Something else to add to The Infinite Download List Of Infinite Downloads is Aether, a major mod for good ol’ Minecraft that’s so fat with features and changes that you could almost call it a total conversion. It’s also an extension of Minecraft’s ill-defined, open-to-interpretation fictional universe. If The Nether is Minecraft’s hell, then Aether is its heaven – an even more abstract cube-world of floating sky-islands, angry birds (no, not those ones), loot-holding dungeons and flying whales.
They had me at ‘flying whales.’ Oh, and there’s a ton of new block types (including trampoline-like bouncy clouds) plus an expanded, more RPG-like accessory system and even difficulty tiers for the new dungeon runs.
This one will require full exploration for a longer, later post, but meantime find out more and get it installed here.
Bit of a bastard to install, requiring a few other mini-mods first, so if you’re struggling or not in place where you can download lots of random zip files, here’s The Yogcast’s exporation of The Aether:
Microsoft’s facial-expression-capturing Xbox 360 add-on arrives free for all Xbox Live users for a limited time; Kinect Sparkler confirmed for July 28 debut.
Avatar Kinect lets up to seven users congregate in virtual chat rooms as their Xbox 360 avatars. The Kinect tracks the users’ movements–from nodding heads to raising eyebrows–and maps them to their digital counterparts. The application also lets users set their chats against two dozen different backdrops, as well as record and edit video clips of the conversations to share with others.
Until September 8, Avatar Kinect will be free for all Xbox Live users. After that, only Gold subscribers will be given complimentary access to the service.
Microsoft also dated another Kinect utility today, revealing that Kinect Sparkler would launch July 28. The digital toy lets players use their fingers as virtual sparklers, painting a canvas with multicolored fireworks in three dimensions. Like Avatar Kinect, Kinect Sparkler will also have a means to save and share creations with others. When it launches, Kinect Sparkler will sell for 240 Microsoft points ($3).
“Avatar Kinect launched” was posted by Brendan Sinclair on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 09:50:39 -0700
The Carmageddon reincarnation has been officially revealed. It’s called Carmageddon: Reincarnation, appropriately enough. (The website appears completely broken at the moment.) And it’s being made by the same team that created the original two games, Stainless Games.
“Carmageddon has returned to its Indie developer roots, and the time is right to bring the game to a new audience.”
Are the words from CEO and co-founder of Stainless, Patrick Buckland. He carries on,
“Originally an ambitious title that tested the hardware limits of its day, we’re excited that the game will finally get the showcase it deserves on today’s platforms.”
Poison, the dominatrix hotty from Final Fight headlined another four-character reveal for Street Fighter X Tekken at Comic-Con 2011. She will be joined by Dhalsim and, from Tekken, Steve Fox and Yoshimitsu.
During a panel defined by teases, in more ways than one, the audience briefly believed Darkstalkers characters would be confirmed for the game. Flashing a slide that said “Darkstalkers are not dead,” to wild applause, producer Yoshinori Ono then said Capcom management had not yet approved the characters. Reminding the crowd that at last year’s Comic-Con, they held up a dollar bill as a show of support for Darkstalkers’ inclusion, Ono implored the audience to hold a ten-spot. Everyone thrust money in the air.
I’m not sure how we managed to miss this. I’m also not entirely sure that we mightn’t have been better off continuing to miss this. Gangs of Glasgow is what happens if medieval warfare sim Mount & Blade was transposed to modern Glasgow, Scotland – or at least an exaggerated version of it where the extreme football hooliganism, rioting and assorted other urban violence is worse than it already is/was. On the one hand, bringing so much – from police cars to football stadiums – into a game about dudes with swords on horses is an amazing technical achievement. On the other… well, I don’t know about you, but I’m making a face that tries to convey something I couldn’t begin to describe accurately.
It could be taken as a sort of multiplayer, team-based Postal. It could also be taken as making light of a city with a dark history of football-related violence. It could also be taken as knowingly ridiculous. Or all of the three. Here’s the official disclaimer:
“The mods are mostly comedic in nature, but deal with serious real-life social issues such as knife-crime, drug abuse, and sectarianism, usually in a ridiculous and/or offensive way.” So, hopefully you know what you’re letting yourself in for.
Warhammer 40,000 has had its share of good video games, and bad video games. THQ’s Warhammer 40K: Kill Team arrives onto Xbox Live Arcade in an attempt to add itself to the “good pile”. Does it succeed? Take a look and decide for yourself.
“Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team – Gameplay Movie” was posted by Ando on Tues, 19 Jul 2011
The Kinect-based Black Eyed Peas Experience had us toe-to-toe on the dance floor with the Peas, just as we’ve always dreamed.
Like the radio-safe version of the song says, let’s get it started in here: The Black Eyed Peas Experience is a Black Eyed Peas dance game, bumped up to “experience” status with the addition of original music videos and other fan-pleasing extras. In it, you play as a customised avatar in a dance-off against the Peas themselves in a pumping, all-Black Eyed Peas discotheque.
Having (presumably) evaded the Black Eyed Peas’ bodyguards, your avatar gets all up in the group’s grill and challenges them to a face-to-face dance contest, in which you mirror the moves of whichever group member takes centre stage. With your avatar onscreen, his or her back to the player, and the four group members jigging beyond that, it’s a busy picture–more so, even, with the simultaneous two-player, and with bright highlights pinging off your avatar’s limbs when you pull off a successful dance move.
Comedy Central game studio creative director confirms new title based on cartoon series en route for Microsoft’s platform.
Unlike the aesthetically crude Comedy Central show it was based upon, South Park’s first brush with gaming in the late ’90s was objectively not good. However, Microsoft and Comedy Central went a long way to righting the franchise in gamers’
Now, it appears as if a second South Park game is headed exclusively to the Xbox 360. Speaking to Joystiq, 345 Games creative director Prithvi Virasinghe confirmed that his studio is collaborating with Microsoft on a new title based on the tiny-town travails of Kyle, Stan, Kenny, and Cartman.
Discovering that this game existed was a moment of perverse joy for me.
I knew that it would be deeply boring – it really is – and that I would have to play it extensively for no reason other than to take joy in being quite deliberately boring. It’s the kind of non-challenge I relish, and I gleefully set about compiling a diary of the events – or lack thereof – in the life of a simulatory street-cleaner.
Warner Bros. offers new release window for upcoming fantasy action game; $130 Collector’s Edition and retailer-specific preorder bonuses announced.
When Warner Bros. announced Lord of the Rings: War in the North in March, it noted the fantasy action game would ship later this year. Now, the publisher has narrowed its release window, letting gamers know the war in the north will commence this fall.
In addition to announcing the new release window for the game, Warner Bros. offered information about War in the North’s Collector’s Edition, as well as its various retailer-specific preorder bonuses.
The $130 Lord of the Rings: War in the North Collector’s Edition includes a Ranger of the North Quiver Case (pictured at right), art book, behind-the-scenes DVD concerning the game’s music, three songs from the game’s soundtrack, and a copy of the game.
In addition, the collector’s edition will include a Ranger of the North avatar for Xbox 360 copies of the game and a War in the North Theme Pack for PlayStation 3 iterations of the title. The theme pack includes wallpapers, fonts, and icons.
