Random Crap

Stuff that doesn’t fit into one of the other categories goes here.

Metacritic loves popular sites

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This may be old news to many of you, especially since they even tell you on their About page, but Metacritic weighs reviews. Meaning they count a review more or less depending on how big the site the review came from is. This seems a little shady, but they at least don’t hide the fact. Here’s what tipped me off to some sort of mathematical incongruity.

Something struck me about the math. Mostly it was how (100 + 90 + 90 + 80) /4 = 90 and not 89. If CNET owns Gamespot and CNET owns Metacritic and Metacritic favors some sites over others, and CNET has competitors…well, isn’t this a possible conflict of interests?

Gears Of War In Bilingual Shocker, And I Think I’m Developing Mental Problems

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According to some random guy hidden in the very deep dark depths of the Internet (don’t go there without rubberised protection and lots of sharp objects), Gears of War is apparently region free. His post isn’t all that informative in explaining his method of finding out, so like a good videogaming fan I must assume he is correct.

Try to skip the fact that Play-Asia blatantly tells this person that he is, in fact, wrong. As a British guy who isn’t getting the damn game for another 10 days, I’m now mulling over the possibilities of purchasing from Play-Asia on the off chance that the guy-from-the-random-website might actually be correct.

I simply can’t wait 10 days. Splinter Cell: Double Agent may be good, but this, this is something else. →  Phoenix Write: Just Posts for All

Matt’s Lite Impressions: Wii Edition

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Apparently the Gaming Gods have smiled upon me once again, because I got to take the Nintendo Wii out for a spin today at the Nintendo World Store in NYC.

The first floor contained 3 Wii Sports kiosks. After a very short wait, I was given the go-ahead to try out the almighty Wii. I was about to play Tennis, but remembered they had Baseball as well, so I opted to go for the all-American pastime instead. The attendee helped me get setup with the game, and strapped the Wii-mote on me with it’s sleek little hand strap.

It’s been almost a year since I first saw it, but I finally got a chance to hold the Wii-mote. First thing I noticed was that it is completely encased, both the remote and the nun-chuck, in that shiny clear plastic that is becoming a staple of Nintendo hardware these days. →  Read it your way.

As long as we’ve got each other

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Kirk Cameron was once a normal B actor. Then he found Jesus. Not in the standard “knowing you’re not alone in the universe, finding comfort through God when faced with tragedy, realizing men should help each other and love thy neighbor” way, though.

No. He is now a complete nutjob who roams LA in a sports car (What Would Jesus Drive?) looking for people to call liars and thieves. When he isn’t busy accosting strangers with the good news (which is that the stranger never has to see him again), he is flexing his intellectual muscle for the camera. So far on his TV show he has proven, with the help of Ray Comfort (based only on his name, he must be an ex-pornstar), that atheists have nightmares about bananas, that the Church of Satan PR guy is much more polite than he, and that orangutans are much, much stupider than people. →  Reading more, assemble!

Geek Call to Arms!

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This is a test of the emergency geek system. Were there an actual emergency, this post would have instructions, such as:

A) A list of senator and/or congressmen to kill in order to prove that video games are not violent, and do not require legislation to control.

B) The location of a truck full of PS3’s, ripe for hijacking.

C) An announcement of a pocky shortage.

Ok, in all seriousness, I need some help. A friend of mine who is a casual PC gamer with an older computer was looking for a fun “builder style” game that would actually run on his computer. He’s not very picky, he just likes building stuff and it needs to be a year or two old so he can run it. →  18 Wheeler American Pro Reader

Garbled nonsense that tangentially relates to adventure games

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My interest in Adventure games has waxed and waned over my gaming years. I started when I was about twelve, and while I do not remember the specific game I played first, I suspect it was something in the Kings Quest series. Something by Sierra, in any event. I eventually made my way over to the LucasArts games, and I remember especially liking Sam and Max Hit the Road and Day of the Tentacle.

In my more mature years (the past two weeks) my interest in Adventures has again waxed, and I am currently determining a plan of attack for playing some of the seminal titles in the genre. While figuring out the particulars I have played most of Grim Fandango (and plan to finish it tonight in honor of Día de los Muertos, during which all of the action takes place). →  Read it your way.

The beginnings of a Culdcept addiction

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I first saw Culdcept a while back, when it was just released. The back of the box made it seem pretty interesting, but the price just wasn’t right for the game – I’d seen maybe one review and it was lukewarm at best.

The other day, though, I saw it for $10 and thought, “Perfect.” I snatched it up and I think I’ve found a new addiction.

What makes this game most interesting is, naturally, the gameplay. It’s perfectly suited to the card-collecting aspects of Magic: The Gathering (or pick your favorite new CCG), while it retains some of the feel of classic board games like Monopoly. The artwork on the cards reinforces the former, while the cartoony feel on the game board complements the latter. →  A delayed article is eventually good, a rushed article is all we post.

Oh, Aren’t You an Adorable Little VG Cat!

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If anyone has paid attention to Joystiq’s weekly WebComic Wrap-up, you’d no doubt run into a comic named VG Cats. I love this webcomic. The style is great, and the humor is right on key. The guy doesn’t go too deep into the whole video game lore thing (there’s a lot of Zelda and Final Fantasy VII commentary), so you don’t have to get out your Ultimate Videolamer’s Guide to Everything About Gaming and Dating(tm) to understand it.

He’s got 215 comics on his site, and most of them are hilarious. If you were looking for a great comic strip on video games, you can do no wrong with VG Cats.

And before I get bullied, I will say that I also love Penny Arcade. →  What can change the nature of a post?

Nintendo’s new ad campaign

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Nintendo knows that simply marketing their Wii console with standard ads would not take full advantage of the system’s propaganda potential. To tap into the marketing power of the system’s gimmick, they have begun releasing what they call life style ads. Writers at other gaming sites (who specialize in games and not advertising) have ignorantly mocked these ads as bad Gap knock offs. Little do they realize that Nintendo’s life style shots are what the company needs to appeal to a host of demographics traditionally not interested in video games. Study the following six photos for a minute and see if you can identify the demographic they capture before scrolling down to the answer.

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Demographic: Interracial couples who don’t understand that not all controllers sense motion

People who don’t understand new technology need new technology, too. →  Sly 3: Honor Among Reads

The Big Scene

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Well, I finally understand how Nick Callaway felt when attending a party over at the late, great Jay Gatsby’s house on Long Island. On Friday morning, I traveled down to the Nintendo World Store to attend the Q&A session that a few of the IGN editors were going to have there, but that was just the tip of the iceberg.

I got to the store at around 10:45 a.m., completely exhausted from the anxiousness I had the night before. This would be the first time I’d ever met anyone from the journalism side of the video game industry, and I have to say I was nervous. These people are my celebrities; I’ve read their articles every day for the last 6 years. →  All this can be yours, if the read is right.