No HD this time; sorry about that. I’ll see about reuploading it and make sure future videos are in HD.
If you’d like to request a video of a class, map, or both, please mention it in the comments below.
Archive for the ‘General’ Category
I Am Alive
March 18th, 2012 by Thomas | Comments Off | Filed in Article, General, Review
Climbing hand over hand, you are forced to balance the focus that keeps your limbs moving with a continuous assessment of handholds not one or two steps ahead, but twenty, thirty feet above. A step in the wrong direction here and you could find yourself stranded two hundred feet in the air without the strength to reach safe footing. In order to maximize on energy expended you never stop moving. As your grip is about to give way you squeeze a piton into a small crevice and for just a moment, your weight supported by the wall of the decaying skyscraper, you rest. Reluctantly, you push yourself to move once more. As you look above to plan your route you barely have time to realize that you’ve just used your last piton. After all, that little girl isn’t just going to save herself.
Last week, I Am Alive debuted on Xbox Live Arcade after a development history that stretches back four years. You may remember the teaser juxtaposing a tense struggle between post-apocalyptic scavengers (Water! Water!) with a scene of the same scavengers before the cataclysm, greeting each other on their way into work just before some cataclysmic event. Over the years the original developer gave way to Ubisoft Shanghai and the game was largely overshadowed in the post-apocalyptic market segment when Fallout 3 released just months after I Am Alive was originally announced. The game was originally intended for a full release, but has now found its way to download distribution on the Xbox platform with a planned PS3 port on the way. (more…)
Tags: I Am Alive, Post-apocalyptic, Ubisoft
I don’t understand Mass Effect
March 10th, 2012 by Thomas | Comments Off | Filed in Article, General, ShortNo, really.
This is not a critique of a new game, nor is it a clever anti-review strategy. I really, honestly, have no frame of reference for the cultural phenomenon that is Mass Effect.
What is this I don't even
Tags: mass effect, Mass Effect 3, ME3, Whaargarrbl
Social media dispatches 2/6 edition
February 7th, 2012 by Thomas | Comments Off | Filed in General, ShortEarlier today I saw the following post come through on Facebook’s News Feed:
On the off chance that readers don’t know what either of these things are (in which case, you were probably just looking for the lunch break combo at Chili’s restaurants. Sorry about the confusion), “Fus Ro Dah” is a reference to the popular video game Skyrim, and is a ‘shout’ the player character can use to generate a sizable wave of force. “Kameameha” was a line from the popular animated series Dragonball Z, and was said by a character who was generating a sizable wave of force*.
This similarity is sort of a coincidence though. Years ago, “Kameameha” became a sort of in-joke, the sort of thing that those familiar with the show might use in conversation with each other to demonstrate shared knowledge. The line became a sort of memetic cultural shorthand, referencing at the same time the Dragonball Z show as well as the greater shared culture enjoyed by fans of the show, among others.
Skyrim is by comparison brand new. The game has been released for only a few months, and right out of the gate it gained a significant mainstream following outside of the usually-assumed “gamer” demographic. There has been coverage breaching mainstream and crossover-interest sites, such as the always-excellent Grantland, and the respected Forbes. One result to come from this popularity has been Skyrim’s influence on internet memes. I don’t have the room to explain memes here, but anyone interested should read up on memetics and spend more time on the internet. Quick examples of these memes are the line uttered often by city guards, “I used to be an adventurer like you, until I took an arrow to the knee” as well as the aforementioned “Fus Ro Dah“. As you can see below, both of these references appear in the full comment chain following the facebook post:
It remains to be seen if “Fus Ro Dah” will have the kind of staying power and widespread cultural relevance as “Kameameha” garnered across Saturday mornings throughout the 1990′s, but it it would seem there is at least some validity to the claim.
I’d love to see some discussion on this in the comments, kids.
*Not to be confused with this use of Kameameha
Thomas is high grade, I think they need to quiz more
You can follow his twitter @fakethomknight. He promises to make it worth your while
