MetaFilter posts tagged with videogame

NOW BEAR MY ARCTIC BLAST

Chan — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:35:28 -0800

Artificial Intelligence?

flatluigi — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:24:47 -0800

Hell is Other People "Fight the ghosts of those that have come before by moving in two dimensions and shooting missiles. The fiercer you fight, the harder it shall be for those that come after. How much past can you cope with before you are overwhelmed?"

Ethnography of Rock Band Bar Night

k8t — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:56:02 -0800

Ethnography of Rock Band Bar Night. The Rock Band video game (and the similar Guitar Hero) are more than video games where players try to earn points and some are exploring the deeper meaning of such games. In this ethnographic study of a Rock Band bar night, Kiri Miller, discovers that Rock Band bar night is, surprisingly, a friendly, accessible musical scene with a tight-knit group of friends at its core—more like an open Irish session than a karaoke night, and with fewer barriers to participation than either of those other typical bar events. Miller researches GH and RB and is currently collecting data from players, if you're interested in participating. She keeps a blog on her research as well. Read her (interesting) thoughts on being a researcher on this topic. She also provides some audio interviews with players. She argues that "[a]nyone who has played Guitar Hero or Rock Band for more than five minutes will tell you that it requires a deeper level of musical engagement than listening to an iPod—intellectually, emotionally, physically, and often socially" and "the games have substantially changed the way they listen to popular music when they’re not playing." She also asks if GH/RB playing "authentic"? It certainly is a performance.

This game is made by a man who hates videogames

filthy light thief — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 14:34:33 -0800

Takeshi no Chōsenjō: it came before the endurance test that is Desert Bus, and served as an inspiration for Janey Thompson's Marathon. In English it is known as Takeshi's Challenge. Released in December 1986 for the Famicom system, the game mechanisms include use of the Famicom microphone to sing karaoke for an hour. And that's after you drink to the point of blacking out, divorce your wife, quit your job, and learn to hang glide AND learn the Hintoba language, amongst other things. All of this takes place in lands populated with nothing but people that want to beat you to death. Of course, you can skip that all and complete the game in a mere 4 minutes by simply walking off the edge of existence, and magically ending at the final treasure room. Not sure about finding a rom or buying the game online, and you don't have access to the Japanese Wii store? Sit back and watch the game, with an on-screen timer to remind you that this was 27 minutes of your life. Bonus: playable glitch room. The Japanese video game show Game Center CX researched the game and strategy guide production history, and then tried to play the game with limited success. (Bonus: these videos are subtitled, including translations of the game dialogue.)

This balladry makes me spoony

grobstein — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 10:27:15 -0800

Final Fantasy IV remix project. This week the videogame music rearrangement site, OCRemix.org, released a new project covering Nobuo Uematsu's soundtrack to FFIV (originally FFII in the US). FFIV's was the first game soundtrack I fell in love with, back in 2nd grade. Maybe you feel the same. The musicians have generally eschewed crowd-pleasing statements of the original's iconic themes, which is . . . bittersweet. Try

this cafe-vibe take on Rydia's theme,
this rhythmically fractured version of the sweet "Welcome to Our Town,"
"Into the Darkness" transposed and remade as "Step into the Light,"
or this slight, anti-triumphal take on the series's traditional victory fanfare.
And here is the "Theme of Love" made up as what sounds like classical guitar.

All FFIV remixes on OCR. All OCR album projects (I recommend the Street Fighter project, which was used for the soundtrack to the "new" game, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix).

Bloop Bleep Bloop Bleep Bloop Bleep Bloop wee wee wee wee CRSSHHH!.... ok that's a wrap.

geos — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:36:27 -0800

Asteroids... the movie?

Fun shooting mentally ill people in straightjackets

XMLicious — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:00:04 -0800

Madness Combat Defense, an evolution of the tower defense game.

Casual? tower defense

juv3nal — Fri, 08 May 2009 11:21:18 -0800

Plants vs. Zombies is out. (Mac also). Demo available. $10 on Steam. Adorable promo music video. It has more minigames than you can shake a stick at including a reskinned bejewelled twist & insaniquarium. (in fact it is by the same designer behind insaniquarium). Unfortunately in-game music is not as cool as the promo video, but still a darned addictive game overall.

Video Games, One Moment At A Time

flatluigi — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:19:41 -0800

Moments _{A small blog by Mister Raroo}

Vintage Game Club plays Chrono Trigger

grobstein — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:53:20 -0800

Good morning, Crono! (Cf.) Starting this Friday, the Vintage Game Club will play through the RPG classic Chrono Trigger, a game beloved and praised but perhaps not well understood. The discussion is beginning here (little substance so far). (Chrono Trigger was published for SNES and Playstation, and is available in a new Nintendo DS port.) The Vintage Game Club is an online discussion group dedicated to playing through and understanding true classics of video games. It is a project of Professor Michael Abbott (great glossy-style profile) and Metafilter's own danb (and some other dudes). Chrono Trigger is the VGC's fifth game. You can find archived discussions for the first four on the forums:

Beyond Good and Evil (warning game has deceptive title)
Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssey
Deus Ex (these discussions are really interesting; see e.g.)
Grim Fandango

Why would I punch Superman?

P.o.B. — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 02:49:01 -0800

Batman gets pwned. From the people who brought you Obama Girl.

Dear Sweet Crap I Suck At This Game

tehloki — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 00:51:49 -0800

Fire up your NES emulator and get ready to ROCK, chiptune-style. 4 whole songs! It's D-Pad Hero. The controls are pretty visually explicit, but if you don't get it: If a circle comes down the left channel, hit the A button as it crosses the line (ala guitar hero). Ditto right channel, B button. If the circle has an arrow in it, hold that direction on the d-pad (or keyboard) while pressing the button. This game causes severe left-brain right-brain confusion, and don't be ashamed if you fail horribly at first. Also, it may cause you to unlearn how to play Dance Dance Revolution.

Roads? Where we're going we won't need roads…

P.o.B. — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:46:13 -0800

Prince of Persia 1985! Jordan Mechner has a some interesting stuff on his Blog.

Savage 2, Free Hybrid FPS/RPG/RTS

paradoxflow — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:18:03 -0800

Savage 2 is an innovative mix of first-person shooter, third-person action rpg, and real-time strategy. Teams consisting of 18 different classes, each with unique abilities, are divided in squads led by an officer, and under the direction of a single commander with a top down view of the action. Players must help their commander capture resources, advance their front line, and eventually destroy the enemy’s stronghold while accumulating experience and improving their abilities. Did I mention as of December 9th, it has become free to play? There is an optional pay to play component (a one time $9.99 payment for "prime membership"), but unlike some "free" games, it really isn't necessary to get the full experience or to be competitive. As an added bonus it is independently published, and runs on Mac and Linux as well as Windows based systems.

Luna City Arcade

grobstein — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:37:05 -0800

Luna City Arcade is Peter Hirschberg's home / barn video arcade, with about 60 vintage machines all set up to eat quarters. WaPo story about Peter's dream. You can come around to Peter's Virginia home for Game Day every couple months. In addition to maintaining his own dinosaur machines, Peter writes some software -- usually clones of classic toys and games. His Battlezone clone Vector Tanks is coming soon to the iPhone for a couple dollars.

In case you didn't already think Nintendo games were real life.

Rudy Gerner — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:45:06 -0800

Wonderful Nintendo art! A deviantArt user has taken action shots from NES games and placed them in real world scenes. Just a few: SMB 3, Streetfighter, and Excitebike. But be sure to check out the whole gallery.

I Wish I were the Moon

nthdegx — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 17:10:00 -0800

I Wish I were the Moon by Daniel Benmergui - a small, simple puzzle game. Find the 5 endings. About. Redux (with more endings). Via gamasutra's top 5 indie games of 2008.

Indie game of the week: Alien Deathmatch 2

pancreas — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 02:30:52 -0800

Alien Breed + arena shooter + online highscores = Alien Deathmatch 2. Windows only.

The Suffering

puke & cry — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 02:06:34 -0800

There are worse things than death - Lets Play The Suffering

Now you know why you can't kill Vamp.

cthuljew — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 21:33:10 -0800

Driving Off the Map by James Clinton Howell is a formal analysis of Metal Gear Solid 2. If you played this game — even if you didn't like it (especially if you didn't like it) — you need to read this to learn what you actually played. If you've never played Metal Gear Solid, it's still an excellent example of serious video game scholarship.

Games as Spiritual Experiences

pinothefrog — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 07:56:16 -0800

Bill Viola's video game, The Night Journey, is inspired by "the lives and writings of great historical figures including: Rumi, the 13th century Islamic poet and mystic; Ryokan, the 18th century Zen Buddhist poet; St. John of the Cross, the 16th century Spanish mystic and poet; and Plotinus, the 3rd century philosopher" and "attempts to evoke in the player's mind a sense of the archetypal journey of enlightenment through the "mechanics" of the game experience". The USC Interactive Media Division, where it's being developed, seems to have taken an interest in games dealing with spiritual enlightenment, such as Walden, a Game. The ritual, karma, death and various ways of rebirth in Cosmology of Kyoto is my personal favorite spiritual experience in game form (the link is a review by Roger Ebert, which is interesting in light of his opinions about games).

The Unfinished Swan

GuyZero — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:22:36 -0800

The Unfinished Swan is an unfinished video game set in an entirely black and white world. Players can splatter paint to help them find their way through an unusual garden. A video of the gameplay.

Mother 3 Fan Translation

painquale — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:35:17 -0800

Mother 3 fan translation completed. Earthbound (known as Mother 2 in Japan) is one of the most highly regarded RPGs for the Super Nintendo. The game suffered disappointing sales in America, but has since gained the status of a cult classic. A sequel, Mother 3, was released for the Game Boy Advance, but it has never been officially translated into English. After a long development, a fan translation patch has just been released. Trailer. You might recognize some of the settings and characters from Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Cattlesnake!

Indie game of the week: Iji

pancreas — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:02:07 -0800

It's not often that a freeware game can truly be called a masterpiece but Daniel Remar has finally released Iji, an action platformer with touches of RPG, in which you control a female heroine with a whole lot of engineered superhuman abilities. What makes this game so good is the sheer of polish that has been put into the production and the large amount of choices there are to make. You can choose what abilities to level up with, whether or not to bother killing enemies and the path you take through each sprawling area, which can effect the outcome of the unfolding story.

If we all choose world "My" we can play together! Happy birthday!

Navelgazer — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:41:57 -0800

Happy Birthday, MeFi, here's a fun free* game! Ikariam is sort of like a Skyrates version of Civ, with the real-time MMO combat and diplomacy that might bring to mind. Also, it's set in Olympian Greece, but only kind-of. Enjoy! *Batteries not included. Some registration required. Suggested age: 8-and-up. Some implied violence and consumption of alcohol (wine). Expansion materials may be purchased but are not necessary to enjoy the game and are, by the judgment of this MFGA (MetaFilter Gaming Authority) member: "some kind of bullshit."