Joonas

I was playing FIFA 08 on the DS this morning and was really surprised by how good it was; not really a "handheld port", just a good, proper version of FIFA. So many devs just don't make the effort to use the machine well.

Looking forward to this, looks really good.

Itagaki is the man. You can hate him all you like, but he just delivers.

"This is the greatest action game on the DS... I haven't played the competition", that is just the way it should be.

Brown's not all bad. I remember Ghost Recon Desert Siege being a very fresh experience after months and months of European forest crawling.

I got my corruption model on Monday. It does read "Slim & Lite" on top of the box, and the box is smaller than the old one, I'm told.

I gotta say, much improved. The weight reduction alone makes the PSP a lot better, as does the improved D-pad.

The driving mechanic is way different from Burnout. Flatout's dev Bugbear has a simulation background with Rally Trophy, which results in Flatout having a nuanced driving model. Sure it's arcade, but it's deep, nothing like Burnout's "cars on railroad tracks" approach.

Another thing I like in Flatout is weight. The cars feel like physical objects, not cardboard scenery you throw aside as in Burnout. I do love my Burnout, too, but Flatout is actually quite the different beast, regardless of the cosmetic sameyness.

Points for the man not bitching about the price and actually coming up with something creative to cover the expense. Also, tres cool Mario and choice of medium.

It looks like nobody mentioned the book on this: Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter by Steven Johnson. It's got a lot on games and makes a convinving case for how they challenge and make kids think, shifting the focus away from the childish (and disposable) subject matter and into the cognitive processes that are taking place. Recommended. It also covers TV and movies.

That's actually pretty neat. Weird that someone hasn't thought of that before.

I am so looking forward to this. The wife's been hogging the DS ever since Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, I want a monster game of my own!

When possible, yes. We've done a lot of Mario Kart on the Gamecube, for instance. Wario Ware is good fun, too.

Otherwise there's the same problem as with board games and whatnot: competition isn't always healthy! For instance, I find playing beat 'em ups against my wife a very exact art. You can't win by too wide a margin, and getting a beating really does feel like crap, much moreso than against other people.

Co-op games would be ideal, yes, but for us, it works that both play their own games at their own pace and then we just, you know, talk about them. As gamers do.