SideQuesting

We’ve seen him everywhere over the last two or three years.  Munny.  He’s the little white plastic dude that leads the DIY nylon toy rebellion.  Munny is meant to be painted, modeled, glued, cut, and glued again into any manner of self-expressive character creation.  In fact, he’s a bit like a real-life avatar for your office desk.

While in New York recently, I picked up a Munny from the MOMA gift shop and have been spending the last 2 weeks racking my brain over who or what to turn him into.  I’ve settled on video game characters as the main direction.  I then hopped online for inspiration to find — unsurprisingly — that the video game Munny theme has been around almost as long as the toy itself.  Take a look at a few of the Munnys (or is it Munnies?) I’ve found, or check out the official Munny gallery, and help me come up with a direction for my own.

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In what may be the comeback story of the year (if you don’t count the return of Megatron in Transformers 2, that is), Electronic Gaming Monthly is making a comeback!  Original founder Steve Harris has come to terms with Ziff Davis on ownership of EGM’s assets and publishing rights, signaling a return of the magazine in the latter half of 2009.  Yes, that’s this year!

EGM was the quintessential gaming magazine, even though it had its ups and downs.  Seeing the mag make a comeback will be great.  Granted, we have no idea what form the magazine will take, who will be on board, and if it will even be worth reading in a paperless society, but beggers can’t be choosers.

Follow the EGM twitter for updates here: http://www.twitter.com/egmnow

Read the full press release here: http://www.egmnow.com/press1.html

And stay tuned here for great gaming news and cultural quips: http://www.sidequesting.com

Commander Sheppard returns in 2010’s highly anticipated sequel!

On the weekends, I deejay at all manner of events.  From cherished weddings, to thumping club gigs, to secret house parties there is a chance that you’ll probably find me spinning my Pioneers somewhere in the Detroit area at any given Friday or Saturday.  So when DJ Hero was announced, I was extremely happy.  FINALLY a deejay game in the vein of Guitar Hero that will keep me buying plastic junk for my living room.

Then, Scratch: The Ultimate DJ was announced.

Then, Armin Van Buuren – In The Mix was announced.

Suddenly, I’m worn out of the deejay rhythm-game genre before it even saw the flourescent WalMart light.

I decided to take it upon myself to scope out the three bigger releases in the DJ genre and see which (if any) seems like it might be worth my purchase.  In this article, I’ve compared all 3 games (with images & video) to hopefully help you do the same.  No, I have not provided glow sticks.

On with the show!

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Written and Contributed by Tony Dimovski

Let me start off by saying that since watching “The Wrong Trousers” in 6th grade I have been a Wallace and Gromit fan, and that’s why I was so excited to give “Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Adventures” a try.  This review spans the first two episodes, Fright of the Bumblebees and The Last Resort.

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For those that know me, the amount of ga-ga that I’ve had over Dead Space and the upcoming DS:E has been pretty apparent.  For those that don’t know me, watch the vid above of the Wii exclusive Dead Space Extraction, the on-rails-ish horror game that I’ve been excited for since I first read the inklings of it.

The video is the latest trailer for the game, in glorious HD.  Now, if only the Wii could play HD I’d be a much happier camper.

Back in October of 2008 Nintendo debuted the trailer for the Wii adaptation of Punch-Out!!, bringing some much needed core gaming to the system.  With the game now finally released, I took some time to pick up and play the retro-infused slugfest and was surprised.  How surprised?  And about what?  Read my review to find out!

(You didn’t think I would ACTUALLY tell you the “punchline” before you read the full review, did you?)

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What you see above is the best logo and title for a video game EVER.

Today, Rockstar revealed the next chapter in the DLC for Liberty City.  Titled “The Ballad of Gay Tony” the lead character reins are now handed to Luis Lopez, underling for nightclub owner Gay Tony.  The story centers on the life of Lopez as he is thrown in the Studio 54-centric club land.  Expect glitz, gunz, and other words that end in “z”.  Due in the Fall, the DLC will retail for about twenty bucks on XBox Live.

But here’s where the REAL magic happens: as part of the press announcement, Rockstar also broke news of the bundling of BOTH pieces of DLC onto one disc for the XBox 360 — titled “Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City” — to be available in Fall for $40.

No word on anything PS3-related, but expect to see the game in some form during Microsoft’s E3 conference.

As an aside, I sure do hope that the disc comes packed with a Bedazzler pattern.  I expect plenty of sequins in the game.

Press Release….. AFTER THE JUMP!

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Welcome to the SideQuest, your semi-weekly podcast devoted to gaming, culture, and gaming culture, with the occasional tangent.

This episode brings in a special guest: Mr Mike Wehner.  We talk about doing laundry with our significant others, podcasting naked, Ryan’s hate for lateness, and I think something about games somewhere.

E3 is discussed ad infinitum, as we cover what Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo will probably not show as we try to decide what would make Ryan buy a game system.

Music:
Intro – Ben Anderson – Reboot
Outro – The Bub Bard – Desperate Love

 

 The SideQuest Episode #104 [107:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (219)

The Castrade Game Box, while looking suspiciously like a little white game console we all know and love, brings porting your game console (PS2, PS3, Wii, etc) to an LCD screen that much easier.  The box takes inputs from just about anything and rescales it to properly play on an LCD monitor with a resolution of up to 1900×1200 via VGA.

Yeah, all that sounds pretty good, right?  No word on if it will ACTUALLY upscale your Wii or PS2 gaming, but being able to play on a true monitor potentially without the fuzziness will be an improvement nonetheless.

Full Link Here: Castrade

[From Gizmodo Via Akihabara]