4 Signs That You May Be a Trophy Whore!

Are you one of them? Find out!

Cool Fact No.2

Atari's out it again! This time helping us with our dental healthcare!

FFIV: The After Years

A full 3-D remake is coming to the PC. Pre-Order to get 10% off!

Cool Fact No.1

Did you know the PS2 case design had a little help from Atari?

Spelunker's Story

Dreams, power, bullying. Everything goes in this Flash movie.

Thursday, May 7, 2015

4 Signs That You May Be a Trophy Whore!

Do You Get a Little Chubby With Every Trophy As You Get Closer To Unlocking That Platinum?


Platinum trophies are incredibly enticing and gaming communities across the globe are constantly working and sometimes even cheating their ways up the ranks of Trophy Hunter leader boards. They invest hours and hours of time every day just to keep their peers respect as a gamer.

Personally, I love trophy hunting, but I am a little afraid of losing my grip on reality and I don't want to sacrifice the enjoyment that I get from playing games either.

If your'e anything like me, maybe you've noticed some of these 4 signs in yourself which could be indicators of us becoming a brain-dead-trophy-whore.

1. You Play Shitty Games For Their Easy Trophies!

WHY AM I PLAYING THIS SHITTY GAME!!!
This may be one of the first signs that you're becoming a trophy whore. If you haven't sat down and played a game with this face just to get through a trophy list, consider yourself lucky. It's was at this point that I started to question my gaming choices and realize that gaming had become too much about the trophies.

2. A Game's Trophy List Largely Determines if You'll Buy it or Not.

I almost bought this for the 2-4 hour platinum.

This one is pretty self explanatory. If you choose your games like this, you're probably already a trophy whore.

And if that's not bad enough, many hunters will shamelessly take this beyond just buying and playing shitty games to Japanese graphic novels, which I will admit I don't know anything about and can only assume that the game consists mostly of pressing the same button over to get through the story and maybe making a choice or two here and there. Sounds fun...

3. Trophy Boosting.

I have never met any of these people!


Take a good look at your friends list, do you actually play with any of these people for fun or did you just add them because they had that one game you needed help boosting trophies on? If you said yes to the latter, well you know where this is going.

4. You Will Lose Hours, Days, or Even Weeks of Your Life and More, Torturing Yourself Over a Trophy List.

I'll sleep when I get this platinum trophy...

Making trophy hunting a priority over other normal things like having a relationship, having friends, or even getting a decent night's sleep, might be a sign that you've lost sight of the reason for playing video games, but we've all done it once in a while and there is something incredibly satisfying about staying up all night making progress on your trophy list.

Agree or disagree with this list?

Let us know your thoughts and share other signs of a a trophy whore.


Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Cool Fact No.2

Cool fact everyone!

Last time we talked about how the Atari Microbox influenced the PS2 case design.

When Atari canceled the development of the Microbox, they stared working on a new project: The Atari Jaguar
The Atari Jaguar
The Atari Jaguar was released in 1993 at a price of $249.99 and didn't sell as well as other consoles.

Oddly enough, this console also had a major influence in another device's case design:

The modified Atari Jaguar
After the Jaguar died in 1996, a dental company, Imagin Systems, bought the console's case to create a dental camera used to take pictures of the inside of a patient's mouth. Also, the cartridge molds were used to create a removable memory card for data storage.

Original Atari Jaguar Vs. The Imagin HotRod
By the end of 1,995, Atari's revenue had decreased by more than half going from $38.7 million to $14.6 million.

What do you think about Atari's failed projects? Let us know in the comments below.

Friday, April 24, 2015

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years Coming to PC

Pre-Order Final Fantasy IV: The After Years on Steam to get 10% off!
What have Cecil & Rosa prepared for us in this sequel?
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years is getting its own 3-D remake the same way Final Fantasy 3 was completely remade for the Nintendo DS in 2006.

The game's graphics are completely re-done:






















Watch the trailer:


I personally prefer the 2-D sprites, but I also think these 3-D re-releases are all very welcome  as they give old and new Final Fantasy enthusiasts a chance to play great Final Fantasy titles in case they missed the original installments.

The original 2-D sprites
Minimum requirements for PC:

  • Windows Vista, 7, 8
  • Pentium 4 - 2.4 Ghz
  • 2 GB RAM
  • DirectX 10
  • 950 HDD available

Pre-order today! Offer ends on 05/12/15. Final Fantasy IV: The After Years is also available in the App Store, Google Play, and the Square-Enix Market.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years - Official Website


Thursday, April 23, 2015

Cool Fact No.1

Cool fact everyone!

The Sony Playstation 2's case design was based on the Atari Microbox.

The similarities in the design!

Code-named "Painter", the Atari Microbox was expected to become the Falcon 30's successor. Atari completely canceled the project in order to move to the development of the Jaguar (Another piece of equipment that was soon forgotten after its poor sales).

Just like the Playstation 2, the Microbox had the capability to run either vertically or horizontally. The Microbox is even referenced in the PS2's patent applications.

A piece of the PS2's patent clearly showing its relation to the Microbox
With more than 157 million units sold worldwide, the PS2 stands as the best-selling video game console of all time. It's crazy to think that an item that never saw the light played a part in the console's design, and its success.

What do you think?! Let us know in the comments below.


Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Spelunker's Story

One of my favorite cave explorers makes an appearance in this Flash video created by SRF.

The video tells a story of  power, dreams, and bullying!!!

Well... maybe not.

When I first watched this video 9 years ago, I loved the music, the animation, and how compelling the story was. The story is so well driven that there isn't a real true meaning to it.

Thanks right, there's no concrete story, and even if there was, I could spend countless hours watching and analyzing this video just to try to create a different story every time.

Characters in this video:

Spelunker, Super Mario, and the River City Posse
Try it out!! Watch the video below, create your own story, and share it with us in the comments!


Original Flash Video:

Silent Hills Cancelled?

So... you all probably know that Hideo Kojima has left Konami and the Silent Hills project, along with other projects (MGS), essentially leaving this masterpiece incomplete and many fans with this face :(
Well it hasn't been officially confirmed yet, there's still hope that it will be made.
But it won't be the same game without the legendary Hideo Kojima, and that just sucks balls.

Before I even had a PS4, I was hearing about the PT demo ( playable teaser) everywhere.
It seemed like Let's play channels all over Youtube started popping up PT videos overnight. The scares are random and every playthrough was a different experience. The ghosts popped up at different times, different places, or not at all. It looked amazing.
You never know when this would be right around the corner
Or on the 2nd floor balcony, staring down at you...
Or randomly standing behind you waiting for you to turn around!
It's hard to find games anymore that make you feel that genuine fear. That feeling that someone is watching you, but you can't see them. You can almost feel them breathing on your neck. Even when a game does manage to be scary, most times it's only scary the 1st time around. Knowing where the scares are or what's going to happen, can remove the fear completely. 

That's why I was looking forward to this game so much and still really hope they make it. If this game is cancelled, you can find me crying in my room, in the fetal position, having lost all faith in the survival horror genre of video games.

Know any more facts or interesting rumors? Let us know your thoughts!

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Oh Snippity Snap, ToeJam & Earl are making a comeback!



That's right, Greg Johnson and his team are officially funded and making it happen!
Just look at those Funky Grooves!
Actually, they might just need to tinkle.


If you don't know, ToeJam & Earl was the bomb back in the 90's. I only knew of two TJ & E games available for the Sega Genesis; ToeJam & Earl (1991) and ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron (1993), but apparently they also made an appearance on a game called Ready, Aim, Tomatoes! for the Sega Genesis using the Menacer, Sega's Gun Peripheral.
Screenshots of six minigames (clockwise): a black screen with visible circle showing bugs eating a pizza; a purple, blue, and green space setting with craters and coffin-shaped pods reveal aliens; two-tone rectangles form a rectangle around a puck and a controllable mallet against a psychedelic backdrop; a street scene shows an brownstone apartment building with a "BANG" explosion in a window; a desert setting with mountain backdrop has green tanks and armored vehicles in the foreground; a tomato hurtles towards characters in a vivid and colorful field
Doesn't look like I missed out on much with this game.
The two full games were very different from each other and you might be a fan of both like me, or as it seems to be the case for many people, you might love one and not the other.

This is Greg Johnson's original vision

And this is Sega's influence on the series

From what I can gather, creator Greg Johnson felt that the 1st game was closer to his idea of what he wanted TJ & E to be. Sega wasn't convinced that keeping that formula would work for the 2nd game so they pushed him into making it more of a platformer game in order to sell more as they felt that most gamers wanted platformers back then. I think both games were awesome and I have fond memories of playing both.

Random image but it can't be unseen and I wanted to share this golden nugget of knowledge with you.
In 2002, they also released a game on the Xbox 360 called ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth which received a very mixed bag of reviews.

They had their fair share of positive reviews such as...

Computer and Video Games which commented on it's "superb sense of humor and the kind of offbeat gameplay that shows up every other identikit shooter, stealth 'em up and extreme sports title as imagination-devoid shams."

Others not so positive...

GameNOW derided the game's hip-hop dialogue, and Electronic Gaming Monthly found it repetitive; the latter also believed that Latisha was an unnecessary addition.Game Informer found the hip-hop theme to be embarrassingly dated, and likened the game to In Living Color and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. The reviewer also believed that its randomly generated levels necessitated "simple and arbitrary" mission goals.

Gotta love that split screen Co-op gameplay though. Don't get a chance to see many of these gems anymore.


ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove is being developed as an indie game, which means that Greg Johnson and his team are really making the game that they and the fans want. With their successful kickstarter reaching over $500K, they still have stretch goals and you can get in on the action to not only help make this game better, but also get a sweet package of goodies and junk for doing so.

Link to kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1578116861/toejam-and-earl-back-in-the-groove/description

Link to TJ & E Website : http://tjebackinthegroove.com/

So far, it looks like Greg and the team are taking a lot more from game 1 but they're also putting in a whole lot of the great elements that the fans loved from games 2 and 3. 

Our newer look based on fan input
Go to their site and check out what Greg and the team are putting together for us. Let us know what you think and I hope you're all as excited for this game as I am. This is gonna be a great one to sit down and play on the couch with your favorite player 2.

Kicking it old school!