Jason Karney's blog

Animal Crossing: City Folk is the new Wii version of the hit game Animal Crossing. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the US-original Gamecube (GCN) version of Animal Crossing, and in fact, I just checked in on my town a couple of months ago. (Sadly, one of my original residents decided to move out, after several years of residence. I was surprised to say the least!)

The new City Folk appears to be a refinement of the series. It looks like a smoother version of Animal Crossing (GCN) modified with some features from Wild World (the DS iteration). Notably, terrain is on a curved surface instead of being flat, Copper runs the gate to the outside world tucked into a northern cave, the sky has constellations and I believe accessories are available.

I got my greedy paws on a key for the Little Big Planet (LBP) beta, which I had the opportunity to play over the last weekend. All in all, I'd have to say... not bad. (Bonus points if you know the movie in which Lisa Luder said those words.)

"Not bad." Which is not the praise that Sony and Playstation 3 owners everywhere would like too see bestowed upon this key video game, a unique entry and selling point as we go into the fourth quarter of 2008.

Although I had mixed feelings during my time with the beta, it was after discussing them with (our very own) Brad that they solidified into something I could concretely describe. Is LBP a game I want to spend $60 and countless hours of my limited free time exploring? I'm a generally creative guy. I like to sing, write music, draw or write in my free time. (Depending on my artistic mode and inertia at any given moment.) This game initially spoke to me as a good outlet to make things that I can share with the PS3-owning world. Yet after playing the beta for a while, I have some doubts.

In a word: wow! Bionic Commando Rearmed was released on XBox Live and Playstation Network this week as a downloadable game, and I think this game is "Rad." Er.... awesome!

This morning I awoke to my Wii's disc tray pulsing with that seductive blue glow that implies internet activity is going on. I was curious as to what might be updating. Most recently that glow brought news of a Wii system update. (Incidentally, the new Wii store shopping experience is an improvement for Virtual Console perusal.)

Did Samantha Fox sing this touchscreen phone's theme song back in the 80's? Here are my impressions about the main features of this shiny new device from Apple. It surfs the web, plays music and supports widescreen video viewing. It's even a phone!

Gagh! I close and my eyes and still see little bink bursts of bullets flying in geometrical patterns...

Waxing not-so-poetically with musings that touch on Xenosaga III, meander through the dislike of Final Fantasy XII, and most importanly give impressions of Rogue Galaxy.

And this is just a smattering of the games I expect to purchase over the fall season. So yes, once again, it's that time of year to ask: Why the #$#@ can't publishers spread the release dates for some of their big titles throughout the whole year?

No, the title isn't a reference to the PS1 game Azure Dreams by Konami. Rather, it's a reference to the beautifully rendered skies in Grandia III.

I picked up Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus last week, and that's what I've been playing over this past weekend. I wasn't sure initially that I wanted to play this game, given the negative word of mouth that it's received ever since our gaming press got their grubby mitts on the Japanese release, through to the final domestic release. As an admitted fan of Final Fantasy VII, I decided to brave Midgar once again, to see where developer Square Enix was going to take me.