Celebrate V-Day With Flower – 50% Off PSN

Firstly, Happy Valentine’s Day everybody!

As the title suggests, Flower, developed by indie game devs ThatGameCompany, is on sale today for the lovely half price of $4.99. Unfortunately, it is a one day holiday sale, but there is still time left in the day! So I suggest jumping the PSN Store and grabbing it.

I went ahead and followed my own advice, making Flower my first PSN purchase to date. Took me long enough… I just haven’t really been sold on most downloadable titles.

The price was right though in this case, and I’d heard general good things about the game, including that it won the title of Best Indie Game at this year’s Spike Video Game Awards (wretched event that it is…).

Flower is a simplistic and beautiful work. More of an interactive visual experience than a traditional game, it utilizes the PS3 controller’s six-axis system allowing you to steer a colorful mass of petals through grassy landscapes, painting color and life across it as you go. I expected as much, but seeing it in action coupled with the quality musical accompaniment, Flower really shines as a super chill and relaxing diversion. It’s nice to just shut my brain off and coast along a colorful sea of flora. All that’s missing is someone spritzing Febreeze my way. One day smell-o-vision, one day.

If you want to see for yourself, check out  a nice extended gameplay video after the jump. Read more »

Karma Bites Sonnen – Demian Maia Gets Title Shot

I was incredibly disappointed on hearing about Chael Sonnen grinding out Nate Marquardt in last weekend’s UFC 109. I wasn’t a fan of his in the first place, but after all his possibly ethnocentric, but certainly disrespectful, comments regarding Anderson Silva, I became an anti-fan.

Then, from my despair that would have seen Sonnen have a chance at the title, I instead am surprised to find out that Damian Maia, one of the best jiu-jitsu practitioners in MMA along with the likes of Jacare and Aoki, will be fighting Silva next at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi because Victor Belfort is injured.

Hopefully this is not a style match-up that creates a boring fight. Against all odds, I’m cheering for Maia to get the takedown and pretend he’s a Japanese fighter (Daiju Takase, Ryo Chonan) and get an amazing submission.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Sega’s Retro Revival

In the early to mid 1990′s, the console wars were once much simpler than they are now. The 16-bit era was ruled by gaming juggernauts Nintendo and Sega. All attempts by other companies to gain a piece of their financial pie failed miserably. Other companies like Panasonic and Atari may have promised more powerful hardware, but the ability of the Big Two to consistently produce quality software for the SNES and Genesis ensured for years that the Nintendo/Sega rivalry would not be challenged.

Part of the reason that Sega was able to keep up with Nintendo was their mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic was basically designed to be Mario’s polar opposite. Nintendo’s spokesman was a humble everyman who defended a happy go lucky wonderland. Mario was all about accessibility and fun for all people of all ages.

Sega, on the other hand, tried a more rebellious and youth-oriented approach, casting their mascot as a cocky teenager with a devil-may-care attitude. While Mario fought in a whimsical fantasy world with the typical fairy tail goal of saving the princess from the dragon, Sonic provided a bit of subtle social commentary, dashing through a quasi-cyberpunk landscape, protecting the natural world from the looming danger of pollution and out of control technology.

The difference in approach was reflected in the gameplay styles as well. While in Mario games, the player had to tread carefully to avoid death, Sonic was all about speed. Sure, the player was still quite vulnerable (especially to drowning!), but it was easy to feel invincible when Sonic could fling himself across obstacles and through enemies with ease.

This was just the way it was for years. Mario was the perfect comfort food, but Sonic also provided a great way for gamers to take what was, for its time, a walk on the wild side.

It couldn’t last, however, and both Sega and its mascot had to adapt to changing times. What was cool then wasn’t so cool anymore, and it would take more than “edginess” and “attitude” for the company to stay on its feet.

At the turn of the century, it seemed like the Dreamcast would keep Sega in the console race for another decade. It wasn’t to be, of course, and Sony’s superior marketing and third party support crushed the once great giant. Sega was forced to become a lowly software company, and as the company fell into the background, so did its once popular mascot.

The last ten years haven’t been kind to Sonic, to say the least. It used to be that when you played a Sonic game, you knew what you were getting. However, modern Sonic games presented the player with a mystery box more often that not. There were so many experiments in the Sonic franchise’s gameplay structure over the last decade that one would be, at times, hard pressed to believe that all of these games were part of the same series.

Out of nowhere, evidence surfaced that suggested Sega was finally willing to change that and go back to the basics. Last year, on September 9th,2009, the tenth anniversary of the Dreamcast’s launch, Sega released a trailer for a brand new retro-styled Sonic game. Watch the trailer and more after the jump. Read more »

Liquid Glass In a Spray? Too Cool To Be True

When thinking about the future I often find myself wondering why 2010 does not seem as cool as movies and television promised us. I mean come on,  the beautiful second officer of Earth’s Super Dimensional Fortress was supposed to be captured by the giant alien Zentraedi by now.

Alas, I have to settle for the iPad, which is definitely not a hoverboard but is kind of like a datapad from Star Trek, except I will never have a pile on my desk.

But today, I feel like the future may have, in a small way, arrived in the form of liquid freaking glass!

Spray-on liquid glass is transparent, non-toxic, and can protect virtually any surface against almost any damage from hazards such as water, UV radiation, dirt, heat, and bacterial infections. The coating is also flexible and breathable, which makes it suitable for use on an enormous array of products. (via PhysOrg.com)

The spray, technically known as “SiO2 ultra-thin layering,” starts as a compound of silicon dioxide which is then mixed with water or ethanol dependent on the application. PhysOrg.com goes into some possible applications such as how clothing can be sprayed with the product to make stains a thing of the past and even how plants can be coated to protect against deadly fungi.

According to a press release from the maker of this product, Nanopool, “This technology is now available for domestic use in Germany. Full scale retail availability in the UK will commence in early 2010.”

I still have tons of questions. Why hasn’t this been talked about in the main stream media? What else does the company Nanopool make? When will this be available in the United States. Can this be used on people/skin? Does it affect the environment if it prevents bacteria and UV sun damage from breaking down waste materials? Is this stuff even real or is this whole article fake?

Anyway, until I see people who suffer from allergies spraying cats and dogs with liquid glass and/or kids playing field hockey like ice hockey on wet liquid glass lawns like giant grassy ice rinks wearing their glass covered shoes, I won’t believe it.

I guess I still have to wait for the future, but at least I have this world wide web thing to keep me busy.