Videos of the Day



Two cool videos. Who would've thought that a flash game could turn into something so massive. Testament to the power of video games.

Speaking of flash games...


What's that? Flying pork you say?

Yes. It seems that John McCain Facebook page has a new app. CNN political ticker reports this. I don't have a facebook, so one of you social folks needs to get get your social ass on there and tell other social people if it's worth the download. Just not me. I'm not very social.

Before I go, a funny video. Indeed.



CERTIFIED AWESOMENESS

Frackity,frack frack! Need I say more? I think I might have to. I'm pretty sure that people around here read. I mean, we're all geeks are we not. I dare you to find one person on this site who has not read a book by Orson Scott Card. What's that? You say you've found 20? Shit. Alright, who cares. That's not why I'm typing this thing. Why I am typing is to enlighten the 5 people who's gonna read this to the GODSEND that is Lone Wolf and Cub.


Yeah, um, you see, I was gonna call ACS, but I didn't think it was any of my business.

Lone Wolf and Cub is this manga that was originally written in the 70's in Japan by a guy named Kazuo Koike and illustrated by Goseki Kojima. It came here in '87, but the distributing company went under and the series never completed. Here anyway. But guess what? Darkhorse picked it up and is publishing it now. And it is so good. Really.


Go Buy NOW!

Why is it so good? Why am I berating you with this this fanboy schtick? Stay with me here. The books explainthe epic that is the life of Itto Ogami- Ogami Itto for you hardcore wannabe's - and his son Daigoro. Itto used to be the Shogun's executioner it seems, and then was double crossed and his honor was tarnished by the rival Yagyu clan and people important to him are killed. To exact revenge, he, along with his 3 year old son, become assassins and go on meifumado- The Road to Hell/the cursed journey for vengeance.


One of the few people that Ogami Itto did not kill

The book reads like a regular American book but is on the small side. Smaller than your average book. The 1st three books, which are the ones that I've read so far are as simple as they are complex. They can be taken at face value. Stories about a samurai/assassin and his son. As that, they are pretty good and the art is just in a league of its own. There are two page spreads in the book that are so breathtaking, showing the serene calm before a fight or the entropy that is a fight already in progress. Its like watching a movie on paper. The angles at which the images are drawn are all similar to the ones a director filming a movie probably would have chosen to film from- not that I know anything about movies.

You can also psychoanalyze the writing of Koike and think about the style and rhythm of his phrases and dialogue. You can talk about how its much more deeper than Bleach or Reborn. You can talk about the sacrifices that one has to make to become an assassin and acheive vengeance. But I'm not gonna do that. 'Cause thats not my style. Although I will ask, have you reader, ever heard of anyone compare a prostitute to a beautiful flower of winter? I thought not. This is that kind of book. One that compares prostitutes to flowers of winter. Uh-huh.


Yeah. Prostitutes are winter flowers. If you can't comprehend that, don't even bother opening this book.

Nice paced action with good climaxes are the icing on the cake for this baby. Please frackfaces, if you have Bleach or Naruto in your house, sell them and then invest your ryo in Lone Wolf and Cub. If you don't you'll die an unfulfilled and pitiful human. Killed by Lone Wolf and Cub in a fit of rage at your stupidity.

Jesus Christ. If they did stuff like that over here it would be something else.

What stuff am I talking about? The fact that Codemasters is being Knighted. By the Queen Elizabeth herself. But wait how do you knight a company. You don't. But honoring the founders ain't half bad. Even though they no longer work at the company. But still, it's pretty cool. When was the last time something like that happened in the US?

GODSDAMN IT!

Do you remember Mark MacDonald? He used to work for 1up. Then he went to Japan, into hiding. He was last seen on a Brawl preview video with some guys from NeoGaf. Or so my sources tell me.

Well, Mr. MacDonald has reemerged from the Eastern Fortress, changed and...different? Anyway, he has partaken in a video that, I believe, shall go down in the anals of Internet Lore as one of the most insightful, thoughtful, light-shedding, partially funny and just overall great developer interviews/squaretable videos ever made.

We got J-Mak, Erik Wolpaw and Dylan Cuthbert of PixelJunk fame. Its a freakin epic video too, at 41 min length. So be prepared to be blown away with some major awesomeness.
At least that's what I thought.

Also at 31:47 you can see Ryan O'Donnell behind the wines, probably wishing he could partake in this CERTIFIED AWESOMENESS.

A radio program recently did a segment on New York's video game industry. It was pretty
interesting and brought up some interesting points.


link to site

If you live in NYC, the 5 bourughs, and you're trying to get an internship at a development
company, then you probably know how hard it is to find a non-cell phone game company.
The only one that I can think of off the top of my head is
Kaos Studios. Besides them, there's Take Two but its
their corporate/publishing office that located here not development. It seems I'm not the
http://www.nycfuture.org/images_pdfs/pdfs/GettingInTheGame.pdfonly one who
thinks this. Even if a conglomerate like EA could open up a development studio here, I would
rejoice. Then I wouldn't have to consider traveling to Canada to go to EA Academy.
Not that I have a problem doing that.

At first glance, you may think Square Enix’s new Nintendo DS role-playing game (RPG), The World Ends With You, may look like a remake of all the other RPGs to come out of Japan in the past 5 years. There’s the lone wolf hero, the spiky haired, manga inspired character designs and the amnesia-based storyline. Throw in a fairly complex battle system, and this game could be called Generic Role-Playing Game # 56. But that’s only at a first glance.

After spending a few hours with this game, you’ll realize that you are holding something special in your hands. It’s not like any other game that I’ve ever played. I’ll go so far as to say that The World Ends With You is one of the best RPGs ever made and its definitely the best RPG ever made for a mobile gaming platform.

For starters, it’s an original game from the company infamous for churning out sequels and spin-offs of the popular yet overused Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts games. The story of The World Ends With You is, surprisingly, set within the "modern world" of Shibuya, Tokyo. You’ll play as 15-year-old Neku Sakuraba, who awakes to find himself on the street in a struggle for his existence within a mysterious game constructed by a group known as the Reapers. Within a seven day time limit, Neku must complete missions assigned to him or face “erasure”. Throughout the course of the game, relationships are built and broken, secrets are revealed and ypu’ll stumble on many plot twists. There are some really touching moments in this well-plotted game; not something that I’d expect from a handheld game.


I'm Gonna Get You Sucka!
Most of the RPG’s that I’ve played with a great story are usually handicapped by a crappy battle system and vice versa. The exception has finally been found in The World Ends With You. Neku fights using pins that give him various powers. For example, a black pin, the first you get in the game, gives you the power to read minds. Others give you the power to shoot fireballs or create black holes. All of these attacks and the movement of Neku are controlled with the stylus on the bottom screen of the DS. The top screen is occupied by another character, usually a girl named Shiki, that you can control using either the directional pad or the face buttons (a, b, x, y). If you find it too confusing to control two combatants at once you can ignore Shiki and she will manage surprisingly well on her own, allowing you to focus on making Neku produce some amazing and visually stylized attacks.

The World Ends With You is one of the most distinctive RPG’s on any platform. It is up there with Final Fantasy VII and Skies of Arcadia.


CERTIFIED AWESOMENESS