TurtleStomp
Podcasty Charles Manson.
TurtleStomp LIVE! (The update-based post)
Apr 12th
Well, we didn’t stream quite as much as we wanted to and didn’t -really- record anything of great value, but you can see what we did record here http://www.livestream.com/turtlestomp << There is a lot of faffing about with the software and microphones and allsorts, but it does feature us saying cocks a lot, which is basically what the podcast is anyway.
We might use it again in future, if we can somehow rig -all- our cameras up to it from our various residences.
<3 TurtleStomp
Turtlestomp Live!
Apr 12th
That’s right folks, tomorrow (Monday 12th April) we will be GOING LIVE between 1-8pm (ish…we may update this if that changes).
The Turtlestomp crew will be locked in a house with nothing but alcohol, junk food, and more games than we’re likely to know what to do with. All for the pleasure of your heathen eyes as we record what may be our most epic podcast that we will ever record. Plans are already in place to attempt a large chunk of the Rock Band Endless Setlist, and eat a box of 60 Freddos (not purchased for 17p, which is not a money).
So join us LIVE tomorrow at: http://www.livestream.com/turtlestomp. We promise you probably won’t regret it much.
Bastet: Hell on Earth
Apr 11th
Many of you are probably extremely familiar with the game Tetris. The standard tetromino based game, in which you have to create rows of blocks in order to keep the screen from filling up, and to gain the high score so you can lourd it over your friends.
And of course, if you have played any Tetris ever, you have experienced the sheer hell that is that moment where the one single piece you need to create an amazing set of lines does not appear. You have probably, at this moment in time, cursed the developers of whichever Tetris clone you happen to be playing, convinced that they are specifically out to get you and have programmed the game to piss you off as much as possible. This is the emotion that Bastet sets out to evoke.
Bastet (short for Bastard Tetris) is a Tetris clone that analyses the playing field using a rather complicated algorithm to calculate the worse possible piece it could give you…and then gives you it. If you set up a perfect stack that just requires a single line piece to create 5 whole rows at once, the game will do anything it can to destroy any chance of this happening. It will give you every piece that cannot in any way fit into that gap, until you give in and cover it up.
Fuuuuuuu-
Now, this may sound soul crushing, and it is. But in an incredibly satisfying and fun manner. It’s the kind of game that, despite making you want to smash your fist through your monitor, you still have to play over and over again to beat your own, or your friend’s high score. I have been thrown into hour long binge sessions of Bastet, simply because my friend beat me by a single line. That is how addictive this thing is.
So, if you’re into rage, frustration and computer games that are literally out to get you, you’ll love Bastet.
Bastet is available as a free download for Linux, Windows and a patch is available to allow compilation on Mac OSX. Find it at http://fph.altervista.org/prog/bastet.html
Just Cause 2 demo
Mar 23rd
So after a lot of nagging from GeneShark/Tom I decided to have a look at the Just Cause 2 demo, I had a look through the Playstation Store and went to download it. It was at this point I realised I had about 70MB free space on my hard drive, so I went over to my 360 and downloaded it there.
So when I loaded it up it started going through some intro cut-scene thingy, which I was not paying much attention to because I was too busy talking in our IRC channel (which you should totally join). Without noticing I was then in gameplay, I took a few steps forward then a timer appears in the top-right corner. This was the timer for demo play, it was set to 30 minutes, which I suppose is a reasonable amount of time for a demo.
Now with most game demos what I would expect is the typical tutorial level (and maybe one more) so I can get used to what the game was about. But it seem what little explanation about what I was doing was in that little cut-scene (crap >.<). But nevertheless I tried to make sense of it. There were basic control prompts still like ‘RT to shoot’ etc. So I started having a look around for something to do relevant to progress. That was until I found the grappling hook…
How goddamn awesome is this
For nearly the rest of the demo I found my self grappling onto and riding on top of cars, grappling up huge-ass cliffs and parachuting down or unnecessarily grappling along the floor. I alerted some police of some kind and had a bit of fun shooting the before grappling off into the skies.
Although at one point I stumbled upon this military base, and stole a helicopter (by grappling onto it and then entering of course) which was fun, until I left the ‘Demo area’ at which point I had to turn a helicopter around and get it back to the demo area within 10 seconds. Of course I couldn’t and the demo reset and put me back to the start (without resetting my 30 minutes) it was at this point I couldn’t be asked anymore.
So, in conclusion I’d have to say: didn’t have a damn clue what was going on, but the grappling hooks and helicopters are fun. This game is out this Friday (on week of posting). Or was released 26th March 2010 if this is being read at a later date.
This was fun too!
This post was originally written for MOREtotheGAME and has been reposted here with permission from the author
Titchmarsh gaming “debate”
Mar 22nd
If you’ve not seen the clip from Alan Titchmarsh’s ITV chat show, in which games were pretty much shouted down by two morons as an industry expert tried to put across valid points, prepare to rage.
I did, and felt that I needed to express said rage in complaint email form.
To whom it may concern,
As a writer and editor of a gaming website, host of a videogames podcast and a seventeen year old, I found the so-called debate on gaming featured on Alan Titchmarsh’s show to be deeply insulting to gamers and teenagers alike. Watching Tim Ingham’s valid and well thought out points drowned out by the two other vastly uninformed guests left me with a stack of rage far greater than that of any violent videogame.
With some points flat-out ignored by everyone present, such as the fact games are subject to the same stringent ratings system as films, the ‘debate’ turned into a mockery, with two loud, wrong people allowed to shout themselves over the voice of reason. Leaving uninformed viewers with the sense that games are not a legitimate form of entertainment, and are more harmful than any other violent media. TV seems incapable of ‘doing’ games properly, stuck with the arcane stereotype that videogames are only of interest to basement-dwelling, neckbearded sociopaths, and this “debate” only served to exacerbate this.
I’ve been playing videogames the public would probably deem violent for many years, and whilst a little socially-awkward (Hell, that’s more to do with the internet than gaming, but don’t go and try to debate it on your channel, you might invite the geniuses behind the Chinese firewall or something) I’ve turned out just fine. Infact I’m anti-war, non-violent and about as likely to steal a car thanks to GTA as I am to thwart a terrorist plot thanks to Die Hard, which is unlikely. Years of sitting at a PC or console have left my bones withered and weak, and I would certainly not fare as well as Bruce Willis in such a situation because of this. Curses!
I’m also irritated at the implication that teenagers cannot think for themselves, because I’ve yet to kill someone with a plastic bag, overthrow the leader of an underwater city, eat mushrooms in order to extend my life or contain animals in tiny cages, occasionally forcing them to fight each other, despite having done all of these in the lovely, pixelly word of videogames. I don’t see it and suddenly jump to the conclusion that “Oh my, I simply must imitate this bad example”. No, and the thought that most teens would be swayed by games is silly. So please stop implying as such.
This continued sterotyping of gamers and the scapegoating of games in the media is one of the reasons I no longer watch your channel, and this video (which I saw illegally uploaded to Youtube, I bet the uploader was a gamer, I bet it was GTA what made him do it) has reaffirmed my decision to stay well away from your programming.
- Thomas Gibbard, disgruntled teenage gamer
If you too would like to complain, the email address is viewerservices@itv.com.
(Bought to my attention by @nickstone333 and TheSixAxis)
UPDATE: I received a reply telling me to instead complain to feedback@channeltvlondon.co.uk, I’ve done so, and would urge you to do the same.
