Dear Art Lebedev, your Optimus Maximus keyboard may be light years beyond what I’m willing to spend on a set of QWERTYs, but your Space Invaders themed playing cards are a different story. They’re a perfect pop-culture mashup, complete with 8-bit graphics of said invaders from space, and an awesomely pixelated font. At $11 a deck they’re not outrageously expensive either.
Video games are often criticized for being overly violent, and while a new FPS called Warco certainly has its fair share of graphic, simulated combat, at no point does the player pick up a gun. That’s because they actually play as Jesse DeMarco, a war correspondent whose only weapon is a video camera and a thirst for a Pulitzer.
Instead of securing bases or capturing strongholds, the game’s different scenarios have objectives like story leads, where you run around trying to capture the most compelling footage possible. Instead of aiming, you’re framing a shot. Instead of zeroing in on a target with a sniper scope, you’re zooming and focusing your lens. And instead of collecting achievements or high scores, at the end of each level your goal is to edit together a compelling story with the footage you’ve captured, which can be published online.
The game actually brings a fresh perspective to realistic FPS war titles. And instead of just running and gunning, you’ll have to take a different approach when it comes to using your ‘weapon’ without getting killed. Warco was the brainchild of Tony Maniaty, an Australian journalist who’s experienced with reporting from war-torn areas. He’s teamed with filmmaker Robert Connolly and games studio Defiant Development who’ve been working on the title for 4 months now. Sadly, there’s no definitive timeline as to when the game will be available, if ever. But the studio says they’re currently talking to several publishers, so there is hope.
These electronic versions of 20 questions, which seem to magically guess what you’re thinking by asking a maximum of — wait for it — 20 questions, are nothing new. But one that’s geared towards Star Trek fans and looks like a miniature version of the USS Enterprise? Well that’s something to note in your captain’s log. Fans of the newer series like TNG or DS9 might be disappointed to learn the game only covers characters and facts from the original Star Trek series and movies. But there’s still plenty of storylines to keep this thing interesting for at least the length of a drive to a Trekkie convention. Available from Amazon for just $8.75.
If you like killing zombies (and who doesn’t?), then you’ve no doubt heard about Dead Island, which hits store shelves today. This game puts you on the tropical paradise of Banoi where you wake up to find zombies at every turn. Your primary goal? To simply stay alive.
With all of the other zombie-themed games on the market, you have to wonder if this one will be worth your hard-earned cash. If you’re still on the fence, you might head over to GamerFront to check out the full review on this beautiful, yet scary game. If you’re looking for the short answer though, the game is worth it. Just remember to pick up a night light when you’re out shopping for the game.
I can’t say that I’ve ever thought billiards wasn’t interactive enough, but apparently there are those out there who feel the game would be vastly improved with the addition of digital, video-game like effects. And I can only assume that’s what led to the creation of the CueLight system. Using an HD video projector mounted above the table, and presumably a video camera ball tracking system feeding a PC rendering all of the real-time 60fps animations, the CueLight creates interactive digital effects on the surface of the table during a game. Including Fluid, Fire and Reveal modes which are all demonstrated in the video below.
While it obviously has trouble tracking all of the fast moving balls during a break, the system appears to keep up pretty well with the balls during regular gameplay. And while the effects certainly look pretty cool, and will no doubt result in a lineup of people waiting to play, I can’t help but feel they’re also incredibly distracting. Pricing info isn’t readily available, but apparently the system can be ordered for an existing pool table since it’s able to auto calibrate itself. But it can be bought with a table as well.
We’ve talked about Razer a bunch of times over the years. They make gaming accessories that are generally well received. Now they’re coming out with an alleged “world’s first” 10-driver circumaural 7.1 gaming headset (5 drivers per ear). They’re not going the usual route of virtual surround but rather true surround with precise control over each audio channel. There’s a separate controller through which you can customize levels to your liking and a precise, unidirectional noise-cancelling microphone.
Of course when it comes to audio equipment the proof is in the pudding and the Tiamat won’t hit shelves until Q4 of this year for $180. At that price, it better be some really good pudding.
From what I can tell it might not arrive in time for this Summer’s trips to the cottage, but on their Facebook page Black Milk has posted pics of this swimsuit with a retrorific Game Boy print. Now there’s an entire galaxy of double entendres and euphemisms associated with this design, but we’re gonna take the high road here and leave them up to your own imaginations. As for actual availability? We’re not sure. The suit’s not listed on the Black Milk online store just yet, but when it is you can probably expect it to cost ~$90.
While it’s probably been replaced by the internet as the most common procrastination tool at work, I still think that Solitaire, at least the version included with Windows over the years, has to be the most played video game of all time. In fact, unless you’re completely incapable of stacking cards, everyone who sees this post will probably instantly recognize where this art piece drew its inspiration. It was created by a design duo known as Skrekkøgle who, for whatever reason, decided that the mesmerizing falling cards animation when you win a game would make for a great 3D sculpture. And from the looks of it, they were right.
The piece was made from over 1,000 cards which were printed and pasted onto black foam boards and then taped together. To really recreate the effect though, they had to do a lot of planning and strategically cut certain arcs of cards where they intersected with others. Calculating the logistics almost seems like it’s worthwhile recreating the whole thing in a 3D animation package first, though I’m not exactly sure what approach they took. Sadly, given the work that went into its creation it looks like it’s a one-off piece. So if you want your own, you better get started cutting out little foam boards.
RC toys based on the Mario Kart games have been around for a while now. But typically as very tiny versions, most suitable for racing on a desk. ThinkGeek has managed to get their hands on some much larger versions, but I raise an eyebrow when they refer to them as ‘Super Deluxe’.
They’re certainly the most detailed versions of Mario and Yoshi behind the wheel that I’ve ever seen. And you’d expect them to be pretty fast given the size of motor their scale allows for. But I’ve seen misbalanced washing machines make their way across a room faster than these do. Just check out ThinkGeek’s video of them in action.
And while it’s kind of cool to see real-life versions of both of these characters in a kart, racing them just isn’t the same without shells, banana peels and other power-ups. Particularly when they’re $119.99 each.
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