beer-pong
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Playing virtual beer pong with Control VR
Virtual reality in video games is all about new technology that places players within an interactive digital environment. By now, most know about Oculus VR, Sony's Project Morpheus or augmented reality specs like Google Glass and CastAR. But what do you do with your hands while using these headsets?
Universal robot gripper sinks shots, throws darts, makes us feel inadequate (video)
Soon there will be little left for us puny humans. Robots have long since replaced us at most menial tasks, now they're looking to claim our lucrative professional sports contracts. They've already proven their mettle at baseball, basketball and hockey. Now researchers at the University of Chicago and Cornell are getting their coffee-filled balloon bot in on the action -- albeit with slightly less ambitious prey in its sights. Dorm room stoners proficient in NERF basketball, drunken dart fanatics and school yard marble hustlers may all be answering to this mechanical party favor soon enough. Don't believe us? Check out the video after the break. Just hope this guy is on your team in the next round of beer pong.
Raise your cup for another Pong Toss
Enough people have purchased a WiiWare game about throwing balls into paper cups to warrant a return to the genre. Developer JV Games announced a sequel to Pong Toss: Frat Party Games called Pong Toss Pro: Frat Party Games. Still no beer, though. According to the press release, the followup features a "completely redesigned pixel accurate throwing system," as well as niceties like redesigned graphics and sound for a nicer presentation of some cups on a table. The multiplayer Speed Pong mode returns from the original, as does the "traditional" tournament play. Pong Toss Pro will be out on WiiWare sometime this spring.
VC Friday: Frat Party Riot
So. It's Friday, and that means that there are some new games available on the PAL Wii Shop. Listen, we're not going to sugarcoat this, okay? Today's new games are Pong Toss: Frat Party Games and Snowboard Riot. We thought Snowboard Riot was going to be cool until it came out in North America and reviews started coming out. And as for Pong Toss, here's the most interesting thing about it: for the PAL release, the name has changed back to Beer Pong: Frat Party Games. Oh, and also it's not coming out in Australia today, presumably because Australians cannot be allowed to hear of the existence of beer.Maybe if you're actually in a frat and attend a lot of frat parties, you'll think it's awesome to buy a game that's got the word "Beer" in the title. Beer Pong: Frat Party Games -- WiiWare -- 800 PointsSnowboard Riot -- WiiWare -- 1,000 Points%Gallery-36618%
VC Monday Madness: Pong Toss, Art of Fighting 2 and Chase H.Q.
There is some variety available for those of you looking to download something new to play on Wii. For the retro fans, a pair of new Virtual Console titles should tickle the fancy. If you're looking for something more akin to the frat experience of today, then check out this week's WiiWare download. Without further ado, let's get to the games!This week's WiiWare game is: Pong Toss - Frat Party Games (JV Games, 1 - 4 players, 800 Wii Points) This week's Virtual Console games are: Chase H.Q. (TG16, 1 player, 600 Wii Points) Art of Fighting 2 (NEO, 1 - 2 players, 900 Wii Points) Sadly, there won't be a video wrap-up for this week's releases. But, we should be back next week with our usual video coverage of the Virtual Console releases on Wii.[Via press release]
Frat Party Games - Pong Toss 'controversifies' WiiWare
Controversifies -- v.tr. -- (1) The act of releasing a game about frat party beer pong as E for Everyone (seriously) and expecting no one to realize that your game centers around excessive alcohol indulgence. (2) Informal. To fill with astonishment and perplexity; confound.Nintendo has announced that Pong Toss–Frat Party Games is today's WiiWare du Jour. For 800 Wii points (US $8), you can virtually toss a ping pong ball into cups of what assuredly is a mixture of vitamin water, apple juice, love and unicorn tears. What else would be in the "ultimate party-game favorite?"
Beer Pong becomes Pong Toss for T rating
If there's one thing people in the government hate it's being offended, but luckily there's a tried and true way to alleviate the problem: Subtract offensive, add insulting. Take, for instance, Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal who was peeved that the sure-to-be-awful WiiWare game Frat Party Games: Beer Pong was rated "T." ... You know, for teens. That was understandably problematic for Blumenthal seeing as the game is so very beer-centric. So, what's the solution, the quick fix from JV Games Vice President Jag Jaeger that makes everyone happy? Why, remove every reference to alcohol and call the game Pong Toss, of course! You know, because you're an idiot.[Thanks, Farseer]
Beer Pong with less beer, more tossing, extra controversy
It's official: Beer Pong was way too controversial for the family-friendly Wii, and the forthcoming lulzworthy WiiWare game has undergone a name change. Beer Pong: Frat Party Games is now Frat Party Games: Pong Toss. What, like taking the beer out of the name takes it out of the frat party? That will certainly work. Next up: Frat Party Games: Quilting. You know how those boys at the chapter house like to fight over the best remnants.Here's the thing: in this case, it really did work. Not only is Beer Pong now operating under a different title, but all the references to alcohol have been removed, too. Publisher JVGames already made the change (in response, we assume, to previous protests), which resulted in the assumed rating being dropped down to E. Now, a whole new argument has arisen, thanks to Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who feels that, despite the lack of beer anywhere in the game (it's juice in them there cups), an E rating will encourage underage drinking. Blumenthal wants an AO-rating, which just ain't happening -- liquor references in games rates teen, per the ESRB.The ESRB is having none of it, though; they smartly responded with a racing game analogy: if you pulled the same stunts in real life as you do in a racing game, they'd certainly be illegal. However, as they noted, many racing games are rated E. So why give this one, with no overt alcohol use and no illegal behavior whatsoever, a restrictive rating?From the screenshots, we can't help but think people should have not only left this one alone, but also be celebrating this game as a PSA. If drinking makes everything look like this, we're taking the first train to sobertown.%Gallery-27047%[Via Game|Life]
Choro Q Penny Racing onto Wii, plus lots more!
The ESRB well isn't totally dry, luckily: just a few days after the announcement that new game reveals would be curtailed, several unannounced games have appeared. Most notable is Penny Racers Party: Turbo-Q Speedway from Tomy, which is likely to be Choro-Q Wii, the party-game-filled version of Takara Tomy's toy-based racing game series.The ESRB database has revealed some other new releases: Gameloft's Wild West Guns, likely a WiiWare game; PDC World Championship Darts 2008, which was released earlier this year in the UK; N-Space's bean bag game; and Beer Pong.On the Virtual Console front, SNK's top-down ninja shooter, Ninja Commando, has been rated for release. Totally sweet!
Protesters fight the wrong in Beer Pong
When Beer Pong: Frat Party Games was announced for WiiWare, many Wii owners protested it based on its stupidity. We should have guessed, though, that some people would actually protest the software for moral reasons.The problem here lies with the games ESRB rating, which is T (13+). Lisa Lombardozzi of the Greater Herndon Community Coalition is concerned that Beer Pong will encourage children to play the game in real life. In fact, many college students who partake in the activity (which is also called Beirut, depending on who you talk to) are not even of legal drinking age. Since the United States' drinking age is 21, activists claim that the game will promote binge drinking ideals to youths. JV Games' response to the issue was more dismissive than eloquent. Company spokesman Vince Valenti said, "We are not advocating drinking any more than watching cartoons or watching the TV show Cheers, or even going bowling or to a baseball game ... If anything, you're going to be drinking less, because you are too busy playing the game, trying to beat your opponent, to be constantly picking up a beer and drinking it."We doubt parents and community members were soothed by this response.[Via Game Politics]
Wii Warm Up: How about that flow?
Wow, we've been happy with WiiWare. You all have been happy with the titles, correct? Well, regardless of how you would rate the service so far, we have a tough question to ask.Do you think the steady flow of new titles will remain constant going forward? Would you expect at least one new WiiWare game each week, or do you think that the well is getting close to dried up? Sure, there's Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People to look forward to, but what else? Will the flow continue?
Finally: WiiWare to get beer pong game
Sometimes blogging is really hard, like when Microsoft or Sony mails us a whole bottle of Dom and a platter of foie gras and we have to eat it all before 1. It goes bad or 2. The housekeeper tries to hide some in her apron. But there are sometimes when it's very easy, like today, when you come across a post that's so intrinsically hilarious it requires practically no work.Frat Party Games is an actual new division of JV Games and they're actually making a beer pong game for WiiWare that's actually called Beer Pong. And the image above? That's literally what you see when you click "Features" on their web site. Because we totally hate your eyeballs, we've put a trailer for it after the jump.[Via Satan/NWF]
WiiWare Beer Pong brings college idiocy to the Wii [update]
[Update: trailer after the break! Looks pretty okay, we suppose, for a beer pong game.]Beer pong is one of the weirder recent trends in party games since the out-of-nowhere resurgence of poker, at least as seen through the eyes of someone who isn't currently in college. Now JVGames has announced their intention to translate the drunk version of Bozo the Clown's "Grand Prize Game" to WiiWare. We read the press release and started to reach for the picardfacepalm.jpg, but then we went to the website and were presented with an unexpected hilarity bomb.Let's just say that the website (screenshot above) doesn't really scream professionalism. Blurry, blown-up beer glasses with choppy filling animations, and a 3D logo that looks like it was rendered in a DS homebrew program. It actually makes us kind of love it. Beer Pong: Frat Party Games will be out in June.[Via IGN]
