In FIFA 07, you'll be able to sign up for an online league wherin you pick your favorite team, and whenever your team is playing in real life, you play an onine match against a fan of their opponent. It's simple, but it seems like a fun idea. As long as the game you have to play isn't going on at the same time as the real game.

No word on how this will be divided or set-up but EA is going to keep track of winners and losers and award a crown every week.

Of course here in the states this probably wont be popular, as no one here seems to get the "beautiful game". I really hope that eventually changes. But it seems like a great idea for our football. Every Sunday people would go online and play their games then watch the real thing.

Check out all the details here

Ben Kuchera from Opposable Thumbs has the right idea, focusing in not only on Best Buy but GameStop as well. From the rant:

At Gamestop it's even more ridiculous. At my last visit I didn't want to pre-order anything, I didn't want to sign up for the Madden tournament, I didn't want to subscribe to their magazines, I didn't want to look through the prerelease binder while I waited just in case I changed my mind about the pre-order thing, I didn't want the used copy, and I didn't want to hear the pitch about how the card and the used copy worked together to save me even more money.

Check out his full editorial here.

I think I'd stop going to Best Buy but it's close to my job and their prices are worth the hassle, for now. That probably makes me a hypocrite, or maybe just confused. Either way it's just too damn convienent to stop. Plus I HATE Circuit City.

Recently he sat down for a pretty in-depth interview with Gamasutra. They discuss the importance of games, future content delivery, Q's upcoming titles, and the late Gunpei Yokoi (inventor of the gameboy), amongst other topics.

He response to being asked about the ups and downs of working at a huge publisher:

I don’t know about everyone, but from just my case, I felt like I didn’t have freedom. I was in Sega. At the time, I don’t know now, but at the time, that was a big client for me, and I had a studio called UGA, United Game Artists. And I had seventy people. I had many visions, like to make casual games. Not big stuff, but small games. Not Lumines, but many other ideas. If I made a presentation to Sega executives about this kind of thing, and if they said no, that’s over. That’s it.

But beyond Sega, looking beyond where I was, there were many, many possibilities in the world. Not only game console, but also mobile, and other markets that exist. I wanted to make a new phenomenon, not only traditional games. So I felt this was the limit.

Take a few minutes and check out the entire interview at Gamasutra.

I have a feeling I'll be buying the GC version of the new Zelda. While I dug the Wii controller when I played Zelda at E3, I don't know if it's better than a standard controller. It'll kick ass for alot of games but I'm pretty sure I want a more standard controllerfor Zelda. At least now I know I can use my Wavebird (I still love that name)

From the blog:

Looks to me like Wave Bird receivers will fit just fine in the GCN docking station's controller ports on the Wii hardware. I opened the flap and had a look. It's perfectly flat, so there shouldn't be any problems.

Check out the full posting here

dotstream review

When I first heard about Nintendo's bit generations series being released in Japan, I was excited enough to blog about it. Well, I went even further and took the step of importing (at a little-to-high-a price) the very cool looking dotstream. Think linear tron light bike racing. It's like a race version of REZ. Sound interesting? It is.

The premise is as simple as can be. You play as a colored line, and move up and down to avoid the other lines and obstacles between you and the finish line. There are a few rare powerups, and you can boost a few times, but that's it. Basically you slow down whenever you deviate from a straight line, so keeping the turning to a minimum is key to winning.

Since the manual is entirely in Japanese, part of the game has been figuring out the specifics. Luckily the game itself is entirely in English (except the opening warning screen) making it one of the most import friendly games I've ever bought. There is really nothing on the language end to stop you from getting this game. It's fun to play, and one of types of games that when people see you play it, they'll start asking questions about it.

Details are scant at the moment but they have said the game would be available for PC, Mac, and Linux, with a later release on next-gen consoles.

Let's hope the Fruit Fucker is included as a playble character, or at least the star of a mini game where you have the hit the buttons as fast as possible to extract the most juice. (Thank god my mother doesn't read this blog)

So Thompson's law, which was bragged about as being impervious to Constitutional law, is now in danger of being over-turned. Nice.

The ruling, which was 30 pages long, contains some good bites, including the following:

"The State's argument overlooks a line of cases holding that video games are protected free speech..."

"The evidence that was submitted to the legislature in connection with the bill that became the statute is sparse and could hardly be called in any sense reliable..."

Check out the full story here.

Download the 30 page ruling here.

Now I know people out there are thinking that Lumines cost $40 for the PSP, so $23.75 is still a good deal. And you know what, maybe it is (even though the game is a year and a half old). But then why not sell the game for $23.75? Why the dicking around and charging a little more and a little more? It's another case of XBLA going down the wrong road. I'm starting to worry that this live marketplace stuff will erode the game-playing experience.

I've written before about different people playing different versions of games (oblivion add-ons) but now if I'm a good Lumines player the game will cost me more money to challenge me than an average player. How is that fair???

It's a shame, I WAS looking forward to Lumines (it's still the only great game on the PSP). 

What do you think?

Well they won... The bad news is now they're obligated to watch it, and let me tell you it's worse than you remember. And not in that so bad it's good kind of way. I can only recommend getting some like minded friends together, drinking heavily, and watching it Mystery Science Theater 3000 style (i.e. lots of talking at the screen, and to the robot friends you've built to keep you company)

To the rest of you, may I suggest you use this link and buy a copy from Amazon.com! They're selling it for like 11 dollars.

Thank you to everyone that entered. I'm serious about that. I love that you guys come by and read this nonsense, I really am.

If enough people start generating me some ad revenue, I can have better prizes! Then we're all winners!

I was over on Red Octane's homepage and thumbed through their store when I saw this deal. Pre-order Guitar Hero II through them, and receive a free Guitar Hero II t-shirt! And what's even better is that shipping is only $3.99! I was going to just pick mine up at Best Buy the day it's released but now I'm thinking I'll go this route.

They shipped out the Guitar Hero gig bag I bought pretty quickly so while I might not get the game on day one it's probably worth it. But those who know me know I'm not exactly the patient type.

This bit of fine print puts my mind at ease though:

Your free t-shirt will be shipped out with your order of Guitar Hero II prior to the launch date 11/7/2006 so you may receive your order by or after the launch date of 11/7/2006. We will ship out your order as early as possible so you will be one of the first to receive this product.

Has this date of November 7th been made official yet? This is the 1st I've seen a specific date...

Click here to order the bundle