Monthly Archives: March 2013

There’s Still Time to Pledge to Rogue System

Just a quick reminder/heads-up that epic looking space sim Rogue System is in the final hours of its Kickstarter campaign. We profiled the game briefly a couple of weeks ago and came to the inevitable conclusion that this thing will be absolutely epic. However, it still needs your money to make it happen.

Click here for the Rogue System Kickstarter. You can pledge until about 11:00 PM EDT (about nine hours after posting).

This Week in PBS Documentaries: The Rise of Web Comics

I have to give PBS’ Off Book credit. They’re putting out some pretty good short documentaries about web culture. It sure shakes the stereotypical image of PBS of kids shows, imported British programming and fundraising drives.

This time out, Off Book looks at the rise of the web comic.

Bastion Developer Supergiant Games is Working on a New Sci-Fi RPG

transistor-screenshot-01One of the greatest indie games of all-time is Bastion. That’s not an opinion. Consensus among both gamers and critics was that Bastion was absolutely amazing. It won numerous awards for the narrative, music, art design and overall RPG and indie game awards.

Naturally, when Supergiant Games announces that it’s making another game, everyone is going to take notice. This week, Supergiant unveiled their next game, Transistor.

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Was the Death Star’s Destruction an Inside Job?

Is it possible that it wasn’t Rebel Alliance pilot Luke Skywalker didn’t destroy the Death Star with a perfectly aimed torpedo from an outdated X-Wing fighter? Is it possible that the destruction of the Death Star was an inside job that went all the way up the Empire to Darth Vader?

YouTuber Graham Putnam examines the possibility in this Loose Change style documentary. Even though it has several factual errors, it’s still a pretty neat video.

The Showdown Effect Review: Yippee-ki… Ah, Screw It

the-showdown-effect-bannerHave you ever wondered what would happen if Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Bruce Lee and Liam Neeson did battle in a giant battle royale of action movie superstars? I’m sure a drunken conversation has resulted in a battle between movie heroes but nobody’s really gone beyond the argument over pints.

The Showdown Effect, a new game from Magicka devs Arrowhead Studios, tries to answer the question of which action star would win if placed in a battle to the death. If Super Smash Bros. dropped the more family oriented direction for the comically clichéd action ripped out of 80s and 90s action movies, it would be The Showdown Effect.

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Social Media Explained with Cats

Admit it, the internet was created to share pictures and videos of cats. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you can enjoy all the wonders of the internet. To help you figure out what kinds of cat pictures and videos you can find around the internet or just to help you figure out what various social media sites are about, we have this comic that describes the internet using cats.

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Building (Critical) Consensus: Gears of War: Judgment

For the second time in as many weeks, another GoW game was released. However, this isn’t a new God of War but a new Gears of War. Judgment is a prequel in the lore of the Gears of War story. This one doesn’t focus on the exploits of chainsaw-wielding, steroid-using hero Marcus Fenix but Damon Baird who was a secondary character in the previous trilogy of games.

Were the critics tired of another game in another franchise that might just be getting milked to death or was something special done with the 4th (Microsoft) GoW game? Read the rest of this entry

Who Wants to Live (and Die) on Mars?

mars-one-2022It seems as though we’ve settled on Mars being the next step in humanity’s continuing quest to explore space.

A few weeks ago, millionaire Dennis Tito announced his Inspiration Mars project to send a two-person crew on a mission to travel to and around Mars in a 17-month round-trip from Earth to the Red Planet in 2018.

This isn’t the first manned mission to Mars that’s been announced. In 2011, Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp announced his plan to send people to Mars to start a permanent human settlement on Mars in 2023. However, in a recent interview with the CBC, Lansdorp revealed that his Mars One project isn’t a round trip.

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Watch the Blood Fly in Hotline Miami: The Fan Film

Hotline Miami was one of the surprise hits of gaming in 2012. It might have been because of the gratuitous violence but it was more than likely because of how fun and challenging the gameplay was.

Well, the gratuitous violence was recreated in this fan film by a group of high school students. I doubt it would go over well with their teachers but the Hotline Miami Facebook page sure liked it.

Building (Critical) Consensus: StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm

The RTS world begins and ends with Blizzard’s StarCraft series. People love it so much that I don’t recall much in the way of complaining when Blizzard said that StarCraft II would come out in three parts focused on each of the three species in the game. It launched with Wings of Liberty in 2010. Last week, the first expansion pack for SC2 was launched. Did the critics think Heart of the Swarm lived up to the franchise?

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