Toronto Thumbs

EVENT
Toronto Xbox LIVE Arcade Preview

Last night, I found myself in the upscale Yorkville district of Toronto. To those not familiar with the area, it’s really quite something. It’s a prissy, shi-shi land of boutique shops, bottle blondes who shop all day, and other deluded individuals willing to pay millions for tiny condos the size of a Prius.

So why was I there? Well, apart from my doing a bit of people watching beforehand, which fueled my general disdain for the conspicuous consumption of those wealthier than I will ever be, I was there to play video games. There’s a small ’50s diner in the heart of Yorkville called Flo’s Diner, and this was the location of the Xbox LIVE Arcade Preview Event.

Flat-panel monitors were set up along one side of the restaurant’s tiny bar and at the end of booth tables. On each, different games were being displayed. As media personalities began filing into the tiny diner, the bleeps and digitized gunshots got louder and louder. A good variety of games were shown, and some were obviously more popular than others (I’m looking at you, 1942: Joint Strike).

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Posted in Download Updates, Events, LIVE, News, Xbox 360 | 2 Comments »

OVERVIEW: Defend Your Castle

Yesterday Nintendo released a bunch of downloadable games over their WiiWare service. If you have a Wii, you can check it out by opening up your Wii Shop Channel and then navigating to “WiiWare.”

Last night I checked out the various titles available in the catalogue and because of the Wii’s rather limited storage space the only one I had room to download was Defend Your Castle. And I downloaded it accidentally, at that. The title costs 500 Wii Points, which translates to five dollars in the real world.

Once it was downloaded, I gave it a shot. Defend Your Castle is as straightforward a title as you can get for this game. You have a castle and you have to defend it against an onslaught of attackers. Visually, the game is simplistic. The background and castle itself look like cardboard cut-outs against a cork board background. Clouds drift by along the top of the screen and they, too, look like cutouts. Blue yarn is affixed to the top of them, and presumable there is a hidden person behind the scenes acting as puppeteer to them.

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Posted in Download Updates, Nintendo, Overviews, Wii | 1 Comment »

WiiWare Finally Launches

Check out the Wii Shop Channel today because WiiWare has gone live in North America. Right now the service features six different games that were developed just for the Wii. Here’s a list of the titles available today:

• FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: My Life as a King
• LostWinds
• Defend your Castle
• Pop
• V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack
• TV Show King

Posted in Download Updates, News, Wii | No Comments »

PlayStation Store Price Adjustments

It looks like Sony is finally showing some love to us up here in the Great White North. Changes that have already taken effect as of May 1st will see Canadian prices for downloadable content at the PlayStation Store align more closely with the US pricing model. The reasoning stated in an earlier press release by Sony was due to the ongoing strength of the Canadian dollar.

This price adjustment is most welcome as I never really understood why I had to pay a few dollars more for a download than someone over the border, especially when the Canadian dollar has been consistantly on par or better with US currency. So what does everyone think? Will this adjustment be persuading you PS3 and PSP owners to purchase more off the PlayStation store, or did it really never bother you?

Posted in Download Updates, News, PSP, PlayStation 3 | No Comments »