Games
As big a gamer as I am, I have to admit that the Dance Dance Revolution games are not for me. I’d be lucky to not fail out of the easiest one player game. However, I have found a guy who these games are for. This dude is amazing. He takes on a two player game all by himself and absolutely kills it. Now I don’t know if there is a Dance Dance Revolution championship tournament out there (there probably is), but if this guy doesn’t win it, I don’t know if I want to see the person who does.
This can display of Mario is probably the most impressive thing of it’s kind that I’ve ever seen. Seeing this picture took me back to my days of working at a grocery store when I was a teenager. I probably got more enjoyment out of making these displays than I was supposed to. While I never got to do anything this elaborate, I always rejoiced in the fact that I was getting paid to use stuff like 12 packs of soda as building blocks. For a guy who still plays with LEGOs, that’s not a bad gig.
I’ve been a pretty big video gamer my whole life. The first game I can ever remember playing was Ms. Pac-Man. My brother and I took turns on the game while at the laundromat with our mom. Since that time, I’ve never stopped gaming. Even with the technological advances in the gaming industry, I miss the arcades of old. I would spend hours in them. Even after I had spent all my money I’d still hang around and watch everyone else play. As much as I love home consoles, the arcade as I knew it effectively disappearing makes it feel like a little magic has been lost. Still, the memory lives on in myself and others, and it always does my heart good to see people still paying tribute to the games of the past. Today’s video is such a tribute. It is a stop motion video made entirely with post-it notes. It lasts only two and a half minutes, but took 4,800 post-it notes, 5,722 still images, and 11 months to complete. My hat is off to the guy for sticking with it until it was done.
Last week I talked Acadia out of an Ingress activation code. Ingress is a game created by NianticLabs@Google for Android devices. It’s currently in closed beta, meaning it’s closed to the public and anyone lucky enough to get an invite right now is basically testing it out for them. I hadn’t been particularly interested at first, but after a friend of mine had me ride shotgun while he hacked some portals I wanted in pretty badly. Long story short… I’m going to have to pull some overtime to make it up to the boss.
Ingress is a “capture the flag” kind of game with two teams competing for territory. It’s pretty much nerd gang wars. In this case the Enlightened (green team)are battling it out with the Resistance (blue team) for control of portals. The twist is that you have to actually go out and about to the various locations that these portals are located at and be standing at the location to access them. Portals can be fortified, and your ability to do so increases as you level up in the game. Also, the attack power you have access to increases with your level. Pretty standard stuff.
The fact that the targets have to be accessed up close and personal added two elements to the game that were unfamiliar to me though. The first is that you can, and do, run into other players on a regular basis. Within a couple of days of playing I had met others out doing the same thing, and even discussed strategies and was given game advice. Everyone seemed friendly and helpful. The second element is that in the first week alone a ton of miles were driven, a lot of gas was burned, and I walked what seemed like a million miles. Gaming has never left anything but my thumbs sore in the past, so my burning calves were a particularly surprising side effect. Oh, and talking about blowing up things in front of post offices (where many portals are located) was sketchy at best.
All in all, It’s definitely a fun game. You have to invest some time and effort to make it worthwhile, but that’s the case with a lot of MMO’s. And with New Year’s resolutions breathing down my neck the extra exercise was a nice bonus. I highly recommend you check it out, especially once a shiny clean version is released to the public.
I know Skyrim might be out of fashion, but this made me lol.
If you’ve been exposed to video gaming at all in the last few decades, you know of Street Fighter. Remember that move that Ryu did? The thing where he screamed the move’s name as he did it?
This thing.
Well, the guy in today’s video seems to have figured out a way to do it in real life. No, really! Dude puts out a whole row of candles just by punching the air a bunch of times. See for yourself after the jump!