lack of updates

Sorry for the lack of updates this week, I've been out of town and trying to get posts up when I can, but unfortunately it hasn't been many. Will resume normal schedule Monday, January 1st.

\\drew

Nintendo working with Nexon

Nintendo held a press conference with Korean media recently to discuss the establishing of a regional subsidiary in their region.

“We plan to actively support Korean game software developers who have great expertise in developing online games and support their advances into foreign markets, Nintendo has started a game development partnership with NEXON, creator of the online racing game Crazyracing Kartrider and Korean publisher of the popular MMORPG MapleStory.” - Iwata

The news went over very well with both media and fans despite the fact that Korea has been a console dead zone for years as its market is almost soley dominated by the PC gamer. Bridging the gap from PC to console with Nexon's help however may be just the trick needed to slip inside however, given the popularity of Nexon's titles. Plus, the Wii is at a price that greatly undersells any PC on the market unlike the other two next gen systems already on the shelves in Korea.

\\drew

Merry Christmas!

We (see: me) here at idiosyncrasy Today and off celebrating Christmas in the tried and true fashion of binge drinking and playing with awesome dragons I received for the holidays.

So I've decided to give all the readers a present. This fantastic image of a cat in a container of pringles. I love kittens being treated like food, as do these asians girls.


Merry Christmas!

\\drew

Thought the PS3 was expensive? How about the uber delux version?

Ok, well technically it's not really PS3, but it's a highly modified version designed for advanced AV or "AV-centric" if you will.

According to Ken Kutaragi in a recent promotion, he promises that Sony will be releasing a new version of the PS3 geared less towards gaming and more in line with high end home audio and video electronics.

The sensory overload would "be a standard AV component sized box with a more powerful, power supply unit, anti-shake insulator, twice the main memory, and 2x HDMI to split sound and video output."

The system would be more expensive then the standard run of the mill PS3 (analysts estimate around $2,500USD).

Take it check book.

\\drew

Man survives 24 day hibernation

Yes, that's right, Mitsutaka Uchikoshi went missing about 3 weeks ago after tripping while taking a walk through a remote region of Rokko mountain in Japan during a barbecue.

His organs began to shut down and his body temperature dropped to 71 degrees (normal being around 98.6). He then slept for 3 weeks without ingesting food or water. After being found he was treated for severe hypothermia, blood loss and multiple organ failure possibly due to the fall he took.

"On the second day, the sun was out, I was in a field, and I felt very comfortable. That's my last memory," Uchikoshi, 35, told reporters Tuesday before returning home from hospital. "I must have fallen asleep after that."

Doctors are expecting a full recovery and no brain damage which is truly amazing.

I know it's grim, but I'm curious how many days he could have made it before kicking the bucket.

\\drew

All Star Janken Battle!

How would a company like Sony boost sales of its console? Well they can always fall back to good old reliable sex. It seems to sell fairly well (see: exceedingly well).

Well there's a new game out for the PS3 titled All Star Janken Battle: Hardcore, which is a very extreme version of the ever popular rock paper scissors game. In this game you are playing this age old game against Japanese idols in cute sets of clothing. When you win they lose an article of clothing. I've never played strip rock paper scissors before but it doesn't seem so bad judging by this video.

Fantastic, damn I love Japan but how come we here in the States don't think of interesting new ideas like this? And even when we do, we can't get the monetary backing to carry through with it. We should all take a moment and bask in the glory that is Japan, and maybe someday we as a nation will understand why they are great, take a good long introspective look at ourselves, and make a change for the better.

\\drew

Japanese game sales breakdown

Currently the market for video games is a fantastic one, as always, but with an unlikely master in chief. As opposed to being fronted by one of the next gen consoles like the Nintendo Wii or the Sony PS3, the majority of top selling games are for the Nintendo DS the innovative hand-held.

1. Pokémon Diamond (DS) - 123,573 / 2,119,848
2. Pokémon Pearl (DS) - 97,409 / 1,766,776
3. Kirby Squeak Squad (DS) - 92,173 / 557,634
4. Fushigi no Dungeon: Furai no Shiren (DS) - 88,242 / new
5. New Super Mario Bros. (DS) - 77,761 / 3,617,021
6. Love and Berry DS Collection (DS) - 72,841 / 608,545
7. Jump Ultimate Stars (DS) - 71,339 / 349,979
8. Wild Arms 4 (PS2) - 70,476 / new
9. Wii Sports (Wii) - 69,923 / 318,473
10. Pokemon Battle Revolution (Wii) - 67,607 / new
11. Common Knowledge Training (DS)
12. Wii Play (Wii)
13. Animal Crossing Wild World (DS)
14. Yakuza 2 (PS2)
15. Healthy Support Recipe 1000 DS (DS)
16. Puyo Puyo! (DS)
17. Gundam SEED Destiny Federation vs Z.A.F.T. II PLUS (PS2)
18. More Brain Age (DS)
19. Naruto Shinobi Retsuden (DS)
20. Ryuusei no Rockman Pegasus (DS)

The Nintendo DS defends its "king of the mountain" status well up to position 8, where a PS2 title weasels its way in. All in all the DS holds 14 of the top 20 selling games in Japan right now and that is quite an achievement for a hand-held, to have such a dominance over the marketplace.

Data received from EG here (For less Japanese inclined readers here)

\\drew

Die Hard goes for another run

A coworker of mine recently sent me a link to a trailer that really warms the heart.

Check it out here.

When I heard that the Rocky franchise was going for gold one last time (See: Rocky 81 or 6 I'm not sure I lost count)

But come on! Die Hard 4!!!!!! You know the writers looked at each other and said, "Bruce Willis is still a bad ass right? Let's make another Die Hard movie, take it ancient Stalone, much to your dismay you are not the law, John Maclane is".

He throws a car at a helicopter, it has to be good.

\\drew

When sociopaths play Wii

I don't know about everyone else, but this is exactly what my Wii experiences are like. I boot it up and kill my competitor with a Wii-mote turned garrote cable.

All in all this should so be a commercial trumping the system :p

\\drew

...sick

sick... broken... etc... be back tomorrow

\\drew

Dragon Quest IX Trailer

So the new Dragon Quest game is going to be coming out for the Nintendo DS, and frankly it looks amazing. Everyone thought FFIII DS sold well, but if this trailer has anything to say about it, this one may just take the cake.

For no other reason than the fact that changing armor is reflected on the character this game is going to be embraced by console RP'ers who have almost always lacked that functionality in their games. Curse you PC gamers who have had this simple feature for years!

The gameplay appears fast paced and with the commercial success of FFXII, Dragon Quest is branching away from their tried and true method of turn-based combat in favor of real time action. I was a skeptic prior to FFXII, but the game really sold me, so not all hope is lost on this title, perhaps it will pull it off as fluidly as the console has. All in all the game looks fantastic, we'll see how it turns out, an unfortunately there is no release date set, even for the Japanese SKU.

Video Here

\\drew

Left Behind? Jesus bail on you? Convert the Heathens!

The game Left Behind: Eternal Forces, is raising a stir within the Christian Community, dividing people on sides of a heated debate over whether or not the game should be sold.

"The series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins is based on their interpretation of the Bible's Book of Revelation and takes place after the Rapture, when Jesus has taken his people to heaven and left nonbelievers behind to face the Antichrist.

Left Behind Games' president, Jeffrey Frichner, says the game actually is pacifist because players lose "spirit points" every time they gun down nonbelievers rather than convert them. They can earn spirit points again by having their character pray."

Currently The Campaign to Defend the Constitution and the Christian Alliance for Progress (two online Christian political groups) are planning to petition Wal-Marts to remove the game from its shelves later today. Wal-Mart has released a statement that they currently have no plans to pull the game though, so we can safely assume there will be some harsh words and threats of eternal damnations coming from the religious zealots.

I just love the concept of this game, probably because it's just like the real world *cough* crusades *cough* terrorism *cough* Israel *cough* ahem, sorry, I must have had something in my throat.

As a side note does anyone find it interesting that a group calling themselves defenders of the constitution are working towards denying out civil rights of freedom of speech by releasing this game? Just a quick passing thought, made me smile a bit.

Full Article Here

\\drew

Guitar Hero for the true rocker

The guys over at Toolmonger have always been there making leaps and bounds in the field of odd gadgets, and now they have made one that truly brings a tear to my eye.

That's right, they converted a Fender guitar into a usable "fake" guitar for Red Octane's own Guitar Hero. Now you can wail out to rock and roll classics just like the rockstars, not on a dinky plastic toy, but on a full scale off the hook flesh and blood guitar. Because as we all know, it takes over 8 souls to fashion just one guitar, that way it's supercharged for rocking.

I have to say that this is pretty slick, the article actually takes the readers step by step in the process so that they can replicate the geekish achievement seen here.

Full Article Here

\\drew

Aww that lovable Asimo

For those that don't know who (see: what) Asimo is, it is a humanoid robot developed by the good people at Honda. Asimo stands for "Advanced Step in Innovative MObility". Obviously...

Well the robot, which resembles a midget in a space suit, has made appearances all over the world encouraging science and learning. For that alone I applaud Honda. We need to once again intrigue children with science.

But why the article on Asimo you ask? Well at another press event Asimo was assigned the task of climbing up and down a flight of stairs and in turn hilarity ensued.

The response from the Honda employees after Asimo's untimely geriatric falling is nothing if not spectacular and mildly reminiscent of the Wizard of Oz. Pay no attention to the broken robot behind the curtain! Look at the Honda logo on the screen! We're turning the lights off, pay us no mind!

Seriously though, they straight up cover Asimo up so people can't see. But they saw, oh they all saw it. It's as if Asimo was a dog and he poo'ed on the rug, and instead of cleaning it up they just put newspaper over it. Everyone can see the newspaper, and they know what's underneath it, but they are expected to act as if they don't. Only this time it's not poo, it's a multi-million dollar robot, and everyone saw it fail.

Take it Honda.

\\drew

US health officials agree lettuce is the culprit for E.Coli

Lately there has been a surge in the number of confirmed cases of E. coli caused sicknesses in patrons of Taco Bell.

The government then stepped in and found that the most likely cause for this outbreak is the lettuce being used in predominately all of Taco Bell's menu items.

Over 71 cases have been reported and 90 restaurants have been closed. Currently Taco Bell says they are in the process of switches produce vendors in an attempt to once again purchase untainted vegies.

Now I've said this before but good lord! Why are we getting tainted lettuce? It's lettuce! By default it should not have E. coli bacteria on it. Maybe the government should take measures to find whatever sick bastards are rubbing dead chickens on all the vegetables and then shipping them across the country? Maybe? I should go to the store, see a potato and think "hmm... has someone had this potato up their bum?" I'd like to entertain the notion that the individuals working to provide fresh fruit and vegetables for general consumption are not depraved cretins nor are they error prone dimwits who just don't know any better. In the case of the latter educate them employers, or fire them, frankly I don't care, but I'm sick of having to worry whether or not my big bacon classic is going to make me sick.

\\drew

Burning Crusade Trailer back up... now in HD

For anyone who missed it or for those that need HD goodness head on over the World of Warcraft site and check out the trailer for the expansion coming out next month. It's pretty slick.

\\drew

Tairyou Jigoku.... school girl meets 1950 sci-fi movie

Tairyou Jigoku, which translates to the quite cryptic "The Overwhelming Hell", is a new game coming out for the PS2.

The storyline revolves around a school girl named Erika losing her cell phone (which was stolen by a rabbit in a top hat) and then being besieged by all manners of larger than life creepy crawlies.

The game is a twitchy action game, leaving the player responsible for flinging bugs off with everything from your hands to sticks.

As far as the goal of the game I'm not too sure, but I think this is just one of those games designed to really appeal to a niche audience. You know, guys who like school girls swarmed by cockroaches.

Check out the website for more images.

\\drew

Fear not TV's, ingenuity will protect you!

Since the release of the Wii there have been countless stories of people breaking windows, televisions and god only knows what after inadvertently flinging their Wii-mote across the room in a frenzied attempt to serve the ball.

Well thanks to one creative young man we now have a solution that doesn't involve that feeble supplied wrist strap.

Worried you will shatter your 1k TV attacking evil? (see: fishing in Zelda) Well never fear! With a quick trip down to your local sex shop you too can have a handcuff Wii-Mote with all the protection cheap metal can afford.

Now when the in-laws show up unannounced and question why you have a set of handcuffs (them already thinking you aren't worthy of their innocent daughter) you can calmly respond, "They are for my Nintendo Wii!" They will shake their head that their daughter is with a dork, but their minds will stray away from more depraved thoughts and in turn they hate you slightly less.

Handcuffs FTW!

\\drew

Cop Shoots PS3 Thief Update

For those that didn't read the original article check it out here first.

The grand jury foreman told a court Tuesday that he checked the wrong box on the indictment form by mistake, according to an order signed Tuesday by Superior Court Judge Ernest Fullwood.

The foreman learned about the mistake after other jury members heard about it from media reports.

A copy of the indictment filed as evidence Tuesday shows a check next to "true bill" indictment, with a heavy mark made through "not a true bill," followed by what appears to be the foreman's initials and Tuesday's date.

When a grand jury wants a murder indictment, it returns a "true bill." When it decides it does not want to issue an indictment, it returns "not a true bill."

"It was the kind of mistake you and I make in the world of forms," said Long's attorney, Mike McGuinness. "We check the wrong boxes."

This is so sketchy, and again a police officer gets away with murdering an unarmed person and no one is doing anything about it. Clerical error my ass. I'd check into what the foreman's relation with Deputy Long is, because something seems shady. A Grand Jury doesn't randomly make a mistake with checking a box, especially when they only have two options, fry him or don't fry him. You'd assume they would check and double check prior to putting pen to paper on that one.

Now I'm not a fan of vigilante justice, but I can honestly say I do not know what I would do being the father here. Let Long bless his lucky stars that I am not, because I'm fairly certain he wouldn't be going home to his nice warm bed and kissing his wife goodnight.

CNN Article Here

\\drew

Burning Crusade Trailer

Well being that YouTube has been snatched by Google, the video I posted a few days ago has been taken down due to Blizzard threats. Apparently they don't want to unveil the cinematic trailer for the expansion that was supposed to be out last month.

Well fear not if you missed it, it will be debuting on Spike TV's VGA's tonight, which means later tonight it will be all over the internet in a more legal fashion and most likely in a higher resolution.

\\drew

Wacky Game Fan Art

Some of this art is pretty slick while others are pretty wonky (see: depraved, vile, hilarious).

Some of my favorites include:

Saucy Wii-mote. Because only an anime fan would look at a remote and think, "oooh papa's getting lucky tonight!" And of course

Large breasted woman cosplaying as Kirby (maybe? or perhaps it's Jiggly Puff?) mounting her defeated adversary strong man painted yellow Pikachu.

That is the single scariest Pikachu rendition I have ever seen in my entire life. Good lord those are some crazy video game fans.

Tons more images after the jump.

\\drew

WoW Burning Crusade Opening Cinematics

It takes a bit to wow me, but this is looks fairly epic, leave it to Blizzard to make a cinematic which shakes me at the core. The one thing I miss however is that WoW lacks the storyline I love from the Warcraft series. Sure, it's buried somewhere in there but it's not told to the players, they need to hunt and peck for it.

\\drew

Armored Core 4's New Trailer

Did anyone else get a slight stock from that? Damn I love giant robots fighting. I just hope the game doesn't actually hit the scene at $70, because... sure, there are huge stomping mecha, but that's also my weekly food bill.

\\drew

Handheld Zelda pushed again

Much in the style of high profile video games and mentally handicapped children around the world, Zelda: Phantom Hourglass has been held back... again. It's most recent release number was early 2007, but that has now become a hazier shade of October '07.

Yes, this is bad news for the dirty elven otaku out there who need to get their handheld Link-on. And while this seems as though some people's hopes have been dashed upon the rocks below there is a light at the end of the tunnel. According to a Game Informer rumor, Zelda Wii is already a year in development and we should expect it sooner rather than later. Certainly that'll be good news for the Hyrulians in the crowd.

While I love Twilight Princess, the game was very notably not designed for the Wii. It will be interesting to see what Nintendo pulls from their rear when they build the game from the beginning with the intent of utilizing the the tech allotted by the Wii's unorthodox controls.

Again, this is all rumor mongering and such, but if their is validity to it... woohoo!

\\drew

Clinton backs ESRB?

In light of the recent study Activision presented, stating that 84% of surveyed parents are aware of the ESRB ratings on video games and 79% said they pay close attention to them, Washington has decided to back the video game industry a little more.

The ESRB is launching a new ad campaign to further educate consumers about their system and how it works, hoping to get their strong numbers even higher. This campaign is now being backed by both US Senators Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman as well as industry influential retailers Best Buy and Gamestop.

"We all share the responsibility of making sure our children play age-appropriate videogames, and I'm pleased that the ESRB and retailers are working together to educate parents about the video game ratings and making sure they are enforced," said Clinton.

Now this is coming a mere month after Clinton ran a series of TV campaign commercials that included better body armor for out soldiers, guarding social security from privatization, and even new markets for our farmers. But the thing stated before all these? "Shielding kids from violent video games". While the ESRB is shielding kids in the way it should, by informing the populace, I hope that Clinton doesn't attempt to use the ESRB ad campaign as a spring board for her Family Entertainment Protection Act currently milling through the bureaucratic red tape of the government. Hopefully the results of the recent survey however stunts the Act's progress as the ESRB seems to be managing itself just fine without governmental control.

While I would love to see Bill Clinton as First Lady, I don't know if I can in good conscience vote for a person who veers too far from my staunch liberal outlook on most things political. Maybe she'll surprise me, but as of right now I doubt it.

\\drew

Washed out PS3 graphics

Thanks to an article over at Gamespot, we can now see some of the washed out graphics delivered by the PS3. Check out their showcase here.

Now this is only one instance and given the year head start the XBOX had I'm guessing Sony will catch up. The PS3 is certainly a powerful system, and their first gen games are just falling into the standard trap of all consoles. Developers will catch up to the hardware in a bit and the games released will be more likely to rival the xbox titles in both graphics and gameplay.

In other news, Sony has released information concerning their PSP feature of downloading PS1 titles. This is a great move by Sony... But then the catch, because there's always a catch. You currently cannot just download the games straight from the ether to your PSP, you have to use your PS3 as a middle man. Consider it (the PS3) as a used car salesman, willing to let you buy Syphon Filter for the low price of $6 USD, but then he gets his cut. (see: $600 USD system fee)

\\drew

Hidden Zelda Mini-Game to get the elusive frog lure

Guess I'll have to go play the roll game now :p

\\drew

Sony Patents the Wii remote?

Well, leave it to Sony to do something crazy... you know, like put in a patent for another company's staple controller.

An input device providing users with a pointing capability includes a sender portion and a receiver portion. The sender portion is adapted to be manipulated by a user to specify a target point within a target area. The sender portion projects a light beam including a pattern on to the target area. A receiver portion includes one or more sensor units located in or near the target area. At least some of the sensor units receive a portion of the light beam regardless of the location of the target point within the target area. A processing unit in the receiver portion analyzes the portions of the light beam received by one or more sensor units to determine an attribute of the target point. The attribute can be the location or relative motion of the target point. The receiver portion may be integrated with a display device.

Hmm... Is it just me or does the "receiver portion" sound an awful like a Wii sensor bar? I wonder how this will do when it is decided upon. Come on Sony, you already feebly tried to get gyros into your Sixaxis controller at the cost of rumble functionality to try to play catch up on Nintendo ingenuity. Copying the other part now? /sigh

This reminds me of when Nintendo put up a patent for craziness in video games, but that's another story.

Full Patent and legal mumbo jumbo here.

\\drew

Luigi gets busted at Wii launch

During the frantic Wii launch in Japan there was a recorded instance of a dirty cosplay-happy otaku masquerading as everyone's favorite Sicilian plumber Luigi.

This random person managed to worm their way into the festivities at a Yodobashi Camera event. Everyone, strangely enough, assumed he was legit and even included him in the fun. Here is a picture of him giving away the first Wii to a lucky customer.

This shady master of deceit was eventually discovered and was promptly escorted from the store. But man does he have a great story to tell.

More images here

\\drew

Teen killed by cops while packing serious joystick heat

A teenager accused of robbing a student of two new Playstation 3s on the day the popular game consoles were introduced was shot to death by police sent to arrest him...

...Roommate Mike Rhoton said Strickland was unarmed, but may have been holding a video game controller when he went to the door as it was bashed in by officers.

"If this boy would've come to the door, opened the door, we probably wouldn't be talking," the sheriff said Sunday.

These are the kinds of things that make me lose faith in the moto "protect and serve". Is this guy a good person? Probably not, he's willing to steal things from others, but shoot him dead? Come on police, he's not a criminal mastermind, he's a slightly larger geek than another geek, and as Darwinism proved, bigger ones eat smaller ones.

And I'll be sure to open my door immediately from now on, for fear of the men in blue kicking in my door and putting a few rounds into the chests of myself and my family. Because hey, maybe my daughter was suspected of stealing a pack of twizzlers from the local Quicky Mart.

As for this specific instance, of course he couldn't answer the door right away, he was in a large scale mecha assault with multiple combatants all hell bent on sending him to meet his maker. Unfortunately he didn't realize that while the game's frantic melee seemed more important than the random knock at the door, there were enemies lurking behind his sofa and outside his windows with armaments more powerful that the sixaxis controller he was brandishing.

I'm sick of hearing stories about police killing innocents. I know their job is stressful, and they need to come home safe to their families, but take a step back from a situation before you go Dirty Harry on some teenager. The world isn't made like the movies. But unfortunately, like the movies, cops rarely get the punishments fitting their crimes because they are looked at above the common person, regardless of what their internal offices say. If I had wandered into that house and shot that man dead I would be in jail, facing a life sentence or the death penalty. The cop in question here? He's been given a term of paid leave. He kills a teenager and we give him a vacation.

Full Article Here

\\drew

Emperical evidence that the Wii will make you less creepy

So thanks to the good guys over at Kotaku.com, I found this picture and then began the internet jaunt to find its beginnings.

If anyone happens to recognize the show it's from I would be most appreciative, because this clearly shows the difference in Wii vs PS3 consumers. Namely, the PS3 buyers are genetically maladjusted spawn. Whereas the standard Wii purchaser is a mildly attractive young Japanese Woman. Which line seems more entertaining to sit in for 3 days?

I assume most people already came to this conclusion without the image. The Wii encompasses fun and energetic new methods of gaming, whereas the PS3 continues the shoddy trend of increasing graphics and stalemating innovative design.

Apparently women are ok with having worse graphics in lieu of interesting gaming. They want to milk cows, swing swords, and blast little creatures hiding under cars. Who can blame them. If you want better graphics go outside, it's been a while but last time I checked those graphics were sick.

\\drew

Kutaragi is out, Hirai is in

After a major reshuffle of Sony higher up positioning, creator of the Sony Playstation 1, 2 and 3 Ken Kutaragi has been "promoted" to chairman and chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment. This new found position takes him out of the immediate day to day actions of the console war at a very important time, just weeks after the PS3 launch.

Replacing him is none other than Kaz Hirai the SCEA head honcho, you may know him from any E3 coverage you've seen in the recent past.

Analysts believe that this shift in the upper echelon of Sony is a sign of a change in their future prospects. Sony may have done this to better prepare themselves for leaping out of the console competition to focus primarily on software as opposed to hardware.

Full Article Here

\\drew