Category Archives: Video Games
The Avengers…the video game?
Turns out some company called THQ Brisbane was working on an Avengers video game before they got shut down. The website Kotaku got their hands on some actual gameplay footage, showing a first-person shooter style of game, only you get to play as Avengers characters. The videos are pretty wild, with the Hulk and Iron Man and Thor so far shown. You fly and smash and throw the hammer, and it looks kind of cool. I can’t imagine it being very good, since comic book video games aren’t very good. But wow, imagine what we could have had.
Both the Thor and Captain America movies had video game adaptations. Alyssa said the Cap game was alright, but nothing special. I don’t imagine Thor was anything special either. Movie tie-in games just aren’t anything special anymore. Not since Spider-Man 2.
Still, check out these videos!
And then a second one.
What do you think? Does it look like a fun game? Would it have been cool to play as superheroes in the first person?
The Problem with Exes
When I met you ten years ago, I was in love. You were sweet, sexy, clever, fun and you were always willing to do what I wanted to do. I looked past the long, awkward pauses that we had between loading screens, and just enjoyed what we had.
Then we drifted apart, you and I. It wasn’t you, Deus Ex–It was me. I always loved you, but I experienced all you had to give and I wanted more. Flashier, prettier games were out there, and I was young. Foolish.
You were always so good to me, but I left you for younger, fresher games.
Then, this month, you strolled back into my life. You were sleeker and sexier than before, with slick gameplay and brilliant graphics.
I couldn’t help myself. All of the good memories were still lingering in my mind, and I came running back to you.
For awhile, it was good again, Deus Ex. Our love affair began again, and I had fun. Your story, your gameplay (With an actual melee button!!) were among the best I’ve experienced since the first time I left you. Sure, you didn’t have multiplayer, and your voice-acting was a bit wooden, but you were still the deep, introspective, liberal lover I once knew. Sadly, our second love affair ended almost as soon as it began.
You changed, Deus Ex. We both have, I suppose. You got older, grittier, darker. You were deep, to be sure, but this time you were only a shadow of what you were before. Your old theories about the Illuminati, Majestic Six, aliens in America–they were more or less gone, save for callbacks and references here and there. The Illuminati were still a real thing for you, but they didn’t play any sort of active role in your story. I always liked your conspiracies, Deus Ex. They only added to the depth that made you so wonderful.
I still love you,but I think it’s time for us to move on. This was a quick and dirty romp for old time’s sake, really. Incredible as always, but we’ve grown too far apart. It could never have lasted.
If anyone out there is looking for a great single-player RPG-shooter that forces the player to rely more on tact than sheer firepower–a cyberpunk game with an epic storyline and wicked gameplay, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is available. My rating: 4/5. Not as good as it once was, but definitely good enough for a play.
My 6 Favorite Video Games of All Time
When I was a wee little boy, video games were forbidden in my house. To this day, I still don’t know what my father had against them (though I suppose I could always ask). He didn’t rant and rave about the ‘horrors’ of video games or anything like that. He just wouldn’t let my brother and I have a console in our house, even if all our friends loved their Nintendos and Sega Genesi.
But that didn’t stop me from falling head over heels for video games.
Every time we went to the store, I would immediately run to the electronics department to play their display consoles. That’s where my parents could pick me up once they were done shopping. I played them every chance I could get. I was hooked. I was in love. And it’s a love that’s still with me all these adult years later. That’s right world, this comic book geek also loves playing video games in his free time. It helps that I have a wickedly awesome geek girlfriend who also loves video games, and a squadron of gaming friends!
Eventually my father relented, sort of. When my grandparents got cousin Tyson a Game Boy for Christmas, my father allowed them to get Game Boys for my brother and I the following Christmas. I loved that little, green pixelated thing. Then one summer in high school, my father volunteered my brother and I to work for a week in a hay loft. The farmer, a friend of the family, agreed to pay us. It was hot, sweaty, horrible work, but I convinced my father to allow us to use the money to buy a Playstation, since he’d been the one to volunteer us, after all.
And so my father’s ban on video games was finally defeated. We used the money for games, since once the ban was gone, my aunt got us a Playstation that following Christmas. I haven’t been without a home console since. I upgraded to a Playstation 2 in college with my own money, likewise to an X-Box 360 after I’d graduated. Nowadays I play a mix of X-Box, PC and Nintendo DS games, the DS being the upgraded Game Boy. I love adventure games and RPGs, as well as large, sprawling sandbox games. And I absolutely love creating my own playable characters.
But mostly, I just love video games. So here are My 6 Favorite Video Games of All Time!
Everything is Better with a Portal Gun
Portal is the absolute best physics-based video game in existence. It’s a total blast to pop in and out of the game using the Portal Gun, which launches a blue and an orange portal wherever you aim. Then all you have to do is walk through one portal and come out the other. It’s a simple concept, but the game designers are such geniuses that they’ve created essentially three full games of quirky and funny puzzles around that concept. (Portal 2 had both a single and a multiplayer game, each with its own unique puzzles).
So it’s no surprise that other games want to get in on the fun. Here are some fun videos I’ve found where some clever people insert Portal Guns into classic games.
Such as Super Mario Bros.
Or Mega Man, which went the extra effort into actually creating Portal Man!
I’ll post more if I find them.
Also, a Robin For All Seasons
Remember back when I posted about the various alternate Batman costumes that will be available for Batman: Arkham City? Of course you do. Well now they’ve revealed the alternate Robin skins that will be available! And they’re all awesome!
Red Robin, Arkham City Robin and 90s Animated Robin
Brilliant! This is also our first real look at a colored Arkham City Robin, so that’s cool. I already knew about the Red Robin costume, the one on the left, but the 90s Animated Robin is news to me! They had a 90s Animated Batman skin in the game, and it looked wondrously creepy and awesome. Animated Robin looks a little weirder, but not less creepy and awesome! I think these look fantastic. It’s just another reason why I can’t wait for the release of Batman: Arkham City!
Henchman-4-Hire 