30 October 2007

Updates at Gunner Airsoft










Gunner Airsoft, motherpage of all things cheap and airsoft, has a shit-load of shittastic shit added to their shitty (just kidding!) catalog:

A cheapy AKS-74 made by D-Boys at a very affordable $80.00. Link.

A fugly X-47 that would make an excellent loaner for how ugly it is. Link.

An AIMS carbine with very little additional info. Link.

AKSU handguard for us VFC-lovin' folks. Link.

Not really Russian, but we love our shotguns; an uber-cheap Marushin Mossberg rip-off. Link.

We're thrilled that Russian kit is becoming so popular now. I remember spending more than $600.00 on a Guarder kit to turn my Marui AK into something more modern.

Gunner Airsoft.

The Shiznas Discover Google Trends



Google Trends is much, much more awesome than Google Fights ever was.

Ireland seems to get more Irish every day.

13 October 2007

Jesse James

Wow. In terms of the bad karma all the shiznas put together will receiver, this incident beats out anything we've done. If our instant-messaging follies were the Spanish-American War, this was the Holocaust:
...Janna knows this guy named Jesse, and she thinks he and Audrey would get along. She “introduces” them online, and they hit it off. Jesse is an amazing dude, a volunteer fireman, a cowboy, a tortured poet, a man with a past. He has an ex-wife he speaks of fondly, and a son. He lives on a ranch with llamas. He’s got posttraumatic stress disorder from having been in New York on 9/11. He knew some of the firemen who died, or something. An exceptional man. He and Audrey just click, in that special way we all hope can happen someday.
This article is by far the most interesting example of the shear terror of the reality of online "hook-ups" I have ever read. Best of all, I guess the writer of a History of Violence suffered from bad-movie-karma and decided to write this fantastic article up.

I'll let it speak for itself:

Link, via BoingBoing

Wheeeee!

There is something adorable about an Armalite that was born this stupid looking. The shear impracticality of a gun like this puts JG's Folding Stock AK Beta to shame.

From RedWolf Airsoft:

G&P Stubby Killer
A wonderful CQB weapon - that's what this G&P Stubby Killer is! It features their latest Stubby Front End Set, which helps keep the length down to 550mm. The HK416 Type Fixed Stock allows a large battery to be used and the SPR Grip is pretty comfortable (for right-handed people). Another recent product of G&P's also features on this gun - the Zombie Killer Metal Body. The body features skull logos on both sides, with "Pray", "Psalm" and "Asperges" where safe, semi and full are normally seen. It also features a quote from the Bible: "Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases".



Link.

05 October 2007

Why MySims Might be the Most Important Game for the Wii for 2007

MySims is fun. That's the best way to summarize this game, you can spend hours just fucking around and having a blast while doing it. It isn't at all like the rest of the Sims series where you spend hours cleaning your virtual house (yawn). Somehow, building houses for your incredibly friendly and adorable neighbors made this game from the Sims series fun. I also like how they completely side-step the annoying economy of the other Sims games and approach this as a sort of utopian post-scarcity situation, if you're willing to put that much depth into a game where blowing bubbles with your neighbors is critical. If you want a full review, I don't think there is a better review than the one by Games Radar found here. This review has some different observations no other reviewer has covered as of yet.

Like I said, the game is adorable, cute and fun for a broad audience--not your Game Spy variety of gamers who spend most of their time raiding or in clan battles. This is a game for any demographic that just carries itself marvelously on the Wii.

So, why does everybody think it's only mediocre? Look at MetaCritic, they gave it a 71. Basically a C- when you figure it that way; just average-Joe video game. Granted, MetaCritic is usually hard on games since there is such a wide-variety of places they get reviews from, and most game sites cater to the expectations of the hard core gaming crowd that gets bored with Nintendo's usual fare.

But... that's not what is shocking. This review is what threw me out of my chair:
My final analysis is this: if you love creating things and have lots of patience, MySims is worth a look, but if you're hoping for a cute virtual neighborhood to inhabit, "Animal Crossing: Wild World" is a better place to settle. [Nov 2007, p.100]
That excerpt is from Nintendo Power. That's right, Nintendo's propaganda mill that shits out positive reviews of otherwise cruddy games and gives over the top reviews for games that are good, but not orgasmic (i.e. Metroid Prime: Corruptions).

This normally wouldn't add up, but the last sentence says it all. Nintendo's in-house Sim game, Animal Crossing, is their recommended alternative. Frankly, after playing Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon, I thought they were acceptable time wasters, but the Sims makes me laugh when I spend time playing it. Note the fact I am spending not wasting time.

What's this mean? That is what I don't fully understand. But I think that Nintendo has not been as accommodating to third-party developers as they could have been. Call of Duty 3, Splinter Cell 4, Alien Syndrome; these were all marvelous games on other consoles but are absolute crap on the Wii. Meanwhile, Zelda, Metroid and Super Paper Mario were all very good and also scored almost perfectly in Nintendo Power, as one should predict.

Another example of this is Nintendo made sure they had the first online games for their console, to get their hands on a captive market of Wii owners wanting to play online. So far, the only online title in the works from a third-party is Medal of Honor while Nintendo has already released many and plans to release many more.

MySims is the first third-party title that has surpassed anything Nintendo has in that genre and is simply marvelous. It is so awesome that it could easily be the biggest Nintendo game of the holiday season, and I have a feeling that is a big problem for Nintendo. Now that everybody and their dog wants a Wii, they seem to be trying to own the market for themselves to increase sale of in-house development.

If this is the case, Nintendo has already lost the console war. This new console war is not about over-the-top productions like Gears of War or Metal Gear Solid 4--those games will be in the twenty-dollar bin after a while. No, it is independent developers that will carry the systems this time around. Xbox Arcade is building in popularity and there are some awesome games going up. Microsoft knows this and has no problem with it, which will make the 360 a success. Nintendo and Sony are playing the market the way they did in the nineties.

I'm really sad that Nintendo isn't seeing the potential for Indy developers. Their SDKs are being offered up dirt cheap and they have a competent digital delivery system based off of Opera. Everything is there to let indy games and third-party, bigger developers like EA, Ubisoft and many others take off on the system, but Nintendo is just being a bastard about this whole thing.

I really hope Nintendo does a 180 after the holiday season.

01 October 2007

Halo 3 is the Best Game EVAR (unless you played it)


I have noticed an interesting phenomenon surrounding Halo 3. With it being easily the most over-hyped video game in existence (it had it's own flavor of Mountain Dew, for Christ's sake), the hype seems to continue right into the reviewing process--even after reviewers had to play the mother fucker!

Take a look at MetaCritic. Their reviews on Halo 3 are almost all perfect for the major game reviewing sites. Gamespot gave it a very pretentious 9.5 and some gaming magazines and periodicals gave it perfect scores (indicating they believe it is the perfect game above all others). However, if you scroll down to user reviews, you will notice that actual average, every day video game players think it stinks compared with everything else available on the 360, like the incredible Bioshock.

Now, I haven't played this game myself since I don't even own a 360, so you must take my word with a grain of salt, but it seems like the hype has somehow outlived playing the game. It's incredible that this is happening, since most game news sites are around specifically to buffer from fan boys. We are now seeing a turn around, the fan boys are now aware of their surroundings (!) and the game sites are earning lots'a revenue from advertising.

I am probably just paranoid, but I noticed that another game that barely came out had the opposite reaction: Quake Wars. I must warn you that I am a Quake fan boy, so I welcome all Quakes with open arms no matter how shitty they are (well... I didn't really buy into Quake 3 until some mods were firmly established). Game Spot was somewhat abusive towards the game. They gave it an 8.5 for a lack of voice chat and not liking the simplistic key bindings, something I'll really enjoy since I HATED binding keys in Battlefield 2. The users, however, rated the game the same or higher for how it played. It is the squad-based shooter that 2142 was supposed to be.

Before I can pass any further judgment on Halo 3, I will have to play it. However, I see it similar to the Penny-Arcade excerpt above. It's a chore I am putting off after buying a 360.