All MMOers, even those who don’t play, should watch The Guild, actress/writer/geek grrl hottie Felicia Day’s hilariously goofy and surprisingly accurate webshow send-up of what happens when game junkies meet in meatspace. Day is a Real Life actress, having appeared in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, House, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, and various commercials involving Cheetos and washing machines. Her scripts for The Guild bely a whip-smart sense of humor and true understanding of geekery. The …
Shadow Complex, Chair Entertainment’s XBLA-available, Unreal 3.0-powered, side-scrolling, 2.5D send up to Super Metroid’s and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night’s beloved exploratory action platforming is by all accounts a pretty good game. I just started it, so I’ll withhold judgment, but it does look great so far. Problem? Shadow Complex takes place in the fictional universe of Empire, a novel by acclaimed sci-fi-ist Orson Scott Card. Card consulted on the game’s development and has been …
Sometimes I think I am losing it. Stuff is happening that I thought, at one time, would never happen. But, here we are, a bunch of old farts starting to discover video games. Now, understand, when I say old farts, I am referring to people in their fifth, sixth and seventh decade. One has to wonder what that will mean to the future of the gaming industry, much less to the future of civilization. Will Gramps turn into a rapist or a murderer?
So, I’m a bit of an arachnophobe. I spotted a spider making its way from my living room’s ceiling to my living room’s floor the other day and while I managed to throw it out the window eventually, it involved a lot of screaming and panicked jumps all over the room. To be clear here: I don’t hate spiders. I don’t kill spiders, ever. I merely don’t want them near me. Surely, that is not …
Here, there, and everywhere, Sony has finally revealed what we all knew: the PS3 Slim is a reality, it is a PS3, and it is slim. And it’s $299, and God dammit, but now there’s just no reason not to get the thing.
Edge Games has released a public statement regarding the Edge trademark infringement fiasco, and though it’s unpleasantly formatted there is a lot of interesting reading there. In the meantime, the IGDA has finally acted, as a corps of disillusioned members (using somewhat less than unsleazy means) finally got enough signatures from members to force a special meeting, the purpose of which is to discuss the removal of Tim Langdell from the IGDA Board of Directors. …
The degree to which I hate Activision/Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is nigh-unmeasurable. I loathe the man; I hope he falls into a deep, deep hole with ground glass and spikes and hot lava and sharks and scorpions and poison and fire ants and chromic acid and knives and dead puppies at the bottom. I didn’t think it would be possible – you know, physically – for me to despise anyone in the games industry more …
Call them addictive or don’t, but games have the power to enthrall like nothing else on earth.
Shameless nepotism? Probably. But I own the place, so I can get away with behavior like this.
My big brother Marcus’s latest novel, The Amateurs, is available at finer retail establishments throughout the universe today, as well as via the electron sea at locales such as Amazon. I strongly urge you to buy it, because I have read it and it is excellent.
Review by Meho Krljic Fighting games are back. Technically they never went away and yet this is exactly the year in which we can talk about their return. They came, they saw, they smashed. Living to see such high profile releases as the PC port of Street Fighter IV reminds me that despite what Slipknot say, all hope is not gone. Join us today in reviewing three recent fighters: Street Fighter IV (PC), King of …
I won’t even encourage the foolish idiocy of a psychologist’s new theory that videogames are physically addictive, like heroin, alcohol, and cigarettes – i.e., quitting them once addicted causes physical withdrawal symptoms that can, in some cases, even lead to death. No, that guy’s a laughingstock without my help. But I must express my outrage over the rape of the English language we see every day. We all have pet peeves. One of mine is …
Shack and others are reporting on what may or may not be revered designer Warren Spector’s next effort, codenamed Epic Mickey. Since Spector’s Junction Point studio was acquired by Disney, everyone sort of assumed he’d be making a mouse-themed game (assumed, but hoped it wasn’t true), and now it’s semi-official. According to Shack, the game will be Wii-only, and tells the story of obsolete Disney characters seeking to destroy Mickey Mouse. I’m not sure about …
Review by MrLipid Three Cards to Midnight Developer Big Finish Games Publisher Big Finish Games Released May 2009 Available for PC Time Played Probably not as long as it seemed Verdict: 1/5 Roadkill “It’s later than anyone thought.” It’s been a long wait. A very long wait. But now, the waiting’s over. Which means we can go back. Back to what? Back to waiting.
With the all press that LucasArts has gotten for releasing Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition and several of its classic adventures on Steam, it was really just a question of time before other publishers would follow. First to jump on the “everything old is new again” bandwagon: Activision with news that they’ve expanded their offerings on Steam to include the King’s Quest and Space Quest Collections, Aces of the Galaxy, Time Shift and 3D …
I can’t decide whether I was mad or overjoyed while making points in this barely readable piece of stream-of-consciousness thinking that tries to connect the dots between amateur anthropology, Japanese fighting games, career advancement tips and beating people up in real life. Since there are repeated mentions of a certain character trait that is for some reason associated with a certain part of a human body, click on the ‘continue’ button only if you’re not …