Jon April

Why No Pokelove?

I was just about to go to sleep when a question came in to my head:
Why has there not been a fully 3D Pokemon to come out for either the Gamecube or the Wii?
I sat in my bed thinking about this for about 20 minutes until I realized that there is no good reason why there isn’t already one.

Pokemon has been around forever. Although the popularity has died down considerably from what it used to be, I can’t think of a better way to get people to come back to it. Now I’ll admit, I did have a lot of fun playing those games for a while and if a fully 3D one came out, I would definitely considering picking it up.

I just think that although the Wii achieved a ridiculous amount of success this past year, it has still gotten a lot of flak from the more hardcore gamers who feel that there are not enough “quality” games out for the summer. I think that a Pokemon game could definitely help get some of the more hardcore gamers on their side.

2008 Better Than 2007?

So, another year has gone by and yet another holiday season full of awesome games has passed us by. Usually right about now I’m still playing all of the games that I bought over the past two months and I think to myself, there’s no way that next year can be any better than this one. This holiday was no different from the others in that aspect except for the fact that I actually think that it’s true.

How can next year possibly be any better than this past year? With AAA titles like Halo 3, Bioshock, Super Mario Galaxy, Call of Duty 4, The Orange Box, Rock Band, Mass Effect, yadda yadda yadda. The list goes on and on. Hopefully I’m wrong in that next year will be better than this one and the continuing trend of games becoming more sophisticated and more polished continues as more and more people pick up video games every year.

Developers will definitely have their work cut out for them this year. Hopefully they’ve got something up their sleeves.

The Hobbit Coming to Theaters In 2010

According to bussinessweek.com, MGM and New Line Cinema have agreed to make two prequels to the Lord of the Rings movies. The first of the two is set to be released around Christmas of 2010.

Apparently after a nasty settlement dispute, Peter Jackson has signed on to work on both films and was the one who decided to turn the story into two movies.

Who’s going to play who and whether or not the films will live up to the expectations held by most after the Lord of the Rings trilogy is something we will have to wait for.

Why Should Anyone Care About Duke Nukem?

So, 3D Realms has finally come out with a teaser trailer for Duke Nukem Forever. The only question that I have is, why should I care?

On 3D Realms’ forums George Broussard posted a day before the trailer came up that the trailer would be up around noon CST and continued to thank everyone that worked on the trailer for their hard work. I just think it’s a little ridiculous that he felt the need to tell everyone that it was coming out like it was some huge announcement that everyone was waiting for.

I watched the trailer, and it was absolutely nothing special. It just showed Duke Nukem doing the same stuff that he always does. Maybe if it showed a new villain or at least something that would make it look any different from the past Duke Nukems, I would somewhat care.

You would think that after working on the game for over a decade they could come up with something a little more interesting. I actually think that I was more excited for the game before seeing this trailer. And now that the teaser is out, how long do you think it’s going to be for some actual game play footage?

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PS2 Rock Band Getting the Shaft

Rock Band has not yet been released for the Playstation 2 although recent reports have found out that when it does, it will be a much watered down version of the game.

Obviously, the game is not going to support any online play as well as downloadable content, unlike the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions. Some things that were a little less expected are the fact that the World Tour mode is going to much different in the sense that it is very linear as well as the fact that you will not be able to customize characters or gain cash and fans.

Personally I feel like these features are the some of the main differences that caused the game to stand apart from Guitar Hero. Without them, I don’t really feel like the game is worth purchasing.

Hopefully Harmonix and MTV will at least be able to release expansion patches for PS2 owners so that they can get new songs because I’ve already played through them all on my 360 version and if I knew that there were no more songs, I would be pretty pissed.

360 Family Timer and Downloadable Games

This December, Microsoft is set to release a new update for the Xbox 360 over Xbox Live.

One of the things included in this update will be a timer for the Xbox. With this timer, the person in charge of the Xbox will be able to set a certain number of hours that the Xbox can be used on a daily or weekly basis. Personally, I think this is a great idea as we may have finally found a way to limit all of those bad-mouthed kids that find their way on to Xbox Live while I’m playing Halo 3. Also, I may end up with some better grades.

Additionally, Xbox 360 owners will be able to fully download original Xbox games over Live in a similar fashion to the Virtual Console on both the Wii and the Playstation 3 for $15 each. Hopefully with this, they will release some of the previously Japanese-only games as they are doing with some of the other consoles. Some of the first games that will be available are Halo, Fable, Crimson Skies, and Burnout 3.