Play – Page 285 – StuffWeLike

PWN or Die

From the makers of FunnyorDie.com, comes their latest spin-off PWNorDie.com. What’s great about this video site is that it’s geared towards techies at large and of course fanboys are welcome! They’ve already got tons of video game companies putting content up there. They also have Chris Pirillo, Fatal1ty, and yours truly StuffWeLike.

Know you, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. The only thing that’s annoying about the site is the low video resolution. Why would any hardcore gamer want to watch trailers that aren’t in high definition?

Lars Ulrich tries to be evasive about Guitar Hero: Metallica

Who is he kidding now? If a game called Guitar Hero: Aerosmith could work, what’s going to stop a Guitar Hero game on Metallica: one of the most well-known Thrash Metal bands ever? While we have almost certain confirmation that the game will be happening, Lars Ulrich was still acting a little cagey when asked about the game.

Talking to MTV News, he was caught saying:

“Let’s put it this way, [Our next album] Death Magnetic comes out in September, and the day it comes out, it will be available in the ‘Guitar Hero 3‘ format, which we’re obviously super-psyched about. As I’ve born witness to in my house, its all about the next generation. My kids play ‘Guitar Hero’ every day, and to be able to get the Metallica record the day it comes out, that’s super cool.”

“There’s an Aerosmith game out there that’s super successful, and if somebody’s gonna follow that up…we’re talking, and its exciting, and the people at ‘Guitar Hero’ and Activision are rapidly becoming our best new friends in the world. You can put the rest of it together yourself.”

Here at StuffWeLike, we’re hard at work putting the rest of it together, but our extreme calculations show that the result will be a glamour-filled, guitar-screaming, drum-killing title called Guitar Hero: Metallica! Or perhaps a variant on that name.

GameTap for Sale

Looks like GameTap’s parent company Turner is selling the video game online service. I’ve always liked the GameTap service, but at the same time it has lacked greatly in original and mainstream titles. I reviewed American McGee’s Grimm a couple of days ago, which was a step in the right direction.

Ultimately, GameTap has always appealed on nostalgic gamers. Old games are great for some time, but playing console games on the PC kind of sucks. I need a controller in my hands if I want a nostalgic feel. I do like that I can play tons of retro games, ones that I never bothered renting at the old-school Blockbusters. Oh Blockbuster how I don’t bother going to you anymore. But that’s a different story.

It was also a shame to see GameTap TV axed from its service. Back in the day, I actually used to have GameTap on my computer only for their videos! I didn’t bother playing games on it. Mixing in videos with games is a perfect combo

GameTap should merge with either GameFly, or some film distribution place like NetFlix. Imagine being able to watch movies and play games on your PC with ease.

Hopefully GameTap is able to stand up on its own two feet.

No GTA in Thailand after game-related murder

It’s controversy-time for Rockstar again. Reuters reports that Thailand has halted sale of Grand Theft Auto 4 after a dumbass teenager admitted to killing a goddamn taxi driver after being inspired by the game. While we’re not sure as to how much of an impact this is going to have on the game’s sales, Rockstar is definitely going to take some moral beatings.

The 18 year old boy wanted to see if it’s as easy to hijack a taxi as it is in the game. To conduct this experiment, he tried it on a 54 year old taxi driver. When the driver resisted, the boy killed him with a knife. He was later caught “trying to steer a cab backwards out of a Bangkok street with the severely wounded driver in the back seat”. Holy shit.

And what’s worse? The boy will be executed by a lethal injection if proved guilty. Seriously. I’m not even sure what to say. The boy was an arse alright, but a lethal injection? Thailand’s law is not to be messed with.

While anti-video game fanatics will say otherwise, I still say that there’s nothing wrong with the game. If the kid is stupid enough to try and find out if it is “as easy to hijack a taxi in real life as it is in the game”, then he was definitely the village idiot here. Or maybe suicidal.

A lethal injection. Damn.

Avary working on Wolfenstein movie script

I pondered months ago as to what basis Hollywood takes when adapting games into movies. I am still wondering the same. News has it that Roger Avary, scriptwriter who has worked on the likes of Pulp Fiction and Silent Hill is working on a script for a movie on Return to Castle Wolfenstein, due for release in 2010.

Yes, that game about an American prisoner in a German prison castle and involving undead Nazi zombies and what-not. Seriously, that’s the game Hollywood wants. After games with exceptional storylines like Doom, Far Cry, Dungeon Siege and Mortal Kombat, we have this. Wonderful.

Still, with Avary on the project, perhaps the movie can be heavily twisted to make it actually good. Also, Uwe Boll is not attached to the project in any way, which can only mean good. Avary hasn’t disclosed anything about the project yet, so anything can happen.

Todd Hollenshead, CEO of id, says:

“There’s some contract provisions and if they don’t have certain things done within a certain period of time they can’t just sit on the rights forever and not use them.

But apart from that me kind of nagging on him ‘hey is it done yet, hey is it done yet?’ will probably just be annoying and then Rog won’t answer my emails any more. I would probably get the one-sentence email that says, ‘Do you realise I have an Academy Award?’

Heh.