Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People screenshots!

Telltale Games has just released the first video and screenshots from the upcoming Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People. The episodic series is set to launch in June for WiiWare and PC with “Homestar Ruiner” kicking off the five installment set. Telltale has done a stellar job with the Sam & Max games and I have very high hopes for Strong Bad. Mmm… point and click adventure games…

Grand Theft Auto IV captures a casual gamer (me!)

Apart from the original, I never really got “into” a Grand Theft Auto game. I appreciated the programming feats it took to build them and the technological limits that were pushed with each iteration, but as far as playing was concerned, I was content with crashing a few cars and beating up pedestrians when I visited a friend’s house.

A week or two ago I decided it was time to have some high definition hardware to go along with my HD TV. When the disc format war ended and Blu-Ray emerged as winner, I bit the bullet and bought a PlayStation 3. The system’s game lineup didn’t really impress me (neither did the Xbox 360’s for that matter), but there are a few interesting games on the horizon, plus thatgamecompany (Jenova Chen, flOw) is on Sony’s payroll, and that is a good sign. The PS3 purchase happily coincided with the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, making it easy to add myself to the millions of GTA players.

I’ll never become one of those GTA addicts, and I’m not even sure I’ll finish the game, but just half a dozen hours into it, I’m thoroughly impressed. The attention detail is amazing, from facial expressions to the reactions of people in the street when you give them a little shove. And for a gritty town filled with crime, Liberty City is quite a looker. When a game comes this close to realism I find myself doing the little things I would never even think about in most games, such as yielding for pedestrians, stopping at stoplights, and making it a point not to harass people on the streets. GTA doesn’t take things that far, but it does an admirable job of turning a game into a passable simulation of the real world. You know, if I were a thug.

I think I’ve finally realized what the real draw of the GTA series is: stories you tell people after the fact. Just today I was charged with running down three drug dealers in a back alley. My first instinct was to run them over with my stolen SUV. I slammed the gas and managed to take out two, but the third darted around the corner. I leaped out of the car and gave chase, catching up with the guy as he stumbled off a sidewalk. With a few punches I knocked him to the ground, and as he lay face-down in the middle of the street, I pulled out the pistol and… well, I hit R2 about eight times. Then I walked off, stole a Hummer, and went about my day. It sounds horrific to the uninitiated, but anyone who’s played GTA for even a minute knows exactly what I’m talking about.

And here’s a note to all the naysayers who claim GTA fosters violence and teaches people to be evil: I call shenanigans. Stealing a car in this game requires nothing more than pressing the triangle button. The violence here isn’t real and I can certainly tell the difference between a pile of polygons on my television screen and moving around in real life. Next time I pass someone on the sidewalk, the worst they’ll get from me is a head nod and smile. I am neither more inclined nor more able to break the law now than I was a week ago. Pedestrians and do-gooders of the world, you can relax, GTA IV has not corrupted me.

WiiWare launches, LostWinds a must-download

WiiWare has launched in North America, and I’m excited to see some great indie content thrust into the living rooms of millions of Wii users. The launch lineup is composed of six games: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As a King, Pop, Defend Your Castle, LostWinds, TV Show King, and V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack. FFCC would probably annoy me to death (simulation games usually have that ability), and Defend Your Castle is a remake of the old Flash game. LostWinds really caught my eye, however, so I spent the Wii Points and downloaded it this afternoon.

LostWinds is a free-roaming platform adventure that would sit quite comfortably with the “Metroidvania” label. You control young Toku with the nunchuk and Enril the wind spirit with the Wiimote. Moving the cursor produces a small breeze useful for shaking bushes or slowing Toku’s fall. Holding the A button and moving the cursor creates strong gusts of wind that can affect the environment, enemies, or move Toku around. It’s an interesting mechanic that’s easy to pick up and fun to toy around with. It’s fun just shaking background objects or playing with waterfalls and torches.

The game world is sprawling and interconnected, giving you the freedom to roam and explore almost wherever you like. You gain access to certain areas by upgrading your abilities. Puzzles center around the wind mechanic and are fairly easy to solve. The visuals are gorgeous, almost Wind Waker in style, but some of the repetitive sound effects get on my nerves, such as Toku’s grunt when he hoists himself up a ledge.

I plugged a good hour into the game today, but I’m itching to go back for more. No matter how long it ends up being, it’s well worth the 1000 Wii Points. LostWinds is exactly the kind of game I like. Check out my list of Freeware Games of Exploration for more suggestions.

Making a banner ad? Try proofreading — part 2!

It happened once, but I never thought it would happen again. Surfing along this afternoon, ignoring advertisements as per usual, the little editor inside jumped up and directed my eyes to a horrific sight. There, shining in my face, was a banner ad someone created and paid someone else to display on their website. Money changed hands, folks, yet what did I see? A wholly unrecognizable word carved and set in pixels on my screen: medival.

Now, you would assume that if a studio took the time to create, maintain and market their MMORPG (er, MMRPG, as the banner so eloquently states), they would bother to spell check their work before putting it out for the world to heckle. Especially if the word was as pivotal as medieval, a single collection of letters that summarizes what countless programmers and artists have been working on for months on end. But no, instead it’s been decided to just shove it out the door. Who bothers to read text in an RPG, anyway?

I checked the Dark Warriors website and no mention of “medival” (or even “medieval”) exists. They got lucky. I won’t dare try the game, as if this is the amount of effort they put into their banner text, could I expect the same sloppy attention to detail throughout? Sure, this typo was probably an innocent mistake, or maybe the banner was made by someone whose English is a second or third language. And to be fair, medieval is one of those trickier words to spell. But hey… wouldn’t it have been so much easier just to spell the word correctly? Then I wouldn’t be sitting here rolling my eyes and giggling under my breath at you.

Of course, I also wouldn’t have written this article… Hmm…

BigFishGames Mothers’ Day sale

With another holiday comes another casual games sale, and Mothers’ Day is a prime time for downloadable diversions. BigFishGames is featuring a 40% off sale on all downloads for both Windows and Mac through May 16. Build-a-lot 2, Westward II, Virtual Villagers, and dozens more games on the cheap. Browse around, find something you like, then buy it… for mom, of course…

Shacknews presents EarthBotched: A History of Nintendo vs. Starmen

With the recent discovery of EarthBound on the ESRB website for a potential Wii Virtual Console release, the game has found itself thrust into the mainstream spotlight once again. To many the name means next to nothing, little more than a quirky RPG released a dozen years ago that was a translation of the second game of a Japanese trilogy. Big whoop. But to an extremely devout group of fans (myself included), EarthBound is so much more. Despite herculian efforts from fans largely led by Starmen.net, Nintendo has denied us any scrap of EarthBound goodness for years.

Shacknews feels the pain. Today a three page article was published chronicling the epic saga of Nintendo vs. Starmen.net. The oldest and most vocal EarthBound fansite has mounted some impressive campaigns over the years, yet Nintendo still chooses to avoid the cries of the fans. Check out the Shacknews article, and for the love of all that is good in this world, find yourself a copy of EarthBound and play it. You won’t regret it.