Points of Interest – 11/2/07
InFormers: Robots in the News
- A couple of interviews with the visual-effect supervisor for TransFormers: The Movie, Scott Farrar, can be found here.
Video Power
- Poor Toastyfrog. Evidently, he had to change his feature because some people whined about the whole “perfect 10″ part of the Super Mario Galaxy article he wrote. He also has a new Retronauts podcast available, and it’s (mostly) about Mario!
- So damn jealous…
- Want to make your voice heard, and air your views on video games? Well, has AMN got an offer for you…
- Hey, guess what?! Sony has finally gotten a clue about how to make ads for the PlayStation 3, as you can see here and here.
I’m still not ready to dive into that one, but at least I don’t have to cringe when the commercials appear on TV now. I rather like the longer one, in fact.
- Thanks go to Wolf for finding this one. It’s really kind of a no-brainer, but evidence shows that it bears repeating: If there’s a thunderstorm going on, ditch the electronics. This isn’t even a Sony thing; it’s a fluke incident, generally speaking, but it can happen to damn near anything. Don’t risk it.
Also, surge protectors are a good idea. Unless you own an Xbox 360. Then you’re pretty well screwed no matter what.
- Game Daily fires back at Mark Wilson’s Kotaku article from yesterday regarding the system of rating and reviewing games.
Mr. Wilson himself looks at several more here.
- Nintendo Prez Satoru Iwata has some things to say about first party vs. third party game quality.
- Games Radar delves deep into ten fashion faux pas of the video game world.
Just one word to kick off: belts. Because let’s face it, even Batman doesn’t need as many belts as one Square-Enix character.
- A Halloween idea that only a gaming father could come up with.
- …what the hell is an “air card?”
Well, whatever it is, it’s clearly essential to the Spartan mission, and evidently worth punching your mother (plus a cop) over, at least for some people.
And there we have it. Clear proof that playing videos games doesn’t make people violent. It’s obviously when they STOP playing that the violence kicks in.
- …whackjob…
- Ah, Nintendo Power, then and now. And I enjoy it just about (I’m guessing, I never really kept track) as much now as I did then.
It’s just somewhere in between that things went to hell for a few years. But I’d say they’ve adapted well to the growing age of the interweb.
- Hmm, Super Mario Galaxy in Newsday? I don’t even know what a Newsday is or where you get one, but I assume it’s fairly mainstream, which makes me happy to see Mario’s presence there again.
- Team Awesome is aptly named, and that’s why I’ve added them to my YouTube subscriptions. You might remember them as the entrants in the Nintendo Short Cuts contest who made Von Kaiser my favorite Punch-Out!! character.
Now, they’re back, and instead of making something my favorite, they’ve tackled one of my favorites with their
excellentawesome Contra trailer. - Luigi and Daisy do a little fencing.
Admit it, you want him to be all like Antonio Banderas and go “Zorro” on her.
- Ok, so this swag, I’m not quite as upset over, on account of the fact that you’d probably have to be in Germany to get it, and the likelyhood of me making it is pretty small.
Still, I like the shirt. The other thing on the lanyard, I don’t even know what that is, so.
Careful if you click the first link, though, as beyond the first couple of pics lie spoilers.
- Seems there’s a new Wii Sports commercial down under. I probably wouldn’t even link something like this normally, except I think it does a nice job of capturing the spirit of playing the game.
- Speaking of things I normally wouldn’t care to report…
“Next week?s sales figures (for Super Mario Galaxy) better be pretty good, or else you?ll have to deal with me!”
Raw Meat Cowboy running rampant over rowdy rascals in Japan? Hell, I might even pay to see that.
- The first look at Corgi International’s Mario collectibles can now be seen over at Destructoid.
They look pretty spiff, and ought to be available in December, at least in the UK. Wonder how much?
- D-toid also notes that the aforementioned Super Mario Galaxy Christmas decorations are due to hit GameStop next week, and the stockings will retail at $14.99 each, with the ornament going for $9.99.
Hope they come here. Hope they’re at that price. Hell, I hope I’ll have money to get them.
(Hey, a red stocking and a black stocking. That’s perfect for the wife and I!)
- …yeah, and as I’m checking Destructoid for news, I wind up hitting the spoiler for who the other playable character in Super Mario Galaxy is. It’s not a huge spoiler, I kind of suspected it anyway, but I really would’ve liked to have found out on my own.
I think I’m going to blacklist the site now, just to be safe. Most other sites had the courtesy to put it behind a jump; I’d rather not take the chance that their different standards might spoil something a little more major next time. Pity, I only just started going there, and was enjoying it, too.
–LBD “Nytetrayn”