Truly I worry when SharkBoy buys games. Not that I don’t trust him but there is some truth to this conversation:
Category Archives: Gaming
Gas The Pirates!
GayGamer is reporting that EDIOS has inserted a bit of a mind fuck for software pirates. Instead of throwing up all sorts of uncool DRM around their release of Batman: Arkham Asylum for the PC, they’ve cleverly inserted a bit of code where Batman can’t complete a simple task in-game. In the game, Batman must glide across a sea of poison gas, but when you play the pirated version of the game, he falls to his death, every time.
Even better was EDIOS’ response to a thief-monkey who dared to report what he thought was a game glitch on their forums:
The problem you have encountered is a hook in the copy protection, to catch out people who try and download cracked versions of the game for free.
It’s not a bug in the game’s code, it’s a bug in your moral code.
Cue trombone music: waaa waaaaa waaaaaaaa!
I’m loving this game and agree whole heartedly with GayGamer: Good on EDIOS for creating such a clever game and clever protection – here’s my $70!
TwoFer Friday Video Game Trailer
Oh yeah… Looking forward to GTA: The Ballad of Gay Tony AND BioShock2. Here’s a vid of both, though the BS2 is of their online “kill everyone and anything” game. Don’t mind the stupid “enter your age” ratings blocker at the beginning, just drop down the year to 1972.
Via Gaygamer.net.
Fan Expo 2009
What an orgy of geek. This year the event seemed to have doubled in size, made evident by the crush between vendors in the main room. Too many sweaty nerds out there need to learn about Axe Deodorant spray. I think it’s time for the organizers to bite the bullet and increase the room size. I wonder if more “serious” attendees would show up if they did (like they do for Seattle – I’d pay to see 25 min of Avatar then dis it on my blog afterwords!) Don’t get me wrong – the Expo is my Xmas. I can only imagine how “inappropriate” my dwelling would look if I were allowed to shop, untethered to reality. How “single” I’d be with display cases of “action figures” littering all my wall spaces if I were to go consumer crazy in there. Not saying geeks are alone and lonely, but you don’t hear of a lot of them in successful marriages, do you? Knock wood.
To be fair, SharkBoy went movie poster mad this time around. We got posters for Rob Zombie’s new cartoon El Superbeasto (not listed in IMDB?) and AstroBoy. And somehow New Moon tainted that pile. Ew. Feh. Regardless of all that, it was fun.
We started out with breakfast with JTree and Sean and wandered over to the convention centre (their first expo, to which JTree joked being “excited and ashamed”). After the shock of the snakey line up to get in, we said adieu to the boys as they were going off to have personal and intimate time with Leonard Nimoy JTree looked nervous.
The loot was incredible but in some cases, the prices were inflated. I guess the tables aren’t that cheap any more. Many a trinket was (not so) secretly coveted by me and we did our best to try to avoid the independent horror film hard-sellers. Alas, SharkBoy failed and was suckered into a 3 movie deal that rendered us unconscious on the couch 15 minutes into the first movie. Bye bye $20!
The costumes were great this year. So many more I couldn’t identify, making me feel old and out of touch, but intrigued none the less. My whole Flickr set is here.
PS3 Cuts Size and Price, XBox Cuts Cords
I am still quite confused as to why anyone would want an Xbox after reading these two stories from Gizmodo:
Xbox no longer including an HDMI cable in all their Elite configurations. I love the comment from a Microsoft Apologist after the article saying (and you have to say this like a whiny basement dweller): “Most Xboxes are played on standard tvs anyway.” Cue Fail Trombone! It’s a cost saving step backward, wiener.
And
The Red Ring of Death is reported to be as widespread as 50% or higher: Okay this article was based on a web form from one of the big still-using-print gaming magazines, so you know it’s biased and fair. But just like the article writer, I still haven’t met anyone who has not returned one yet. I can’t think of any other product in the history of Capitalism that had such a large fail rate but yet still manage to be more favorable than it’s superior competitor.
Betamax, anyone?
While this post was churning around in my head, Sony suddenly announces their plans to release the PS3 in September under $300US. That’s with a BlueRay player in it, free membership to their community, Avatar upgrades and animated themes. Okay it’s no Twitter/Facebook integration like the Xbox, and we’re still waiting for good movie downloads (with my shiny HDMI cable) and games aren’t as rampantly available as the 360, but come on! It’s got a friggin’ BlueRay player in it!
Lenzr Update
Just a mild reminder that Lenzr is still going on! You have one month of uploading, voting and winning!
This is my favorite so far in The Summer of Toronto contest!
Here’s my all time grooviest fave in (echo machine) Emergency In Toronto onto onto to!
Skyline In Toronto is a toss up for me. Like this early contender because it looks like it was taken with a 110 Kodak camera. But this one is pretty stunning, if not a bit “postcardy”
Get in there! Vote!
Space Ace: All The Fun, Less Quarters
I decided to drop money into iTunes last night in a fit of shop therapy (read: post-Disney depression) and discovered that Don Bluth’s Space Ace was available for download! Actually it came out in May but I’ve been avoiding money-draining endeavors.
Does my hair look ok to you?
For you younger readers, Space Ace is the second laserdisk game from Bluth Studios as follow up to Dragons Lair, but this time set in space! It’s the story of a dashing blond couple named Kimberly and Ace, unexplainedly menaced by a blue and leather clad, space overlord called Borf (oh Don! You scamp!) . It’s over the top cornball campy with it’s characters but it’s Ace’s “random” ability to flip back between a muscle bound hero to weed thin child due to exposure to The Infanto Ray, that makes it fun. The beginning of the game lets you choose the difficulty level and in turn, lets you see more of the game the harder you go. It was pretty innovative stuff.
Ace shows an uncanny ability...
...to change. Almost childlike, I'd say
The game play can get tedious (you watch the same video over and over, remembering which way to guide Ace to avoid obstacles to advance the story), and at $0.50 a pop when it came out, your cash would drain out of your pocket fast. The game also tries to mess you up by mirroring or flipping the video so that you don’t become complacent with Ace’s directions. A simple trick in a simpler game era. The animation was top notch and fast paced, often too fast to enjoy the artistry and fluidity Bluth put into his characters.
Ace learns the loud way that Kimberly is a bit of a princess...
I’m glad to report that there are “HEY! I FUCKING CLICKED THAT!” bugs in the game. These are either due to processor speeds of video on the iPhone or they were just there to begin with and were never cleaned out. Even the false “hints” in the way of onscreen flashes are present, resulting in no action on Ace’s part or his ultimate death, tug familiarly on my memory of originally being there, and subsequently aren’t that much of a frustration. Relax and enjoy the visuals!
Borf shows us that in space, no one can straighten your teeth.
I’m so caught up in nostalgia I don’t mind repeating it a few times.
$4.99 from the iTunes store. I give it 5 out of 5 for anyone who was old enough to play this originally in a smelly arcade. Anyone else will have been de-sensitized by high brow graphical games and won’t find this amusing at all (some user comments in the app are pretty funny!).
ConspiracWii
I can hear SharkBoy laughing in the living room.
“The Wii Fit just asked me about your posture!”
Wait… the game is wanting information about me? “My posture? Not yours?” I ask.
“Yeah! It wants to know if I think you’re standing straighter now.”
So now the computer game controller and my husband are talking about me behind my back.
“What did you tell him… er… it?”
A couple days later the WiiFit can’t keep well enough alone. I fire it up and it tells me unabashedly:
“Someone told me your looking much better! You’re standing straighter!”
I’m now waiting for it to start to tell me to sleep with one eye open because “that guy you work out with” is jealous or mad or something. Some made up story to get us to start fighting like Crystal and Alexis.
StevieB Will Now Run Out and Get a Wii
MuscleMarch is available through WiiWare May 28th. I like the sheep and the dancing robot. Niceh Mussle!!
(via OffWorld)
Buy My Crap, Pt 2: The Quickening!
Heads up people! I’m selling off my Xbox360 and a twackload of games (with controllers!). I can’t begin to calculate the savings you’ll experience if you were to buy all this stuff at regular prices, compared to what I’m shilling it off for:
Console
20G Hard Drive; 2 wireless controllers (one white one black); all cords (HDMI ready!); wired-to-controller headset for online chat.
Games:
Beautiful Katamari
Scene It? With 4 wireless controllers and console dongle
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
GTA IV
Orange Box: Portal, Half Life2, Team Fortress 2
Halo 3
Guitar Hero 3 With Wireless Guitar (no face sticker)
Burnout Paradise
Burnout Revenge
Bioshock
All parts are in excellent condition, disks have no scratches. I’m selling because I’m using my other game consoles more. No Red Ring of Death in the year++ we’ve been using it. Console has current operating system updates.
Selling for $425 – Price is negotiable.
Hey! Where you going? It’s such a bargain, the bargain police are after me!