Burger Time

Has anyone actually ever beat this game?!

I've only played it a few times, but this game is ridiculous!

Death Rally

Apparently, I can post from my phone... Let's give this a shot.

Speaking of shots, I've been playing Death Rally for the iPhone lately. This game is madly addictive.

This game has a basic story line, you're a street racer who gets caught by the cops. Rather than put you in jail, you have to join the Death Rally in order to bring in "The Adversary". He's not an easy target though, you have to race your way through multiple tracks, upgrading your cars and weapons as you go.

Not only is the story mode for this game engaging, but it's full of mini games like a free for all kill fest featuring none other than, Duke Nukem.

It's a free download, so there really isn't any reason to miss out on this game.

Finishing off Skyblazer

Here's the second installment of my review on Skyblazer, complete with the final boss(es) video.  After playing this game for a while, I realized it's pretty reminiscent of Megaman Zero, having the closer combat with abilities to back it up.

Like a lot of video games the last level makes you revisit old bosses you've already beat, who for some reason have been either reincarnated or the final boss just had extras lying around.  I understand that with a game like Megaman, since your enemies are machines, but djinn, fish monsters, walls with faces and whatever that elephant-snake trunk guy is  I'm just not sure about.  Still the game keeps to it's quick style by only making you fight four bosses over.

You fight the boss in two forms, which is pretty typical as well.  The first one requires you to start off using your phoenix ability to break his shield, so if you die, you're basically fighting him with half health.  Your best odds are to beat him on the first go around.  Both forms of the last boss hate being punched in the face.  It's pretty much their only weakness.  Really, there aren't a lot of things that punching in the face enough times doesn't take care of.  I'm pretty sure that even works on vampires and werewolves.

If you watch the end story segment, you might notice that Sky is a total bad ass.  I've never seen a game where the main character taunts the final boss.  The whole game he just tells the old man he's got this guy under control and basically just pwns him and his minions with style.

How to Get Your Girlfriend to Play Video Games

When I first started dating my girlfriend, we were at the laundromat and to kill some we played the coin monster Pac-Man.  I was expecting to beat her pretty badly, because I had played the game and knew the ghosts techniques.  Well, she beat me... twice.  It didn't matter how serious I played, it happened.  It wasn't a fluke, my girlfriend is genuinely better at Pac-Man.

Then I started to think, what if I could get my girlfriend to play games with me like ZAMN?

Moreover, what if I could get her to play StarCraft II on my team and actually win?

By Art by Bones at deviantart.com

We've played Left for Dead before, but she can't figure out the controls.  I can't justify losing half my screen for someone who gets me killed more than helps me out.  How can someone who can't even handle two analogue sticks kick my ass with only one D-pad?

*REAL SCIENTIFIC FACTS*

First off, women think faster than men.  They have a better developed central nervous system and more left/right brain cross communication than we do.  What this means, is that if a woman were genuinely interested in video games and played as much as a man does, she is more likely to win, because they will have better control.

It made me think back to the Golden Eye days for the N64.  There was the two analogue control option on that game, no one ever seemed to use.  After Halo, It was the standard in any FPS.  No matter how natural it seems now, if you've been playing games since NES, you had to gradually learn more complicated control.  Now to the bread and butter of this blog.  How do you get your girlfriend to play video games with you?

Start her off like you did, with simple games and gradually step it up.  I thought back to the first game I could remember upping my gamer skill, but still being easy enough for any nubie to play.  Mega Man II was my choice, but maybe you'd choose something else.

The thing is, I wasn't expecting much from her, but you have to remember, no matter how bad she is, and she will suck at first, never take the controller from her and show her.  Best case, she'll just be imitating you, worst case, she'll go make sandwiches and forget about the game.  I've been played Mega Man II more than a few times, and can beat Quick Man's stage first.  That's pretty much the test for Mega Man II, or so I thought.  My girlfriend really surprised me when she played.  After she beat Bubble Man, she went on to Heat Man's level.  I told her that she really would need to use item 2 (the rocket board) to beat this one part.  She told me that she could do it.  She failed more than a few times, but who playing any Mega Man hasn't?  Eventually, she did it.  What made things more interesting is when she beat Heat Man, she didn't use Bubble Man's ability.  I said, "Honey, you're supposed to use the boss ability you got from Bubble Man."  She replied with what is perhaps the most badass gamer comment without realizing it, "That sounds like cheating."

I know that you can theoretically beat any boss in a Mega Man with just the buster, but I never thought of using the learned abilities as cheating.  After that, she beat another four bosses without using abilities.  The one boss I did have to help her on was the dragon in Wily's castle.

Pink is the new blue, says MegaWoman

The thing about training your girlfriend to play a game, is that sometimes, it will be painful to watch her lose over and over doing something that you could do with your eyes closed.  Just remember, even though it's old hat to you, it's new to her.

After she beat Mega Man II, she played Mega Man X. . . and hated it.  I thought that continuing the series might work, but there are a lot of games we've played between MM2 and MMX.  Try to remember those milestones in your gamer history and present them to her in that order.

Who knows, maybe this could bring you two closer together.  Also, you might have to end up doing something that she likes in return.  Maybe you can see if she would be willing to scrap book your video game exploits.  Call it compromise.

   

The Wright Stuff: Flying High

Last time I posted a flash game I played it seems that I've been getting more hate mail for ruining your lives than good comments.  So in an attempt to alienate the rest of my readers, I've got two more games I want to recommend, also found on the Armor Games website.

Learn to Fly

**Spoiler** this video is the end of the game.

This is the sad little epic of a penguin who realizes what he's missing out on, being a "flightless" bird.  He defies fate and throws caution (and himself) to the wind.  It's not only a fun game, but a valuable life lesson.

Flight

After reading the directions a few times, you'll pick it up.

Another simple flyer game, but this one just seems to have an addictive quality that's hard to explain.  Anyway, give it a try if you don't have work today... or if you're boss is ok with you being two hours late.

Flash Games: How I Waste My Life

Armor Games is a flash video game site that has a great collection of games.  I've probably clicked hundreds of hours of my life away on this site alone.  I'd like to share a little "gem" I have found on their site.  If you're a fan of tower defense, this is game is for you.  I would say, that this game is quite possibly the best tower defense game ever.  I'm not taking that comment lightly either.  The link and a few screen shots are below.  If you decide to take my advice and play this game, I'll just say goodbye to you now, because it's possible that you'll never visit my site (or anyone other than GemCraft) again.

If you're not a fan of tower defense, consider yourself lucky.  You might still have a life... or at least the opportunity to get one.

GemCraft chapter 0 | Armor Games

Audio / Video Editing on the Cheap... Free

I've been posting a lot of videos on my site, but I don't have paid video software... and no I didn't pirate it either.

For all of us who don't have the extra few hundred dollars to buy an awesome program like Adobe Premiere, the functionality can be replaced by using a couple different programs to get the same (or similar) results.

I think you'll be able to get your hands on just about everything I mention here from FileHippo.com

First you need codecs, I heard that the codec packs like CCCP or Klite are pretty effective, but I just use ffdshow and the matroska splitter.  Between those two things you don't need much else.

I use VideoPad Video Editor (from NCH), it's a paid program, but when you attempt to uninstall it, you get the option to use a less functional free version.

Another free and useful tool I use is Sqirlz Morph.  This program is probably one of the most intuitive and clever morphing tools I've ever seen.  There is so much you can do with this, but I use it for making .gif and .avi files from just simple pictures.

Sample work using Squirlz Morph

For video conversion, I found a nice free tool Super(c).  I like it not only because it's a free fully functional audio/video converter/joiner, it's also named Super C... as in Super Contra.  You know... the old Nintendo game.

I hope you found this post helpful. Anyway, that's about it.