A good presentation by Jesse Schell where he discusses the future of game design and the possibility of it entering the real world. Even if you’re not too much a gamer, you should stick check this video out if you have half an hour to spare. You can level up in the process:
Two top grandmasters, Maxim Dlugy and Hikaru Nakamura, battle it out in a 1-minute blitz game after the U.S. Championship. These guys are amazing. They play chess so quickly.
I hardly know chess and pretty much suck at games that require me to think. Who wants to play snake and ladders with me?
Want to know the story behind Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start? It’s sometimes referred to as Konami code and is implemented in many games, even those not from Konami.
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
First executed on an NES game (not Contra!) developed by Konami in 1986, the Konami code (and slight variances of it) can now be inputted in more than 125 different computer, video, and arcade games—some of which aren’t even developed by Konami, the company that created the code in the first place!
Because Contra was one of the more popular NES titles in the day and basically required the Konami code for the average player to complete (the code granted 30 lives from the start, instead of three), most people associate the code’s existence with it. In reality though, the Konami code first appeared in Gradius in 1986, two years before Contra.
In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty on PS2, entering the sequence at the end of the game has the main character, Snake, barking, “STOP FOOLIN’ AROUND KID!” At the end of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater for PS2, Snake confirms “One More to Go…” referring to the fourth and final installment in the series on PS3.
There are a number more of hilarious consequences for using the code, like it causing your main character to self destruct in Contra 4 if you use the code more than once per level to power-up your guns or in the Dog-developed NES title 3-D World Runner, a message pops up that exclaims, “I AM NOT KONAMI.” The code can even be used in Google Reader of all things, enabling a different background color for the left-hand navigation and updating all unread counts to 30 (a homage, no doubt, to Contra’s 30 lives). You know the code has reached pop culture when Google starts using it. (Source: Game Informer)
There you have it, this is what happen in Google Reader, you get a ninja and your unread count becomes 30. Refreshing will return your unread count to the original value. Pretty cool I say.
(Press Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A in Google Reader and get Ninja!)
The code is even in a song by The Moldy Peaches – Anyone Else But You (of Juno fame).
One thing I learnt from Ridzuan’s potluck party is that you should never leave your laptop unattended. If you do so, you’ll return finding you declared yourself a new lover in Windows Live Messenger, a change in your sexual orientation in Facebook and a Plurk exclaiming some guy’s pretty hot.
I played this game called Fluxx and that was the hardest card game I ever touched. I guess I don’t like games that need brains, prefer stupid good games. I left his place at 1 a.m. with the others still playing games. Really tired and there’s school the following day. The potluck’s awesome.
Mario finally overcomes his enemy and rescues the woman he has been fighting to save. Too bad the princess is not impressed by what she sees.
This video is by the creator of Family Guy.
Amazon users have spoken, one out of five stars for Spore.
It’s funny how so many people just goes in and rates a one to the game. Most people are displeased with the digital rights management (DRM). Some claim of rootkits being installs, some call it malware. As far as I know, there are no rootkits planted. Others claim of registration woes.
But what really annoyed people is the limitions of the DRM where you can only install in 3 computers. I am rather certain most people won’t be installing it in more than 2 computers. Using such limitations to curb piracy only pisses buyers. An Amazon user described aptly EA renting the software rather then selling it.
Anyway, I tried the game. It was fun in the beginning but gets tiring later on. The visuals and audios are great. And the game loads pretty quickly too. What I like about Spore is the concept, unfortunately it may be only the concept that I enjoy.
I think of Spore as a toy, less of a game. Reaching the end stages, there is this space stage, that really annoyed me. I hate:
I give the game 3/5 for breaking new grounds, nice audio and visuals. Each stage felt like a different game. It’s multigenred. I am not used to this style but it’s an interesting concept. I’m tired of the game after half of the space stage. Spore could do better with more online elements than just sharing your artwork.
