Zack Morris Returns!

Shine! Shine! Shine!

R-Type Dimensions - Maybe Next Time

I think the makers of R-Type Dimensions for the XBox Live Arcade are shooting themselves in the foot by charging 1200 points for their game. I was a big fan of the original R-Type game when it came out in the arcades and on my ZX Spectrum. I bought Super R-Type for my SNES too. So I was quite excited about R-Type Dimensions. It was released last Wednesday and although it contains both R-Type 1 and 2 and co-op functionality, I don't believe it warrants the $15 price tag. The majority of XBox Live Arcade games are 800 points ($10) and it's only been the last few months where developers are beginning to push their luck and increase the cost.


Other incredible XBox Live Arcade games such as Bionic Commando: Rearmed and Geometry Wars 2 have been 800 points. Based on the demo, I'd say it should be at that price point.


Braid is another game that's 1200 points and initially, I avoided buying it because to the increase in price (the more you support increasing prices, the more they'll take advantage of it...) I received a lot of points for Christmas this year so I decided to splurge. I don't have as much of a problem with Braid being more expensive as it's a very creative and original game and probably deserves the extra cost based on all the amazing reviews it got. I thought it was great but found that there was absolutely no replay value after it was done.


Anyway... back to my point... I hope this trend does not continue and if it does, I hope people hold off on purchasing these games to send a message that simple remakes of old games do not warrant the premium price tag. Only premium games should have the premium price point...

Mats Sundin and Nike Commercials Revisited

Mats Sundin played his first game in a Canucks uniform. I guess it will take a few games for him to get up to speed.

I'd rather see Demitra and Wellwood on the Sundin line and Raymond moved up to the Sedin line. Time will tell what combinations click. At least the Canucks won the game...

All this Sundin talk reminded me of the old Nike Goalie commercials. They were awesome... "Poke Check!" :)

I thought it would be nice to revisit the series of commercials while I had it on my mind. These brought back some great memories... Here they are:

The Gardener (Mats Sundin):



The Cabbie (Mats Sundin):



Dial-a-Psychic (Mats Sundin):



ABBA (Mats Sundin):



The Babysitter (Theo Fleury):



The Janitor (Sergei Federov):



Burgerama (Sergei Federov):



The Phonebooth (Sergei Federov):



The Bus Stop (Sergei Federov):



Pan Handler (Jeremy Roenick):



Bank Robbery (Rod BrindAmour):



Banana:



Shaving Cream:

Hockey Hilarity

I don't think I need to say much... Just watch and enjoy.

Rangers Sasson Jeans Commercial:



Rangers Sasson Jeans Commercial - The Sequel:



Those Red Hot Flames:



Gilles Meloche Pizza Commercial:

Gaming for New Dads

Exactly one month from now, we're expecting our first baby... One of the big questions is how this will affect my gaming. This recent article seems particularly relevant:

• Advice for gamers about to become parents

Not sure if I'm going to get a Wii though...

New XBOX 360 Experience

I've had a chance to play around with the new XBOX experience and I have a few thoughts on it.

The Good:

• Game list loads really fast. The old system took forever to populate your list of games. Now it's almost instantaneous. It's great!
• Performance: Most of the rest of the interface is really quick which is impressive considering all the images and content that's on the screen.
• Avatars: I think this new feature enhances your experience. It's quite funny when you get an Avatar that looks very similar to its real-life counterpart. Integrating Avatars in some games (like Kingdom for Keflings) works really well.
• Parties: This option has redefined gaming with friends. It is so useful being able to communicate with friends while navigating menus. Also, friends can join the party while you're playing a game. This allows them to find out how close you are to finishing. It has also fixed the horrible audio issues that we used to experience in NHL 09.
• The Guide: I prefer using the guide most times. The fact that I'm using the guide while on the dashboard is indicative of my feelings of the new dashboard.
• Text Scrolling: In the old interface, if there was descriptive text on the right that was longer than a page, you would have to wait for 5 - 10 seconds for it to start scrolling down on its own. This was annoying if I quickly wanted to check out a description. In the new experience, I can scroll myself using the right stick.

The Bad:

• Avatar Load-time: Avatars sometimes take awhile to appear/load.
• Friends List: To see who is online, you have to scroll to the right. Each friend has his/her own tile. This is not efficient at all. They need a better way to display friends. I usually end up using the Guide's friend's list instead.
• No Netflix in Canada: This really sucks. I'd get the service in a second if given the opportunity. I hope Netflix expands to Canada or another company offers a similar service in Canada.
• Spotlight: I find that I no longer check out any of the videos in the Spotlight section. The old interface had Inside XBOX which had an indicator whenever there was new content. I used to review this all the time. No longer because of the interface.

The Ugly:

• Dizziness: Sometimes I find myself getting a little dizzy when flipping through the tiles in the new XBOX experience.
• Crashing: The new XBOX experience froze on me once. I've heard of others experiencing these issues. Luckily I haven't seen it too often.

Puppy Cam

Erin and I are hooked on this puppy cam:
http://cdn1.ustream.tv/swf/4/viewer.45.swf?cid=317016

It always puts a smile on our face.

Rocketman!

A man has successfully flown across the Channel using a jetpack with wings.
Check it out:

Article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26901489/

Video: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26915093#26906741

Isn't It Ironic?

So recently, I picked up this useful little tool for under $5. It's called the Package Shark Pro. It opens hard plastic clamshell packages... you know the ones that are impossible to rip open? Notice anything wrong here??? The package is sealed in a hard plastic clamshell package!!!

Someone should explain irony to this company...