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Delicious and clean: Game controller chocolates, soap
Face it, we've all be saying it since day one: Game controllers look delicious. Just remember all the times your mother (or spouse) told you to get that controller out of your mouth. Now, thanks to an enterprising chocolatier called Digital Chocolates on Etsy.com, you can finally have your game and eat it too. The edible controllers come in either Wii remote or Dual Shock (sorry, we can't tell if it has rumble or not). The shop has sections for Xbox, NES and SNES chocolates as well, but they seem to be sold out, sadly.Once you're done eating your chocolate controllers, you can clean up with gaming soap from sister site Digital Soaps. The soaps come in all the same shapes (and even a few more) and a greater variety of colors. We're not sure we'd actually buy these goodies, but we definitely want them.Clockwise from top-left: Soap, chocolate, soap, chocolate.[Via EveryJoe]Source - Digital ChocolatesSource - Digital Soaps
Why do people blog about WoW?
Why do we feel compelled to spill out our guts all over the intertubes for the entire world to read? The answer, of course, is a subset of the larger question, why do people blog about anything? It's probably a variation of the same question that medieval bards asked the operators of the first printing press: "Dude, why do you want to put yourself so, I don't know, out there?"The "serious" answers get all sociological and some junk. We want to be heard popping off about our opinions on talent trees, bragging about one-shots, or feeling part of the larger WoW community outside our own servers.However, as a WoW blogger myself, I know that the truth about us isn't nearly that pretty. We blog to brag about Kara exploits or show off our expertise on the Hunter class, a frame addon, or prime Oily Blackmouth fishing spots . We dream of demi-celebrity status in the WoW community. We try to provoke people into replying, sometimes with generous link love. We like to have the first scoop on expansion news (essentially, more showing off). We gossip about guild drama, sometimes wrapped up snuggly in the ignorance of our fellow guildies that we even have a blog. (There is a sweet freedom in finding the comfort of internet strangers.) We blog for artistic expression and to make others laugh.And the main reason we blog? The same reason we feel itchy when we haven't called Mom in a few weeks: guilt.
Mrrrrgllhllrrll in real life
Okay, it probably grosses less at the theater than "Dan in Real Life", but this picture, sent to WendellGrave by one of his guildies, definitely looks like a real-life murloc. Our own Arturis suggests that this is a sculpture made from a fish body, but I think we can all agree that whatever it is, it's really quite ugly. No word on why this was created, but it does remind me of the Fiji Mermaid. The Fiji Mermaid is a popular attraction at carnival freak shows. It's a "mermaid" usually made from papier-mache and fish parts, with a dash of monkey thrown in. For those of you disappointed in this fakery, I present an indisputable real-life tauren, as well as the warlock epic mount in its natural habitat of the Ford Mustang. Is this an accurate murloc or not? What do you think it's made from? [Thanks, WendellGrave!]
Tiny little papercraft iPhone
DS Fanboy's Alisha Karabinus sent us this one, and I have to agree with her. While I'm not normally a man to call things cute (except in that derogatory sense: "Oh, you only beat Halo 2 on Normal difficulty? That's cute."), this papercraft iPhone is so tiny that it is, in point of fact, "cute."I'm not sure why Junyang chose to make it so small (other than the obvious fact that smaller things are cute), but it's pretty impressive that he got a papercraft item that size to look so much like an iPhone. He even made a scale charger and cradle for it, and the box it came in. He even replicated the instruction manual for it! He's a madman!But it does look cool. If a more to-size iPhone is your pleasure, there are a few different print-and-cut models floating around. And I'm pretty sure you're just one Photoshop scale away from shrinking it down to a size like this. Of course, in just a few years, they'll be this size anyway ("the iPhone Pico"), but until then we've got papercrafters to show us the cuteness.
Nice place to visit, wouldn't wanna blog here
Above, you can see the view from the sitting area of the Loews Hotel in Santa Monica, one of many hotels hosting press events for E3. The chairs are comfy and the view is gorgeous. Honestly, could you think of a better place to blog? Sure, it's a lovely view. We can't argue with that. What's not beautiful is that there's no free WiFi for miles. The single E3 press room is a glimmering mirage far in the distance, located in the hotel farthest from all the others. Yes, at any given time, the press room (so far, the only location we've found with free WiFi [or internet at all]) is at least a 15 minute shuttle ride away. For bloggers like us, 15 minutes is a long time. Like, long enough for breaking news to become "so old."Note for E3 Media Summit 2: MOAR WiFi.
A whole herd of Tauren, fighting an instance of bosses
I love this-- reader David B sends us news that he was chatting with this Alliance guildies about what to call a group of Horde ("Hordies," of course, but read on), and they eventually came up with a list of collective nouns for the various player groups of Azeroth.You know what collective nouns are-- like a gaggle of geese, or a swarm of bees. I've reprinted David's list below the jump, and I have to say, some of it is genius: "a blush of Blood Elves," "a den of rogues," and a "congregation of priests" are definitely my favorites. But there is some room for improvement-- "an annoyance of gnomes" is funny, but couldn't there be a better word for that? Maybe a "short stack"?And there have got to be better things to call a group of Alliance and a group of Horde, so post your own ideas in the comments below. I have to say, though, "a murder of Murlocs" is just about perfect. Don't touch that one.
Show and Tell: Show off your stuff
If you're here, then it's pretty likely that you own some sort of gaming gear ... and some of you are probably masters of epic gaming collections, the sight of which would burn our retinas to ash. While we're not really coming out in favor of melted eyeballs here, we are in fact big fans of playing show and tell with our gaming stuff, and we want to see yours. T-shirts, plush armies, special gaming area, stacks and stacks of NES carts, or just a staggering pile of DS games -- whatever it is, we want you to show us. So if you have anything special that you've just been dying to rub in our faces show everyone, then this weekly spotlight is for you. Yes, you can even show us your Pokemans. So you want to be featured on DS Fanboy? Here's what you do: take a picture or two (we prefer that they not be blurry) and send the lot to showmeit at dsfanboy dot com. Each week, we'll select someone's gaming gear and talk about it right here on the Fanboy. Pretty much anything gaming-related is fair game, but we do ask that you keep it clean. You know. For the children.
Gamerscore Blog's Road Tour stops in Miami
The other day the Gamerscore Blog gang rolled into Miami as part of their road tour to spread Xbox 360 love around the world ... or at least in North America . Their pregame show involved such activities as visiting the beach, playing in the sand, and spying on the police from their hotel window. But they finally decided to make their way to the event and as you can see from their pictures, they had plenty of fun. Even more exciting is that, for the first time ever, we have video proof that these events actually occur and are not part of a staged Microsoft PR campaign. The embedded video above is courtesy of Gamertag Radio as Godfree goes deep within' the bowels of the Miami event to show everyone the fun that we aren't privelaged enough to have. Sidenote: Anyone thinking they could pwn all the attendees at Guitar Hero II?
Live and in concert is The Xbox Boys!
We always knew Xbox fanboys were a creative bunch, but The Xbox Boys take it to a whole new level. Who are these Xbox Boys that we speak of? Well, if you must know ... The Xbox Boys are a group guys who reside near the Microsoft Campus, wear Xbox tshirts, color their faces green and white, and sing about gaming on their Xboxes. They're kind of a mix between geeks, musicians, and gamers. Get it? Well, we can't explain it any better, so without further adieu we present to you The Xbox Boys' latest video "x box live" after the break. And be prepared to rock out.[Via Gamertag Radio]
PS3 thief settles for Xbox 360
What is it with people demanding new gen consoles at gunpoint? A Blockbuster video in the UK was recently robbed. A young man held up the two female store clerks at gunpoint, demanding that they give him a Playstation 3. Upon informing him that they didn't stock the console, he settled for an Xbox 360 instead. He also swiped several Xbox 360 games on the way out as well as money from the register. No one was injured, though it took the police 20 minutes to arrive because they were directed to the wrong Blockbuster.Frankly, we probably would have asked for a Wii. Seriously, those things are hard to find.[Thanks, slimbloke]
Guide to being an online A-hole
We've all come across them, we've all witnessed their impact, and now there is a guide to help you become one. Be what you ask ... be an online A-hole of course. The helpful crew over at GameAlmighty posted a comprehensive guide on how to become an A-hole on Xbox Live. With tips like "Curse Like a Drunken Sailor", "Blame Lag", and our personal favorite "Quit When Losing" you'll be an online A-hole in no time. Seriously, if you don't become the most hated scum of Xbox Live after reading this guide, then we're sorry to say that you're a lost cause doomed to being a respectable Xbox Live gamer for the rest of your life. So, make the jump and learn how to be an online A-hole. We believe in you.
Damn that's fast! More Halo 3 speed painting
Just hours after the initial airing of the Halo 3 "Starry Night" commercial, a deviant artist (from deviantART, natch) by the name of Rahll whipped up a super speedy painting that we featured right here on X3F. Hot on the heels of the Halo 3 beta announcement, Rahll has done it again, this time giving us the piece you see above, entitled "Volatile". It features the Chief displaying the business end of a needler to the nearest Brute (who doesn't look to happy about the whole situation). Sharp eyed fanboys will also pick up a Warthog and Scarab in the background. Of course, we would be remiss in our duties if we didn't remind Rahll that the Needler won't be dual-wieldable in Halo 3. Still, we'll grant some artistic license for work this nice.Nice job, Rahll. Might we suggest something for your next work? Perhaps something with the X3F logo emblazoned upon it? Maybe something cool like ... a flaming 360 controller or something. That would be sweet.Update: It has come to our attention that this isn't necessarily a speed painting, but really more of a regular painting. Still, it's much better than we could have done in the same amount of time, so it's fast to us.
Vision shenanigans: R6 Vegas baby
You find the damnedest things cruising Flickr. Today we found this picture taken from Rainbow Six Vegas created by frasermoo. Yes, that is the face of an infant. The face of an infant mounted onto a lethal terrorist killing machine to be specific. While we can't argue the hilarity of such a juxtaposition, we do have to question the logistics of such an endeavor. What had to be done to keep this child still enough to capture his face this accurately? What nefarious harnesses were put to use for the sole sake of creating a humorous avatar? Hopefully, this baby has a penchant for sitting perfectly still and looking cute all the time.Any Vegas players spot any other freaky avatars out there?
A sign from the heavens: play more Xbox?
A user at the Something Awful forums gets a sign from above every morning. Most people see things like the Virgin Mary in a sandwich or Abraham Lincoln in a potato chip, but Channel_F sees ... the Xbox 360 logo. The ring of light is created by a reflection off of his window into the backyard. Let this be a sign to Xbox haters. We're not saying the Man Upstairs prefers one console over another, but it's better to be safe than sorry, right? Of course, it means something entirely different if you see this instead ....[Via GameStooge]
360 Arcadians call us out. It's on.
Swords have been drawn. Faces have been slapped with virtual gloves. In short, it's on. In Fancast 002, we made it clear our intention to smite the miscreants of 360 Arcadians Live with our glorious fist of justice. Or, at the very least, we figured we could beat them in a friendly match of Worms for the Xbox Live Arcade. Having heard this challenge, the 360 Arcadians have responded with a string of vicious schoolyard insults. They couldn't even remember Dustin's name! They just called him "the other guy." Don't worry fanboys, we're above such petty tomfoolery. We'll save it for the B-ball court Xbox Live. Perhaps we could throw in a few more tests of skill? Gears of War perhaps? Your move, Arcadian scum.You may listen to the offending podcast here.
The state of Xbox 360 homebrew
Joseph Molnar, who recently informed us of magical Video Marketplace downloads that don't expire, is back again with an interesting article on the current state of Xbox 360 homebrew. Posted on his blog, the Pensive Gamer, the article is the third in a series dedicated to the homebrew scene on each new gen console (guess which systems the first two articles were about). The piece, naturally, centers on XNA. Molnar notes that there are many things that make the Xbox 360 attractive to homebrewers, most notably that Microsoft itself is aiding the homebrew scene with tools like XNA Game Studio Express. As it stands though, the homebrew aspect of the Xbox 360 certainly isn't without its faults. There are a few quibbles about feature support, but the most obvious barrier to homebrewers is the price. In order to run code on a 360, you must have a subscription to the Creators Club, which runs at $49 for three months or $99 a year. Before 360 homebrew can reach a mass market and attain wide acceptance, Microsoft will have to address this and other issues, especially if they plan to deliver the oft promised "YouTube for games."Remember folks, YouTube is huge for two reasons: it's user friendly and it's free. What would you like to see added to the Xbox homebrew scene? What could Microsoft do to improve it?
What are the odds? Halo driftwood
We have a few theories about the above images. Theory one: the Halo universe really exists, and the events in the games occurred eons in the past. A Brute Shot somehow managed to escape decay by being embedded in a tree and thus encased in petrified wood. Theory two (slightly more plausible than theory one): the uppermost image is a piece of driftwood miraculously worn down to the near exact shape of a Brute Shot. Perhaps the most amazing thing of all, this particular piece of driftwood just happened to be found by someone who recognized what it looked like. We ask you, what are the odds?Anyone else care to share some 360 related found art with us?[Via HBO]
Games on more than one disc: do you care?
It was recently revealed that Blue Dragon takes up so much space that it will be shipped on 3 discs. Some people on the internets are already starting to chant the mantra that the 360's DVD format simply isn't big enough for next generation games. I fail to see the reason in this, apart from the annoying fact that you'll have to stand up to change discs (twice!) when you finally lay your hands on Blue Dragon. However, I have a question: when did multiple discs become a bad thing? Back when CDs were introduced to home consoles, multiple discs were actually considered a value add. Saying a game came on four discs was a statement worthy of admiration, not condemnation. You didn't hear anyone complaining that they had to change discs during Final Fantasy VII. Same thing goes for special edition DVDs: more discs equals better product. Is this whole problem really a problem, or is it just in some people's interest to make you think it's a problem?Let's just ask a question. As 360 games get larger and more advanced, it's possible that more and more of them will require multiple discs. Does this bother you at all, or could you not care less?
Guy in Spartan suit wins $2,000
Halloween has come and gone, and now it's time for the results of costume contests to be posted all over the web. Pictured above is the winner of a $1,000 costume contest at a posh night club -- creatively named, the Posh Nite Club -- in Akron, Ohio. His homemade Mjolnir armor -- God help you if you pronounce the "j" -- was complemented by a needler. Looks suspiciously like the one on eBay a few months back. His creation won him 1,000 smackers (he won another $1,000 the next night with a Predator costume). The best part is that his winnings won him the adoration of all the ladies present. He even got one to wear his helmet. See the picture after the break.
Have you heard about the Stoneskin Gargoyle Cape?
Because I haven't until just now. Apparently it's a little brighter than off-white, and, when you take into account average cape sizes and the way they fit on the player models, it looks a little more elongated than most. Yes, I know I'm way behind on this one, but I think this just overtook Leeroy as my favorite WoW meme. I can't stop laughing at the "visual aids."Related: Warlocks ride in a file number that is not greater or less than one. (Thanks, druid dude!)
