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Donkey Kong mural proves that office supplies can be useful
We miss college. Watching The A*Team reruns between classes, inviting everyone who came down the hall to play some Smash Bros., spending all day making giant tributes to classic games ... Well, okay. We never made a huge Donkey Kong mural in the windows of one of the college's buildings using nothing but Post-Its. Luckily, a group of UC Santa Cruz students stepped in and took the job upon themselves. The bar has officially been raised for college timewasting. This thing is really beautiful.[Via Joystiq]
Profession revamp preview
Professions have been on the drawing board for changes for a good while, but until now Blizz have been very tight-lipped about what specific modifications they might be making. No more! Nethaera has posted a nice preview of changes that are being made to many professions for "the next content patch," i.e. 2.1 (The Black Temple). Before I go into detail, note that Neth said her post "does not contain all of the upcoming changes, but instead gives a brief look at what is to come," so bank on more surprises to come. Anyway, this round is mostly buffs and new recipes, with a major nerf to alchemy.Full post copied after the jump as usual, but here's the changes I found more interesting: Alchemy: Elixirs now stack in two categories, Battle (Offensive) and Guardian (Defensive) Elixirs. You can only have one of each type of Elixir up at a time. As a result Elixirs now stack with class abilities such as "Arcane Intellect." I totally called this (as did many others, I'm sure). The intended effect is obviously to reduce the maximum possible effect of consumables in raids and other such situations, and this will go a long way towards producing that effect, without hurting alchemists too much (in my opinion). Engineering: "Seaforium" now opens locked chests as well as locked doors. About time; having to skip locked chests if I didn't have a rogue in the party has been annoying. But will Powerful Seaforium Charges open the top-level locked chests, or are we going to see new seaforium? Engineering: 11 new epic goggles have been introduced at 350 engineering skill and are available from the trainer. They range from cloth to plate, and have a variety of stats to appeal to most talent specs. This is probably the biggest change to any profession. I've always loved the goggles Engineering had to offer, and now engineers have something epic to work towards. Exciting! Fishing: The fishing timer has been reduced from 30 to 20 seconds and it now takes less time to fish. Sweet! I always though 30 seconds was a bit too long. But on the down side, Fishing has been removed from Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley -- what, you mean I have to actually fight now?! Jewelcrafting: The jewelcrafting UI now has gems split up by color so it is easier to find gems of a specific color to create. This is long-overdue; Blizz's profession UIs are so primitive it's not even funny. I would recommend ATSW as a replacement, but it tends to crash my client sometimes. Now where's my gem category in the AH? Jewelcrafting: Jewelcrafters can make two new melee oriented meta gems. One is found randomly as a world drop and the other sold by the <Faction> reputation vendor. Definitely needed -- but what do they mean by <Faction>? Scryer or Aldor? HH or Thrallmar? Any faction? Jewelcrafting: New recipes have been added that use the Jaggal and Shadow Pearls. Time to stop vendoring those, I guess. Skinning: Skinning higher level creatures will give more leather; you will no longer get a single leather scrap. Good, it was getting silly. Read on for the full blue post.
We're hot for the Van Halen-style DS
Now this is how you play Jam Sessions. Flickr user Mr. Atrocity and his girlfriend gave their DS systems (both Phat, and we're happy to see people sporting them) custom paint jobs-- his a replica of Eddie Van Halen's guitar finish, and hers a lavender with gold details. Not only does the gallery contain pretty pictures of modded systems, but it is a great tutorial for spraypainting your own DS, which is exactly the kind of thing you should have a tutorial for, unless you want to play New Super B Button Is Stuck Down Bros. or Trauma Center: Under the Red Blob.
IT'S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE! TAKE THIS QUILT.
This quilt from Craftster member dishwasher182 combines two of our favorite things in life: The original Legend of Zelda and being warm while sleeping. We aren't sure how we'd rank those two things. Maybe we should start quilting, so we can have our own enormous pixel-perfect Link holding a very ziggurat-esque Triforce. But we aren't sure we're up to the challenge of cutting and sewing together over 400 squares. In fact, we know we aren't. We're exhausted from reaching up to the number keys just now.Seen any amazing game-related crafts lately? Let us know!
Swaddle your DS in a homemade pouch
We love it when people make artifacts to celebrate their love of games. We're fanboys (it's right there in the name!) so we totally understand DS fetishism. We're guilty of it ourselves! One of the most practical ways to combine craft and gaming is the homemade DS case. Craftster member MariskaLovesCrafts designed this striking DS Lite pouch with a nice little pocket for games, and we love it. We love the pocket, we (unapologetically) love the floral design, and we love the colors. Mariska went on to write up a tutorial for the pouch, which she then posted to her blog. Why not give it a try, if you're looking for a DS Lite case? We'll remind you that you aren't forced to use the color scheme and floral motif here, so feel free to make something more macho to keep your DS scratch-free. Perhaps an Elite Beat Agents theme? [Via Craftster]
Geostationary banana blimp to hover over Texas?
We've always heard that everything's larger in Texas, and since it's home to one of the largest PC / accessory vendors on the planet, will soon have the world's largest domed stadium, and calls the "Godzillatron" its own, we're starting to believe it. Cesar Saez feels the larger than life love too, as the artist is crafting a "helium-inflated 300-meter banana" to hover above the Lonestar state for a month, and while we'd just love (ahem) for it to pack a bevy of voyeuristic camera gear, this fruit is strictly for gazing at. The Geostationary Banana Over Texas project seeks to lift the dirigible above Texas for no other reason than to express his apparent appreciation for the uniquities in life, as Mr. Saez himself simply stated that "Texas is as symbolic as the banana," leaving us all to wonder what exactly that means. Nevertheless, the project is slated to cost around $1 million when it's all said and done, and while we're not precisely sure when the giant yellow balloon will lift off, we doubt it'll be hard to miss.[Via TechDigest]
Sculptor crafting 3D replicas of your Mii
We know, you've been catching up on a world of news this morning thanks to the Wii News Channel going live, but if you're one of those folks who snapped up your Mii on a Tee just as soon as you found the funds, this is for you. Sculptor and illustrator Paul Thiel crafted a 3D figure of a friend's Mii as a Christmas gift, but soon realized that geeks like us would hit up the Ramen diet for a few days in order to have one of our own, so now he's hard at work constructing a proper way to take and process orders. Even though no prices have been set just yet, you can take one look at this masterpiece and see how priceless your very own could be, so be sure to hit the read link for the full skinny of how to get your pre-order in and secure yet another piece of obscure, albeit nifty, video game art.[Via Joystiq]
Gamer babies need hot accessories, too
We have extreme amounts of love for anything game-related, the wackier the better, but even if we didn't, it would be hard not to coo over this Nintendo-themed baby blanket. Gotta hook 'em while they're young, after all, if we want to make them lifetime gamers.We tend to think the best part of this particular blanket is that the mushroom is up top, at optimal gnawing range.
Make your own sprite coasters
Crafty gamers -- or gamey crafters -- take note of these homemade NES coasters. The Wiicast used iron-on Perler beads and a pegboard to build these sprightly squares. The simple process yields strong results, scoring high -- eight rings -- on our just-made-up phone-it-in scale. Of course, the project works best on retro sprites that end up being about the same size as a typical glass. Go too old-school, and the coasters will be suited only for shot glasses. Or adapt the technique to a modern screenshot to craft the coolest doormat in your apartment building.
