April 20, 2007
Sport: An Rare, Incredible Goal by Lionel Messi of Spanish Soccer Team Barcelona FC ...
Posted by Supercore at 01:39 AM
April 19, 2007
Video: The "Unboxing" of a Sony PlayStation 3 Ordered Directly From Amazon Japan ...
Posted by Supercore at 11:37 PM
April 06, 2007
Video: Real-Life Spoof of Grand Theft Auto IV Trailer
This is a bit rough around the edges, but it's a pretty damn good spoof of the new Grand Theft Auto IV trailer. The creator used live-action footage culled and edited from various existing video clips posted to YouTube in order to make the spoof. Full marks, dude!
Posted by Supercore at 11:10 PM
April 05, 2007
Video: Grand Theft Auto IV Trailer
The trailer for the new "Grand Theft Auto IV" to be released by Rockstar Games in October 2007. "GTA IV" will be set in New York City (though it won't be called New York City in the game itself).
Posted by Supercore at 11:54 PM
April 04, 2007
Grand Theft Auto IV Announced, Trailer Released ...
Few things get us as excited as the announcement by games producer Rockstar Games regarding the next installment in the Grand Theft Auto series. "Grand Theft Auto IV" is on its way, kidzzz -- and that promises mo' better GTA to get you through the day. The new title will be rolled out October 16, 2007. When Rockstar make this announcement a couple of days ago, it also released a trailer for "GTA IV."
The game series has evolved dramatically through the "GTA III" phase, which saw the release of the original GTA III (aka, Liberty City), Vice City and finally the epic San Andreas editions. Between Liberty City and San Andreas, the game has grown and improved tremendously.
Meanwhile the evolution of the new crop of higher-performance gaming platforms, from the Microsoft XBox 360 to the new Sony PlayStation 3, have upped the potential for bigger, richer, faster games with even better graphics. It's only fitting that the Rockstar team would revisit Liberty City and develop the game environment to a larger scale and on a more fully visually realized level.
The word is that the Liberty City of "GTA IV" will be a more detailed and realistic carbon copy of New York City (albeit four of its five boroughs plus Jersey) in every way except the actual names. And this time around the main character will be an Eastern European immigrant. Can't fucking wait for this release, dude.
Posted by Supercore at 11:25 PM
March 15, 2007
"Among The Thugs"
We've just finished reading "Among The Thugs," Bill Buford's remarkable and page-turning book about crowd violence during the dark days of English and European football/soccer hooliganism in the 1980's. The book is a work of non-fiction, but reads like a highly personal piece of well-researched first-person journalism.
Buford befriended some of the most notorious of the hardcore members of the various team "firms," including that of the Manchester United football club. The author witnessed countless acts of crowd violence at soccer matches across the U.K. and Europe while living in London in the late 1970s and through the '80s . Buford was himself beaten severely by Italian police when thousands of English supporters went on a rampage outside a World Cup match in 1990. The book is a meditation on the nature of crowds, psychology and culture. It's absolutely fascinating, yet disturbing.
"Among The Thugs" was written and published in the early '90s at a time when English football hooliganism inside the top-league stadiums was gradually being eradicated following the Hillsborough disaster in which 96 people were killed in the standing-area terrace of a stadium.
Since then, police crackdowns on violent football fans, better surveillance and policing, the introduction all-seating areas and the removal of all-standing terraces in British stadiums, among other things, has all but extinguished crowd violence at matches and made attending games in the U.K. now a far safer experience than it was when Buford wrote "Among The Thugs."
Posted by Thurston Ali at 11:37 PM
February 16, 2007
Going to The Archive: Top 5 Video Games for ADD Moments in the Studio ...
1. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar Games)
2. The Getaway (Sony Computer Entertainment)
3. Grand Theft Auto III: Vice City (Rockstar Games)
4. FIFA Soccer 2004 (EA Sports)
5. Sim City 4 (Maxis)
Posted by Supercore at 07:16 AM
February 12, 2007
"Save Boston" Game Lets Players Smoke Out the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Lite-Brite Mooninites
Somebody has developed a quickie Flash game on the Web making fun of Boston and Bostonians and the whole recent brouhaha over the guerilla ad campaign involving LED light boards to promote the television show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force." The light boards were mistaken for bombs, and the security response to the supposed terror threat cost the city millions of dollars. Anyway, the silly game is called "Save Boston." It's a whack-a-mole type of amusement that will provide minutes of senseless entertainment on your PC when you should be working.
Posted by Supercore at 11:59 PM
February 08, 2007
Video: Music by 8-Bit Band Anamanaguchi
Anamanaguchi are one of a dzoen or so bands who make up the nascent 8-bit music scene. In 8-bit, musicians use 8-bit electronic equipment -- old computer, Nintendo GameBoys, whatever from the prehistoric age of basic computing -- to create a sound palette. Anamanguchi run traditional instrument through sequencers and filters to pump out the blippy and bleepy 8-bit sound.
(Domo arigato to Chris for the tip.)
Posted by Supercore at 07:48 AM
December 23, 2006
The Nintendo Wii - A Deep, Detailed Look of How It Works
There's no denying what we would want as present this holiday season if there was such a thing as a Santa Claus. The Nintendo Wii, with its motion-sensor controller, is the most original and innovative videogame platform to emerge in practically a decade. It also -- and more importantly -- just looks like a helluva lot of fun. And really, really, really want one. (Even in spite of the nototious strap problem.) But how does it work? The Times gives us a detailed breakdown on the technology.
Posted by Supercore at 10:41 AM
December 01, 2006
2006 Blip Festival Powers Up in New York City
A while back we posted an item about an electronic music group from Poland called Gameboyzzzz. The band records and performs music composed of the blips and bleeps that emanate from a half-dozen or so Nintendo Gameboy handhelds. The band is one of many to emerge as part of the global "8-bit" music scene. This week sees the kick off of 2006 Blip Festival, or "BlipFest, a four-day event in New York City celebrating and showcasing the work of musicians and artists who, like Japanese duo Portalenz pictured above, use low-bit videogame and computer hardware to make music and video. While Gameboyzzzz themselves will not be performing at BlipFest, dozens of other artists from all over the globe will be. It's going to be electric. It's going to be sublime. (Domo arigato to Chris G. for the tip!)
Posted by Supercore at 01:30 AM
November 21, 2006
Ouch! New York Times Reviewer Dumps on the New Sony PlayStation 3 Big Time!
As the Sony PlayStation 3 went on sale in the United States last Friday and patient gamers finally got their hands on the much-anticipated and much-coveted gaming console, a New York Times journalist was busy wrapping up a week spent test-driving the PS3 for his technology review. After thirty hours of putting the new Sony platform through its paces, Times scribe Seth Shiesel penned his review, which appeared in today's edition of the Old Gray Lady. His verdict on the PS3 is pretty hurtful. To quote his article, "... it often feels as if the PlayStation 3 can’t walk and chew bubble gum at the same time." Ouch!
(Domo arigatoo to Jess for the tip.)
Posted by Supercore at 01:53 AM
November 11, 2006
Yet Another Cool Sony PlayStation 3 TV Commercial
This one is the "eggs" television spot for the soon-to-be-realeased (Nov. 17) Sony PlayStation 3, or PS3. Loving this ad campaign.
Posted by Supercore at 02:44 PM
November 01, 2006
The World's Largest Skateboard Mega Ramp ...
Brazilian pro skateboarder Bob Burnquist has built the largest skateboard ramp in the world in the hinterlands of suburban San Diego. It's called a "Mega Ramp." Get this: it's about eight stories tall, 360 yards long and has a 70-foot gap boarders must sail over. Here the video clip that accompanies the New York Times article on the ramp.
Posted by Supercore at 11:06 PM
March 28, 2006
"Desperate Housewives" as Video Game?
Yup. It's in the works. The hit ABC Television hour-long drama "Desperate Housewives" is going to be turned into a video game for the PC. While the development of console games based on popular movies and TV properties is nothing new, somehow, "Desperate Housewives," the game, doesn't seem like a compelling idea to us.
Posted by Thurston Ali at 11:15 PM
March 15, 2006
"The Godfather" Video Game is Coming
Don Corleone, as portrayed by the late, great Marlon Brando, and his mafia family are coming to a PlaysStation2 and XBox near you. "The Godfather" video game is on it way to stores this month.In the latest example of the retro movie-to-video game trend and the improving track records of such efforts (see Rockstar Games' recent entry "The Warriors"), Electronic Arts has taken Francis Ford Coppola's 1970's American film classic about an Italian-American mafioso dynasty and made turned it into a fully immersive interactive story. Think of it as "Grand Theft Auto" meets, well, "The Godfather," set in 1920's New York City. The game drops on March 21. A review in the upcoming April/May issue of Giant magazine gives "The Godfather" video game an "A+" and says it's a success that has managed to escape the "awful movie-turned-game curse." The screenshots and video on EA's official site look great (but, then again, they do for all games, even the crappy ones). Can't wait to play it and blissfully waste even more of our Saturday afternoons schackled to our PlayStation2.
Posted by Thurston Ali at 01:32 AM
March 08, 2006
Nintendo's Zelda is 20 Years Old!
It is hard to believe, but, yes, Zelda has turned 20. One of the most successful and long-running videogame titles ever, Zelda's popularity in the 1980's helped turn Nintendo into a household name, as well help revive a home videogame business that had petered out in the intervening years since the Atari and Intellivision era. For a while, at least until a little thing called the Sony PlayStation arrived, Nintendo was king. And Zelda was in many ways the company's crown jewel. According to 1Up, there are at least 20 reasons to love Zela (and a few to hate it, too). Zelda, you've come a long way baby -- a long, long way since those early Nintendo days and the bird's eye view graphical paradigm.
Posted by Supercore at 03:07 AM
January 20, 2006
Getting Our Kicks with FIFA 06
One of the gifts we received during the recent holidays was the latest, just-released edition of the FIFA 06 videogame for PlayStation 2. FIFA 06 is the officially sponsored classic soccer (or "football") game by gamemaker EA Sports. The videogame's realism is mesmerizing, while the game itself is a little harder than the last version we picked-up, FIFA 2004. (We didn't bother with the 2005 edition, because the changes didn't seem significant enough at the time to make it worth our money.) BUT ... FIFA 06 is a quite a leap from '04 and '05. The controls are slightly different, more varied and with more combinations, and the off-the-ball functions are gone. The gameplay itself is a lot more realistic, even in amateur mode.
One of our favorite features of the FIFA series has been the number of accurate real-life European stadiums recreated in the game, and fortunately there are now more stadiums than ever. The players and teams are all up to date as of August 2005, so if you currently follow any of the major European soccer/football leagues, you'll find all your favorite players there. Anyway, we're already spending way to much of our precious free time playing this game. Our rating: 8.5 out of 10.
Essential Links
EA Sports FIFA 06 Official Website
Game Review: FIFA 06 [Gamespot]
Posted by Thurston Ali at 11:26 PM
November 06, 2005
Liberty City Stories: Grand Theft Auto for Sony PSP
One of the most acclaimed and controversial game titles ever created has come to the PSP. Rockstar Games has just released "Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories" for the ernormously popular Sony handheld videogame platform released earlier this year. For the PSP, Rockstar went one step better than just converting the Sony PlayStation console version of GTA. As the subtitle "Liberty City Stories" implies, this GTA is something a little different. It's a modified version of the game, both in terms of variation of content and tapping the potential of the PSP technology. The game is still set circa 1999 on the three islands of Liberty City, an urban cliche filled with warring tribes of organized crime. The action still revolves around the avenging gangster Tony Cipriani working all sides of the criminal underworld. Now that this violent and controversial mature-content title is available in a portable format, one wonders if playing such a game in in view of strangers (especialy those with children in tow) will spark hot-tempered public confrontations between GTA gamers and those who disapprove of the game. Culture war, anyone?
Essential Link
Rockstar Games Official Site: "Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories"
Posted by Thurston Ali at 03:27 AM
October 23, 2005
Cargo Mag Previews XBox 360 Games!
There's a slideshow over at Cargo mag's site that gives a taste of the great things to come games-wise when the new Microsoft XBox 360 console rolls out. According to Cargo, the short-list of the final half-dozen-plus titles was vetted a couple of weeks ago to attendees of X05, this year's annual European X Event for developers in Amsterdam. Cargo previews Dead or Alive 4, Kameo: Elements of Power, Need for Speed Most Wanted, Perfect Dark Zero, and Project Gotham Racing 3. Other games reported to be bundled for the XBox at launch are Amped 3, Full Auto, Gears of War, King Kong, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06, Call of Duty 2, and Condemned: Criminal Origins.
Essential Links
Cargo Mag XBox 360 Games Slideshow
Posted by Thurston Ali at 04:17 PM
January 22, 2005
Snowfight!!! A Viral Online Game for an NYC Blizzard!
It was five degrees Fahrenheit in New York City this morning when we got the full picture of the winter storm about to assault us. Within the day, a foot or more of snow was expected to fall on the city, while twenty-mile-an-hour winds would make for white-out conditions. In other words, we were about to get hit by a major blizzard.
When a big snowstorm hits, the best the thing to do--often the only thing to do--is stay indoors, and what better way to stave off boredom (or cabin-fever) while holed up inside than to play videogames. But before we hit the power button on that Sony PlayStation 2, X Box or Nintendo and salivate at the prospect of a day devoted to exploring all those arcane Grand Theft Auto San Andreas cheats, we recommend you try an online game perfectly suited for a massive snow day like today.
The game is called Snowcraft and it's a clever--yet utterly simple--well-designed and extremely addictive little Flash-based videogame with a subtle, wicked flavor. In the game, you control a team of three kids who must defend themselves from being pummeled to unconsciousness by the opposing green team of kids. All the round-shaped, parka-and-beanie-covered kids bare a passing resemblance to South Park's Cartman and Kenny.
The game was developed by major advertising and brand-marketing firm Nicholson New York (NNY), part of the Icon/Nicholson advertising group, as a cute interactive holiday card. But since the Chrsitmas season, the Snowcraft videogame seems to have taken on a life of its own as an Internet hit driven, of course, by viral word of mouth and blog linkage.
Links to the game (plus some links to some other snow-themed games) after the jump below. Check 'em out.
Happy Snow Day!
RELATED LINKS
Snowcraft Game Site at Icon/Nicholson New York*
Snowball Fight Game by Clever Media
Posted by at 06:23 AM
August 20, 2004
Dreaming of Play Station 3: The Truth is Out There About Sony's Next Game Console!
The Sony PlayStation has been on our minds a lot recently here at the Massive HQ. Especially since strange noises began emanating from our PlayStation 2. This was the beginning of a series of increasingly loud, ominous and frequent sounds coming from the console. The phenomenon suggested that after hundreds--if not thousands--of hours of use, the video gaming platform of choice was on its last legs. A few days later, our PS2 was no longer able to read discs ... System failure. Repair was out of the question; the warranty had long since expired. The only thing left was to make funeral preparations for the hardware and dispose of it with Zelda-like dignity.
In the meantime the Massive will have to rely on other platforms and our desktop PCs to get our daily gaming fix, at least until we can replace our beloved PS2.
But with this unfortunate turn of events we've realized something important--It's time to move on. Rather than grieve and wax for our PS2 glory days, we ought to be looking forward to the third coming of Sony's almighty category-killer gaming platform: Yep, the PlayStation 3.
The PS3 is indeed coming down the pike, but Sony, as would be expected, are secretive about what the next generation of PS will look like. Gradually, details have been released, a spec here, announcement of a component there, and lots of hype, some based on truth, some just seeds for further rumor-mongering among global otaku youth.
Speculation as to what the next generation of Sony PlayStation, the world's most popular video game console, will actually look like (see above image) has fed the imaginations of product designers and game fanatics the world over. Many of these ideas for the hardware design of the PlayStation 3 have been widely circulating around the Net. Some encouraged by third-party design competitions with no affiliation with Sony.
It may be only as early as next year when we get a glimpse of an official PS3 design from Sony. Until then we can dream and speculate and enjoy what the global PS massive can come up with.
Already, there are web sites devoted to PS3. The best of the bunch is a British Web site, the PS3 Resource Center, the first site devoted to covering the next Sony PlaySation.
As the site itself puts it, the Resource Center has a "relentless interest in all things 'PS3.'" The site was founded three years ago with the mission to diligently report the latest PS3 news and developments at Sony. The PS3RC also had loads of speculative PS3 designs, some bold and beautiful, others obvious Photoshop hacks by amateurs. Check them out here.
Among the key nuggets of info the Web site reports is that Sony may offer two versions of the PS3 and that the console has been in development under the codenames "JELLY FISH" and "API." Three major companies, Sony, IBM and Toshiba, will be collaborating to develop a new microchip that will make the device the fastest, most-powerful videogame system ever. The chip set itself is allegedly code named "The Cell."
Oh, and BTW, if any of our readers would like to donate a new or used PS 2 to Air Massive, we would be the happiest team of impoverished Web/media freelancers in the whole wide world.
--Supercore + L.I.T.
RELATED LINKS
PlayStation 3 Resource Center
PlayStation Official Web Site
Sony Web Site
Posted by at 01:35 PM | Comments (2)
May 10, 2004
I'll Take Pac-Manhattan: Namco Classic Arcade Game Pac-Man Goes Big Grid in NYC
New York University teacher and games designer Frank Lantz has taken the classic 1980's videogame Pac-Man to the streets of Manhattan.
Lantz, who is director of games design at Gamelab, teaches a course at NYU called "Big Games." He teamed up with students in the university's Interactive Telecommunications graduate program to develop a large-scale, live-action version of the digital arcade game on New York's real-life street grid. Instead of Pac-Man, you've got Pac-Manhattan, which is what the big analog version is called.
The action centers around Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village, the heart of the NYU campus. The Pac-Manhattan games, which started in April, involve ten players. Five play the roles of Pac-Man and the four "ghosts": Inky (the light-blue one), Clyde (orange), Blinky (red), and Pinky (uh ... pink). Ghost players don orange, red, pink or light-blue ponchos, while the person playing the game's star, Pac Man, sports two halves of a yellow Pac Man-shaped disc, the half with the mouth is attached to the player's chest.
The remaining five players are "controllers," one for Pac-Man and one for each ghost, who communicate with their partners on the street with cell phones. Players also rely on a Wi-Fi system and tracking software custom-designed by Pac-Manhattan's creators. The system displays and updates the players' grid positions during the game.
The basic rules of Pac-Manhattan are like those of the videogame. Naturally, Pac Man has to collect all the "dots" before the ghosts catch him. Pac-man can also eat up "power pellets" and eat up ghosts. Games last anywhere between ten minutes and an hour.
--Micropundit and Instamatic
RELATED LINKS
Pac-Manhattan Official Web Site
NYU Interactive Telecommunications' Pac-Manhattan Site
Gamelab Company Web Site
The Pac-Page [ClassicGaming.com]
Namco Company Web Site
Manhattan Gets Pac-Man Fever [Wired News]
Interview with Frank Lantz [Gothamist Interview]
Posted by Supercore at 02:24 AM