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• Sailing the Internet Seas, Historical Preservation, and The Great Rumble Roses vs. Silent Hill vs. Metroid Dance Party Throwdown

  Beware! Sail too far to the east, brave soul, and you will come upon that most dangerous of seas. The sky changes to a sickly fresh bruise color, all angry purple and yellow, and the waves will toss madness and froth against the bow. Even the sturdiest ship, the steadiest mind, will be shaken by the foul humors waiting for them beyond the horizon. Ye have been warned. Beware! Beware the internet! I got lost in an internet vortex this afternoon. It all started innocently enough. Smooth sailing, reading Multiplayer’s interview with Steve Papoustis about Dead Space: Extraction. This led to Matt Hawkins’ Fort 90, and that’s when things started to veer off course. For anyone unfamiliar, Matt’s one of NYC’s great games journalists, but he’s also a madly prolific renaissance man. Fort 90 is a dangerous place, dense with images and text. It’s an easy place to lose your bearings, and that’s what happened to me. Matt linked to the Garry’s Mod work of one MrWhiteFolks. MrWhiteFolks made some spectacular high resolution images of No More Heroes character models stripped of their cel-shading. Very cool stuff. He also made this: Oh there’s more. Much more. Read More... Posted Feb 26 2009, 06:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, metroid, no more heroes, resident evil, silent hill, gears of war, halo, resident evil 4, dead or alive, dead space, mtv, silent hill 2, dead space extraction, gmod, silent hill 3, rumble roses, fort 90, garry’s mod

• Fandom Unplugged: The Beginning

  “Fandom,” that which compels us to gravitate to others who enjoy our pursuits (video games), can be a difficult thing to tolerate thanks to a certain percentage of maniacs. You would be amazed at how heated a debate can get if it's about whether or not Miles Edgeworth from Phoenix Wright is circumcised. We witness these baffling arguments, and we swear we'll never get so passionate about such stupidities. But the very next week, we lose ourselves in a message board argument and pound out words like “GAYlo” before we pull back the reins and gape in horror at what we've become. Why do we fall so easily? Is this what comes of the Internet and other technologies that save us enough time to wonder with friends in Brazil about whether or not Dr Light built Roll with certain “hardware?” Or is fandom just part of an ancestral grouping instinct that dates back to a swampy era wherein our ancestors declared everyone to be either “Crug” (“Part of my awesome tribe”) or “Flarth” (“Part of that other, lamer tribe”)? Read More... Posted Feb 04 2009, 11:26 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with no comments Filed under: mega man, phoenix wright, halo, fandom, nadia oxford, game magazines, fandom unplugged

• Whatcha Playing: Tribes 2

  I moved on from Myst III: Exile the moment I found out about Tribes Next, a group of superfans dedicated to preserving the Tribes 2 experience on their own dedicated server, now that original developer Dynamix is Kaput. After a few hours playing old maps from the original Starseige Tribes, I can comfirm that it's exactly like I remembered it back in highschool.  Read More... Posted Jan 08 2009, 05:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: cole stryker, halo, team fortress 2, starseige: tribes, tribes 2

• The Ten Greatest Ice Levels in Gaming History, part 3

  Donkey Kong Country – Snow Barrel Blast Donkey Kong Country isn’t the most fondly remembered SNES game out there. It was marketed to hell and back in 1994, its pre-rendered characters shoved down millions of gamers’ gullets as a final grasp at technological relevance before the dawn of 3D gaming’s rule. At heart, it’s a simplistic and fun platformer whose visuals have aged poorly. But certain stages in DKC still impress fourteen years later, thanks to a combination of inspired graphical presentation and deft sound arrangement. Snow Barrel Blast is the best DKC has to offer. An ice level that seems simple enough when Donkey and Diddy Kong emerge from an igloo at the start but soars when the sky starts to darken and the level goes from sunny winter landscape to brooding driving snow storm. It’s purely aesthetic, not informing the game’s basic platforming at all. But its beauty makes it the one thing memorable about DKC besides the hype. – JC Read More... Posted Oct 16 2008, 08:10 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: actraiser, metal gear solid, top ten, dawn of sorrow, castlevania, list, donkey kong, chrono trigger, sonic the hedgehog, halo, super mario bros 2, donkey kong country, metroid prime, metal gear solid 4, keiji inafune, lost planet, yuzo kushiro, ice levels, tim burton, starship troopers, marquis de sade, shadow moses, diddy kong, soma cruz, danny elfman, sonic and knuckles, ice cap zone, phendrana drifts, super ghouls 'n' ghosts, quintet, kenji yamamoto

• The Ten Greatest Ice Levels in Gaming History, part 2

  Lost Planet – The Whole Game Lost Planet, Keiji Inafune’s attempt to make Halo for Japan, is one of this console generation’s most underappreciated games. The shooting is tight, the levels are impeccably designed, the automated-grappling-hook platforming is neat, and the Starship Troopers-bug baddies are some of the cooler looking HD threats out there. Sure, it has some clunky parts, but the good far outweighs the bad. What’s more, the entire game is all about snow and ice. The initial stages, wandering the frozen wastes of E.D.N. III, are still jaw dropping. It isn’t even the swirling snow or the ice-bound cities; it’s the sound, the crunch, of stomping through snow drifts. My teeth grit just thinking about it. The snowy setting is also behind Lost Planet’s health system. Your health is constantly draining because of the cold, so you’re forced to constantly collect the body heat of felled foes. That is cooler than crawling inside a Taun-Taun. – JC Read More... Posted Oct 16 2008, 08:05 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: actraiser, metal gear solid, top ten, dawn of sorrow, castlevania, list, donkey kong, chrono trigger, sonic the hedgehog, halo, super mario bros 2, donkey kong country, metroid prime, metal gear solid 4, keiji inafune, lost planet, yuzo kushiro, ice levels, tim burton, starship troopers, marquis de sade, shadow moses, diddy kong, soma cruz, danny elfman, sonic and knuckles, ice cap zone, phendrana drifts, super ghouls 'n' ghosts, quintet, kenji yamamoto

• The Ten Greatest Ice Levels in Gaming History, part 1

  Autumn may only be a few weeks old, but, as it is with all seasons, you can feel its successor growing during the increasingly long nights. It’s getting cold and the chill has got us thinking about cool things, here at 61 Frames Per Second. As a result, we’re doing two things. One, we’re quoting Batman and Robin far more than we should. Two, we’re thinking about ice levels. Ice levels, like fire levels, refers to a theme more than a specific element. An ice level is more than ice. It’s freezing water, driving snow, strong wind, and grey skies. It’s gaming that makes you want to wrap up in a giant bearskin rug. Naked. Or not, to each their own. Here, we present to you, the top ten greatest ice levels in gaming history. – John Constantine Chrono Trigger – Death Peak *Spoilers. Big Ones.* The snow-capped peak is not an uncommon locale in role-playing games. You’ve been there before: there’s a giant monster, typically abominable, waiting for you at the summit, and the journey to him is guaranteed to entail solving an ice block puzzle or three. You are also guaranteed to find some convenient Ice Armor or even, if you’re lucky, a Fire Sword. Chrono Trigger’s Death Peak, the lone natural environment in the Lavos-ruined 2300 AD, is different. It is, ostensibly, optional. Like everything else in Trigger’s end game following the silent hero’s death, you can skip the mountain entirely, though ascending it is fundamental in reaching the plot’s true conclusion. Death Peak is the physical embodiment of everything at stake in Trigger’s conflict, a frozen place inhabited by stray creatures, cold, and Lavos’ offspring, growing fat on decay, waiting to leave the dead planet to claim others as their own. Its challenge is both environmental and emblematic: your surviving heroes must push against snow and wind, against nature, to both save the world and also their fallen friend. No boss waits at the pinnacle, just a dreary sky and a chance to use the Chrono Trigger itself. When Crono is resurrected, the wind and snow cease, the sun emerges from the clouds and is eclipsed. If you choose to see it, it is the turning point in the game, the moment hope overcomes despair. – JC Read More... Posted Oct 16 2008, 08:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: actraiser, metal gear solid, top ten, dawn of sorrow, castlevania, list, donkey kong, chrono trigger, sonic the hedgehog, halo, super mario bros 2, donkey kong country, metroid prime, metal gear solid 4, keiji inafune, lost planet, yuzo kushiro, ice levels, tim burton, starship troopers, marquis de sade, shadow moses, diddy kong, soma cruz, danny elfman, sonic and knuckles, ice cap zone, phendrana drifts, super ghouls 'n' ghosts, quintet, kenji yamamoto

• You Got Soul, But You're Not a Soulja Boy

  It's kind of embarassing to watch someone who's full of himself swagger and boast about nothing. Rapper Soulja Boy is up to the very same. He's thrown down the gauntlet to the whole damn world: he wants to dust your ass at any Xbox 360 game of your choosing. Ooh! Ooh! Let's play Eternal Sonata, rapper sir! Loot Ninja has kindly summed up Soulja's rant, which kind of goes on for seven game-throwing minutes (Oh God it pains me to watch people treat games like that--and I'm not exactly the patron Saint of immaculate game storage). The blog even links to Soulja's Halo 3 stats, which aren't all that hot. Read More... Posted Oct 10 2008, 11:08 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: halo 3, halo, challenge, nadia oxford, soulja boy

• Gears of LittleBig Fable Music: Considering the First-Party Blitz

  October brought its true fury and grandeur to New York today. It took three days, but the nattering leftovers of summer finally drifted out to sea like so many dead leaves and left behind the lowlight and intent wind so particular to the month. Walking down the street, I could smell it, looming like bonfire smoke and Halloween parades: game season. I hold no love for the business structure that sees some ninety-percent of the year’s most ballyhooed games releasing all within a tight ten week window. It leads to sensory overload and, for the devoted gamer, it adds to already-big backlogs. But I’d be lying if I said it isn’t always exciting. All of the hype, all of the previews, leaked screens, developer showcases, and high, high hopes all lead here and it always begins in October. Holiday 2008, as it were, is going to be a particularly interesting season considering that it is gaming’s first to witness true third-party agnosticism. Nigh on every publisher from East and West is releasing their biggest games on any and all platforms available. (There are rare exceptions. See Sega’s Valkyria Chronicles, Valve’s Left4Dead, and a number of Wii titles.) This brings even closer scrutiny to the console holders' offerings; more than ever, first-party games need to be system sellers. They have to act as ambassadors, convincing casual and hardcore gamers alike that if they put money into such and such a system, there will be more where that came from. Read More... Posted Oct 03 2008, 05:30 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, little big planet, playstation 3, motorstorm, resistance, nintendo, microsoft, xbox 360, wii, sony, gran turismo, gears of war, animal crossing, halo, fable, wii music, lips, banjo kazooie, ridge racer

• Master Chief Asks: Have You Seen This Girl?

  Maybe it's one of those pesky US/Canadian differences, but growing up, I didn't water my Lucky Charms with containers of milk sponsored by lost children. No one asked, "HAVE YOU SEEN ME?" in a silent scream, so I guess I missed out on one of those childhood experiences that are good for chilling your bones and not much else. Well, now I have an opportunity to tick off that empty square on my Childhood Checklist. Halo 3 is the new proverbial milk carton, though it's hardly the way Bungie wanted things. In what Gamepro describes as "an unfortunate cross-cultural coincidence," the new trailer for the upcoming Halo 3 expansion pack stands to remind some British folk about the abduction of Madeleine McCann. Madeleine made headlines worldwide when she disappeared from a Portuguese resort while on holidays with her parents. For several days in May 2007, headlines asked, "Where's Maddie?" Read More... Posted Sep 29 2008, 02:08 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with no comments Filed under: halo 3, halo, master chief, nadia oxford, maddie, where's maddie, expansion pack, madeleine mccann

• This Just In: Olympians Play Video Games

  Did you guys hear? Michael Phelps is a gamer. He loves hip-hop music, video games and watches DVDs endlessly while relaxing between races. He's also kind of a jerk about it. One week, he played so much Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf on his Nintendo Wii, he came to practice with a sore shoulder, and Bowman said if that ever happened again he was taking the video game console away. Video games are one of his favorite escapes, and if he wants to play them, no one is going to stop him. This is especially true of girlfriends or potential girlfriends. "If I want to play video games, I'm playing video games," he says. Amanda Beard is a gamer, and she's totally jazzed about being on the cover of that new Olympics video game. Read More... Posted Aug 18 2008, 06:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: cole stryker, halo, madden, olympics, tiger woods, mainstream media, michael phelps

• Fallen Empire: Legions Gives Tribes a New Coat of Paint

  I never got into Halo. I have nothing against squad-based combat; I spent plenty of hours in high school playing Rainbow Six and Rogue Spear. But there was one game that consumed my waking life more than any other. After working a ten-hour dinner shift at Mickie D's, I'd throw open my window to let the cool night air into my stuffy room and fire up Starsiege: Tribes, playing until dawn and sleeping through the afternoon. It was an easy way to avoid the summer heat and my nagging parents. The easiest way to describe Tribes to the uninitiated is "Like Halo, but with jetpacks." It was the first online multiplayer game I experienced, and it remains one of my all-time fav's. Playing Halo after experiencing the mid-air bliss of Tribes was like going from a roller coaster to bumper cars. "Like Halo, but AWESOME" also works. Read More... Posted Aug 04 2008, 05:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: rainbow six, cole stryker, halo, stasiege: tribes, fallen empire: legions, rogue spear

• Star Wars: A New Halo

  Some people might consider this irrelevant, but The Escapist hosts more than Yahtzee and Zero Punctuation. Kung Fu Grip, a foul-mouthed theatre of action figure puppetry (think Robot Chicken) also nests on the site. Videos featuring game characters being violent, vulgar and nailing anything that moves isn't really new, but Kung Fu Grip has a few videos worth watching. Consider the series' latest, Star Wars: A New Halo, which replaces the bumbling Storm Troopers from Star Wars with the git-r-done good ol' Spartan boys from Halo. You won't be taking them down with Jedi mind tricks, nor will they waste time pounding on a locked door when they could be blowing it up. Read More... Posted Aug 01 2008, 04:32 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with no comments Filed under: star wars, yahtzee, the escapist, halo, video, kung fu grip, fan stuff

• End Game: The Necessary Evil of Boss Fights

  Warning! Danger! Other exclamations accompanied by loud noises and/or flashing lights on-screen! The boss fight is a staple of single and co-operative multiplayer game design, instances placed throughout a game to act as a final and extreme test of a player’s skill at a given game’s rule set. In his expert dissection of boss fight design over at Gamasutra, Nayan Ramachandran uses the metaphor of pedagogical structure to describe the roll of boss confrontations in gaming: Games in which bosses appear have levels that are usually designed like a traditional class syllabus. If you were to liken the the length of a game’s level to a semester of studying, learning the game’s boundaries and mechanics and the flaws of the enemies it throws at you, then surely the boss is the final exam for the class. Testing the skills you’ve learned on your journey to this powerful character, as well as the powers and weapons you’ve collected over time, the boss character is meant to be a milestone of achievement for the player. It offers structure where there might not be any. It is the personification of a climax. Ramachandran predominantly uses examples and forms culled from action based gaming to examine the form but boss confrontations cross most game genres. Read More... Posted Jun 18 2008, 10:00 AM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, gamasutra, mario, halo, boss, bowser, Nayan Ramachandran

• Guns and Football: The Ten Best Selling Games in America

  It’s one thing to hear people in the international community exclaim that Americans are loud slobs who don’t care about anything except violence and football. It’s another to see it spelled out in raw numbers. Brian Caulfield of Forbes, using data provided by the NPD Group, wrote an article early last week looking at the ten best selling videogames in the US as of April 2008. The list, after the jump. Read More... Posted Jun 09 2008, 12:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, top ten, call of duty, guitar hero, halo, grand theft auto, madden

• Games Cost Money: Sony Cans The Getaway and Eight Days

  While the salad days of the Playstation 2 are at an end for Sony, things have been looking up for the entrenched corporate monster in 2008. Little Big Planet continues to wow, Gran Turismo 5: Prologue had a healthy release in April for a game that’s little more than a demo, and the buzz surrounding Metal Gear Solid 4’s impending release is loud enough to even drown out some of that Grand Theft Auto fervor that’s been going on. The stigma surrounding the Playstation 3 – that it’s an expensive, ugly machine without many games to play on it – is slowly starting to fade, and it has everything to do with some truly exciting exclusive software. So it’s disheartening to hear that two games being developed by Sony’s own London Studio have been cancelled. Eight Days, a Michael Bay-tinged action game that fused car chases with shootouts in the American southwest, and The Getaway, a sequel to London Studio’s successful PS2 Brit-crime drama series, have both been given the axe “due to the redistribution of resources and budget.” While I’m the first to exclaim my love for the big-budget blockbuster games coming out on the 360, PS3, and PC these days, the truth is that, for at least the short-term future, they may not be an economically feasible pursuit for most developers. Read More... Posted Jun 05 2008, 11:00 AM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, little big planet, next-gen, xbox 360, metal gear solid, sony, gran turismo, Playstation, halo, the getaway, eight days