You (Almost) Can’t Hate The Internet Too Much If It Makes You Laugh…

chocobunnyOh, I can’t even explain this one other than to say “That’s how the Internet works!” Anyway, as you probably know, even doing the simplest search for anything online these days becomes a complete loss of privacy (you thought I was going to say waste of time, I bet) as your search is fed to any and every other site or info-gathering robot connected to whatever you typed in and magically (and very often, mistakenly) added to some magic queue that pops up as a potential search the next time you visit tht site or poke around other sites.

Or worse, those words are also used to add search results that can show up as unsolicited non-spam emails (from big companies that want your disposable income in trade for their goods) asking you to buy stuff you don’t want and/or even turn up as ads all over every page you click on. So you can’t get away from that ONE ad until you replace it with other searches. Even if you limit the amount of tracking going on (ha and ha, good luck with that), you’re STILL going to be suggested at some point to point that browser to a site for something you may not have even typed in. Or related to anything you typed in the first place. Bleh… Continue reading

Defiance Competitive Multiplayer: Rush Hour At The More Than OK Corral…

 

Since Defiance isn’t a garden variety online FPS (or a FPS at all) and not your standard semi-real time MMO where you queue up actions and wait while moves play out, the game flows a lot more like a purer action game because it IS one. Granted, I still can’t play it online at all here (boo!), but nothing should stop YOU from if you’re interested in the show and able to do so. Here’s hoping Trion Worlds has a bigger hit than even they’ve imagined and they can do something similarly fun for those of us who don’t live online (whether by choice or not) when we want some simple, fun but thrilling gaming… my fingers are crossed…

Lego City Undercover: It’s Not Quite What You Think (Which Is Very Good Indeed)…

 

A few months back I was actually planning to ignore this entirely… until I saw a few actual gameplay trailers and read a nice preview on another site. Well, well, well… mind changed. I always knew it wasn’t a Grand Theft Auto clone at all, as the focus is on playing a good cop out to bag baddies instead of a Lego-ized criminal out to do bad. Hell, that wouldn’t pass muster with the parental units at ALL. I mean, think about it, folks (I’ll wait)… la, la, la… yeah, THAT version some were thinking this game would be would have been blasted all over the place by the media using it to say Lego was selling v-i-o-l-e-n-c-e to the kiddies disguised as a family-friendly Lego game (and for once, they’d be right). That said, I like the campy elements here and yes, the fact that the game does parody the open world elements found in the GTA games while adding in and switching up that familiar Lego gameplay.  So, yup – I’ll be adding this one to the “must play” queue for my Wii U… and you should too (OK,  that all rhymed, but wasn’t supposed to. I am a genius – at least for this post)…

Another Wonderbook? OK, Let’s See, Er… Read What’s Coming…

 

Well, it certainly looks as if Sony made some money with that J.K. Rowling Wonderbook after all, as now there’s another coming (at least in the UK). Wonderbook: Diggs Nightcrawler is on the way in May there, but I still think Sony needs to whip up one or more of these things for more mature readers. Sure, it’ll be a novelty game/book at best, but they’d make a mint from those 50 Shades fanatics (and hell, a book is always better than a movie, right? OK, usually), and I can even see some sort of sci-fi or fantasy books geared towards cranky older gamers (like me) doing well if the integration between reading and play is done right…

Once Again, It’s Not The Games You Need To Worry About, Really.

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cell phoneSo, a couple of months back, I’m waiting for the subway and there’s a rather cranky young woman yelling into, or more precisely AT her cell phone. Given today’s general lack of public decorum, I’m figuring it’s one of those angry conversations with a not so friendly relative or soon to be ex-formerly significant whatever that’s not supposed to be heard (and yet gets to be heard by all within earshot). Snip, snip and chop, chop- there goes someone’s entire wardrobe in the street and on fire later tonight, blah, blah, blah… whatever. And IN the freakin’ CAR, too? Yeesh. In any event (and as usual), I sidestep away so I can get some peace and quiet and not have to listen to someone sounding as if they’re auditioning for a new Quentin Tarantino film, when I hear the sound of a phone hitting the platform along with a string of expletives. Well, that’s one relationship busted… and a phone to go with it, I think… Wrong again.

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EDF 4 Gameplay Footage: 4Gamer.net? I Love You And Hate You (But Mostly Love You)…

 

Well, wow and double wow. Japanese game site 4Gamer.net posted this hands-on last year (!!!) and I’m just NOW getting around to seeing it thanks to some poking around online for something entirely different. Eh, it figures. I’m just thrilled because even though it’s a WIP version, I get to ogle more of the gameplay than the bits I’ve seen from the official trailers D3Publisher in Japan has been posting. OK, off to the home base now, as they’re about to shove me out the door here at Starbucks. Back in a bit…

VGA 101: On Kenji Eno: A Loss Isn’t A Complete Loss If Something Is Gained In the Process…

D2_signedOne of my favorite game creators, Kenji Eno, passed away on February 20th and I’d planned to write up something memorial-esque last week, but couldn’t for a few reasons. The main one was it’s actually quite hard to write something brief about what playing through some of the games he and his studio WARP created during their brief run meant to me without actually going through the library here and taking time to do so. That’s going to get done in about a month or so, barring incident. The other was I wanted to read what some of his close friends wrote about him in order to get a better insight on the man and his work. There was also a little bit of unfinished business to take care of in getting a certain something back to a certain someone, so that had to come first… Continue reading

OK, If You Want A 16-Bit Cliff Notes Version of Game of Thrones, Here You Go…

 

Amusingly enough, I’m sitting here and listening to some people talk about the new season, all guessing and overspeculating their hipster glasses and skinny jeans off when one of them mentions the good Doctor Octoroc and his amazingly funny GoT mock video game video he cooked up for Collegehumor.com from about a year or so ago. In case you haven’t seen it yet, the edited version is above. If you want to see it as intended, just clicky-click HERE, sit back and prepare to fall off something onto something (preferably soft). I’d post the video directly, but like the books and show, it’s kinda ranuchy (well, in a Super Nintendo kind of way). You’ve been warned (but you’ll laugh yourself silly anyway)…

Toy Fair 2013: The Gate: Yes, You NEED A High (Quality) Fantasy Board Game.

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My otherwise dull video aside, as soon as you see Oofdah! Games’ The Gate – A Game of Myth and Magic in person, you know you’re getting a quality product, but a longer look reveals there’s a great deal going on besides good looks and lots of cool pieces you’ll want to show off at your next game night. The game is actually a sweet two in one deal with beginner and advanced play modes (there’s an intermediate mode as well, but don’t tell anyone you now know this!), some surprisingly deep gameplay and as you can see here, a ton of pretty (and pretty useful) stuff inside that big box. I need to grab one of these for myself at some point, but I’ve been fortunate enough to have played the game at a friends on a few occasions and can safely say it’s one of those great board games that’s instantly likable thanks to its design and even more enjoyable once you’ve spent time playing it. Continue reading

Gallery: Applied Design @MoMA (1 of 3)

applied designAnd here you go in case you can’t make it to the very cool Applied Design show here in NYC (or if you’re a total cheapskate but have an eyeball for art): a bit of a walk-through in image and movie form. Some of these pics and vids are shot by me, some by artist Linda Dennis who tagged along for the experience (and got to play Pac-Man again for the first time in a long while and Tetris for the first time ever. Too bad the Pac-Man had a “ringer” joystick (which means no one but someone who can work with that thing like it is will make it to the kill screen, which isn’t a short process, mind you). Enjoy! There may be a test later (but I doubt it). Bonus points if you spot yours truly in any of these pics. Trying to stay semi-anonymous on the Internets these days is a total pain in the neck… but I guess I’ll need to get used to it…

More images and a short video below the jump (and more to come tomorrow)…

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