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I’m not sure if we can still call this Space Invader mosaic “street art” when it’s up in the stratosphere. The artist Invader, who was featured in the award-winning documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop, sent one of his pieces up into the second layer of the earth’s atmosphere back in August. He created the high/low-tech unmanned spacecraft using a balloon for flight and a camcorder to film the voyage.

Invader recently released a video teaser of the event. In it, you can see the balloon pop and the mosaic, or Space-one as he calls it, begins its trip back toward the surface. On his website, he states that, “A movie about the whole project is under preparation. Stay tuned ....”

I can’t wait to see the rest of the footage and learn more about this artistic enterprise. It sounds fascinating. I’m mainly curious to see if the little Space Invader increases its speed, drops down, and then reverses direction during its descent. 

Catch the video after the jump.

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The guys at Did You Know Gaming are back with a new video filled with interesting trivia -- this time focused on the famous Mario series. I like to think that I know a thing or two about that adorable, italian plumber, but I have to admit to not knowing a single one of these facts. Live and learn, I guess.

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I sat with my hands resting on the keyboard and mouse, mulling over a selection of loot I'd accumulated from my hacking and slashing through the Ghosts of Plunder Cove. Did I want to equip the Hasty Maul, which has a "very slow attack speed" but also a "+7% attack speed"? Doesn't sound so "hasty." How about the Vampiric Lumber Sledge with the ability to steal 6 health on a hit? Or maybe the Paired Battle Axe with a "very fast attack speed" and a "+5% chance to execute"? Execute what? I'm not sure.

It's a quarter to midnight, and I'm nearly through my six-pack of Session lager. I need to get this show on the road. I don't really have a good way of knowing what would be the best weapon to equip, so I settle on Ole's Massive Wrench's 161 damage per second rating and dump everything else off on my pet hawk to sell back at town.

Runic Games' sequel to its premiere action role-playing game is overflowing with swords and shields and hammers and axes and wrenches and all kinds of spoils. I knew this going in. Everyone knew this going in. Many might profess that this is their reason for playing.

But Torchlight II taught me an important lesson: It's not really about the loot.

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Not too long ago, I wrote about what Rock Band Blitz means for those fake music groups you've been cultivating all these years. My conclusions were dire and troubling, but I've recently discovered an even darker side to developer Harmonix' jam-fest for Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network.

It's not the competition. I know that I'm susceptible to that, and I am as prone to trash-talk as anyone when I find something unimportant that I arbitrarily hitch my emotional wagon to. Nor is it the insidious social-game hallmarks like coins and social media integration littered throughout the title.

No, what I have discovered is an affront to everything I have spent the past 25 years of my video game "career" trying to avoid. It is a stark realization that has shaken me to my core and made me doubt my very existence and credibility as a gamer. When I made this discovery, all life as I knew it stopped instantaneously, and every molecule in my body exploded at the speed of light.

Metaphorically, I mean. It's hard to type these articles when your body's all exploded and traveling through time and shit.

What was this apocalyptic truth? What could have affected me so deeply? Why do I wake up in the middle of the night crying?

Rock Band Blitz turned me into one of these people:

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I hate many current action games because their controls are often too complicated. I still can't remember all of Bayonetta's moves unless I have an FAQ file on my computer.

But Assassin's Creed made action games fun for me again ... just by simplifying all the controller commands.

Its control scheme might almost be too simple. You get one attack button and one jump button. Holding down the right trigger (on the Xbox 360; R2 on the PlayStation 3) opens up a bunch of other moves, but  I usually only use attack and jump. That's all I need to pull off all the acrobatic moves I want to use..

Expert gamers would say I'm just an amateur who doesn't understand hardcore action. They're wrong. Game developers started making controls too complicated right around the Playstation 2 era -- I don't know why ... maybe to make the action more intense. But whatever the case, you don't need to make things complicated just to make them fun.

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From October 1 to October 22, you can become the proud owner of some Halo 4 Warrior Avatar Armor on Xbox Live.

The catch is you need to watch three out of four U.S. presidential debates. On paper, this is a wonderful thing. People need to be more politically active as candidates become less centrist. Getting free avatar armor for being involved sounds like a good way to push for activity.

I question the tactic’s effectiveness, however. This isn’t about being politically aware. That’s different. We see political messages in gaming all the time. But activity? Activity is a different beast, a different cauldron of troubles and challenges for those outside the circle. This program might get players invested, but whether it’ll get them to become politically active is questionable at best.

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Sony recently announced that players can buy retail games from the PlayStation Network on launch day. Digital distribution is slowly encroaching, and for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, I welcome this idea. I've realized that many of the games I purchase for these consoles are ultimately disposable and rarely ever retain value. As much as I might have liked Call of Duty 4, it is virtually worthless to gamers eagerly awaiting Black Ops II. 

Nintendo is also pushing into the digital market with downloadable versions of first-party 3DS games, and I am far less eager to participate. 

Even though Nintendo first-party titles sell well, they almost always retain their value. If you go into a used game store today you're sure to find copies of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Kid Icarus Uprising, and Super Mario 3D Land hovering around their launch price points, even on the used game shelves. Mario Kart Wii is still incredibly hard to find over four years since its launch. 

While this reasoning feels very flawed, I can't help but view Nintendo games as more of an investment than things on the 360 or PS3.  Perhaps its because weird titles go missing (like Mario Kart Wii still selling for around $42 used) or that I typically enjoy replaying Mario and Pokémon titles. 

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Bully is a game most remembered for the controversy it generated before its release. From initial hysterics claiming that Rockstar was developing a "Columbine simulator" to cries that the game was promoting bullying behaviors (it wasn't) or trivializing them (which was maybe a more legitimate criticism), Bully may have received more attention in the media before its release than after. Once people had a chance to experience the game and evaluate it for what it was, they found a competent translation of the Grand Theft Auto formula in a different aesthetic that was maybe a little rough around the edges. In truth, there wasn't a whole lot about the game that was controversial once people had a chance to play it.

Well, except that you could kiss boys. Some people didn't like that.

The fact that so much hot air was expended on the "controversial" aspects of Bully means that not much attention was paid to some of the game's more subtle touches. Like anything Rockstar puts out, the it is as deep as it is broad, and there are a lot of little gems in the design that are worth taking the magnifying glass to. In particular, Rockstar included a number of systems designed to make the world of the game compelling, immersive, and real, some of which I've not seen included anywhere else.

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Note: This article may contain minor spoilers for the Metal Gear Solid series.

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Metal ... Gear? The movie?

Really?

At the 25th anniversary of Metal Gear in Tokyo, Konami announced the real deal: Metal Gear Solid is officially getting its own film.

I was pretty psyched. After all, the Metal Gear Solid mythology is damn near close to a movie. 

It has everything -- a deep story, in-depth characters, twists, detailed dialogue, and of course, tons of action.

But why am I sitting here writing this article? I’ll try to explain, dear reader.

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Minecraft fans never stop impressing me. I mean, who else would recreate The Empire Strikes Back's iconic Hoth battle entirely inside their favorite game? It's funny, I remember a time when gaming had done this scene to death, but it's been long enough now that I'm sort of jonesing for a good Hoth level.

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It feels like just yesterday that I was sat in my living room watching my brother play Sonic 3 and Knuckles on the Mega Drive as a wide-eyed child. The tropical colors of Angel Island and mood-lifting music were simply mesmerizing. What made Sega's console truly amazing to me, though, was that this machine had been created in a place that was literally on the other side of the world; it was mysterious. That sense of wonder obviously diminished as I got older -- not just because the enigma of foreign technology had been lifted but also because in the 18 years since that day, the rest of the world has had time to catch up.

Slow changes over time are always less noticeable and more acceptable than sudden ones. Perhaps it's for this reason that gamers and the industry as a whole have only recently started to publicize the disheartening news that Japan, arguably the spiritual home of interactive entertainment, is losing ground to their Western counterparts. It's a worrying thought, to be sure, but the question on my mind (as I’m sure it is on many others') is, "Why?"

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When looking at Donkey Kong Country, one might assume that such a rich-looking gameplay environment would require a large arsenal of moves to conquer. Legendary developers Rare, however, applied simplicity where it mattered the most: the controls. While many developers tried to make the most out of the Super Nintendo's six-button controller, Rare utilized only two -- one button for rolling, running and picking up barrels and one for jumping. Sound familiar?

Super Mario World is considered by many to be the pinnacle of 16-bit platforming. Nintendo took everything that guaranteed Super Mario Bros. 3's spot as 8-bit king and added to those classic mechanics -- new moves, power-ups, and, of course, Yoshi. While no one would dare suggest that Super Mario World took the series one step too far in terms of its controls, one can't help but wonder if Rare's king of the jungle cleverly took the crown from the athletic plumber's head without anyone noticing.

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