Mario and Link have dedicated their lives to saving the love of their lives, but how much do the princesses really appreciate this? Is it really so bad being kidnapped by these "villains" that want to rule the kingdom / world / galaxy? Let us take a unique look into how Zelda and Peach may really feel.
IrishPride here to give you all a new installment of Conversations with IrishPride. The long time readers of The Gameslave will recognize the segment because I introduced it a while back. However, I never kept up with it and it died after only two or three postings /fail. I am now trying to resurrect this segment where I just talk about random stuff for your reading pleasure.
July, Week 3
Russian Song stuck in my head!
Recently I purchased a Nintendo 3DS so I could get Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and all the other awesome 3DS games that are on the horizon. I never had a DSi, so I was amazed with all the games that are available to download via DSiware. While there are hundreds to choose from, I just stuck with something I knew all too well, Tetris.
I downloaded Tetris Party Live to play some old school Tetris that I haven’t played since the original Game Boy. When I first started playing, I remembered why I hadn’t played Tetris for such a long time, I suck at it. Being the fool that I am, I decided I would try my hand at the multiplayer portion and compete against players around the world. Yeah, I was taken behind the shack and was beaten, probably with a Tetris block. 
Why am I relieving these painful memories? Because after a few hours of putting those damn blocks in precise order, I started getting better and better at it. I even went back online to play against players around the world and started winning! My overall score continued to go up with each passing victory.
However, there is a downside to all this success. When lying in bed at night I see Tetris blocks falling down and I’m trying to put them in order. I hear that Russian song playing over and over in my head and even hear it speed up when I’m getting to close to losing the level!
Da, da da da, da da da, da da da, da da da, da da da, da da da, daa daa!
But, it’s worth it. For the first time, I’m actually pretty good at Tetris and I am having an enjoyable time playing it. In fact, I have already clocked over 14 hours. So, long live Tetris, even if that Russian song is set to replay in my head.
~IrishPride
The image is © Woody Hearn and is owned by him. Click to check out his site.You all know of Popcap games right? Well if you haven't heard of them and you are reading this site, welcome, though you might have some problems understanding the implications below. Well, Popcap has been purchased by video game publishing giant EA Games for the small sum of $750 million ($650 cash and $100 million in stock options). This gives EA a digital business worth $1 billion dollars and rockets them all the way to the #2 spot for Facebook games just behind Zynga (the group that has just about anything that ends with "ville"). So what does this really mean to the average gamer?
Probably nothing more then having to see the EA logo when you start up Plants Vs. Zombies. I don't see a lot of sweeping changes being made to a company that made millions with casual gamers. But I guess we will see for sure when the deal is expected to close sometime in August. But what does Popcap think about this? Well lets take this excerpt from their site:
An open letter to all our players:
As some of you may have heard, we recently announced that PopCap Games is being acquired by Electronic Arts, a small mom-and-pop boutique software publisher. What does this mean for the future? It’s simple:
1. EA is being rebranded to Poptronic Arts
2. Sim Zuma: The SwampLife Edition
3. Peggle: Dead Space – Bjorn’s Breakfast
4. Bejeweled Battlefield Blitz
5. Plants vs. ZombEAz: NFL Lockout EditionWow!
Ok, not really.It means PopCap will join forces with one of the world’s largest game publishers, giving us access to many more resources and a greatly expanded global audience. It doesn’t mean that PopCap is going away or changing what we do or how we do it. On the contrary, PopCap’s creative culture is the main reason EA was interested in us. We’re not changing our focus from creating awesome casual games everyone can enjoy.
So what should you really expect from us in the future as part of EA? More! More games, more platforms, more players, and more fun.
PopCap has been around for more than ten years now, and we look forward to bringing you great games for at least another decade to come!
Sincerely,
Your friends from PopCap
Hmm, I kinda would have liked to see Peggle: Dead Space - Bjorn's Breakfast.
The three of us return this week with a new podcast. We had a lot to talk about, but we did get attacked by the diabolical squeaky chair, it still works though. And remember there is a contest in this podcast.
So I am sitting messing around on the internets and I find the following video, which features what link would do if he had a portal gun. It was way too entertaining not to share, so here it is.
To Every Story There Is A Beginning
It has long been a dream of mine to wield the awesome power of lightning at my fingertips, so when Sucker Punch came out with the original Infamous, I knew I had to have that game! With eager anticipation I awaited its arrival and then I played it for hours on end. I loved every minute of it! When it was finally over, I desperately wanted another installment. Well, Sucker Punch heard my prayers and sent forth Infamous 2.
For those not familiar with the original, our protagonist Cole MacGrath begins the first game by waking up in the middle of a blast crater in Empire City. Everything within 5 city blocks of him as been destroyed by an explosion. Once he is extricated from the crater by his best friend Zeke and nursed back to health, he finds that he has lightning powers. Throughout the course of the game, you discover why he and others now have powers, why he survived an explosion that killed thousands of other people, who planned it, and why. Near the middle of the game (beware possible spoilers) you find out that the antagonist, Kessler, is preparing you to face an even bigger foe, "The Beast".
So for a long time the thing to do in older video games was to beat a game in as little time as possible. This usually meant running recklessly through an area, making sure not to die and that you are powered up. Well that pursuit has become boring and stale. So how does one come up with new ways to challenge themselves to our old favorites? They go for record low scores!
Now you may think that this would be easy, and you would be wrong, dead wrong. This means (in the case of Super Mario Bros) you have to skip every question block, every enemy must live(except for the last Bowser), you cannot get any coins, and you have to finish levels with no time on the clock. So lets give NotEntirelySure a hearty congratulations for his grand achievement in sub-par gaming!
To Every Story There Is A Beginning
It has long been a dream of mine to wield the awesome power of lightning at my fingertips, so when Sucker Punch came out with the original Infamous, I knew I had to have that game! With eager anticipation I awaited it's arrival and then I played it for hours on end. I loved every minute of it! When it was finally over, I desperately wanted another installment. Well, Sucker Punch heard my prayers and sent forth Infamous 2.
For those not familiar with the original, our protagonist Cole MacGrath begins the first game by waking up in the middle of a blast crater in Empire City. Everything within 5 city blocks of him as been destroyed by an explosion. Once he is extricated from the crater by his best friend Zeke and nursed back to health, he finds that he has lightning powers. Throughout the course of the game, you discover why he and others now have powers, why he survived an explosion that killed thousands of other people, who planned it, and why. Near the middle of the game (beware possible spoilers) you find out that the antagonist, Kessler, is preparing you to face an even bigger foe, "The Beast".
So Anime Expo was last week in LA and that means one thing; lots of cosplay has flooded the internets. Now since I did not go to Anime Expo, any cosplay pictures found were taken by other people and I will usually not repost them. There are exceptions though and as a Zelda fan this is one of them.
Now the site that I found this at was talking about how he noticed all female Link cosplay seems to work better then any male Link cosplay he has seen. That got me thinking, I don't think I have ever seen any male Link cosplay in the first place. So I guess by default I must agree.
This has been a long road for Sony. As many of you know, the PSN was shut down worldwide in April. LulzSec took responsibility for the intrusion and the system stayed down for about a month ... for most the world. Now as of 07/06/2011 the PSN will be coming home. Japan was not included in the reactivation of the PSN in May as was Europe and the US. The business heads in Japan wanted to be absolutely sure that everything would be secure when they returned access to their country, mostly due to demands placed on them by the government and credit card regulators. These requirements included preventative measures (even though what that actually meant was not disclosed) to ensure the security of the new Sony PSN system. They also wanted to know how Sony plans to get their way back into our hearts after having our trust shattered so brutally.
But now the PSN will be back to full strength. Too bad for Sony though. Between the breach and the shutdown of the PSN Sony lost an estimated $170 Million dollars. I have a hard time even imagining that number let alone losing it. One good thing might come from this, until we all turn into lazy bastards again brick and mortar stores might see some additional traffic for people to buy game cards instead of using their Credit Cards on game systems.
