Well it's about time

For those who have been living under a rock the past week, Grand Theft Auto IV hit store shelves yesterday and swept quickly from their fresh packaging to the grubby paws of GTA fanboys around the US.

I won't bother getting into how the game is one of the highest rated titles ever as every site under the son has spoken about that already. So instead I'll bring up this juicy little article.

Violence ensues in England at the game's launch, complete with theft, stabbings, and other assorted goodness.

This story reminds me of a fantastic book called Jennifer Government. One of the companies in this book decide to release a new shoe and the advertising department found a great way to build up hype and solidify "street cred" by hiring a group of guys to go out and rob people after purchasing the shoes.

While unlikely I wonder if Rockstar would actually hire people to do heinous acts in order to draw even more notorious attention to their title. Damn! People get stabbed while buying this game? It must be awesome!

People shouldn't harm others for video games...

Just saying...

/sigh

\\drew

Bowser... realistic?

The guy over at Essenmitsosse was recently inspired by the works of Mario and Homer over at Pixeloo and decided to try his hand at realistic toon characters.

His subject matter? Bowser from the Super Mario series.

The result? Possibly the scariest version of Bowser I have seen to date. Bowser has gone through many iterations in the past prior to this most recent version, but none that have brought him so close to being an actual dinosaur.

My take on this image overall? The old Bowser seems like something out of Night of the Living Dead. You know, shambling horde zombies. Whereas this Bowser is much hipper and up to date (see: Fast as hell and scarier than standing between Oprah and a donut), a la 28 Days Later.

Full Image Here

\\drew

Uwe Boll gets shut down by Blizzard

German director Uwe Boll has apparently been completely exiled from the kingdoms of Azeroth after a meeting with Paul Sams of Blizzard.

Boll approached the company with hopes of licensing the Warcraft franchise for a movie.

Sams was quite blunt in his response of, "We will not sell the movie rights, not to you... especially to you."

Sorry Uwe, I guess your sterling works of master-craft Bloodrayne, Bloodrayne 2, Alone in the Dark, House of the Dead, and Postal didn't sing your praises enough for Blizzard to warrant throwing away a successful franchise.

All of the fanboys are currently rejoicing. Thanks Blizzard, we owe you one.

Full Article Here

\\drew

Mega Man Stained Glass Window

If only all stained glass was video game related. I would have stained glass windows in every porthole to the outside in my home.

The project seems fairly straight forward enough, perhaps I'll try my hand at making something like it. Possibly with Mario.

If I ever get off my lazy keister and do something fancy I'll post images.

All the Images here

\\drew

Milestone!!!

Hey guys, IT will be back later, milestone this week saps time. I'll try to come back with something cool. I have no idea what that would be, but it'll be there.

\\drew

Rarest PS Games on the web

With the ebbing of time comes the slow cast off of old video game titles from store shelves and due to some limited releases on some games their price tags float at or largely above their original intended price to this day.

Racketboy.com has compiled a list of the rarest (and most expensive) PS1 titles currently making high priced transactions through these tubes we call internets.

I won't delve into the list as the link will suit that need just fine, but I would like to point out how the majority of the games listed there are RPGs. Why you ask? Because the RPG player is not looking for flashier graphics, they are looking for better gameplay and an engrossing story, which allows them to covet older titles for a longer period of time. There are few games that get released outside the aforementioned genre that see major play even a few years after their release whereas some of these rare PS1 games hit store shelves more than a decade ago.

I personally own all of the RPG's listed being a horrible horrible fanboy of JRPGs and I to this day play them often. I recently played through FFVII to revitalize the title in preparation of FFVII: Crisis Core and previous to that I finally beat Suikoden II with collecting all of the Stars of Destiny (a grueling task which had eluded me on my initial play through).

Check out the list, it's nice to remember times of ol' when games where about the content, and if you haven't played them I highly recommend you shell out your hard earned cash to give some a try.

The Rarest and Most Valuable Playstation Games

\\drew

Taxes, Foxtrot, D&D

Three things I standardly associate with one another. Ok, perhaps not.

In this new Foxtrot comic we look at how broken real world economies would be if they updated to include MMO inflow.

Make sure to dot your i's, properly fill out section 17a, mark sections accordingly if you are/have been a resident of NYC for part of the year, claim your level 70 night elf priest with half dungeon epics and full pvp gear, claim the tips you made as a waiter, ensure that all sections of the 1040 form are filled out in pen, all signature sections are signed and dated, get it in the mail by April 15th.

Wait, something here doesn't make sense... Oh, that's right, i's are always capitalized when separate. Sorry about that.

\\drew

Portal Meets WoW

WeGame.com - WoW Videos

Machinima, blissful blissful machinima.

Custom models, textures, and a mechanostrider with a bad attitude, this video is pretty clever and certainly worth a gander.

\\drew

Mario in 14kb

A guy over at Nihilogic has managed to compress and build Super Mario Brothers in a 14kb java applet. Pretty damned impressive if I do say so myself.

Check it out for the cool tech he's using.

Full Article Here

\\drew

Starcraft 2 Art Direction

<3

\\drew

Bioshock, if Bioshock was anime

I love Bioshock, I thought it was one of the best stories I've seen in a video game in years. I also love anime, been a fan ever since I watched Ronin Warriors (see: Sailor Moon for guys) as a youngin'.

With that said we now have this picture to the right. Blending two genre's can sometimes be cool, like peanut butter and jelly. Two very different flavors, but awesome when put together. This image? Not so much.

I think that my distaste for the image is a result of the Little Sisters losing all level of creepiness. They are cute little anime girls now as opposed to genetically altered mass murdering Adam collectors.

Image is still well done, it just makes the world less scary.

\\drew

Doki Doki Majo Shinpan 2!

That's right ladies and gentlemen, if the first bout of boob grabbing wasn't enough the sequel will now offer even more flicking, touching, examining, etc... All new and improved.



Much like the first however, this one is not likely going to hit American shores.

\\drew

Stormfront Closing it's Doors

The internet has been buzzing since yesterday concerning the possible closing of independent studio Stormfront, the studio responsible for games like Neverwinter Nights, Stronghold and most recently Eragon and Spiderwick Chronicles series.

According to an article on Next-Gen the company is citing "adverse business conditions" to the closing.

As a company that pioneered the graphical MMO genre we owe them much, and for an independent company who's been in business for 2 decades to go under the ripples will strike deep in fellow developers.

There are so few independents now not sheltered by our newly forming oligarchy of preeminent publishers that each one is special and harks to days of old. Think of it as the wild west of game development, back when the games controlled the development and every day a company was still alive was a miracle and a continuous fight to maintain that life.

Stormfront you'll be missed.

\\drew

So it's April Fool's Day...

...And check out Blizzard's information on their "new" hero class!

Combining two of the most widely successful franchises, WoW and Guitar Hero, Blizzard announces that now one simply can rock into Mordor... err... Stratholme!

Nothing says "I'm BA" like going to eleven and grinding out Iron Maiden on an Axe. Want to keep those pesky Night Elf women away? Play some hate music for an auto-fear effect! Gnomes getting in the way of your ankles? A quick Randy Newman riff will have them giving you a clear path.

Check out the official Blizzard site to see the full gritty details of their yearly April Fool's Day joke, this one may beat out the wisps as a playable race.

Full Blizzard Article Here

\\drew