Fans of the popular PC game, American McGee’s Alice, have been clamoring for a sequel for years. Today, they got a peek at their wish come true.

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Following the big The Sims 3 news, was DarkSpore by Maxis. Not to be confused with the previously released Spore, DarkSpore is an action RPG set in a sci-fi world.

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Another week, another Rock Band update; this time we’re seeing Bad Religion and The Stooges content delivered to online stores on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii. Read the full story

Yesterday, Chris and I went on to Central Valley Buzz to promote our site and help spread the word about our Blogathon fundraiser for One Love for Chi. Since we haven’t been on anything live in awhile, I was a little anxious, but I think we did a great job.

For those of you who were unable to tune in, the repeat already aired early this morning, but I can give you a rundown of what went on. When we got there, the room was rather warm due to all of the lighting, and the fact that there was a guy prepping for a cooking segment. It also didn’t help that he was making a salsa with Habanero peppers, so while we were waiting to go on, my eyes started to sting a little.

Once we were on air, I got a little tripped up at first, but Chris was there to explain the history of World of Meh!, and what inspired us to start it. We, honestly, started this site just as a creative outlet, so clearly things have evolved! After we described what our site is all about, we were kept on for a second segment that touched on how the two of us met (through an online dating site, if you must know), and then we shared with everybody the amazing story of Chi, his progress, and our efforts to help him.

Chuck Leonard, host of the show, autographed, on air, a pair of clippers that were used on a recent show to shave his head. He then donated them with the hope that it will help attract more people to our site, and boost donations. Pretty awesome, eh? After we we were done, I logged in to check our site states and there was a considerable spike in hits, so thank you Chuck!

If you are a fan of Central Valley Buzz, or are an evil scientist that wants a piece of his DNA to do some crazy cloning experiment, donate to our One Love for Chi fundraiser and earn a shot at winning those clippers, amongst other prizes!

- Me

Like helping others and earning a shot at winning some great prizes by Activision, EA, and others in the process? Check out our One Love for Chi fundraiser and spread the word!

Back when Chris and I went to rent LEGO Harry Potter, the guy at Blockbuster told us about some used games he had behind the counter. All were for Xbox 360, and the prices were fantastic!

The games, which were all $6.99, came in a generic semi-frosted clear case, but no box art, and no booklet. At first, it seemed like all titles were various sports games, but then Assassins Creed II and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed appeared. CHA-CHING! We asked to look at both discs, and they were perfect. Not a scratch on them, and they weren’t refurbished. Instead of spending a little over $60.00 retail on both games brand new, we were able to get them for a few cents over $15.00 – all because they didn’t come with box art and a booklet.

Knowing about this fantastic deal, Chris started to hit up other local Blockbuster store locations on his way home from work, and we got the first Assassins Creed and BioShock for $6.99. Four great Xbox 360 games for less than $30.50 after tax. What a damn bargain! During one of his excursions, Chris game across Splinter Cell: Conviction, but it was priced $34.99 because it came with the booklet. Massive price jump all because of a booklet? Completely ridiculous, so we’ll have to wait on Sam Fisher.

Last week, Chris found a website where gamers who are big into design created mock box art, shockingly similar to the final retail product, so at work he printed out covers for Assassins Creed II and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Bargain, bargain, bargain!!!

So, are you low on funds, but want some good titles? Check out your local Blockbuster because not only do they have these great deals on 360 games, but they also had PS3 and Wii games to choose from. We aren’t too sure about the pricing for them, but it will still be significantly less than retail!

Happy hunting!

- Me

Like helping others and earning a shot at winning some great prizes by Activision, EA, and others in the process? Check out our One Love for Chi fundraiser and spread the word!

Today we are feeling charitable. Very charitable. Right now is the start of our first giveaway during the Blogathon.  You guys and gals are competing for some very cool goodies.

How might one win these great freebies?

Post a comment!

For the next 24 hours (6 PM PST 7/25/09 – 6:00 PM 7/26/09) when you comment on this blog, it counts as an entry. You don’t need to spam the post with crazy comments so please keep them on topic. Replying to other commentors is encouraged, so don’t think you can’t start up a nice little Harry Potter conversation. Also, feel free to get creative with your posts.

Here’s the twist. Want more entires? DONATE! Obviously we are blogging like crazy to help raise money for our charity, Reading is Fundamental, so when you donate to our charity that counts as an entry.

And like any crazy infomercial, they always follow up the good stuff with “but WAIT! There’s MORE!” If, for example, you donate $1.00 to our cause… that donation won’t count as 1 entry, it will count as 10. See how we did that? We knocked off the last 0, and counted the rest as entries.$2.00 will get you 20 entries, and $3.00 will get you 30.. so on and so on and so on. Hell, if you want to donate $100.00, that gets you one THOUSAND entries lol

Oh, I should probably add that we are giving prizes to TWO people, not just ONE, so competition is going to be fierce.

And now… I present to you the PRIZES:

First Place wins two items: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince promo poster and a slap wrist bracelet for the official video game that Electronic Arts put out. Cute thing is that the bracelet are in Gryffindor colors.

Runner Up wins one item: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince promo poster.

The contest is only available to people who live in the CONTINENTAL United States. Sorry Hawaii and Alaska, it costs too much to ship there. Sorry to all of the other countries too.

Winners will be announced Monday morning at 11:00 AM PST so please check back then to see if you were one of the lucky ones. Winners will need to contact us within 48 hours via email (that is provided on our site) with appropriate mailing information.

So, spread the word, post away, and help out our charity!

GOOD LUCK!

- She Who Has The Last Word

Viewing Review -

Before I go into my review for Grand Slam Tennis, I want to let you guys and gals know that I am not too keen on sports games. I have never been athletically inclined, and I’ve found most sports to be boring.

Tennis is a sport that I would never play in real life. I’m just too lazy to run back and forth on the court just to hit a ball, so that brings me to video game tennis. I’ve played it in the past on various systems (Virtua Tennis on Dreamcast, Smash Court on Playstation 2, Top Spin on Xbox, and Wii Sports Tennis on Nintendo Wii), but my most recent video game tennis experience was far better than I could’ve imagined.

Image Courtesy of Electronic Arts (EA)

Grand Slam Tennis by Electronic Arts (EA) for the Wii is a fantastic game. Right from the beginning you can tell that it’s a clean game. I liked how you had the option of playing singles, doubles (together or versus), Career Mode, and online. From what I’ve read, Grand Slam Tennis has been praised for having a highly addictive online play. Great thing is that you don’t need to have friend codes in order to play with people. All you  have to do is sign up for a free EA account to have access to the full online experience.

While playing online you can particpate in ranked or unranked matches. Having that choice is nice because sometimes all a person wants to do is pick up the controller and play a few games for fun without having to worry about being so competitive. It can take the enjoyment out of a game. Online also matches you up with people playing the game from all over the world and I think that’s great. Having such a wide community to play with adds variety and versatility to the game.

Image Courtesy of IGN

If you choose to play ranked, you earn points when you beat somebody. Those points then determine what your overall ranking in the world is. A nice feature is that when playing ranked, not only do you earn your own personal points, but you earn points for your country. There is even a National Leaderboard where you can see which country has the top players.  Unranked matches do not earn you any points, but like I said before those games will be friendly and very low-key. Unranked can be good for people to prepare for the leaderboards without all of the pressure and stress.

Grand Slam Tennis features 23 different players to choose from. 12 of the characters are some of  the current top players, while the remaining 11 are retired legends. The 12 current players are Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Andy Roddick, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Kei Nishikori, Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic, and Lleyton Hewitt. The 11 retired legends are Chris Evert, Justine Henin, Martina Navratilova, Michael Stich, Lindsay Davenport, Pat Cash, John McEnroe, Björn Borg, Pete Sampras, Stefan Edberg, and Boris Becker. There is even a “Create-A-Player” mode that will be familiar to people who have played the Tiger Woods golf series by EA.

Image Courtesy of Electronic Arts (EA)

One of the things I noticed while watching the game were the stadiums in which you played in. They were very realistic, vibrant with colors, and you had 12 different ones. Grand Slam Tennis is the first game since Top Spin 2 on the Xbox 360 to feature a licensed Wimbledon. Here are all of the venues:

• Australian Open: Hisense Arena, Rod Laver Arena, and Court 15.
• French Open: Court Suzanne Lenglen, Court Philippe Chatrier, and Court No. 12.
• Wimbledon: Centre Court, Court No. 1, and Court No. 3.
• U.S. Open: Arthur Ashe Stadium, Louis Armstrong Stadium, and Court 9.

Image Courtesy of Electronic Arts (EA)

When I was watching Grand Slam Tennis, I saw both singles gameplay and also co-op doubles.  Chris mostly chose Federer, while his cousin Lee would switch between McEnroe and Cash. One notable match was the two of them versus the Williams sisters. After the first serve, I knew that it would be an intense match. Both of the guys attached the Wii MotionPlus to their Wii Remotes so that their actions could be rendered identically on the screen in real time, and there is a dramatic difference between using the Wii MotionPlus and not. When they would swing their arms to volley back the ball, there wasn’t a lag like you’d get without it.  It was by far one of the most fluid tennis matches I had ever seen on any video game console.

The announcer who was calling the scores wasn’t annoying, the clapping after each round wasn’t overdone, and the sounds of the game were what you’d expect to hear when watching a real competitive game of tennis. Chris and Lee were really enjoying themselves and I found myself getting into it as well, even though I was just sitting on the couch.

I would highly recommend Grand Slam Tennis to anybody who owns a Wii console. For those of you who don’t, yet own a Playstation 3 or Xbox 360, Grand Slam Tennis will be released on both of those consoles later this year in the Fall. Details on those versions are minimal right now.

All I have to say is, Virtua Tennis… you better watch out. Grand Slam Tennis delivers all you could ask for in a tennis game, and more.

-Lindsey

Playing review -

My cousin recently purchased Grand Slam Tennis for his Wii.  At his in-laws house on the 4th of July, we decided to give it a shot together.  We had both been great fans of Virtua Tennis on the Sega Dreamcast, and are both fans of tennis in general, so it seemed like the thing to do.  Loading it up, the menu system was very easy to navigate.  The selection screens are all well done, and very clean looking.  The animations are smooth, and do not lag.  We chose our location (U.S. Open, Arthur Ashe Stadium) and our characters.  I started my first match with Pete Sampras, while he chose Pat Cash. Finally, it was time to start our game.  My cousin didn’t go into a great deal of detail about gameplay, so I had plugged in the nunchuk and was prepared to dash around for the ball.  I controlled my movement for the first game, before finally realizing that the game itself will control your movement for you, if you want.  This helped me immensely, because the nunchuk wire was quite the nuisance when trying to swing at the ball.  It caused me to miss a few shots that should have been fairly easy.

Image Courtesy of Electronic Arts (EA)

The game got into full swing, literally.  While I have been told that smaller, suble movements are sufficient to manage your player, they don’t have the flare and effort a good game of tennis deserves.  With this in mind, I was playing with my entire body, and with as much effort and energy as I could.  This level of physical engagement, however, may have been the cause for some of my accuracy issues.  When returning a service, I would more often than not hit the ball completely wide of the court (especially in doubles matches).  I tried varying my swing strength and angle, but generally ended up out.  This continued through my matches as McEnroe and Federer.  Controlling the direction of the ball could be difficult at times, especially compared to DC Virtua Tennis.  There were times where the trajectory of the ball seemed to be completely arbitrary, having absolutely nothing to do with my actual swing.  However, this could be a sign that I was playing a bit too exuberantly, as I have mentioned.

Image Courtesy of Electronic Arts (EA)

When playing in a doubles match, the system handles player positioning fairly well.  When one player makes a mad dash for the ball, your teammate moves to cover, which is extremely handy given the recovery time after a particularly epic dive.  The AI players do a decent job, but as with all AI players, they do have exploitable patterns and routines.  Look hard enough, and you’ll find them!

Two days later, my right arm is still sore from the exertion.  Grand Slam Tennis has some incredible, and obvious, improvements over games like the Dreamcast’s Virtua Tennis, while in other aspects, I feel Virtua Tennis has the upper hand (ball control!).  As I mentioned, though, this could have been due to my flailing, and not any fault with the game itself.  When looking at Grand Slam Tennis, the most important thing to consider is the fun factor.  In that respect, Grand Slam Tennis is one of the most fun sports video games I have ever played.  What more could you really ask for?

-Chris