What's Cosplay Friday? Why, it's a thing I just made up. It's a day for sharing pictures of normal people, like you and me, dressed as video game characters. Oh, the novelty!
GamingBolt put together a collection of 25 awesome gaming cosplayers. Two of my favorites were tributes to Assassin's Creed 2's Ezio and Shadow of the Colossus' Wander:
If you cracked open your copy of Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey and found that your bonus soundtrack isn't working, Atlus is on the problem.
Pretty much every available version of Strange Journey shipped with a poorly formatted CD. You will not be able to listen to the disc in a stand-alone player, but I discovered that if you pop it into a computer you can manually extract the MP3s, though the ID tags are completely messed up.
Atlus is currently taking orders for replacement discs, offering them free of charge to people who purchased games with faulty CDs. This is on the honor system, and I think it is incredibly generous of the developer to offer them at all.
You can order your working copy here. Don't lie about this.... You'll make Jack Frost cry.
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With all the hype about the Halo: Reach beta, sometimes I almost forget that Bungie's making an actual game.
News Blips:
Bungie plans to release new Halo: Reach info, images, and video every Friday until the game's debut in April. Interested parties should keep an eye on Bungie.net beginning tomorrow for new details about the game's different features and multiplayer experience. I think they should do this on Mondays instead, so people could be more excited to start the week.
Speaking to Now Gamer, Infinity Ward Community Manager Robert Bowling feels that the $15 Stimulus Package maps for Modern Warfare 2 are worth the cost. Bowling has "no doubt that anyone who downloads this map pack is going to get their money's worth," as he argues that the extra levels will add plenty of replay value to the game for those who play multiplayer every night, like he does. I could make fun of the absurdity of the comment, but really, what's he supposed to say? Yeah, I know charging that much money for maps is kind of a rip-off, but you know you're going to buy it, anyway.
Have you ever wondered what really goes on at game conferences? Sure, you read the previews hurriedly put up by the major game sites, but what about the show itself? What stories are hidden there?
A year ago, I was just another guy who loved games. Now, after rising through the ranks from community member to staff member at Bitmob, I got to attend the 2010 Game Developers Conference -- my first conference ever as press. Read on for my tale of life behind the velvet rope.
Behind the Velvet Rope: My First Game Conference as Press (Part 1)
Behind the Velvet Rope: My First Game Conference as Press (Part 2) -- You are here
Day 3
The show floor -- the mecca of any game convention. The place where anything goes as long as it draws attention to a product...booth babes taking photos with clammy nerds, fistfuls of tchotchkes shoved in your face at every opportunity, or, in the case of the Game Developers Conference, showing off a giant virtual reality hamster ball.
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What's the best way to celebrate the PSP's fifth birthday? Taking a swing at a PSPiñata.
News Blips:
I thought I knew what to expect from my first Game Developers Conference -- after all, last year I had borrowed my friend's expo pass to sneak onto the show floor for a morning -- but the difference between being a wide-eyed gate-crasher and a member of the media is the difference between attending a formal in a staid black jacket and a sequined blazer rimmed with foot-long tassels: You're a bit more noticeable.
I felt this acutely when, as I munched innocently on a dry sandwich at a communal table in the lunch room, a green-shirted staff member turned to me and asked me to please not write about their discussion of how they got into the industry. Despite the ridiculousness of the comment -- did this guy really think his run-of-the-mill tale warranted discretion? -- the point hit home. I wouldn't be a mere observer this time around.
Because even though the Game Developers Conference is ostensibly for game developers, the press plays a vital role in bringing attention to their games, middleware, audio equipment, and giant virtual-reality hamster balls. And that attention, they hope, will eventually reward them with large piles of money.
Behind the Velvet Rope: My First Game Conference as Press (Part 1) -- You are here
Behind the Velvet Rope: My First Game Conference as Press (Part 2)
Why do the creepy-doll girl's clothes disappear when she makes the heart sign with her hands? Your guess is as good as mine.
Video Blips:
Editor's note: Suriel asks a difficult question about the limits of a video game as an expressive experience. I'm not sold on the idea that a first-person shooter can provide the deft touch that a topic like genocide requires. Perhaps it's possible in another genre, but even then, I have my doubts. It seems Suriel agrees. -James
Watching the movie Hotel Rwanda in my AP English class over the last couple of days, I began to take interest in the Interahamwe Hutu tribe soldiers -- more interest, in fact, than the Tutsi refugees they were attempting to kill. I'm not callous to the plight of the Tutsi, and I'm not siding with the Hutu. I just had a morbid curiosity about the convictions of the soldiers and the conditions of a nation that could lead to the genocide of over 100,000 people.
As many of you likely know, the reasons for the genocide are complex and would take too much time to detail here. What's important for the sake of this article -- and how it relates to video games -- is the way that the Interahamwe serve as the villain in Hotel Rwanda: In many respects, they are an enemy more dangerous and unnerving than any of the zombies, armored soldiers, or monsters that serve as cannon fodder in many titles.
Read more >>No one ever talks about the tragic side of Mario. He spends his life running after a princess who seemingly wants little to do with him. Sure, she may accompany him for a round of golf or a couple of laps around the kart track, but why isn't she Mrs. Mario yet?
Tragically, she only realized how much she loved him when she was holding his lifeless body [via gaming.reddit]:
Sadly, I know nothing else about the origins of this story. I found the picture on reddit but no article to back it up. Do any of our readers know more about this statue? Is this something you could buy? Not that I want to buy it....
Although it would look nice next to my National Treasure 2 poster....
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LucasArts should totally develop a monster-battle chess game, like the holoboard game in the Millennium Falcon's lounge in Star Wars, for the Nintendo 3DS. Then we could play online against Wookies...and let them win.
News Blips:
Nintendo announces the 3DS, the next entry in its popular handheld-console line. The company claims that their new system can execute 3D effects without requiring players to wear special glasses. Nintendo says they'll provide more details at this year's E3. Good job announcing this before the launch of the DSi XL, Nintendo, since now I'm just going wait for the new DS. No, I can't lie -- I want to buy both of them now.
Editor's note: Every new entry in Max's Disgruntled Vegetable column is a delight -- it's been over three months since the last one! This issue contains some fine reporting about the ongoing Health Bar™ issue and a bonus animation made by the Editor in Chief of The Disgruntled Vegetable himself! -James
WASHINGTON -- In a surprisingly bipartisan decision, both the United States Senate and House of Representatives unanimously approved funding to provide the nation's Armed Forces with Health Bars in order to ensure the troops' safety. Many proponents believe this new equipment contains the essence of life -- displayed in an easy-to-understand linear form. As a user becomes hurt or injured, the contents of the Bar decrease in size, signifying that the user is drawing closer to death. It is believed that this will save many lives on the battlefield because the new Health Bars will allow soldiers to withstand a tremendous amounts of damage that they previously could not.
“We have suffered many lost lives due to our enemies being able to defeat us with a single touch,” said a top Army general. “After the Geneva Convention, international law banned cheat codes from use in armed conflicts, so it is not possible to come across extra lives anymore.”
Read more >>What's made of 10-karat solid gold, diamonds, and sells for the low, low price of $2,600? Well, this [via Plugged In]:
As cool as superexpensive gaming jewelry is, what's the point? Diamonds are supposed to make you look classy, which I imagine would be hard to pull off with Mario glittering like a thousand suns under your neck.
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