Mega Man returns

Looks like Capcom will to recapture the success of Mega Man 9, which, in turn was attempting to recapture the early success (frustration, anger and difficulty?) of the NES Mega Man games. The latest issue of Nintendo Power reveals a new Mega Man game, Mega Man 10.

This version will be a bit more user friendly than 9 as it has an Easy Mode (which is assume will be similar to the Easy Modes available on the Mega Man Collections on the Xbox, PS2, and GC.

Obviously it will be on the Wii, via WiiWare, but there's no other word on the other platforms. One would assume that since Mega Man 9 was available on all three major consoles, 10 will be as well, unless, of course, Nintendo worked in conjunction with Capcom to 'bring the series home.' That would a nice move assuming that Nintendo actually pulls that off.

Regardless, it's nice to see Mega Man returning once again.

The Tetris God

If you've ever played Tetris, you will totally get this video.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

"Reverse squiggly!"

Gaming has really gone mainstream

Wow, video games have really gone mainstream.

We've seen ads for video game, tie-ins with fast food, and soft drinks but now we must have hit that all too critical mass.

UMD add-on for the PSPgo?

Seems a little odd but according to CVG, Logitech is working on one. Interesting really since that kinda defeats the whole purpose of having a PSPgo. However, if they do make a UMD add-on I wonder if it would be possible to rip your UMDs to your PSPgo? I'm sure that Logitech wouldn't include software to do so, but there's always homebrew.

Strange especially since there's rumored to be yet another PSP iteration (PSP-4000?) that will have UMD support.

Sony has said that they are going to support a dual delivery model. I didn't really believe that but if they are really readying a new PSP with UMD support then I guess they really meant it.

I'm a big fan of the PSP, I use mine all the time for on the go gaming as well as my portable MP3 player, with the occasional web surfing thrown in the mix. Removing the UMD on the PSPgo was a stupid decision as it cuts off anyone's existing library (I myself have almost 50 titles) and even if they did find a way to transfer it all, I'd need a ton of space to fit all those games. Plus my digital downloads would have zero resell value, and that just doesn't sit well with me.

2009...a look back

With the start of December its about time I look back at my year in gaming. Last year I thought I did well to finish fourteen titles but I outdid myself in 2009 and completed twenty one.

LocoRoco Review

Roll, bounce, and split yourself to save the LocoRocos.

Star Wars CG, or that's how we do it CG '77 style

Okay, this isn't really gaming specific, but it's kinda related because it's A) Star Wars and B) about computer graphics. This is a video about the making of the computer graphic that was shown during the briefing to Rebel pilots. I never really thought about it much but looking back at this video, and then thinking about how games are rendering things real time now, it's kinda interesting to see how far we've come in the last 30+ years.

I'm amazed at how this was done, that the method of transfer was a camera taking pictures and that it had to do multiple exposures for a single frame because the computer couldn't draw the whole trench. Note that he talks about rotating the object in real time, I imagine that was kind of a big deal back then. Larry Cuba was one of the pioneers in early computer graphics, and won several awards for his work. Interestingly enough, his own website makes no mention of his work on Star Wars, an odd omission if you ask me.

Assassin's Creed II Collector's Edition swag

A short note. I picked up my Assassin's Creed II CE from Gamestop this week. The Ezio statue (figurine?) is fantastic! The statue itself is huge, my Altair figure sadly only comes up to his knee. As for the other CE items? The Bonus content disc is pretty much a throwaway. My soundtrack? It's buried as a menu item on the Bonus DVD and it's not even the full soundtrack. It has only 14 tracks, while the soundtrack available on Amazon shows a total of 35 tracks. And because it's on a DVD I can't take it with me to listen while I drive to work. And why on earth did they not include the awesome Lineage movie is beyond me. The Art book is nice but nothing to write home about. After having purchased the three CE versions of World of Warcraft and it's expansions, my expectations for an art book are pretty high. I've yet to get to the Palazzo Medici or the Santa Maria Dei Frari (the pre-order bonus map and the CE bonus map, respectively) so I can't say much about that.

The statue is pretty sweet, so that soothes some of my disappointment with the contents of the CE, but as far as I'm concerned, the Bonus disc is pretty lame.

Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal Review

Ratchet & Clank face off against the evil Dr. Nefarious

DuncanR2N's Weekend Thoughts Vol. X: Things every game should do

Lately I've been thinking about ways that the game experience could be easily enhanced. Things that don't change the core gameplay at all, don't affect the storyline, done really do anything to the game itself, yet could improve the overall enjoyment of a game. Most of these things I've seen in one or two games, but for some reason, have yet to become mainstream, even though they are fantastic ideas.

Here they are in no particular order: