igor
Latest
DS releases for the week of September 15th
This week, a pile of games are overwhelming DS shelves, but the real star is Jackass: The Game. Oh yes, Europe. It's your turn. Don't even try and say that we never gave you anything, because after this week, it's patently untrue. Animal Paradise Bratz Ponyz 2 Di-Gata Defenders Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants Edition Igor Line Rider 2 Unbound My Secret World by Imagine Red Bull BC One Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Unsolved Crimes
E308: SouthPeak's puzzle pair
Both Brave: Shaman's Challenge and Igor were available for demo at SouthPeak's booth -- two Puzzle Quest-inspired handheld puzzlers, and two games that are very clearly influenced by other puzzle games as well, to their benefit (as was Puzzle Quest). Brave, which is played book/Brain Age-style, is a match-four falling-gem game -- with a twist. The twist is that your opponents are weak to certain colors and strong to certain colors. Breaking blocks in their strong colors actually heals them! You have to get your strategy on in order to succeed. Thinking about which colors you're supposed to break instead of grouping everything as it arrives changes the flow of the game significantly. I didn't get much of a look at the story, but I'm sure I'll be able to continue ignoring it.Igor was a surprise. Not only had I never heard of the upcoming animated movie (starring John Cusack!) on which it is based, I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. Why did I enjoy it so much?Because it's Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. Like, exactly. And I love Puzzle Fighter. There is an added layer outside of the main puzzle game. Instead of fighting animations playing out automatically, each color fills a meter for a certain attack, which, when filled, you then tap to attack. I didn't even really know about this thing, and now I want it!
E308: SouthPeak's lineup has some hidden gems
Big Bang Mini is one of those delightful-looking, under-the-radar games that people should be paying more attention to, so we're glad that SouthPeak will be showing it off this E3. Then again, we're shmupoholics, so we can't help but be seduced by this trippy, fireworked shooter. An honorable E3 mention also goes to Ninjatown, though, for its cute and clever ways of portraying the deadly assassins. The other two DS games on SouthPeak's lineup are Brave: Shaman's Challenge and Igor the Game, neither of which we can muster up much enthusiasm for at the moment. Hopefully we'll end up pleasantly surprised, though -- at least by the former, as licensed-based games would probably have to make us breakfast, too, to incite a reaction. %Gallery-18714%%Gallery-15839%
All the World's a Stage: How to be a death knight
When you decide to roleplay, a whole new world of imagination opens up to you -- soon you realize that all the World of Warcraft is a stage, and all the orcs and humans merely players.Last week, we took a look at how roleplaying a death knight will be different from roleplaying other classes, because death knights come pre-packaged with elements of a backstory for you to flesh out: they have, for whatever reason, at one time joined forces with the Lich King, learned from him how to be a death knight, and now are breaking free of his influence and striking out against him.As Medeni pointed out in her comments, however, this can potentially lead to a kind of unlikable "celebrity in rehab" type of personality. Imagine, if you will, the death knight known as Marisoo: formerly a paladin of the Light, she sought to destroy the Scourge that plagued her homeland of Lordaeron, but eventually, as she was consumed with vengeance and hatred, she joined the Lich King instead of destroying him. Having learned to turn corpses into slavering ghouls and call forth armies of the undead, she eventually thought better of the whole "wickedly destroy all life" thing and decided to destroy the Lich King after all, only this time she would use his own power against him! Muahaha.As you can see, there are some pretty obvious flaws in this idea. First of all, the first half of it is almost a direct copy of Arthas' own tale, and, while I can certainly appreciate the power of that story, and the possibility that other paladins could have gone through something similar, roleplayers who want to play a death knight character must realize that it's going to get old fast. Just as death knights aren't just human paladins, we can't all go around copying Arthas, brooding on how moody and wicked we've become. We have to come up with new ideas that fit the death knight mould.
Igor has nothing to do with Young Frankenstein, sadly
No matter how you pronounce his name, the assistant is vital to all of the doctor's work. Frankenstein can't be expected to carry his own bags or retrieve brains himself now, can he? Of course not. So, it's about time the guy finally got some attention.While we'd like to say the upcoming game (which ties in with next year's movie) is based off of Mel Brooks' masterpiece Young Frankenstein, sadly that is not the case. Instead, the movie and game are a more family-friendly version of the classic monster tale. This game is to be handled by Interactive Game Group and Legacy Interactive. But, hey, at least Igor will be voiced by Steve Buscemi.
IGOR robotic platform uses GPS and camera to get around
ComCam and Ologic have teamed up to create the Indoor GPS Ologic Robot -- or IGOR (pronounced "eye-gore" we imagine) -- a robotics platform by that uses GPS and a video camera to get around. The 'bot can autonomously navigate between indoor waypoints, thanks to an ultrasonic indoor GPS system, and be controlled over the internet and via cell phone, thanks to a low latency live video feed. We imagine, with a matronly makeover, this thing would be a great babysitter for people of the future.Actual product shot of the decidedly non-matronly IGOR after the break.
