New Buffy video game coming out in MMORPG form
Although it's no replacement for the show, Fox and the Multiverse Network may have found a new way for Buffy fans to obsess over their favorite universe. John Landau, producer and "Advisor to Multiverse," announced the game during his keynote speech at the Virtual World Conference and Expo.... read more
Sam Potts' Geek-Formation Flowchart
Mmm....Gandalf, Mountain Dew and Hot Pockets. Delicious.Mr. Potts, we salute you. In the vulcan manner, of course.**Click on the image to see a larger version... read more
Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy
Platform: PS3, Xbox 360Finally, a movie-inspired game that puts up a fightCall me the imperfect weapon. Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Conspiracy transforms players into a bulletproof Hollywood assassin. Taking cues from the Bourne films’ breathless editing, the game propels you through frantic gunfights, car chases and melees. But somehow I’m not up to the task. As Jason Bourne, I regularly find myself catching one hunk of lead too many, sprawling bloodied across the marble floor of the Zurich International Airport. I find myself mired in epic fistfights. Falling over and over to aggressive enemies I retreat into a safe but... read more
This Week on PasteMagazine.com: 9/1-9/5/08
Hey, party people. Hope the first week of September is treating you quite well. After a cookout-laden day off to start the week, PasteMagazine.com was back on the case in the name of Signs of Life in music, film and culture (Hey, that would be a nice tagline for a magazine!), and here's what we came up with, asterisk style:... read more
NetHack: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Death
Our memory has grown a bit hazy lately with the glut of cookie-cutter, loot-based RPGs that have carved a wide swathe across the gaming landscape. For many, Diablo is the earliest incarnation of the dungeon crawler that readily comes to mind. Diablo, iconic as it may be, is forever indebted to a game that came nearly a decade before and set the gold standard for hack ’n’ slash RPGs, Nethack, a game that is simultaneously more complicated than any other game out there, yet almost small enough to fit on a single 3.5” diskette. As a representative of your deity,... read more
Smashing Pumpkins to release single via Guitar Hero
The Smashing Pumpkins will release their new single, “G.L.O.W.,” as part of the Guitar Hero: World Tour video game, before releasing it to the public.... read more
Myst
Platform: Nintendo DSDefinitive point-and-click, first-person adventure jumps from CD-ROM to DS—newly tiny, still impossibleAlthough Myst is an undisputed classic I’d never played, I approached this DS port cautiously. For every gamer who raves about its immersive mystery and austere storytelling, another laments its withering difficulty and austere storytelling. The player must discover the secrets (why are these two brothers trapped in, like, magic books?) of an eerily unpopulated island. It turns out Myst’s boosters and detractors are both kinda right. Wandering the island alone—trying to make sense of various bizarre objects and arcane clues—is a one-of-a-kind experience. But I found... read more
The Political Machine 2008
Platform: Windows XP and VistaI will stop at nothing when electioneeringI’ve cast a ballot in two presidential elections so far, and both times, my guy lost. Surely, I’m not the only luckless voter who’s spent the past eight years bemoaning democracy’s lack of a do-over option. Fortunately, fantasy trumps reality once again, thanks to The Political Machine 2008, a turn-based strategy game that puts players on the campaign trail in a quest for electoral dominance.... read more
Watch the trailer for Midnight Club: Los Angeles
Bad drivers, car aficionados and the speed-obsessed alike, time to rejoice: your latest fix, Midnight Club: Los Angeles, is coming to stores in a few short weeks. The game’s developer, Rockstar San Diego (whose last title was the critically lauded Xbox 360 title from 2006, Table Tennis), has just debuted the latest trailer for the fourth installment of their popular high-octane racing franchise (for your viewing pleasure below).... read more
Teenager leaves high school for Guitar Hero career
The band's gonna make it, Mom! I'm not going to be living in this basement forever!Guitar Hero may have the side effect of serving as a gateway drug to actual guitar playing, but everyone's favorite rock star simulator may soon be sapping the attendance rolls of high schools nationwide. Yes, in a sublime moment of life imitating art, one plucky teenager has decided to forgo the rest of his K-12 education to try his hand at the professional Guitar Hero circuit.... read more
Watch the Tron sequel trailer
If Paste had existed back in the early '80s, it's probable that the P4ST3 51GN5 of L1F3 4 1982 would have featured a little movie about video games and virtual reality called Tron, starring a relatively unknown actor named Jeff Bridges.... read more
Clueless, Pretty in Pink and Mean Girls go video game
[Above: A screenshot of Clueless]In a frillier round of movies being made into games, Legacy Interactive has announced it will make three nostalgic classics—Clueless, Pretty in Pink and Mean Girls—into video games for girls. The movies, all nine years apart, will borrow story elements and will be downloadable in December.... read more
Suda 51 and Shinji Mikami creating a game for EA
When Electronic Arts started out, it was one of the good guys of third-party game developers. Not only was the company into original IPs, heck, the word "arts" was even in its title to tell you exactly what the corporation was trying to do. During the past decade, though, what's now the world's second-largest developer has developed a bit of a reputation for squashing creativity in favor of tossing out another version of Madden every year and seeings its profits rise.... read more
Last Week on PasteMagazine.com: 8/11-8/15/08
A good Monday morning to you and yours. My day is already off to a great start thanks to David Byrne and Brian Eno's new album, which you can download today. Since I'm a little late on PasteMagazine.com's weekly update, I'm going to break it down all quicklike for you...... read more
Doom 4 promises beautifully-rendered descent into hell
If you grew up in the mid-'90s, odds are you had some kind of exposure to the seminal computer game Doom. Maybe you were one of the kids who spent countless afternoons roaming the demon-infested hallways of the UAC laboratories, shooting up hellspawn and absorbing improbable amounts of return fire (possibly while listening to metal.) Or perhaps you were turned off by the game's hyper-violent ethos, which ruffled the feathers of more than one member of the U.S. legislature.... read more
Brett Ratner to direct God of War movie?
What the world needs now is a Brett Ratner-directed movie based on the God of War video game series. Right? Well, if the rumors are true, it looks like that's exactly what the world will be getting.... read more
Wallace & Gromit episodic video game in works
Everyone's favorite bumbling-inventor-and-clever-dog duo, Wallace & Gromit, will soon see another video game adaptation, this time in an episodic format. Telltale Games is now developing Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures based off the award-winning film series.... read more
This Title Brought To You By Nabisco!
My explorers were underdeveloped, but I’d spent my meager gold supply on the strongest armor and weaponry I could, and spread it amongst the party to minimize collateral damage as they endeavored into a dungeon they might not all survive. The going was treacherous but manageable; the healers, in back, tossed regenerative spells to the truncheon-wielding marauders on the front line, as my ranged-weapon users chucked arrows and bombs into the fray from safe distance. At once we came upon a mighty dragon, and I was unprepared for its fiery countenance, and breath. Down went my front line of fighters,... read more
This Week on PasteMagazine.com: 7/21-7/25/08
Someone just started blasting the DuckTales theme song (and Tiny Toons and Animaniacs and Jem...apparently the weekend has officially begun) here in the office, so it must be time for This Week on PasteMagazine.com.... read more
The Dark Knight video game is on the way
[Above: a screenshot from the Batman Begins video game]We hope it's not spoiling anything if we admit to squirming in our seats a bit while watching The Dark Knight last week. Perhaps you, too, felt there were a few decisions you might have changed, a few lives you might have tried to save. Or maybe you just want to try your hand with the new gadgets Christian Bale wielded in IMDb's new #1 movie.... read more
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