Category: Games

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Xbox Live Turns 5ive – Freebies for Everyone!

I first saw this on angel-grrl’s blog, but then realized that it’s pretty much scattered across the web, especially on deal sites. I’ve been stuck in a meeting since 1 and didn’t really have time to check deals during that time.

Apparently today marks the 5th anniversary of Xbox Live and they’re giving a way a bunch of freebies: Xbox Live is 5IVE: How to Get the Free 500 MS Points

Microsoft is celebrating the fifth anniversary of Xbox Live in a big way. It has released Carcassonne for free and it is also giving away 500 Microsoft Points to every active member who joined the service in 2002. If you were wondering how to get those precious MS Points, we have the answer.

To claim your 500 Microsoft Points, all you have to do is register on this web site using your Windows Live ID associated to your gamertag. You can register until midnight (Pacific Time) on November 29, 2007, and after you do so, you will receive an e-mail with a 25-digit code that lets you to activate your Microsoft Points through your Xbox 360 console. Don’t expect that email to arrive instantly as the deadline for that email is December 21, 2007.

It is also worth mentioning that these 500 Microsoft Points expire on June 30, 2008, but we are sure you’ll spend them way before that date.

If you missed the Carcassonne freebie link above, here it is again: Reminder: Get Carcassonne for Free

Microsoft is celebrating the fifth anniversary of Xbox Live and as a gesture of thanks to the gaming community, all eight million Xbox Live members will have the opportunity to download Carcassonne for free between 12:01 a.m. PST on Nov. 15 and 11:59 p.m. PST on Nov. 16. In addition to this, every active member who joined the service in 2002 will receive 500 MS Points for free.

Named after the medieval fortified town of the same name in southern France, Carcassonne is the video game adaptation of the classic tile-based German board game. Designed for two to five players, Carcassonne is set in a medieval landscape made up of tiles. Players start from a single tile and then draw from a pool of remaining tiles to create a growing landscape and gain points for ultimate victory.

Carcassonne features the complete 72 tiles from the original board game, all rule sets, and the 12 additional tiles found in the Rivers 1 Expansion Set.

I’ve played Carcassonne in real life with a bunch of friends, and although I suck at it (still haven’t really figured out the strategies yet), it’s rather fun. I haven’t tried to play it via Xbox Live yet, but being free makes it tempting now.

According to Kaos, they are also giving away themes and gamerpics which usually cost money for free.

Since this probably expires tonight, I decided I would post it now, instead of later.

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Cal vs WSU – Video Game Half Time Show

Saw this on Digg: The Cal Marching Band’s Amazing 16-bit Video Game Halftime Show

Of course unfortunately, we lost the game. That was too bad. However, the half time show turned out to be quite awesome. Update: Thanks to MandalayX for pointing out, this was actually not the USC game, but the WSU game which we won.

Video games which I saw:

  • Pong
  • Tetris
  • Mortal Kombat (thanks to RayAlome)
  • Pokemon
  • Zelda
  • Super Mario

The video was hard to see as it was upside down. I wished it was shot from the other side. Maybe someone will post one up later. The hardest one to see was Mortal Kombat, which was an MK inside a box and then an upside down dragon.

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Cowbell Hero

Got this from Digg: Cowbell Hero

That was just so awesome I had to show it to you guys. It’s a parody on Guitar Hero, but instead of a guitar being the instrument, you’re playing a cowbell. If you haven’t seen the SNL skit on this, here it is: More Cowbell! As Christopher Walken says, “Guess what! I’ve got a fever. And the only prescription is more cowbell.”

The original song was of course Blue Oyster Cult – Don’t Fear The Reaper.

Apparently this clip was taken from AMV Hell 4. I’ll see if I can get a better quality clip and share it. AMV stands for anime music video. The anime this is from is Azumanga Daioh (あずまんが大王). The one banging the pan is Kasuga Ayumu and the one in bed is Yukari sensei (confirmed with Artemyst).

The Cowbell Hero logo appears to be taken from a T-Shirt logo designed by SplitReason: Cowbell Hero T-Shirt

While searching for the SNL skit, I found this: GH2 Custom – Don’t Fear the Reaper 5* (Better). Someone had actually made a custom Guitar Hero 2 track. Sometimes in the background, you see a guy clapping, which at first I thought was someone banging a cowbell.

Update:
I managed to rip a higher quality version:

cowbell hero

Enjoy!

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組曲『ニコニコ動画』 – Kumikyoku [Nico Nico Douga]

There’s been a song/video that’s been spreading across the net like wildfire: 組曲『ニコニコ動画』 – Kumikyoku [Nico Nico Douga]

組曲 (Kumikyoku) literally translates to medley/musical suite. ニコニコ動画 (Nico Nico Douga) is the name of a site: nicovideo.jp, a YouTube like video sharing site, but mainly for Japanese people. Unfortunately, to access anything on that site, it requires you to register/login, and the process isn’t that simple for someone who doesn’t understand Japanese. Several of the videos I posted recently were pulled from there and uploaded to my gallery.

Anyway, here’s what I believe the original is: 組曲『ニコニコ動画』動画Ver., where the music is just synthesized and the animation playing matches the song that is currently played.

Here you have a full orchestra and choir (100 people) performing the song: 合唱 組曲「ニコニコ動画」グランドフィナーレ. If you want this song, you can listen/download it in mp3 format: 組曲『ニコニコ動画』SP-Edision_feat.ミク.mp3

Angelus shared this with me today:
Kumikyoku [Nico Nico Douga]
組曲『ニコニコ動画』 psychoがちょっと弾いて歌ってみた

The guy singing it does a pretty good job and it reminded me of the guy who sings at the end of Lucky Star.

Here you have a group of 258 Taiwan college students singing in the lecture hall: せっかくだから台湾人258人で一緒に組曲『ニコニコ動画』を歌ってみた！ Do remember this song is completely in Japanese and Taiwan student’s native language is Mandarin/Taiwanese.

People have mixed it with different animations and added lyrics to the song. You can view most of them on YouTube.

According to 合唱 組曲『ニコニコ動画』 featuring 初音ミク Special-Edition Ver.ニコニコ動画コメント付, this is the list of songs featured in the medley in order:

http://gallery.krunk4ever.com/v/Videos/Kumikyoku-Nico-Nico-Douga.flv.html

  1. エージェント夜を往く / LindaAl-CUE 【00:00 Agent yoru o iku (Idolmaster)】
  2. ハレ晴れユカイ / 涼宮ハルヒ(平野綾)、長門有希(茅原実里)、朝比奈みくる(後藤邑子) 【00:45 Hare hare yukai (Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)】
  3. 患部で止まってすぐ溶ける ～ 狂気の優曇華院 / IOSYS 【01:14 Invisible Full Moon(?)】
  4. Help me, ERINNNNNN!! / ビートまりお 【01:25 ?(?)】
  5. nowhere / FictionJunction YUUKA 【01:37 nowhere(MADLAX)】
  6. クリティウスの牙 / 光宗信吉 【02:00 Yu-gi-oh】
  7. GONG / JAM Project 【02:20 GONG(SRW Alpha 3)】
  8. 森のキノコにご用心 / 下村陽子 【02:31 SMRPG Song(Märta)】
  9. Butter-Fly / 和田光司 【02:42 Butter-Fly(Digimon Adventure)】
  10. 真赤な誓い / 福山芳樹 【02:52 Makka na chikai(Busou Renkin)】
  11. エアーマンが倒せない / せら【03:16 AirMan?(?)】
  12. 勇気VS意地 / 佐橋俊彦 【03:35?(Prince of Tennis Musical)】
  13. アンインストール / 石川智晶　【03:44 Uninstall(Bokurano)】
  14. 鳥の詩 / Lia 【04:07 Tori no Uta(AIR)】
  15. you / dai 【04:31 you(Higurashi no naku koro ni Meakashi-hen)】
  16. 魔理沙は大変なものを盗んでいきました / IOSYS 【04:53 Marisa ha taihen na mono o nusunde ikimashita(?)】
  17. 思い出は億千万 / 蒼い牙 【05:40 ?(Mega Man2?)】
  18. God knows… / 涼宮ハルヒ(平野綾) 【06:42 God Knows(Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)】
  19. もってけ！セーラーふく / 泉こなた(平野綾)、柊かがみ(加藤英美里)、柊つかさ(福原香織)、高良みゆき(遠 藤綾) 【07:07 Motteke sailor fuku(Lucky star)】
  20. ガチャガチャへるつ・ふぃぎゅ＠ラジオ / MOSAIC.WAV(みーこ) 【07:28 ?(Figu@ate Carniival)】
  21. 21 – 創聖のアクエリオン / AKINO 【07:44 Genesis of Aquarion(Genesis of Aquarion)】
  22. ふたりのもじぴったん / 神前暁 【08:06 Mojipittan(Xenopittan?)】
  23. つるぺったん / Silver Forest (Kana) 【08:16 ?(?)】
  24. Here we go! / 近藤浩治 【08:27 ? (Super Mario World)】
  25. true my heart / ave;new feat. 佐倉紗織 【08:35 True My Heart(Nursery Rhyme)】
  26. kiss my lips / ave;new feat. 佐倉沙織 【08:51 ?(?)】
  27. RODEO MACHINE / HALFBY 【08:58 ?(?)】
  28. 序曲(DRAGON QUEST) / すぎやまこういち 【09:08 ?(Dragon Quest)】
  29. FINAL FANTASY / 植松伸夫 【09:21 ?(Final Fantasy?)】
  30. ガチャガチャきゅ～と・ふぃぎゅ＠メイト / MOSAIC.WAV(みーこ) 【09:29 ?(Figu@mate)】
  31. あいつこそがテニスの王子様 / 佐橋俊彦【09:54 ?(Prince of Tennis Musical)】
  32. レッツゴー！陰陽師 / 矢部野彦麿(でんちゅう)&琴姫(MOMOEIKA) 【Let’s go!Taoist(?)】
  33. さくら / 山田耕筰 feat. Fooさん 【10:17 Sakura Sakura(?)】

I’ve probably seen/played about 1/3 of what’s up there and probably know of at least 2/3 of them. Enjoy!

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Flash Portal

So I was going through The ten most addictive online flash games ever made posted earlier on /. Most of them I’ve played and agree are indeed addictive. There were a few that I haven’t heard of that were mildly fun, but then there was Portal: The Flash Version. I was just telling Xyon earlier today that one of the new games I wanted to play was Portal (which comes as part of The Orange Box) and showed him the trailer.

The flash version is a 2D version with basically the same idea. I got up to about level 30 before it was dinner time.

Enjoy!

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Yaris – Free XBLA Game

I apologize for not posting much recently. My blog topics have been accumulating. Here’s just a few of my draft titles: 5 Free iTunes Songs Followup, Fighting Dance Moves, Credit Card Update, Elliptical User Warnings, Dwarfs Count, Cute Cat Comic, Lucky Star, and File Server (yes, it’s still in queue to blog about). Here’s one that’s in my email box that I found.

I’m shocked that one of my most popular posts is 4 Free Xbox Live Arcade Games, generating about 200 unique views this past month.

A few weeks ago, while I was looking at the MSFT stock headlines (speaking of which, did you see the recent surge?!?!? We not only broke $30, but now we’re at $35!), I saw this: Want a Free Xbox Game?

If you’re still smarting after shelling out $60 for a copy of Halo 3 last month, relief is on the way. Xbox owners connected to the Xbox Live Marketplace are getting a free treat this week with a game called Yaris.

OK, maybe it’s more product placement than video game. The New York Times reports that Toyota bankrolled the game to promote its Yaris car line. There’s little for Toyota to lose here. Racing car games are popular. Electronic Arts has a killer franchise in Need for Speed. Activision recently bought the developer behind the Project Gotham Racing series, which has sold 4.5 million copies.

The Xbox marketplace provides developers with inventory-free distribution, so it’s not as if Toyota is going to have to eat a ton of returns. As long as players don’t walk into a Toyota showroom and wonder why the real Yaris can’t shoot missiles or claw away at other drivers with electronic tentacles, Toyota will accomplish its goal of reaching out to young drivers.

For more information on the Yaris game, check out Yaris (Xbox 360) and Toyota Yaris: Xbox LIVE Arcade Game.

I downloaded this game last week, but haven’t really had a chance to play it yet. Still trying to get through Halo 3. Given that I play about an hour or 2 a week, I’m not progressing that fast. Stanman and them were over this weekend to play multiplayer Halo 3 and they made fun of me for not having unlocked any of the costumes.

But here’s another free xbox live arcade game for you! Enjoy!

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Street Fighter IV Trailer

Thanks to Angelus for sharing this new trailer with me: Street Fighter IV.

They’re actually going to make a Street Fighter IV game!!! The trailer looks amazing, though I don’t know how much that’ll resemble the game.

Anyway, like all cool videos, I like to collect them, and I found the *.flv file in my Firefox cache and uploaded it to my gallery:
Street Fighter IV - Trailer

If you prefer to watch, stream, or download a WMV version, I’ve re-encoded it with Windows Movie Maker (high resolution and low resolution respectively):
Street Fighter IV - TrailerStreet Fighter IV - Trailer

These aren’t exactly HD (high definition) rips, but close enough. Gametrailers.com doesn’t have a true 720p HD version yet, but I can’t wait to get it.

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Dead Fantasy I

Thanks to Tera for notifying me that Monty Oum, the guy who created Haloid has created a new video titled: Dead Fantasy I. This time, unlike previously, the download links for both the HD and non-HD version are available.

The video features girls from Dead or Alive fighting against girls from Final Fantasy. At first it was just Yuna (from FFX) fighting against Kasumi and Ayane. Later when Rikku (also from FFX) pops up and aids Yuna. One by one the girls pop up ending with Hitomi (from DOA) and Tifa (from FFVII). The video ends there with a “to be continued…”

I thought the video was lacking compared to his Haloid video. That isn’t to say it wasn’t done well. The choreography and animation was pretty amazing, but I didn’t really get the storyline. Why were the girls fighting? Why are they showing up 1 by 1? Maybe he’ll start explaining some stuff in the next release: Dead Fantasy II: coming soon!

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思い出は億千万 (110 Million Memories)

So I first heard this song in the Piano Medley I posted a week ago. At that time I thought it was just one of the Megaman theme songs. However, recently I watched a random video which actually gave the song lyrics! I was like… lyrics for Megaman theme song!?!?!

Digging further, I found out the song is called 思い出は億千万 (omoide ha okkusenman). It’s sometimes shorten to just 億千万 (okkusenman). The title translates to 110 Million Memories and I’ve been listening to the song over and over again. If you’re interested, you can download the song: okkusenman.mp3 (from Hardcore Mix with ゴム). If you get a weird Japanese Yahoo! page when trying to download the mp3, that just means the allocated bandwidth for that day has been used up, so try again later.

It appears multiple bands have played this as a cover song. It also appears there’s been several iterations of this song posted YouTube, the first being: ロックマン２　おっくせんまん ～　Hardcore Mix with ゴム ～ where they used video taken from the Rockman 2 (Megaman 2) game.

Later on, someone actually animated the song based on the lyrics, which really doesn’t have anything to do with Rockman/Megaman. If anything, it’d be Ultraman since that’s apparently the boy’s childhood hero. You can check out the new animation here: おもいではおっくせんまん(ボーカル有り)

I wanted to find out what the song was about. I got the jist of it, but my Japanese isn’t all the great and I didn’t want to search phrase by phrase. I found the translation here: OKKUSENMAN: MEMORIES ARE BILLIONS, but what was even better was the fact they linked to a video where the video had English subtitles: My Memories are 110 Million Music Video.

After watching the video for probably the 15th time, I’ve began to feel nostalgic. The song is about how when you were a kid, anything was possible, including becoming Ultraman (a children’s TV superhero). You don’t care how others see you, even when you run around acting silly playing Ultraman. As you grow up, you become more and more aware of how you others view you and become restricted in what you do. Friends go off in their own paths and soon you’re doing the same thing day in and day out.

It’s very sad and I miss those childhood days. When I was small, I’d have this imaginary kingdom, where I was the emperor. I was master ninja/swordsman and had millions of people under my command. I would play sword fights with imaginary enemies who were very skilled. Often times, my sword and weapons would be imaginary too, so you’d see a little me running around the house kicking and punching. I’m surprised I didn’t break anything… or did I? Those were the days, very fun. Unfortunately, with imaginary kingdoms, it’s hard to invite friends or siblings to join, as their vision of the imaginary kingdom differs from your own.

But those days are over… sigh…

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Gaming Addiction

So I was reading this article on Games for Windows titled: Don’t Call Me Catass by Jeff Green. It’s not posted online (yet?) as this is part of the October issue. It’s an interesting article about gaming addiction and there are some things I wanted to share.

Early on he introduces some terms I’ve never heard of:

They do not want to nurture or encourage the sad legion of poopsockers and catassers and pasty-faced, three-chinned zombies profiled on shows like 48 Hours and The Tyra Banks Show for having lost their jobs and families because of their inability to stop gaming. Nor do I want to be one of those people. I laugh at those people.

Honestly, I’ve known a few people who had fallen behind in college and even dropped out due to gaming addiction. One of my friend’s parents even drove all the way from Southern California to Berkeley after he got put on probation and took away his Sony WEGA TV. I personally was never a big fan of MMORPGs, but those who are say it’s very easy to get addicted to.

Having no idea what catasser or poopsocker meant, I decided to check them out on Urban Dictionary:

catass

Some one who plays a Online game and excludes everything else. Often used to describe when some one has a lot of time to spend in a online game.
Came from a article in a newspaper on Everquest. The player they interviewed played so much Everquest he forgot to change his cats littler box, leading the reported to comment his house smelled like “a cats ass”.

Not every one has enough time to catass foir items in Everquest.

That guy is such a catass, he has been at the same spawn for 9 hours straight.

The explanation of poopsocker is actually rather gross, so if you’re eating, I’d recommend you skip the next section.

poopsocker

In reference to players of MMORPG’s that instead of taking a break to go to the bathroom, they take off their sock, defecate in it, and throw it aside for later disposal. Refers to someone who stays up all day and all night to play an MMORPG.

“Steve, how’d you make lvl 50 already? You were just lvl 45 a couple days ago. You friggin poopsocker!”

Ungsunghero questions why it’s not called a sockpooper instead, as it would sound more correct as the -er usually modifies the verb, which in this case is “poop”. People would recognize what sockpooper means pretty much immediately. Poopsocker just sounds like someone how socks poop, which also brings up a disturbing image nonetheless.

Anyway, it appears the original term was poopsock, so maybe that’s how the term poopsocker came about:

poopsock

1. A sock that is used as a temporary contained for faecal matter.
2. A vital part of any dedicated EverQuest player’s equipment. A poopsock eliminates the need to go all the way to the bathroom, which wastes valuable levelling time.
3. An insult used to refer to an obsessive MMORPG player who gains an unusually high number of levels in one day.

SpawnSlayer13 is such a poopsock. He got from level 1 to 60 in the space of a day.

Near the end of the article, he talks about the game Peggle which Hjo3 and Ungsunghero introduced to me recently. That game is addictive, but thank god that it cost $20 for the full version, so I stopped after the 1st 3 stages.

And that’s not all. I have bailed out on important social events because I was “busy,” only to spend that entire time trying to beat Peggle.

Speaking of which, I picked up Halo 3 and Blue Dragon today. God knows when I’ll actually play them, but for $25 a pop, I thought it was worth it to add to my collection.