New Super Robot Taisen is less "Robot"

I am a large fan of the Super Robot Taisen series by Banpresto as it allowed me to customize large stompy mecha and battle other robots in a strategy RPG style.

This new game seems to be lacking somewhat in the robots however, putting more emphasis on high quality sprite animations on their busty female characters.

Overall I'm still biting at the bit hoping this one hits American shores and in turn a friendly localized version, but I won't hold my breath. The quality of the animation is pretty slick and I'm an anime fanboy and will accept the lack of real robots for another good RPG, but man, if they had spent as much time on the robots as they did on making sprite boobs jiggle this would be a mecha game for the ages. Instead it's an anime game not intended for all ages.

\\drew

WoW Machinima at its finest

WoW Videos

\\drew

Snakes on a Building!

It's kind of like snakes on a plane, only... without the plane, and without actual snakes, and without Samuel Jackson, but still very cool.

The people that set this up have too much free time, but God Bless them for it. It reminds me of something that you would see in the old Hackers movie. Wait! That's it! Zero Cool strikes again!

\\drew

90 minute cutscenes for video games?

According to a new article on computerandvideogames.com MGS4 will be sporting numerous 90 minute cutscenes amidst it's stealthy gameplay.

I don't know about you but when I want to watch a movie I'll watch a movie, and when I want to play a game where I'm a bad ass soldier named Snake I want to control the bad ass soldier named Snake and kill people with his Kurt Russell-y good looks.

In case you were wondering, most action movies are around 90 minutes long. This month's PSW magazine states that, "MGS4's story is massive. The videogame equivalent of all three Godfather movies on one disc."

....

Wow....

Impressive yes, will I be purchasing it? No.

\\drew

Japanese 5th graders are dirty

According to a new article on the Mainichi Daily News 2.5 percent of Japanese 5th graders play erotic video games!

This is in stark contrast to the 30.9% who play action games and 28.4% who play RPG's.

You know, it seems odd in all honesty to see that percentage be so low. In a culture that views sex and other sordid activities as commonplace I'd expect the youngins to start their dabblings in all things raunchy earlier. I mean, you're never too young for tentacle sex right?

Branching back to the actual purpose of the study, 95% of 5th graders have video game consoles. That's a pretty impressive install base for developers.

Full Article Here

\\drew

Alpha Week and Buying a House

I believe the title suggests everything, but I'll be back to updating next week once things have calmed down a bit.

\\drew

Fantastic Retro Clothing

Being a modern day geek who's reasonably successful I find the need to express my geekdom in new clever, yet stylish, ways.

Thanks to Asylum there's now an excellent hit list of items to purchase to make my geekiness better than yours. Or, yours better than mine if you're faster with a mouse and willing to shell out amounts like $150USD on a superb Mario Brother hand-knit scarf.

Check it out!

\\drew

Director Announced for Upcoming Rapture Movie

With the announcement of director Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy) fans of the underwater city of Rapture and in turn fans of the Bioshock video game can now rejoice as the license isn't being held by cheap directorial hacks like Uwe Boll.

In a recent interview with Take-Two Chairman Strauss Zelnick he states:

"In partnering with Universal and Gore Verbinski, we have assembled a team that respects the uniqueness of BioShock and will translate it into a powerful movie experience. Our ability to attract a major studio and unparalleled creative team speaks volumes about the strength of our BioShock franchise."

Thank goodness another video game turned movie will not fall into the trappings of many others
before it.

\\drew

Portal from an artists point of view

The original photograph was taken by Russian photographer Max Sauco and can be found here.

As for this image, I like it better. Something pops. Maybe it's the portals. I wonder if Sauco played the now classic'ed title prior to taking this image.

Goodness knows that when I am looking for inspiration when taking pictures of naked women I look no further than video games... because... this is art right?

No no no, it's legit, this is art...

Try and explain that to the Mrs.

Link to non-safety edited portal version.

\\drew