Adidas Originals ZX Runner

Check out the Adidas Originals ZX Runner game teaser below and play it here.



I love the style of this game - I moonwalk everywhere.

Game stuff

The Last Guardian
Awesome - Sony has launched the official web site for Team ICO's The Last Guardian. Check it out here.

GNILLEY
Check out the hilarious video below for GNILLEY, where you play by screaming your foes into oblivion or shouting down obstacles in your path. The video is from the Global Game Jam Sydney 2010.


Via Kotaku

A few good ideas

Kandle
I like the Kandle because it looks like the book light I had when I was a kid (which I later strapped to the top of my GameBoy).

Amazon Via Gizmodo

Pictionaire
Pictionaire looks like the kind of the product that should be released in 2010. As I understand it, Pictionaire, which is being developed by Microsoft and the University of California Berkeley, is an adaption of Microsoft's Surface technology. The Pictionaire table uses overhead cameras to make digitise physical objects, allowing users to manipulate the digitised copies. Take a look at the video below, it's much easier to understand than any description I could come up with.


New Scientist via Gizmodo

GNOP
There is not much to Gnop, but that doesn't stop it being cool. It's Pong, but you play as the ball. It's surprising that this hasn't been done before (well, not that I have come across). Give it a whirl.

Bit Battalion via Boing Boing

Football Hero - amazing!

via Kotaku

Why I hate Bobby Kotick's face

Bobby Kotick’s recent speech at the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference in San Francisco epitomises for me what is wrong about big business: it’s souless.

Kotick is open that he wants a company culture infused with skepticism, pessimism, and fear (which sounds like a rejected line from 'Wall Street'). Regrettably, Mr Kotick is not some small fry manager in soon-to-be-obsolete industry. Instead, as CEO of Activision Blizzard, he heads up one of the most successful companies in, arguably, one of the most innovate industries in the world.

Is Mr Kotick really that bad? Take these two quotes:

"You have studio heads who five years ago didn't know the difference between a balance sheet and a bed sheet who are now arguing allocations in our CFO's office pretty regularly." I acknowledge that resource allocation is fundamentally important to managing a project, but Kotick’s message is that managing the balance sheet is critically important, things like quality come second.

"We have a real culture of thrift. The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games." This quote makes me so mad!

For more articulate commentary on Kotick see ars and Gamespot.

Back from the coal face

Work has been tough down in the mines recently, so spare time and blog posts have been scarce. But I'm back with some computer game related goodness for you.

So, I've been playing some computer games recently.


Wolverine is one of these games. What Wolverine lack in storyline, frame-rate and finesse, it makes up for with brutality and gore. I concur with this review and these comments on the game. Basically, it's total dumb-arsed fun, but I don't recommend forking out your hard earned bones to play it. Play God of War again instead and wait for Wolverine to turn up in a bargain bin.


Plants vs Zombies is also a game I've been playing. This game is seriously addictive and runs on my Mac! I recommend this game as a great time waster and at HK$28, it's a steal.

Keeping with the computer game theme, check out this interesting photo essay from the Guardian: Gold farming: a real economy in the virtual world. I have many thoughts about the implications of virtual economies and the conditions the kids in the article have to live in, but I'll save these for a more considered post.

A moments silence, 3D Realms has closed and it looks like Duke Nukem Forever will never be finished.


Given that this game has been 13 years in development, I don't think anyone is too surprised by these turn of events. Even so, I would liked to have heard the big man say "balls of steel" one last time.

Remember the video that I said was seriously cool ... this is seriously cooler!

Katamari strikes back

I came across this on Dueling Analogs. Quality!

Daft Punk: The Game

I came across Harder, better: Shane Brouwer's Daft Punk: The Game on Offworld.

The game, which is done in the style of an old-fashion platformer, follows Daft Punk as they attempt to recover their stolen samples from rival electro-duo Justice.


The game is dumb, but fun. Check it out here.

Huh ... was that Sephiroth?

I didn't know a thing about Dissidia: Final Fantasy until I saw this video on Giant Bomb.



This games features a real mash /mess of characters:

Heroes: Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy I); Firion (Final Fantasy II); Onion Knight (Final Fantasy III); Cecil Harvey (Final Fantasy IV); Bartz Klauser (Final Fantasy V); Terra Branford (Final Fantasy VI); Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy VII); Squall Leonhart (Final Fantasy VIII); Zidane Tribal (Final Fantasy IX); Tidus (Final Fantasy X)

Villains: Garland (Final Fantasy I); Emperor (Final Fantasy II); Cloud of Darkness (Final Fantasy III); Golbez (Final Fantasy IV); Exdeath (Final Fantasy V); Kefka (Final Fantasy VI); Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII); Ultimecia (Final Fantasy VIII); Kuja (Final Fantasy IX); Jecht (Final Fantasy X)

Plus: Shantotto (Final Fantasy XI); Gabranth (Final Fantasy XII)


According to Giant Bomb: "Dissidia is an action game for the PSP, developed by Square Enix as part of Final Fantasy's 20th anniversary lineup. Dissidia was released in Japan on December 24, 2008, and is scheduled for North American release in "mid-year" 2009."

I think Square have really lost their way with this release. Stay tuned ... I guess.

Techno-Dancing Joseph Stalin

Not. Making. This. Up.



Via Kotaku

For B

This video is for B. I know you're more of Marvel v Capcom guy, but when I saw this video, I immediately thought that you would: a) appreciate it; and b) understand what was going on.



The winning player in this video is Daigo Umehara, the number one SFIV player in Japan. For those not versed in the ways of Street Fighter, Diago (Ken) comes back from virtually zero health to perfectly parry every single hit of his opponent's super (impossibly hard) and then bust into his own combo to win the match.

Via Giant Bomb

The wait is over

Square Enix has just released the first official global trailer for Final Fantasy XIII. Check out the trailer here.


The release date for the English version of FFXIII is April 2010. As with previous FF trailers, the cut scenes are epic, the English translation of the dialogue is dodgy and it unveils a new fighting engine (the street fighter looking combos are interesting). I'm looking forward to seeing a more polished trailer for this game later in the year.

09 - here we go

Here are a few self-indulgent and largely materialistic things I'm looking forward to in '09.

1. Traveling. I currently have plans to visit Seoul in April and the UK in August. I also hope to make it to Tokyo and Beijing this year. So much exciting travel to be done, I can't wait!



2. Where the Wild Things Are. I am looking forward to Spike Jonze’s big screen adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s classic book 'Where The Wild Things Are'. There is a heap of controversy going around about the film, but lot of people are speaking out in support of Spike's vision, so I'm optimistic about its chances. 'Where The Wild Things Are' hits theaters on October 16th 2009.


3. Final Fantasy XIII. I'm a big fan to the Final Fantasy series and the latest instalment looks very promising. Read more about FFXIII here.


4. Getting some new threads, like these cool Jango-Pope t-shirts by 2once. (via Super Punch via Changethethought)





5. Picking up a few cool toys. I'm hoping to get my hands on these totally cool Metal Gear Solid 4 1/6 size figures of Snake and Raiden. Read more about them here and here.

Closing off 08

Happy New Year everyone. I hope you all had enjoyable New Year celebrations.

I was lucky enough to be on a boat in the middle of Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour as we saw off '08 and welcomed '09. In keeping with tradition, this was done in an appropriately inebriated fashion. Life is tough sometimes.


I'm not usually a fan of New Year's resolutions, but I decided to make a couple this time around. First up, is improving my woeful attempts at keeping in touch with friends. One email a year is pretty lousy. My aim for '09 is to send out at least two emails to everyone, so watch out. Second, is joining a football team and improving my fitness. I haven't really done any exercise since arriving in Hong Kong. If I don't watch out, I'm going to need to rename my blog Pielights.

Ok, I thought I would close out '08 with a quick note on what floated my boat in December:

1. Metal Gear Solid 4. Wow! This game blew me away. I rank MGS4 second only to FFVII in terms of Best Games Ever. My only regret with MGS4, was not being able to play this game with the boys, as the story is so good and completely ties up the threads of the old games. I have fond memories of all the boys gathering on the couch in our old flat on T-street to play Metal Gear Solid. We spent hours working our way through Shadow Moses and the game spawned a few nicknames as well.

It's strange to say this about a video game, but I found it very unsettling in MGS4 when you return to Shadow Moses. As you walk around the old base, the game feeds you lines from MGS and when you come to a security camera you had to avoid at the beginning of MGS, it falls off the wall from rust. I think anyone who invested hours in MGS will find this part of the game very eerie.

The game play in MGS4 is top draw stealth/action. It's enjoyable and challenging to play, and it gives you the flexibility to play it as a guns blazing, take-no-prisoners game, or as a stealth, don't be seen and don't kill anyone game. What really makes this game for me, is the rich story. I'm sure a lot of action game fans will find all the cut scenes irritating, but I enjoyed them. It does mean that at times you are doing more watching than playing, but in terms of an overall entertainment experience, I think the balance between action and story work very well. Hideo Kojima and his team have done a great job.


To sum up, MGS4 is a top draw stealth game, with a kick-arse story, wrapped together into a total entertainment experience. Trust me, check it out, though I recommend brushing up on the back story. If you're a bit rusty on the background, you can refresh you memory here.

2. Hot pot. The weather has turned cold here in Hong Kong (thank goodness, I found summer almost unbearable). It's been a pleasure to unpack my hoodies, jackets and scarves - there is nothing quite as comfortable as a hoodie. During winter, it's traditional here in Hong Kong to go out for hot pot (often referred to as steamboat). I love hot pot. For those that have not had the joy of hot pot, it consists of a simmering metal pot of stock (best with chili), which is kept in the center of the table. While the hot pot is kept simmering, ingredients are placed into the pot and are cooked at the table. Typical hot pot dishes include thinly sliced meat, leafy vegetables, mushrooms, wontons, egg dumplings and seafood. An array of dipping sauces is also provided, so you can combine your freshly cooked goodies with whatever flavoured condiment you desire. Yum!


3. The Dark Knight DVD. As I mentioned previously, I got the 2 disc set for Christmas, which I recommend. The movie is awesome and the extra DVD is packed full of fun, if not somewhat sycophantic, features about the making of the film.


4. Speedracer. My surprise film for the month was Speedracer. It was rubbished by most reviewers, so I gave it a miss at the cinema. I picked up the DVD on sale the other day at HMV and was pleasantly surprised when I watched it. I really liked the cartoony look and feel the film has, with over saturated colours and action scenes that are more about giving you an impression of what's going on, than conveying any real coherent sequence. If you gave Speedracer a miss an cinema like I did, I recommend checking it out on DVD.

LittleBigPlanet Meets Metal Gear Solid

Brilliant. Via Wired.

Final Fat-assy - Sephiroth

(Final Fat-assy - Sephiroth by =nJoo on deviantART via Super Punch)

Fallout 3

One of the things I really like about the Fallout series is the beautiful jazz-age, 1950's style the games have. I'm pleased to see that this style has been retained for Fallout 3, the latest installment of the series. Check out these fantastic posters for Fallout 3, care of Bethesda Blog, which have be put up in Metro Center in Washington DC. I wish they would put some of these posters up in my local MTR station.




I recommend checking out the trailer, which features some in-game video footage. I'm not convinced about Fallout 3's move to first person perspective, but I'll demonstrate uncharacteristic restraint and reserve judgement until I've actually played the game.



(Bethesda Blog via Superpunch)

Ni no Kuni: The Another World

Game developer Level5 has teamed up with Studio Ghibli to produce a Nintendo DS role-playing game called Ni no Kuni: The Another World.

Ghibli is producing the in-game animation footage. Apparently, the game's unique feature will be the “Magic Master” book that will come bundled with it. Within the story, a 13-year-old boy is transported to another world with the Magic Master book; the player references the physical copy of the book to learn magical spells while playing the game.


I’m interested to see how this collaboration works out. The development art for the game looks fantastic and the trailer is interesting (see below).



Ni no Kuni is due for release in Japan in 2009.

(Anime News Network, design:related via Notcot)

Wow - Little Big Computer

Amazing, this deserves a wider audience.



(via Notcot)