This is where the CAG Poker Night takes place. Post your friend codes in the comments section AFTER you have read the rules. This is still new, so if you have trouble getting a match please leave feedback so the problem can be addressed.


You can use the comments section of this post to chat with CAGs instead of the included Pictochat, as it is easier to talk with here.


Tonight's games are "5 Card Draw" and "Texas Hold 'Em". Please say which game you want to play. Some may go for Texas Hold 'Em, others for 5 Card Draw, This should help make getting matches easier.


When posting your friend code please copy and paste the 3 sections below to make thing easy for everyone. Full details to the name part in the rules section below.


NAME:
GAME:
FRIEND CODE:


...

The first pics of the Mad Catz Street Fighter IV sticks have hit, and I don't like what I see. I know it won't bother most people, but I can't get comfortable with the "curved to your hand" Japanese styled buttons, which this one has. I loved the SF Anniversary stick and it's "4 in a row" button layout, it just felt right. I don't think SFIV is worth the $200 it will end up being if this price sticks. $140 for the top-of-the-line stick AND SFIV is another thing. This is my PERSONAL OPINION.



Now that I have gotten that out of my system, everything else about the premium stick seems on the money. It has fantastic interchangeable artwork which looks WAY better than on the Street Fighter Anniversary stick, as well as Start and Select buttons on the back of the unit to avoid hitting them by mistake. I believe it also has arcade quality(Sanwa...

NOTE: Anyone notice the new bar at the top for all your CAG needs? Pretty good so far.



This is going to be a short post as it's late, I'm groggy, and I've been up all night playing(and beating) Naruto: Rise of a Ninja on the 360(I might do a review tomorrow on it, but nonetheless, it's pretty damn good for only $20). If you have a Zune then this news will make you happy.



The Zune's 3.0 update, which is friendly to first gen 30 gig Zune owners, hits next week(16th). Some of the things you can expect from the update are free copies of the Zune versions of Hexic and Texas Hold 'Em Poker, the first official Zune games, as well as the much requested clock. For a 6 page rundown of what to expect, check this link out.



Also, for a video preview of some of the new features check out this post on Gizmodo.

- Swim

...

The CAG Poker Night in the Nintendo DS game "Clubhouse Games" starts this week. It will happen on Tuesday night at 9 P.M. EST. I figure most people will be picking up the re-release Tuesday, so it would be the prime choice to kick things off. I will be posting a blog post dedicated to the nights festivities. You can use the comments section instead of Pictochat, as it's a lot easier to write things on CAG. The rules are as follows....


1. Your screen name in Clubhouse Games MUST MATCH you CAG username. This is to make things less confusing when playing fellow CAGs.


2. The letters "CAG" must be at the beginning of you Clubhouse Games screen name. Don't worry if you can't fit your whole name in, just enter what you can as the "CAG" letters are the most important part.


3. No racial or homophobic...

If you like the 1UP podcasts then this will crush you big time. While demoing Spore, GFW's Jeff Green(who is leaving 1UP to work for the Sims team) gets a soggy surprise when the the sprinkler system blows up and soaks the entire room, damaging what looks to be a pretty big TV as well as some of the equipment for the 1UP podcasts. But don't worry too much about tomorrow's 1UP Yours podcast as Philip Kollar said,



"Rest assured that we're getting in new equipment as quickly as possible and searching for temporary solutions to keep our shows coming to you in the mean time. We'll probably need to give the fifth floor a little time to dry out, though"



Here is the video of how it all went down....


http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/21323


Poor 1UP, they really do some awesome podcasts.

- Swim


[Original Story]

This question is something I've been curious about lately. What non-gaming sites do you visit? I have been trying to expand my non-gaming places to go online as of late. I'll check Japanese news just for the hell of it and Lolcats for some comic refief, but I want to add to this list as I feel I'm not as well-rounded enough in my online interests as I'd like to be. I'm not asking for suggestions, just looking to maybe find something I didn't think about. Some non-gaming sites I visit include:


1. Toonami Jetstream - One of Cartoon Network's on-demand video sites.


2. Mainichi Daily News - A Japanese based news site.


3. AOL - For my regular news.


4. I Can Haz Cheezburger - Lolcats, nuff said.


5. Seibertron - For Transformers movie news and rumors.


Those are a few of my regulars. How about you CAG?

- Swim

This is going to be a really short post as I'm about to run like hell to my Wii and download this week's big VC game, the now finally released Super Mario RPG for the Super Nintendo. I'm not sure if you already saw that it was out yet or not, but I felt I should bring this to your attention as it's out now on the North American Virtual Console. Gotta run, gotta download.

- Swim

Want to see Cheapy at PAX? Destructoid has you covered. A 20 minute video of "Your Man In Japan" on one of the panels at PAX has just been posted. The panel has people representing Evil Avatar, GamerChix, Gamerscore Blog, and GayGamer.



D talks about how having CAG helped him out when he moved to a place where he didn't know anybody. Cheapy also gets a good laugh from everyone early on too.



You can see a 20 minute video of the panel Cheapy was on here.

- Swim

If you remember my post a few days ago asking what was in the "Namco Classic Fighter Collection" that was listed for the Playstation 2, I may have an answer for you. Spencer over at Siliconera might have very well found out the contents of that collection as well as some info on a Naruto based bundle as well. It turns out that both bundles will be about $30 and will most likely be along the lines of the Devil May Cry and Need For Speed bundles which contain 3 regular games in a cardboard sleeve. The lineup for both PS2 bundles are(most likely) as follows.



NAMCO CLASSIC FIGHTER COLLECTION

1. Tekken Tag Tournament

2. Tekken 4

3. Soul Calibur II



NARUTO ULTIMATE COLLECTION

1. Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

2. Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2

3. Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles



I have everything in the Fighter Collection and the only thing off...

Nothing says "Happy Birthday" like free stuff, and in this case the free stuff is the original C&C: Red Alert for the PC. EA will be giving away C&C:RA this Sunday, which marks the 13th birthday for the Command & Conquer series. It will be made available on the Red Alert 3 website starting at 12 A.M. PST. I believe it will only be Sunday it's available for so you better jump on it.



This is fantastic for me because I loved RA but I lost my discs when I moved a few years ago. The only way I've been able to get my C&C Red Alert fix is with Command & Conquer: Red Alert - Retaliation for the Playstation One. This makes me one VERY happy man.


Here's the original story on Kotaku.

So yesterday I bought the first box of Push Ups in almost a decade. I have decided now is the time to review the classic iced treat in it's remade state. The review will be broken down flavor by flavor to get to the very bottom of this highly desired frozen treat. The wait is over, the long awaited review is here....




MY SETUP

1 3-flavor mixed box of Push Ups
1 mouth with tongue




GAMEPLAY

For those of you who haven't played a Push Up before, the gameplay is simple, you press a stick in the bottom of a cardboard tube to make the ice cream go up. When it is part of the way up, you eat it. The gameplay is 8-bit retro, but in the bad way. This is the worst gameplay in a modern ice cream I've ever seen. When you compare it to the "climbing through the mountains of peanuts to get to...

It looks like whatever comes in the special "Collector's Edition" of Street Fighter IV will run you the same as the Soul Calibur IV Premium Edition. GameStop.com has a listing for the Street Fighter IV Collector's Edition for the small price of $80. Now before you go off and reserve it, it should be noted that the listing has no information as to the contents of the CE so it might be a good idea to hold out until the details emerge. They better make sure the contents are awesome as Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe has a special edition with a t-shirt rumored to be hitting for only $10 more than the regular version of the game. Incase you missed the MK vs. DC story....



Another interesting listing on GameStop.com is that for a game from Namco called "Namco Classic Fighter Collection" for the Playstation 2. Once again, no details other than...

Just a quick reminder in case you forgot about/didn't know, the German Games Convention 2008 has started. Live blogs for Konami and EA's pressers are up already along with a hands-on with Activision's Call of Duty: World At War on the DS.

You can check out IGN's coverage at their GC2008 HUB here.

Remember my rant on Too Human a few weeks ago? Well it looks like the Dyack shit might be about to hit the fan again. 1UP.com has just posted their review for Too Human, Denis Dyack's 10 year "masterpiece". So what did they say in their review? 1UP's Giancarlo Varanini wrote that,


"Too Human is not a good role-playing game.


"The game is simply schizophrenic; it attempts to be all things to all people and never succeeds in executing any of them well."


"Methods for defeating enemies are largely the same for all classes because almost every single enemy attacks with the same rushing-horde mentality."


"Too Human is also not a good action game."


Full Too Human Review Coverage At The Bottom


Looks like our pal Denis will be...

In case you forgot, the CAGcast Wrap Up Show is on live right now. Wombat just pissed and flushed live on the show. Click the link now if you want to listen. I'm not sure how long it will be live so jump in now.

If you were afraid the XBLA game Castle Crashers was going to cost you about $22 you can breath a a happy sigh. Castle Crashers has been priced at 1200 Microsoft Points($15), the same price that the platformer/puzzler Braid hit for and launched a pricing backlash from people saying it was too much(Wombat being one of them). It seems like most XBLA devs are getting more brazen with their pricing because it's selling regardless.



The price of downloadable games just keeps on climbing. Remember $5 XBLA games? Then $5 was fazed out in favor of mostly $10 games, now it looks like $15 is the new sweet spot price for XBLA games. Does this mean $10 XBLA games are on their way out too? Are you guys happy about the price?

Just a word of warning to those who are playing FFIV for the first time on the Nintendo DS(like me), someone on the Gamercast Network's Video Game Show podcast may have just spoiled a major plot point in the first 5 minutes of the show. One guy mentioned "the one where you play as a dark night" so it may very well have been FFIV. I was pissed hearing that. So just to be safe, stay away from the Video Game Show if your playing FFIV for the first time.



It was Final Fantasy IV, it was in real bad form of the Gamercast Network to spoil something like that for a game that just got released on the DS. A game that many people might very well be playing for the first time. I know it came out back on the SNES, but it hasn't even been a month yet since the new version came out. Incredibly poor form on their part. It's just as bad as Screw Attack saying that they wouldn't spoil any new release games in their "Top 10 Plot Twists" video on GameTrailers...

Alright CAG, I need some help. I'm having a family member pick up either Final Fantasy IV or Space Invaders Extreme for the DS on their way home so I need an answer quick. Which one? I'm think SIE because it's half the price of FFIV and I don't want to drop $40 on Final Fantasy if it's going to hit me hard in the mouth. I can take Ninja Gaiden Black hard, but RPG hard kinda throws me sometimes. Can anyone help me out one way?

So the reaction seems to be all in favor of starting a CAG Poker Night with Clubhouse Games on the DS. I'm really glad to see how well the idea was welcomed, but now with have to work out some details.


1. What day of the week do you guys want this to be held on each week? The weekdays? Weekends? Pick a day of the week and post it in the comments section. YOUR INPUT IS NEEDED!!!


2. We also need to work out the time for it to be held. I was thinking maybe 9 P.M. EST as it won't be too early for West Coasters or too late for the Easterners.
UPDATE: 9 P.M. It is.


3. Some sort of ground rules might be needed. I was thinking of something like "Put the letters CAG in front of your CHG name. or your CHG name needs to match your CAG username to avoid confusion."


4. When should the launch date for the CAG Poker Night be?
UPDATE: Next week okay? There are a few weeks before the...