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Ben Gelinas 22 hours ago
Bought the sequel to Valve's zombie-killing exercise in team building the other day, just about a year after I shelled out my hard-earned coral and silver for the first installment and played it to death. So far I've only had time to play through the first campaign, Dead Center. I want to get a feel for the campaigns on my own before I venture into the online world, or I'll get eaten alive by teammates and the undead (there's a difference?). Anyway, that's not what this post is about. I want you folks to shoot me some questions to ask of a Left 4 Dead 2 development team member at Valve, the fail-not company behind Half-Life, Counterstrike, Portal, etc. Get them to me by Sunday and I'll get 'em answered. Perhaps you're wondering why they made a sequel so soon after the original. Maybe you want to know why, of the four characters in each game, three are always male and one is always female. Don't be afraid to ask something challenging. Post the questions you want answered ...Ben Gelinas 1 days ago
A World of Warcraft player is suing the game's makers and asking expert testimony of celebrities he assumes understand what he's going through. [Link] San Francisco player Erik Estavillo feels that, along with his complaints that the game is too expensive, World of Warcraft contributes to his feelings of alienation. Alright, that's pretty silly. But here's where the whole thing descends into farce. Estavillo has subpoenaed Depeche Mode guitarist/songwriter Martin Gore and actress Winona Ryder as witnesses. Why? Because Estavillo believes they can expertly testify about alienation. Gore's naming has, at least, the slightest thread of logic behind it as he has crafted some great sad songs, and one could presume that he would be exorcising his own demons. I don't necessarily think that's true and sound logic, but as I said, there is the faintest bit of sense to it. Ryder though? Apparently, Estavillo thinks she's an expert due to her appreciation of "The Catcher in the ...Ben Gelinas 2 days ago
Perhaps you've heard of Rock Band? It's this game, right, and some people like it because you get fake plastic instruments and get to play along to popular songs past and present. It's retained what I'd call a cult following, in the same way that people who drive automobiles are members of a cult. I drink the poison punch of both groups, for the record. Here's the thing about Rock Band. It seems like pretty much every designer on the brilliant Harmonix team behind the game has started up a musical side project of sorts. And because of this, we're subjected to the product of these side projects in the form of playable tracks in their games. Rock Band 2's tracklist is a good example of what I'm talking about, Willis. The Harmonix songs on this game, well, they're generally not the most interesting you'll ever hear, and often sound generic. Held up against the Bowies, Beastie Boys and Pixies of the world, some are downright sad. There are some gems, though. What follows is a ...Ben Gelinas 3 days ago
After working a ten-day stint I have four days off. For some this might translate into a mini vacation, maybe a weekend ski trip to this weird place called Jasper to the west of our humble sprawl, but I say to hell with the outdoors. It's cold outdoors. I'm getting games. So consider this throwaway post a warning: there's going to be a lot of ramblings on this blog in the coming weeks on zombie killing in the deep south and/or all-too-close-to-real warfare in the latest Call of Duty. Edit: OK, so the giant, steel wheels of capitalism foiled my attempts to be ridiculously impulsive tonight, which is to say Modern Warfare was sold out. But that's a good thing, I guess, because now I can devote more time to Left 4 Dead 2... I should really play one game at a time anyway, right? Sigh...Ben Gelinas 4 days ago
On Monday evening, my palms were sweaty. Very sweaty. Over the course of a week, I plugged a lot of time into New Super Mario Bros. Wii. I made it to Bowser's castle on Saturday, but didn't really give it a full effort. The castle itself is a little underwhelming after everything we've been through to this point. On the other hand, it's very old school. I mean really old school. Bowser's castle has much more in common this time around with his domain in Mario 1, as opposed to 3 or World. That's probably because all the emphasis is on the fight with Bowser this time around. Though it only took me a handful of tries to beat him, it was one of the most intense and nerve wracking boss battles in any 2D Mario game. I'd say it even ranks up there with many of the 3D efforts, though they're hard to compare. By the time I put down my sweat soaked Wiimote, I was very satisfied with Bowser's effort. Looking back on it, the inevitable question that arises is this - is NSMBW a classic to be ...
