Minecraft Nations at War

Here's an awesome looking Minecraft....mod...thing.

I cannot fathom how long it even took just to build all that shit.

Game Fudge's 25 SNES Games

Hey guys, I know how much we all love lists. We've been working really hard on this one, and we apologize for the lack of updates lately. After much deliberation we finally agreed upon what should be included. So here it is, the one you've all been waiting for...The Mack-Daddy of them all. Without further ado and in no particular order it's time to announce...


Game Fudge's 25 SNES Games!!!

Super Punch-out
Primal Rage
Robotrek
Lethal Enforcers
Mega man X2
Art of Fighting
Wheel of Fortune Deluxe
Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose
Firepower 2000
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
King of the Monsters
Mario Paint
TMNT 4: Turtles in Time
Uniracers
Earthbound
Super Smash TV
The Lost Vikings
Donkey Kong Country 3
Super Star Wars Return of the Jedi
Joe & Mac 2: Lost in the Tropics
X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse
Sim Earth
Plok
Super Turrican
Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament

Well I think that about wraps it up. Sorry if any of your favorites didn't make the list. It was tough choosing just 25 from such a massive library, we would pick them all if we could!! Thanks for reading everyone, until next time!

Behind the Scenes with the Nerd

Requiem For a Boss Fight

I'm going to break my rule about ignoring everything IGN says this one time and talk about their article dismissing boss fights in video games as outdated. I mean, really? There is so much valid criticism to be heaped on games today and this is the best you can come up with?

They take time to single out Arkham Asylum and Uncharted 2 as cases against having bosses in video games. Yeah, those were indeed great games that had shitty boss fights. But it's not an issue with the concept, it's an issue with the execution. The boss fights in Batman were fucking stupid, boring and repetitive. But that game gets tons of praise based on all the things it did right. Maybe people should take a moment to call them out on what they did wrong, instead of just painting all games with the same brush.

The reason boss fights exist is because they are a climax. An exclamation point at the end of a level. Like in an action movie when the Terminator fights T-1000 or Rambo blows up a russian guy. Everything you've been fighting for has been a build up to this final moment. The article also points out Heavy Rain as a game that doesn't need boss fights. Really? Because I remember a lengthy quicktime segment where you duke it out with the origami killer. If you replace "Stale boss fight mechanics" with "Stale quick-time mechanics" then I guess they have a point.

Which brings me to another thing I can't stand. Most modern FPS games (Like Call of Duty) have all but replaced boss fights with lame, completely scripted quick-time events. I understand you can't have a 30 foot tall robot chasing players around the room, but they've gotten so fucking lazy that it's just sad. Sometimes if you're lucky a helicopter or something will show up at the end. Oh wow, this boss is a helicopter! How climactic! But then the game holds your hand so damn much that it takes away any challenge their might have been. "THERE'S A MISSILE LAUNCHER OVER THERE! BETTER SHOOT DOWN THE CHOPPER WITH IT! DID YOU GET THE LAUNCHER YET? YOU BETTER GRAB IT AND SHOOT IT AT THE HELICOPTER! PRESS A BUTTON TO GRAB THE LAUNCHER YOU TARD!"

I can agree that there have been too many games with lazy, frustrating or just plain shitty bosses. But you know what? There have been a lot of lazy, frustrating or shitty games in general. Maybe it would be better to say "If you're going to do a terrible job of something, don't bother doing it at all." I don't think we should throw the baby out with the bathwater just yet though.

For Jaison

He he he poop

Innovation is Where You Find It (Part 1)

Ok, so our editor informed me it's time to stop posting half-assed and do some real work (That's a joke, we don't have an editor. We don't do real work either). With this year's E3 being such a mixed bag (of shit) it's a great time to tackle this topic. Ready for some opinions? OH U KNOW IT!

Everyone seems to be bitching about the lack of innovation in big name titles these days. To me it's only natural. As games become bigger and bigger business, triple-A titles take more and more money to produce. They are too expensive, they can't fail. As with Hollywood blockbusters like Transformers and even Avatar, game publishers need to appeal to the lowest common denominator to ensure that they make tons of money.

Now I can hear you saying "Yeah but movies can be big budget and still turn out great, like Inception!" Well, games can too. And sometimes they do. However games (like movies) are increasingly being subjected to more executive meddling and the "Too many cooks in the kitchen" phenomenon. When you've got multiple writers, entire teams of artists, programmers, motion capture specialists and animators it becomes harder for everything to fit together cohesively. It's much more difficult to make running changes, and requires a very talented group of people to co-ordinate it all.

So with all this time and money involved, it makes sense that the people providing the cash aren't going to want to take any risks. Publishers are starting to figure out (As Hollywood has), anything with an established name attached to it is going to sell better. Even if it has nothing to do with the original (see: Prey 2). In many cases, a developer will take an established formula (Platformer, First-person shooter, etc.), add a new gimmick and call it a day. Maybe they'll get really creative and combine 2 genres (Borderlands, Fallout 3).

So does this mean the end of fresh IPs and true innovation in games? There's a subject worth debating. Which we will....So, uh stay tuned for Part 2 to find out!

Skullgirls Looks Awesome

I'm ready for another zany fighting game that doesn't have marvel or capcom in it. Skullgirls looks like a cross between Looney Tunes and some kind of anime. Now I shudder thinking that such a thing probably exists.