shakespeare Hotel.

The next clue tells teams that they have to go to the Lithuanian Open Air Museum in Rumsiskes and pick up a Travelocity Roaming Gnome with their clue on it. It's the Detour: Count Down or Step Up. In Count Down, teams have to go to a marked section of fence and count all 717 pickets of that fence. In Step Up, teams have to run a marked course on stilts. If they fall off, they have to start all over again. Then teams go to the Pit Stop: Aukstaitija Windmill.

1. T.K. and Rachel 2:13 P.M. Won a ten day trip for two to Japan.

2. Marianna and Julia 2:29 P.M.

3. Azaria and Hendekia 2:30 P.M.

4. Kynt and Vixen 3:14 P.M.

5. Ari and Staella 3:18 P.M.

6. Ronald and Christina 3:26 P.M.

7. Lorena and Jason 4:15 P.M. ELIMINATED.

Leg #6: "This is not the stone I was looking for."

Original Air Date: December 9, 2007.

After getting $200, teams are sent to Dubrovnik, Croatia. Once there, teams have to make their way to Fort St. Lawrence where the Roadblock takes place. In this Roadblock, one team member has to find one of eight stones out of 150 and fit it into a wall that was damaged during the Croatian War of Independence of the 1990's. Once the stone is correctly laid, they will get their next clue. Teams must then zip line from the roof of Fort St. Lawrence to Fort Bokar, where they find the Detour: Short & Long or Long & Short.

In Short & Long, teams have to rappel down the walls of the fort, climb a rope ladder on another section. Then teams walk a long distance to a square to get their next clue. In Long & Short, teams have to tandem zip line from the fort to the water, swim to floating platforms, get into a rowboat and row around the city walls. Then they have to walk a shorter distance to get to the same square for their next clue. Then it's off to the Pit Stop: The Stone Cross in Fort Imperial.

1. Azaria and Hendekia 10:13 A.M. Won a 12.5 foot catamaran for each racer.

2. Ronald and Christina 10:43 A.M.

3. T.K. and Rachel 11:13 A.M.

4. Ari and Staella 11:23 A.M.

5. Marianna and Julia 12:01 P.M.

6. Kynt and Vixen 12:37 P.M. ELIMINATED.

Leg #7: "We're double f'ed now."

Original Air Date: December 23, 2007.

Receiving $250, teams have to drive to the town of Split, then board a ferry to Ancona, Italy. There they pick a marked car and get a phone with a message from home on it. Teams now have to drive themselves to a field near Empoli, Italy. Here teams get the Fast Forward, involving getting a tattoo of two fs on their shoulders (Marianna and Julia get it), or the Roadblock. In this Roadblock, one team member has to get into an ultralight airplane, get up into the air and find their next destination (Vinci) in big letters on the ground. Once back on the ground, they have to give the name to the instructor.

Teams then have to head to Vinci. Specifically the birthplace of Leonardo da Vinci. Here they find the Detour: Invention or Tradition. In Invention, teams have to build a crane designed by Leonardo da Vinci. Then they have to lift a stone block with it a foot off the ground. After that they'll use a mirror to read a clue printed on the bottom of the stone. In Tradition, teams go to the Piazza Guido Masi and learn a flag routine. Once they have finished the routine correctly, teams get a flag with their next clue on it. Then it's onto the Pit Stop: Boboli Gardens in Florence.

1. Marianna and Julia 10:15 A.M. Won a trip for two to Cancun, Mexico.

2. Ari and Staella 12:43 P.M.

3. Azaria and Hendekia 12:44 P.M.

4. Ronald and Christina 1:20 P.M.

5. T.K. and Rachel 1:40 P.M. NOT ELIMINATED/SPEEDBUMPED.

Leg #8: "I've become the Archie Bunker of the house, again."

Original Air Date: December 30, 2007.

Getting $300, teams have to fly to Mumbai, India. Once there teams have to go to the M. R. Naik Newspaper Stand and search for their next clue in the Times of India. It tells them to Chauhan Alteration Tailors. There T.K. and Rachel find the Speed Bump: Go to Dariya Mahal and perform a series of yoga poses before they can continue along the course. Teams also find the Detour: Paste 'Em or Thread 'Em. In Paste 'Em, teams have to go to a marked underpass and put up a six panel Bollywood movie poster properly. In Thread 'Em, teams have to make a wedding garland of 108 flowers alternating red, orange and yellow.

After this teams head to Kabutar Khana where the U-Turn is. Ari and Staella U-Turn T.K. and Rachel. Teams then head to the Bharatgas Coloba Gas Service where the Roadblock is. In this Roadblock, one team member has to load six propane tanks, take them to two addresses, deliver three each and get a receipt for each delivery. Then teams head to the Pit Stop: Bandra Fort.

1. Ari and Staella 11:59 A.M. Won a trip for two to Saint Martin.

2. Azaria and Hendekia 12:13 P.M.

3. Marianna and Julia 12:32 P.M.

4. Ronald and Christina 1:01 P.M.

5. T.K. and Rachel 1:36 P.M. ELIMINATED.

Leg #9: "I just hope he doesn't croak on us."

Original Air Date: January 6, 2008.

After getting $140, teams have to go to Osaka, Japan. Once there, teams have to head to Kishiwada Castle and search the grounds for their next clue. Then teams have to go to the Noda Railway Station and search for a specific cleaner who will give them the Roadblock. In this Roadblock, one team member has to dress up like a local cabbie, complete with hat and gloves, and drive a local couple to the Osaka Central Post Office, through Osaka's confusing and often one way streets. While they can ask for directions, they can't take any other locals with them.

After that, teams have to get to Kita-Mido Temple, where they find the Detour: Sense of Touch or Sense of Smell. In Sense of Touch, teams have to use cell phone controlled robots to score a goal for each team member against other cell phone controlled robots. In Sense of Smell, teams have to go to a shop where artificial flowers are sold and using their nose, and only their nose, smell out a real flower. Then they have to get to the Pit Stop: Tempozen Park.

1. Marianna and Julia 5:13 P.M. Won a four seat electric car for each racer.

2. Ari and Staella 5:40 P.M.

3. Ronald and Christina 6:01 P.M.

4. Azaria and Hendekia 6:50 P.M. NOT ELIMINATED/SPEEDBUMPED.

Leg #10: "This is madness!"

Original Air Date: January 13, 2008.

With $250 in tow, teams go to the Umeda Sky Building, take an elevator up to the garden and search for their next clue. Here teams are told to fly to Taipei, Taiwan. Once there, teams have to head, by train, to Taichung. There teams have to go to Acrobatics Jeep. Azaria and Hendekia get their Speed Bump here, which requires them to go to a local school, put on protective gear, run through a fireworks display and, once they are doused off, they can continue to the Roadblock at Acrobatics Jeep. In this Roadblock, one team member has to become a passenger in a stunt car, who then drive onto a giant teeter-totter then balance 25 feet off the ground. Then they have to switch to an amphibious car, put on a pair of goggles and, while holding their breath, be driven underwater for 17 seconds.

Teams then have to take a train back to Taipei and go to GK Teahouse. Teams drink a cup of tea and find that their next clue is written, in Chinese, on the bottom of the cup. It directs them to Gong Guan Night Market, where teams find the Detour: Fire or Earth. In Fire, teams have to go to Zhoungzheng Park, make and light 20 spirit lanterns and send them into the sky. In Earth, teams have to go to Youth Park and walk barefoot on 220 feet of jagged stones, then turn around and walk back. Then teams get to the Pit Stop: Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall.

1. Ronald and Christina 5:15 P.M. Won a five night vacation to Curacao, Netherland Antilles.

2. Marianna and Julia 5:30 P.M.

3. Azaria and Hendekia 6:04 P.M.

4. Ari and Staella 7:22 P.M. ELIMINATED.

Leg #11: "The Final Stretch."

Original Air Date: January 20, 2008.

Getting $55, teams have to go to the final destination city: Anchorage, Alaska. Once there, teams have to go to Sixth Avenue Outfitters and pick up some equipment as well as their clue. It says that teams have to go to the Ship Creek Boat Launch where they find the Detour: Cut the Cod or Grab the Crab. In Cut the Cod, teams have to cut through several 50 pound Cods to get a miniature clue hidden in one of them. In Grab the Crab, teams have to jump into the hold of a ship holding 500 crabs and find one with the race colours attached to it.

After that teams have to get to Twenty Mile River and take a high speed boat to Twenty Mile Glacier, where they have to climb an ice wall to get their next clue. Teams take a helicopter to Merrill Field, then drive to Goose Lake Park where the Roadblock is. In this Roadblock, one team member has to choose 10 items out of 15 from the previous 10 legs to open their clue box. These items are: the Tandem bike from leg 1; the bakfiet from leg 2; Camel milk from leg 3; the chicken from leg 4; the stilts from leg 5; the Croatian gun that greeted them at the Pit Stop in leg 6; the Blackberry from leg 7; the U-Turn Board from leg 8; the Cleaning Man from leg 9 and the Tea from leg 10. Once those items are together on a special platform they will get their next clue. Teams now have to go to the statue of Captain Cook in Resolution Park. Then teams have to get to the statue of the salmon hooker (which is exactly what it sounds like) outside of the Anchorage Centre for the Performing Arts. Then it's off to the finish line: Girdwood Airport.

1. Azaria and Hendekia WIN.

2. Marianna and Julia PLACE.

3. Ronald and Christina SHOW.

The Review

This season is actually one of the better ones. The cast was great. The course was certainly better that its immediate predecessor. The tasks were good. It's my number four race. Still there were some issues. The lack of a budget showed somewhat on later views, especially when one watches each season back to back like I have been doing.

Azaria and Hendekia were good winners and I enjoyed watching this season. Ari and Staella could be annoying at times yes but they were good villains. This season was meant to be the last. However, it got an effective boast in the ratings and managed to get the show renewed for another two seasons. So join me next time as we look at Season (unlucky) 13.

-Globetrotting: An Amazing Race Blog by R. C. Anderson, on the website Reality Rewind, November 21, 2016.

 

[GeorgeUK]

Another quote from my ITTL counterpart (probably from quite a way back)...



OOC: I know that current politics is a bit of a sticky point for this thread so I apologise, but "Poundland Alan Sugar" seemed too good a phrase not to use.

Just realised that I jumped the gun a bit here, so it might be a good idea to ascertain as to whether Captain Tsubasa was dubbed ITTL; I assumed that the USA's better performance in the 1998 and 2002 World Cups would lead to increased interest in Soccer which might see a dubbing company try to tap into that interest.

Also, if Detective Conan never made it to Toonami but only got released on DVD, am I right in thinking that this butterflies any chance of the videogames being localised? (One was IOTL, the Mirapolis Investigation on the Wii. Strangely the localisation only made it to Europe.)

And speaking of Alan Sugar, is The Apprentice around?

 

[Paradox-less]

Just realised that I jumped the gun a bit here, so it might be a good idea to ascertain as to whether Captain Tsubasa was dubbed ITTL; I assumed that the USA's better performance in the 1998 and 2002 World Cups would lead to increased interest in Soccer which might see a dubbing company try to tap into that interest.

I hope so because it was great fun.

Alright, it was silly, especially with the pitches that went on for several kilometers, but it was the good kind of silly.

 

[Nivek]

I hope so because it was great fun.

Alright, it was silly, especially with the pitches that went on for several kilometers, but it was the good kind of silly.

How filler worked as children,the remake is weird with such fast paced games(and oliver a kid always remembering his childhood before kicking that ball, just make a goal)

 

[Paradox-less]

How filler worked as children,the remake is weird with such fast paced games(and oliver a kid always remembering his childhood before kicking that ball, just make a goal)

Yup. Loved it.

 

[GeorgeUK]

I hope so because it was great fun.

Alright, it was silly, especially with the pitches that went on for several kilometers, but it was the good kind of silly.

I would mention a character in Dandoh hitting a 400-yard drive but since it aired in 2004 Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson and Tiger Woods have all driven that distance.

 

[RySenkari]

The Cleveland Browns scandal, in many ways, consumed the 2007-08 NFL regular season. In all the fallout from the Michael Vick dogfighting charges and the city of Cleveland's attempted cover up, the NFL had to do a lot of soul searching about what was really important. In the middle of all that, some really good football was being played. Peyton Manning once again led the New Orleans Saints to the NFL's best record (14-2), setting a new regular season touchdown record (61) in the process. In the midst of this, Manning also set a new single-game touchdown record with an incredible nine passing touchdowns during a 65-14 spanking of the Cleveland Browns. In what was expected to be a marquee Sunday Night Football matchup between two Super Bowl contenders, the Browns found themselves in the midst of scandal, and with Michael Vick in jail and Sean Taylor out due to injury, were utterly crushed by the Saints in a game that would be the main reason for the NFL's move to flex scheduling in the 2009 season and beyond. Elsewhere in the NFC, it was mostly the usual suspects, teams like the Arizona Cardinals (still led by Kyle Orton despite acquiring Matt Leinart in a trade) and the savvy Bears and Cowboys who were at the top of the heap. The Washington Redskins had a bit of a resurgence, challenging the Cowboys in their division but falling a game short, while the young Carolina Panthers managed to beat out Patrick Ramsay and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for a playoff berth thanks to division record tiebreaks.

In the AFC, a landscape left rocked by the Browns' fall from grace, it was the Colts, led by Tom Brady and his potent receiving corps, that once again rose to the top with a 13-3 record. Just behind them in the division were the Tennessee Titans, who played hard all year to finish 12-4, mostly thanks to Adrian Peterson's incredible rookie year. They actually beat the Colts both times they played and fell just a game short of the overall #1 seed, but ultimately had to settle for fifth. The New England Patriots found themselves struggling, with Donovan McNabb having another rough year. The Patriots won their division with a 10-6 record, barely beating out the Miami Dolphins for a playoff spot. The Pittsburgh Steelers found themselves in control of their division with the Browns' collapse, and took not only the division title, but a bye thanks to an 11-5 record. That left them tied with Eli Manning's Denver Broncos, who lost a crucial game to the Steelers on Monday Night Football, which ended up being the tiebreaker that cost them a bye.

NFL Playoffs 2007-08:

Wild Card Round

(3) Denver Broncos: 17, (6) San Diego Chargers: 14

This fierce battle of division rivals went right down to the wire. The Chargers had a strong year and finished 10-6 thanks to their rookie quarterback Brady Quinn, who was helped along by a stout offensive line and a tough defense. The Chargers and Broncos went back and forth for most of the game, but the Broncos scored the go ahead field goal with just under three minutes to go, and Quinn couldn't come up with a game winning drive, throwing an interception at midfield to end the Chargers' season.

(4) New England Patriots: 27, (5) Tennessee Titans: 24 (OT)

This instant classic between the Titans and Patriots was a back and forth affair. The Titans scored first after a Donovan McNabb interception on the opening drive, but McNabb managed to overcome the jitters and drive the Patriots for a score. The Patriots then made it 10-7 just before halftime, but the Titans roared back after the half to retake the lead. Then, the Titans went ahead 17-10 toward the end of the third. The Patriots tied it back up with six minutes to go, only for Adrian Peterson to rumble 71 yards for a touchdown on the very next set of downs. McNabb drove the Patriots for a game tying touchdown with just 39 seconds to go, but the Titans took it to the 42 yard line and nearly won the game, only for the game winning 59 yard field goal to doink off the crossbar, just short. It went back and forth in overtime, with the Titans missing another field goal, this time a 48 yarder. Eventually, the Patriots were able to win with 2:47 left in overtime by kicking a 43 yard field goal, surviving and advancing to the divisional round.

(3) Chicago Bears: 37, (6) Carolina Panthers: 3

The Bears' star quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was sensational in this game, trouncing the Panthers in a 37-3 rout and sending fans home from Soldier Field very, very happy. Roethlisberger threw for four touchdowns and 371 yards, and the Bears defense did the rest, forcing five turnovers and looking extremely good in this one.

(4) Arizona Cardinals: 20, (5) Washington Redskins: 7

Somehow, Kyle Orton had managed to keep his starting job, but after the Redskins went into the locker room ahead 7 to 0, Cardinals coach Jim Caldwell, fighting for his job, pulled Orton and put in Leinart. It was like night and day: Leinart took over, throwing 14 completions on 18 passes thrown. Meanwhile, the Redskins' offense, which had been shaky all year, couldn't get anything going. The Cardinals finally made it out of the first round, but now they would have to take on Manning and the seemingly invincible Saints.

Divisional Round

(4) New England Patriots: 24, (1) Indianapolis Colts: 7

Donovan McNabb played acceptably, but this was all Bill Belichick and his defensive gameplan, shutting down the potent Colts by putting rookie Darrelle Revis on Randy Moss. With Moss trapped on Revis Island, Brady threw four interceptions, with Marvin Harrison showing his age even in single coverage. The Patriots had the Colts stymied every step of the way, and by the end, Colts fans were booing Tom Brady almost as much as they do IOTL where he's actually on a hated rival. The Patriots suddenly looked a lot better than their 10-6 record would indicate, and they were on to the conference finals.

(2) Pittsburgh Steelers: 35, (3) Denver Broncos: 10

The Pittsburgh Steelers straight up murdered the Broncos in this one, largely thanks to the play of quarterback Aaron Rodgers who was rapidly turning into a superstar. Eli Manning couldn't get any offense going at all, and was frequently given very little time to recover due to Rodgers leading so many quick scoring drives. The Broncos managed to slow him down in the second half (after going down 28-0), but it was too little, too late, and the Steelers would move on to face their hated rivals.

(4) Arizona Cardinals: 18, (1) New Orleans Saints: 16

Peyton Manning found himself throwing against a brick wall, or more often than that, throwing interceptions in this game. When he wasn't doing that, he was on his butt in the end zone thanks to the Cardinals' defense putting up two safeties. Matt Leinart was fine in this game, though he did throw a couple of picks that allowed the Saints back into it after going down 11 to 3 early on. This game, despite being close, was somewhat tough to watch due to all the errors by both teams, but somehow the Cardinals ground it out and moved on to the conference championship.

(3) Chicago Bears: 29, (2) Dallas Cowboys: 20

Two tough teams stacked with good players, especially on defense, made for the most fun game of the weekend, though the Bears were the better team most of the way. Ultimately, the Cowboys were tricked up by Bad Rex, who showed up yet again at the worst possible time, throwing two picks and fumbling at a key moment that allowed the Bears to take the lead for good late in the third quarter. Meanwhile, the Bears were putting up touchdown after touchdown, going for two early on to set the tone for the game. The Bears wouldn't be denied in this one, and Ben Roethlisberger simply outplayed Rex Grossman, who was a far cry from the hero who'd helped the Pittsburgh Steelers win Super Bowl XXXIX. The Cowboys would be on the lookout for a quarterback in the offseason who could help their talented team win.

Conference Championships

(4) New England Patriots: 41, (2) Pittsburgh Steelers: 38

In an amazing shootout between two stellar quarterbacks, the New England Patriots managed to come out on top after going down early in the first quarter, 14-0. Donovan McNabb looked like the goat early on, throwing two interceptions, but came back strong with some great passes and some savvy runs, and the score at halftime was 24-17 after a 56 yard field goal by New England at the end of the half. The Patriots got the ball to start the third quarter and managed to tie it up, but the Steelers came back quickly with another touchdown. The teams would trade punts for the rest of the third, until finally the Patriots scored a field goal at the beginning of the fourth quarter to get the score to 31-27. Rodgers would drive his team quickly back to the red zone, but a critical interception led to a long Patriots touchdown drive, making the score 34-31 with 4:26 remaining. The Steelers came back, however, and would score a touchdown with just over a minute to go. However, this left enough time on the clock for Donovan McNabb, who, in a Michael Vick-like display of running prowess, had a 31 yard run with about 15 seconds to go to bring his team to the Steelers' 22 yard line. Another quick pass later set the Patriots up at the 10, and a touchdown pass to the back of the end zone as time expired won the game for the Patriots in spectacular fashion.

(3) Chicago Bears: 34, (4) Arizona Cardinals: 10

In contrast to the amazing AFC Championship Game, this was a blowout from the word go. The Cardinals found their runs stuffed and their passes swatted down all day, and the Bears capitalized on most of the Cardinals' mistakes, winning in mostly effortless fashion in front of an ecstatic Soldier Field crowd who braved the cold and snow to see their team crush the Cardinals. Weather was definitely a factor, but the Bears were just a superior team, snow or no.

Super Bowl XLII:

New England Patriots: 34, Chicago Bears: 21

Chris Daughtry led things off with a stirring performance of the national anthem, and then this game began. While not nearly as thrilling as last year's game, it was still competitive for most of the first half, with the Patriots taking a 21-14 lead into halftime and the Bears expecting to remain competitive in the second half. The halftime show itself featured the Dixie Chicks in a performance that had the crowd hopping, especially when they were joined by country legend Garth Brooks on stage. After the half, the Bears came out looking to even the score. However, they found themselves stymied by Belichick's defense and the tough play of Darrelle Revis, who snagged two interceptions from the normally dependent Ben Roethlisberger. Revis also snagged the Super Bowl MVP award away from Donovan McNabb, who played quite well but couldn't quite compete with Revis' heroics, especially his interception return for a touchdown that would make the Patriots' lead 34-14 in the fourth, sealing their Super Bowl win despite a Bears garbage time touchdown to make the score a bit more respectable.

-

2008 NFL Draft

The Detroit Lions continued to stink, thanks to JaMarcus Russell being a complete bust for them. Once again, they had the #1 pick in the draft. However, they passed up on Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, and Colt Brennan, believed to be the most promising QB prospects in the draft, and instead snagged Jake Long, hoping that some added protection might be what the doctor ordered for Russell. At #2 were the Bengals, and even with Calvin Johnson proving a promising rookie for them, they had another lousy season. However, Matt Ryan was sitting right there, and they took him, giving Megatron a QB that could get him the ball early and often, and would form with him one of the league's best QB-WR tandems for years to come. The Cowboys were looking for their new franchise QB, and were willing to trade up from their spot at #27. However, they wouldn't have to: Colt Brennan fell to #27 despite projections placing him in the top 10 on some draft boards. Brennan had led the University of Colorado to the Sugar Bowl in 2006 and 2007, and had set NCAA records for touchdowns and yardage. However, character concerns plagued him throughout his career: he'd allegedly sexually harassed numerous female students during his time at the university. The Michael Vick scandal had led to an increasing microscope on character issues in collegiate sports, though by then Brennan hadn't been accused of anything for nearly a year, and the Cowboys, desperate for a QB, took the risk.

-

"And in the fallout of the Michael Vick scandal, Ohio State University has implemented what it calls a "Five Point Program For Integrity", that applies to all coaches and student-athletes, as well as administrative staff for the university and for the athletics department. This program, which is being called the most stringent ethics program in all of college sports, looks to ensure that the university does not experience a similar scandal to the one that befell the Cleveland Browns this past NFL season. The five points of the program are: Academics, Honesty, Personal Conduct, Respect, and Community, and are being overseen not just by the university, but by a company hired outside of Ohio with no ties to the athletic program or anyone in it. This company, Frezelle Security, normally conducts background checks for Fortune 500 companies and governmental organizations, and its involvement with Ohio State University is said to be the first of its kind. All student-athletes attending Ohio State University are required to perform some act of community service work, and are also required to check in regularly with an academic advisor. Some incoming student athletes are balking at the program, objecting that the security firm unnecessarily intrudes into their personal business, and the university has reportedly lost at least one high profile football recruit due to these objections. However, university president Karen Holbrook says that the increased scrutiny is worth it if it ensures that the university will become a beacon of integrity in college athletics. Other universities, including fellow Big Ten school Penn State, which experienced a minor scandal in 1997 after assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was arrested and convicted of child molestation, are also considering adopting more stringent integrity policies."
-Bob Ley, on the January 27, 2008 episode of Outside The Lines

 

[Coffeeincluded]

Woo-hoo! Thank you for posting this; it was pretty great to see!

Ohio State’s program was actually my idea. I figured that in the wake of the Michael Vick scandal, Ohio would pass some of the most stringent animal abuse laws in the country. When you combine the fact that the Buckeyes are not only a storied football team but basically a secular religion in Columbus and that the Ohio State veterinary school is right across the river from the stadium (and you may have had pathologists from the school testify at the trial), it becomes very possible that Ohio State would want to implement a program to ensure that nobody like Michael Vick would ever play in a scarlet and gray jersey.

And Sandusky was already convicted and removed from penn state? Thank goodness.

 

[RySenkari]

Brittany Saldita: You just finished listening to "Main Theme" from Final Fantasy VII, here on Geek Radio on Northstar. Now let's get back to my interview with former GameTV host and current Games Over Matter webmaster and founder Alex Stansfield. Our time's almost up in this discussion of retro games and video game history, and I think it'd be appropriate to conclude our discussion about retro games by briefly touching on the subject of video game remakes, remakes of old classic games on modern consoles. We're seeing remakes... actually a lot more often these days, and I just want to know, Alex, what your opinion on game remakes is. Is it good, repaying for a game you've already played to completion?

Alex Stansfield: Oh, I actually like game remakes most of the time. I don't think it's a ripoff, as long as they make enough updates and changes. If they do that, I think it plays like a brand new game. If they go back, re-do the graphics, improve the music and sound effects, add new content, then yeah, absolutely it's worth it. I mean I just bought The Godfather on Blu-Ray, and I already owned it on VHS and DVD. Paid full price for it, paid 30 bucks, don't feel ripped off at all, and there's usually a lot less of a difference between a modern game remake and a VHS to Blu-Ray transition.

Brittany: And the reason I'm bringing this up is sort of personal, since I just picked up Pickton Lake for the Game Boy Supernova. They released it, I think three months ago, I just picked it up and I'm actually really enjoying it. The thing is though, I never got to play the original.

Alex: Didn't it come out like right after the SNES-CD did, originally?

Brittany: It originally came out in March 1993. And of course back then I had just gotten the SNES-CD.

Alex: *laughs* Have you told them the story of how you got it?

Brittany: Actually, no I haven't!

Alex: You should tell them.

Brittany: Another time!

Alex: You won a Street Fighter II tournament at UC Santa Cruz. You beat like 50 guys, fought your way out of the losers' bracket.

Brittany: It's a good story, but it's a Street Fighter story. We should save it for a Street Fighter episode!

Alex: If you can find the February 15, 1993 edition of the UC Santa Cruz newspaper, she's on the front page of that.

Brittany: But anyway... ANYWAY, I didn't get Pickton Lake when it first came out. The only game I got before Super Mario World 2, besides the games that came with the SNES-CD which were Mario Kart and Street Fighter, I got Final Fantasy: New Generation.

Alex: I didn't get to play Pickton Lake until like 1996. The original one.

Brittany: I've seen footage of the original SNES-CD game but I never got to play it. But this new one, for the Supernova, it's pretty good. Alex, before I go on, you want to tell the listeners about the original Pickton Lake?

Alex: Yeah. Pickton Lake was a game where you got to play as one of two kids, Cody or his sister Cassie, and they're at a summer camp, and all their friends have been kidnapped by horror monsters. Ghosts, vampires, zombies, Frankenstein, the Wolfman shows up, I mean pretty much every horror monster you can think of is in this game. It's a platformer, it's got 16 levels, but there's also secret doors and passageways where you can kind of go and find secrets and items. Most of the items are useless but occasionally you'll find an extra life or a cool weapon or something. The graphics were decent, I mean, the SNES-CD was mostly used for voice acting and crude animation, it pretty much looked like any other SNES cartridge game. What set the game apart, I think, was the humor. It was very light hearted, not bloody or gory horror, just really silly horror poking fun at various horror tropes. Compare it to say, the Commander Keen series I think would be a good comparison to the humor in Pickton Lake.

Brittany: I remember reading about it in Nintendo Power and not being very interested in it. I was more interested in... I think Super Turrican maybe? But even that game I didn't bother getting new.

Alex: It was a cult game. Didn't sell very well but had some pretty devoted fans. I only got it because it was on sale, I think 12 bucks used at FuncoLand. Played it and beat it on a Saturday when I didn't have any games to play for the show. I probably would've given it a 3 on GameTV, maybe a 3.5? Honestly I didn't think it was anything special but I liked the humor and the voice acting.

Brittany: Well, this new Pickton Lake, the graphics have been updated significantly. It looks like a cel shaded game, like a Star Siren in terms of graphics, really zany animations, some remixed music, added treasures, expanded levels... there's 18 levels I think in this one.

Alex: Yeah, I noticed they added two more levels. They added a secret challenge level and a 100 percent completion level.

Brittany: Now in the original game, apparently...apparently Cassie got kidnapped in the final level?

Alex: Right, you had to fight the final boss with Cody while Cassie was all tied up and hanging in the background.

Brittany: Well, spoiler alert by the way for anyone interested in playing the game, if you don't want to know about the bonus levels you might want to mute this. I did spoil the game for myself just a little bit because I looked up the secret bonus levels out of curiosity, I looked them up on Youtube, and in the secret challenge level, level 17, it's Cody who gets snatched!

Alex: Yep!

Brittany: Reversing the cliche!

Alex: The dude in distress.

Brittany: I love how Cassie is just relishing it too, really rubbing it in his face. Because in the original game, Cody's mostly all heroic, but in this remake, when Cassie gets captured, Cody acts like a smartass and it got on my nerves, like "really?" but then when Cassie's saving him she acts twice as bad! Which, again, I thought was hilarious, mostly thanks to the voice acting.

Alex: They changed the voice actors in the remake.

Brittany: Which is usually the case in modern games of old ones that did have voice acting, they rarely use the original cast. I looked it up, and the original game was all non-union. I'd never heard of any of the voice actors in that original game, but in this remake, I've heard of these people.

Alex: You've probably worked with some of these people!

Brittany: I have! Jessica DiCicco, she plays the voice of Cassie in the remake and she also did a voice on an episode of Thrillseekers! She plays Beth, one of the girls in the group that's a rival to the Thrillseekers girls. She's hilarious, she's super talented and she was awesome in this game.

Alex: And I thought the actors in the original game did a really good job for the time. By 1993 standards, I mean back then, and I'm not bashing anyone who voice acts professionally, but there is a huge difference between the voice acting back then and the voice acting for games now, which I think is one of the best aspects of most of these remakes.

Brittany: So yeah, the Pickton Lake remake is really nice, though I think I might've appreciated it even more if I'd played the original.

Alex: I did play the new one for Games Over Matter and it is absolutely better. I gave it an 8 out of 10 on there, it's a really fun little platformer and even though it's got modern graphics and some quality of life improvements, it's still a nice little throwback.

Brittany: There's another remake... er, reboot, not sure, it's an overhaul but it's essentially the same game, and that's Rampart. Came out on the iTwin, came out on the handhelds, and it is Atari's Rampart, which originally came out in 1990, but redone as a modern game.

Alex: The original Rampart was incredible. I played it in the arcade and got really hooked. It had puzzle elements, strategy elements, even some shooter elements in there, and I was surprised by just how true this new one stays to that original game. They didn't try to doll it up with action segments, they didn't try to make it into some RPG or something, they just gave the graphics a hell of a boost and added tower defense elements, which I actually think is perfect since the original Rampart was in a lot of ways the precursor to the modern tower defense game.

Brittany: I got the Supernova version, which doesn't look as good as the iTwin version but it does play the same.

Alex: It does, yeah, it's the same as the iPod Play version which is basically the iTwin version on an iPod Play. There's also an iPhone version, and that one has touch controls.

Brittany: Of course it does.

Alex: Rampart is the kind of game that I think isn't for everyone, because it's not like Tetris where anybody can pick up and play it. You've got to be able to strategize on multiple levels to get the most out of it and succeed. The thing I want to know is why Rampart? There are a lot of other classic Atari games to remake, but Rampart is the one that gets remade. I mean, at least now.

Brittany: They're doing Centipede on the Xbox 2.

Alex: Oh, yeah, as an FPS.

Brittany: Yeah.

Alex: *audibly groans*

Brittany: You think maybe just doing an arcade update would've been better?

Alex: Well, look at Pac-Man: Championship Edition, that game's amazing! They didn't try to turn Pac-Man into an FPS! Why Centipede?

Brittany: The centipedes look pretty scary and cool.

Alex: But that's not Centipede! That's just a horror game about giant centipedes!

Brittany: I agree that they probably should've just updated the original arcade game, like they did with Tempest on the Jaguar.

Alex: Yeah, with an arcade game, just stick to the arcade gameplay. There's a reason those games did so well, it's because the gameplay was simple and addictive and fun. That's why the new Rampart is so good. I still don't know why the new Rampart exists but I'm glad it does.

Brittany: Same with Pac-Man: Championship Edition.

Alex: Yeah.

Brittany: So you do like game remakes, mostly, and I have to say that I like them too. One of the reasons is that, being a mom, I get to share some of these games with my kids and have them enjoy them the same way I did back in the day. Going back to Pickton Lake, the original game, from what I heard, you got a limited number of continues and lives and if you exhausted those, game over. Back to the start.

Alex: Right, back to level 1. You lost all your stuff, you lost your progress, back to level 1. It was... fairly generous with extra lives and continues, I mean you could find at least one extra life in every level, but it was still tough to make it through.

Brittany: And this new game saves after every level.

Alex: Right.

Brittany: Now, I consider myself a hardcore gamer, I like a challenge, but... I don't like wasting my time. And these games, that don't save, I mean... this is a lot more convenient for me and a lot better to play with my young kids, so that they can get through it without being sent back to the start so much.

Alex: I get the mentality that a challenging game is more satisfying to beat, there's more bragging rights in it, but you're right that making it more generous in terms of lives and saves makes it a lot more accessible. It's a quality of life thing.

Brittany: It respects your time more.

Alex: Exactly. And there are still plenty of tough games out there that are tough because they take legitimate practice and strategy to beat and not just because they sent your butt back to the start when you get beaten.

Brittany: You and Melissa just had a little girl, so when are you planning to start her on video games?

Alex: I'm not sure, and I'm not sure if I'll start her on the originals or the remakes. I think maybe I'll start her on Super Mario Bros.?

Brittany: Oh, good choice.

Alex: And that's been remade at least once.

Brittany: Right, Super Mario All-Stars. Think Nintendo might go back to it, remake it in the same style as Super Mario Flip?

Alex: Oh, that would be fun. You mean the graphical style or with the flipping?

Brittany: I think with the flipping might be fun, being able to explore the original Super Mario Bros. in 3-D.

Alex: I think I'd rather have a straight up remake, just the original game but in HD, with HD graphics on the Sapphire.

Brittany: They could do both, have one mode with the flip and the other mode just playing normally.

Alex: Ugh, Brittany, why do you do this kinda stuff?

Brittany: Hmm?

Alex: Now I really want to play Super Mario Bros. in HD! That's the remake I REALLY want!

Brittany: *laughs*

Alex: It would be like printing money for Nintendo! It would be like printing money!

Brittany: I have to stop you drooling because we're running out of time but there's one more game I want to get to, this one doesn't come out until September but it's Fairytale: 10th Anniversary Edition, also for Game Boy Supernova.

Alex: I'm noticing a trend that all our remakes today are from the Supernova.

Brittany: Not Pac-Man, that's iPod Play.

Alex: Well, most of them.

Brittany: The Supernova's a great little remake machine, isn't it? But anyway, Fairytale. Let's take a trip in the Wayback Machine, ten years ago, with this clip from GameTV.

*The clip is played of Alex and Brittany's review of the original Fairytale for the Ultra Nintendo:

Alex: Fairytale takes place in a world divided between the human world, a steampunk landscape of cities and high technology, and the fairy world, of continent-spanning magical forests filled with flowers and creatures and of course, the fairies, magically-gifted beings who look like humans but have translucent wings on their backs that allow them to float above the forest floor. The action begins when a young human soldier named Ephret wanders into the forest and encounters a beautiful fairy soldier named Claris.

Brittany: Though Claris is distrusting of Ephret, she takes him deeper into the forest, needing his help to combat the increasingly dangerous monsters who threaten the lives of her brethren. She introduces him to her friend Virtuosa and swears him to secrecy, knowing that tension between the two races is at an all time high. Together, the three become protectors of the innocent, but even amongst the forest fae, not everything is as it seems, and intrigue is everywhere, even in this forested paradise.*

Alex: What a trip down memory lane, huh?

Brittany: Yeah, and remember, we gave that game a perfect score.

Alex: It's a Hall of Fame game.

Brittany: The remake will feature updated graphics and some brand new quests, though the game itself remains the same and even keeps the original voice actors, including Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and Moira Quirk.

Alex: Mary McGlynn has certainly done a lot since Fairytale, hasn't she?

Brittany: She's the Major! And she was majorly awesome in Fairytale so I'm glad they brought her back for this, even if it's just to record a few more lines since they are using the original voice recording for most of it. So yeah, Squaresoft is remaking Fairytale, though it's not nearly as big an overhaul as Rampart or Pickton Lake.

Alex: This is more of an updated re-release, isn't it?

Brittany: And they are, by the way, still selling the original Fairytale on both the Supernova and Sapphire digital store, for ten dollars. This remake is going to be 40, so I'm not sure how well it's going to do if they didn't update very much. The new content had better be pretty impressive.

Alex: This is a problem some companies are running into, where they remake a game that's already being sold in the digital store. With the rise of these retro game download services and then you have remakes... I remember Sonic: The Collection took somewhat of a beating in sales because the original games were already available on iTunes.

Brittany: Super Mario Dimensions was never on sale on the Supernova store, because you could get the original remade game at launch.

Alex: Exactly. But they DO have Super Mario Dimensions on the Sapphire. The original, for ten bucks.

Brittany: While Nintendo still sells the Supernova version for 30 or 40.

Alex: So if you want to play Super Mario Dimensions on the toilet, you have to pay Nintendo 30 bucks extra for that privilege.

Brittany: Or just drag your TV and your Nintendo Sapphire into the bathroom and pay them nothing.

Alex: *laughing*

Brittany: At that point it's a moral victory more than anything.

Alex: Well, you can't take your Sapphire on a plane, so if you want to play it on a plane, you've got no choice!

Brittany: Well, they just released the Fairytale 10th Anniversary Edition in Japan, and it sold really well there, so maybe Squaresoft is onto something. It got....let me see, a 36 in Famitsu. So yeah, um... I guess people really will buy certain games twice if they're good enough!

Alex: Again, going back to The Godfather on Blu-Ray...

Brittany: What I want to know is if this new Fairytale game will be as scary as the old one was, will the updated graphics make the monsters scarier or not? Because I remember the old one had some genuinely creepy imagery. There was the Mayfly monster, basically a giant stone golem with the head of a fly... a very realistic fly, mind you.

Alex: I remember there was one dungeon that was a field of flowers with very soothing music, but you had these horrific insect and plant monsters roaming it. The giant hornet monster, this REALLY unsettling flower that made this weird screeching noise...

Brittany: Right, in Fairytale often the creepiest monsters hung out in the nicest seeming places. You'd be roaming this beautiful section of forest and then all of a sudden you'd go to a screen and there'd be this realistic looking giant wasp coming at you, or an oozing snake monster. The monster animations in the original Fairytale, both in the field and in battle, were so lifelike that it had this really unsettling effect. I let Arturo play Fairytale when he was five and he saw the hornet monster and freaked out, I mean screamed and ran out of the room. I felt really bad because I hadn't thought that something like that would spook him so much, but it gave him nightmares.

Alex: Geez, it was that bad?

Brittany: Yeah, I felt so awful too. He hasn't gone back to playing it since. I'm... I mean I don't ban my kids from playing a game because it's scary, so he can go back and try to play Fairytale whenever he wants, but he refuses to.

Alex: I imagine you wouldn't let Regan look at it though.

Brittany: Well, I'll tell you.... I don't think she scares as easily as him!

Alex: Really?

Brittany: She has watched Chris play Resident Evil and when the licker jumped out, Chris said she started laughing. I am dead serious, when that licker jumped out on top of Claire, Regan started laughing.

Alex: *laughs loudly* I'm surprised he even played it in front of her!

Brittany: He didn't know she was in the room, but when she started laughing it spooked HIM!

Alex: *laughing even louder* So she'd probably be fine with Fairytale then.

Brittany: Oh god, I imagine so.

Alex: You worried about her? *still laughing a bit*

Brittany: Oh, she's a sweet girl, but she doesn't scare easily at all. She has her mom's sense of humor I think. *giggles*

Alex: But yeah, Fairytale, I think people remember the Arachnoterror cutscene as the iconic "scare" from that game, with that giant spider coming out of the forest at you.

Brittany: That didn't scare me too much, I mean you had just seen Ashlyn get cocooned, what did you think was gonna come out of those trees, the Kool-Aid Man?

Alex: OH YEAH!

Brittany: *snickering*

Alex: It was just the way the spider moved, just the animation on him. It was like nothing we'd ever seen before, the animators did such a good job.

Brittany: Which makes me wonder if they re-did the old cutscenes or left them in. They do look dated now but they still hold up a bit, and I imagine they'd hold up better on a smaller screen.

Alex: As someone who has the original Fairytale on his Supernova, they do still look good on that screen.

Brittany: So you'd guess they left them in?

Alex: I imagine the original cutscenes are all still in.

Brittany: Well, we'll find out in September when Fairytale: 10th Anniversary Edition is released Stateside.

Alex: Though you could import it now if you really can't wait.

Brittany: Well, I think we should probably wrap this up, my producer is giving me the one minute warning so that's going to have to be it, but thank you so much for coming on and you know I'd love to have you on again as soon as possible.

Alex: Always a pleasure, I love talking about old games and of course it's great getting to talk about them with you.

Brittany: Likewise, and of course congratulations yet again on you and Melissa's new baby!

Alex: I'm not letting her anywhere near Fairytale!

Brittany: *snickering* That's also going to be it for me, but I'll be back on tomorrow night at 8 PM for another fun filled night of music from your favorite anime and video game soundtracks and all the latest news on everything geeky! We'll have Geek Trivia tomorrow night for you to test your meddle, and the topic will be Sailor Moon, so get your Sailor Guardians together and find out who knows the most about the pretty soldiers who fight for love and justice. I'm Brittany Saldita, and as always, "you play like a girl" is the best compliment you can possibly get. See you tomorrow!

-excerpted from the April 14, 2008 evening broadcast of Northstar Satellite Radio's Geek Radio channel

 

[CaseMonster]

Seeing them talk about the Sapphire and Supernova having everything together (sans that Mario Dimensions bit) is just depressing after getting a taste of Nintendo's policy for retro games on the Switch.

 

[AeroTheZealousOne]

Alex: It would be like printing money for Nintendo! It would be like printing money!

The meme (sort of) exists ITTL! Hooray! Just remove Miyamoto and the Nintendo DS from OTL's .gif and you should be set!

But yeah, an awesome update, really a nice throwback to the 90s and to Player Two Start as a whole. It's been awhile since I've heard such titles as, among others:

Pickton Lake

Mario Kart

Super Turrican

Super Mario World 2

Final Fantasy: New Generation

 

[RySenkari]

Halloween

Halloween is a survival horror game exclusive to the Xbox 2. The game is based on the classic slasher film franchise Halloween, taking most of its story from the first film but incorporating elements of other films in the series in a sort of "retelling" of the original movie. ITTL, Rob Zombie doesn't do the Halloween remake, so this game can be seen as somewhat of a replacement for that film, though John Carpenter is involved with the production of this game. Halloween is a "strict" survival horror game: in other words, ammunition is very limited and your main character isn't a damage sponge: he limps when he's hurt and can actually bleed out if he's slashed or stabbed and the player can't bandage him up in time, while he'll die from what would realistically kill a human being. However, this game has few enemies, and is somewhat Shadow Of The Colossus-like in its mission structure: the only "enemies" in this game are bosses, with a total of six bosses in all: five chapter bosses, and the omnipresent Michael Myers, who can show up at almost any time. Myers can show up in any building or even when the protagonist is roaming the streets, and the only warning they'll get is the iconic Halloween piano theme, which begins playing when Myers is near and gets louder the closer he gets. He can show up in any room, or he can show up when the protagonist is just standing around somewhere: he's always moving. The only place where the player is "safe" from Myers is in the pause menu. This serves to give the player a feeling of abject terror and unease, knowing that Michael Myers could be just around the corner. When he does show up, almost always the only option is to run. In certain situations he can be fought off or trapped temporarily, but never killed. This means that the player must be extremely careful to either avoid or, if that's impossible, move very quickly through places where they can be easily trapped. While Halloween is a survival horror game, it also has puzzle and visual novel elements. The protagonist is a sheriff's deputy, and the player will need to conduct interviews and search for clues to advance within the game. This means that much of the gameplay involves carefully solving a mystery and doing police work while being careful to avoid being killed by Michael Myers. There are of course places where Myers is more likely to show up, and there are a few scripted encounters with Myers during the game that can't be avoided. The game is also quite good at putting Myers in a place where the player will almost always have a way out. Very rarely will the game just screw the player over with an unwinnable Myers encounter, though the game can also tell if the player is deliberately dawdling in places where the game wouldn't normally put Myers in order to avoid him. The Michael Myers AI in Halloween is actually one of the more clever video game AIs featured in a console game up to this point, with reviewers praising the AI for its "movie-like" scripting that puts Myers and the player in the most cinematic situations as possible, keeping the game scary and keeping the player on their toes. The game doesn't auto-save, and while saving isn't limited by items (like the typewriter reels in Resident Evil, there are only select places where the player is able to save, so getting killed, either by Myers or a boss, does mean something, and dying usually sets the player back a good 10 minutes or so, ramping up the tension considerably. Halloween features fairly good graphics by Xbox 2 standards, it's not a groundbreaking game by any means, but it looks nice and pretty in HD and there's plenty of blood and gore like any good slasher film. It features a voice cast that consists of mostly unknown names, though there are a few voiceover vets in there. No celebrities, save for a brief cameo by John Carpenter. Halloween is very, very light on music, and most of the time the game is silent in terms of music, save for that classic piano theme. The game uses sound extremely well to ramp up the dramatic tension, and is considered a pioneering game in sound design.

The protagonist of Halloween is sheriff's deputy Rick Strode, whose daughter, Laurie, is babysitting on Halloween night. Darnett is assigned to hunt down a man who's been acting strangely about children. In the background of all of this is Michael Myers, who has just escaped from a nearby sanitarium after being imprisoned for 15 years after killing his older sister when he was six (Myers' background story is shown in a cutscene before the game begins). In the middle of responding to the call about the strange man, Rick gets another call about Myers, but is told to continue his pursuit, as the sheriff is going after Myers. However, Myers soon attacks Rick, though Rick is able to make a narrow escape. In the midst of pursuing Myers, Rick is told by a group of trick or treaters that one of them, a little girl, has disappeared. Rick learns that the strange man may have taken her, and decides to pursue the strange man instead. He pursues the man into an abandoned house, where he finds the little girl locked in a room before the man is able to do anything with her. The man attacks Rick, but Rick overpowers and kills him, saving the little girl. However, Rick then discovers that not only has Michael Myers killed two teenagers, but also the town sheriff as well. The next chapter has an all points bulletin going out for Myers, but also the news of two wild dogs escaping from someone's yard. Rick learns that the dogs have made their way onto an abandoned farm, but Myers might be there too. Rick hunts down and kills the dogs, but in the meantime, Myers has claimed another victim. Rick then gets a call about a violently abusive husband in the midst of beating his wife to death. Rick makes his way to the house, only to discover that the husband has kidnapped his wife and has taken her to the factory where he used to work at before being fired. Rick pursues the kidnapper to the factory, but in the midst of searching for him and his wife, is set upon once again by Myers. It IS possible for the player to have Myers and the husband attack each other if they set things up right, though in most circumstances Rick will have to take down the armed abusive husband himself. However, no matter what happens, it's too late: the abuser has already killed his wife. Rick returns to town, having failed to save someone but also knowing Michael Myers is on the loose and is still killing people. It's here that Rick is contacted by Dr. Loomis, Myers' psychologist, who returns to the sheriff's station with Rick to discuss how they might work together to bring Myers down. However, during this encounter, a violent gang of drug dealers breaks out of their holding cell due to most of the officers having gone looking for Myers, and puts the station under siege, taking Loomis hostage. Rick has to take out the leader of the drug dealers, though there's also a chance that Myers could be there as well. Rick saves Loomis, and the two decide to go after Myers, only to learn that Laurie isn't babysitting like she said she was, but is instead partying in the old mansion just outside of town. Rick makes his way to the mansion, but finds one of Laurie's friends dead on the ground. He starts looking through the mansion for Laurie, while finding more of his daughter's friends along the way. He also learns that one of Laurie's friends is a violent criminal in his own right, and might be just as dangerous as Myers. Rick makes his way through the mansion, dodging Myers all along the way, until he eventually gets to the basement and discovers that the violent criminal is about to have his way with Laurie. Rick and the criminal tussle in a brutal fight, but after the player "wins" the boss fight, the criminal gets the upper hand, only for Myers to show up and kill him. He then turns his attention to Rick, but Laurie throws herself in the way, attacking Myers. Myers doesn't kill her, but kidnaps her instead and takes her back to his old family home. Rick teams back up with Loomis and the two make their way to the Myers family home. Myers took Laurie because she's actually his sister (Rick adopted the girl as an infant), and Myers is trying to make her into a killer, but she refuses to be one. Rick and Myers battle it out, with Laurie helping out at two points during the fight. Eventually, Rick gets the upper hand, but it's Loomis who finishes Myers off, just like in the original movie, putting several bullets in him and sending him falling to his death. Just like in the original movie, Myers' corpse is never found, leaving his fate unknown...

Halloween is considered the most terrifying game in years, and gets excellent review scores from critics. It's expected to be one of the Xbox 2's top selling games of early 2008. It's released on February 5, 2008, and it sells well, but doesn't meet expectations, not being quite as big a hit from players as it was from critics. Fans balk at the game's difficulty and its lack of the typical survival horror action, though fans who do play it tend to love its atmosphere and bold design choices. It's considered one of the Xbox 2's best exclusives, but isn't a killer app by any stretch of the imagination, and Sapphire and iTwin players would be port begging for this game for a very long time.

-

Microsoft Scraps Halloween-Themed Experience For X-Zone Arcades

Halloween is considered one of the Xbox 2's biggest exclusives of 2008, and last year, a Halloween game experience was announced for certain X-Zone arcade locations, where players would get to team up to try and survive a terrifying night fleeing from killer Michael Myers. The attraction was initially scheduled to debut alongside the game, then was pushed back to April, then pushed back again, all the way to October. But now, two weeks after the game's release, Microsoft has announced that they're canceling plans for the experience entirely, citing continued poor performance from their arcade division and a "lack of interest" in the game. The cancellation is just the latest bit of troubling news for Microsoft's X-Zone arcade chain, which has seen its number of locations worldwide drop to 46 amidst a new wave of closures. Microsoft is reporting that attendance in 2007 declined 16 percent from 2006, and this January saw a 23 percent drop from January 2007. The continued woes for the economy, which declined during the final quarter of 2007 amidst a rough holiday retail season, are being cited as the main cause of the decline, though Microsoft's own financial troubles and lower than expected Xbox 2 sales are also being blamed for the decline in X-Zone attendance. Analysts expect the company to close down at least 10 more X-Zone arcades this year, and all plans for new openings have been put on hold, including locations in Vancouver, Canada and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. It's rumored that even the Mall Of America location, which has been an anchor at the Minneapolis-area mall for the past five years, could be in danger of shutting down if business doesn't pick back up.

-from an article on Kotaku, posted on February 21, 2008

 

[Trexador96]

Looks like X-zones are dying. Which isn't surprising considering the decline of arcades in the west.