Ron Simmons

Sorry to disappoint

It's a link from prowrestling.net, and here's it's content:

WWE may have given away the identity of the mystery person in the 2-21-11 video, as the Save Mart Center website lists "The Return of The Undertaker" for the Feb. 21 edition of Raw. You can view the video at SaveMartCenter.com.

 

Powell's POV: Well, I guess it was fun while it lasted. There's even a WWE video that hypes the return of Undertaker. I suppose it's possible that we'll get both events that night, but I think it's more likely that WWE blew their own mystery angle. Thanks to Dot Net reader Joe T. for passing along the link.

Call me cynical but I reckon it'll simply be the debut of Tyler Black ala Seth Rollins in some dark and mysterious character... I'd love it be Sting though!!!

If it were a new wrestler I think they'd have at least shown part of his face. And they never usually give dates so early for debuting newbies either. It's clear they're wanting to create a mystery here. I'm excited to see where it goes. Presumably whoever it is will have a Wrestlemania match, otherwise I don't see why they'd debut them on the first RAW on the lead up to Wrestlemania.

Dunno if Goldberg's a decent shout, but I'm throwing his name out there too. Although I'm actually beginning to think it's Sting.

As Ian says, it seems odd they'd hype up someone in this way so close to Wrestlemania if it wasn't a big deal. My main worry is that it's Triple H or 'Taker. Not that I don't want them to come back before Wrestlemania, but I do think a return of a contracted star based of this would be a letdown.

Is that legit? That would be pretty sweet.

 

If it was the Undertaker returning, you'd get the standard "Undertaker Returns" stuff above the date. They always do that. Sting's in TNA just now, right?

No, as far as I know.

I've read talk of it being Kong, but that's about as likely as them running a rape angle on RAW. They're not going to hype her up that much. Plus her legs are much fatter than that of the person in the video.

Right, Its Sunday, but Ive not actually played this yet

 

Also Iam away at some point next week.

 

Therefore unless anyone has a objections will extend this until Tuesday and the New 'week' will run from there

No objections from me.

Final Fantasy IX, played portably on the PSP. I actually quite like the card game on this, that everyone else seems to hate. The game is still vastly overrated, and not a patch on VII, but I'm still enjoying it.

Also, Football Manager 2011 on iPhone. FM on the go, heck yeah!

First of all I'll nominate a well known but (I believe) underrated and overlooked game: Final Fantasy V for the SNES.

Now, Sonic Triple Trouble...

Ahhhh Dr Robotnik. Chasing after those Chaos Emeralds again. Given the mass of technology at his disposal he'd probably be better served from actively killing Sonic rather than creating elaborate levels of Robots for him to race through, but what have you?

Sonic Triple Trouble is easily the strongest Sonic game on the system, but for some reason or other it's kind of been forgotten in time. People always talk about the Mega Drive Sonic games, but you rarely hear the equally brilliant Master System and Game Gear games getting credit. Sure they're not as slick musically, but the gameplay is pretty superb.

Particularly in this game. That said, I'm going to start off the review by talking about the bad stuff. It has to be mentioned. Firstly, the music is predominantly terrible. There are one or two exceptions, but even those are "only just" exceptions. If the game was remade with better graphics and music (like Super Mario Bros 3 on the GBA, for example) you know that manny of the horribly bleepy tunes would actually translate to something quite fantastic. But unfortunately that hasn't happened, and you have to endure the migraine inducer that is 8 bit music. It also doesn't quite "feel" like a Mega Drive Sonic game. Just because of the way Sonic handles, nothing more. That's a minor fault, but a fault nonetheless.

If you can get past these faults - well, maybe "problems" is a better word to use - you'll find a fantastic Sonic game. The difficulty is just right. No frustrating special stages like in the MD Sonic 2, and the idea of "speed" isn't wasted either. If you want to rush through the levels as fast as you can, that's all OK too.

The game introduces a new character who I quite like. I don't know why Nack the Weasel hasn't appeared again, he was a creepy little bastard who made a pretty good side villain to Robotnik. Knuckles is another obstacle in the game, and is at his bastardly best trying to hinder you at every given opportunity.

The zone design is a little familiar in places, but that's kind of what you want in Sonic games, a mix of the familiar and the new, which you certainly get with some fun original moments (such as the traintop chase sequence) the familiar aspects to the game make it an identifiable Sonic game, rather than just a platformer with a fast protagonist.

I'm going to highly recommend this game, and I hope that at some point Sega produce a remade collection of Sonic's Master System/Game Gear hits. Don't make them "3D", Sega, just treat them as if they were making a move to the Mega Drive...

8/10

Any update for this week, pat?

I've not yet posted a review, but that's because I've been playing the game - as in I played it to the point I actually forgot about why I bought it!

Excellent fun, surprisingly fun in fact. I expected a 2D Mario Sunshine, and thank God that's not what I got. I absolutely loved this game, credit to whoever the heck nominated it. Brilliant choice.

The intro was terrible, I agree with Mike there but I too think the score was a tad harsh. It's good brainless fun, a game that doesn't need any sort of plot to be enjoyable.

9/10

Friday Night Smackdown

The Miz

CM Punk

Sheamus

Daniel Bryan

Jack Swagger

William Shatner's spoken word versions of WWE entrance themes - Monday Night Raw

The CM Punk commentary episode of NXT season 3.

David Otunga (though I think he'll improve in time)

Eric Young

Orlando Jordan

Bret Hart (Yeah, he wasn't around for long. But around he was...)

The Nasty Boys

The WWE diva division

The Monday night wars

Cena in Nexus

Cena's firing

NXT

Daniel Bryan

Randy Orton

Rey Mysterio

The Pope

The Firemen? I've been intrigued by this one for a while. I'll post my review over the weekend.

CM Punk

The Miz

Michael Cole

Alberto Del Rio

Jeff Hardy

Wade Barrett

Batista

Rey Mysterio Vs. CM Punk

Shawn Michaels Vs. Undertaker

Daniel Bryan Vs. The Miz

Bret Hart Vs. Vince McMahon. Easily, without a shadow of a doubt.

Christmas has kind of put pot to me posting a review (and I'd imagine would have affected others too?) and since I'm only accessing the site on a phone, I'll post a quick verdict - the game was OK. I've played better retro shooters of similar style (Project X, Parodius, Xenon etc) but in spite of that I still enjoyed the game. Graphically it was cheerful, the gameplay is fun if repetitive and the music is OK too.

7/10

Mike, you said it's a shame ScummVM only works for Adventure games - try Dosbox for anything that ran on DOS, brilliant little tool.

Have you tried ScummVM? Google it - it's a perfectly legal engine designed to run older adventuregames on new PCs.

Cheers for the tip there. I've not been big on the telltale games to be truthful. What I'm kind of wanting to see is something that will probably never happen - a retro style adventure game. Not the twisted shitbag that Monkey Island has become. I like the old style pretty, colourful graphics.

And yeah, there are a few good modern adventure games - but nostalgia is keeping me from properly loving them, dammit!!

And pat, Simon is a horrendously annoying protagonist. It didn't bother me too much, I just looked at it in a Peep Show kind of way. Or It's Always Sunny in Philladelphia. Odious main characters, but the shows are actually good enough for that not to matter.

Simon The Sorcerer II - The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

I've always enjoyed adventure games, some more so than others. I'd been sad to see the genre fall into nothingness in recent years, with games like Monkey Island, Grim Fandango and, of course, Simon The Sorcerer II delivering fantastic writing alongside fun gameplay. The iPhone has led to a bit of a retro revival of the genre, and I'm hoping decent sales may see some of the better games revived in new incarnations.

One of the better games wasn't, however, the original Simon The Sorcerer. The writers were gagging to write for the character of Guybrush Threepwood, and tried to do it with Simon, but failed miserably. The character wasn't anywhere near as endearing, he's not as funny, warm or likable. Did they sort this problem for the sequel? Not really, but it doesn't matter. The game is fantastic, and well written - possibly the biggest improvement I've ever seen from one game to the sequel. Simon's a cock, but it isn't much of an issue. You spend a great part of the game hoping he'll get his c**t kicked in. It's obvious the intention isn't to make him dislikable, but he is, and ultimately it doesn't matter to me.

The general writing is of a very high standard, and that's obviously very important in an adventure game. A good story is told, with a lot of laugh-out-loud moments. The puzzles can be a bit hit and miss as far as logic goes, and I have to confess I had to resort to the internet on more than one occasion to figure out what the hell I was supposed to do. Sometimes the solutions are ridiculously obscure, other times you feel like face-palming. Even when the logic is perhaps...well, not there I still find the whole "finding and using items" thing great fun, or figuring out just how to get past puzzle x. It's the most satisfying feeling when you manage to solve things by yourself.

I don't feel Simon the Sorcerer II has dated, unlike other games on this list. You might not like it, but if you don't I wouldn't say it's because it's aged badly, it may be that one of the faults I've described bothers you more than it does me. It may be that you don't particularly enjoy the genre, or find the puzzle solving too frustrating.

It seems a little odd that I've spent a good deal of the review talking about the faults in this game, given that I like it. But like it I do.

8/10

I joined up on Retro Fusion, Pat. Very polished looking. Hopefully a few more people will too giving it the userbase it seems to deserve.