Tag: Video Games

Spore and Computer Things

Spore came out today, which is pretty cool. Also cool, GameStop actually honored my pre-order from nearly two years ago. I haven’t picked it up yet, because I’m still in Storrs, but I will get it sometime this week.

I’m not in a big rush to get it because I don’t have a functional computer that can play it. At the end of last semester, my desktop shit the bed, and I didn’t really bother trying to fix it. I used Cassidy all summer, which was great. This fall, when I tried to get the desktop running again, it got worse, and started re-ordering drives. I’ve been using Cassidy as my fulltime computer here at school so far. I even got a new battery, so I don’t have to stay near an outlet (the battery Apple shipped to me to replace the one that was supposed to explode died a few months after I got it).

But Spore won’t run on a PPC Mac, so Cassidy can’t help me there. And the desktop had formerly run Linux, which seems to only slightly support Spore (at the moment). So I might actually install Windows, just to run Spore. Weird.

GTA IV

Trailer on the Rockstar site

So this game looks nasty. I don’t have a next gen console, or a HDTV, so I’m not used to graphicsof this calibur, but damn, that looks good. I’m fairly certain that this game will be the sole reason I get a PS3 or a 360 (because apparently it is coming out for both?). So that is all I have to say for tonight. I’ve got a crapload of work to do, and a very early morning tomorrow, so…crap.

Oh, right, tunes. Have some Del McCoury:
[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/del2002-07-21.shnf/delmccoury2002-07-21d1/delmccoury2002-07-21d1t10_64kb.mp3,http://www.archive.org/download/del2002-07-21.shnf/delmccoury2002-07-21d1/delmccoury2002-07-21d1t13_64kb.mp3,http://www.archive.org/download/del2002-07-21.shnf/delmccoury2002-07-21d2/delmccoury2002-07-21d2t08_64kb.mp3]
That’s Nashville Cats, All Aboard, and 1952 Vincent Black Lightning all by the Del McCoury Band.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

I Saw an X-Ray of a Girl Passing Gas by the Butthole Surfers
[audio:http://buttholesurfers.org/Tejass-x/ButtholeSurfers-Xray(Live).mp3]
Yes, Nintendo’s Wii.

People in the know are expecting a price and release date announcement any day now(with good reason), and some retailers are already taking pre-orders.
Not only is the Wii backwards compatible with GameCube games, controllers, and memory cards, but it is also a dvd player. And it is smaller, better looking, and presumably cheaper than the other two ‘next-gen’ consoles.

But what will obviously make or break this system is the new controller. If it is easy to use (as most people have reported), then I wouldn’t be surprised if this system beats the XBox 360 (especially considering how poorly the 360 is doing in Japan).

Software-wise, Wii has both systems beat. Hands down. It builds off the existing GameCube library of games, and you’ll be able to download games from NES, SNES, N64, and even some Genesis games. Something that intrigues me, even more than the possibility of retro gaming, is that Spore will be coming to the Wii. And the DS. And since the DS will be able to communicate with the Wii, we can presume that there will be some interaction between the two. Whoa.

Hardware-wise, Wii is using a PowerPC CPU and an ATI GPU, which will give it graphics on par with both the 360 and PS3. Although both of those systems have more powerful hardware than the Wii, I really don’t see it making a difference, especially since game developers have yet to take full advantage of the 360s graphics, and the same can be assumed for the PS3.

If the price point is around $200 as it is expected to be…I may just buy this system after all…