Pineconeattack, or PCA is a semi-collaborative effort of sheer idiocy, perpetrated on teh interbutts for our own sick amusement, with articles about gaming, pop culture/fad and anything we find funny.
Seriously, escape while you can.
Holy shit. After editing for over 12 hours between two days, I have to say that this episode of the Pinekast has got to be one of our finest EVAR!
REVISITING an original topic from episode #3, the Pineconeattack crew discusses and share some of our favorite gaming compositions and jingles. This week’s cast is Baldy, Jedah, Decepticreep and myself, Jangofatt and not only do we share valuable game music but also touch on the composers who wrote the whimsical melodies from days past.
Gather ‘round and listen to what is probably the most complicated show that I’ve ever had the pleasure to edit. Now it’s time for sleep… Zzzzzzzzzzz!
–Jangofatt
Intro: Actraiser Symphonic Suite: Birth of the People by Yuzo Koshiro
Break: Splosion Man: Funky Experiment by Joshua R Mosley
Outro: Megaman 2 by Duane & Brando
We’ve all heard about Microsoft’s new Project Natal and the implications it could have upon gaming as we know it. Much is known about Project Natal, but questions still remain. As amazing as Natal may or may not be, the folks over at GameTank TV were given special access to try the sequel to the unreleased Natal at the BUTT-ON 2010 convention. Aptly named Project Fatal. All I can say is, the future looks beautiful.
As I’ve mentioned a time or two, I am a bit of a Bioware fanboy. I used to chug along to Baldur’s Gate with my massive Pentium 200, and its 64MB of RAM and 8 meg vidcard back in the bad old days. I still rate Neverwinter Nights as a vastly superior multiplayer game than World of Warcraft (even if WoW finally finished it off and stole my hard earned bucks in the process). I beat KotOR 2 six times just to beat it with every posible Jedi combination. It really should be no surprise that the first games I picked up for my 360 were Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect. Continue reading Super Late Mass Effect Review
One of my major complaints about the Wii is that fact that the damn controllers zap the hell out of my batteries. I’ve tried the rechargeable batteries route but they always seem to drain when the controllers are not in use. I’ve avoided the conventional rechargers because they are mostly cheap looking and most are not compatible with the Wii condom or the new Wii Motion Plus, so you have to constantly unsheath whenever you need to recharge. So for months the Wii got less play because I could not find a simple solution to my battery woes. That was until I recently discovered the Energizer Induction Charger.
With Energizer’s newest charger, there is no more hassle. Through induction, the batteries magically recharge on the docking plate wirelessly. (Eat your heart out Nikola Tesla!) The charge kit comes with special batteries that fits into the Wiimote controller that has a metal plate molded into the battery pack. Once placed onto the redesigned recharge mat, the batteries snaps the controllers in place and the mat will recognize the controllers and begins charging. Because there is no actual physical connection, you can keep Wii accessories on while you recharge the controller. That means no more having to remove the wrist strap, Wii condoms or Wii Motion Plus modules. It can’t get any easier then that.
The first initial charge took almost 4.5 hours but after a couple of hours of play, the Wii controller was still going strong. While it is charging, the mat will display a red battery icon showing that the batteries are getting a charge and turns green when the charge was completed. I’ve noticed the recharge now is fairly quick.
This has got to be one of my best purchases I could have ever made for my Wii setup. With constant charged controllers, I’m now free to play hours upon hours. A bonus feature that I didn’t initial notice with this charging pad is that it is up to Qi specs, which means any other device that is Qi specs can be charged on my recharging mat. The Wii Energizer Induction Charge Station comes in two flavors: 2 or 4 controller charging stations, which are priced at $29.99 & $49.99 respectively. Since I only have two controllers, the decision was an easy one.
Pros:
Sleek design, it does not look like a toy.
No more physical connections means you can keep the Wii condom and Wii Motion Plus on during a recharge.
Easy to setup and use
Easy to read status gauge: Red= charging/Green= good to go
It’s Qi standard compatible, which means it will eventually work with other small devices.
This week we take a quick look at DLC (Downloadable Content) and what it means for current and future gamers as more and more companies start taking advantage of downloading and the slow erosion of the physical format. We also look at what this means for collectors, if it’s preferable and if Jedah knows what it means if you declare yourself a ‘bear’. We also get some great advice from Jedah’s Uncle Bobby, a visit from Sean, owner of Las Vegas’ own Game Repair and we announce the winner of the Tenno shirt contest.
So when the pins to the PSX power supply was destroyed, my brother-in-law gutted the console and mounted it to the wall and uses it everyday, turning his gaming console into usable art. Great consoles never die, they just no longer get played.
Granted, when I told my brother-in-law that he could have salvage and repair his PSX for cheap, the look on his face was priceless. O_0
When he is not talking with the PCA crew on the Pinkast, freelance hoodie wearing homeboy hangin’ at the DAV Jedah Doma, works hard on his awesome internet video game review show: Substance TV. I have to say, Jedah (and his friend Erik) out did themselves with this episode with their high production presentation and of course, the writing.
I have to say, Jedah actually sounds like he knows what in the hell he is talking about. Check out the high definition video over at Substance TV, which is the only way to truly appreciated this show.
The Neo-Geo restoration adventure continues. I finally received my new convex buttons from Happ Controls and also picked up a nifty little solder mate: the proverbial third hand. Installing the buttons would have been a breeze but I soon realized that I was missing all of the joystick & buttons wires from the MVS harness.
It looks like when the asshat converted this Rev 3 Neo-Geo cab into a shitty Carnevil, he or she removed not only the wires, but the JAMMA pins as well. So, when I am ever in need for JAMMA pins, I always turn to The Real Bob Roberts. Instead of wiring up my own cabling, I purchased a few pre-crimped wires from Bob Roberts and was on my merry way.
For the next hour or so, I just sat here, crimping, soldering and overall rebuilding the control panel wiring. Of course, with some iPod tuneage and some sugar soda, I was enjoying myself a little too much. What can I say? I find this portion of any cab to be both relaxing and annoying. Redundant, I know, but I love doing the harness, even though it does get really tedious.
I have maybe a hour of work left on the harness. All I need to do now is complete the ground circuit and zip-tie everything neatly with the LED and memory card harnesses.
90% of the wiring is now complete, and with some luck, I’ll be only a few hours away from finishing this project.
I never really got into the Battlefield series. My brother had some of the first ones installed on his computer that I played here and there, but aside from noting that the environments were XBAWKS HUEG and the interesting ability to jump into vehicles and tear off down the road, I never had the time or the inclination to jump into the series when I was having much more fun playing Unreal Tournament and Aliens Vs Predator for the PC.
In fact, it wasn’t until the released Battlefield 1943 which was 4 levels of ecstatic awesome that I even considered taking a chance on the game. But after spending many hours (sometimes with Jedah in tow) driving around smashing trees, planting traps and being a total dick sniper I developed quite a shine for the series in general.
So in 2010 the first contender to draw my attention from Modern Warfare 2 is arriving, and after trying out the demo and acclimatizing myself to its controls and flow I can say that this game has risen to the top of my DO WANT list. Let’s break this down shall we?
Right off the bat you’ll notice that the in-game engine is a beautiful symphony of destructable environments; every building, vehicle and brick explodes to glorious effect when hit with munitions, bullets whine off buildings and your weapons have a meaty thump that is often overlooked in FPS games. The soldiers on both sides keep up a constant litany of directions, information, curses and oftimes hilarious epithets. You can play as an Engineer, Recon, Assault or Medic; all with their own special kits and earnable perks. You actually earn way more points by playing as a support person so healing, dropping ammo, etc is a quick path to better stuff.
Graphically, it still needs a bit of work on the textures, but the draw distance is superb, allowing you to lead targets with ease.
The demo itself is just one level, a snow based Rush level (that’d be the type not the band) where one team seeks to tackle objectives as quickly as possible while the other defends. As targets fall, the defending team falls back to further positions as every objective needs to fall before a team wins or every ‘ticket’ is spent. Tickets are spent through kills. So let your team die too often and it doesn’t matter how well you’re entrenched. No reinforcements means Game Over.
I hadn’t played the previous games so I can’t say if the same system is in place but -much like MW2- you can earn better guns, perks and abilities through leveling up as you play. Myself, I had earned a tracking dart pistol that allowed you to tag vehicles for easier rocket attacks and a better sniper rifle. Speaking of guns, it is worth noting that much like previous games, bullets and munitions suffer from gravity, so shots sometimes need to be led to be lethal or accurate. Either way: pew! pew!
Vehicles run the gamut from helicopters (both cargo and attack and all hilariously difficult to fly), tanks, tracked recon vehicles, controllable UAVs, vans, etc. Most likely different vehicles will appear depending on the levels. Oh yeah and ATVs… so you can make sweet ramps brah!
HEARTS! ^_^
Graphics are fairly top notch with a lot going on with little noticeable slow down
The in-game audio is wonderful and I’m sure those of you with nice stereos will appreciate the time spent making it so
Driving around in a tank and running people over never gets old. Plus tree destruction!
Looks very very customizable after you start leveling up
HATES! >_<
The frame rate is bit of a bummer after playing smoother games such as Modern Warfare 2. Tighten that frame rate yo!
Bullet damage is still a bit arcadey. I have no idea that the soldiers of the future can stop bullets with their head multiple times and keep on going. Might be that frame rate…
That’s about all I got so far until I have a chance to play the full game in a month or so, pre-orders for the game net you nothing more special than perks you’d earn playing anyways, so whatevs.
What can I tell you, it’s an excuse to turn on my Wii. I liked the game ok when I played it Jango’s house when he imported the Japanese version, but now that the game is translated, I love the game! Going through the instruction manual in English and knowing how to do moves is a godsend. The art is crisp and colorful and it is really motivating me to get component cables for the Wii.
It seems that all the characters that were locked in the Japanese versions are unlocked for the U.S., but there are five new characters have to be unlocked. The new characters for the Capcom side are Frank West and Zero while the Tatsunoko cast is Joe the Condor, Tekkaman Blade, and Yatterman-2. It seems that they gave Tatsunoko one extra character to replace the genie, but who cares… he sucks. I only played two matches online and they were laggy. I couldn’t tell if it was the Internet connection or just Nintendo Wi-Fi. I’ll have to play with the others from PCA to figure the issues. All in all, I’m going to spend a lot of time to this game. Look for the game at this year’s Evo 2K.
Holy shit. After editing for over 12 hours between two days, I have to say that this episode of the Pinekast has got to be one of our finest EVAR!
Check out the 
