Mwuahahaha… I’m taking over this bitch! Well, not exactly, but I am the new pundit (Hi, my name is Adam) and I’m here to contribute to the site where I can.  Speaking of contributions, you can find my review of Street Fighter IV right here.

The site has been quiet for a few weeks again, but we are still slowing pumping out content. I have added my review of Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3. I just finished Mario Galaxy, and Halo 3 so look for reviews of them sometime in the coming weeks.

There is also a new layout. I was continually frustrated with how poorly the old layout rendered numerous pages on the site. I still have some kinks to work out with the new color scheme, but over all I am happy with the new look.

I have been following various different online communities and the efforts going into getting Atari/Nintendo to get something moving with the whole Tenkaichi 3 lag issue, but it seems like it is a lost cause. I haven’t written my review yet, because I was really hoping they would fix the issue prior to me having to put an opinion on the game. All those disappointing things asside here is what information I have gathered about the issue.

There have been different tips and tricks for getting better performance out of your wii connection to possibly help out the lag issue. Both of which I had to link to the google cache because the actual forum posts were missing and both of which I have tried with relatively no results. However, I haven’t been able to hook up with someone local to see if that helps, but apparently the closer the person is to you the better the performance. This makes sense because you have to cross across less networks blah blah blah.

In addition to people trying to hack their hardware to fix the lag issue, their have been groups complaining and trying to get Atari to fix the problem. It has even birthed a petition. The Atari representative on the atari community forums has said she passed this petition onto customer service, but doesn’t promise any results. I signed the petition, but I don’t have high expectations.

So there is that, I hope Atari steps up and does something. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like they will. The shame of it is, the game is actually really good, and if they had excluded the online play entirely and just released the game, so many DBZ fans wouldn’t be upset. Look for my review over the next week or so.

I got home today and planned to download the new Devil May Cry 4 demo. But what do I see, a big fat access denied?!?! Basically

You Suck! Upgrade to Gold!

I think we talked about this on a previous 2nd Player episode, but I cast it aside, because I figured I would get a Gold account when I got my XBox, but as I have been spending all my time playing Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 for the Wii I didn’t see the need to drop the green on the Gold account.

Well now I have to wait like a chump to get the demo, but if anyone does try it please let me know.

It is official Capcom has announced tomorrow January 24, 2008 that the Devil May Cry 4 demo will hit the XBox 360 and Playstation 3. Assuming Capcom has not screwed this up (see Devil May Cry 2), this game is sure to be amazing.

As for the demo it supposedly has a sampling of the Devil May Cry goodness, mostly focused around the new character Nero and his Devil Bringer powers. This ‘training demo’ leads you up to a final boss fight against this guy who looks curiously like Balrog from Lord of the Rings. I guess there are only so many demons in the world.

Irregardless (that is for you Bucky), I am very excited about this demo and so happy I got an XBox 360.

While the two slackers, Daniel and Michael were prancing about in their underpants and tube socks, opening video games and playing them, I was hunched over a computer keyboard, banging away until my fingers were bleeding, working on the first review for this site. I didn’t get any video games for Christmas, probably because I missed Christmas, probably because I was so busy writing a review, probably because I’m the only one worth a damn. There I said it. At any rate, we’re happy to finally release our first ever text reviews: Digimon World: Dawn, and skate.. Daniel wrote the review Digimon, aka the review no one cares about, and I wrote the review for skate. aka the best thing that anyone will ever read anywhere (excluding the Bible). You can find the reviews section here.

The purpose of this post it to put a little more fire into the blaze of complaints that are surrounding the online issues with Tenkaichi 3. For those of you who don’t have the game, or haven’t tried the online component yet I will fill in the details.

It is the equivalent to fighting in slow-motion, with your hands tied behind your back, while having a seizure! The online piece is completely unplayable. If you don’t believe me watch this video of an online game, and then this video of a single player game! If you are interested in following the problem, a couple sources have attempted to pull together resources describing the state of a fix. If you just want a summary of the major events you can keep checking back here, and I am sure as soon as a fix is presented, and I know about it. It will be on here!

The basic state of a fix is that everyone spammed Nintendo and Atari with complaints about the problem. Nintendo has responded with:

Message(#6851-000639-1203\6391203)

Hello, I’m sorry to hear about the issues you’re having playing Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 online. Our role in online play is matching players up. Once the match, race, or fight starts, you’re connected directly in a peer-to-peer format and no longer connected to Nintendo servers.

From the reports we have received, we have determined that this is an in-game peer-to-peer latency issue and not something that occurs through Nintendo’s servers. We have provided Atari information on how they can address this issue and recommend contacting them.

To get their contact information, go to the following web address and click on Atari: http://www.nintendo.com/corp/licensees.jsp

Nintendo of America Inc.
R.M. Rickets Nintendo’s home page: http://www.nintendo.com/ Power Line (Automated Product Info): (425) 885-7529

Atari has blamed in on the wireless network

Thank you for contacting Atari Support. Atari would like to sincerely apologize for any multiplayer lag issues you may be experiencing within Dragon Ball Z®: Budokai Tenkaichi 3.

If you are experiencing multiplayer lag, this may be due to Wifi wireless internet connections or poor signal from the your ISP. To resolve this issue, please ensure both players involved in multiplayer gameplay use a hard wired connection – this should solve current lag issues.Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience this might have caused you from enjoying Dragon Ball Z®: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 and thank you for your continued support.Thank You,Atari Support

but if you read over the Fix Budokai blog, you will notice references to numerous people who have attempted to fix the bug using a wired adapter for the Wii with no luck.

I don’t really care who fixes it, I just want it fixed. The game is great, and when I write up my review I will explain why it is a good game regardless of this feature. But this is ‘the feature’ that makes Tenkaichi 3 amazing as opposed to just great. Atari, Spike, and Nintendo need to put the Wii’s patching system to the test, and get this corrected ASAP.

Ok, so I tried to exchange my Espanol version of Forza 2 at Best Buy, but all they had were the Spanish versions! So I got cash back instead. My wife volunteered to go to Gamestop for me and buy Forza 2 - THE ENGLISH VERSION.

I come home from work today and she says, “I hope I did the right thing…..”

Apparently people are trading in their Marvel Ultimate Alliance/Forza 2 pack-ins at a blistering rate. She was able to grab a copy of the combo for $20 and spent the rest of the refund money (+$10 from her mother - the original purchaser of THE SPANISH VERSION) to buy an extra 360 controller.

Side note: Dan and I were bitching up a storm about how much current-gen controllers cost. I believe I would have to trade in my entire Gamecube collection to equal the cost of a Wii remote/nun-chunk combo.

Anyway, my wife and I had a great time playing the X-Men Legends games, but we had a bad experience with Ultimate Alliance for the Wii (thanks to Dan & our another co-worker for lending us the Wii and game.) with it’s tacked on Wii controls and blurry as hell graphics - blurry on my HD TV anyway.

We’re having a much better time with the 360 version. It plays like it should and the graphics are awesome. The frame rate is rather slow at times. We’re still within the first few hours of the game so I’ll report back on wether or not the frame rate is universally…. ug.

In case the title doesn’t give it away, I got the new Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 for the Wii.  The game is fun, but I feel like I am starting from scratch because the controls are quite different than 2.  The other game goodies I got included, Mario Galaxy, an XBox 360, and Halo 3.  My XBox came with Ultimate Alliance and Forza 2, but if you listen to the podcast you will know, I am not really all that excited about either.I am happy with my loot, although I don’t have an HD television, so I will have to enjoy my XBox on standard definition television.   Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa/Some other holiday I probably missed.

Merry Christmas everyone! I am one happy gamer! My brother and I finished up our Halo 3 co-op game, and I’m about 3/4’s of the way through Bioshock (thanks Bucky!). Santa’s helpers were kind of enough to get me Assasian’s Creed, Mass Effect, The Orange Box, and Forza 2….. THE SPANISH VERSION.

I’d heard about these fully spanish-translated games. It seems like a great idea, but PLEASE make the “spanish only” label larger than a dime (or at least as large as one)!Basically my 2008 will consist of Triple AAA gaming and Spanish classes. :)I hope everyone else had a Triple AAA Christmas!