Nerdiest game of the week

I've been playing Monster's Den: The Book of the Dead a little bit and it's a fun little turn based RPG. It isn't anything fancy but it has a decent rule set and it's quite addictive. The biggest problem is it is kind of difficult and the enemies are lame at times but leveling your guys up and getting new abilities is great.

Give it a shot if you like RPGs and have a little time on your hands.

Monster's Den: The book of the Dead

Concept art

Pretty much all art in a video game from character designs to environments to weapons and items start as concept art. I'm a pretty big fan of this style and usually prefer its dirty, unfinished look compared to the final 3d rendered perfection that ends up in the game. It's too bad that Prince of Persia was the only game that attempted a concept-y art style.

Anyhow here are some pieces of concept art that I like from various games!

Prince of Persia


Halo Wars


Guild Wars 2


Halo: ODST


Fallout 3


Batman Arkham Asylum


Warhammer: Age of Reckoning


Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

The coolest flash games ever made

Do yourself a favour and go here and play some of these games because they are possibly the most original and fun games you've ever seen.

Adult Swim Games

Warning- Some are violent!!!

Should you get an iPad for video games?

The iPad has been unleashed on America this past weekend and with it came a slew of apps, including video games. In my opinion the iPad is a little silly but will it be worth it to get for the games? Well let's take a look!

Good stuff:

Civilization: Revolution


This game was excellent on the Xbox360 and from the looks of things it would be even better on the iPad because of the touch screen and the nice high res display. This would be a first purchase for me if I had an iPad.

Plants vs. Zombies HD

This is yet another tower defence game but its all cute and fun and cool. Plus it's in HD so thats another plus. This is a great game on the PC (and I hope they bring it to the 360 Arcade soon) so it should be even better again with the touch screen and nice iPad display.

Dungeon Hunter HD

I don't know a heck of a lot about this game but it looks pretty fun. It's an action RPG, which is always worth a play in my book, and the graphics look pretty decent for what it is. I'm curious how the controls would play out but if the game isn't crazy quick I'm sure it'll be fun. I just picture a Diablo clone where instead of clicking the mouse i'm tapping on the screen, sounds good to me!

The not so good:

Scrabble

This just seems stupid to me. Why do I want to play this on a little iPad screen instead of on a big board? If you're playing with people you need to put it on a table anyway so why not just bring out the board game? In any case this will be a top seller on the iTunes top 5 list for like 100 weeks.

Pac Man

Who cares? This is a game that everyone will buy because its sooooo cool to be retro and they will play it less than three times. Boooring. Also the controls look frustrating.

Overall I would say that the iPad is not worth it if you're looking for a new gaming platform. That being said the iPad has a LOT of potential, much more than the iPhone, because of its size and processing power. Right now most of the games are just remakes for the iPad but in a few months when then original games start cropping up it may be a legitimate gaming platform.

New Ghost Recon

I've never been a huge fan of the Ghost Recon series but this real life video looks pretty cool. If they can make it as interesting as the video it may be something cool to look forward to. Ubisoft has been on their game as of late so I think this has some potential.

Video Games | Ghost Recon: Future Soldier | Ultranationalist Coup Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Attention all video game media

Please stop giving any attention to Duke Nukem Forever. It's been floating around for over 10 years now and there is no release date in sight. Maybe if everyone stops talking about it and stops posting their horrible, horrible "leaked" game videos it will just go away.

To set an example, I will never post about it again!

Cringe inducing

Sometimes TV shows will do something involving video games and every single time they are horrible. This is probably the worst example I've ever seen and I can barely watch it because it just makes me feel so embarrassed but I can't really explain why. One quick note before you watch it: Nothing in this clip is really even close to reality.

Video Games | | Life: Prince of Persia sequence

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

I was going to just leave it there but upon watching it again I'm going to list every single problem I have with it from start to finish. This is the internet after all so it is the perfect place for a guy to complain about useless stuff that has no importance to anyone.

1) Damien Lewis is awesome. That's the only positive I have for this clip/show.
2) Ok I suppose you're right in that a game console has computer components...I'll give you that one, Lewis. However the "computer expert" girl is an idiot. There's no games on a console hard drive! Strike one!
3) Wrong Captain nerd, the object of the game is not saving the princess. Hand in your nerd uniform.
4) This isn't a game complaint but more of a script one. How do they know that they will find what they need when the guy gets to level ten? There are more than ten levels in the game so it's not even like they need to get close to beating it. However I'll give the cops the benefit of the doubt and whatever they need is simply at level ten, not at the end of the game.
5) HAHA video game guy lives with his mom and has STAR TREK THING. This is the point in the clip where I get simultaneously angry and embarrassed at/for the writer(s).
6) Well that's not the beginning of the game at all.
7) Game guru's hands on the controller aren't even matching what is happening on the screen or affecting the character. Note: We are only 48 seconds in at this point.
8) There are no "You Win Advance to Level X" messages in the game.
9) The Game Master sucks. He's messing up on level two. Come on man show some nerd pride.
10) This isn't your neighbourhood arcade circa 1989 - there are no "Play Again?" messages on games anymore and especially not on this specific game.
11) This first "loser" montage that I will refer to is not how the game plays out. It is similar however its just bits and pieces from all of the various LEVELS of the game, not just level two (or whatever he is I'm starting to lose interest).
12) This is now the most cringe worthy moment int he clip. At 1:11 Mr. Lewis see's a GIRL (w-w-w-what?!!!!) for some reason pretending to play the game with an air controller. This is where I can barely take it anymore. WHO would do this? No one! Have you ever seen anyone doing that? I've been around a lot of people playing and watching games and that has never occurred. Why? Because it's stupid. This is the point of no return and whatever happens now is possible. Mario running around with the Prince? Sure why not. The game somehow kills the guy playing it? Yep its a possibility. After this moment you know the writer(s) have never either played a game or watched a game or are even vaguely aware of what a game even abstractly resembles in our physical realm.
13) Side note but doesn't anyone else have anything better to do in the police station? Get to work!
14) The girl owns at the game. This is cool cause you wouldn't see it coming. Oh wait a second everyone did. Stupid "nerd" guy may not have even bothered as soon as he started boasting about his Star Wars or whatever nerd crap he was talking about.
15) "Winner" montage is the same level as "loser" montage but she is supposed to be advancing in levels. They couldn't even show further levels in the game to give it SOME credibility?
16) Gee she is still doing great.
17) The dramatic part where she leaps on the horse and narrowly makes it through the gates is all a cut scene so you don't even control that part when you play it because it's just an in game movie there.
18) Seriously? This is the hardest part to actually put in to words for me. The revelation that this guy's secret excel files were hiding in the game all along has so many problems that I don't even want to explain it all. Just know that its essentially impossible and ridiculous. Even if he spent the entire time hacking the code and rebuilding it to include secret excel documents AS WELL AS modifying his xbox's hard drive it would be a colossal waste of time. In that amount of time he could have gotten a full time job making minimum wage, save like $5,000, printed his excel documents out, bought a shovel, a safe and maybe a shack in the woods and buried it all in the woods and still spent less time than it would have taken (and be more secure) than putting his secret excel docs at the end of level 10 in a video game.

Worst. Episode. Ever.