I’ve never been so happy to play Wii in my life

Last week I hooked up my Wii by trying to use it in a European plug with a cheap, $10 AC volt converter. After about ten minutes of play the little converter shorted, taking my Wii’s AC adapter with it in a smoky, fried mess. Mercifully, Amazon sells a Wii AC adapter that accepts both 110v and 240v, which you can get here for $18.

It arrived in the mail today (one week shipping to a military address in Germany, not bad) and I immediately popped in Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition, hoping to convert some zombies into a lathery pile of oozy, passive-aggressive revenge. Turns out the controls are hard as HELL to jump right into and I was pitchforked in no time.

Hmmmph. On to Wii Sports Resort.

OHMYGOD! It’s Just What’ I’ve Been Looking For!

I have a “FAIR” offer for you right after the break. Let me know if you accept!

Darknesses

Can you guess what the following games all have in common?

Dark Sector

Alone in the Dark

Darkest of Days

Darksiders

The Darkness

Dark Void

Dark Messiah Of Might and Magic: Elements

Dark Could

Dark Mist

Dark Angel

Perfect Dark

Perfect Dark Zero

Tenchu: Dark Secret

Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection

Bleach: Dark Souls

Overlord: Dark Legend

Operation Darkness

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rainslick Precipice of Darkness

Eternal Darkness

Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena

Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror

Gear of War 2: Dark Corners

That’s right, they aaaaaaallllll suck.

Film Review: Where The Wild Things Are

Before going into this movie I really didn’t know what to expect; as a child I was never exposed to the book, and never had any casual run-ins with it as I got older. So when I found out they were making a movie of it, I didn’t really pay much attention to it.
However, that all changed when the release date for the movie grew close, and it started to garner a lot of good press. Needless to say, I went into this movie with a certain sense of intrigue – and rightfully so; this movie had me completely captivated from the very beginning. Director Spike Jonze has done a great job of adapting what is essentially a fairly simple coming-of-age children’s book into a full-length movie, and Where The Wild Things Are is clearly far more than just a kids movie.

My Faves: Top “Found Sounds” of 2009

Like Russ, I also discovered a whole bunch of bands that completely blew me away this year, but couldn’t be added to the list due to the fact that these albums were all released outside of 2009.
For me, 2009 was a year that really cultivated my love of instrumental bands, so this list contains a number of albums from instrumental bands in various forms.  Enjoy!

My “Gameplan” For The Next Six Weeks

Today I fly out to Germany for the next six weeks. Aside from the horrible fact (for you) that I won’t be on the podcast for the next six episodes, I’m also severely limited in my future gaming experiences. See, I’ve only got room for one console in my bags, and I’m taking my Wii because it’s the smallest. I’m going to try and finish all the games I have, and finally get my money out of them.

Here’s the list:
Okami
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Paper Mario
Wii Sports
Wii Sports Resort

At the very least, I plan on beating Super Mario Galaxy and making Metroid Prime 3 my bitch. Other than that, who knows. Looking at the list now, it sure looks pretty bare-boned for six weeks of gameplay. Luckily, I’ll be busy traveling Bavaria and won’t notice.

It gets even more depressing when I look at the list of game releases I’m missing: Bayonetta, Darksiders, Dark Void, Mass Effect 2, MAG, BioShock 2, Dante’s Inferno, and Aliens Vs. Predator. Woe is me!

The Official 2009 Game Of The Year: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

And there you have it folks, the recipient of our 2009 game of the year award. The process used to determine which game would reign supreme was a fairly straightforward one:

• Each writer selected his top six games
• Each writer assigned 6 points to his #1 game, 5 points for the #2 game (etc, etc)…
• A little mathamagicks
• Game with highest cumulative score wins!

Here’s the top 6:

Uncharted 2: Among Theives

Assassin’s Creed 2

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

The Beatles: Rock Band

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Battlefield: 1943

Individual lists and point totals after the break!

My Faves: Top “Found Sounds” of 2009

Every year, I stumble upon albums that weren’t released that year but are still damn good. Some are new acquisitions, some are albums that I’ve had for a while but never gave them their due; either way, here is my list of non-2009 albums that were part of my 2009.

Cheapskate: BF1943 for $7.50 Today Only

Hi, let me put this to you as delicately as possible. For today only, Microsoft is discounting its XBLA game Battlefield 1943 by 50%, to 600 Microsoft Points ($7.50). When this game came out this past summer, all of us here at Threevue HQ firmly believed that it was worth its original $15 price point.

At $7.50, you’d have to be some sort of idiot to not snatch it up today.

Ezio Auditore de Firenze a la Latte Barista

Just as Mel Gibson proved to us without a doubt that Jesus invented the table, Ubisoft has shown us that everybody’s favorite assassin Ezio invented the Cafe Latte in the Thieves Guild of Venice.

Killer, lover, barista. What can’t Ezio do?

Bayonetta Gets a 9.5. I Think Somebody’s Thinking With The Wrong Head

IGN gave Bayonetta the following score: 9.5/”Incredible”. As Russ pointed out earlier, the PS3 version only got an 8.2 on the PS3, but that’s more of a hardware problem. They’re the same game.

Here are some other games that B-netta is either as good as or better than according to the scores:

Modern Warfare 2: 9.5

Uncharted 2: 9.5

Assassin’s Creed 2: 9.2

Rock Band 2: 9

Fallout 3: 9.4 PS3, 9.6 Xbox 360

The Orange Box: 9.5

Mass Effect: 9.4

Bioshock: 9.4 PS3, 9.7 Xbox 360

…and so on. Truth be told, I’ve only played the Bayonetta demo, and although I liked it, I can’t help but be a little skeptical of that 9.5, especially since it received a higher mark than the IGN’s Top 360 game of all time, Mass Effect. Also, until I play the game  (which may or may not ever happen) and it proves me wrong, I refuse to believe that it is right up there with Fallout 3. There is just no damned way.

My Faves: Top Songs of 2009

Here are my picks for my favourite songs of this year. These songs aren’t in any rigid order per se, though generally speaking, the further down the list a song is, the more I liked it.

HO HO HO – Merry Christmas Everybody!

So many funny subtitles, so little space to put them.

You know, there’s nothing like the holidays to get a person reminiscent for Yuletides past. Here’s to hoping everyone has the best Christmas ever.

But since it won’t be; what is your worst Christmas memory? Also – subtitle that image for me will ya?

Just What You Wanted For Xmas…

Shhhh….hear that? Those sleigh bells jingling, that hot chocolate percolating, and candy canes becoming the objects of devouring? It’s Christmas soon, and we thought we’d get you readers something special this year.

It may sound horribly selfish of us, but we got you the gift of NO PODCAST THIS WEEK, to give your ears a break from the trifle triflings that erupt from our mouths each week.

Enjoy!

IW Patches MW2 Multiplayer Issues/Plays Games With My Heart

That’s just perfect. It would figure that the day after I finally unlock the damned thing, IW puts out a patch to, among other less important things, balance (a.k.a pussify) the Model 1887. After completely dominating a certain team deathmatch with these beauties akimbo style last night, I even got a message from the last I guy I killed telling me that I was cheap for using them because they are too overpowered. I love things like that! Now, no more.

At least I got one good night with them.