We're a geek culture podcast and blog covering video games, music, food and more. We are the kinds of people who evangelize whatever we are into - it could be anything - but it's usually pretty geeky. We're casual, conversational, NSFW and hopefully interesting. We hope you enjoy it.
Ooogadie booogadie! It's a Halloween edition of The Weekly Geek forum update? What kind of spooky mischief is going on in our forums? Well, let me tell you all about it to entice you to register and join in the conversations!
And now we announce the grand prize winner for our Legendary Photo Mission Tuesday. The votes were counted and then thrown in the fireplace because this contest was completely subjective based on my own personal tastes, ha! Remember, our theme for this mission was "FLAG CAPTURED!" and we had some spiffy pictures come in all vying for the prize. With no further ado, here is your winner!
Congratulations to Chris Policastro! You win! Shredder has never looked more...uh...flag capturey. Chris will be receiving the awesomely huge Halo 3 Legendary Edition for Xbox 360. And to continue onward with prize giving, here we have the runner-up picture!
Huzzah for Danton Domike, also known as Classybot. You will be receiving a special code for a free download of Geon: Emotions from the Xbox Live Arcade. But the fun doesn't end here. We've got a few more pictures for everyone to see after the jump. Check out the pictures that just barely got edged out for winning stuff!
posted by Chris on October 31, 2007 10:03 AM in Comics
A smack-talking killer whale? How very delightfully absurd! Buber has a point, though. Stop calling chimps monkeys. They are not. If you get the secret irony in this strip, you get a cookie. Originally published 09-20-04.
Happy Halloween, Geeks! In honor of the one day a year most of us are comfortable dressing up as a Gordon Freeman, Guybrush Threepwood, or Samus I bring you a kid way cooler than you or any of your children, present or otherwise, will ever be. Seriously, there is no way any of you have a better costume than this kid. Any claims to contrary will require photographic evidence.
I have never been a person to utilize dating or match up sites. I personally find most of my success with the ladies to be in places like nightclubs or art shows, both places where women are too intoxicated to realize what a horrible mistake they're making (whether it be from alcohol or an inflated sense of intellectual might). However, I'm not going to simply write off the success of such places or make fun of someone because of they're participation, or at least not for the last 5 minutes or so. Dating sites have their niche, and while some of you might think that niche is people too awkward to function in meatspace, I'm of the high minded opinion that some people are simply too busy to interact with your viscera. I solve this problem by avoiding people and interpersonal relationships, quietly crying myself to sleep at night, clutching my pillow not because I'm busy but because I chose to be a lonely, spiteful, jerk.
Now while I won't bash dating sites as a whole, there is a trend of specialization among dating sites that is ripe for ridicule. J-Date is one of them, but considering I'm the only moderately Jewish staffer at Chez Geek ridiculing them won't garner me very much hate mail. Nor would it provide me with the satisfaction of having alienated yet another peer group.
Today I bring you riches from a dark cavern otherwise known as Soul Geek, a site providing an opportunity for self proclaimed geeks to meet one another and eventually sit awkwardly across from each other at a dinner which the male counterpart will request going dutch for. But not until halfway through the meal and only after regaling his date with epic tales of shenanigans in the A/V closet of his high school. If everything works as it should then she'll eat this up with a spoon and happily split the meal. Anything to get out of the house with a guy that doesn't affectionately refer to you as a "fruitfly" right?
Click this here clicky bit for a disturbing look at some of the denizens of Soul Geek and some running commentary from me that only barely disguises my self esteem issues.
posted by Chris on October 30, 2007 3:43 PM in Music
We've posted about Miss Newsom in the past, but considering I just saw her excellent performance last night at the Benaroya Hall in Seattle, I just had to post another video of her performing one of her incredibly rich songs Peach, Plum, Pear. Joanna is touring the country, playing dates at major cities with the respective city's symphony. I highly recommend checking it out.
posted by Chris on October 30, 2007 10:03 AM in Comics
That's right. Pixar rules. Suck it Dreamworks! A webcomic just totally burned you! HOW DOES THAT FEEL, SPIELBERG?! SUCK IT. Originally published on 09-14-04.
I am a bigfan of cosplay, and Halloween is like cosplayer Christmas. Or... just cosplayer Halloween I guess. While this year I didn't end up making a costume (my plans for a Weighted Companion Cube outfit sort of fell through), my equally crafty friends went to town. Here is a photo of my good friend Kristen dressed as a piranha plant from Super Mario Brothers. That lady is so crafty.
posted by Chris on October 29, 2007 6:13 PM in Podcast
On this week's podcast, Chris, Colette and Qais discuss if Pong is actually a good game (because seriously. Is it?), talk about Will Wright's insight into what makes a next-gen game, rave some more about E4, talk Smash Brothers Brawl, and get all nostalgic about the Game Boy. It's definitely a riveting podcast you cannot afford to miss. People have missed podcasts of this magnitude before only to result in their untimely demise. No one knows what really kills these people, but many scientists suspect it's a deficiency in the level of hilarity intake in their diets.
posted by Qais on October 29, 2007 2:41 PM in Games
New screens from Ninja Gaiden 2 grace the tubes today. What better way to celebrate the upcoming season of spook than with a whole mess of blood and gore?
With scenes of men impaled on scythes, a head being kicked off, monsters sliced in two, and decapitations Ninja Gaiden 2 has gone from a "maybe" to an "oh hell yes" on my list of games to buy. Check out more scenes here.
In the latest episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, we get a huge load of expository back story which adds a great deal to the story that's going on presently. Both Aang and Zuko learn about their forebears and see how it affects their present day lives. We're really starting to get into some serious stuff here, so you should really only click the jump if you've seen the episode for spoilers lurk within.
Overview:Mercury Meltdown Revolution is the third in a series of games that started with Archer Maclean’s Mercury on PSP. This incarnation appears on the Wii and takes advantage of the Wiimote’s motion sensitivity to control your little blob of mercury. Along the same spirit of Marble Madness, MMR is an actiony puzzle game where you have to guide an coagulated ball of mercury around various levels filled with various traps, tricks, and mazes. Oh, and did I mention it’s a budget title? Let’s see if it’s worth your 20 bucks.
Shininess: Being on the Wii, it’s not gonna be the super duper bright and shiny that you might find on the 360. But also being a basic puzzle game instead of an experiment on theoretical physics or a nightmare survival in a submerged steampunk dystopia, it doesn’t really need them new-fangled grafficks that all the kids want. Obviously, if it was on the 360, it’d look sharper, but the game doesn’t suffer for not being so. In other words, the graphics are good enough, but nothing to write home about. Though the way the blob of mercury rolls around and pools against walls is pretty nifty.
The game also has a quirky little soundtrack. Again, nothing to blow your mind, but it’s pretty good. At the very least, it’s not repetitive and irritating which can happen sometimes in lesser known puzzle games.
Funness: I was looking forward to trying out this game, since I love Marble Madness so much, but I was not terribly optimistic. I wasn’t sure how much more they could do with rolling something around a maze. As it turns out, there’s actually quite a bit more they can do with it. There are lots of traps and other interactive objects that give it more depth than just another maze game. I couldn’t tell you for sure how many of these have appeared in the previous games in the series, so I’m going to approach them as if they’re new because they’re new to me.
The main mechanism that I find the most interesting is the color changing. You can roll your little blob into paint sprays that will change its color. There are various gates and pressure switches that will only react if your mercury is the correct color. Sometimes, you’ll have to force your blob to hit a corner and split up into two pieces, make one hit a red spray and one hit a blue spray and then bring them back together to make purple. It’s pretty fun.
Because your blob can split up, just falling over the edge and losing isn’t that simple. If you happen to barely catch yourself right before you’re gonna fall, you might lose some of your mercury, but not all of it and still be able to finish the level. Of course, some levels require you to have a certain amount left in order to activate certain switches and you get more points for saving more when you finish.
There are lots of various obstacles to get in your way, things that push you, things that suck you in, things that blow you up into the air, and things that splatter you. There really is quite a wide variety in this game, so I have yet to run into a level that feels like I’m doing the same thing as another. The game is quite challenging without being annoyingly so.
Worthiness: I honestly think this game is a little gem in the Wii’s library that lots of people are probably going to miss. I’m enjoying it quite a bit. On top of having 150+ levels to go through, there is some replay value in each if you go back and try to get a perfect score on each level by collecting all the bonus icons and trying to make it to the exit point with every drop of your mercury. And you get bonus points for doing it within a certain amount of time. The game also has some unlockable mini-games that are more about survival rather than hitting and end goal. They’re kinda fun, but not that big of a deal. If this were a full-priced Wii title, I’d scoff and move on, but it’s not. This game is a budget title and rightfully so. At 20 bucks, I’d say it’s a worthy buy if you’re a fan of puzzle games, and especially if you liked Marble Madness or Super Monkey Ball. If you’re looking for some games to fill out your Wii shelf, this is one of them.
posted by Mike on October 28, 2007 2:25 PM in Music
You're out on a cruise or a transatlantic flight, on or over the ocean - it doesn't matter. But disaster strikes, people start screaming, and you're marooned at sea. After days of unintentionally gargling salt water and fighting off sharks, you make sweet, sweet landfall. And there in your pocket, you had almost forgotten about it: your top 5 albums are on your new iPod Shuffle. It's rigged to magically run on coconut juice, so you start listening to the only music you'll have to comfort you until exhaustion or a wild boar claims your life.
No this is not a bad episode of Survivor, it's one of the great queries of human kind. Hit the jump for the Weekly Geek's Top 5 Desert Island Albums. And feel free to post yours in the comments.
posted by Mike on October 27, 2007 4:44 PM in Games, Music
Whether you love or hate Halo 3, one thing is sure: the "Believe" ad campaign was (widely considered) fantastic in all the ways the game was not - moving and emotional. It's really sad that Halo is responsible for rekindling my love for classical music, but the piece they used in their ad is easily one of the finest piano compositions ever written, Frederic Chopin's Op. 28, Prelude No. 15, often called "Raindrops". (The bit heard in the :60 Halo TV Spot starts at the 2:38 mark.)
Enjoy it here as accurately interpreted by pianist DongMin Lim in 2005's Chopin Competition. I defy you not to get goosebumps during this song. The commercial, if you haven't seen it, is after the jump.
posted by Chris on October 26, 2007 1:39 PM in Comics
It's funny, a lot of these old comics have teeeeeensy tiny text. I think I figured that it looked ok at whatever resolution I had at the time, so it was going to look ok for everyone! So apologies in advance if you can't actually read this because your eyes are awful. Originally Published 09-10-04.
This weekend the new version of Mac OS X, Leopard, comes out, so I will be installing that on my Macbook Pro and trying to convince my girlfriend that she needs to buy an iMac so we can play WoW together more often. Why are the two mutually exclusive? They aren't! Mwahahahaha. I'll probably try to finish up Half Life 2 and start on the Episodes, and work on beating Mister Three's E4 high score. What are you Geeks rockin' this weekend?
I'll say it so no one else has to, The Weekly Geek crew is extremely lucky. Not only do we get to see Battlestar Galactica: Razor in advance, we get to see it on the big screen. Now there are those of us at Chez Geek that would rather horde such a treasure, possibly lording it over those less fortunate than us. However, thanks to the near messianic altruism of Chris (not to mention the snub nosed pistol currently shoved up against the back of my head) we're spreading the love to you.
Click this here link to register to see Battlestar Galactica: Razor in the theater on November 12th. The film is playing in Redmond, Seattle, and Auburn so anyone not local or unwilling to fly in is out of luck, and while I may hate you, Chris' love is everlasting.
The Geektomites will be at the 10 p.m. Seattle showing for those of you that would like to join us. Look for the sentient spaghetti string Chris or the obnoxiously blue coiffed Q for both fun and excitement cinematic in nature.
posted by Qais on October 25, 2007 2:45 PM in Games
I, as I'm sure many of you are, am a zombie fanatic. I've got the survival guide, I'm familiar with the works of Romero, and should the zombie apocalypse hit (and you can be sure it will some day) I have my route carefully mapped and a bag packed and ready to go. The one thing I've been missing was a quality zombie game for the long ride out to the countryside bunker.
Thankfully, the people at Ignition Entertainment have stepped up to fill the zombie shaped hole in my heart, announcing the arrival of Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys! in North America Spring '08. Teenage Zombies is a side scroller in which you play a group of zombified teenagers out to save the world from a group of evil alien brain people. The human race having been easily enslaved (aren't we always?), the teenage zombies and their lust for gray matter are the only things shuffling and moaning between us and total annihilation.
The game is presented in the only way a game about zombie teenagers saving the Earth from alien brains could be, with a healthy dose of whimsical parody. It also features a bevy of minigames and puzzles (as all DS games are bound to do by blood oath) utilizing all features of the DS. Personally, I'll be interested to see how the mic comes into place in a zombie game.
Those crazy forum communities! Over at Truth and Beauty Bombs, there is an epic thread in the making where forum members are creating horrible gamer comics from a basic template. Most of these are really bitingly funny and sarcastic, poking fun at Penny Arcade, Ctrl Alt Del, PvP and others. I think this one is my favorite.
I like to think that the gaming community can laugh at themselves, but from what I know of the web comic community, they are going to be pissed. Only goths take themselves more seriously than web comic artists.
posted by Mike on October 24, 2007 10:10 PM in Music
Much like their compatriots Air and Phoenix, French DJ-Band Justice, are merging styles familiar to us Americans, and waxing them to a new fantastic glaze. Their debut album † (your eyes aren't broken, they named their album after a crucifix-symbol) reminisces the cut-up electronica of Daft Punk at the top of their game and smashes it headlong into grooves that Jamiroquai only dreamed of when he was laying down "Canned Heat".
I invite you to join in the catchy phenomenon with me, cool animated t-shirt video included free of charge, and do the D.A.N.C.E.
There's this place you can go on our website where you register your very own personal internets nom de plume can converse with the other patrons of our fantabulous blogcast. It's actually quite near. All you have to do is click this little linky-doo and join the world's greatest forums.
And once you're there, you can with other TWG fans about stuff such as:
posted by Qais on October 24, 2007 2:23 PM in Games
A while back I came across a game that was so addictive I completely lost myself in it for the better part of a year. That game was Animal Crossing. I obsessed over it. Every day would have at least several hours of Animal Crossing time allotted. If I didn't get my fix I was a force with which to be reckoned, withering all in my path with a look as I made my way to that sweet, sweet Animal Crossing fix.
Eventually I kicked my habit and went on about the business of living a real life instead of simulating one. Those fuckers at Nintendo knew what was up, and they released Animal Crossing for the DS. I tried to resist. I called my sponsor, even went to a few meetings, but Nintendo knows an addict and I came back to the fold. It's a strange sight to see, that of a grown man weeping uncontrollably over his DS at how incredibly weak willed he is. I only wish I hadn't been looking in a mirror. But eventually I regained control and put Animal Crossing away. Sure we still have a fling every now and again, but that bitch has burned me bad and you just can't forget the pain of pushing away your loved ones so you can make the purple tulip.
Once again, Nintendo is back on the block, slingin' the fiends that need a fix and bringing the wandering back home to the warm embrace of an Animal Crossing fix. But Nintendo is no fool, they know they can't keep feeding us the same thing without our addictions eventually moving to another seemingly pointless game. Oh no my friends, now we'll have the opportunity to feed our ravenous addictions together, in an MMO format.
Animal Crossing is ripe for the MMO treatment. The DS flavor of coop play has always been fun, and I'll be the first to admit that I love the Animal Crossing griefer crews lurking in the dark corners of forums rife with typos prevalent enough to make you want to bleach your own eyes. Granted, this is all speculation based on thinly veiled hints dropped by Katsuya Eguchi, head of development for the project, but Nintendo would be a pack of fools not to do this.
posted by Qais on October 24, 2007 10:26 AM in Games
My day has effectively been ruined. Why? Before I even had time to hear the apocryphal whisperings about Psychonauts 2 being in the works the rumor has been quashed.
Apparently, over at Double Fine studios website a banner for Psychonauts with the words Coming Soon printed on it sparked a flurry of rumor mill tending and fan boy freakouts. Thankfully, before everything got out of hand and tents were set up outside of the local game store, Double Fine CEO Tim Schaeffer explained thusly:
“Man, who knew how much excitement a little darkness could bring? The truth is we are just putting together a new page about 'The Excellent Game Psychonauts.' We're not announcing any new games or anything. Sorry if we confused anybody! We lightened up the image to hopefully make things clearer.”
If slightly more information about Psychonauts (for which I'm sure you're all tearing your hair out in anticipation) can't sate your filthy lust then go pick up some awesome Double Fine merch. It's easily some of the least obnoxious game studio merch in existence.
Hey Geekkateers! You've got one week left to come up with a submission for a chance to win your very own Halo 3: Legendary Edition. It's a pretty sweet little package, complete with bonus disc and replica Master Chief helmet.
Go here to check out all the details on how to win. Once again, the deadline is Monday, October 29 at 11:59PM, PST.
posted by Chris on October 23, 2007 10:11 AM in Music
Last night I had the pleasure of checking out Nectar Lounge in Fremont for the first time. I've started going to shows more frequently now that I live in a more central location, but I'd never found a show that caught my eye at Nectar until Final Fantasy came to town. You may remember Final Fantasy (the band, not the video game) as Owen Pallett, who we gush about on The Weekly Geek constantly. He is a brilliantly talented musician with his hands in almost everything these days, from Arcade Fire arrangements to his work on Beirut's newest Flying Cub Cup.
Nectar is a very intimate venue with a capacity of just over a hundred, a balcony bar area and a dance floor that opens up into a covered outdoor seating area. It's well-lit (a rarity for venues these days) allowing you to actually SEE the artist in context. I always get frustrated when I go to shows and they keep the place dark except for a spotlight on whoever is on stage. I get tunnel vision and it feels like I am somehow separated from the event. Not at Nectar.
Owen brought with him two other artists, one being a band called Welcome who sounded a bit like Pavement with a bass player/vocalist who looked like Beth Gibbons from Portishead. And by that I mean she was incredibly hot. The other opening act was Cadence Weapon, a fantastic hip hop artist often mashing 8-bit chiptunes with his "phat rhymes". No really, it was quite great. Owen himself could be seen in the back of the audience, nodding his head. When Owen came on stage the energy of the crowd changed. It went from boisterous dancing and cheering for Cadence to silent reverence and awe. That is the kind of reaction Owen gets when he starts doing his amazing looping violin acrobatics, sampling himself tapping on the strings with the back of his bow, thumping the body with his thumb or even yelling into the f-holes and looping that. All of this is perfectly timed to sound like a building, climaxing orchestral piece and every single arrangement is stunning. Owen brought along an overhead projector artist, who moved paper cut outs around to the music, painting a picture of the imaginary "8 schools of magic" world of Final Fantasy.
A couple new songs were performed from Owen's next LP, Heartland and they sounded fantastic. He brought along an electric piano and used that in his loops as well as his violin in the new songs and they felt richer and fuller than his previous material. A logical evolution. It's hard to imagine Owen not being inspired by the company he keeps, and it's great to see an artist I admire so much growing, not floundering. Owen's performances are touching, brilliant and humble with an adorable honesty shown through his apologies for mistakes mid-song, or the flustered look he gets on his face when one of his loops is even slightly off time. Someone in the crowd, during a moment of silence as Owen was setting up his next song, shouted "More like Final Fantastic!" I couldn't agree more.
It's an experience to see an artist of this caliber on stage doing what they do best, and lucky for you he just started touring the US. Check out Final Fantasy if he comes to your town, or you'll be missing out. Concert dates after the jump.
posted by Chris on October 22, 2007 6:04 PM in Podcast
On this week's podcast, Chris, Grant and Qais are joined by the ever awesome and well-spoken N'Gai Croal from Newsweek's Level Up (remix style wiki wiki scrrrch). N'Gai brought a level of intelligent discourse never before heard on The Weekly Geek, discussing issues ranging from the infantilization of games, to the portrayal of games in the media, to pronouncing fighting games dead and talking about games fulfilling their potentials. Inspiring! Download the podcast here, and then subscribe on iTunes. Hit the jump for show notes.
posted by Qais on October 22, 2007 2:38 PM in Games
It seems to be a universal constant that when a person grows old and out of touch with the thing they once loved their reaction to that thing becomes one of anger or fear. Change is difficult to deal with, and watching something you helped to grow and survive turn into a vast hydra can be an unsettling experience.
Such is the case with Pong creator Nolan Bushnell. Revered as "the father of electronic games" Bushnell has gone from godlike proponent of an industry he helped to build to detractor and defamer, recently quoted as saying, “Videogames today are a race to the bottom. They are pure, unadulterated trash and I'm sad for that,". Interestingly, my grandparents had nearly the exact same opinion years ago.
What Bushnell seems to mean with his vituperative uttering is that gaming has seemingly lost focus on getting the whole family involved and moved toward a more isolated target audience. Granted, I'm not spending a whole lot of time with my friends or family when playing Portal over and over again or spending upwards of 16 hours a day playing the newest RPG but I'm definitely not an isolated zombie. Something most gamers can (hopefully) attest to.
What Bushnell seems to ignore is the growing trend of the "casual gamer", people buying up Wiis specifically in order to play with their families and friends. Ultimately it boils down to Bushnell simply not understanding the evolution of his creation. He's staring at his child and doesn't recognize the monster it has become. Thankfully, those of us carrying the torch are more than happy to whisper reassuringly into grandpa's ear whenever the new tech scares him.
posted by Chris on October 22, 2007 12:08 PM in Comics
Buber has magical non-hands! Also, making fun of goths is always instant humor, right? Add a ninja and you have Internet meme material! Originally published on the web 09-07-04.
It's time once again for a little spoiler filled discussion of the latest episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender. We switch gears this week and focus primarily on the main antagonists: Zuko, Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee. Do we get to see them rain destruction on the Avatar and his buddies? Are they planning their next moves for world domination? Not yet! Right now, it's time for a beach party!
On Friday night at Carnegie Hall, J.K. Rowling was answering some questions from the crowd about her beloved characters after reading a bit from her latest work, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Anyway, a question about Albus's true love brought forth an answer that the crowd wasn't expecting. Albus Dumbledore is gay.
Now, it's not like the wacky hardline religious types didn't have enough to hate about the evil Harry Potter books with black magic and all. But now they get to rail about a gay character in the books. Of course, this will just draw more attention to the book and sell more copies.
I can see it now. Bill O'Reilly or Michael Savage going off on the inappropriate relationship between the Hogwarts headmaster and the young Harry Potter. Because of course we all know that the homosexual agenda is out to corrupt everything and that being gay automatically means you're also a pedophile and all that crap. /sarcasm
Honestly, it seems like she's had this in mind for Dumbledore for quite a while, if not from the very beginning. And it's cool that she didn't make a big deal of it. If you go back and read the last book, I'm sure there are hints and all that, but she didn't use it specifically to create controversy. She waited until after everyone who was going to buy the book already did to announce it officially, so it wasn't done just to sell more copies. It's just the way the character is.
posted by Qais on October 19, 2007 1:44 PM in Games
Working in a corporate office is a near constant struggle to look busy and remain entertained for 8 hours (give or take depending on your level of punctuality). A lot of people, myself included, view this as wasted time burned in an effigy of productivity. Fortunately, now time spent deluding your corporate overlords into thinking you're actually accomplishing something worth being paid for needn't be a complete waste of time.
Sister to Poverty.com, FreeRice is a word game that donates 10 grains of rice for every correct answer. I've been playing it on and off for about 2 hours now and "donated" 3000 grains. Now rather than justify my laziness with a bad attitude and sarcasm I can claim altruism and a burning desire to expand my argot.
Some highlights from this week in Geek, and previews of subjects we are going to discuss on next week's podcast! Remember you can always track what we are going to talk about every week on our del.icio.us list.
I am finishing unpacking and having a staff movie night this weekend on my brand new HDTV (it's so shiny, I am sorry I can't stop talking about it!) but I am going to try to work in some time to finish Half Life 2 and Beautiful Katamari. Of course, Portal's advanced puzzles are going to be interspersed between heated matches of Puzzle Quest and E4 on XBLA. There's just too much good stuff out. What are you diving in to this weekend? Are you fully enjoying this deluge of excellent games?
posted by Qais on October 19, 2007 12:37 PM in Games
Levelhead, a game currently in development by New Zealand artist Julian Oliver, appears to be based on Sony's Playstation Eye technology with perhaps a dash of Portal thrown in for good measure. While games like these present an interesting concept and definitely mix up game play I can't help but feel we're all pretending we've got something a lot cooler than we actually do. I'll be a whole lot more impressed when the image is actually on the cube or playing mat, as opposed to my TV-and by extension of my imagination-the surface of whatever I'm actually interacting with. Keep trying guys, the future isn't now, but it certainly is close.
There is no way in hell I can come even close to describing Every Extend Extra Extreme (or E4) as well as Tycho did today, but I will try my best. When I first tried Mizuguchi's Every Extend Extra for the PSP, I was a bit confused. Turned on to the game by its curious cover art (which features a minimalist style with the contours of a woman's face being traced by dripping rainbow strands) and pedigree (Q? Entertainment being the house behind Rez) I was eager to understand its strange, abstract concept. It was presented as a sort of top down space shooter would, like Asteroids or even Geometry Wars. I didn't seem to grasp the idea that there was a sort of rhythm game component, and its lack of a tutorial mode made things even worse. Instead of shooting at enemies, you destroy yourself, your explosive death cascading into passing baddies (I guess they aren't evil per sé, more neutral. Neuties?) which in turn explode and affect things around them. The goal is to get bonuses which extend the ever-counting down timer, and rack up a high chain score.
The Xbox Live Arcade version features the same style of game play, remixed, honed and perfected in gorgeous HD and eargasm inducing 5.1 surround. Remember the first time you played Geometry Wars? Yeah, it feels like that. The experience of the visuals matched with the thumping bass and rumbling controller, with the beat-based combo multipliers and trippy concept is so immersive it feels like a drug trip. One of the good ones. It feels like a game that a scientist would have subjects play while he was dosing a new form of MDMA, with tubes and nodules stick to their faces, their never-blinking eyes watering.
I still don't ultimately understand it. The game play relies on feelings and interpretation more than anything. I am beginning to understand why they avoided a tutorial, because so much of the experience feels like a learning process. It's intensely abstract but not boringly so. There is a classic arcade-style game beneath the artistic flair, one that I know is going to get a lot of play from me. E4 is available on XBLA now, and I highly recommend it. I was really looking forward to being able to play Rez for the first time when it comes out for XBLA, but now I can't wait.
posted by Mike on October 18, 2007 3:42 PM in Music
A few weeks ago I mentioned Amazon's download service. With their high quality files and drm-free, affordable albums, they should rival iTunes if they can expand their selection. Well, now you can support Amazon and give us up to a 20% kickback when you buy music there. We'll be making a widget every now and then with our musical suggestions from recent reviews: it's a great way to check out some new grooves and support the podcast you love.
posted by Chris on October 18, 2007 2:01 PM in Music
One of my all-time favorite bands, The Flaming Lips, have constructed album after album of sonic amazement. The fun they have making music seeps from the tracks like syrup, and it's made tangible in their inventive live performances featuring massive amounts of glitter, giant hamster balls and bunny costumes. Here is a song that is stuck in my head frequently, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Part 1, off of the album of the same name. Enjoy.
posted by Mike on October 18, 2007 11:03 AM in Games
This just in: The Weekly Geek is proud to announce - well maybe just me, I'm proud to announce - that I will be the (self-proclaimed) Official News Correspondent for Mass Effect leading up to and perhaps as long as a year after its release. I feel I'm qualified for this position having lovingly traversed Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2 with a fervor like that of a starving cheetah hunting down a tasty gazelle dinner.
Anyway, the real news is that BioWare (apparently one of Canada's Top 10 places to work) dropped a press release naming a star-studded voice acting roster, including Seth Green of Robot Chicken and Family Guy fame. He isn't the only presence worth noting, other Sci-Fi veterans Marina Sirtis and Lance Henriksen are also on board. Keith David from Pitch Black and Crash will play the central role of David Anderson (which I'll explain later in my upcoming review of the Mass Effect prequel book).
posted by Chris on October 18, 2007 10:15 AM in Comics
Reading this now I realize that The Necronomicon's dialog is slightly confusing at times. I have a very odd manner of speech and I don't think that translates well to comics on occasion. Also, Phil's wish is basically what my retirement is going to consist of. I just gotta find someone to sell me Nintendo Cereal.
Today's Freelance Review comes from Mack, who is an avid listener and Weekly Geek Gold Star of Courage recipient from 1997-2002 and half of 2003. He has a degree in haberdashery and enjoys playing the ocarina in a German death metal band named Silent Spank. Enjoy.
Back when I was a kid there was a shop a couple blocks from my house where, similar to a video store, they rented out computer software. Even in the savage days before the Internet and bittorrents this was a monumentally stupid idea. Given the incredibly dumb nature of their business model as well as the obvious legal issues, it’s amazing that the store was open long enough for me to work my way through the entire LucasArts adventure game library. It wasn’t that long before I stumbled upon Sam and Max Hit the Road. It was the most difficult adventure game I had ever played (until The Dig came out and redefined the click-everything-until-something-happens model). Finishing S&MHtR before the days of GameFAQs was one hell of an accomplishment. Yet even with its insane difficulty level it remained one of my favorite games to this day, and one that I frequently revisited, though I think I have still only managed to complete it once. So you can imagine how excited I was when I first got my hands on the new Sam and Max game(s), Sam and Max: Season One.
The new Sam and Max is produced by Telltale Games, who previously translated Jeff Smith’s comic masterpiece Bone to the PC. Adding to my ridiculous fan boy slavering was the fact that the games were co-written by Dave Grossman (Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle) and that the development team included many former LucasArts employees.
But enough introductory rambling, on to the rambling review!
Shininess: Top of the line graphics have never really been a concern in adventure games, and Sam and Max: Season One is no different in this regard. The upshot of this is that the game actually runs on my broken-down computer with the graphics on High. The character animation feels a little stiff sometimes, but it isn’t a game-wrecking issue.
Funness: Sam and Max: Season One is a damn fun game in six parts. Over the course of Season One, the duo must foil dastardly plots to take over the world involving washed-up sitcom actors, the mafia, a former president and the entire Internet. The game starts out at ridiculous and by the time you get to the musical number celebrating War as performed by members of the Secret Service in an all-singing-all-dancing extravaganza all bets are officially off. The writing is snappy and so much fun that I would purposefully answer questions wrong just to hear the additional dialog.
Now on to the gripes, of which there are a couple. The difficulty of the first few episodes has been ratcheted WAY down, which makes for less hair-pullingly sadistic puzzles but ultimately may be too easy for some people. The episodic nature of the game means that each individual episode feels very short. Also there are certain repetitive objectives that you will have to accomplish in every episode, and that can get a little tedious.
Worthiness: Don’t let that paragraph of niggling complaints put you off from this game. The individual episodes are available online for $8.95 each or you can get the entire season for $34.95 and if you buy the first one and decide you really like it you can pay the difference and receive the entire season. However if you’re a fan of the brick and mortar stores, Sam and Max: Season One is on store shelves right now (providing you can find a store that still has a PC games section). If you have lamented the death of the adventure game and worried about the future of the genre, you can relax. It’s in good hands.
I enjoy talking with our loyal Geekkateers over in our hippin' and hoppin' forums. If you wanna jump into the action, you need to take a moment to register. It's a swingin' place to be, daddio, and all the heppest of the hepcats are wise to the jive. But what goes on there? Well, I'm glad you asked. Grab a hold of your socks and read on, Joel Robinson.
posted by Qais on October 17, 2007 4:37 PM in Games
It's a fairly well known fact that one of the favorite movies over here at Chez Geek is Steel Magnolias. Every time Shelby can't drink her juice Furniss and I hold each other and sob uncontrollably. However there's only so many times you can watch that kind of thing in a day without risking permanent damage to your tear ducts. So when we need an uplifting cinematic break it's always Dirty Dancing that we turn to.
Imagine my wonderment at discovering that there would be a game version of Dirty Dancing coming out soonish. I nearly lost control of all my bodily functions and wept golden tears from which tiny white flowers sprung as they hit the ground. I am that excited.
Granted, being excited about the game port of one of your favorite saucy dancing-centric movies is to be expected. But you see my excitement springs from a level of debasement and horrific fantasy the likes of which most men would weep before. My logic is as follows: any game developer made to work on Dirty Dancing: The Game will almost immediately turn to thoughts of suicide, there is simply no way to do justice to a film that is easily 2nd to one of the greatest cinematic masterpieces of our time (Steel Magnolias). Death is the only honorable solution. Realizing that his meager salary is the only thing feeding his nearly starving children he sees the error of his ways and attempts to recreate one of the best scenes in the movie, the post-abortion scene. Touching, heartfelt, and the moment at which Swayze reveals himself to be a conflicted but caring dance instructor, something I'm sure we can all agree touched our hearts.
Do you see where I'm going?
Yes there are dancing mini-games, and yes there are card games in which you inexplicably shuffle notable Jews from the movie around, but the latest video showing game play hasn't revealed I'm sure will be the crown jewel of this of yet to be born masterpiece. The wire hanger abortion mini-game. If you aren't absolutely thrilled at the prospect of mangling a uterus with a rusty coat hanger in a perverse pantomime of the scene we never saw then you are reading the wrong site my friends. Bet your bottom dollar that I will be in line with the rest of the Geeks come release day, cash in hand and a sick lust to act out my juvenile fantasies of being swung around by Patrick Swayze and never being put in a corner.
While Portal is just 1/5th of Valve's excellent Orange Box, I am reviewing it separately because it deserves it. I am also shaking up the normal review formula we use here at The Weekly Geek because Portal shakes up the way we think about video games. So there.
It's difficult to discuss Portal in any fashion that doesn't reveal spoilers. So I am saying to you right now, don't read this if you haven't played it. If you haven't played it, go pick it up. I am going to say right here in the beginning of the article that it is probably the game of the year. Yes, even over Bioshock. This is a must-own game for anyone who is a fan of fun. It's genuinely hilarious, challenging without being frustrating, and so well-designed and polished I literally cannot come up with any flaws to harp on. Yes, it's that good. Go get it. Got it? Played through it? Good. Hit the jump for my review.
posted by Qais on October 17, 2007 3:09 PM in Games
A while back we reported on the rumor of some new plasmids for Bioshock and it would seem that these rumors are rapidly being validated. In a recent interview with 1up, Ken Levine of 2K Boston made mention of possible downloadable content for Bioshock. Thankfully it doesn't appear there will be any shoehorning of a new level into the game and thus wrecking what is currently a gorgeous and smooth game.
While not stating specifically what we can expect Levine did hint with this gem, "I think that certainly BioShock's combat experience is great, but it could be broader. I'm a little more confused as far as how to expand the narrative experience." It's probably a safe bet that within the next 6 months we'll all be playing through Bioshock again, this time with a whole new arsenal at our side.
posted by Chris on October 17, 2007 10:24 AM in Comics
I wanted to switch up the narrative fast. The 4th wall breaking was just starting to grate on me, and after doing three other failed comic strips I wanted to get into my groove asap. I loved the dynamic of having the group live in a boarding house (much like Bloom County) and so I wanted to get back into that. For this, I gave Phil magic powers. Problem solved. Originally published on 09-02-04.
When I was but a wee teenager deep in the dark heart of suburbia I spent an impressive amount of time holed up in my bedroom with various distractions. Usually it was video games, but I would read a ton of books (comic and otherwise) and listen to music. I was able to save up my allowance for a while to buy an old Mac LCII from my step-dad and load it with shareware. I didn't have an internet connection at the time (that was in the garage on the main family computer, using an old 14.4 modem) but I played Escape Velocity, Taskmaker, and Bolo. I would also make humorous Hypercard stack games. At least, they were humorous to me at the time. I remember they involved a lot of images of stick figures getting mangled and blown up.
Bolo was a networked multi-player tank game that occupied a ton of my time after school. We'd load it on all the computers in the computer lab, but that still wasn't enough. We'd then load it on all the computers in the neighboring classrooms, spreading like some sort of "computerized virus". It was a team based affair for the most part, you'd move your tank around a map looking for recharge stations to capture. They would fill up your ammo and health and were vital to your success. There were also pillboxes, which would automatically shoot at you. You could destroy these pillboxes (which was fairly difficult) and capture them, using them as sentries for your base. You also had this little man that could come out of your tank, harvest trees, build walls and roads and generally improve your base. I remember playing epic matches of 16 players, even the teachers got in on the action. Someone brought in Warcraft II one day and we all snubbed him in favor of Bolo. Yes it was that good.
It was my first foray into what online multi-player could be like, and it was the most intense strategy game I can remember playing for a long time. It combined sim elements with brilliantly balanced multi-player combat that is still unmatched to this day. A couple years ago I looked around for a version that could work with Mac OS X so I could install it on the computers in my college lab, but all I could find was this buggy version which appears to no longer have support.
I'd kill to have a version of Bolo I could play today. It's a fantastically lightweight, simple network game that I think could hold up pretty well. Someone get on it!
posted by Qais on October 16, 2007 1:25 PM in Games
The fine folks over at Sega and Monolith have released some new, deliciously creepy, artwork for the upcoming Condemned 2: Bloodshoot, the sequel to the gritty Condemned: Criminal Origins. Arguably one of the creepier games released in concert with the Xbox 360.
In Condemned 2 you play as Ethan Thomas, broken from his horrific past and bent on finding his missing partner in what most creative writing majors would call the pursuit of redemption. Monolith is making some pretty big promises with Condemned 2 stating that it will be, "the most brutal hand-to-hand combat experience the first person genre has ever seen", which seems fairly unlikely given the current pro-censorship political climate.
Regardless of overblown promises, the freshly released art is fantastic. There's just something about a saw blade slinging girl in garters that gives me the tingles. Gently palpate the jump for kicking rad art!
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Ooogadie booogadie! It's a Halloween edition of The Weekly Geek forum update? What kind of spooky mischief is going on in our forums? Well, let me tell you all about it to entice you to register and join in the conversations!
