The Sacrifice! Valve Software releases a 4-part comic that chronicles what happens to Francis, Louis, Zoey, and Bill at the end of the original Left 4 Dead.
[more inside]
posted by kbanas
on Sep 22, 2010 -
15 comments
While controversy erupts
again over the corrupting influence of video games, some developers are working on projects it is very hard to get angry about.
Chime, an XBox game to be released for PC tomorrow, is one such project.
[more inside]
posted by DNye
on Sep 5, 2010 -
18 comments
EA's new
Medal of Honor video game allows players to
take the role of Taliban insurgents killing American troops. In response, the US military has
banned sales of the game on all military bases, including in privately run businesses (such as GameStop) present on bases. Military members (who game) don't seem too happy about the decision
here. (More military member comments, some pro, some against, can be found
here.) You can watch someone playing as a Taliban insurgent
here. (Warning: MoH gameplay is rated 'M' for mature.)
posted by GnomeChompsky
on Sep 4, 2010 -
90 comments
Nevertheless, many of the gamers I encounter report the same experience of feeling as if they have engaged in some kind of transgression. There’s often a sense of guilt that comes with tales of gaming exploits, as if games were a vice or a character flaw, a symptom of one kind or another. [...]
So my cards are on the table: I’m going to offer some alternative, positive descriptions. This analysis will show how video games have inspired artists, transformed rags into riches, given purpose to empty lives, and entertained bored people on a Sunday afternoon. We’ll see how games turned young people into heroes and how gaming has enabled the realization of previously unimaginable ambitions. We’ll see how games can make us better people, how they dissolve the horrors of boredom—and how they can function as propaganda for a wide range of worthy and unworthy causes.
This Gaming Life by Jim Rossignol (of
Rock, Paper, Shotgun) is a book about gaming, gamers, and how they affect each other - available in full and for free under a Creative Commons licence.
posted by Electric Dragon
on Jul 6, 2010 -
121 comments
(
E)nter the realm of the Dragon
(
I)nstructions
(
L)ist Warriors
(
Q)uit back to BBS
Your choice, warrior? [
E]:
[more inside]
posted by 256
on Jul 2, 2010 -
72 comments
It's well-known at this point that Valve Software hired the team of Digipen students who made
Narbacular Drop to turn their student project into
Portal. But even people who drooled over the new mechanics in the
Portal 2 E3 videos may not be aware that Valve has hired another team out of Digipen for that. If you're looking for a preview, you should probably
download and play
Tag, the game the new mechanics are based on, in which you explore a grey, cell-shaded world by spraying paint on it.
posted by Pope Guilty
on Jun 17, 2010 -
28 comments
Twirdie allows you to play golf via twitter. Type a word and swing: the strength of your shot is proportional to the number of times the word has been tweeted in the last 20 seconds. A project of Twitter game outfit
Local No. 12, whose SXSW presentation "Playing with 140 characters" is available
here. (Via the just-concluded 2010
Games, Learning and Society conference here in Madison.)
posted by escabeche
on Jun 11, 2010 -
20 comments
StarCraft II (
previously) has yet to be released, but that hasn't stopped the
open beta in Korea from being played so extensively that standout players and strategies are becoming clear well in advance of the
limited US beta. Moreover, tournaments are taking place and, while probably inaccessible to those unfamiliar with
StarCraft, many matches are available to watch in very high definition on YouTube, complete with surprisingly professional and insightful commentary by
SC veterans.
Despite not being a major
SC fan, I found myself embarrassingly absorbed by a monster 47-minute Terran vs. Protoss battle, TheLittleOne vs. LiquidNazgul: parts
one,
two,
three,
four. It's an excellent crash course in
SC2 culture and terminology as well as a fun watch and great match. There are
many more.
posted by BlackLeotardFront
on Apr 16, 2010 -
94 comments
Citing security concerns, Sony has decided to release a firmware
update that will disable the "OtherOS" feature on its older (non-slim) PlayStation 3 systems. This is almost certainly a response to the system finally being
hacked two months ago by George "GeoHot" Hotz. To counter Sony's disabling of the feature, Hotz, who previously stated that he would not be releasing custom firmware for the PS3,
now plans to do so:
"The PlayStation 3 is the only product I know that loses features throughout its lifecycle. Software PS2 emulation, SACD playback, and OtherOS support are all just software switches you can flip. It's unbelievable you would go and flip one, not just on new boxes you are shipping, but on tens of millions already in the field."
posted by Who_Am_I
on Mar 30, 2010 -
126 comments
It's not Friday and it's not Flash.
Eric David Ruth makes downloadable PC games which generally ape the style of old-school console games. He's got quite a bit of attention recently for
Pixel Force Left 4 Dead, which attempts to recreate Left 4 Dead as it would have been on the NES.
posted by Pope Guilty
on Mar 1, 2010 -
18 comments
I have been working on and off for about 2 years building our "D&D ROOM" to hold most of our collection and give us a cool place to play...
posted by Joe Beese
on Feb 24, 2010 -
61 comments
"Forget everything you did today. Clear your schedule and spend the next half hour watching
this video. It’s a presentation by Jesse Schell, founder of
Schell Games and former creative director of the Disney Imagineering Virtual Reality Studio. A veteran game designer, he is also on the faculty of the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University.
In a talk at the DICE 2010 conference held last week in Las Vegas, he gave a presentation called Design Outside the Box. It is the most mind-blowing thing I’ve seen in a long, long time. And while this presentation was about the future of games, Schell could very well be talking about the future of technology."
posted by erikvan
on Feb 23, 2010 -
65 comments
Wisconsin inmate loses battle to play Dungeons and Dragons in jail. News
article and 7th Circuit Court of Appeals
opinion.
posted by seliopou
on Jan 26, 2010 -
182 comments
TheSmartAss.info's suite of Java emulators allows smooth, in-browser playback of literally
thousands of old-school video games:
517 Atari titles,
148 for DOS,
636 Game Boy games (and
410 for Game Boy Color),
2,019 (!) NES titles,
238 GameGear games,
802 Sega Genesis titles, and
284 for the Sega Master System. Highlights include
Space Invaders,
Frogger,
Galaga,
Pitfall!,
Super Mario Bros.,
The Legend of Zelda,
Metroid,
SimCity,
Zero Wing,
Duke Nukem,
Sonic the Hedgehog,
Aladdin,
Earthworm Jim,
Pokemon, and
Metal Gear Solid. Use
the search function to find your favorites! You can also register an account to save games on emulators that support it. Make sure to check the purple bar below each game for control info and links to alternate emulators in case the default one is buggy or slow.
posted by Rhaomi
on Nov 30, 2009 -
54 comments
