The Cover Project

There's a website called The Cover Project that's begun to archive (and, in many cases, create) covers for almost every video game you can think of. It's kind of neat just to browse through and see what people have come up with. I happened to have quite a few games missing the cover inserts myself that I'd purchased from Gamestop, and since my girlfriend and partner is a whiz with paper (she's a scrapbooker) she was able to print the images and trim to size from the site perfectly so I could clean-up my collection.

Before:


After:

Do I hate Mario Kart Wii?

To be fair, I've only played through one single-player Grand Prix since I bought it, but it's such a frustrating experience. I race the best I can, I make it to first, and then it's just a never-ending barrage of blue shells, red shells, POW blocks, lightning bolts, etc. Why do they even bother to warn you when a blue shell is coming? If you could shake it off, like a homing missle in a Star Fox game, maybe I would understand, but instead it's just a way to inject some additional dread into your random catastrophe.

One of the big changes to the Wii edition of Mario Kart is you can have 12 players in a race now. This sucks, because the farther back someone is, the more likely they are to find a blue shell -- and if you don't know, the blue shell is a magical power-up that only attacks whoever is in first place -- so if you're a good driver, you'll probably get hit with several blue shells over the course of 3-lap race. What's more annoying is that the blue shell doesn't even help the player who gets it, because they're too far back anyway, so really it's just a way for the guy in 8th to give a middle finger to the guy in first. It's the most petulant of power-ups: If I can't win, you can't either.

[image via Penny Arcade]

Tax Rebate + Buy 2 Get 1 Free = Perfect Storm

Put some tax rebate money in my hands and give me a Buy 2 Get 1 Free Sale and I go a little crazy. This weekend I bought the following items from Gamestop. I spent almost exactly $200. And yes, I did separate the items into multiple transactions to get the best values on my "1 free"s (e.g. getting three of the most expensive games separately to ensure one of them would be taken off).

Game Boy or Game Boy Color:

Donkey Kong
Game & Watch Gallery 2
An actual Game Boy Color - Purple
Kirby's Dream Land 2
Kirby's Pinball Land
Kirby Tilt 'n Tumble
Mario Golf
Motocross Maniacs
Pokemon Pinball
Revenge of the Gator
Super Mario Land
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land
Wario Land 2
Wario Land 3

Game Boy Advance:

Dr. Mario / Puzzle League
Kirby & the Amazing Mirror
Metroid Fusion
Metroid Zero Mission
Wario Land 4
Wario Ware Mega Microgames

GameCube:

Chibi Robo
Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
Pikmin
Star Fox Adventures
Super Mario Sunshine
Wave Race Blue Storm

PS2:

Ico

Other:

Edge 10% Discount Card w/1 year subscription to Game Informer

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

I don't normally post news here since anyone reading my silly little blog is likely up on the latest news already, but I definitely felt the need to mention this.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

Not an entirely new idea in a world with Marvel vs. Capcom aplenty, but it's notable in that it'll be the first Mortal Kombat game to get my interest in the last the 15 years.

I heard about it at Joystiq, if you want to know more.

PS3 Update: 4% … 4% … 4% ...

I'm not going to go around ragging on the PS3 for its game library or its price tag, because that's unnecessary. Nobody forced me to buy one, after all. I bought one because I wanted to:

A) Have a Blu-Ray player.
B) Get a 60GB PS3 that was backwards compatible with PS2 games before they became even more hard to find than they already were.

The only PS3 game I've played (except for some demos) to date is Heavenly Sword, and I really enjoyed it. This week I rented my second PS3 game, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. I was super-excited to play it, since I like both Tomb Raider and Gears of War, and I've heard lots of good things.

Last night at around 7:45 PM I decided to boot it up. I turn on my PS3 and it tells me there is a mandatory system update, so I say "okey dokey" and go to the system update feature. After about 20 seconds of staring at "0% Downloaded" the buzzkill feeling started to set in.

Between downloading this stupid update and installing it I didn't start my game until 8:20 PM, at which point I was thoroughly less excited to play Uncharted. Interminably slow updates are yet another reason why I always choose my 360 for any games that come out on both platforms (also: achievements!).

Half-Life is not my idea of a good time

When the CompUSA across the street from the Beverly Center went out of business, I stopped by there and bought a couple PC compilations on the cheap. I picked up Half-Life 1 Anthology, and an Ubisoft Collection with the first Splinter Cell, the first Prince of Persia, and Beyond Good & Evil (none of which, I'm ashamed to say, I ever got around to installing).

I made a good faith effort to play Half-Life at that time. I got a few hours in, but then around the time where the giant claw-tentacle thing is thrashing about and you have to sneak around it, I stopped. For whatever reason, I just wasn't having any fun.

When The Orange Box came out, at first I didn't get too excited. Then the praise for Portal started rolling in. Soon I couldn't turn around on the internet without something telling me "the cake is a lie." Joystiq even named it their game of the year.

I thought, if I'm going to get The Orange Box, I should at least try to finish the first Half-Life before I do, and I fired it up again. I went another 4 or 5 hours before I quit, this time for good. Yeah the "mine cart" levels were pretty neat, but after a while I couldn't bring myself to walk into the next area and fight another bunch of soldiers.

But I still wanted to play Portal, so I rented The Orange Box anyway, and you know what? Portal is a really amazing game. I even put "Still Alive" on my Zune to listen to in the car. And hey, the disc is already in the tray, right? Half-Life 2 deserves a fresh chance. This time I only made it 90 minutes before I found myself swimming around some sewer puzzle wishing I was doing anything else. Bye bye Orange Box, back to Gamefly you go.

I like first-person shooters. I'm not a fanatic but I like them. The No One Lives Forever titles (except Contract J.A.C.K.) are some of my favorite games of all time. Still, there's something about the Half-Life series that doesn't do it for me at all.

Is it me?

Happy St. Patrick's Day from GameStache!!

I won't be going out to celebrate St. Patrick's Day tonight since my girlfriend has school, so I think I'll honor the occasion by playing through Super Smash Bros. Brawl Classic mode as Luigi. I know he's Italian, not Irish, but everyone's Irish today. Or maybe I'll just have a 15-minute brawl with Luigi, Link, Yoshi, and ... I don't know, green Kirby? On the Yoshi's Island Melee stage? While eating some cabbage?

Off the top of my head, I can't think of any video games with actual Irish themes, so comment if you know any. Cúchulainn would be great for a God of War-style game, with his "terrifying battle frenzy."

Congratulations! You've wasted your time

If you're not familiar with Bully, it's a game from Rockstar (see: Grand Theft Auto) that came out in late 2006 for the PS2. It's actually very similar to Grand Theft Auto in a lot of ways, except it's set in a prep school. There's no killing, but lots of fighting. No sex, but plenty of smooching. Go Kart races instead of street races. You get the idea. It's an excellent game, well-written, well-designed, and definitely worth playing for any action-adventure or open world fan.

I played the PS2 version back when it was released, and when I first heard about the Xbox 360 re-issue, I was very excited. I don't usually re-play games, but the idea of playing through Bully again and this time getting achievement points for it seemed like a great way to spend a week or two. One of my favorite features in Bully was the constantly developing trophy area of your room as you overcame obstacles and accomplished various tasks. Just make an achievement for each trophy and you're good to go, I figured.

Well, I figured wrong. Instead Bully: Scholarship Edition is chock full of one of my least favorite achievement types: the pointless repetition achievement. Let's look at some examples:

Pick 50 flowers: 20 points
Egg 25 cars: 20 points
Kick 100 soccer balls: 20 points
Trip 25 people with marbles: 20 points
Buy 100 sodas: 20 points
Say 100 taunts: 25 points
Give 50 wedgies: 25 points
Break 300 bottles at the shooting gallery: 25 points

And it goes on and on and on. I loved Bully, and played it nonstop, but I doubt in the end I bought even 5 sodas, or gave even 3 wedgies. No matter how good you are at Bully, you're not really achieving anything when you get these "achievements." Kicking 100 soccer balls isn't a matter of skill, it's a matter of persistence. I can almost guarantee you no one will get that achievement organically.

The perfect achievement list should contain a mixture of level progression, skill challenges, and random moments of awesomeness (i.e. you didn't mean to do it, and you probably couldn't repeat it, but it was sweet). Time fillers like the above examples only serve to mar this otherwise amazing game. Needless to say, I won't bother playing through it again just so I can perform "200 wheelies on the bike."

This doesn't bode well for Grand Theft Auto IV.