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Tekken the Movie … Why?

// February 19th, 2010 // View Comments // Gaming, Movies

I don’t get it. Has Hollywood not learned from past failures in this genre that video game movie adaptations (VGMA) are a losing battle? I think the producers automatically think of the movies that did good like Lara Croft or Mortal Combat but those movies are few and far between. They forget about train wrecks like Double Dragon, Super Mario Brothers, and Doom.

For the fighting game genre of VGMA there are even fewer movies that made any money. The last one to come out was Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li which grossed a tiny $8Million in the box office. DOA:Dead or Alive was even smaller with $480K. My speculation is the movie studios know they can cast no name actors cheap for these types of movies and they have a built-in audience from the video games. The problem is the audience will only take so much of these piss poor representations of their beloved video games before they won’t go at all.

I for one will probably skip Tekken when it comes out. I wasn’t much of a fan of the video game. I was more into Street Fighter and Virtua Fighter growing up. If Tekken sounds good to you, check out the trailer below:

Here are some more preview articles for Tekken: io9 firstshowing

Crayon Physics: Pay whatever you like

// January 11th, 2010 // View Comments // Gaming

 I reviewed Crayon Physics two years ago but it was in demo form then. A year after that, Crayon Physics Deluxe (the full game) was born. Apparently the makers of the game, Kloonigames is having a birthday sale to pay what ever you like for the game. On their blog site they say “you’ll get the full game if you pay anything.” This reminds me of what Radiohead did for their album In Rainbows where they released it first online and told their fans to pay whatever they think its worth. By the way, this offer doesn’t last forever, its only until January 15, so  you still have a little time but not much. You can also read my short review of the beta here.

Below is a video of the game in action:

Crayon Physics Deluxe from Petri Purho on Vimeo.

Magic The Gathering: Zendikar Expansion Event

// September 26th, 2009 // View Comments // Blog, Gaming

I recently started playing the Magic The Gathering card game. I have some friends that are trying to teach me the ropes but I love learning new games on my own through trial and error and online examples. This past weekend, I was invited to the local Zendikar Expansion Pre-Release Tournament on 09/26. I have only played a couple of times so I felt kind of intimidated. My friend Jason told me to come along and just play to have fun, so I did.

When I showed up for the tournament, it cost $25 to register and you were given 6 booster packs to build your own playing deck of 40 cards. I was lucky to have some friends give me pointers on color choices, what to keep, what to set aside, etc. There’s a lot to learn but that’s what draws people. I can see how the game can get addictive the more you play.

Since I was a big time newbie to the game, I prepared myself mentally to get pwned. I was pleasantly surprised at how friendly most of my opponents were and offered little tips on what I did wrong (after I did it of course). Trial by fire is the best way to learn, I always say. One of the bad side effects of my newbage was how slow each round went since my opponent had to explain what they were doing or some of the game mechanics to me. For two of the five rounds we were the last to finish while people everyone else stood around waiting. As you guessed it, I didn’t win a single round or game for the whole tournament but I still had a good time. I played the tournament mainly to learn how to play and hang out with friends.

Keep reading if you want to see the new features in Zendikar.

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Doom Resurrection Mini Review

// August 17th, 2009 // View Comments // Gaming

Just downloaded this iphone game from the app store and I have to say its a pretty good offering my our friends at Id Software. The game mechanics are pretty simple: to aim you tilt the iphone in the direction of the enemy and tap in the bottom right corner of the screen. Reload is in the top right corner and change weapons is in the top left. The game is basically “on rails” so you don’t move forward yourself. This doesn’t mean the game is super easy. There are enemies that lob projectiles at you have to hit a dodge button in the bottom left at the right second to avoid being hit. I’m only in the first level but I like what I see so far. Don’t expect the same detail or experience you get from a PC and you will enjoy this title as well. The game is on sale for $2.99 ending today (08/17/09) and then goes back to $9.99. This is a great game for the price.

See more images after the break

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My Favorite Podcasts 2008

// August 11th, 2008 // View Comments // Blog, Gaming, Internet, Music, News, Video

I was talking to a friend the other day and he asked me for my favorite podcasts. After rambling off a couple he said “That is something you need to put on your website,” so blog post to the rescue!

Most of the podcasts I listen to are tech-heavy. Just a warning. I will list each one and give a short description of each an whether its an audio or video podcasts. I have 3 categories: Tech, Gaming, and Misc. I personally use a 30GB Zune (Brown) to listen  or watch my podcasts only because it was such a good deal. I purchased it for $85 on woot.com! The podcast list is shown after the break.

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Jimmy’s Lost His Toilet Paper

// July 17th, 2008 // View Comments // Blog, Gaming, Internet, Social Media

Back in January I was watching a 1up Show special on Indie Games where they reviewed a game called Crayon Physics. Well I checked out the developer’s website to see if he has finished Crayon Physics Deluxe. No Deluxe but he had another cute game called “Jimmy’s Lost His Toilet Paper.”

Here is the description of the game straight off the website:

“Jimmy lives a simple life. All he’s got is a roll of toilet paper. Until the faithful day that his TP rolled away. You play as Jimmy on his epic adventure to get back all that belongs to him and find love and meaning to his life on the way.”

This is a cute little game anyone can play and just like crayon physics, its easy to pick up, moderately challenging and pretty fun. Check it out and let me know what you think of it. Here is the link to download the game to try it out:
http://www.kloonigames.com/blog/games/tp