Today I dusted off my XBOX 360, and checked out some of the new games and demos. One game that I ended up buying for the arcade was Castle Crashers. So what’s good you say? Well, honestly, pretty much everything from top to bottom. If you can’t tell from the above picture it is an old-school side scroller that is slightly reminiscent of the old TMNT’s arcade game–complete with the retro cell animation look. The plot of the game is pretty simple. You’re a knight (of various colors, but there are a ton of extra characters that you can unlock) who have to go save four princesses who have been kidnapped. You will travel throughout all different kinds of terrains to look for them–volcano, desert, forest, ice et al–and all of the terrains have a distinct look and feel. They really did put a lot of details in all of the different areas–which brings me to the art work.
The art work and character design is completely rad, with characters that look new but also familiar (personally I’d say some Futurama, Simpsons, and Ren & Stimpy influences–and probably even more that I don’t get). The gameplay is furious. It is not quite a straight button mashing game, but there are times where it is close, and after a few hours of playing you will be hard pressed to use your hands for anything but the most pedestrian of tasks. There is also a ton of items that have to be collected and found, which some people don’t like, but I have always like collecting items in games. I’m weird like that. Also there is a ton of humor, and hidden easter eggs throughout the game. Stuff that you might not catch until your secon or third time through.
One of the best parts of the game, however, is that you can play 4-player online co-op. More games need to include this feature, because it adds immense replay value to the game. I’m already looking forward to some long seshs hacking and slashing my way through the game whilst drinking some nice cold Colorado Kool-Aid. Besides the main game–that has 20 levels–there are a couple of mini games that it comes with. One is “All You Can Quaff” which is a game where you have to mash buttons to eat food faster than the other knights–this game absolutely kills the hands. The other game is an Arena fighting game where you have to fight a bunch of enemies. Each round you play they increase in number.
So that’s pretty much it. It’s a great game, and if you have a 360 you should definitely buy it because it is worth it. Castle Crashers is a great addition to you XBLA, and it’s an even cooler throwback to the old side scroller days. Go get it…now.
I hope you can see this, because I'm doing it as hard as I can.
Ok in honor of the X-Files coming out this week, I am going to post this story via AICN. This is a conversation between Dr. Edgar Mitchell, a former Apollo 14 astronaut, and someone from Kerrang radio, in which Mitchell claims that aliens exist, and that the government has been covering it up for 60 years. Cool stuff or maybe the ramblings of a Professor Farnsworthesque crazy scientist. Who knows maybe walking on the moon for over 9hrs just completely makes a person insane, or maybe he has seen shit that we only think exists in the X-Files. Story here, and more news coverage here, here, here, and here, if you’re interested.
Ok so the NY Daily News is reporting that a bunch of youths went on a Grand Theft Auto style crime spree:
It’s “game over” for six teens who were inspired by a violent video game to go on a crime spree early Thursday, police said. Three of the youths mugged a man in the parking lot of a New Hyde Park supermarket late Wednesday, Nassau County cops said. Emulating best-selling bloodfest “Grand Theft Auto” and armed with bats and crowbars, the posse marched through the streets just past midnight. They stole a pack of cigarettes from a woman in a car and smacked a van with a bat, cops said. The woman called police.
Brandon Cruz, 15, Stephen Attard, 18, and Samuel Philip, 16, all of New Hyde Park, Dylan Laird, 17, of Southborough, Mass., and an unnamed 14-year-old were charged with robbery. Jaspreet Singh, 17, of New Hyde Park, was charged with possession of stolen property.
Now what I’m trying to figure out is where in all of this did they get that the youths were influenced by GTA? Is it because they are young and GTA was recently released? Where is the proof? This is the type of tabloid, sensational journalism that pisses me off. They provide absolutely no proof that GTA influenced these kids. How about giving me a statement where the kid says, “I just wanted to copy GTA.” Nope. Instead they just lay the blame on video games, because god knows that kids are soooo influenced by video games, TV, and movies. There is no such thing as kids who are just bad seeds, nope not at all. Now if they print some sort of proof then ok, but they don’t, instead they just make a random claim without any sort of evidence. Whatever happened to integrity and research? Gone the way of the dodo I guess.
Traditionally considered a work of fiction new astronomical findings have suggested that The Odyssey might be more grounded in reality than previously thought.
Now scientists have pinned down his return to April 16, 1178 B.C., close to noon local time, according to astronomical references in the epic poem that seem to pinpoint the total eclipse of the sun on the day that Odysseus supposedly returned on.
But being good scientists they decided to check other astronomical signs that are mentioned in the epic, and they found that all the other astronomical signs amazingly point to the same day.
The scientists then searched for potential dates that satisfied all these astronomical references close to the fall of Troy, which has over the centuries been estimated to have occurred between roughly 1250 to 1115 B.C. From these 135 years, they found just one date satisfied all the references — April 16, 1178 B.C., the same date as the proposed eclipse.
“That’s just one day out of about 50,000 days,” Magnasco told LiveScience. “If our findings are correct, it would be pretty spectacularly strange. How could Homer have known about this eclipse, about planetary positions that happened some 100 years before him? If this is all true, it would change the timetable of what we think they knew about astronomy then.” Homer, if he really existed, is said to have composed the “Odyssey” sometime near the end of the ninth century B.C.
Maybe it’s just me, but I love stuff like this. By the way if you haven’t read The Iliad or The Odyssey,you should put that on your to-do list. Check the full article here.
Well it might be a bit of a stretch to call The 6th Day art, but it looks like life is following it’s lead.
BioArts International has launched the Golden Clone Giveaway, in which one lucky dog lover will be selected to have his or her favorite pooch duplicated from DNA.
I honestly wish something like this was around when I was a kid, and my parents could afford to blow $100,000 on something so frivilous. Instead I had to learn the hard way that animals and people die.
Seriously I know this seems like old new, but it’s not. The status of Pluto has once again been changed this time to a plutoid. This is the third different classification of Pluto is the last year or so which is making it hard for teachers, but I’m sure publishers love it as it gives them a reason to put out yet another revision.
Pluto was once a planet. Then, a dwarf planet. And as of last week, a plutoid. The fall from grace has teachers, parents and educational publishers struggling to keep up, while kids remain loyal to their favorite, the ninth planet. Underscore planet.
So I am here to say that I am with the little kiddies on this one. Fuck yooo you nerdy, googly-eyed scientists, I am going to continue to call Pluto a planet. Check it here.
So these random Google searches started out by me posting a blog about Obama’s nerdy bike riding clothes, and his enormous helmet. It was from that post that I decided to do a random search for bike helmets, and this was the result of that search. After that neverbesocial posted this tool. I wanted to post something in response to neverbesocial, but I didn’t know what, and I had absolutely no inspiration. That is until I rode the bus yesterday and peeped with my little eyes some of the nerdiest asians my eyes had ever bespeckled. It wasn’t that they were asian that made them nerds, although that helps, it was because they were fucking rocking some of the gaudiest fanny packs I had seen in awhile. So without further ado my fanny pack inspired random google search. Enjoy.
I really, really don’t have the words for this picture.
WTF?!? I don’t know what this has to do with fanny packs but it is disturbing.
Move to Europe now!
Wow, hard to believe someone went out in public looking like this.
And for the Paris Hilton wannabes that just can’t leave their cute puppies at home.
Caught wind of this story via The Daily Dish. We truly are living in an incredible age. Scientists are now on the verge of creating a completely new type of oil from bugs:
the genetic alteration of bugs – very, very small ones – so that when they feed on agricultural waste such as woodchips or wheat straw, they do something extraordinary. They excrete crude oil.
Unbelievably, this is not science fiction. Mr Pal holds up a small beaker of bug excretion that could, theoretically, be poured into the tank of the giant Lexus SUV next to us. Not that Mr Pal is willing to risk it just yet. He gives it a month before the first vehicle is filled up on what he calls “renewable petroleum”. After that, he grins, “it’s a brave new world”.
The best part of this is that is renewable, and the bugs will be eating our waste and producing oil that will be interchangeable with current oil.
The company is not interested in using corn as feedstock, given the much-publicised problems created by using food crops for fuel, such as the tortilla inflation that recently caused food riots in Mexico City. Instead, different types of agricultural waste will be used according to whatever makes sense for the local climate and economy: wheat straw in California, for example, or woodchips in the South.
All I can say is that the sooner something like this frees us from our dependence on the Middle Eastern oil reserves, the better. Check it here.
