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Archive of "Gaming" Category
If You Had a Portal Gun
Where would you go? This awesome question was posed on the forums yesterday, and I’m still mulling it over.
On the attainable but perhaps not dreaming big end of the spectrum, a couch-to-refrigerator portal is a humble but convenient addition to life. Conversely, all sorts of portals to the bedrooms of unattainable lady figures were also suggested, and I don’t think would work out very well – or for very long (if we assume the following):
- The portals are not limited by geographic distance
- The portals must, however, be placed in areas you can aim at/have access to at least once
- The portals can be seen by everyone, and so should be in a place reasonable to have a portal
- Other people may want to use your portalWith those in mind, I think a portal from my residence (the office, perhaps?) to my brother’s on Oahu is the best option, which was really an extension of Smokey’s idea that he could eliminate his commute to work. It seems that old people like us really want to get rid of the hassle of travel, while the younger types are content to dream of cinnamon buns and locker rooms. None of us get to attain these portal dreams, but I know which of us is going to be more annoyed by our next Delta flight.
I Played a FaceBook Game
Well before Dragon Age 2 launch, the Dragon Age Legends Beta began – it’s one of those FaceBook games that may or may not seek to harvest your soul. Never having played a FaceBook game before (due to a fine blend of natural fear and the word “casual”), expectations hovered right around neutral.
Turn-based RPG action ensues, rife with peer-pressure to bring your friends along – and later, downright necessity since the standard party characters level at half your rate rendering them largely useless. With a modest party of three you’ll battle a series of groups of enemies Final Fantasy style, dropping potions, collecting inventory, and adding rooms to your Castle so that you can craft a potion or two of your own.
Not really, no.
The thing is, you’re never free from the guilessness of free-to-play money grubbing. The game is free, but in exchange leaves the player with ridiculous cool-downs, Crowns for everything from resuscitation to loot, Castle upgrades and energy to play another encounter and the sheer silliness of having an RPG experience interrupted so the player can pay for more. Determined to avoid spending money IRL on a FaceBook game, the most you’re going to get at a time out of this, between cooldowns and energy consumption, is 10 minutes every few hours – and that’s when it’ll hit you, Legends is a promo game à la Cool Spot.
Only I remember having more fun with Cool Spot.
As shallow an experience as it is, even now (after unlocking all the DA 2 unlockables offered in Legends), I still pop back in once a day for an encounter. Sure, it’s no epic Farmville addiction, life lost to FB and a bag of Cheet-os, but it is persistent idle gameplay akin to Minesweeper – if you had to pay to sweep mines every third round.
Into the Pixel Submission Deadline Extended
Good news for procrastinators: Due to site outages, the deadline for Into the Pixel submissions has been extended to this Friday, April 22!
Go get arty.
E3 2011 Sony Press Conference – Save the Date
It’s that time of year! Today the Save the Date arrived from Sony for their 2011 E3 Press Conference. Oh, yes, the date has been saved!
The Humble Frozenbyte Bundle
Looks like there’s a new humble bundle on its way!
Bizness
For when pulling a business card out of your back pocket (pre-warmed, right?) isn’t hot enough, there’s these:
Trust Rey to be the guy to find ‘em. Retailing for about $12, you’ll likely be looking to Japan for early adoption.
A Dragon Age Series and Felicia Day
Yes, a Dragon Age series and Felicia Day.
What, you want more?? Day is writing, starring and co-producing the web series set for six episodes later this year. Titled Dragon Age: Redemption, the series will follow Day’s character, Tallis, on a search of Ferelden for a rogue mage. Chantry drama, perhaps?
Women in Drag
Yesterday, the internet was asked to weigh in via Twitter:
The response? Generally sassy and 100% male, ranging from “Wait a minute… you’re not a guy?!?! ;)” (@mmmfutter) to “There are no women on the internet.” (@Crimson_Ryan). Unfortunately, Crimson_Ryan’s assertion was eerily consistent with the response pool.Are other women on the ‘net – and in the gaming industry – just less frequently assumed to be men? Is there merit in choosing a username like KittySexyPantsGirlyTown if only to avoid future, hypothetical, gender confusion? Plainly, is “Catastrophe” just asking for trouble?
There are, in fact, oodles of KittySexyPantsGirlyTown on the internet – and at least a handful come to mind that are similarly chromosome concealing as “Catastrophe”. Mind, the username choice was never a deliberate camouflage, there wasn’t a premeditated desire to be called “dude”, “mate” or “man”. No, this KittySexyPants thinks that a big part of being good at the job is due to that double X make-up (ooh, make-up! Girly!!!).
So, c’mon, ladies – have you ever run into the gender blunder? Do you care when it happens? When and if it does happen, do you prefer to cheerily correct the mistake or just let it roll, reaping some sort of untold Man Club benefits? Is there a Man Club???
Further speculation: imagine the searches returning this title.
Vote for a Console – for Charity!
As I mentioned before, my friend Stephen likes to do some cool stuff. This time, he’s asking for your opinion.
Okay, here’s the deal. I spent most of 2010 playing my PS3 and amping up my trophy count. I was considering switching over to 360 because of the more social aspects of the console, but I had an even BETTER idea.
1) Vote on which console I should play for an entire year, meaning I won’t play the other console.
Register on the forums and vote here. It only costs you a minute of your time!2) Whichever console loses, I donate my losing console to our next care package going out to Iraq or Afghanistan!
So inner fanboy, this is something of a dilemma. Will you vote for Stephen to keep the console you prefer, or will you throw a vote to the other side so that the troops get the obviously superior system?
Operation Supply Drop
My friend Stephen Machuga is a cool guy, which means he often has some pretty cool ideas. Among them, Operation Supply Drop, a new charity aspect of his site Front Towards Gamer.
Operation Supply Drop is a charity effort to get games to deployed troops – and not just USO stuff which usually goes to places where they can shield their celebrity guests from anything ooky, places that are relatively safe compared to fronts like Afghanistan. No, this stuff is going to go to the guys who get to shower maybe a handful of times during the deployment, whose mail gets dumped on them from a helicopter, the guys who look like skeletons of their former selves after just a month of deployment. As Stephen puts it,
I was “troops” once, and I know what it’s like to be deployed overseas into a country that is actively trying to kill you. It’s not a lot of fun.These guys need fun.
The fruit of Operation Supply Drop’s efforts will go to Camp Leatherneck in Helmand, Afghanistan – a multiplayer map in the latest Medal of Honor game, if you’re looking for a gamer foothold. Helmand Province is a scary place, with some scary losses for US and British troops, something not easily overlooked by me as it happens to be the area my little brother is deployed to. Incidentally, he disapproves of this level of geekery and will probably give a very exasperated shake of his head when he reads this post!
Operation Supply Drop will sponsor a Camp Leatherneck unit, and send them some games. The Operation has a few different phases, and this week marks the beginning: Operation Fire Starter. Operation Fire Starter has the FTG crew raffling off a copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops Prestige Edition, which includes a copy of the game as well as collectables, including a remote control car with a video camera attached to it.
Operation Fire Starter
A single raffle ticket costs 10 USD. You can, of course, donate more! The drawing will be on Veteran’s Day, November 11th, so hop to it! If you’ve got any questions not addressed on their page, hit up donations@operationsupplydrop.com.
Ratchet is on fire
My own contribution to the jack-o-lantern contest we have going on at N4G, Ratchet:
I’m not an entirely masterful pumpkin artiste, but I think I hold my own in the seasonal carve-ologist rankings. I was thinking of doing Clank, but it’s just so much easier to free-carve on a pumpkin than worry about precise lines and angles, so Ratchet was an easier choice. I know some people prefer stencils and planned drawings but that just kinda takes the fun out of it for me, though their pumpkins probably turn out better! :P
PAX Photo Diary: Runic Games
Headed to Runic Games
The day before PAX I met up with Runic Games’ Minister of Culture, Wonder Russell, for a tour of their studio and a little hands on time with Torchlight II. Having only met Travis, Max and Wonder It was great to swing by and meet some more members of the team behind one of my favorite games.
Meeting the people behind the art you admire is a pretty great part of the game industry. It’s an easy comparison to one of my other favorite past-times, reading, where I almost never have a chance to meet my favorite authors. Usually because they’re dead, which is the height of unavailability. All this to say that part of the charm of Runic Games is that they’re a small studio interested in producing a good game and looking after their team. What’s not to love about that? (related note: I really enjoyed watching Runic Games co-founder Travis Baldree’s gamesauce presentation on the studio’s creation and survival).
But let’s talk consoles: the folks at Runic haven’t made a secret of their willingness to have Torchlight come to consoles – they’re very willing – but right now it’s just not happening. A small studio of 30 they don’t have the manpower to drive the effort, they aren’t the team for the job. Wonder joked that at this point anyone interested in leading the effort to take the PC title to consoles may as well consider doing so with Torchlight II, not Torchlight.
The booth over on the show floor was being set up at the time of my visit, but here are a couple snapshots:
Falcor. He makes the games.
It may look like they're working, but I have it on good authority that this is mandatory playtime. (Matt Tinari and Tim Swipe)
Not sure of Gizmo's (aka the furby :P) role in development, but Matt Munroe, the gentleman on the right, was integral to showing me around some new overworld environments in Torchlight II. Other gent: Jason Lamb.
...and this is why I'm grateful for Jeff, and his sharing in the wild gesticulation communication technique. Sign language, people, it's universal. (and if Matt Leffert's face is any indication, very amusing)
Wonder and me, closing down the bar. No matter that that particular night the bar closed at 8.
PAX Photo Diary: PAX Life
Here are some assorted shots that really just best fit under “PAX Life”. From the near-nightly trips to Shorty’s to cosplay to Gameworks, this is some distilled photo essence of PAX!
At Shorty's
Just because you're at PAX doesn't mean you skip nap time
Make your own caption.
Because the world needs to know how truly awesome Geoff and I are at arcade dancing.
Why is this here? Because before we get to the Runic Games photo diary I wanted the comfort of a photo of someone other than me talking with their hands...(thanks, Jeff)
PAX Photo Diary: PSB Meet-up
Here are a couple more shots from the PSB Meet-up at Top Pot Doughnuts (mmm).
Amanda and Mike, being cute
IGN says "Hi"
I gotta be honest: I don't know.
KB wasn't there, but his autograph was. I'll see what I can do about parting with this (for the right gamer).
PAX Photo Diary: N4G
I got to meet some of my favorite people – N4G staff and members – at PAX Prime!
Sam, better known as SaminSeattle, picking up his N4G shirt at the PSB meet-up
Zach and Jed, DakingGamer87 and PS360WII
About
I’m Community Manager for N4G and Admin for the NewsBoiler Network, home to N4G, TechSpy, AnimeShinbun, FilmWatch and 11×2. There’s more words strung together on the N4G Blog.
Check out my about.me profile!
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