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Has Concerned's Gordon Frohman lost all his HP?
It seems, after one catastrophic incident after another, Concerned's Gordon Frohman has finally died. Following a massive fall from the City 17 citadel with a not-so-ceremonious landing onto Dr. Breen, Frohman mistakenly turns off "Buddha mode," allowing his HP to drop below one.Is Frohman dead? After 204 issues spanning just under 18 months, has Concerned told its last tale? The webcomic's forums are alive with debate on its finality, and a video game protagonist never truly dies (just return to the most recent save). The main website still claims he will update "every Tuesday and Thursday," so maybe Epilogue #2 will show up tomorrow.Thanks to Chris Livingston for a hilarious comic. Be sure to sift through the archives if you have a chance.[Thanks, Epic]
More in-game commentary coming next-gen?
MTV News takes a look at one of Half-Life 2: Episode One's best secrets: the in-game commentary track. Much like the DVD format's popular director's commentary feature, Valve stuck in audio commentary from the game's developers. Hit the little floating text bubble and be treated to commentary on everything from design conceits (like apologizing for artificial barriers) to eye-candy techniques (yup, that's HDR lighting).The problem is, according to Valve's own statistics, only 15% of the gamers who've played Episode One have activated the feature. Regardless of its popularity, Valve project manager Erik Johnson says, "There isn't really any chance of us leaving it out in our future titles." That's good news for those of us interested in the commentary feature. Unfortunately, not every game developer is going to keep it in, even if they got there first.Factor 5 included developer commentary on their Star Wars: Battle for Naboo title on the N64, an impressive feat for a cartridge system. They've included commentary on every title since then, so a commentary track on the PlayStation 3's Lair (with its copious amounts of Blu-ray space) would seem to be a perfect touch. Insomniac Games has commentary plans for their next game (following PS3 launch title Resistance), but that 15% number may make them nervous. Insomniac's Ted Price said, "If gamers want audio commentary, they have to let it be known." Okay, Ted. So, gamers, were you amongst Valve's 15% and if not, why?
Duct tape + cardboard = DI? Half-Life 2 costume
A Planet Half-Life member, who goes only by the online nom de guerre "Kevin," created this incredible Gordon Freeman costume with nothing but duct tape and cardboard (seriously, that's it). In exchange, he has earned the admiration of nerds and Halloween costume partygoers everywhere. Why do cosplayers always have to dress up as Final Fantasy characters, or Mario anyway? Joystiq salutes you, Dr. Freeman. Just don't bring any of those headcrabs to our staff party.[Via Aeropause]
Seeing Azeroth with the options turned up
Frostbolt went out and got himself one of those shiny new 20" iMacs, and he says wow, WoW looks good on it. One of my favorite things about WoW is how well it seems to run on almost any hardware, but I know what Frosty means-- there's a big difference between playing with all the options off and turning on the underwater, drunk, and glowy effects. Spells, buffs, and instances look so much better when you have a nice rig and all the effects turned on.Right now I'm running WoW on a PC I've had for a while-- it doesn't look too bad chugging along at 1.8ghz, 512mb of RAM and a GeForce 5200, but by the time Burning Crusade hits, I'll be done building my new monster: overclocked to 4ghz with a watercooled processor, 2gb of RAM (that's right, baby), and a GeForce 7900 GS in the PCI-e slot. All I need is to find a deal on a case and the RAM, and I'll be set to build my monster WoW machine.But sometimes you don't even need a whole computer-- a few months ago I went ahead and invested in a sweet 24" Dell widescreen monitor, and that, as Robert Frost says, "has made all the difference." I couldn't imagine healing a 40 man raid with a 15" or even a 17" monitor-- all those meters would cloud up the place before long. Then again, I've seen screenshots around of people playing WoW at 800x600 resolution. I'd consider that unplayable, but maybe I'm being elitist. According to the latest Steam survey, 1024x768 is still the standard for Half-Life players-- Blizzard doesn't track the same info (or at least they don't release it), but I wonder if WoWers tend to skew their tech faster or slower than that. Thoughts? What kind of rig are you playing this game on?
HL2 plushie headcrabs...you know, for kids
I'm not sure how many little kids are gonna be trading in their raggedy teddy-bears for Valve's official plushie headcrab, but I do know one grown man-child who is seriously considering plunking down the relatively steep $25 asking price. C'mon, for that price you could get Half-Life: Episode One and have enough left over to pick up an authentic crowbar, for that real Gordon Freeman experience.We all know these are gonna sell like crazy...question is, how many people are gonna be lazy and just name it Lamarr? How about Hedy? The name's Hedley!Click the "Continue" link to check out some additional pictures of Valve's plushie cuddlies.[Thanks, Muskie, Alex, and mofomojo]
Gamers resurrect imploded pop stars
What is it about Michael Jackson and machinima? After stumbling across this clever video set in Counter-Strike, I ran a couple of searches. This rabbit-hole goes deep. There's plenty of MJ to be found in World of Warcraft videos (Beat It, Billy Jean) which is unsurprising considering that the entire male population of night elves appears to have summered at Neverland ranch in their youth (this would explain many of their pathological in-game tendencies, but that's a whole 'nother rabbit hole). Many of the night-elf dance moves are lifted from the King of Pop's library of signature jigs, including the pelvic thrust and twirly-hand-leg-kick thing. Even denizens of Second Life appear to be thrilled by the opportunity to relive the days when Jacko only pretended to be ghoulish. Through machinima, fans of celebs who have dashed their careers against the treacherous reefs of fame can now travel back to the future. Fans can return to a time when their idols still had something worth worshipping. It's a form of therapy.
