Monthly Archives: February 2011

Cookie Fu – A Tasty Game

by Nopy
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Cookie Fu – A Tasty Game

Cookie Fu “Grandmaster’s Return” is a simple and unique board game from game designer Blue Kabuto. The game has a Chinese food and martial arts theme, and more interestingly, comes with actual fortune cookies that you can eat. To get started, all you need is a friend to play with and a clan pack for each person. Each clan pack looks like a Chinese take-out box and contains a rulebook, 5 dice, and a fortune cookie. There are three clans in the game: Chocolate Ox, Vanilla Hare, and Coconut Monkey, each of which has their own special skills and moves. In a basic game, players roll a Clan Fortune die and Read more »

Toys & Video Games Merge

by Robin Parrish
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Toys & Video Games Merge

Activision is betting big this coming Christmas on a new convergence video game-slash-toy set called Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure, which brings the popular purple dragon Spyro into a whole new realm. The $70 title comes with a full video game, a “Portal of Power” device, and 30 collectible toy figurines that can interface directly with the game. The key to the experience is the toys, which are more than just standard action figures. The toys have memory chips inside that allow them to interact with the game on multiple gaming platforms, including handheld devices and major consoles, and even the Internet, remembering achievements and your game history wherever they go. Activision has dubbed Read more »

This Is What the Oldest Living Organisms Look Like

by Noemi Twigg
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This Is What the Oldest Living Organisms Look Like

And I thought I was old! Thanks to the work of people like Rachel Sussman, I get a better perspective on age. ;) Seriously, though, her recent photography collection about some of the oldest living organisms on Earth is something to marvel at. She went trotting around the world to capture amazing things with her camera, bringing science to life for us. This photo is of Siberian Actinobacteria, which is supposed to anywhere from 400,000 to 600,000 years old. Ancient is an understatement! What’s even more amazing is that these organisms live in permafrost and they do DNA repair even in that state! This is La Llareta, or Yareta. Is Read more »

The Pacifist: Endangered creatures are out to get you

by Jayvee Fernandez
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The Pacifist: Endangered creatures are out to get you

The Pacifist is the result of a few hours of coding from Game Jam ’11 in Manila, Philippines. In essence, it’s your typical platformer with a twist — you’re encouraged not to kill anything. You play a kid who had some heavy life lessons about killing things and by some stroke of irony, are plunged into a world with endangered creatures all out to get you. As to why there seems to be an abundance of endangered creatures all in one area eludes me. If you kill enemies, you’re penalized by the ghost of your former victim haunting you. There are times, though when killing makes sense as stepping on Read more »

The Latest Geekcessory: Keyboard Flops

by Robin Parrish
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The Latest Geekcessory: Keyboard Flops

You know you want ‘em. Summer will be here before you know it, and it’ll be time to break out the t-shirts and those oh-so-trendy plaid shorts. And what goes better with shorts than flip-flops? And what could possibly scream geek louder than these keyboard flops? Imported from Thailand, you are looking at “Kito Keyboard 2.0,” a pair of rubber-soled footwear that supposedly massages your feet with key-shaped “nubs.” They’re a bit oversized, looking not unlike snow shoes when worn. And they’re available to purchase here, for $29 in a variety of sizes and colors. Definitely pricier than your standard pair of flip-flops, but for a novelty item, it’s not Read more »

Nerd Valentine

by Darice de Cuba
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Nerd Valentine

Three more days to Valentine’s Day, yet another day to exchange gifts. If your wife/husband/girlfriend/ boyfriend is a nerd and you are not, it can be quite difficult to figure out a gift, unless being told by said person what they want. And if you are the nerd in the relationship, show your partner this entry that will lead them to a very long list of gift ideas. Amrit Richmond came with a very simple idea of creating a Tumblr weblog that lists only gift ideas for Nerds; Nerd Valentine Valentine’s Day gift ideas for the nerd in your life. The website lists some pretty unique and cool gift ideas, Read more »

No More Guitar Hero

by Robin Parrish
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No More Guitar Hero

Please join me in a moment of silence. Guitar Hero, the pioneering title of the music or “rhythmic gaming” genre, has died. The plummeting sales of music games is old news, so it should come as no surprise to anyone that Activision has decided to bring both its Guitar Hero and DJ Hero franchises to a definitive end. Announced as part of the company’s periodic earning’s report, the long-running Guitar Hero will have no future titles published, and no more DLC tracks will be made available after those already announced for February. Existing DLC will remain available to purchase — for a while, anyway. A new Guitar Hero title in the series was Read more »

The Only Doctor Who Infographic You Will Need

by Noemi Twigg
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The Only Doctor Who Infographic You Will Need

Is there something that you have always wanted to ask about the Doctor but were too afraid or too embarrassed to ask? If so, you do not have to wonder anymore – Bob Canada has taken care of things for you. He has created the infographic of infographics about Doctor Who, and it is guaranteed to satisfy the most discriminating of Doctor Who fans. Bob says it is the first time that he has drawn the TARDIS, but for someone’s first try, don’t you think a pretty good job? If that image is not good enough for you, view the infographic in all its full-size glory. Oh, in case you Read more »

BSG Online Now in Open Beta

by Robin Parrish
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BSG Online Now in Open Beta

Do you miss Starbuck, Apollo, Roslin, Adama, Caprica Six, Baltar, and heck, even that backstabbing Boomer? Well, they’re gone and they’re not coming back. Sorry. But you can live and fight as part of the Colonial Fleet in the new browser-based MMO, Battlestar Galactica Online. And the best part: it’s free. At least for the next six weeks, anyway. That’s how long the open beta is taking place. (It’s unclear what the pricing structure will be like post-beta, or whether it will continue to be free.) Game developer Bigpoint has used actual schematics from the TV shows to create a space-based game that’s a blend of combat and exploration. Set Read more »