Just on the offchance there's someone here aching to see more comics from me -- but doesn't follow me on Twitter, and hasn't been notified by some other method -- I started a new one a month ago and I've been updating it weekly ever since.

Now, to disappear into IRC once more! whee!

At this point I don't care if you do that shit, just don't advertise it like it was some intentional stylistic choice and not just the native form of programmer art.

The native form of "programmer art" isn't "retro", it's this:



Insofar as they decided to make Super Crate Box not look and sound like shit, this is a feature that deserves to be advertised.

Quote from: Mothra on October 09, 2010, 08:26:49 AM

Five years and not even a mention of it on the site.

Probably because they don't actually want people to realize that he's gone.

Didn't 1UP initially distinguish itself from other game sites by establishing a more direct connection between its audience and its editors? The higher-ups there have absolutely no idea what they're doing.

Anyway, Sharkey, best of luck. With a portfolio like yours, I'm sure you can land on your feet.

Why does Rescuers Down Under have four votes? You'd think the lizard in the prison scenes would've cancelled out any goodwill the rest of the movie would have earned.

Voted Aladdin, but I'd have gone for A Goofy Movie if the option was there.

ROCK BAND 3 NEWSOCALYPSE: Appearing at GamesCon this week, Harmonix restructured their show-floor demo to include these more Euro-friendly songs:


_{(...okay, and also slipknot - before i forget. guess they've got to keep the scorehero dudes from jumping ship to guitar hero, right? ;__;)}

Two Spanish-language songs on the RB3 setlist so far? Sounds like someone's in the business of making this plastic-mic vocalist smile! What's especially interesting about the recent announcements is they're individually confirming snippets of a leak found on the GameFAQs message boards in June, which lists songs rumored to appear either as on-disc content or day-one DLC. Hear that? We've got Whip It, too! EAT IT, BAND HERO

Dance Central NEWSBLAST: The ESRB notes for the game's T for Teen rating include lyric snippets, from which four songs have been divined:


On the official front, Harmonix also confirmed four artists "in anticipation of Leipzig": Benny Benassi, Cascada, Kool & The Gang, and Nelly Furtado. Surprising; considering other dance games focus on weird pop music licenses (the last DDR I played had Rock Lobster and Istanbul [Not Constantinople]; Just Dance has Girls Just Want To Have Fun and Eye Of The Tiger), it seems like Dance Central is focusing on music you'd have actually heard in a dancehall at some point in time. Progress!

DJ Hero 2 Newsday: DJ Tiesto has confirmed his appearance as an ingame avatar (joining DJ Qbert/David Guetta/deadmau5), you can build your own club in Empire Mode, and there's going to be a robust array of multiplayer modes in it (none of which feature a plastic guitar [thank god]). NEXT

DanceDanceRevolution: Announced in 2009 for an first-quarter 2010 release, Konami fell into a suspicious silence re: the glorious reboot of this oft-mishandled dancepad epic, which was set to include an eight-directional pad and turn the franchise into a downloadable platform with 150 songs available at launch. It's apparently now set to release for PS3 this fall, with Move support (where you point at targets on the screen at certain points throughout the song) and Eye support (where your moving silhouette is placed on the colorful background, replacing the doofy polygonal anime characters the series is known for). Won't be getting it myself, but it'll be interesting to see if it retains any similarity to this trailer from last year:


_{(...wait, Ice Ice Baby? Never Gonna Give You Up? You call it "Octo-Move Mode"? Ten seconds devoted entirely to menu customization? Is this a fucking prank? GET OUT OF MY OFFICE, KONAMI)}

PowerGig: Rise of the SixString News:


AW YEAH, THE GAUNTLET'S BEEN THROWN! Granted, Rock Band 3 has a real guitar too (as well as drums that you actually hit), but this music-genre newcomer's moxie is still spectacular!


...great! Your game is played with a real guitar! Interesting concept. How does the game itself look?

Spent way too much time in this. Bowed out when they started repeating, which is a really long time. I'd post my score, but at this point it's more of a score of shame than anything. Surprise surprise, I'm head of the class!

Seconding Niku's frustration with the interface. Picture of Baby Mario on Yoshi's back; clearly not Yoshi's Island 2. "Yoshi's Island" X "Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island" X "Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island" X "Super Mario World: Yoshi's Island" X *skip*

They should leave the Mario ones and boxarts out of the higher difficulty levels. Same for pop-culture items: "hey, that's The Hulk! And that's a Monopoly board! Hahaha, I'm such a geek!"

ROCK BAND 3 NEWS: They just announced at SDCC that these songs will be on-disc:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/FOA4ixV-3jU" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/FOA4ixV-3jU</a><a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/tDZy6-fMCw4" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/tDZy6-fMCw4</a><a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/_UdXbMyo1rU" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/_UdXbMyo1rU</a><a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/1SZblBbM_FM" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/1SZblBbM_FM</a><a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/jACrmwTsi08" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/jACrmwTsi08</a><a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ypkv0HeUvTc" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/Ypkv0HeUvTc</a>

Hopefully with the aid of RB3's song-rating feature I'll be able to spin-kick that last one into the stratosphere and out of existence, because otherwise this setlist is shaping up to be totally rad.

They also announced this for Dance Central, further cementing its mission to make me grin like a dork while flailing around in my room:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/xy4FXhkm6Nw" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/xy4FXhkm6Nw</a>

Finally, I just five-starred every song on Medium in DJ Hero! My verdict is it's a very solid and fun-to-play product with some excellent songs (and a few lame ones), hampered by some shameful Activision window-dressing. Examples: Aside from the (amazing) busty black lady DJ, every female character is an airheaded-looking sex object. Early arenas have Massive ads plastered all over them, including one with a Sprite-themed stage. One of the early achievements is 1G; to even out your score you have to beat a song on Hard with four stars or more (it wasn't too difficult, but what if you're a rhythm novice and have to start on Easy or Beginner?). Online play is two DJs (or DJ-plus-rhythm-guitar) playing side by side, neither of them influencing each other, and for some reason, there's no ingame Music Store for the DLC that's already out there.

But even with all these issues, I really like it! The game itself feels new in a way that's tough to describe; both your hands are responsible for so many different activities it's amazing how gentle they made the learning curve for this. The controller is super-solid and should last through the inevitable several sequels in the pipeline; plus, even out of the game it's fun to toy around with. Some of the mixes are total genius (Shout + Six Days, Technologic + Cars, I Want You Back + Semi-Charmed Life are just a few examples). It picks up especially near the end with the Daft Punk, DJ Shadow, and Scratch Perverts setlists, and has a hidden final-boss song before the Vinyl Cut setlist. There's an export code on the back of the manual; I'll be using it this fall, for sure.

I feel like I could punch through a wall with the strength I've gained in my turntable arm! Who wants to be lifted up off the floor? :D

Regardless, voted Stush anyway.

Dave Foley should be an option. :|

Ah, in on this! crustaceoTiberius, I guess?

Color me impressed! Chat like this is UNREAL. it doens't even HAPPEN. _{most of the time}

I use Lobst nearly everywhere I want to be recognized; if it's not available in an online social service I want to use, I sigh and use one of my other go-to aliases (smedric [now deprecated], svet/svetlana, wings in motion, madtron).

I don't usually go by it in real life (I rarely meet up with Internet friends), but I do routinely associate myself with it! Which is good, because it's almost always available. I even have lobst.com registered in case I ever want to make use of it for professional reasons.