Man, I wish we’d had a choir in high school that was as nerd-tastic as this one. I would’ve been all up in those auditions. (Thanks for the tip, Tim!)
When she's not busy blowing the heads off of enemies to get to the next level, she's usually playing video games.
Meet Kate —
The Game Dame™
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TheGameDame
Posted on December 17th, 2007 in Video Game Music.
2 Comments so far
Man, I wish we’d had a choir in high school that was as nerd-tastic as this one. I would’ve been all up in those auditions. (Thanks for the tip, Tim!)
Posted on December 12th, 2007 in Techie Tidbits.
5 Comments so far
The best part about this award is the Reuters article talking about it. It’s like a buttoned up white collar guy trying to do his best Ludacris impression … and failing miserably:
“w00t,” an expression of joy coined by online gamers, was crowned word of the year on Tuesday by the publisher of a leading U.S. dictionary.
Massachusetts-based Merriam-Webster Inc. said “w00t” — typically spelled with two zeros — reflects a new direction in the American language led by a generation raised on video games and cell phone text-messaging.
It’s like saying “yay,” the dictionary said.
“It could be after a triumph or for no reason at all,” Merriam-Webster said.
Posted on December 12th, 2007 in Pre/Reviews.
5 Comments so far
Saturday night I forced myself to get off of the couch and go out on the town. MC Router was playing at The Darkside Lounge in Dallas with The Triggermen and Lazer and there was no way I was gonna miss it.
I got there around ten and The Triggermen were on stage tearin’ it up. This group is awesome. Two dudes and a super hot Asian chick with mad rappin skillz. Can you go wrong with that combo? I think not. Favorite song of the night? Bar Fight. That song rules. You can see a live clip of it on their site: AMPM Sound under the multimedia section and buy the track off their MySpace page.
I got a chance to chat with MC Router before she went on stage. After we went through that inevitable awkward moment that occurs when you meet a MySpace friend in person for the first time, we totally clicked. This chick fucking gets it and I got mad respek for that. For those of you who don’t know her, MC Router (who’s legal name will actually BE Router as soon as the paperwork goes through) this chica loca calls herself the first lady of nerdcore. Never seen without a PBR in hand, this brassy lady has brains, wit and a computer chip on her shoulder. And she knows how to put on a kick ass show.
Before she started her set, she told the audience a story about her encounter with VH1. Apparently, she was cast in some reality TV show about female rappers, but the night before her flight was supposed to leave and whisk her away to TV land, she got a lame phone call from one of the producers. In a nutshell, they told her that they’d changed their minds about having her on the show. Even though there was an upside to casting someone as dramatic as the lovely Ms. Router, they decided that she was “just too smart for their audience”. They were afraid their “viewers wouldn’t get her” or understand why she has “g33k L1f3″ tattooed across her knuckles or remember how to pronounce her name (rooter?! roeter?) or understand why she hates n00bs… or even what n00bs are… It boiled down to this: they would not be casting her on the show after all. Ahh, America, the land of the free and the home of the retards. Gotta love it.
Her set was awesome. I couldn’t stop dancing. If I’d known the lyrics, I’d have sung along. Luckily there was SOME audience participation. One song had a bit of an intro: “Alright! This is the part of the song where we DRINK!” I could do that. And I did. Quite a bit, actually. (Hooray for Blue Moon and designated drivers!!!) 8-bit Bitch was my favorite song of the night. After the show we hung out and had a few beers waiting for Lazer to come on. Man, that girl is dangerous to drink with, but oh, so much fun.
SO, you need to support these nerdtastic peeps. Add them to your MySpace friends. Check out their music. Buy their stuff. And if The Triggermen or MC Router come to your hood, don’t you dare miss them.
Posted on December 10th, 2007 in I Love Technology.
4 Comments so far
I’ve never been one to get into Christmas decorations. The year I printed out a clip art picture of a Christmas tree from our dot matrix printer, taped it to the window and stuck the presents underneath it was the last year my parents asked me to decorate the house for the holidays. But if I could get my hands on a mini replica of this badass LED Pac-Man Christmas tree on display in Madrid, I might actually be willing to put something up.
Posted on December 6th, 2007 in Pre/Reviews.
1 Comment so far
Remember back in July when I said that Heavenly Sword and Lair were the only two games that could possibly make my PS3 worth a crap? Well, Lair was a total disappointment, but I have fallen in love with Heavenly Sword. Finally, there’s a PS3 exclusive worth playing and not just because it’s the best out there, but because it’s a game unlike any other I’ve experienced.
Sure, I’ve been excited about innovative games in the past. I’ve spent hours talking incessantly about robbing hookers of their money in GTA or how Condemned made me scream and bang my knees on the coffee table on more than one occasion. But never in my life have I been so inspired by a game that I’ve actually made a friend sit down and watch clips and making of videos. That is, not until I played Heavenly Sword.
I always rank games not only on the playability, but also the talent of the voice actors and whether the story is written well enough to make me care about the characters I encounter. If the plot stinks, or the voice actors are monotone, I’m disappointed. As I played through Heavenly Sword, I was amazed at the quality of the animation and the detail that went into each character’s personality. For the first time since I’d bought it, I felt like my PS3 held some value (crazy, I know.)
The actors were directed by Andy Serkis (Gollum) at Weta Studios (Lord of the Rings, King Kong) in New Zealand. Serkis not only directs the other actors, he plays an AWESOME evil king – one I grew to loathe by the end of the game so that when I defeated him in the final battle, I actually jumped up, threw my arms around my best friend and did a little happy squeal. I don’t want to give away any plot secrets, but I will say that there were points that nearly drove me to tears because I grew to love all of the characters. They felt real.
This game has gotten a bit of a bad rap for being “too short.” True, you can play it through in a weekend, but is that a fault? I say no. Over the last few years, the length of a game has somehow become part of the criteria for whether that title is successful or not. Sure, I understand wanting to get your sixty bucks worth of a gaming experience, but why can’t there be value in quality over quantity? Why can’t games be good weekenders worth a rent and a replay a few months down the road? I’d love it if other developers could find inspiration in the quality of the storytelling found in Heavenly Sword and create more games like it so that one day in the future, I could go to a game rental store and just pick out a title for the weekend. Other than my sick obsession with Oblivion, I’ve never really gotten into epic games. I want to get through it in a reasonable amount of time. I want to care about the character I play, and I want to win.
I respect developers who have the courage to step into the future of gaming the way Ninja Theory has with Heavenly Sword. It’s not easy to be the only one in the crowd willing to dedicate more time and money than others in an effort to position video games as a true dramatic art form. But I hope other developers are paying attention to the example they’ve set because these are the types of games I want to play. If you’re hesitant to buy this game (which you shouldn’t be) then at least rent it, but whatever you do, you HAVE to check it out. Let’s support this new art form and encourage developers to create more games like this one.
Posted on December 5th, 2007 in I Love Technology.
1 Comment so far
In honor of a boring work day that is threatening to never end, I’m posting this lovely pie chart. If only they were all that easy to understand…
[SOURCE: MorleyOnline]
Posted on December 3rd, 2007 in Pre/Reviews.
3 Comments so far
The trailer for Halpin’s documentary: Spencer Halpin’s Moral Kombat received mixed reviews. Since the video was posted on YouTube a year ago, Spencer has been dealing with outraged gamers who feel his documentary takes an anti-gamer and pro-censorship stance.
Interviewed in the film are leading politicians, journalists, academics, consumer advocates and special interest group executives, game developers, retailers, trade associations and publishers. The interviewees among others, include: Dr. David Walsh, Dr. Michael Rich, Lorne Lanning, Greg Fischbach, Dean Takahashi, Jeff Griffiths, John Marmaduke, Pamela Eakes, Andy McNamara, Greg Ballard, Bob McKenzie, American McGee, Hal Halpin (Spencer Halpin’s brother), Lt. Col Grossman, Phil O’Neil, Marie Sylla, Ed Williams, Richard Ow, Dr. Henry Jenkins, Jason Della Rocca and Jack Thompson. WHAT?! Yes. Jack’s in there. And that may automatically send some gamers screaming for the hills, but maybe that’s okay. After all, we’re not the target demographic for the movie.
According to Spencer Halpin, the trailer was not targeted at gamers, but rather the “42 year old women” who were concerned about video game violence issues, but didn’t fully understand them. This film serves as an educational tool for those parents trying to decide whether their kiddos should have access to certain games and, although I haven’t seen it yet, hopefully it wakes these adults up so they can understand that just like there are X rated movies for grown ups, there are also M rated video games for us. And those should all be kept away from the kiddies.
The official release date hasn’t been announced yet, but I’m looking forward to checking out the film and seeing the response. Here’s the official trailer:
Related reads:
Why You Should See Spencer Halpin’s Moral Kombat (Part One)
Why You Should See Spencer Halpin’s Moral Kombat (Part Two)
Game Heroes
Video podcast appearance
—June 2008
Sweet Flag
Interview
—May 2008
Attack of the Show
“The Loop” panelist
—November 2007
CrotchMail.com
Interview
—June 2007
TiedTheLeader.com
Interview
—April 2007
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