tech.gadgets.video.geekculture.gaming.kittens.
video games
Soulja Boy: The next Yahtzee?
Sep 18th
I saw the following video yesterday on Joystiq, in which rapper Soulja Boy does his damnedest to explain the brilliant game Braid to his YouTube audience. But then today I was talking to Josh, and he said something even more brilliant: “He is the next Yahtzee.”
Let’s compare (and btw, neither of these videos are particularly safe for work):
Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation:
So, is Soulja Boy the new liaison for gamers to the mainstream world*? Discuss.
*Wouldn’t that be hilarious? 
The Spore Creature Creator!
Jun 12th
Many gamers out there are waiting (somewhat) patiently for Spore to launch this September 7th for North Americans. In the meantime, Electronics Arts has passed out a copy of Spore’s Creature Creator (arguably the most anticipated aspect of the game) to fifty people for a little thing they’re calling the “Sporelebrity Contest.”
How does it work? Each person creates a creature of their very own, and then the adorable (or hideous, depending on your tastes) creatures will be voted on by the Internet. The most-beloved monstrosity wins $15,000 for a charity of the creator’s choice!
I’m really excited to be a part of the competition, and I look forward to destroying Kevin Rose and Scott Beale when the voting opens! There will be some other exciting competitors too (actual famous people!!) so I’ll update you all when EA has everything set up. My charity is going to be the James Kim Technology Foundation.
The Creature Creator itself is extremely intuitive. Within five minutes I had a creature up and running (see Bugnose below, who didn’t make the cut as my final entrant into the contest).
Here’s Coodoodle, who you’ll be hopefully voting for! She shoots poison from her rear end, so be careful.
I’ll be uploading photos here as I play with it more!
Introducing Qore!
Jun 3rd
Today the project I’ve been working on for the past two months (other than Tekzilla, of course!) is being announced to the world: Qore, an interactive program on the Playstation Network. I’m really excited about it, and also a little nervous, because it’s unlike anything I’ve done before. As we all know, video can be a lot better at explaining something than text, so here’s the preview video:
From Crackle:
Honestly? It’s one of the coolest looking things I’ve seen in a long time, and I’m not just saying that because we’ve been working our asses off on it! Unfortunately, I don’t get to be in the first episode as much as we’d like, since I came into the project towards the end of the shooting cycle. But the stuff we’ve done already for episodes two and three is very fun.
Everyone is already fixating on the free demos, themes and betas, but it will take them until Thursday (when it goes live) to see how the video segments and behind the scenes clips are really what I think this whole thing is about. I’m just psyched that I get to be a part of it, and talk to the developers and artists behind some truly cool upcoming games.
There’s way more info on the Playstation Blog, but if you have any questions for me drop them in the comments and maybe I’ll whip up a FAQ for the next post!
Vii Fit update
May 22nd
Allow me to be honest for a moment. When I started this endeavor, I truly believed that I would keep up with the exercise routine. That being said, I got bored of the Wii Fit after about a week. Is it the WiiFit’s fault? Partially. Is it more GTA4′s fault? Probably. Anyhow, I promised that I would give you my impressions, so here they are:
- The Wii Fit isn’t fun enough to make me come back to it. If they’re trying to reach out to gamers in some way, make it a little more entertaining.
- The trainers speak like they’ve taken too much Vicodin. I need high-energy encouragement, man!
- I have terrible balance, and apparently this is very important for doing almost every single exercise in the game.
- The jackknife and push-ups were pretty effective, and they could actually tell when I was dropping my hips and being lazy.
- The step aerobics game was pretty awesome, especially after I unlocked the advanced class, but it would be even better if I could use my own music.
- The yoga poses are OK for stretching, but it’s really easy to do a yoga pose incorrectly and hurt yourself. These are basic, but I think it’s better to have someone (real) around to show you the right moves.
Overall, the best thing to come out of Wii Fit was that it got me motivated to head back to the gym again. If you’re really interested in fitness and feeling better about your body, take the $89.99 and spend it on a fun class at the gym, or put it towards getting a human trainer that will really get your ass back in gear.
If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments and I’ll respond there as well. Ryan also has an in-depth look at his fitness odyssey over at Engadget.
UPDATE: Twitterer @NinaSpezz showed me this parody that I missed! Hilarious, and also true…
