A few weeks ago I downloaded Oregon Trail for my mobile phone thinking that it was going to be identical to the original game I played in elementary school. I was sorely disappointed and a little pissed that The Learning Company failed to mention in their description that the graphics had been upgraded and new sounds had been added. They didn’t say it was the NEW Oregon Trail. Just “Oregon Trail Game!” with the description “An American cultural icon game available on your cell phone.” So I’m thinking it’ll be the original. You know. MS-DOS style:
BUT IT WASN’T. They’d upgraded graphics and shit. Not cool. I only paid $4.99 because I WANTED the old crappy version. I knew I wouldn’t really enjoy the game except for the nostalgia value and they took that away. LAME.
Whatever. At least I have the Mega64 video to make up for the disappointment.
I keep meaning to post this and then I keep forgetting. No mas! Here is the trailer for the Beatles Rock Band due out on September 9th, 2009:
The singing parts are going to take people with some decent skills. It’s hard enough to sing alone. It’ll be interesting to see how people do with those harmonies.
The Beatles™: Rock Band™ will allow fans to pick up the guitar, bass, mic or drums and experience The Beatles’ extraordinary catalogue of music through gameplay that takes players on a journey through the legacy and evolution of the band’s legendary career. Available simultaneously worldwide in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and other territories for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and Wii™ system from Nintendo on Sept. 9, 2009, the game will be compatible with all Rock Band™ controllers, as well as most Guitar Hero® and authorized third party instrument controllers and microphones.
This is a pretty sweet interactive experience promoting the PS3 game: inFamous from Sucker Punch Productions. In the game, you play Cole MacGrath who – according to Wikipedia – is “a bike messenger given an assignment to deliver a package that is secretly a bomb. Cole survives the massive explosion and develops electricity-based powers. Soon, Cole discovers that his city has fallen into chaos under the rule of gangs and factions and must fight back against them to restore order.” Following a comic book style, this game actually looks pretty cool. It’s already out in the U.S. and will be available in Australia (pending any “OMG this is too violent!” censorship issues from the board) on June 4th.
Ever heard of upstart developers Zootfly? Well, get familiar fools, cause these suckas bout ta school us all in great game concept that includes none other than Mr. T.
With Prison Break nearing completion, ZootFly today announced it secured the official Mr. T graphic novel license from Mohawk Media.
ZootFly will develop a series of games packed with the trademark over-the-top adrenaline-pumping action of Mr. T.
The games will feature knuckle-whitening action-adventure, furious brawler combat, gravity-defying platforming, and environmental puzzles.
The first game will see Mr. T take on Nazis and their gigantic machines in the varied universe of South American rain forests, lost ancient cities, industrial complexes and contemporary military installations.
Along with Mr. T and other characters from the graphic novel, the game will feature none other than Will Wright. In this universe, Will Wright is not a top-notch game designer but a top-notch American geneticist who was kidnapped and coerced to work on a diabolic plan. Mr. T and Will Wright will join forces to annihilate the Nazis and their hardware.
So I’m killing time while downloading GTAIV Lost & Damned and I came across this ad for Dante’s Inferno from EA Games. Ho-lee-crap. Watching the trailer made all the little nerdy hairs stand up on the back of my neck in excitement. Right now the official site only has a trailer and a sign up list to get notifications about the game – which I immediately filled out. Here’s what I know about it for now:
According to EA Gamefinder, it’s going to be available on PC – DVD, Xbox 360‚Ñ¢, PLAYSTATION¬Æ3
It’ll be out some time in 2010 (or at least that’s the plan for now.)
The game is being developed by EA Redwood Shores, the same studio responsible for Dead Space.
Eurogamer has written an excellent piece about the upcoming game which gets me so excited I might be sent to the second circle of Hell. It’s pretty lengthy, but you should totally read it. They’ve actually gotten their hands on a demo and – even though the official release is set for some time in 2010 – they’re raving about it. The article says that the controls are exactly like God of War – which makes it easy for GOW fans to pick up and play. That makes me happy. I can’t stand games with controls that don’t make sense. And I can’t stand games without a good storyline. Looks like EA Games has gotten it right. There’s a great quote in the Eurogamer article from Jonathan Knight, executive producer for Dante’s Inferno:
“Obviously we want a game that feels absolutely long enough so that you feel you’ve completely got your money’s worth. That goes without saying. But more important than length is that every level and every zone of every level gets attention from a designer. The way we work is each zone, even if it’s just a combat arena, there’s something about it, some object or some configuration of the enemies of the chest, or there’s some little puzzle element to it or some secret area or clever way of moving the camera… Something that makes it unique from every other zone of the game.”
Hooray for attention to detail in gameplay! So we’ve got good controls, good gameplay AND a good story? Am I dreaming? After playing the RE5 demo and being totally and completely disappointed, I’d almost lost my faith in ever being able to play a good game again. I envisioned myself sitting outside of a gamer’s lounge reminiscing about the “good ole days of gaming – when story lines mattered and developers actually remembered the single-player campaign lovers of the world.” But maybe I won’t have to. Hopefully this game will be as good as I think it’s going to be. And hopefully more developers will follow the trend. And while I’m thrilled about seeing a classic poem in game form, I hope that developers keep their creative juices flowing and don’t limit themselves to classics. They should be stay inspired enough to create new ones like Heavenly Sword.
Did everyone have a good Valentine’s day? I sure did. I started off as the lucky recipient of a home-cooked brunch, then, full-bellied, got taken on my first trip to The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. In addition to being a gorgeous facility with incredible art, this trip was extra special for me because artist Jeff Elrod was being featured. I’d never heard of Elrod before, but I was thankful for the introduction.
(SIDE NOTE: For some reason, these images won’t appear if you’re on IE 7 on a PC. Try it in Firefox if you have problems. Firefox is a better browser anyway.)
Jeff Elrod Endgame, 1994
Acrylic on canvas
79 x 97 inches
Collection Mark Rosman
Elrod painted Endgame in 1994 – an important early work that gives a shout out to Abstract Expressionist Barnett Newman and Space Invaders. Like Newman, who used masking tape to make his famous zip paintings, Elrod uses tape to define space in his work. If you get close to Elrod’s gallery pieces, you can see layered textures created by removing tape from beneath dried paint.
Rather than creating artwork completely on the computer or completely on the canvas, Elrod began combining those processes in 1996. “I’m not into drawing on the computer and then sending out to have a print made of it,” says Elrod, “I’m into figuring out how to put the drawing onto a canvas so that it becomes a part of the painting history dialogue. I have to think of how I’m going to make a painting, so using a computer drawing simplifies that process … I guess I’d say I’m lazy, in a thoughtful way.”
To create his pieces, Elrod roughs out drawings on a computer screen using a simple, vector-based graphics program, then transfers it onto canvas by tracing the forms and masking out certain sections with tape to create lines and shapes. Starting his art using the computer connects Elrod to his youth and the warm and fuzzies he felt when gaming. He describes the sensation of drawing with a mouse as “physiological warmth,” saying, “I hadn’t felt that feeling in twenty years and it felt good. But I wasn’t just playing Pong; I was developing a framework for making art.”
Jeff Elrod Pong, 2002
Acrylic on canvas
36 x 36 inches
Collection Mark Rosman
Well, keep it up Jeff Elrod. Your show rocks and I’d love to see more. If you’re near DFW and can make it out to The Modern before March 29th, 2009, do it. It’s worth seeing these pieces in person. Digital blogs don’t do them justice.
You may have been too busy noticing Lara’s ass to think about what her feet would look like after all that barefooted running around. Let me help you with that.
So I finally rented the latest Tomb Raider and played it through.
The games she’s in, however, piss me off. I had high hopes that because Crystal Dynamics was involved again, Underworld would kick ass.
FAIL
As far as graphics go, good job guys. The underwater settings were pretty fantastic and little details like Lara’s new brow wrinkles added some nice character expressions. The soundtrack was good as well, although, it did put me to sleep a couple of times when I was trying to figure out how to get out of one of many buggy-ass puzzles.
ON THE OTHER HAND….
CONTROL IT!!!
Jesus H. Mothereffing Christ, guys! Can you PLEASE fix the HORRIBLE CONTROLS we have ALL been SCREAMING ABOUT FOR FOREVER?!?!?! This game probably took me 10 hours longer than it should have to complete because I’d tell Lara to jump in the direction of a ledge only to watch her crash to her death. And because the auto-save feature was a joke, the game would often reload in a place that didn’t make any sense and it’d take twice as long to get back to where I crashed… only to crash again.
YOU’RE KIDDING, RIGHT?
So I’m cool with suspending disbelief in video games… but I have a really hard time with the fact that one of Lara’s clothing options before you explore the Arctic sea is a teeny bathing suit. And she swims through the icy waters just fine. Not only that, but as soon as she gets out on land, she kicks pots to search for treasures:
Not only would that probably shatter your frozen foot (if you hadn’t died from hypothermia first), WHAT THE FUCK IS LARA DOING SMASHING PRICELESS POTTERY INTO A BILLION PIECES??!?! She’s a treasure hunter. She values ancient artifacts… and yet she’s kicking the ever-loving shit out of potentially priceless pottery just to see if there’s something inside???!!!!! Riiiight.
ENDANGERED? PSHAW.
Lara into collecting pieces of history and keeping things fair. This is why I have a really hard time believing she would have no qualms about blowing the faces off of tigers – EVEN considering she’s under attack. What happened to fancy wall jumping to get out of their way?
About 1/3 of the way through my “I LOVE LARA” juices were hardly enough to keep me going through the rest of the game. There were glitches galore and hiccups that took hours to figure out. If it weren’t for the gamer points I knew I could earn for toughing it through, I never would’ve played through the entire game. NEVER.
The last level was a freaking joke. Glitch-o-rama. After an hour of things not working right, I had to restart the entire level. Which would’ve been fine if the enemies hadn’t loaded as INVISIBLE. Second restart… I WAS INVISIBLE. And the final cut scene/story didn’t make any sense. So the payoff was lame.
There’s more I could go into, but honestly, I don’t even feel like griping about it anymore. So I’ll end it here and let you know that – unless you’re just into torturing yourself with bad games – there’s no point in playing Underworld. And that makes me very, very sad.
Looking for a spot to find out about all things coin op? Check out CoinOpSpace.com – a new social network created by Jeff Rothe. The site is pretty extensive with free blogs, profile pages, RSS feeds and photo and video galleries. There aren’t a ton of posts yet, but it’s growing into a pretty sweet resource. Over the last 5 days, membership has already increased by over 100 folks and posts are constantly being added. If you’re looking to refurbish, trade or sell a cabinet or pin ball machine, check out the community forums. If you’re not, you should check it out anyway. There are random nuggets of goodness like this collection of game room toys and this kick-ass old school Burger Time commercial. Good stuff.
How many times did you hit yours this morning trying to avoid work? I hit mine 5 times.
So it’s been awhile since my last post. No worries, I did not get abducted by the Horde or die in some mysterious Rock Band 2 accident. I just needed a bit of laziness and a lot of naps, so I took them and didn’t post shit. Beyond that, here’s what I was up to:
Watching 500,000 movies through the Netflix/Xbox Deal
If you haven’t taken advantage of the Xbox/Netflix feature yet, you are missing out. I’ve only run into a few hangups dealing with quality. When you launch the Netflix app and pick your flick or TV show, the system checks your internet connection and TV settings to determine the quality of video you can get. There have been several times where I know my internet connection is set to Speedy Gonzalez, but for some reason I’ll still get a message that says something about my internet connection running to slowly to play my selection. Typically, I can fix this with a reboot and everything’s good to go.
Having Seizures Playing Rock Band 2
Did you know that Rock Band can cause seizures? I do now. Here’s a little known fact about me: I have photosensitive epilepsy. That means I can have a seizure if I’m in flashy lights or weird light patterns in a darker environment for too long. That means no Pink Floyd laser light shows, romantic flickering candlelight settings, strobe-filled clubs or Rock Band 2 without enough lights on around me. And NO, I wasn’t faking it because I was failing the song. I was failing the song because I was about to drop to the floor. So, kids… be careful playing Rock Band 2 in a dark room.
Being Pissed at the Gears of War 2 Final Boss Battle
I rented GoW2 on Friday and played through the story mode. I started out co-op split screen with my roommate, but after awhile, it got too difficult to see what was going on at that size, so I switched back to full screen. Compared to GoW, the game objectives are the same: get rid of the Locust Horde and don’t die. The graphics are beautiful. The dialogue is pretty funny and seemed less repetitive than GoW. Favorite line: “It’s darker ‘n a rat’s ass down here!” It was good to see Cole again. Love that character. And there’s a plot revolving around Dom’s wife that’s touching. Good story overall.
Just like GoW, GoW2 is short and sweet. I don’t have a problem with that. I don’t think a game needs to be long to be good – especially when I rented it to begin with. BUT – the final boss battle pissed me off. It was WAY too easy. Now, granted I played on Casual difficulty, so I’m sure that makes a difference, but STILL – there was no pattern to learn, no hot spots to hit at just the right moment. You just grab the Hammer of Dawn, focus on the enemy’s leg, aim, fire, and then you see the credits.
As the credits were rolling, I was sitting there with my controller in my hand and my mouth open. All I could say was “But…” and “What??!” In GoW, my complaint was also about the final boss battle. The ending fight against RAAM was ridiculously hard and I truly believe that the only way anyone could win it was through a glitch. It was incredibly frustrating. Now in GoW2, the boss battle was ridiculously easy. I can take a guess that the developers heard all the complaints about the final battle in the first game and decided to go easy in the sequel. And chances are, as most people seem interested in playing online these days and are only interested in the story mode for gamer points, I’m sure a lot of players were glad it was so easy so they could move on and start battling friends online. Not me, though. I’ve never been much of an online player. I’d rather play alone. So I thrive on good story mode games.
All in all, it’s a great rent. And if you want to play online, it’s a definite buy. I did a few practice rounds of the multiplayer maps and it was actually really cool.
That’s all I’ve got for now. Hope you all had a great holiday.
I’ve been a fan of Dual Core for awhile. I really dug their first two albums, Zero One and Super Powers, so I was really looking forward to checking out the latest: Lost Reality. This disc has 15 tracks and I can honestly say that there’s not a single one on there that I don’t love. And when you consider the fact that this is Dual Core’s third album since 2007, that makes it all the more impressive.
Out of all the times I popped in Lost Reality, the best was last week when I was moving. I’d just collapsed into the truck on the verge of tears after moving a sofa sectional that seemed to weigh somewhere around 500,000 pounds when track 4: Hold On came on. Now, I don’t know that Dual Core intended for this song to provide the motivation I needed to move about 75 more boxes of shit, but it did.
One of the things I admire most about Dual Core is the fact that their beats are original. A lot of Nerdcore artists mix up original video game tunes and rap to mildly modified beats, but Dual Core raises the bar by sampling very little – typically not even video game music – to create the beats that make your car go boom. int eighty is the one responsible for writing the lyrics to c64’s beats and in the liner notes, he even comments that c64 “put so much personality and soul into the beats of the album that it required the songs to be introspective.”
Then there’s part two of why I really like Dual Core: their appreciation for their fans. Track number 11 is completely dedicated to those who have supported the band over the years. I even get a little shout out in there at 2:10 (thanks, guys.)
The album has a wide variety of tracks with well written lyrics that really make you think. It’s not just rap about video games and jokes for geeks (although those are in there, too.) Track number 8 – Lost Reality gives us a little anti-Bush greatness and challenges listeners to wake up and start paying attention to what’s going on around them.
It’s hard to pick a favorite from this disc – which is good… but if I were forced to choose, I’d have to say it’s “My Girlfriend Is…” a true love story about int eighty’s lovely lady who – on Valentine’s day – used her mad hacker skills to post a love note on the top of each site in his RSS reader. Nerd love!!! Nothin’ quite like it.
If YOU haven’t experienced nerd love yet, grab yourself a copy of Lost Reality. There’s not a bad track in the bunch. There’s not even a “meh, ’sokay” track in the bunch. It’s strong from beginning to end and something you should be proud to add to your collection.
When she's not busy blowing the heads off of enemies to get to the next level, she's usually playing video games.
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