Francis older than one year ago

Can anyone explain this?   My only guess is that it would end the match earlier and they wanted more kills.

This film evokes feelings similar to the wonderment in Jurassic Park and the epicness (not a word, but should be) of Lord of the Rings.

Finally CGI that doesn't make you think "oh, that part is CGI".  The world is believable... it sucks you in and never spits you back out.

The story drags a litlte at first and the plot is far from life changing, but it holds your attention the entire 2 hours and 40 minutes by bouncing between the two sides with well developed characters (and being facinated with seeing even the most trivial stuff in 3D).

This was my first 3D movie, and although it was a great experience (this film is perfect for IMAX and 3D due to the sweeping landscape shots and sky-high locales), 3D technology still has a ways to go before it becomes ubiquitous.  Took about half the movie for me to adjust to it. 

Great cinemtography in the high action scenes.  Lots of stuff going on but I never felt overwhelemd or lost.  Good use of slow-mo helps.

In conclusion, I give it a 4/5.  Though the story is kinda shallow, the experience is an amazing one worthy of all the hype.

Doesn't work in IE.

do want

The winner of the 3rd Annual Tree Decorating contest is...

Nastasia!

Runner-ups are:

Manpersonguything

and Beat

Letting you submit free-form drawings resulted in some very... interesting Christmas trees.

Select Sega Genesis titles are 500 Wii Points (normally 800) now until January 6th.

• Sonic The Hedgehog
• Sonic The Hedgehog 2
• Sonic The Hedgehog 3
• Gunstar Heroes
• Toe Jam & Earl
• Puyo Puyo 2
• Shining Force
• Golden Axe
• Altered Beast
• Streets Of Rage 2

Deck the halls with downloadable fun this week as Nintendo offers 11 new games to engage and entertain everyone in the household. Among this week's highlights is the Virtual Console™ debut of the original Super Smash Bros.™ game, bringing the total of downloadable games for the WiiWare™ and Virtual Console services to a fabulous 500 and featuring a host of beloved characters from across the Nintendo universe.

Super Smash Bros.
Original platform: Nintendo 64™
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1-4
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) - Cartoon Violence
Price: 1,000 Wii Points
Description: Choose from an all-star cast of Nintendo characters in a frantic melee to prove who will be the ultimate brawler. Utilize the easy-to-learn but hard-to-master controls and battle it out in the single-player mode, earning point bonuses and unlocking hidden characters along the way. Enter VS Mode to take on up to three other players simultaneously. Inflict damage using each character's unique set of special moves, familiar items and power-ups, eventually winning by knocking your opponents off the screen in one of the interactive stages, each with a Nintendo theme. Need a moment to catch your breath? Polish your skills in Training Mode or destroy targets in Bonus Stages specific to each character. Are you ready to test your mettle against all comers, including the powerful Master Hand?

Sad thing is, this isn't a comedy.

(warning: language)  70 minutes long, but more entertaining than the actual movie.

Currently at 162.

Gaming Rules:

• All Pokemon must be caught within TheSpeedGamer’s house, no trades will be done to outsiders,
• All pokemon that are only attainable through events only will be pre-loaded onto one of the carts.
• Games being played: Fire Red, Leaf Green, Heart Gold, Soul Silver, Ruby, Sapphire, Diamond, Pearl.

Here are some good factoids from Iwata's interview with and Tezuka and Nakago:

• The first Super Mario and Zelda titles were made simultaneously, with the same staff.
• Spinning bars of fire were first in Zelda, but were then transferred to Mario.
• At first Zelda was only going to be a series of dungeons (no over ground world)
• SMB levels were designed on graph paper, and took a full day to get a change onto a ROM.
• World 1-1 was the last level finished.
• The grass and clouds in SMB are the same object.
• Goombas were added last.  At first it was going to be only Koopa Troopas.
• Heart pieces in Zelda came about because they wanted more items in the game.
• The P-Wing from SMB3 stands for Paratroopa (Koopa Paratroopa's wing)
• Miyamoto wanted to put Yoshi in SMB3
• They attempted to put multiplayer in SMB3, SMW, and NSMB DS.
• All the Super Guide & Hint Movies in NSMB Wii were performed by real players.

"So in that sense, you could describe New Super Mario Bros. Wii as being the first straight-ahead evolution in the horizontally-scrolling 2D platform game since Super Mario World, with which it is comparable in terms of the attention to detail and care that went into it."

No, I didn't make this one.

Over 11,000 entries.  Later they will announce more winners.

You didn't think I would forget one of our oldest traditions did you?  Unlike previous years, we don't have any ornament items to hang... but instead now you can decorate your tree how ever you want!

Go to "Edit Profile" and click the "Edit Your Tree" button.  It will take you to a photoshop-like tool where you can draw on your tree.  When you are done drawing, click File >Save to finish!

Voting will begin this weekend,  so you have time to get your tree looking good.

You can view someone's tree on their profile page.  Yep, we now have user profiles that show your tree, stats, posts, and games you own/want/play/beat.  Expect a lot more stuff to be added soon too.

Lots of new stuff on your Edit Profile page:

You can now link your old digibutter account to your account here.  This will help people know who you are and let you claim your old username.  It will also set your joined date and may be used in the future for rewards and to pull down other stats.  I will eventually remove this ability, so link it while you can!

You can also set your username (it defaults to random letters & numbers).  This will help us tell people apart even if they have the same name, since no one can have the same username.  Also the link to your user profile is now easier to remember... digibutter.nerr.biz/profile/username 

In addition to your username, you can set a password.  So you can now login using a regular username/password as an alternative to OpenID.  This is a good backup incase your OpenID provider stops working.  Click the old-school login link at the bottom of the Sign In page.

ROTATE

"Join the Blue Bomber and Proto Man as they hit WiiWare with an all-new dose of NES-style awesomeness."

I now auto-collapse the posts and load more on the page.  Click on the grey info bar to expand a post and see it fully formatted.  Clicking on the topic title opens the topic in it's own page.

You can still Quick Reply, but you can also now post fully formatted replies on the view-topic page.

I think I like this.  You can scan the list of topics like you do in regular forums, but you can still quickly view the full post in-line without loading a new page.  I also try to give hints about what the topic is about by showing if it has an IMaGe or VIDeo.  Post formatting/images are now more visible too. 

I know some of you don't like using your OpenID to login, partly because you are stuck with whatever you started with and it probably sucks (like Windows Live).  To help solve that problem you can now add a new one to your profile.  So if one stops working, you now have a backup!
Just "Edit Profile" and then click "Add another login account". 

I recommend using myOpenID.com.  That's what I have been using and I haven't had any problems.  Google seems to work well too.

(If you ever accidentally created a new user, let me know and I can merge them)

Summary:  L4D2 is a tiny step forward.  NSMB is a step backward.

Warning, a friendship has been detected!

... is a man with strange thumbs,  almost larger than a car.

Plug the box into your console & internet, then use the Spawn Player on a computer to access it from anywhere.  Plans to ship January 18th 2010.

Thanks to mystery person guy for the links.  One achivement is called "Double 64", an obvious tip of the hat to it's N64 roots.  I wonder if we will get it on VC?