Jared Rea

EA gathered up the press to celebrate the release of Spore this week at the as of yet unopened San Francisco Academy of Sciences. GameDaily published my short news story on it, focusing on the speeches of Will Wright and renowned astrophysicists, Frank Drake.

Wright invited both members of the press and his publisher, EA Games, into the planetarium dome for a speech that covered everything from his love of making models to the hit 80’s sitcom, Alf. He also went into detail on some of his loftier goals with the creation of Spore, particularly, getting people interested in the scientific process.

There’s also an interview coming up with executive producer, Lucy Bradshaw, so I’ll add that later. Until then, check out the photos I took while at the event.

While visiting my parents back home this weekend, I uncovered some truly horrifying photos. I was on the hunt for some ancient hard drives of mine that I left behind but what I found was a stash of Kodak envelopes, stuffed with pictures from early years of the Dance Dance Revolution tournament scene which I was a part of. Yes, I was a very sick child.

The pictures go back as early as 1999 when I first discovered Dance Dance Revolution and end in 2001 which is apparently when I got a digital camera. So aside from the obvious popularity (in California, anyway), what’s changed? Now days, freestyle play no longer exists with people only playing the game for high scores. Heck, tournaments don’t even really exist. For the most part, DDR is dead with only the home releases garnering any type of success and it’s not like you’re going to be reading about those anyway.

Check out the set for some ancient Dance Dancing and I’ve embedded the slideshow after the break.

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Now that we’re fully entrenched in the HD era of gaming, it’s become quite difficult to go back and play games on older consoles. That is of course, unless you’ve got the right setup. Unfortunately, we don’t. We, being Miss Shelby and I, have a monstrous Sony Bravia that makes anything prior to the Xbox 360 look like garbage and a standard set in the bedroom that’s recently been taxed by everything from the generation before it.

So what are we to do with our Sega Genesis? And what of her poor Nintendo 64 collection? Surprisingly, Ikea had the answer.

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Like a lot of folks out there, I can’t wait to get my hands on Fable II. Unfortunately, Pub Games is a bitter first taste as you can tell from my review at The Escapist.

Pub Games is a great experiment for Microsoft but it doesn’t seem to do anyone any favors. The games themselves don’t hold enough weight to interest those not already interested in Fable II and the pay outs aren’t big enough or frequent enough to be useful for those who are. Unless of course you’re totally cheating.

Still, this hasn’t stopped me from pre-ordering a Limited Edition, even when I originally opted for a standard copy. The power of the Chief compelled me.

This week’s issue of The Escapist is up and it’s dedicated to Korean gaming. Having played just about every MMORPG on the market and tons of Pump it Up in my time, naturally, this was a perfect fit. So I went to San Francisco and checked out Aion: Tower of Eternity from NC Soft.

The current crop of Korean-developed MMORPG titles like Dream of Mirror Online, FlyFF and Rappelz are living relics of a time long forgotten. This is the climate facing Aion:The Tower of Eternity, the latest from the original Korean MMOG creators at NCsoft. Not only are they looking to wash away the sins of Korean MMOG hell with this new game, but their own distorted image as well.

If you didn’t catch the joke on the title, you should probably educate yourself on old Korean pride pop anthems. I felt it was totally appropriate.

I swore that I’d never change my Marty O’Donnell gamerpic, but after both yesterday’s video and a rousing speech by Senator Kennedy, I felt inspired to stand a bit taller. May the brilliance of his mullet shine upon those whose Xbox’s are deemed noble. Good night, sweet prince. And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

The avatar swap was made as a show of support for Microsoft and MTV’s recent Rock the Vote collaboration (even if I still prefer the wonderfully ludicrous “Vote or Die”) which will not only provide streaming election coverage to Xbox 360 owners but more importantly, allow them to register to vote. Not that I enjoy the idea of your average Xbox Live citizen being enabled with the power of the vote, but I do appreciate the advocacy.

Whether these new voters go on to cast their ballot for Barack Obama, John McCain, or hell, even Bob Barr, I can only hope that this somewhat risky team-up inspires the youth of Xbox Live take a serious look at the issues and realize just how important this election is. I guess I have a somewhat selfish reason for wanting this, as I recall standing outside the voting booth in 2004, realizing that I was the only person under the age of 30 at my station. My generation simply can not afford to remain ignorant to the ever changing world around them.

This is about as far as a random joke on Twitter should probably go.

Much like how Rudy Giuliani became known for nothing more than a noun, a verb and 9/11 (By the way, I’m pumped for Biden), Senator John McCain has put himself in a position where he stands for little more than his time as a prisoner of war during Vietnam. When the Obama campaign nailed him for forgetting how many houses he owns, John McCain cried POW. When the fact that McCain was not in a “cone of silence” during the Saddleback forum came to light, McCain responded with POW. Even when offering up his wife in a wet t-shirt contest, the answer was POW. And these were just a few of the instances that a quick google search turned up. The google search necessary only because I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard this excuse in the past week alone.

John McCain uses his prisoner of war status as both sword and shield. It’s the entirety of his foreign policy experience and ultimate defense against legitimate questions and concerns rolled into a single onomatopoeia.

I wouldn’t have such a problem with this had he utilized his tragic experience in some sort of relevant way. For example, as an advocate for better care and rehabilitation for our troops coming back from the Middle East with post traumatic stress disorder and other conditions, as I’m sure he knows exactly what that feels like. Or how about shining a light on not only the veterans of our current wars, but those of past wars who had no home to come back to? I’d gladly accept his lame, “I lived in one house for five and a half years,” joke were it in that context. Instead, his experience has become just that: a punchline.

Typically, these sorts of opinion pieces are accompanied by a disclaimer. Something like, “John McCain is a national hero and deserves respect for his time as a prisoner of war, but!” The “but,” this time being that I don’t care for that disclaimer. Until John McCain shows some respect for not only himself but his fellow veterans by not trivializing something so horrible, I don’t feel the need to respect it either.

Now I’ve done it. I’ve kicked off my on-going series of Madden entries with my signature line of trash talk. All that’s left now is, you know, actual discussion. Yes, it’s another year good ol’ EA Sports football and I’m hoping that this year will be better than the last. I don’t mean the game itself. This years game is great! I’m talking about my performance. Despite playing some form of Madden or NCAA Football for nearly a decade straight, I still suck quite a bit. I throw more interceptions per game than John Madden downs hoagies per hour. It’s a sad sight.

Not helping matters is my choice of team: the Oakland Raiders. They’re tied for second worst team in the league this year with a pitiful score of 71, so once again it’ll be an uphill battle. Fortunately, it seems impossible to actually draw penalties this year, sparing myself at least one form of self defeat with my favorite team.

First up in my quest to be a Super Bowl champion was a rivalry game against the Denver Broncos. Welcome to the black hole, bitches.

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