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Warm up to Aliens with the Space Invaders Scarf
Posted by Lolita Beckwith Categories: Accessories, Culture, Retro,
Hmmm. It’s been a couple of weeks since we obsessed over anything Space Invaders, such as the tote bag, baby mobile and doormat. This week we give love to the Space Invaders scarf, decorated with a phalanx of blue, purple and magenta-colored aliens, and handcrafted from 100% Merino lambswool for comfort and warmth. The perfect holiday gift for that video game-obsessed loved one—including you. The scarf costs $45 USD, but is currently sold out.
Etsy
viaTechnabob
Gallery: Warm up to Aliens with the Space Invaders Scarf
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Some brave soul just immortalized their love of my favorite game, Portal, in the form of a tattoo. Our only comments: what will the cake look like in 50 years, and wouldn’t it have been more appropriate to put the companion cube over the heart, and the cake on the tummy?
Remember kids: Cake and lies on gamer thighs is the only way to show your true gamer colors!
Gallery: In Brief: Portal tattoos
“Mario” Goes Zero-G to Promote Super Mario Galaxy
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Culture, Nintendo, Release Dates,
If you’re a hardcore gamer with a Wii, you don’t need to be told that Super Mario Galaxy is looming large on the horizon. With only a week to go until launch, though, Nintendo thought that they should take the time to try to reach those last few folks that’ve been living in a cave for the past year. How did they decide to point your attention towards Mario’s latest space-faring adventure, dear reader? By plunking down a few G’s to send Mario Zero-G, of course!
That’s right, that poor bastard you see pictured above had to ride the “Vomit Comet” in a Mario suit. I’m guessing some intern at Nintendo has been stuck with the task of finding the best way to de-barf a Mario costume right now.
Super Mario Galaxy launches on the Wii on November 12th for $49.99. And it’s going to be awesome, I dare say.
GoNintendo
Gallery: “Mario” Goes Zero-G to Promote Super Mario Galaxy
Sensationalism aside it appears the Xbox 360 is a meltable platform. Thankfully, the above melted carnage was the result of a not-so-bright user keeping their 360 on their stove(!) rather than a result of console cooling gone wrong - but it’s still an image that will send chills down the spine of any gamer worth their salt. Seriously though folks - don’t store your expensive consumer electronics on a stove - unless you are busy Breaking Stuff!
Read More 
| Engadget
Gallery: OMG Xbox 360 melting!!!
Halo 2 Zanzibar map done up LEGO style
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Culture, First Person Shooters, Microsoft, Xbox,
See, it’s stuff like this that absolutely blows us away. We’ve seen a lot of people do some interesting things with LEGOs in the past, but we think this recreation of the Zanzibar map from Halo 2 may take the cake. This was done by a college student who seemingly had way too much time on his hands.
After nearly two years of building and thousands of dollars sunk into my project, it’s finished. This is my latest video which details how I made my famous Lego model of Zanzibar from it’s very first stage, to the now near completed form. I wanted to make this video so that everyone will get the facts straight. I originally sent the picture and video files that you’ll see in this video to Bungie Studios where they incorporated them into the Halo 3 Legendary edition bonus disk.
Check the video for the full scoop, and prepare to be amazed.
Gallery: Halo 2 Zanzibar map done up LEGO style
In the interest of expanding my life experiences and getting “my game on” I decided to try the much hyped Gamer fuel, Mountain Dew’s new Halo 3 themed “Dew with an invigorating blast of citrus cherry flavor” featuring 170 calories of sugar and 73mg of caffeine. Read on for our full, unabashed review.
Click to continue reading Halo 3 Gamer Fuel: The definitive review
Gallery: Halo 3 Gamer Fuel: The definitive review
Super Mario 64 beaten in 6:47 with only one star
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Adventure, Culture, Nintendo,
Now this is something any hardcore gamer would enjoy, we think. A couple of guys got together to figure out how to use Mario’s awesome jumping skills to beat Super Mario 64 in under 7 minutes. While you may watch it in awe of the lightning-quick hand-eye coordination of the person behind the controller, this is actually a tool-assisted speed run. What they did was run the game in an emulator with slow speeds, and went frame-by-frame looking for exactly what to do to accomplish what they did. It is totally not meant to show off gaming skill, but rather, a game pushed to it’s limit. What you end up with is a run through the game with Mario collecting just one star, and using a glitch that allowed the character to pass through a couple of doors without the need for stars or a key. Definitely an interesting look at what can be done with a game using tools the designers never intended their game to run on.
Gallery: Super Mario 64 beaten in 6:47 with only one star
Time Magazine’s Cover Feature on Halo 3 Draws Fire
Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: Bungie, Culture, First Person Shooters, Microsoft, Xbox 360,
Time Magazine has Halo 3 on their cover this week but the feature inside the magazine, written by Lev Grossman, has raised the hackles on the necks of several game writers. Dan Zuccarelli from Bits, Bytes, Pixels and Sprites takes Grossman to task for what he feels is an ill-researched piece. It’s not hard to see where Zuccarelli is coming from. In the third paragraph the Time article calls Halo 2 an Xbox 360 exclusive and the inset graphic (reprinted on BBPS) shows a fan mod Xbox 360 featuring Halo 3 artwork rather than the actual Halo 3 Special Edition Xbox 360, not to mention mis-labeling the Heroclix Scarab as merely a “sculpture.”
What really has some people frothing though is Grossman’s obvious bias against gamers that seeps from nearly every paragraph as he repeatedly refers to them as antisocial, unhealthy, unpopular and even twice refers to gamers as residing in a ghetto. It’s not clear whether he refers to a literal ghetto or if he’s being metaphorical, but either way it doesn’t seem particularly balanced or neutral in tone.
Read More | Time via The Bits, Bytes, Pixels and Sprites
Gallery: Time Magazine’s Cover Feature on Halo 3 Draws Fire
Bloomberg: Wii Still Dominant in Japan
Posted by Steve Van Neil Categories: Corporate News, Culture, Hardware, Microsoft, Nintendo, PlayStation 3, Sony, Wii, Xbox 360,
In what has become a regular occurrence, Nintendo’s Wii handily outsold its closest console competition three-to-one in Japan for the month of August. However, it is interesting to note that the gap between the Wii and PS3 has lessened. In June, Nintendo’s console outsold the PS3 six-to-one and four-to-one in June and July, respectively.
Bloomberg reported the final August numbers as follows: Wii at 245,653, PS3 at 81,541, and the Xbox 360 lagging behind at around 11,000. The Wii’s August numbers bring the console to a whopping 3.4 million units sold in that country since its launch last year.
Read More | Next Generation
Gallery: Bloomberg: Wii Still Dominant in Japan
Researchers Use World of Warcraft to Study Real-World Response to Disease
Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: Culture, MMORPG, PC, Role Playing Games, Simulation,
The New York Times has a story about a group of researchers who examined the outbreak of the in-game disease ‘corrupted blood,’ originally designed to affect only high-level World of Warcraft characters, for clues about what the social response might be to an actual pandemic. The game provided the authors of a research paper set to be published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal a unique set of conditions for this research that had typically been difficult to simulate: A wide population, an emotional response (because WoW players get really attached to their characters) and the ability to disseminate information among the population.
The corrupted blood outbreak was a glitch in WoW that took place in September 2005 and provided a unique look at the responses both by the population and the “bug:”
As the virus spread, very real challenges emerged, such as the failure of quarantine measures, further transmission by character’s pets and the existence of “immune” characters, who act as carriers, passing the virus to others while failing to succumb to symptoms.
It’s a fascinating use of the social construct that WoW has become.
Read More | Times Online via Slashdot
Gallery: Researchers Use World of Warcraft to Study Real-World Response to Disease
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