Fun Friday: ESRB Makes Things Sound Even More Awesome

I love Scribblenauts. I love this descriptor from the ESRB even more.

Scribblenauts

Platform: Nintendo DS

Rating: Everyone 10+

Content descriptors: Cartoon Violence, Comic Mischief

Rating summary: This is a puzzle game in which players navigate a series of traps, puzzles, and enemies to collect stars scattered throughout the colorful levels. Players have the ability to summon different objects by writing/typing in the word (e.g., bike, spaceship, lion) and watching it come to life. If multiple words are entered in a sequence, different whimsical scenarios can be triggered: a bicycle can be used to jump over a baby; a bulldozer can clear away a shark; and cabbage can be fed to dinosaurs. Players can elect to summon "cartoony" versions of bats, bombs, guns, and flamethrowers. These types of items can be used to destroy objects or even other summoned items (e.g., a club can be used to hit an animal; steak can be attached to a baby to attract lions; rockets can be lobbed at a man). These triggered animations are minimally depicted and are usually accompanied by popping, musical sound effects; bright, star-shaped flashes; or small puffs of smoke. If players wish to, they may type in the word vomit, which causes a beige-colored lump to appear on the screen.

Via Kotaku and the ESRB.

Fun Friday: E3 is Over Edition

WELL BAM there it is - REMIX from jaroshbarksdale on Vimeo.

Fun Friday: Cultural Differences Edition

The Japanese have some bizarre games but this one is right up there with the best of them. It's not likely that this WiiWare title will make to us in the United States but it's a shame that we don't really get a chance to experience this stuff. It's too bad that even as we move to digital distribution we won't likely to get access to the many game that aren't necessarily intended for us as an audience. One can only hope that one of the buig three see some benefit in opening the gates to worldwide distribution of niche and culturally diverse games.

Fun Friday: More Good Than Evil Edition

Kotaku has unveiled what may or may not be possible game footage from the upcoming sequel to Beyond Good and Evil. I'm guessing that it is not real-time, in-game footage but pre-rendered concept material at the very least. A lot of comparisons have been made to Mirror's Edge, which I can see, but that is probably because that title is lot more fresh in the gaming community's mind. But i think a better comparison would be to Ubisoft's own IP, Asssassin's Creed, as you can clearly see the character brushing NPC's aside and climbing in a similar manner to Altair.

Either way, it looks awesome and I would play this game in a heart beat. Hopefully, they'll release the original game in Xbox originals soon, as I have criminally never played it.

Fun Friday: I Wish I Had Minions Edition

The original Overlord was a blast and it looks like the sequel will be just as much fun, if not more so. I could have a lot of fun with my own minions. They could take out the trash, change my son, do the dishes and much more. Then, I'd have more time to fun stuff, like planning my rise to global domination.

This series is also as close as I will get to an RTS.

Fun Friday: Epic Film Edition

The motion picture had enough to live up too based on the game alone. Now that there's this short film, it doesn't have a chance!

Fun Friday: Not Worth It To Me Edition

While the single player campaign turned out to be pretty darn good, I could not see how it would translate into a multiplayer experience very well. Needless to say, I skipped the $5 DLC and will continue to imagine that this is how it plays.

Fun Friday: This Can't Come Soon Enough Edition

When, I heard about the Big Sister a couple of weeks ago, I thought that it may have been an April Fools Joke. I was wrong and it became known that she was in fact going to be in Bioshock 2. Now that I've seen her in action, this game can't come soon enough.

Fun Friday: April Fools Edition

While I did think Volition's Ostrich Hammer was pretty funny, Microsoft's Alpine Legend announcement made me chuckle just a little bit more.

Fun Friday: Giving In Edition

I've discussed at some length why I hesitate to play Resident Evil 5. However, I broke down and started playing the game today. On one hand, this game creates an absolutely atrocious first impression with frustrating controls combined with an opening sequence that gives the player no time to come to grips with them. Even playing on the easiest difficultly so I am not punished as quickly and so I can try to enjoy the game somewhat, but that initial "boss" with the axe is still ridiculous. On the other, once I finally got past him, I started to get some of the same feelings that I remember Resident Evil 4 evoking.

Yahtzee does have a point about the inventory system; it makes absolutely no sense.

Fun Friday: Odd Mashup Edition

I like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I also like hip hop. Do I like them together? Is it like chocolate and peanut butter? Not quite, but it is pretty awesome.

8tracks | teamteamwork | The Ocarina of Rhyme

Fun Friday: Real Life Achievements Edition

Life would be some much more exciting if this were real. At the very least, I'd be more motivated. Funny thing about this video, one of the guys in the drinking coffee was an intern when I was there, 5 years ago.

Fun Friday: Time to Dust off the DS Edition

While I have yet to really play through GTAIV proper, this version for the DS, Chinatown Wars, looks more and more fun every time I see a new trailer for it. I like the look and game play style these videos project, it's very "arcade-like" and looks a lot less serious. This may just be what the series needs; a little injection of that old school fun.

Fun Friday: Oh Snap Edition

Most comedians fall very flat when attempting to host game industry events, but it seems like Jay Mohr did rather well at D.I.C.E. this last week. He spouted off some humorous one-liners but my favorite regarding Grand Theft Auto IV:

“If you want to watch an awards show about thugs beating up ho’s watch the Grammys.”

Now that is funny!

Fun Friday: Possible Reason to Finally Get a PS3

Fun Friday: Thrown Under the Car Edition

After reading last months cover story in Play Magazine, Ride to Hell looked very promising based on the description in the article and the accompanying concept art. Than I saw the above footage. I understand that it says "pre-alpha" in the upper corner, but it's still not a good first impression. At least, the video was funny.

Fun Friday: QA Funnies Edition

Game Developer's Matthew "Wasteland" has taken the task of infusing some funny into their industry leading magazine. His back page article this month tackles QA bugs, but not the good kind. Here's my favorite:

1. Put the game in the disc tray and start playing it.
2. Walk 56 steps to the left and drink the green potion.
3. Explore the caves and proceed to the point where the wizard talks to you, then skip the dialog after about the third panel. I forgot what it said.
4. Hit the attack button repeatedly for five minutes.
5. Pause the game and leave it on the Pause menu for about as long as it takes to make and eat a microwave burrito, I think like 15 minutes.
6. Unpause the game, turn on all of the cheats, warp to the vampire's lair and shoot the panzerfaust at him over and over as fast as possible.
7. Notice that the game has frozen.

I'm sure the developers response to this bug was either, "We'll fix it in the sequel," "But LotCheck/Certification didn't find it," or " Do you think we can get this waived?"

Fun Friday: Missed Opportunities Edition

As the year is beginning to come to a close, I would like to take a moment to reflect on what I missed out on. I'm not a huge fan of lists but when I started thinking about the games on my list, it seemed quite substantial.

1. Fallout3 - And I loved Oblivion so much.
   
2. Castle Crashers - Bugs, plus it came out when we were doing a lot of OT.
   
3. Dead Space - Looked cool until I played the demo.
   
4. Prince of Persia - Hadn't been into the Prince since Sands of Time but looked promising until I heard that you could not fail.
   
5. Tomb Raider: Underworld - No rush, I knew it was just another Croft adventure.
   
6. Mirror's Edge - Wasn't convinced by the demo but I'm still intrigued.
   
7. Star Wars: Force Unleashed - Another title that came out while we were in OT.
   
8. Penny Arcade Episode II - No excuse other than I was distracted by other games.
   
9. Condemned 2 - The first is one of my favorite 360 titles. They seemed to lose the plot though.
   
10. Bully - I love Rockstar's work, but I never gave this one a chance.
    

Some Honorable Mentions include LittleBigPlanet and Metal Gear Solid IV, both of which I would have played if I owned a PS3. Also, I only scratched the surface of GTAIV (like six hours) so that might as well be on the list as well.

Update: Maybe it wasn't that bad that I missed out as some seem to have ended up being a little disappointing. Oh, and I started playing Force Unleashed this week. So far, it's not bad.

Fun Friday: Big in Japan Edition

I have no idea what these videos mean but they're awesome in every way. Good luck in Japan, Saint's Row 2!

Fun Friday: Thanksgiving Edition

It's been a great year. It's been challenging but great. I can definitely say that I am very thankful for many things.

• Firstly, I'm thankful for my growing family. I became a dad and a homeowner within two months. Both presented challenges but only the very best kinds. I'm also very thankful of my wife who is very understanding when it comes to my passion for games.
• I'm thankful for developers Blue Tongue, 5th Cell, Yukes and Rare for giving me the chance to work on some great titles.
• I'm thankful for the Xbox360 which this year has provided some of the best gaming moments I have ever had including the sensation of quietly executing a man from the shadows with a hidden blade, had Gandhi order a nuclear strike on cities of Genghis Khan, bitch slapped a mime while hunting down a giant fruit fucker, had my ass handed to me by an old school platformer (twice), had my garden decimated by hemlock, and survived the cornfields with three of my buddies against wave after wave of infected.
• I'm thankful that I work in a place where someone has a copy that week's highly anticipated release, saving me from having to buy everything that came out this fall.
• I'm very thankful that I still have a job and get to do all of this again next year.

This year was extraordinarily full of highlights. There were some very low lights in my personal life, thankfully only a few, but overall I think this can go down as one great year and I look forward to the next.