-
Because Sometimes You Bring A Tiger To A Video Game Press Event
You’d think that with all of the not-so-subtle hints Ubisoft PR dropped, that I would’ve figured out that there was going to be a tiger at our Far Cry 3 preview event last week. “It’ll be grrrrreat!” they wrote. “Be sure to come on Wednesday, as we’ll have a… special guest!” And yet when I…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 10, 2012 -
Medal Of Honor‘s Crass Marketing Campaign Reaches Its Inevitably Stupid Conclusion
And here we have it. It’s the video for “Castle of Glass” that Linkin Park made especially to help EA sell copies of Medal of Honor: Warfighter I’ve already said my piece about this mortifying promotional campaign, and how much I wish it had never happened at all. I don’t doubt that plenty of people’s…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 10, 2012 -
Everything You Need To Know About Far Cry 3‘s Vast, Exhilarating Open World
Between XCOM and Dishonored, most gamers are probably unable to even think about anything on the horizon—the present is just fine, thanks! The horizon can wait! Last week, I headed over to Ubisoft and spent about four hours visiting that horizon, playing a big chunk of Far Cry 3‘s single-player campaign. I’ve had my doubts…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 10, 2012 -
Don’t Lose Your Mind In This Creepy, Welcomely Old-Fashioned iPhone Adventure Game
Minutes after booting up Forever Lost, I felt like I’d gone back in time. Here my protagonist was, waking up in what appeared to be a mental asylum, with no memory of who he (or she) was or how he (or she) got there. Single screens. A camera. Sliding-tile puzzles. Weird writing on the wall.…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 10, 2012 -
Yeah, I Would Totally Wear These Game Of Thrones Chuck Taylors
Just this week, I bought a pair of Converse Chuck Taylors for the first time since… maybe middle school? I’d forgotten how much fun these shoes can be, even if they are a little bit hard to get on and off every day. But while my rust-colored sneaks are cool, they’re not as cool as…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 4, 2012 -
The Freaky, Disorienting Fun Of The Deadly Premonition Soundtrack
The confounding open-world thriller Deadly Premonition was a lot of things to a lot of people. Some said it was bad, some said it was good, some even said it was “good-bad.” It was a supreme example of idiosyncratic game design; a game that was somehow both profoundly ambitious and woefully half-baked; a haunting mystery…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 4, 2012 -
This Gloriously Cheesy MIDI File Was Windows’ Greatest Hit
For the longest time, I had no idea that Canyon.mid was even recognized as “a thing” by the internet at large. And then, Harmonix’s Dan Bruno posted about it (always a fount of random internet yuks, that guy), and I realized that Canyon.mid is kind of famous. But then, of course it is. For a…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 4, 2012 -
Make Chiptunes In Your Browser With This Awesome, Simple Sequencer
It’s gotten easier and easier to make chiptune music (or at least, music that sounds like chiptune music), but for the most part, you’ll still need to have some sort of digital audio workstation like Logic or Pro Tools. For those who want to record a simple chip melody without loading up a complicated audio…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 4, 2012 -
Man, Do I Want This Ridiculous Bouncing Borderlands 2 Grenade
I don’t put too much stock in grenades in Borderlands 2. They never seem to do enough damage, and aren’t as direct and to-the-point as a good solid bullet to the face. But I might put a bit more stock in them if I had a grenade like this one, as uploaded and demonstrated by…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 4, 2012 -
One Of Torchlight II‘s Better Easter Eggs Pays Tribute To Skyrim
Of the many great easter eggs in Torchlight II (I particularly liked the tribute to The Goonies in the first act), many were for other video games—from Borderlands to Minecraft I’m not sure how I didn’t immediately catch this humorous Skyrim tribute, but I didn’t—thanks to TorchlightGGP and the wonders of YouTube, you can too.…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 4, 2012 -
Hitman: Absolution‘s Many, Many Views To A Kill
One of the coolest (and okay maybe kinda darkest) things about Hitman games is the fact that you can kill your targets in any of a dozen or more possible ways. Real pros can pull off a “silent assassin,” sneaking in, killing, and sneaking out without being spotted. But as we can see in this…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 3, 2012 -
What Do You Know, Looking At Kittens Will Make You Better At Your Job
Every time I’m out of town, Tina takes over the off-topic to post some kitten-related thing or another. What do you know, those posts, and the kitten videos contained therein, actually make you more focused and better at your job As reported by Forbes, a new Japanese study has found that looking at cute baby…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 2, 2012 -
To Quick-Save Or Not To Quick-Save?
Everyone loves a good quick-save. You know, a one-button press that lets you save your progress mid-level in case you screw up. So fast, so easy, so reassuring! You’ve frozen a moment in time, and with the touch of a button, you can return to that moment whenever you’d like. In a lot of games,…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 2, 2012 -
This Nifty Torchlight II Hack Lets You Easily Respec Your Character
One of the big differences between Torchlight II and Diablo III is that in Torchlight II, it’s much more difficult to re-spec your character and choose new skills. You can visit a vendor in town to undo your last three skill upgrades, but past that, you’re probably stuck with the options you’ve got. Choose well!…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 2, 2012 -
How To Split-Screen Borderlands 2 On A Single PC
Borderlands 2 is a game that lives by its co-op—it’s fun to play the game solo, but it’s even more fun to play with friends. It’s even more fun to play with a friend in the same room. The PC version of the game is truly fantastic, with great graphics, snappy load-times, a ton of…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 2, 2012 -
Maybe Resident Evil 6 Is Actually About A Bunch Of Crank Addicts
Most of the critics agree: Resident Evil 6 is an overstuffed mess But what if there were more to it than that? Joseph Bernstein’s enjoyable review at Kill Screen puts forth the (half-serious) idea that, given the protagonists’ penchant for collecting and using crank(s), perhaps it’s actually a game about drug addiction? “The game is…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 2, 2012 -
See The Banner Saga‘s Tactical Combat In Action
We’ve been keeping an eye on Stoic’s Kickstarter’d strategy role-playing game The Banner Saga for a while now. The small studio, consisting of three ex-BioWare developers, describes their game as “role-playing meets turn-based strategy, wrapped into an adventure mini-series about vikings.” In this video above, the developers spend a long time (too long a time)…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 2, 2012 -
A Fighting Game That Will Let Famous American Presidents Throw Down In The White House
Just yesterday, we saw this funny Slate article that re-imagined the current presidential elections as a Mortal Kombat-style fighting game. But if the folks at Candax Productions have their way, we won’t have to imagine it. Their game, Battle For Presidency, is currently doing pretty well on Steam Greenlight. You can see a trailer above,…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 2, 2012 -
Boardwalk Empire Meets Sesame Street, And Feathers Fly
I’m still a bit mixed on Boardwalk Empire—I’m not as much of a fan as Luke is, though I’m still watching. But damned if I wouldn’t watch every episode of Birdwalk Empire as proposed HILARIOUSLY in this Sesame Street video. I don’t even know where to begin with this. Nucky Ducky Thompson? Mallard Capone? What…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 1, 2012 -
Don’t Waste Your Dollar On This Half-Baked iPhone Slender Ripoff
Ever since the breakout success of the stripped-down horror game Slender: The Eight Pages, we’ve been seeing Slenderman-related stuff cropping up in every corner of the internet. So I wasn’t that surprised to fire up the app store today only to see a game called “Slenderman” in the #2 spot of the top 10 paid…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 1, 2012
Kirk Hamilton
Kirk Hamilton's posts