Archive for the 'Other' Category

Upon leaving my house this morning I found this white plastic cube (click the thumbnail for a bigger picture) sitting next to the door on the window ledge. Anyone have ANY idea what it is? Clearly I’m overreacting but I’ve always wanted to be a part of a viral marketing thing.

It has two circular batteries inside and an on and off switch at the bottom - I haven’t found any mention of this from a google search and have no idea what it does.

Anyone seen this before? or even read anything about it? I sure hope it’s not a bomb of some kind!

I was thinking at the time it was some sort of GPS device which would be pretty cool but after finding nothing online I now think it actually doesn’t do anything.

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When you first envision a ‘hardcore’ gamer, certain images come to mind; uncomfortable living arrangements, odd smells and strange eating habits. One thing that you may not conjure up is goodwill and interest in the lives of others.

A few months ago, I was asked by a member of the ‘Tied the Leader‘ community to take part in an interview for their site - ever since we were introduced, the group has continue to intrigue me. As a group of gamers united with the sole purpose of bringing “fair play” and “honourable conduct” to the online gaming community, ‘Tied the Leader’ is a great group for online gamers who do not fit the, sometimes frustrating, status quo.

“The Tied the Leader Foundation was created to give back to those from whose culture we borrow so very frequently. It’s a means of offering our humblest thanks to the people that make the safety of our couches their personal responsibility. It must be said that, at tiedtheleader.com, we save our politics for the game. We seek not to make a statement about the virtue of war – or the ones currently being fought. Instead, we seek to recognize the sacrifice of the people who march when the order is given, and to help them when they fall.”

Raising money through merchandise sales, organised fundraiser events and donations, Tied the Leader recently announced their $250 donation to Azalea Charities which specialises in raising funds for local groups and charitable organisations in their local area of Virginia.

Although you could say that donating to charity is hardly anything new, for an established online gamer community to show that they care for the community in such a way really contradicts against the common belief that gamers are simply desensitised, ‘trained killers’ from a young age.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Upon receiving my copy in the mail of Entropia: A Collection of Unusally Rare Stamps, I was not sure what to expect. Was it an art book, a novel, a stamp collection? My curiosity had been piqued by Christian Lorenz Scheurer, the concept artist and illustrator for such videogames as Final Fantasy IX, Spore, and Lost Odyssey, who described the mysterious item in an interview with Innertraveler as a cross between Nick Bantock’s Griffin and Sabine and the dreamlike worlds of Hayao Miyazaki. As it turns out, having read the book twice (and eagerly anticipating read-through number three) I still have difficulty cramming the conceptual universe of Entropia into a suitable class or category. An indigenous species native to the tropical rain forest of Scheurer’s abundant imagination, the book is a literary and visual cross-pollination that is altogether unique.

Read the rest of this entry »

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We might be experiencing some turbulence over the next few days. My host reliably informs me we are switching servers to a more localized one and hopefully iron out some of the problems that can occur (the majority are to do with Wordpress).

I’m sure nothing major will happen. Lets hope it goes pretty smoothly like I’m told it should.

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In my first 2 days at my new job I have personally

• Sold 5 consoles (Xbox360 Core, PS3, 2 DS Lites and 1 Pre-owned DS Phat)
• Convinced (They asked what to buy mind you) 3 customers to purchase games I like and think are good (Warioware Smooth Moves, Gears of War & Final Fantasy III)
• Witnessed the death of a demo Xbox 360 via the ‘Red Ring of Death’
• Re-organized the complete pre-owned Xbox and Gamecube sections into alphabetical order
• Eaten a vegetable pasty

I’m pretty proud of myself to be honest

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Dweezle from 'Tied the Leader' approached me a couple of weeks ago and asked me to partake in an interview for the site. You should definitely check it out, if only just for the rubbish picture of me! (Seriously though, it's a great site. There's also an interview with Destructoid's Robert Summa (He's Jack from Lost really) which was pretty cool). I know there's more interesting news to write about (MSN on the 360, VGCat's financed FFXI comic, our new Eurogamers profile) but this will clearly make your day much better.

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According to Wikipedia, Saint Patrick once held a sermon from a hilltop and drove all the snakes from Ireland. I'm pretty sure he did a lot of other things but, if thats true (heck, this site is open source) he's pretty much a legend in my books.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

"Today, people celebrate the day with parades, wearing green, and drinking beer"

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…there has been loads of news in the video game world that I haven’t been able to post and give my opinion about. I had to go to a funeral a few days ago and haven’t been feeling up to doing much of anything since. So, I present you with 8bit Hero’s very first link-dump post! Sadly I don’t have time to write about all this news in one lump sum so its probably better than nothing by just pointing you all in the right direction for now. So here it is, in no particular order.

• Ouendan 2 Screenshots (Ouen, Daiseco!)
• Eidos Games now on Steam (Can’t wait for the new Tomb Raider game)
• Take-Two Sues Jack Thompson (’Lulz’)
  
• Three Versions of Halo 3 (They already know this game will sell a hell of a lot, why not charge an insane amount for it)
  
• Ratchet And Clank 3 Trailer (Gonna need a little more than that to convince me to pay that much for a games console Sony)
  
• Spider Man 3 The Game Impressions (I’m more excited about the movie to be honest. I hate the way Sony used the same font for the PS3’s logo - talk about cross promotion)
  
• New Wii Game Speculation (Will it be NIGHTS? The fan base is already established, it makes sense)
• Final Fantasy III DS - European Release Dated (I caved and imported this. I’m glad I did because its a blast!)
• Opoona Trailer (The Wii’s first proper traditional RPG (I believe))
  
• Naruto: Clash of Ninja Wii Interview (I knew the difference in console generations would affect them at some point)
  
• Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings Trailer #6 (Lets just hope its not the grind-fest that the base material is)
• Pokemon Diamond & Pearl - Official American website and trailer (I’m already really excited, in a terribly child like way)
  
• Penny Arcade Game Footage (Probably not news to most of you but, its great to see how fans can work together to make something so professional without massive corporate investment)

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Shift yourself off to affiliate site WiiDS and you can be in for the chance to win a copy of Excite Truck for the Wii, failing that you can also win a 2000 point Virtual Console card or a DS Lite skin from RedBeard. Excite Truck is a great game so if you haven't had a chance to play it yet, I highly recommend you pop down to their site and enter the competition!

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Howdy there, I trust you had a safe journey? (heck, you only had to click a link/type in an address right?)

What do you think of the new blog? I'm currently working on a new design which will hopefully like pretty 'sick'. I'd like to take this chance to thank Limpit from WiiDS.co.uk, you've been a great help setting this up and I really appreciate it.

Make sure you update your bookmarks/favorites and any links you may have to us. The new address is http://www.8bithero.co.uk

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