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Coming to terms with my game backlog
I used to be scared of the RPG genre. Growing up, I played plenty of video games like any other kid, but I stuck to stuff I could pick up and put down. Mario, GoldenEye, Doom. I lacked the dedication, the loyalty and the skill to tackle an intimidating dozens-of-hours role-playing adventure. And yet I would ogle screenshots in GamePro or exotic box art like on the SNES game Secret of Evermore or even just mysterious, enticing names like Chrono Trigger. The idea of these cartridges, and the fantastical little universes they contained, had a pull over me: They promised a story-based experience that's unique to the medium of the video game. Sure, I made some stabs at playing the games, but even the high-school-freshman version of me was too busy for the commitment. I had just gotten a car and a part-time job. I played sports, there were girls to date. You know, non-nerd stuff. But oh, how I longed for the nerd stuff.
CNET Networks takeover sought
Media company CNET Networks, whose various websites including Gamespot, GameFAQs and Metacritic, looks to be in the midst of a takeover. A group of investors, led by Jana Partners LLC and claiming a collective 21.3 percent stake in the company, are currently trying to use their leverage to nominate seven new directors, according to Bloomberg. (Note: This incident is unrelated to the recent Gerstmann-gate fiasco.)Said former Ask Jeeves Inc. executive Paul Gardi, who stands to be one of those new directors, "With better board oversight, the right team could do great things with this brand ... We see huge opportunity in the strength of CNET's content." The contention is that the media company's shares have underperformed due to mismanagement of their resources. CNET CEO Neil Ashe said that the company welcomes suggestions from its stockholders but noted Jana's proposed shuffle was "improper" and not possible with the company bylaws. The latter argument prompted Jana to file a lawsuit in Delaware (home of CNET) claiming the bylaws were illegal in the state.
Tetris L-block wins GameFAQs character battle
Out of 128 video game characters entered into this year's GameFAQs Character Battle, the one to come out on top and conquer the rest is nothing more than four boxes glued to one another. The L-block of Tetris fame has been crowned winner of the tournament, personally defeating Kirby, Laharl (Disgaea), Nathan Hale (Resistance: Fall of Man), Kratos, Solid Snake, Cloud and Link in the process. The green-clad Hyrulian from Legend of Zelda series came in second place.Outside of Imaginationland, the human winner of Character Battle VI is Joystiq reader Samiam779 (full disclosure: he's also a real-life friend of this writer and, yes, there's an extra '7' in his GameFAQs screen name), who told us he plans to donate his prize money, a $400 online gift certificate, to Child's Play charity.The current poll, which is unrelated to the Character Battle, pits L-block against the Pong paddle, the Weighted Companion Cube and a '? block. As of this writing, our tetromino protagonist is still in the lead. [Video credit: Mega64]
GameFAQs creator calls it quits
Jeff "CJayC" Veasey, who founded the FAQ writing community GameFAQs back in 1995, recently posted a thread on the site announcing he will be leaving the company ... "eventually". Veasey created and operated the site on his own for nearly ten years before selling to CNET. Now, with a hotel-room-mirror revelation about getting older, he has decided to slowly fade away until he can leave altogether.Jeff cites nothing more than wanting to move on as his reasons for leaving, as he feels it's time to pursue other interests and let his baby run free. We imagine distancing himself from the hordes of 10-year-old gamers is a nice side-benefit, as well.
Island of Rhodes leads to another countdown
Imagine our horror when we browsed the Island of Rhodes website and saw ... well, nothing. It appeared to be nothing more than a cryptic, and rather useless, Flash website about developing God of War II. Thankfully, we were wrong. darksidez from the GameFAQs forums has discovered a secret area of the website, which reveals a hidden HD mode for God of War II on PS2, and yet another countdown. Is this madness? No ... THIS IS KRATOS!!! It appears that spelling Kratos using the Greek letters on the site leads to a countdown page, with a partially revealed title. We see God of War: Ch ... Could this be the official reveal of the continuously elusive PSP God of War? Let's not get our hopes up too high--we'll unravel this additional mystery in less than two weeks time. [Via Kotaku]
Twilight Princess script ready for your perusal
GameFaqs user Mgoblue201 is a more hardcore Zelda fan than you. There's just no way around it. Oh, you want to argue? Well, did you transcribe the entire script for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and reveal it for the world? No? Guess that's settled, then. Get back to us when you undertake your own labor of love.The link takes you directly to the Twilight Princess page, but you'll have to scroll for the script. Check for it under "In-Depth FAQs." We're not sure what questions are being answered here, but it's certainly in depth. Though after reading through some of it, we're inclined to think that we're maybe talking about the depth of the thesaurus here ....In his courage Link finds the strength to topple Snowpeak, even as the thunderous wind threatens to tear him from the cliff and throw him down the mountain path and the packed snow clutches at his fur and solders his skin like a hot iron ....Take a breath, man. Love of Link is no excuse for asphyxiation.[Via Joystiq]
EBayer reselling free GameFAQs guides [update 1]
Via the SomethingAwful forums comes the story of a GameFAQs guide writer who found digital copies of his Kingdom Hearts guides being resold on by a third party eBay seller without permission. The seller, who also sells guides for dozens of other games, claims to hold the copyright for the guides, which are apparently exact duplicates of the GameFAQs versions, only with the true author's information removed.The seller has reportedly brushed off requests by the author to stop selling the guide, leading many SA forum-goers to recommend legal action. We couldn't agree more -- this guy deserves to pay for profiting off of the work of others -- but we can't help but be impressed by his ability to fool gullible buyers into spending almost $10 for the type of digital guide that is freely available online. Caveat emptor![Update: Fixed typo.][Thanks Sanchez]
Wii Sports tricks
Wii Sports may be the sleeper hit of the Wii launch; this little game's depth and options keep impressing us. GameFAQs has even been tabulating tricks and cheat codes for this pack-in.While you may discover many of the tricks on your own -- like our occasional bowling ball toss in reverse -- many of the techniques add simple new features to the game. For example, hold the direction pad when beginning a bowling game to change your ball's color. Other tricks change the tennis court color and pitch baseballs under-hand, while tips help score that elusive 91-pin strike.[Via digg]
