First he blamed video games for his dog’s obesity. Now Crunchy is blaming his dog’s failing grades at obedience school on… video games.
It wasn’t funny the first time. It isn’t funny now. Please, just stop.
Camp Fatal1ty!
Do you know who Fatal1ty is? If not, read up here before continuing.
Now, if the first thing you thought, after reading the Wikipedia article linked above, was “I sure wish I could take lessons from someone like that,” then you are IN LUCK. (If you thought, “man, he sure uses a lot of commas,” welcome to the Club)
For a mere $3500, you can go to Camp Fatal1ty and learn things such as “Unreal Tournament tactics and strategies developed by Fatal1ty and other professional gamers.” Then you can go swimming at the lake and learn life lessons around the campfire. (Okay, I added that last part). Something about summer camps for video games rubs me the wrong way. Maybe it’s the Boy Scout in me, but summer camp was for building fires and sleeping under the stars. Not learning how to play Unreal Tournament and making machinima.
But I guess I can’t knock these guys for trying something new. In fact, I would imagine the 13 year-old me would totally love to go to a camp like this. Maybe they’re on to something!
Camp I ain’t Yer Pa isn’t far behind!
Nintendo, wrecking living rooms all over again
Oh Daily Mail, how we love you. You tell us about a kid who eats nothing but chips and coke and you try to convince us that women playing Wii Fit in their living rooms are suddenly going to become bulls in China Shops, doing millions of dollars (pounds, euros, ducets, whatever) worth of damage.
You crack us up.
(I think the real problem may be guys (or girls) being *ahem* distracted)
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.
Customizable NCAA 09 Covers
First of all, did you know Wal-Mart had a Blog? Not just a blog, but a rather large, multi-authored blog? I sure didn’t.
Anyway, I’ve railed for a long time that EA should offer regional covers for their sports games, but more specifically, for the NCAA 0X series. I don’t mind buying a college football game with Reggie Bush or Jared Zabransky on the cover, but as a Buckeye fan, I’d be much more inclined to get one with Troy Smith or Vernon Gholston on my cover.
Well, this year for NCAA 09, you can do just that. You can “customize” your NCAA cover to fit your fandom. But, it’s exclusively available at Sam’s Club:
Sam’s Club will be the ONLY retailer to offer OFFICIAL EA alternative cover images. What does this mean to you? Well, if you are like me and NOT a Razorback fan (almost illegal here in Arkansas, I still will not to that “wooooo pig” thing), you can put an image from a selection of images on YOUR box front at no additional charge.
It’s a very cool idea, but it looks like it’s being executed poorly. First of all, the example posted at the Check Out blog, with the Lucky Charm Leprechaun, looks like a character model from the game. If they use mascots from the game engine as the cover pictures, that is pretty lame. If they’re not using actual photographs, this is a bad idea. And I know there are licensing agreements and NFL player associations to deal with, but it would be really cool if they worked it out to have a few fan favorites from each team available for covers. That would make it an instant buy.
And for those wondering, here’s my dream cover:
(And by “dream cover,” I mean that literally. I dream about buying NCAA 09 with Mount Vernon on the cover. Nightly)
[Cross posted at my other blog, for obvious reasons]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]Back home and plugged-in
So family from out-of-town was visiting this past week, so we decided to head to Mrs. Buttonmasher’s parents’ house to hang out with the fam. Therefore I have been away and unplugged for the better part of a week. It’s been nice to be away from “the stuff” but I have been missing my travels with Niko in Liberty City. It’s nice to be back.
And just like clockwork, it’s strawberry season as well, which means the missus will be helping out at the family strawberry patch with the kids while I return to go back to work. That means some quality time with the blog, the 360 (the Wii went with the kids so they could play with the cousins), and all those places to eat that I can’t take the kids. Should be fun. I’m planning on working through GTA IV and a bunch of other games.
Let the extravaganza begin!
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.