For Sunday: Starhyke Musical Trailer 2

Starhyke is an upcoming Brit sci fi comedy starring that chick from Babylon 5 and Boba Fett. How can it go wrong?


tagged: television, starhyke

Jack Thompson Gets Pwned

Judge Ronald Friedman has just declared that he will not honor Jack Thompson's request to restrict sales of Bully in advance of the game's shipment next Tuesday. The ruling comes after the judge viewed a demonstration of various parts of the game by a Take Two employee for two hours and determined "there's nothing in the game that you wouldn't see on TV every night." He added that he would not approve of the game for his children, but that fact alone "shouldn't mean that the game won't ship."

While the case could still be appealed, Destructoid notes that Thompson expressed no interest in doing so because any appellate ruling would come after the game was already in stores.

-- Florida court OKs Bully (Joystiq via Destructoid)

Every time BatJack fails so miserably in court an angel gets its wings.


tagged: game, gaming

Lost: The Scooby Doo Theory

Let's take a different slant on Lost - let's believe the producers/writers when they say everything has an explanation.

In fact - take it one step farther ... everything is rational and explainable. No Star Trek style psuedo-science. No voodoo. Just cold hard facts.

Well ... maybe not hard facts. Remember Scooby Doo? Remember how in the end there would always be a "simple" explanation for everything? But one that Velma explained so quickly you didn't really question it? I'm guessing that in part - that's where Lost is taking us.

For instance - the creepy hallucinations everyone keeps having? And the weird voices? Drugs. Perhaps they were drugged on the plane or Ethan/Goodwin started slipping them the ganja when they infilitrated camp. The monster sounds like a train ... perhaps because the monster is a train. An underground tram system to get quickly from point A (say Otherville) to point B. The train and tunnels also explain how people disappear/appear so quickly.

The Others aren't telepathic ... just clever and well-connected. They didn't teleport onto the sailboat or anything ... they just snuck up in a raft like the military does (Ben does, after all, say to "organize a team" and we know of at least one ex-soldier having been recruited).

To date - I can think of only three things truly difficult to explain: miracle healing, telepathic smoke and whatever electromagnetic cloak keeps the island invisible and people from sailing away.

But I wouldn't be surprised to see someone pull Ben's face off like a rubber mask and explain that it's all done simply with a couple of mirrors, an old dust mop and this handy backup generator.



tagged: lost, television

VoodooPC Talks About HP

DT: You guys decided to back in touch with HP after Dell acquired Alienware. Did Dell's acquisition of Alienware play any role in the decision processes between HP and VoodooPC?

RS: No, as a matter of fact Michael Dell contacted me directly at some point in November of 2005. We didn't really align in our way of thinking - it seemed that Dell was more interested in "moving their needle" for topline sales. HP, on the other hand, didn't buy Voodoo because they needed sales. HP acquired Voodoo because we derived a strategy that made sense - and rather than working seperate from one another and competing we decided it made much more sense to work together to help build HP's newly formed gaming business unit.

DT: Do you view the marriage with HP as vital in order for VoodooPC to stay competitive?

RS: We believe the marriage with HP is vital to keep the PC industry innovative. HP has killer innovative abilities in HP Labs, and Voodoo can help commercialize many of these innovations in a matter of time. ..and let's face it, the Windows PC industry has been somewhat dull up until now. We plan to change that.

-- DailyTech - VoodooPC Shares All About HP Acquisition

It's weird seeing all this moving and shaking going on ... and yet I'm probably at the farthest away from getting even a medium range gaming PC than I've ever been. At this point, a Windows PC is mostly attractive to me as a vehicle for XNA studio, should I go down that path. I'm not sure if it's that I'm more interested in development these days or more interested in couch coop style games - or that $300-$600 consoles are really getting that much more attractive than $1500-$2500 rigs.




tagged: game, gaming

Blog Well - Earn Games

Social networking and lifestyle portal XIHA Life has started a program to reward quality writing and photography. Each week until the end of the year the website selects the best blog entry, forum topic and photo album and rewards the authors by a free game of choice from its large game catalog.

Las Vegas, NV (PRWEB) October 13, 2006 -- XIHA Life is an open medium for everyone to publish their work, discuss and make friends from around the world. To encourage authors of quality content, XIHA Life members earn points for everything they do on the website, from posting on the forum to uploading photos. These points can be used to buy games and other merchandise on the XIHA Life website. As a special promotion until the end of the year, the most interesting blogs and postings will also receive weekly rewards.

“We want to reward active members, as they make our community a better and more interesting place for everyone to visit,” says Jani Penttinen, software industry veteran and founder of XIHA Life. “An active blogger who participates in forum discussions can pretty easily earn 2-3 free games per year, so this is a great added benefit for those who like writing or photography.”

-- XIHA Life Rewards Bloggers with Free Games

Sweet! Probably would be more profitable than these ads nobody clicks on...


tagged: game, gaming

The MySpace Sewer Ghost

If you don't repost this saying

"She was pushed"
or "They Pushed her down a sewer"

Then Carmen will get you, either from a sewer, the toilet, the shower, or when you go to sleep you'll wake up in the sewer, in the dark, then Carmen will come and kill you.

-- Urban Legends Reference Pages: Myspace Ghost of Murdered Teen

Nice. I suppose it was only a matter of time before myths like "Bloody Mary" started to haunt a site with the social networking of MySpace.

Nintendo Pin Boards

Tomytec Japan has announced the Nintendo collectors edition pin set. It brings back old memories as you will re-arrange the pins to create 8-bit characters designs from Super Mario and Legend of Zelda.

-- Nintendo pin set - Collectors edition (newlaunches)


tagged: game, gaming

Is Lost Losing It?

According to The Mercury News, Lost isn't shining this season in terms of ratings. Not that the show isn't still a draw - it's just been knocked down by a few dozen pegs.

My theory still stands that the show has been struggling to keep its speed to match its success. The need to really wow the audience and keep them coming is conflicting directly with the need to prolong the show to maximize the profits.


tagged: lost, television

No Cloned Cats For You

Genetic Savings & Clone, a biotechnology company that sold cloned pets, sent letters to its customers last month informing them it will close at the end of the year because of little demand for cloned cats. The company had recently reduced the price from $50,000 to $32,000.

The letters said the Sausalito, California company was not accepting new orders for clones because it was "unable to develop the technology to the point that cloning pets is commercially viable."

-- Dead Cats to Remain a Memory

I heard this on NPR on the ride in and my only response is - thank god. Not because I think cloning is the domain of evil scientists who live within secret lairs. Or rather, I do ... it's just that isn't what bothers me. What gets me is that if you name your ethically questionable morality boundary pushing venture with a pun ... you just deserve to go down.



tagged: cloning, pet semetary

Lost: EvilGoogle or Telepathy

"Glass Ballerina" - definately an uptick from last week's episode - if for no other reason than Jin and Sun's backstory seemed more relevant to the current story.

The big question I've still got is how The Others know all the names of the people who were on the plane, what they look like, who they were married to, etc. I mean, it's one thing to get a tape of the World Series - it's another to get a complete biography based on an airline manifest.

Course, Hano is presumably a big evil corporation. Maybe they just EvilGoogle "airplane crash" and get all the info they need in high def green on black screens.

I'm still holding out that The Others have some kind of paranormal going on. If we believe Benry's statement that he was born on this island ... maybe he's not an ex-Dharmite but the experiment the ex-Dharmite was working on. I mean, maybe Ben didn't mean "ten minutes" to be actually ten minutes - but that's a short period of time to learn everyone's name (EvilGoogle), run across an island (OK - maybe they have modern transport we don't know of), find wreckage (GPS?) and blend in (CIA training?). Just seems odd still. I suppose if we eliminated the speed problem with some kind of transport and assume there's also an underground communication system - they could recon the survivors in a few days and gather info before kidnapping "good" people.

Sawyer's escape attempt certainly didn't seem to be blocked by superpowers - just Juliet grabbing Kate. Were they holding back or are they simply human?

Again, we see The Others adhering to a Walden II style existence and clearly Jack, Kate and Sawyer are now officially part of some kind of behavior experiment. Makes one wonder what Jack will be expected to "cooperate" with ... but I'm hoping it's nothing cliche like "you must kill either Kate or Sawyer ... your choice".

EDIT: With that - some speculation online about whether the Others are building something or this is just behavioral busywork. I'm kinda thinking it's both. Walden II preached structured labor for the community. The Others are clearly active.

I still feel like a lot of the intensity and mystery of Season 1 has diminished. I'm glad to see Smokey is probably a core feature of next week - I'm guessing/hoping that it will actually be resolved. So many open questions about the little bizarre things (visions, voices, radio signals, polar bears) seem to be hanging.

Speaking of which - now that we're in OtherTown ... where's the missing kids?

Oh yeah - and also ... what of Ben "always living on this island". He's too old to have been born into DHARMA, so maybe he was brought here at a young age. So my other big question is - are these ex-Dharmites ... or the expirements themselves? Ben and Bearded Guy both seem to revere Hanso ... perhaps in a fatherlike way?



tagged: lost, television

TV Watch: Third Week Check-In

Heroes
Is really starting to drag. I get the impression the writers are deeply afraid of their own premise and feel the need to overexplain everything about twice. Every scene in this episode had a least a margin of "get on with it" and sometimes a dash of "what the hell". I mean, who drives all the way out to Grandma's just to pick a fight, threaten her and leave? It seemed an implausible way to pull out background information. And "genes for flying" just sounds dumb. Instead of being difficult to understand, the show is bordering on droll and pedestrian.

Veronica Mars
I think Neptune fans will need to accept that the show will never reach the gooey goodness of Season One again. S1 felt almost like a movie in and of itself ... and sadly S2 and 3 are feeling like sequels. There's still lots of watchable material here - but Season 3 feels odd with Logan playing the dutiful boyfriend and Keith being so detached from Veronica's daily adventures. Not that college isn't about detachment a bit - but slide us into a little.

Still, the show maintains some of it's grit and complexity. Mars doesn't necessarily shine because of its polish - but because we find the lead character compelling, interesting and fallible. That core is still going strong.

Studio 60
I just love it to death. Television hasn't made me this happy since Sports Night hit DVD.

I'll break into a Lost and/or Battlestar song and dance alter.



tagged: television

Post-It Invaders

From karenchu121's photostream (so I'm guessing a 1UP's cube).


tagged: game, gaming

Bully To Be Shown To Judge

Thompson is claiming that this represents a "huge victory against the violent video game industry, regardless of the ultimate ruling on the injunction." This would be the first time that a judge has ever asked to review a game before its public release. Currently, Bully is scheduled for release on Tuesday by Take Two and Wal-Mart, who are the targets of Thompson's legal action.

The judge will not actually play the game, although it would be funny if he did. Instead, a Take Two employee will play the game under direction from the judge for the 100 hours. Hopefully they have comfortable couches and plenty of snacks
for the duration. If the judge finds the game to be acceptable, it will ship on Tuesday as planned. If, however, the judge decides that the game is not acceptable, he will issue a temporary restraining order banning the sale of the game to minors.

-- Bully gets bullied (Ars Technica)

It's a little chilling that a single judge would even consider halting a game when Thompson is unable to prove any form of substantial harm to be attributed to the sell of any video game - anywhere. Still, it sounds like Thompson will be disappointed in the content of Bully - which is considerably more tame than the much easier to complain about Grand Theft Auto.



tagged: game, gaming

AI For The Wiimote

"In early 2006, I challenged Dr. Wei Yen and his AI scientists to develop AIware for the Wii Remote. When Nintendo's development teams saw LiveMove, we instantly recognized how it would greatly increase our ability to explore and experiment with new concepts and make our lives easier," says Genyo Takeda, Senior Managing Director/General Manager of Integrated Research & Development Division, Nintendo Co., Ltd. "This revolutionary tool liberates the imaginations of game creators. We are more than happy to share this collaborative LiveMove tool with independent Wii software developers all over the world. From a cowboy's lasso to a samurai's sword or a chef's cooking utensils, we just can't wait to play the developers' new, 'unexpected' applications."

-- Nintendo and AiLive Announce New Tool for Creative and Easy Wii Development

Possibly just press release hocum pocum - but it's interesting to think that while the 360 and PS3 will undoubtably benefit most directly from technical advances in things like data compression (for higher poly models and higer res textures) ... the Wii might benefit more from advances in AI and/or control schemes.



tagged: game, gaming

Can We Give Sony An Inch Here?

Don't mean to back to back harp on Joystiq - just that kind of afternoon.

I know, Sony Bashing is practically the official gamesphere sport right now, but this is simply silly:

Obscure researcher finds PS3 price acceptance from small online sample

The "obscure" research group (not a single researcher as the headline suggests) in question is Interpret, LLC - and they're not so much obscure as new. They're founded by ex-Nielsen veterans ... you know those guys who practically control the television industry by figuring out just how many people watches what of which show. So it's not like this is some crazy guy crunching numbers alone in his apartment. These guys are professionals.

And the "small online" demographic consisted of 2,000 people. While 10,000 is considered the golden number to get your margin of error to about 1%, most political polls consist of about 500-1,000 people. So their "small" survey is at least twice the number typically asked for all these stats you're going to hear over the coming election season .... and you'll hear plenty of them. And lots of people in campaigns across America will be adjusting their daily lives based on those numbers.

Why Blake felt the need to editoralize the nature of the survey is really quite beyond me. Other than nobody wants to write something satisfactory about the PlayStation 3 without placating a bit to the fanboys. Any statistic should be taken with a grain of salt - but it's certainly not required to insert that into every headline that concerns them.

If Kaz goes off and says something stupid - go ahead and call it stupid. But this need to translate all news Sony into something dire or questionable about the PlayStation 3 is getting annoying. Recently Engadget suggested that Sony rolling back it's monitor line was an indication that they knew the PS3 would flop. It wasn't just conjecture - it was the stuff of forum-baiting tinfoil conspiracy.

Maybe the PlayStation 3 will flop ... who knows ... but at this point blogs going out of their way to color their coverage of Sony isn't making Sony look bad as much as themselves.





tagged: game, gaming