The 1980's is widely considered the golden age of arcade games in the US. The newest games, the best graphics – it could only be found in the arcade. Classics like Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Tempest and Galaga were born in that era. It was also the era that gave us the usage of real video in videogames. Dragon's Lair is the prime example of this development in technology. They are/were often criticized for their lack of interactivity. Why use a linear technology for something that is more or less defined by interactivity?

Ryan Patton, a producer working on Metal Gear Solid 4, has announced on his Kojima Productions Report that the game will be playable at the upcoming E for All convention in Los Angeles which is set for October 18 to October 21 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. It will feature an updated version of the demo that was shown at Tokyo Game Show, and will have all the English voice acting in it. There will be 12 boots available for everyone to play.

Okay, so my latest fetish is Gametrailers.com. The site is mind-blowingly awesome. High-def video game trailers completely rock my world.

Enter Tokyo Game Show 2007, possibly the biggest game expo this year, since E3 has been scaled down. All the latest, baddest games coming out of Japan (and everywhere else in the world) get previewed there. Epic gaming madness. All the latest games from Squaresoft, Koei, Capcom, Sega, et. al.

I think we here at GNN, have solidified how much we love wikipedia, web 2.0 et al. It is bad enough that we get random acts of e-vandalism on wikipedia. When fucking mega corporations (or their employees) decide to vandalize through a fucking valuable source of info, that's just cruddy.

You Americans have had the chance to get Resident Evil 4 edition for a few weeks now. As usual, Europeans arrive late to the party. I've never played the GC edition, so i was looking forward to this release. It has been released for $30 in America, which seemed like a fair price.

I was willing to pay €30 for it, but it's priced at a fucking €45. Lets do some simple math here :

Gaming has hit the frontpages! And (again) because of the violent content of a game. It's the '90s all over again. The BBFC rejected the rating of the game Manhunt 2 because of its content, and the ESRB rated it as 'Adult Only' which effectively means the game cannot be released officially for any Sony or Nintendo console.

Final fantasy seven is the shittiest fucking game ever... Ok no... Superman 64 is much worse, as is Final Fantasy Eight. Still though FFVII is pretty fucking shitty. I don't think I can portray how much I hate this fucking game, and it's universe.
Every single time I see the name “Sephiroth”, I want to drop kick the nearest person to me in the fucking teeth. I am tired of fucking seeing pictures of him! I am tired of seeing the same damn pictures as well. “Lulz! Look at me! I am Sephiroth and I am standing in mother fucking fire! I am the most badass thing this side of Adam West's Batman. Did I mention I have a giant katana and trench coat for no fucking reason at all? Lulz I am so fucking awesome!”

Lately, GameTap.com has been getting more and more coverage. The people at the 1up network mention them quite a lot in for example their podcasts, seemingly praising them. Don't get me wrong, i love the 1up website and the things they do (our own site idol Jenn Frank resides there!). But i can't get rid of the impression that they just mention the service because of at least some marketing agreement.

Okay. I'm actually starting to feel my age. I'm sitting here listening to my little sis playing Final Fantasy VI (III in the US for all you posers). The music is sooo good, I'm actually shivering. That game mutated my mind, completely rearranged my perspective on what gaming should be, what a good story should be. Everything RPG since has withered in comparison. A few managed to stand toe to toe with it in my mind. (Xenogears anyone?).

Finally. A new proper game for my Wii. For quite some time I only used my Wii for Virtual Console. TurboGrafx-16 shooters - i love them all. If I had this thing 15 years ago, I would be a pro at these things now. But thats not the reason I bought this system. I've had mine since december when it launched here in Europe. Sure, I had fun with it. But it really lacked software titles that I was willing to buy. I'm just not the type for movie-license crap.