Ramblings from the Marginalized

The picture does not lie. Nintendo is putting out a special Silver and Black DS Lite Guitar Hero bundle. It will be available June 22, 2008 in North America.

The colors look OK but the included game sucks ass. Did I say that? Yeah, I guess I did.

All the footage and advance information I have seen about this DS game paint it in a very bad light. I predict kids with neck injuries from playing this game. The way you hold the DS, pick and look at the screen just looks uncomfortable. Couple this with the very limited audio capabilities of the DS and you have a recipe for disaster.

REDMOND, Wash., June 12, 2008 - Most musicians dream of one day reaching platinum success. A new Nintendo DS™ bundle lets aspiring axe shredders claim that coveted status right from day one. The new Silver/Black Nintendo DS branded with the Guitar Hero® logo will be available exclusively as part of a limited-time bundle with Guitar Hero®: On Tour. For the first time, this smash-hit franchise is playable on a portable video game system using the revolutionary Guitar Hero™ Guitar Grip™ peripheral and fully tapping into the distinctive abilities of the Nintendo DS hardware.

The DS Lite looks nice but why did they have to brand it with the Guitar Hero On Tour game? Is the game predicted to be so bad that they feel the only way to move it is by attaching a special edition DS Lite? Nintendo, I think this may turn out to be your first mistake in a long time.

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This post was written by my wife and details her experience with buying groceries through Amazon.

Amazon .com Grocery is a lot like shopping at a large warehouse like Costco, except with no crowds, a more diverse selection of products, and no driving. Almost all products are free shipping with an order over $25.00 and you can subscribe for extra savings and automatic delivery.

My first order consisted of a twelve pack of Annie’s Organic Macaroni & Cheese (my daughter’s main diet staple) and a three pack of Equal Exchange Fair Trade organic coffee (3 twelve oz. bags). The mac & cheese cost about $1.88 per box (usually over $2.00 at the supermarket), and the coffee came out to about $6.60 for a ground 12oz bag. The savings were good but not huge, but I got free shipping and no going to the store (awesome!). The not going to the store part is great if you shop with children in tow.

They offer many departments including natural & organic (my personal fave), gluten free, gourmet, personal care, household items, even pet care items.

The food items are all non-perishable, no produce, meats or dairy. They carry milks of all types in aseptic packages.

You could spend hours browsing the assortment of products they carry. I was also able to add in a book that my daughter wanted, all in the same order. Super Saver shipping took about a week by USPS.

I found the shopping experience to be a positive one for a few reasons, choice, savings most of the time (have your calculator handy), and convenience. The savings in gas alone if you live in a rural area is worth it. The free shipping was great too! I will definitely order again.

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Dragon Strike is a game from TSR that was released in 1993. It included a very cheesy VHS tape and a bunch of miniatures. Clearly designed to do battle with the HeroQuest games this one never took off.

On its own it's not a terrible game but there was so much better stuff on the market when this clunker was released. Believe it or not, I have a copy. I thought I might have sold it on eBay a while back but I found it this past weekend in my game collection. When my daughter and her friend were bored (and my wife was away) I decided to spring it on them!

We started by watching the old VHS tape filmed in "HyperReality" and then went on to try out one of the adventures in the box. I found a copy of the video on YouTube so feel free to waste 30 minutes of your life that you will never get back. I actually wasted an hour because I watched this video 15 years ago when it was new...

The girls did not know how to take the horrible nature of the video. They were born in a time where green-screening means high quality. Not so for this video. By the way, the guy who plays the evil wizard, does he not remind you of Data from Star Trek?

I never played this game before. When I purchased it I was already in the US Army and we either played the real RPG games or we drank beer, sometimes both at the same time. Suffice to say we did laugh our asses off watching the video but we never felt the need to play the game.

At one time I thought about painting all the miniatures in the box but they are of a low quality and done in plastic. None of the features are crisp enough to paint. Who knows, if I get bored enough (and the girls like the game system) I might break down and paint them.

I ran one of the easy missions for the girls and they had fun. They did not complete the mission as the dragon showed up and they ran away like scared little schoolgirls with their... wait a minute... they are little schoolgirls! They wanted to keep going but my wife arrived home so we cleaned the game up and went about our business.

Later that evening my daughter began pestering me to teach her how to become a Dragon Master so she could run the games. Knowing my daughter has a bad habit of cheating when things don't go her way I was a bit on the leery side of this idea. I offered to help her run the game for friends and we formed an uneasy truce. She was jonesing for access to the adventure book but I wanted to run her and her friends through a few more missions before I hand the reins over to her.

See, I want to be sure everyone involved plays a few correct games before they try playing under my daughter. She is far to prone to ignoring rules or making things up that benefit her. She's still young so what can you do?

The game is not an RPG by any stretch of the imagination but it does set the groundwork for getting kids into the Dungeons and Dragons game. Only three dice are used in the game and almost everything only does one hit point of damage. There are no campaign rules so each adventure has the characters start fresh with no accumulated gear or experience.

The game does make a good entry point for young gamers and everything you need is in the box. You can probably find it for a steal on eBay!

BoardGameGeek entry for Dragon Strike

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Isn't this some amazing news. Amazon has managed to score a serious exclusive deal on the new Fallout 3 game. If you want to get your own Pip-Boy 3000 you need to order the Exclusive Fallout 3 Survival Edition from amazon.

Contents include:
• A Vault Boy collectors item direct from Vault-Tec
• The Art of Fallout 3 hardcover book of exclusive concept art and commentary
• Special DVD The Making of Fallout 3
• A fully customized metal Vault-Tec lunch box
• The game, Fallout 3
• A Pip-Boy 3000 collector's item painstakingly recreated for real world display as a digital clock

Amazon also carries the Standard and Collector's editions of the game. But, you don't want those now do you? You want the one with the Pip-Boy 3000!

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Mario Kart® Wii
• Format: Wiiâ„¢
• Launch Date: 04/27/08
• ESRB: E (Everyone): Comic Mischief
• Game Type: Kart Racing
• Accessories: Wii Wheelâ„¢ (included)
• Players: 1-4 locally or up to 12 on Nintendo® Wi-Fi Connection with up to 2 players locally
• Developer: Nintendo

Mario Kart Wii is the sixth installment in the Mario Kart series from Nintendo. In this series of games characters from the Mario universe drive go-karts around race tracks and compete to win races or battles. The use of items in the game makes this more than a simple racing game. The weight of the characters and the kart chosen also add a small amount of strategy/skill to the game play. New in the Mario Kart Wii game is the inclusion of bikes.
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On April 10, 2008 Nintendo announced the impending release of Mario Super Sluggers. This Mario-themed baseball game looks to be a lot like the baseball game included with Wii Sports with a few extra touches thrown in.

Some notable items include the ability to play as your Mii, create custom fields, multi-player minigames and the usual "throw stuff at your opponent to make them mess up" antics. Don't believe me? Watch the attached video.

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Several years back, after getting out of the service, I tried to reunite with my old gaming buddies via PBEM. It started out OK and quickly fell apart. What follows are the three narratives that evolved from that experiment. Each one is written from the point of view of that character.

Dren is a Pure Strain human, Fenris Black is a mutant wolf and Yosugi is a mutant feline.

Dren's Story

     Hungry, tired, thirsty, what a way to end your day. You and your friends have been travelling north of your home city of Tempesa, searching for the fabled city of the ancients known as Aksarben. You left Tempesa about two weeks ago, and now, your supplies have run out, worse still, it's getting dark.

     Your little group has done very well up until now. Nights have been somewhat difficult, but you've usually been able to spot a rocky area to camp in, once you even found an underground complex. You were even able to find a few useful artifacts there, especially that nice shotgun of yours, of course if Fenris hadn't shorted out the still working computer box you found you might have learned a whole lot more. Sometimes you wonder if Yosugi and Fenris share the same brain, cause neither one of them is very smart.

(more...)

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I received my copy of Wii Fit last Tuesday. It has been in my possession for one week now. So, what do I think about it and what has been my experience? Read on to find out.

The Pre-Possession Mindset

When I first read about Wii Fit last year I was not exactly excited. I was more ho-hum about it than anything. As more information was revealed I became more and more interested.

As the release date began to come closer and closer insider reviews began to appear in the video gaming press. I read them, thought about them and then pre-ordered my copy. The fact that several retailers sold out of their pre-order stocks was enough to force my hand into pre-ordering this beast. My original intent was to pick one up after they were released but I began to realize that there might not be any in the supply chain until a few weeks after the release.

Unlike most video games that restock right away Wii Fit comes with a balance board. This means it is not as simple as pressing more disks for release.

Wii Fit Arrives

Getting my Wii Fit a day before most people was enjoyable but not something I was able to truly exploit. The big reviewers had already received their copies weeks ago so there was no one to "scoop" with the story.

I unboxed my Wii Fit in detail and then tried it out.

The software starts up by collecting some data on you and then running you though a very quick fitness test. After this you are told your weight, BMI and Wii Fit age. On my first test I was rated ten years older than I am. I attribute that not to reality but to my "getting used to" the balance board. In laster days this age dropped as low as 21 for me.

Once you enter the training area you find the Yoga, Strength Training, Aerobic and Balance Games. Only the most basic ones are playable at first. Others become unlocked after you earn some credits.

At first I was a bit upset over the "locked" content but it made sense. You need to learn to play the simpler games and exercises before moving onto the more complex ones. Even the games and exercises you can play from the start have harder settings that can be unlocked through game play.

One Week Later

With the exception of yesterday and today I have been clocking in a good 30 minutes every day. I have not lost any weight (though I did balloon up one day and lost it the next) but I do feel better.

The strength training exercises do leave me "feeling the burn" on the higher settings and the balance games are fun. I have yet to unlock everything but I'm still interested in keeping fit. I even took a long walk with my wife one morning last week.

So, why not yesterday and today? Yesterday I was very busy with Memorial Day activities and this morning I woke up with some stomach pains. I'll get back into it tomorrow!

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