Bush Seeks an additional $50 Billion for War

I don't standardly get too deep into politics as it's a great conversation killer, and I'm very staunch in my views. But this is one story that really makes me upset.

Next month President Bush will ask Congress for $50 billion in additional capital to pay for the war in Iraq, according to a White House official. This is coming after confidence from the cabinet that it will be able to evade Congress from pushing for a quick removal of US forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

This money would come as an addition to the $460 billion in the 2008 fiscal year that is assumed to pass easily if we vote to not withdraw.

Well here's an image. Your hard earned tax payer dollars at work. Bush is right, we're doing positive things over there...

Full Article Here

<2 cents of a concerned citizen>

\\drew

New Zelda Trailer

Thanks to GameVideos.com we have a new Zelda: Phantom Hourglass trailer full of new footage. Being a DS developer it's interesting to see some of their ways of using the touchpad. Personally I'm interested to see more of the things done with the boomerang.

Zelda is due out this October in the States.

\\drew

Miss Teen USA

Ok, so I standardly don't comment on things regarding beauty pageants since I feel like they breed the ideology that citizens aren't required to be constructive, useful members of society if they are pretty. But I just can't resist on this one.

During this year's Miss Teen USA, the contestant from Carolina had some sparkling words of wisdom when asked a simple question:

Why can't a fifth of Americans find the United States on a map?

Her response?

I personally believe that US Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps and I believe that our education like such as south Africa and the Iraq and everywhere like such as and I believe that they should our education over here in the US should help the US or should help south Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future.

Yep, well put Carolina. She totally tried to pull a Bush. When asked a question she can't possibly comprehend (as she is likely within that excessively wide 20 percent) she defaulted to saying the name of an enemy nation, as well as a slew of other unrelated locations throughout the world, none of which have anything to do with our nation's inability to read a map.

But wow! I mean come on! "and should help the Iraq".... THE IRAQ! oh noes! it's the Iraq! Why should this woman be rewarded. Is this truly the best the US has to offer when it comes to Teenagers? I sincerely hope not.

\\drew

IGN Reviews Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Well, for better or worse (and it currently seems like better) the new Metroid Prime title will be launching for the Nintendo Wii today (hitting shelves tomorrow). A review by IGN makes the game look better than ever as it confirms that the Wii, when used properly, can totally crank out an efficient and fun FPS.

Seems like a must have for any Wii owner, and being that the market is not flooded with too many quality titles this seems like a no-brainer.

\\drew

Video of the Platinum Gundam

So for those consistent readers I have, a while back I wrote about a Platinum Gundam being made in Japan (see: Anime-Geek Bling)

Well now there is a video out displaying the model measuring in at 12.5cm and weighing a respectable 1.4kilograms.

I totally want one. Wedding registry! :p

\\drew

Metal Gear 4 Trailer from Leipzig

Thanks to some internet anon's we can now see the new trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4, currently being shown at this year's gaming conference in Leipzig Germany.

The big hoorah about the video? It shows the new enemies in the game, which seem to be remanufactured versions of older characters from the series.

Once a better version is found I'll replace this one.

\\drew

Bioshock Explodin' PC's

With the release of the much anticipated Art-Deco SciFi FPS, PC users are finding out how exciting the action really is. So exciting that it can cause everything from system crashes and hard reboots, to frying important computer circuits like this one Kotaku reader.

I was about 15 minutes into it, having very much enjoyed what I had seen so far, when I came upon the first Big Daddy encounter. I watch in rapt attention as he charges a splicer when suddenly BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM. It sounds as though a string of firecrackers has been detonated in my computer case, as well as each BOOM being punctuated with a bright blue flash coming through the case window.

For about half a second I sit there stunned. The first thought in my mind is "Holy Fucking Shit, that is the greatest effect I've ever seen. They should have given this game an 11." Immediately following this a sickening realization dawns on me as I look over at my tower. Blue Smoke! The magic blue smoke that makes electronics work is escaping from my PC.

What follows is a 30 second vaudeville act of me simultaneously cursing, falling as I try to leap out of my chair, and finally ripping the power cord from the wall. But the blue smoke was already out, and the smell of ozone in the air told me the bitter truth. Bioshock had fried my computer from the inside and blown the capacitors.

Haha, that was fantastic. Magic Blue Smoke. Indeed. Well, I'll continue to play Bioshock on my XBOX360 since that doesn't need a game to destroy itself, they do that on their own.

\\drew

PETA fights animal cruelty at KFC

Everyone's favorite militant animal rights group PETA has recently launched a video game from their Kentucky Fried Cruelty site that is verging on copyright infringement to Nintendo's Mario series.

As anyone can plainly see, the similarities are quite simple. To make matters worse, there is a third playable character named Pamela Anderson who's sprite resembles Princess Peach.

Also, when starting up the game there is a direct image of both Mario and Luigi, not their chick counterparts. I'm quite curious to see if Nintendo knows about this, and whether or not it was endorsed.

The game itself plays out just like Super Mario Brothers, though the player will occasionally encounter human characters with useful KFC facts like how they remove beaks from chickens and such.

I don't know about you, but frankly I don't care. I'm pro-meat products. And if for some grim reason not having beaks makes my chicken taste better then rock on.

Check out the game here, you get to jump on spiders that have heads that look like Colonel Sanders.

\\drew

Metroid Prime 3 first hour of gameplay

Well, for better or worse, gamers can now see what to expect from the Metroid Prime 3 Wii game. Thanks to the internet and quite possibly some less than reputable members of Anon (see: Fox News)( lulz! :p) the first hour of gameplay has been uploaded to YouTube, allowing everyone to finally see what's in store for us as avid Nintendo fans hoping something worth buying will be released for the Wii.

Just follow the link chain to see the rest of the parts.

\\drew

It's not dead yet!

For all those people out there who know what a Dreamcast is, don't fret! Just because Sega hates us doesn't mean we still won't have fantastic games to play on our mainstream-dated system. Thanks to a developer called RedSpotGames, next year will see the debut of not one, but two new Dreamcast titles.

The first is called Dalforce, a vertical shooter with everything you would expect from the genre (including 4 player multiplayer). The second is a port of a puzzle game called Wind and Water Puzzle Battles.

Both titles will launch next year and be featured at Leipzig this year, though no word yet as to their distribution method and what the cost is going to be.

\\drew

BioShock almost out

As August continues to steamroll ahead, the release date for BioShock looms ever closer, feeding the frenzy surrounding the Spiritual Successor to the classic System Shock 2.

With the surfacing of a demo downloadable through XBOX Live, fans are finally able to test out the much anticipated FPS title.

Early reviews of the game have nothing but positive things to say about the game's graphics, systems and design. I can't wait to test out the plasmids system to see what kinds of combos can be created.

\\drew

Michael Vick sued by fellow inmate

To preface this idiotic tidbit of "news" I would like to say this comes from Fox News.

Embattled NFL quarterback Michael Vick, facing federal charges related to his alleged participation in dogfighting, has been hit with a "$63,000,000,000 billion dollar" lawsuit filed by a South Carolina inmate who alleges the Atlanta Falcons star stole his pit bulls and sold them on eBay to buy "missiles from Iran," FOX News has learned.

Yes, that's right, Vick is being sued for 63 billion billion dollars. Yep, that's a whole lot of money. Not only that, but Vick, a wealthy star quarterback needed to sell someone else's pit bulls to fund his missile binge. Also, the inmate claims Vick is a member of Al Qaeda. Naturally.

Apparently Michael Vick is a red neck terrorist.

Thanks Fox News.

Full Article Here

\\drew

Bill Nye Warns Nation about CVS

According to this recent Bill Nye the Science Guy interview, children nowadays are subject to suffering from CVS (Computer Vision Syndrome).

According to his rant children should keep their portable video game systems atleast a forearm's length away from their face and should keep computer screens a full arm's stretch away.

This is all good information, but last time I checked everyone already knew. Didn't your parents ever tell you to get further away from the television? Well this is the same thing. Staring at digital screens can make your eyes go wonky, don't do it.

\\drew

Killzone 2 Developer Video

With more and more information surfacing on upcoming titles, the good people at SCEA and Guerrilla have made a nice video showcasing some of the fantastic effects going into their upcoming PS3 title.

While I'm not a sucker for flashy graphics the lightning displayed at the beginning of the video was fantastic. I'm going to play this game on my HD TV in the dark. Maybe the PS3 has a purpose after all?

\\drew

Katamari Kake

While not nearly as fantastically awesome as the Super Mario Brothers Wedding Cake, this cake makes me want to hop myself up on sugar induced frenzy, steal the world ball at my old elementary school, slather it with stickum, and then roll over my neighbor's children.

It would be glorious.

\\drew

How the World Came to Be ver. 1.3

Check out this site. It has a comical technocratic-take on God and the events of the bible. It's worth a gander but unfortunately you can't pause or go back without starting over.

God

\\drew

Duels.com

Here at work we have a Rock Paper Scissors ladder held over AIM thanks to some of our clever programmers, but sometimes you want more from a quick and addictive game of one-ups-manship.

That's where Duels.com comes in. In this web-based game you build a World of Wacraft style avatar complete with gear and stats and then challenge other people to duels. Win and you are awarded with praise, gold and experience. Lose are you suffer from shame.

Players do not directly control their characters in the duels and in turn they can function while you're not playing. Just accept them and it goes through.

The player also receives quests and such which give you additional methods of gaining loot.

Pretty simple but very addicting. This will certainly be fun once more people sign up, as of right now it's still fairly new.

Sign up, challenge me! The name's Goltana.

\\drew

Updates!

Holy cow what's going on? Updates? No way! Sorry for the lack of updates, I was quite sick leading to a stint in the hospital and sadly they didn't offer me a laptop with internet access.

Now for today's story. Remember back when I had that article about the 1/1 scale gundam being made in Japan? Well here's a video walkthrough of cyclopean robot. I was totally born in the wrong country since I love me some giant robots.



\\drew

Lack of...

Sorry for the lack of updates this week, between sickness, family things, and Lot-Check rapidly approaching at work my free time has effectively been non-existent. Site should be back up tomorrow with updates as usual.

\\drew