As I’m working non-stop for Hi-Gamers, I can confirm that 3D Space Tank is one of the best games available on the european DSiWare (X-Scape in the north-american version) and that I’m working on new texts for the blog. If the suspense doesn’t kill you… The boredom of seeing weekly links rather than something new will.
- Robert Yang, over at Radiator Blog, explores some Dragon Age mods that trick party members into bypassing gender blocks. In other words, Yang played as a male character and Alistair recognized his character as female. In Yang’s words, the result “was an oddly tragic playthrough with inadvertent commentary on gay marriage”, wherein Yang realizes – in a key point of the game’s story – that “even using mods or hacks would never change this crucial consequence of the story: Alistair must have children, but I will never be able to provide him with one because I don’t have a vagina”. It’s interesting to note that in Dragon Age, Zevran is a legitimate homosexual romance option, but Alistair’s dialogues are so neutral that they could be easily applied to either male or female characters. Dragon Age’s events during Landsmeet, filtered by the mod, remind Yang of a former relationship of his but also about gay relationships themselves. “Yes gay men can adopt a child or get a surrogate to bear a child, but is it the same?“
- “Fable II had huge design flaws”, Peter Molyneux dixit. Another Fable on the way, another series of criticisms aimed at his previous game. I admit a certain bewilderment at this kind of news. After the universe was the only thing left unpromised by Project Ego, Molyneux apologized for not keeping his promisses with Fable. After promoting Fable II as some sort of revolution, now’s the time to reveal that, at a given point during its development cycle, “the Microsoft Test Team pointed out 67 thousant bugs”. By the end of the 1980′s, Bullfrog Productions achieved great technical feats with a handful of programmers. Nowadays, Lionhead produces technically impaired games and spents almost as much time promoting their games as they do criticizing them. How do people reward this intellectual dishonesty? It’s nice that people vote with their wallets; the problem is those holding it are usually the kind that eat ice creams with their forehead.
- “Franz Kafka wanted all his manuscripts to be burned after his death, but his friend Max Brod disregarded the request, seeding a complex legal battle over thousands of manuscripts that has the literary world agog. That legal tussle takes a new twist today as four safety deposit boxes in a Zurich bank containing the manuscripts are opened”. Whatever happened to honoring friendships? Or to someone’s right to privacy? I’m reminded of the backlash Ted Hughes suffered when he confessed to having burned Sylvia Plath’s personal journals, because he didn’t want their children to realize their mother’s condition. Burning them may not have been the best choice of action, but many criticisms were born out of this terrible obsession with wanting to know more about someone. Where does the distinction between fan and vulture begin and end?
- “What if Pac-Man is really a gluttonous German burgher out to gorge himself while dodging the ghosts of those he has so callously wronged, à la Dickens?” The Theatre of the Arcade is a series of videogame moments adapted to a threatre play. From Mario and Luigi as stoned and hallucinating about plants, to Donkey Kong as an abusive meathead straight out of a Tennessee Williams script, anything goes.
- “In May 2000 I was fired from my job as a reporter on a finance newsletter because of an obsession with a video game. It was the best thing that ever happened to me”. So begins “This Gaming Life”, Jim Rossignol’s book about Quake 3, World of Warcraft and Eve Online, among others, and with highlights about videogame culture in London, Seoul and Reykjavik. Although it’s still available for those who enjoy reading words carved into dead trees, Rossignol’s book now has a free, online version as well. Do read.
- From Dopefish to the Secret Cow Level, easter eggs in videogames aren’t exactly new. But they go back a long way and weren’t always based on secret levels or cameos. Over at equ.in/ox, I found a page about ZX Spectrum easter eggs; speficially, hidden content in loading screens. These go from standard artist comments or “thank you” messages to weirder stuff, like references to The Smiths and The Beatles, along with sentences that will make our race seem highly advanced to aliens who land upon our husk of a planet millions of years from now, such as (and I quote): “ELO AGAIN NOT MUTCH ROOM SO IT WILL HAVE TO BE SHORT THIS TIME AAHHH!!; NAFF ALL OUT THIS MONTH IS THERE, CYBENOID’S GOOD BUT THATS IT OH YES I AM OFF SKIING THIS YEAR. OPPS RAN OUT OF SPACE. JABBA”. Yes.
- For those who thought speedruns were exclusive to videogames, here is the shortest game session of Monopoly.
- Did you like Machinarium? Would you like to have a figurine of the lead character? Make your own version of Josef the robot with this guide, courtesy of J. D. Richardson.
- Ladies and gentlemen, the Periodic Table of Swearing.
- How all men’s food should look.
- 8-bit Poker Face.
- An 8 month old deaf baby’s reaction to a hearing implant being activated. Beyond words.
- “Let’s talk about windows. I’M A CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIAN. And if you’re interested in windows, call me“.
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