Let me begin by saying that the official branding from Garmin is n

Like many of the rest of you who rushed out to buy this bundle, I’ve already beaten Portal. My initial impressions… I NEED MORE!!! This was a very refreshing romp through a world with physics and graphics that we’re all used to, but with a new twist. Source still looks gorgeous after all these years and I found myself being blown away by this new space-bending aspect they’ve introduced. Like all truly great games, this one has begun to bleed over into my reality and I’ve found myself studying any white wall I encounter to judge whether or not a portal would fit there and where I might place the other end.

In short, Portal is one of the best PC games I’ve played in a good long while. In fact, it’s good enough to have torn me away from Phantom Hourglass these last few days. The only downside to the entire experience was how short it was. The gameplay mechanics, environment and generally humorous tone were all pretty much perfect. Incorporating the Portal gun into the final sequence proved to be a bit challenging and quite rewarding when finished. I don’t want to give anything away here, but the closing credits made it all worth it as well as making me hopeful for another installment. What we really need now are some good old fashioned mod community maps.

In closing, if you currently own the Orange Box and haven’t tried Portal yet… shame on you. Get your butt home (or wherever you happen to game) and give it try right now. You won’t be disappointed.

I’m picky about sunglasses.  Being a nerdy sort, exposure to the sun causes severe anxiety, and I need some specs to keep the glare down.

Behold: the Smith Maverick specs.  Why does this count as nerdy?  One word: plastics.  I mean, polarization.  If you don’t wear polarized sunglasses, you’re a real Luddite.  Also, you’re probably squinting a lot. 

Silliness aside, the key things I look for are comfort, sturdiness, and great improvement to vision.  These pretty much nail all three, and they don’t make me look too retarded.

So what makes a great nerd watch also a great every day watch?  I guess the key here is practical technology.  Guys like me enjoy things that are solar powered, and this watch delivers there.  A full charge gives the watch 11 months of battery life (in perfect darkness), and 5 or 10 minutes in the sun gives it a full charge (I read somewhere in the manual that it takes 8 hours under fluorescent light, which is more realistic if you’re a regular reader).  The other fun bit of technology is the automatic time setting from the atomic clock in Colorado.  We’ve got these atomic clocks all over my house; there’s something satisfying about having everything ticking exactly the same.

Another thing about this watch is that it’s very similar to the first real watch my parents got for me, a great old feature-packed Casio with a big black rubber wrist band.  Very nostalgic.  Plus the fact that it’s pretty much bulletproof, being a G-shock and all, just completed the package.

So there you have it, another post of Zarch’s every day gear.  If interested, here’s the page from Casio with all the specs.

When I first went shopping for a camera of my very own (as opposed to a “family” camera), I had a few things I was looking for.  I wanted it to be very small, to have good battery life, and to have some compensati on for my shaky hands, especially shooting landscapes.  I have some terrible photos of the Seattle skyline that were making me think about some sort of image stabilization.  Reviews I read got me thinking about these little Lumix compacts, and after some deliberation, I bought one. 

So, what do I like? 

• Well, it’s very small, just like I wanted.  It’s always in my bag ready to snap a picture if I feel the need. 
• Start-up and picture-to-picture time is quite good, especially for a camera this small.
• The image stabilization works very well; I have far fewer blurry shots these days.
• Image quality is excellent.  I could never say I was a connoisseur, but I like it when my pictures don’t look off-color (as in not the right shade, not as in pr0n) or otherwise crappy.
• It seems like it’s rock-freaking-solid.  My wife’s Powershot, while it’s a great camera, already went back to Canon for repairs, and now it’s done it again.  My little Panasonic, however, has been with me for about 18 months now with no problems at all.
• It’s a sexy little package; it gives me great geek chic credibility when I whip it out for the laydees.

So that’s my current digital camera.  I’ve felt no compulsion to trade it in for something else, which is a sure sign of quality for any electronics that wind up in my hands.  Want a more detailed review?  Check this one out.

One fun anecdote in closing.  I went to a local snobby camera shop to pick up some prints for a friend of mine.  While I was there, I noticed a little Leica C-LUX 1 displayed, and mentioned to the clerk that it was the same camera as my Lumix, only $100 more expensive.  The clerk was dubious until I showed her the Lumix.  Same camera; Leica makes the lens, Panasonic does the electronics (sensor from Matsushita, if anyone is keeping track).  So if I want to sound cool, I tell folks I’ve got a Leica lens in my camera, and that makes them really think I’m legit and smart and all that.

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.

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.

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.

Anyway, for our first installment, I thought I’d share my thoughts on a fun little game I happened to accidentally stumble upon called Touch Detective. I figured I’d start with this one because you probably don’t need to hear any more about Mario Kart and Pokemon. It was a total accident that I happened to try this game, but I have to say that it’s much more enjoyable than I first thought it would be. The basic story line is that you’re a young girl named Mackenzie who has inherited the family detective business and you get to help her solve her first few cases. The gameplay is nothing extraordinary (it’s basically just a point-n-click style adventure game), but the combination of colorful anime-style graphics, decent character development and a fun humorous approach to the story makes this game surprisingly enjoyable.

For the most part, this game is a flashback to the classic point-n-click adventure genre. If you’ve ever played Kings Quest or Grim Fandango then this game will seem pretty familiar, but the clever and generally humorous stories combined with the unique look of this game set it apart and make it more than just another clone. For the most part, the puzzles are pretty intuitive, but I have gotten stuck a few times as well. As with most other point-n-click adventures, when it seems like there’s nothing left to try… try EVERYTHING again!

At several points throughout the game you’ll be whisked into short in-game cut scenes. I felt like this was one area where this game really shines. In the bottom screen, using the game engine (instead of something cinematic), short scripted scenes will play out between the characters. This helps to develop the characters and give you a much better idea about what type of people they are. During these short scripted events you’ll also be treated to something unique in the top screen. As the scene plays out you’ll be treated to the inner thoughts of the main character in the form of thought bubbles. You quickly learn how your character feels about the other characters and situations she encounters by the thoughts that go through her head as she interacts with them. Although these thought bubbles don’t really do much for the gameplay, it’s a unique way to help you understand and develop a “bond” with Mackenzie.

Where the story and characters set this game apart, the gameplay does not. It’s pretty standard point-n-click and the only control interface you’ll use is the stylus (as the title suggests). When you want Mackenzie to move, you point to where you’d like her to go. When you want her to interact with someone or something, you “touch” it. You’ll gather items that you can inspect and use much like most other games of this type. And like other games in this genre, the items are generally, but not always vital to the continuation of the story. Most of the uses are pretty intuitive, but there have been a few instances where I had to pay short visits to online walkthroughs (this is the best one I’ve found) to figure out what to do next. <RANT>Kinda like the first time I played Kings Quest 5… who the crap would have thought to squeeze the honey comb and use the honey and the gems to lure the gnome out of his hole in order to capture him in the honey. And online walkthroughs didn’t exist back then. I SPENT FREAKIN’ WEEKS TRYING TO GET OUT OF THAT BLASTED FOREST! AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!</RANT>

I’m not sure how much replay value this game has because there’s no room for story alteration from one play through to the next, but it’s definitely worth a single play through, even if you just plan to sell it when you’re done. To be honest, I initially tried this game to see if my daughters would want to play it. I really didn’t think I’d be interested at all, but I found myself immediately sucked in. On a side note, my girls have enjoyed watching me play it, but I’ve spent a lot more time playing on my own than with them.

As I mentioned in the beginning, this isn’t really an official review, but if I had to give it a score, I’d say it’s been one of the more enjoyable DS games I’ve tried. I’d have to say that it deserves a solid 7.5 out of 10. Gamespot only gave it a 6 based on bland gameplay, but if you enjoy the point-n-click genre, this will be right down your alley. If you don’t expect anything too mind blowing and just accept it for the goofy stories and fun characters then you won’t be disappointed. My only real suggestion is that it may be worth picking up used and then reselling due to the lack of replay value. Other than that, I have no problem endorsing this fun little adventure game.