Firearms may have been too suggestive of a topic for the Xbox Live Marketplace to broach, but apparently body modification is an A-OK, family friendly activity for everyone to enjoy, as Xbox Live customers now have the opportunity to trade real money for virtual tattoos on fake people via the Marketplace. Available designs encompass the whole of "regrettable," from hot-rod flames and meaningless "tribal" scribbles to idealistic kanji symbols for "peace" and "love."
We should point out that the tattoos aren't actually accessories, but rather t-shirts and tank tops with transparent design "sleeves" that replace your existing clothing, meaning that it's impossible to have a tattoo with anything other than a blank shirt. Tattoos are also arm specific, just like in real life, so make sure you're really committed to the placement of your "Mom" heart before dropping the 160/240 Microsoft points.
Remember Brent Kennedy, the guy who created those wonderful piano arrangements of the Super Meat Boy soundtrack early last year? Well, it looks like we weren't the only people impressed by his work: Super Meat Boy's composer, Danny Baranowsky, has been working with Kennedy for nearly a year, and the two have recently released the fruits of their labors on Baranowsky's Bandcamp profile.
Super Meat Boy! - Choice Piano Cuts is a $4.99 (or more, if you're feeling generous) collection of 10 tracks from the SMB soundtrack, composed by Baranowsky and arranged/performed by Kennedy. The purchase also includes a PDF of the Kennedy's sheet music for the entire album, which in itself is well worth the price of admission for the musically inclined out there.
The soundtrack's original arrangements are great and everything, don't get us wrong, but there's a deeper level to Baranowsky's skill as a composer that's exceptionally brought to life by Kennedy's mastery of the ivory keys. Do yourself a favor and give it a listen.
3D printers are, indisputably, super awesome. They're boxes full of magic, hope, and lasers, which create substance from nothing and reality from dreams. Coincidentally, Minecraft basically does the exact same thing, by providing the user with a cuboid sandbox for their imagination to run wild in. Now, these two worlds of creation can be joined together via Mineways, a 3D model-exportation tool created by Eric Haines.
The process breaks down like this: Using Mineways, Minecraft players can select a portion of the world they've build and export it as a texture file and 3D model, in file formats compatible with the rendering software used by 3D printers. Those files can then be printed, creating an adorable little real-life version of whatever it is you had exported.
If you're not part of the 1 percent and as such do not have access to a 3D printer, your exported files can be sent to a printing service like Shapeways, which does exactly what a 3D printing service sounds like it would do. Based on the size and complexity of the model, getting something printed can run from 25 bucks for a small doodad to several hundred dollars for a complete landscape.
Somewhere, a very wealthy Minecraft/model train enthusiast is extremely pleased. Click here to grab the open source software directly from Eric, as well as for an in-depth how-to guide.
Who pillaged the most booty in 2011? Which vessel had the most ornate mast? ... Wait, we've got it all wrong -- these aren't the pirate pirate awards for 2011, they're the most pirated games of the year. Can you guess which game took top ... um ... "honors?"
TorrentFreak has tossed out some estimate figures, saying that Crysis 2 was downloaded 3.9 million times over BitTorrent since March, edging out Modern Warfare 3, which was downloaded an estimated 3.6 million times since November. Taking third place on its list was Battlefield 3 with an estimated 3.5 million downloads. Rounding out the top five on the PC side were FIFA 12 and Portal 2.
There are also estimated figures for Xbox 360 and Wii games -- Gears of War 3 and Super Mario Galaxy 2 were the most pirated games with 890,000 and 1.2 million estimated downloads, respectively.
Battlefield 3
I love Battlefield 3. I love it almost as much as it seems to hate its players.
At least, that's the way it feels sometimes, trying to get into a game, trying to get correctly squaded up, trying to find a server with room, having to use a server browser on consoles in 2011, downloading 2 GIGABYTE patches ... y u no luv me, BF3?
But when it does love me, it loves me so well ... and there I go, into that cycle of abuse again.
Casual Brothers Games has announced it will bring Orc Attack to digital platforms. Specifically, the hack and slash (no relation to Orcs Must Die!) will be hitting Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, PC and OnLive in the fourth quarter. As the name implies, Orc Attack sees up to four playable orcs joining forces and slaying poor, pitiful humans.
Given the ... gaseous nature of each orc's special attacks – not to mention the characters' names, including the devilishly clever "Lord Poop" and charmingly witty "Doc Turd" – we're not expecting any complicated, emergent gameplay or a deep, thought-provoking narrative.
Skyrim is going to get tons of accolades all over this year, and deservedly so, but Deus Ex: Human Revolution pulled me into its world more effectively than any other game in 2011.
It didn't do everything right. Obviously, there were the boss battles. They required a narrow combat approach, playing to some of Deus Ex: Human Revolution's weakest elements. But those encounters were only disappointing insofar as they contradicted the fluidity of gameplay styles and approaches the rest of Human Revolution offered.
On Friday, UFC's latest pay-per-view event debuted, a pretty big deal for Microsoft. As the first live event for the new UFC Xbox 360 app, a lot hinged on Friday night's fight. According to BitMob's Dan Hsu, it didn't go so well.
He complained of constant crashes, weird issues involving video definition and the app bouncing around to different times in the broadcast at its own discretion, plus constant buffering throughout. Microsoft had sent out a whopping 30,000 promotional codes for the event, which ended up bringing down the house of cards. So Hsu contacted Microsoft to get some answers on his disappointment.
"The broadcast of UFC 141 through the UFC for Xbox LIVE application was hampered by technical issues appearing in the hours leading up to the fight," a spokesperson told BitMob. "Despite restoring service to some users during the course of UFC 141, there is a great deal of room for improvement. All 30,000 users who registered to view UFC 141 for free will be provided access to a future fight at no cost."
There's no timeline for the freebie, but "The gamertags of the 30,000 users who registered for UFC 141 are being safely kept on file for free access to a future UFC event, and we will have more updates to share in the near future," the spokesperson concluded. Let's just hope that's enough time for Microsoft to get the app working.
Catherine
I have a soft spot for the bizarre and the esoteric. If something is complicated, either through the machinations of its mechanical workings or through the intricacies of its conceptual nature, its hard for me to focus on anything else until I feel like I really understand what I'm looking at. Catherine gave me something to think about, and also made me think about myself, which isn't something I can usually say about puzzle/dating games.
The experience is complicated in both the literal and metaphorical sense; its ever-changing puzzle gameplay and surprisingly deep, multifaceted story are the result of brilliant design decisions, exceptional writing and an amazing localization job by Atlus. Catherine managed to satiate my craving for the intellectually surreal while immersing me in the delightfully idiosyncratic world of Japanese storytelling.
Xbox Live is hosting some decent deals on Electronic Arts content this week. Notable games include Risk: Factions for $5, Shank for $7.50 or Dragon Age: Origins for $15.
Plenty of DLC is up for grabs as well, including Dead Space 2 "Severed" or Mass Effect 2 "Arrival" DLC for $3 each, or Dragon Age's "Witch Hunt" DLC for $4. You can check out the full selection of sale items – oddly split into two different lists – here and here.
