Overstrike trailer by Blur

Excellent trailer by Blur for Overstrike. Reminds me of The Incredibles.

Link roundup

1. Glowing review for Fallout New Vegas: Old World Blues. (There are a few walkthroughs on Youtube already.)

2. "NY Times Story on First Gay Federal Judge Complemented by Tasteful Bathhouse Ad."

3. Gabe Delahaye's latest hilarious True Blood recap. "Breed, ghost daddy, breed." (Probably NSFW.)

Link roundup

1. Screenshots from the Aliens: Infestation sidescroller for the Nintendo DS, featuring art design by Chris Bachalo.

2. Sam Wolfe Connelly is giving away a poster.

3. Photos of the new Terrax Marvel Legends series.

4. And speaking of Marvel, there's a good selection of recent Marvel collections on sale for 40% off at TFAW.

Link roundup

1. "A 10,000 square kilometer (3,861 sq. mile) island sank beneath the waves long ago, in the frigid waters of the Atlantic north of Scotland."

2. Last chance to enter my iPad game giveaway. I'll pick a winner tonight.

3. Smog miniature-painting contest announced.

4. This is a positive review of Captain America: Super Soldier, and it's still only a 6.5 out of 10. You know, when I was a kid, we really didn't know any better. There was no internet, and Gamepro was brand new. Mostly, you bought a game based on the packaging and then realized your mistake almost as soon as you turned on the NES. But now, with games costing $60 each, and online reviews being so quick and easy to find, how do video game publishers keep getting away with selling garbage?

Star Wars: The Old Republic preorder bundle details

Per Kotaku, supposedly this is the Star Wars: The Old Republic Collector's Edition, retailing for €149.95/$175 USD:

Exclusive Gentle Giant Darth Malgus statue
Star Wars: The Old Republic game disks in collectible metal case
The Journal of Master Gnost-Dural annotated by Satele Shan
Old Republic galaxy map
Custom Security Authentication Key
Exclusive Music of Star Wars: The Old Republic CD
High-quality collector's edition box
Includes 7 additional digital items

Flare Gun: Fires flares into the air.
Training Droid: Hovers at your side for combat assistance.
HoloDancer: Project your own holographic dancer.
HoloCam: Keep visual records of in-game adventures.
STAP: Sleek and unique in-game vehicle.
Exclusive Mouse Droid: Spunky droid to join your adventures.
Exclusive Collector's Edition Store: Unique in-game vendor with a dynamic assortment of items.

Sounds pretty unimpressive to me, and the reports are that EA will try to manufacture desire by limiting preorders. Of course, Amazon is always bloated with collector's editions that don't sell even at reduced prices.

It would be cool if there was a standalone character creator like with Spore.

Link roundup

1. Art box giveaway.

2. Really interesting article about the economy.

3. The new Captain America: Super Solider video game is apparently barely worth a day rental: "The game (which runs to a stingy six hours at best) is sparsely populated by instantly-forgettable enemies."

4. io9 reviews the Warren Ellis/Berg comic SVK ($32 for 40 lackluster pages).

To-Fu: The Trials of Chi giveaway

UDPATE: Contest is closed, thanks everyone. I'll have another giveaway soon.

Here's the trailer for ios game To-Fu: The Trials of Chi, which is a bit like the melding of the best elements of Super Meat Boy and World of Goo:



Here's a glowing review:



The lite version can be downloaded for free. And I have three 3 iPad promocodes to giveaway. For a chance to win, simply comment on this post and make sure your comment includes an email so I can get in touch.

Two sides of the video game violence debate

First, Penn and Teller speak against video game violence. They certainly have a point, but I think it might be more about the wisdom of banning football (via):



Jon Stewart had the better view several weeks ago:

The Daily Show - Moral Kombat
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

(When I saw the new Mortal Kombat fatalities, I called them snuff films.)

Star Wars Fleet Commander and Tron Game Grid

Two very cool games designed by Arthur Nishimoto:

Developed at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) by MS graduate candidate Arthur Nishimoto, "Fleet Commander" explores how a real-time interactive strategy game that would typically rely on complex keyboard commands and mouse interactions be transferred into a multi-user, multi-touch environment.

TRON: Game Grid was designed specifically to be played on a 16 Megapixel LCD Multi-touch wall. The game currently only has one level, the Ring Game. The gameplay is a hybrid of the ring game and disk arena games as seen in the film TRON. The game was developed in 4 weeks throughout September 2010. The first version, containing a complete Ring Game, was completed on October 6, 2010.

Half-Life fan film

Half-Life fan film with great effects (just fast forward through the brief acting). Via.

*Previously: Half-Life 1 and 2 in 60 seconds.

These were real Spider-Man costumes?

Hornet, Prodigy, Ricochet:





If I understand it right, these were costumes Peter Parker wore in the comics several years ago. As a bonus of questionable worth, you can use them in upcoming game Spider-Man: Edge of Time by preordering from GameStop.

UPDATE: Thanks to the commenter, here's the Wikipedia entry.

Batman: Arkham City - - Riddler trailer

The Riddler stars in the latest trailer for Batman: Arkham City. I cropped a few wallpaper-sized stills:






*Previously: Catwoman in Arkham City.

*Buy Riddler toys at eBay.

Chimera

Chimera from the terribly named upcoming game Dragon's Dogma.



Via.

*Buy chimera toys at eBay.

Free Captain America game

Free Captain America sidescroller at Marvel. Via Comics Alliance, which also has a good comic strip on the history of Bucky.

*Buy completed build-a-figures at eBay.

10 minutes of Bioshock Infinite

10 minutes of Bioshock Infinite gameplay including lots of roller coaster riding, Bulletstorm-esque mechanics, and a very big raven:





*Buy Bioshock posters at eBay.

No One Lives Forever

I was recently reminded of how much I liked No One Lives Forever:

Metal Gear Solid: Rising

I'm not sure why I never watched this before, but here's a slick trailer for Metal Gear Solid: Rising, which emphasizes Raiden and swordplay:



And this video shows Raiden practicing his moves on fruit:



I'd certainly rather control Raiden than Nintendo's Miis.

*Buy Metal Gear Solid toys at eBay.

Nexus Contraptions, a new free game from Google

Nexus Contraptions, a new free game from Google. It loaded very fast and runs smoothly. Via.

Journey by ThatGameCompany

Ten minutes of gameplay from Journey by ThatGameCompany. You can watch gameplay without commentary at Kotaku.

Twelve minutes of Arkham City gameplay

Twelve minutes of Arkham City gameplay. Catwoman's and Batman's combat moves look great. But everything in between looks pretty lackluster. I also cropped a few wallpaper-sized stills:







Via.

*Buy Catwoman toys at eBay.