Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Mario Kart Wii Blowout (Part 1)

So Mario Kart Wii is out at Europe and Japan, and nearly everything is revealed already (at least the tracks and characters). Some online footage has surfaced and already shows promise assuming the American servers don't get jacked the first day it comes out here. Here's some footage of one of the hidden characters (Clue - Super Mario Galaxy finally gets represented) as well as another new version of the infamous Rainbow Road. SPOILERS ahead anyway if u care.



R.I.P. GFW Magazine (1981-2008)


So today, Games for Windows Magazine (formerly Computer Gaming World) is shutting down and moving towards more of an online focus. Basically, the editors u know and love stay, but the magazine is officially dead now. Its not like Ziff Davis Media did this before, this decade saw the end of OPM (Official Playstation Magazine - I liked it because it came with PS2 demos), GMR, Xbox Nation, and Pocket Games. Now EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly is their only gaming magazine left and if that decides to shut down, that would be interesting. Back to GFW / CGW magazine, it is arguably the premiere PC gaming magazine in the market other than PC Gamer. Their last issue was the Sims 3 unveiling (pictured here). Its sad to see a magazine go down like this, but the Internet now has been more of the source for gaming news these days compared to magazines, even though the exclusive cover stories (like Game Informer's May Issue with Gears of War 2 - hopefully I'm getting mine this week) are still the major reason they're still around. In the past 6 months, I became more of a fan of their podcast, GFW Radio, because of the personalities and how dedicated they are to PC gaming even though I'm not that into it because I don't have the CPU to run such recent PC hits like Company of Heroes, Crysis, and the upcoming Starcraft 2.

So long GFW Magazine, hopefully the online-focused change can lead to the equal quality or better that the magazine had.