Public Service Announcement – The Machiavellian Nerd Goes On Holiday

Greetings ardent readers,

One of the problems of single-handedly maintaining a blog is that if you can’t write for it, then it end up not being updated for periods of time when you are otherwise occupied. You can see from my post history when I’ve had coursework due and so on.

Unfortunately for the blog, I am going to be away on holiday for the next fortnight or so – without regular internet access. Fortunately for me, I’ll be in Spain drinking San Miguel, Sangria and cheap cocktails and hopefully enjoying the sun. Normal service should resume on Monday 9th of March.

I really should look for some more folks to help out with this to avoid outages and drops in coverage. Or possibly even start contributing to another blog instead.

What do you guys think? Should the Machiavellian Nerd turn on the ‘Looking for More’ tags? Any volunteers?

EU Virtual Console Releases – 23-Mar-07

This week, we have two quality releases.

First up, from the NES, we have the original Castlevania. This franchise has seen a resurgence in popularity of late, with a new DS game and forthcoming PSP and Xbox Live Arcade releases. It’s 2d side-scrolling action, with some control problems thrown in to the mix. Recommended if your a fan of Portrait of Ruin (just don’t expect the graphics to be of DS quality), it will cost you 500 points.

The second game released this week is arguably the best instalment in the Zelda series, A Link to the Past.  For those who didn’t buy this when it game out for the SNES or the GBA, this is an essential purchase. It manages to feature all that is good about the Zelda series, including the top down gameplay, engaging plot and a good combat system. Well worth the 800 points.

Cat vs World of Warcraft

I’ve spent the day pouring my rage on Sony via the wonderful medium that is the internet. Now, tired and drained (I’ve got flu), this was exactly what I needed. It’s cute as fuck and just makes you want to go ‘Awwww!’.

The Great PS3 Back Compatibility Farce Continues

There are some events and products in the computer and gaming world which echo though the ages as being utter folly: Nintendo’s Virtual Boy, the Sega 32X, Duke Nukem Forever.

I am not prepared to say that the PlayStation 3 is at the same stage as these joke products yet, but it’s back compatibility features certainly are. Hence why I’ve officially upgraded (or possibly downgraded who can tell when your dealing with a scale based on sheer absurdity) the whole sorry situation to the status of farce.

Not content with the top selling PS1 and 2 games being rife with ‘issues’ of various varieties, a Sony Europe executive has come out with the following:

We will test all forthcoming PS2 titles, but it would be unrealistic to expect significant increases in the number of playable PS2 titles in future firmware upgrades given the above. Whilst J&D and MGS are not listed as playable, their successors MGS3 and Jak and Daxter 2 are playable.

Yes, that’s right. He thinks it’s ok that you can’t play Metal Gear Solid, because you can play MGS3 instead. While MGS3 may well be a much better game then MGS2, I’m sure it’s little comfort to those who were looking forward to catching up with the PlayStation back catalogue once the PS3 came out. Not to mention the people who already own the games and want to upgrade their PS2s.
There is also the rather strange comment about not expecting significant increases to the list, which contrasts comments made to the BBC.

I will be quite annoyed if there aren’t significant improvements and additions made to the list. Sony have had a pretty bad time with the PS3 of late and allowing people to play more of their old games on it would be a very positive step for the beleaguered company.

Anyway, we will see how this whole situations turns out on Friday when the system actually launches in Europe. Lets just hope that like theatrical farces, this one has a happy ending for all involved.

[Via Kotaku]

PS. Kudos to anyone who can tell me the reason that that particular screen capture of the Cat from Red Dwarf is relevent to backwards compatibility.

Xbox 360 – Back In Black!

The rumours about the mythical black Xbox 360 (well, not that mythical, the system dev kits feature a black paint job) have been flying around for months now and they sort of came to a head yesterday.

Now all round tech site Engadget have managed to get confirmation of the rumours from ‘trusted sources’. Since they aren’t naming names here, it’s worth taking with a pinch of salt, but Microsoft have been suspiciously silent over the whole issue.

According to Engadget, the black Xbox has been dubbed the Xbox 360 Elite and will be coming out this year. It should run at a lower temperature then current models and have a 120GB hard-disk (which will also be available separately) and HDMI output. What it won’t have is integrated wifi or HD-DVD drive.
Pricing for the US sets it at $479, as compared to the $400 Premium system.

That’s a hell of a lot to pay for a slightly better quality system that’s been painted black and had an HDMI input stuck on, but the good news is that in the near future a white version of the Elite will replace the Premium package. That’s not much consolation for early adopters, but there is always the option to trade in your old system for an upgrade.

No news about a European launch yet, but it may well be coupled with a full video marketplace rollout for the EU. You know, so we actually have enough stuff to put on a 120GB hard-disk.

PS. What a great excuse to use a legendary piece of album artwork *grin*