Archive for May 3rd, 2008
« Previous EntriesAnother List: Top Blue Ball Moments in Gaming [Sex]
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
And weekends are made for lists, too. GamesRadar put up the seven top unrequited lust moments in gaming. The Sims, Leisure Suit Larry and, of course, the final rescue sequence in Super Mario Brothers make the list, but I think they missed about half a dozen more:
• Any strip poker game, any platform.
• Trying to pick up a hooker in a convertible in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
• Putting "Hot Coffee" on Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and realizing you're in San Fierro, and you're stuck at 30 percent with Katie.
• Driving back to Los Santos to get it on with Denise.
• Denise not being home when you get there. (this all happened when Crecente sent me the mod)
Anyone else have tales of thwarted nookie or nudity?
Top 7 Blue Ball Moments [GamesRadar]
Harmony Downloads Album Art for Fullscreen Coverflow [Featured Windows Download]
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
Windows only: Freeware application Harmony integrates with your iTunes library to provide an attractive, Coverflow-like interface of your albums. The difference? Aside from a few minor tweaks to the interface, the coolest thing that Harmony does is automatically download all your missing album artwork from Amazon, so you can actually enjoy your music's cover art in all its glory without spending hours adding all your missing album art. Harmony is freeware, Windows only.
Sexy New LEGO Indiana Jones Gameplay [Clips]
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
newVideoPlayer("legoindiana2.flv", 463, 387,"");
I can't friggin wait for this game to come out. Seriously. Tristan and I have actually been watching through the trilogy to prepare for the game, not the movie. LEGO Star Wars is one of the only games that the two of us played through all the way (three times, including once on the DS). I sure hope they don't tinker with the formula... and they add more multiplayer options.
The History of PC Game … Packaging? [Pc Gaming]
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
Interesting read over on 1up — the history of packaging trends in PC gaming. No, really. Remember the code wheels (I had one in Legacy of the Ancients and the Legend of Blacksilver, for C64). Remember Marathon's absurd box? Remember the boatload of instruction manuals for something like Pirates!
It's more than just nostalgia, though. The packaging, does a pretty good job tracing the state of the art for PC gaming. It shows the attempts at copy protection, the deepening play experiences that required a ton of documentation, and takes you from dependency on in-store sales to the transition to online sales and DLC.
And plus, it's the weekend. This is the time for neat evergreen features and lists. And dammit, I'm gonna find stuff that isn't GTA IV, too.
Shrink Wrapped: A History of PC Game Packaging Trends
[1up]
Pleasant Saturday Timewaster: Meet In [Timewasters]
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
I really love the too cute for words Grow games — nothing complicated, but cute and fun to play. There's a new game from the same creator — while not a grow game, it's a cute and quick little puzzle. And if you haven't experienced such classics as Grow Island, there's even more to go and click.
Meet In ver.0 [Eyezmaze]
The Complete Guide to the Moleskine [Moleskine]
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
The Moleskine won the battle of the fancy designer notebooks by a mile last month here at Lifehacker. If you want to measure your existing Moleskine addiction—or just get an intro to the fabled leather-bound notebooks—the Put Things Off weblog offers the ultimate guide to the Moleskine, featuring the various models, mods, and accessories to feed your fetish.
An Interview With the Developer of Solitaire for Windows [Pc Gaming]
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
You know, I can't really argue with the claim that Wes Cherry created the most-played video game ever: Solitaire for Windows (PC) which came out in the early 1990s and was installed on millions of machines worldwide. I think IGN gave it a 10/10 at the time. I kid! I kid!
But the Web site B3TA tracked down Mr. Cherry and, by all appearances, got a legit Q&A with him. A bunch of their commenters sent in questions and according to the article, Cherry got back to them about a year later. The big question, would he play ball with this kind of an interview? Oh yes, he did.
Q: Exactly how much time and money has been wasted globally as a result of office workers playing Solitaire? A: There was a global recession in 1991/1992, just after Solitaire was released. Thank you very much. Oh, and you can't have your time back.It's that kind of gamer outreach that builds loyalty to a platform.Q: Is there a way to change the speed of the card trail thing at the end? I've found it at different speeds on different OS'.
A: Yes, upgrade to a IBM 286 running at 16mHz. That should slow it down right good. Or install Norton Antivirus. I'll leave it to Mr. Moore and his law to make things faster.Q: Why didn't you call it Patience in the English version?
A: Because I speak English, and I call it Solitaire.
Interviews: Wes Cherry [B3TA]
EA’s Rod Humble on The Sims, Death and Potty Humor [Sadistic Sandbox]
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
Rock, Paper, Shotgun has posted a two part interview with EA's Rod Humble on The Sims, among other things — the first half of the interview covers a lot of (non-Sims related) gaming territory, while the second focuses on the Sims. On designing the death bits:
We have a lot of fun with it, so every expansion pack we come to the point where we're adding in some new death states. I remember in Seasons they were putting in the death state of being snowed to death. The person is in a snowstorm, and you see them trying to fight it and fight it, until the fighting slows down [laughs] and he just rolls over and gives up. It shouldn't be funny. But oh my goodness, it is. It's always about mean things happening in an amusing way. There's also a lot of potty humour in it, and we fully embrace that. I think that's a wonderful traditional mode of humour, and I still find it funny watching Sims pee themselves. I make no apologies for it. I think that's a classic genre and endlessly entertaining. [laughs] It makes chuckle just thinking about it!
It's a fun little two part interview, even if you're not a big Sims fan.
Dinner With Rod Humble: Sims Style Stuff [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]
ASUS Eee PC 900 display retrofitted into 701
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008Filed under: Displays, Laptops
[Via Liliputing]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Two New Screens for Golden Axe: Beast Rider [Golden Axe]
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
SEGA America's blog gives gamers a look inside work at Secret Level, which just finished Iron Man for them and is cranking on Golden Axe: Beast Rider. A cool Flickr slideshow shows the team and some concepts, both in hard copy and rendered on computer. And two new screen caps, which is the video game porn you're here for.
Blogger SegaDawg didn't get any looks at the gameplay, but does write:
I did see a demo of Tyris riding one particular beast that will deal some severe swipe damage with its claws. There are several types of beast mounts in the game, each with its own strengths and weaknesses, and my bet is that there will be points in the game where you have to ride a specific beast in order to accomplish certain goals — but that's just a hunch.Inside Secret Level [SEGA America Blog, via Gaming Bits]
Roll Your Own Homemade Herbal Teas [How To]
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
Country Living online details how to make your own herbal teas by mixing and matching ingredients from your herb garden or plants around the house for tasty and healthy results. The article runs down which flowers, herbs, bushes, and weeds are edible and drinkable and suggests a few mixes to get you started. If you've ever dabbled in homebrew teas, share your experience in the comments. Photo by Kanko*.
A Pixel Cookie How-To [Pastry Invaders]
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
Fondant make your blood run cold? Like something a little less labor intensive for cute desserts? Screw the game cakes, say hello to pixel cookies made using a Play-Doh Fun Factory. A photo how-to shows you how to take extruded dough sticks and turn them into the lovely creations above. Next up on the original baker's to-do list? Mario cookies using the same method.
Pixel Cookies [SeattleJonman's Flickr photostream via Wonderland]
The Top 5 Nonviolent Things to Do in GTA [Nonviolent Video Games]
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
Naturally, no one's going to chop together video of this, Youtube it and get it in Jack Thompson's hellfire-and-damnation spree of legal motions. But Popular Mechanics wrote up a list of five nonviolent pastimes in Grand Theft Auto IV and, surprisingly, you can spend a lot of time entertaining yourself with them.
1. Listen to the rockin' radioWhether or not this is a palatable way to spend time playing a game, it underlines the point that Grand Theft Auto is a game of choices in a wide open environment. Yes you can kill hookers. Yes you can shoot cops. Yes you can run over bystanders. If that's your choice. You can also eat hot dogs all day, watch TV and go sightseeing, if you're not a sociopath. I play it somewhere in between.
2. Swim out of a car accident
3. Drive like you mean it
4. One up Google's NYC street view
5. Meet the neighborhood strangers
Top 5 Non-Violent Things You Can Do in Grand Theft Auto IV [Popular Mechanics]
The State of Indie Gaming [State Of The Field]
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
Juan Gril has an interesting look up at the current state of indie games, both on the PC and on this current crop of consoles — what's currently cooking, and potential and pitfalls for the future. And where is the hotbed of radical innovation?:
Some people may disagree with this statement, but frankly if there is one platform where most of the radical innovation in video game design is happening, that platform is the World Wide Web. For every innovative Wii game in the market, there are dozens of innovative Flash games.It's not only because the barriers of entry and the production costs are lower, it's also a platform open for experimentation. You can throw something out there, discover that you wanted to change something, change it on your server, and boom, it's available for everybody else.
There are some other interesting bits of information contained within the article ('Don't spend more than $200K developing a game for XBLA!'), and some stats and predictions as well.
The State of Indie Gaming [Gamasutra]