Toronto Thumbs

Facebreaker demo hilarious

EA had a massive presence at this year’s Penny Arcade Expo with a giant booth showing off upcoming titles as well as satellite booths for Dead Space and Rock Band 2. As part of their swag grab, they were giving away EA passports that featured a page for each game at the show. After playing a certain game, you could get that page stamped, and people with a fully stamped passport could redeem them for an EA shirt.

Considering the line-ups to play just about anything there, I decided I would only play games that had no lineups at all. Though this might indicate that I played no games there, it’s actually quite the opposite. Sometimes it’s all about the timing. One game that I did get to play a little bit was Facebreaker, EA’s cartoony and over-the-top boxing title. They were even giving out demo discs for this title.

Sadly, I must admit I knew nothing about this game prior to last weekend. I tend to not pay attention to EA titles because in the past, most of them have held no interest for me. This year is looking to be different, with Lord of the Rings Conquest, Mirror’s Edge, Dead Space, and Mercenaries 2 all looking and playing very promising.

Since play time at the actual expo can feel a little rushed at the best of times, I spent a some quality time with the Facebreaker demo last night. It’s not a game I’d actually buy because I’m waiting on the announcement and release of the next Punch-Out!! title. But it is a hilarious game nonetheless. I created a dead-eyes version of myself using the Xbox Live Vision camera but couldn’t get the body build or hairstyle to look quite right, and then squared off against none other than Kim Kardashian (a woman famous for having a big ass and a sex tape - so says Joel McHale on The Soup).

What followed was a mess of a training round that featured a tonne of ridiculous boxing action and ended with me feeling no more confident in my ability to actually play the game. Perhaps it’s just the fault of the demo or the particular mode I was in. I will say, however, that the punches and hits in the game are very intense. The demo disc says for me to not be cheap and to share it with friends, so that’s what I intend on doing.

Posted in Events, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | 1 Comment »

Packed For PAX

Well, one more sleep and I’m off to Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle. My bags are packed and sadly my carry-on is heavier than my actual luggage of clothing. How can this be? I blame the giant Lenovo laptop I borrowed from work for it. The thing is huge! But it looks friggin’ sweet as well.

It’ll be a long day of travelling, and I’m not expecting to be out on the town every night, so I’ve taken lots of cartoon DVDs to watch, including Gundam 0083, which is awesome.

Posted in Awesome, Events | 3 Comments »

EVENT
Tetris Tournament

Our man Syd, who heads up the Personal Computer Museum in Brantford has a record-smashing event planned this September: A Guinness World Record Attempt Challenge of the largest Tetris Tournament.

This will be no small feat, and you can do your part just by showing up and playing Tetris. This is by far much, much cooler than playing Tetris by yourself on the toilet (it’s okay, we’ve all done it).

Participants will be given gift certificates which also prove they were present at this momentous event. I’m hoping the weather holds up, because I’ve never actually been to the PC Museum and this would be the perfect chance/excuse to finally get my ass down there. The event also marks the third anniversary of the PC Museum, so there!

There is a slight entry fee: $5. This will get you into the event/museum and make you eligible to win some great prizes. Details about the event as well as a registration form can be found at tetristournament.ca.

Posted in Awesome, Canada, Events | No Comments »

Too Human’s Lookin’ Good

I had a chance to play Too Human tonight at the Toronto launch party for the game. Six game stations were set up at the fancy Spoke Club on King St. while several journalists and Silicon Knights staff members mingled. In a separate room, a large screen setup was available for play.

This was the first time I played the game since last October’s press preview at Silicon Knights’ St. Catharines headquarters. It played more or less how I remembered the preview build playing – only this time for some reason I kept trying to move the camera around rather than realizing that the right analogue stick is ONLY for melee attacks. I played for about a half hour and passed the controller onto someone else, opting instead to watch other people play, which ended up being just as enjoyable if not more interesting.

Watching other people play games without actually talking to them or giving them hints reveals a lot about their thinking processes. Some people were obviously a lot better than others at holding their own against the relentless horde of enemies, and it was interesting to see the more gifted gamers play through the various levels.

After much internet hoopla and tonnes of forum flame wars, Too Human is finally coming out next week. Will the haters be won over? Probably not, as it’s not in their nature. However if you go into this one with an open mind you’ll very likely be pleasantly surprised. I’m definitely looking forward to playing the whole game despite some control issues I have with it.

UPDATE: Apparently the control issues I was having with the game were in some part due to some sort of monitor calibration issue. I played Too Human for a good hour on a tube television and it played much smoother. Odd that the demonstration set-up would be slightly off like that but unfortunately things like that do happen. More to follow…

Posted in Canada, Events, Xbox 360 | No Comments »

3D Monitor Demonstration at Game Night 2008 - Summer

If you think that 3D gaming is just what everyone is been doing over the last decade, think again. Virtual Boy may have been a commercial failure and its headache inducing screen a pain but 3D gaming has actually come a long way since then. You’ll have a chance to see a demonstration of the latest iZ3D monitor (a 22″ LCD) that allows you to play 3D games in true 3D with only passive glasses. These don’t plug into anything and won’t hurt your brain. All of this is happening at the Personal Computer Museum in Brantford along with a bunch of other interesting gaming setups.

Whether you want to play BUZZ! with 8 players, enjoy a snowboarding controller or show your buddies who is boss with Sega Genesis baseball you’ll have your opportunity. Classic gaming like Alien Crush on the Turbo Grafx 16 and a contrast between Mario Kart SNES and the latest Wii version (complete with 4 wheel controllers for the ultimate experience) should whet your gaming appetite.

If you’re forced to hang out with non-gaming mortals, you can always let them know that there will be a movie with real movie-style popcorn being shown on a 16 foot x 9 foot outdoor screen. Just like the drive-inn, without the cars! What movie? Well, we can’t legally tell you but I’m sure everyone of all ages will enjoy.

So, get ready to waggle your TorontoThumbs down in Brantford (hey, it’s only an hour drive from Toronto) for GameNight 2008 - summer edition. Check out the website for more info and for directions, just follow them on the museum page. See you there!

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