G-pinions

So I know it's lame that all Tom and I have been talking about is C.O.Norrath, but it's with the best of intentions. It's a fantastic game, and a highly entertaining co-op experience. We beat it the other day, as Tom mentioned, and now we're on our second playthrough, enjoying it as much as ever. So that's why we've been talking about it almost exclusively for like a week - it's about all we've been doing for the last week.

I did find some time the other night to start going through NesterDC (NES emulator) with my friend Castro, and we got to about the mid B's (Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, to be exact). I started a list with a comment for each game as we went along to remind me about it in the future. Here are some of the highlights (and lowlights):

abadox - space r-typeish shooter, sweet, but fucking hard
adventures of captain tc - astronaut vs. parrots and inchworms
adventures of bayou billy - golden ax in a swamp vs. karate men
adventures of lolo - awesome puzzle game!!
adventures of lolo 2 - exactly the same, more snakes
alien3 - came out in 1992?? three years before playstation?!? man...
all pro basketball - wrought with mispellings, one of the players looks like hitler
amagon - killing mousebats and mushrooms on an island with a gun, and then turning into the hulk = greatness!!
a nightmare on elm street - snake-punching at it's finest
anticipation - AMAZING!
archon - sweet battle chess type game with real-time battles
arkistas' ring - getting raped by giant scorpions
baby boomer - try not to let the baby die! my god, this game is great!
back the the future - killed by bees and benches faaaarr to easily
balloon fight - greatness. pure greatness.
baseball simulator - fuck this. rbi ripoff. don't front.
battletank - the prequel to steel battalion. not really.
batman - wow, surprisingly great
bee 52 - a...bee sim. really nice graphics, sweet.
bill elliott's nascar - bill elliott can go to hell.
bible adventures - animal gathering religion-based greatness. and...don't let baby moses touch the spiders. whatever you do.
big bird's hide and speak - "this can't be good." - castro
bigfoot - "i don't know what to think of this, cause it kind of sucks." - castro

So, there you have it, the first installment in Nick's Nintendo Notes. Pretty catchy, eh? Eh? Fuck you.

I think that this article gives some good arguments as to why EA is bad for the gaming industry, a topic Tom and I have debated several times. This article supports his viewpoint moreso (that they are indeed bad), but it's a good, informative read either way. I think that they have always made and published great games, and until I start to see that quality dip, I have no qualms with their products. And I think because of the quality of their products, they can get away with being a bit of a monopoly in sporting games and such. They might release the same game year after year with minor tweaks, but as long as that game is top-notch, I don't really mind. There is enough innovation elsewhere in the industry; sometimes it's nice to have a solid base of completely solid, well-made, fun games to always fall back on, even if they're not the most experimental of companies.

Lastly, I went ahead and signed up for Netflix (well, for the free trial at least). The turnaround time was obscene (the good type of obscene) - I signed up Thursday at 2a.m. and received my first three movies on Friday. Too bad they blew. Well, better luck next time. Oh, and I also saw 50 First Dates. Good times. Drew Barrymore is a Pixie Goddess, and I wish to marry her. That is all.