New Bioshock Gameplay Footage
Need I say any more?
My frothing demand for this game increases.
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May 2007 Archives
Lookout World!
From the writers of such hits as "Trogdor" and "Everybody to the Limit" comes the new flash music video for "Lookout World!" Homestar Runner is always great, and has been since their inception, at creating neat little music for their infectiously funny videos - but this time is different. Using the aptly named "Mix Mastah 800", site visitors can make their own remixes to The Brothers Chaps' sound clips. Check it. Hilarious. Really, really fun.
Props to Madam L. for the link.
Podcast for 05-28-07 | Vin Kratos
Movies and Video Game commentary galore on this week's podcast featuring Chris Furniss, The Geek and White Mage (Colette couldn't make it this week because of head explosions). Listen! As The Geek and White Mage discuss their love of Pirates! Marvel! As Chris yet again alienates the "differently-abled"! Enjoy! Imagining Vin Diesel as Kratos in a God of War movie adaptation! You will not be disappointed. Download the podcast now as an mp3, subscribe to the feed or just plain play it in your web browser!
The song has been sung.
Yo ho
Haul together
Hoist the colors high
Heave ho
Thieves and beggars
Never shall we die
New Crystal Chronicles: I'm worried
So there's a new trailer for the new Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles game for the Wii that has been released to the internet.
Go ahead on over to the site and check it out. I'll wait here.
Ok, you back yet? Is it just me or is it just amazingly underwhelming? C'mon Squenix, what the hell? This looks absolutely nothing like the pure golden god that was the first Crystal Chronicles. That game was pretty, had a unique artistic approach, and was craptons of fun to play for you and your friends. This new incarnation of the series looks like it has completely lost the heart and soul of the original. The color scheme is all off with graphics that look pretty sterile and typical, there is way too much advanced technology, and it looks like it's only single player.
From the very beginning of the trailer, when it started playing the traditional FF prologue theme, I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. The previous CC game never featured that theme. This trailer's music has a full orchestra and not the sweet ancient instruments featured in the previous game.
The previous CC really shared little in common with the rest of the FF franchise other than spell names and moogles. If you're gonna go that direction with a series and the game is sucessful enough to warrant a sequel, why the hell would you take out everything that made it successful?
Jeez.
"Official" Penny Arcade Adventures Trailer
Ok, so we weren't too impressed with the first trailer the Penny Arcade boys released for their new game, but Gabe showed us this "Official" trailer today, and boy does it look sweet. The cel shading really brings the 3d models out, and it does indeed look like a playable comic.
What I am really excited about is the create-a-character feature. A Penny Arcade stylized Mii? Yes, please. I'll take two.
Blogger's Choice Awards
Yeah, so I nominated the site myself. If you want to support YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST, THE WEEKLY GEEK please head on over to the Blogger's Choice Awards and submit your vote! We would love you forever for this. Signing up for an account is super quick, and it's a great way to show your support for the show.
Be sure to vote once for each category!
Paddle Skin
Much like the words "soda", "cap" and "sofa", the word "paddle" used in regards to a game controller has always grated on me. Never the less, We Make Money Not Art directs us today to an intriguing art project by Christoph Kroenke titled "Paddle Skin" where he uses a sort of liquid latex to make empty castings of game consoles and their respective controllers. The castings apparently feel like human skin. Delicious! More photos on We Make Money Not Art's blog. Click through and get really really creeped out.
Review: Sotrilo Solitaire (XBLA)
The Xbox Live Arcade is a haven for casual gamers. With games like Uno, Catan, Bejeweled and now Sotrilo Solitaire, it is almost worth it to pay the full price for the system in order to play these games. There's been a lot of hate on Sotrilo by the games journalism community since it's release because of the awkward play controls and high price, but when it comes down to it Sotrilo Solitaire is actually a really high quality game.
Some of the points made were that it's a fancier version of a game that ships free with basically any PC. Sure. That's a valid point, however Sotrilo offers pretty much every Solitaire game ever made. There's like 20 in there, including a very interesting story mode where you can unlock new card themes. It looks great in HD with lots of neat little animations and visual effects. They really did put a ton of effort into this game in order to make it worth the 800 Microsoft points. Because you can just go out and buy a deck of cards, or an old Windows 95 PC and play Solitaire whenever you want to.
Pros: Sotrilo has pleasing graphics, all the Solitaire games you can ever want, a neat story mode, fun themed decks, achievements, online multiplayer (!). Cons: The music's kinda boring and repetitive, controls are awkward but should be familiar for people who have played the iPod version of solitaire, 800 points is a lot for solitaire, the more obscure games have very basic instructions and the learning curve is really really steep. Should you pick it up? If you're really into the live arcade and that's all you play, why not? It's an enjoyable game. It's not a killer app, but it's not something to get all fussy about. Just play fun games, people!
Score: 2/5 Download the demo
A 5 year old is better at DDR than you.
First, they breed a new generation of super soldiers. Then, they unleash THE ZETA GUNDAM..
Freelance Review - Hotel Dusk: Room 215 for Nintendo DS
Today's Freelance Review comes to us from BFeld13.
If you'd like to submit a freelance review, please check out how right here.
Overview
Hotel Dusk: Room 215's story is that of a gritty noir novel, with a hard-boiled ex-cop, missing paintings and amnesia. You play Kyle Hyde. He's searching for his double-crossing ex-partner in the NYPD and has stopped for the night at Hotel Dusk in the southwestern desert. By the end of the night, Hyde will discover what happened at Hotel Dusk. You do this by helping out the guests at the hotel, all of whom are somehow linked to Hyde.
continue reading "Freelance Review - Hotel Dusk: Room 215 for Nintendo DS"
Review: Odin Sphere (PS2)
If there is one single reason the PLAYSTATION 3 isn't selling well - it's that the PLAYSTATION 2 is still coming out with some pretty damn stellar titles. Take Atlus' Odin Sphere - it's a unique blend of RPG, action platformer and storybook that surprisingly does all three incredibly well. In a landscape of copycat RPGs with lame storylines and no real interesting visual style, Odin Sphere stands out above the crowd. It's one of those games that you can just tell is going to become a cult classic. It feels like the way the Mana series should have ended up, which really isn't a bad thing at all. Hit the jump for all the reasons why you should pick this game up (or just go get it, because I'm going to recommend it to you anyway).
Review: Double Dragon (XBLA)
In the vast continuation of our childhood, and the feeding of our insatiable retro hunger, Double Dragon was unleashed upon the Xbox Live Arcade last week and it's one of those titles that makes you stop and think "oh man, we were really dumb little kids". Maybe it's just that there is so much better out now, but the Xbox Live Arcade version of Double Dragon certainly doesn't make me pine for the days of yesteryear.
Now, I grew up playing the NES version (pictured) and not the arcade flavor, but I can accept the differences and give an adequate review based on my experiences. The XBLA version shows a complete lack of effort on the developers part, and doesn't inspire confidence in any way. It offers two options for the graphics: original and enhanced. The enhanced version looks akin to a Flash version of Double Dragon, which is not to say it looks bad but it certainly doesn't look good. Switching between the two is a breeze and can be done on the fly in the pause menu, so essentially it's just a new skin. Unfortunately they didn't give the same enhanced treatment to the soundtrack. For all your effort setting up the best, most kick ass HDTV living room, you are still going to have to suffer the worse-than-midi style soundtrack. I am not exaggerating, it's completely awful. Even if they had to do this remake on the cheap, at the very least get one of the kids from OCRemix to come up with different versions of the FOUR SONGS you have in the game!
Even worse than the "original score" is the fact that there is slowdown during co-op and even during single player. If any more than 3 enemies appear on the screen at once, it starts to bog down. I don't find this in any way charming in its authenticity. I have a very high powered gaming console, I would like my 20 year old games to work with accuracy and efficiency.
At least the achievements make it a bit more interesting to play through the game, and you have to give props to Double Dragon for paving the way for other mindless brawlers to come. But for all of it's difficult play control, boggy slowdown, ear piercing soundtrack and kind of shoddy art - it's something that is best left alone. At least it's only 400 Microsoft points. Pick it up if you want to. I guess. It's not a must have killer app for the XBLA, but if you really enjoyed the original - say you have fond memories o f meeting your first girlfriend at the arcade and you played the game for hours and hours and hours.... check it out.
Score: 2/5 Download the demo
Music Review: Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Everybody puts out a sluggish album now and then. Then again, Britt Daniel's Spoon can hardly be lumped in with "everybody" in terms of work ethic – releasing 6 LPs in 11 years and touring extensively. Still, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is almost predestined to be a valley in Spoon's career after the towering twin peaks of 2005's Gimmie Fiction and 2002's Kill the Moonlight. Another case of expectation breeding disappointment.
BIGGER THAN STARCRAFT 2.
"During the 1980s, McDonald’s used the Uncle O’Grimacey character to market Shamrock Shakes. However, he has been phased out, but is said to return along with Grimace and Mayor McCheese in a series of television spots on Nickelodeon starting in 2008."
That Web 2.0 Ineffable Font of Knowledge, Wikipedia, informs me that Uncle O'Grimacey and Mayor McCheese, both of whom were blasted out of McDonaldland continuity by the infamous Sid and Marty Krofft "look and feel" lawsuit, are both return to hail the almighty return of the sacred Shamrock Shake. McDonalds representatives (one was named "Eddie" and another was named "Shaneequa", both of whom were brandishing that weird salt shaker doohickey thing they use) have declined to comment on this auspicious rumor. If it's only a rumor, why is there already a line of Mego-style McDonaldland toys returning to the shelves?
With the Burger King's campy return and a good 20 years of water under the bridge (Sid and Marty need the money, folks), looks like McDonaldland is coming back in a big way, love it or hate it. I personally am excited for a Mayor McCheese and Uncle O'Grimacey doll back, and I'm crossing my fingers for a Shamrock Shake without Shrek being involved.
And a triple bypass.
What is this poop? Nintendo announces horrible lineup
I really don't understand what is wrong with Nintendo these days. Not even their PR reps can disguise the level of poop being shoveled out onto the Wii, and even the DS these days. Check out this year long lineup in a recent press release.
Whether you're a longtime gamer who likes classic franchises or a newcomer aiming to keep your brain sharp, Nintendo's summer lineup of games has something for you. Nintendo's offerings are anchored by key Wii(TM) games like Metroid Prime(R) 3 Corruption and Mario Strikers(TM) Charged. Nintendo DS(TM) owners can challenge their minds with games like Brain Age(TM) 2: More Training in Minutes a Day and the new picture-based puzzle game, Picross DS(TM).Licensees also are demonstrating a strong commitment to Wii and Nintendo
DS by announcing more than 40 titles in all genres. The unique controls
of Wii and Nintendo DS make the Nintendo platform versions of these games
entirely new experiences. No matter what your taste or experience level,
you'll keep busy this summer!Wii
July 30 Mario Strikers Charged Nintendo
Aug. 20 Metroid Prime 3 Corruption Nintendo
September Battalion Wars 2 Nintendo
Aug. 14 High School Musical: Sing It! Disney Interactive Studios
Aug. 14 Madden NFL '08 EA
August Tiger Woods PGA Tour '08 EA
August Space Station Tycoon Namco Bandai
August Brunswick Pro Bowling Crave
August Dave Mirra BMX Challenge Crave
August Pinball Hall of Fame: Crave
The Williams Collection
September Brothers in Arms Ubisoft
September Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal Warner Bros.
September George of the Jungle Crave
Fall Boogie EANintendo DS
July 30 Picross DS Nintendo
Aug. 20 Brain Age 2: More Training Nintendo
in Minutes a Day
Sept. 10 DK Jungle Climber Nintendo
Sept. 24 Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol Nintendo
July SimCity EA
July Namco Museum DS Namco Bandai
July Drake & Josh THQ
July Glory Days 2 Eidos
Aug. 14 Madden NFL '08 EA
Aug. 14 High School Musical: Disney Interactive Studios
Makin' the Cut!
Aug. 14 Heroes of Mana Square-Enix
August I SPY: Fun House Activision
August Jewel Quest Expedition Activision
August Tiger Woods PGA Tour '08 EA
August Worms: Open Warfare 2 THQ
August Luminous Arc Atlus
August Mega Man Star Force: Pegasus Capcom
August Mega Man Star Force: Leo Capcom
August Mega Man Star Force: Dragon Capcom
August Operation: Vietnam Majesco
August Turn It Around Majesco
August The Wild West Majesco
August Fulllmetal Alchemist Destineer
Trading Card Game
September Drawn to Life THQ
September Zoey 101 THQ
September Crayola Treasure Adventures Crave
September Nancy Drew and The Deadly Majesco
Secret of Olde World Park
September Holly Hobbie & Friends Majesco
September Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Capcom
Trials and Tribulations
September Looney Tunes: Duck Amuck Warner Bros.
September Pet Luv Spa & Resort Tycoon Activision
September Animal Genius Activision
September George of the Jungle Crave
September Jam Sessions Ubisoft
September Professor Brainium Destineer
September Indy 500 Legends Destineer
No. Your third party companies are not showing their support for the Wii. What they are doing is shoveling the same shit at you that they always do. Cartoon Network and Disney Channel tv show games? Who buys that crap? The only games on the list that are anticipation-worthy are Metroid, Phoenix Wright, Heroes of Mana, Sim City and MAYBE Chibi Robo. This will NOT keep me busy this summer, Nintendo. You know what WILL keep me busy? The Xbox Live Arcade. You know the one. Where I can meet up with my friends at any time and jump into a game instantly without having to exchange a 16 digit code. The one that rewards me for in game accomplishments. The one that ACTUALLY WORKS.
I know you make a ton of money off of Pokemon and Brain Age in Japan, but we US gamers are feeling a bit unloved with the severe lack of great titles. At the very least don't try to make it seem like we are getting a deal here. We're not.
Podcast for 05-21-07 | Big in Korea
On this week's super excellent podcast, Chris Furniss, The Geek, White Mage and Colette Bennett give you BREAKING NEWS about Starcraft II. Not really breaking, since everyone and their mom knows about it now. They also lament the loss of a childhood institution, rip into Spiderman 3 (the game), gush about Batman, tolerate Transformers, gush even more about Odin Sphere and give away the secrets of the universe. That last part may be a lie. Download the show now or subscribe! Show notes after the jump.
Ring of Death: Part Deux
So, let's see - my new refurbished 360 lasted from April 14th to May 20th. One month and six days. I'm fairly certain their repair factory consists of two piles, broken and unbroken machines, and one extremely fast Japanese solderer in between. Two guys stand on either side of the piles shoveling machines in and out of boxes.
Time to call my buddy Leo at Microsoft's Repair Department!
Tag Team Concert Review: Blue Scholars
Caspian: Our love of Blue Scholars here at The Weekly Geek is well documented. In fact, Frodo's first music review on the site highlighted their self-titled effort from last year. This past Saturday, we had the pleasure of being on the guest list for the release party of their second album Bayani. After seeing them last fall debuting some of the latest material, it was rewarding to revisit The Showbox on May 12th to see how the songs have evolved over the past few months.
Frodo: It is mind boggling how the Blue Scholars have yet to explode on the pop music scene. Their beats are sufficiently phat, their lyrics are smart, and they are supremely charismatic on stage, always putting on a great show. This CD release party (not a "concert" as Geologic stated, but a "party") saw the addition of a full 8-piece band, complete with a brass section. It was perfect - The Scholars always have that funk twinge and seeing them again with this almost epic celebration of their music was spectacular.
Impressive Calvin and Hobbes student film
From the sadly sinking ship that is Table of Malcontents today, I give you this amazing treat.
Italian student Donato DeCarlo made this Calvin and Hobbes animation for school, and it's amazing. Watch it and dream about what could have been if Bill Watterson wasn't such a shut-in.
Dean Kamen's Robotic Arm
You remember Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway? He is currently working on a robotic arm, and it's damned impressive. Currently the arm has only been demonstrated behind closed doors and in darkened alleys, but here is a video of Dean speaking in Hawaii, showing off what the arm could do.
I have chills. This is pretty amazing.
LOL
Yeah I know it's overdone and all, but after seeing this image on Cute Overload today I couldn't help but paint flames on it.
(If you use this image, send a link back to us! It would be greatly appreciated.)
Let's get creepy!
Y'know how you can go into Google Image Search and put in the default naming convention for digital cameras (e.g., DSCN0001.jpg) and return a bunch of people's personal photos that they have uploaded without renaming? Or that one website that will pull the last few photos that have been uploaded to various photohosting websites?
Well now it's been taken to the next level with FlickrVision.
FlickrVision is a website that shows a little map of the world. In real time, images pop up on your screen, pointing to their contry of origin mere minutes after they have been uploaded to Flickr. That's right. Almost immediately after you post a picture to Flickr, FlickrVision shows it to anyone and everyone visiting the website.
It's kinda cool but also kinda creepy. You never know what's gonna pop up next.
Credit to a dude over at the PA forums for introducing this to me.
Game Review: Spiderman 3 (Xbox 360)
This time I am going to break the normal Weekly Geek "shininess" "funness" etc review mold in order to accommodate a rant. Because Spiderman 3 is such a freaking awful game it warrants a good ripping into, and frankly I don't want to spend that much energy on this waste. That's right, the game is a waste. It's a horrible waste. It's a half-thought out waste of time. Let's start from the beginning. From the first time I popped in the game, I started a little internal dialog with the developers. I started to really wonder what the heck they were thinking when they made the game, and how much they were paying the game testers to shut up about all the glitches and horribleness that they were subjected to. I just imagine a room full of game testers moaning and complaining about the game, and the company just keeps giving them free Spiderman 3 baseball caps until they are happy.
You are thrown into a tutorial right off. There's no real intro, you're just in a burning building and all of a sudden Bruce Campbell is talking at you. Ok, fair enough. Then it gets absurd. Can't I just fight, guys? I know you think you have a really deep fighting system but you don't. Its a simple button mashing brawler and you keeping me here on this tutorial and forcing me to play with your horrible play controls is making me want to stab things. Your smart-ass voice over isn't helping either. Bruce Campbell, stop being a jerk to me. Stop it. Literally they go through the different "moves" that you have as Spiderman, which are just basic counterattacks and dodges. But they FORCE you to do them THREE times before you move on to the next horrible tutorial. That wouldn't be too bad if the play control was tolerable. You'll find yourself doing plenty you didn't want to do, or getting knocked down because it was unresponsive. Completely unacceptable. I wanted to throw the game out the window right then and there. NOT A GOOD SIGN.
During the counterattack tutorial a little message came up on screen after I completed the first successful counterattack: "COUNTERATTACK 2 MORE TIME" - you really didn't spend much time making this game, did you? You can't even get the grammar correct for the first tutorial? Why should I spend my time playing this thing you shat out at me?
Battle is boring and even the most generic of thugs take an insane amount of hits to down. The tutorial showed me the horrors of what was to come, and even once you get out of that shit-fest you get thrown into a city with even MORE tutorials. The graphics are horrible and choppy. Even worse are the camera controls, especially when you try to do something Spiderman-like; climbing on walls or the ceiling. Swinging around the city is glitchy at best. Controls are WAY too complicated. It should be easy and natural to play this game, but it's bogged down by a HUGE tutorial, varied control schemes and glitchy buggy play controls. It just feels rushed and unfinished. There are the makings for a good game tucked away here, it's just a matter of spending enough development time to make it worthwhile.
Now I know games have a reputation for having really bad voice acting, but come on. You have actual actors here from the actual movie, you'd think that the game would be passable. Unfortunately it sounds like everyone phoned it in. It's not like Tobey McGuire is exploding with personality as it is, but Jesus. The dialog didn't help, either. It's completely boring cliche tripe and it gave me no incentive to continue listening.
After I had beaten my head against my TV bloody slogging through the tutorials, I was able to explore the city and start some missions. There's a bit of free-form GTA style stuff here, but the novelty wears off once you start the first HORRIBLE mission that is pretty much impossible because the play controls suck and the thugs are too hard to kill and they keep coming after you. No. I was done.
I just turned it off. The game did everything in its power to make me not want to play it, so I won't. There weren't even any worthwhile achievements for me to nab to maybe MAYBE salvage the experience. All of them are for completing gang missions in their entirety, or splatting to the ground 25 times. No. NO.
Maybe this game is only for people who have seen the movie. That's fine. But I bet people who have seen the movie (which is also getting poor reviews) will just shrivel up and die when they play the game, hoping that maybe it was a little better than the cinema experience that left them sore. Do not buy this game. As a matter of fact, if you see anyone buying this game, slap it out of their hands, hold their shoulders, look into their eyes and tell them very firmly "no" as you would a bad dog. Then rub it on their nose and send them on their way.
Score: 0/5 Skip it and burn every copy you find
Onomatopoeia
YOINK!
I like to use the word "yoink" whenver I reach to grab something. It's fun to do. Probably one of my most favorite non-words. That's it. That's all I wanted to say.
Do you like to use silly non-words?
Chris Joins Podtoid
That's right, Geekateers, I have joined the ranks of the illustrious PODTOID, the Destructoid.com video game podcast. The transition has been in the works for a bit as they needed some help offloading their production time, and in return for helping them record and produce and post their podcast, I get to be a regular guest. How will this affect The Weekly Geek? Not a lot. Podtoid tends to discuss subjects relative to the Dtoid community, covering the top stories on the site for the week, and surprisingly there is little overlap between the podcasts. So don't despair!
Download the newest Podtoid, Podtoid 20-ish: The Repoddening from the Podtoid site now! It turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself.
Weekly Geek game night: Settlers of Catan
In the first of what promises to be many game nights, this past week we had a Weekly Geek DUDES NIGHT, which served basically as one of our first staff meetings (only the dudes though, because we are chauvinistic like that)! This week's flavor? Settlers of Catan style. After playing it on the Xbox Live Arcade we found the boxed version and decided to try it. The game lasted about 2 ½ hours with set up and tear down and was amazingly fun. Playing the analog version actually changed the way we think about our strategies in the digital version, and being in person also changes the way you think about resource trading.
Dunno what I am talking about? Check out Catan for yourself!
Also, check out the rest of the photos from game night and look forward to the next one!
Podcast for 05-14-07 | Halo is Overrated
This week sees Chris Furniss, The Geek and White Mage trapped in a cave somewhere in the Welsh countryside discussing such matters as the Halo 3 beta, new Crackdown content, Square Enix's new offerings and how the TSA angers us. Subscribe now or download the MP3, you will be sorry if you didn't. Seriously. Hit the jump for some show notes!
Tag Team Concert Review: The Books
Warning: This entry is the second in a large string of upcoming tag team reviews (i.e. Frodo and I have been attending a ridiculous amount of shows recently). Consider yourselves warned! This particular show took us a while to ruminate on - we went to The Books at Neumos on April 26th before The Decemberists, but The Books was such an aural mind trip that it took longer to sink into our collective present consciousness. Meditate with us by focusing on the bump.
The Botanical Gameboy
We Make Money Not Art directed me to this interesting Botanical Gameboy today. Just like the experiments you used to do in science class where you would power a clock or something using lemons, these lemons actually allow you to play a game of Tetris. Could lemons get any cooler, honestly?
From the site:
Botanical Gameboy was an experiment conducted during Playshop. This was an attempt to power a gameboy by harvesting voltage from lemons 9 lemon trees. We designed a custom game: Count Volta to live on the gameboy. Through this experiment, we found that we would need 48,000 lemons to power our gameboy, thus we demonstrated the wonders of powering small devices and controlling video playback speed by squeezing lemons.
Neat!
Photo Credit: Future Farmers
Halo 3 Beta First Impressions
So like a number of privileged geeks in the world, I too today received a Halo 3 beta key for download. Now I am in no way a Halo fan per se, but I appreciate it for what it did to sell Xboxen. I am HORRIBLE at the game and loathe the frat boy mentality and rampant homophobia and racism that comes from its players. That said, I was still excited to be in the beta.
First impressions are just that, mind. Graphics are great (why wouldn't they be) and there are a variety of maps for us to explore and shoot each other in. So far I have played in a level much like Blood Gulch with nifty water effects and trees and junk, a desert stone sort of level, and a snow level. The snow level was pretty cool, because when you are in the system of tunnels and someone is above you, a bit of snow falls down to indicate it. Nice touch. Controls are exactly what you would expect for a Halo game, except for the addition of the accessories button (X) which deploys bubble shields, power drainers and other items as you obtain them. Also you can easily mute people by pressing the back button and selecting them with X. Now you don't have to endure the long string of epithets that you usually have to listen to during a Halo match.
The game types showcased seem to be pretty full. There is standard deathmatch, a king of the hill (named crazy king, which is indeed quite crazy) and Oddball, where you have to maintain control of a skull for a certain amount of time. It's like reverse hot potato. Also showcased is a couple of vehicles, including the new mongoose atv.
The interface is familiar yet updated, matchmaking seems strong and solid, and the ability to create save films of your performances is going to fill up YouTube faster than you can say "what's a puma".
Bungie seems to be providing the ultimate fan service with this Halo iteration, even going as far as putting the words "Halo 3 Beta Love, Bungie" in the loading screen. Hooray. I wouldn't say the beta has so far made me a fan of Halo (or even really that impressed) but we will see as I give it more time. First impressions and all.
Daily Adorableness: The Katamari Hair Clip
I will marry the first girl I see who wears this. This absolutely adorable Katamari hair clip comes from someone called Candypopcreations on the ol' Etsy. Etsy is a really cool site where people can easily sell their handcrafted items, and there are a number of cool knit Katamari things such as this clever barrette. And it's only six bucks! Cheap!
Kool-Aid Dill Pickles
OH YEAH! (Oh no). Slashfood posted this ridiculous picture today of some insane lady's Kool-Aid marinated dill pickles. Now, I have heard of using Kool-Aid to dye your hair, to make candy, and even (gasp) mixing it with water to drink, but I am intrigued to find out what a pickle floating in the stuff would taste like. I guess it would all depend on the flavor.
I like sweet pickles just fine, and watermelon pickles are to die for... so maybe these aren't as bad as they sound. Look. As bad as they look.
(Photo from Slashfood via NYT)
Catan Winner!
Aaaaand the winner of our Catan contest is...
Jharks!
Jharks told us his favorite board game in the forums and now has a shiny new code to download Catan for the Xbox Live Arcade in his private message box. Congrats!
Stay tuned for more awesome contests here at The Weekly Geek. Tune your internets to this internet station.
Hi-Res images of the new Transformers, plus a little bitching from The Geek
Love it or hate it, the new Transformers movie is coming. I have mixed feelings about this movie and am trying to keep an open mind, but it's so friggin' hard lately to not be pessimistic.
Look, I am willing to let some things slide that I know a lot of you die-hard Transfans are pitching a hissy fit over. First of all, it's Michael Bay. Yeah, The Island was a stinker and The Rock wasn't fantastic, but they had some pretty good actiony blow-em-ups. Michael Bay can do actiony blow-em-ups and let's face it: Transformers needs good actiony blow-em-ups. It's not like it's supposed to be incredibly deep. TF is here to appeal to boys and sell toys. If you think otherwise, you're kidding yourself.
continue reading "Hi-Res images of the new Transformers, plus a little bitching from The Geek"
Garbage Pail Kids Spotted at 7-11!
Hellooooo, childhood. A recent trip to the 7-11 has revealed to me that Topps is selling a brand new series of the ever-horrible Garbage Pail Kids cards. Back in the day these puppies would get you in so much trouble at school... they were often gruesome depictions of some sort of sad fate a kid had. Usually relating to boogers or vomit. Literally they are the pinnacle of juvenile humor and I was more than happy to plop down a cool 99 cents in order to relive the magic.
The new edition boasts not only sticker versions of cards, but this new technology called "magnets". Just reading the word "magnet" as a child got me excited, so putting GPK (as it's known in the streets) together with magnets was like seeing the face of God as he looks down on you and says "you are my most precious creation". Ok, that was a bit of hyperbole.
I was very pleased to see, upon ripping open the pack like a 12 year old, that the art is the same super high-quality painting style. There's no stupid CG art. There's no fancy graphic enhancements - it's old school all the way. In my pack I received the ever humorously titled: Zack Snack, Slam-Dunk Dylan, Molly Pop, Yo-Yo Joe, Over Eatin' Ethan and Marty Mucous. Seriously. Who comes up with this stuff? It's almost like those mortgage banner ads you see online everywhere... with a dancing cowboy tattoo on someone's arm talking about mortgages. It makes NO sense. I was very pleased to see that every one of my GPK cards had some sort of depiction of body fluid, usually boogers. Cause kids LOOOOOOVE boogers. It's like comedy kryptonite to them.
The real gems of the pack? What is on the BACK of the cards. Every other card features a small comic that would make Bazooka Joe look like Akira. They even include fortunes on the bottom like FORTUNE: Your clothes are tasteful! Because you spill food on them.
What.
The comic I feature here in this image (click to zoom) features a brilliant parody of Spongebob Squarepants named Grunge Bob. Because he lives in a TOILET. GET IT?! But that is not what I want you to look at. What I want you to look at is the little blurb about butterfly pee. What? That combination of words didn't make sense to you? I know. Just read it.
I know, I was stunned too. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. If you can find them, I highly recommend picking up a pack and reliving your childhood. Now if you excuse me, I have to go find places to put these stickers (on a garbage pail maybe?).
New Bioshock Footage Makes Me Wet Myself
Sometimes good things can come from G4, honest! XPlay did a preview of Bioshock the other day, and if you weren't already excited for this game, this movie will definitely sell you on it.
All I can do is sit here and stare at my Bioshock Dashboard theme and bounce up and down, waiting for Bioshock like a kid on Christmas Eve.
Tag Team Concert Review: The Decemberists/My Brightest Diamond
After seeing The Decemberists last summer and My Brightest Diamond last fall, our expectations of their double bill were heightened to say the least. Hit the jump to see if they met our high demands. (Side Note: This concert review marks the 4th music post in the last week. My insidious plan to turn The Weekly Geek into a music blog seems to be working. Muuuahahaha.)
continue reading "Tag Team Concert Review: The Decemberists/My Brightest Diamond"
Spamradio
Ah, the beautiful music of Spam...
"Have problems maintaining an erection?"
This is truly an awesome thing to listen to. It's like some sort of lovely monkey language from the future, or perhaps the ancient Aztecs contacting us from the future.
Listen. Suppress your appetite and feel satisfied all day.
World's Worst Contest Winner
No, the winner isn't the worst in the world, just the contest.
That's right, I've finally picked a winner in the contest for something broken!
My broken USB Nintendo WiFi Dongle will go to international geek-kateer, Max "Milhouse" Wagner. Max lives all the way across the pond in the tiny little country of Luxembourg. I decided to pick Max because this seems to be the only possible way that he'll get to play with his DS online. He doesn't have a wireless LAN, there are no WiFi hotspots in the country, and both Nintendo and eBay will not ship to him. He may very well be the only person in the whole country who even owns a DS. And so here comes The Weekly Geek to save the day!
Now I just hope he doesn't have any problems with fixing it, making this whole thing meaningless.
Congratulations, Max!
And thanks to all who participated. Sorry, but you just couldn't beat this awesomely sad story.
Napoleon Dynamite game announced. Wtf?
You either love it or you loathe it (for the record, I love it). Napoleon Dynamite is one of the great polarizing movies, splitting people between who enjoys awkward uncomfortable humor and those without a soul. While it's a great movie, it is a bit overhyped and now it's just plain confusing with the announcement of a Napoleon Dynamite video game.
Horrible thoughts enter my mind. A flurry of bad SNES movie and tv tie-in games - Beavis and Butthead, Addams Family, Eek the Cat... they were all horrible. Details of the game are slim (You can read the measly press release after the jump) but let's hope that since the movie has been out so long the company is making this game not necessarily to capitalize on the film's success, but because they have a great idea in mind. I am all for a point and click style adventure game, with minigames where you have to catch a delicious bass or build a cake (or something).
Conversation Marketing Interview with Me
Today Ian Lurie of Conversation Marketing posted his very first podcast (aww), which just so happens to be an interview with me about The Weekly Geek, how we got started and what our blogging process is. There are some good tips in there for people who are interested in starting their own blog, and if you haven't checked out Ian's site yet and you are at all interested in internet marketing, you're missing out.
The sound on the podcast is a bit quiet, but that's my fault. Just crank it, man! CRANK UP THE ROCK (marketing talk).
In the interest of full disclosure - I work for Ian's company as my day job
iPod Dozen #2
Caspian is at it again! This month’s dozen features his latest obsession, Of Montreal, and an audio preview of some of the acts at this year’s Sasquatch Festival. Hit the bump below for track commentaries.
HOLY CRAP: Picture of the day - Tesla Car
Tesla Motors should really consider implementing this security system in their new electric cars. Via Treehugger today, this is the electric car of one Australian citizen named Peter Terren. He apparently majored in mad science at university.
Terren welded a long aluminum tube to a home-built 5-kilowatt Tesla coil, combined it with an old aircraft control motor, and mounted the whole thing atop a Hyundai. Sparks jump from the tip of the tube to the ground as it swings around the car about once every 10 seconds. (This photograph is a long exposure showing more than one rotation.)
Bad. Ass.
GM4A Presents Level Up! Game music concert in LA
Like game music? Live in the Los Angeles area? Then check out Game Music 4 All's upcoming live show - Level Up! Here are the deets:
The official bands for the concert are: Two Playa Game 8 Bit Bandit Super Barrio Brothers Toploader The MegasThe concert will be held at CIA in North Hollywood.
Address:
11334 Burbank Blvd. North Hollywood, CA
Phone number:
818)506-6353The doors will open at 8pm and the first band will start at 8:30pm. Tickets are $10 and this is an ALL AGES event!
Stop on by Saturday, June 2nd for their CD release party and a Guitar Hero II tournament. What else are you going to do that Saturday night? Sit at home and knit?
Humbling Game of the Day: Etymologic
Today's workplace distraction (via Game|Life) is Etymologic, a browser game that challenges you to your etymological skills. Think you know the origins of words? Think again. This game is HARD.
I always thought I was great at stuff like this, but my score was abysmal. I need to study more, maybe?
Podcast for 05-07-07 | Plug Everything
This week Chris Furniss and The Geek announce the addition of the ever-awesome Colette Bennett to the show! In this episode they discuss podcast changes (better sound quality! New shiny equipment!), blatant company plugs (like this one), Pokeymans (let me show you them), the glorious fun you'll have with Catan (and a contest to win it!) and more. Subscribe now or download the mp3!
Full show notes after the jump.
MusicMesh Makes Our Tastes Understandable
Have you ever seen one of my music reviews in the feeder and muttered to yourself (and I know you have): "Who the hell is this and why should I pay attention to them?" Well, the good folks at Lifehacker posted an article early today propping a site that will hopefully put your questions to rest. MusicMesh is a new page that allows you to enter the name of your novel music find and with one click, instant gratification. You get track listings and album art from {Insert Band Here}'s latest record, some similar artists, their Wikipedia entry, recent reviews, and links to Buy!Buy!Buy! on Amazon. You'll never be confused by me again! Unless you're just dumb. I'm not qualified to do anything about that.
Win Catan for XBLA
So you say you want to join the awesomeness that is hundreds upon hundreds of games of Catan with The Weekly Geek? Well then enter this contest and you can win your very own copy for the Xbox Live Arcade!
Here is all you have to do. Register for an account in the Weekly Geek forums and post a response to this thread with the name of your favorite board game. That's it! I will choose a winner at random on Friday, May 11th.
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