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As everyone knows my blog is always plastered with videogame crafts cause I love to support other artists that share my love of the game crafts, so want better way to get to find new artists than to join up with a like-minded artisans group?
The Destructoid Artisans Group is a group full of Destructoid community member that create game crafts via all sorts of materials. We share a common search tag on Etsy and once a month we band together to give back to the Dtoid community that puts up with us posting our art all over our c-blogs day after day.
This month we are holding a contest that celebrates the joy that are SCUMM games. SCUMM was a script language used by LucasArts to make games like Maniac Mansion, Secret of Monkey Island and more back in the day and we want artists of all kinds to make themed art around these games.
To the best 5 art pieces, we will reward a copy of Tales of Monkey Island for the PC, thanks to our friends at Telltale Games, and a donated, handmade item from a member of the Artisan group like a crocheted purple tentacle or a Sam & Max magnet set.
Today Episode 3 of Tale of Monkey Island is available, so hurry up plunder bunnies and download the newest episode to find out what happened to Guybrush Threepwood after the last episode.
Watch the video for a special appearance of our favorite evil skull, Murray.
Beatles Rock Band
EA, Harmonix
Available for Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360
The last couple of weeks have been like a dream for this game reviewer as I’ve been able to review childhood memory inducing games like Batman Arkham Asylum and Tales of Monkey Island. Best of all, they didn’t suck which is a huge bonus when you are dealing with subjects so near and dear to your heart. Unfortunately, this week’s review didn’t escape my red pen of doom despite my love for the subject matter.
Beatles Rock Band hit stores on the historical date of 09/09/09 and being the fan that I am, I scooped up a copy in order to rock out to hits like Hey Bulldog, Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band and more. The game centers solely around the Beatles and their musical career, so don’t expect to find any other band’s music here like in Guitar Hero Aerosmith or Metallica.
Story mode takes you on a journey through the band’s entire career from their humble beginnings playing the Carven Club to their performance atop the Apple building. Rather than playing venues, story mode has you playing moments or albums (chapters) in the Beatles’ career and the songs that were out for them at that time. While this is great for a huge Beatles’ fan to follow all these amazing moments, the difficulties of the songs were all over the place which made story mode the worst place for a new player to start off. Luckily there is a training mode for newbies to learn how to play each instrument which can ease you into the game.
On the other hand, seasoned players will find the difficulty of the songs rather low and can probably finish the story mode in a day if they want to. Actually there’s even an achievement for it, so if you are a seasoned Rock Band or Guitar Hero player I say go for it.
As you progress though story mode, you can unlock photos and secret videos from the Beatles collection with 3 & 5 star performances. Once you clear a chapter, you also unlock a challenge mode that allows you to play through that entire chapter’s song list non-stop and compare scores with your online friends. Other modes include the co-op online story mode and quickplay mode, or the competitive tug of war and score duels modes. There is also a “no-fail” mode which can be turned on for new players, so they can always finish a song no matter how badly they play it.
A new feature exclusive to the game is the 3 person melodies option which allow up to 3 people to sing during a song but there are also some missing features like the freestyle drumming, customizable band members or the whammy bar affect. Apparently, a lot of features were removed to preserve the music and the memory of the artists which in the long run is really okay by me. Besides do we really need another rapping Kurt Cobain? (Note: I don’t listen to Nirvana and even I thought that was wrong, Guitar Hero 5)
Now, I only grabbed the game disc as I have enough band peripherals to start 3 fake bands but for first time buyers, you can pick up two different kits: the Special Edition Beatles Rock Band kit which includes one basic guitar controller, basic drum kit, microphone and Beatles Rock Band game ($159.99CAN for PS3 or Xbox360) or you can pick up the Beatles Rock Band Premium Bundle which includes one Höfner bass controller, Ludwig-branded drum kit, microphone, mic stand, Beatles Rock Band game and additional special content ($249.99CAN for PS3 or Xbox 360).
Unfortunately this does not cover everything you need to fully play the game as a complete band as you still need two more microphones and probably two mic stands, and another guitar. You can pick up a Rickenbacker 325 guitar controller or a Gretsch Duo-Jet guitar controller for $99 each, microphones will run you about $50 each and mic stands probably about $20 each, so by the time you are done you are looking at spending about $500 on all the equipment if you want all the premium quality equipment.
And we haven’t even purchased any downloadable content yet. Yep, after spending all that money on the game and all the peripherals, you still have more money you can dump into this game via the online Beatles music store which at the moment has only one song, All You Need is Love (Proceeds go to charity) but there will be a whole bunch soon as Harmonix plans to release whole albums. And don’t say you won’t buy them either, you devoted fans as the game is missing great songs like Penny Lane, Eleanor Rigby and my favourite, Yesterday, so you won’t be able to stop yourselves from buying more music as they purposely kept back the some of the good stuff.
Visually, this game blows all other Rock Band incarnations away and makes you almost want to hand the controller over to someone else so you can focus all attention on the background animations. Like the Yellow Submarine come to life, Beatles Rock Band is a rainbow of colour and music splashed upon the screen in some of the best digital cinematics I have ever seen. Songs like Octopus’ Garden and The End bring the beauty of the music to life on screen with elephants, flowers and fishes.
When reviewing a music game obviously audio is a key component and there was nothing wrong with the sound here. Some songs were rearranged beautifully for the game and everything is a master track – no covers here. Extra features in the game included audio files from the Beatles private collection which still sound pretty darn good for their age. Overall, the music sounded fantastic and they still had this Beatles’ fan singing along with or without a microphone.
Games like these are really hard to review because as a fan you want to scream, “GOD, YES! BUY THIS! 10/10” but as a gamer you see the flaws and can’t in good conscience give a perfect review. I don’t expect uber-fans to listen to my review because if you are a fan, you probably already bought this game and are writing a letter to the editor trying to get me fired for what I’m about to say, so Beatles fans ignore me. Music game fans, listen up though as this is not a good investment unless you like the Beatles. Stick to the main Rock Band games because the store downloads will never be compatible with other Rock Band games and the difficulty of the songs in Beatles Rock Band will have expert players bored to tears.
It's always cute when a bunch of people get together to act out a song in a creative way. Even better when there's a chick in the video with big boobs bouncing up and down too. *cough* I mean a chick with a cute flower shirt on ....
Tim Schafer needs 666 Million Downloads of Brutal Legend or everyone in the world will get SWINE FLU! Xbox 360 gold subscribers can download the demo now, so go to your console and download. FOR THE SAKE OF THE WORLD!
Also for the fact that this is a great game and you need to play this demo. I played it yesterday and everything from the censor questions to the music to the combat is amazing. I can't wait to get my hands on the full game.
The Brütal Legend demo will be available to everyone on Rocktober 1st, 2009, leading up to its release on Rocktober 13th in the US and Rocktober 16th in Europe. Go to the Official Brütal Legend site on Rocktober 1st at 12pm PST (midday) for the Dem-o-Thon event, featuring interviews; Q&As with followers of the official Twitter feed; giveaways; a message from Tim's swine flu proofed bunker; spoilers; and live axe lessons!
Episode 1 is still free and there's Murray in the 3rd episode. See, I have photographic proof, so why want any longer. GO AND DOWNLOAD THESE GAMES!
Few people know that you can still get your free demo copy of Tales of Monkey Island - Episode 1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, if you just follow this link - FREE DEMO HERE
Episode 3: Lair of the Leviathan will be available for download on September 29th, so I suggest you hurry up and download the 1st and 2nd episodes if you haven't already. Both 1&2 are also available as Wiiware titles if you prefer.
For those of us, you have played the first two games, we'll have to be tied over with these new screenshots until Tuesday.
Hannes Appell over at LoneClone VFX decided to take some of the scenes from Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge and convert them into 3D using the Cryengine and Maya programs.
What he created is the stuff dreams are made of. Monkey Island fans really need to watch this entire video to look for all the hidden gems. I still think Telltale Game did a fab game on their 3D models but this game model is golden.
The Brutal Legend demo is available now on Xbox Live for Gold members only. Hurray up and download it now before everyone gets home from work and the servers crash. I'm downloading mine now as we speak and it is taking forever.
Tales of Monkey Island: Episode 2 – Siege of Spinner Cay
Telltales Games
Available as a PC Download and as Nintendo Wiiware.
Avast ye scurvy dogs, tis time for the next episode in the Tales of Monkey Island story. In July, Telltales games released the first episode in the Tales of Monkey Island series which received excellent reviews from the fans and the game media. On August 20th, Episode 2: Siege of Spinner Cay was released and I’m here to tell you if it’s worth following Mr. Threepwood’s adventures past the first cannon shot and witty remark.
If you managed to pick up the first episode, you’ll remember that we left our hero at the end of a pirate’s blade which we soon find out belongs to a famous pirate hunter hired by the Marquis who is still trying to catch Guybrush. After a few witty remarks and some quick reactions, Guybrush manages to escape the hunter with only a minor problem and decides to head off to find Elaine.
Arriving in Spinner Cay, he finds his sweet Elaine in good health but also trying to track down La Esponja Grande in order to remove the voodoo pox which is now affecting numerous pirates throughout the area. Elaine has teamed up with the now human LeChuck in order to convince the Merfolk inhabitants of Spinner Cay to give them the sponge. This does not make Guybrush happy and he does everything he can to save the day on his own in order to impress Elaine.
From here out, you must use Guybrush’s usual problem solving skills to search the island for the clues to finding the La Esponja Grande. You must collect items, talk to the natives and use your noggin to help Guybrush navigate all the problems he encounters on the islands. The puzzles were a lot harder this time around compared to the first episode and I’m ashamed to admit even I had to cheat on a puzzle or two.
Fans will be happy to know that even more Monkey Island references from previous games popped up in this new episode like insult sword fighting and the inclusion of the original Monkey Island theme. The humour in the game ring true again whether in it be in the dialog or the puzzles. You honestly can’t help but chuckle playing these games.
The controls are still the same in game with the option of using either the mouse or the keyboard. I still found the keyboard controls were much easier to move Guybrush around on screen. Though I found a few glitches in the first episode, I found no problems this time around but keep in mind that PC versions are different from computer to computer.
The graphics were still the same beautiful 3D models used in the first episode which are created on the same engine that Telltale games using in their other series like Sam & Max. I really can’t get over how spectacular the characters look in this game, especially after the disaster that was the 3D Playstation 2 version of Monkey Island, Escape from Monkey Island. That game is the reason no one originally liked the idea of another 3D Monkey Island game because it fought like cow. How appropriate you fight like a dairy farmer! Wait, what?! Never mind.
Still happy to see original Monkey Island veterans, Dominic Armato and Alexandra Boyd voicing Guybrush and Elaine as the game wouldn’t be the same without them, but I also would like to point out the grand job that Adam Harrington and Kevin Blackton are doing for LeChuck’s voices. I know a lot of fans are mad that veteran actor, Earl Boen didn’t return but he’s retired apparently.
Now most fans would have been smart and probably purchased the whole series when Telltale games offered it up for a discounted price but for those who haven’t purchase any episode yet or just bought the first, I can’t stress how great these games are. Telltale Games has not only breathe new life into an amazing series for new & old fans to enjoy but they have also inspired the dinosaurs over at Lucasarts to finally start re-releasing all the old titles from their catalogue starting with a Special Edition of Secret of Monkey Island. I personally can’t wait for titles like Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max: Hit the Road.
If I could kiss each and every one of the employees at Telltale game for what they’ve done for old school Lucasart fans, I would but hopefully they will consider this review like one big smooch instead. Definitely buy this and share it with a future gamer.
Servotron over at the Sprite Stitch forums created this great cross-stitch piece based on the Sam & Max: Hit the Road. Cross-stitch pieces are so much easier to create full scenes from with their smaller pixel points. Though you can use mini beads to create smaller bead creations, I don't know many people with the patience to create scenes like that above.
Perhaps I need to take up cross-stitching in order to save space in my house or I could end up with multiple these.
Though the show has not made its way to the Xbox marketplace in Canada yet, Girls Go Geek with Amber MacArthur now has a You Tube channel which finally gives international girl geeks an option to watch the show.
The first episode features an interview with The Guild's Felicia Day. Check out the episode above and don't forgot to subscribe to the official You Tube channel to watch for new episode uploads.
As a bonus for all my readers, episode 6 featuring Dr. Kiki Sanford has a small tip section featuring yours truly. US Xbox Live subscribers can download the episode now via the Xbox Live Marketplace but for those of us without US access or an Xbox, head over to the Xbox Marketplace US website here and then hit the Episode 6 preview button. You'll be able to check out a small portion of my cool coversation with Amber about 1 vs 100.
I'm all for saving the environment and such but I'm not a big fan of reusable pads or tampons. Apparently some ladies are which is why Etsy seller, Naturally Hip is selling Pokemon natural cotton pads made for the gamer girl who likes to be all earth-friendly and geeky at the same time. Girls can reuse this pads time and time again.
Again, this is not at the top of my "gamer goodies to buy" list but everyone has their own tastes and you have to admit the store owner is at least thinking of everyone in her demographic. The store is currently out of the pads right now but as I know from experience, most Etsy sellers will take requests if you message them.
Still amazes me that people are turning My Little Ponies into these incredible pieces of art. Makes me wish I hadn't sold all mine at garage sale a long time ago.
I always pack away the wrong things. Anyone wanna buy some Dungeons & Dragons cards?
Someday I need to pick up the Evil Dead games on Xbox to finally see what I've been missing. Until then, here's a funny trailer from Evil Dead: Hail to the King.
Rhett and Link finally released a video to go along with their song, "I Want to Believe", which they created back in 2008. The song was a tribute to the new X-Files movie.
This song reminds me that I still have one more season of X-Files to watch.
With Scribblenauts coming out tomorrow, I thought I should post my latest piece as a neat reminder to get out there and grab your copy. This is my custom 2D pixel version of Maxwell, the hero of Scribblenauts.
I designed him as an entry for a contest over at Super Punch, but you can now buy him in my store at Pixelated Creations for $8 plus shipping.
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Eidos Interactive, Rocksteady Studios
Available for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.
Greetings The Girl Gamer readers! Joker here. I bet your wondering what I, the Clown Prince of Crime is doing writing an article for the good old Girl Gamer here, well sit a spell and I’ll tell ya. See Harley and I were in Canada picking up some lovely new chemicals to use on Gotham City and I just happen to hear about this new game starring my favourite target, Batman.
Of course, being a huge fan of the Dork Knight, I just had to steal me a copy of this Batman: Arkham Asylum, so I headed down to the local St. Catharines videogame store, EB Games and tortured the employees until they found me a copy. Apparently those guys really love their videogames but not so much when they become the disc slot. HAAAAA!
Anyway, I was already to send a bunch of exploding Joker gas bombs disguised as whoopee cushions to the jerks at Rocksteady for creating another homage to that flying rodent but instead I decided to let those maroons live when I saw they created a Joker Edition for the Playstation 3. “Jumping Jiminy Christmas,” I thought to myself, “I need to find me a local website to take over and get the word out about this amazing game.” And so I did and here we are. Oh and don’t expect to find Faith up and about any time soon, kids. She wasn’t exactly happy about my arrival, so I had to change her view – Joker style. *evil laugh*
So like I was saying, those wonderful developers were smart enough to make a game edition featuring me. How fantastic! Of course, the game still centers on old Batsie but the plot has him chasing me through Arkham Asylum after I escape the guards. I have him running through Arkham like a rat in a maze, so the game isn’t a total loss. Of course, my henchmen and I aren’t the only ones who get to beat up on old Fatman as there are tons of my fellow wackos in crime around to help throw a few punches like my sweet Harley Quinn and the Scarecrow. I would have appreciated a few more faces from Gotham's most wanted in the game to beat up on Bats, but I guess you take what you can get.
Though for all the henchmen I throw at that annoying freak, the developers felt it necessary to give all the perks to Batman in order to help him stay alive throughout the game. I really hate that about him. From his cool Bat gadgets to his easy to master fighting controls, Batman has everything he needs to take out all my henchmen and survive the big boss battles. It sucks. Though I have to say I even I liked the inverted takedown move and he was taking out my henchmen. :P
The game offered up combat challenges where Batman must either fighting a series of henchmen for points or take out the henchmen with a series of special moves, all for points. In the Joker Edition, they gave me my own challenge rooms and those were a blast. Nothing like sneaking up on an Arkham guard, shooting him, and then waiting to take out all his buddies with a Joker denotation toy when they come to check out him. KABOOM! HAAAAAA! Classic.
Along with the in-game plot, Batman also has a few side quests to distract him from catching me like solving a bunch of riddles around Arkham Island which were placed there by the Riddler. Attention stealer. And then Batman also has the Spirit of Arkham story to find and decipher – now there was a real ham. For the slower people of there, the Riddler does leave a map in each area to help you find all his items.
I must say those doodlers at Rocksteady did a fabulous job at making Arkham Asylum look and feel like home. From the creepy medical equipment to the padded cells, they almost made me wish I locked up again and scheduled for some shock therapy. Ah, memories. Too bad Batman gets the run of the place though. How dare they let him hide on gargoyles and crash through glass ceilings in order to take us out when he should be in one of those padded cells with us.
At least, they got my voice right in the game with that amazing Joker impersonator, Mark Hamill. Now that’s a guy I could listen to for hours. And Batman’s voice-over guy, Kevin Conroy, talk about dead on with his voice. I never thought anyone could sound that perfectly boring and dismal, but Kevin seems to pull it off wonderfully. You can even hear that lack of sense of humour that Batsie has in his voice too.
Well kiddies, I was all set to cause mirth and mayhem over this new Batman game but when the cards are down, the Joker is the real winner here. True, the game does make Batman look all shiny and new, but how could I hate something that focuses so much on me. So here’s my proposal to the puppets at Rocksteady: change the name from Batman: Arkham Asylum to Joker: Arkham Asylum because we all know who the real draw of this game is anyway. Do that and I’ll see fit to give this game a wonderful review. Don’t and I’ll bomb your studios.... and I will too. HAAAAA!
It's Super Knitted Grover! Okay, I know he's not a videogame character but he's just way too cute not to post.
Created by my fellow flickr friend, Llamame Freaky, he is one of her amazing craft ideas. Definitely click over to Flickr to flip through her huge collection of handmade art pieces.
As you can tell I'm in an art mood this week as my last few posts have been Epic 8-Bit pieces. I promise to post a review soon but for now, enjoy more kicking art.
Surfing through Facebook today, I spotted a cute new piece from my friend, the infamous Malik Dahl who is an excellent cartoonist. He posted a cute "Cartoon meets Reality" piece that features himself in a Batman costume hanging out on top of his copy of Batman: Arkham Asylum.
Since you can't really check out Matt's drawings on his facebook page unless you're his friend, you'll just have to settle for his web comic site, Dahl Comics.
All my bead art is put to shame when you look at what a guy can do with a lot of lego blocks. DM Meister, a master Lego artist has completed many a lego sculpture including this amazing Luigi piece.
Check out his flickr page to see more pieces like a red Master Chief, the Venus de Milo and Kenny from South Park.
A pixel painting by Lost Child, another member of the Pixelgasm forum. (Pixel painting is when you paint the entire piece via tiny little squares). This is an unfinished piece but Lost Child plans to finish it real soon. This painting is from the intro of Link's Awakening. You can find more of Lost Child's artwork on her Deviant Art page. [Via Pixelgasm Forum]
This is one way to get people to buy your soda at your store. Kudos to the creative stockboy genius at this store. [Via Mr. Spooky's Dtoid C-blog]
UPDATED:
Apparently the display is from a Safeway in Northern California and the idea came from a guy named Ryan who offered the idea for their Labour Day weekend display. Grand idea, Ryan!
Then there's the guy only known as Jeff who's been apparently using his time on Farmville, the new Facebook app much more creatively then the rest of us who are just trying to get a damn barn. All these cool sprites are made from coloured hay bails you can buy in the game.
There were a few entries at the Masquerade that caught my attention that weren't videogame themed but I just had to post about them. The first was a original idea, Doctor Holocaust which is a villain determined to destroy Toronto.
The second was a group dressed up as various characters from Repo: the Genetic Opera who even acted out a bit from the movie.
And the last group did a really cool steam punk version of the X-Men featuring the characters, Cyclops, Jean-Grey, Wolverine, Shadow Cat, Storm, Rogue and Beast. This team apparently won best in show for the Masters division.
Yes, Batman is that bad ass that he could sneak up on even Sam Fisher.
I've been playing the new Batman: Arkham Asylum game all this week since I got home from the Fan Expo and I think I'm in love. The combat is sleek, the character design eye popping and the voice overs ... it's like watching a new episode of Batman: the Animated Series but with a scarier tone. I can't stressed how fabulous this game is.
Also only buy this game on the Xbox 360 if that is all you own, because the PS3 version let's you play as the Joker in the challenge maps. This is the better deal out of the two versions.
In order to keep track of who's controller is who's, Runner Ashley from the Live Journal Girl Gamer Community decided to paint her favorite game logo on her Xbox 360 controller.
Sure, Final Fantasy VII may not be available on the Xbox 360 but does it really matter? That logo looks pretty darn nice there.
