Merry Christmas to All
Venus shines above the Christmas decorations down the street from us.
Merry Christmas, Happy Sun-return Festival, Happy New Year, and here’s hoping you are all safe from the loonies on the roads this festive season.
Comet P/2008 X4 in SOHO
Remember comet P/2003 K2 (P/2008 X4) Christensen? Well it has crossed the field of view of the LASCO C3 camera of the SOHO spacecraft. At the time of writing it has gone behind the occulting disk, and has not yet reappeared.
The image to the left was taken on the 22nd at around 19h UT, the [...]
Tarantula Nebula - 30 Doradus
Credit: NASA/CXC/Penn State/L.Townsley, et al.
Drama In The Heart Of The Tarantula
Found in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud, 30 Doradus is one of the largest massive star forming regions close to the Milky Way. Enormous stars in 30 Doradus, also known as the Tarantula Nebula, are producing intense radiation and searing winds of multimillion-degree [...]
X-Play Review: ‘Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories’
A remake of the GameBoy Advance game from 2004, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is a game for the PlayStation 2, part of the Disney-based fantasy series. This one is a card game, and X-Play has the review, as you can see in the video.
Check it out and see if you agree.
Watch Larger Version of [...]
Wii: ‘Tatsunoko vs. Capcom’ Import Report
While we were out picking up Dissidia: Final Fantasy we also grabbed the Wii exclusive Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, which we’ve had our eye on for a while.
Tatsunoko is a Japanese animation studio responsible for some of the biggest Japanese cartoons, but probably not many you know of. They did the original anime version of Speed [...]
More ‘Dissidia: Final Fantasy’ Video Featuring Cloud Strife
As the days go by I find that I just can’t stop playing Dissidia: Final Fantasy. You can read my full import report here as well as my exploration of the game’s Duel Colosseum mode here.
Today, I decided to take my Level 100 Cloud Strife (sounds like a Pokemon) into battle with a Level 100 [...]
Disney Cuts Ties With The "Narnia" Films
Disney has proverbially left the folks behind the "Narnia" films naked in the woods, holding their kibbles n’ bits. It seems that they have cut off ties with the franchise and will neither co-produce nor co-finance the upcoming third film, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
So what happened here? Someone slept with someone’s wife or [...]
Sessler’s Soapbox: Videogame Violence
Ah yes, the tried and true topic of video game violence! An oldie but a goodie.
This week on the Soapbox, Adam discusses a moment at work where someone brought up that they were offended by X-Play showing some footage of the upcoming Mature Wii game, Madworld. Now, obviously we’re all very excited about this game, [...]
Dark Knight To Not Storm China
Sad to say, but blockbuster The Dark Knight will not be seen the Chinese market. Yes, Warner Bros. has opted not to release the Bat-flick based on a number of prerelease conditions that are being attached to the film by the Chinese government, as well as cultural sensitivities to some elements of the film.
The move [...]
Memory Efficient Left 4k Dead Packs Zombie Minimalistic Fun
Still waiting on that terabyte drive to come in the mail? Tired of loading screens to get to your zombie apocalypse paradise?
Enter game programmer Markus Persson with Left 4k Dead, his 2009 entry for the Java 4k Competition. Challenged with the task of creating a game under 4 kilobytes in size, Persson has created a [...]
Free Bruce Springsteen Songs on ‘Guitar Hero World Tour’
Possibly in the spirit of Super Bowl XLIII, which will air on February 1, Activision is releasing two Bruce Springsteen tracks as downloadable content to Guitar Hero World Tour fans from January 27 through February 4 for free!
Not only is The Boss releasing a new album, Working On A Dream, from which a song is [...]
Study Says Pot Better Than Ever!
According to new data from the University of Mississippi Potency Monitoring Project (which, by the way, is a gig I want!), the potency of marijuana has tripled since 1987.
The figures come from the Department of Justice’s National Drug Intelligence Center’s 2009 National Drug Threat Assessment, which determines the figure by measuring by the presence of [...]
‘LocoRoco 2′ Coming In February
Damn the Japanese for writing music so catchy it makes me want to poke out my eardrums with a chopstick.
LocoRoco 2, the sequel to the unbelievably addictive, adorable, and enjoyable PSP game, will finally come to North America this February. The highly anticipated sequel to the "happiest game ever" will use the same bumper-tilt control [...]
Twitter Lagging Behind Facebook
According to a recent study by marketing firm HubSpot, Facebook is 30 times bigger than Twitter and growing much faster.
In fact, HubSpot estimates that Twitter has 4 to 5 million users, 30% of which are "brand new or unengaged," with five and ten thousand new accounts opening each day. Meanwhile, Facebook nabs about 600k [...]
Missouri Enforcing Anti Cyberbullying Law
Acting under a new anti-cyberharassment statute that was passed in late August as a result of the landmark Lori Drew/MySpace cyberbullying case, prosecutors in Missouri have been filing a slew of charges for the crime.
The law passed after 13-year-old Megan Meier hanged herself in Missouri in 2006 following online harassment by 47-year-old Lori Drew through [...]
Hideo Kojima Discusses Two New Games in Famitsu
In an interview with Japan’s Famitsu magazine, Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima revealed that he is currently working on two games at Kojima Productions.
According to Kojima, one will be similar to the games his team has made in the past. This could be a new Metal Gear game or maybe he’s going to go back [...]
‘EVE Online’ Dev. CCP May Leave Iceland
When you think Iceland, vikings and singer Björk, probably come to mind. But did you also know that the glacial volcanic island floating way up north of the Atlantic was just recently considered one of the most expensive places to vacation?
Just last year, Iceland was ranked as the most developed country with a political and [...]
LGJ: Wrath of the Discrimination King
Filed under: Features
Each week Mark Methenitis contributes Law of the Game on Joystiq (”LGJ”), a column on legal issues as they relate to video games:
GamePolitics recent posted a report that some employers may be ‘discriminating’ against World of Warcraft players. In fact, there have been longstanding reports of gamers, generally, not being the most favored [...]
Video service coming to Wii, says Nikkei
Filed under: Nintendo Wii
A video distribution service is coming to Nintendo Wii, according to Nikkei business daily (via Reuters). Working with ad agency Dentsu, Inc., the service will offer original content in the form of cartoons and “other entertainment programs” and is seen as a “new revenue stream” for the company (read: our large vault [...]
