Recent Blog Entries
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Wario Land and Azhdarchid Pterosaurs
Azhdarchids are a group of pterosaurs that rose to dominance during the Late Cretaceous period. They alone were the rulers of skies once flooded with the membranous wings of vast swaths of other pterosaurs. But azhdarchids were special: they arose during a time of great upheavel in the flying vertebrate biosphere. Birds, little upstart theropods with small beginnings in China, were quickly overtaking the niches once held by such specialist pterosaurs as Pterodaustro and Dsungaripterus, as well as filling gaps apparently never filled by those bat-winged archosaurs. In time, only the azhdarchids remained. Enormous, long-necked creatures, the azhdarchids produced the largest flying vertebrates the world has ever seen. Hatzegopteryx had a 40-foot wingspan. The greatest pterosaurs were also the last, and at the end of the Cretaceous period, they left the skies forever. The decline of pterosaurs is, oddly enough, strikingly similar to the decline in the platforming genre in video games. Read More...
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Why the DS is Dominating the Portable Market
There has been plenty of speculation since the DS and PSP war began as to why the DS is so effectively dominating the market and why the PSP is not. Some speculate it's Nintendo's blue ocean strategy. While this is clearly a factor I don't think it completely accounts for the monstrous discrepancy of sales between the two machines. Read More...
Monday, September 29, 2008
Welcome to the Bit Generation… on WiiWare
Regular readers will know that we have been critical of Nintendo's WiiWare support. Before today, their only releases were a bland port of Dr. Mario and the mostly useless Pokemon Ranch… and neither was developed in-house. With no more WiiWare games announced, we didn't expect any first-party downloadable titles until at least 2009. Read More...
Link: Wii-kly Update | Talkback | Permalink
Friday, September 26, 2008
N+: A Semi-Formal Review
After recently picking up N+, I felt it was absolutely necessary to put together a review for the game. I picked up the PSP version, which disqualified me from writing a review of the DS version of the game. Read More...
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Who Turned Out the Lights?
I was recently replaying Metroid Prime 3 when I noticed something peculiar. Corruption has virtually no dynamic lighting. What makes it particularly odd is that the first two Prime games, despite running on lesser hardware, had plenty of it. What makes it odder still is that no one seems to have noticed its absence. I always thought that something about Metroid Prime 3 didn't look quite right, but I was unable to put my finger on it until now. It's a testament to Retro's artists that they were able to cram the world with enough glowing displays, bloom lighting and shiny things that no one noticed that the dynamic lights were turned off. And when I say no one noticed, I'm not exaggerating. Read More...
