Twitter's great for spreading incorrect rumors of Patrick Swayze's death, and also for stalking the game industry...which is what Game Twits is all about.
Bungie Technical Artist Seth Gibson was the butt of a programmer joke. We think.
2K Games Producer Jason Bergman fantasizes about exclusive George Broussard (3D Realms) video.
EA's Jeff Green, former editor-in-chief of GFW/CGW, is due for a mean case of E3 Shoulder -- a rank stench localized in the upper shoulder area, suffered by booth babes and Jeff Greens at E3 as a result of repeated arm-in-arm photos with the unwashed.
Polytron's Phil Fish confirms that Fez will not come with a trampoline peripheral.
Serial bather and Digg founder Kevin Rose lights candles, scores touchdown, ruins iPhone.
Eat Sleep Play's David Jaffe hates Scottish people.
Game designer and professor Brenda Brathwaite's iPhone texting is simultaneously more interesting and more nerdy than yours.
Read more >>A big, special, loving thanks to our friends at Bitmob for helping us to promote CO-OP! For those of you not in the know, much of the team formerly responsible for The 1UP Show went on to form Area 5 Media, and our flagship production, CO-OP has been going strong ever since. I could blather on about the history of the show and how it ended up where it is, but it's best if you just watch it.
This week's show features our own JayFresh, who, it must be known, is secretly the harshest taskmaster of Area 5. His boyish good looks and easy demeanor belies an inner demon whose sole purpose is to expunge, nay murder inefficiency. In this episode, the aforementioned demon comes forth in a manner rather resembling a coach from a popular network television program. We'll leave it up to you to figure out which one. His mission? E3 preparedness. Watch the show after the jump.
Editor's Note: I'll admit, I used to be somewhat weary of casual games, but not anymore. Hell, I mostly play them nowadays: Plants vs. Zombies is my new favorite brain-teaser. And I've been playing Crossword DS for a good month or two. And don't get me started about how much I adore Cooking Mama and Order Up. To be honest, I think this petty "hardcore vs. casual" battle will eventually die via a Peggle ball to the head. Because, in the end, who the hell cares? More people playing games means more games for us. So why fight when we can all play along? -Michael
With the advent of the Wii and the "new" casual gaming market (most people, for whatever reason, don't seem to realize that casual gaming has existed since the ancient, black-and-white days of Spacewar!), there's been an ever-growing rift between the self-described "hardcore" gaming community and the outsiders: the old folks, "moms," non-gamers, and other dangerous folk who threaten our wonderful and exclusive hobby. If the History Channel has taught us anything, it's that you can't appease these people. If you do, bad things happen involving tiny mustaches.
Read more >>We never thought gamers would care so much about the weight of consoles. But apparently this is a big deal. Well, we think it's insulting -- consoles are people, too. Wait. Err, nevermind...
News Blips:
• PS3 weight rumors continue; many say bulimia is believable. Even though some Sony skeptics are finding the slimmed-down PS3 rumors a little hard to swallow, a kernel of truth may have just popped up. It seems tech site Engadget has been sent a cease and desist letter for hosting the leaked shots of the seemingly smaller PS3. The weird part? The letter wasn't sent by Sony, but by a Chinese company. Hmm. So is it true or not? Our gut says yes, but then again, he's just hungry after all these food puns. [Engadget]
• Robot Chicken lay mechanical egg; tastes like Spore DLC. The funny men behind Adult Swim's Robot Chicken series have helped create downloadable content for the Spore: Galactic Adventures expansion. If this news makes you say, "WTF," then you'll probably want to go visit the appropriately-named official website. Then OMG at the LOLs or something. [Kotaku]
• Randomly littered medkit gives 3D Realms small amount of health. So everyone thought Duke Nukem Forever developer 3D Realms died a pitiful death. We did, too. But we were all wrong, apparently. The studio confirmed it is still alive, albeit without the DNF team. Not sure how the studio will survive indefinitely, considering Duke Nukem doesn't own fancy dancy rechargeable armor like Master Chief. And, well, medkits aren't exactly easy to come by nowadays. [1UP]
• Japanese Capcom staff may miss E3 due to piggy pukers. Well, this is ironic: The company responsible for the Resident Evil series may be quarantined in their own country due to swine flu. We're sure they'll probably end up attending the State's biggest videogame trade show, but the news is still kinda funny. Except for the part about pigs giving us flu. Barf. [Kotaku]
• New Dynasty Warriors game is coming...hey, where are you going? Let me finish, thank you! Ahem -- like I was saying, Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires is coming to both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 next month. For those of you who care. Which is, sadly, no one. Sigh... [Joystiq]
Hit the jump for some video blips, including a bunch of Japanese Wii MotionPlus commercials, a Star Wars: The Old Republic story trailer, Half-Life 2 in block form, and...more.
Read more >>We just discovered that Gears of War 2 and Unreal Designer Cliff Bleszinski is twice the geek we are, which is pretty incredible because we're pretty damn geeky.
How did we find out? He told us, in the latest round of 21 Random Qs. We're not referring to his love for Iron Man (see No. 1) or George Jetson's car (see No. 3). We're referring to...well, see for yourself (see No. 15).
1. Who's your favorite comic-book superhero?
Cliff Bleszinski: Iron Man. Because I love flawed heroes, and he's such a lush and a womanizer.
Read more >>Editor's note: GameSetWatch first uncovered the strange story (and alternate reality game) behind not-actually-real blogger Rachael Webster, AKA PixelVixen707, but this update is well worth checking out. Read Webster's interview with Robert Ashley here (her initial contact email to Robert included a link to the GameSetWatch article, but he didn't click it and was none the wiser). -Demian
Genuinely thoughtful commentary on videogames doesn’t come by all the time, and how much the rarer is the emergence of a truly worthy and unique voice. So when Rachael Webster, an aspiring writer stagnating at a menial job at a small and mostly unknown city newspaper, first took up the pen for her blog in the fall of last year, she quickly found herself amongst enthusiastic supporters and a welcoming community. PixelVixen707, as she called herself, brought a sharp-tongued but winsome pluck to the conversation about games, along with unusual, sometimes genuinely surprising, insights. Rounding out the program was an occasional note about her personal life— and that is where things fell off the rails a little bit.
Read more >>We all love videogames, sure. But some folks out there love them a wee bit more than us. Don't be jealous, though -- these superfans show their adoration by creating tons of cool, cultural things for our own amusement. That's why we've starting the Cultural Corner -- each week we'll showcase a fan whose talents extend far beyond pushing a bunch of buttons.
First up: Grub-time doodler Derek and his personalized lunch bag art. Every day he makes some cool art for his kiddos and posts them on his website. It's here you can check out his near-perfect renditions of videogame characters, Pixar-inspired Batman rides, and even KHAAAAANNNNN! We recently chatted with the talented food-cover scribbler to find out more about his hungry hobby.
Read more >>
Here it is. Monday. Podcasting day. Mobcasting day. And while we taped a delightful episode, with G4's Patrick Klepek joining the gang of Shoe, Demian, Ford, Donahoe, and Robert "voice of God" Ashley, something happened. Maybe it was a bum fetzer valve, maybe an inadvertently ejected dilithium core, but by the time Robert made it back to his HQ, the file was gone, and no file-recovery utility could bring it back again. We all knew that one day there'd be an unexpected disaster and a "lost Mobcast," but we didn't know it'd be so soon. Mobcast #2, you never deserved this. Read more >>
Editor's Note: I really have nothing to add except: read it! -Demian
Almost ten years ago to the day I was crammed in the back of a Jeep with three friends, slowly climbing the impossibly steep roads that snake their way up the Himalayas. Our destination was Darjeeling, India, the “Queen of the Hill Stations.”
We had initially planned Darjeeling to be a stop-off on the way to Tibet, but when 1600 Maoists laid siege to a Tibeten police post, we were advised against unnecessary travel. We didn’t argue.
Darjeeling had its own attractions, though. Our lodgings looked out on the vast expanse of lush tea bushes stretching down along the hillslopes. You could just about make out the figures of tea-pickers in the fields, old ladies with baskets draped over one arm, quickly making their way along the steep, leafy rows. The town itself is so high that when we opened the balcony doors, clouds poured into our room. Everest loomed in the distance. It was stunning.
Despite this, it isn’t the views that are my enduring memory of Darjeeling, but something a little more unique. For among the little shops and restaurants sat high in the Indian sky is a small room, little more than a shack really; the highest arcade in the world.
Read more >>Editor's Note: Rob makes a strong case for the little-known but very importable Demon's Souls, a game that features zero historically accurate giant enemy crabs. -Demian
The question on most readers' minds will not be the one posed in the title, but rather, "what is Demon's Souls?" While I won't have anything to write that likely hasn't already been written elsewhere by now (since the game has been out for several months), I haven't read anyone discussing the title here and I believe this is a game that deserves as much print as it can muster.
Demon's Souls is a dark fantasy action-RPG from developer From Software which aims to be a spiritual successor to their previous series, King's Field. Played from a 3rd-person perspective in real-time, Demon's Souls charges the player with ridding the land of (what else?) soul-stealing demons. The game is largely influenced by western RPGs -- you'll select a character class with a set number of attributes, level up, and equip your character with various weapons, armors, magic, and miracles. Those are the basics; the other gameplay concepts are what really make Demon's Souls worth your time.
Read more >>
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