This Friday, March 23rd in the Year of Our Lord 2007, long-delayed PC game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is finally being released a mere 983 years since its first appearance in the public consciousness. Historically, when a company takes almost a millennium to release a game, said game ends up being as interesting as a tour of Paris Hilton's brain. However, in the case of S.T.A.L.K.E.R., the only thing that really feels dated is the graphical quality. Now, I could spend all day -- or all blog if you will -- convincing you to check out this game, but I'd rather let the experts sell ya on it. So for now, take a look at this tour of the game courtesy of the award-winning (Emmy, Oscar, Grammy, SAG Award, People's Choice Award, Nobel Peace Prize, Harvard's Hasty Pudding Award, and The Myrtle Beach Annual 3rd Grade Spelling Bee Award -- just to name a few) videogame show The G-Hole and decide for yourself. Buh bye.
March 20, 2007
March 06, 2007
Save the Cheerleader… Get Heavenly Sword
If you didn’t catch NBC's Heroes last night (we're all obsessed with it here at the office), not only did you miss a mind-blowing episode of epic, plot-twisting proportions, you also missed a glimpse of the upcoming PS3 title Heavenly Sword. Here's a little summary of the game on developer Ninja Theory’s website:
Heavenly Sword is a stunningly beautiful martial arts drama designed exclusively as a next-generation console game. The storyline concerns a girl with only a few days left to live who embarks on one final act of redemption against a king and his invading army. Heavenly Sword employs state-of-the-art technology and gameplay to take players through a roller coaster of emotion and action that truly exploits the potential of gaming as the new artistic entertainment medium. … Or to put it another way, it’s totally sweet!!!
Totally sweet? Decide for yourself and check out the Heroes clip and/or watch the video from the Tokyo Game Show last year.
February 28, 2007
Who Wants To Be A Superhero?
New York Comic Con wasn't all nerds in costumes... oh wait... yes it was. The Sci Fi Channel's Who Wants To Be A Superhero? (hosted and judged by the comic god among men, Stan Lee) was holding auditions for its second season, so we got our old friend Nitro G and Fat Momma from season one to help us out with interviewing some of the wacky and wondrous superhero hopefuls. We also got our host Blair (who's a huge comic book collector) to interview Stan Lee once again (see G-Hole episode 6). To Blair's delight, Stan remembered him and dubbed him "Loquacious Man." Fitting.
For behind-the-scenes photos of the auditions, make the jump!
February 02, 2007
Wii Play Tennis
It was an epic struggle of good versus evil when late night TV talk show host Conan O'Brien played tennis star Serena Williams in Wii Sports Tennis recently.
You can enjoy the madness here.
The interesting thing to note here is that neither Serena nor Conan seems to be wearing the Wii's protective wrist strap. Or maybe the interesting thing to note was Conan's breakaway pants. Who knows?
December 06, 2006
In Which Someone Uses the Term "Nerdrection"
Will Wright made it possible for people living ordinary, average lives of toil and despair to destroy their lives playing a game where they created little computer people who lived ordinary, average lives of toil and despair. And it became the greatest selling videogame ever.
Now, Wright's videogame fame seems to be shifting to real-world fame. He was recently the subject of a New York Times profile and, apparently, reached the top of pop-idol mountain with this little clip.
The clip, of course, is noteworthy as it marks one of the first times a designer has been asked to be a guest on a talk show not specifically game-centric. It also features perhaps the coining of our new favorite word, that being nerdrection.
November 30, 2006
Halo 3: The Ad
You know your game is pretty much the hottest thing since a burrito on the sun when you send out a press release about airing a television commercial and have everyone slobber over the news.
Anyway, Microsoft will be airing an ad for Halo 3 during ESPN's Monday Night Football this Monday night.
The ad will air, roughly, between 8:50 and 9:30 P.M. eastern standard time. If you miss the ad, it will be made available through Xbox.com on December 5.
Do not miss the ad.
November 07, 2006
Syndicated Incorporated
Microsoft has fired the next salvo in the next-generation wars: Downloadable movie and TV content for the Xbox 360.
Xbox Live 360 will play host to the videos, which can be rented or purchased outright, and saved to the Xbox 360's hard drive -- provided, of course, it is the good Xbox 360 with the hard drive and not the hard-driveless Xbox 360 as sold in what is lovingly referred to as "the retard pack."
Television shows such as MTV's The Real World, CBS' Survivor, and Adult Swim's Robot Chicken as well as movies such as Superman Returns will be made available via Xbox Live. There's no official word as to pricing, but the lukewarm rumor of the day suggests that TV shows will cost 240 points (or about $3) to download and movies clock in at 320pts for standard-definition and 480 pts for high-definition rentals. Rentals will be stored on the Xbox 360's hard drive for two weeks, but the video will disappear 24 hours after it's viewed.
More information on Microsoft's plan can be found here.
October 02, 2006
August 28, 2006
I Believe in Chewincorns
Watching Viva Piñata on the television Saturday morning, I was reminded of Richie Ashburn sitting out there in the old Polo Grounds' center field. Ashburn, who was a pretty darn good baseball player with pretty bad luck, was, at the end of his career, shagging flies for the 1962 New York Mets. The 1962 Mets were largely considered to be the worst professional team ever fielded, and Ashburn was their best player.
"I don't know what it is," he said, "but I know I've never seen it before."
So. Franklin Fizzlybear wanted the Buzzlegums to build hives on his property, and then the gang planted a jewel tree because they heard the mythical Chewincorns liked their sweet, sweet jewels, and all the time I was watching this show, I felt vaguely like I should be buying something, anything.