Thursday, May 30, 2002

Huge "Dear Dave" Update --
The letters have been piling up, but that's not because I don't love ya. Here's a super special midnight update to "Dear Dave" that'll have you peeing in your pants with glee. Alright, that might be an exaggeration, but please pee your pants anyway to make me feel better. Thanks.

Lovely E3 Booth Babes --
I haven't posted any new pictures of the E3 2002 Both Babes, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't check them out again. These girls are hot and they're dying for your attention. Oh, by the way, I have nudes of one of these hotties and will be sharing a few of them in the very near future. Don't ya love me? Just a little? Don't worry, it doesn't mean you're gay if you do.

New DVDs --
This past Tuesday I added three new movies to my ever-growing DVD collection. Once again, the three movies were ones that I hadn't seen before buying them -- Slackers, Vanilla Sky and Harry Potter: The Sorcerer's Stone. But Slackers has James King (girl) in it and that red head from That '70s Show, I loved Open Your Eyes, which is the film that Vanilla Sky is based on (both have Penelope nude), and I'm a geek, so I had to get Harry Potter. The collection is now at 135 and counting.

Monday, May 27, 2002

Her beauty makes any movie she's in a "must see".

Absolutely Kate --
After watching Pearl Harbor for the first time, I simply fell in love with this week's Babe of the Week -- Kate Beckinsale. Kate is a lovely British beauty that simply stole every scene that she was a part of in Pearl Harbor and subsequently stole my heart. I will from now on and forever buy every single DVD that she is in -- at least until she gets old and ugly.  

Don't forget about... --
In case you missed it yesterday or are too lazy to scroll down another inch, I posted a plethora, if you will, of booth babe pictures that I took while at the Electronic Entertainment Expo last week in Los Angeles. My only regret is that I wasn't able to take photos of the lovely ladies that I got to mingle with at The Standard on Friday night after a Sony after-party had ended. Maybe next time...

Also, don't forget that we have a special Message Board that you guys can use. It can be pretty dead in there at times, so don't be shy. Here's a chance for you to speak your mind and stuff.

Sunday, May 26, 2002

The Booth Babes! --
This is the E3 coverage from me that you've all been waiting for. In the Photo Gallery you'll find some of the photos I took from the Electronic Entertainment Expo of the lovely booth babes. As you'll be able to see, there were a couple that I couldn't get enough of... 

Oh, and for those of you that are IGNinsiders, you can check out the booth babe coverage for IGN.com that I did with Christopher Carle. 

Sony PlayStation 2 --
Sony had yet another strong show with what was probably the most impressive line-up from top to bottom. The PlayStation 2's strength has always been the fact that it has such a large line-up of software that crosses all genres and this was something you could clearly see with what was being shown on the E3 show floor. 

Ratchet & Clank
R&C was one of the many action-platformers that were all over the place at the show. Its big hook is the fact that it brings to the table some shooter elements that you won't find in the majority of its competition. Mario has that water gun, Sly has stealth, Blinx has the saving to the hard drive and time travel thing going for it and R&C relies on the use and acquisition of a wide array of high-tech gadgets and weaponry.   

The demo was pretty short, but it did give you a quick look at the game's beautiful graphics that are on par with anything else that I saw at the expo. It also allowed you a nice taste of some of the gameplay elements that you'll be able to expect from the game, which includes the use of various gadgets and weapons that you'll collect and buy throughout the contest. 

I'm not quite ready to say where it stands next to the likes of Jak & Daxter or even Mario 64, but it does appear that Insomniac has yet another potential hit on its hands.

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus
One of the things that intrigues me the most about Sly Cooper is the fact that it's developed by the Seattle-based Sucker Punch that was responsible for the amazingly fun-to-play and much-overlooked Rocket: Robot on Wheels for the Nintendo 64. 

The two biggest things that Sly Cooper has going for it are its great characters, which have been vibrantly animated with a lovely cel-shaded style, and its addition of stealth gameplay elements to the standard action-platform formula. 

Much of the game feels and looks like Naughty Dog's Jak and Daxter, but it manages to make its own mark thanks to the elements of stealth that have been injected to the game that makes it sort of a Metal Gear Solid meets Mario.

I didn't play enough of the game to really get a good feel for how well the stealth elements have been implemented, but I'm definitely going to give it a shot based solely on the reputation of its developer. 

Red Dead Revolver
This was probably one of the biggest surprises for me at the show because I hadn't heard of Red Dead Revolver before entering the expo. In fact, I probably wouldn't even have noticed it if it weren't for the fact that several people told me that it was a title that I shouldn't miss. 

RDR is a third-person perspective shooter with a heavy cowboy/western theme, which is probably what got me hooked. For whatever reason, there just haven't been enough cowboy videogames, so this is a game that I'm prepared to welcome with open and anxious arms. 

Once I got the hang of the controls -- it was something like L1 to pull your gun, L2 to shoot, the left stick to control your movement, and the right stick to control your aim -- it proved to be a blast to play. There was just so much going on and the western theme made it all doubly fun.  

Lord of the Rings
I've decided to mention this game mainly because it impressed me a whole lot from a technical standpoint. There's just so much going on in the backgrounds of this game and the quality of the textures that you'll see in the game are quite astonishing to say the least. 

What's more is the fact that you get all of this texture detail, amazing background and special effects and numerous onscreen inhabitants with no real hit to the framerate. Very impressive. It's a straightforward action game, but it seems to have a lot going for it both graphically and in terms of enemies, weapons and the like. 

Everything Else
These four titles weren't necessarily the best that the PS2 had to offer. I only chose to write these up because they were the ones that not only impressed me, but were fairly new to me. I've already played a lot of or seen a lot of other big titles like Final Fantasy XI, Star Ocean 3, The Mark of Kri, Kingdom Hearts, and countless other titles. Sony and the PlayStation 2 definitely held its own amidst tough competition from Microsoft and Nintendo. 

Saturday, May 25, 2002

Back From E3 --
It was my first E3 in six years that I didn't have to work myself to death and I probably played less games than ever before. It's not that there was a lack of software, though, because it's my belief that this was one of the best shows ever as far as quantity of quality software is concerned. 

I'll let the fan boys argue about which console "won" the show, because I didn't personally see a clear cut winner. ALL of the big three (PS2, Xbox, and GameCube) had a very solid software lineup on the show floor. 

The PS2 even managed to impress me a whole lot from a technological standpoint because it's still hanging in there with the new kids on the block as games like Sly Cooper and Ratchet & Clank looked as good as anything on the 'Box or 'Cube. It was simply a great show for gamers -- that is unless you consider having a large variety of purchase-worthy games on the horizon to be a bad thing. 

In the brief blocks of text that follow, I'll try to give some very basic impressions of the games that impressed me the most for each of the three major consoles (okay, two -- I'll do PS2 tomorrow).

Nintendo GameCube --
As expected, Nintendo's booth was crowded throughout the entire 3-day event making it somewhat of a pain to get to play the more popular games at its booth. It also didn't help that the big "N" usually designs its booth in a way that makes the problem even worse as there's usually a ton of empty space in the center of the booth, while games like Mario and Metroid are stuffed in some corner where having two people in line makes for a huge crowd. 

Mario Sunshine & The Legend of Zelda
I went in expecting to be impressed by both Mario and Zelda and left impressed I was (a little too much Yoda here...). The new look for Zelda stirred up a lot of controversy when it was first shown, but I really think that if you give it a chance you'll be very pleased with the new look. Nintendo has done an amazing job with the cel-shading and animation and the end result is a game that really looks like an animated cartoon. They've probably pulled off this look better than anyone else and cel-shading was a huge thing at the show. 

From a gameplay standpoint, it's what you'd expect from a Zelda game. I didn't spend enough time with it to find out if there's anything new or revolutionary being done here, but it'll be damn good even if there isn't. My only complaint was that they were using an effect during combat where the game would freeze for a second on your final blow to an enemy. I might get used to it or it might annoy the hell out of me -- not really all that sure at this point. It seemed like slowdown when I first saw it, but later found out that it was just an effect. Regardless, this is going to be a triple-A title and another must-have game from Nintendo. 

Mario Sunshine was equally impressive in my book. I sadly never got to go hands-on with this one, but did spend about an hour total watching people play it (both times I tried to play it I got stuck behind some freak that would play it and not ever stop -- I gave up at about 30 minutes each time). 

What really impressed me the most about Mario was the fact that there seemed to be so much to do. Considering that the people playing the game weren't all that good at it, I was surprised to see that the water pack was being used in a lot of creative ways to enhance the gameplay. Leave it to Miyamoto to keep finding new ways to do new things in the platform genre. 

Metroid Prime
I went into the show ready to bash the hell out of Metroid Prime. Super Metroid on the SNES is one of my top 5 favorite games of ALL time and I didn't think that "whitey" (a.k.a. Retro Studios) would be able to do a good job with the franchise, especially considering the fact that the game was set to be a first-person shooter. 

I'm not ready to say that I was completely wrong just yet, but my anticipation for this game has changed from "not at all interested" to "one of my most wanted games of the year". First of all, the game doesn't have the feel of a first-person shooter, but rather a first-person adventure game. It also has captured a lot of the basic feel of Metroid and Super Metroid but from a first-person viewpoint instead of a side-scrolling 2D one. 

While playing the game and watching others play it, I would often get a sort of deja vu feeling because there were so many classic Metroid parts in it. It just felt damn good. The only thing I didn't like about the game was the fact that you seemed to have all of your powers from the beginning. One of the things that made Super Metroid so damn good was the premise of gaining new weapons and abilities that helped open up the world even more (which is something also done extremely well in games like Castlevania Symphony of the Night and all the Zelda games). In the E3 demo, you seemed to have all your powers from the onset. 

I'm hoping that this was just a case of Nintendo giving you all the powers for the E3 demo so you wouldn't have to find them, which makes perfect sense. Both Matt and Fran believe this to be true, so I'm hoping that it is.  

It is also worth noting that this game is amazing to look at and is one of the most visually impressive console first-person games around. There are just so many amazing special effects and nice visual touches throughout the game that will likely leave you drooling and dumbfounded. 

I never thought that it would be possible for Retro Studios to make a great Metroid first-person perspective Metroid game even with the help of Miyamoto. They're proving me wrong so far. If they are able to pull this off -- and it looks like they just might -- I'll have to stop doubting "whitey" (well, except for when it comes to making a good fighting game). 

Everything Else
I didn't spend much time playing or watching anything else because nothing really pulled me in. The Star Fox game looks beautiful; Eternal Darkness is still cool because I have a t-shirt for it (the only videogame t-shirt that I've EVER gotten in a size big enough for me to wear); Mario Party 4 is, well, Mario Party 4; F-Zero was only on video and look butt-ass-ugly (it did, however, have more cars on the track than I've ever seen before in a racing game...); and Wario World appeared to be a faithful recreation of the old Game Boy games...not really my cup of tea. 

With this showing the 'Cube has cemented itself as a must-buy system for me. I doubt I'll pick one up immediately, though, because I just don't have the cash because I spent way too much on alcohol and cab rides in the past week. But you better believe that I'll have one by the time Mario, Zelda or Metroid first come out.

Microsoft Xbox --
The thing that stood out the most about the Xbox is that when it comes to games being done for all three consoles, the Xbox version is almost always the best looking of the three. There might be some exclusive GameCube or PS2 titles that look as good or better than most Xbox games, but it seems that if a company is making a game for all three platforms, the Xbox version will be the one to get.

Blinx
Mascot platformers seemed to be in full effect at this show, as these types of games, cel-shaded games and mech/giant robot games all seemed to be all over the place and in huge numbers. While this might seem like a bad thing, you shouldn't get your panties in a twist just yet because each of the big mascot games that were on display at least had something special in its bag of tricks that should help keep them all feeling a little different. 

In the case of Blinx, it's one of the first games that will truly make use of that hard drive in the Xbox in a way to enhance the gaming experience beyond just using your own music or saving games at lightning speeds. 

As you play the game, everything you've done is recorded onto the hard drive, so that you'll be able to make full use of Blinx's time control abilities that are unlocked by collecting crystals that have a color that's related to a specific time-control command (fast forward, rewind, record and pause, I believe). Much of the gameplay is designed around figuring out which time control command you'll need to use to get past each of the varied obstacles that you'll come across. 

I never got to go hands-on with this game, so I can't say just yet how well it plays. But the guys at IGN Xbox seem to like it a whole lot. The only bad thing I heard about it was from Brandon Justice, who only said that I'll know what's wrong within a minute of picking up the controller. Since I never did that, I don't know what his complaint is. 

Panzer Dragoon Orta
My favorite Xbox game at the show was Sega's Panzer Dragoon Orta. If you've played any of the Panzer Dragoon shooters on the Sega Saturn, you should know what to expect here because Orta seems like pretty much the same game. If you've never played the Panzer Dragoon shooters on Saturn, you should be ashamed for having missed such a wonderful series and should feel awful about the fact that you helped kill the Saturn. YOU BASTARD!

If you need some details about how the game plays, you ought to just go read about the Saturn versions of Panzer Dragoon and Panzer Dragoon Zwei on my old Sega-Saturn site. Based on the two-level demo that was at the show, the gameplay seems pretty much exactly the same as the Saturn games with some new things thrown in to enhance the gameplay a bit further. 

It's one of the most beautiful games you'll see on the system that's home to a shit load of visually stunning games and the gameplay is beyond addictive. Since it's so damn freaking loud at E3, I wasn't really able to get a good feel for the music, but if the musical score is anything at all like it was like for the Saturn titles, be prepared for some of the most amazing music you'll hear in a videogame released this year. I'll definitely pick this baby up the second it hits store shelves (unless I can get it for cheap from Sega...).

Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance
Even though the masses seemed to think that MGS2 wasn't all that it was cracked up to be, I personally loved it to death. Sure, the first time through it was more cinema than game, but if that's all you played of it, then you've missed out on a lot of tremendous gameplay.

It's my belief that MGS2 is a game that gets better and better the more that you play it. Once you've beaten it once, you can easily ignore and skip through much of the convoluted and drawn out story line, which will allow you to notice all of the special intricacies of the game that makes it far to superior to almost everything else on the market. Those of you that think that MGS2 was all movie and no gameplay, should consider yourself a fucking moron because you've missed out on one of the most rewarding "games" of recent memory.

With Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance, we'll all get a better chance to experience the "game" as it's going to be the gameplay and not the storyline that's the focus here. Substance will have a ton of VR missions, plus awesome extras like the ability to play through the tanker and plant episodes with Raiden, Solid Snake and even the Ninja -- and it looks like you can have the sword available to you at all times. It'll be a must-have for Metal Gear fans and a game that I won't be able to pass up when it's released on Xbox in November 2002 (and later on PS2 and PC...).

Everything Else
The Xbox also had a bunch of other exclusive and non-exclusive games that will be worth checking out. The Tecmo beach volleyball game featuring the chicks from DOA3 is a definite interest for me, plus there were a handful of other games were at the Microsoft booth that I'm really going to keep an eye one -- at least when I remember when they were called. And you can't forget what I said earlier -- if it's on all three systems, it's probably going to look best on Xbox. 

I'll have some PS2 impressions and booth babe photos for you tomorrow. Good night.

Monday, May 20, 2002

Home At Last!!! --
...but not for long. Since leaving to work at 8 AM Monday morning on May 13th, I haven't been home once. Just five hours short of a full seven days spent completely at the office. 

During this past week, I got a grand total of 10 hours of sleep, took a three hour break to watch Episode II Attack of the Clones, and spent approximately 148 hours working on NFL 2K3. If the game turns out as good as it should, it'll all be more than worth it. I often put in similar hours at IGN and we never really got anything out of it except for email bitching about wanting more. 

The only reason I'm home right now (3:30 AM Pacific) is the fact that I ran out of clothes. I actually ran out yesterday, but decided to work in stinky clothes all Sunday. I just can't do that anymore or else I'll begin to make everyone sick with the rotten stench created by my dirty crotch.

Anyway, there will not be an update to Dear Dave this week and there won't be a Babe of the Week for this week. I just don't have the time. I'll try to make up for it next week as I hope to have a shit load of booth babe photos from this week's Electronic Entertainment Expo. I'll actually be able to enjoy the show this year since I will NOT be working and should have plenty of time to hit on the hot ladies who are paid to put up with me. 

Monday, May 13, 2002

Sweet, sweet Virginie.

Reason to not hate the French --
This week's Babe of the Week is the hot French actress that made The Beach worth watching. She's adorably cute and one of the most beautiful actresses you'll likely ever see on the big screen. A must-have addition of your Spank Bank™.

Monday, May 6, 2002

Darth Vader gets to bang the hell out of this hottie.

Beautiful woman --
I remember back in the old days when jerking off to Natalie Portman was something to be ashamed about. Not anymore. 

The brilliant young actress is now well beyond just being legal and thanks to her starring roles in both Episode I: The Jar Jar Menace and Episode II: The Attack of the Clones, she's now a household name to more than just us perverts. 

Grab a seat and some Kleenex and check out Ms. Natalie Portman as the newest recipient of the honor of being named Dave's Babe of the Week!

Two more DVDs --
I can't go a paycheck without buying some new DVDs it seems. The latest movies to get a spot on my shelf are Thirteen Ghosts and Not Another Teen Movie. One is pretty damn scary and the other is a bit on the funny side. I can't remember which is which. Anyway, both can be found on my growing list of DVDs. 

Sunday, May 5, 2002

Cinco de Mayo! --
It's May the 5th! May the 5th! May the 5th! Too bad I still have to work, so it doesn't really matter. It doesn't matta! It doesn't matta!

Love letters and such --
It's a very late Sunday night update to the good old "Dear Dave" section. Do you feel lucky? Do you, punk?

Friday, May 3, 2002

Why do my damn feet hurt so much? --
I had been at the office three straight days with only three hours of sleep per night (morning, actually) and now my feet and ankles are sore as a mother fucker. You would think that after being on my ass staring at a computer monitor for 63 of the last 72 hours with the other 12 lying down that my feet would feel good. 

Instead, my feet hurt like crazy and my ankles have swollen to about double their normal super-fat size. I guess I should be worried since I'm a diabetic, but since I'm finally home and finally have a bed to sleep in, I'm just going to go to sleep and hope things are better when I wake up. 

Happy b-day to you! --
Hey everyone. It's May 3, 2002, which means that my boy JP is now 14 years old. Happy birthday, JP! I'm going to celebrate by going to sleep! Good night!

Wednesday, May 1, 2002

Don't forget about the boards! --
I went ahead and paid the $50 for the six months Gold membership with EZ Board so that our Message Boards would be completely pop-up and ad free, so you all better start using it some more! Go! Now! Post on the Message Boards right now! FYI, I'll be at work until at least Thursday night, so don't expect any serious updates until Friday.

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