Gamertell

The Gamertell staff is taking some time off to be with our families (and very likely play videogames in the other room for many, many hours) for Thanksgiving.

As a special, tasty treat for this holiday, here’s a look at the Gamertell staff’s favorite uses of food in videogames. Also check out our 2007 Thanksgiving Day mashup.

Enjoy…

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Every E3 there are plenty of announcements and everyone claims their is the biggest, most important and whatevertheheck else. There were fewer hardware announcements than most years with more concentration on games, developing console interfaces and content options.

Not too surprisingly, most of the staff picks for their favorite E3 2008 announcements were somehow related to Microsoft’s Xbox 360. There was, of course, a sole dissenter.

Give it a read and then let us know what your favorite announcement was from E3 2008…

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‘Tis the season for smootchin’ and squeezin’. Sure, that might mean you have to drop your controller for an hour or two and pay attention to your significant other, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any love and romance in videogames.

In my most recent CiN Weekly magazine column (published February 13, 2008), I point out a few of the more romantic moments in videogames, going back to a few including the arcade game Popeye.  You have Mario’s eternal quest for some sweet Princess affection, as well as some sultry smootches in the Final Fantasy franchise. A little more recent, Singles: Flirt Up Your Life takes a more direct approach, while Second Life lets you meet other singles through its online interface. Finally, there’s a bit of love in Halo 3, as well as the somewhat sexy yet unnecessarily controversial scenes in Mass Effect.

There are, of course, a few other articles out there that pair love and videogames:

• GameZone has an article from 2007
• Desructoid also goes back a year with a look at love in games
• ClassicGaming goes old school with a multiparter
• There’s also Gamespot’s uber-pink romantic retrospective from who knows when (complete with improperly coded image files)

You certainly must have your own romantic gaming experiences. Do you snuggle alone with your joystick or have you found a videogame you and your loved one can play together? Do share…

Read [CiN Weekly] Also Read [GameZone] Also Read [Destructoid] Also Read [Classic Gaming] Also Read [Gamespot]

• 250th Gamestation set to open in the UK
• Nintendo offering two limited edition DS bundles for Black Friday 2008
• Thanksgiving 2008 Mashup: A few (more) of our favorite uses of food in videogames

To celebrate Thanksgiving, the Gamertell staff is taking some time off to be with our families (and very likely play videogames in the other room for many, many hours).

As a special, tasty treat for this holiday, here’s a look at the Gamertell staff’s favorite uses of food in videogames.

Enjoy!

Amy Sutton: My favorite use of food in a videogame is in Namco-Bandai’s Katamari series when you use a sumo wrestler to roll up food. The food sticks to him for a while and makes him fatter. Plus he makes a great gulping sound when you roll up the food.

Jenni Lada: My favorite use of food in a game has to be in the DS title Sprung, which was released by Ubisoft on December , 2004. Sprung is the closest thing to a dating sim released in the US. It had two game modes that followed 2 characters. In Becky’s story, there was a chapter called “Serving the Freezing Dish”. In it Becky had to get even with her ex-boyfriend. There were a number of ways to get revenge, and one of the options was to slip a laxative into his water glass. I remember replaying that scene for about four days trying to slip the laxative into his drink. Apparently a glitch was present in the game, because it was impossible. Even on Gamefaqs people were stumped. Even though it ended up being an impossible option, I still consider it the best use of food in a video game.

Lucy Newman: That’s easy. BurgerTime, an old NES puzzle game that came out in 1987 based on the arcade version released in 1982 by Data East. It was like old’ school Donkey Kong where you had to go up the ladders to drop the ingredients to the bun below. You couldn’t drop them willy nilly either. They had to be dropped in order- bun, meat patties, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese and then the top bun - by walking over them to complete the burger. There’s a few rogue foods trying to stop you from completing your burger. A hot dog that looked more like a red chili pepper, an egg and a pickle. Your only line of defense was a pepper shaker. The original game was developed by Data East and published by Bally Midway in 1982 for the Aracade systems and later for the Atari 2600, Atari 5200 and 7800 (renamed Beef Drop), Commodore 64 (I still have my copy somewhere), ColecoVision, NES, Intellivision, Texas Instrument 99/4A, Apple II, MS-DOS, Game Boy and the PSone. There have been many remakes and spin offs of the game as the years went by including Mr. Whimpy, Pizza Time, Ice Cream Factory and a few others.

PJ Hruschak: Since brains in zombie games aren’t really food for the living and Burger Time (my favorite coin op arcade game) wad already mentioned, I’ll go a bit more recent. To help Home Simpson’s stamina and to get to his lard sized persona in the recently released The Simpsons Game (2007, EA Games), he consumes various food stuffs throughout the game. My favorite is in the ice area in the Katamari spoofing level where sea creatures somehow spit up oversized servings of sushi. Next I’d say Snake eating snakes for health in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater released in 2004 by Konami for the PS2.

Richard Snyder: Bonk’s Adventure - Turbografx-16 - Red Company - 1990. Food is a common power-up in many games, but only a precious few really touch upon how necessary it is for you not only to stay healthy but get stronger, and none do it more directly than the Bonk trilogy.  Whereas it goes straight to the stomach or thighs of some people who eat a lot, all the protein in Bonk’s world is destined right for the cavekid’s noggin even going so far as to give him temporary invincibility after the third snack, as well as the ability to turn enemies to stone by landing on the ground headfirst.  Lesson: Eat your protein, kids.

Joshua Mallory: Burger Time has my vote for BEST use of food, but it was already taken. Kirby Super Star, SNES, HAL Laboratory, 1996.  While tomatoes and various food items feature as health powerups throughout the game, the fact of the matter is that Kirby eats everything, including the enemies.  When badguys aren’t palatable enough by themselves, he can even become a cook and turn all enemies into food.  Kirby has starred in games since 1992, but KSS is arguably the best game of the series.

• Thanksgiving 2008 Mashup: A few (more) of our favorite uses of food in videogames
• Amazon’s Thanksgiving weekend, Cyber Monday 2008 game deals
• Thanksgiving weekend - a time to game

Regardless of what you think about the revamped E3, this was still a big yea for announcements. Be it new games, new peripherals, redesigned gear or just updates on the games announced last year, E3 2007 was an exciting potpourri of information.

Click through for the Gamertell writers’ takes on a few of the most anticipated things announced at E3 2007…

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  E3 2007 was certainly a change this year, replacing the uber pricey booths with more intimate hotel conference rooms, smaller booths and limiting the event to 1/10th the attendees as last year. This was quite a jolt for many, especially for videogame journalists and bloggers who have never covered non-E3 events and angered gamers who wanted greater access.

A few companies have hinted that this was an improvement since it cost much less than previous E3s, which required the whole production to stop for a month to concentrate on a clean demo and stop production of the game itself. Others were not quite as happy with the new format, missing the media attention that came with all the chaos, booth babes and celebrities.

Here are a few Gamertell writers’ takes on the possible future of E3…

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