I bought Jim Sterling a ring... true story.







I can has hits?

Mudkips (ミズゴロウ, or axolotl to the sciency people who are doing things with their lives, unlike the readers reading) are an unrealistically cute Pokemon with a semi-less annoying catch phrase, and are ranked by God as the most kawaii things that ever didn't exist. They outrank desu, puppies, and even baby fuck. Mudkip was the starter pokemon no one actually picked but regardless they are an internet meme.



They are small blue Pokémon with a large fin on their head and I heard you FUKING LIEK THEM!

I'm delaying my blog about Ekans' potential to change the entire gaming industry to get this out of the way and quickly.

10. Snorlax... more like Borlax!

9. Meowth... more like dickinmy-meowth!

8. Lickitung... more like licking-dung!

7. Ditto... more like Shitto!

6. Pikachu... more like Stink-a-shoe!

5. Mewtwo... more like MyGoo!

4. Muk... more like stupid Fuk!

3. Jigglypuff... more like Jiggly-don't-touch-me-there-that's-e-NUFF!

2. Charizard... more like Char-is-hard! Because he has a BONER!

1. Ekans... more like big purple dong!

... by leaving a comment! Understand though, that the results probably won't be seen by Sony. Here's the survey in question:



And now, what I think of the items listed:

Exclusive Sony stuff: Sure that seems fair.

Extended Warranty: Again, fair... but pointless for those who've had their PS3 for longer than 3 years.

Access to Beta Games: That's fair if the access is simply early access and not denying non-subscribers the ability to be a part of a beta at all.

Early Access to All Store Content: M$ is making the same stupid mistake, and nobody is happy about it. Please, get this dirty thought out of your head Sony!

Cross Game Voice Chat: This should be available as a basic PSN service. I could see them putting a time limit on the basic service (~5 minutes @ unlimited sessions/day or maybe a solid 1 hour/day) and limiting it to one on one chats. If the premium service expanded upon the basic service by allowing unlimited with groups, that'd be fair.

1-hour Full Title Trial: This is a fair and interesting incentive for premium users, however, I've always felt that Sony should make trial versions of d/l only games on PSN mandatory just like they are on Xbox Live. I typically don't buy a game with out trying it out first, and a demo can sell me a game.



User to User Challenges: This sounds like it should be a basic PSN service to me. It'd be neat if they kept track of the info, like who you played against in a certain game and your w/l stats, or your stats against a specific player in all the games you've played together... I guess that'd make it "premium". I wouldn't be too interested in it, but I'm sure there are people that would be.

Free Access to PS1, PSMinis etc...: That's genius! It kind of reminds me of Sega Channel! Definitely a premium feature worth paying for.

Discounts on Store Content: That's fair, since you're already paying Sony a yearly subscription fee.

Member only in-game content: Boo! Hiss! Terrible idea! Unless the content is purely aesthetic (like a unique skin) or unless it's content that's available to be bought as DLC, then that's fine. But member only levels, characters, weapons, etc. would feel like denying the base customer something rather than adding something for the premium customer. Example: Premium users get the new RE5 content for free = good idea, Premium users get a new level where Leon Kennedy and Jack Krauser fight Bill Gates for control of the W virus with a little help from these enchanted blades they found in a greek temple = bad idea

Cloud Storage Space for Games: A good, fair incentive, that's got some decent value. I'd load my HDD up with music and video, then move all my games over to cloud storage. It'd be really nice if the mandatory installs for some games could be stored on the cloud.

Online Music Service: I'm completely indifferent about this... my musical tastes are eclectic and eccentric, and I doubt Sony would be offering anything I'd be interested in listening to. It's a fair incentive that I'm sure some people would be interested in.

Automatic Downloads and updates: This one should definitely be a PSN standard service. There are times when I don't realize I'm running old firmware until I go back and check old Dtoid posts. Not that I've missed anything important.... yet, but the option should be there to allow you to automatically d/l firmware updates. I feel like I might be misunderstanding this one though.

Facebook Connectivity: Again, couldn't care less... no facebook. I'm sure this would add value for someone.



Catch-Up TV: I guess it depends on how long we'd have to wait to catch up... a week max before this becomes irrelevant. Unless it's HD, then I might be willing to wait a little longer.

Netflix without Disc: As soon as this is possible, it should be a standard PSN feature. You're already paying for Netflix, and other Blu-Ray players can play Netflix out of the box with no additional charge. Putting this feature in a "premium" package, like a few other items on this list, feels more like denying it to base customers than adding it for premium customers.

Finally, there's the price point. Is anything in here worth $70/year? I think that there's two ways it would be worth that price. First, if they give us free access to all the PSone and PS Minis, plus all the themes, and threw in the Cloud Storage and the Extended Warranty and Sony Exclusive stuff, I'd feel it's worth $70/yr. Likewise, if we got Catch-Up TV, the online Music Service, purely aesthetic member only in-game content or free optionally available-for-purchase DLC, Discounts on Store merch, Full Title Trials, and early access to game betas along with the Warranty and Sony exclusive stuff, then I'd pay the full $70/yr. In my eyes, any other combo (aside from including them all for $70) would only be worth the $30/yr price tag.

That being said, a lot of those features should definitely be included in future firmware updates, and shouldn't be tied to a subscription service. I hope Sony isn't getting greedy with PSN now that the PS3 is finally selling. The optimist in me feels that Sony will come to it's sense and offer a service that provides content rather denying it to the basic customer. The cynic in me keeps picturing Kaz Hirai with big, bulging dollar signs for eyes.

Well here we are, 2 and a half months later, and I'm just now seeing this. Thanks guys! I've been doing this thing ever since GTA IV where I've been waiting a few months before playing games and I haven't been keeping up with video game news (aside from watching the E3 pressers recently) to avoid getting over-hyped for games.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the prize.

The top of the box...


...and the front.


The box was full of hotness...

Here are the chicks...


...Also, cocks.


They included some pandemic pigs


Annnnnnnnd.... the highlight of the box (for me anyway)


All the animals were inside of this wacky ass spaceship


This was also included and I have no idea why.


Maybe for probing??

Ah well... this blog post has taken far too long to put up... soooooooo

RANDOM IMAGE GOOOOO!

Let me just start this post by saying that I am a fanboy by no means... but I do have a slight bias for Nintendo products. I feel that this is just something that comes with being 24 and having been raised on the NES, Gameboy, and SNES. A lot of the good memories of my formative years were courtesy of Nintendo, so I am a little biased.



That being said, yesterday my g/f picked up her wii-mote to play the new Harvest Moon on the Wii. She managed to turn the Wii on with the wii-mote, but couldn't do anything else. There were no little blue lights coming on at the bottom of the wii-mote, and no pointer. Assuming the batteries were dead, she replaced them with fresh batteries. Again though, she got no response from the wii-mote. I told her that she could use my controller, and that I'd call Nintendo's customer service to get this fixed. I had no worries and, in fact, had nothing but great expectations (see wat I did thar? With the image?) for the service I was about to get, based on other peoples' experiences I'd read about here on Destructoid.



So I called Nintendo's customer support, and after letting the system know that I'm not a complete idiot, (yes the wii is plugged in, and yes the sensor bar is working] I was connected with a Nintendo customer service rep and I explained the issue to him. He had me go pick up the second wii-mote and try to sync it. When I picked up the wii-mote, it was HOT! I took the battery cover off and tried syncing the controller that wasn't on. I told him that this didn't work, and that the batteries and the wii-mote were both pretty hot. He said that it appears that the Wii Remote is failing to get power from the batteries, and that I should buy a new one. I told him that this controller was a wii-mote bought at launch, and rarely even used, and he told me that the cost of sending it back for repair would be about $50. At this point, I hung up on him. I was amazed at the lack of service provided by a company that I had always had a tremendous amount of respect for.



So now I have a $40 paperweight. Any ideas on what I should do with my worthless dead wii-mote now? I was thinking about wrapping it in a blanket, and putting it in a 100 degree oven for an hour.