Icecream headache: Half Life in 60 Seconds
Music Video Games Boost Sales for Featured Artists
Gee, turns out the video gaming world, a vast demographic with alot of disposable cash, really does buy music. This is something the music industry is discovering for themselves as the album sales of bands that show up in fake-rock music games have doubled over the past year. Not only is the industry taking notice, but the bands are, too. Locking in a track on Guitar Hero or Rock Band might be worth mad bank to an older band, but to a newbie group just off the club scene, that kind of exposure can be the start of a career.
Music video game sales have doubled in the past year, reaching nearly 2-billion in the human dollars. That’s less than traditional music sales, who pulled down about 10-billion in the big monies, but as CD sales decline, music games are catching up fast. In a few …
Starcraft 2, Alpha Version in Action
Oh hey, look at that. There’s a video up on Blizzard’s site where Matt Cooper as the Protoss and David Kim in the Terran pants go head to head in a Starcraft 2 match. Just like those charming Korean professional duels, this game is narrated by two announcers. New units and new terrain assets are showcased.
You can get ahold of the video here.
From what I can see, it looks alot smoother than Warcraft 3, with a higher polygon count and more organic feel. Even with the new units, the old strategies still work, like cutting down your opponent’s gathering units to cripple his economy. Also, as always, Protoss are dicks.
Latest craze, shoe throwing Flash game sells for $7,818
In a matter of just four days by way of eBay auction.
This all took hold as an Internet fad when an Iraqi journalist, Muntadar al-Zaidi, lobbed his shoes at US President Bush during a press conference. The poor man has been arrested and reports have it that he has been beaten multipule times by his captors—however, his martyrdom for the Internet has not faded in the least.
Multiple animated GIFs cropped up within twenty-four hours of his arrest and still proliferate on websites.
EA to Slash 1,000 Jobs, Close Nine Studios
We all knew EA was in trouble, but now the tainted fruits of that poisoned tree are hitting the ground and blighting the land. In a release today, Electronic Arts has announced their intention to close various minor studios and other holdings in order to focus on larger, more profitable games. This restructuring plan is estimated to save the company some 120-million per year. Oh, yeah, and that 1,000 lost jobs thing, too.
EA blamed its problems on retailers tightening up their inventory and not purchasing whatever shovelware offal EA spews forth from its wet and smacking orifices.
We here at Vox wish the best to those spit out from the giant. Hopefully picking up new jobs won’t be much of a hassle in this yawning depression of a violated economy.
“What Games Should I Get?” Wii Edition
So you’ve just slipped $250 into Shigeru Miyamoto’s g-string and come away with a lapful of shiny white Wii. But even though you’re willing to drop the better part of a paycheque on a gaming system, you have no idea what games you should shove into the blue and bright video maw of your gaming system. You know, that you bought to play games.
You’re not alone. In fact, dozens of people just like you have been cluttering up the message boards and forums I frequent, so it’s come time to do something about your incredible, if free-spending, ignorance. So then, I present you to the infallible Vox Ex Machina List of Nintendo Wii Games You Should Buy Right The Hell Now (Preferably From Our Online Store).
Super Mario Galaxy
It’s the latest Mario game for the latest Nintendo console and if you didn’t buy …
Another Video Games are Corrupting Our Children List? It Must be Wednesday
Yet again, those grand crusaders against all things they don’t personally like have focused their red and disapproving eye upon video games. Today, the grayface in public is one Kym Worthy, the Wayne County prosecutor. From her Detroit office, she lashed out at video games, claiming that violent games are responsible not just for a host of random societal ills, but also the murder of Daniel Sorensen. Sorensen was stabbed, decapitated, and set on fire. Tragic enough on its own, but the killers adopted a “video games made me do it” defense, presumably because there are precious few sane excuses for random firey decapitations.
Kym Worthy also linked the killers to violent video games, as if certain games had really and truly influenced them in some magical way that doesn’t apply to the hundreds of millions of folks who also play video games every day …
Microsoft Knew the Xbox 360 Could Damage Discs
Of course, there’s a lawsuit about it. Recently unsealed documents show that Microsoft knew the Xbox 360 could damage discs inside it when tilted or bumped while playing. Oh, and that they knew before tossing the 360 up on the market in 2005.
Microsoft engineering teams considered three solutions to the problem, but dropped all of them. Something about being too expensive. Good thing there’s that replacement disc program from Microsoft, you know, the one that costs $20 per disc. Yeah, you know I love re-buying a game because the cat jumped up on the console while I was playing.
Oddly enough, everyone else who spins a disc in their players has figured out a way to prevent damage in case of a stiff breeze tilting their machines a whole degree off axis. How this strange and alien technology escaped Microsoft is …
Guitar Hero and Metallica Join Forces, Rock Out
Of course it had to happen sooner or later, what with Metallica being one of the biggest bands in metal. Even if they have sold out entirely, attacked their fans through the courts, and turned into old men desperately trying to cling to what little relevancy they ever possessed by mining the last dregs of their speed metal days. Not that I’m bitter or anything.
The new game, Guitar Hero: Metallica, mines the last dregs of the band’s speed metal days by following their path to stardom through the clubs and venues they played in days gone by. You play as a band looking to make your name by following in Metallica’s footsteps, eventually opening for the aging rockers themselves in one of their favourite clubs. The game is scheduled for a March release.
You can catch more details about the upcoming Guitar Hero: …
God of War 3 Announced, Trailer Posted
Because video games just aren’t violent enough, Sony recently announced God of War III, coming to a PS3 near you. While Sony has claimed the game will be a PS3 exclusive, we here at Vox wager that’ll last a whole ten seconds before the siren song of mad Xbox cash lures them to other waters.
The game is based on a brand new engine to take advantage of the power lurking under the PS3′s hood. How well that’ll work out is anyone’s guess.
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