From the Brow of Zeus

MTV Multiplayer reports that "Extreme Sitter" Aaron Fotheringham, a wheelchair bound teenager who performs backflips and other stunts, thinks "those video games are death."

Watch the video below, and try not to become too inspired until you get to the end.

"When other kids in wheelchairs see me doing what I do, I'd just like to inspire them to go off a curb or jump a stair set, or just get out of the house, because those video games are death."

Let's see that again in slow motion:

"...juuuummmppp....aaa....sssssttaaaiiiirrr....sssseeettt..."

People this stupid need to come with disclaimers.

Face it, if some guy tried to "inspire" your teenage son or kid brother to push his wheelchair down a flight of stairs, you'd call the cops.

Labels: videogames

Over at Fidgit, the SciFi Channel gaming blog I read obsessively, Tom Chick has a new list of ten Halo factoids you probably didn't know about.

Halo will be seven years old tomorrow (the original game was released Nov. 15, 2001). It started as an experiment. Could Bungie, a company that made shooters for the Macintosh, make a shooter for Microsoft's new console system? It turned into a juggernaut.

I think one of the reader comments sums it up nicely:

"This article has informed me of several things I didn't know about the Halo series, unfortunately they are all made up."

• Halo secured a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records when it hit 26 million copies sold and became the best-selling game of all time.
• The logo from Monolith, one of Bungie's earlier games, has a prominent place in Halo 3. At the end of the game, Master Chief has saved the galaxy from the alien Covenant, the zombified Flood, and the actual Halos, which were galactic weapons of mass destruction. However, he's stranded himself in deep space in the process. So he put himself into suspended animation to await rescue. Roll credits. But a secret ending shows him drifting towards a planet with the Marathon logo. Easter egg or teaser?
• Halo's unlikely celebrity endorsement: "I've stayed up all night playing Xbox. Halo is the only game I play. It's the only game I know how to play and I'm not very good. But I will play it obsessively." That was Julia Roberts in a 2006 interview.
  

Best selling game of all time? Julia Roberts? Monolith?

A quick check at Wikipedia reveals Super Mario Bros. for the NES is still the best selling game of all time, at least according to Guinness.

Is Tom having fun at the expense ofHalo fans, or has something gone seriously wrong over at Fidgt? I just saw an ad for the website on the Sci Fi channel yesterday, so maybe the influx of readers had something to do with it. It's probably just one of those days.

When I tried to post a correction in the comments, Word Press told me "Text entered was wrong. Try again." Now *that's* irony.

UPDATE: Tom said it was all a case of bad editing. The facts and figures have been corrected. Now just one question remains: Where the heck can I get a copy of Monolith?

Labels: videogames

I think I mentioned this work-in-progress months ago, but when you're sick and home all day, it's a good a time as any to catch up on blog posts.

5 Reasons I Bought UnReal World RPG
The UnReal World RPG is an independent PC game set in the Finnish Iron age. What separates it from most other role-playing games is an emphasis on survival, simulating the harsh rigors of living off the land in ancient times. Instead of classes like Warriors and Wizards, you play Fishermen, Hunters and my personal favorite, a crazy old Hermit. It's sort of like an antisocial Dwarf Fortress, only this sucker has been around since the early 90s.

Click here to read the article, or visit the official UnReal World RPG page.

And no, that shot isn't me and my brother, it's from the game.

Labels: videogames

It's Gamepro, so you know it has to be good.

Here's a choice quote from Oblivion:

Even two years after its initial release, the game is still a feast for the eyes and is proof that game companies need to make more first-person RPG games.

So the game proves we need more role play game games?

Nicely put.

Xenogears is #8, a game I hate so much I'm going to repost an article on my website from years ago listing the reasons Xenogears sucks.

So deep was the customization and maintenance required for your Gear, and so rewarding were the results of adding parts and upgrades, the combat of Xenogears was almost another game within a game.

Yeah, too bad it was a game within a game with a ten-billion word script, each of those words more painful to read than the last.

#7 is The Ultima Series.

What a cop-out. Why do Zelda and Final Fantasy get separate entries, but not Ultima? Anyone who lists "series" is saying, "Okay, every Ultima game combined is pretty good. But you know what's better? #6..."

#6: Diablo II: Lord of Destruction.

The Diablo II expansion pack!

The sad thing is, I don't even think they realize they listed the expansion pack. It's not like they said, "Diablo II + Lord of Destruction."

Though not a full-blown RPG, Diablo II's hack-and-slash adventure makes our list. Why? Because it's an insanely fun game that weaves in RPG elements.

They write that for Diablo, yet when they listed #9: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, they didn't even mention what a Zelda game was doing on a list of RPGs. (Okay, Zelda II had an experience system... but we're talking Zelda III here.)

Fallout 3 is #5.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (aka Zelda 64) is #3. Again, no Diablo-style mention of "it's not really an RPG." Which confuses me, because no matter how much you hate action/adventures or action/rpgs, you've got to admit, Diablo II was a hell of a lot more of an RPG than Zelda 3.

The list closes with World of Warcraft as #2, and Final Fantasy VII as #1.

Final Fantasy VII.

Incidentally, Final Fantasy VI was nowhere on the list.

Cripes.

I can't go on, it's too depressing. Just see for yourself.

Labels: videogames

Hockey Mask + Elvis Hair = Jason Presley.

Labels: misc