Posted in Random Stuff on January 29, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Square-Enix just released a new Final Fantasy XIII trailer. Go watch it and I think you’ll agree that this is going to be one of the most beautiful games of all time. I will be curious to see side-by-side comparisons of the XBOX 360 and PS3 versions.
Posted in Software Picks on January 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This month’s software pick is the old-school classic shooter, Super Star Soldier (available on the Wii Virtual Console or on your Mac/PC via MagicEngine). I first played this as a teenager on the TurboGrafix-16 , and it’s still one of the best 2D SHMUPs I’ve ever played. The 
TG-16 was far superior to the NES for sound and graphics, and was actually more popular than the NES in Japan (but tragically not so popular in other parts of the world).
Super Star Soldier combines a great power-up system, a hard-driving sound track, awesome graphics and perfect pacing. In my opinion, it is the best of the Star Soldier series. In fact, I would say it is even better than some much more modern 2D shooters, such as Protöthea (also available on the Wii).
The problem with games such as Protöthea is that they get the pacing all wrong. 2D shooters need a fast pace with plenty of action (both onscreen and in the soundtrack). You simply can’t beat massive, earth-shattering weapons, vaporizing screenfuls of enemies as you rocket through space. If there are only a couple things to shoot, and you are sort of puttering along at Mach -2, the game is just boring.
Super Star Soldier, on the other hand, is not boring. Go check it out. You won’t be disappointed.
Posted in Indie Games on January 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The new Ice Cream 2D XNA game engine and editor looks really cool. Could be a decent competitor to GarageGames for PC/XBOX 360/Zune game development:
Posted in Codealicious on January 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
What many people don’t know about Windows BSOD crashes is that almost all of them are caused by third-party drivers. In fact, given the millions of Windows-compatible devices out there, it’s a miracle of modern (computer) science that the Redmond OS runs at all! (more…)
