December 2009
23 posts
4 tags
Dragon’s Lair, Space Ace, Cobra Command lead...
Long gone are the glory days of the laserdisc arcade game, a time when our younger selves would gladly part with an endless stream of quarters, enduring death after untimely death, for just a few more precious seconds of smoothly animated cartoon cutscene from “that guy who did The Secret of Nimh.”
But now, thanks to the iPhone, we can relive those days of yore! The laserdisc game has been...
5 tags
BioShock 2, now accepting members for the...
Today gentle readers, a most mysterious letter arrived via post. It bore no return address, only a curious crest - a chess pawn surround by the Latin words Adaptare Audere Ambulare.
I had to look it up online to figure out this was the motto of the International Order of Pawns, a covert organization created to solve the mystery of The Vanishing, the systematic disappearance of intelligent and...
5 tags
Assassin’s Creed 2 DLC was originally part of the...
Players saddened that their stealth-stabbing romp through fifteenth-century Italy had to end will be cheered by the upcoming downloadable content for Assassin’s Creed 2 - Battle of Forli ($4, January 2010) and Bonfire of the Vanities ($5, February 2010) - which fills in the sequence gap in the century-spanning storyline.
Perhaps not as heartening is the revelation that the two missions, which...
Fight to the finish: Mario vs. Pac-Man
It’s an 8-bit battle of the ages - Nintendo’s Mario vs. Namco’s Pac-Man! In this charming video, made more so by the human-provided sound effects, Russian animators XPYCTeam show what would happen if these two 80’s videogame icons went head to disembodied head. If you thought it would end in a sexy pole dance routine by a certain mustachioed Italian plumber, get ready to break out that look...
Gaming's good old days, when consoles came...
Want the next game? You’ll have to get in line behind Exasperated Chameleon and Radioactive Cyclops in Seitaro’s “Video Game Complex,” via Tiny Cartridge. Jazz Hands Alligator plays winner.
- kristen spencer
Australia’s R18+ debate rages on, bolstered by...
In the wake of the Australian government’s decision to let the public weigh in on an R18+ rating for videogames, Sega has won their appeal to overturn the OFLC’s ruling on Aliens vs. Predator, which was recently refused classification due to its graphic, gory and absolutely glorious zero gravity violence.
Developer Rebellion said they would not tone down violence “for territories where adults...
It's-a me! Mario! In-a petri dish!
A little double helix tampering over at the University of Osaka, Japan produced this image of certain Italian-American plumber. The petri dish portrait is a result of scientists genetically engineering bacteria to express fluorescent proteins and carotenoid pigments. Other microbiologists-created masterworks are on currently on display at Microbial Art, all using living bacteria, fungi, and...
The Saboteur’s live-action spots channel Tarantino
These live-action ads for now-shuttered Pandemic Studios’ The Saboteur have a very Inglorious Basterds vibe to them. It’s not just the shared passion for thinning the Fuhrer’s forces, or as Brad Pitt’s Lt. Aldo Raine would say “killin’ gnat-zees, with increasing efficiency.” Both are violent. Both are irreverent. And both have style to spare.
Style. To. Spare.
[TVGB]
-kristen spencer
Schrödinger’s Rat brings quantum physics to the...
Forget the farting apps. SouthPeak Games is going high brow with their first iPhone title Schrödinger’s Rat, an accelerometer assisted labyrinth puzzler inspired by Austrian theoretical physicist Erwin Schrödinger’s famous thought experiment.
Intended as a critique of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, and eventually becoming the go to example for illustrating the difficulty of...
Crackdown 2, now with more zombies
For Crackdown 2, Ruffian Games has taken all the things that made Crackdown great - tossing cars, scaling buildings, incinerating pedestrians - and added a generous sprinkling of zombies!
Okay, not “zombies” but “mutants.” According to the developers, the sequel to the popular superhero sandbox game sees Pacific City infested with test subjects escaped from the sinister Shai-Gen...
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands will mark...
Ubisoft is looking to turn back time with their recently announced Prince of Persia sequel. Not only are they avoiding the quicksand that is the questionable movie tie-in, they’re also looking to return to the franchise’s roots, promising in Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands a game that plays more like The Sands of Time in terms of its controls, puzzles and powers.
“The gameplay is very...
3 tags
Bioshock's Sander Cohen cosplay
Danny Castellanos as Fort Frolic’s most memorable head case, via SuperPunch.
- kristen spencer
Free gadgets courtesy of Konami code
Gizmine, purveyors of weird Japanese tech, are giving away free gadgets to those of us schooled in the secrets of 80’s console gaming. Just enter the once ubiquitous Konami Code (Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A) on any item’s individual product page, followed by enter, and a mystery gadget worth $20-$60 will be automatically added to your cart. Shipping is $10, but for a prize...
3 tags
Dead Space 2 picks up story three years later,...
Space engineer turned monster slayer Isaac Clarke will have had plenty of time to improve his limb-slicing skills, as Dead Space 2 will reportedly pick up three years after the events of the original, with the alien infection that ravaged the Ishimura continuing to spread across the galaxy.
Still haunted by his narrow escape from a ship filled with freshly-minted Necromorphs, Isaac finds...
Uncharted 2 prequel motion comics available now
Update: Just a word of warning - I don’t yet know if it’s true for episodes 3 through 4, but episode 1 is chock full of abrasive ads. Still a thrill to hear Nolan North doing his plucky protagonist thing, but a little less so when he speeds off into the jungle in a Toyota Tundra.
Ever ponder when wise-cracking treasure hunter Nathan Drake first started rocking the half-tucked t-shirt? Well,...
Gold-dipped PS3, ready just in time for Christmas
Forget the cookies. You’re gonna have to get creative if you want Santa to leave Computer Chopper’s 24kt Gold PlayStation 3 Slim beneath your tree. Only five are being made, with a price tag of $4,999 each. A jeweled limited edition model with a lifetime warranty will be available in the coming weeks, but I don’t even want to know what you’d have to do to get that stuffed in your stocking....
3 tags
Back to barbaric basics in Puzzle Quest 2
Developer Infinite Interactive has announced a return to terra firma for the next installment in the Puzzle Quest series, which will release on XBLA and DS early next spring with nary a spaceship in sight.
I loved the original Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, which struck the perfect balance between gem matching and dungeon crawling. But when its followup, Puzzle Quest: Galactrix,...
4 tags
Twenty-two days of free iPhone games
In the spirit of giving away free stuff, iPhone developer Blacksmith Games is presenting twenty-two days worth of free iPhone games. Every day leading up to Christmas, the Appvent Calendar will feature a new game, free for one day only. Day twenty-three and twenty-four will also feature a surprise, though necessarily not of the free game variety.
No promising Santa will strike gold with every...
Australia bans Sega’s Aliens vs. Predator
I remember as a child, whenever a movie aired on basic cable prefaced by that “Warning: For Mature Audiences Only” screen, how excited I would get, no matter how disastrous a cinematic abortion the film turned out to be.
Same goes now whenever Australia refuses classification to a videogame, like the recently rejected Aliens vs. Predator. Sega Australia today confirmed that the Classification...
2 tags
Gunhead, the guy with a gun for a head
How can crap games like Uncharted, Assassin’s Creed and Left 4 Dead already be getting sequels when a gem like Gunhead, EA’s would-be masterpiece about a guy with a gun for a head, struggles to be taken seriously?
Though currently rumored to be in development at EA Vancouver, the project has been pitched to other development studios in the past. Apparently, none of them thought the idea of “a...
Has Tony Hawk jumped the shark?
GameSpy’s bar graph actually shows a lot of restraint, as they could have just as easily placed a skateboard-swinging Tony Hawk atop a pyramid chart composed of decaying horse corpses.
- kristen spencer
2 tags
Sorry Zelda, Link’s got bigger problems
Sure, Princess Zelda has been imprisoned in crystal, the land of Hyrule overun by monsters, and the very fate of the world threatened by the power-hungry machinations of the evil lord Ganondorf, but it’s not like those chickens are going to catch themselves.
- kristen spencer
5 tags
Roman Dirge’s Vampire Puff Puff coming to iPhone
If you thought the iPhone needed more games featuring zombie alpacas, you’ll be pleased to learn that artist Roman Dirge is hard at work on Vampire Puff Puff, a new iPhone game starring vampire-cum-ragdoll Ragamuffin. And yes, zombie alpacas.
His first foray into videogames, Vampire Puff Puff will take place in the same universe as the Lenore comic books, with the eponymous star kidnapped by...