lost in games

It’s the take it easy working day of the week. Weekend is just one coffee and one web browsing away. You can make your own coffee but i have some suggestions regarding your web browsing and reading.

Enjoy!

1. A video of the world’s largest model located in Hamburg, Germany. The Miniatur Wunderland. Link

2. Hilarious video. How Japanese children react to Zombie attacks. Link

3. The effects of watching Planet Earth are starting to show… Photographs of hyenas on a leash in Nigeria. Link

4. Facebook’s phenomenal growth continues. On 8 April 2009 it registered it’s 200millionth active user. This compares to 150m the site claimed in January of this year. Link

5. This is an extremely interesting article in the ongoing fight against piracy. Here’s an excerpt of the article.

“French lawmakers are poised to approve a law to create the world’s first surveillance system for Internet piracy, one that would force Internet service providers in some cases to disconnect customers accused of making illegal downloads…………The law empowers music and film industry associations to hire companies to analyze the downloads of individual users to detect piracy, and to report violations to a new agency overseeing copyright protection. The agency would be authorized to trace the illegal downloads back to individuals using the downloading computer’s unique identification number, known as its Internet Protocol, or IP, address, which the Internet service providers have on record.”  Link

The bill was defeated yesterday in French National Assembly. Link

6. How the Soviet Union built big. A list and description of 7 examples of the Soviets’ grand projects. Link

7. Four links for how Time Warner plans to charge broadband services according to how much data each user downloads. The first one is from GamersWithJobs (LINK ) and two from Dubious Quality (Link 1  and Link 2 ).  The final and fourth link is how Time Warner has made revisions to it’s original plans to accommodate lighter users of the service. (Link )

8. This is a game related link. Simon Parkin blogs about how positive aspects of a game can easily be seen as negative.

“In time it becomes possible to take a game product and write a damning review alongside a stirringly favourable one without threatening one’s integrity.” Link

9. Black and white wallpapers of retro mac games. Link

If you have any cool and interesting links email me and i will try and post them in future Click the Links.

A short (and hopefully sweet) Game releases post now live at OnThisIsland - Link

As a new regular post, every Friday i will be providing you with links to articles, videos and pictures that i found interesting over the course of the week. The links, as you can see below, will not be restricted to games.

If you happen to find or know anything that you feel is worthwhile please feel free to email me at costas.taliadoros@gmail.com and i will try and include them in future Friday’s Click the Link.

Enjoy your weekend!

1. The gaming world was shaken when the OnLive service was demonstrated at this year’s GDC. A service that allows the streaming of games through a small box. Eurogamer has an excellent article Why OnLive Can’t Possibly Work while Bill Harris over at Dubious Quality writes about what this technology means to games prices and publishers’ profit margins. Link

2. An amazing video about Dolphins and their bubbles (Not the kind you are thinking of…). Link

3. The Watchmen movie has basically come and gone. This article tries to explain why the creator of the comic book does not approve the adaptation of comics to movies and the author of the article reaches a very personal decision. Link

4. Teens capture images of space with £56 camera and balloon. The first Link is how they accomplished this incredible feat and the second Link the pictures they managed to take.

5. Top 10 Sexually Charged Late Night Interviews Of All Time. Drew Barrymore’s flashing at Letterman should have been the No.1. Link

6. An artistic version of the life cycle of an apple seed. Link

7. Two links dedicated to Far Cry 2, a first person shooter i thoroughly enjoyed. The first link is to The Brainy Gamer’s comments on the excellent soundtrack of the game which also has a Youtube audio. Link

The second is on a behind the scenes article which featured in a special Games Developers Conference issue of Game Developer magazine. Link

8. A fantastic article on the level of depth we explore each game, especially in recent times where the supply of games has geometrically increased.

“There is a danger for the games writer, as for the consumer who is addicted to gaming as a community pursuit, that we can never fully commit to a game lest we are left behind, snagged on a title over which the zeitgeist passed a few weeks ago.” Link

 ”And i find it kind of funny, i find it kind of sad”

MadWorld was no.34 in the UK’s sales charts in its first week of release. In the following week it disappeared from the top 40. From what i have read, the situation is not any better in the US either.

Unfortunately whenever a developer tries to do something bold and different the gamers’ response is “give us something we know and have seen before with a number preferably at the end of the game’s name”. MadWorld could not manage to find an audience even in the Wii’s massive installed base.

For PlatinumGames (developer) and Sega (publisher) this must be a big blow to another attempt to create a new IP with a distinct art style and gameplay. I don’t follow other forms of entertainment as much as i do video games so i don’t know if it’s common but it is really extraordinary how people avoid to venture out of their comfort zone. And sad.

“When people run in circles it’s a very, very

Mad world, mad world enlarging your world

Mad world”