Around the World With the NXE
http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/GAMERTAG/avatar-body.png
I’d link it all nice but the point isn’t to click it – resist temptation, fair Uncertainites; opt instead for the magic of CTRL-C, substituting “GAMERTAG” with your Live ID before advising your browser accordingly. It all seems far too straightforward a system to have come from Microsoft, but the shiny new dashboard (more on that later, perhaps) is all about adjusting expectations. The end product of the process above coughs up a handy transparent .png file for you to save and shortly abuse in Photshop or your graphics package of choice.
For your pleasure, a few for instances. Not inappropriately, here’s the flagship Fenix:
- Me and Marcus, Ain’t It Grand
Little known fact: avatars are backwards compatible with Amiga 500 games:
- Shadow of the Niallalot
One Small Step for Avatars
All Your Basses Are Belong To Us
However misguided the R&B ambitions of Jack White and Alicia Keys’ Quantum of Solace may be, it’s been much too long, I fear, since I last indulged in such bombastic bass, and “Another Way to Die” fills that sweaty pit of sub-sound perfectly.
Still haven’t seen the movie, though.
So who saw this coming?
How Many Million Bicycles in Beijing?
I’m enough of a dyed-in-the-wool Guns N’ Roses fan that this album already means more to me than the punchline I imagine much of the rest of the world will hear it as, but all the leaks have meant there are only five songs I haven’t already heard a hundred times over. “There Was A Time” is still my favourite; I’m such an outright sucker for rock ballads I should be pelted with animal crackers until dead.
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Two new reviews for you all to take a gander at. Actually, come to think of it, six reviews, I suppose — the Puzzle Pack and the Power Pack collect together three PSN titles apiece. The latter is decidedly the better of the pair, and while it’s great value for money – both are, but I’d sell my remaining grandparents for flOw – I can’t help but be a bit disappointed SCEE seem more intent on wringing a few more sales out of some middle of the road downloadable games than genuinely representing the unique strengths of the PlayStation Network. Still. A tenner and change makes for an incredible deal that’ll keep anyone with a PSP busy during what little downtime they have between the flood of triple-A console and PC releases.
Soundtrack to this entry: Donovan – Hurdy Gurdy Man
Command & Cactuar: A Review of Multiwinia – Survival of the Flattest for the PC
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.
Three like-minded undergrads meet at Imperial College London and hit it off. In their love of retro games, Chris Delay, Mark Morris and Thomas Arundel share a passion that proves decisive when they band together to form Introversion Software. Almost single-handedly, Chris cooks up a little hacker sim by the name of Uplink, while his collegiate compatriots get down to the business of selling their fledgling company’s quirky debut. They appoint themselves “the last of the bedroom programmers” and invest in some CD-Rs and ink for their printers; they make and distribute the first copies of the game by hand. They’re a dedicated, down-to-earth bunch of dreamers, and as such, it’s a pleasant surprise to say that they didn’t fall victim to that essentially British condition Top Gear so aptly ascribes as “ambitious, but rubbish”. Within hours of its launch, Uplink had made back the developer’s paltry initial investment – and then some. Enough, say, for Introversion Software to take to E3 2002 and drop £10k on showy speedboats and supercars.
The path Introversion Software took from those no-doubt hazy days to the more sobering state of the industry today hasn’t always been straightforward, taking in the bankruptcy of their then-publisher to the near-insolvency they faced themselves, not to mention a series of heartbreaking delays. Their sophomore effort finally arrived in 2005, but despite critical acclaim and strong overnight sales, few gamers were willing to drop full retail price on an indie darling from a largely unknown quantity. So few, in fact, that Introversion Software had to sign on for government benefits to sustain themselves through the six miserable months after their failure at retail. But then: lo, Gabe Newell said, let there be Steam. And there was Steam. And it was good. Valve’s groundbreaking distribution network made a modest success of Darwinia; it was the perfect platform for such a loving throwback to find its feet, and that it did, thanks in no small part to the modding community that blossomed around Introversion Software’s geometric RTS.
This Blog Did Not Happen
I’ve promised several times not to make this very post, but.
Also:
A Lesson To Us All
The more attentive of you may have noticed Gears of War 2 in the neat little gamertag tracker on the sidebar. Thusly: except for a few articles I’ve stashed in my drafts, expect very little for the immediate future.
That is all.
***
Soundtrack to this Entry: At The Drive-In – Relationship of Command
True Story, Swear to God
I’ll have a couple more appropriate updates for you all later on today and through the weekend – or at least I damn well beter; I’m juggling three different drafts at the moment and my browser’s buckling under the strain – but for now, consider me helpless. Despite assurances to the contrary, how can I not point you fair discerning few to this incredible portrait of America’s new Big Mac?
- Spacecoyote’s Obama
Rendered, in case you haven’t wasted enough of your life on video games to recognise as much, in the style of Okami, the superlative PS2 RPG which saw a Wiimake on Nintendo’s little white waggle-box earlier this year. Whether or not a trail of flowers will flourish from out of nowhere wherever the new President-elect walks remains to be seen. Cynical bastard that I am, I tend to suspect not, although the impromptu flashmobs that sprung up in San Franciso and much of the rest of America after the networks started calling it for Obama give me reason to hope I’m mistaken. I often am, and there’s a sweet sort of eagerness to believe amongst the people out there cheering on street corners for the future of the United States that I’d hate to see reality betray.
But consider this the last Obama post for the forseeable. This isn’t a political blog, after all, and I haven’t forgotten as much – it’s hard, on the other hand, not to get caught up in zeitgeisty excitement that’s come of America finally kicking out the George junior jams. It may only a matter of time until everything goes tits-up again – isn’t it always? – but for now, it feels like this could be the beginning a brave new world. However much Europe might hate on the United States, the level-headed understand how pivotal it is in the global climate. If Obama lives up to the promises he made on the campaign trail, just imagine how different our worldview could be by the end of the decade.
Maybe a new Kyoto treaty finally gets through and global warming doesn’t melt us all.
Maybe stem cells aren’t dead babies anymore. Maybe they save lives and change medicine forever.
Maybe we aren’t going to war with Iran, after all. Or North Korea. Or China. Or one another.
Maybe the economy picks up some and I can start importing stuff from Amazon.com again.
Or maybe things are so thoroughly awful at the moment that we’ll hightail it after any old dream. I can’t wait to be wrong.
In any case, with this and the achievement unlocked picture from bonfire night, plainly, yes, I’ve outed myself as one of those strange creatures who see major world events through the lens of video games. Who’s up for an NPD number-driven review of the economic downturn? The state of the media according to its portrayal of first-person shooters?
I thought not. Fear not, precious uncertainites, the political posts are done.
***
Soundtrack to this entry: God is an Astronaut – God is an Astronaut (2008)
Gamerscore Whore
No, fear not, I’m not back for another round of politics, just to quietly offer the following as an addendum to this morning’s post.
My My, Mr President, What An Excellent Gamerscore You Have...
And it’s the youth of America what did this. They came out in force, two in every three of them voting for Obama, and changed the face of the world in a single night. Well done, little people
Some Things Obama
Damn, can anyone say landslide?
I was this close to posting late last night to cleverly predict that Obama would win the day but that it’d be tighter than anyone expected. General tardiness saves the day again!
Patriot, President, Black Guy
But out with the old and in with the new, I’m all for that. Bush isn’t gone just yet but he’s been so powerless lately that I’d almost forgotten he was still shuffling around the White House in his special President slippers. There’s a new sheriff in town and I can honestly say I’m pleased about it. A mite surprised that so much of America turned out to make a choice I feared they’d balk at – and more than a touch taken aback that a black Democrat beat out a gun-totin’ Vietnam vet with the heft of the South behind him – but pleased. Here’s hoping he’s as excellent as the most powerful man in the world as he has been a public speaker.
I’d still rather have Martin Sheen, though. MS and all. I so wish that were the world…
Ah, Jed...
One tantalising plot thread remains unresolved, however! Where will Sarah Palin go next? Whatever will become of the scene-stealing guest star that took the United States by storm? Will it be Saturday Night Live, or Hustler’s centre pages? It’s up to you, America.
That’s it. The politics are over. I’m out.
