Culture
Friday media round-up: 8/23
Here’s what the Heave staff has been into this week:
I was watching a whole bunch of Babe Ruth clips on YouTube, because ya know, it’s Babe Ruth. Anyways, I stumbled on this. From the looks of it, seems like the Great Bambino and I would have gotten along just fine. (Plus, “Dance Magic” is the song in the video!)
So I’ve been enjoying my first two crowdfunded video games this past month or so, and only recently came up for air. The ripe-for-modding Shadowrun Returns and the alpha release of Kenshi. These games represent how to bill for and execute delivery of an indie game. Both are available on Steam and have cloud-based save games. Play anywhere, whenever you want! Shadowrun Returns has a short campaign but with crowdsourced extra content for free, forever; it was only $12! Kenshi isn’t complete, nor do I think it will be for a long time. The developer chooses to sell the game in an unfinished stage to fund further development and uses the player base as his idea board. When I can pay a little money to play a game that comes with heaps of free DLC or help design one, I’m a happy gamer.
I tried out an iOS title called Knife That Guy, and while it may not have a lot of staying power, it is worth the $0.99 price tag to read the help section alone. Gameplay involves simply hitting right or left arrows (or using a virtual joystick for chumps who like it easy) to steer an always-moving guy with a knife. The object of the game is for the player-controlled This Guy to shank That Guy—whoever has a red arrow over his head at the time—and avoid stabbing anyone else. It all takes place on a disco floor with bumpers to keep everyone contained, and the difficulty curve comes in the form of characters who react differently to your knife-wielding presence and in the fact that the floor becomes more populated with every kill. Each righteous kill adds life to This Guy’s bar, while errant kills subtract, and gamers simply replay the scenario for high scores. It doesn’t have much depth, but Knife That Guy‘s premise is amusing enough to warrant a try or 10.
The most beautiful song I’ve heard in years:
This song, written by my good friend Joe Sampley, has completely captivated me all week.
For those in Chicago and those willing to travel here, I highly recommend the Animal Inside Out exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry (http://www.msichicago.org/
Recently, I had the good fortune to encounter a friend who hadn’t yet enjoyed the splendors of Nic Cage’s Japanese commercials for the Sankyo pachinko company. If you too suffer from this lack of culture, enjoy:
[…] I contributed to the HEAVEmedia Friday Media Round-Up on Aug. 23 but have been a little behind in getting it posted here. I still highly recommend checking it out, though, for my write-up on Knife That Guy, an interesting iOS game. Also, check out Dom’s thing at the bottom about Nic Cage’s commercials for pachinko. You can read it all by clicking here. […]