The most valuable supply of worthlessness on the web
Any gaming post.
This is the most insanely awesome gamer clip I can ever recall seeing (and I’ve watched a lot of them). Think you are good at Tetris? You probably won’t after watching this guy. If I could find a WordPress plugin to let me inline the video, I’d do that, but I haven’t found such a plugin yet, so I’ll just send you to the GameBrink.com page for it.
[tags]Tetris, Gaming, Tetris grand master, Insane gameplay[/tags]
While I’ve already spoken against purchasing Bioshock due to draconian legal-user restrictions (i.e., those who pirate it aren’t affected, but those who paid money are treated are necrotic lepers with erupting pustules of bitter smelling acid), I do still admit to finding it a good game. Here’s a video review done by a British gent who agrees it is good, but can still point out the problems with the game.
[gametrailers 103130]
Now that I’ve got System Shock 2 working on my system, I can play and compare (yes, I failed to play SS2 originally or over the past 4 years I’ve owned a copy) so I can see how accurate his criticisms are.
[tags]Bioshock, System Shock 2, Video Review, Necrotic Leper, Erupting pustules, Securom 2 STILL sucks[/tags]
Catching up on my latest techie/geek news, I saw this news-bit about the new Nokia N-Gage platform update, the N-81 gaming platform. It’s a fine looking update from their awful first- and second-gen gaming phones.
This is Nokia’s new N-81 gaming device built upon their revamped N-Gage gaming platform. The S60 device packs HSDPA (sorry, no US band support) for on-line gaming, integrated speakers (and 3.5-mm headphone jack), and D-pad navigation for getting your game on. Still, it’s not just for gaming as it fully supports all the audio and video you’d expect in a new “pane-driven,” UI which carousels your windows instead of lining them up in tabs — a UI which will evolve in the coming months in line with Ovi. On sale Q4 in Europe in an 8GB flash model (€431/$585) or €360/$490 pre-bunged with a 2GB microSD card.
The screen and control layout looks so much better than the previous versions. There’s a gallery with more images in the Engadget article linked above. This might even be enough of an improvement to get folks to finally buy in to the N-Gage platform.
[tags]N-Gage, Gaming, Nokia[tags]
With a quote like “Not afraid to punch a man in the nuts. Or a midget in the face.” you know you’re getting expert information from ScrewAttack’s top 10 ninjas guide. Hidden behind an impossible to fake age verifier, here’s the video:
[gametrailers 24269]
Moderately NSFW due to language, it’s still pretty funny and a great guide to gaming’s best ninjas.
[tags]ScrewAttack, Top 10 ninjas, Ninjas vs. pirates, Punch a man in the nuts[/tags]
My older son is still having problems related to writing. Not that he can’twant to write, and has trouble sitting still long enough to write much. After getting the OK from his teacher to try letting him type his journals instead of writing them, my wife has been looking at typing tutor software. Looking around on my own, I found this cool looking Flash-based typing game called Word Shoot. You stand in the middle of a battlefield of sorts and type words on approaching enemies to shoot them down.
Just the kind of thing my son might enjoy, and on the easy level it starts out slowly enough that he might be able to get a few enemies before getting overwhelmed. Sort of a typing-tutor by fire thing.
[tags]Typing, Word Shoot, Typing tutor, Flash[/tags]
Since I’ve recently spoken out against buying Bioshock given its secret, auto-install, trojan-like software and lifetime 2 system install limit, I felt it was appropriate to show this signature image from the 2K forums in the thread discussing the issue.
Really not as meaningful to non-purchasers of the game (and good for you, by the way), but that’s a chop of the introduction to the game in the manual. It made me laugh.
[tags]Bioshock, Free installation of virus-like program with purchase, Securom, I chose piracy[/tags]
I started downloading the BioShock demo Monday night and went to bed while the download completed. I loaded the demo Tuesday morning, played for about 5 minutes, and bought the game – the demo is awesome enough to convince me the whole game will be great, and I love Irrational’s work that I’ve played in the past. I did not have a chance to install it before leaving for work Tuesday afternoon, nor Wednesday during the day. However, I did find this interesting Digg about the shitty copy protection on the game and regretted immediately that I have already opened the game and cannot, therefore, return it. Quite the dry-hump, really, because the game is great. But I disapprove highly of companies trying to fuck me or my computer.
Last year, I bought Galactic Civilizations specifically because the developer made a point to not put copy protection on the game. It is the kind of game I would play if I had more gaming time in my life, but I’ve yet to open the game or install it. I purchased it just to show support for developers and distributors who trust customers. BioShock, on the other hand, comes from either a developer or a publisher (I suspect the latter, but cannot rule out the former) who apparently assumes customers are only interested in giving away as many copies as possible. The sad thing is, gamers who buy the game are now screwed by potentially harmful copy protection, while the pirates still get it for free and without copy protection messing up their computers. Basically – screw legitimate customers and fans without slowing down folks that weren’t going to pay anyway.
From someone claiming some relationship to 2K Games:
really, the only people who will be concerned about any of these security measures are those who are rapidly putting bioshock on many pcs… if you use the game as you normally do, you won’t notice this at all.
Well, them and those of us who don’t like companies installing things on our systems without our knowledge. But then, we’re just weird like that. I get pissed when a program puts itself off my Programs section of the start menu instead of letting me set the submenu I want to use. I sure as hell am not OK with a program that installs drivers without giving me the option to instead choose to not install. This is the same crap Sony pulled recently which pissed off so many. And to write it off as not a big deal and not a concern except for those attempting to illegally use the disc is stupid, naïve, and ignorant of geek and gamer culture. I have looked all over the outside of the box, and there is no mention of this violation of my computer, so I can’t decide to *NOT* buy the game based on this knowledge after looking at the box. I’ve read the manual and found no mention of this, so I can’t choose to *NOT* install the game and avoid this. Ultimately, we choose to install one program, and another gets installed without our knowledge and without warning to us that it will happen.
I will be downloading the hacked version off a torrent site to install the game and play. Once I’m finished and ready to remove the program, I’ll be selling my copy on Ebay. You can be sure I’ll mention the apparent effort to restrict personal use of the program when I list it.
Make no mistake – this is a great developer with a great game. The copy protection pisses me off, though, and it’s bad enough for me to recommend that others not buy the game.
[tags]Do not buy BioShock, 2K Games hates legal customers, 2K Games encouraging piracy, BioShock, Securom, Securom sucks, Torrent sites[/tags]
If you aren’t familiar with the game Dungeon Runners, you should probably check it out. You could probably most understand it as an online-only Diablo-like RPG. It’s free, so there is a very low threshold for entry – just create a free account, download the client, login, and play. If you like it, you have the option of paying $5 per month for extra capabilities, but you can play free as long and as much as you like if it doesn’t seem worth $5 per month to you.
I was in the beta of the game for a while. It was enjoyable, but the biggest problem for me was a limitation of one character per account. My older son likes the game, and it seems at least moderately age-appropriate, so I let him play. With only one character for an account, that meant I couldn’t have and develop a character – I let him delete and create characters as he liked, because he played it more than I did. It looks like that limitation is about to go away, however, as news of the upcoming patch and content upgrade will add in a 3 character per account allowance.
Free-to-play dungeon crawler Dungeon Runner is expected to get its next big update this week. I chatted briefly with lead designer Mark Tucker earlier today about what we can expect to see from the update, labeled Chunk Number One.
In a nutshell, the update will add player versus player worlds, multiple character support per an account, in-chat item linking and a new high level dungeon.
My brother already has a paid account. When this update hits, I’ll probably join, as well. I might even get 2 accounts – one for me and one for my older son. And if you wonder how a free to download and free to play MMO works:
While NCSoft is still hesitant to talk about the profitability of the mostly free game, you can pay for access to a small set of exclusive features and a new members only server, they do say they are quite happy with how the game is shaping up.
‘We are tracking well compared to other NC Soft titles,” Tucker said. “The development team has a goal in terms of number of subscribers. There is a point when we become profitable and it’s not a very big number. At that point we can grow the development team.”
NC Soft spokeswoman Opal Lertutai said they have 120,000 active accounts and that they have about 75 percent of the $5 a month paid accounts needed for the game to break even.
So it looks like they are pretty close to getting their target number of minimum paid accounts to keep the game alive and growing. Like I said above – once this update comes out, you can add me in to that base, as well. The single character limitation was all that kept me from getting more into the game.
[tags]Dungeon Runners, NCSoft, Gaming, MMO, MMORPG[/tags]
Initially planned for release as part of the BioShock limited edition, the BioShock art book is now available as a free download in hi-res or standard-res PDF.
I would *LOVE* to have this as a glossy printed book. I’m a sucker for gaming art.
[tags]BioShock, art books, Gaming[/tags]
As a hardcore gamer, there are some things you just don’t want to hear in reference to games. Anything referring to Barbie is bad. Barbie and Horse appearing in the title is much worse, because you know only one way that could be a good game, yet you also know there is no way Barbie would be in a bestiality pr0n game. Though Mary Kate and Ashley are hotties, seeing their name on any game is a sure sign you’d want to pass it by. But we’ve got a couple of new entries into the games-you-never-want-to-see-developed category.
Did you know there’s actually a Barbie MMO? BarbieGirls.com is the kinda thing that makes hardcore gamers groan, but there is — a pink-festooned, dolls-getting-manicured, ‘tween girl-focused MMO, and moreover, it’s ridiculously popular. In its first 60 days, it signed up three million users. Now it’s up to four million — that’s half of what Second Life has drummed up in its entire lifespan — and growing at a rate of 4500 a day.
. . .
Not to be left out of the competition, the freaky skank dolls of Bratz are getting in on the action with Be-Bratz.com, another ‘tween girls’ virtual world with a real-world component — you buy a $29.99 Bratz doll-slash-USB key, and it comes with some pink computer peripherals (a mouse and pad) that look like Japanese sex toys.
Please – if you ever hear that I’m playing these games in any serious manner, just shoot me. Neither Barbie nor Bratz should ever exist in a game title that references MMOs. (via Kotaku)
[tags]Barbie, Bratz, beastiality, horses, MMOs, gaming[/tags]
I doubt we will be able to get one of these any time soon, but this hand-held controller with TV-out for playing Tetris on your TV looks pretty cool to me.
I have no idea the price though, as I didn’t run the Yen to US dollar conversion. (via Kotaku)
[tags]Tetris, hand-held gaming, portable games[/tags]
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Stop me if you’ve heard this one before – Two men walk into a videogame store to rob it. Unfortunately for these idiots, the robbery was caught on store camera.
The Game Stop Store in the 3400-block of Cooper sells a lot of high-end video equipment, so when robbers came in they ignored the cash register and took merchandise.
. . .
As the robbery progressed the tape is still recording as a young boy walks into the store. As the gunman confronts the first boy and orders him to the ground. A second boy walks into the store, sees what’s happening and also gets on the ground.
Looking at the video, it appears that the men stole the PlayStation 3 consoles. Guess there weren’t even enough Nintendo Wii consoles for them to get those. Too bad, since that’s the system everyone wants now.
According to the story, one of the two robbers has already been caught. No word on how much the gaming systems sold for. (via Kotaku)
[tags]Stupid, Crooks, Game Stop robbed in VA[/tags]
