The console wars, where the scarring battlefield of two or more different factions of gaming zealots identify themselves under a unified corporate banner in the hopes that their choice of gaming machinery will somehow be the one saving grace of their identity. I am a veteran of many of the original console wars, the worst one in my memory was the one that occurred between Sega and Nintendo back in the early 1990s when it was Super NES vs. Genesis for the “king of 16-bit” crown. It is only through the wisdom that I have gained in my 25 years of gaming that I know now how wrong these idiotic battles are.
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Here at MEGATONik we always strive to bring our readers new features that are either helpful or at the very least entertaining. I can guarantee that this new feature will do at least one of those each time I am at the writing helm. With that being said, welcome to The Budget Gamer for the week of July 14, 2008!

Not everyone out in the wonderful world of gaming can afford to buy new games all of the time, and from what I’m noticing it is foolish to do so for every game in your library (unless you are dying to get your hands on it).

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Denis Dyack’s Norse epic trilogy vaporware has finally been made corporeal with the demo that was released today on Xbox Live. The demo clocks in at a little over 1 Gb and is available to everyone but the Japanese.

What are you waiting for, quit reading blogs and go play some video games!

I feel like a lucky man because next Friday, I will be the sole representative of MEGATONik attending the first annual GEEX Show gaming convention in Salt Lake City. GEEX is short for Gaming and Electronics EXpo.
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Being the huge fans of the Guitar Hero series that most of us here at MEGATONik are, we’ve managed to stumble, and I do mean stumble, across the complete track listing for Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. I was pretty leary about picking this edition up because I thought it would be nothing but songs done by Aerosmith, but I’m glad to report that only about 63% of the 41 songs listed below are.
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Normally, I would pay The Daily Mail no attention, but this story needed to be commented on.

Nintendo, arguably the company responsible for the last two generations of fat children (it’s never the parents’ fault for not limiting their child’s game time) has now gone so far as to include a rating scale in their new game WiiFit that works off of the much hated Body Mass Index (BMI).

There have been reports of children being told that they are ‘obese’ according to the rating that the game gives you based on said BMI number. Many of these unsightly, low-self-esteemed, butterball-ed children, along with their equally chunky parents, have seen this message of obesity and have become offended and gone ‘Wii Wii Wii all the way home’.

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Today, Rare has shown and confirmed that cooperative play will be a feature in the highly anticipated Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise. Sadly, there is still no confirmation on whether or not there is an online co-op mode. As it stands, Rare has only said that they hope to have the feature implemented by the time it is released.

In a statement by Rare about the co-op mode:

“The other player will not have full control over the game, and, for example, will not be able to build new houses or other constructions, but with spade in hand you can help with tending the garden thus gaining a form of magic for every useful act than can be used to turn objects in the garden into different things.”

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In an interview with the Seattle Times, John Smedley (president of Sony Online Entertainment) stated after being asked whether the recent realignment within his branch is an attempt to increase the PS3’s online network:

“I think MMOs are going to be a real strong point for the PS3 long term — there’s going to be some great ones on the PS3. You’re not going to find ‘The Agency’ on the [Xbox] 360.”

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I don’t know about you guys but I spend a considerable amount of time playing what I (and many other gamers) thought to be a children’s game. To this day I am still trying to get a Roario and an Elephanilla to stay in my garden.

Luckily at MS Gamers Day, Rare not only leaked info out about the new Banjo Kazooie game, but also a game that I will probably be the first in line on release day to get…Viva Pinata 2.

The tentative title for the game is Viva Pinata: Trouble In Paradise and we were lucky enough to secure a half dozen screenshots to put up. Since this is only the first day of the MS Gamer’s Day event, lets hope that they have even more amazing items to reveal tomorrow.

Michael Pachter, an analyst for Wedbush Morgan, is putting his cart before the horse by speculating on what the NPD report for April (which is expected for release on the 15th) will state.

He casually says that Pokemon will sell well, GTAIV will sell many copies and push more people to buy new game systems, Mario Kart Wii will drive more sales for Nintendo, as will the continually high selling copies of Guitar Hero III and Rock Band.

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