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.
posted by Chris on October 16, 2007 10:26 AM in Music
When Neon Bible was released earlier this year, many reviewers were making comparisons to Bruce Springsteen, with Win Butler's blue-collar man lyrics and powerful voice. Well, a couple days ago, Arcade Fire showed up on stage at a Bruce Springsteen concert to play a couple Springsteen songs. Lucky for us, they also played their own "Keep the Car Running" with Bruce taking the reins for a couple verses. Enjoy this horrible shaky cam footage of this momentous event.
That's right, we've been hooked up with a Legendary Edition of Halo 3, complete with kitty helmet! All you have to do to enter is participate in the new Photo Mission.
The rules are simple:
The photo must be a photo. Just take a picture with some sort of camera. It can be a digital camera, a scanned-in Polaroid, whatever. You can Photoshop it a bit if you want, but it has to start with the picture you took as the base, and try to keep the 'shoppery to a minimum.
Make the photo fit the theme of the mission whether to the letter or to the spirit. Just make it work somehow. Be creative.
Nothing that's not safe for work. That is, no nudity, shock images, whatever. I really shouldn't have to explain it to you.
To give you plenty of time to come up with something awesome, the mission will last two weeks this time. The deadline is Monday, October 29th at 11:59 PM, Pacific Standard Time.
I'll pick the winner based on which picture I like best.
The mission theme to win the Legendary Halo 3 pack is:
posted by Chris on October 15, 2007 7:14 PM in Podcast
This week, Chris, Grant and Amy talk about how incredibly amazing Portal is, gush about Valve and the Orange Box, talk about other video games (what!) including Final Fantasy Tactics for the PSP, Beautiful Katamari and the Haloez. Thundercats may not suck as a movie, Star Trek has almost been completely cast and we see the return of a beloved Weekly Geek feature: live Internet surfing! Oh, there's also a huge giveaway at the end, so be sure to stay tuned for that! Download the show here, or subscribe to the feed to get it delivered, hot and fresh every Monday evening! Show notes after the jump.
Seattle is lucky enough to have some of the best street crazies I've yet to run across. There's Crazy Screaming Guy, an obese hermaphrodite prone to waving a gigantic wooden fork around while screaming epithets, the Scarf Man, and a man called Pissbeard because of his enormous yellow beard that speaks in falsetto. However one of the most notable Seattle street crazies is The Zelda Guy.
Sightings of Zelda Guy are sporadic at best, making them a particular treat in what might be an otherwise ordinary day. He is always seen wearing a Zelda track jacket, a green elf's cap, and baggy white pants tucked into large leather boots. Like any hero worth his salt he is never without his trusty blade, a battered aluminum baseball bat sheathed in an equally battered backpack. Always at his side is his trusted elder companion, a seemingly normal man who almost certainly possesses power the likes of which the world is not yet ready for. I am certain Zelda Guy, in his infinite wisdom and benevolence, keeps his companion's nearly boundless rage in check. I say this with experience, having been threatened and shrieked at by said companion on my numerous attempts to photograph them.
One must wonder what possesses a man to dress up as a video game character every day for years on end and Zelda Guy answers that question for us all. A man doesn't just wake up one day deciding to dress like a complete nutter (unless he's that creepy Peter Pan guy). Men like these have a calling, a mission to protect the weak and innocent, and in the process to look like the waifish elf-boys they emulate.
The journey into the Fire Nation continues! But Sokka's feeling bummed. All his friends can bend, but he can't. What's a 5th wheel to do? And what the hell has Iron been up to?
posted by Chris on October 15, 2007 10:01 AM in Music
Jens Lekman sounds a bit like Morrissey if he wrote songs for 1970's educational videos. Jens is a crooner who writes exceptionally honest and completely schmaltzy lyrics. Here is "Sipping on the Sweet Nectar" for Monday's Your Personal Soundtrack. A great soundtrack for fall. Pay attention to the amazingly evocative lyrics.
Jens released a new album last week called "Night Falls Over Kortedala", which is jam packed full of catchy, awesome tunes. Check out Jens' full library on iTunes.
I don't know if any of you are interested in the new Star Trek movie that's due out around Christmas of next year, but some of the recent casting decisions are giving it promise. Not to mention that J.J. Abrams is the guy in charge of the whole shebang. I've never seen Lost, but I know lots of you Geekkateers really like it. Plus, from past interviews and such, JJ seems like he's interested in making a film that honors the Trek legacy, rather than just cashing in on a known franchise.
Spock was the first role to be officially named, with Zachary Quinto stepping into the green-blooded shoes. And they've been saying that Quinto is really diving into the role, spending lots of time with Nimoy himself and really getting to know him.
Uhura and Chekov have also been filled, but not by anyone that I'm familiar with. And just recently, Scotty and Sulu have been announced, and I'm kinda excited by it.
Simon Pegg, whom you may know as Shaun of the Dead has been officially confirmed to play Montgomery "Scotty" Scott. While John Cho (Harold of "and Kumar" fame) has been placed in the role of Hiraku Sulu. The call for Pegg to be Scotty really kinda came out of nowhere, but I think he should do a good job. Hell, he basically was a Scotty-type character in Mission: Impossible 3.
Oh, and our favorite gay deep-voiced Asian superhero daddy, George Takei, has given his support to Cho for the role of Sulu, unconcerned that Cho is Korean rather than Japanese.
So all that leaves us with is casting for Kirk and Bones. Chris Pine and Mike Vogel have both been rumored for James Tiberius Kirk. And the latest on Dr. McCoy is that Karl Urban is the favored choice. But none of this has been confirmed.
Also, I suppose they might be looking for a Nurse Chapel, but no word on that situation at all.
Check out this old article I found lying around. Originally published in 2004 on Comixpedia (now ComixTalk), it's interesting to see what still remains the same in gaming webcomics today. It's also interesting to see how horribly dry of a writer I was back then. I also like how I am constantly quoting Tycho and not even referencing the fact that I interviewed him for this. Hilarious. Enjoy.
The mere mention of video games often evokes images of a solitary white ball bouncing between two vertically moving white paddles, with that distinctive Pong sound. Maybe it evokes images of a large gorilla hurling barrels at unsuspecting Italian men instead. No matter what you think of when you think video games, it is undeniable that games as a whole have affected our culture over the last 20 years. In the late 1970s, games like Pong revolutionized arcades, and in the 1980s, Nintendo revolutionized our living rooms with Super Mario Bros. Our generation grew up with names like Atari, Nintendo and Sega. The culture of video games has boomed in the past 5 years with the recent console wars between Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony. With the increase of video game fans came an increase in people writing and drawing about their favorite video hobby: enter Gaming Webcomics, a genre that is not so easily classified. What are Gaming Webcomics, what are they all about, and where are they going?<
Gaming webcomics can be defined as any webcomic (or print comic for that matter) that is based either on the hobby of playing video games, or comments on the culture surrounding video games and their players. While there are a couple of contenders out there for the "biggest" gaming comic, the first one most people think of is Penny Arcade. With an estimated fan base of over 150,000 people, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik (Tycho and Gabe, respectively) have carved their names into the annals of not only webcomic history, but nerd history as being two of the most well-known gamers around.
Since the first strip was published in 1998, Gabe and Tycho have steadily climbed to the top of the webcomic scene and helped influence gaming as a culture. Sites get "wanged" – choked with too much referral traffic – after being linked from Penny Arcade. Games have Penny Arcade cheat codes ("pnyarcade" in Star Wars Jedi Starfighter for the XBOX gives you everything in the game, you can even play with a cardboard tube in the new Legacy of Kain game, which is a Penny Arcade reference the their character Cardboard Tube Samurai).
Tycho remains ever humble when asked about this influence, stating that "...Legacy of Kain's 'Tube Reaver' mode – was both a huge surprise and a terrific honor, but it's not terribly common. We think of ourselves as having a parasitic relationship with the gaming industry, we don't think of ourselves as parallel to it like a media outlet might be. We think of ourselves as extremely fortunate fanboys who, on occasion, produce something of value to our holy pantheon." Penny Arcade has also influenced people's lives, with their recent Child's Play toy drive for the Seattle Children's Hospital, where they succeeded in putting together over $120,000 worth of toys and money.
Next in line popularity-wise would be Scott Kurtz' PvP (Player versus Player). Kurtz not only commands a large readership online, but now Image Comics prints PvP monthly. In paper form! Real Life by Greg Dean has influenced a specific video game, Final Fantasy XI: Online – Real Life readers clogged the servers in the first couple days after finding out that Greg played. All of these examples show that gaming comics have a much larger readership than your typical every day webcomic, but why? What makes gaming comics so appealing to web surfers? When asked, Tycho from Penny Arcade agreed: "…it makes sense that gamers are going to be online anyhow, and are therefore present in large numbers online."
Gaming webcomics also seem to have an odd demographic: isolated readers who do not read any other genre of webcomics. Readers of Penny Arcade may only read Penny Arcade because it talks about their favorite games, and that reader may not even be familiar with the term "webcomic". A reader of PvP may have picked up the physical comic book at their local comic shop and wanted to check out the online version. It's almost as if gaming comics are in their own little world, completely oblivious to more classic story-based strips. This is not really a bad thing, but it doesn't do anything for the current webcomic community. Gaming comics tend to link to other gaming comics, hardly ever introducing readers to new genres. Readers typically aren't usually interested in stories or comics on the web, just comics that talk about their hobby.
Gaming comics can best be classified into three basic genres: Story-based, Political Commentary, and Sprite. No, not that Sprite. Political Commentary would include comics like Penny Arcade. Penny Arcade has always been the type of comic strip that you can't read straight through: you have to stop at every strip and read the newspost that goes along with each. Usually the strip for the day is about something in the news regarding gamers, or a new game that just came out. Very rarely does Penny Arcade stray from this formula. Like all artists, however, Tycho and Gabe need to stretch every once in a while and do storylines with continuity. Penny Arcade has received a lot of criticism about this, as readers who stumble upon the site for the first time aren't really sure how to approach the comic. Some readers go to the website thinking it will be your typical comic strip read left-to-right, and see a disjointed series of inside jokes and lengthy commentaries on seemingly random subjects. Some people have accused Penny Arcade of a severe lack of humor because of this. Political humor tends to be very topical, and a reader needs to take this into account when reading strips like Penny Arcade.
Story-based comics include strips like Real Life, Mac Hall or PvP. Although they involve video games and their culture, they are not restricted to just commenting on them. PvP is about a group of people who work for a gaming magazine, offering many different storyline possibilities. Mac Hall is hardly about gaming anymore, focusing more on the relationships between characters going to college and their everyday lives. Real Life tends to be more focused, centering on one game or concept and running with it for a week or two.
The last type of gaming comic is one of the most conflicted sub-genres of webcomics ever. Sprite comics are comics that are made using "sprites" from video games. That can include characters, backgrounds, text and other elements. Some people hate sprite comics for their apparent lack of originality; creators taking screen shots from video games and putting them into a comic strip isn't exactly brilliant at first glance. Some sprite comics, such as 8-bit Theatre, have often proved haters wrong by taking characters from a single video game ( Final Fantasy for the NES ) and making them into well-fleshed out characters in consistently funny situations. Otherspritecomics are created with 100% original art. Even if a sprite comic isn't about video games, it is usually considered a gaming comic by default, just for the way it is created and what it references. <
Gaming comics continue to rise in popularity, even as gaming terms such as "l33t" and "wang" become more and more passé. KeenSpace is filled to the brim with gaming comics, and even direct rip-offs of current gaming comics (approximately 76 are listed as "Gaming" not counting the "Sprite" comics). Gaming comics seem to be sticking to their own genre, never straying, and therefore neither helping nor hindering the current webcomic community. Will they continue to exist as separate entities, or will gaming webcomics and traditional webcomics one day be walking off into the sunset holding hands?
A few possible ways might be to have already existing gaming webcomics expand into other genres, away from gaming. On this note Tycho from Penny Arcade says, "Topically, we certainly deal with videogames more than we do any other subject. Calling us a 'Gaming Comic' seems fair. We have certainly covered topics as diverse as Duck Cocks or radioactive arachnids, but videogames are our passion, and the work we do more often than not reflects that." Which shows that gaming comics can spread their wings, so to speak. Another way to bring all genres together is to have more collective events, like Comixpedia's Fright Night, and invite as many comic artists from each genre as possible. Once we all know each other, then the linking starts to occur. Then, after all of that, we can all get together in one big webcomic group hug.
Remember that life-sized X-Wing we were talking about on the show last week? Documentary footage recently uploaded to the world wide inter tubes reveal what really happened. A vast interstellar conspiracy?
Don't you wish you had a way to express your deep love of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption? Some sort of object you could hang on your wall to show all your friends that you live and breathe all things Samus? Well, worry no longer! We have a new print available at the Weekly Geek store - it's a new edition of our popular Metroid print. It's a linoleum cut hand printed (by yours truly) onto high-quality deckled paper and it's only available in a limited edition of 18. When they're gone, they're gone!
They are $15 with free shipping (that's $10 off the first edition price!) - buy one now before they all run out!
posted by Chris on October 12, 2007 1:31 PM in Comics
I am a big fan of dada-esque humor. Stuff that is just completely random and weird. After doing comics for a while, I realized that I was also a fan of not including punchlines in my strips. Hence, Mr. Buckethead. Originally published on 09-01-04.
posted by Qais on October 12, 2007 12:37 PM in Games
Caligula was arguably one of the most evil and debaucheriffic Roman Emperors. Rumored to have buggered young men, slept with his sisters, killed on a whim, and turning palaces in to brothels (among other things) what better person to have a game based on them.
Viva Caligula is a neat little flash game in which you run around the 7 hills of Rome slaughtering men, women, and children and collecting 26 skills and weapons in order to more easily spread your terror. If you have a microphone you can scream out as you slaughter Romans and increase Caligula's bloodlust sending Caligula into a one hit kill mode. Complete with unrealistic gore and flying small intestines this is definitely a great way to work out a little unreleased rage at the office.
Man, what a crazy week for games. Not only was Orange Box released, but we have had Phantom Hourglass for a week and Final Fantasy Tactics for the PSP came out. Sheesh! Way too much to play. I am currently rocking Portal, which is seriously the funniest game I have played since Conker's Bad Fur Day. Zelda fits in the usual DS slot, which is right before bed. What are you playing this weekend?
Each week we compile a list of articles to discuss on Monday's podcast, which you can view on our del.icio.us list. Here is a sneak peek at what we are going to be discussing next week!
posted by Mike on October 11, 2007 6:13 PM in Music
There's gold at the end of the rainbow for Radiohead. In Rainbows marks the seminal genre-benders' first effort following a long run with Parlophone (in the UK) & Capitol (in the US) Records - a 10 year, 6 album relationship resulting in 5 platinum records. Indeed, Radiohead's lucrative past presents them with an interesting set of circumstances. Their early successes afforded them plenty of artistic breathing room from their major-label overseers, but never have they had an opportunity to market their music as they saw fit. Now, Thom Yorke and pals are free to do as they please, and their first showing as an independent act sounds like liberation. Add that to a daring name-your-own-price download format and you have a winner from the start.
posted by Qais on October 11, 2007 2:11 PM in Games
We here at Chez Geek have a bevy of mysterious and shady sources at our disposal. Most of the time they just send us LOLcats pictures and heavily photoshopped Goatse references, but today they really came through!
Apparently, EA Games is set to purchase Bioware and Pandemic Studios, two of the most highly lauded RPG and open environment games producers respectively. With Mass Effect currently primed for release by Bioware (and several sequels already planned) and Mercenaries 2 on the way as well this is easily one of the best moves EA could have made.
EA will pay up to $620 million to the stockholders of VG Holding Corp. (the owner of both Bioware and Pandemic Studioes) and will issue up to an additional $155 million in equity to certain employees of VG Holding Corp. EA has also agreed to lend VG Holding Corp. up to $35 million through the closing of the acquisition. While the monetary figures are pretty nifty, the most interesting bit about this whole buyout is the possibility that with this purchase Bioware might just stop putting out repetitive pap and produce an original IP.
Only a few more months until the best show on TV returns to smash our eyeballs into a jillion pieces. In the meantime, enjoy this Season 4 Promo. Obviously, if you haven't seen season 3 thar be spoilers ahead, matey.
posted by Qais on October 10, 2007 4:31 PM in Games
Portland keeps giving me reasons to visit. With Chris freshly tattooed in Seattle's mongoloid clone of a city and the recent H.P. Lovecraft film festival I had assumed Portland had used up it's reserves of cool and interesting things to do. Apparently not so.
This Thursday Portland is hosting a Halo 3 tournament of sorts. Two 50 feet hi-def video screens are at the ready for all your Halo 3 needs, and regardless of your take on the Halo franchise, playing any first person shooter on a 50 foot high definition screen is bound to be fun. However, even if you think Halo 3 sucks I'm sure you'll agree that diabetes sucks more, which is simply another fantastic reason to attend. All the proceeds from the event will be donated to the America Diabetes Association. If that isn't enough to entice, think of all the horrible played out Wilford Brimley jokes you'd miss out on by not attending. Stab the jump like an insulin needle for the full invite.
How about that, a commercial featuring gamers by a large corporation that manages to be hilarious and avoid derision. Kudos to Toyota for for avoiding the easy jokes.
On this week's edition of Wayback Wednesday, we're going to check out some of our own horrid creations from the past. Remember when the internet was just starting to come into its own? Prodigy and Compuserve were dying off and AOL was starting to lose its grip as various local ISPs started popping up. Suddenly, you could get the interwubs without going through some crazy, cumbersome interface program. You just dialed up the access number on your trusty 28.8 and opened up Netscape Navigator. The information superhighway (jebus, did we really call it that?) was open to you and there were websites galore!
And it wasn't terribly long before there were websites specifically dedicated to letting you make your very own. Angelfire! Tripod! Geocities! How we hailed thee! We scraped together some links and personal info, added lots of busy background colors, peppered it with rad animated gifs, threw it all together in a basic linear format using an amazing java-based WYSIWYG interface, and tossed in page counter to top it all off. Truly, we were as gods.
And now we get to go back and look at how amazingly horrible and ugly those first personal websites were. Mine was a Weird Al tribute page, with some info about myself and a few links to some favorite websites. I actually had another one previous to that, which was built into a "hit refresh a whole bunch to see new messages" html based chat site. I think the site was called WBS or something. It's long gone. But you can still check out my Geocities masterpiece.
It's your favorite part of the week when I let you know what all the best people in the world are doing. They're talking in our forums, of course! But what are they talking about? Let's take a look-see!
posted by Chris on October 10, 2007 10:51 AM in Comics
Originally published 08-30-04 Ahh, the first appearance of Sock. Sock is my favorite character, cause he was so much fun to write for. He is angry, cantankerous and honest. Actually, he is probably the character in the comic most like me, which made the writing easy. Granted, they are all parts of my personality, but Sock is the dominant one.
You have heard the Wilhelm scream even if you don't know what it is. It was originally recorded for a movie titled "Distant Drums" in 1951, and brought back to cinema by Skywalker Sound for Star Wars. Since then, it's been used over and over again as a nod to the movies of yesteryear. Maybe it's also because it's a cheap stock sound effect. Some intrepid YouTube user has cut a bunch of instances of the Wilhelm scream into an easy to digest video for your perusal.
Hot on the heels of two horribly tragic instances of childrenleaping to their doom in what some might say was gaming inspired madness, the British government is launching a review on the effects of violent games on children. The study will be launched by Dr. Tanya Byron, and the unfortunately named Schools Secretary Ed Balls, at a school in East London, making some kinds out in East London just about the luckiest bastards ever. I remember when school was just endless repetitions of busy work while my teachers nursed hangovers and shattered illusions and not a hotbed for barely scientific testing.
I think it's safe to say that introducing horribly violent and graphic media of any kind is going to alter a child's perception one way or the other. In the coming days I fully expect to hear a report out of the UK on a proposed study examining the effect of subjecting children to 12 hours of watching puppies being brutalized.
Dr. Byron, in her seemingly infinite wisdom, was quoted as saying, "Video gaming and the internet themselves are a very positive and important part of children's and young children's growing up and learning and development. But it is also about saying where are the risks?" and Dr. Byron is correct. Video games and the Internet are a huge part of child's development now (if you were lucky enough to be born in a place where such things are prevalent), but the risks should be obvious. Violent media has existed in some form or another since time immemorial, and yet only now are we so concerned with governing who might actually get their hands on the media that inquests are being made.
Newsflash, if children are playing violent video games it is the fault of the parent, either for not policing the media their children feed into their horribly malformed brain meats or by failing to instill enough respect (or fear) in the kid to respect the wishes of the parent. How about next we do a study on the affect of verandas on children, I mean two kids have already succumb to veranda related deaths, it must be a problem right?
posted by Chris on October 9, 2007 10:56 AM in Comics
Remember when webcomics used to always break the fourth wall and it was new and original? You're right, that was never new or original. This comic you can actually see the characters getting their own voices. Phil is playfully stupid and Buber is cynical and ties everything together. Also, I think I drew that sock pretty well.
posted by Chris on October 9, 2007 9:17 AM in Music
In 1995, Nine Inch Nails and David Bowie went on tour together in what was most likely one of the biggest concert events ever. At least, in my mind. I was too young to go at the time, but I remember watching the calendar as the concert date came and went. Now thanks to the magic of the Internets I can experience something so completely awesome as Bowie and Trent Reznor live on stage performing Hurt. And you can, too!
posted by Chris on October 8, 2007 10:04 PM in Podcast
Chris, Grant, Qais and an entirely corporeal Colette rock your world on this week's Weekly Geek podcast. Of course there's more Halo jibber jabber, a sprinkling of Orange Box excitement, a dash of advergames, games marketed to women, big bands becoming indie, music piracy ranting, and Phantom Hourglass gushing rounds out the set. Download the podcast here, now! Or subscribe. Or both! Hit the jump for show notes.
posted by Qais on October 8, 2007 4:49 PM in Games
Back in June the BBFC handed down a ban on Manhunt 2 for "unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone," in concert with a North American ban from the ESRB. Rockstar Games was forced to go back to the drawing board in order to get Manhunt 2 released, a wholly unfortunate move necessitated by the unhealthy amount of scrutiny heaped on Rockstar because of it's past releases.
It would appear that the edits to Manhunt 2 weren't enough for the BBFC and that the "unremitting bleakness" and over all tone was still unacceptable. Rockstar Games responded to the ban thusly,"The changes necessary in order to publish the game in Britain are unacceptable to us and represent a setback for video games." Some might argue that the original ban was a setback for games, but considering the games that are making it through (and feel free to hurl abuse at me for jinxing it) it's easy to suspect that Manhunt 2 just happens to be the current favorite chew toy of pseudo-effectual action groups.
Rockstar Games plans to appeal the decision and hopefully our cousins across the pond are able to join in the gore (albeit crippled) fest. Interestingly, Rockstar's appeal on the original version is no longer suspended due to the banning of the edited version, although it doesn't take a genius to predict that the uncut version almost certainly won't be released on appeal.
North Americans can expect to get their hands on Manhunt 2 October 31st.
posted by Chris on October 8, 2007 3:51 PM in Games
Geon: Emotions is an Xbox Live Arcade puzzle-ish game that kind of went under the radar. It functions on the concept of "emotions", with a cube of your choosing from a vast array like "envy", "courage" or "melancholy". Each emotion allows your cube to use certain power ups more efficiently as you roll around a gridded board collecting dots Pac-Man style. There is, of course, a twist. Once you collect enough dots, you can flip over to your opponent's side of the board and score on his goal. It's a strange mix of Pac-Man, basketball and Marble Madness - all beautifully detailed and nicely presented.
Shininess:Geon, like many other XBLA titles, feels a bit too pretty for its own good. It is formulated to blast your friend's eyeballs as they stare deep into your brand new HDTV set-up. The menus and logos for the different emotion cubes are clever and neat, but when the game starts it just feels like there is too much going on at once. The music consists of generic driving techno-beats, which combined with the crazy particle effects and lighting make it difficult to see what the heck is going on.
Funness: It is very difficult to create a simple game with underlying deep complexity. Take Geometry Wars for example. There's one power up in the game (the bomb) and only a handful of actual enemy types. Yet the game is timeless. Pac-Man, same thing. The game can be played infinite ways. Geon tries to join the ranks of these classic arcade-style titles and fails by putting in way too much confusing and needless shit. First off, you can choose your "emotion" for your cube, which seems like it should have more of an impact on your game play than it actually does. All the emotions do is make the various power-ups you get on the board work better according to whatever emotion you chose. So, logically, for each emotion there is a power-up. It's hard to tell what you are picking up when you run over a power-up, and even harder to remember what each and every one of these things actually does. Then there is a stupidly ridiculous series of steps to actually score a goal. You have to eat all the dots on your side to fill up a meter before your opponent does. Then you have to go to the edge of the board and press the control stick and he X button in the direction you want to flip. Then you flip and move to your opponent's goal and start over again. Repeat until time runs out. Sound like fun? Nope! You're wrong. Hah! Fooled you.
Worthiness: Download the demo of Geon to see if it is the kind of game you would enjoy. You can get the entire confusing experience for free. I am a fan of puzzle games, and I have always loved Pac-Man. Geon: Emotions feels like it is just trying too hard, which makes me sad.
posted by Chris on October 8, 2007 10:50 AM in Games
I have purchased Tetris probably about 5 times during my life for various systems. I had it back on the NES (classic!), the Gameboy (even classic-er!), Mac, PC, DS and now Xbox 360. Tetris Splash is a brand new way for Tetris to sap our precious wallet contents, capitalizing on the fact that they can release a million different downloadable content packs and people will buy them. The concept is that you are playing Tetris in an aquarium (or something. Tetris doesn't have a plot no matter what anyone tells you.) You can set your aquarium background to different things, customize your fish and whether you want saltwater or freshwater, and unlock more features as you play. You can also use your aquarium as a screen saver. Oh, you can also play Tetris.
Shininess: I don't really know if there was an aquarium screen saver niche that needed to be filled for HDTV owners, but screen saver fans can now rejoice! The graphics are crisp and the aquarium effects are nice, but when it comes down to it, the game is just plain Tetris. Tetris with weird voices that tell you when you do something awesome. Also, by default, this version has the ghost blocks that we see in Tetris DS, which some people find distracting. Thankfully, you can turn them off. As for the music, it's got a couple remixes of original Tetris music, but as in all XBLA puzzle games it's better if you just use your own music as a soundtrack.
Funness: It's Tetris.
Worthiness: If you enjoy buying copies of Tetris over and over again (and I do!) or are a fan of screen savers and want a fake aquarium to display on your tv, Tetris Splash may very well be for you. There are about a billion downloads to customize your fish and tank and junk, along with various multiplayer modes. When it comes down to it, it's the same game you know and love. Download accordingly.
I have been wanting a new tattoo for some time, having already taken care of my geeky video game tattoo craving a couple years ago. I have been a huge fan of the webcomic Achewood since it first started, and as luck would have it, Ximena from The Urban Soul in Portland, OR has been offering free Achewood tattoos in her shop as a promotion! This sounded like something crazy to do. I am a fan of crazy. Qais and I hopped in the car and took a road trip, and while he came back with a sore hand and smelling faintly of nachos, I came back with this sweet-ass tat of the shirt design "What we need more of is science". Because you know what? We do. It's true. Thanks, Ximena! You are the awesomest.
After leaving the Fire Nation school with a severe case of happy feet, our heroes move deeper into the land of flames. Encountering a river full of sludge and gunk, they find a small village atop it, and learn about the mysterious Painted Lady
What's going on in this quiet little villa? And who is The Painted Lady? If you love spoilers, be sure to click the jump!
posted by Chris on October 5, 2007 5:44 PM in Games
I finally picked up Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and if I can convince Qais to drive for some of our road trip to Portland on Saturday (new tattoo imminent!) I may very well get to play it. I just finished moving in to my new apartment and got most of my entertainment center and gaming stuff set up, so I'll be starting on Halo 3 and probably finishing up Metroid.
What about you guys? What are you rockin' this weekend?
Who else remembers the epic video game advertisements from the '80s? I don't, but that's mostly because I was more concerned with creating food based masterpieces and growing teeth. Check out the rest of these amazing adverts here.
posted by Chris on October 5, 2007 4:25 PM in Games
Like a badly drawn Spiderman on an acid trip, Double Wires is a browser game that sees you as a weird rag doll swinging from the ceiling using white tendril things attached to what appears to be your arms. The strange way your character shudders like a kid with Tourette's is equal parts amusing and disconcerting.
Play it and waste a couple minutes of your Friday! You click the mouse to do things.
posted by Chris on October 5, 2007 2:37 PM in Music
Ahh, 90's alternative radio. Remember Sneaker Pimps? Remember trip-hop? I lived on this stuff in high school, and just listening to 6 Underground takes me back to the good ol days. And by good ol days I mean awkward and awful bad ol days.
posted by Qais on October 5, 2007 12:56 PM in Games
Sony has finally confirmed the rumors of a price drop and 40 Gig PS3. Expected to be out for the consumerism driven winter holiday of your choosing, the 40 Gig PS3 is not what you might have expected. Sony's newest hardware offerings are lacking in the extreme. Granted, it's been priced at £299 (with no North American pricing details confirmed as of yet) but that drop in pricing comes with a cost. Not only are there only 2 USB ports and a missing multi-memory card port but backwards compatibility has been completely abandoned.
Regarding the decision to drop backwards compatibility for the 40 Gig version SCEE was quoted thus:
"both the reduced emphasis placed on this feature amongst later purchasers of PS3, as well as the availability of a more extensive line-up of PS3 specific titles (a total of 65 titles across all genres by Christmas)."
I'm curious how many people will actually be enticed into buying the 40 Gig model with the promise of new games when they can't play their old ones.
I've said multiple times that a significant price drop for the PS3 might entice me to finally buy one, but given the lack of backwards compatibility I'm still holding out. Granted, there may eventually be a game that finally gets me to plunk my hard earned dollars down but so far I'm not impressed and the news of a price drop just isn't enough to distract me from what amounts to essentially a brand new console.
This past week's show was filled with bile and anger, generally directed towards the human race. What kind of happy things are we going to try to talk about on next Monday in order to cool down our hot heads?
posted by Chris on October 4, 2007 10:10 PM in Music
I have become increasingly obsessed with Deerhoof. Ever since hearing them first on KEXP about a year ago, I have been fascinated by this "math rock" band who have just released a whole live album for free on their website. I spent a while going through their news archives on their site, and their 2006 tour with The Flaming Lips sounds like an extraordinary experience. Here is the video for "Kidz Are So Small".
The Princess Bride is easily one of the most influential movies of my childhood. I wore out 2 tapes before I grew out of watching the damn thing on repeat and could produce quotes from the movie on demand, if I were inclined to giving into ridiculous demands. I'm sure that many of you have a similar story and share my affinity for The Princess Bride. I'm equally sure that very few if any of you ever wondered "Why haven't they made a video game out of this?". Donning a bath towel and recklessly swinging a broom handle in imitation of Westley had always been enough, get me liquored up enough and I'm likely to put on a repeat performance of my childhood imaginings. In short, I don't want to play a Princess Bride game, but I also didn't want a new Transformers movie and we all know how well that worked out.
In spite of my misgivings and caterwauling Worldwide Biggies, a small company few of us at The Geek have heard of, is bringing a Princess Bride game to the table. A teaser for the game will be released on "The Princess Bride 20th Anniversary DVD," which I'm sure you're all anxiously anticipating with nail biting impatience, and the full game can be expected in the spring as a download. Apparently Worldwide Biggies thinks this has real potential to tap the casual gaming market, specifically women.
Before you start writing angry letters for me to ignore, I'm equally confused by the classification of women as casual gamers. Most of the women I know are twice the gamer I'll ever be (and take pleasure in reminding me of my inadequacy) and would be just as disgusted at a Princess Bride game as I am. Now if Worldwide Biggies meant "doltish mouth breathing morons" in their classification of "casual gamer" (an easy enough typo, the keys are right next to each other) then I'm apt to agree that this game will indeed appeal to casual gamers.
I just have one request, can we please stop with the casual rape of my childhood? I only have so many happy memories left.
Editor's note: you can also download Princess Bride on iTunes as of today! --Chris
The journal into the heart of the Fire Nation continues for our plucky heroes on the most recent episode of Avatar, titled simply The Headband.
Aang and the gang come inevitably come across a Fire Nation city, What will happen when they start to infiltrate and subvert the all-powerful Fire Nation?
Remember that awesome April Fools joke that Think Geek played on us this year with the 8-bit tie? Remember how everyone wanted one like, REALLY BAD? Well Think Geek listened and now you can order your very own stylish bit of pixelly goodness from their site! It's only about 20 bucks, check it out and be the nerdiest nerd in the office.
posted by Mike on October 3, 2007 7:28 PM in Music
This, my friends, is comedy gold: Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords impersonating Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie. It might just be me listening to Diamond Dogs today that triggered this post, but I couldn't get this episode out of my head if I had a brutal lobotomy.
posted by Chris on October 3, 2007 1:36 PM in Games
For all you hate haters in the comments on this week's podcast post (go on, join the flamewar! I know you want to!) I give you a video that completely sums up my feelings on mediocre mainstream games such as Halo 3. Except way more entertaining than anything I could ever spew from my mouth. Enjoy.
You know what awesome people do? Awesome people actively participate in their chosen form of entertainment and register in the forums. Why do they do that? Because that's where all the awesome people are, duh.
And what do awesome people talk about? I'm glad you asked.
posted by Mike on October 2, 2007 10:18 PM in Music
Got a new feature brewin' here: Wayback Wednesday. What's it all about? Everything from Atari Games to Leg Warmers (well, maybe not Leg Warmers). Basically, anything and everything - try not to cringe at the upcoming overused word - retro. Do you find yourself saying things like, "Gee, 'member that time when we popped open a can of Tab and discoed 'til the break of dawn? Wasn't that swell?" If so, we're proving we can satiate the needs of people like you. Or we're just proving that there isn't anything too old and rusty to be polished and pawned off on you guys, our faithful readers.
This week, I'll focus on iconic 70s singer and flowing sleeve goddess, Stevie Nicks. Hit the jump for all the flashbackful goodness.
We at Chez Geek are unabashed fans of Goozex and while most of the rational, frontal lobe equipped set are as well, there are still a few holdouts I'm sure. If the square trade system isn't enough to make your tingle equipped bits tingle then their latest promotion almost certainly will.
The glorious bastards at Goozex are giving away Xbox 360s, and not just any 360, no they're giving away Halo 360s. That's right, now while you scream obscenities at people you'll never meet you can rest easy in the knowledge that you are the penultimate Halo fan, either that or you won an Xbox 360, either way a resounding success in whole.
Go check out the contest here and while you're there trade some games without getting completely raped by corporate America.
Things are improving for Photo Mission Tuesday. We've got one more entrant this week for the theme of Does Not Compute. And while one more may not seem like a lot, if you look at it the right way, it's a full 100% increase in participation over the previous week. Not bad at all!
The Weekly Geek is done on a zero budget, with no funding other than ads and merch. Help support the site with a donation! Consider it like tipping your waiter. We also give gifts for larger donations.
Check out this old article I found lying around. Originally published in 2004 on Comixpedia (now 
Tycho remains ever humble when asked about this influence, stating that "...Legacy of Kain's 'Tube Reaver' mode – was both a huge surprise and a terrific honor, but it's not terribly common. We think of ourselves as having a parasitic relationship with the gaming industry, we don't think of ourselves as parallel to it like a media outlet might be. We think of ourselves as extremely fortunate fanboys who, on occasion, produce something of value to our holy pantheon." Penny Arcade has also influenced people's lives, with their recent 
Gaming comics can best be classified into three basic genres: Story-based, Political Commentary, and Sprite. No, not that Sprite. Political Commentary would include comics like Penny Arcade. Penny Arcade has always been the type of comic strip that you can't read straight through: you have to stop at every strip and read the newspost that goes along with each. Usually the strip for the day is about something in the news regarding gamers, or a new game that just came out. Very rarely does Penny Arcade stray from this formula. Like all artists, however, Tycho and Gabe need to stretch every once in a while and do storylines with continuity. Penny Arcade has received a lot of criticism about this, as readers who stumble upon the site for the first time aren't really sure how to approach the comic. Some readers go to the website thinking it will be your typical comic strip read left-to-right, and see a disjointed series of inside jokes and lengthy commentaries on seemingly random subjects. Some people have accused Penny Arcade of a severe lack of humor because of this. Political humor tends to be very topical, and a reader needs to take this into account when reading strips like Penny Arcade.
The last type of gaming comic is one of the most conflicted sub-genres of webcomics ever. Sprite comics are comics that are made using "sprites" from video games. That can include characters, backgrounds, text and other elements. Some people hate sprite comics for their apparent lack of originality; creators taking screen shots from video games and putting them into a comic strip isn't exactly brilliant at first glance. Some sprite comics, such as 
A few possible ways might be to have already existing gaming webcomics expand into other genres, away from gaming. On this note Tycho from Penny Arcade says, "Topically, we certainly deal with videogames more than we do any other subject. Calling us a 'Gaming Comic' seems fair. We have certainly covered topics as diverse as Duck Cocks or radioactive arachnids, but videogames are our passion, and the work we do more often than not reflects that." Which shows that gaming comics can spread their wings, so to speak. Another way to bring all genres together is to have more collective events, like Comixpedia's 
Remember that awesome April Fools joke that 
