As I promised, this week I’m doubling up on the $20 GOTW. One game brings back something that hasn’t been seen since the days of the SNES: a pack in game. The other is yet another good gaming compilation that may seem familiar to some PSP owners. If you have yet to spend the money grandpa gave you for X-mas, here are a few good cheap games.
[Read the rest of this entry…]

Like I promised, I’m giving you two of each of my articles this week. I’ll add $20 Game of the Week later this weekend, but for now, enjoy these two Lost Classics. One of which is a perfect example of licencing gone wrong while the other is one of the most underrated fighting games of the 16-bit era.
[Read the rest of this entry…]

…Not in the literal sense, but for those who want in on the ‘Halo 3’ Beta, you may be required to buy ‘Crackdown’.  A bad move on Microsoft’s behalf?  No.  A cheap one?  Yes. 

The generic-looking GTA-clone from Microsoft and the developer “Real Time Worlds” (Formerly ”DMA Designs”) and lead designer David Jones is set to hit stores on February 20th.  In the newest issue of Gamepro Magazine an ad is featured for the game which reads “Includes Invitation to Halo 3 Beta” and cites it as a “Limited Time Offer”.  [Read the rest of this entry…]

Astonishing X-Men #19
written by Joss Whedon, art by John Cassaday

Hey you! New comics come out on Thursday this week! I realize that this could be considered late notice… but maybe it’s just early notice for next week?

Um, so while this is allegedly the kickstart to Whedon and Cassaday’s final arc on the book, it’s really the mid-point of their final 12-issue arc. Regardless, with its strangely delayed release schedule, now’s as good a time as any to remind you that it happens to be coming out, specifically today.

I suppose I could try and sell the concept to you, but if you’re not reading it already, I somehow doubt you’re going to pull your head from your rump and give it a fresh shot now. And if you are reading it… Man, how horrible was that “Dangerous” arc? I hated that. Crippled Professor X driving a truck? Was this really the same guy who’s written the other 12 issues we’ve gotten? Anyway, if the last 6 issues are any measure, these final 6 should be awesome. And according to the image, it arrives in November! So, you know, you should keep an eye out for it. In November.

(Or today.)

Yesterday’s weekly update on Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console saw the release of Super Mario Bros. This is considered by some to be the most important game of all time, and odds are you already own a copy of it. Maybe 2 copies. Probably 5. You might as well get it again so you can play with that sweet VC controller, and maybe work on your speed running.

Just to add a little value to your 500 Wii Point purchase, try going to the Negative world. This hidden glitch was covered up in many of the remakes and re-releases of the game, but is intact on the Wii since its the original NES code faithfully emulated. You’ve probably seen this trick before, in world 1-2 you break the bricks above the pipe at the end of the underwold (as seen at left) and then carefully jump backwards to the right without breaking the brick, so you slide off to the right and enter a warp pipe that takes you to a weird underwater world.

A top story on digg right now announces “How to Get to the Illusive Negative World in SMB!” but the link to the World -2, -3, and -4 is completely fake. Amazing that 21 years after the release of Super Mario Bros, players can still be falling for bogus tips like slackjawed schoolyard simpletons.

The Godfather Of Soul has died at the age of 73 this Christmas day.

Well known as an innovator and influence on music for the past 50 years, it was not until very recently that I came to understand who the true James Brown is.

He is a crazy person. A force of nature trapped inside of a man that can only be unleashed in the form of music.

Rolling Stone magazine recently published the article Being James Brown and its a shockingly hilarious look inside the world of the hardest working man in show business. Its a long read, and probably not your idea of holiday entertainment, but unhinged insanity that begins when James Brown enters a room and lingers long after he leaves… well its a good metaphor for his legacy in music as well.

From the article:

James Brown writes a lyric, to record over a long, rambling blues-funk track titled “Message to the World.” For anyone who has ever wondered how James Brown writes a song, I have a sort of answer for you. First: He borrows Mr. Bobbit’s bifocals. James Brown doesn’t have glasses of his own, or left them at home, or something. Second: He borrows a pencil. Third: He sits, and writes, for about fifteen minutes. Then he puts himself behind the microphone. The result is a cascading rant not completely unlike his spoken monologues. Impossible to paraphrase, it meanders over subjects as disparate as his four marriages, Charles Barkley, Al Jarreau, a mixture of Georgia and Carolina identities he calls “Georgia-lina,” the fact that he still knows Maceo Parker and that Fred Wesley doesn’t live very far away, either, Mr. Bobbit’s superiority to him as a checkers player, the fact that he believes himself to have both Asian and Native American ancestry, and, most crucially, his appetite for corn on the cob and its role in his health: “I like corn, that’s a regular thing with me. Gonna live a long time, live a little longer.”

Mr. James Brown will live a little longer. Here he is just a year and a half ago at the Live 8 benefit concert, in top form.

It’s Christmas Eve, and what better time to watch an old Christmas special, like this Claymation Christmas CLASSIC:

You can find a plethora of Christmas specials like this, all in their entirety ALL RIGHT HERE, from It’s A Wonderful Life, to the stop-motion classic Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, to less obvious selections like The Office’s recent Christmas episode, or even the Star Wars Holiday Special (Part 1, and Part 2). It’s Christmas everybody, so even if you don’t celebrate it, ’tis definitely the season to watch a video of Chewbacca celebrating it.

Due to the holiday (and becuase I’m feeling lazy), I’m gonna skip this week’s $20 Game of the week and lost classics columns. Don’t worry though, I’ll have twice as much content for next week. Until then, check out this review.

In 1983, director Brian DePalma created a film starring Al Pacino that would forever change the way we would think about drug dealers, cocaine, Cubans, immigration, and pelicans. This film would be known as the story of a man named Tony Montana. It was the chronicle of his journey from yet another Cuban refugee looking for the American dream to the biggest drug dealer in all of Miami, all the way to his violent end as a desperate man consumed by a coccaine-fueled blind rage. This film would be the stuff of legends, serving as inspiration to entire generations of rappers, actors, gangsters, and other entertainers. This film is called Scarface. Nearly 2 decades later, Tony Montana’s story would continue on as a video game courtesy of Vivendi Universal.

[Read the rest of this entry…]