It’s an indie online game and it’s essentially Lego for adults. According to the official statement “Minecraft is a game about placing blocks to build anything you can imagine. At night monsters come out, make sure to build a shelter before that happens.“
Simple, simple concept. But the creativity of the players make the Minecraft one a truly spectacular one to follow.
The official stats put the number of beta players currently registered as slightly more than 5 million, out of which, close to a third bought the game. That means the game must be doing something right, right?
Well, at the very least, it managed to spawn this pretty innovative piece of work.
Kinda reminds me a bit of the style in the better parts of Scott Pilgrim vs the World.
For those that are interested, Minecraft can be played here. Requires registration though…
I think Super Bowl Ads represents the epitome of creativity when it comes to advertising. And why shouldn’t it? The TV spots probably cost enough to buy you your own Third World Country, so the content better be good. Or are they?
The usual heavyweights of Super Bowl Advertisers (Budweiser, Coca Cola, GoDaddy) turned out to be pretty disappointing. The only one which caught my eye was this one by Doritos.
The surprises this year were the advertisements for cars. I normally hate them as they’re mainly visuals of (surprise!) cars running through mountains/deserts/empty roads/random rough terrains with close ups of the slick bodies and moving wheels. It gets kind of repetitive after a while. While there are a few really horrible ones as usual, the following ads from Audi, Chevy and Mini were actually pretty good.
First up is one by Bridgestone (Yes, I know they sell tires, not cars… po-teh-toes, po-ta-toes..
Love the Lassie dig. The CG is not too shabby either.
And because we all love some good sexual innuendoes…
It’s time to “CRAM IT IN THE BOOT”
This Audi ad is hilarious. I especially enjoy the part where a Rival Company’s car is featured with the soundbite “My dad used to own one”. Class act!
Speaking of rivalry ads, this one from Motorola is actually pretty good with its (not so) subtle dig at Apple’s I-zation of … well.. pretty much everybody in the world.
There were even a few relatively “witty” advertisements, such as this one featuring Eminem in an Escher like claymation sequence. Eminem-C Escher? Or is it just me?
There’s also this little piece from (surprise!) Car Max. it’s a simple concept, but for some weird reason, I enjoyed it immensely.
Heartfelt video from the staff at Google for the “It Gets Better” Project.
While it’s a project of support for LGBT youths who are bullied for being who they are, and cannot imagine a future for themselves, I think the same message can be carried across many other groups.
Love the message that no matter what happens now, no matter how bad things seems, if you could just hang on, for one more year, for one more month, maybe even one more day, things could just turn around. And it would be a damn shame if you are not around to see.
I am probably REALLY slow to discover *snigger* this Discovery Channel ad for their “The World is just Awesome” campaign. But really quite impressed by it.
Apparently, it has inspired LOADS of “imitations”, including this really cool one featuring the World of Warcraft!!
And my personal favorite…
They got Neil Gaiman to “sing”!! Awesome…
One thing to note though… local conspiracy theorist are already staking claim that this whole Boom De Ya Da, or should I say Boomz de Ya Da nonsense is inspired by a local “celebrity” *sic*.. as shown in this badly done video.
I wish I could go on… but this Boom de Ya Da thing is stuck in my head.
As 2009 draws to a close, it is time to look forward. The movie going experience seems to only get better. In 2010, I predict movies featuring bigger explosions, more boombastic CGI effects, men with bigger guns and gals with bigger… fun.
A shortlist of what I think are Hollywood’s most promising trailers for 2010 so far…
I’ve already spoke about Iron Man 2. The trailer does not disappoint. It is as loud and just as flashy as I expected it to be.
I am a SUCKER for greek mythology so Clash of the Titans is definitely up there on my “Must watch” list. Of course, there is also that ripped off sound bite of “UNLEAAAASH THE KRAKEN”! Somehow, the voice of Aslan makes it sound slightly more authoritative than Bill Nighy’s rendition in Pirates of the Caribbean.
Prince of Persia – Loved the game, have some doubts about the show. Trailer looks promising though… Has a very… Pirates of the Caribbean (again) feel to it, doesn’t it? Might just be the show to prove that shows based on games need not necessarily suck… Also, it’s done by Disney… that must mean something…
And finally, what I think might be the underdog comic movie of the year.
KICKASS!!
The trailer looks to be an ALMOST exact panel by panel port from the comic book, a la Sin City, 300 and Watchmen. Good call… except for the slight “ALMOST”. Probably due to rating issues, it does not seem as… gory as the original. Shall have to see how this works out…
These days, whenever I see a tall building such as this…
I feel like I could scale them with just my bare hands and legs.
If you don’t think that’s a problem, you probably need to rethink it to live to a ripe old age like me (28).
That’s probably the highest praise I can give to Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed.
Ok, highest praise beside “I have completed the game”.
You see, I’ve not played a game from start to end since… Star Wars: Unleashed on my Wii. The last game that came close was Fallout 3. But I chickened out of it when I hit the final stage of playable missions because I read that it would end the game. Yeah… I am confused by that statement as well… after I completely uninstalled the game from my computer. You know, there are just some things you don’t want to end….
It is hard for me to spend so much time on a game these days because of The Job, but Assassin’s Creed really blew me away. I know, I know, it is a relatively old game (by gaming standards), but it’s just a game I never got round to playing. There’s also the fact that my system is (again, by geek standards) relatively old and probably couldn’t stand the test of playing the newer games.
Even so, I have to set my graphic settings to medium, and even then there are places where the frame rate does not jump as well. Having said that, the graphics, at medium setting already, pardon the French, De Kick le Ass!
The 3 historical cities of Jerusalem, Damascus, and Acre are gorgeously rendered. Every brick and every tile (2 objects you’ll see a LOT of) in the sprawling cities look so real, you’ll wonder if they took a time machine and went back in time to take photos… which would be easier than actually recreating them in 3D.
In the big picture, I suppose the modeling of the buildings is the easier part of the job, because every city (and even the roads to the city) are populated by hundreds, if not thousands of relatively unique looking citizens. Of course, after a while, you’ll be able to differentiate the citizens into various classes and how they will be bothering you during the gameplay, but it is an incredible feat nontheless.
So what do you do in such lovely looking cities? Why? Among other things you’ll scale the walls and chimneys to reach vantage points, fling archers off rooftops, silently assassinate guards with the blade hidden in your sleeves, and engage in rooftop chases with the local law enforcers, of course. It’s Medievel Parkour with a friggin nasty blade.
Which brings us back to my problem. The actions are so fluid and Altair (the game’s sortof protagonist) makes the actions look so simple and effortless that you would want to attempt it yourself. Also, the sandbox world, besides looking pretty, also feels surprisingly real in the sense that for a game where a “Leap of Faith” is the normal mode of getting off the pinnacles of church towers, there are no artificial elements such as a big red spot saying “JUMP HERE!!”. You just have to trust that there is a bale of hay at the bottom to break your fall.
That is why beside the relatively adult theme and the huge amount of blood that would be shed throughout the game, this is definitely not a game for impressionable kids. I am surprised that the Girlfriend has not snatched it from me yet. It does help that she is a few continents away.
It’s definitely not a perfect game. The sidequests are almost mind numbingly repetitive. After you’ve saved 1 citizen from being bullied, you’ve saved them all. It kinda remind me of the console’s Spiderman series of games, only that you are parkouring instead of webslinging through an open city. But still, the visuals are so great you won’t mind having to climb near to 100 towers (I’ve counted) to reach the various vantage points. Beside needing to do so to open up hints for the quests, you’ll want to climb them just to see the view from the top.
What the side quests lack in complexity, the storyline made up, with extra salt and pepper and a whole leg of lamb thrown in. The twists in the main story are not entirely cerebral burning, but the ending will leave you confused, and even a little bit angry because it makes no sense at all…. yet.
Apparently Assassin’s Creed is conceived as a trilogy (strange how everyone is doing it after George Lucas did it with the Star Wars Tri.. I mean Nine-nology) so the coming sequels will answered all questions. This first one was supposed to set the stage for the upcoming sequels. We shall see… which probably be what Ubisoft wants anyway because even now I am eagerly waiting for the sequel… especially after seeing the awesome trailer below. Ijust hope I don’t have to wait for a year plus before I can play it.
All in all, it’s a game worth playing if only just to ogle at the breathtaking landscapes and architectures. The stunning visuals will make you forget that you are repeatedly doing the same button pushing to accomplish the same side quests over and over again. And the ending while infuriating will make you sigh with relief… “at least this is not the last I will see of the game”.
Yup, pretty things do that to people. Just ask the guys I saw at the club the other night buying drinks after drinks to the nubile young things parading by.
Stuck babysitting pesky kids? Stuck on a remote island? Stuck finding a model for your master painting? Stuck with a Nintendo DS with a perfectly working touch screen that you do not know how break?
What do you do?
If Nintendo could do anything about it, a group of Men in Black- esque Elite Beat Agents will show up at your door step and blast these troubles away by… Dancing. (Think Will Smite/Tommy Lee Jones…. in manga… with their dancing shoes on)
Yup, you read right… dancing. Utilizing some of the coolest dance moves this side of Michael Jackson (Wave hands in the air together, anybody?), the Agents will groove you outta your troubles.
The gameplay itself is easy to learn. Tapping away at rapidly shrinking rings in time with the music while the main story unfolds on the top screen, Elite Beat Agents shows one of the most innovative use of the NDS unique touch screen/dual screen layout.
Learning the game is one thing, mastering it is a whole new monster all together. If you are like me, you’ll probably spend hours on end, playing the same songs over and over again just to get the super elusive “A” or “S” rank, and at some of the later stages just trying to clear the stage to unlock the next ones.
Repeated playback of the same song can cause some serious mental issues if one is not careful, like say in the event that said song is of the Macerana or My Heart Will Go On variety. Trust me, listening to the same song for an hour (at least) is not very uncommon once you start getting into the game.
And getting into the game is easy simply because it’s a game that is very hard not to like, if it makes any sense at all. It is chockful of some of the most bizarre characters and oddball situations in any game I’ve played so far, and that is saying a lot.
The title has a certain bit of… for lack of a better word, magic to it. Unless you’re lacking the humour gene in your DNA, you’ll laugh at and laugh along with the game as you search for pirate treasure to the Village People’s YMCA, hang out with socialites on a deserted island to the tune of Madonna’s Material Girl, and (of course) saving the world from evil planet conquering aliens (Aliens that conquer planets, not malevolent lands that occupy aliens). The storylines are so cheesy and over the top that you really have to applaud the evil geniuses that came up with them.
The rhythm of the story telling is something to enjoy too. The songs get progressively faster, and hence harder, but a master touch was the inclusion of Chicago’s You’re the inspiration midway through the game breaks the rhythm, not in a bad way. In fact, it was one of my favourite songs to play in the game. Of course, the fact that the rhythm is slower and hence easier to tap along helps too.
The playlist are all covers, of course. But they are a mish mash of old favourites and relatively recent top 40s. You will play songs from Jamiroquai to Village People. From Cher to Madonna to Avril Lavinge. Great stuff.
All in all, it’s a fantastic overall package and one of the best games on the Nintendo DS. Say what you want about Rock Band for the PSP, Elite Beat Agent is THE rhythm game for the handheld console.
Let’s see Rock Band Unplugged fans come up with a tribute video like this!
