Escapee Go!: This $2 game is a great combination of Pac-Man and Metal Gear and is good for both short and long play sessions.

Robot Rescue: An interesting $2 puzzle title that utilizes the DS’s book form, where you lead robots to the exit while avoiding obstacles.

Dark Void Zero: This $5 Capcom game perfectly captures the essence of their NES games with great classic graphics, sound and gameplay. Some will claim it’s better than its 3D entry, but, based on the PSN demo, I won’t bother arguing: Just get Zero.

Have any recommendations for me?

One of this year’s biggest winners was the Playstation 3 exclusive, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The game does not introduce any new elements to the world of digital entertainment. It does, however, refine almost every facet of action games: running, shooting, jumping, etc., and puts it all together in finely polished piece of blockbuster fun.

New experiences will come from downloadable titles, but those are incomparable to the impact of a disc-based game.

Perhaps the reason for this lack of innovation is that it’s very tough to be trailblazer. The first is always bound to get a little lost and injured. But as the path continually gets hacked away, it becomes easier to find the goal. Mirror’s Edge, by DICE, was the premier first person freerunning game. While it was a fine product, it stumbled in its over-reliance of combat toward its conclusion. Perhaps if a sequel is developed, or another company takes on the freerunning mantle, gamers will be one step closer to digital parkour bliss.

It can also be a big gamble for publishers to take a chance on something new.

Conversely, the most anticipated games of 2010 are established franchises and new entries in familiar genres. Of course, God of War III builds upon the principals of the first two games, which were culled from some of the finest elements of action platformers that preceded them. Dante’s Inferno is nothing more than a re-skinning of God of War. Other upcoming sequels include Blizzard’s Diablo III and Starcraft II, Mass Effect 2, Bioshock 2 and Super Mario Galaxy 2. These entries will no doubt refine the elements of their popular brands.

Scouring most anticipated lists for 2010, it’s near impossible to find an entry that isn’t a sequel.  Heavy Rain, the newest game from Quantic Dream, is the closest thing gamers will have to a new experience, depending on how similar it is to the developer’s last game, Indigo Prophecy.

This isn’t a problem. As long as there are quality games on the market, consumers will have plenty of choices. And when that little unique gem comes along to establish another archetype, many gamers will be waiting, payment in hand. Then again, something better will always come along a few years later.

(Does this column have a point? Let me know!)

Wii Fit Plus effectively makes the original obsolete. It takes almost everything from the original and adds more: streamlined weighing, six new exercises, 15 new games, calorie measures for exercises and the ability to create workout setlists.

My one principal complaint is that you can’t add jogging to the exercise setlist.

If you’re a fan of the original and have a balance board, the $20 upgrade price is well worth it. If you’ve never tried Wii Fit before, now may be the time to start sweating it.

Read my original Wii Fit article.

If you need a cheap PS3 fighting stick to get in some rounds of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 or Street Fighter IV, you may want to consider the Ikan Real Arcade Fighting Stick. It’s a very attractive offering at the price point of $16.99, and for me, it does what it needs to.

The stick plugs into your PS3 via a six-foot-long USB cable. The controller even has a PS button for easy syncing. Just press and play.

The light controller features an easy button layout, with a four by four pattern that includes the shoulder buttons, which makes for easy assists in Marvel vs. Capcom 2. The stick, while small, is fairly accurate and clicks with each motion.

Obviously, if you’re in the market for a real arcade stick, this controller is ironically not for you. It doesn’t have a lot of weight, and therefore will not offer the real arcade feel fighting fanatics demand. If you fall into that category, you’ll have to spend about three times the price of the Ikan stick for something higher quality.

For those who play an occasional fighter (or even those who play a few rounds everyday, as in my case with MvC2), the Ikan stick is a great, cheap alternative.

“I do want to learn how to play my favorite Guitar Hero songs on the guitar,” said the 18-year-old Hempstead resident, who has placed high in two tournaments for the game. “It would be better than tapping them on my plastic Les Paul.”

Guitar industry insiders are beginning to see the potential in the immensely popular video games Guitar Hero and Rock Band, which they believe will bring in new guitarists like Ulloa, and therefore, new customers to a market that has been experiencing a national slump during the past two years.

Guitar Hero 3 on XBox 360.

“We’re beginning to think that there is a small undercurrent of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band customer that might be coming over to the dark side, for a lack of a better way of putting it, and actually buying guitars,” said Sammy Ash, Chief Operating Officer and an owner of Sam Ash, a national chain of musical instruments stores founded in Brooklyn. “We think that the kids are really getting into this whole concept: ‘Wow, you know what? Look what I can be with a toy, it can’t be that much harder to play guitar.’”

After nearly a decade of increasing sales, the American guitar industry hit a pinnacle in 2005, when nearly 3.5 million guitars were sold, according to statistics from the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM), which tracks sales through manufacturers.

The next year, however, the amount of guitars sold dropped by nearly 10 percent. The worst hit market were the below $400 guitars, which are usually bought by people new to the instrument. Those numbers didn’t fare much better in 2007, with NAMM contributing the decline to a possible over-saturation of guitars in the marketplace.

“Sales were pretty flat from 2006 to 2007,” said Scott Robertson, Director of Marketing & Communications for NAMM.

Since their releases last year in October and November, respectively, Guitar Hero and Rock Band have sold in record numbers, which industry insiders believe will propel guitar sales in 2008.

Activision, which distributes Guitar Hero, has sold about nine million copies in America of its latest iteration, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, as of early August, according to the NPD Group, a leading global provider of consumer and retail market research information for a wide range of industries. MTV Games’ Rock Band, which requires a more expensive purchase of a full band setup, has sold about three million copies nationally.

“These music simulation titles are definitely hot right now and are showing no signs of slowing down,” said David Riley, Director of Public Relations for Entertainment, Software and Toys at the NPD. “In its relatively short life at retail, Guitar Hero has already become one of the top 10 video games franchises in terms of dollar sales.”

While it is tough to pin down the exact impact that Guitar Hero has had on the guitar market, many retailers and industry insiders have thoughts on the matter.

“My own personal theory is very simple, we’re reaching close to 20 million Guitar Hero purchases,” Ash said. “If one percent, and that’s it, it’s just one percent of the people who own Guitar Hero decide that, ‘you know what? Let me go out and buy a guitar.’ That’s 200,000 guitars coming into a market that didn’t exist before. It’s one of the very first times a crossover is going on.”

Guitar Hero 3 PS2 bundle

Kai Huang, President of RedOctane, which develops Guitar Hero, said that his company’s game, where players match colored buttons on a plastic guitar to different tracks on the screen, would attract people to the real thing.

“Anecdotally, we’ve heard from music teachers and store owners that business has increased two to three times since Guitar Hero was released,” he said. “Since Guitar Hero allows players to feel the rock star experience, it’s natural that those who play the game would want to pick up and play a real guitar.”

The impact is already being felt locally. Brooklyn resident Danny Polinsky, 30, comes from a family full of guitar players, but it was not until he started playing Guitar Hero that he felt inclined to purchase one for himself.

“Once I did that, I started seriously considering buying a real one, and when I had a little extra money, and a desire to really start learning, I bought a Takamine GS430S NEX Acoustic Guitar,” Polinsky said. “It’s pretty nice.”

John Oliva, a manager at the Music Zoo in Little Neck, was a little more cautious, saying the games polarize people. “I do think that the video games have sparked interest to play guitar, but it hasn’t been long enough,” he said. “It might have taken some people who were interested minimally [in playing guitar] and taken them to the video games because it’s easier.”

Robertson said that members of NAMM have also been split on the game’s impact on the industry, but the organization believes it is clearly having a major affect. “Is it creating more music makers, more guitar players? We see a lot of evidence that it is,” he said. “We heard some statistics before the third version of the game came out from RedOctane and Activision. They said that basically 10 percent of the people who play the game go on to show an interest to moving to the real thing and playing real guitar also.”

NAMM is so convinced of this impact that the group is paying for scientific research, according to Robertson.
“We’re real excited to fund a brand new study with Drexel University that’s coming up that really puts some science to ‘do the skills that you acquire in virtual music making translate to the benefits of playing a musical instrument and is that path, from virtual to real world, viable?’” The grant, of which Robertson could not give an amount, was given to the Philadelphia school after they made a proposal to NAMM.

“I believe it’s the first real scientific study on Guitar Hero that’s been done as it relates to music making,” Robertson said. “We’re excited to see the findings and believe it will be very interesting and help us understand this connection at a greater level.”

Players of the game embrace the “rock star experience” and feel like they could be musicians, Robertson said. “Guitar Hero, and the whole genre, has really resonated with people,” he said. “They’re giving people positive experiences where they could feel what it’s like to be musical for the first time in their lives, and we think those experiences will lead to those desires to pursue a real life experience.”

Players are still flocking to the store to pick up the games, whose sequels are due out by the holidays of this year. Guitar Hero IV and Rock Band 2 boast even more features and songs and will sell just as well, if not better than their predecessors, Riley said.

Rock Band 2 bundle

“Given the fact that 50 percent of the total year’s sales occur during the last three months of the calendar year, and looking at current sales, there’s no reason to believe these titles won’t be flying off the shelves.”

Who knows? With so many copies sold, maybe the next generation of rock legends will have had their start with video games, suggests Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry.

“Fans want to get and experience music in new formats – and there are going to be some of them who will play the game, then pick up the guitar for real and start bands,” Perry said in a press release for Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. “It’s what’s happening now, and it’s only going to build more momentum in the future. It’s going to give guitar and music a boost. It may turn a lot of musicians into gamers and gamers into musicians.”

While the games are fun, it won’t make you look cool, Polinsky said. “It’s not like you see groupies lining up at Guitar Hero concerts.”

Published in Aspire Magazine/Queens Courier

It’s been about six months since I underwent LASIK surgery, and the results show: my eyeglasses have been filed away and a year’s supply of unopened contact lenses has been returned to Costco.

Although there are small problems, like seeing starbursts and occasional dry eye (the latter is common for the first few months), simple things like being able to see the numbers on my alarm clock and watching TV from my bed make the surgery worth the price.  My doctor also said the benefits of the surgery in its current form will last until my 40s, when most people need reading glasses.  The price of a year’s supply of contact lenses and solutions for the same amount of time would be similar in cost to LASIK.

LASIK is a vision correcting procedure that uses a laser to change the eye’s focusing power by reshaping the cornea. Some believe the procedure is dangerous, or not worth the cost or inconvenience. However, as long as you have the money, and you and your surgeon are qualified for the procedure, the benefits far outweigh the potential drawbacks.

The most frightening thing for potential LASIK patients is the creation of the corneal flap, as doctors call it.  Before the surgery, patients are given a few drops to numb each eye.

Preparing for surgery...

There are two ways to create the flap.  The first is with a device like a carpenter plane that actually slices a thin layer or the cornea. The safer, second option, called bladeless LASIK, uses the laser to make a stitch like pattern on the eye to create the flap. I went with number two.  Although the creation of the flap doesn’t hurt, the suction before it is created does.

If you are able to stomach this part of the procedure, which is a small price to pay for a grand benefit, then the next step is to undergo a few hours worth of tests.

Not every person is right for LASIK surgery. If you have thin corneal tissue, dry eyes or any other condition, it can be dangerous to go under the laser.

Contact lens wearers, as I was, are instructed not to wear contacts for at least five days before the examination. Contact lenses actually warp the shape of the cornea, which could lead to inaccurate test results.

After the initial set of tests at Huntington’s Precision Eye Care, my doctor, Richard Davis, delivered good news. “You’re a perfect candidate,” he said.

There were still more tests however, and this time my eyes had to be dilated for better measurements. The drops took a half hour to kick in. Because of the dilation, patients are instructed to have someone drive them home.

There are risks to LASIK surgery, Dr. Davis told me. One in 10,000 patients suffer eye infections, which can cause corneal scarring, which could, in some extreme cases, lead to blindness.

“You can get hit by a car,” Dr. Davis said, “but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t cross the street.”

Another risk is flap complications. Sometimes after the procedure, the flap, which is supposed to set after two minutes, doesn’t sit right, might have wrinkles or gets debris under it. When this happens, the surgeon has to reposition it, which Dr. Davis said he has done only once.

A few days before the surgery, patients have to go for a pre-op, which involves another vision test and an orb scan, which photographs the eyes.  The latter test was frustrating. In order to get a good picture, the eyes must stay focused and there can no blinking, which I had trouble with.

LASIK patients are told not to wear deodorant, perfume or makeup a day before their surgery, as it can interfere with the laser.

My date with the laser finally came (to give you a hint, a governor announced his resignation that day). After some time in the waiting room, I put on a shower cap and lay down on the surgical table. Dr. Davis gave me two stress balls; I wasn’t sure why.

The doctor applied the numbing drops, but it did not help with the next part. To make the flap, suction must be applied to the eye socket. I finally figured out what the stress balls were for. The pain the suction causes can be compared to someone pressing a knee down on your eye socket. Thankfully, this lasts for less than a minute.

After the laser created the flap, Dr. Davis used a tiny rod to fold it over. I blurrily stared into a light, and the laser started working what Dr. Davis calls “Disney Magic.” As the laser hit my eye, I smelled something like singed skin. The flap was folded back over, and I lay still for two minutes. Then, the whole process repeated for the second eye.

The entire procedure took about 15 minutes. Dr. Davis gave me two sets of eye drops and put plastic shields over my eyes to protect them from the world and myself.

Wearing plastic shields.

Patients should be driven home after the surgery.

For the next seven hours after the surgery, I took a nap. I felt discomfort in my eyes, like I put my contact lenses in backward. For those who don’t wear contacts, imagine any foreign object beneath your eyelids. After my nap, the discomfort was gone.

During the next few days, my vision drastically improved. At my one-month appointment, the “Disney Magic” really proved true. My vision improved in both eyes, Dr. Davis said.

Before the surgery, 20 feet away looked like 200. Now it looks like 20.

I had a great realization when driving from the Long Island Expressway to the Cross Island Parkway.  There’s a great view of a block of houses in between two layers of trees.  Before the surgery, this view never really stuck out.  Now every time I look out and see how clear it is, I realize how great it was to get LASIK.

Many people would call the scribbling and drawings on the walls and doors of buildings graffiti – an act of vandalism that causes urban decay. But to the “writers” themselves and supporters of the practice, the writings on the walls are works of art.

The historical account of how graffiti as a practice began is debated within the community. It was first documented in the 1970s, when a 17-year-old named Demetrius would write “Taki 183” on New York City subway cars, walls and sidewalks all over the tri-state area, the New York Times reported in 1971.

Demetrius was following in the footsteps of JULIO 204, who was apparently one of the first to tag his name and street all over the city. After Taki 183 started writing his name, the practice of graffiti became widespread.

Many insiders of the graffiti subculture say “writers” tag to get attention. When word spread among participants of others’ efforts, it created a sort of competition to tag more and more locations and come up with more elaborate designs.

Despite measures set by the city to remove and prevent graffiti, many people still “write.” New York City is still one of the most attractive hubs as it is graffiti’s birthplace. People from all over the country and even Europe come to New York City to tag.

Not all graffiti is illegal. Property owners can commission artists to paint their walls. In Queens, artists have 5 Pointz, a large factory where “writers” must apply to paint.

When it introduced Wii Sports in November 2006, hardcore gamers and casual folk grabbed a Wiimote (the Wii’s remote control) to play tennis, baseball and boxing in front of their TVs. These games left many gasping for breath, and some players even shed a few pounds.

Now the Big N is taking the physical video game further with Wii Fit, which is due out in the U.S. on May 19th. The game hit Japan in December, where 1.79 million units were sold as of March 29th, according to vgchartz.com, a website that tracks video game sales. The game is packed with a device called a Wii Balance Board, a scale-like platform that acts as a controller.

Players step on the board, then engage in activities such as moving their Miis (the Wii version of the player) to block soccer balls or swivel their hips in hula-hoops. Pushing a fitness angle, players can also perform Yoga moves like “tree” or place their hands on the board to do push-ups. Wii Fit users can then track changes in their body mass index.

Whether Wii Fit will burn enough calories to actually loosen the pants around some sweaty gamers’ bodies is yet to be seen. To Kevin Tambornino, who blogs under the name Vinnk, the game has proven to be an effective exercise machine.

“For 7 weeks I made a daily commitment to Wii Fit, and in my opinion it paid off,” the 28-year-old blogger wrote on 4colorrebellion.com, in a special section called “The Great Experiment.” Tambornino, who has lived in Japan for three years, “was able to both lose weight and gain muscle,” he wrote. “Along the way I also gained self-confidence in my body, and self esteem in general.”

Tambornino’s experiment started when he purchased Wii Fit and decided to see how much weight he could lose in the seven weeks leading up to his wedding on March 29th, he said. He ended up losing 11 pounds without consciously changing his diet by using Wii Fit on an average of 30 to 60 minutes a day.

However, fitness and health specialists who were asked to watch the Wii Fit ad online had mixed feelings about the device.

“Truthfully I think it will be great and the possibilities are endless,” said Cathy McGuire, a professor of Health, Physical Education, and Dance at Queensborough Community College. “But I’d have to try it myself. As an activity ‘game’ it looks like it would be fun and has the potential to be instructional as far as practicing Yoga asanas (positions).”

But Marion Nestle, a professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University and author of What to Eat, was skeptical. “It will only work if people do it,” she said. “I’m not a TV watcher. I can’t believe that people will do this and stick with it long enough to do any good.”

However, earlier video games like Dance Dance Revolution and Wii Sports have proven to be addictive even to non-gamers. This may help trick players into exercising.

“The same effects could be achieved by doing push-ups and sit-ups for 45 minutes every day,” Tambornino said in an email message. “However, I know that I for one would never have the motivation to do that. I do have the motivation to use Wii Fit though.”

Whether other gamers will stick with Wii Fit will be seen come the game’s launch.

Update: The new version of the game, Wii Fit Plus, is out. Check out my impressions of it.

“It depends a little bit on which board it is and who their allies are,” said Michael Krasner, an associate professor of political science at Queens College.

For example, the community boards of the West Side and Lower Manhattan recently wielded their influence and stopped development — or at least slowed it down.  The termination of the West Side highway project can be attributed to the protest of the community through its board. The board of Greenwich Village also saw a small victory in the recent NYU planning proposals, which outlined a promise to cooperate with the community for the school’s expansion.

But community boards have also failed when it came time to step up to developers.  The boards of West Harlem failed to stop Columbia’s expansion into the neighborhood.  And when a Bronx board rejected plans for the new Yankee stadium, the council went ahead and approved it anyway.  Construction has already begun.

In all these cases, the community boards stared into the eyes of developers and their large projects, and told them ‘no.’ But when the smoke cleared, different parties claimed victories in different areas.  There is still more to the equation.

Queens community board 9 oversees Richmond Hill, Kew Gardens, Woodhaven and a sliver of Ozone Park, all relatively quiet neighborhoods.  At a recent board meeting, members were denying or accepting liquor license and taxi base station requests and discussing building permits to an audience of residents, business owners and politicians’ aides.  But even members had to be reminded that the board has a limited role.

“In everything we do, we’re advisory,” Andrea Crawford, chairwoman of the board, said to an older board member.  “Whether they take it or not.”

Ivan Mrakovcic, 1st Vice Chair of the board, expressed a similar notion.  “In a nutshell, our input is advisory,” he said during a phone interview. “But it’s not binding, with some exceptions.”

These exceptions lie in the board’s main function, advising the State Liquor Association and Taxi Limousine Commission on whether to grant permits in the community.  If these departments don’t comply with the board, there could be backlash from angry board members and residents.  After all, no one knows a community better than its residents.

Other items on the agenda dealt with the moving of a group home and the installation of a speed hump.  For the group home, approval from the city was needed, and a letter of support from the board would certainly help their case.  This is another example of the board’s small power possibly yielding large results.

Letter writing can prove instrumental in the approval or disapproval of a project. The board pulled together late last year and wrote a letter arguing their case against rezoning proposals.  “Be it resolved that Queens Community Board No. 9 opposes in totality the Citywide Text Amendments Proposed by the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects,” the letter read.  Other boards soon followed.

At the meeting, Crawford declared victory over what the board saw as the defeat of these proposals by the AIA.  If approved, these proposals would have rezoned certain parts of the city, which would have been a disaster to community board 9, where historical districts are especially important.

That’s not how the Department of City Planning saw it, however.  “The Department of City Planning did not reject the application, nor did the City Planning Commission hold a public hearing on the application,” said Jennifer Torres, a communications director of the DCP, in an email message.  “In light of concerns raised during the review process, we advised the AIA that it might withdraw its application and that some of the measures needed further examination and consultation with affected communities.”

Much like NYU’s step back, the floodgates are now opened for the AIA to discuss their plans with the boards.  Not so much a defeat, but an obvious middle ground.

Basically, a board is only as strong as its members and its residents, who may start grassroots campaigns and lobbying efforts.  A boards’ true power rests in its ability to start the cycle, which allows the board to transcend into something more powerful.

“If the board could become a vessel or a public forum, then it would work as a rallying point,” Krasner said.  “Whoever serves on it, they become a resource and an arena.  So that works.”

But that function is limited because it requires people to be involved.  “The system only works to the extent that you work in it,” said Crawford.

There are ways around the system however.  If an agency sidesteps the board for a project, it could render it powerless.  Recently, the city planted a new family justice center in Kew Gardens — which probably wouldn’t have been denied anyway — without even mentioning it to the community board.

“A lot of city agencies, they’ll come to us and let us know, but they won’t ask us unless they need our opinion,” Mrakovcic said.

In turn, community boards are a city financed advocacy group, a check to the balance of powers that be.  But sometimes that’s not enough.  So what do boards want?

“Bite,” said Crawford, a lawyer.  “Real teeth,” the power to go after those who go against the board’s advice.

But then the community board might be in over its head.

“The government is 100 percent behind them,” said Augusto Cerrone, a 56-year-old immigrant from Italy. “By the end of the year, the IRS says you spent this much, when you only earned this much.  It’s to get the cash out of the people.  It’s to keep tabs on how much you spend.”  Cerrone, who came here thirty years ago, works as a shoemaker in Richmond Hill.  He said when he uses his credit cards he quickly pays the bills.

Cerrone’s attitude towards credit companies reflects a general mistrust held by those who may not have knowledge of how credit works.  There are an unknown amount of immigrants living in the United States, and credit card usage data for this demographic does not exist, said Doug Massey, a professor at the Office of Population Research at Princeton University.

“Immigrants tend to be hard to interview,” Massey said.  “There’s an unprecedented anti-immigrant hysteria that has terrified the immigrant population.”  Whether this is true for Richmond Hill and Woodhaven specifically remains unseen. About a dozen immigrants on Jamaica Ave. refused comment for this article.

Some immigrants don’t want credit cards.  “Many new immigrants are just uncomfortable to take debt,” said Brian Jurski, acting director of the Small Business Development Center at LaGuardia Community College.  “If you had to take financing, there’s something wrong with you,” he said is an attitude some immigrants’ hold.

Many immigrants, particularly new arrivals, live in a cash-based culture.  “I would say 50 percent of the workforce works with cash,” said Cerrone.  “They don’t get paid by credit.”

There are also numerous factors that deter immigrants from applying for credit cards.  “Some of the challenges or barriers of immigrants not using credit is a lack of knowledge and identification,” said Deyanira Del Río, associate director of Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, a community resource and advocacy group.

“A lack of credit is the biggest thing,” said Laura Kozien, the communications project manager at Accion, a non-profit loan company.  Credit is usually a necessity for credit card applications, which Kozien added, “Many immigrants have not been given that opportunity.”

These difficulties may be why banks have stepped up their efforts. “Credit cards are a way to reach out to the immigrant populations,” Jurski said.

Some of those who responded to questions in front of a Chase bank in Richmond Hill said they acquired their credit cards from Chase.

Trihme Harrchame, 49, from Guyana, said he was initially rejected because he did not have work.  Chase eventually granted him a credit card after he started working construction jobs.  Harry Persaud, 55, also a Guyanese immigrant, said a Chase card is one of his many credit cards.

Attitudes toward credit are changing with generations.  “I would say that the new immigrant youth are a very active consumer base,” Jurski said.  “They have different views on consumption than their parents.”

Danny Ruidiaz, 23, the son of immigrant parents, uses his credit card about every day, mostly to buy food, he said.  “I work in an airport, so I don’t like carrying cash with me.”