As if Farmville wasn't bad enough

On the massive social media site called Facebook there are these things called apps. Some are quizzes others are games Some of them are good some bad but we are going to talk about a more specific one called Farmville.

Farmville is designed by Zynga who also creates Mafia Wars, Petville, and Cafeworld. All of these games are point and click games that are directly infected by the time of the players position on the earth. In Farmville your job is that of a farmer, you plant, you tender, you pluck all in real shortened time increments meaning if you don't harvest in time those strawberries are gone. It has animals too but this weeks Kotaku article I found is about a plant, a plant called "The Watermelon Baby."

In the Chinese version of Farmville only is there this demon baby fruit. In the game you plant a watermelon, simple right? You water it and hoe the surrounding weeds till it grows nice and big, still simple. But when it is time for it to be harvested a pink baby creature sticks its head out to say hello.

This thing is creepy looking, not only that, if you do not harvest it in time it dies. So your farm will have a dead watermelon baby lying in the field.

Now I don't know about you but I do not know if I could ever come up with something as disturbing as this. Maybe it is trying to tell people something. Any ideas?

The game I am excited for? Darkspore.

A while ago now the video game "Spore" by Maxis came out for the PC. The game was great, the player could create practically any kind of creature they could possibly think of. From a humble cellular beginning to the upbringing of a mighty galactic empire the game had so much potential. But in the end the game failed to meet my pre-purchase expectations.


I stopped playing it shortly after I had to wipe out my hard drive, I just never bothered or desired to install it again. But this week during my Kotaku browsing session I saw something relatively familiar. The game is called Darkspore and according to the Kotaku article, Darkspore Splices Fresh DNA Into Online Multiplayer, it's the evolution of player vs player.

The story is simple you are a Crogenitor, a ancient species that use to shape the DNA of creatures to create "genetic heroes." But eventually certain strands of DNA were unstable creating the Darkspore who, in which, turned on their creators. After a induced slumber you are woken up by a AI called Helix and are charged with the task of forming new creatures with E-DNA to drive back the Darkspore.


The game has single player or co-op missions where you pick three heros to fight with. Each hero has their own abilities, powers, strengths and weaknesses so be sure to analyze the mission's Intel before diving in. The levels consist of third person, massive clicking action where you run through a level with certain objectives all the while killing monsters. At the end you fight a massive boss guy, each level becoming more and more difficult. At the end you get points which you can buy more heros, upgrades, and parts, or you can skip this part an go strait to the next level for a higher reward later.

Here is where you can customize your heroes. Although you can not go super crazy, like spore, you can still do quite a bit of DNA manipulation. Each hero has a limit in which you can customize them and certain items help certain heroes better. Plus after you have made your hero more powerful you can then color and make your heroes look even more awesome.

After you reach level seven you can play in the games player vs player matches. The games can be 2 vs 2 or 1 vs 1. Either way you basically fight another player in a best of three match system. In between matches the players may tweak their heroes to better prepare for the next round.


There is over 100 heroes to choose from so there will never be a dull moment. Soon enough players will be writing schematics about which combination is better for this or that situation. Speaking of soon the game is releasing on March 29 and is due for a public beta test. Make sure to go here to sign up and hopefully I'll see you there.


BAM! I got into the beta!

Google Art Project

You know that Google thing were you can see you house from space or a street view right on your computer? Ya I thought so. Well dig this, Google has released the Google Art Project a program allowing users to view several famous museums around the world from their very home.

The program works much like Google's Street View program. You select a museum and if you have an idea of a particular piece you can search it directly. But if you have no idea you can just open up the floor map and jump right in a first person view of the museums halls and rooms.

It's pretty cool, you can walk from room to room and if a particular piece interest you one must just simply select it and it will provide a close up view along with information.

Unfortunately the user interface is a difficult hassle to work with. Many times you select an arrow towards a direction in which takes you to another room altogether. So you have to slowly turn around through what seems to be endless loads.  I would suggest a wasd style. Another issue is many of the in cased items have a nasty glare reflecting off of them making it difficult to see.

But overall very cool for Google to do. It just needs a few tweaks and it will be good to go and show the world art.

A New Way To Type

I don't know about you but I have always had a serious issue typing on the three consoles. Whether it be typing in a personal message to a friend, typing in my gamertag and password to recover it, or putting in a code for an in game bonus or more Xbox Live time.

So that is why this article has caught my eye, Could This Be the Future of Typing On A Control Pad?. It talks about the production of a new way of controller typing for the Xbox 360 called the "Circboard."

It almost works like a cell phone being that certain keys can equal more than one input. To access a section of letters or punctuation move the left stick to the position. Then by using either the color coordinated buttons or the right thumb stick select the character of choice. Here is an example of its use...

At first look I imagine this system to be kind of slow but overtime I believe the use would become faster, similar to how one becomes familiar with cell phone texting.

Several video games have done this before such as "Killzone," but this one had a neutral selection as well and only had nine total boxes. I personally like the "Circboard" interface better but it might vary between users.

I would totally dig a program like this to be incorporated into each console. Some say why not buy a keyboard attachment for the bottom of your controller? Well because that's money and something that I wouldn't use enough to have it be worth it.

Overall I hope it makes it to better the lives of others. Maybe polish it up but a fast release would be ideal.

It's a Weapon, Sword of...

This week Kotaku presented the creation of a famous video game sword, This Real Final Fantasy Sword Does Some Real Damage. It is a relatively short article about a man who has crafted a real life replica of the legendary sword the "Buster Sword" from the game Final Fantasy VII.

This blades real life reflection is approximately 8 feet long and weighs in at 54 pounds. To craft the weapon alone would require money, time, and resources. But beside the making of the weapon is the wielding. To lift 54 pounds is hard enough but to then swing it in a flawless form and grace is darn near impossible.

This brings me to my point, fantasy weaponry is truly that, a fantasy. They will never happen. It may be cool to purchase or make you own and have them on a wall to show off but to actually use them in a melee combat situation is just a fools errand. The strength, perception, control, and stamina required to master any of these beasts is in-human. Here is a few examples...



Leon's sword from Final Fantasy with a built in gun.

Axel's weapon thing from Kingdom Hearts. He wields two of these.




Warning- prolonged use could lead to loss of limb/life, serious wounding, high mortality rates etc.



The point is these weapons are cool but extremely unrealistic. The guy who made the "Buster Sword" into a reality is awesome but beside a couple hits on youtube there will be not much use for it afterward.