Editor/Founder:
Jon Christensen
Writers:
Derek Matias
Weston Green
Nick Collins
Kyra Sawyers
Proof: World of Warcraft would be 100 percent more adorable if it included Sackboy. Or would this be called a level 80 Blood SACKelf Warlock? You know what? I honestly don’t care…
Anyway, it’s damn cute, right?
The credit goes to maggie wang and her co-worker. Now, if only I could make something as cool as this, then my life would be complete.
Making video games is hardly the fun lifestyle, many people think it is. The job is tough, in fact it could be one of the hardest and most stressful businesses in the entertainment industry. That said, you would hope the gaming companies would pay their employees, they are in fact — making more money than the music industry. Especially after the website EA Spouse, revealed in 2004 that EA was taking advantage of their employees by not giving them their dues.
Sadly, it looks like the website developmag found some discouraging news about studios not paying overtime. According to its findings in a recent poll, 98% of developers are not receiving their earned overtime, while they are working about 10-15 extra hours a week. If you take the low number, which is 10 — employees are working about 520 extra hours a year, but not being compensated. The results came from 350 industry professionals.
I try to buy geeky things for my apartment to make sure my guests know what they’re getting into. Most of the cooler things I appreciate, is retro inspired art. For instance, I really love ‘i am 8-bit‘ and other among other gaming works of art. But I’m open to pretty much anything video game related.
However, I never thought about this next thing I’m posting. Art Lebedev is selling customizable pixelated address numbers for your house and/or office entrance. As you can tell from the picture above, you can see the digits looks like 80s style font from an 8-bit console. Seriously, how awesome is that.
The numbers are available in 5 separate colors: white, terracotta, and metallic blue, green and magenta and only sell for $5.77 (USD) each.
Click here if you want some for yourself.
via: technabob
A school in Colorado is introducing a revolutionary DWT (driving while texting) Prevention course for National Youth Traffic Safety Month, which will reward the best school safety program with $10,000. The Vail Christian High School set up a Nintendo Wii with Mario Kart and had students try to drive while texting.
“I ran into a lot of things and it was very stressful,” said 13-year-old student Alli O’Brian. Some of these things included but were not limited to; giant floating boxes, cows, oil slicks, bannans, fences, giant bouncy mushrooms, and other obsitcals that you would expect on your daily drive to the mall. This method also teaches students how if you crash your vehicle will never get destroyed and how in street races there are no traffic laws.
The Vail Christian High School is currently the only school in Colorado that is using Mario Kart to teach kids about DWT (driving while texting) but luckily these 13 year old kids wont be on the road for a few more years. Now as for next week’s lesson they will be using GTA IV to see how much harder it is to kill hookers while texting.
A sting quartet group from James Madison University preformed several Super Mario themes, from various games from the acclaimed series. Watch the video up top, and hear songs from the original Super Mario Bros. game, all the way to Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii.
While listening to the video, you should gain a great appreciation (if you don’t already) for how incredible some of the earliest music sounds. Sure, the NES could only handled a few bleeps and boops, but it was a lot more complicated than some people might have realized.
I’m positive some gamers might disagree with me on this one, but I truly feel the soundtrack in Super Mario Galaxies is the best in the franchise.
Below are the talented people who are apart of the group.
Violin I: Jacob Roege
Violin II: Jacqueline Dolan
Viola: JessicaRoxanne Atienza
Cello: Chad Schwartz
Screenwriter Chris Morgan (Wanted) has just wrapped up writing his next film, which is an adaption of Gears of War. While writing the story, he envisioned Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, as the lead role. That’s right, Morgan believes “The Rock” would be the best actor in Hollywood today, to portray his version of Marcus Fenix.
“The Rock is awesome. There’s a genuine actor. Not only can he play the tough guy, but he can also play the nuanced, sensitive funny sad moments as well. But finding that guy is incredibly difficult,” Morgan said while speaking with MTV.
Now, I agree — I enjoy watching “The Rock” on the silver screen. In fact, I wish he did less family movies, and went back to the action genre, but I guess right now he is more about making some cash, than actual good movies. With that said, I have to disagree with the former wrestler playing as Fenix. While “The Rock” has some incredible charisma and an “A+” personality, I just don’t seeing his has Fenix.
If you ever sat and played Gears of War, you would know Fenix is more of a monotone type of guy. He just speaks what is own his mind but rarely changes his voice. That in my opinion is the direct opposite of how “The Rock” acts. If you don’t believe me, just watch any of his movies or better yet, his wrestling days.
I’m not saying “The Rock” can’t play a simple character onscreen, but if Morgan truly believes he is the best actor suited for the role, than the script must be considerably different than the action game.
On top of all this, we already saw the Dwayne Johnson star in a video game-movie. It was Doom, and do you remember how well that turned out?
I would like to make an apology to anyone trying to access /gamer. Due to situations beyond on my control, our website was down for sometime. Unfortunately the server we use had some major problems over the course of night, but we are assured that the issues which disabled the website are finally addressed.
A tipster sent in some information to Engadget about the rumored Motion Control for the Xbox 360. The supposed accessory for the Xbox 360 is said to have a microphone, a camera, and two unidentified sensors. The device will be able to track your movement without the need for a controller or extra sensors. Now this is just a rumor and we think it will stay that way, the image just feels like a bad photoshop. And in a time where almost every person has some sort of camera on them at all times it is hard to believe that this camera takes such bad photos. But if it is real you can expect an announcement in June at the E3 Expo or even a day before when Microsoft has their press conference.
Hit the jump for a full list of the supposed features.
(more…)
Taylor Merrill cramped his Samsung a867 Eternity phone into a old NES Controller. Although it wasn’t necessarily the hardest mod to make, because it looks like he just ripped open the controller and stuck the phone inside. Basically, it’s an awesome cellphone case.
Easy or not, it’s totally awesome geeky.
via: engadget
When Jodi Wykle bought her son a brand new Nintendo DS at her local Wal-Mart, she was surprised when he opened it. When the confused teen unwrapped her box, he thought it was some sort of prank. Rather than having a handheld and some accessory, the box contained some old Chinese newspaper and rocks.
“When he opened it, he was pulling the seal off, my sister-in-law carries a pocket knife and she opened it and that’s when he pulled it out and it was Chinese newspaper and a bunch of rocks,” Wykle explained.
Right away, the Florida mom contacted the same Wal-Mart, but workers told her it wasn’t the companies fault because video evidence suggested that it was never returned in the first place. Although, it is unclear how video could determine if one DS was returned over another. Because the employees deemed it wasn’t their problem, they suggested that she call Nintendo.
“They don’t want to do nothing. They want me to keep the box of rocks. I’m not buying a box of rocks for $138,” she said.
According to Yahoo, a similar situation happened to another unhappy customer, who was also trying to return the product. Since, the company confessed it was their mistake, they let Wykle return the box of rocks and paper to the store, and even gave her a $20 gift card for her troubles.
This is the second time this month the big box retailer has got into some trouble with a handheld unit. A PSP was purchased for a young boy, however, when he turned it on — he found pornographic images.
Source: WTSP-10
The next time I show the world that I burnt my cookies, I want to use these oven mitts. The Pac-Man mitts are made from silicone and sell for $14.95. And are promised to “keep your hand safe from burns and your heart full of nostalgic pride from your days on the high score table.”
Combine that with the Space Invaders ice trays, the next time you have a party, you’ll be considered the geekest person on earth. Which depending on your personalty, that label could be a good or bad thing.
Want one? Click here. [Thanks Rich]
Cool Stuff is a feature of /gamer. Know of any geekarific creations or cool products which should be featured on Cool Stuff? E-Mail us at slashgamer@gmail.com
Now before I start, I want everyone to know this is not made for a video game, but if you watch the video up top — you’ll certainly see the potential for one.
EON Reality has created something called the ICube, which is a fully 3D immersive room. The user, who wears special lightweight 3D glasses, walks into a three-wall (or more) room. The three-walls that surrounds the player, as well as the floor, is being projected in 3D. Obviously when the player uses the glasses — everything will pop-out, like in a 3-dimensional film. Sounds cool right? Well, it gets even better!
Once the player is inside the cube, he has the ability to walk around the room. As he slowly trouts, the images correspond to the movement, which are tracked by a sensor on top of the 3D glasses. The player also has the option to duck and/ or jump, which the ‘camera’ for the simulation will resemble his/her action. At one point during the video, you’ll see the guy walking down stairs, although it’s imperfect — it’s still promising. They company has also develop a 3D sound environment, which will harmonize to where you are in the ‘world.’
Now imagine playing this as a video game? When I first saw the video, I immediately thought of a light-gun game. Imagine playing a title like Time Crisis on the Cube ? Now instead of hitting a pedal to duck, you actually have to find cover, much like the Police-911 arcade game a while back. But now, you can have enemies coming at you from any direction… and in full 3D!
EON has the ICube available in a 3-wall, 4-wall and 6-wall structures. Which means even cooler potential for our gaming experience. Although, don’t expect to see this at your local arcade anytime soon. However, I do think sometime in the future — we will see something similar to the ICube.
Neogaf member Pringo decided to start a “Photoshop Thread” for users to submit their own box art for a theoretical Collection of games for the “more serious collectors”:
So I thought it would be a cool thread idea to combine GAF’s boxart fetishism with a Photoshop thread (who doesn’t love these?). Partly inspired by AniHawk’s magazine ad thread, I decided to make a thread about “The GAF Collection”, a theoretical series of video game releases for the more serious collectors (à la The Criterion Collection, hence the name). The Criterion Collection is known for its stunning boxarts just as much as it is for its high quality movie transfers. I think it’d be cool to try this with video games, who have boxarts traditionally bombarded with way too many ugly labels, ratings, seals, and logos.
The following are some of the ones that we like but be sure to check out the thread for more designs.
(more…)
A reader over at Kotaku has proved his love for BioShock. ‘Nathan’ loves it so much, he replicated a real-life Big Daddy doll from scratch, which was first featured in the teaser for BioShock 2 awhile back. As you can tell, it’s pretty damn accurate looking, and in a weird way, I wish I could have one.
Below is a screen capture from the teaser. Not bad, eh?
(Photo courtesy of NatSilva from Deviantart)
We here at /gamer would like to extend our wishes and hope everyone has a Happy Easter, as well as Passover. We hope some of you didn’t eat to many cadbury eggs. Yeah, those things are freaking addictive! Again, thank you for sticking by us for the past 10 or so months, as we continue to grow.
