CGI-Quality Graphics Finally Possible?

This isn't so much a post on whether CGI-quality graphics are now possible in video games, but more of reaction to another story that made this claim (the original story can be found here).

"Ratchet and Clank A Crack in Time finally brings the graphical quality of pre-rendered CGI to video game consoles."

The above statement is taken directly from the original story and though I can't say I disagree with this statement, I find the way it was delivered to be rather odd. The reason I find all this praise and crazy fanboyism odd is that this story directly compares the game with the CGI of Toy Story 2. Maybe it's just me, but I find it almost pointless to praise a video game for delivering graphics of the same quality as a 10 year old movie. Shouldn't we be questioning why there is such a gap in the quality of pre-rendered graphics compared to CGI? It's not that I don't understand why it's more difficult to reach CGI-level graphics, but I just find it odd to praise a game for looking as good as a 10 year old movie.

Bite Down on a Dragon's Sausage [Update]

This is without a doubt the greatest collector's edition that's ever existed...if only it were real. Seriously, who wouldn't want some delicious sausage in their collector's edition?

Update: The video was taken down...I guess it was just too much sausage for most to handle.

A Pixelated Sausage Community Gamertag

I've known about these little group gamertags for a while now, but never thought to create my own for this here little site. It has now been done and as of right now only officially contains we three podcasters: CannoliCrasher(me), Hendersonman, and BigSt3ph3n. The group is open to everyone and I really hope you decide to join us in our shenanigans. This will be a good way for fellow listeners to get to know one another better and possibly get some gaming done as well!

Links and current gamerscore come with more sausage!

The Pixelated Sausage XBL Leaderboard

True Blood = Truly Bad

I never saw True Blood until a few days ago, in fact, I never even heard of the show until recently. I was extremely hopeful for this series and expected to enjoy it, even if it was only because I love vampires. Sadly, I was in for quite a downpour of disappointment.

Click to read more ...

What Can One Hundred Dollars Buy?

I have been struggling these past few days with how I should spend a very specific amount of money. That amount would be one hundred thousand dollars!!! Actually, it's only one hundred dollars.

I was seriously thinking about picking up the Guitar Hero: World Tour band kit bundle through Walmart's website for $99, but I wanted to just pick it up in store. This was impossible thanks to the fact that Walmart does not match their prices in store with their prices online. I could purchase it through their website and choose "ship up at store" (which is free) as my shipping method, but why should I have to do that? Why does Walmart feel the need to waste my time (and theirs) just because they won't match their own friggin' prices?

The other game(s) that I was considering instead of Guitar Hero was The Sims 3, as well as the recent "Complete Pack" of Civilization IV. I would have most likely picked up the limited edition of The Sims 3 because I am a bit of a Sims whore, but my fear that the game may not run on my system halted my purchase. The total of these two games would have equaled $110. I did not buy them, nor did I buy Guitar Hero. What did I end up buying you ask? Find out with more sausage...

What I ended up buying was 4 copies of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (w/Subzero animation cell) for the X360 at $15 a pop, Prince of Persia (X360) for $15, Need for Speed: Undercover (X360) for $12, Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime (NDS) for $5, and Metal Slug 7 (NDS) for $10.

This all ended up costing me roughly $110 after taxes. The awesome part of this tale is that I can pretty much get all of my money back by selling these sealed copies (yes, they are all brand new copies) on eBay for a nice lump o' change. I must thank Target (and small town stupidity) for making this all happen. I may actually go back and pick up some more copies since they still had about 10 copies of MK and PoP each. Thank you Walmart for being completely ridiculous and thank you my computer for being outdated! None of this could have ever happened without you!

I also have to throw a shout out to K-Mart for Metal Slug 7 and a shout out to Shop Ko for Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime.

E3 Thoughts: Microsoft

Here it is, my thoughts on Microsoft's press conference...late and unedited.

Microsoft started off E3 2009 with a fantastic press conference that exceeded practically every expectation. The press conference was not perfect, but it was a great way to start a relatively enjoyable E3.

Click to read more ...

Possible Leaked Trailer for Project Trico

Below (with more sausage) is the possible leaked trailer for the upcoming new game from Team ICO, the team that gave us Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. All I can say is that it looks pretty damn legit and I hope it's real because I love the premise of what I've seen. Having a companion throughout the game that can't directly talk to the protagonist is really appealing. It reminds me of all those old "human and animal" companion flicks that I used to love as a kid, as well as slightly reminding me of how a character like Wall-E is forced to use other means in order to expression emotion since he cannot speak.

I also just want to say that I hope this trailer is from an early build of the game because it didn't impress me graphically. I'm not saying it looks bad by any means, but it didn't "wow" me like I'd expect from Team ICO, not to mention the fact that this game has been in development for so long. Enough jibber-jabber from moi, enjoy the trailer below!

Gel: Set & Match Will Only Cost You $800 [Update]

That is quite the bargain for this upcoming XBLA game; that's only 64,000MS points! This is obviously just an error and is supposed to say 800MS points, but I just find it funny that it's listed at $800 at the moment. It reminds me of when the gold lancer for Gears of War 2 was priced at 99999MS points (quite the steal as well).

Gel: Set & Match official Xbox page

Update: It has now been fixed and is correctly priced at 800MS points.

LTTP: Lost Odyssey - Part 3

I have now put almost forty hours into Lost Odyssey and I can’t wait to finally finish this game. The enjoyment I found early in the game has significantly decreased thanks to some tedious dungeons, boring “grinding runs”, and a story that has become more and more uninteresting the deeper I go. That being said, Lost Odyssey is still a solid jRPG and I would recommend the game for (sorry, but I can’t help but use this cliché right now) fans of the genre, but I can’t see the game keeping many gamer’s interest after finishing disc 2.

Click to read more ...

LTTP: Lost Odyssey - Part 2

I’ve spent much more time with Lost Odyssey since my last writing, twelve more hours to be exact, and overall I’m still enjoying the game. There really hasn’t been much change to mention, besides to changing from disc 1 to disc 2 of course. I also must say that I would gladly pay for some DLC that gave Kaim (the main character) a new, extra special item: a comb. Seriously, how does he keep that strand of hair so perfectly positioned in the middle of his face at all times? I bet he could make a fortune endorsing the hair product he uses.

Click to read more ...