Gamertell

Yeah, I got to see the BatPod and the BatCopter only a few weeks apart. In Ohio (USA), even. What’s the deal with that? The planets must be in some strange alignment.

The helicopter is sans bat wings but it has been painstakingly restored to its original condition so the owner could make a small fortune giving people the opportunity to sit in it for 2-3 minutes. Paying customers would be ready at the gate and, as soon as the copter landed, rushed over to get seated while the previous passengers rushed out. With such a quick turnaround it was about…

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Check out the gallery: BatCopter at 2008 Ohio State Fair

As I wandered through the 2008 Scion Slam Basketball Tournament held August 23, 2008 in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, I was amazed at all the cool schwag being handed out by the local Scion dealership. I’m simply in love with my backpack filled with CDs featuring the Backyard Bangers, MP3 cases, mini basketballs and different ways I can customize my own Scion in a glimpse.

But another part of the show is the Scion Slammer Car Show held the same day at Fort Bragg and featured many customized Scions. As I walked through the rows of gorgeous tricked out cars I came across one that was sheer beauty. A dark gray Scion XB covered with scenes from Heavenly Sword and Prince of Persia…

Click through for more photos.

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What’s this? A week of Wii-downloadables that sounds decent all around? And in the dog days of August, even. This week, we have a funky looking rhythm game on WiiWare, along with some retro RPG action (Ys Book 1&2) and the ass-kicking Samurai Shodown 2. As usual, the titles are available on the Wii Shop channel, with a fresh batch arriving every Monday at 9 AM Pacific time. Wii points can be purchased at a rate of $1=100 points.

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Ah, nothing makes me reminisce like stand-up arcade machines.  A new company is bringing back the glory days of gaming with the Retro Space Arcade Cabinet complete with old game casings, old-school joysticks, buttons and even a trackball. 

The Retro Space is packed with a computer that comes preloaded with 100 licensed arcade classics and several emulators. When not gaming (*gasp*) the cabinet can be used as a jukebox for a music collection and includes 1080p playback. As for the screen, it is a 24-incher with…

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Set your watches, countdown clocks or any other timepieces you may have - beloved RPG Chrono Trigger is coming to the Nintendo DS on November 25, 2008. The time-traveling favorite game will come loaded with new dungeons and an “Arena Mode” to complement the classic gameplay. The title will make use of the DS’ two screens, and Square Enix is promising an entirely faithful port.

The press release is full of hyperbole and name-dropping, but this game is one of those rare cases where all of the praise is actually deserved. It’s many a gamer’s favorite RPG, if not their favorite game period. It took the SNES RPG template and made it more colorful; made the combat quicker, more interactive and more fun; and actually had an awesome, millennium-spanning storyline. Not to mention, the graphics and music are still regarded among the finest examples of the era.

I remember playing this game in 2000, way after it’s original release, and it was actually my very first RPG. You can bet I’ll be in line this November.

Read [RPG fan] Also Read [Ripten]

As if the hand of Dan DeCarlo was guiding me from the grave, I recently came across another potentially prophetic message coming from Archie Comics.

This instance is in an issue of Betty and Veronica Digest Magazine (no. 125, Jan. 2002) with a story titled ”Game Gambit” featuring fictional game maker Zapco Games. The company has asked Betty, the blonde-next-door and sometimes gender-bending teenager, to help test a series of arcade games targeted towards girls.

As one of the Gamertell writers recently pointed out in an email, “Is it just me, or does September seem like the month of feminine games?” Indeed, it appears that way with a slew of demographically-targeted games being released throughout September 2008…

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Check out the gallery: Betty and Veronica no. 125 - Game Gambit

Title: The Horus Heresy: Horus Rising
Author: Dan Abnett
Publisher: The Black Library
Release Date: 2006
Price: $7.99 (Borders price)
Rating: Two thumbs up, 100/100, A+, ***** out of five.
Pros: Incredible writing, great story, memorable characters, hard-hitting description with Tolkien-esque attention to detail.
Cons: It can be a little hard to follow in terms of the topics brought up. If you don’t understand British English, it will take some time to get used to the writing style.
Overall: More than worth the price and avoids the pulpy nature of Science Fiction

The Horus Heresy is a Warhammer 40000 licensed book series that takes place 10,000 years before standard franchise, illustrating the events that lead up to the perpetual war. The series is up to eight books, one of which has been released this month (August 2008) with a ninth to be released in December 2008. Horus Rising, written by Dan Abnett, is the first of eight books that detail the rise and fall of Horus and his faithful legions of genetically engineered Space Marines…

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Finally, after months of (mostly) crap titles, this week’s WiiWare offering - Strong Bad Episode 1: Homestar Ruiner - actually looks original, fun and worth the spacebucks. The Virtual Console side is looking good as well, with the tongue-in cheek (and previously Japan-only) TurboGrafx 16 CD-ROM shooter Star Parodier. There’s also Break In, but the less said about that, the better (get Lunar Pool if you’re itching for Pool action).  As always, all titles are available on the Wii Shop channel, with a fresh batch arriving every Monday at 9 AM Pacific time. Wii points can be purchased at a rate of $1 for 100 points.

Click through for Nintendo’s official descriptions:

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Like game music? Then you’re probably aware of kick-ass game remix site OverClocked ReMix, where the latest fan-rearrangement album just came out. The project, called Doom II: Delta-Q-Delta, is a collection of tunes from Doom II, re-arranged in different styles by the ReMixers. It’s all free to download, and the quality is excellent (as is par for the course with the site’s level of work).

You can download the whole shebang as a torrent, or grab any of the 13 tracks individually. My personal favorite songs have to be djpretzel’s almost baroque “Red Waltz” and Mazedude/Ailsean’s funky “The End of Hell”, but it’s great, creative stuff all around. The OC ReMix guys (and girls!) were actually in the news recently for their professional work on the Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix soundtrack, so they’ve been on a roll lately. Go get downloading if you’re a fan of game music (or Doom II!)

Read [Doom 2 OCR] Also Read [OverClocked ReMix]

Shiny Shiny has a very interesting (if brief) blurb on one of the coolest, funniest shooters of all time: No One Lives Forever. The game was a super-smart spy spoof with a ton of sass, and Shiny writer LucyHedges posits that the game was also steeped in feminist ideals. Citing the smart, fully-clothed and ultra competent female protagonist and overt “feminism for dummies” dialogue, Lucy thinks the game was quite an anomaly in the testosterone-soaked world of PC shooters. The title is now a super-bargain at $12.99, so if you missed it the first time around, you’d be smart to pick it up now.

Obligatory female gamer comment: I’ve got to agree, and admit that I’ve always loved the game. Come to think of it, I also loved that Portal featured a female lead character (especially one without triple-D cups or clad in a thong and heels), and of course I get a little kick out of positive, cool female game characters. So I want to give a quick shout to Jade of Beyond Good and Evil, Cortana from Halo, Joanna Dark from Perfect Dark, and Samus from Metroid.

Read [Shiny Shiny]