So neither Rudeboy nor myself had any big plans to get a 360, so we had to rely on a mutual friend to pick up this slick Halo 3 edition.  Our buddy is kind of funny, and I had to go ahead and break the seal for him so he wouldn’t be able to freak out and return the thing.  So, it’s opened, and there’s no going back now.  Right away I have to say the color scheme is very nice in person, much cooler than either a black or a white one.  The green controller looks very nice as well.  All the internal packaging was either green or orange; a nice touch.  The power brick could be hollowed out and used for lodging in your average favela, so that’s a recycling option in a couple of years.  My take on the Halo 3 version: probably right up there in cool with the black “sports” Dreamcast, but not quite as cool as a top-loading NES (with dog bone d-pad).  Apologies for not quite matching the sexiness of the famous PSP licking shot.  Look, I can’t help that I’m an ugly man.

Good thing there’s a site like DSIcons.com to assist those of us who are less apt at creating anything other than a pixel blob in the icon editor. As the picture to the right shows, the instructions are pretty decent at helping you create that perfect car badge to help you express who you really are deep down inside.

There’s probably close to 50 free badges over at the site as well as several more packs that you can pay for (not sure why you would though with all those free ones to choose). I’ve tried a few of them out and they all look pretty decent in-game. So head on over and make everyone think that you have icon skillz.

In a fit of boredom last week, I decided to try out a few DS games that I’ve had laying around for a while and have never taken the time to play. I can’t say for sure why I hadn’t tried this game until now, but I think it was mostly due to the fact that I didn’t have very high hopes. I realize that it got reviewed pretty well and I realize that most Nintendo games that revolve around first-party characters and themes are usually decent games. But every now and then, the touchscreen seems to “get in the way” a bit for me. For instance… Metroid Prime: Hunters reviewed pretty well and I know a few people who enjoy it, but I just couldn’t get into it. I’m just too much of a keyboard-mouse person when it comes to fps games I suppose. Anyway, I was a little worried that the touchscreen would just be gimmicky… boy was I wrong.

In the case of this game, I personally think that the touchscreen controls actually make the game better than the average basketball game. In fact, I haven’t had this much fun with a hoops game since back in the day when I’d spend hours-on-end dumping quarters into NBA Jam trying to obtain the code to unlock Jordan (how disappointed was I when I figured out it was all a lie. AAARRRGGHHH!). As a basketball game though, it does surprisingly well.

So how is this game different than other basketball games you ask? Well, there are a few things that make this game unique in the b-ball genre. First off is the fact that Nintendo didn’t spend time trying to make this game too realistic (which is definitely the trend for sports games outside the scope of Nintendo). I guess it’s obvious that any game where your team consists of giant lizard-turtle thing, a ghost and a lanky Italian plumber can’t be too realistic anyways. But the list of selectable characters is the first reason I like this game so much. Each character has strengths and weaknesses, but none are terribly over or under-powered. There’s a good mix which consists of most of your Nintendo favorites.

The next thing I enjoy is the unique method of score-keeping. Unlike real basketball, in Mario 3 on 3 baskets are worth 20 points instead of 2. And on top of that, you have the opportunity to gather coins that pay out when you make a shot. These coins can add up fast and pay out big with some good game planning. A well placed 80 point shot can be a quick way of coming back from a large deficit. Another way to make a comeback is to use “special shots”. Each character has a unique “special” shot that is activated by tapping out a specific pattern on the touch screen. These shots can be blocked as you go through the activation process, but once you’ve completed the initiation, they’re basically unstoppable and are worth 40 points.

Another unique aspect of this game is the “Mario Kart” style power ups. During play, the court is covered with floating “?” boxes. When on offense, these boxes provide you with the coins that you collect for points by bouncing the ball on them. When on defense though, these boxes provide all sorts of fun items which can be used to relieve the opposing team of the ball. There are all sorts of items that can be retrieved from the boxes, but I’ll just say that blue turtle shells create the same level of fear in this game as they do in Mario Kart.

With several unlockable arenas and characters this game provides lots of reasons to keep coming back. The online mode offers up a fun opportunity to school your friends in a friendly pick-up game as well. Much like Mario Kart this game is quite easy to learn, but does take some time to master. The AI seems to be pretty decent and offers up a pretty decent challenge as you progress further through the game. Overall, I’d easily give this game an 8 or 9 out of 10 on my scale and would have no problem recommending it as a definite purchase for any DS owner.

For the most part, the huge loss is due primarily to slow Playstation 3 sales (well, duh). The article specifically sites the fact that the poor PS3 is currently in the 3rd place position behind the Wii and Xbox360 and speculates that this is mostly due to insufficient production. It seems that the losses tallied by their games division will outweigh the profits from both the electronics and movie divisions combined. So all that money they just raked in from the record breaking box-office sales of Spidey 3 this month still weren’t enough to counter the PS3′s sluggish performance.

Now, you may argue that they new they weren’t going to make a profit on the PS3′s for several years. That’s just a calculated business decision. However, I don’t think the loss was supposed to be quite this vast. At least not judging by the reaction to this news. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if the new management over there at the Sony games lair will be enough to pull this sucker out of one terribly frightening nose dive.

To tell the truth, I’ve been a fan of Bust-A-Move ever since I first played it on a friends Sega Saturn “back in the day”. Even before that, I used to love a good session of Bubble Bobble on my old NES. My sister and I even spent an entire afternoon once and beat all 40 million levels (or however many there were) of that mind numbingly repetative game. Needless to say, those friendly little dragons hold a special place in my heart.

Anyway, for those who have never played this game, let me try to explain it a bit. At it’s heart, this is a matching game. You’re presented with rows of colored bubbles which hang from the ceiling and your job is to fire new bubbles towards those at the top of the screen and try to connect 3 or more bubbles of the same color. If you succeed, those bubbles pop and anything that is hanging below them falls. You continue to shoot bubbles until the screen is bubble-free. It sounds easy, but it can be rather difficult. The trick is that the bubbles on the ceiling multiply if you’re not able to pop them fast enough. They continue to move towards you sort of Space Invaders style. If the mass of ceiling bubbles reaches you, you lose. It’s basically Tetris in reverse, and with bubbles instead of blocks.

The thing that really sets Bust-A-Move apart from all the other Tetris clones though is the method used to place new bubbles. Where Tetris allows you to move and rotate new blocks right into the right spot, Bust-A-Move provides you with a fixed slingshot mounted at the center of the bottom screen. From there, you’re required to angle your shots so they contact the bubble mass in just the right place. On the console versions of this game, this is done by using the d-pad to adjust your aim and then pressing one of the buttons to fire off your bubble. The DS version is a little different though and it’s this difference that makes this game such a perfect port for the DS. With your slingshot mounted in the top-center of the touch screen, you use your stylus to draw back the slingshot and adjust your aim. To fire the bubble, you simply “let go”. It’s perfect!

With several single and multi-player modes, this game offers lot’s of ways to get your bubble popping freak on. And although it seems fairly simple on the surface, this game could easily be described with that old tag line used by Mattel at the height of the Othello craze… “A minute to learn… A lifetime to master.” Making sure your angles are just right is a fine art, and if you miss… you can create a big mess real quick. Gamespot gives this iteration of this classic franchise a 7.3, but I’d give it at least an 8 or 8.5 on replay value alone. If you enjoy your DS on your commute or in quick bursts, puzzle games are the way to go. And this puzzle game is one of those that gets funner the more you play and improve your bubble popping skillz.

When I first played the original PGR on a buddies XBox, I was blown away at how good it looked. The race replay was almost photo-realistic at times and I wondered then how it could get any better. Well, the picture above answers that question… add realistic weather (view the rest of the gallery here). Between PGR4, Bioshock, Lost Planet and a few others, it’s clear to see that weather is the wave of the future. And that’s ok by me. Now I just need to hijack my brother-in-laws 360 so I can play this game as soon as it comes out.

Although not nearly as svelte as something Ben might have come up with, you have to give credit to the industrious young creator of this Gameboy PC. You can click the picture for the full gallery of this amazing creation as well as a description (if you can read Japanese). As you can see in the pictures, the screen was removed to make room for the guts, but even without a screen, it’s pretty impressive.

Apparently this tiny machine runs Windows XP off a 4gb flash card that slides into the game slot. It also sports 2 usb ports, a built in nic and a vga port (so you can connect a monitor to compensate for the lack of a built-in screen). I’m sure the video specs aren’t anything to get excited about, but just imagine taking a pc that size to a lan party….

“Dude… where’s your machine?”

“In my pocket.”

“Heh… not THAT machine. I was talking about your computer.”

“I’m not kidding… it’s right here.”

<pulls Gameboy PC from pocket>

The group then collectively gasps and someone can be heard to say in a near whisper…

“woot!”