Curt’s Basement

This looks really neat. It’s coming out this week for XBLA and PC.

This isn’t a hack, someone did this using the Rock Band Network which allows bands to author their own music for the game. That said, it won’t ever see release cause it violates  copyrights. Still! It’s awesome!

and:

Jace Hall was one of the co-founders of Monolith, who made Blood and Shogo, among other things. He’s since branched out and one of the things that he’s been doing is the reality show the Jace Hall Show. It’s funny, but this episode is especially good cause of a visit to Blizzard and a rematch between Dolph Lundgren and Carl Weathers (who fought in Rocky IV).

Does anyone remember the old Jailbreak mod from Quake/Quake 2? If not, the idea is that every opponent you kill appears in your team’s jail. Once all are captured, you win the game. Those in the jail can be rescued by their teammates or try and break out themselves.

This Source version of it looks completely and utterly insane, and that’s awesome (and using Thin Lizzy for the music is awesome too)!

via Rock, Paper, Shotgun

This looks great! Of course, it’s just a CGI trailer, but it’s very epic.

Could it be? A good videogame movie?

Out November 17th! And the demo is out now for anyone who’s preordered!

Wrestling manager Captain Lou, Cyndi Lauper’s fake dad, and Mario in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, Lou Albano passed away today at the age of 76.

Aw, man. I think I’m going to have to get back to watching all of the Super Mario Bros Super Show that I have on DVD.

via Kotaku.

In case you don’t know, Tim Schafer is the guy who did Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, Money Island, and Psychonauts; and who is now just about to release Brutal Legend.

I think it’s very cool that games have “arrived”, so to speak, and their releases are being noted on talk shows. That’s very cool to me.

Probably the most charming little puzzle game you’ll play in awhile. It gets really devious. There’s no shame in walkthroughs when you’re good and stuck.

Use Boxmen

Canabalt is a flash game where your sole purpose is to run (which is automatic) and jump building to building without falling to your death. You’re scored by how far you can run. The levels themselves are all randomly generated, and it’s damn addictive.

Play it! Now-like!

CANABALT

via Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

My award-winning “Learning with Super Mario Brothers” system has helped thousands of children get their plumbing and pizza-making degrees, and is the leading cause of turtle extinction. You’re welcome. Now the power of this educational program can be used to achieve something that was at one time impossible: understanding World of Warcraft.

via Cracked

Amanda told me about this REALLY cool, if short, point and click flash adventure game. I highly recommend checking it out if you’ve got a few minutes to click around.

Play Bars of Black and White on Kongregate

It’s official, the next WoW expansion is Cataclysm! It actually sounds pretty interesting!

While the attention of the Horde and Alliance remained fixed upon Northrend, an ancient evil has been lying dormant within Deepholm, the domain of earth in the Elemental Plane. Hidden away in a secluded sanctuary, the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing has waited, recovering from the wounds of his last battle against Azeroth, nursing his hatred for the inferior creatures that infest the surface realm…and biding his time until he can reforge the world in molten fire.

Soon, Deathwing the Destroyer will return to Azeroth, and his eruption from Deepholm will sunder the world, leaving a festering wound across the continents. As the Horde and Alliance race to the epicenter of the cataclysm, the kingdoms of Azeroth will witness seismic shifts in power, the kindling of a war of the elements, and the emergence of unlikely heroes who will rise up to protect their scarred and broken world from utter devastation.

The face of Azeroth is altered forever as the destruction left in Deathwing’s wake reshapes the land and reveals secrets long sealed away. Players will be able to re-experience familiar zones across Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, rewrought by the cataclysm and filled with new opportunities for adventure.

Some of the new features of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm include:

• Two New Playable Races: Adventure as one of two new races–the cursed worgen with the Alliance or the resourceful goblins with the Horde.
• Level Cap Increased to 85: Earn new abilities, tap into new talents, and progress through the path system, a new way for players to improve characters.
• Classic Zones Remade: Familiar zones across the original continents of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms have been altered forever and updated with new content, from the devastated Badlands to the broken Barrens, which has been sundered in two.
• New High-Level Zones: Explore newly opened parts of the world, including Uldum, Grim Batol, and the great Sunken City of Vashj’ir beneath the sea.
• More Raid Content than Ever Before: Enjoy more high-level raid content than previous expansions, with optional more challenging versions of all encounters.
• New Race and Class Combinations: Explore Azeroth as a gnome priest, blood elf warrior, or one of the other never-before-available race and class combinations.
• Guild Advancement: Progress as a guild to earn guild levels and guild achievements.
• New PvP Zone & Rated Battlegrounds: Take on PvP objectives and daily quests on Tol Barad Island, a new Wintergrasp-like zone, and wage war in all-new rated Battlegrounds.
• Archaeology: Master a new secondary profession to unearth valuable artifacts and earn unique rewards.
• Flying Mounts in Azeroth: Explore Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms like never before.

Here’s the official site with a very cool trailer that explains things better than I could.

GILES MARTIN WAS conjuring spirits, or perhaps summoning gods. The tools for this ritual included a pair of omnidirectional microphones, a digital mixing console and a hastily-procured set of teacups and saucers, but the magic was in the room itself. Studio Two at Abbey Road in London has changed very little since 1969, when Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison recorded together for the last time. The Steinway upright McCartney played on “Lady Madonna” still stands in one corner, its middle keys worn to the wood. Sound-absorbing quilts hang in wide stripes down the whitewashed brick walls. The view from the control room on the second level is much as it would have been for George Martin, Giles’s father, who oversaw the creation of nearly every Beatles album from this room. Giles held a slender finger to his lips, which turned up into a playful grin. He handed cups and saucers to three people nearby and mimed a sip. The others followed his lead, and a few feet away the microphones captured the small clattering sound of four people drinking tea.

Read the rest at NYTimes.com

So, Amanda and I are thinking it might be fun to go to FanExpo this year. The convention is like a celebration of all our geeky interests in one big place. Comics, Sci-fi, Anime, Gaming, and Horror all rolled into one. The event is in downtown Toronto on the 28th of August to the 30th. Tickets are between $10 and $75, depending on which package you get. Bring your wives, your girlfriends, your friends, whoever you want! When we know who’s coming, we can sort out the details of meeting near the convention centre and going in together, or whatever works best for everyone. Let me know if you’re interested!

http://www.hobbystar.com/fanexpo/

Well I think this is official as we have ever gotten on a road trip like this. But here is graphical evidence that we are indeed going. Now please note for everyone else interested, you can go to the PAX East site and do pre registration. You have the option of having your badges sent to you via FED Ex (which I did). I bought these now as I owed Curt from awhile back so rather then get lost in translation now it’s fucking booked! Oh yeah!