Major Nelson on Sirius

Looks like Major Nelson is going to be a regular guest on Maxim's new video game-themed show, "Level Up". This caught my interest as my brother just got me a Starmate 4 for my birthday, so I'm still new to the whole Sirius experience. Of course, my luck being as it is, I noticed this the day after the show. Oh well. From what I'm hearing, Nelson was about the only worthwhile part of the broadcast. The show is apparently not aimed at people who actually play games.

He apparently did an audio review of Splinter Cell: Double Agent, which I caved in and bought sometime last week. I've only been playing the single-player campaign to this point, and I must say that I'm really enjoying it. I haven't really played a Splinter Cell game since the original, and now I'm kind of wishing that I did. I'm going to be way, way behind when it comes to multiplayer. Then again, I have a feeling that world + dog will be playing something else next week.

Prayers Answered: Tempest for XBLA!

This is seriously, like, the best game announcement of the year. Jeff Minter is creating a version of Tempest for Xbox Live Arcade! For a quick example of Jeff's work, you need only look as far as the music visualizer built into the Xbox 360. Even better is the game will only run 400 points. This will be one to look forward to!

Jeff's post (screenshots included)

[Update] It's come to my attention that this game is actually going to be called "Space Giraffe" (which is a fantastic name, I might add), due to licensing issues with Atari over the name "Tempest."

Happy Zombie Day!

Dead Rising finally arrived yesterday, and it is quite entertaining. I managed to get a few hours of alone time with the game, and the level of creativity that has been poured into this title is simply astounding. The game is a lot more difficult than I expected, too, but every bit as fun as I had hoped. I’m even enjoying the escort missions (of which the game has more than its share), and I generally despise those. It’s certainly not for everyone (but then, what game is?) but it’s definitely worth checking out.

My only real complaint is, much like many of the reviewers, the save system. It's not the way that it's implemented that bothers me (you get one save slot per profile; if you die, you can either load from a save or start over while retaining your stats and skills from the previous game). The problem I have is that it's not very convenient. It's nearly impossible to save on demand, so if you need to step away from the game (e.g. you made the very wise decision to start playing ten minutes before you’re supposed to leave for work), you may need to choose between losing some progress or leaving the machine on for an extended period of time.