Rental Gamer

http://www.mahalo.com/Spore_Creature_Creator_Live_Stream

Just got the link through Twitter (@JasonCalacanis, as always). Mahalo's GTAIV and Brawl coverage was great, make sure you check this out for Spore video!

World of Warcraft is back on my system.

Please shed a tear, I might be back to reality soon. I hope.

If I don't send word in 7 days, send help :)

Do you consider yourself a "hardcore gamer"? Do you own a Wii? If yes, do you play your Wii regularly?

I love my Wii, there are so many quirky titles available for it - but it doesn't get nearly as much playtime as my Xbox 360... I started thinking about this yesterday when Leo Laporte mentioned it while chatting with his audience. I've had my Wii since the system launched, purchased most of the major Nintendo titles (Mario, Zelda, etc) but it sits atop my entertainment center, vigilantly watching over me as I run over pedestrians in GTAIV.

But I look at my game shelf, I see Smash Brothers, Paper Mario, Mario Galaxy, Zelda, Mario Strikers - all games that I have finished (Zelda, Galaxy, Paper, Smash) or just burned out in a few days; I don't see myself playing Strikers again with Smash Brothers being out, and even then I can't see when I'll be playing Smash Brothers with the RG Crew when we all want to play Rock Band or GTAIV online. But why? Smash Brothers is a fantastic game - even according to us - but when I want to play online with my friends, I have to put on a blindfold and hope for the best. Maybe this is why the Xbox360 is so popular with 'hardcore' gamers, we know we want to play with our friends online - especially with all the current gen consoles offering this gameplay - Microsoft's Live system is a simple solution, works great (most of the time) and we can easily find our friends based on their gamertag. Nintendo wants us to share 12 or 16 digit "Friend Codes", go through multiple menus to input them, and FCs don't carry over to other titles. I know they're doing their part to protect little Timmy and Susie who want to play Happy Feet against their other 5 year old siblings, but shouldn't WE have a choice in how we connect to our friends?

Sadly, I think Wii also has had some bad timing lately. While "everyone" picked up Mario Kart Wii, don't forget what else came out that day - GRAND THEFT AUTO IV - maybe that has a small impact on what hardcores are going to be playing longterm; the straight forward party racing title with only so many options, or the open ended world of Liberty City? I still am glad I chose Boom Blox instead of Mario Kart - but even now that I have finished Boom Blox, it gets played by my non-gamer relatives instead of me.

I still have hopes for the Wii - they are still working on expanding into more mature titles, similarly to the end of the N64 era where we saw Conker, Perfect Dark and even Shadow Man, hopefully to keep some hardcores coming back. Games like Killer 7's Sequel "No More Heroes" are a great start, maybe Nintendo will hit that piece of super software that keeps gamers coming back again and again, for more than bowling.

At least they can bank on Fanboys.

For your Xbox360 related news of the day, Rockband is now available in Europe, along with all the downloadable content available to NA Players. Plus there are several new songs online this week too, so make sure you login to the Music Store and have a listen!

Oh... and Wii Fit launches this week. Good luck finding one, Nintendo heads. I'll wait a bit - Boom Blox is still in the tray.

Tycho over at Penny Arcade jokingly referred to Boom Blox as a tech demo that you would see bundled with a new video card. He's right, without the Wiimote interface it would be a dull title for sure.

That being said, I can't put it down. Boom Blox is part Jenga, part Carnival throwing game, part puzzle game, and a whole lot of fun.

We rented Boom Blox, at $50CDN we wanted to make sure it was a good third party title first; the track record with third party games on the Wii has been pretty rough, so we were happy to see that the game met expectations of being a simple yet addictive experience.

A quirky story mode, a create mode and party play give the game enough depth to last a while, after several days with Boom Blox we haven't finished everything but the Create mode keeps us occupied for hours.

Make sure you at least give Boom Blox a try, puzzle titles aren't for everyone, but the title has challenges for gamers of all skill levels.

(Alternate Title: Why I don't want to be a Doctor)

1. Any time you successfully complete a surgery, take a drink.

2. Any time you use the hidden talent/power, take a drink.

3. Any time your character makes a goofy pose, take a drink.

4. Any time you scalpel into something vital and cause damage, take a drink.

5. Any time you blame missing on "that stupid Wiimote sensor", take a drink.

6. When the doctors association takes away your medical liscense, get several drinks.

I'm still curious about the matchmaking lobby system in GTAIV. While I've praised the game heavily since its launch, I can't help but notice how bloody difficult it can be sometimes to play against or with other players. Especially in a party, when we leave the free-roam lobby and decide to play Team Deathmatch (or whatever mode) it drops one of us, or disconnects the host and we all drop; or the lobby is so lagged that no one appears and we all quit to restart again. I understand 'growing pains' to a point, but when we're paying for Xbox Live this kind of situation shouldn't exist. I hope this gets patched soon. 

Make sure you check out the Bourne Conspiracy demo on Xbox Live (available late last week) - what a smooth fighting engine, great combos and easy to understand action gameplay. I'm very excited for this title, but I hope they fix the driving elements. After playing GTAIV for so long now, I can't believe they would even release demo content like that. If anyone remembers the old 007 PS1 games, thats what the driving stage reminds me of; Quick Time Events or not. Speaking of QTE, similar to the long time classic Shenmue, the game features a bunch of QTE to initate different "Bourne Moves" (rolling under gates, dodging sniper fire), the best part is if you screw up or die, the next time the button you pressed may not be the same. That means you have to pay attention when you go through that gate again otherwise you'll be redoing the same checkpoint repeatedly.

Notes:

-Rental Gamer crew is steadily climbing the ranks in GTAIV's online environment. Anyone wishing to join us, as always, add JunoMRPB to your XBL Friends list.

-Rainbow Six Vegas 2 seemed to fall off the map recently. An afternoon spent playing a private game with friends was a refreshing change from the senseless GTA violence but some of us felt stuck in the "GTA Mode" where run and gun was key.

-A new Gears of War 2 trailer hit XBL Marketplace this past week. Check it out.

-We're also adding the blog into theresabloginmysoup.com's directory! They're making a trip across the US & Canada and interviewing bloggers all over the continent! How cool!

So the RentalGamer crew has lost a lot of time lately to Call of Duty 4 & GTA. We really can't help ourselves with Grand Theft Auto; its simply one of the most immersive games we've played in a while. The Multiplayer is great fun - my personal favourite being Team Mafiya - and free roaming through Liberty City with 3 other people always turns into something different. Want to just cruise around? How about blow up everything in the way? What about helicopter rides, going to the Statue of Happiness (Liberty), Empire State Building, Central Park, the list goes on and on.

Call of Duty 4 is still being played on a very regular basis as we still have RG members picking up the game after refusing to for so long. They've been converted and we spend our time in Hardcore servers picking off helpless players as we skulk about with silenced M14s.

We haven't even touched Mario Kart Wii. I don't think we will, there is a better experience overall with the open world of GTA.

-The Xbox is packed and shipped; hopefully the refurb won't take forever to get here...

...but I couldn't wait, picked up a new console and started playing GTA:IV. This new addition to the series is great. The characters are all interesting, the world is fantastic looking. The "10" scores everywhere should be the indicator. This isn't just initial hype folks; buy this game.

-Lost Odyssey takes up the hour or so before I crash for the night. Cool combat system, suprisingly good English Voice overs (I always play JRPGs with Japanese VOs). I rented it to see what it would be like, I will probably pick it up in the future.

-Age of Conan beta starts today. Thats all I'm allowed to say as per the NDA ;)

-RentalGamer crew will be playing GTA and R6V2 through the upcoming weeks online. Hit us up, add me to your list. Gamertag is: JunoMRPB.

As always you can follow along with mini updates at http://www.twitter.com/junomrpb