The Game Dame™

Archive for April, 2008

Review of Bully: Scholarship Edition

Posted on April 11th, 2008 in Pre/Reviews.
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Bully 2: Save Your Dough for Another Game

So I’ve been putting off my review of Bully: Scholarship Edition because… well… you know the phrase: “If you can’t say anything nice, keep your damn mouth shut.” But I decided to go ahead and give you a brief overview so that you’ll know not to waste your hard earned cash on a sub-par game.

I played the game for about 4 hours. “But Game Dame! The good stuff doesn’t even start happening until you’ve played for about 15 hours! There’s go-kart racing and lawnmower riding and..” Shut up. Eff that. I don’t like the fact that so many games take so long to get interesting. When I pick out a game, it’s because I want something fun to do… not something lame that takes a million hours to get good. I’m willing to deal with a certain amount of settling in time, but only if that’s rewarded by decent voice acting and the promise of something worthy of my time. I didn’t find either of those things with this title.

The story takes place at Bullworth Academy where you play as Jimmy – the bully with a heart o’ gold. The intro is promising. Your barfly mom and her new abusive, bastard beau are driving Jimmy to the Academy. This scene gives you a pretty decent setup, but it’s not great. The voice acting is lacking – as is the animation. Especially for a cut scene.

As the game moves forward, you become friends with another bully who wants to take over the school and an effiminate guy who has probably been given more swirlies than he’s actually used the toilet. There are a few fun characters, but it boils down to this: you’re in school. You’ve got classes (English was my favorite… just like in real life.) And despite the fact that Jimmy keeps insisting he’s not interested in taking over the school, that’s exactly what the missions are leading you to do.

Overall, it feels like Rockstar ripped themselves off with this one. It’s kind of a PG-13 GTA… you’ve got missions. You choose the order. You’re trying to rule the campus. The characters you pass on campus say funny things if you stop to listen. But there aren’t any guns or prostitutes. And the music sucks (although you can play your own tunes to get around that). PLUS, there are SO MANY loading screens it’s infuriating. Every time you walk through a door, you get a series of loading screens that are filled with “helpful hints” that go by too quickly to read. Didn’t mean to go in that room? Get ready to see another ste of loading screens. Hooray!!!

Bottom Line: Save your money for GTAIV. Bully: Scholarship Edition isn’t even worth a rent.

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Charlie Daniels Ain’t Happy

Posted on April 9th, 2008 in Video Game Music.
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Charlie Daniels: Not a fan of Guitar Hero

Today, the ECA newsletter had a link to ol’ Charlie Daniels’ site where he published a rant about the way Guitar Hero III features one of his songs.

The song, “The Devil Went Down To Georgia,” which I wrote, is supposed to be a lighthearted novelty about a fiddling contest between a country boy and the devil and the devil always loses.

That is not the case with the Guitar Hero version which comes complete with a horned, guitar-playing devil who battles the player and very often wins.

I want any of you parents out there whose children have this game to know that I did not grant these people my permission to pervert my song and am disgusted with the result.

Unfortunately I lost the publishing rights on the song many years ago in a settlement with a former partner and the license to Guitar Hero was granted by the company who now owns the publishing.

I would never grant permission for some company to create a video game version of a song I wrote in which the devil wins a contest and I’m sorely disappointed with the company who owns the copyright for not policing the situation. As it is they have allowed these people to violate the very essence of the song.

Dang. That’s messed up, yo. Full rant here.

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GTA 4 Delayed?!!?! Say it ain’t so!!!

Posted on April 7th, 2008 in Techie Tidbits.
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So Wedbush Morgan’s game analyst dude Michael Pachter recently commented on his thoughts about EA and Grand Theft Auto’s release date, “I think if EA takes over Take-Two, they have an economic incentive to delay [Grand Theft Auto IV].” Why? It’s all about the quarterly earnings, baby. And EA wants these sales to come in closer to the Christmas holiday. Hopefully, this is just another one of Pachter’s quotes we can shake our heads at and ignore … like this one:

‚ÄúI don‚Äôt think there are four million people in the world who really want to play online games every month.‚Äù (SOURCE)

The ads are out. The gamers are foaming at the mouth in anticipation. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait any longer for GTA4 than we already have.

[Thanks to I Chupa for the tip. May your virtual life be filled with plenty of prostitutes, cool cars and money.]

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New Zealand Man Uses Hedgehog as Weapon

Posted on April 7th, 2008 in Random.
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Police said William Singalargh, 27, had hurled the hedgehog about 5m (16ft) at a 15-year-old boy.

“It hit the victim in the leg, causing a large, red welt and several puncture marks,” said Senior Sgt Bruce Jenkins, in the North Island town of Whakatane.

It was unclear whether the hedgehog was still alive when it was thrown, though it was dead when collected as evidence.

The police spokesman said the suspect was arrested “for assault with a weapon, namely the hedgehog.”

Mr Singalargh is due to appear in court on 17 April. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.

Sonic was not available for comment.

[SOURCE: BBC News]

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I <3 Nerds

Posted on April 3rd, 2008 in I Love Technology.
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Ahh, Half-Life. Health cabinets, crowbars, headcrabs and the nerdtastic fans who love them all.

[SOURCE: Geek4ums.com]

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Calling all Flash Game Developers (and players)

Posted on April 3rd, 2008 in Techie Tidbits.
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David Perry just posted a bulletin on MySpace inviting Flash game designers and players to sign up for free for a spot on his new site: TheFanAwards.org. The site is still under development (about 70% complete). Here’s the scoop from David:

I enjoy being able to do whatever I feel like, so I hired a team to develop a site for fans of flash games, asking them to find the best Flash Game Developers in the world.

We have team members playing thousands of these games right now, games from all around the world. It would be impossible for us to be sure and see every single one in existence, but we want to, so we will have the players help find the ones we missed.

I will partner with major companies to help on making the awards like no other. GameInvestors will help the winners grow by introducing them to some of the top investment and publishing companies in the world, we will do everything we can to help them grow and get the recognition they deserve.

Ultimately the developers will get real awards (from the fans) and I will choose an awards ceremony to work with that will give these people the respect they deserve.

Just like my other sites, this one is completely free, just come along to TheFanAwards.org and sign up. As soon as we are set we will email you with the password so you can come and help us test it.

Feel free to bring your friends along to help! Places are limited though so be quick
Also, if you are a Flash Developer, please make sure to email us a link to your game (so it will be there at launch.) Submissions can be sent to gamesubmissions@thefanawards.org before launch.

Sounds pretty sweet! Get involved now. There are 10,000 spots to fill and it’s first come, first serve. So sign up now at: TheFanAwards.org

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$10,000 Art Institute Scholarship for Girl Gamers

Posted on April 2nd, 2008 in Techie Tidbits.
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Applications are now being accepted for the 2008 G.I.R.L. Game Design Competition scholarship of up to $10,000 designed to educate and recruit more women into the field of video game production and design. Sponsored by Sony Online Entertainment LLC. (SOE) a global leader in online gaming.

The SOE G.I.R.L. — Gamers In Real Life — competition is the first of its kind to encourage students toward career paths in the field of video game design and production, ultimately resulting in the development of games that are more interesting for women to play.

“The secret is out: Females game. We’re just trying to encourage more women to make the games they obviously enjoy playing,” said Torrie Dorrell, Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing, Sony Online Entertainment. “With the application process starting today, we’re taking a concrete step towards opening the door a little wider for women who want to go into game development, and that can only help expand our industry’s audience.”

The SOE G.I.R.L. competition was created in response to survey findings that focused on women in the field of video games. The survey interviewed female students currently enrolled in Game Art & Design, Visual & Game Programming and Visual Effects & Motion Graphics programs at The Art Institutes schools. The survey revealed that:

61% of students surveyed believe male dominance in the industry is a deterrent to women pursuing a career in gaming
42% of those surveyed would like to see women portrayed as leaders in video games
35% of the students surveyed want to create more games that are fun and interesting for women to play
31% of those surveyed want to become involved in gaming because more women need to represent the industry

According to the Entertainment Software Association, thirty-eight percent of all game players are women. In fact, women over the age of 18 represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (31%) than boys age 17 or younger (20%).

The G.I.R.L. Game Design Competition is officially on. In order to be eligible to participate, entrants must be currently enrolled at one of The Art Institutes schools, have a graduation date of June 2009 or later and must comply with the Official Rules. Entrants are required to complete an online application and submit an in-game design, concept art and two (2) essays. Online applications must be completed on or before April 15, 2008 and related asset submissions must be received on or before May 31, 2008. The winner will be announced on or about June 30, 2008.

One skilled student will win up to $10,000 towards tuition for his or her education at The Art Institute’s school at which he or she is currently enrolled and a paid internship of up to ten (10) weeks at one of the Sony Online Entertainment studios (located in Austin, Denver, San Diego and Seattle; room, board, transportation and living expenses not included). Entrants will be judged by a panel of industry professionals from SOE.

Following the success of the announcement of the competition, SOE has created an official G.I.R.L. blog written by Tracy Seamster, game designer for SOE’s upcoming release, The Agency(TM). To visit the G.I.R.L. blog, go to GamersInRealLife.wordpress.com.

For contest applications and complete rules for entry, visit Girl.SOE.com.

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Download ‘Still Alive’ for Rock Band Free!

Posted on April 1st, 2008 in Techie Tidbits.
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This is not a lie. Or some lame April Fools joke. Starting today, Xbox 360 Rock Band owners can download “Still Alive” – the theme song for Portal – for free. Unfortunately for you PlayStation players, you get NUSSINK until April 17th. They screwed up with their timing (imagine that) and the PlayStation store is closed for renovations. Good job, guys!!! Us 360 owners will already have the song mastered by then.

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Archive for April, 2008

Review of Bully: Scholarship Edition

Charlie Daniels Ain’t Happy

GTA 4 Delayed?!!?! Say it ain’t so!!!

New Zealand Man Uses Hedgehog as Weapon

I <3 Nerds

Calling all Flash Game Developers (and players)

$10,000 Art Institute Scholarship for Girl Gamers

Download ‘Still Alive’ for Rock Band Free!

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