‘m Back

Ah, the Holidays : A time to relax, to think of the past and future and to play some Guitar Hero. 

I did get to Medium in GH III. And by the way, the keyboard and mouse set up works well. While I’m talking about mice, I ditched my Mighty Mouse. It’s a nice mouse but even after I tried cleaning it, the scroll ball is not scrolling down : an obvious deal-breaker. I replaced it with a laptop (aka smaller) bluetooth mouse by, wouldn’t you know, Microsoft. If there is one kind of product I trust them entirely with, its mice and keyboards. It fits nicely in my hand and I have it set up that the side button activates the all window Exposé and clicking the scroll wheel (that is set up so that not so much guck should get stuck under it) will open links in new tabs in Safari.

Hurts So Good

Ohhhh… Man…. No one was nice enough to tell me that Guitar Hero III was also known as Carpal Tunnel Hell. I’m having difficulty typing this so much it did a number on my hands. But, as the title might lead you to suspect, yes it rocks. It’s hard to get at first (and I don’t think I’ll be playing in Medium any time soon) but is it ever addicting. My Elite-Beat-Agents-ism is coming back. It consists of being addicted to a music game that is insanely difficult but you just can’t stop playing. Now, sorry, but I have to go for my rehab treatment. Where is that Peggle demo I’ve been playing?

Duke, Who, Peg n’ Chuz

It’s a triple dose of “About time”s!First off – A teaser for Duke Nukem Forever will come out tomorrow. If you don’t know about this game, let’s just say it should be called Duke Nukem Takes Forever. According to Joystiq, it’s been in the works for over 10 years.Second – It’s official : After rumors and speculations, the truth is out. There is a Doctor Who game in the works for PC, PS2 and DS. As much as licence-based games usually suck, I’ll keep my eye on this one.Finally, third and fourth – both Peggle and Chuzzle, Popcap games I was addicted to and the latter I bought for PC, are now available on Mac. It has been a while since Chuzzle came out and Peggle for Mac has been announced for months. I’m glad that both are available and at 50% off as all Popcap games are now until January 3rd, I doubt I’ll resist getting at least one.

Snow Day

The white stuff won’t stop falling! It just keeps coming and coming! But there is some good news : my copy of Guitar Hero III shipped yesterday! (A Saturday? They work Saturdays?) I hope I can get it Monday.

Stop Playing With Mii

The English script is done for the review for the Check Mii Out channel. I’ll start capturing footage and editing this weekend but I can’t promise any date yet since I have other things to do during that time.

… And Guitar Hero III finally became “Prepared for shipment”, although I know by now not to get my hopes up.

Rock ‘n Play

The canadian TV page is slowly filling up (No Opportunity Wasted is the only show available) and I’m glad to see that Avatar will be available. I was about to pay 60$ for the first season. The selection isn’t stelar yet but There might be more shows than meets the eye. Most of the American content is from Comedy Central and is aired on TV here on The Comdey Network. They’re owned by CTV who has content in the store, including the great comedy Corner Gas. The CBC is also here (It’s French counterpart Radio-Canada absent as of yet.) with two reality shows, the Rick Mercer Report and its showcase comedy Little Mosque on the Prairie. A good start but only that : a start.

And I caved in and got Guitar Hero III for Mac from Apple.

…But The Media Gods are Smiling.

About. Dang. Time.CBC and CTV shows and some US shows. Starting tonight and launching officially tomorrow.TV has (finally) landed in iTunes Canada. 

The Rock Gods Hate Me

I’m convinced that my Mac can run Guitar Hero. That’s not the problem. It’s the fact that if I buy GH III from Apple Canada, the only way I can make sure I get a Mac-compatible version, Apple will overcharge me by 20$ compared to their own American price. That is ridiculous and unfair. And it plain sucks since I don’t know where else I can get the Mac/PC hybrid version online in Canada.

If Only…

As much as really want to support Mac gaming with Guitar Hero III, performance issues from the PC version, a wired guitar, missing community features and the fact my MacBook Pro may or may not just pass the minimum requirements (A Core 2 Duo minimum?!), I’m leaning heavily towards getting it for Wii. If only there was something to lean towards! No one has it. At all. Best Buy and Future Shop don’t have it online or in stores. It’s just ridiculous. They’re nearly as sparse as the Wii itself!

Time Error and Articles

I use a somewhat older drive for my Time Machine backups and for a while, it’s been not accessible or I’d get an error message stating that Leopard couldn’t perform a backup. I think I’m going to have to replace it.

I’ve been working on two articles lately : One about the iPod touch and another about TV online in Canada. I’ll have to re-read both and rewrite them in French and they’ll be good to go online.

New Site and French Blog up!

The new the-alt.net and the French Blog are up and running!

I’m Sold But GameSpot Has a High Mountain to Climb

I’m listening to The Hot Spot right now and I’m sold.  As they said, it was a perfect storm. The worst case scenario happened. They are far from being out of the Hell they are in but don’t think I’ll keep on feeling guilty if I post any of my upcoming video reviews on their site.

Yet, at the same time, there is that small issue, the little detail, that makes it impossible for me to have the same opinion of them as before : We still don’t know why Jeff got fired and chances are, we never will.

In The HotSpot

Apparently, CNet is not stopping it’s slow decent into Inferno. It seems that no matter what happened for Gerstmann to get fired, Gamespot is damned. I just read a post on Kotaku with info from an anonymous GameSpot employee. It seems that moral is low and if nothing is done on CNet’s part to clear things up, people will start resigning. It’s a real shame too. While I rarely read their reviews, mostly since I try to keep the least possible amount of others’ comments in my own reviews, their site has a nice collection of useful features such as forums for every game.

Like I said, until CNet stops talking like the emotionless corporation they are acting like right now, no one will trust what they say. Corporate speak never works online. I’ll be subscribing to GameSpot’s podcast The HotSpot to see if the upcoming tribute will change anything. Probably not… it’s from GS themselves and all we’ll get it what the GS staff will be permitted to say.

Pity.

Under Recontruction

I’m currently using my the-alt.net domain as a homepage for my comic, meaning I’m essentially using it for nothing at all since I haven’t updated the darn thing since September. Unfortunately, doing anything that isn’t related to “real life” that must be done in regular intervals, such as a comic, doesn’t really work well with my schedule. That’s why I have no problem doing the occasional text or video review here and then. Since I’d like to make sure my 150$ investment in 2 years of hosting doesn’t go to waste… and to use the new iWeb a bit more, I’m rebuilding the site as more of a personal / opinion site with a page for my comic. I’ll also be launching it, and this blog, in French. I might even go back and redo some video reviews in French. I also have a few other things in the works. I have a few ideas for some opinion posts for the blog and site in the works and I have plans for some video reviews too. I’m planing on doing reviews for the Check Mii Out Channel, Guitar Hero III for Mac (My way of supporting Mac gaming by not getting the Wii version), Mario Kart Wii and maybe Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Make sure to keep an eye out for them when they come along.

Weekend Update (Since It’s Not Like SNL’s Going to Use it These Days)

I was away during the weekend and wouldn’t you know, Hell broke loose. Apparently, since no one has yet to confirm or deny without a shadow of a doubt, Gamestop might have fired Jeff Gerstmann for a bad review of the site-sponsoring game Kane & Lynch.

Following this discovery, the Internet blew up.  It’s like all the commotion about the British teacher and her class’ teddy bear only with less demands for a death sentence and more cancelling of paid accounts.

I just hope for C Net’s sake they stop giving some vague statements and give something that will put this to rest before all they’re left with are the ruins of a once-great gaming site.