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This Rock Band Name Goes to 11
To: Luke From: Owen Re: Cussin’ and Nintendo Yep, so that’s my Rock Band band’s new name. Pretty bitchin’, ain’t it? I was going for something a little sentimental, but with enough of an edge to let everybody know we can and will fuck you up and RAWK!!!! you OUT!!!! (/devil horns) Started over last…
By Owen Good -
Indie Games Get a Mainstream Closeup
In its “All New” issue, discussing the cutting edge of trends in American culture, New York Magazine lauds four indie titles for “ushering in a golden age of smart, beautiful, and really weird games.” Singled out for praise in a feature titled “If Jackson Pollock Were a Gamer” are De Blob, World of Goo, Echochrome…
By Owen Good -
The Week in Games: Skating Buy
Skate 2 is your leader for the coming week, if you’re into ollies, fakies, ollie fakies, and wearing pants half off your ass and acting surly toward authority. After that, grab your shovels, it’s January. The count: three for DS, five for Wii, three for the 360, one each for PS3, PSP, PS2 and PC.…
By Owen Good -
Twitter List Becomes Entire Site of Addresses
Sam Houston’s list of game industry types who use Twitter got a lot of exposure last week. So much that he’s launched a site, updated with even more devs, journalists, community managers and the like. Yes, yours truly is on there, but so are many others we quote around these parts too. The list is…
By Owen Good -
Study Determines Violence Has No Effect on Games’ Appeal
Researchers modified Half-Life 2 to study whether violence makes a game more enjoyable for players. The short answer: It does not. In the study, published Friday in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, researchers surveyed more than 2,500 “frequent game players” and conducted four experiments on more than 300 college undergraduates. “We found that, on…
By Owen Good -
The Scene Inside Circuit City: “Close to Pandemonium”
“Consumers seemingly snapping up anything that wasn’t nailed down. (I’ve never seen so many HP wide-screen monitors in one checkout line),” according to CNET. The lines? Almost as long as Fry’s – for once. Other scenes from one store caught up in Circuit City’s everything-must-go demise: • “The store that I visited on Saturday had…
By Owen Good -
LittleBigWoodstock Rocks You With Hendrix
Sackboy rocks out to some Jimi Hendrix in this Woodstock-themed custom level paired up, on video anyway, with Purple Haze played on Guitar Hero. The level loses some of its visual appeal after about the first chorus — there’s not a lot going on other than the camera changes. But, hey, novel concept. And even…
By Owen Good -
Super PS3 Stick Makes Combos Muuuuuuch Easier
Can’t remember – or, worse – can’t execute your go-to fighting combos in the heat of the moment? This $90 stick stores moves and unleashes them with the press of a button. The XCM Dominator joystick ships next week. As you can see in this video, it’ll memorize any sequence of button presses or stick…
By Owen Good -
Check This Awesome Mirror’s Edge Tat
This guy Patrick emailed us to say he got a tattoo like Faith’s from Mirror’s Edge. Immediately I thought of her eye sunburst and figured he’s gonna look like Mike Tyson. Nope. Much, much cooler. Writes Patrick: “Faith’s tattoo design struck me when I watched the E3 2008 trailer, and I knew I wanted to…
By Owen Good -
OK, What’s the Deal With These Countdown Clocks
Two countdown clocks are up on Japanese developer web sites, both pointing to something being announced around Friday. One looks like Zelda, the other Mario-ish. What else is there to it? Beats me. The Triforce-looking countdown is brought to you by Marvelous Entertainment, the 8-bit mushroom is courtesy of Sega Japan. It makes a 1up…
By Owen Good -
AMD Cutting Jobs, Slashing Survivors’ Pay
Processor and graphics-card manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices is cutting 1,000 jobs and reducing pay for everyone else to get through terrible times for computer sales. Nine hundred workers will lose their jobs, with the remaining reductions coming from attrition and the sale of another business unit. All told, it represents 9 percent of the Sunnyvale,…
By Owen Good -
The Family Tree of Game Developers
Check Your HUD put together this impressive, massive and nearly comprehensive family tree of game developers. Not sure what else to add, as just looking over it gets a little mesmerizing. The author says it’s not a complete family tree, and it’s got a few errors (“Infograms” for eg.) I’m sure nitpickers can find many…
By Owen Good -
Tired of “Mortal Kombat Killer”? How About “Xbox Taco Assailant”
Law enforcement near Orlando, Fla., have in custody a 19-year-old who refused to stop playing games to join his family for dinner and threw a taco at his mother after she unplugged his Xbox. Intrepid and indispensible local news resource WOFL-TV of Orlando reports that alleged Xbox Taco Assailant Zachary Moir is in the Volusia…
By Owen Good -
Madden’s First Video Game — It Wasn’t Football
Tucked in a gallery of vintage video game ads is that at left — John Madden lending his cred as “sportscaster for CBS Video Games” to Atari 2600 versions of GORF and Wizard of Wor. Huh. I vaguely remember that library of games. Tooling around teh Google, lo and behold, there’s video (below) of pre-mushmouth…
By Owen Good -
Rigopoulos “Would Love to” do Amplitude Sequel on PS3
Harmonix’s big hit before Guitar Hero/Rock Band, and a foreshadowing of their gameplay, was Amplitude, developed for SCEA on the PS2. Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos says he’d love to “do it right” for the PS3. Ars Technica interviewed Rigopulos earlier this week, and in the discussion, both noted that Sony owns the IP, but doing…
By Owen Good