CircuitCity.com offers the Sony PlayStation 3 80GB Console bundled with Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots for $499.99 with free shipping. That ties a mention from a month ago for the lowest total price we’ve seen, but it’s also one of the few units we’ve recently seen in-stock. Sales tax is added where applicable. Note that the controller included is the newer DualShock 3 with rumble support.

With all of the Metal Gear Solid 4 hype going on, I decided that I want in on the Metal Gear series. Unfortunately, I have never finished any Metal Gear game so I know little about the story. That is, until today. I am attempting to play through all of the previous Metal Gear Solid games to get a deeper understanding of the series and the story before playing MGS4. I just finished Metal Gear Solid for the Playstation, and will be going over some thoughts I had about Metal Gear Solid before playing it, as well as how I felt during and after the game.

I always thought the Metal Gear series was a stealth action game, much like the Splinter Cell series but with more cinematic camera angles. I thought there were some puzzle elements to it as well. I had actually attempted to play Metal Gear Solid when it first came out but lost interest after losing a few times on the second boss.

After getting past the second boss this time around, I learned that the game is not all stealth action. The guards seemed few and far between. The ones I did come across were fairly easy to avoid and kill. It felt like there were more bosses than guards. The boss fights all seemed to happen one after another with not much in between. This is not necessarily a bad thing mind you, just not what I was expecting. The bosses seemed fairly easy as well. The only thing that made the boss fights a challenge were the controls. I’m sure the controls felt spot on when the game came out, but a decade later, it makes me wonder if the game would be a challenge at all if the controls were better.

After finishing the game and thinking back on it, I realized that the story didn’t do much for me. Don’t get me wrong, the voice acting was great and the cut scenes were interesting enough, but I just did not feel attached to the character at all. In most cases, I feel a bit sad when I beat a good game and, in some cases, attempt to play through it a second time. I had no such feelings with Metal Gear Solid. I did enjoy the game while I was playing it, but as soon as it ended, I was glad it was over.

The balance and polish of Bad Company, along with the “Gold Rush” game mode, make it a truly amazing online experience. In each round, there is an attacking team that is trying to blow open some gold crates, and a defending team trying to protect the crates. This sounds like a typical game mode for any shooter right? It is until you add an almost fully destructible environment, unlockable weapons, and effective classes. What you are left with is pure gold… and my new favorite multiplayer shooter.

The destructible environments may sound like a gimmick before you play the game, but after a few rounds, you will see that it adds much more strategy to an already tactical game. Imagine taking cover and a few seconds later you have no cover at all. This helps keep the game moving and makes for some quick decision making.

Experienced Battlefield Veterans may have some trouble adapting to the game as there are a few changes. The biggest change for me was the fact that there are no parachutes. You are going to hate this at first, but after a while you will see why there are none. Basically, helicopters in Bad Company are meant for fighting, not transportation. It might also be hard getting used to the majority of classes not having a pistol, but I don’t miss it at all at this point.

I do have some complaints, but they have not stopped me from getting addicted to the game. My biggest complaint is the control scheme. The knife button is in the worst spot ever, and there is no way to change the button layout. Another problem I have with the game is the award system. It sounds like an odd thing to complain about, but after being in many games where my team lost due to a few guys trying to “Get 4 road kills with the helicopter in a round” or any other near impossible award; I can say that they are extremely annoying. I want achievements as much as the next guy, but not at the expense of a loss.

At any rate, it is worth a rent at the very least. Battlefield veterans should definitely try it before buying. I personally like it more than previous Battlefield games, but there are many who feel the opposite. Do yourself a favor and play it for a few hours before passing judgment.

I buy Xbox 360 games over Playstation 3 games because of the online community, the ease of joining a friend in an online game, and the achievements. To be fair, I have always liked the speed of the PS3 cross media bar compared to Xbox 360 blades that are ad heavy and extremely sluggish. As for the in-game cross media bar, it is a huge improvement but is still not as good as the Xbox 360 in-game communication system.

I was very excited at the thought of getting trophies for all the Playstation 3 games I own and was expecting to get some trophies that I may have already earned. Apparently, not all games will have trophies and the games that do will require you to play through them from the beginning. I was thinking about buying a few games for the PS3 that I already own on the 360 just as an excuse to play them again, but I doubt I will at this point. As usual, Sony just doesn’t get it. For something that should have been included with the system, the update is extremely underwhelming.

After getting addicted to DiRT for the Xbox 360, I started making a top-down, rally game in flash. Assuming I have the time, I’d like have a ton of tracks and cars as well as online racing/tournaments. It is very unpolished at this point and only has 1 track and 1 car… but here it is after a few hours.

If you are looking for a high definition video camera to mess around with, the Aiptek A-HD 720P High Definition Camcorder is your answer. I was looking for an inexpensive camera to make some videos for YouTube and this does a great job. Anything comparable is much more expensive.

• 1280 x 720 H.264 Video @ 30fps
• Connect to TV/VCR/DVD player to record video, pictures and audio
• Charge with USB or AC Adapter without removing battery
• 5MP CMOS sensor with still images up to 8MP
• 2x digital zoom with fixed focus

I made my first video which shows my X-Arcade stick w/ Amiga port in action. Unfortunately, the original HD video is too large to upload. It has been compressed multiple times and the aspect ratio has been changed by YouTube.

You may have noticed that it has been a while since my last post. For the last few months I have been putting the finishing touches on a social networking script I wrote. If you are into reading and writing poetry and stories, making friends online, having a public journal, and getting achievements (awesome) for doing it, check out the new members section at Lovingyou.com. If you are not into any of that, you can check out my profile at any rate.

Being tired of my original NES blinking when attempting to play games, I started looking for NES to Famicom adapters to use with my Super Joy III. After realizing the cheapest I could get them was around $25, I ordered an NES clone for about the same price. The clone I chose was the Family Boy 8. It comes with the system, two controllers, and the Famicom-NES adapter for around $30 on Ebay. I actually like the way the controllers feel more than the original NES controller and the NES Max controller.

The only problem I have with it is, if I bump it while it’s on, the game will sometimes freeze. This is due to the way the cartridge sits in the console. Other than that, it works better than my Original NES. It’s a great deal if you are looking to play some of your old NES games without an emulator or the Virtual Console (rip-off).

   

Synaesthete is an interesting mix of genres. It is part shooter and part rhythm. Imagine playing Geometry Wars but instead of pointing where you want to shoot, you have to press buttons to match the rhythm much like Dance Dance Revolution. If you are interested in trying it out, it can be downloaded for free here. Synaesthete is a finalist for the Independant Games Festival so be sure to vote for it if you like it.

I added an Atari/Amiga/Commodore joystick port to my Xbox 360 X-Arcade stick today… Why you ask? Sensible World of Soccer of course! Although I never played the older versions, I have become very addicted to the recent Xbox Live Arcade release. The guys at sensiblesoccer.de seem to prefer an Amiga joystick over any other type of control method so I decided I would give it a shot. Since the Xbox 360 controller can be used on the PC, I figured this project would also be good for emulation.

  

The gamepad I used is a wired Xbox 360 MicroCon Game Pad Pro. I had to use a relay (TF2E-4.5v-1-H50  ATF20620) on the left and right buttons because they don’t share a common ground. If you decide to do this and just want a joystick port on the controller and not the X-Arcade stick, you should use an opto-isolator instead of a relay as they are smaller.

1	UP
2	DOWN
3	LEFT
4	RIGHT
6	BUTTON
8	GND

On my controller, pins 3 and 4 go to the following relays which connect to the left and right d-pad buttons. Other controllers may be set up differently. Any button that does not share a common ground needs a relay or an opto-isolator.