Alright, the second go worked great, and if it continues to work I think this is how we will record in the future. Changed to a directional mic and it has really cut out the echo. So next week when hopefully all three of us are together again we will hopefully have a new age of Gameslave podcasts!
Notes can be found here...
PopCap has created many games that thousands of people play on a daily basis. They have created Bejewled, Peggle, Plant vs Zombies, and now they can add making wishes come true to the resume. OK, more accurately 4th & Battery, the experimental PopCap label, made the wish come true, but same overall company. A young boy by the name of Owain Weinert with leukemia had wanted to be a game developer. So the Make-A-Wish Foundation worked with PopCap to make this come true. The game they created is Allied Star Police, a side scrolling strategy game with tower defense aspects. Would you like to play this game? Well good news if you have and iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch as it is available on the App Store right now, for free even! Thank you LadyRecluce for bringing this to my attention and check out the full press release after the break.Mario Bros. wallpaper image sampleI've been working on some artwork and decided to share a piece with all of you who follow us online. I actually got the idea from trying to work out some sort of Mario Bros. button. I was just sketching out some ideas, but kinda like the idea of the mushroom flanked by fire flowers and it sort of just carried on from there. I know it's not every item available in every game, but I wanted to cover just enough to get idea across. Most of them are old school too, so I like that fact. I know I'm a couple of years late for the Super Mario Bros. 25th Anniversary, but that's okay. I think I'll actually make it for the Zelda one, so keep your eyes peeled for that post! I think everyone will like that too. Without further ado, follow the links below for a wallpaper of your choice. Until my next art post, game on!
Click a link below for the desired size then right click on the image and choose Set As Desktop Background
Mario 1024x768 Mario 1280x1024 Mario 1600x900 Mario 1600x1200 Mario 1920x1080
Now with 3D grass!!!
I'm back after just a week and not a year, score! The randomness I will be talking about today is EA Sports newest entry to their college football franchise, NCAA Football 12.
With current consoles having a longer life span than of years past, it's becoming harder and harder for sports franchises to release their sporting games with clear cut improvements over previous iterations. No longer can video game developers back on having improved graphics like years past.
Good game, just not a huge improvement over NCAA Football 11.Being a huge football fan and getting pissed off that this NFL lockout still hasn't been resolved, I decided to take a look at NCAA Football 12 to get my football fix. Before rushing out and dropping $60 on the game, I downloaded the demo on XBOX Live and gave it a go. I wanted to see if there were vast improvements over NCAA Football 11, which I own, that would warrant the cost.
After getting the demo downloaded, I was happy to see that one of the demo teams to play was my favorite real life college football team, the Florida State Seminoles. The first thing I noticed was the extra pageantry of the game introductions. Anybody that watches college football knows that every school as their own traditions and pageantry's; so this gave the game a lot more flair and passion. Even though it was cool to see the Florida State mascot ride out onto the field and perform the normal pre-game ceremony, it definitely was not a selling point. When I play sports games, I want to get into the action and start playing. I would probably watch the different intros for the first time when I saw them, but would undoubtedly skip over them on the next go around.
Speaking of getting into the game, the action on the field was almost identical to that of NCAA 11. EA Sports claim there are new blocking mechanics and a new tackling system, but I didn't see anything new "under the hood" that changed my overall gameplay experience.
A couple of new features that were apparent; however, were players now had dreadlocks and the grass was in 3D. When reading up on NCAA Football 12, EA was pretty thrilled that players now could have dreadlocks fly through the air and that the grass was in 3D. ZOMG, 3D grass, I'm sold! 
Oooh, 3D grass... umm, yeah.Except not. While I am not an EA basher, like many "gamers" out there, I own a multitude of EA games. 
Keep on eye out for this game, it looks fantastic. Go download the demo now, on either XBOX Live or PlayStation Network for a taste.I just was not convinced that these "new" features warrant the $60 price tag. Don't get me wrong, if you like college football and don't own last years version, by all means pick up 12, you will not be disappointed. If you're in my boat and already own NCAA 11, I recommend you do what I am going to do, save your $60 and go pick up Atlus' new title Catherine which comes out next week, July 26. That game looks amazing and unique, something that games have been lacking lately.
Well, this will conclude our nice fireside chat for today. Stay tuned for what randomness I will talk about next time in Episode 3 of Conversations with IrishPride. Until then, go outside and check out some 3D grass!
~IrishPride
Batman sure has a large list of villians lined up for this next game. So far in trailers we have seen Joker, Hugo Strange, The Riddler, and Two Face. Now they have released a new trailer that shows another two villians, one we saw coming, and the other, not so much. So sit back and enjoy this new Arkham City trailer.
What the hell Star Wars? In one day you single handily destroy my future budget and don't even bat an eye! First thing this morning I find that Star Wars: The Old Republic is officially up for pre-order, and with three editions. First there is the Standard edition that comes with a color stone to change lightsaber and blaster colors for $59.99. Then you have the Origin only Digital Deluxe edition for $79.99 that has the stone, a flare gun, training droid for combat, HoloDancer, HoloCam and a STAP (vehicle). But you had to have a Collector's Edition that has all that, a Mouse Droid and a Store that only CE owners get access to. And that's only the digital goods, it also comes with all this:
Click for a full size image
It would be a no brainier for me to buy this, hell it would have already been pre-ordered if it were not for the price of $150! Then after finally wrapping my head around this Microsoft adds fuel to the fire at the San Diego Comic-Con. To sell more Star Wars Kinect games when they come out they created a special Star Wars themed XBOX 360. The system itself is painted to look like RD-D2, complete with sounds and lights to differentiate it from its console brothers. Follow this up with a C-3PO gold controller, a white Kinect and a 320 GB Hard Drive. I want this, but it is $449!
So thanks Star Wars, EA, and Microsoft. In one day, ONE DAY, you have deprived me of $600!!! I hope you are happy with yourselves.
So we tried something new with the podcast, and it did not turn out well. A sample of what could have been is in the download, but I felt it better not to subject someone to whole podcast of it.
Mario and Link have dedicated their lives to saving the love of their lives, but how much do the princesses really appreciate this? Is it really so bad being kidnapped by these "villains" that want to rule the kingdom / world / galaxy? Let us take a unique look into how Zelda and Peach may really feel.
IrishPride here to give you all a new installment of Conversations with IrishPride. The long time readers of The Gameslave will recognize the segment because I introduced it a while back. However, I never kept up with it and it died after only two or three postings /fail. I am now trying to resurrect this segment where I just talk about random stuff for your reading pleasure.
July, Week 3
Russian Song stuck in my head!
Recently I purchased a Nintendo 3DS so I could get Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and all the other awesome 3DS games that are on the horizon. I never had a DSi, so I was amazed with all the games that are available to download via DSiware. While there are hundreds to choose from, I just stuck with something I knew all too well, Tetris.
I downloaded Tetris Party Live to play some old school Tetris that I haven’t played since the original Game Boy. When I first started playing, I remembered why I hadn’t played Tetris for such a long time, I suck at it. Being the fool that I am, I decided I would try my hand at the multiplayer portion and compete against players around the world. Yeah, I was taken behind the shack and was beaten, probably with a Tetris block. 
Why am I relieving these painful memories? Because after a few hours of putting those damn blocks in precise order, I started getting better and better at it. I even went back online to play against players around the world and started winning! My overall score continued to go up with each passing victory.
However, there is a downside to all this success. When lying in bed at night I see Tetris blocks falling down and I’m trying to put them in order. I hear that Russian song playing over and over in my head and even hear it speed up when I’m getting to close to losing the level!
Da, da da da, da da da, da da da, da da da, da da da, da da da, daa daa!
But, it’s worth it. For the first time, I’m actually pretty good at Tetris and I am having an enjoyable time playing it. In fact, I have already clocked over 14 hours. So, long live Tetris, even if that Russian song is set to replay in my head.
~IrishPride
The image is © Woody Hearn and is owned by him. Click to check out his site.You all know of Popcap games right? Well if you haven't heard of them and you are reading this site, welcome, though you might have some problems understanding the implications below. Well, Popcap has been purchased by video game publishing giant EA Games for the small sum of $750 million ($650 cash and $100 million in stock options). This gives EA a digital business worth $1 billion dollars and rockets them all the way to the #2 spot for Facebook games just behind Zynga (the group that has just about anything that ends with "ville"). So what does this really mean to the average gamer?
Probably nothing more then having to see the EA logo when you start up Plants Vs. Zombies. I don't see a lot of sweeping changes being made to a company that made millions with casual gamers. But I guess we will see for sure when the deal is expected to close sometime in August. But what does Popcap think about this? Well lets take this excerpt from their site:
An open letter to all our players:
As some of you may have heard, we recently announced that PopCap Games is being acquired by Electronic Arts, a small mom-and-pop boutique software publisher. What does this mean for the future? It’s simple:
1. EA is being rebranded to Poptronic Arts
2. Sim Zuma: The SwampLife Edition
3. Peggle: Dead Space – Bjorn’s Breakfast
4. Bejeweled Battlefield Blitz
5. Plants vs. ZombEAz: NFL Lockout EditionWow!
Ok, not really.It means PopCap will join forces with one of the world’s largest game publishers, giving us access to many more resources and a greatly expanded global audience. It doesn’t mean that PopCap is going away or changing what we do or how we do it. On the contrary, PopCap’s creative culture is the main reason EA was interested in us. We’re not changing our focus from creating awesome casual games everyone can enjoy.
So what should you really expect from us in the future as part of EA? More! More games, more platforms, more players, and more fun.
PopCap has been around for more than ten years now, and we look forward to bringing you great games for at least another decade to come!
Sincerely,
Your friends from PopCap
Hmm, I kinda would have liked to see Peggle: Dead Space - Bjorn's Breakfast.
