My favorite charity by far has got to be Child's Play(If you don't know they raise money to buy videogames for sick kids in the hospital). I used to work in a hospital and seeing kids stuck there over the holidays was just gut-wrenching, even to the slacker high school version of myself I was back then. So I've donated heavily over the past few years, and gotten in touch with all the hospitals in my area to try and get them involved (so far one did).
All started to rally against the negative image hoisted upon us gamers. This year alone the charity raised $885,000. Think about that, about what an insane number that is. Recently the New York Times profiled the group itself and it's 2 founders, the guys from Penny Arcade.
From the article:
It has been three years since Eve Kopp, associate director at Seattle Children’s, was approached by an organization called Child’s Play that wanted to donate video games to children suffering from severe illnesses. What she did not expect that first Christmas were the trucks bearing more than $200,000 worth of goods contributed by gamers and game producers across the country. Today there is a video game system for every room at the hospital, in addition to the gifts that arrive each year for individual patients.
“Normally you wouldn’t expect gamers to do anything besides stare at their computers,†Ms. Kopp said, “but now they’re attending charity auctions.â€
While I'm initially disappointed in Ms. Kopp's view of gamers, I'm glad we're proving her wrong. Read the rest here.
I'm going to try and make it a personal goal for the site to raise the thousand dollars to be a silver level sponsor for next year. We'll be holding some raffles and such over the course of the year to make it happen.
For most of the day yesterday (and into early this morning) Xbox Live was unuseable for everyone trying to play games over the service. Reports indicate that downloading games and videos from the Xbox Live Marketplace were unaffected.
While there's been no explanation so far, Major Nelson is saying that things are now back up and running. We'll update this space when we see a reason for the outage.
Though if you want a laugh, read the comments on Major Nelson's blog for what people think may be the problem... Things like:
"Does this have anythng to do with the earthquake in Asia? Or did someone hack Live...I am kinda reluctant to turn on my 360 until i feel safe."
or
"was it REALLY due to the dude with the modded xbox who deleted code lol?"
This was really an up and down year for me and video games. At some points, I couldn’t believe how much fun I was having. At other points, I honestly wanted to pull away and never look back. Here’s my list of the things that pissed me off and made me smile, in no particular order.
XBOX 360: This system epitomizes my year with video games. Titles like Rainbow Six: Vegas and Oblivion, as well as Xbox Live, made me praise the system. Little things like the system crashing when a game pushes it and their customer service had me ready to trash it. The Xbeezy gets my system of the year award by default. It’s in the best position developmentally. The PS2 is at the end of its life, the PS3 and Wii just started life, and the unsupported Xbox and Gamecube aren’t worth a mention. I will say the system had a good first year, but I expect a lot more in the coming years.
Wii: I’m not going to win any friends here, so I’ll be blunt and to the point. The Wii just isn’t for me (no, none of that cutesy double i shit here). I finally got around to giving it a try, and It drives me nuts. Playing Zelda, I found the controls fun at first (a flick of the wrist to draw my sword is hot) but there were little things that kept me from loving it. The controls were too slow for my liking, and just too clumsy. When I was done playing B’s game, I handed the controls back to him, and Link’s sword came popping out, and I just laughed. If Nintendo kept this motion sensor idea for their “next†generation system, I might jump on board, but this time around it think it’s more of a miss than a hit.
Who would've thought that doing simple arithmetic equations as fast as possible would be one of the most fun things I did with my DS all year? No other video game has the audacity to try and present itself as useful...and fun. The laughing doctor still haunts my dreams.
Addictive as all hell. Absolutely beautiful art design, music and gameplay. Simple, yet challenging and a great time waster. A shining example of what all online flash games should be. E-mail me when you beat my high score of 1.1 million.
8. Half-Life 2: Episode 1 (PC)
It's no secret that I love Half-Life 2, it's the best game I've ever played. This expansion, though short, was a lot of fun and just made me want to play HL2 all over again. Also the first major "episodic" release. I saw an article today that called HL2 the first true "next gen" game, it's hard to argue with that. Valve keeps raising the bar for everyone else.
7. Saints Row (360)
I didn't spend more time with any other game this year. It takes the GTA formula and damn near perfects it. The controls were great, it was funny and a very rare thing occurred with me while playing this game...I liked the story.
6. New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
Take the tried and true SMB platformer formula, add some great new gameplay features and unleash it upon the world. Perfectly fun game and the only reason you need to own a DS.
I really need to start keeping a better...eye...on the HL2 mod scene, these are some creative bastards. Apparently there's been a team working on a mod that will recreate the experience of playing N64's much-loved Goldeneye in Half-Life 2. From the official GES site:
GoldenEye: Source is a modification of Half-Life 2, with only one goal in mind; to bring the memories and experiences from the original GoldenEye64 back to life using Source Technology. We want you to look at this mod and remember the first best multiplayer first-person shooter ever made. We are doing our best to bring in the opinions of the community to create a game that everyone is going to enjoy. But, we are not here to recreate the game exactly how it was in GE64, a lot of things have changed since they first designed that game, mainly in technology and gamers experiences. We are here to take the game even further but at the same time provide a lot of those fun elements that hardcore GE64 fans will enjoy. We've got experienced team members all across the board, from professional level, to amateurs looking to make it into the business working hard to make this dream a reality.
Pretty cool, eh? I'll be heading on over to their site and downloading the beta tonight. If all goes well I might even get a video up showing you all what it looks like in motion. My problem is that I have never played Goldeneye at all. It came out during a period of my life where I wasn't playing a lot of games but it seems like something I would have enjoyed. Hit the jump for some screen shots.
At the end of every year in gaming, we all tend to think it was the greatest year ever. But you know what? 2006 really wasn't. As a matter of fact, it was kind of mundane. Most system launch years are. After all, the GameCube died an early death while we all waited for the Wii. And the PS2, even though it released some stellar titles, was largely ignored by anyone with a 360 (myself included.) The Xbox, with the exception of some licensed crap not good enough for a 360 makeover and some budget titles was completely dead in the water. So what did that leave us with? One new system going through its birth pains for the first half of the year and two new systems that wouldn't see the light of day until nearly December. All in all, not an exciting year. It was a year driven far more by hype than substance. After all, if it was that great a year, why would I have been stuck playing X3: The Official Game this past June? But I digress. Whether the year was one for the books or as forgettable as the 32X, it still had its high and its low points for all of us. What were those points for me? Well I guess you'll just have to hit the jump to find out;
The last Xbox Live Arcade Wednesday's new release of 2006 finds us receiving another retro game, and it's one I've never even heard of! Here's the deetz:
Name: New Rally-X
Price: 400 Points
NOT Available in: Korea
Dash Details: Single Player, HD (High Definition). Collect all the flags while avoiding enemy cars! With new features such as the Lucky Flag, which awards you points depending on your remaining fuel. Collect the Special Flag to double the points of all remaining flags! NEW RALLY-X, the sequel to RALLY-X, was released in 1981. It featured new courses and adjustments to the enemy cars, improving the overall game balance, as well as new graphics and BGM!
And don't get me wrong, we have the brains and skills (skillz if you're under 13) to make it happen. Like Lex Luthor except successful. And it would've been awesome. Sadly we're also an easily distracted bunch, and in the past 20 years we've hacked every silly item from payphones with a cap'n'crunch whistle to now a roomba vacuum with a wii-mote.
Not exactly around the corner, but if this game turns into a reality (and not based on the older show) I'm already calling it one of my most anticipated titles of '07
[update 12/29 - This has been confirmed as in development by Vivendi. Now we just have to hope it's good. -ed]
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My favorite charity by far has got to be 
For most of the day yesterday (and into early this morning) Xbox Live was unuseable for everyone trying to play games over the service. Reports indicate that downloading games and videos from the Xbox Live Marketplace were unaffected.
Some of you may remember an 
Please god let this be true.
Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics. 
The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.
The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. We're specifically looking for blogs in the sports, entertainment, and video games field, but are open to adding any type of quality site.. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our application form.
The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account! 