Yearly Archives: 2013
Geek Links of the Week
Curt Schilling talks about the stress of the failure of 38 Studios. [Boston Globe]
Tesla’s CEO was very much against letting their signature car in Project Gotham Racing 4. It was quite a comical blowup over licensing and how the car would be represented. [Jalopnik]
A new study says that playing StarCraft can improve your cognitive abilities? Yeah, Mr. White! Yeah, science! [Slashdot]
New research shows that about 60% of the world’s online porn is hosted in America. USA! USA! [BetaBeat]
Archeologists in Turkey have found 5,000-year-old board game pieces. I believe that Wil Wheaton lost that game too. [The Verge]
Share this:
Building (Critical) Consensus: Plants vs. Zombies 2
Given that I own a BlackBerry, I don’t do a lot of mobile gaming so I won’t have too long of a preamble before we get to what the critics think of Plants vs. Zombies 2. This is the sequel to the popular tower defense game and isn’t the third-person shooter that was previewed at E3. But good news for PvZ fans: Critics love this game and still love this franchise.
Share this:
SEC, Big Ten and Pac-12 Not Licensing Trademarks to EA Sports
It’s not just the NCAA whose logo won’t appear in this year’s edition of EA’s College Football franchise (formerly known as NCAA Football). The Southeastern Conference (SEC) and the Big Ten have joined the NCAA in not licensing their name and logos for use in the popular game.
Share this:
Papers, Please Review: Glory to Arstotzka
When you think of unexplored genres that would make for interesting games, I don’t think that customs officer simulation would be one of them. Yet, Papers, Please is one of more interesting games that I’ve played in a while… Even if it does seem at time like a desk organization simulator too.
Share this:
EA Helps Charities with the Humble Origin Bundle
Just when I was questioning the use of the Humble Bundle platform by big publishers, EA goes and turns everything on its head. And shockingly, EA is doing it for the best.
The latest Humble Bundle is a large offering of EA games which might I would have looked at rather cynically after the recent “humble” Deep Silver bundle. However, EA isn’t taking a penny with all of the proceeds of the Humble Origin Bundle going to charity and Humble Bundle.
Share this:
US Congress Investigating Bitcoin
You’ve heard of Bitcoin and you might even actually understand how Bitcoin works but that doesn’t mean that it’s above scrutiny. The US Congress has launched an investigation into Bitcoin and the world virtual currencies to gain understanding of them and determine what, if any, regulations should be placed on them.
Share this:
GameStop Accused of Reprinting and Raising the Price of Xenoblade Chronicles
The one critically acclaimed Wii game that almost no one you know has been able to get a copy of is Xenoblade Chronicles. That’s because the game had a fairly limited print run and was only available through GameStop and Nintendo stores.
This week, mysteriously, GameStop stores seem to have been innundated with used copies of Xenoblade Chronicles and are selling them for $90 each. The problem is that people are accusing GameStop of shady practices saying that they aren’t actually used copies but reprints being passed off as used to justify selling copies at higher than the original $50 price.
Share this:
Get Great Indie Game Soundtracks for $1 with Game Music Bundle 5
I’ve never heard of the Game Music Bundle before but that certainly changed with the amazing lineup of music put together for their 5th bundle.
Game Music Bundle 5 includes the soundtracks to indie hits like Fez, Monaco and FTL for only a $1 minimum purchase.
Share this:
Xbox One Doesn’t Need a Kinect Connected to Work
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Microsoft is playing the PR long game with the Xbox One. After getting everyone mad at them when announcing the Xbox One, they’re going back on the “features” that gamers didn’t like and are turning the tide of the PR war by reverting to the status quo.
In a Q&A session, Microsoft’s Chief Xbox One Platform Architect, Marc Whitten, revealed that the Xbox One would still be able to function whether or not the Kinect was broken or plugged in.
Share this:
Games Industry All-Stars Team Up for Project Phoenix
The latest game to take Kickstarter by storm is an indie JRPG called Project Phoenix. The game got so much attention that it was able to achieve its $100,000 fundraising goal within nine hours of being launched on the crowd funding website.
While that would normally be an unexpectedly fast time to reach a Kickstarter goal, it’s not so odd when you consider that the crew working on Project Phoenix are among the biggest names in the industry.
et geekera 