Words about videogames.
Further down, in a picture that got cut out when I photographed this page, there’s a guy wearing an old-man-beret-ish-type hat. He looks like a tosser. I think this is worthy of note.
Hey Kate, they weren’t breathing down the necks of girls because they’re not used to being around the ladeez. They were just trying to absorb the other guests’ T-Energy.
Charles Martinet and I in the GG office. Giant question mark proudly brought to you by rad production coordinators who work within the ABC. Neato Mario brooch by some lady with big, red curly hair who I once met outside of Sydney. She was making bibs or something.
Ohai, internets! It has been a while since I last updated, and with good reason! You see, maintaining a blog is a bit like using Tamilee Webb’s Abs Of Steel (from the same series as Buns Of Steel, but with an abdominal focus). The moment you take even the shortest of breaks from doing it, it becomes too easy to not do it, and before you know it you’ve left so much time in between steely workout sessions that you become intimidated by the workout itself and are scared to go back to it. So here I am with abs no steelier than before and a blog that hasn’t been updated in weeks. But whatever. LIKE ANYONE CARES.
So, aside from not doing Abs Of Steel or updating Zero Light Seeds, what have I been doing? Well, I’m glad you asked, Internets! I’ve been fulfilling my role as news editor at Hyper magazine, writing for a few other publications (there’s a Pixel Hunt review that I’ll post soon, as well as a review for Official Nintendo which I’ll post when the magazine comes out), interning, enrolling in French boot camp (I’m serious), drawing cars with faces on them (also serious), and interviewing the likes of Charles Martinet, the voice behind Mario, Luigi, Wario, and a squillion other videogame characters. He was heaps rad – perhaps one of the sweetest, most energetic, funny, and lively people I have interviewed for Good Game, or any outlet for that matter.
Anyway, this update was just to let you all know that the blog is still alive and I still have abs of flab. Because you all care, of course*.
*Not really. I apologise for the interruption. Please go back to your regular lives and I’ll ring a cow bell to get your attention when I think I’ve got something amusing to say.
Colombo's 'skeletal structure' (a.k.a this pink balloon) is as sturdy as they come!
There are three days to go until the totally radcore LocoRoco competition closes. Monsieur Pencil and I have seen 26 entries so far and, while they have all been good, we are puzzled by why so few people seem to be interested in winning a round, yellow god full of expensive sweets. Do people just not dig piñatas? Should we have painted Colombo a different colour? Are you all raging diabetics?
It’s not too late to enter, guys. Just head over to Jeremy Pencil’s blog and post a comment letting us know what gaming-themed piñata you’d like to see us make next. The winner gets sent Colombo — the piñata of my heart.
Speaking of piñatas, Jeremy Pencil donated his own LocoRoco piñata — Steve (although Pencil refers to him as ‘Horus’ for some bizarre reason) — to the Good Game set. So the next time you tune into the show, keep an eye out for a bouncing, yellow god.
The one on the left is named Colombo Magneus Julius Picardian III. The one on the right is Steve. That is my hand and nose.
Remember how Jeremy Pencil and I made LocoRoco piñatas a few weeks ago? Well, we made two yellow blobs of joy and neither got smashed to pieces because we both grew too attached to them. (I was referring to the LocoRoco, btw, not my fat cousins. Although they, too, are yellow blobs of joy.)
Realising that this is an unhealthy attachment, we have both decided to give my piñata — Colombo Magneus Julius Picardian III — away. Mr. Pencil will be hanging onto his own piñata because he has major dependency issues, but I’d like to see little Colombo go to a nice home where he will be hung from a broomstick for a few hours before getting the shit smacked out of him by a bunch of rowdy, festive folk.
Right, so onto the point of this post. Pencil and I are running a competition, and the best entry will win Colombo. It doesn’t matter where you live in the world — if you have a postal service in your area and your country isn’t run by communists (sorry, Vietnam), you are eligible to enter and, if you win, we will wrap Colombo up in bubblewrap, carefully place him in a box, and ship him to your humble abode.
Here’s the competition:
Comment on Mr. Pencil’s competition blog entry with your suggestion on what kind of gaming-related piñata we should make next.
The reason why I direct you over to Terminal Atrocity is because Mr. Pencil spends all his time sitting at his desk waiting for people to give him love via comments, which means he checks them more frequently than I do.
If you want to see what’s IN Colombo, read on.
Shit game, amazing package (THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID, LOLZORZ!)
I had to share this because it was my proudest achievement today. Part of my job at the super badical kids’ magazine I work for involves me sending out prizes to children who win the competitions we run. In this case, we’d organised a Sonic Unleashed comp with Sega, and today was the time for me to do the mailing. The prize included:
- a Sonic hoodie
- a Sonic t-shirt
- Sonic/Werehog figurine
-a Sonic key ring
- Sonic Unleashed for the Wii
- a beach ball (naturally)
Rather than try and shove all this into an envelope, I used the hoodie as a packaging device and wrapped all the goods in the hoodie. And then I shoved it all in an envelope. So, kids, there’s some craptastic shit amazing prizes coming your way!
If we had hands, we'd do the mannerism!
There are many reasons why one would make a LocoRoco piñata. Perhaps you’re a Mexican who likes the game. Perhaps you’re a Mexican who hates the game. Perhaps you’re a massive nerd holding a Mexican-themed party. Or maybe you’re trying to erase bad childhood memories of your grandfather filling piñatas with coins so that, upon smashing said piñata, bits of metal would come flying at your face. Yes, perhaps you are trying to replace those memories with new ones, ones where candy would come hurling in your general direction rather than, say, shrapnel.
Whatever your reason may be, you may or may not want to read this guide to making your own piñata. Jeremy Pencil of Terminal Atrocity and I collaborated on this craft-tastic project, painstakingly documenting every step of the way. We were so industrious, we made two!
The following guide will teach you how to make the piñata. If you would like to read about the experience from someone else’s perspective, then Mr. Pencil has done his own little write-up about our LocoRoco adventure. Anyway, enough with the jibber-jabber. LET’S DO IT!
This was supposedly what we were there for.
I don’t like the beach, I don’t like sunshine, and I’m not a fan of Bondi and its perfectly tanned and toned individuals. But I do like Spongebob. I do like him quite a lot. In fact, I like him enough to haul my shade-loving arse to Sydney’s painfully sunny Bondi Beach, all in the name of a Nickelodeon media event where I was promised I’d get to meet Spongey and Patrick Star. So, with my sunscreen, sunnies, hat, jeans, enclosed shoes with socks, cardigan, and backpack full of hand-held consoles on me, that’s exactly what I did this morning.
I was going to use a photo of Sophie and I from our last winter holiday, but then I found this in my album. It features two of my friends playing Twister. So I'm using it.
My dear friend Sophie is currently on exchange in Europe, learning all sorts of crazy things like Swedish, or something. At the time of writing, she was learning Swedish in-jokes. She recently sent a message to my circle of friends — all of whom have significant others; I being an exception — telling us about all the wonderful things she’s been getting up to. The final paragraph of her long message read like this:
In summary: everything is beautiful. Hey, how would you chooks like to go on a short holiday this winter? We could bring the boyfriends and girlfriends and so on. Tracey, you could bring a PS2. Oh and board games, of course. Thoughts?
FML.
Image courtesy of Fat Chicks In Party Hats.
I didn’t look forward to March for about a bajillion reasons. One such reason was that my calendar was awfully blank — no exciting game launches, no big industry nights, no fun dates, and no truly mind-blowing game releases that I could actually afford. You see, I get paid in beans and, while they’re a fantastic source of folate and fibre, I’ve been told that they’re not a valid form of currency in Australia. Anyway, as it turns out, my calendar lied. While there were indeed no fun dates or game releases I could afford, I did find myself in the company of a brand-spanking new, white DSi…
I painted Pip Boy's face on with a toothpick and Nutella. How tragic.
Those who know me may or may not know that I bake a lot. Well, I used to bake a lot. I haven’t made anything worthy of writing home about since last Christmas when I baked Lumines cupcakes (picture above) for a “games industry” drinking event. They were the most time-consuming cupcakes I’d ever made, and it was the first time I’d had fun with fondant as well. [I've been meaning to put that recipe up, but I only documented half of it. I stopped taking photos as soon as I started using food colouring.] At the event, I overheard someone say that the cakes were “too dry”, that hurt my feelings; I cried for days and vowed to never bake again, so I stopped baking for a while.
Anyway, I’m undertaking another baking adventure over the next few days. The journalism society at my university is holding a tea party fundraiser so that we can fund our own drunken shenanigans various journalistic events that all students on campus can enjoy. Not that I particularly care about other students — I just don’t like seeing a society that I’m an executive member of being in the red. I’ve volunteered to make cupcakes, brownies, and shortbread, but I’m not sure what gaming theme I should use. So I’m taking requests!
What kind of videogame cupcake/shortbread/chocolate brownie thing would you like to see me make? I’m ready to take suggestions on board. Keep in mind that if you suggest something to the effect of “bake the final cut-scene in Metal Gear Solid 4!” I will not even bother because, well, I’m a journalist, not a cakist*.
So yeah… GO GO GO!
Aside from scoring some sweet by-lines, stepping out of the AAP office and encountering this bus made my day.
A guy at work was talking about how he was having difficulty getting past a bunch of sand worms in a game he was playing. I don’t remember the title of the game, but he said he could never get further than 20 minutes into this game before quitting because the sand worms were tough like bitches.
As he told us how hard this game was, Junglist and Jo brought up what they believed to be the hardest game ever made: Mushihimesama Futari.
If you watch the above clip, the purple/pink things are the bullets. If you’re wondering how the little airship is managing to survive the onslaught of bullets, it’s because the actual target on the ship is only a few pixels wide – significantly smaller than the ship itself.
Neat, yeah? And by ‘neat’, I really mean ‘ZOMGWTFBBQ THAT SHIT IS B-A-N-A-N-A-S!’.
