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• The Economist Weighs in On Music Games

  A few weeks ago I called out music industry bigwigs who were pushing record companies to charge Activision and Harmonix more money to feature songs by bands on their rosters. I argued that this is stupid, and these execs should view music featured in Guitar Hero and Rock Band as free advertising.  Welp, the Economist agrees. Read More... Posted Oct 09 2008, 05:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: music, cole stryker, guitar hero 3, rock band 2, economist

• Whatcha Playing: de Blob

  Just a few short days ago, I was "Whatcha Playing" Secret of Evermore. That is, until de Blob arrived in my mailbox. It's a delightful romp through an increasingly complex and challenging environment, where just a few basic skills are utilized in clever ways. In short, this game is everything that Super Mario Galaxy should have been, but wasn't. Read More... Posted Oct 08 2008, 06:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: whatcha playing, wii, cole stryker, super mario galaxy, de blob, platforming

• Little Big Planet is Insane

  610 Magnetic Switches 500 Wires 430 Pistons 70 Emitters ?? Hours Some magnificent nerd has built a basic calculator using the above ingredients within Little Big Planet. Watch the video from start to finish, it gets better in the latter half.  In the words of commenter, "njoivids": "gotta lot of time on ya hands aint ya lad sure ur clever but uve just proved to the world that u have never had sexual relations" I'm not sure what this mans for Little Big Planet. I thought I had finally figured this game out, but I didn't think users would be able to build anything quite like this. If users are as enthusiastic within LBP as they were within Spore's Creature Creator, then I guess this video only scratches the surface. Could this ever be big enough to draw casual gamers away from the Wii? Maybe if it were released in tandem with a price drop... Related Links: The Natural World of Little Big Planet Create Unholy Life With the LittleBigPlanet Sackboy Generator SCEE Playstation Day 2K8 Roundup: Killzone 2, Home, Little Big Planet Dated Posted Oct 07 2008, 07:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: little big planet, nerds, cole stryker, ps3

• Watcha Playing: Secret of Evermore

  You see, people? That's what video games are all about. Giant aliens with clearly visible weakspots that glow red. And you have to fight them off with a bone. A bone. I was too busy playing Earthbound when Secret of Evermore was released, and thanks to the magic of emulation, I'm able to catch up on what I missed back when I was eleven. Playing through this game makes me wonder why nearly all other JRPG's haven't copped to its simple formula of real time battles, blending Lengend of Zelda action and traditional JRPG battle mechanics. Fighting is much more interesting and intense than most JRPG's, and the genre is just now catching up to it with the Tales of...series. Thing is, Evermore does it much better. Today's RPG makers should really take note, especially those who think that Paper Mario-style timed attacks counts for engagement. The other thing that really stand out to me is the ambient music, which is far and away better than just about any Super Nintendo game I've ever played, outside of maybe Donkey Kong Country (Just talking ambience, folks). Canyons echo, deserts swirl with wind, and dank caves drip.  Of course its the little things as well.  The menu system is so compact and useful, the boss battles are so gripping, and the pacing is superb. Two thumbs, way up. Awesome vintage commercial after the jump: Read More... Posted Oct 06 2008, 04:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: cole stryker, watcha playing, super nintendo, squaresoft, secret of evermore

• Korean Standup does Starcraft Comedy Routine

  Maybe I'm a colossal dorkwad, but this video of a Korean dude imitating different units from Starcraft made me crack up several times. I lost it when he started doing the Dragoon. South Korea is a magical place where Starcraft is played competitiely in convention centers and the games are broadcast to thousands of homes. There are no fewer than four cable channels dedicated to 24/7 Starcraft coverage. It's like American football over there. Knowing that exists makes me so happy. What a wonderful world. Have a great weekend! Read More... Posted Oct 03 2008, 06:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: comedy, cole stryker, starcraft, south korea, competitive gaming

• Facepalm: Games Radar - Paragons of Journalistic Integrity

  I had originally intended to make "Facepalm" a weekly feature, but the industry has been extra heinous lately, and well...you'll see. Games Radar is responsible for many of the most egregious examples of Diggbait, and this one surely hits the bottom of the barrel. Titled, "Video Games' Most Important Farty Butts", the article showcases flatulance from Boogerman, Beavis and Butthead, Wario and more. I think what most bothers me about this article are the words, "most important", as if any farty butt was worth memorializing. Read More... Posted Oct 02 2008, 12:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: cole stryker, journalism, facepalm

• Gender Equality Fail: Kombo For Women

  Kombo launched a new microsite for female gamers today, called 'For Women". At first glance, you might think this is a real step forward for the fairer gender in the world of interactive entertainment, but then you dig deeper.   Booth babes? Really? Read More... Posted Oct 01 2008, 01:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: cole stryker, gender, kombo, booth babes

• Facepalm: Gamer Grub Supports Your Cognitive Functions

  Man, do I feel bad for the copywriter at Biosilo Foods. I've written ad copy for the worst of them, but can you imagine writing this whopper: Biosilo Foods is a young, progressive company that is set out to transform the food and beverage industry. With revolutionary innovation as the prime directive, Biosilo Foods is building a portfolio of new food and beverage categories. Ugh. How soul crushing must that brand management meeting have been. So, Biosilo has a new product offering called Gamer Grub. It's a snack for h4rdc0re gamers, ergonomically designed so you don't spill Cheeto dust all over your man-boobs (Gamer Joke!). I'm grubbin' it!      Action Pizza! Racing Wasabi! Strategy Chocolate! Sports PB&J! What, no Survival Horror Strawberry? No Cool Ranch Dating Sim? Read More... Posted Sep 30 2008, 12:00 AM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: cole stryker, gamers, facepalm, gamer grub, biosilo

• Play Bejeweled Inside World of Warcraft

  The world's most addicting game just got addictinger. So you're waiting for your fellow clansmen to meet up at a waypoint before a raid and you've minimized the window to play a little Bejeweled. But when you pull up the WoW window, you find that some h4x0r pwned your n00b ass while you were goofing around. Well, this unfortunate situation will never happen again because now you can play Bejeweled, the game most likely to have been downloaded by your mom, inside WoW.  From Yahoo: An amateur game maker and World of Warcraft junkie, the San Jose State undergrad decided to break more than a few laws by creating an unauthorized clone of the great puzzle game Bejeweled (called, laughingly, Besharded) that could be played in the middle of a Warcraft session. While such insolence normally leads to a barrage of cease and desist letters, Bejeweled publisher PopCap Games opted for a much different strategy. They decided to go ahead and allow players to play Bejeweled inside Wow, kind of like how you can now play officially branded Scrabble instead of Scrabulous inside Facebook. The game can be easily pulled up and closed. Of course, all this does is give me more ammo for hating on MMORPG's. If the game isn't interesting enough to hold your attention, why not just go play Bejeweled to begin with?  Related Links:  Kotaku Endorses Products Unaware Terrorists Using WoW to Plan Attacks? Shawn "Napster" Fanning: Wow Nerd Success Story Posted Sep 29 2008, 04:40 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: world of warcraft, cole stryker, bejeweled

• The Contrarion: The Future Brings Hi-Res Emotion

  In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Activision President and CEO Robert Kotick dishes about the future of the games industry. It's an interesting read, but what struck me as way off was tucked away at the end.  We struggle with the emotional connection between the audience and the character and the ability to deliver a story. Part of the limitation is that facial animation and mouth movement is not realistic. It's very hard to deliver a line that you would find compelling or somehow to be able to engage with. I think that with next generation hardware you are going to start to see facial animation and mouth movement that looks like it is real. That's going to open up whole new opportunities for advances in the medium and introducing that story element and character dimension that has not existed yet. Read More... Posted Sep 26 2008, 04:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: uncanny valley, cole stryker, earthbound, the contrarion

• Facepalm: Gaming While Driving

  Two Facepalms in two days? Madness! A bus driver has been supsended for playing a PSP while driving. HONOLULU -- Less than a day after KITV broke the story of a city bus driver playing a video game while driving a bus, the driver is on unpaid leave and being investigated Wednesday. The president of The Bus apologized for the incident and said he's "embarrassed" by it less than a month after another bus driver was arrested for drunk driving while operating a city bus. Read More... Posted Sep 25 2008, 10:00 AM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: psp, cole stryker, addiction, facepalm

• Facepalm: 360 vs PS3 Boob Physics Comparison

  Sometimes I come across things on the internet that just make me want to throw my consoles out the window and never play another video game. For those moments, I've created a new recurring feature: Facepalm. This comes courtesy of the scholars at Digg (where else?!). It's a video comparing the, uh, jiggle factor of Soul Calibur's leading ladies on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Why? Because, shut up, that's why. Insightful commentary: thankuvrylittle: In all honesty, the 360 ones definitely move in a more sexually appealing way. spikyvashy: I'll tell u which game has girls with some nice boobs, The girls from the DOA' franchise spvn: damn it's hard to keep track of all 4 of them at the same time... Hurr hurr hurr! The offending video, after the jump: Read More... Posted Sep 24 2008, 01:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: xbox 360, cole stryker, ps3, diggbait, facepalm, jiggle factor

• MMO Predicts Life in 10 Years

  Wonder what the world will be like in a decade? A new MMO hopes to evaluate the effects of five different "Superthreats" on mankind, and assess humanity's ability to cope with different sorts of impending doom. The human species has a long history of overcoming tremendous obstacles, often coming out stronger than before. Indeed, some anthropologists argue that human intelligence emerged as the consequence of the last major ice age, a period of enormous environmental stress demanding flexibility, foresight and creativity on the part of the small numbers of early Homo sapiens. Historically, those who have prophesied doom for human civilization have been proven wrong, time and again, by the capacity of our species to both adapt to and transform our conditions. Read More... Posted Sep 23 2008, 12:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: cole stryker, mmo, facebook, superstruct, iftf

• EPIC Cave Story Medley on Piano

  He's not the first to adapt Cave Story's EPIC score to piano, but he's the first to post it to Youtube in a giant 24 minute suite. Check out Sebastian Wolff's video: It must have taken forever to transcribe those battle scenes! If there was any justice in the world, this cat would be invited to tour with Video Games Live and Daisuke Amaya, aka Pixel, would be given whatever award that goes to digital music composers (they have that, don't they?). This game was created by one dude, and his compositions rival those of any game. In the words of esteemed "dirty south" hip hop star T.I., "Creme de la creme, homey. Top shelf, ya know?" Download sheet music at Sebastian's site.   Related Links: Spelunking Through Cave Story Underpowered Cave Story "Ports" Action Button Top 25 Games Ever List Up Posted Sep 22 2008, 03:54 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: cole stryker, cave story, video games live, soundtrack

• Video Games Are Haute Couture

  I know this isn't a new development, but I am continually shocked when I see the influence of gaming iconography within the greater sphere of popular culture. When I was a kid, I only knew a handful of people who owned consoles, and we were smart enough not to talk about it around girls. And now we have this, which has to represent some kind of paradigm shift, I guess.  Giles Deacon has introduced a clothing line loosely based on Pac-Man imagery, complete with an adorable power-pellet adorned runway.   Read More... Posted Sep 19 2008, 10:00 AM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: cole stryker, video game art, the contrarion

• Terrorists Using WoW to Plan Attacks?

  Wired reports that the Pentagon is researching the possibility of terrorist groups working within World of Warcraft, using the MMORPG as a chat room and demo arena for potential terrorist attacks. This is pretty scary, but at the same time...hilarious. In [a hypothetical scenario], two World of Warcraft players discuss a raid on the "White Keep" inside the "Stonetalon Mountains." The major objective is to set off a "Dragon Fire spell" inside, and make off with "110 Gold and 234 Silver" in treasure. "No one will dance there for a hundred years after this spell is cast," one player, "war_monger," crows. Except, in this case, the White Keep is at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. "Dragon Fire" is an unconventional weapon. And "110 Gold and 234 Silver" tells the plotters how to align the game's map with one of Washington, D.C. Read More... Posted Sep 18 2008, 10:00 AM by Cole Stryker with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: world of warcraft, cole stryker, terrorism, wired, pentagon

• Google to Buy Valve?

  Still a rumor, but what does this mean? Mashable's Stan Schroeder thinks its an odd choice, but the value of Steam would make it a worthwhile purchase. With Steam, Valve has managed to do what no one else has: they’ve made it so easy and simple to download games that users are actually willing to pay for it even when they have a choice of pirating the same content for free. Read More... Posted Sep 17 2008, 11:00 AM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: valve, half-life, cole stryker, google lively, google, steam, game developer's conference

• IGN Pwned by Random Dude on a Forum

  Linking to some guy's rant on a forum doesn't exactly fall under journalistic best practices, but Select Button's Broco had me rolling in the aisles with this scathing indictment of IGN's journalistic integrity. Basically, he picked a random review (Rock Band 2) and blotted out all the meaningless cliches and empty verbiage. It's twenty-two paragraphs of tripe, and well, it speaks for itself. Here are the opening two paragraphs: Harmonix launched music games into a whole new arena with the release of Rock Band last year. No longer did music games have to be about just playing the drums or the guitar or singing. All three elements were merged together into a cohesive and thoroughly enjoyable package. But while Rock Band was a breath of fresh air, it did have some issues. With the release of Rock Band 2 less than a year after the original, Harmonix addresses many of the past concerns and adds an awesome new online mode, certain to keep gamers rockin' for another year. The biggest addition isn't a new feature or function, but 84 new songs. All master tracks, these 84 songs represent the single greatest collection of songs in a game to date. Headlining the new tracks is the first Guns N' Roses single in more than a decade, "Shackler's Revenge." Along with these are a slew of incredible songs that span the '60s right up to today. AC/DC, Metallica, The Talking Heads, Pearl Jam, Journey, Megadeath, Modest Mouse, Rage Against the Machine, Bon Jovi, Jane's Addiction -- I could keep going, but you get the point. There are some brilliant songs here. And while there are going to be a few tracks each person will not care for, there's far more good here than bad. Read More... Posted Sep 16 2008, 12:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: cole stryker, journalism, rock band 2, ign, hilary goldstein

• Playstation 2 Up in the Ride - Is that Lorenzo-kitted?

  "Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis. When I was dead broke, man I couldn't picture this." ~ Notorious B.I.G. Remember when you first heard that line? Holy crap, Biggie Smalls plays video games too! It's good to know that even the toughest, most street-hardened gangstas also know how to kick back and enjoy a little interactive entertainment. I mean, Wu Tang released a brawler, Def Jam's got a fighting franchise, and acclaimed rapper Shaquille O'neal had Shaq-Fu. Even 50 Cent is jumping on the bandwagon, in a game where he pretty much singlehandedly takes down Al Quaeda. Read More... Posted Sep 15 2008, 11:00 AM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: cole stryker, sampling, notorious big, hip hop

• Drew Carey Ventures into Second Life

  Libertarian-leaning news source reason.tv has a fascinating piece on free market economics in Second Life. SL is based on a simple set of institutional arrangements that would make F.A. Hayek proud. In essence, the people who own the property in SL make the rules. The result is a spontaneously ordered world in which residents are free to fly, teleport, build, trade and interact with others without interference from the state. Recently, Linden Lab—the SL equivalent of a state—has begun acting more and more like a real life government by restricting activities such as gambling. But open source competitors based on the SL platform are currently in development. So better virtual worlds offering even more freedom are just around the corner. As virtual real estate gains value, it will be interesting to see how MMO hosts like Linden Labs handle personal property. They draw parallels between the folks who sought freedom in the New World centuries ago and those who seek liberty and fortune on these new virtual frontiers. Neat stuff. For some reason (ha!), I can't get the video to embed here, so you'll just have to click on through to the other side. Related Links: Companies are Still Using Second Life for Teleconferencing? Gold Farming: Why I'll Never Play an MMORPG Night Elves Anonymous: MMORPG addicts seek psychotherapy Posted Sep 12 2008, 10:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: cole stryker, second life, mmorpg, free markets, reason.tv, libertarianism, linden labs

• Earthbound Saga Pt. 4

  I check in with the folks at Starmen.net every few weeks in order to check up on the progress of the upcoming Mother 3 fan translation. It's not quite done yet, but the fourth installment of the Earthbound Saga is. This fan-made movie is a live-action slapstick take on the Earthbound story that began production in 1995. A bunch of kids filmed a few adorable scenes, and as children are wont, gave up and moved on to other pursuits. They've all grown up, but their love for Earthbound remains. Here's the original 1985 vignette: Part 4 after the jump: Read More... Posted Sep 11 2008, 11:00 AM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: cole stryker, earthbound, mother 3

• Gamestop: We Ain't A-Skeered

  Yeah well, you should be.  Our position with our vendors has been pretty straight forward. We've been honest with them--we're not afraid to compete with them," said Bob McKenzie, SVP of merchandising at Grapevine, Tex.-based GameStop. He argued that the broadband speeds of most gamers will limit downloadable distribution to the extent that Gamestop will continue to claim a majority of retail market share. But for how long? I haven't purchased a video game at retail since 2001, before eBay made used, marked down video games so readily accessible. When I want to buy a new game, I usually go with Amazon. Downloadable content isn't the only way to bypass brick and mortar retail, though it is the future. On top of all that, Gamestop also has to compete with Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and a few dozen other big box retailers that stock video games, sometimes for lower prices. Read More... Posted Sep 10 2008, 12:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: cole stryker, gamestop, ebay

• Why Doesn't Hollywood Understand Games?

  Sci-fi powerhouse io9 has compiled a list of sci-fi's most awkward flirtations with video game imagery, and it's hilarious. Why is it that Hollywood has such a hard time grasping what video games are really about? Considering that such a huge swathe of the population regularly plays games, you'd think that some enterprising writers out there would be eager to capture that zeitgeist. The movie that tried the hardest to capture the spirit of gamer culture was, I guess, Grandma's Boy, a movie that sucked so hard (even by Adam Sandler's lofty standards), that even gamers hated it. It had a tai kwon do-practicing chimpanzee though and about a zillion bong jokes, so there's that. Come to think of it, most films take the lazy route of portraying gamers as pot smoking man-children (See: Shaun of the Dead). Read More... Posted Sep 09 2008, 05:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: cole stryker, science fiction, io9, shaun of the dead, grandma's boy, south park

• Action Button Top 25 Games Ever List Up

  A few weeks back I told you about Action Button's ongoing list, and now it's done. I reckon that this is the only list of its kind worth reading, because it flies in the face of everything that you've been told about video games. If nothing else, the lineup serves as an excellent introduction to some wildly underrated games, a dozen of which I've put on my "must play" spreadsheet. Each entry is accompanied by a verbose review, which will most likely shoot off in several directions, perhaps only tangentially discussing the game in question. I've read about half, and all are compelling, despite the word counts. We're talking about people who can call a game "Love: The Videogame" with a straight face. But whatever, Tim Rogers and Co. love video games. When you're done reading through this list, you may come to the conclusion that most other reviewers hate them. Be sure to scroll through the 500+ comments that the list has inspired for some of the best open conversation on game theory that you'll find anywhere. The full list, after the jump: Read More... Posted Sep 05 2008, 11:00 AM by Cole Stryker with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: cole stryker, action button, tim rogers, lists

• Are German Game Developers more Strategy-minded?

  Oooh, look at me, I read the Economist! (ahem)  This article about German board games got me thinking: Are German video games generally more rules-based, as opposed to narrative-based, than games from other countries? Are they more purely games, as opposed to interactive entertainment? Germany is to board-games what Belgium is to chocolate. It specialises in “Eurogames”, which emphasise strategy over showiness, downplay luck and conflict, lean towards economic rather than martial themes and strive to keep all the players at the table until the game’s end. I checked out a list of German video game developers on Wikipedia (research!) Read More... Posted Sep 04 2008, 11:00 AM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: cole stryker, crysis, farcry, gothic, strategy, germans, rogue squadron

• Watcha Playing: Fantastic Contraption

  For the last few weeks I've tried different browser-based games, and this is one of my favorites. Fantastic Contraption presents a simple challenge: Get the object from here to there - except that the execution is never very simple. I'm thirteen levels in and I haven't yet resorted to a walkthrough or Youtube cheat, but I don't think I'm going to last much longer without at least checking youtube for some help with strategy. I've been playing a little bit on my lunch breaks every day. It's easy to pick up and play in short bursts. Built by this dude, Fantastic Contraption is uncompromising in its difficulty, yet you'll gladly spend a half hour or more trying to think of various ways to get aound obstacles like slippery steps, wide gaps, and imposing walls. Build simple two-wheeled "cars", massive treaded "tanks" or even catapults.  Your tools are wheels and connecting rods. That's it! The challenge is determining the length of the rods, and where to connect them to the wheels, which can turn clockwise or counterclockwise. This brilliant economy makes for a perfect little game. It's excellent flash titles like this that make me want to sell my Wii.  Related Links:  Watcha Playing?: The Lost Vikings Whatcha Playing?: Final Ninja Watcha Playing: Ninja Gaiden - Dragon Sword Posted Sep 03 2008, 04:05 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: cole stryker, puzzle, fantastic contraption, browser, flash

• Entitled PC Gamers Whine about Rights

  Stardock's PC Gamer's Bill of Rights is a laughable and self-defeating piece of diggbait, sure to be received by mouth-breathing PC gamers with a hearty "hear hear". It's bull -- the moment you shell out cash is the moment you need to stop whining about rights. The list, with my take, after the jump: Read More... Posted Sep 02 2008, 02:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: kotaku, cole stryker, gamers, diggbait, pc games, stardock

• Trailer Review: Eyepet - Wii Killer?

  Probably not, but this thing still looks like it would be a total blast for kids, moreso than any Wii game I've yet seen. It reminds me of those old Sega holographic laserdisc arcade games with the cowboy and the princess in which it was impossible to survive for longer than thirty seconds. I'd never play this, but I know plenty of munchkins who would. Read More... Posted Aug 27 2008, 11:00 AM by Cole Stryker with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: little big planet, playstation 3, cole stryker, casual games, eyetoy

• Gold Farming: Why I'll Never Play an MMORPG

  A sensational title, to be sure, but this is insane. BBC News reports that nearly half a million people make a living supplying lazy first-world gamers with monopoly money.   Read More... Posted Aug 26 2008, 08:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: world of warcraft, cole stryker, mmorpgs, gold farming

• Wizards of the Coast Gives You -1 Charisma on Facebook

  Wizards of the Coast has released a watered-down, casual version of D&D for Facebook, ensuring that anti-social nerds who have since shied away from the social networking service will be tractor-beamed into the site's time-sucking vortex.  According to TOR, it's got great "beautiful production values and beautiful writing": ...it’s not all hack-and-slash. It would have been easy enough to make a game in which every event is a scuffle of some kind. D&D is, after all, the ur-rpg with the very well-aged unofficial motto, “Kill things and take their stuff.” And of course there is fighting in plenty. But there’s a lot more. There’s environmental challenges like quicksand, crossing a gorge, and climbing difficult slopes. There are also a lot of social interactions where the key challenge is to see through a deception, win over someone who might be an ally despite a hostile start, save a drowning child. This is adventuring broadly construed, and it makes me happy. Read More... Posted Aug 25 2008, 09:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: cole stryker, role playing game, dungeons and dragons, facebook