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Here’s what’s going on Talk Among Yourselves, our reader-written blog: A pair of reader reviews covers recent downloadable titles. Contributor DamsonRhee talks about the first time she ever played a video game. It was Super Mario Bros, by the way. Great way to start off! Then, GiantBoyDetective says, in his own words, “I dislike the…

Enough With the Prequels, Already!

The tepid critical and commercial reaction to this year’s God of War and Gears of War prequels will hopefully send a message that I’ve been wanting the powers that be in all of entertainment to receive for years: Many of us who like a thing don’t care about what happened before whatever happened in the…

Fox News Host Calls Out ‘Hollywood’s Violent Video Games’ at NRA Event

This isn’t the first time Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro has name-checked video games in a rant meant to inflame people scared of any change to gun ownership rights. But this weekend, Pirro’s comments were made from the NRA’s bully pulpit. An address at the NRA Annual Meetings—reported on by Raw Story— Pirro said the following:…

Imagine Getting Your Head Chopped Off With the Oculus Rift

With the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset in developers’ hands, the fresh ideas are flying faster than a head tumbling away from the executioner’s axe. We’ve seen how much fun surviving can be in VR, now let’s check out dying, Ned Stark-style. André Berlemont, Erkki Turmmal and Morten Brunbjerg created this guillotine simulator in two…

You’re Just In Time For A Game Boy Micro Unboxing

In 2005, Nintendo shut the door on the original Game Boy with the miniscule Game Boy Micro, a brilliantly-engineered two-by-four-inch rectangle of compromise. It wouldn’t run original Game Boy or Game Boy Color titles — just Game Boy Advance games — but boy was it pretty. Many people hated it. I just bought a new…

Japanese Plastic Figurines and Dioramas Sure Are Cool

For decades, Osaka-based collectible maker Kaiyodo has been churning out plastic statues and figurines. At a new “Figure World” exhibition, Kaiyodo marks its 30th anniversary of making figurines and is putting a whole slew of plastic on display in Shibuya. At the exhibit, which nearing its end, there are Japanese and Western characters, with the…

Chasm, that ambitious retro-styled PC Metroidvania we mentioned a while back, has met its Kickstarter goal with five days to go. Well done!

Now This Is How I Imagine Samus Looking

It always baffles me when people go out of their way to make Metroid’s Samus look “beautiful”. As if that matters. There’s a reason her gender was kept secret for the first game, and that’s because the point was she was a badass, not that she was a she So I love this pic by…

This Is The Sega We’d Like To Remember

Amidst all the rubbish Sonic games and Hatsune Miku, it’s easy to forget that Sega was, once, cool. Very cool. It’s something artist Oggy hasn’t forgotten, with this tribute to the company’s vehicular heyday that I wish my wife would let me paint all over our living room wall. レトロゲーム [PIXIV, via VGJunk]

Gunpoint Sticks Stealth Gaming’s Finger In The Light Socket

Tom Francis, by day a writer at PC Gamer, is by night the main man behind Gunpoint, an upcoming stealth game for the PC which I’ve been playing for the last few days (and looking forward to for the last few months). Gunpoint is, like last year’s Mark of the Ninja, less of a blockbuster…

X-Wing Tabletop Game Pays Awesome Tribute To Dark Forces

The X-Wing Miniatures tabletop game, which I like very much, has a new line of tiny little spacecraft on the way. Joining the eight units already available (Xwing, A-Wing, Y-Wing, TIE Fighter, TIE Interceptor, TIE Advanced, Slave One & the Falcon) are four new ships. They are the B-Wing, Lambda-Class Shuttle, TIE Bomber and HWK-290.…

When Famous Horror Directors Play Terrible Games Based On Their Movies

Here’s a treat. Popular YouTube gamer The Angry Video Game Nerd managed to sit down and play games with the one and only Lloyd Kaufman, co-founder of Troma and the director of classics like Toxic Avengers. The game he played? The various versions of Toxic Avengers. Which, well, yeah. Weren’t great. Toxic Crusaders – Angry…

LEGO Helm’s Deep Redefines The Term “Epic Battle”

This isn’tthe first time we’ve seen the wettest battle from the Lord of the Rings trilogy recreated in LEGO, but it’s easily the most impressive, at least in terms of scale. I don’t know how he got so many minifigs to pad out the scene, and I don’t want to know. All I know is,…

Aussie Star Wars Isn’t Exactly Canon

This is Aussie Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Bloke. For those living outside the antipodes, think of it as anthropology meets popular culture, because just about every reference they drop in this thing is perfect Aussie Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Bloke [YouTube]

So A Live-Action Wreck-It-Ralph Would Look Pretty Great

We’re between major conventions at the moment, not to mention between big game releases, so sadly, this isn’t the biggest cosplay roundup we’ve ever had here on Fancy Pants this week. But the stuff that is on show this week makes up for downfall in numbers. As you can see above, Wreck-it-Ralph cosplay can be…

Skyrim Gets Giant Monsters Courtesy Of Fantastic Mod

Of the literally thousands of mods I’ve seen for Skyrim over months, this is probably my new favourite, by virtue of the fact it adds giant monsters, turning the game into a very Nordic Shadow of the Colossus Or, you know, Monster Hunter Each mythical beast has its own lair – a location on the…

Rumor: GameStop Stops PS2 Trade-Ins in June

According to this poster, beginning June 1, GameStop will no longer accept any PlayStation 2, nor any PS2 game, nor its accessories. We’ve reached out to GameStop for official confirmation, but this does not seem so farfetched. I traded in a Slim about three weeks ago and got about $12 for it in store credit,…

What the Washington Redskins Could Learn from a Game Named Starcoon

If I learned anything this past week, it’s that some people will find any context in which an ethnic slur is not an ethnic slur, or will find some justification for its use, from the name of a video game to that of a football team. Really, the reactions were almost swappable. In Washington, rumblings…

This Guy Made a Working Dead Space Plasma Cutter

By “working,” let’s be clear: This laser is not powerful enough to sever a necromorph’s limbs—not unless it is heavily sedated, if not already not-undead. It’ll still burn wood and, well, I wouldn’t stare directly at it. More than just five lasers in a swell housing, this plasma cutter, built by Patrick Priebe of Laser-Gadgets,…

Candy Box: A Game That’s Simple, Sweet, and Strangely Compelling

When I got the link from a friend on Twitter, I thought Candy Box was some kind of a test or a joke. Candies started accumulating, and the only button I could click was “eat all the candies.” Gulp. Glump. OK. If eating sweets was a management sim, this would be the game. But I…