#clips
This Portal player can beat the game in less than ten minutes, with many levels flying by in mere seconds. How can a Portal speed run happen so fast? Break Portal apart at the seams, of course. More »
In a recent interview with Designing Sound, the audio team behind Alan Wake revealed much about their process creating the game's creepy soundscape. One of the more interesting bits in the interview involves the field recording that was done to capture some of the nature sounds of the forest. Pete Comley, a freelance sound designer hired for the project, actually lives in Washington and recorded sounds in many of the forests on which Alan Wake's environments are based.
"Some of the recording was done very late at night in environments very similar to the ones Alan Wake tromps through, far in the woodsy backcountry," said Comley. "I had to keep reminding myself that there were no such things as "the Taken" when I heard the sound of elk crackling through the underbrush in the moonlit darkness (or even worse, total darkness)," he said, adding, "Making this game scared the daylights out of me more than once since I feel like I live where it takes place."
Check out the full, exhaustive interview for more on Alan Wake's audio design process, including how the team approached creating the sound of light, the Dark Presence and the Taken.
#ps3
Two years after its release on the PC and the Wii, all five episodes of Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People are coming to the PlayStation Network in North America on Dec. 21. More »
What to get for the Nintendo fan in your life who already has everything? How about this guitar made out of a Nintendo Entertainment System? GetLoFi.com hacked a working electric guitar together from the body of an NES, and as you can tell from the YouTube video after the break, it sounds ... ok?
So it's not great, but then again it's basically a box made out of plastic. The guitar is being sold for $150 on GetLoFi's web shop, and because it's custom made (the neck is a reused oak guitar neck), they've only got one for sale, but they seem game to make more if the demand is there. The NES itself has been hollowed out for all the other electronics, so if you want to play your favorite NES games while strumming their tunes, you'll need your own console for that.
#wii
Super Mario Bros. is 25 years old this year. To commemorate that anniversary, Nintendo is releasing the Super Mario All-Stars collection for Wii. The way Nintendo explains what Super Mario Bros. is and how one plays it has changed over the years. More »
The folks at XBLA Fans have put together a fantastic Super Meat Boy bandage guide, complete with pictures and jumping guide lines. One should feel no shame in referencing it: the game stands as one of the most difficult (yet satisfying) experiences of the year.
#ps3
If you've read that Konami's arcade classic X-Men is getting a timed exclusive on Xbox Live Arcade, fear not, PS3 owners. Well, PS3 owners in North America anyway, where the game's coming out a day earlier on PlayStation Network. More »
EA has announced a release date for the upcoming Dead Space Aftermath animated movie. The film will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on January 24 in Europe, and January 25 in the US. MSRP is $34.99, but some outlets (including Amazon at the moment) are selling it for even cheaper than that already. The film will also come bundled in a double pack with 2008's animated tie-in, Dead Space Downfall.
The film will supposedly serve as a prequel to Dead Space 2, about a group sent by the Government to the Aegis VII disaster from the first animated film, in order to "test" the "effects" of Marker shards. Sounds like a recipe for "trouble" (and some gory scares). Between this release next month and the demo later on this month, the Dead Space franchise is about to get a whole lot livelier.
Advertising in games really doesn’t bother me. I actually prefer to see real-life ads as opposed to made-up products. It lends a bit of realism to the game world. When publishers start sticking those real-life ads into a game where they don’t make sense, that’s what really bothers me.
#ps3
Enough people paid the Facebook "Like" ransom so Insomniac released another four Resistance 3 screens today (on the heels of the seven that went out yesterday). There's also a theme you can slap on your PS3. More »
A PlanetSide sequel is sort of like the long-in-development third Ghostbusters movie. We've been hearing it's on the way for so long that we're starting to suspect the whole thing's a long con, a grift, if you will, designed to bilk us out of ... something. First Sony hinted it was in development in September of '09, then SOE's John Smedley called it "PlanetSide Next" a month later.
Now, Smedley's back on it, telling the Escapist "We have a very big launch coming in the month of March," Smedley said. "It's a big first person shooter franchise that we're really happy with." With little prodding, Smedley basically confirmed it to be the long-rumored rebirth of the MMOFPS.
Though it obviously hasn't been formally announced yet, we wouldn't be at all surprised to see it formally debut at this Saturday's VGAs. Fair warning: If it has Slimer in it, we're gonna know something's up.
#republished
Hardcore gaming at its finest! Evan M. Lopez used this monster within a poster/postcard/flyer for Autumn Society's October Video Game Gore show. More »
Given that the PlayStation Phone has yet to be officially announced -- though, ya know, come on -- you probably shouldn't look disappointed that Qualcomm's Neocore benchmark app only showed the phone averaging 24.4 frames per second. As Engadget points out, the hardware is likely not final and neither is that software.
That said, another clear video of the PlayStation Phone in action certainly doesn't hurt, right? At the very least you'll get to bask in your monitor's warm glow for another few moments before venturing back into the freezing tundra that is the outdoors during this part of the year. Maybe this time next year you can at least bring your PlayStation Phone along with you.
A teaser image for Gaijin Games' Bit.Trip Flux appeared in Mission in Snowdriftland, the online advent calendar game created by Extra Toxic and originally used for Nintendo -- operating sans-Nintendo this year in an "Indie Games Edition." Each door that opens leads to a platformer level, and unlockable downloads for a certain indie game. This was the Bit. Trip image. As usual, we have no idea how to interpret it.
In addition, Aussie-Nintendo posted some icon images of characters, like Commandgirl Video, Junior Melchkin, and even Meat Boy, all of whom appeared as powerups in Bit. Trip Fate. It also posted icons representing the previous games -- which could be interesting considering the line in the first Flux teaser that "all is in flux." Could "all" mean "all" the gameplay styles in the series?
