My wife and I are looking for a house, and before we blow all of our savings on a down payment, closing costs, paint, carpets, and whatever else we end up needing, I wanted to “future proof” my house with the latest tech. She agreed to let me buy an HDTV (because she secretly wanted one too), but I was also able to worm a Playstation 3 into the mix. Personally, I had zero plans to buy a next gen system until some major price cuts started. I was perfectly fine relying on my Wii to get my gaming on. Besides, my wife basically told me no more video game systems after I bought a Wii (yeah, right). Anyway, a week ago Best Buy had a deal going on where if you purchase a 40-inch 1080p Sony HDTV, and a PS3 together, and you’ll save 600 bucks. For the first time ever, I wanted to own a video game system for something other than video games. I explained to my wife that if we get a 1080p set, we might as well take advantage of it with a Blu-ray player, that player being the PS3. She agreed, and I went into Best Buy later that week and bought the TV and the PS3. Unfortunately, the TV was back ordered, but I was able to walk out with the PS3. I didn’t mind, because I don’t have anywhere to put the TV right now anyway.

With the “deal” I was forced into buying one of two PS3 games, either Motorstorm, or some baseball game. Naturally I picked Motorstorm, which is really a fine game (and it looks amazing) but I decided I didn’t want Motorstorm. I thought about doing the old switcheroo at Gamestop (if they take advantage of us, we can take advantage of them) and getting Virtua Fighter 5 instead. Then I remembered just how much I wanted to play Odin Sphere for the PS2, so I went to Gamestop and traded Motorstorm for Odin Sphere and Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition, paying only a 10 dollar difference. I couldn’t be happier, but the result is that I now had no game to play on my shiny (really shiny) Playstation 3. Before people go crazy, I know Motorstorm is a good game, but my thought is that in a year from now Odin Sphere is going to be 60 bucks on eBay, while I’ll be able to find Motorstorm as a Greatest Hits for 20 bucks at any store.

I saw on Joystiq, that DOOM co-creator John Romero has posted a pack of unreleased MIDIs from the game’s soundtrack. Considering that I played the tar out of DOOM when it was originally released in 1993, I was pretty excited. Not only did that game give me nightmares, but I also happen to like the music in all its synth glory. I remember thinking that it reminded me alot of Alice In Chains and NIN, and I didnt realize how right I was.

Romero says “there’s a reason these weren’t released - they’re not very good”, however I beg to differ and believe it was more a case of copywrite infringement that kept these from being put into the game. Not only did these unreleased tracks remind me of my favorite grunge bands, but they were EXACTLY them. I was shocked that half of Alice In Chains’ Dirt was on there as well as Stone Temple Pilots, Slayer, and a few others I couldn’t quite put my finger on though sounded familiar to me. What shocks me even more is that most comments on Joystiq and Romeros blog don’t even recognize the music. I guess I am indeed getting old.

Doing some further research, it appears that John Carmack had given music CDs to DOOM’s composer Bobby Prince as reference material. The idea was to use these as a spring board to define what the game’s music should sound like. I think that these tracks were exploratory attempts to see if they could even recreate the sounds and melodies used by contemporary rock bands to push the limits of the day’s harware. Remember, this was 1993 and most PCs didnt even have sound cards in them yet.

You know, I’m really burnt out on this whole Manhunt 2 story. I know that for some strange reason gamers have to get behind every Crusade-of-the-week that comes along with petitions and jokes about Jack Thompson, but honestly… what is the big deal? I’m pretty sure that if this game was not a Rockstar game we wouldn’t be hearing nearly as much as we are. The whole thing reeks of a publicity stunt. When Take-two releases the M+ rated version of the game in a few months the sales will be through the roof as a result of this ‘controversy’. I’ve read so many “I’m buying it day one as a matter of principle” posts on the various game sites that it turns my stomach. Are you people really that desperate to make a statement?

Let’s imagine for a second that the game in question was called Pedohunt in which the main character has to prey on children in a suburban town and molest them. These despicable acts would be executed using the Wii-mote. Let’s say that the artistic vision of this game is to put you in the mind of a child molester to experience the shattered psyche of a lunatic. Would anybody blame the ESRB for giving this game an AO rating? Would anybody be shocked that Nintendo and Sony would have rules in place to prevent a game like this from being released on their console? I’m sure you’d get a few hardcore “hey man, it’s freedom speech” idiots, but for the most part no one would shed a tear over this game getting buried. Where do you draw the line between a game where you rape children or a game where you brutally decapitate people using chicken wire?

A great video game controller leaves its mark by utilizing features that become industry standards. The NES made the D-Pad an integral part of the gaming experience. The N64 controller introduced rumble, an expansion slot, and most importantly, an analog stick. Sony’s Dual Shock introduced a second analog stick, and the Sega Dreamcast introduced pressure sensitive triggers. More recently it seems the 360 controller have made the “Home” button a new standard, and the Wii controller with motion control. All of these features have helped mold our modern day control pads, but surely there must have been one controller that had the greatest influence. I believe that right goes to the SNES controller as it has laid the groundwork for all controllers, and features a design that is still emulated today.

For starters, the SNES Control Pad is the first controller to feature four face buttons. It is not just the number of face buttons either, but the layout of the four buttons is also important. The buttons are laid out so that your thumb can access them as naturally as possible. The “Cross Buttons” are a proven layout that has been handed down across all major console control pads to this day. It is easy to over look this fundamental design choice in the grand scheme of things, but it has impacted game controllers as much as the analog stick.

To celebrate the release of Guitar Hero 2 for the Xbox 360, here’s a look back at one of Shamoozal’s most popular cartoons ever, GUITAR ZERO!

It’s time for me to come clean to all of you Game Store clerks out there, I’ve been holding this in for a really long time and I need to get it off my chest. Hopefully this doesn’t violate the non-disclosure agreement that I and the other 20 million Game Store customers signed, otherwise I could lose my license.

Look, it’s not that we hate you or the establishment that you’re a tool of. It’s just that, well how can I say this… you’re acting kind of obnoxious. All retail sucks, ask anyone who’s ever worked at a record store, a video rental store, or an American Eagle. They’ll fill your ears and your hearts with tales of customers yelling about nonsense, district managers imposing strict new sales policies and monotonous half-hearted rituals they must complete during each and every sale.

I was in the fourth grade when Street Fighter II came out for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The one thing that game presented that many gamers take for granted these days were the special moves. It took loads of practice and patience, but within a week I was throwing fireballs and sonic booms like nobodies business. However, if there is one memory I�ll always have from Street Fighter 2, it was learning how to do Ryu and Ken�s Dragon Punch.

For what felt like months, I could never pull off the move for the life of me. I knew learning this move was essential to being a true SF player, and it was that motivation that kept me wanting to learn it. In fact, as sad as it sounds, I remember the first time I pulled off the move. I was Ken fighting against Blanka, things weren�t looking to hot and Blanka jumped in at me. I input the command, and at that moment Ken lifted off the ground and delivered a punch to Blanka that he wouldn�t soon forget. Absolutely astounded that I pulled it off, I actually paused the game and starred at Ken while he was in mid air with Blanka hurled over in pain. I wanted to really cherish the moment, just in case I was never able to pull it off again. Even with it�s steep learning curve, Street Fighter 2 was critically acclaimed and became an absolute gaming classic.

Capcom is set to hold an event come April 12th in which they’re going to show off their 2007 line up. The company plans on showing three Wii titles, two of which we already know about. First is Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles which is rumored to be a little more than what was speculated earlier, and an original IP called Treasure Island Z.

What we “think” we know is that the third title is coming from legendary game designer Keiji Inafune, who is responsible for Mega Man and more recent hits like Dead Rising and Lost Planet. I’m going to take an educated guess here and say that the new title is a Mega Man game. I suppose I need to prove why I think this, so here it goes.

About a year ago an interview took place with Inafune and he was asked flat out if he was considering doing a Mega Man title for either the Playstation 3 of the Wii. He basically laid it out on the table with his response.

Today saw the release of the Wii game Cooking Mama: Cook Off. If you don’t know, Cooking Mama was originally released on the DS last summer as a budget title. I would never have bought a game where you cook up a virtual meal, however, Steve brought it along to one of the podcast sessions and after playing for a few minutes I knew I had to have it. For 20 bucks, how could you pass it up? Needless to say I went out and bought it the next day.

The key here is the 20 dollars part. Cooking Mama is an excellent budget title, but I would never have paid the full 35 dollars for it. The game just isn’t meaty enough, and it’s a tough sell for full price. It is however, quirky enough that the $20 price point makes the whole thing a sweet enough deal. I’m willing to bet that the reason the game did so well was thanks to its price and word of mouth. The Wii version of the game, based on the DS original, is going for $49.99. Ouch.

It’s strange how quickly time goes by, isn’t it? It feels like it was only yesterday where I’d spend Friday nights between Nintendo’s chat rooms and the good old SNES (playing Chrono Trigger), but the fact of the matter is that it’s been over 10 years since those days. Let us go back to the year 1995, when Nintendo launched the Nintendo Power Source on America Online. The NPS was the official online community for all things Nintendo, and was one of the main reasons I convinced my Dad that the Internet was the way of the future. Not only would I be able to read about video games all day, and get news before the magazines did, but I’d also be able to chat it up with fellow gamers. Of course I told him the Internet did other things too, like get the type of news he was interested in, and of course send something called “e-mail” around.

The Nintendo Power Source itself wasn’t actually anything all that special, which was a let down. It didn’t offer many previews that weren’t already in Nintendo Power (although you would occasionally get a screen shot from a new game), and the downloads available were throw aways, either a handful of old screen shots or some midi music from SNES titles. The real fun of the site lay in the “Play it Loud” area, a section of the site which contained two chat rooms, the Power Circuit and the Power Outlet. The Power Circuit was the chat room to hang out in, and for good reason, because every weeknight from 7 to 8 (eastern time) one of Nintendo’s “Cyber Jocks” would be there chatting to fellow gamers.