I took vacation to play this all day when it was released. I don’t know what’s more sad, me taking the vacation day to do that or you guys for putting offensive Qur’an verses in game. Note. Maybe next time you might want to stick to non-vocal stuff like this:
Excuses excusseeeesss. Shame on me! What with a day job and everything else I can only manage to scourge up this…
…an image taken of a moogle that was drawn by none other than Yoshitaka Amano himself courtesy of Mr Geek. I should have more pictures up (including what he drew for me) and stories (OH STORIES) to tell in the next post. Stay tuned!
Once upon a time, a character named Miss Geek went to anime conventions and was really into anime. Time passed, school happened, Miss Geek graduated and found herself in real life realizing that she kind of grew out of that hobby.
Things happen, in my shoes it was the discovery of snowboarding and the love for extreme sports. I still watch a bit of anime and read a bit of manga but it’s limited to a very select few. By select I mean an obscure anime called Junni Kokki and gorefest juggernaut Berserk.
I used to go to these conventions really hyped but – even dressed up at one Otakon. (No, I will not include pics) But I guess other things started to consume my life, and anime conventions soon took to the backseat along with things that I feel I “outgrew”.
With that said, the New York Anime Festival is coming in a few weeks and this is the first time I’m REALLY amped to go. I say AMPED because my favorite artist is going to be there: Yoshitaka Amano.
Who is this man do you ask??? Does this ring a bell? :
If it doesn’t, it’s Terra from Final Fantasy 6. He’s not only renowned in the videogame world as the character designer for series like Final Fantasy and Front Mission. He’s done works in anime alongside with another guest at NYAF Hideyuki Kikuchi in Vampire Hunter D, and collaborated with Neil Gaiman in the comic book realm to create The Sandman: Dream Hunters.
His artistic style just awes me and it’d be great to come face to face with one of the people who designed the character detail in the game series that I most love and have been an avid fan since my first encounter. Oh yeah, and Hideyuki Kikuchi isn’t so bad for a novelist. This year is going to prove epic and you can bet your sweet ass I’ll be in line early trying to get tickets to try and swag and autograph with him. (VIP tickets were sold out….epic underestimation of con attendance on my part…)
Is anybody in the NY tri-state area going to this shindig? (If you’re interested click on the link above or…erm…this one to get more information and to buy tickets.) If so, mayhaps you might be able to meet Miss Geek I’ll be there on Saturday. I might be taking pictures! Stay tuned.
This throwback comes straight from the heart of the 90s, when LucasArts came out with various adventure games like Sam and Max and The Curse of Monkey Island. I’m talking about Full Throttle. A slightly lesser known throwback, yet a cult favorite for those who know about the game.
It was a brainchild of Tim Schafer, if you’re scratching your head and going who is this chump think Psychonauts. You played as Ben: a 5 o’clock shadow, leather jacket wearing guy who is a leader of the biker gang: the Polecats. It starts off with a dialogue between Malcom Corley, CEO of the last motorcycle company in the country, and Adrian Ripburger on their way to a shareholders meeting when a bike gang begins to overtake them. Ben runs over the hood ornament of the expensive hover limosine, which delights Corley who decides to follow Ben. Intrigue follows as the story begins to unfold rapidly and the characters begin to be more fleshed out. As much as a bad ass Ben seems to be, he isn’t the kind of badass you learn to hate while playing. The environment, albeit barren and almost post-apocalyptic, has so much depth when playing: most objects are easily interact-able via pie-menu interface while the dialogue between characters is far from shallow. It’s filled with bikers, hover cars, and a demolition derby: what is there NOT to love?
In addition to storyline and character development, the graphics for a DOS game is absolutely phenomenal and can stand the test of time against the most modern cell-shaded work (stretching this sentence a little bit farther from the truth ). Actually, its surprisingly great for a game that had standard VGA graphics (DVI was yet to be mainstream 5-6 years later). So going back to the beginning, why is this a cult classic instead of a mainstream game that everyone knows? Well for one, it was ridiculously short and most of the game was cut-scenes. But really now, does that need to stop you? Take a look at a short clip and see if the game is good enough to “immerse” you in the story mode.
So how did it find it’s ranks as a throwback? Well, Internet, I challenge you to find this game and play it. I’m almost certain that you will find the game just as enjoyable as any other game you’ve played. It’s not holy crap amazing awesome, but it’s good clean fun without having to boast gore and the ripping of hearts out. A good storyline, good gameplay, and nice art make this game more than worthy for a Miss Geek throwback.
“I haven’t seen you in a while!”
-Guy that works at my local Gamestop
You know when you buy games too much when the people at Gamestop say that as soon as you walk in. I’m sure there are more prolific buyers out there, but as far as I know I have a one-up on most Gamestop customers: the xx chromosome – boobs, intelligence and wit, somewhat good looks, good hygiene, ability to distinguish what a GPU is, uncanny ability to make geeks feel at ease (this has been pointed out by various friends), etc. BUT do all these traits actually matter? Let’s examine the situation:
So I came in to buy a filler game until the fall game rush gets on, and it happened to be Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga for the PS3. It’s a good game that’s great in a casual way, especially since I don’t have achievement whoring to worry about. My work schedule (and sideline projects) tends to gear me towards a casual oriented gameplay.
(Side note: I’m still playing Final Fantasy 4. I should be done with it as soon as work projects are done this week. Le sigh to real life…)
While the guy was ringing me up, I began to think about my schedule and I realized I should pre-order a few games that will be coming out in the near future. Namely:
Mercenaries 2
LittleBigPlanet
Fallout 3
His eyes twinkled as I gave this list. Here I am ordering a miniture self Christmas babbling about how I can’t wait for my tin lunch box with vault boy bobblehead, and there he was finding out that I could possibly be the best chick he’s met this side of the universe (/being_self_absorbed). I think that’s what set him off to give me a ton of other free stuff (Kratos costume code for LBP WIN!!!!!!), stuffing my gamestop bag to the brim with the Fallout pre-order exclusives and then stopping to hesitate about the Mercs 2 free swag.
Guy: “Uhh I don’t know if you actually get this…but….”
Me: “It’s okay man, I don’t mind if you can’t give me the stuff.”
Guy: “Oh whatever. [shoves stuff in bag] It’ll be in good hands.”
I got a promo insiders guide as well as a neat beanie hat (SCOOOOORRRREEEEE I <333333 beanies). It wasn’t too bad either, the hat just had the mercs 2 symbol on it so it’s easily wearable without being too much like a walking advertisement.
Of course, in most cases you get the swag by default just for pre-ordering, but does it come with a beaming smile and pleasant conversation? Probably not. I’ll have to try to get one of my guy friends to do the same and see what comes of it. Pending social experiment #1 for Miss Geek?
I think webster or some other dictionary calls it a tribute to something old. Wikipedia tells you that it may refer to something “Old School”. In any event I’m giving you, Internet, a throwback.
I was a weeeeee toddler when videogames were introduced into my life. I may have been 3 or 4, but I distinctly remember a Commodore 64 in our den. It was the days where KILObytes were the highest form of computational measurement in user RAM. Real top of the line stuff.
Anyway, there was this game from LucasArts back then called Maniac Mansion. Some of you might remember it (you old farts), it had a bunch of kids snooping around, with a guy named Dave Miller as the protagonist trying to find his girlfriend Sandy Pantz.
Hilarity ensues with tentacle monsters and some evil loopy doctor running around the house trying to feed you to said tentacle monster. Then there’s the evil loopy doctor’s wacko family that has serious serious problems….all this and there’s some radioactive purple thing that is under the doc’s powers. Either way, Dave isn’t alone. No, he comes with a motley team that reeks of 80s: I remember some new wave guy; a surfer; Bernard Bournouli, the quintessential nerd archetype; and some punk rock chick (names obviously forgotten due to the fact I was THREE).
This game FREAKED me out at that time. From all the choices you had to make to the fact that one wrong move could potentially KILL your girlfriend and your friends and that the family that lived in this maniac mansion was clearly full of raging psychopaths and manic depressive plants, made my three-year-old mind whirl around like teacups at Disneyworld. In other words, it scared the shit out of me. I never could understand why my brothers, who were both 7 and 10 at the time, liked playing it to the end. Either way, as much as it was scary it was oddly compelling. I had to watch them play it, I needed to know if they were going to be OKAY!
I think in the end the purple thing was fed to one of the plants…
Fuck the ESRB ratings back then too, it was the happy days before shit like that (THANK YOU JOE LIEBERMAN, YOU JERK).
This throwback is made in tribute to this game that has potentially scarred me for the rest of my life. One of these days I will get my own Commodore 64 and play it, retro style, and appreciate what made me shit scared back in the days of ‘87-’88 and laugh.
To be noted: I haven’t played it ever since it came out because I’m a big pansy.
If all goes to plan, I will have my games spaced out and beaten by the time LittleBigPlanet rolls out.
Also, if things are supremely to plan, I will also have a baby Canon G9 “wannabe DSLR” with telephoto add-on lens to be playing with around the same time.
JOY!!!
In this video: PixelJunk Eden
Release date: sometime next week hopefully <3
I have the habit of becoming over zealous when I talk about this game, and thus you have been warned. I curse, but not profusely.
A good friend of mine, Mr. Geek, once told me in a conversation that he believed that your first Final Fantasy was bound to be your favorite. So, what is your favorite Final Fantasy, Internet?
Mr. Geek’s hypothesis is tried and true in my scenario: my first and favorite Final Fantasy was Final Fantasy IV (known here in the states as Final Fantasy II on the SNES). I remember being a wee lass of six at a beach house down at the Jersey shore and hearing the Red Wing’s theme and just being literally sucked into the story. Final Fantasy IV had knights, dragoons, villains you loved to hate, and supporting characters you came to love. In this particular story, the were involved with stories of monarchical intrigue, love triangles, damsels were in distress, painful backstabbing – all the while they were trying to stop one malicious bad dude trying to fuck things up with the world.
So while little girls my age loved Ariel – the beautiful Disney mermaid, I loved Rydia, the bad ass female summoner. Whats a summoner, you ask? It’s a person that “summons” monsters to do their bidding and attack an enemy. That’s right, I was six and I loved a girl that called up monsters to help her attack and fuck up people.
...and I sometimes use big words.
Games Currently Being Played:
Lego Star Wars
Lego Batman
Burnout Paradise
Castle Crashers
Games on the Backburner:
none
Something rather interesting about me:
Diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but my silver PSP/DS/PS3/macbook pro/anything techie and a glass of bubbly are the only things that will ever catch my eye. They'll never be trumped.
Oh yeah, and I make zombie contingency plans wherever I go. Because it's just that necessary.
). Actually, its surprisingly great for a game that had standard VGA graphics (DVI was yet to be mainstream 5-6 years later). So going back to the beginning, why is this a cult classic instead of a mainstream game that everyone knows? Well for one, it was ridiculously short and most of the game was cut-scenes. But really now, does that need to stop you? Take a look at a short clip and see if the game is good enough to “immerse” you in the story mode.
