Archive for July 7th, 2006
Butt Naked Athlete
Alice over at Wonderland found this shirt on clothed BBC employee Chris. When asked where he purchased it, he said a shop in Luton. Alice writes:
I thought perhaps there’d be a shop selling similar online somewhere, but unfortunately Googling for “butt naked athlete” does you NO GOOD AT ALL.
Unfortunately, Alice is wrong. Googling for “butt naked athlete” does loads of good, but not in the t-shirt department.
More Here [Wonderland]
The Return of Heroic Boxers: Ghouls n’ Ghosts Trailer
GameBrink is hosting a very sweet little live-action Japanese trailer for the new PSP Ghouls n’ Ghosts game, and I tried to pull it here but my Flash ninja skills are just not leet enough. You will have to click, for which I apologize profusely.
Says GameBrink:
It seems there’s hasn’t been much work for the past 15 years since his 1991 debut and he’s had to keep busy in a number of different ways like doing karaoke with a hooker.
Ah, Hookereoke. Bashcraft has regaled me with countless anecdotes about this time-honored Japanese passtime. It has a rich history, and the much-honored and highly ritualized Mic Ceremony (performed by gonjuro geisha) is a popular tourist activity.
G n’ G trailer [GameBrink]
Today in Joystiq: July 7, 2006
News
Games surpassing TV, bringing us closer to ‘real’ sport
Arkane sets up shop in Austin
GameCity - not your typical games conference
More musical Mizuguchi mayhem materializes
Square Enix talks in-game ads, patching
Rumors & Speculation
Final Fantasy III DS wi-fi feature revealed: emailing?
Apple cameos on PS3 website … wtf?
Culture
A Lite-hearted take on Sony’s racy PSP ad
GameSpot takes on the bosses
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Review Round-Up: Battle for Middle-Earth II
Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth II hit stores today and if you were lucky you got yourself one. I’m sure there are going to be plenty of hardcore computer RTS fans out there who will say you can’t do real-time strategy on a console, but I think this game proves you can.
Sure there were a few hiccups, like moving around the map quickly, but overall Electronic Arts figured out a way to present a full-bodied RTS without having to strip away all of the nuance that makes this sort of game so much fun to play.
I gave the game a B+ in the Rocky Mountain News today, and it looks like I’m not the only one who liked the game.
I hope to spend a lot more time playing online in the coming week or so and then writing up my experiences here. Have any of you purchased the game yet for the 360?
Hit the jump for the review round-up.
Game Radar
Whether you’re a fan of the property, a real-time strategy buff, an Xbox Live warrior, or some combination of the three, this one is definitely worth checking out.
Grade: 8/10
Rocky Mountain News
…this Xbox 360 game, with its deep tactics and masterfully crafted interface, may do for the real-time strategy genre what Halo did for first-person shooters: prove they can be played well on a console.
Grade: B+
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Bono Indirectly Pisses Off Venezuela
Big noggin popstar Bono is getting sand kicked in his bug-eyed sunglasses for his association with “violent” video games. The pint-sized singer turned venture capitalist has invested US $300 million in Pandemic Studios. Recently, the studio came under fire for pissing off the country of Venezuela. Time’s Man of the Year Bono, in turn, is now skiing in that controversy’s wake and made to look like an evil man. I’ve got no beef with Bono—just as long as U2 doesn’t make a Rattle and Hum follow-up.
More Here [Belfast Telegraph] via TechDirt Thanks, Chilly!
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What Are You Playing This Weekend?
Tee. Jee. Eye. Eff. Man. What a week. But a weekend of couch-sitting, Cheetos-grazing and game-playing beckons seductively behind tomorrow’s murky veil. So what will you be playing this weekend?
I will continue to play Diablo 2 wanna-be Titan Quest. It’s… okay. It ain’t no Diablo 2, though. In D2, the character tended to have numerous skills that you would switch between on the fly depending on the situation. It was very twitchy… a flurry of hot-key hammering to trigger different skills, only limited by your mana. Titan Quest, like Guild Wars decides to go for the cool down approach, which is less frenetic, and therefore a bit less interesting. Also, I only really ever seem to use one or two skills. It’s a beautiful game and still quite good… but it doesn’t drive me towards the same compulsion that Diablo 2 did.
Otherwise, I picked up a copy of Civilization IV for my Mac and I’m eager to revisit how much I suck.
What about you? Fly into our forums and start jabbering. You never know if this won’t be the thread Crecente picks to scrutinize for a winner of today’s contest, after all.
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Related: Multi-Tap: A Week In Comments
Multi-Tap: A Week In Comments
Toastyfrog Rebuts Racism, Calls Out Internet for Dickery
If things keep going this way, video games will only feature the politically correct Power Rangers/Captain Planet class, featuring at least 1 white guy, 1 white girl, 1 ‘ethnic’ guy, 1 ‘ethnic’ girl, and the disembodied head of some blue guy.”
by Xagest
The Reason Why There Are No Lester Bangs of Video Games
“Is it wrong that my first response to the original article was ‘Who the hell is Lester Bangs?’”
by DannoHung
Offensive PSP Ad… This Time Racist?
“What the hell is wrong with Sony these days. I ask you…
The ad isn’t racist, it’s just very bad.
Their capaigns are bad. Their PR is bad. Their product is, err, missing.
What are they doing?
Of course, we might all be eating our socks when ‘The Product’ finally comes out. But by the time it happens, I don’t think anyone will care.”
by Woodwater
“When I first saw this post I thought it was going to be an actual race between the two systems done with stop motion animation. Boy was I ever disappointed.”
by Chris McDougall
Nintendo Gifts DS Lite to President Bush
“Not to be outdone, Sony has supplied Tony Blair with a PSP and a copy of Talkman, so he can freaking understand what Bush is talking about next time before he says yes and follows Bush.”
by scazza
Bloomberg: Msoft Plans iPod Killer This Cmas
“I’m pretty sure this device is coming, and I’m equally sure it’s not the rumored Xboy. I also don’t think it will “kill” iPod, here’s why:
The iPod isn’t on top because it’s the best device, the iRiver is far superior (I’m an Apple freak, I’m typing this on a Mac so, no need to attack me, fanboys!) The iPod is on top for three reasons:
1) Apple gets “cool” (just ask a friend uninterested in technology what the coolest mp3 player is)
2) Apple gets “simple” (see packaging)
and
3) Apple has some freaking amazing advertising firms working for them. (just watch the ads)
I really don’t think that Microsoft can topple Apple in any catagory other than possibly the 3rd. I think we’ve all seen this
’nuff said.”
by PulpAffliction
Mario Says Don’t Misplace the CD-i Booklet!
“This user is temporarily out of order due to brain failure.”
by Zho
Think you’ve got mad commenting skills? Good enough to rumble with the big boys and make it into Multi-Tap? Hit us up at tips@kotaku.com for a key to unlock the comment door.
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Related: Multi-Tap: A Week In Comments
Related: Multi-Tap: A Week In Comments
Related: Multi-Tap: A Week In Comments
Mario Vs. King Bob-Omb
The excellent gaming blog Destructoid — a site so excellent that I still haven’t told Ashcraft that their RSS feed is borked and you have to actually go to their site to read the news now — has posted a great little flash animation called Super Mario Bros. Bob-Omb Battle. When Luigi is captured by Bob-Omb, Mario has to get it back. I don’t want to spoil anything, so let me just tell you that Luigi has a demotivational poster of Mario jumping while bragging ‘I’m better than Luigi!’ hanging on his wall. Also, Luigi dies.
Mario vs Bob-Omb Animated Battle [Destructoid]
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Guilty Gear XX #Reload
Shine gold or glow darkly.
Tekken: Dark Resurrection
The fast track to getting DR’s minigames.
Washington Post Does The Home-Brew Scene
There’s a an interesting read over at the Washington Post about home-brew enthusiasts — whether gamers or devs — ad the lengths to which they will go to develop for ‘closed’ systems like the PSP, GBA, 360, etc.
There’s nothing in here that even a half-hearted gamer won’t already know: there’s a home-brew gaming scene out there rich with some extremely creative and talented guys that the industry seems pretty much intent on clamping down on. What’s most interesting about it is that it is a mainstream news source looking at the battle and making astute observations like these:
So lively is the homebrew scene that some PSP fans — it’s impossible to say how many — say they don’t buy or play new games because they don’t want to upgrade their gadgets and lose their homebrew software. There’s even a circulating joke slogan: “Friends don’t let friends upgrade their PSPs.”
Most reasonable people know that Sony’s attempts to head-off hackers with constant PSP firmware updates actually loses more sales than the maneuver gains, but it’s the first time I can think of where journalists have noticed the absurdity.
‘Homebrew’ community blends hackers, gamers [Washington Post]
Capcom Classics Collection Remixed
Find out how to earn tips and art galleries.
Mega Man ZX
Mega Man playing with Dolls?
Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks
MKII awaits you. Get it easy with the code.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Be an Elite CSI as the credits roll out.
Apple Logo Pops Up on PS3 Site
It looks like someone’s finally gotten around to updating the U.S. site for the Playstation 3, too bad it was with a logo for Apple. If you go to the site and watch the image of the Playstation 3 when it loads you’ll see the Apple logo appear for about half a second right on top of the console.
I suppose this could be some sort of hacking, editing screw-up or internal jokery, but I think there’s just as good a chance that it’s about some sort of possible tie-in between Sony’s PS3 and Apple’s… who knows what.
I have a call into Sony trying to get to the bottom of it.
Playstation 3 [Sony, thanks Kyle]
Update: Sony says it was all a big mistake.
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Related: Far Cry Coming To Wii? Are You Kidding?
Offensive Nintendo Parody Ad, This Time Shapist
No matter what you think about Sony’s PSP ad of an albino squishing the cheeks of a sleepy woman in her pajamas — racist or not? — I think we can all agree that this Ctrl + Alt + Delete is outrageously prejudiced against disgusting fatties.
Black and White [Ctrl + Alt + Del]
Review an Xbox Employee
John Porcaro, over on Gamerscore blog, has been busy working on performance evaluations for Msoft’s Tony and Cesar and he wants to know what you think. If you leave some comments on the post, he may actually include them in the guys’ annual review.
I don’t think I’ve dealt with Tony before, but despite his missing “a”, Cesar rocks. Hop on over to the site and let the Microsoft Marketeers know what you really think.
Busy Week at Xbox HQ [Gamerscore Blog]
GameSpot takes on the bosses
Filed under: Culture, Nintendo GameCube, Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox
GameSpot’s Matt Rorie has a quirky new video feature to help gamers fight some of the tougher bosses as of late. Filmed in a film noir style, Matt Rorie: Boss of Bosses has the guides editor in a role akin to a private detective. Bad acting and cheesy dialogue ensue, but the video tips are helpful. Here are the four cases he tackles first:
- Beret today, gone tomorrow: Rorie takes on Krauser from Resident Evil 4. Personally, I would have used only the knife during the first phase (it’s very effective and saves on ammo).
- Death Wind and Fire: Agni and Rudra from Devil May Cry 3.
- Pretty in Pink: Alma from the insanely difficult Ninja Gaiden.
- This is the End: “The End” from Metal Gear Solid 3.
Kudos to GameSpot for making an interesting little feature. You can stream the entire 23-minute presentation for free, download a low-resolution with a free registration, or get the 1.2GB HD-quality video with a Premium GameSpot account.
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