So has anyone else tried out the Virtual Console? If not, it's pretty slick. I bought a 2000 point card a few days ago and I picked out Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario 64 (the only worthwile downloads among the disappointing launch. Really, who is going to download Soccer or Pinball?).
The process couldn't be more smooth. I entered the code on my card and 2000 Wii Points added to my total immediately. I chose Sonic first, and I had it in about a minute and a half, Mario 64 didn't take too much longer. The games are picture-perfect ports, changed only to accept the functionality of new controls (I use the Wii-Mote in Sonic, and WaveBird for M64). I have yet to get a classic controller, though most games will accept a GC controller. There was a warning before M64 that the controls may have been "optimized" for the Classic Controller, but the GC controller handles it perfectly. It controls much like Sunshine.
It's a really cool system, and will definitely give the console a big edge during the summer droughts. No games being released, yank a game off the Virtual Console for 5-10 bucks while you're waiting for something bigger. Or, if you don't have the money for a new Wii game (as was my scenario), spend the chicken scratch on a classic you may have missed, or an old favorite.
All in all, this may be the best idea Nintendo ever came up with.
Quote:Gears of War Hits 1 Million Units Sold and Shoots to #1 on Xbox Live
More than 85 Percent of Players Connect to Xbox Live, Driving New Gold Memberships by 50 Percent
As “Gears of War” continues to emerge throughout the world ahead of the holiday sales rush, the Xbox 360 juggernaut has sold an impressive 1 million copies world-wide in just its first two weeks of release—elevating the game to the fastest-selling title of 2006 and fastest-selling original Xbox game of all time.
The battle continues to rage on Xbox Live as well, as more than 850,000 unique gamers have engaged in 10 million gameplay sessions while unlocking an impressive 7 million Achievements. On top of being the #1 title on Xbox Live, “Gears of War” has also driven new members to the network, as paid registrations per day have skyrocketed more than 50 percent since the game’s launch.
Propelling its rise to popularity, Gears of War has been crowned the best next generation game of the year by over 45 publications, earning a 95 percent average review score as tracked by www.gamerankings.com. Critics everywhere overwhelmingly agree and have united to make “Gears of War” one of the best-reviewed games of all time.
“From the very beginning, we knew ‘Gears of War’ would be an industry-defining hit,” said Shane Kim, corporate vice president at Microsoft Game Studios. “As we watched both the game and its hype grow, it became obvious that ‘Gears of War’ was the rare title that could live up to such incredible anticipation, and judging from the reaction of critics and fans, it’s done just that.”
Quote:Microsoft Corp., the world's leading maker of software, is earning money selling the Xbox 360 hardware, according to updated teardown analysis from research firm iSuppli. The information means that the software giant has managed to lower the price of its latest game console by nearly 40% in one year.
According to iSuppli's most recent analysis, the premium version of the Xbox 360 game machine equipped with hard disk drive has a manufacturing and materials total of $323.30, based on an updated estimate using costs in the fourth quarter of 2006. This total is $75.70 less than the $399 suggested retail price of the Xbox 360. Even though it is obvious that Microsoft still has to subtract freight, toll, retail partner's profit and other possible charges, it is highly likely that Microsoft has either managed to reduce its loss to minimal, or is making a tiny profit selling the $399 flavour of the Xbox 360.
A year ago the total bill of materials (BOM) cost for the Xbox 360 Premium, including hard disk, the DVD drive, enclosures, the Radio Frequency (RF) receiver board, power supply, wireless controller, cables, literature, and packaging, reached $525, well above the retail price of $399, according to iSuppli. Considering the up to date BOM, Microsoft has managed to reduce the pricing of its console by over 38.5%.
They have an google API key and usually have maxed out their number of queries by now, but try it later, it was working earlier today. Plus gizoogle page translator is always fun and working.
What the fuck?? I'm not sure if I'll be able to laugh at Kramer anymore, even after his public apology on Letterman. Maybe if he apologized personally to the guy he was insulting....
So I blew on the contacts of my Zelda: Oracle of Seasons cart again, seeing if it would continue to be as broken as it's been for the past year in my GBA, and... it worked... save files intact.
Huh? That stupid cart broke (took physical damage -- one of the small sides of the bottom of the cart (where the contacts are) was just gone one day when I looked at the cart... not the side with the contacts, one of the ends, and only the bottom part of the cart (not the whole side), but still...) and stopped working over a year ago, at the same time that Super Mario Bros. Deluxe broke (to this day, the most I've ever gotten out of it is a garbled bootup screen that crashes) and I'd never thought it would work again... this summer I tried taping over the end of the cart to see if that'd help, but it didn't. Then I noticed that it seemed to be booting in my GBC (which, remember, has a dead screen, so all I could do was hear it and the music seemed to be playing)... and then today? It just decided to work in the GBA again. Bizarre.
(also at the time when I checked my GB games and found those two problems I also found Mole Mania and Zelda: Oracle of Ages had lost their saves... but save files put on both carts afterwards are still there, so I'm not sure if it was a dying battery, given that those files have been there for a while now...)
Since then I had some other GB games end up wiped, but I'm pretty sure that those ones really are dying batteries. Well, maybe not Kirby Pinball (despite it being one of my older games, it only wiped when I accidentally turned the system on and off a bunch of times quickly, and the highscore I put on the system a few months ago is still there...), but the others with problems. GB games have smaller batteries than major system carts, so it'd make sense that they wouldn't all last as long...
Anyway though, it's interesting to see my original Oracle of Seasons file. I played OoA first and OoS second that time, but I have 14 hearts and 100 deaths... in my second OoS-first one I only got through the first three dungeons, but have 25 deaths already... :)
Of course with a dead dpad I can't actually play it in my GBA, but the GB Player should run the thing...
The gist of it is, the first person to donate a PS3 to Taco Bell will recieve 12,500 in "Taco Bell Bucks" (which they consider to be a lifetime supply). The PS3 itself will be donated to charity.
