In what I hope to make a regular feature, I’ve decided to post all the news that I give a shit about that happened this week in the gaming world.
First, some new releases on the download front. Obviously everyone and their mother knows that Castle Crashers was released on Wednesday on XBLA. I personally haven’t bought the full version yet, but that is because I’m broke. If you can afford it, I recommend buying it straight away. There have been some bugs reported, but apparently a patch is already on the way. On PSN, The Last Guy was released. Definitely worth the $10 price tag. They also released a Warhawk expansion that adds jetpacks. JETPACKS.
While we’re on the topic of downloads, on the official Bionic Commando site they announced that BC:R sold over 130,000 units. Doesn’t seem like a lot compared to the AAA titles released on disc, but as far as downloads go, that is massive.
In Xbox news, Immersion, the developers of the rumble tech used in pretty much every controller, were forced to pay Microsoft $20.75 million. This was because when MS paid immersion to keep rumble in their controllers they made a deal with them. If they ever sold the tech to anyone else, they’d have to pay MS. So when Sony realized the folly of their ways and came crawling back to Immersion for some good old fashioned rumble, Immersion had to toss some scratch Microsoft’s way.
It was announced that New Xbox Experience will be released this November. So, only a couple months until we have our shiny new gui. It was also rumored that the first DLC for the GTAIV will be released in November too. Supposedly it will have 15 hours of content. That is a LOT of new content. I’m not getting my hopes up though, just so I can’t be let down if (when) it’s a lot less. While we’re on rumors, apparently in the October issue of OXM they rumored that Gearbox is developing Halo 4 for, get this, the next Xbox. So, not only is there another Halo game in the works, NOT made by Bungie, but there is a new Xbox on the way too. With the NXE on the way, I get the feeling that it will be a while before we see any new Xbox. MS are too smart to kill the 360 with it as popular as it is right now. Oh yeah, and Gears of War 2 won’t be seeing PC’s. Sorry PC owners. A later release seems inevitable, so don’t worry about it too much.
On the portable front, it seems the U.S. will be getting Chrono Trigger DS BEFORE Japan does. What what what? Yeah, it will be released on November 25 stateside, and comes out on the 27th in Japan. However, they do get a 2-track bonus soundtrack for preordering. Either way, we get CT first, yay. Speaking of Japan and the DS, LOVEru was just released. If you don’t know what that is, don’t feel bad. It’s another Japanese touching game, where you poke different girls with your stylus. It’s not the yet-another-touching-game aspect that makes it stand out though. It’s the fact that, get this, there is a minigame where you shoot milk at a strawberry the main female is holding. You spray milk on her. God damn Japan. God damn. Here’s a video demoing some of the game: LOVEru
The team behind ICO announced that their latest title for the PS3 would be ready “soon.” Whatever that means. That is pretty much ALL of the detail they announced about it as well. Well, whatever it is and whenever it comes out, I’m sure it will be an amazing game that has horrible sales. As per usual. Valve announced that Left 4 Dead on the Xbox will use dedicated servers on Xbox Live. That is great news because it means we should have flawless online multiplayer, and if you know anything about Left 4 Dead, you know how important that is.
In the arcades, apparently Street Fighter IV has made its way to American shores, a bit earlier than planned. There are no official cabinets yet, but arcade owners in the states have found a way of getting it running here. Apparently they’re buying the boards for Street Fighter IV cabinets from Japan, and just sticking them in any old cabinets! It’s a very grey area, and is not approved by Capcom, but if don’t mind playing a Japanese SF4 using 360 controllers, start looking around in your area! Also, apparently next month will mark the first time the public will get a taste of King of Fighters XII in Japan. I have to say, while not a huge graphical change like Street Fighter IV, the game looks stunning.
Oh yeah, and some dude built a giant snes controller. Check it out.
I finally got a new tablet! It’s a small sized Bamboo Fun, and holy shit man. I had no idea how AWFUL my old intuos was until I used this thing. So much easier to use. It’s retarded. Seriously. I love this thing. Link up there is the first thing I’ve drawn with it. Started it last night, but the pub called and I left. God damn, I just love this tablet so much man. The scrollwheel at the top makes things so fucking easy. I can zoom in and out and pan around a document without having to move away from what I’m doing. It’s awesome. Just awesome. Picture of the thing after the cut. Continue Reading… »
After spending an entire day working with flash, I needed something else to do besides watch Adult Swim or play video games. So, I decided to make a model of a 2D sprite. For those of you that don’t recognize him (why am I on your friends list?), he’s the main character from the game Cave Story. If you haven’t played, go look it up and play it. Right now. I’m not quite done yet, I don’t think. I want him too look more, I dunno, plasticy. Like an ipod or something. I will figure it out. I was gonna say some other shit, but I forget what it is. Whatever, it probably doesn’t matter then. I’m rambling. I got GTA4 back from Walsh, someone play free mode with me. :(
My work area got a great makeover today. Put up a new floating shelf on the back wall, along with all my little figurines. Put some speakers up there too, with a cord running through my desk to the speaker port on my laptop, WHICH IS ON THE FRONT, so lame. Either way, having real, proper sound is a real nice change. I also got a new all-in-one that can actually print in Vista, so, fuck yeah! I made a servbot! He’s up on the shelf now, next to the Song of Ice and Fire books. I really want to make some of the tubbypaws stuff,(mainly ceiling cat, portal, and sh2) but I’ll wait until I can get some nice card stock, or even have them printed at the local copy shop. I also got some of my own equipment back, along with an external DVD drive so I can set up my AMD PIC as a Linux retro gaming box. That will be in a later post though. Oh! And I finally got a fuckin power strip so that I can have my laptop, phone, printer, and lamp all plugged in at the same time! Scandal!
So I made one of those icons I’ve been seeing because, HELLO HOW COULD I NOT? Also, I totally downloaded Bionic Commando:Rearmed and Fable 2 Pub Games last night. Hey you guys? They are awesome. You should buy them too! Okay, I should do something serious now. Also, I will write a real post later. Or not. Probably not. Oh yeah, I joined twitter. Watch me not tweet @ http://twitter.com/thelivingrobot YAY!
I am sick again. I swear to god, I seem to be on some sort of sick cycle. Every two months or something. It’s awful. If someone so much as sneezes in the same room as me, I swear, I come done with a week long cold where my whole body aches, my throat is dry and torn, and my nose is like a block on concrete, that leaks all over the place. I fucking hate it! I’m really starting to wonder if I have a problem with my immune system, because you should not get sick this often! WTF?
I’m currently drinking down a quart of OJ and I’m about to take some Nyquil and hope it knocks me the fuck out. I can’t even get any work done during the day either because I can barely focus on watching TV, much less actually trying to do some work. I even tried drawing, and that lasted all of 3 minutes before I dropped the notebook and fell asleep. AWESOME.
This is one of the best things I’ve seen online in a long ass time. Made by Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy and Firefly, it is a movie of sorts starring Neil Patrick Harris as a villian trying to work his way up the evil ladder, and into the heart of a certain woman. If that doesn’t sell you on the show already, then gtfo of my friends list.
Special bonus! Nathan Fillion, aka Capt. Malcom Renolds, plays Dr. Horrible’s nemesis! How great is that??
I can’t wait for part three to come out.
BONUS CLIP:
This is unrelated to the show, but this clip of the moon passing the earth just blows my mind. It was taken by EPOXI, the unit that shot that copper into a comet to see what flew off, during its new mission to explore deep space. Check it out:
Microsoft announced a new Xbox LIVE is on the way along with a bunch of great new features. For example, you can now save your games, the entire game, to your HDD for quicker loading and no disc spinning. This is AWESOME news for me personally as it seems like I always get a disc problem right in the middle of a good game. You can also for parties of up to 8 players straight from the dashboard now, with party chat, then jump into a game, say Call of Duty 4, and be partied in game. You can also switch games, without losing your party. That’s just… that’s going to make gaming with friends so much easier.
They’re also going to replace gamercards with avatars. There was a lot of rumors about this going around a couple months ago, so it’s good to see that sometimes rumors are more than just that. The system seems alright, but what I really care about is the new dashboard. The dashboard has been totally designed, with a style that is much more visually appealing. Blades aren’t gone just yet though, you can access them using the guide button now. That means that you will have access to every blade while in a game. You have no idea how long I wanted this.
You can read more about these features as well as other new additions (higher res, xbox primetime, web access) at Major Nelson’s blog.
Also, check out this video from Xbox.com to get a look at the new dashboard. New Xbox Experience (Warning: Require Windows Media Player)
Sometimes I’m amazed at the world we live in. The above video shows a lighting system developed by Brilldea. The columns are actually plastic, with sets of red, blue, and green leds behind them, all contolled by a central computer. The results are amazing. It looks like something straight out a sci-fi movie. If you are as amazed by this as I am (could you imagine having entire walls made like this?), then you’ll want to check out their YouTube channel for more videos of the work they’ve done.
