A World of WarCraft mug from Taverncraft, the same Califorina-based company who provided us with The Walking Dead barware, might possibly be the most badass way to start my day of writing or end my long nights of dungeon crawling. This massive 18-ounce stoneware mug is microwave and dishwasher safe, so don’t worrying about tarnishing the art of James Zhang wrapping around it.
This particular version features Stormwind (commence immense geekery), the center of the Alliance in the Eastern Kingdoms and home to King Varian Wrynn. It’s here where the majority of the Alliance does its commerce and launches their major assaults against the Horde and now Deathwing’s Twilight’s Hammer cultists.
While the artwork may not look exactly like the Alliance city (I imagine it’s tough to emulate on a stoneware mug), I think Zhang did a fine job of depicting Varian in his stoic if mildly schizophrenic disposition. And does your everyday coffee mug have an Alliance hammer as its handle? Didn’t think so.
For $20–remember, it’s 18 ounces–a World of WarCraft stoneware mug is a fine way of showing your loyalty to the Alliance or Horde.
Speaking of which, we’re giving away one Orgrimmar stoneware mug right here. So, give us one good reason you think the Horde is better than the Alliance in a comment and we’ll randomly select one of you to enjoy a real orc’s coffee.
You have one week from today, so you better give us something good and fast. And no, “The Horde have Blood Elves!” does not count.
Let’s face it, Lara Croft–you know, the Tomb Raider?–has been on nearly every gaming platform since her debut on the original PlayStation in 1996. Since then, only about three games from the series were any good and, guess what, they were all on the same console she started her career on. After several iterations of the same gameplay and two lackluster movies, it’s only recently that developers have taken a fresh approach to arguably the most beloved woman in gaming.
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light for iOS, although a thematic port of the recent release of the same name for Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network, has been made to fit the iPhone like a glove by Ideaworks Game Studio and Square Enix. From its use of touch controls to its comicbook-meets-old time photo story exposition, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is a refreshing take on what Lara Croft started 15 years ago: the spirit of exploration.
Find more of our impressions of Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light for iOS behind the cut. (more…)
I won’t lie to you, Geeks… I’m not a fan of the holiday season. People singing, children laughing… yeah, I could do without all that, thank you very much. However, I do love the awesome sales and clever gifts that pop up around this time of year. Folks get creative in their attempts to part you from your hard earned money, and the Geekadelphia crew has picked our favorite items available for gift-giving this year.
From handmade Star Wars crafts to the World of Warcraft expansion, we’ve compiled quite a list. Have a look, get some shopping done, and have a safe holiday.
Timmy Q (@bigredtim) – I recommend anything from Mike Mitchell’s shop. Everything here is curated and designed by Mitchell, geek extraordinaire. I have one of his works framed and hanging in my bathroom. Star Wars inspired knit hats on Etsy. You can find some great R2D2 caps. Like this one, here. A must for any Star Wars fan in your life, who also happens to have a cold head.
Eric Smith (@ericsmithrocks) – I spend a lot of time shopping on Amazon, and they have a killer $10 blu-ray section. Browse away for that high definition media lover in your life. These jawns go for $30+ in your local FYE, and you can scope them for less than $10. Make yourself look like you spent a lot of money, kids.
Also, the X-Men Arcade game hits XBL next week. Buy a voucher, give it a friend. They will love you forever. So much nostalgia.
Go on, play with the lights off. We dare you. (Seriously, it’s really not that bad.) Haunted House for Xbox Live Arcade surely is haunted; just don’t expect to have the pants scares off you. This rendition of the Atari 2600 classic launches it forward into the 21st century with obviously better visuals and a fleshed out story. Not to mention voice work that’s actually not too shabby.
The game, developed by ImaginEngine, throws players into the spooked-out shoes of either Jacob or Silvia Silverspring as they search a spirit-ridden mansion for their delirious grandpa in search for an ancient urn of power. (Which always turns out brilliantly.) It should go without saying that the estate is teeming with ghosts, gargoyles, wraiths and… ravenous rats?
Find the rest of our thoughts on Haunted House after the break. (more…)
It takes a lot of guts to release a title on the same day as a hyped up, inevitable blockbuster like Fallout: New Vegas. Especially when that title is a brand new, shiny IP. However, when that title has the ability to stand up against a well established series during the holiday gaming rush… then I suppose this kind of launch is understandable.
And Sega’s third person sci-fi shooter, Vanquish, definitely holds its own. Dreamed up by Shinji Mikami, the mind behind the Resident Evil series, Vanquish hit stores last Tuesday, October 19th. And while I haven’t beaten the game just yet, I felt the need to write a little something about a s0-far-outstanding new IP, that I’d hate for you to overlook during the holiday season.
With games like Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Fable III,Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, and of course, the recently released Fallout: New Vegas… well, that could easily happen. So I’m going to rant and giveaway my copy, to do my part to ensure that it doesn’t.
I’ve made my way through the first two acts, and two things stood out to me the most. The story and the gameplay. The first, the story… is absolutely terrible. Campy dialogue, ridiculous characters, and cliche sci-fi gibberish make for something entirely forgettable. The brief synopsis of the plot?
“Set in the near future… Russia and the United States are vying for ownership of the world’s fast-depleting energy resources and the US has constructed a space station in order to harness energy from the sun. Russian forces capture this space station and divert its harvested solar energy into a blast wave that destroys San Francisco, aiming to force the US into a total and unconditional surrender. In response, the US tasks its armed forces with recapturing the space station before the Russians can annihilate their next target – New York.”
Ah, Russia vs. the US. You play Sam, a government agent with a ridiculously awesome suit of armor and a love of snippy one liners and cigarettes. For some reason, there are enormous robots to battle in the space station, ships crash through as you make your way through epic battles, which of course, means incredible explosions and wild cut scenes… in a space station. In space. You know, where stuff can decompress and explode.
Whatever. Sure, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. But the gameplay… my God. With a press of a button, you can send Sam sliding across the floor, at super speeds, blasting from his array of weapons, each of which fold out of his armor in intricate, awesome animation. The bosses and robots that inhabit the station are enormous, with large pulsating circles (surprise surprise) for you to blast away at.
But this ain’t no Lost Planet, and thankfully, no Lost Planet 2 (ugh!). These monstrous robotic creations take a WHILE to cut down. On normal, it took me an embarrassing amount of time to defeat the very first boss. The first one. This game will kick your ass… but you’ll love it for that.
Sometimes a story doesn’t matter in the wake of excellent gameplay. The blah story behind Red Faction: Guerrilla taught me that much. Not every space age adventure can be Mass Effect, kids. Vanquish teaches you to just shut up and enjoy the ride.
That being said, I want to share this awesome ride with you, dear readers. Just leave a comment, and I’ll select one of you at random to receive a free copy of Vanquish for the Xbox 360. Contest ends November 2nd, which I hope gives me enough time to beat the game. What? Don’t judge me. This game is awesome. You’ll have your turn.
You sometimes find the weirdest stuff when taking truck stops breaks for a quick snack on long trips, and my recent trip to Gettysburg for Horrorfind was no exception. It was a weird sort of gas station / Subway combo and after getting my sub, something at the counter caught my eye… it was two of my favoriteStreet Fighter characters Ryu and Chun-Li totally engaged in non-Capcom approved behavior.
The first thing I noticed was the bold English letters on the box “Stree Overlord” and that was the only text I could read on the packaging. Upon asking the gentleman who owned the establishment what they were, he embarrassingly admitted that it was a box of “sexual enhancers and penis enlargers”.
I honestly couldn’t stop laughing and bought a package to add to my oddities of the road collection. More pics are after the jump. Please note, these are NSFW.
We’ve got an event planned that is going to be down right fierce.
… did you see what I did there?
We’ve teamed up with CeX and Focus Attack to bring you all an epic Street Fighter IV tournament, taking place right at Steaks on South. That’s right, the cheesesteak joint. They’ve got an upstairs, and it will be lined with monitors, gaming consoles, and combo-slinging gamers come Thursday, September 23rd.
Local DJs Fatboymonster and Jayvert will be spinning beats through out the night, throwing in some classic gaming riffs into traditional dance tunes. You may have caught them at our events at North Bowl, or helping hipsters tear up the dance floor at PYT with their sick mixes.
Prizes? You bet. Focus Attack is giving away some SERIOUS swag at the event for you top gamers.
Grand Prize:
MadCatz Super Street Fighter 4 Tournament Edition Joystick S for Playstation 3
One (1) voucher for 6 Sanwa or Seimitsu replacement buttons & balltop (w/choice of colors)
Two ($25) Focus Attack Gift Certificates
We’ll also have some Microsoft Points cards, store vouchers from CeX, and some other misc swag to dish out to winners, runners up, or folks that show off some sort of exceptional skill. Our friends PopChips will be also be stopping by the party, dishing out free snacks for you hungry gamers.
Doors open at 7pm, so you can grab a bite to eat from our gracious hosts, and the tournament kicks off at 7:30pm sharp. We’ve created a Facebook event page, for those of you who need reminders. You can check that out, here.
Street Fighter IV Competition @ Steaks on South
Thursday, September 23rd, 2010
7pm, Doors. 7:30pm, Tournament Starts
The Too Many Games convention is almost here, bringing with it some fun competitions, awesome musical guests, and an epic sale of sweet gaming swag. It’s the 10th convention in a row, and it hits Sunday, September 19th, at the Crowne Plaza Reading Hotel in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania.
This year, Too Many Games is sponsored, in part, by NYKO. The 3rd party peripheral manufacturer is hosting a gaming tournament… involving The Conduit. Strange choice for a title, but meh. You kids have fun.
They’ve also got some outstanding musical guests lined up, including Geekadelphia favorites Animal Style and Chipocrite. Other guests include Ro-bear, X-Hunters, and JJ Demon.
Welcome to Dialog Tree, where we discuss the finer topics concerning video games, technology and other issues your less geeky friends care not to talk about. So, let’s have a dialog, shall we? Have questions or something you’d like to see discussed? Let us know in the comments!
The joint CEOs of Bioware admitted this week that their claim to RPG fame, Baldur’s Gate, was dangerously close to being one of the first true MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Online games). Pitched to publishers as Battleground: Infinity, the game revolved around gods of all mythologies and was extremely ambitious, according to joint-CEO Ray Muzyka’s comment during a panel at GDC Europe.
It wasn’t until Muzyka and joint-CEO Greg Zeschuck brought the grandiose idea to Interplay that they were suggested to bring the game’s engine into the Dungeons and Dragons universe and forget that MMO nonsense. However, what if Bioware decided to keep the MMO elements within Baldur’s Gate? (more…)
The following review is based on single player gameplay for the Xbox 360. While offline co-op gameplay is available, online co-op will not be available until a free update on September 28th.
In Crystal Dynamics first download only Lara Croft adventure, we find our heroine caught in ambush. Her attackers unwittingly release the evil demon known as Xolotl from his prison in the Mirror of Smoke. Now tasked with sending Xolotl back into his prison, Lara finds herself accompanied by Totec, The Guardian of Light. It is up to Totec and Lara to work together and stop Xolotl from destroying the world.
Does your love for insane micromanagement of miscellaneous bugs and aliens know no bounds? Do you enjoy sharing that love with others? Assuming you already know that we’re talking about Starcraft II, we’ll just say it:
Join our good friend Far Mckon and more at Hive 76 on Saturday, August 21 for some Starcraft and SCII LAN madness. The siege tank-rushing shindig starts at 5 PM and will go until your fingers cannot possibly strike another hotkey. Absolutely do not bring food, we’ll take care of it. What you do need are these essentials:
A computer (an internet-ready laptop or desktop) capable of playing Starcraft and/or SCII
Your own copy of Starcraft and/or Starcraft II to play with
More vespene gas (kidding… sort of)
See you then and remember to bring your A-game!
Saturday, August 21
Hive 76, 915 Spring Garden (Suite 519) in the Spring Garden Arts building, Philadelphia PA Free, bring your own game, laptop, snacks and beverages.
This Event is by Hive76 (Far McKon), Geekadelphia and several others
Welcome to Dialog Tree, where we still discuss the finer topics concerning video games, technology and other issues you’re less geeky friends care not to talk about — we just decided upon a better fitting title. So, let’s have a dialog, shall we? Have questions or something you’d like to see discussed? Let us know in the comments!
Aggregame, a social platform for video games, released the results of a year-long study of gamer’s tweets in the form of a neat looking infograph. Clearly inspired by tag clouds that visualize the popularity of tags used in blog posts (the larger the word, the more frequent the tag), Aggregame’s infographic states some of the obvious while revealing some provocative information about what motivates us to play video games aside from the fact that they’re just plain fun. (more…)
