9 End of 2010 Free Giveaway: Donkey Kong Country Returns

For those who haven't seen, Part One of my End of 2010 Giveaway is located HERE. And for those of you who have a Wii, here's your free chance to win a brand new copy of Donkey Kong Country Returns. The reason why I have a giveaway with this item is that while I love cooking and coming up with new recipes, I'm also a total and complete nerd. I mean, its in my Job Title (Software Engineer). I've always had a love for video games, and in a year of many good video games (2010 in my opinion was the best year for gamers this side of 2000) Donkey Kong Country Returns stood out as the best in my opinion. So look below for the rules and how to enter!

PRIZE:
A free copy of Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Nintendo Wii!

END DATE:
January 3rd, 8pm EST.

HOW TO ENTER:
For each of the following that you do, you'll gain one entry into the contest (i.e. If you do the first, you'll gain one entry, while if you do all three, you'll be entered three times):

1. Follow my Blog using the Google widget on the right sidebar, and comment on this post if you're interested in entering. 
2. Tweet @TRCrumbley is giving away a free copy of Donkey Kong Country Returns at http://bit.ly/fmNucr
3. Share this contest on Facebook or Google Buzz using the Share Buttons on this post. Leave a comment on this post saying you did this (I have no easy way of tracking this like I do with Twitter).

Enjoy, and thank you to all my readers!

0 I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

Less than a week til Christmas! Enjoy with a rather unique snowflake (via The Daily What) ...

0 Donkey Kong Country Returns: Mid-way Review

Image from GameInformer

A few months ago after E3, I posted links and previews to Donkey Kong Country Returns (DKCR), a new Nintendo Wii game, developed by Retro Studios, that brings Donkey and Diddy Kong back to their roots. I personally have many fond memories growing up playing the originals on the Super NES, so I had high hopes and expectations for it. Needless to say, DKCR far surpassed my expectations.

The gameplay in this game is similar to the original Donkey Kong Country, but has enough elements to change it up. The most obvious change is the inclusion of shaking controls. Using various directional inputs and a shake of the remote, you can roll, ground pound, and blow air onto elements in the map to make secrets appear. I was initially worried about this, fearing it would be too gimmicky. However Retro Studios does a wonderful job of making the motion controls fun and inventive. In addition to this, DKCR is perhaps one of the most difficult 2-d platformers I have ever played, rivaling and even perhaps surpassing some of the red plumber's best games. DKCR balances the difficulty making it not infuriating, but enjoyable.

Perhaps even more than the actual gameplay, the atmosphere and presentation of the game blew me away. The visuals look like they could be on the Xbox or PS3, and the bright colors really pop out of the screen. The style of this game is some the most beautiful out there, including some silhouette-drawn levels that left me playing the level over and over just to see the beautiful art style again. 

Image courtesy of IGN.com

Meanwhile, some of the music will cause many older players to reminisce of the older SNES, while the rest of the soundtrack is an amazing addition to the Donkey Kong music library. 


Thus far I'm only half way through the game, but with lots of hidden collectibles and secrets, I foresee myself and others playing this for days to come. If you own a Wii and haven't turned in on in weeks because you aren't sure what to play in it, go buy this game. You'll be very happy you did.

0 An Apple a Day...

Keeps your wallet all dry and empty. Yes, this does sound hypocritical because I own an iPhone. However, I own it because its one of the best smart-phones on the market for what I need. That being said, being the computer engineer that I am, I would never purchase a Mac. Below is one of several reasons...

Expensive Apples

2 Why Get Excited over Portal 2?

For those who don't know, the original Portal was an amazing puzzle game that involved creating portals to take advantage of physics. Portal 2 takes it to a whole new level...

Portal 2 PC Games Gameplay - Repulsion Gel

Portal 2 at IGN.com

0 More Metroid

Here's a trailer featuring some of the gameplay from the new Metroid game, out at the end of this month. Courtesy of Game Trailers.

0 Arkham Asylum Sequel Titled and Dated

This week the sequel to what's generally agreed as the best Batman video game created, Arkham Asylum, has been given a title and a general release date.

Say hello to Batman: Arkham City in Fall 2011.

0 All of this has happened before...

Below is the trailer of the second half of Caprica season 1, set to start in January (ie, way too far from now). I've enjoyed the intelligent writing of most of the first half of season 1, and thankfully from the looks of the trailer the show starts to feel a bit more like its action filled brethren BSG...

0 Bungie's Epic Farewell to Microsoft

Latest Trailer from Bungie to entice customers to buy its final Halo title. The trailer below is the story of Halo:Reach, due out mid September. Video courtesy of IGN.

More Halo: Reach News & Previews

0 Master Chief is in Halo: Reach

Article @ IGN

0 E3: Nintendo 3DS

So needless to say from everything I've read from various sites, this seems to be a pretty impressive piece of hardware that will be coming out at some point in the future...no release date or pricing as of now. Below is IGN's in depth analysis of the 3DS hardware.

More Nintendo DS Videos at IGN.com

0 Biggest Sony E3 Surprise...

And that is Portal 2, which should be coming for XBox 360 and PS3, with some added exclusives for the PS3 version. Trailer below, courtesy of IGN. Enjoy.

More Portal 2 News & Previews

Part 2 of Sony's Surprise? The next Metal Gear Solid, which may or may not use the new motion controls, Playstation Move...check out the details at http://ps3.ign.com/articles/109/1098800p1.html

2 E3 Nintendo Pwns: Brand new video game trailers

Below I have embedded several trailers of brand new Nintendo Wii video games from IGN video.

Donkey Kong Country Returns

More Donkey Kong Country Returns News & Previews

Goldeneye 007 (Wii Remake!)

More GoldenEye 007 News & Previews

Metroid: Other M (Coming out in August)

More Metroid: Other M News & Previews

1 E3 Nintendo Pwns: Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword

So I read a live blog from IGN of the big 3 conferences, Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft. In my opinion, Nintendo owned E3, with Sony in a close second, and Microsoft in a far off third. The first of several reasons why Nintendo did so well was their premiere of the next Legend of Zelda video game. Video premiere below, courtesy of Wii IGN.

More The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Info

IGN's first impressions of the new Zelda game read very impressive. The game uses the Motion Plus peripheral, which allows the player to have the most precise video game swordplay on the market. The programmers took advantage of this, adding several enemies that require strategy to kill them, and not just mashing of the A button. You can also use the Nunchuck as a shield to deflect projectiles and attacks.

Of course with Zelda comes items, and some classics return to join the new. The classic stables of slingshots, bows and arrows, and bombs return. The new game play added with these items take advantage of the Motion Plus, playing very much like Wii Sports Resort. There is also the addition of new items the whip and remote control bug. The whip can be used to lash enemies and to grab enemies from afar, while the remote control bug allows you to fly a bug that can grab and release items.

For now that is the only new news on this game, and I'm sure there will be more to come during this week.

0 iPhone 4 and iOS4

As many people already know, Steve Jobs announced yesterday Apple's new iPhone and revealed more details on its new operating system. Aside from information that's been public for months, he touched on many different additions. I'd like to touch on the facts and points that I believe should end up being a turning point for anyone looking to purchase a new iPhone or upgrade their existing.

• Just by looking at the iPhone 4, its easy to see the differences between it and its predecessors. iPhone 4 has a glass front and back, along with metallic framing. The important part here is the frame is designed to improve cell phone reception (and most likely compensate for AT&T coverage) and the glass that covers the rest of the phone is supposed to be engineered such that it minimizes damage from impact. More hard facts on this will have to wait until professionals do reviews of it.
• iPhone 4 has upgraded their rear camera to 5 mega pixel, and has added a front camera for taking videos and doing video calls with Apple's Facechat. Hopefully other companies will develop video chat apps such as Skype to not pigeonhole this new addition.
• The screen resolution is high enough to make images and videos crisp, and to improve text visibility.
• The iPhone 4 is supposed to be significantly faster, more details on how much will come when reviews start coming in the next week or two.
• iPhone 4 will use the new iPhone OS (aptly named iOS).
• iOS has many new additions, the most significant being multitasking. However, this is only supported on the 3GS and 4 models, since previous models do not have the hardware to support it. Sorry. Only way around this is to upgrade, jailbreak, or (the easiest and best decision) switch to the Google Droid. Which already has this. On all phones.
• If you are looking to purchase a new phone, you'll be able to preorder them in a week, and they hit the floor in late June. If you already have an iPhone and want to upgrade, just go online to att.com and check if you are available for an upgrade. The positive side to this is that many more people are eligible for an upgrade than a year ago when iPhone 3GS came out. From what I have read, the pricing for new and upgrades should be the same, for $199 and $299 for differing hard drive capacity.

So this is the general gist of what the new iPhone upgrades mean. I hope this is helpful for any looking to purchase or upgrade. Next week is E3, so expect me to blog on many of the new innovations in gear and video games.

0 Fixing a broken Windows

So the title of this post summarizes how I feel about Windows 7. I downloaded it from IEEE (thanks little for the info), and upgraded my computer from Vista to 7. Here's my impressions:

Windows 7 really feels like Vista 2.0 to me; it feels like what Microsoft should have delivered two years ago when it came out with Vista, instead of the slow, bogged down black hole of an operating system that's about as annoying as that little fairy from Zelda on the N64. Vista is a demon of an operating system that hogged resources (albeit is slowly getting better with regular Microsoft updates) and tried to hide all of its flaws under a flashy new interface. An interface, which, to those used to Windows' paths was about as confusing as Narnia to navigate.

Now, as a computer engineer, I was taught that an operating system should be minimal, shouldn't hog resources, and should really be a mere tool to whatever you are trying to do on a computer. That is why I do, and will always dual boot in Linux.

But this article is about my honest, geeky impressions of Windows 7. I am pleasantly surprised by how functional and fast this OS is. Windows 7 feels like Microsoft's closest attempt to the textbook definition of what an operating system should be; fast, functional, and easy to use. Microsoft decided to take one from Apple and polish up the task bar (to anyone who has used a Mac, it feels very similar to that now.) and overall succeeded. However I am annoyed that now in my toolbar, I will no longer be able to read if someone has gchatted me while I'm multitasking at my computer. Sigh.

Continued impressions tomorrow...

0 If you're gonna be careful with your privates in real life...

Why not be careful with them online?

Before reading this post, I'd suggest reading this article just to get a bit of a background on what I'll be talking about: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32467318/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

This article brings up a strikingly good point: If you're going to put something online you want to keep private, yet show to a selected public, you have to be smart and careful about it. The article phrases it best when saying "you are responsible for where you choose to put your private information." Seems simple and straightforward, right? Then why are there so many issues with online privacy, and what site such as Facebook and Twitter are allowed to use for their own commercial use? Below I've listed what I think are relevant issues in the debate of online privacy:

1. Nothing is for free. So Facebook provides what some would argue is an amazing service to its users; a free online social networking site that allows you to stay up to date with friends, share pictures, send messages between one another, essentially making the phrase "Keep in touch" a whole lot easier. But is it really for free, I mean Facebook has to be able to run their business somehow. Domain names (the way Facebook is actually identified as Facebook), copyrights, iPhone apps, maintenance, innovation, all of these things cost money, yet we're able to use it for free. How so? This leads into my next point.
2. Contractual agreement. Yeah, that thing you just check off that you've read when we all know that probably only 1% of the population actually reads those things fully. I mean, I'm signing up for a Facebook account, not for the loan on a car, I don't have to worry about anything tricky in the contract? Wrong. I believe the current state of Facebook's EULA is that they have limited use of anything you post on their site. They're providing a service for you to put your private information on their public servers. Its no surprise that just a couple months ago they tried to change their contract to where they owned anything you posted on their website. By you putting your private information on their website, you're also saving a copy of it on the computers they own. That fact alone makes stuff that's private feel a little more public.
3. And finally, the modern day expectation for technology to work the way we expect it to. Call it a consequence of the dot com boom, the slow evolution of Lazy America, or sheer lack of knowledge of how the stuff in the background actually works. Its becoming more and more common in America for technology to automatically work the way we expect it to.
   

0 Current Story of my Life

The Title pretty much says it all....


On unrelated news, I'm halfway through my work week, and the weekend has prospects of a Little Beef Laser Tag! So effing excited.

0 xkcd truth

This is so true....source xkcd.com

0 Geek out time

To those who are not as nerdy as I, E3 is a video game/technology expo held in the beginning of June which is the time major publishers unleash their secrets to get a share of the market. These are the titles I'm looking forward to purchasing when they eventually come out... (Image credits to IGN.com)

1. Legend of Zelda Wii

Above is the game I'm probably most excited about. Nintendo has released the above image to prevent fanboys from throwing their Wiis out the window in the event of no tangible Zelda news. The main rumors are the girl (which looks an awful lot like the master sword) is going to be the Master Sword, if not some form of a weapon. I'm personally hoping (and predicting) she'll end up being able to turn into a variety of things, such as a sword or bow...here's hoping to creativity. Another bonus is that LoZ Wii will use the Motion Control + (more on that later).

2. Metroid: Other M


This gem right here was a complete surprise, as there was no indication that Nintendo would reveal such a thing. This is another entry in the Metroid series, and from the looks of it will be quite a mature adventure and potentially something amazing.

3. Super Mario Galaxy 2

The next entry in Super Mario Galaxy, should be just as good if not better than the first. Biggest addition revealed so far, playing with this guy:


4. New Super Mario Bros Wii

Another Mario title, only this is like the originals, with multiplayer. Seems to be promising. More new costumes, more insanity, and hopefully more fun.


There's my geek out moment, I'd throw a BSG timeline theory up here, but way too many ppl haven't seen 4.5 yet. (woot to it coming out in a month and to The Plan in the fall!)