PseudoKnightMichael JT Smith
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May 19th, 2009

This week we find ourselves audiosurfing some rockin’ tunes from some friends here in Portland, OR. From their recently released album Swim, SweetJuice plays something “Beautiful.” (music and lyrics by Kris Deelane)

SweetJuice style of Alt/Art/Rock is hard to pin down. The band’s live shows are known for powerhouse performances, infectious energy, catchy songs, and intricate vocals and harmonies. It’s like Elvis Costello meets The Indigo Girls at a Neil Young and Crazy Horse show. And with both a female and a male lead singer, each of whom contributes songwriting and arrangement skills to the group, they may be the 21st Century’s answer to Fleetwood Mac. Based in Portland Oregon, SweetJuice has toured the west coast, playing festivals and clubs, sharing the stage along the way with the legendary Brian Wilson, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, The Zen Tricksters, Little Sue, The Paperboys, Casey Neill among others.
May 16th, 2009

Another Todd Hollenshead interview. This time he’s talking about businessy stuff; the size, success and direction of the company and their projects. He sounds happy with how their mobile games are performing. Why do I care? Well, while I don’t have a phone to game on, I am still holding onto hope for an Orcs and Elves sequel that would eventually make its way to DS!

The next game from Klei Entertainment, developer of Eets for PC and XBLA. Though early in development, Shank is only being shown for the Xbox 360 here. The video has me hooked, my fingers are crossed for a PC version.

In the words of Sam himself: “Bring it on!”

May 14th, 2009

DUN DUN DUNNNN!Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble! is a genre-bending puzzle-role-playing game in the style of a board game. It was released in 2008 for PC and Mac after over two years of development. Created by independent designer Keith Numitz of Mousechief Co., Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble! has won many awards including the Casual Games Assosiation’s 2007 award for Most Innovative Game, and numerous Game of The Year awards from GameTunnel.com including their Innovation Award. The game was also a finalist at IndieCade 2008 and was the only independent game nominated for Best Writing in a Video Game at the Writers Guild Awards in 2009. Its competition included Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, Tomb Raider: Underworld, Fallout 3, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
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May 12th, 2009

Today’s song, March of the Zombies, I’m proud to say, was created by our friend, the funk-nificant Rob Geboers, A.K.A. “Rob Goobers”, A.K.A. “Doctor Soul”, A.K.A. Schnauzer Radio Orchestra. You may be familiar with some of Rob’s work from the numerous theme songs he has composed for such podcasts as ExtraLife Radio, The Final Score and Comics Coast to Coast. You can hear more of Rob’s music at SchnauzerStudios.com, or the Schnauzer Radio Orchestra MySpace page.

May 9th, 2009

If you ever wanted to know how to completely kill the sales potential of the PC version of your game in an entire region by encouraging piracy… well, this is how. Thanks for the lesson, Sony.

It’s still pretty cool to see that people are paying attention to Broken Sword again. I get sad when I hear people older than me say the Wii and DS Director’s Cuts of The Shadow of the Templars is the first time they’ve heard of the series. Just cast Tim Robbins as George Stobbart and Audrey Tautou (shh! no, that similarly themed movie that she was just in… yeah, that didn’t really happen) as Nico Collard and I’m on board.

Overgrowth’s dev tools are pretty impressive and all (seriously, go watch some of their other videos on GameTrailers), but this video in particular is great because it brings the funny. This video’s worth a look whether you’re interested in the tools or not. Bonus, if you are!

That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!

May 5th, 2009

The Kyoto Connection is an Argentine band who create music they describe as “a sweet mix of electronic music with traditional japanese sounds”. A short documentary about the group can be seen on YouTube. This song, “Painting With Lights”, along with their other music, is available for free under Creative Commons at the band’s website TheKyotoConnection.com.

May 2nd, 2009

This could be a blessing in disguise for the Witcher franchise. If you’ve checked out our forum lately (hey, check out our forum!) you might have seen that I’ve been playing through The Witcher on PC. As I play I’m trying to evaluate whether or not I think the RPG playing console audience would be receptive. Much of the game is designed with old-school CRPG ideals in mind that console players may not understand. I’ve been afraid that it would flop. It’s unfortunate that it’s been canceled for financial reasons, but still, it may be a good thing for the brand, much as the cancellation of the Xbox 360 version of World in Conflict was.

And it’s no joke. Not just a sampling, it’s the full game soundtrack. Pretty good music here, check it out. I haven’t listened to it all yet, but I’m keeping my ears open for an AudioSurf video candidate. We’ll see.

Yay! If you haven’t checked out Opera lately, you really should. Opera is currently my preferred browser and has been — for the most part — ever since it went ad-supported (don’t worry, that was about 9 years ago – it’s all free now). Version 9 is a thing of beauty and the alpha builds of version 10 are showing promise as well.

Surprise. Now get off Demigod’s back. I mean, the Rook can dish it out, but he can’t take it.

This trailer appeals to my sensibilities. Hard.