Sure, gaming videos have been around since God wore short pants, but being a sound guy and an insatiable consumer of all things musical, I've noticed a new kind of gaming video that's starting to pop up on sites like YouTube.

Gaming musicals.

Maybe it's because I spent way too many nights of my youth dressed in fish-net stockings and singing "Let's do the time warp again," but I've always had a soft spot for cleverly written original music. Especially about popular issues not generally subject of songs.

So when I discover on YouTube a vid that melds gaming and music, I have to watch. And frequenly I enjoy.

Here's two that are well worth mentioning. First, this video puts to song the epic struggle between the PS3 and the XBox 360. Actually, it more than astutely highlights the epic struggle between Sony and itself. Through music and some conference clips of Phil Harrison, it susinctly nails down exactly what has gone wrong with the PS3 and why, ultimately, its phenominal failure can be laid flatly at the feet of the House of Kutaragi.

Even better, it's a really well-written song and performed pretty decently. Proof that not all people who really care about games are 15-year-old fankids!

The second, and by far my favorite, is a take on the bugs that plagued GTA-"inspired" Saints Row. As you all know, though many had an occasional burp, a surprising amount of people who purchased this title were plagued by massive glitches -- from cars disappearing to the dreaded "fall to the center of the Earth."

The author of this vid was obviously one of the unlucky. With nowhere left to complain (because there was certainly enough gripes on numerous forums to document these problems), he wrote "Buggy Saints Row: The Musical" to document how perfectly unplayable and frustrating the game had become.

And again, he kicks ass.

Here's to you, clever gamers, who rather than repeatedly whine in forums about what's wrong with the industry decided to take your frustration and put the energy and talent into finding a whole new way to protest!!

Woot!

Say what you will about the terrible anime series or the potential animal cruelty factor of a game that is basically a non-stop onslaught of cock-fights, Pokemon was one of if not the most influential game of Nintendo's portable game strategy. 

Apparently created by a fan collective, Pokemon Online is a completely non-Nintendo project that aims to turn the Pokemon universe into a working MMORPG complete with quests, an open world, and opf course a great deal of pokemon fighting.

Taping into the most interesting, if basic aspects of the Pokemon games, this could prove an interestijng template for Nintendo to pay attention to--could the future of Pokemon reside in the MMO genre, and if so can Nintendo match fan expectations?

Dystopia, my favorite source mod, has just announced the release of version 1. New models, weapons, armor, and maps are just but the beginning of what to explore in the long awaited and now released version.

Fileplanet is hosting the file which you can grab here.

For those unfamiliar with Dystopia, it's a cyberpunk mod for Half-Life 2. When I say 'cyberpunk' I mean a world where corporations have taken over and the 'punks' (essentially the resistance) is fighting them back via means of computers and manpower. The game features a seamless transition from the real world to cyberspace unlike any other. I highly recommend checking this out.

Hi folks, Cooper Hawkes here alive but right handed only. (Long story)  I haven't had much time lately what with 70 hour work weeks to do.. well.. anything.  But I could NOT let this go by without bringing it to your attention.

Gabe from Penny Arcade went off on a rant this past Monday about that nutbag kid who killed a homeless guy, and I agree 100% with what he said.  Go here, and check out his article called: Here we go again.

But that's not even the BEST part.  No the best part is when the kids step-mother, responds.  Go here, and check out the article called: A rare opportunity.

Bless you Gabe, and blessings to you and your family you poor woman.

Semper Fi!

Discuss this topic in our forums.

Hey guys, so i was rummaging around the back dock of my work .... ok i was checking out what gaming stock came in *shooshh* and to my surprises there were several titles entitled The lucasarts classics. Taking a closer look the titles were Sam & Max Hit the Road, Full Throttle, Grim  Fandango, Curse of the Monkey Island, Jedi Knight Dark Forces II & Expansion, The Dig, SW Galactic Battleground + Expansion and SW Episode One Racer. I honestly didn't think they were gonna release them again, they are retailing at $9.95 Aus which is pretty awesome. So any classic gamer fans go out and grabs these cause they will go fast, i know i bought all of them except racer.

Note: Has been released in UK since 1 Dec 2006

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Hey all!

Andy her with another episode of GamerAndy Live!   This week Dominic and I talk about stupid.    Stupid fanboys, stupid executives and stupid console devs.   IT's a veritable Stup-trocity

Anyhow, We actually have show notes and they're after the jump.  Enjoy!

 

And as usual, stuff will be featured prominently.

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Continue reading "GamerAndy Live! Episode 72: Free Knife with Ev-Wii purchase"

Yet another slow week in gaming news, so i feel like feeding the fire of the rumor mill today. Recent rumor floating around have been the announcement of a Black Xbox 360 said to have a 120Gb hard drive, black controller  and HDMI.

Take this with a grain of salt mind you, the revelation comes from the site GamerReports reporting that they have an inside source that states Microsoft Australia has informed retail store Myers of this Black Xbox 360 with a price tag of $749 Aus dollars (Roughly $584 for you guys) which will be releasing in April, but as the rumor mill goes why release in April when you could release in late March to compete with the Sony's PS3 launch in Aus.

 I don't now about you guys but I could definitely use the 120gb Hard Drive as my current one is starting to get packed, more info if anything official happens.

It's an interesting thing.... Yesterday morning as I was perusing the latest XBL release info over at Major Nelson's site, one of the comments demanded the removal of Greg Canessa as GM of the Xbox Live Arcade.    Today, we find out he's decided to accept a job over at Popcap games.

For me, this brings up an interesting question - Is it more important to be a competant business man who has no real interest in games, beyond it being his business?  Or is it better to have a manager who understands the desires of gamers because, ultimately, he is one - even though he may be less experianced? 

The removal of Greg Canessa comes at an interesting time in the life of the Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace - the last game I bought was Small Arms, and I havn't felt like I was missing out.   On my console I have every single game downloaded, but have only purchased maybe five.   Why?   Even though I'm a hardcore gamer who does enjoy his gamerscore, I despise the repackaging of "Retro" titles.   In gaming, people use the word "Retro" like a compliment. "Oh, Pacman?   It's Retro!"  when in reality, some games are just old.    I understand the merits of titles like Galaga or Pole Position, but the fact of the matter is: If you havn't already played Pole Position, and you're a gamer - then you're not going to appreciate it.   Oh sure, you might claim to, but ultimately you just get that funky taste in your mouth and think "Hrmm, Maybe I should have played this before playing Grand Turismo 4". 

The practice of porting Retro Games to modern consoles is nothing but lazy developing.   While Microsoft is bad, Nintendo is even worse - somebody made a rather insightful comment on the VM for the Wii

From a development standpoing Nintendo has actually only released five items for the VC- an NES emulator, a SNES emulator, a Genesis emulator, a TG-16 emulator, and a N64 emulator. The rest are just ROM images.

So when you think about it, Nintendo is actually being even lazier!  The ROMS have been out there for years, as have the emulators.    No added features at all "to preserve the original feel", and they're expensive to boot.     Don't even get me started on the controls for Super Mario World when using a Gamecube controller.... 

Which brings us back to Greg Canessa leaving his post as the General Manager of the Xbox Live Arcade...   I think what we're seeing here is either Greg or Microsoft (or both) realizing that your average executive just doesn't understand what we, the gamers, actually want.  And since We, the Gamers, are their entire market, it's a significant distinction.    Microsoft recently announced that starting this week (and for the next 9 weeks ), a mostly impressive list of titles will be hitting the XBLA including (but not limited to) Catan, Worms, Alien Hominid HD, Rootbeer Tapper, Paperboy, Band of Bugs,  and Castlevania: SOTN. 

First one out the gate?  Rootbeer Tapper.
The next day?  General Manager Greg Canessa no longer works for Microsoft.

About six months ago, I had a conversation with a friend within MS, and we got to talking about the way Arcade was being handled.   He told me that we (GamerAndy Live!) bagged on Arcade too much, and I said that when they started putting out games I didn't feel they should be embarrassed about charging real money for (Lame, overdone retro titles) that we'd say nice things about it.   He then told me that he agreed and there were alot of people within that division who were trying to push the original content out, but it was being stopped because some of the higher-ups had gotten it in their heads that you could produce retro titles very cheaply, and make money off the nostalgic gamers - Pretty much all profit.

Coincidence?

I think we're about to see a New Day for XBLA

-Andy
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