In light of what recently happened here, I think we could all use some cheering up. And seriously, what better way to cheer someone up than with something free? Okay, how about something free dealing with Final Fantasy VII? Now that I have your attention, I'd like to aim it at Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream, an OverClocked ReMix of music from the titular game itself. Compiled out of free fan-submitted songs, Lifestream covers all of your favorite soundtracks with beautiful remixes i…  More

Gamasutra wrote on a story a couple days back about a report from Science Daily that apparently takes a look at how "minorities" are misrepresented in video games today. According to the study, researchers covered the top 150 games in a year across nine platforms and found that the games do not "accurately represent American society." The report fails to mention the specifics of all the games, but does happen to mention a few games that apparently reinforce typical stereotypes, like 50 Cent: Bul…  More

Hot mamasita, we find ourselves here, yet again, for the sixth writeup of Internet Personalities. At this point it would be perpetually pointless for me to point out the purpose of this post, even for posterity's sake, but for the poor people who ponder at my plight, allow me to then put it in a plain proverb: one man's Internet is another boy's 4chan. Or something like that. But yes, if you're still confused, then allow me to iterate for the illiterate; I have taken it upon myself to classify, …  More

While I have made my feelings about Spore quite public, it's still hard to remain angry at a game that you really wanted to love. Even after losing a CD drive to SecuROM, even after the shallow response to the criticism EA was receiving about the game, even after the insulting Creepy and Cute pack...there was still a part of me wishing that EA would find redemption in putting out their whorification plans to release 50 expansion packs, like they do for The Sims. At least in that plan The S…  More

Say what you will, but chess was the precursor to all common strategy games that we like to enjoy today, and, dagnabbit, I just love chess. Centuries ago chess was a game that was mostly played by royalty, played not in jest, but more as a learning tool to teach strategy. In fact, when it was known as King's Game, it was considered of all men of chivalry to have known how to play chess, for a game between two gentlemen was usually the determining factor between royalty of who had the bette…  More

I awoke to splashing water upon my face. At first I thought perhaps my companion was tossing water on me to wake up, but when I finally opened my eyes and my senses came to me, I realized what was happening. I was propped up against a vehicle, a rain poncho over me, sitting on the highway in the pouring rain. A flash of lightening and then thunder; it rumbled off into the distance, but it was a precursor to the danger I was in. I was alone.

I staggered to stand, hol…  More

“Do you have a map?”

We had stopped the truck and were sitting still within it, parked on the highway overlooking a large urban area. I told my companion the grave news; the only map I had was one of Illinois. He did not seem bothered by my answer, however, and checked the pockets of his door to find a map. I, instead, opened the glove box. And there it was.

“Well **** on a stick, aren’t we just lucky.”

It was a map of Michigan. I hastily opened it and sprawled it acr…  More

We must have passed a dozen houses alike in size and color. They were farm houses. Peaceful in an otherwise unpeaceful world. We passed a crossroads and I happened to read the sign that told us what road we were on: Michigan Avenue. My companion inquired if I had seen the road sign and asked me what road we were on. I replied in kind with the answer.

“I hate Michigan.”

My companion had much distaste for the state that we were in. State of mind, that is. Though he was…  More

You know, I've always laid it down as a maxim that if developers want to inject WoW into their MMOs so that they can be popular, then they should just get a job at Blizzard. Let's be honest, folks; if a WoW kiddy wants WoW in his MMO, he'll just play WoW. Which becomes all the more baffling when new MMOs come out and, lo and behold, they're high fantasy crap. I mean, seriously. Did Eve just happen to pass every high fantasy MMO developer's mind? So in honor of developers without imaginatio…  More