Poo-Poo to The Man

To: Luke
From: Owen
Re: Cabin Fever

Spent the holiday and weekend with two good friends and their family up in Oregon.

They have two daughters, Sophie, who is six, and Lillie, who is two. Sophie regularly writes letters to my cat and straps her baby doll, Emma, into a wobbly seat on the back of her hot pink BMX, before tearing off down the sidewalk like something out of Child Protective Services' worst sweating nightmare. Lillie is addicted to Quaker Instant "Eatmeal" and likes to make up stories on the fly. She told me one on Friday that had kind of a Faulkner-esque stream of consciousness, but it ended with her getting indignant enough to "say poo-poo to the man." Indeed. I think a lot of people join Lillie and Sophie in saying a hearty Poo-Poo to The Man.

Some highlights from our abbreviated report:
Street Fighter Sackboy Costumes OTW?
Requiem for a Console
Good Games That'll Work on Your Relatives' Crappy PC
Tale of Tales' 'Graveyard' Postmortem
NBA Teams Scout and Evaluate Talent Using Video Game

Week in Games: Corn Utopia

We have only a few noteworthy drops this week, then the usual never-heard-of-it haul squatting mostly on the Wii and DS shelves.

One starts to get the sense that this year's video game harvest has almost fully come in. After the Thanksgiving feast, as the days get progressively shorter, so too does the list of new releases for the coming week. This week's AAA drop is Prince of Persia on the 360 and PS3 for Tuesday, with a version releasing on the DS the same day. Tuesday is also when the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV arrives. Space Invaders Get Even is a novelty title for WiiWare on Monday. Wednesday, you finally get Banjo-Kazooie on XBLA, for 1200 points, a steep discount from 99999 this time last week.

This week's count: 10 titles for the DS; eight for the Wii; six for the PC and Mac; four for the PS3, three for the 360 and two for the PS3. Full listing on the jump. More »

Sunday Timewaster: Guess All the Consoles Released

Believe it or not, 68 consoles/portables have been released in the United States since the Magnavox Odyssey first came out in 1972.

This flash game asks you to name as many as you can in 12 minutes. I only got 31 and thought I was doing well. You don't have to guess in order, and correctly spelled answers (or in some cases, their abbreviations) will automatically appear in the list. I'm putting this to you guys not only as a throw-down-the-gauntlet challenge, but also if the quiz creator missed any, or improperly listed one or more, you'll pick it all apart. Because after getting fewer than 50 percent, I need to feel better about myself, and the only way to do that is to question this quiz's credibility. (Kidding.) So you have at least one hint, let's see what you can do with the rest.

Can You Name the Video Game Systems (Released in the U.S.)? [Sporcle]

Street Fighter Sackboy Costumes OTW?

Awesome Video Game Tees for the Holidays

If you only got $20, or the gamer on your gift list already has everything, or if you want to give a less-than-serious gamer friend something cool without obligating them to 420 hours of Resistance 2, Examiner.com dug up 10 great game-themed T-shirts.

For my money the big winnah of all of these is there at left. Two others also come from a Threadless.com BioShock contest. But "Achievement Unlocked: Left the House," I think we all know someone who would rock that proudly and without irony on his or her chest. Then again, if you read my 360 Gift Guide and saw that I recommended Need for Speed: Undercover, you have every right to question my gift suggestions.

10 Best Game Shirts for the Holidays [Denver Video Game Examiner, via GamePolitics]

Thanksgiving Sunday Rumor Roundup

In the interest of getting some news to you in a slow cycle, let's start Sunday with a chatter roundup.

Here are three things that enough people are blabbing about in the video game blogosphere that I'm reasonably comfortable passing them along. These are other people's rumors, and other people's sources — I've tried to put a sniff test on 'em. By itself I don't think one makes much of a post, but three are good to chew over with your Reese's Puffs this a.m. Enjoy. More »

Requiem for a Console

A gamer's fourth Xbox 360 red-ringed, and a veritable who's-who of consoles turned out to pay their respects and show their anguish that so many are dying so young, and so senselessly.

Tiggerboy, who keeps a blog on the UK GameSpot, brought in all the hardware dignitaries to bid the 360 goodbye. You can see the 360 packaged in his foam coffin (aka the Peter Moore Catafalque), ready to to be ferried by the Boatman of the Dead Consoles (aka the UPS guy) on his way back to Microsoft, where his remains will become part of the circle of console life. There's a gallery of the proceedings on the jump, including an astonishing, last-minute appearance by a disowned relative that will leave you heaving up great sobs. More »

Desert Bus Rides Again, Already Raking in the Dough

We've had a little bit of game marathon fatigue up here in the Tower, but Desert Bus for Hope, as something of a granddaddy of all of these — not to mention the absolutely absurd and painful game they chose — gets a pass from me.

It began yesterday and, already into its 21st hour as of this posting, Desert Bus for Hope 2: Bus Harder has raised more than $10,000, meaning the drivers are already in for at least four days of torture. Last year's drive raised more than $20,000, so hopes are high this will beat the previous mark. The beneficiary is Child's Play, which buys toys and games for kids in the care of 40 children's hospitals nationwide. More »

Good Games That'll Work on Your Relatives' Crappy PC

Visiting family for the holidays? You know what an antisocial faux-pas it is to bring along a console, and if you're a PC gamer, hell if you're dragging along that rig.

Yet when you get to your destination, either in your parents' basement or your uncle's old room at your grandparents, inevitably there's some underpowered relic PC that still manages to work. Rather than suffer with Minesweeper or Solitaire when you can't sleep on Christmas Eve, GiantRealm put together a handy list of six good PC titles that will work on most any machine still in service today. Some of these are available via digital distribution channels. Others, you might have to do a little advance planning and snake a copy from an Amazon or half.com reseller.

Six Titles That'll Work on Nearly Any Machine [GiantRealm]

NBA Teams Scout and Evaluate Talent Using Video Game

Electronic Arts must have been pleased as hell to read, in the Los Angeles Times, that front-office types are using NBA Live 09 to help in making some of their decisions.

The NBA says about half of the league's 30 teams employ the video game in making personnel evaluations. More »