Lost in Liberty City? Google Maps can help!

Falling under the category of "too much time on their hands," a handful of individuals over at gta4.net took it upon themselves to create the most amazing interactive map of a video game - ever - using Google Maps to do so.

Aside from item locations, stunt jumps, "flying rat" locations and other useful info, the map allows you to zoom in all the way down to street level and navigate around Liberty City via thousands of photos, just as you would using Google Maps to explore your own neighborhood, with the exception of that embarrassing photo of your neighbor walking around their yard in their tighty-whiteys.

Once again, it goes to show you that it just doesn't make sense to buy strategy guides anymore. Wait patiently long enough, and someone will come along and make an interactive map a thousand times more superior than any guide book can be. Or at the very least a hastily written guide that will save you from shelling out $20 bucks for the damn book.

The Legend of Zelda, according to Doc Brown

Combining two things that I love - the Back to the Future  trilogy and  the Legend of Zelda games, this fan-made film explains the Legend of Zelda  timeline so well, I doubt Shigeru Miyamoto himself could do any better.

It's almost impossible to describe how much awesome oozes from this video. The Master Sword,  Link and Ganon hurling lightening back and forth, the DeLorean, and a chalkboard with the most complicated timeline ever illustrated. "Epic", while cliche' in use, is probably the most appropriate.

Whu?

The only fault that I found with this video: by merely mentioning the CDi Zelda games, this video acknowledges their existence; they don't. Nintendo neither speaks of them or acknowledges them, nor should anyone else.

Anyone.

Try to discuss them with me, and I'll find a way to go back in time, date your Mom, ruin her for all other men, thus effectively erasing you from existence.

If only...

Now, I realize that this picture has been floating around out there for some time. In fact, I recall my initial reaction when I first saw the picture:

"Well that would be frickin' cool!"

However, with the relatively recent death of the music game genre, I don't think we'll be seeing this come to fruition any time soon. And with that death comes the sad realization that my aspirations to be as cool as "Weird Al" Yankovic will remain a fantasy.

Best name for a game....ever.

Hothead Games recently released a teaser trailer for their upcoming third entry into the DeathSpank games. And with it, quite possibly the greatest sub-title for a game. Ever.

 

If you happened to have skipped over the previous two installments of the games (DeathSpank and the surprising 5-month later sequel Thongs of Virtue), you may want to scope them out. Especially if you happen to enjoy dungeon crawlers such as Diablo; the DeathSpank games are essentially hilarious send-ups of them.

You can grab a copy of both games via Xbox LIVE, PSN, or Steam. Sorry Wii fanboys, but there's just no love for you.

Calling all Geeks! Add your star in a monument to Reach

Geek within me, be damned. But after watching the little snipit from the dashboard on my XBox 360 about a virtual monument being built on a website made from the "tagged" stars created by Facebook users, I couldn't help myself.

RememberReach.com takes you to a website that essentially is a fictitious (duh) memorial website dedicated to those brave six spartans that...fell?...in or on or somewhere near the planet Reach. And to pay tribute, visitors to the site can add a star to the memorial by linking their Facebook info to the site and tag a spot on the memorial, which will be added at some point. Not immediately, which I thought was pretty cool. They don't just throw it up there and say "Jolly Good!" They make you wait your turn like a good little geek.

Granted, it's basically just a big data collector if you think about it. But at the same time, a cool one at that and I couldn't help myself; the good little geek within wanted to place a star on a crotch. Any crotch. Which sadly you can't select.

So I settled for a shoulder.

It'll be easier to find my star instead of having to methodically pinpoint myself with the rest of the would-be nut-huggers out there.

Altered Esthetics to host video game art exhibit "Level_13"

I originally posted this on Examiner.com, but thought I would share it over here as well. In fact, you'll probably see more of these kinds of posting. Because I'm a giver.


Video games as an art form? Absolutely!

Beginning September 3rd, Altered Esthetics will be hosting the 4th biennial video game art exhibit, Level_13. This year’s theme: classic video games.

As a celebration of all things retro in video games, Level_13 will be displaying unique works of art inspired by the video games of yester-year.

In previous Level_13 exhibits, artists from all over the Twin Cities and beyond have proudly displayed their creativity and passion for video games through a variety of mediums including: sculpture, paintings, musical performances, and other various styles. It is through this passion the artists have illustrated that the art of video games is not limited strictly to just pixels on a screen.

The opening reception will be held Friday, September 3rd from 7pm to 10pm. The exhibit will run through Thursday, September 23rd. An artist’s discussion is scheduled for Saturday, September 18th from 1pm to 3pm.

Altered Esthetics is a non-profit art gallery located in Northeast Minneapolis in the Q’arma Building. Their community-based art gallery and arts advocacy organization work to support and expand the artistic community through unique and compelling exhibits. Additionally, Altered Esthetics offers multiple internship programs providing a valuable hands-on experience both on and off the gallery floor.

(Artwork courtesy of Nicholas Straight)

These ultra-editions are killing me!

First of all, just to hopefully avoid all the snarky remarks, I KNOW that I don't have to get them. But the stuff they come with is just too damn cool.

Now that I got that out of the way, onto my subject: the ultra-editions. "The what?" The ultra-editions. You know, Halo 3's Legendary Edition or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's Prestige Edition. They are the original instigator's of the next phase in collector's editions for video games. At first, it was just the collector's editions. They came with a small figurine or soundtrack or art book or something, well....collectable. But then one day some genius in a suit thought, "What if we stuck a giant dust-collecting toy in there? You know, something big and gaudy that is gonna really get the geeks soaking their jeans?"

And thus, the Legendary Edition of Halo 3 was born. And geeks "ga-fawed" at it's awesomeness, the potential to see kitten's wearing it, and not to mention it's awesome price: $130! And surprisingly, people paid for this.

As did I.

...Shut up.

Then Activision came about with their Prestige Edition of Modern Warfare 2. Which came with a much cooler toy: night vision goggles. And they weren't some crappy piece of plastic. They were REAL WORKING NIGHT VISION GOGGLES! Admittedly, they seemed of more worth than a plastic display helmet that was too small to wear. Nice move, Microsoft.

So again, I cracked open my wallet and got the goggles. (And to increase the awesomeness of it all, I admit that I have put the goggles on the Master Chief helmet that came with Halo 3).

Again....shut up.

Now we have Halo: Reach and Call of Duty: Black Ops upon us. And each has its own ubber-edition. Reach gets a 10-pound statue by McFarlane Toys, and Black Ops gets a remote control car. "What's so special about the car?" Well, it has a built-in microphone and video camera that feeds images and sound back to the controller through a tiny screen built into the handle. And as for the statue, well, it's a very nice statue. And the ubber-geek in me has a hard time resisting. It's just a bit too epic.

(I see potential to put little spartans on a remote control car and race them around the house. Curse the geek in me).

And so my wallet gets an itch, again. A $300 itch.

I hate the fall game release season.