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Weekend Talk Amongst Yourselves: Paid Programming Edition
Mornin’. I have company this weekend, and my friend’s deliberately watching infomercials on the regional sports network, waiting for “Seahawks All Access” to come on. There was a damn awesome contraption that looks like a handheld version of the chainsaw the Swamp Loggers use. I was about to buy it until I realized I did…
By Owen Good -
Culture
Sunday Comics: A Fraction of the Price
Welcome to your Sunday read of the week’s best in web comics. Make sure to click on the expand button in the bottom right to enlarge each comic. Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published Sept. 12.—Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published Sept. 14.—Read more of Nerf NOW!! Penny Arcade by…
By Owen Good -
A Three-Minute Look at THQ’s Avengers, Disassembled
THQ’s big-time bloodletting back in August meant the end of its Brisbane, Australia studio and scuttled the publisher’s planned video game adaptation of The Avengers. Evidently those who were involved with the project can’t take no for an answer; footage of the game in its pre-alpha state released last week and was immediately smashed by…
By Owen Good -
Boxplay Winners
Video game cosplay normally involves cosplaying as characters, not the video game itself. One Call of Duty fan turned that premise on its head in Canada a couple weeks ago, showing up as the Black Ops box itself. Last Sunday, our sensible shoppers swooped in to make everything even more absurd. We’ve got 20 of…
By Owen Good -
There’s a Reason this Call of Duty: Rezurrection Trailer is Behind an Age Gate
Dismemberment? We know you can handle that. Zombie vomit? I’ll admit to some queasiness watching that in action. Activision’s pimping the PC and PS3 release of its Rezurrection map pack, on Sept. 22, with this latest video. It’s already out for Xbox 360 of course, and it’s at least as believable as Apollo 18 You…
By Owen Good -
NBA 2K12 is not a “Roster Update”—and That’s the Problem
Roster update. In sports video games, it’s not a selling point as much as it is a term of abuse, one that implies that accurate rosters in annual titles have almost no value to a discerning video gamer. Well, in a couple of weeks, we may find out how important this baseline expectation really is.…
By Owen Good -
Regulator Orders Canadian Cable Giant to Stop Throttling Online Games
Last week, Rogers Cable and Telecom, Canada’s largest cable provider, admitted that its network monitors may “inadvertently” throttle traffic of customers playing online games. “Inadvertently” or otherwise, Canada’s telecommunications regulator has told Rogers to knock it off. The Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission cited Rogers’ own policy, which claims that online games like World of Warcraft…
By Owen Good -
Today’s Punishment: Thirty Minutes of Pointless Death in Dark Souls
Alright, you sinners. Last week’s confessional was … adequate. I still feel that you are holding back, and you cannot purify your gaming soul unless you make a full accounting of all your trespasses. So we’re going to have another round of punishment today, starring Dark Souls This is 10 minutes (entirely in Japanese) of…
By Owen Good -
How Tall is Link? If This Lifesize Papercraft is Any Indication, He’s 5-foot-5
Requiring more than 200 pages, 12 hours of work per day for a solid month, and what must have been gallons of printer ink, is this jaw-dropping life-size papercraft Link that the artist Michaela M. completed this week. Yes, she has a template for those with the time and the patience to try to re-create…
By Owen Good -
A Video Compendium of 25 Years of Console Loading Screens
There’s something weirdly nostalgic about these two videos, which are a compilation of every boot screen for every console ever to have one, going back to the Sega Master System (the Mark III in Japan) of 1985. And by every one, it looks like this video means it, bringing in such systems as the Casio…
By Owen Good -
New Video Game Delivers the Immersive Realism of Waiting 5 Hours in Line at a Museum
A year ago, the contemporary artist Marina Abramovic held a show at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, at which patrons waited in line for a very, very long time just to meet her. The excitement of that encounter is now chronicled in a recently launched free-to-play online game. OK, that means “flash game,” but…
By Owen Good -
Next Friday is Hawaiian Shirt Day
I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door—that way Lumbergh can’t see me—and, uh, after that I just sorta space out for about an hour. Yeah, I just stare at my desk; but it looks like I’m working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch, too.…
By Owen Good -
Deus Ex: Human Revolution Headed to Mac Later This Year
For the six of you here who game on a Mac, and I am one, be advised that Deus Ex: Human Revolution will be ported to that platform by the end of the year or early next year. Mac gaming, long a stepchild, has been on a modest rebound lately, especially with Steam support for…
By Owen Good -
Man Shitting on Dead Hedgehog is Not Necessarily a Video Game Metaphor
Hi there, smart guy. Yes, this is not germane to video games. That said, a dude pulling down his pants and squatting in the middle of the road over a deceased hedgehog, maybe spreading his butt cheeks a little and squeezing out a fudge dragon on its carcass, is something we can argumentatively link to…
By Owen Good -
Halo: Anniversary‘s Kinect Support Involves Voice-Switching the Graphics
When word spread this summer that Halo: Anniversary would include Kinect support, gamers fidgeted nervously, wondering just what the hell 343 Industries had in mind for the franchise. Calm down, they’re not introducing motion control to the HD remake. They’re letting you switch between the game’s high-definition and standard-definition graphics using your voice. 343 was…
By Owen Good -
NBA 2K12 Demo Arrives Next Week
2K Sports just announced on the Facebook page for NBA 2K12 that the game’s demo will arrive on Tuesday, for both PS3 and Xbox 360, two weeks before its Oct. 4 release. The post offered no details about which teams would be featured but typically they involve last year’s NBA Finals participants, which would be…
By Owen Good -
Put Da NFL Preview on My No One’s Back: Chargers vs. Patriots, Week Two
Bit of a speed bump here in just the second week of what I’d hoped would be a regular feature. Our commentator is AWOL. I’m still uploading the video so you can see what Madden NFL 12 predicts for this week’s marquee matchup between New England and San Diego. Where’s Demetry? Well, life is what…
By Owen Good -
Steam Knocks Half Off Its Entire Star Wars Collection
From now until mid-Monday, all Star Wars titles on Steam can be had for a $49.99 package price, half off the normal package deal, and more than half off if you bought them individually. Four individual titles—Battefront II, Republic Commando, Knights of the Old Republic and Empire at War: Gold Pack—are also discounted 50 percent,…
By Owen Good -
An Old-School NES Baseball Game Inspired EA Sports’ World-Class Hockey Title
NHL 12 is not just a critically acclaimed game for its simulated play; it’s also a fun time for armchair talent evaluators and kitchen-table franchise managers. Giving credit where it is due, the series’ producer says the game took its inspiration from an old, old old-school NES title. “Our GM mode is based on Baseball…
By Owen Good -
Katamari Damacy Gets New Shape-Shifting Controls with Its Release on Vita
Katamari Damacy is just a working title but, frankly, it’s as good as any for the version of the game soon to arrive on PlayStation Vita. Namco Bandai announced today that the venerable roll-em-up will get a Vita release on an unspecified date, and will take advantage of the new handheld’s touch-pad controls. “A completely…
By Owen Good
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