This illustration reminds me of a puzzle!
Layton and Luke at the Busstop by ~wredwrat on deviantART
Any lover of logic loves Layton, and the added bonus of excellent art and animation makes both of the games must-haves. Found this very faithful bit of fan art of deviantART — if you use it, just remember that a gentleman always gives credit where it is due.
By now, I’m sure you’ve noticed many of your friends posting their PS3 trophies on Facebook. Want to join in the gloating? Easy peasy:
Turn on your PS3.
Select the Playstation Network menu.
Select Account Management.
Select the aptly-named Facebook icon.
From here you can choose to Share Trophy Information, Share Purchase Information, and Share Event Information. Click one, say Yes, and enter your FB info at the prompt. And whoomp, there it is. Next time you sync up the PS3, your latest awesomeness will be posted to The Book of Faces.
This video from the firmware v3.10 preview will walk you through it as well.
That’s the program — now get with it.
The latest issue of The Atlantic features an article on a PC game used to train soldiers on counterinsurgency tactics. Good article, and I found myself compelled by the isometric pixel illustration which accompanied it. The artist, Nana Rausch of QuickHoney, was kind enough to answer a few questions for us.
You’ve done quite a bit of birdview pixel art for magazines (Maxim, Fortune, et al. recently). Any insights as to the popularity of this style of illustration?
The article makes reference to the SimCity series of games. Did this influence your illustration at all, or did you depart from it?
What software do you use?
One of the impressive (and fun) aspects of pixel art is the illustrator’s ability to work past the inherent limitations in line and detail. For example, three pixels become a bullet hole, or a single-pixel strip of white makes an ovoid shape into a slab of fish. What is your favorite detail in this illustration?
What games are you playing right now?
Here’s a nice pic for your desktop. Remember fl0w? I played it when it was Jenova Chen’s MFA thesis, but have yet to free up the PSN points to pick up the flashy PS3 version.
Turns out I’ve been a fan of this guy for ages without realizing it. I loved Cloud. I used to leave fl0w up in a window on my desktop for the chill factor. And Flower was the second game I bought for the PS3. Maybe I should send him a card or something. A very… relaxed… card….
Speaking of Uncharted, here’s a T-shirt featuring a re-imagined coat of arms for the adventuring Drakes
Get it here.
FYI – looks like it was based on old Francis’s actual coat of arms, complete with latin motto.
Note the identical image on the crest and the replacements of the helmet with a skull (archaeological or violent?) and of the ship with an airplane. Very subtle and clever work. Next time someone infers that gamers are illiterate button-mashing dorks, remember this little gem of design.
Just a quickie to point this out.
Gabe of Penny Arcade fame posted this pic via twitter, stating that it “is the DM’s Valet from Geek Chic“, and professing his love of it.
Oh yes. There is a company that makes furniture specifically for the D&D crowd. Aren’t you glad you know that?
You can find my latest posts here: http://thegamerlifestyle.blogspot.com
The Dream of Better Gamer Fashion Realized
Ever give a gift to someone out of the blue? The sentence “hey, man, I got this for you” when uttered some time other than the Designated Gift-giving Holidays elicits a strange response from the recipient, a bitter cocktail of shame and terror. Fortunately, we have the holiday season, a socially-acceptable chance to act on those altruistic urges.
Buying for a gamer can be… let’s just say “frustrating”. The Geek Nation is known for having oddly specific tastes, and trying to pick up a game, accessory, or other such notion is fraught with the sort of Christmas peril usually reserved for Eastern European folklore. So, what to do? Our friends at Penny Arcade have a solution.
Some four years ago a posted an open letter to the suburban-trend-machine Hot Topic, asking, nay insisting they reconsider their marketing strategy as relates to gamers. A series of brilliant points were made about the fact that gamers aren’t all kids and that many want something more subtle, but their nascent genius died on the inter-vine, apparently.
From the open letter:
Quote:
Here is what I would like to see from you: a series of unassuming polo shirts with corporate logos embroidered on the right breast, but the logos are from the evil corporations from various videogames. For starters, whip a few for Shinra Incorporated, Datadyne, and the Umbrella Corporation.
:Endquote
Too subtle, perhaps, but the concept holds. Stop giving us puerile junk. What is needed is some sort of gamer polo shirt. You know, for grown-ups.
Enter the First Party v1.0 Launch Polo. Nice sharp shirt. Understated gamer logo.
At last! We can wear our colors with pride, not gaudy ostentation. A shirt for that day when your office holiday party and buddy Jonesy’s LAN party are scheduled back-to-back.
You see polos with tennis rackets, golf clubs, skis, sports franchise logos, heck, even an actual polo player from time to time. And finally now we see something for the more sophisticated lover of the virtual lifestyle.
Now, the in-one’s-face style of gamer swag has its place, certainly. In fact, it can be rather rad. But it is nice to have an option. Sports fans have enjoyed this luxury for some time, and I can only hope the First Party shirts are a harbinger of better days.
We’ve got time. So much free time. For the last fifty years, we’ve spent it watching sit-coms, but not we’ve started to do something else. We’re making Wikipedia and Lolcats. And we’re playing Warcraft.
You should read this article, the main thrust of which is that we are starting to figure out what to do with the vast amount of free time we as a society have, and that the people who craft the future will be the ones who do just that. The issue of gaming comes up briefly:
“In this same conversation with the TV producer I was talking about World of Warcraft guilds, and as I was talking, I could sort of see what she was thinking: “Losers. Grown men sitting in their basement pretending to be elves.”
At least they’re doing something.
Did you ever see that episode of Gilligan’s Island where they almost get off the island and then Gilligan messes up and then they don’t? I saw that one. I saw that one a lot when I was growing up. And every half-hour that I watched that was a half an hour I wasn’t posting at my blog or editing Wikipedia or contributing to a mailing list. Now I had an ironclad excuse for not doing those things, which is none of those things existed then. I was forced into the channel of media the way it was because it was the only option. Now it’s not, and that’s the big surprise. However lousy it is to sit in your basement and pretend to be an elf, I can tell you from personal experience it’s worse to sit in your basement and try to figure if Ginger or Mary Ann is cuter.
Are here we come to a main difference between Our People and non-gamers — interactivity. We don’t want to yell at the running back, we want to control his movements. Seeing who ends up being The Biggest Loser is not for us; we want to train our own characters to succeed.”
And as everything people see and touch becomes more and more interactive, we recognize that the world is finally starting to catch up.
When you absolutely, positively have to let everyone know about your gaming, accept no substitutions.
Imagine, if you will, a world in which people send each other brief notes about their video game exploits. The PS3’s new hit Uncharted 2 features Twitter integration, making this world a reality. But why?
The tweets are sent when you reach various milestones, sort of an instant version of the PS3’s trophy collection. But the real value comes in with a single update: Connected to Multiplayer. Now when the amigos are ready for some online action, you can know right away.
