jdodson1

Joined 01/23/2012
  Admin

I'm an Engineer and built the video game community Cheerful Ghost and text based mini-MMO Tale of the White Wyvern.

2757 Posts

Some people actually created a Super Mario Brothers with
Some people actually created a Super Mario Brothers with portals game. Looks pretty awesome.

http://stabyourself.net/mari0

Can download it for Windows, Mac and Linux.

From the site:

"Two genre defining games from completely different eras: Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. and Valve's Portal. These two games managed to give Platformers and First-Person Puzzle Games a solid place in the video game world. But what if Nintendo teamed up with Valve and recreated the famous Mario game with Portal gun mechanics?"

Ive been seeing reports that Valve may release a Steam Box
http://asset0.cbsistatic.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/03/03/steam_box_610x454.gif
Ive been seeing reports that Valve may release a "Steam Box" to compete with Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft in the console market.

The picture above is from a patent application filed by Valve last year for a "game controller having user swappable control components."

"Apparently meetings were held during CES to demo a hand-built version of the device to potential partners. We're told that the basic specs of the Steam Box include a Core i7 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GPU. The devices will be able to run any standard PC titles, and will also allow for rival gaming services (like EA's Origin) to be loaded up."

Some more interesting bits from The Verge:

"Part of the goal of establishing a baseline for hardware, we're told, is that it will give developers a clear lifecycle for their products, with changes possibly coming every three to four years. Additionally, there won't be a required devkit, and there will be no licensing fees to create software for the platform."

I think this is very interesting because if this is all true then the Steam Box will be a much simpler system for developers to port games to in terms of licensing fees. Steam is great for indie publishers to get something to market and make money with it. Consoles are not quite as easy and Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo take more of a cut of the sales than other hardware makers like Apple or Google.

Looking forward to E3 this year, hopefully it will be showcased.

What do you all think? Is another company entering the console market a good thing? Is this even needed at all? Never going to upgrade from your original NES?

Sources:

http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/2/2840932/exclusive-valve-steam-box-gaming-console

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-57390062-235/portals-valve-to-release-steam-box-console-says-report/

http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20110105231#b

Posted that ive been playing through Rage in my spare
http://i.imgur.com/qal84.jpg
Posted that ive been playing through Rage in my spare cycles. I have spent some time in game beefing up my Caprino. I slapped some rocket launchers to it, won a sick spiky spoiler on front, got some spiked blades and upgraded the engine. Its pretty fierce out in the wasteland and when I get into a fight with some bandits I turn on the shields and can blow them straight to The Underdome.

Here is what my ride looks like as I am driving it:

http://i.imgur.com/axTxl.jpg

Oh and the pictures above are the actual in game shots of me driving and standing in front of my car.

I saw this game as I was making my way through some video
http://cdn.steampowered.com/v/gfx/apps/113200/ss_e06e09cbd2fa66dc8d35ede3620a4865ebf2e033.1920x1080.jpg?t=1317759692
I saw this game as I was making my way through some video game conversation. A few words stuck to me "zelda rouge-like" and "disturbing." I was interested in both topics because I don't hear about many disturbing games these days. I had also heard the game had some religious overtones and it was released by some Indie developers. So I checked out a demo.

First off I think it warrants mentioning I don't like games that are very hard. Since this game is a rogue-like expect that you will die. A lot. Basically you need to crawl X amount of dungeons to go head-to-head with Mom, beat her and win the game.

After playing a few days in a row I never got further than floor 4.

I like that the game has religious overtones and doesn't apologize for its take on the material. The playable characters of the game are Issac, Cain, Eve, Judas and a few others that don't come to mind. Issac is the only character unlocked by default, you can unlock the rest by doing things in the game. I like that the playable characters are people that don't get a ton of love in the Bible, the misfits as it were. It makes sense in the tone of the game, but I don't want to spoil the entire tone of the game.

If you really love rogue-likes then you need to play this game. If you love Zelda and need to see when people pay homage, then check this game out. If you like Bible material flipped around in non-traditional ways then check this out. All in all, its a fun game and worth looking into I just didn't stick with me as I don't like the punishing nature of rogue-likes.

Writeup on the new Borderlands class Zer0 the Assassin:
Writeup on the new Borderlands class Zer0 the Assassin: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/121/1219459p1.html

*snip from the article*

"Like the rest of Borderlands 2's classes, the Assassin's skill set can be tailored to your preferred play style. Want to concentrate on close-up strikes? Long-distance sniper shots? You can with the Assassin, which according to Gearbox is the only class with a clearly defined weapons preference. If you really like sniping, it sounds like the Assassin could be a good choice."

I wonder when Doom 4 is coming out? Finding this is in Rage
http://i.imgur.com/buLNf.jpg
I wonder when Doom 4 is coming out? Finding this is in Rage made we wonder.

The Dragon is a Huge... Nerd?
http://i.imgur.com/UpfCK.jpg
Nerd Dragons represent.

After pre-ordering Rage for $60 and playing it on the PS3 I
After pre-ordering Rage for $60 and playing it on the PS3 I was a bit disappointed with the single player. Loading took way too long, often I would die and have to re-load back an hour of gameplay. The game was frustrating on the console. I found that the legends of the wasteland was fun for co-op, really fun, but the single player wasn't.

Recently I got it on the PC and I have to say its MUCH MUCH more fun than the console counterparts. Quicksave exists by hitting F5. The game is easier with a mouse which means I can actually hit things I shoot at. The graphics are nicer and the texture pop-in is less noticeable. I'm not entirely sure of all f the reasons why but Rage on the PC is much more fun.

Ill keep the PS3 copy for co-op with friends.

I found the above secret Wolfenstein room. It was awesome.