Aha! Smarter Folks Than I Have Figured Apple’s Tactics Out, Too…

Posted on February 28, 2013 by geelw

Hey, I’ve been saying this for a few years to anyone within earshot (and sometimes out of earshot if you’ve seen my soapbox rants live in Times Square – the closest I’m allowed to an Apple store these days), but now it’s “official” (well, sort of). Apple is really a sneaky mercenary front after all (dun dun dunnnnn!). The fine and dandy (and smarter than I ever will be) people over at Egghead Central have posted this interesting look at just how the Cupertino camp cooks up its new products and all that “innovation” they bring. Yeah, yeah, you Apple-heads out there won’t like some of their findings, but that’s “satire” for you, isn’t it?

Toy Fair 2013: Chains to Champions: Brick Warriors Go Board Game (And You Certainly Won’t Be Bored At All)…

Posted on February 28, 2013 by geelw

OK, I’ll admit it. I’d never heard of Brick Warriors until a few days before Toy Fair when a friend with a bigger ear to the playground who collects and tweaks his collection of miniatures asked me to check out the upcoming Chains to Champions board game the company was working on. It’s a good thing I decided to be a nice guy and drop on down to meet Ryan Hauge, Amanda Taylor and Rhonda Denny (the game’s lead playtester and most likely the company’s ringer if you ever end up playing against her for money), as the game is looking to be a ton of fun for minifigure fans across the globe. C to C is a gladiatorial combat game for two to six players (or one player with multiple personalities who wants to beat himself senseless at a board game) that’s easy to pick up, yet also highly challenging as you complete in card-based clashes for coin and customization upgrades.

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If The World Goes to Crap, Outerra Makes Going Outside Quite Optional…

Posted on February 28, 2013 by geelw

When I have the free time and (a drool cup), I’ve been occasionally looking at these insane videos from Outerra, the Slovakian company (well, three REALLY talented Slovakians) cooking up this amazing tech that according to Wikipedia, “renders high-quality terrain, terrain texturing, flora and water flow normal maps using relatively sparse and highly compressed data through fractal processing and calculations.” and yeah, it does just that. And very well as you can see. if you happen to have a beefy enough PC and want your mind to blow itself out of a nostril, feel free to download the Outerra Anteworld Alpha and prepare to lose yourself for a wee bit too long in what’s there. It’s a bit buggy and still a work in progress, but that’s what an Alpha version of an engine usually is, folks. I can see some creative game developer out there taking this and running with in (right into one of those lovely trees you’re ogling)…

Retro City Rampage on PC and WiiWare Is Full of Surprises (Well, One More Awesome Surprise)…

Posted on February 28, 2013 by geelw

Not content with a simple port of an already hilarious game, creator Brian Provinciano decided to take it to the next level (or more precisely, back to the roots) by cooking up an “8-bit” version of the game for the WiiWare and PC releases (out now!). Even if you’re terminally rusty at games, if you’ve a brain with a dusty old file cabinet filled with memories of 80’s and 90’s pop culture references, Retro City Rampage is fun and funny enough to get you cracking up within a few seconds of playing it. Anyway, some neck exercises for you to practice, as you look a bit tired and you don’t want to have to pay for that Lifestyle Lift (at least for a few MORE years,right?): Look up and click! Look down and click! Repeat as required until you figure out you need a Wii or PC to get the game (or a PS3, Vita or Xbox 360)…

Sniper Elite Nazi Zombie Army Out Now On Steam – Gore Patrol On Duty!

Posted on February 28, 2013 by geelw

So… how, pray tell do we go from happy-happy cartoon ponies to blowing holes in zombies just like that? Easy- you pretend you’re riding a bus, just move along and enjoy what’s outside the window. Which in this case would be that final teaser trailer and the even MORE naughty official launch trailer (both very NSFW, by the way- you’ve been warned!) and maybe even you picking up this standalone co-op focused expansion from Steam at some point. Yeah, you know you want to… and you’ll probably fool everyone by storing the game on that My Little Pony Friendship is Magic X MIMOBOT USB drive you just purchased. Shhhh… I won’t tell a soul. Maybe…

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic X MIMOBOTS: mimoco & Hasbro Bring You Useful Eye Candy

Posted on February 28, 2013 by geelw

Well, MY own eyes are burning like toasty coals in some marshmallow fluff factory because I’m not into the whole Brony thing and all, but I don’t begrudge anyone’s interests (provided they’re not harmful to others). Anyway, if this is your big plastic cup of sugar laced saccharine… well, lookit you bouncing around the room with your wallet or purse out! Yeah, I can hear the furious clicking away from here as you poke around the mimoco online store, your eyes as big as saucers as your brain furiously fights over which of the the characters to get. Available in up to 128GB as well as USB3.0 speeds, Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, and Rainbow Dash are all staring back at you with their own big eyes to the point where, gosh and golly, you HAVE to get all THREE!

mimoco knows this as well and as you can see from the video above, each USB drive comes packed with super-cool bonuses that will show the world you love MLPFiMX to death and then some. So, you know what to do, right? Oh… you’ve already done it before you even finished reading this post? Well, good for you – my work here is done.

Humor: Doctor Octoroc’s Doctor Who “Game” NEEDS to Get Made. Seriously.

Posted on February 28, 2013 by geelw

OK, I usually don’t fall for goofy videos on sites like College Humor, but a friend sent me this link and it made me crack up, so here you go. Philadelphia-based artist/musician/pixel genius Doctor Octoroc rocks, I say. Speaking of “say”… say, If you just so happen to see a TARDIS pop up in your neighborhood, keep this link handy so you can show the Doctor (who’s bound to be amused) and maybe ask him to take you for a spin so you both can go on an adventure of your own back to… oh, say 1992 or so and try to convince some game publisher to make this a reality. Then again, I can just see you getting arrested and tossed in a mental hospital like Bruce Willis’ character from 12 Monkeys if you go around telling people you’re from the future. If that doesn’t get you committed, whipping out a thin laptop, tablet or phone will DEFINITELY land you in a rubber room. “Suuuuuurrrre, you can watch movie quality videos over an online connection… O-K, now… Hands up and drop the plastic toy, buddy… NOW!” Or something like that.

Oh well… I guess there’s always RPG Maker for the more talented and impatient types out there…

The Last of Us Dev Diary 1: Hush (Well, After You Gag From Looking At That Creature)…

Posted on February 28, 2013 by geelw

Naughty Dog’s upcoming survival adventure isn’t quite the last great PS3 game, but ever since the amazing E3 demo from last year, PS3 owners have been keeping their eyes peeled for anything and everything about this one. Well, it looks as the developer diaries are getting rolled out on YouTube and I’d gather we’ll see more of these all the way up to the game’s June 14 launch. System seller this late in the game? I think so, for some who still might not be ready for a new console and want something they’re going to play and be knocked off their feet by. Then again, I can’t see anyone looking forward to this with a PS3 holding out for a shinier and more visually spectacular version (which isn’t going to happen anytime soon, folks). This is the work of a dev team at their best, so don’t pass it up at all…

Random Art Time: Live & Learn…

Posted on February 28, 2013 by geelw

Meh – I guess the best thing about having a crap internet connection is you find things to do while waiting for things to iron themselves out. This dinking around with primitive programs sure beats playing solitaire, Ive heard. And so, whee! One more quickie MS paint sketch for the deviantArt page, I suppose. Enjoy! Should I mention that I sometimes sell actual art work (well, small tree sketches) over at fiverr.com (search for AlwaysTreeTime) or is that too much intentional shilling in an overtly capitalist manner? Hey, at least I’m not sticking a PayPal button on the site or posting creative shoe fetish pics to rake in some extra dough. Granted, my feet could more than likely stop a truck, but now how you’d think. More art later… maybe (well, hopefully done when I’m not waiting around for an hour or two)…

Tomb Raider “Reborn” Trailer: Everyone’s Got Girl Power, It Seems…

Posted on February 27, 2013 by geelw

It looks as if Square Enix and veteran developer Crystal Dynamics have hit a big home run here in this reboot of the franchise and this new video is probably the best bit of PR to come out of this. Watching it is a bit tough, but you’ll want to rescue a tree full of kittens or kick a burning bus down the street into a fire hydrant right afterwards I bet. Just don’t tell the cops that I told you you SHOULD do this. I have enough trouble with people jumping in lakes and flying kites on my say-so. Just go buy the game instead if you have a PS3 or Xbox 360…