Gaming posts

The short answer is, “yes”. The long answer is that Electronic Arts (EA) has been struggling to keep their empire in the world of gaming for some time. Their peak was arguably during the 6-year reign John Riccitiello as CEO, but that means that the decline started during his time at the top as well. Last week, the company experienced a meltdown of epic proportions when their “always on” DRM made the launch of their new SimCity game a public relations and sales nightmare. The wildly popular game became the physical embodiment of everything that games hate when after its launch it basically didn’t work….

When the discussion of archaic, iconic games hits any group of young geeks or old nerds, the topic often turns towards PAC-MAN, Space Invaders, Pong, or Frogger. Invariably, depending on how long the conversation lasts, someone brings up one of the other classics that many often forget because it is one of the only ones with a popular series of continuations in modern gaming: Donkey Kong. Artist Baznet created an amazing series of 8-bit images that put characters like Luke Skywalker and Indiana Jones into the game. Check it out: [caption id="attachment_36307" align="aligncenter" width="600"]…

Some Minecraft faithful might view the video below as an abomination, hurtling their beloved creation engine into the sordid depths of short-lived internet memes. Others will see it as a valiant use of the game to touch a mainstream world with exposure that can only help the Minecraft world grow larger by riding the coattails of the popular Harlem Shake viral video family. Most will watch the 30-second clip and spend even less time than that thinking about it. Regardless of where you fall on the Minecraft Harlem Shake desecration chart, you can appreciate the effort to make it a reality. Or, you…

As gaming giant IGN switches directions and consolidates properties, layoffs have hit the gaming industry in the wrong places: blogging. Two of the gaming network’s biggest properties, GameSpy and 1UP, and entertainment upstart Ugo.com, are being shut down. This news comes after the big sale earlier this month when IGN became part of the Ziff Davis, Inc. when the network was purchased by J2 Global. At the time, it seemed like a doubling of their properties to add them to PCMag, Geek.com, and Toolbox.com, but now only IGN.com remains. According to Casey Lynch at IGN: I also believe that just like…

There was a time well before PS3 and Xbox 360 that the best games were not on your console or computer but at the arcade, bowling alley, or bar. Technology made the standup arcade game mostly obsolete; we can get better graphics and more engaging play from the comfort of our homes. Bar favorites like Golden Tee and Mortal Combat lost their coin-eating appeal. McKinney Ad Agency out of Durham, NC, has a 10% rule. The McKinney Ten Percent is a program that encourages employees to use 1/10th of their work time on non-client related projects and as a result, Beercade was born. Created for Big Boss Brewing…

There’s something epic about the power of old videos. They can bring us back in time and help us remember how things were in our lives if we were old enough to remember them. If we weren’t old enough (or if you weren’t even born yet in 1991) then they can give you a glimpse into a different era from which your parents existed. Such is the case with this simple training video from Nintendo. It highlights customer service in an era before Yelp and Google Local Reviews. It isn’t worried about the response from Twitter accounts. Customer service wasn’t being forced on companies back then. You did it because…

When it was released, L.A. Noire shook the gaming world. It was the first to be featured at the Tribeca Film Festival because of the craft and care used to create the motion capture aspects of the game. It was as close to a film as a video game had ever displayed. Now, we get to see some of the fun side of the making of the game. Team Bondi and Rockstar games have released a blooper reel from the shooting of the game. Even two years later, it’s still amazing to see the depth of detail that is captured by the technology. …

Nintendo ushered in the era of modern console gaming with its first and second generation systems. Their history since then has been up and down as it fights with their primary competitors, the Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox systems, to stay relevant. Things turned for the worse with the introduction of the Gamecube, clearly inferior to the competition at the time. They revived the family of systems (and arguably the company) with the innovative Wii. Now, they’ve taken a turn for the worse with the Wii U, the first entry into the 8th generation of gaming consoles that has disappointed fans…

We don’t cover a lot of games – there are plenty of blogs for that. We definitely don’t cover DLC packs – even the gaming blogs don’t always cover them. The Battlefield 3: End Game DLC pack is different. It’s worth noting. While the Call of Duty series gets the majority of the first-person shooter love amongst standard gamers, Battlefield is considered by “serious” gamers to be much more realistic and challenging. As you’ll see in this launch video premier of a scene from the multiplayer portion of the game during Capture the Flag gameplay, the stunning graphics and intense action are almost too real….

There have been some pretty amazing creations with Minecraft over the years. The wildly popular world-building game may be simply a batch of blocks and grazing sheep to the casual explorer, but to those dedicated to the art that can be drawn from the tools, the results can prove that the hard work was an exercise in sheer awesome. Such is the case for the best Minecraft creation I’ve ever seen by Will Blew and Jacob Granberry, the ever-patient folks over at WesterosCraft. Their rendition of King’s Landing, the fictional capital of the Seven Kingdoms in Game of Thrones, took over 100 builders and…