What We Talk About
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I’m a sucker for stuff like this. There are some surprises here. Click for a larger image.
Buttonmashing dot com turns 4!
It’s hard to believe, but yesterday marked another glorious year of video game blogging around these parts. Believe it or not, but buttonmashing.com is four years old. We’re creeping ever so closely to the half-decade mark. That’s insane to think about.
I think I’ll get myself a Gamefly subscription to celebrate.
Mario Kart in Javascript
Check it out. (via Kottke)
That is some cool stuff.
Father’s Day: Nat’s Smokin’ Edition
Yesterday I received a smoker from my family, and we spent the evening playing Boom Blox. I “cured” the smoker late last night, and then got up at 6AM this morning to fire it up. Five hours later, it’s amazing what hickory will do to country style ribs. (I’d have some pics, but, alas, it was like vultures circling overhead.)
If this was my last meal, I would die a very happy man.
I love my kids.
Pony up? Did any other fathers out there score some sweetness?
We’ve all been tricked
If you’ve been gaming as long as I have (nerd!) then you’ve been disappointed more than once by video game advertisements. Super ripped mega-heroes with babe-a-licious damsels in distress draped over your shoulder, fighting off hordes of demon spawn from the fiery pits of hell itself. This game is going to be awesome. Not so fast, my friend.
Here are 50 advertisements that may have gotten your hopes up, only to dash them against the brutal reality coral reef of 8-bit graphics.
Easter Egg in Google Reader
Not sure if this is old or not, but it’s new to me. If you use Google Reader (presumably, you’re reading this right now from GR) there’s a nice little easter egg hidden in the keyboard shortcuts of Google Reader, aka the Konami Code.
You know the drill: U, U, D, D, L, R, L, R, B, A. Voila!
(from googlediscovery.com)
[Yes, I'm bored]
The Onion nails it
… as usual:
Liberty City Police Face Allegations Of Incompetence, Brutality. A little taste:
“I was shot 14 times on my way to work today, including twice by police,” said one Algonquin-area resident. “That is unacceptable.”
Muchos LOLs.
Second Skin, an MMO documentary
I haven’t posted much in the way of MMO’s since I quit EQ2 a few months ago, but this just popped up in my Google alerts and looks interesting: Second Skin, “a quirky documentary about the world of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games and the people who anchor themselves to computers for up to 18 hours a day.”
Hmmmm…
It would appear a certain gaming blog was left off this list. A mere oversight, I’m sure. Certainly it will appear on there the next time around.
Suu-per-mann!
“You are who you choose to be.”
I’ve only known of three movies that cause me to tear up at the end almost every time I see them. I’m not ashamed to admit that one of them is animated. As far as I’m concerned Brad Bird’s The Iron Giant is nothing short of brilliant.
I introduced this wonderful movie to my two sons tonight and it was a great experience. At first, they didn’t know what to expect and fear reigned through the first half of the movie. But just like their ol’ man the emotions of the giant and the quirkiness of the movie started to win them over.
Then the giant died. How do you explain sacrifice to a five year old and a 2.5 year old? I really have no idea. However, one thing that they did realize is that using guns in the wrong way is bad. Our oldest had been running around the house over the last month pointing at random people and and yelling, “BANG! Your dead!” He didn’t understand the concept of death, and we didn’t want him flippantly thinking it’s OK to shoot things all the time.
We have a moratorium on certain things in our house while the boys are awake. This mainly includes violence of all forms in the areas of games and television. It just doesn’t happen. I think it’s worked for us. Actually, I think it’s worked for me. I don’t relate well to violence. It’s not that it makes me violent. It’s just that it agitates me. It changes my attitude. It changes the way I view things. That’s not good for a person who’s the head of a household and responsible for raising two boys (especially in an increasingly acceptable, violent world for younger ages—there’s always been violence.)
In short, in generally affects me for the worst.
Occasionally, I’ll make room for Half-Life or a quick FPS walkthrough. However, the last FPS I’ve completed was Half-Life 2—it’s episodes and Portal variant—a long time ago (Call of Duty 4 and Metroid Prime 3 came close). I think I’ve just learned to pass up on games with a sense of immediacy, especially in terms of violence.
If you’ve got to have that violent rush, I say take a break for a while. Find a different genre to play. See if it changes the way you act; who you are. As for me and my boys, we will take it slow and keep playing racing games.
The other day, while traveling down the highway my son asked me to ram into a rig we were passing. Maybe we won’t play any Burnout for a while either.
Monday Madness?
It’s Monday and it’s time to get mad. Well, not really. It’s great to be hydrated and back in the land of the living. wash your hands and don’t eat poop.
First, the University of Michigan has created the COM-BAT. What is it? It’s a six inch robotic spy plane shapes like a, well, you know, a bat. Pics and coolness.
I like LEGOs. I like Assassin’s Creed. Chocolate and peanut butter. Take a leap of faith.
Please try the demo to Trials 2. I bet you’ll buy the game. If anything, watch the video. It’s…neat. Physics.
Spirit, the Mars Rover left to die before it’s time? I don’t think many will disagree that these rovers were probably some of the greatest engineering ever done by and for NASA. Godspeed, Spirit.
Finally, a car maker does something cool for the gamer crowd. The Pontiac G8 meets Spy Hunter. I love the Peter Gunn theme.
Contests (Win free stuff)
Two excellent (read: better than zero) chances of winning free stuff from a couple of my favorite bloggers: Man Bytes Blog and the-inbetween.com
Play World of Warcraft, Lose Weight
Why am I posting this? Because I can:
And because you can use it to work off some of that Funyun Flab you’ve built up grinding rats in World of Warcraft
How Accurate are Video-Game Weapons?
So as this successful genre continues to deliver best-selling titles, will increasingly powerful PCs and game consoles allow military shooters to become more realistic than ever?
… the answer is a big, fat “sort of.”
It’s about taking the personality of a weapon, and making it shine in the game
Monday Madness? Not Today
I spent most of the day yesterday in a hospital hooked up to an IV and getting pain medication. Needless to say, today is a day of rest. I shouldn’t even be online now. Back in a few.
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What we're playing
Tony
GTA IV | Mario Kart Wii | Super Mario Galaxy
Nat
Okami | Bioshock | Overlord | Mario Kart Wii | Boom Blox | FF7: Crisis Core | The World Ends With You | DiRT | Rogue Trooper (PC) -
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