To: Crecente From: Ashcraft
WOAH. So. Very. Tired. Hope you had a nice three day weekend!
Yeah, well, lunch meat. Be glad you live in a country where they have it! I spent at least ten minutes in my super market very angry. Your typical Japanese super market has typically ham and roast ham and *maybe* salami. If you are lucky! Some of the fancier ones have sliced chicken. But that’s about it.
Will have to search for some choice deli cuts. Really want to make/eat some proper sammiches.
What you missed last night How many GTAIV fingers? Age of Conan somewhat popular Korea getting limited MGS4 bundle, too Afrika might be real Starcraft 2 Screens
Blizzard released two new screens for Starcraft 2 today. While neither show your traditional top-down RTS gameplay, they do show off the game’s adventure-styled hub setting. And how gorgeous it’s looking. They also give us a close-up of one of the game’s leading characters, rebel fighter Jim Raynor, who looks like he could do with more sleep. And less of the ol’ Vat 69.
Reader Robin writes:
Here you can find pictures and info of a Final Fantasy bar we hosted at Scrollbar in ITU of Copenhagen. We created some special cocktails for the event as well.
Robin and co. were able to pull their Final Fantasy and boozing knowledge together to create 15 FF themed drinks. Three most popular drinks? The Waltz on the Moon, the Summoner Yuna, and the Aerith.
Hit the jump for the recipes and pics:
Savannah College of Art and Design professor Daniel Floyd has put together this flash movie on the subject of video games and sex for his media theory course. Good job of summing stuff up. Loved the kicker.
Video Games And Sex [Rock, Paper, Shotgun via Alice]
Stanford professor Allan Reiss published an article in the Journal of Psychiatric Research which states that women are not a driven as men in gaming. His research analysed MRI data that showed activity in brain’s mesocorticolimbic centre, the area typically associated with reward and addiction, for both sexes. However! There was more acitviy in the male brain. According to Reiss:
These gender differences might help explain why males are more attracted to, and more likely to become “hooked” on, video games than females. I think it’s fair to say that males tend to be more intrinsically territorial. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who historically are the conquerors and tyrants of our species.
Certainly, Reiss might have evidence in hard science, but it sure sounds like he’s totally underestimating women. Lots of them are “hooked” on games! Some are tyrants, too!!
Games Are Guy Thing [Game Politics]
Voice actor Akio Ohtsuka is famous for, well, his voice. Ohtsuka has voiced Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid, Black Jack from Black Jack and Batou from Ghost in the Shell. Impressive! So impressive that Ohtsuka will be appearing in a 192-page photobook so you can stare at pics of the man behind the voice and imagine him saying thins like “War has changed” in Japanese over and over again. The book will go for ¥3,885 ($US 37.54), and maybe, just maybe, Ohtsuka will wear various helmets and sunglasses.
Ohtsuka’s Book [Ohtsuka via CANNED DOGS]
Question time. Gaffer zoukka has been staring at GTA IV’s promo art a little too long. He’s noticed something. Check the girly’s fingers. He thinks there’s six. Six isn’t normal. I think there’s five and some accidental linework on the part of the artist. Question is: what do you think?
Does she have six fingers (is thumb a finger?) or am I crazy? [zoukka @ NeoGAF]
Remember when Infogrames/Atari exec Phil Harrison said the company wouldn’t be making another big-budge single player game? Sure ya do! Here, Harrison explains a bit better at what he was getting at: “I think the single-player, disconnected console game is probably in its dotage. Now, that doesn’t mean that those games aren’t relevant going forwards, but they will be enhanced by community features being embedded in them, or downloadable content becoming an inherent part of the experience, or some kind of user-generated content will be part of the experience. All of the things we see in other games, the things that we can point to in compelling games.” Fair enough! Speaking of single player, has Phil Harrison made an easy transition to Infogrames from Sony? Says Harrison:
Age of Conan may be Fahey’s new best friend, but its found its way into more hearts than just his over the past week, with Funcom announcing today that 400,000 “gamers have entered Hyboria”, which I’m going to suspect – though not assume – means 400,000 individual people, and not just 400,000 accounts. Healthy numbers! Though, as with all MMOs, how many they’ve got in six months could be the more telling figure.
Koreans! That Special Limited Edition Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle? That’s coming your way. The premium pack includes the 40GB, a DualShock 3, Metal Gear Solid 4 special edition and a special Blu-ray movie. This bundle sold out in Japan and was also offered in America for pre-order. While the number of bundles hasn’t been confirmed, Kojima Productions associate producer Ryan Payton said, “We’re not kidding around when we say ‘limited edition’.” Guess they had enough for Korea! Thanks, Chris for the tip!
