Sunday, January 20, 2008
Arcade Flyer Art Saturday: Pinball Edition
1:00PM Flynn De Marco |
Penny Arcade Game Gameplay Videos
12:00PM Flynn De Marco | I got a chance to check out an early build of the Penny Arcade Game when I was at PAX last year and really enjoyed it. The character customisation was fun and the use of the old school turn based gameplay was a clever throwback to many of the games I loved as a kid. Now we have some new gameplay videos featuring a new comic book style interface at the bottom which replaces the more steampunk style one that I saw. Truth be told, I liked the old version of the interface more, but this one looks seviceable and certainly blends well with the cut scenes of the game which are also done in the same comic book style. I look forward to the game’s release especially since it is one of a very few interesting titles that I can play on my Mac without having to switch to my Windows partition. make the jump for two more clips. More »
Marathon Zelda Gamers at it Again
11:00AM Flynn De Marco | You may remember last weekend when I posted about the guys at cameronbanga.com who tried to make it through four Zelda games in 48 hours. Due to some glitches, they weren’t able to squeeze in all four games but still managed to raise over $US 1200 for Penny Arcade’s Child’s Play charity. So, in an attempt to make up what they couldn’t finish, the boys are at it again but this time they have given themselves eleven hours to complete Twilight Princess. The marathon gaming session will again benefit Child’s Play and will be the first in a series of charity driven weekend gaming sessions. Good luck on your mission guys, you are benefiting a great charity. More »
Custom Companion Cube Faceplate
10:00AM Flynn De Marco | If you’re still Companion Cube crazy and the plush one or the papercraft one aren’t enough to quench your thirst for all things cube, this faceplate might be the perfect thing for you. Hand painted with the ubiquitous cube and various phrases and such from the game, this custom 360 faceplate is now up for auction on UK eBay for £10.00. There is currently only one bidder with six more days left on the auction and according to the site, they will ship worldwide. Will you make it yours? Make the jump for a few more shots. [Thanks, Beeb] More »
News
Behind the Design: 20 Mysterious Games
9:30AM Maggie Greene | Gamasutra has yet another interesting installment of their “game design essentials” series up – this one on game mechanics shrouded in a cloak of mystery. Everything from Bubble Bobble to Street Fighter makes the list, with explanations of why the game made the (not ranked in any particular order) list and what it says about game design more broadly. Why does this stuff matter, anyways? The existence of so many things hidden in the game that don’t have to be found lends the game a certain quality, one best described as verisimilitude. Verisimilitude is a useful word to use in describing video games …. Properly used, the word means that there seems like there is a world outside the borders of the screen, happening regardless of what the player does. It implies the existence of a fully-fleshed world, one that’s more than a mere collection of polygons or tiles that might as well be sealed in Plexiglas. It allows a game to better enable the player to forget that it is, really, just a game. An interesting trip down memory lane and has some interesting connections to current and future game design. Game Design Essentials: 20 Mysterious Games [Gamasutra] More »
Gamasutra Catches Up With Alexey Pajitnov
9:00AM Flynn De Marco | Gamasutra has a great article up right now in which they pay a call on gaming pioneer Alexey Pajitnov. For the uninformed, Pajitnov is the creator of a a little game called Tetris. They caught up with him at the GameCity conference in Nottingham, England before a viewing of the documentary Tetris: From Russia With Love to discuss his views on such subjects as the casual gaming scene (including Katamari Damacy), his new projects and the history of Tetris. It’s some terrific weekend reading if you have some free time if only to hear the perspective of a true old school gamer on the modern gaming scene. Also, if you have never seen one of the several documentaries that follow the long arduous history of one of the most addicting games ever made, do yourself a favor and check one out. It’s an amazing story filled with more drama and intrigue than most soap operas. Catching Up Casually: A Chat With Alexey Pajitnov [Gamasutra] More »
Playing the (Harvest Moon) Field
8:30AM Maggie Greene | Leigh Alexander of the Aberrant Gamer/Sexy Videogameland/Worlds In Motion is a woman after my own heart, and her latest AG column is on one of my favourite games, Harvest Moon. What does your HM mate selection say about you? Rather, does playing the field – or not – reflect on you, or on media more generally? Having spent many an hour, especially while jet lagged, flinging chickens, petting cows, and building up the farm empire of my dreams, that whole marriage thing is usually the last thing I get around to – I’d rather have sheep producing golden fleece and a prize-winning horse. So, I tend to pick the potential spouses that look most low-maintenance, being a little too lazy to play the field – but Alexander throws herself into the task of wooing virtual women (or men) with aplomb: More »
Rumour Confirmed: Bully Scholarship Edition Hits Early March
8:00AM Flynn De Marco | Although the date wasn’t on exactly on target, it seems that GoNintendo’s speculation that the Bully Scholarship Edition would hit in early March (based on a listing at Gamestop) was right on the money. Rockstar has announced that the school year at Bullworth Academy will begin in the US on March 5th and March 7th in the UK with all the crotch kicking, swirlies, hiding in lockers, stealing and boy kissing you can handle. As previously stated, I will be picking up the 360 version post haste because as much as I hate to admit it, I am becoming quite the unapologetic achievement whore. More »
My Tiny Life Now Available Again – Free
7:30AM Maggie Greene | My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World (Being a True Account of the Case of the Infamous Mr. Bungle and the Author’s Journey, in Consequence Thereof, to the Heart of a Half-Real World Called LambdaMOO), in addition to having a long-ass title, has been out of print for a few years now. But now, after some license-tweaking, it’s available as either a nice paperback (for $US 17.48) or a PDF download (for free!). Having read a lengthy book in PDF format before it was formally published, I would be happy never to read anything more taxing than an article on my computer – but it’s a nice gesture, and reminds me of a discussion over on Grand Text Auto on ‘digital media, games, and open access.’ Anyways, if you’d be interested in reading (or reading again) “a wonderful little depiction of a person trying to reconcile a vibrant and rich virtual world with the “silent, bone-white” machine that houses it,” you can head over here MY TINY LIFE Is Free At Last! [via Terra Nova] More »
