20080304
Gary Gygax rolls his last 20. - Click!
Today is a sad day for any geek, even if you never played Dungeons and Dragons.Ernest Gary Gygax, co-creator of DND, has rolled his last 20.
The entire community is crestfallen but has expressed their sorrow and their memories of a persons some called friend while others who have never played the game would have called him a friend just the same.
themocaw on the Penny Arcade Forums wrote this outstanding epitaph that is worth sharing.
Suddenly, things didn't hurt so much. The pain was gone, and the darkness as well. The touch of his loved ones' hands faded away, as did the pain.
He was free.
He wasn't sure when it happened, just that it did. There was a burst of light, and a feeling of utter calmness, and then a moment of understanding.
He looked back only once, but already, what had been was fading away. A part of him longed to return, but a voice whispered to him that his time there was over. Something new lay ahead.
But first, there was something he wanted to do.
They were already waiting for him, smiling, just like he remembered. Sheets of paper with arcane symbols and numbers lay in front of them next to glasses of drink and small, polyhedral shapes that glowed in brilliant colors that no human eye could have seen. Faces long since missed. Friends and loved ones that he'd wished he could have seen one more time, and now he could.
There was one empty seat waiting for him at the head of the table.
He took his seat and cleared his throat. Reaching out a hand, he adjusted the shimmering cardboard screen and glanced over his notes.
"All right, guys. Roll for initiative," he said.
Labels: games
posted by Bushido Hacks 3/04/2008 09:22:00 PM (0) comments top
20071214
Portal Madness! - Click!
Rarely am I ever excited about videogames but Portal is on my Christmas wish list. Portal is already out for the XBox360 (which you will be very sorry if you get one considering the recent reports of the defectiveness of the system which has caused Microsoft to disconinue its Warrenty for new 360 systems. That's Microsoft for you), but for the people who decided to trade in their rent money for an 80 GB PS3 (as stated earier, anything less than that has compatability issues. That's Sony for you.) the Orange Box game bundle was released this week. Since this is Five games in the same box, $60 seems like a fair price. This has sparked my interest in checking out the orignal Half-Life. (Keep in mind, I rarely play video games unless it is omething really good.)Portal is EVERYWHERE it is that popular. It is like what Pokemon was to little kids, of course most of those Pikachu fans have since moved on to bigger better things.
There is even a Flash game based on Portal which is so good, I'd like to play the real deal this time around.
Here is something to think about, even though Portal is fictional, would the physics be possible? By that I don't mean the quantum physics of making a portal but the part where you jump in the portal and fly out using momentum. I bet a few science teachers would really get kids involved into physics if they put that sort question on the exam.
posted by Bushido Hacks 12/14/2007 05:44:00 PM (0) comments top
20071208
Whoa! Don't get that PS3 yet! - Click!
Someone at Sony must think that everyone take the short bus to work as they once again tried to fool consumers into buying the REALLY expensive model! Where backwards compatibility was available for all PS2 models, the PS3 has NO backwards compatibity for there 20 and 40 GB models and limited backwards compatibility for the 60 and 80 GB models.This was SO much easier back when there was ONE model per each competing company. They may as well be selling computers instead of videogame systems, cause now you have to buy fans, memory, AN EXTRA CONTROLLER (Remember when gaming systems came with TWO controllers? I wouldn't be surprised if NO controller came with the next generation of gaming systems.)
It is no longer a gaming system, it is a COMPUTER. All of them are like that. PS3, XBOX 360, and the Wii.
Perhaps there should be something to change the way we develop electronics, especially with all the e-waste that shouldn't or can't be tossed out with the rest of the trash.
Even after the PS3 was released on the market over a year ago, many game publishers are still putting out PS2 games.
Games are suppost to be fun. And they are relatively inexpensive since outdoor activities are becoming financially impossible for many people due to outragous gas prices. But if the brown goods market is clueless and whines about why they didn't sell X number of videogame systems, they should talk to the guy who let a barrel of Light Sweet Crude bubble over $100 like it was some joke.
They'll figure it out when the holdays are over.
Labels: environment, games, PS3
posted by Bushido Hacks 12/08/2007 12:04:00 AM (0) comments top
20070218
Hillary doesn't have a snowball's chance
If you still believe that Hillary is going to be our next president, you don't know Barack Obama.While Mrs. Clinton is rasing money from the Hollywood A-List this weekend, Obama is in the South.
I mean, why would anyone want to vote for a woman who has fought to promote legislation to ban videogames, used the news media in her state to start a moral panic against Obama's race and religion, write books about things she knows little about, and yet she wants to play "supermom" for this country.
I could care less about Obama's race, religion, or the length of time he has had in political office.
But the last thing this country needs is another W.A.S.P. in the oval office.
Obama '08!
Labels: games, imho, movies, music, obvious, politics
posted by Bushido Hacks 2/18/2007 04:15:00 PM (0) comments top
20070128
The Pope Condems Video Game, Cartoon Violence - Click!
His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI gave lapsed Catholics one more reason to skip Church on Sunday by condemning video game and cartoon violence on Wednesday, January 24, taking a few lines from Miami lawyer and anti-videogame activist Jack Thompson.This is ironic considering there is a VeggieTales videogame on the market that is not very good which has pleanty of Cartoon Violence and a Left Behind videogame which is really bad. (Yeah, so what if non-Catholics make that blasphemous crap. They still sell it at the Catholic supply store and at Christian bookstores.) I miss the old Pope.
I guess if saving the Princess by slaying a few demons is wrong, then I don't want to be right.
Labels: animation, dogma, fud, games, movies, music, news, PS3, thevirus, Wii, wtf
posted by Bushido Hacks 1/28/2007 10:25:00 AM (1) comments top
20070125
The Tubes
The "series of tubes" meme is still alive and well it seems.The Xbox 360 game Gears of War has a "series of tubes" hack. For the low tech nerds (Yes, you with the 20 sided dice), the card game The Spoils, has this card.
I'm not into TCGs, but I did find this quite amusing. Some guy is selling this card on eBay in Florida for $2.
Labels: ebay, games, tech, tubes
posted by Bushido Hacks 1/25/2007 09:44:00 PM (0) comments top
20061202
PS3 Hacks - Click!
Ken Kutaragi is now sidelined at Sony, but not fired. (Baka-Sony!). If paying $600 for a system burns you up, then so will the device when the Consumer Product Saftey Commission orders it to be recalled becase of defects. (It happened with the PS2 and the PSP. Why not go for a hattrick and fubar this power-sucking--correction, all out sucking--console. I mean, the PS3 uses up electrical power like an American SUV and Gasoline, or Rosie O'Donnell and a Hostess Bakery Thriftstore.So in order to fix these defects the right way, and make this console Japanese again, you should perform a few hacks on the console, of course with expert knowledge.
The PS3 is offered in two forms: Value-Suck ($499/20GB/No WiFi/No Flash Card Readers), and Azathoth ($599/60GB/WiFi/Flash Card Readers). For those who know something about computers, here's a video to replace those dinking hard drives with a 100 GB hard drive you can pick up on eBay.
So much for Ridge Racer.
Wii shall overcome.
posted by Bushido Hacks 12/02/2006 11:51:00 PM (0) comments top
20061120
PS3 Do Not Want
Man, this was PAINFUL TO WATCH!I was watched XPlay, read Maddox's Latest post, read Penny Arcade's review, and Slashdot even the business and technical aspects of the PS3. Then I saw it first hand myself.
The PS3 is not just a train wreck, it is a train wreck with a chemical chlorine spill at 3AM that kills everyone in the nearby town in their sleep.
The Business men say that the PS3 is a finanical loss. The game critics were floored by several of the games because they sucked so bad. Being an OpenGL programmer, the horrendous use of glOrtho (the function that controls camera angle and viewport) is enough to make me vomit!
You hear me! VOMIT!
I've never used such a word in my blog in the two years it has been online in such a literal context. The graphics in these games make me want to cry, and I'm a casual gamer who plays less than two hours of video games per week.
I mean, AWEFUL!
Vehimate (sp) words can only describe the PS3. It hurts so bad.
On the other hand, this proves that proprietary SHOVELWARE and overpriced five-minutes-ago technology suggested by the salarymen at Sony in order to "bring in a profit" ONLY TO HAVE IT BACKFIRE because more money went into advertising than supporting the programmers who make the games.
EVERYONE AT SONY SHOULD BE FIRED! NO EXCEPTIONS! And if they are not fired, the need to be struck down with the wrath of God.
The winner this fall: Wii and Xbox 360.
Labels: games, IBM, OpenGL, PS3, shovelware, tech, Wii, wtf
posted by Bushido Hacks 11/20/2006 04:56:00 PM (0) comments top
