Halloween video spooktacular

In lieu of writing another op-ed about one of the many games I enjoy, I've decided that for Halloween I will share a few music videos/songs that get me into the Halloween spirit any time of the year. Some of these I've already posted on Re:Generator Magazine, but some are favourites that I would probably post regardless of the day. Please enjoy the picks and feel free to suggest your own!

First, a short film featuring Teller from the comedy-magic duo Penn & Teller about the zombie overtaking of Las Vegas. Very awesome, fun, and intriguing, plus, Teller speaks!




Oingo Boingo, being my number one favourite band, of course gets a little favouritism from me.

Just Another Day by Oingo Boingo



Insanity by Oingo Boingo



Remains of the Day by Danny Elfman, for Corpse Bride

Brutal Legend: An action-adventure game

Okay, I'm going to come out and say this right now: Brutal Legend is not a Real-Time Strategy game. I repeat, Brutal Legend IS NOT AN RTS.

There are a lot of people confused right now about where BL stands genre-wise and it's really easy to explain and it's perfectly easy to see that it's an action-adventure. But because there are RTS-like elements in the game, and because the whole of the gameplay stemmed from the multiplayer, people are automatically tagging it as an RTS. It's really not, and here's why.

Real-Time Strategy games are exactly what they sound like. You're playing a game as a commander of an army or resistance and you have to use- here's the key word- strategy and planning to set up defenses and prepare for your initial attack on your enemy in order to win the battle. You can't just run out into the field and start attacking- okay, you can, but it may not be a good idea, especially since in most RTS games you would be leaving one part of your operation vulnerable as your army runs to wherever you tell them to. You can't afford to do that or the enemy will exploit that vulnerability in order to win. Whether you're playing against AI or another person it's the same.

Many people would have you believe that the majority of the BL gameplay is RTS based. These people are wrong. In fact, they are so wrong that they are the main cause of everyone crinkling their brows at BL and going, "Well if it's an RTS then I'm not playing it," causing them to miss out on a truly fun game for all the wrong reasons. I am not denying that there are parts of the game that involve RTS-like portions, but what I am saying is that it is not the entire game

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

This game is a mindfuck. I don't usually swear but there is no other word for this game than that. It's also a really good game, especially by Gamecube standards, and if you've never played this game then there is one thing you should know before you do: you'll never see the time the same way again when it's 3:33.

Alexandra Roivas is just doing her thing, sleeping like humans do at 3:33 in the morning when she gets a call from the Rhode Island police regarding her grandfather, Edward Roivas. She hurries over only to be greeted with the churned and hardly recognizable remains of her grandfather, save for a ring still on a skeletal finger. She decides to stay at his mansion to try and discover more about him and what happened to him.

Somehow the police are okay with this despite it being a crime scene and it's three in the morning with a glob of human meat in the center of the foyer. Sure, let her stay if she wants, what could possibly go wrong?

RIP Captain Lou Albano

Hey paesanos, some tragic news. Almost as tragic as the loss of Bea Arthur, yesterday we lost another great actor and figurehead from my generation.

Captain Lou Albano, with his energetic personality and famous facial hair, he was known as not only a successful wrestler but more importantly as the official live-action representation of Mario Mario on the Super Mario Bros Super Show back in the late 80s.




I bought the complete season on DVD a few years ago, right after buying a DVD set of Clarissa Explains it All (don't judge me!), and spent countless hours reminiscing and enjoying all the cheap jokes and strange live-action storyarcs that kinda-sorta had something to do with the cartoon's storyarc but not really.

Lou Albano will always have a space in my heart as the manifestation of Mario and the man who taught me how to 'do' The Mario. He died at the young age of 76.

Do the Mario! Swing your arms from side to side. Come on, it's time to go. Do the Mario! Take one step, and then again. Let's do the Mario, all together now! You got it! It's the Mario! Do the Mario! Swing your arms from side to side. Come on, it's time to go. Do the Mario! Take one step, and then again. Let's do the Mario, all together now! Come on now. Just like that!

Source:  Re:Generator Magazine

Doublefine's website revamping

Seems like Doublefine had some self-esteem issues over the weekend because yesterday they debuted, with nary a hint or a song, with their new look.

For many years they had stuck with the specific design of having a flash animated menu at the top, a center panel for the news that stretched down the length of the page, and a sidebar with all their goodies.

But now everything's a little more compact and a little more in-your-face. It's like the website equivalent of rhinoplasty and a boob job- it's looking sleeker, younger, and more able. Things seem more accessible too, no longer do you have to click through menus to get to something,  most of it is linked directly on the main page. I really like the "comics" section with the comic creators popping out of hiding, it's very cute and also shows the playful side of Doublefine.

Go to Doublefine and show them some love, let them know that they were always attractive to you, and don't forget the chocolates!

Pax 09: The Conclusion

I've finally finished up the third and final part of my Pax experience review. Please read it at Re:Generator Magazine.

I cover the new Jak & Daxter game coming out this November, which I had forgotten about until recently, and the two panels I was able to make it to on Sunday. The first being the Penny Arcade panel and the second was why game reviews suck. Both were fun and enlightening and I can't wait to see what's in store for next year.

PAX 09: The Conclusion

Your gaming knick-knack of the day

PixelatedCreations is a gamer-friendly store over at Etsy and I recently saw an ad for this on The Girl Gamer.net, only to realize later that it wasn't an ad and just her showing off her work, but wanted to share this plastic bead design of Maxwell from Scribblenauts anyway.

Pretty cute for a piece of melted plastic, if I do say so myself. They of course have other cool creations in perler bead form, such as Bubble Bobble, Mario, Final Fantasy, Donkey Kong (the original), and Zelda, naturally. Go check out the rest of her stuff and support a fellow gamer.

PixelCreations Etsy store

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

As a gamer, this Sucker Punch Studios game intrigued me. As a fan of raccoons, this game intrigued me more. I was probably more excited for this game than I should have been, but it couldn't be helped really.

I'm pretty sure all I did was just hear about the game and was already out purchasing but my memory is a little foggy. Needless to say Sucker Punch did not disappoint and I not only thoroughly enjoyed Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus but the following sequels were also quickly in my collection as soon as they were released. The game has that much charm.

As you can see above, Sly Cooper does not only look good as a street punk but he's also not human. In fact, he's a raccoon who comes from a long line of master thieves. Each ancestor had a distinct special skill that they would add to a book known as the Thievius Racoonus, which got handed down from each generation to the next young thief-to-be.

Obscure: a game living up to its name

This game is... odd. It's odd because there are a lot of good things to say about it, but there are also a lot of bad things. The fact that I haven't even completed the game is not a good sign, and I will probably never finish it for one very good reason, of which I will have to explain in just a minute.

First, this game did a lot of things right. It handled the controls and combat mechanics pretty well, in fact anyone who has played Resident Evil or Silent Hill may be very comfortable with it, though it's still different and takes some getting used to. I liked having the ability to scroll through inventory without switching screens, it was all real-time (so to speak) which made it easier to quickly switch weapons or items without breaking the action on the screen (if there is any).

The creatures are definitely scary and creeped me out quite a bit, which isn't too weird but I do enjoy horror movies and horror games yetI still get a little scared. Having things jump out at me randomly or just be visually hideous and disturbing will freak me out in a game moreso than in a movie, mostly because I'm more involved in the former and actually have to do something. In a movie it's all kind of passive-aggressive and I don't need to tell the person on screen to turn around and run, they'll do it on their own. Or not, depending on what movie you're watching.

Obscure is one of those games that can easily draw you in. The graphics engine isn't Bethesda-scale, but it's about what you'd expect from a survival-horror game. The characters are a little generic and predictable but considering they're all high school students I guess that's to be expected. The story is typical, sure, but it's got a unique twist to it that starts off as just a missing friend and ends up having some weird squid-face beheamoth chasing you through a dank tunnel.

Doublefine's Psychonauts

As mentioned in my Brutal Legend post, Psychonauts was Tim Schafer's first game released independently under his Doublefine Studios brand. Prior to Brutal Legend's release you may not have even known about this game due to lack of proper marketing. Call it noob syndrome, call it laziness, call it "just not knowing what to do", Tim Schafer just didn't promote the game enough to get people hyped up about it. So on release day sales weren't what you'd expect, but thanks to word-of-mouth Psychonauts' popularity picked up after release because people were writing good things about it. Lots of good things.

I picked up this game not too long after it was released and it remains one of my top favourites. I had seen enough stills and read enough reviews to know that it was for me. The pictures of the"Black Velvetopia" level alone intrigued because it reminded me of Oogie Boogie's lair from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Once I popped that disc in, it was love at first play. Even the main menu was endearing, with the mini-Raz running around a rotating brain and the figments floating around you.

Psychonauts takes place at Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp. As you could guess, it's for children with psychic powers who either wish to hone their skills better, or for those who are too unstable to be anywhere else. It starts off with a dramatic campfire speech from short-stack Coach Oleander, an ex-military camp counselor who is about one taco short of a combo meal at times, and whose own psychic abilities aren't as great as the three other counselors, Milla, Agent Sasha Nein (male), and Ford Cruller.

Our main character, Rasputin, literally crashes the party stating he wants to learn to become a Psychonaut. Unfortunately for him he doesn't have his parent's permission to attend so he is only allowed to stay for however long it takes for them to pick him up. You spend most of the first half of the game exploring the camp grounds, listening in on the other campers' conversation (which surprisingly goes on for a long time before it loops), and learning and discovering new powers. You can also dig up arrowheads from the ground which can be used to buy items from the store, and you'll spend a lot of time collecting these in order to get all the fancy gadgets.

The Darkness

A lot really doesn't need to be said about this game that you won't glean from playing the demo (this is a good thing). This game is a pleasant surprise for people who expect a lame shooter with tentacles. Even though there are tentacles involved, they're not only evil but they eat human hearts to restore health. How can you pass that up?

The storyline is that Jackie Estacado, a known name in the New York mob business, is part of a long line of Estacados who were chosen by an evil entity known only as The Darkness to be its host. It is said that The Darkness could see into the future of the Estacado's bloodline and see the evil that would breed in their hearts, and The Darkness feeds off of that evil; that darkness. 

The Darkness manifests in its hosts as soon as they hit their 21st birthday, and if they have sex and pass on their seed that host will instantly die and the Darkness will have to lay in wait in the new host until their 21st birthday. I'm not sure why it has to be 21, perhaps the Darkness wants its host to be of legal drinking age, who knows.

This game doesn't go into the history of this ancient evil until about the middle of the game, so the entire time you're playing before then you're wondering how it came to be, what makes it this way, and how you can defeat it so you can stop listening to Mike Patton's voice growling through your speakers (which is actually very cool, especially once you know that he did the voices without any special effects added.) 


For fans of the comics, it will be a nice flash-back into the origins of the Darkness but it will also bring something new to the tale as it brings in some of the game elements as well.

Elder Scrolls: Oblivion

Ah, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. A game that can easily eat away hours of your life without you noticing or caring all that much. It may make you cold to family, ignore friends, and even forget to feed your pets but you can never stop loving it. Why is this? Is it because it's not only full of fantasy elements but also adventure, mystery, romance, horror, heroism, fear, and vengeance? Is it because you can customize your character, choose how good, evil or neutral they'll be and dress them in a vast array of outfits, armour or none at all?

Whatever the reasons are, they are all good, for this is Oblivion, and Oblivion is good.

But seriously, this game is really addicting. And unless you have a strong enough will to pull yourself away you may end up engrossed in all the sub-plots, side-missions, and random Daedric god statues that talk to you. Oblivion's massive open-world leaves the story entirely up to you, you can choose to complete the main story arc first or do pieces of it here and there while going off to discover ruins, caves, and settlements.

This kind of game design is a smart one because it doesn't force the player to do one thing at a time. You could have at least ten different active missions and none of them have to be done in the order you engaged them at. Even when NPCs tell you to hurry, there really isn't a need to hurry because everything is pretty much dependent on you being there. Oblivion allows you to make your own Elder Scrolls story any way you like, with any available race you like.

Brutal Legend Demothon and more Brutal Legend

The Brutal Legend Demothon was yesterday and it was a blast to watch. This livestream'd inside-look into the makings of Tim Schafer's latest pet project gave a lot of insight and a lot of laughs.

The premise of it was that an ancient god, Ormagoden, contacted Tim via instant message and told him that if there weren't 666 million downloads of the demo (which became available to XBL Gold members on the 24th of September, and all users on October 1st) then everyone in the world would get swineflu.

Here's the video that they just happened to have of the instance:






So in an attempt to avoid world-wide swineflu Tim enacted the official Brutal Legend Demothon, an event that would involve live streaming video from Doublefine Studios, Tim's company which also put out Psychonauts (one of my favourite games which deserves its own post), and time with some of the people behind the making of this metal-tastic game.

If you missed it, sucks for you. But if you were there right as 12pm hit then you and many, many others were anxiously waiting as we saw a Brutal Legend sticker and some random shadows in the background.

Apparently they were having some technical difficulties and didn't get the show started until about 12:30, but that's okay! We fans of metal, as well as video games, were patient as they got their shit together.