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Direct Link: Famicom Denshimail – Rare Games (2009/09/28)

This week we talk about the rarest thing we’ve come across — the FMC Disk Checker!

Show notes:
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I have always loved college and high school level athletics. In the place of money hungry celebrities whose egos and off-court/field antics seemingly overshadow their athletic abilities (Vick, Rodman, Owens, and about dozens of others, I’m looking firmly at you), you get young and hungry talent willing to do anything to get noticed and make it towards that next level, be it a college scholarship, or an NFL contract. This be-the-best-that-you-can mentality creates an atmosphere where anything can happen. Also, there is a certain charm in seeing local high school and college stars compete that you can’t get watching multi-million dollar celebrities, and who doesn’t enjoy watching the marching band, especially in black college football games? So it’s no surprise that I’ve always enjoyed 2K Games’ College Hoops better than its NBA counterpart. For years, developer Visual Concepts has managed to create a game that captures the atmosphere of college basketball while delivering solid gameplay on the court. That is why I was sad to learn that 2K Sports would not be renewing it’s NCAA basketball license for subsequent years, thereby putting an end to this series. To that end, 2K8 is an excellent swan song for the series. The improvements that it makes are little compared to 2K7, but they serve to refine the gameplay further.
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December 2009. One-Shot. Dark Horse. Zack Whedon. Joelle Jones.

If you aren’t sure what this is, you need to watch this. (Hosted by Hulu. Sorry Canandians). Buy here!

Before Sega’s House of the Dead, there was Konami’s Crypt Killer. While the most recent House of the Dead game takes its inspiration from Grindhouse Cinema, Crypt Killer seems to take inspiration from the B-movies of the 40s, 50s, and 60s. You know, the flicks that made guys like Lon Cheney, Boris Karloff, and Vincent Price into horror icons. They were quite scary at the time, but by today’s standards, they are actually a bit comical. After all, the dialogue was pretty cheesy and it was plainly obvious that the horrible ‘monster’ was actually a guy in a rubber suit. Crypt Killer does a perfect job of capturing that B-movie goofiness. Even if it isn’t the greatest game ever, it’s still fun while it lasts.
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A few month’s ago, I featured this game’s predecessor, which could only be described as darkly humorous, delightfully tasteless, and disturbingly addictive. It attracted its share of controversy, and the fact hasn’t been lost on developer Running with Scissors. In 2003, they created this sequel, and there are a number of substantial changed to the formula. Although its content these days is pretty tame compared to the Grand Theft Autos and Manhunts, it can still get a bit extreme at times. In fact, its content is so extreme that it has been banned in both Australia and New Zealand. It gained further negative publicity a few years back after the Dawson College shooting rampage in Montreal when the gunman listed Postal 2 among his favorite video games. This is the type of game that, while it clearly doesn’t appeal to everyone, still maintains a healthy cult following.
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Diamond Select Toys has announced the 33rd wave in the Marvel Minimates line of figures. This wave is set to include the following:

Modern Thor & Modern (and female) Loki
Menace & Anti-Venom (both from New Ways to Die storyline)
Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers) & Sentinel
VARIANT: “Hound” Rachel Summers & Sentinel

Also in the announcement was this tidbit:

In addition to the standard removable and interchangeable pieces, the Sentinel army builder featured in this wave will also include a special “Sentinel Army” design feature – allowing you to partially customize your own Sentinel Squad in either modern or retro styles.

In possibly my final look at the gaming industry and culture in Wisconsin, I take on Raven Software’s new shooter and what it may mean for the studio.

Raven falls short with Wolfenstein , follows layoffs with high hopes for Singularity
Wolfenstein seems content to mimic rather than bust the genre it created, though there’s nothing wrong with that for a summer game. As an end-of-summer game with Halo and Call of Duty sequels on the horizon, though, it falls short. Then barely a week after releasing the game in late August, Raven laid off dozens of employees from its 180-person staff. This came at a time when the studio has been enjoying a higher profile thanks to its string of new releases.
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