I found a seriously incredible Ocarina of Time Speedrun by Cosmo. In this Speedrun video he gives the Speedrunning history of Ocarina of time and how these particular glitches work so the game can be complete in 22 minutes.

If you are interested in checking out more of Cosmo's videos, check out his YouTube channel and prepare yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/user/CosmoSpeedruns

I wasn’t winning with the same strategy I used in real life. I figured even if I started out with a bad economic situation I could win on the merits of making the right moral choices alone. I was wrong. The way to win in Paul Vorvick’s newest game isn’t to save and be conservative, you need to swing high and stomp everyone else into the dirt.

When I heard that local game designer Paul Vorvick was showing “Privilege: The Game of Economic Inequality” at the New York at the Games for Change Festival I was very interested in checking it out. When he came back to Portland I contacted him and we met at a local pub so he could show me the game and talk about it. As we chatted about his trip to New York to show the game, we played a few rounds and talked about life, the universe and fiscal policy.

jdodson: You recently showed Privilege in New York at the Games for Change Festival. How did your time at the festival go? Compared to the other games at the festival, how did Privilege fit in?

Paul Vorvick: Privilege was one of very few games there that had a metaphoric theme. Most of the social good games attempt to present a problem and solution simultaneously, and often lose subtlety in doing so. Privilege didn't suggest a solution, which bothered some of the attendees. Privilege was also the only analog game ever presented at that festival, and therefore caused a bit of a stir that way. The festival contained some really amazing games, and its great to see we are all approaching the concept of social good from different angles. I hope to see more games like Privilege appearing there in following years.

jdodson: After you have seen people’s reactions to playing Privilege did anything surprise you about how people responded to it?

Paul Vorvick: It surprised me how often players were looking at Privilege without drawing parallels to real life. Often, players would confront me about some aspect of the game's design, telling me that it was flawed. My response was usually to point out that the design was accurate and it was our real-life economics that were flawed! But the process of connecting real-world experience to the abstraction of a game is very natural for me, and isn't where everyone immediately goes. I think next time I'll put in some mechanisms for making those comparisons easier and more obvious.

jdodson: At what point in the design process do you start considering the art and how the visuals will interact with the mechanics?

Paul Vorvick: Visuals are almost always the last step in my design process. I have an excellent illustrator, Cassi Boggio, who is quite happy to work with me in an already-established game. Once the game mechanics have been established, the visuals can fit into it. Often the visuals that I have planned change in order to fit with the game, but the game's design and theme is paramount.

jdodson: Do you have any Privilege expansions in the works?

Paul Vorvick: Privilege should be receiving two expansions before too long: Inheritance and Welfare. Inheritance will confront our ideas about leaving a better world for our children, and how exactly that's expressed in our society. Welfare will confront the ideas behind why we have a social safety net, when it's good and when it's bad.

jdodson: Could give us some information as to the next game you are working on?

Paul Vorvick: I've just released Pressure: The Game of Bullying on my website vorvick.net and on my Patreon page. I'm still running Beyond the Aether, a live theater game that is meant to provoke conversations about extremism. And I have several different ideas for what game to work on during August. Ultimately my patrons will have the most input on where I go next.

jdodson: I wonder what you wanted to accomplish when you were designing Privilege? Now that the game is in the hands of players do you feel successful in that?

Paul Vorvick: My goal with Privilege was to spark discussion and debate about our economic system and how it treats "winners" and "losers." I feel that the design of Privilege works quite well, when players are prepared to engage with it. Players who are already thinking in a critical mindset will get quite a lot out of examining the game and how it is played. It's already caused a lot of strong feelings in some players, which means I'm definitely touching on something powerful.

jdodson: I want to thank you for taking the time to talk with me Paul. Before we wrap things up, is there anything you want to leave us with?

Paul Vorvick: Thanks for your time, Jon! It's been a pleasure.

Privilege: The Game of Economic Inequality is available under a free license to print yourself and you can buy it too.

http://privilegethegame.com/

While you are feeling frisky, you can also peep Paul’s Kickstarter and more:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vorvick/beyond-the-aethers-labor-day-game-aug-30-sept-2
http://www.patreon.com/vorvick

"This is the third installment in our three part mini-series exploring the Damsel in Distress trope in video games. In this episode we examine the rare Dude in Distress role reversal and then take a look at the use of "ironic sexism" in retro inspired indie and mobile games. We conclude with an investigation of some titles that attempt to subvert or deconstruct the traditional damsel narrative."

The next installment from the Anita Sarkeesian "Tropes vs Women in Video Games" series has dropped and you can check it out embedded above. Let me know what you think of it in the comments below!

"Long forgotten is the legend of Gaurodan, the bird of thunder, and his fight with Guayota, the fire beast. But now mankind has discovered the egg of Guayota within Mount Teide, and it is only a matter of time until Guarodan returns from the sky to fight the beast and punish us for awakening his ancient enemy.

Fly around the Canary Islands as Gaurodan, and destroy cities, armies and colossal creatures in your path throught this frantic shmup, created for the lovers of classic games that require mastering."

Gaurodan is a very fun retro 2D pixel shooter where you play as a very large "bird of thunder" as you bring your brand of chaos to the world. Gaurodan starts as you emerge from a volcano as an egg and smash everything in your path until you hatch. From there you lay waste to as many buildings, helicopters and tanks you can in the time allotted.

Gaurodan is a totally free Windows & Linux download (Mac is in development) from Locomalito games. Locomalito games releases all its game for free and provides donation links if you feel inspired. They also provide some pretty awesome download options for each game in that you can download the game poster, DVD cover, user manual, trailer and soundtrack as well.

For the price, Gaurodan is well worth the install and if you feel so inclined, donate as well.

http://www.locomalito.com/gaurodan.php

Just heard about a new upcoming SyFy show called "The Heroes of Cosplay." Looks pretty interesting and I really want to check it out. Thing is, I cut the cable cord along time ago and just do the online video and Netflix. Hope this is available to Stream in some form.

Really hoping they give equal billing to Comic and Video Game Cosplayers!

What do you think, does this kind of thing look cool or meh?

"Pay what you want and get the urban warfare open-world adventure Saints Row: The Third; the prequel open-world action-adventure game Saints Row 2; the swashbuckling fantasy action RPG Risen 2: Dark Waters; and the hack-and-slash RPG Sacred 2: Gold Edition. Pay over the average and receive the survival horror RPG Dead Island: Game of the Year Edition and Saints Row: The Third - The Full Package, which includes a bunch of DLC. And if you pay $25 or more, you’ll get the sequel to Dead Island, Dead Island: Riptide."

An interesting Bundle here including some pretty popular games. I have heard great things about Saint's Row the Third and the Dead Island series. This is also a pretty good deal considering you get Dead Island: Riptide + everything else for $25 and Dead Island: Riptide is $40 on Steam straight up.

Anyone picking this up? This Bundle is Steam Keys/Windows only.

http://www.humblebundle.com/

"BioShock Infinite is a first person shooter where players assume the role of former Pinkerton agent Booker DeWitt who is sent to the flying city of Columbia on a rescue mission to save Elizabeth, who has been imprisoned since childhood. Through the powerful bond they form, Booker is able to augment his own abilities with her world-altering control over the environment."

This upcoming Bioshock Infinate DLC looks awesome but can some explain to me how Booker and Elizabeth show up in Rapture? Unless its spoiler territory I am curious what your thoughts are.

I picked up the Steam early access of Mercenary Kings last week and have been very happy with Tribute Games latest shoot fest. Since the game is an early access release it lacks some of the features and polish that it will showcase when it reaches its final launch. That said, the game is very playable and very fun.

Mercenary Kings is a 2D side-scrolling shooter in the style of Metal Slug. You start at your home base and from there can go on missions, craft guns, purchase items, form multi-player teams and more. The aspects of the early access version that shine for me are the gun crafting and missions.

During each mission you kill a swath of bad guys. Randomly these bad guys drop loot such as lead, polymer or acid. You can use these drops to craft gun components. You can use the components to make a gun build that suits your fancy. This is a cool feature because instead of crafting a gun and then scrapping it for another one later, you can just rebuild your gun to meet your new specs. So if you want a pistol with 80 rounds one mission and a shotgun the next you can do that.

The missions are fun and offer some nice variety. As you complete the missions under your current level sometimes you unlock other missions where you go back to a particular level to accomplish another task. One feature I really liked was the ability to go back and replay a mission as many times as you want. I found that useful for collecting cash and resources to craft certain gun components I wanted before tackling harder levels.

So far, I have run up to one boss and it was very fun. All told it wasn't too difficult, but it was the first boss I found and I am still a low level.

Right now the only controls supported are with a USB controller and I believe the best support is through the 360 controller. I recently read a blog post that mentioned keyboard support is coming in a patch soon so if you are keyboard bound it won't be a problem for long.

If you are looking for a great retro flavored 2d side scrolling shooter with a few rough edges, I heartily recommend Mercenary Kings.

http://www.mercenarykings.com/

As shown in the vidoe above, YouTuber Lore creates some great fast fact videos for popular video games. In this episode she covers the new indie game, Don't Starve.

The folks that brought us Gary's Mod are working on a new game, Rust. Its an open world multi-player shooter similar to Stalker that contains Werewolves & Mutants.

http://garry.tv/2013/06/21/the-story-of-rust/

PC Gamer recently featured Rise of Nations in its "Reinstall" series. Rise of Nations has been installed on my PC for years and I still play it with some of my friends, I *heart* nukes.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/07/14/reinstall-rise-of-nations/

Falskaar, a pretty awesome Skyrim mod was released. Alexander J. Velicky, the mod creator hopes it will draw the attention of Bethesda to land him a paid gig at the studio.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/07/16/behind-falskaar-a-massive-new-skyrim-mod-and-the-19-year-old-who-spent-a-year-building-it/

"It's with a heavy heart that we announce that FEZ II has been cancelled and is no longer in development. We apologize for the disappointment"

That wasn't something I had expected to hear this morning. But yeah, Fez 2 has been cancelled. It seems this has been brewing for sometime and recently came to a head for Phil Fish, creator of Fez. I don't want to outline the series of events here, there are plenty of gaming websites dedicating themselves to cataloging each bit of information. If you are interested in reading more, i'll provide a link.

That said, it seems Phil Fish is leaving gaming entirely and I find that sad. I saw Indie Game: The Movie and he seemed like a guy very concerned with making the best game he could. I wonder how well I would do under similar circumstances myself, but I think the final product speaks for itself, Fez is a beautiful game.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2422377,00.asp

I hope this doesn't effect Fez coming to OSX or Linux, it would make this whole thing even more unfortunate.

** EDIT 7/29/2013 ** Polytron has confirmed, Fez will still be ported to Mac and Linux. Very happy to see this. https://twitter.com/Polytron/statuses/361976275088310272