The XP install blew up in my face. I already had a hard time with it. Chances are the disk is screwed up. As for Vista, it’s just being an ass. My guess is that it’s the “Update” option that’s screwing things up. It’s always good when your product is kinda a bit somewhat compatible with what it’s suppose to work with.
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I’m dangerous. I live life on the edge. I’m lying. But if ever was an extreme sport with computers, this is it. I’m doing an XP pro install in Parallels while installing Vista Home Premium on an HP laptop. That’s while as in at the same time. I know. Woah! And as expected, both are acting all Windowsy. The XP install gave me some error, saying it couldn’t repair said error or something and then went on it’s merry way and Vista has be “Checking compatibility” for the last 15 mins. . Fun, Fun!
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I’ve been having fun with Clubhouse Games. But a new game isn’t all about fun. I’m nearly done reviewing it. I’ll hopefully have it up by tomorrow.
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Nice find, Parallels! Not that I ever was going to jump on Vista early but this is just another reason to sit back and wait.
Here’s the tecnical legalese from the EULAs:
For Vista Home Basic and Home Premium Editions:
“USE WITH VIRTUALIZATION TECHNOLOGIES. You may not use the software installed on the licensed device within a virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system.”For Vista Enterprise and Ultimate Editions:
“USE WITH VIRTUALIZATION TECHNOLOGIES. You may use the software installed on the licensed device within a virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system on the licensed device. If you do so, you may not play or access content or use applications protected by any Microsoft digital, information or enterprise rights management technology or other Microsoft rights management services or use BitLocker. We advise against playing or accessing content or using applications protected by other digital, information or enterprise rights management technology or other rights management services or using full volume disk drive encryption.”In short, this means that if you’re a user and you want to run Vista virtually, you MUST buy the highest end versions of Vista, or you’ll be in violation of the Microsoft EULA.
The Official Parallels Virtualization Blog: Vista is here. So what does it mean for virtualization?
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As you might know Mac OS X Tiger Windows Vista launches January 30th. … Yeah, just so ya know…
Bill Gates’ on The Daily Show tonight, by the way… ok, right now. Go…
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Apple has all new British-ed “I’m a Mac” ads and I have to say, John Hodgman (PC) has some stiff competition. Some ads are remakes while “Office at Home” and “Tentacle” are all new. “Pie Chart” got so British-ed, I couldn’t stop laughing. Oh, the words they used!
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While I got my replacement stylus(-es or is it styli?), I also got Clubhouse Games for the DS. 42 games, most with Wi-Fi? I couldn’t I pass that up! I’ve been playing with it a bit and it’s pretty cool. Nintendo’s going to get bonus happy points* on my review for making the game playable in French. Good job, Nintendo!
*Bonus happy points cannot be exchanged for cash and only have emotional value
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With all the versions of Vista (even one signed by Bill Gates… Yeah, I know!), there’s only one simple choice.
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You break the stylus! Yes, you heard me. I broke my stylus spinning in Elite Beat Agents. Was trying to pass the final spinner in “I Was Born to Love You” in Sweatin‘ while trying to go against my ghost replay. So not only I broke my stylus, I lost to myself. And I can’t seem to find my backup stylus. Do you know how hard it’ll probably be to find a DS stylus in a DS lite world? May as well start saving for a DS lite: My DS is discoloured in many spots, the sticker on the back is starting to peel and the touch screen probably endured enough already.
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From baby-sitters split between kids and the boyfriend to anti-music aliens, Elite Beat Agents has it all. But does give it’s all? And is it worth your cash? You will soon know. You’ll know sooner if you’re lazy and skip to the final verdict.
Elite Beat Agents is a rhythm game for the Nintendo DS. You are the aforementioned agents and whenever someone is in a tricky situation, you come in and dance people into a good situation. Yeah, don’t ask. You play by tapping numbered and coloured dots on the lower screen when the halo around them shrink in and come in contact with the dot. You also have to deal with a rolling ball that you need to follow on the screen and a wheel you spin quickly. But these elements don’t appear for no reason (except the wheel). They are synchronized to music and, in most cases, rather well. You need to make sure that you tap and drag with the beat and not just as quickly as possible. The wheel can be annoying, especially when arising in the middle of a stage (They’re normally found at the very end). They might kill your rhythm or make you forget that there’s dots coming up. A larger problem is how you don’t loose. A bar at the top of the bottom screen empties as you play and only fills back up when you get points. The more synced with the music you play, the more you get. The problem is that the bar never refills during a game so if you aren’t good at one point in a song, you diminish your chances of winning. If you loose, you always start from the top. Even if the game eases you in with it’s difficulty levels, you will find yourself repeating certain levels, especially the final ones. The replay feature can help know what you’re doing wrong or show off your best rounds. You can view a full replay right after playing or view a shorter replay after you loose. You can also save and send to others winning replays for later but this is limited to one per song (not per song per difficulty).
Before starting a stage, you are presented with a story in a comic book style about a certain person in need of help. Most the stories are loony but fun to watch. While you play on the touch screen, your performance affects the events presented on the top screen, not that you’ll have time to see them when playing, except during the game’s cut scenes. The 2D graphics look great and the 3D world map and dancing agents in the background are nice touches. The music selection is everywhere, from Madonna to Queen and Hoobastank but fits in well with the stories.
I didn’t have the chance to do some multiplayer but it seems you can play co-op with other EBA owners and Vs with anyone. You can also play Vs against your own saved games. I tried (and lost. Man, I’m good! 
) and it plays according to a new story line, not to mention with smaller elements at times.
Final Verdict
Elite Beat Agents’ gameplay works well and shows yet another game that couldn’t be done except on the DS. Even with only 19 songs (3 of them unlockable), there’s a lot of fun in the game. The game gets hard at times and the rhythmless should run away from it, but it’s also highly addicting. If you’re looking for a challenge or are a fan of rhythm games or even just looking for a good game, EBA is worth checking out. If you’re on the fence about it, download a demo from a friend who has it.
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The Elite Beat Agents review is nearly done. I want to find someone to play against to have an idea about the multiplayer. Until then, here’s some quick buying advice for the Wii games I have played.
Wii Sports : You probably get it anyway but regardless, it rocks and is THE party game.
The Legend of Zelda :Twilight Princess : My first Zelda game certainly not the last. It has a weird quality of having depth while being simple. An obvious must-have.
Excite Truck : (I’ll try to review this too) The controls aren’t perfect but the game is fun. If you want a simple, “Mario-Kart-minus-cartoon-graphics” driving game, this one’s good.
WarioWare : Smooth Moves : *Sigh* Yes, it’s a great game. The motion sensitive controls are fun. But there’s not much here. You have some multiplayer but with WWSS’s deranged gameplay, you’ll probably only be playing with other WW fans. Although the darts game caught on. I don’t see a point in renting it and it’s priced to high for buying. In my opinion, WarioWare’s gameplay only really works well on portables. It has the pick-up-and-play gameplay that, I think, didn’t translate well onto the Wii.
Red Steel : Can’t say much about it. Sorry!
Because I knew I would buy it anyways, I downloaded Zelda : A Link to The Past. I played a bit and it’s fun but I enjoy TP more. When you go 3D, it’s hard to go back sometimes.
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If ever a game needed a sequel, it’s EBA. If it’s developers are ready and Nintendo willing, this can become a classic rhythm game in the ranks of Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero. Heck, I’d buy a Wii version where you actually have to dance, and I’m no dancer. But what I want to talk about is a sequel for the DS, what I want to see.
(Spolier Alert for EBA) I arrived at my ultimate goal : finish the game with Agent Chieftain. I decided not to wait to win $20 million to do my Lotto 6/49 happy dance (Only canadians will get that reference) and went nuts. But now I’m faced with a new challenged… not to mention agents much less harsh on the eyes. But don’t be fooled, thoes Divas don’t make anything easy. I played Walkie Talkie Man with them and wow… talk about harder. Smaller triggers and faster rings. It was all going so fast, it was too late when I realise that some triggers weren’t triggers but slides. This should be interesting… and a pain in the rear.
Like a junkie getting withdraws, I was looking for a Elite Beat Agents fix. I was thinking of getting FFIII to fill the DS void that came when I returned my defective copy of EBA but the game is literally impossible to find. Now, I miss the great gameplay of EBA and I only have some of my older games for the DS to play with. I deiced to get a pre-owned copy of EBA at a local EB Games. They didn’t have any but I said “I have enough credits. I’ll get it new (… again) “. Oh, EBA, how I missed you! Seems it was my copy and not my DS that was faulty because, other than the awful shutdowns, my old copy would do a clicking noise when put in sleep mode; this one doesn’t. I just cleared the game with Agent Spin and I intend to finally finish the game with Agent Chieftain (…again). Now that I have a copy again, I think I’m going to do that review I was talking about, too.
And now, your shadenfreude moment of the day : Seems PCs everywhere are getting a bit stuffed up.
Your 360 fails… again. You get ready to return it but you are told that you can’t get a free box to ship it in like last time but that MS will use your box to send stuff back to you. What do you do? You decide to send your 360 in a shipping container. Assuming this is legit, this guy’s great and if you got the red-light salute from your 360, you might want to invest in a bit of revenge on Microsoft.
As with every Super Bowl, it ain’t the game that’s the main attraction and since Nipple-gate, it ain’t half-time either. No, it’s the commercials and it seems Apple will be getting back in the ‘Bowl Ads ring again this year. Will this commercial go down in advertising history as did the legendary “1984″ announcing the Mac? Will it be a simple silhouette ad (and will I then need to drive to Cupertino and beat someone to death for being so dumb), an ad to hype up the iPhone (I would doubt, it’s always better to not over-announce an unreleased product and Apple already failed miserably with the iPhone.) or something thing more. The best bet would be an ad to announce Apple Inc.’s partnership with Apple Corps of The Beatles for the availability of their albums on iTunes (and the resulting freezing-over of hell although, with Apple, that’s a common occurrence in recent years). But some are going the extra mile and think that they may announce an iPod à la iPhone. I doubt it (That iPod would be the iPhone killer. Funny, eh?) but only time will tell…
Or maybe it will be “1984″ 2.0 : an ad announcing a new Mac… or even Leopard coming out!
I just watched today’s the show with zefrank. And he was talking about how he played with himself… with his Wii… Yeah, there’s hidden expressions in there and you know what they are. It’s pretty funny so check it out. He does a great Wii Sports voice, too.
I felt a bit guilty when I returned and traded in my copy of Elite Beat Agents. It was a great game but I always got sweaty and scared at the thought of replaying it (Damn shutdown bug). All those levels… again… But I had the reassuring thought in my mind that I would be enjoying a copy of Final Fantasy III soon enough. Well that backfired. Now when I needed a portable fix, I resorted to my old copy of Meteoes but now… I miss that good old tapping madness. Sure, I have Jumpin’ Jack Flash on my iPod (You’d think I’d want to kill the Stones for making that song for all the times I had to re-listen to it.) but you can’t tap to the beat. Ok, you can but doing it with your feet just isn’t the same. I know I’ll probably feel like an idiot for doing this but I think I might just get it again pre-owned. I miss the agents… for some weird reason. I guess the game’s so good, it can make you cry, beat you senselessly, attempt to strangle you and you still want to play some more… for some weird reason.
I beat WarioWare : Smooth Moves! I got WWSS today and beat it in a couple of hours. There’s more to discover after the final stage (who’s boss battle will probably go down in history as the most of a fool you’ll ever look playing Wii.) but I need a break. I also need more players to try out the multiplayer mode. And by the way, my Best Buy has a crapload of copies of WoW: The Burning Crusade (not to mention a lot of WarioWare).
Seems I announced the “winner” of my next game purchase a bit early. I’m still getting WarioWare for the Wii but ever since I played the The Movies demo for Mac, I’m interested in picking it up. Go ahead and support Mac developers but I don’t feel like waiting for a game until it arrives in the mail or for my next trip to the Apple Store, something I do rarely. Plus the PC version is going for about 1/2 the price of the new Mac version and it’ll probably just as good (hopefully better – I had some graphical glitches with the demo.) Although, the extra Mac features that include such things like integration with iLife apps is a real nice touch. And by the way Final Fantasy III, if you show up soon, you might – might – have a chance still.
I like Flock a lot, mostly for it’s integrated blogging features but I’m starting to get pissed at it’s numerous shutdowns. Unfortunately, I’ll be saying bye for the time being to Flock for Firefox 2. Being able to support plug-is, I might be able to replicate my favourite features.
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Checked an EB, a Best Buy and a Real Canadian Superstore. Maybe I didn’t get the memo but since when did Square Enix stop production of FF III for the DS? Unless I can get it somewhere else this weekend or maybe next weekend, my EB Games credits will be going toward WarioWare for the Wii. I’ll love it and I’ll look like a nut playing it but hey, that’s the price you pay for having a Wii.
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I thought Cisco was looking for an agreement with Apple over the fact they hold the rights to “iPhone”. I guess they were looking for a fight. Unless they settle, Cisco will win and the iPhone will come out as another name.
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The iPhone undeniably looks sweet! But look at it. Does it look like another Apple product? An iPod maybe? That’s the thing : No, it doesn’t. Not at all. It doesn’t have the uniform white or stylish silver. It’s black with some silver and sleek silver edge around. It has the “Apple design” without looking like any Mac or iPod. I predicted that it was the year of product redesigns and you just got a teaser of it. Apple will be moving away of the white, hip look and going into a sleek, black phase now. If the iPhone is any indication of future designs, like I predict it is, we’ll be looking at some hot, black, sophisticated-looking Macs soon.
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As you might know, the up-coming iPhone will be as much as a Mac as it’s an iPod because it comes with OS X. Even when the Mac has yet to do a meaningful attack on Windows PCs, It now has the chance to live a new life as mobile OS leader. Just think, the iPhone is destined to be as successful as the iPod. Yes, it’s pricey and has little in capacity but just as Apple noted at the launch of the nano, the original Pod launched with only 1,000 songs in your pocket and look where it is now. iTunes made its format the one of choice for DRM music. Everyone from the Pope to the Queen has an iPod. And who knows, Apple might just opt to make OS X the base of the next iPod (You know : the one that’s exactly like an iPhone but without the phone part. Yeah, that iPod that everyone wants). But one question must come up when talking of OS X possible mobile market dominance : Will Apple go at it alone? Apple isn’t one to offer it’s services to others. You still can’t by a Dell “Mac”; why would Apple make it so you can buy a Palm “Mac”? Are they scared of not getting their money’s worth by just licensing the OS? I’m no Mac historian but it seems that’s what happened in the early 90’s. It’s probably that they just see that they can make a crapload of money by selling both the hardware with their software. And they know that it will sell like hotcakes. The iPhone right now is aiming for the top of the line of the phone market. Soon, you’ll have a model aiming for a more mainstream level, an iPhone Nano, if you will. You might even see PDAs or tablet Macs. What I’m saying is that, if the iPod wasn’t a long enough bridge to the Mac, Apple will build one the opposite way : One that brings the Mac to the portable electronics market. And that bridge starts with the iPhone.
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No, Sony didn’t win an Emmy for the SIXAXIS but they did win. Not only that, Nintendo won too but no, not for the Wiimote. Read more here.
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… So the iPhone came out… and Apple TV…
Where’s Leopard? iLife and iWork ‘07? No really, where are they? I was expecting them! Not hoping to see them. Not wishing they’ll come. EXPECTING THEM! This is Macworld, Apple. Come prepared.
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Yes, you survived the hype. You sucked up all the rumours. It’s just going to be a bit longer. It’s tomorrow. You will be able to rest your wondering mind and put your credit card to work. Just a bit longer…
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Sony can now add a new feature to the SIXAXIS : an Emmy Award. Yes the one and only Two-in-one Dual Shock plus Wiimote has won the Emmy for tech and engineering. The whole of the Internet is asking itself one question “Why in the world didn’t the Wiimote win?”
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Since the Macworld keynote is coming up – Oh yeah…
2 DAYS UNTIL APPLE KEYNOTE!!!
… Yeah, since it’s coming up, I decided to post my predictions / hopes for it. Some of the ideas, I heard of on the internet but they seemed so good that I’ve adopted them too.
).And one last thing : I hope to see movies on the iTS going international at the keynote. I wouldn’t mind TV shows either.
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Not as revealing as the shots from WWDC 06, showing a large panel with many of Leopard’s features on it, shots are online of the entrances of Macworld. One things pretty much confirmed, that message on apple.com wasn’t just a welcome to 2007. It was Apple’s Macworld slogan because it’s plastered everywhere at the entrance. Better get a bucket for Tuesday because you’ll need it to put the chunks of your mind that blew up all over the place.
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3 DAYS UNTIL APPLE KEYNOTE!!!
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Zellers (2x)
The Source (2x – second one didn’t carry DS games, though)
Wal-Mart
EB Games (through the telephone)
Toys-R-Us
Future Shop (through it’s website)
Best Buy (through it’s website)
I think it’s pretty safe to say that literally no one has Final Fantasy III for the DS around here. Even if I checked the local availability for Future Shop and Best Buy, their sites didn’t have any either. I don’t get it. It’s not like this just came out or it’s the day before Christmas. Elite Beat Agents came just a bit earlier in November than FFIII and everyone had loads of copies. Is it really that popular? I’ll try one more time next weekend at the two local EBs but it seems more likely that I’ll just go for WarioWare for the Wii.
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As you might have seen, I redesigned the alt’s homepage. I changed the “update” section to the podcast section where video and audio reviews (like my Wii Sports Review) and specials will be available. The Subscribe button seems to send you strait in iTunes, a nice touch on iWeb’s part. I also made the iBlog and Forum buttons larger and probably more easily accessible from a Wii.
This is just the first step. I’m also redesigning each page to match this new style and I’ll also reduce the number of pages from a page for each article type for each platform to a single page for each platform.
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I’m planing on doing another video review, this time for Excite Truck. I’m already typing down some thoughts about the game but I have yet to record anything. I’ll probably suck worst than I did with the Wii Sports review. Driving a car on a one-second-delay… can’t wait for that!
EB still doesn’t have Final Fantasy III for the DS. I’m hoping they get restocked for the weekend. If I can’t find it, I might just wait for WarioWare : Smooth Moves for the Wii and get it when it comes out. Not that I probably won’t like WW but I would really like to try out a Final Fantasy game (Yes, I never played one before).
Odd. I have played Zelda once in about the last two weeks. I really have to start again.
My gosh! I forgot about the countdown :
4 DAYS UNTIL APPLE KEYNOTE!!!
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This, I didn’t know. Wow! Apple could have been AOL! That is shocking!
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Last year, Apple showed on a support page a link for iWeb… before iWeb ever got announced. Although less monumental Amazon has already pages up for iLife and iWork 07. I guess this is either Amazon presuming the obvious or a confirmation that there won’t be major changes in the way Apple will sell the iLife and iWork apps.
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Wii Sports Review
It’s here! My video review of Wii Sports is online at the-alt.net and on YouTube. Check it out here :
Well because of the horrid problem with my copy of Elite Beat Agents (For some reason, when I hit my DS near the right speaker, EBA shuts down. I couldn’t repeat this with WarioWare Twisted! so it’s hopefully not a hardware problem) and the fact that problem caused me the final round on the 3rd difficulty level and I don’t feel like trying another 20+ times let alone redoing the full game with a new copy, I returned my copy to EB and traded it in with Red Steel (I played it once or twice). EBA is a great game and I recommend it if you have crazy good rhythm or are looking for a challenge but it’s can get aggravating at times, minus my shut down problems. I’m planning on getting Final Fantasy III… if someone would have it in stock!
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What’s worst that having Elite Beat Agents suddenly shut down more that once? Doing it before your score for the final stage on the 3rd level of difficulty got registered. I believe this is the correct time to say this : Shit.
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Seems Apple means business. Not just “Intel Mac ad burns” business. Real business. Like, “Blow your mind away” business. Like, “Mac? Whatever!” and “iPod who?” business. Because they are saying hello to 2007, their year number 31, with one hell of a message. They might might have made the personal computer. They might have redefined music as we know it. But that stuff means squat to what’s coming because :
“The first 30 years were just the beginning. Welcome to 2007.”
Geez, with hype like that, Macworld might just blow our minds.
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The Wii Sports Video review is done and I should be posting it tomorrow…
Should I slap someone at Nintendo because I downloaded “La La” by Ashely Simpson and actually liked it? How about for “Jumpin‘ Jack Flash”? I should be hating that song : I heard It about 50 times playing Elite Beat Agents. I don’t get it…
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Yay! New Year’s here! May it be full of iPods, Macs, DSs and Wiis… and health, happiness and stuff like that too.
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