Sunday, March 27, 2011

Relief for Japan

We all know about the earthquake in Japan and the tsunamis in the Pacific Ocean. The Video Game Pad sends its thoughts and prayers out to everyone that has been affected by these events. If you would like to help out you and donate to the Red Cross you can go to their website redcross.org. You can also text "REDCROSS" to 90999 and that will donate $10 to the Red Cross to help with relief for people in the wake of the disaster. Again thoughts and prayers out to everyone that has been affected by these events.

Also check out projectloveforjapan.org and their Facebook Fan Page. They are selling t-shirts for $15 each and 100% of proceeds go to rescue and relief.

If you know of any other organization collection donations for relief for Japan let me know by commenting on this post.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

PlayStation Underground

Video game magazines are an awesome thing. They let you know about the past, present and future of video game. In 1997 Sony tried something different and came out with a CD magazine call PlayStation Underground.



The first issue came out exactly 14 years ago today. It was a quarterly CD magazine that was a very great Idea. They also would release PlayStation Underground Jampacks which would give you a taste of what certain issues had to offer. The best part of the Jampacks is they would only cost $4.99. You could get 4 issues for $29.99. The PlayStation Underground was an awesome thing. It had two disks. Disc one would have interviews, codes, downloadable content and much more. Disc two would have game demos and preview videos of games. You could also unlock Easter Eggs if you hit the right button combination. On disc two of Issue 2.4 you could see the music video “Got the Life – by Korn”. In issue 4.1 there was an unlockable video tutorial for Syphon Filter 2. You had to enter a code to unlock the video and to find it out you had to look through the two discs and it would occasionally show you part of the code. When I unlocked it I found a few parts of the code and then I just guessed at the rest and got lucky. PlayStation Underground was a great idea. We had access to tons of codes, demos, videos and DLC before we had internet available on game consoles. The last issue was issue 5.1 and it was released in the 3rd quarter of 2001. The last issue was also the only issue exclusive issue for the PlayStation 2.Sony had an awesome idea realizing a CD magazine. Today we have internet magazines like EGMi (which is an awesome magazine). We can also download demos of games from our consoles. So in a time when we couldn’t do that PlayStation Underground was there.

To learn more about PlayStation Underground and what the issues had to offer click here.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Game(s) of the Day: Pokémon Black & White


Today’s game(s) of the day are Pokémon Black & White. I bought the Black Version but there aren’t too many differences between the two versions. If you have played any of the Pokémon games you know this to be true. Now Pokémon games all pretty much have the same style of game play so the originality is not very high with these versions, but if it isn’t broke don’t fix it. They really did an overhaul for the graphics. The graphics are awesome when you walk into a city it really looks like a city and you will see people walking down the street and everything. They have introduced triple battles in this version I haven’t done one yet, but I’m very excited about this feature. When you play through the game you can only catch the new Pokémon in the Unova region. Once you have beaten the Elite Four and the champion you will get to catch Pokémon from other game as well as the ability to trade Pokémon from previous DS versions of Pokémon games. One really cool thing is the inferred technology they added so that you can battle someone right then and there without got to a link station in Pokémon Center. Pokémon Black & White are awesome games if you are a fan of the series it’s definitely work picking up
Check out this video of a triple battle.