Interludicrous

Aston Martin One-77 by ~SwordFish95 on deviantART

If you haven’t tried the 1 vs 100 Beta on Xbox Live, you should take care of that next week.  It’s a game show where you either play as the audience, the mob, or the one.  In the audience, you play along with the mob and the one, but are not eligible to win prizes.  Playing in the audience gives you a chance to play in the mob, where you compete against the one, hoping he or she will fail to answer a question correctly before you do.  The one is a contestant with the chance to win his earnings in Microsoft Points. If the one loses, the mob splits the winnings.  As more mob members are eliminated, the one can choose to walk away with the money at certain stages of the game. The basic gameplay consists of answering trivia questions with a choice of 3 possible answers.  Up to 4 players can play on a single Xbox 360 console.  While you can’t win any prizes in the beta, the game officially launches free for all Gold members on 12/31/09.

So I finally got around to upgrading my handheld gaming collection.  I was an early adopter of the Nintendo DS system, and loved the innovative touch screen.  I was hesitant to get the DS Lite because it didn’t have any new features, just a slimmer design.  I had a feeling that Nintendo would release a third DS, and my patience paid off.  The new DSi is a bit slimmer than the DS Lite, sacrificing the GBA card slot.  The two cameras are pretty decent too.  I celebrated its inauguration into my collection with Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, which is an impressive game for the DS.  It’s a top-down GTA game set in GTA IV’s Liberty city.  

The DSi also marks the launch of DSiWare, which allows users to download games from Nintendo over a wi-fi internet connection, for points.  I was given a free 1000 points with the purchase and registration of my DSi system.  Any games from the Art Style series are good buys.  I also bought Paper Airplane Chase, a minigame from WarioWare that even has a versus mode.  The Wii-like channel system has been ported over to the DS for easy shortcut management.  Now a press of the power button allows you to exit your game and return to the DSi menu.  Holding down the power button for an extended amount of time shuts the system down.  There is also a free downloadable internet browser, but since memory is limited, it is best used for websites designed for mobile devices.

The first day of E3 2009 has offically ended, and gamers across continents are giddy with every new release coming this holiday season.  I was impressed with BioWare and LucasArts’ cinematic trailer for the PC MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic and The Beatles: Rock Band trailer.  It reminded me of one of those fantastical Coca-Cola commercials.  Trippy.