Wii U is BANANAS

Alternate title: Wii U is Driving me BANANAS With Excitement.

Batclaw

Time to become 20% more badass.

Husky Gruff Voice Time

HURURURURUR

*Sneak sneak sneak*

*Does Ranjit How I Met Your Mother impression* HELLO!

In other words, Batman Arkham Asylum is awesome. Downloaded it from the Mac App Store, no regrets. Can't seem to find the Joker DLC although I do have the map packs. At first I thought I should wait for Arkham City to be ported but that will probably take years.

Speed Highway + Dubstep = Awesome!

Yes, it's that time again. Time for another epic Sonic Generations trailer! And I'm very timely on this one!



Sonic the Hedgehog has gone through plenty of memorable levels and like Sky Sanctuary, Speed Highway is another one of those that stick out. Speed Highway is well known for its...well...speed. Basically you're running on stretches of broken highway high above a city at night as you try to chase down Dr. Eggman. It's definitely one of those levels I played over and over again both as Sonic and Tails. It has a memorable segment in Sonic's version of the level where he runs into a room, the glass floor beneath him suddenly breaks and he makes a mad dash down the side of a building. It doesn't make any sense to be able to run down the side of a skyscraper without breaking any glass windows on the way down, but man who cares it's just awesome. Then in a complete contrast the very end of the level is suddenly peaceful. The sun rises and it's dawn as you make a final sprint downtown towards the goal. The music changes too.

Sonic Team really nailed the HD upgrade for Speed Highway in Generations. I love how there's so much blue glowing from the lights. Shiny! Those "robocops" are practically committing suicide to be chasing Sonic down the skyscraper like that as can be seen in this post's picture. Both the modern and classic versions of the background music are great. I didn't actually expect the classic mix to stand out so much, one could easily play that at a club in Surfers Paradise and get away with it. :P

Can't forget to mention the Shadow cliffhanger at the end. That was so perfect. They even remembered to put the green X at the end of the rail he jumped off, I love the little details. Sonic Adventure 2 (well...Battle, but still) was the first main Sonic game I played and the second Shadow fight is easily one of my favourite boss battles in any game.

Oh and in other news yes City Escape and Seaside Hill look great too. But honestly, I'm looking forward to Speed Highway the most, second only to Sky Sanctuary.

Air BASS!

Air guitar is old fashioned now. I realized this thanks to my vampire sim Veronica. Take a look!



That somehow happened when I used Twallan's mastercontroller to switch to one of her friends who was visiting at the time. The upright bass rendered itself again when I switched back. I don't think it's Twallan's fault though, it's probably my MacBook's integrated graphics card.

Unlike other glitches in The Sims, this one provided some laughs. As long as it doesn't happen all the time it'll be more amusing than annoying.

DAT Sanctuary

As a Sonic fan I'd be an idiot to not write about this. Well, I guess I still am for not doing that right away...

Anyways, Sky Sanctuary, one of the most awesome settings I've ever seen in any type of fiction is confirmed to be returning in Sonic Generations!



I already knew it was coming because of the demo leak but hearing those samples of the modern and classic mixes of the song was just amazing. The level itself looks great too. My teenagehood in glorious HD. Aside from Hydrocity, Sky Sanctuary is definitely my favourite level in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Sky Sanctuary is definitely the thing that dreams are made of!

In other news, the season 2 premiere of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic is starting in a few minutes. The new villain Discord looks awesome. I'm about to watch the livestream!

(Click for animation)

More Birdies

Whazzaaaaaap?!

These birds, apparently. D'awwww.

So I downloaded Screenium from the Mac App Store. Looks like I can finally do some legit gameplay videos (for Mac games at least) instead of just restricting myself to the random camcorder-recorded ones I did for Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games way back when. The first footage I decided to upload to YouTube is of a new game called Jump Birdy Jump!



Tell me what you guys think! Should I record all the levels?

I Died on the First Guy!

Too funny not to share!

Yeah, that's going to work.

Gamescom Continued

OMG even more awesomeness!!!



Whoa Death Egg hint! Classic Tails AND Modern Tails in Spagonia! Flying Battery! Classic Sonic possibly using homing attack?! RUINED FOREVER :P



THIS GAME. It's going to be even better than SSX 3.



Haven't played Need For Speed in a long time. This game looks kind of interesting.



Finally some gameplay of Pets! The horse spinning around to take the saddle on and off looks a bit goofy but I guess that's the easiest way to do it. There's news about collection folders returning, finally! Decorating houses will be so much easier with all my store sets organized. You can also have lawn gnomes that hold up signs to keep strays off your property.

Gaming Goodness From Germany!

So Gamescom is on in Germany this week. Some awesome stuff, including cats, have been let out of the bag. Check out this AWESOME new trailer for The Sims 3 Pets!



Rarity's reaction to unicorns being officially confirmed:


The awesomeness doesn't end there. In less than an hour there will be new info released regarding online features for the new SSX coming out next year. However, EA decided to drop this bombshell:

Eddie is back. Eddie is finally back. OH MY GOD. Now that's some epic fanservice. This game has made a crazy turnaround from that gloomy Call of Duty-like trailer to having Eddie making a comeback. See? EA isn't all bad. Can't wait to see what else comes out of Gamescom.

Returned to the Force, You Have.

Yes, that is Duffman holding a lightsaber. OH YEAH!

Man, I love how the App Store is no longer restricted to iPhones and the iPod Touch. Makes me feel less like a dinosaur. I have a regular cell phone. It does have some nice features like Facebook Mobile, GPS, calculator, games, and some other stuff, but not the fancy iPhone pretty much everyone else besides me has. Now I'm finally able to play Angry Birds, but that's for another post.

I opened the App Store the other day only to find freaking Jedi Outcast for sale. I have a lot of memories with its sequel Jedi Academy which is very similar. It was the first game I ever played online. Jedi Outcast however I never played but heard good things about. Some people even prefer Outcast to Academy. It was definitely something that needed to be downloaded to my desktop, and only for $10. Pretty good deal for a 9 year old game especially since it can be modded (hence the epic 3-way duels of Duffman Vs. Spider-Man Vs. Solid Snake). I haven't finished the brutal first few levels of Kyle Katarn not having his lightsaber but the multiplayer is just as good as I remember Jedi Academy's being. Only difference is that you can't taunt. WUT. Oh yeah, and no double bladed sabers or dual wielding.

Finally, another substantial game to play on my MacBook besides The Sims. I hope Jedi Academy makes its way to the App Store too. Heck, I'd love to see the Tony Hawk series too since Aspyr also ported those to Mac years ago.

My Little Pony + Portal = Awesome!

So...beautiful...*sniff*



A great response to haters:
"Real men may watch My Little Pony and enjoy it. Real men may also watch My Little Pony and decide that it's not something for them.

The sissies are those who are so insecure about their manhood, that they have go on about how real men shouldn't watch My Little Pony."

Sonic and The Sims, These are Two of my Favourite Things!

Modern AND Classic Sonic in the same place at the same time?! What kind of sorcery is this? PARADOX!!!! etc.

In terms of video games, this week has been fantastic for me. A few days ago The Sims 3 Generations was FINALLY announced. Talk about procrastination! I hope EA doesn't take so long to announce Unleashed EP5. It seems like they take longer to announce the summer EP than the winter one so probably not. Generations will resolve the issue of it only being fun to play as adults in the game. New playground equipment for kids, pranks for teens, mid life crises for adults, walking canes for elders, and a lot more. Sims will finally be able to use video cameras! YES!!

Then the day after Generations was announced, there was an announcement that something big was coming to Sonic's Facebook page. It ended up being a teaser trailer, and that picture happened. Rumours say the game may be called Sonic Generations. Well, isn't that a coincidence? Two games announced in the same week that may both be called Generations and they're from my two favourite video game series. What's next, the new SSX being renamed to Generations? Smash Bros. Generations? F-Zero Generations?

Wow, it's like this week was specifically made for me.

The Sims 3...Generations?

So it's pretty much out in the open now. The much anticipated fourth expansion pack for The Sims 3 will be named Generations. If you go to the text only version of the official Sims 3 website you'll find this at the bottom of the page:

"Congratulations!
You have successfully registered your The Sims 3 Generations game.

Download your FREE* Set Name now! With Generations, Sims of every age can enjoy new activities! Kids can hang out with friends in tree houses. Teens can pull hilarious pranks. Adults can suffer midlife crises. And so much more!"

This looks promising. One of the biggest complaints about The Sims 3 is that there's isn't much stuff for sims to do unless they're adults. Personally, I've only had a baby once in my game because it was just so boring to go through the baby-teen stages. It wasn't that great in The Sims 2 but it's even worse in 3. Kinda sad. Can't imagine a schoolyard without hopscotch, basketball hoops, or jump rope? Play The Sims 3 and you will then.

A world that's supposed to simulate real life but is always sunny and has no dogs or cats just doesn't make any sense. Please let pets or weather be in this one EA. :P

Year of the BWAHHHHH!

So 2011 is the year of the rabbit, right? Wrong! It's the year of the rabbids!


DAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Enough said.

Han and Chewbacca DIE!

I know I'm a bit late with this, but it's still worth posting. After the DLC from the first Force Unleashed where Starkiller beats Luke and turns him to the dark side, I had a feeling we'd see these two die eventually. To see it actually happen was something else entirely though.



Seeing Princess Leia fighting Starkiller as a Jedi right after that was pretty cool. She puts up quite a fight. According to some of the expanded universe books Leia becomes a Jedi after Return of the Jedi so it isn't too far fetched. The ending shows a nice benefit of dual wielding. :P

Sim Toys Gone Wild!

A little break from the Australia blogging here...I was playing The Sims and my evil sim invented an octopus wind-up toy. Turns out it doesn't need to be wound up because it moves around by itself! However, what made this discovery amusing was that it was near a stereo so it looked like as if it was dancing to the music! Funny stuff. Here's a video I took of it:

Weather in The Sims 3?!

That's right! Watch my sim Leaf come across an interesting revelation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CIfyyKbRDQ

You need the Ambitions expansion pack to do this. Buy the fog emitter under the misc. tab using the buydebug cheat and shift ctrl click on it and there's a place to type in effect names. Type in snowfallinglightday to get some snow! You have to place multiple emitters to get snow all over the lot. It can snow inside however. This does not have any effect on gameplay, it's an effect and nothing more at this point. It can also set up to be triggered through the hidden switches from World Adventures as shown in my video.

Weather just might be in EP3 folks. Seems like we've got confirmation that it's at least coming eventually!
Edit: Okay...looks like it's not EP3 then, as it's confirmed to be Late Night (Nightlife with Superstar and a bit of Apartment Life mixed in).

Special thanks goes to Goggalor from Mod The Sims for sharing how to do this! Original thread: http://linna.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=405544

I'm going to go do some more experiments with this, the possibilities here are huge!