master chief on dundas by wvs
Even if you don’t play video games, chances are you have seen or heard something about a spaceman with green suit. The hype machine chugging along for the Xbox 360’s Halo 3 is in full swing and even mainstream media has taken notice enough to ask what all the fuss is about. Having made Microsoft an estimated $170,000,000.00 in the first day alone, Halo 3 has produced the biggest opening day sale of any entertainment medium. It’s all very impressive. From the ads, to the lines, to the pranks…
As you may already know, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has a long history of pranking (or hacks, as they call them) both on their own campus and at other schools. Though there have been some real winners over the years, this new one, captured today by MIT newspaper The Tech, really takes the cake.
To mark the Halo 3 release, MIT students gifted the John P. Harvard statue in Harvard Yard with a Spartan helmet (with “Master Chief in Training” written on the back) and an assault rifle.
Those MIT hacks always impress. The statue looks like it was meant to be that way. One of these days I’ll have to actually give the Halo series a try rather then just talking about it. 2.4 million copies sold in the first 24 hours of release can’t be wrong. Reviews of the game can be found at metacritic.com — Halo 3
via Joystiq — The best thing you’ll see today: John P. Harvard goes Halo, also see MIT students turn famed Harvard statue into ‘Halo’ chief | Crave : The gadget blog
Update: Halo 3 has made $300 million in seven days.
Published by
Sean 5 years, 1 month ago in
Games
Here’s another event related to this previous post. It seems that
the modding community has reacted [to the recent critisims of the Hot Coffee mod] and it has done so in style.
read more | digg story
Published by
Sean 5 years, 1 month ago in
Games
I can’t believe all the commotion which has resulted from the GTA “Hot Coffee” mod. It has gotten way out of hand. Apparently the critics are going to go after the Sims 2 next. Here is a essay that might put things into perspective.
Perhaps what is most absurd about the accusations against both Rockstar Games and the gaming industry, is that those making the allegations seem to have no idea how the technology they’re condemning works. Had they done even a moment’s worth of research, they would discover that the online mod community for GTA:SA (and many other PC games) is not only capable of recycling various fragments of game code and art to create new scenes for the game, but we do it all the time. If Senator Hillary Clinton, Leeland Yee, Dr. David Walsh, et al, were to give even a cursory glance at the websites which published the Hot Coffee mod, they would see that it is but one of thousands of modifications made by users which create new game play scenarios using the existing assets. Given the very nature of the interactive digital medium, an industrious “modder” could within minutes create things far “worse” than Hot Coffee if they so desired simply by swapping a few items and lines of code about. Then, on top of just shifting around pre-existing assets, it is also quite easy and common for players to create entirely new content from scratch.
The Founding Fathers roll over in their graves as a new witch-hunt against the First Amendment is launched
via Boing Boing: Game-modder rips into anti-modder US politicos
Update: Here is a letter along the same lines written to Hillary Cliton
So any sensible investigation into video games must ask the “compared to what” question. If the alternative to playing “Halo 2″ is reading “The Portrait of a Lady,” then of course “The Portrait of a Lady” is better for you. But it’s not as though kids have been reading Henry James for 100 years and then suddenly dropped him for Pokemon.
Hillary vs. the Xbox: Game over via Boing Boing
Published by
Sean 5 years, 2 months ago in
Games
There are a lot of cool mods out there. I personally don’t have time to get into them, but this one might get me moving past the ocasional game of Counter-Strike. Someone is re-creating N64’s Goldeneye in Half-Life 2! I grew up playing Goldeneye; it was the reason I got a N64 in the first place. This mod could be a masterpeice. Hopefully it gets done really quickly.
GoldenEye Source : HL2 Modification
“Minimize yourself as a target — go sideways.”
A funny article which details the knowledge one gains while playing first person shooters. See All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Video Games, Part One on Games.net. Via Boing Boing.
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