Dale Weir's blog

This game proves the Japanese are a very strange people.

Can you really beat (a level of) a Game of the Year contender playing as a baby?

In his Wired article, Earnest Cavalli doesn't mince words. He starts off by saying "It's time to put Duke Nukem out of his misery." You can't be more direct than that and after starting a story in that way, you're not allowed to sugarcoat the rest of it. And Cavalli doesn't.

But he is correct. Though still popular—our Duke Nukem Never post proved a popular one—Duke was a character that time may have just passed by. Few gamers today can relate to Duke Nukem, a caricature of 1980s action heroes.

Another video I've been wanting to post for a while.

There must be tons of women out there who hate Halo. Yeah, World of Warcraft gets all of the attention for being addictive, monopolizing a gamers' time and causing all sort of marital problems. But other games do that too. One of those games is Halo. What are the ladies to do when a series is so rampantly popular and shows no sign of slowing down? You stop the problem at its source of course!

Parental discretion very STRONGLY advised! NSFW!

This is an older Saturday Night Live clip featuring Alec Baldwin. About the only time I can stand Alec Baldwin is when he is on SNL. Few are as good as he is, especially when he has a Wii in his hand and is making lewd gestures.

After learning about The Beatles: Rock Band Limited Edition Premium Bundle, I thought Electronic Arts had lost its collective mind. A videogame bundle that cost as much as the console it plays on? What is this Steel Battalion? We all remember how successful that was, right?

But this only speaks to the incredible popularity of the genre. A popularity that attracts criticism and praise.

Fans of games are always ready to dress up like their favorite characters. What compels them to do so is anyone's guess... actually I wouldn't even want to know. But sometimes you get really stunning tributes like this one. Savage Land Pictures' crew is a collection of professionals who make their living in the movie industry. Apparently, Faith as a character and Mirror's Edge as a backdrop proved quite appealing for this project.

A "pack" of bees trapped employees inside a local GameStop as they waited for someone to help. Good to see New York's emergency services were so on top of this. It only took two hours to get someone to show up and that was after getting the run around over the phone.

In all serious, it's good to see to that no one was hurt. The bees did not get their copies of Buck Bumble... they were a few years too late in picking up their reserved copies.

Apparently, after being banned from playing PC games, Pongsathorn Wattanabenjasopha jumped from the sixth floor of his school. This is certainly tragic news, but the bigger news story is the actions of the Thai government. To prevent other suicides, Thailand's Criminal Court ordered 72 online gambling and gaming websites to close.

Pongsathorn Wattanabenjasopha, a Prathom 6 (sixth grade) student at the Sri Witthaya Paknam School, jumped to his death on Thursday after his father banned him from playing computer games.

Dr Taweesilp said the suicide rate was rising in the kingdom. The majority of those taking their own lives were mostly in the 30-40 age group, followed by teenagers aged 12-13.

There were several factors that drove people to commit suicide. Family problems topped the list. Other factors included physical and mental problems, economic hardships, poor income and unemployment.

Bundit Sornpaisarn, director of the Rajanagarindra Child and Adolescent Mental Health Institute, said the boy's suicide reflected that children who were addicted to games and had an aggressive mentality were more likely to commit suicide than others.

How this will save lives is debatable (at least on these shores), but according to GamePolitics, Thailand has a history of heavyhanded treatment of games and the Internet.

According to Joystiq.com, Orioto is a DeviantART power user. He has been creating videogame fan art for a while and has accumulated an impressive portfolio.