Formally resigning from 2K Australia, my new hero Jarrard Woods used the coolest form of notice I have ever seen! Woods placed his farewell statement to his boss and colleagues within a Mario Style Flash game, and then forwarded it to the entire office.
The farewell reads “Thank you 2K Australia! You gave me a paycheck, an incredible project and a world-class team to learn from. But my princess is in another castle. My last day is June 5, so I can still probably sign-off with …” Woods has stated that his reason for resigning from 2K is because he wants to pursue developing indie games.
Check out the game in the link below for the best “I Quit,” you will ever see in your life!
Tired of missing those raids over silly things like eating and going to the bathroom? If you answered yes, then say hello to the “WOW Pod!” Made with you in mind, “the obsessed Wow fan,” this breakthrough in modern laziness has all the comforts that a troglodyte could ever need.
Designed through a collaborative effort by MIT students. The “WOW Pod,” is said to be the bee’s knees for any reclusive Wow addict. Designed to resemble the Warcraft style environment. This little hut includes snacks, toilet, and a cooking pot.
“The WOW Pod is an immersive architectural solution for the advanced WOW (World of Warcraft) player that provides and anticipates all life needs. Inside, the gamer finds him/herself comfortable seated in front of the computer screen with easy-to-reach water, pre-packaged food, and a toilet conveniently placed underneath his/her custom-built throne.”
Sadly there is only one map available, the Icecap Zone. Enjoy!
Have you ever wondered how everyone’s favorite blue hedgehog would do in a FPS style game? Well, now is your chance to get a peek. Thanks to Tech E Blog, we get a glimpse of a classic Sonic the Hedgehog map, on a Doom style engine. The only draw back is the fact that Sonic’s shotgun is strangely invisible throughout the video.
Personally, I think the only next logical step is a complete revamp of the Sonic franchise. We would need new maps of course; like the Dead Air Zone, and Blood Harvest Zone. I can see it now “Sonic the Death-Hog, coming this summer.”
Kotaku has been following 2K’s infatuation with the BioShock 2 subtitle “Sea of Dreams,” for some time now. Ever since the trailer (in which the subtitle first appeared) was leaked online, 2K just couldn’t decide whether they liked the subtitle or not. Apparently a decision has finally been made, and…drum roll…2K is officially not using any subtitle for the game.
2K spokesman Charlie Sinhaseni stated “We name most of our trailers at 2K and the name of the teaser trailer we released last October for BioShock 2 is called ‘Sea of Dreams.” “There was talk about adding that as an official subtitle, but we decided to simply keep it BioShock 2. We’re sorry for the confusion, but we’re glad people are so interested.”
There it is in black and white, expect BioShock 2 to be subtitle-less! Although I am happy they have finally made the decision, I wish it would have gone the other way. I kind of liked the subtitles, I think it would fit really well - if BioShock 2 does in fact turn out to be a prequel. What do you guys think? Do you like the subtitle, or hate it? Don’t care as long as you get to play the game? Sound off, and let us know what you think!
Guinness World Records has released their top 50 list for the most influential video games of all time. Number one is…not Super Mario Brothers! It is in fact Super Mario Kart! Has your mind just been blown?
The reason: “the best-selling racing game on the N64 (more than 9 million units sold), Super Mario Kart is also the best-selling racer on the SNES (8 million units), the Gamecube (nearly 7 million units) and the DS (10 million units).”
Guinness World Records Editor-in-Chief, Craig Glenday, said of the selection process: “We knew this would be a complex task so we invited a crack team of industry experts to form a judging panel - and the result is a “top 50″ list of games ranked both on their importance and on how fun they are to play.”
Apparently this crack team was under chemical influences when they put this list together because their selections are crazy! I think a lot of games on this list belong there, it’s just the placement that I am trying to understand. The list is said to be based on a games “initial impact and lasting legacy.” If that is the case then how is Super Mario Brothers number seventeen on the list? Anyway, we have the list below for you to scowl at!
1. Super Mario Kart
2. Tetris
3. Grand Theft Auto
4. Super Mario World
5. Zelda Ocarina of Time
6. Halo
7. Resident Evil IV
8. Final Fantasy XII
9. Street Fighter II
10. GoldenEye
11. Super Mario 64
12. Tomb Raider
13. Metal Gear Solid
14. Call of Duty 4
15. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
16. GTA San Andreas
17. Super Mario Bros
18. Zelda: A Link to the Past
19. Gran Turismo
20. Final Fantasy VII
21. Pro Evolution Soccer 4
22. The Orange Box
23. Lego Star Wars Complete Saga
24. Tekken 2
25. Wii Sports
26. Pokemon Red/Blue
27. Guitar Hero
28. Project Gotham Racing 4
29. Super Mario Galaxy
30. Resident Evil
31. Ico
32. Chrono Trigger
33. Gunstar Heroes
34. Soul Calibur
35. Advance Wars
36. Ridge Racer
37. Super Metroid
38. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
39. GTA Vice City
40. BioShock
41. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
42. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
43. God of War
44. Sega Rally Championship
45. Starfox 64
46. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
47. WarioWare Inc
48. Saturn Bomberman
49. Crash Bandicoot
50. Outrun 2
Did you tune in and watch this weekends Oscar ceremony? If you were protesting the Oscars (due to the Dark Knight snub), than you missed out on the coolest World of WarCraft celebrity exposure since…since…Mila Kunis!
Steve Preeg - visual effects wizard, and World of WarCraft guild leader was awarded an Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects. Steve is known for his work in multiple films including The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and I Robot, but it was for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button that he nabbed an Oscar this weekend.
Preeg is a combat Rogue and he runs a pretty tight guild. They have defeated every raid boss except Sartharion. Congrats on winning the sweet paper weight! Other than the Hugh Jackman performance it was probably the coolest thing that happened all night.
Have you been so busy lately that you have been neglecting your house plant? Well don’t worry, this is the 21st century when your plant needs some TLC it will just come right out and tell you! Although it will need some hardware and a Twitter account, essential your plant now has the ability to communicate with you, and let you know when it needs to be nurtured!
A kit created by a company called Botanicalls will be what enables communication between your plant and you via Twitter. The process seems pretty straight forward once the hardware is set up and the software is enabled you simple create an account for your plant here http://twitter.com/yourplantsID, and then your plant is ready to start talking!
Createdby 3 NYU students in a telecommunications program, the idea for the software came about when someone mentioned how it would be nice to have some plants. After it was agreed that a greener looking work place would be nice, they then deliberated on how they would remember when to water it and the rest is history!
Botanicalls is part of a new movement of more accessible technology and even more so it is a step forward in bridging the gap between the humans and plants. Botanicalls has stated “The Botanicalls project is fundamentally about communication between plants and people. We are empowering both by inventing new avenues of interaction. Plants that might otherwise be neglected are given the ability to call and text message people to request assistance. People who are unsure of their ability to effectively care for growing things are given visual and aural clues using common human methods of communication.”
It isn’t for everyone as you will require some minimal hardware savvy, and programming experience, but none the less it is totally awesome, and the coolest story I have read today!
As the Street Fighter IV release draws closer we wanted to pause from our raging hunger for content, and praise a truly unique tribute to the franchise. Probably the most creative YouTube experience I have ever seen, YouTube Street Fighter is an interactive video in which you can actually control a Street Fighter character through taping four separate buttons.
Created as a stop motion video using action figures, this is something you just have to see for yourself!
If you ever wished you could sing along side the Phantom of the Opera or belt out a classic song from Cats, then this isn’t the blog for you! Nonetheless a batch of classic musicals from the famed composer Andrew Lloyd-Webber will be making their way into the gaming industry, thanks to The Really Useful Group (that is really their name).
The group founded in 1977 manages all of Andy’s interests and they have been speaking to multiple video game developers, one of them said to be EA. The group is planning on developing multiple Webber titles into games (Oh goody) for consoles, PCs, and cellular devices.
There are two major reasons the group felt prompted to take a chance on the gaming industry; one was because of the growing popularity of video games with women and the other was because of the current popularity of music-themed video games.
It’s been a great year for games and as we consider the past year, we would like to pause and reflect on the big stories that rocked NothingButSoftware. A year with upsets, surprises, and plenty of odd stuff; these are our top 5 picks for the most popular NothingButSoftware Stories of 2008.
5.) Maple Story Murder Simply because it was such an odd story it grew in popularity, and was even given a specific name for the incident “Maple Story Murder.” A story from the land of the rising sun in which a Japanese woman was jailed for deleting another persons character from the MMORPG Maple Story. As ridiculous as it sounds it is true, and it was one of the oddest stories we covered this year!
4.) Mila Kunis WoW Confession Apparently Mila Kunis is a big World of WarCraft fan, and the WoW community loves it! This story dropped during The Max Payne movie release when Mila’s popularity was already growing and this story boosted it even more, at least with wow fans.
3.) The Little Big Planet Recall Most Likely the Biggest upset this year was the Little Big Planet Recall. When the release of this title was quickly approaching a sudden world wide recall was issued, because quotes from Islamic text could be heard in the video games background music. Sony decided to play it safe pushing the game back another week until the quotes could be edited out of the background music.
2.) New Street Fighter Chun-Li Pics Although the New Street Fighter film seems like nothing to write home about, the buzz surrounding this film was quit popular here at NBS. When the latest photo’s of Kristen Kreuk as Chun-Li were released we did a post on it and it became one of our most popular stories this year.
1.) F.E.A.R. 2 Weirdest Press Release Ever The oddest story we have covered this year, and most likely our most popular post in history the “F.E.A.R. 2 Press Release.” Although there is a lot of meticulous planning involved in a major press release this one takes the cake. The Entire F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin release was centered around targeting specific Video Game Contributors and sending them creepy unmarked mail, with locations to creepy destinations, to obtain creepy briefcases. Mike Fahey of Kotaku was one of these targets and he had to drive to a storage facility in the middle of the night on thanksgiving to pick up his briefcase.Inside the briefcase was nothing more then promotion material for a F.E.A.R. 2 event in New York, but all the mystery in just obtaining a briefcase of promo material was uber weird.
If you ever wished you could sing along side the 
