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lbuchanan collection | wishlist Title: EIC, IGN Wireless
Blog Posts: 61
Comments: 271
Blog Created: Jan '06

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Monday, December 04, 2006

Free Giveaway: Marvel Ultimate Alliance fer Wii

Might it be clobberin' time? This week's giveaway is Marvel Ultimate Alliance for the Wii, brand new and still in the shrink. These heroes deserve a good home. Perhaps your home? Maybe you dare wave the Wii remote in front of the The Thing's face?

Here are the rules for this giveaway:

1. Answer the trivia question.

2. Send your answer to vivamelevi(at)yahoo.com with your full name, the city/state you currently live in, and a secret word that I can use to verify the winner.

3. Please, don't post the answers in the comments section. You'll just make it easier for other people to enter -- decreasing your chances of winning!

I will pool all of the correct entries, print them out on slips of paper, and have M pick a winner.

The trivia questions for this giveaway are culled from "The Fountain," the new film from Darren Aronofsky, starring Rachel Weisz and Hugh Jackman. I caught it last weekend with M, plus Hans and his wife Kathryn (who is M's sister). Reaction was decidedly mixed, from my great enthusiasm to Kathryn's sputtering derision. A millennia-spanning love story and a treatise on love versus immortality? I am there.

Here's the trivia:

On their snow-covered rooftop, what does Izzi tell her husband Tommy the nebula through the telescope represents?

(I made this week's trivia a little easier -- you can answer it without seeing the movie. But I highly recommend the movie and cannot wait to see it at home in 1080p. Also, the soundtrack by Clint Mansell is on iTunes now -- download it.)

The deadline for entries is 6:00PM (PST) December 9, 2006. Only one entry per person. I received a lot of entries for the last giveaway -- Viva Piñata for the Xbox 360 -- so get crackin' and be the next lucky reader to score a free game.

Category: Marvel: Ultimate Alliance

Posted: 10:34 am by lbuchananÂ Rating: 0 0

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Thursday, November 30, 2006

Call of Duty Thrii

Mechanically, Call of Duty on Wii is better than Red Steel. With the remote, you can pull off headshots with laser precision and the "look" mechanics are nowhere near as touchy as Red Steel. You move the remote to the edge of the screen and your soldier turns his head at a manageable speed. Both of these are vast technical improvements.

But not all is rosy in the Last of the Great Wars. For one thing, the visuals hinder game play. Yes, I am well aware that the Wii emphasizes game play over graphics -- and I am completely comfortable with the concept -- but when muddy textures and low-res enemy models start blending into a fuzzy mess, I get frustrated. Especially when that fuzzy mess can shoot me without any vision impairment. Walking through a smoke grenade's effects looks awful. The component cables I ordered from Nintendo's website should show up wither today or tomorrow, and if that makes a difference, I'll be sure to amend this post.

Also, the non-shooting controls need a little work. Reaching all the way down to the 1 and 2 buttons is not comfortable at all. The hand-to-hand combat motions are terrible. Driving fares only a little better.

But the core shooting mechanics worked well and I can see the Wii being a great destination for the FPS genre. The visceral involvement of actually holding and pointing a gun truly does add something. As mentioned in my Red Steel post, even though the game isn't necessarily a winner, when it came time to sword fight, I unwittingly got into it more than I ever expected. I hope a Red Steel sequel and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption improve on the mechanics laid down thus far.

Call of Duty 3 only served to underline my category fatigue, too. I'm done with authentic World War II games for a good year or two -- there are only so many jack-booted Nazi thugs you can gun down before the gray uniforms all blur together (which is both literal and figurative when talking about the Wii edition). Bring on the more phantasmagorical Nazis -- the ones entrenched in the occult. Gimme a rifle with a Spear of Destiny bayonet I use to lance upper echelon members of the Thule Society.

Category: Call of Duty 3

Posted: 1:39 pm by lbuchananÂ Rating: 1 0

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Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Red Steel's Bizarre Hold

Red Steel is not a good game -- but it is an intriguing one, which is why I keep coming back to it after playing through several surgeries in Trauma Center or smiling at the coolest new characters out of Ubisoft, the Rabbids. Several of the mechanics don't work like they should. (Really, can we kill this whole "stick your arms closer to the TV" maneuver now? It's a FPS, my aiming arm is already outstretched.) The visuals are wonky in many, many areas. Enemies hover in the air. Arms reach through walls.

But I'll be damned if every time I engage in a swordfight, I don't grit my teeth and actually put some oomph into my movements. When it comes time to either spare or execute a fallen opponent, I always -- always -- hoist my Wii remote high and slice down in a wicked follow-through as if it was finally going to lop this guy's head clean off.

Also, the music is so garishly over-the-top, I found myself surfing for a soundtrack CD. All I have right now are the two clips Ubisoft provided to IGN:

J-Pop

Choir

I really like Choir. A lot. Red Steel's composer, Tom Salta, earned his paycheck on this one.

One day, I may actually complete Red Steel. The idea of FPS on Wii is still so promising. Nintendo sent over some goodies today, including Call of Duty 3, which I plan on popping in as soon as I finish this post. But should you buy Red Steel? Matt's 6.0 review of the game is right on the mark, so I'd recommend holding off for a price drop. (The IGN UK review? Madness.) You should definitely spend your Wii $ on Zelda, Trauma Center, Rayman, and Monkey Ball first. And in that order.

Oh, and go pick up a 2,000 point card, too. SEGA put up Ecco the Dolphin on the Virtual Console today. I can actually see my original cartridge and case from my desk, but I still downloaded it. (I downloaded Bonk, too -- and I can shift my eyes to the right of Ecco and see my original Bonk chip for the TG-16.) Sigh. I'm going to need another point card soon, especially with Ristar and Donkey Kong Jr. on the way.

Category: Red Steel

Posted: 10:55 pm by lbuchananÂ Rating: 1 0

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Saturday, November 25, 2006

Viva Pinata Winner

Hey now. Thanks to everybody that entered my Viva Pinata giveaway. The winner was Rafal Hanusowski of Miami, FL. And, in case yer curious, here are the answers to the questions:

The track length of "Jeweled" is 7:44.

And...

"The second cut only makes you wonder."

(By the way, in case you care, "The third will have you on your knees.")

This is only the first of these I'd like to do now from time to time. I actually have a couple extra games here I may put up a giveaway for sometime next week.

(Yes, there is a digital file of "Jeweled" floating around the tubes that runs 7:48. But that not the real track length, taken straight from the real-deal CD. However, if you said 7:48 for the track length, I still kept your entry in the pile.)

Category: Viva Pinata

Posted: 10:53 pm by lbuchananÂ Rating: 0 0

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Thursday, November 16, 2006

Free Viva Pinata Giveaway!

Allow me to put the Viva in your 360 -- on the house. Microsoft just sent me a retail copy of the game. However, due to my extreme impatience when it comes to getting my grubby mitts on new vids, I already own a copy. I bought it last Friday, and then promptly watched M play it all weekend. She's logged over 20 hours on it thus far; although, I have been a very active spectator. We're digging it -- but, as I mentioned in my previous blog post, this is an Animal Crossing household, so I suspected it would get a lot of turns in the 360.

Simply put, this game is awesome. It's gorgeous. It's addictive. It's exactly what the 360 needs right now.

Anyway, I'm pleased to support the game with my $50. But I want to spread this Viva magic around, so I'm giving away a brand new, shrink-wrapped edition of the game -- completely free. Well, maybe not necessarily giving... I am going to ask you to do a little homework.

1. Answer the trivia question.

2. Send your answer to vivamelevi(at)yahoo.com with your full name, the city/state you currently live in, and a secret word that I can use to verify the winner.

3. Please, don't post the answers in the comments section. You'll just make it easier for other people to enter -- decreasing your chances of winning!

I will pool all of the correct entries, print them out on slips of paper, and have M pick a winner.

Now, on to the trivia question. It has nothing to do with vids. It has to do with my favorite band: Propaganda. They were a popular German techno-pop band in the early 1980s, creating big Euro hits like "Dr. Mabuse" and "Jewel." This blog is named after the lyrics from one of their songs. In fact, I'm listening to Propaganda right now as I play Trauma Center on Wii.

Here's the question (and it's a two-parter):

What is the exact track length of "Jewelled," a mixture of two previously released songs -- "Jewel" and "Duel" -- from their second album, "Wishful Thinking"? And if, as the lyrics say, "the first cut won't hurt at all," then what does the "second cut" do?

(Hey, if I have to give away a copy of Viva Pinata to get somebody else on this planet to listen to Propaganda, I'll do it.)

So, there you go. The deadline for entries is 6:00PM (PST) November 22, 2006. Only one entry per person. I'm really looking forward to sharing this fantastic game with a lucky reader.

Category: Viva Pinata

Posted: 12:06 am by lbuchananÂ Rating: 4 0

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