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Forklift Balancer Is More Fun Than Shenmue
This is Forklift Balancer. It’s a game on – wait for it – Geocities. And I’ll be damned if it’s not keeping me from working/eating today. All you’ve got to do is tip a forklift without actually spilling the contents. That’s it. But man, these controls, they’re smooth as butter. Forklift Balancer [Geocities, via @terrycavanagh]
By Luke Plunkett Published January 16, 2014 - Culture
Gee, Batman, You’re Not Looking So Hot
Danar Worya is a Dutch concept artist who works for Fantasy Flight games. You can see more of Danar’s work at his personal site To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them as wallpaper), click on the “expand” button in the bottom-right corner. Fine…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 15, 2014 - Uncategorized
Designing A Brand New Game Boy
Reader Justin wants to bring the Game Boy back. So he’s designed a brand new one. It’s not as rugged as its predecessors, but it sure is glassy Taking as many cues from modern phone design as portable games hardware, Justin’s design has a 5.3″ 1080p screen, two cameras, 16GB of flash memory, 4G connectivity,…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 15, 2014 - Uncategorized
Loads Of Local Currencies Coming To Steam
The days of calculating exchange rates are coming to an end: over the next year Valve is looking to introduce a range of local currencies to its Steam marketplace, including tohse of Australia, Canada and Japan. Other nations listed on a slide smuggledout of the no-press Steam developers conferenceinclude the New Zealand Dollar and Mexican…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 15, 2014 -
UncategorizedA Game For People Who Want To Destroy Cars
Next Car Game (working title, duh) has races in it. And challenges. They’re just window dressing, though, because if you’re playing this game right, you’ll never see the finish line. Nobody will It’s a game about vehicular carnage. Screw officially-licensed cars and photo-realistic tracks. NCC put all its effort into modelling batshit insane car crashes,…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 15, 2014 - Culture
Think Of The Most Horrible Chip Flavors Imaginable
Last year Lay’s “Do Us A Flavor” contest awarded the wrong person a million dollars for suggesting potato chips that tastedvaguely like garlic bread. Now the contest returns, and we have a chance for redemption. Flavor showdowns. Wayne Brady singing about potato chip flavors. And most important, a place where your bizarre tastes can shine…
By Mike Fahey Published January 15, 2014 - Uncategorized
Apparently Booth Babes Don’t Work
Booth babes have been a fixture at video games events for as long as I can remember. Some events, like PAX, have banned the use of booth babes, but they remain prominent at events like E3 and the Tokyo Game Show. But here’s the interesting thing: apparently booth babes do not work Spenser Chan, the…
MARK SERRELS Published January 15, 2014 -
UncategorizedThe True Stories Behind Some Of Your Favorite Songs
Have you ever heard the story behind The Who’s “Tommy” or Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water”? Did you know that Caroline of “Sweet Caroline” was actually a young Caroline Kennedy? Or that Michael Jackson wrote “Billie Jean” while (allegedly) driving a car that was on fire? This week on Mental Floss, the musical group…
By Kirk Hamilton Published January 15, 2014 - Uncategorized
The Perfect Steam Controller Can “Lick Itself Clean Like A Cat”
There’s a big developer’s conference going on at Valve right now. No press invited, though, which means any and all news is being smuggled out via Twitter. Or scrawled down on paper. Or both. The actual finished controller can only be a let-down after this. I mean, it’s nice the DualShock 4 has tiny Italian…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 15, 2014 -
CultureFour-Person Super Metroid Speedrun May Consume Next Hour Of Your Life
Four people race through the Super Nintendo classic Super Metroid. Who wins? Also, how in the world do they do this stuff? The video above, uploaded by YouTuber Charles English, shows the four-person Super Metroid speedrun that went down last weekend as part of the Awesome Games Done Quick charity event. I started watching and…
By Stephen Totilo Published January 15, 2014 - Uncategorized
Oh No, Square Enix, What Have You Done To Final Fantasy VI?
When we first saw screens of Final Fantasy VI on mobile, I was a little worried. The sprites looked faded, as if they’d been accidentally thrown in a washing machine, and like the FFV port before it, the game had an amateur, RPG Makerish feel. But who knew it would get this bad? Today Square…
By Jason Schreier Published January 15, 2014 -
UncategorizedA Game That’s Basically All Of The Games At Once
Have you ever wanted to play a game that quickly switches from Mario-style platformer to Ninja Gaiden-style fighting/platformer to Pac-Man-style dot eating to Final Fantasy-style turn-based combat? If so, the upcoming PC game Concursion may be the thing for you. I like the idea here, as developer Puuba Games seems to be saying, “Hey, we…
By Kirk Hamilton Published January 15, 2014 -
UncategorizedSeriously, Why Doesn’t Gandalf Call In The Eagles All The Time
There’s a lot to like in the latest video from How It Should Have Ended, which tackles The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. But the best bit is at the very start, since it re-raises a question that’s been lingering for a while now. Why doesn’t Gandalf call in the eagles all the time? I…
By Kirk Hamilton Published January 15, 2014 - Uncategorized
Steam Controller Ditches Touchscreen For Real Buttons
The strange-looking Stream Controller Valve introduced to us in September was innovative, ambitious, and unworkable from a backwards compatibility standpoint. Today Valve announced the release version of the controller will drop the screen in favor of a d-pad and standard controller buttons. Creating a whole new way to play games is a great idea, but…
By Mike Fahey Published January 15, 2014 -
UncategorizedCat Has Developed The Perfect Chess Game
Watching a true chess Grandmaster at work is a thing of beauty — masters like Bobby Fisher, Garry Kasparov, Deep Blue. And now, Simba the Cat enters their hallowed ranks. See how he approaches the game with grace, how he contemplates his moves with careful consideration! Marvel at his unorthodox play style. Truly we are…
By Chris Person Published January 15, 2014 - Uncategorized
Gabe Newell Posts On Reddit and Here’s Proof
A guy posts on Reddit with the username GabeNewellBellevue. People ask him to prove it’s the man who runs one of gaming’s biggest companies. The result: the picture you see above you. Backstory here is that Newell’s backing a car competing in the Heart of Racing charity event. The head of Valve submitted a link…
By Evan Narcisse Published January 15, 2014 - Uncategorized
Sales Stink: it’s easy to think that sales are good for players, but what if they’re not? What if waiting for sales affected the way players feel about purchases and actually lessened the amount of money devs make? The Castle Doctrine’s Jason Rohrer explores these questions ina fascinating write-up here.
By Patricia Hernandez Published January 15, 2014 - Uncategorized
Finally, Gone Home Becomes A Real Video Game
Want to play Gone Home but don’t want to deal with nonsense like “exploring” and “reading” and “emotional resonance”? Try Gun Home, the downloadable content devised by the fine folks at Dorkly. Because a video game isn’t a video game unless you’re killing Hitler.
By Jason Schreier Published January 15, 2014