This week's podcast comes in at a svelte 22 minutes as we experiment with a shorter, more focused show. Don't worry, though -- we still manage to veer off on a few wild tangents.
This installment is centered around the launch of Super Smash Bros. for 3DS, which is the latest game in a long-running series that Marie has never played(!). Topics discussed include the appeal of Smash Bros., goals, motivations, hopes, and dreams.
After an extended hiatus due to the realities of having jobs and other boring stuff, we're back to talk about our feelings. About games. Of course.
In this installment Marie and Chris discuss modern shooter mechanics, how the XBox One is dropping the ball, the appeal ( or lack thereof ) of the Wii U, and the life-threatening difficulties that are endured every day by those born with male genitalia.
Video games are fun and all, but few things capture the imagination of the Internet as absolutely as the metagame of determining which console is the best. There are new consoles on their way to stoke this venerable fire into a towering inferno of nerd rage; perhaps this time we'll finally come to an agreement and choose the one, true game machine. Also: World peace.
In this installment Marie and Chris discuss the (anticlimactic?) unveiling of the Playstation 4, Marie's fascination with 1700's era board games in Assassin's Creed III, and Chris' apparent desire to pay Microsoft even more money. Stay tuned at the end for a thought-provoking analysis compilation of "That's what she said!" jokes assembled by our producer, KBam.
It's the dawn of a new year, which means it's time for deep introspection and reflection about the earth's most recent cycle around the sun and what it means to be alive. We've decided to frame this discussion in the structure of wacky top three lists!
In this installment, Marie and Chris talk about their favorite gaming moments of 2012 and their gamer resolutions for 2013. Topics covered include: Chris' anemic gamerscore, Skyrim's unique combination of item hoarding and romance, and how Marie fell in love with a tiny man inside her computer.
It's back to basics this week as we double down on a plain ol' audio format. You may notice that the sound quality itself has DRAMATICALLY improved: this is a result of our ongoing fight against bleeding ears.
In this installment, Marie and Chris talk about sexism in the game industry as addressed by #1reasonwhy, Bioshock Infinite's marketing, Steam's Big Picture mode, Mass Effect 3 Omega DLC, how modern alien designs suck ( unless you're playing Mass Effect ), and why a stuffy British guy thinks games don't qualify as "art".
As part of our continuing quest for the ideal presentational format, we have video this week! Marvel at our ability to maintain an interesting conversation and play Minecraft at the same time!
In this installment, Marie and Chris talk about Halo 4, Assassin's Creed, Kickstarter, and why Chris doesn't own a smartphone.
Special thanks go to Katherine Bamford for editing the video!
The Internet has provided us with a cornucopia of ways to tell others that they are wrong.
We send emails, post blog comments, and contribute to forum threads in the desperate hope that someone, somewhere, will come to realize that they are and will always be wrong. We here at Hypercombofinish recognize and honor the motivations that drive the Internet’s diligent troll population; who else would be capable of revealing the startling truths behind our racial ancestries and sexual orientations?
As a celebration of Internet-enabled discourse, Marie and I are proud to present the inaugural Hypercombofinish Podcast. We hope you enjoy it!
Topics discussed in this edition include:
Valkyria Chronicles
XCOM
Halo 4
Dishonored
voice acting in games
why being old will be awesome
Witcher 2
Marie's position as a race traitor in Gears of War
Zelda Skyward Sword
Wii U
Note: This podcast was originally intended to have a video component. Due to my stupidity technical problems, we were unable to record any video. We’ll get it right in time for the next edition.
Weddings, man. They take forever to plan, cost a lot of money, and the vast majority of them are about as exciting as a speed run of Myst. To top it off, brides and grooms rarely have similar ideas about the kind of event they’d like to throw so one of them just steamrolls the other with turquoise taffeta and heirloom lederhosen.
In a stunning twist of fate for which I will be forever grateful, my fiance Kellbot and I happened to share a great number of interests. We’re both web programmers by trade. We both went to school for art. We both love videogames. Most importantly, we both like making things.
Thanks to our common proclivities, it didn’t us long to settle on a graphic theme for our wedding: videogames! Specifically, videogames comprised of big blocky pixels. To uphold a base level of classiness, we shied away from themeing the event itself around any specific game ( despite how excellent a warp pipe centerpiece would be ) and instead focused on creating a feeling of general videogamey-ness for the blessed occasion.
Curved lines were made verboten! Smooth gradients were abolished! Anti-aliasing was turned off -- ENTIRELY. We needed to make every angle sharp and keep our color count to a bare minimum. These guidelines were easy enough to follow in the two dimensional world of stationary and websites, but it was a little trickier to translate such wanton blockiness into the third dimension. After some brainstorming, we decided that the closest thing to a real-world pixel is a Lego brick. We ordered a pile of Legos and got to work prototyping decorations.
Armed with ideas and raw ingredients, we spent the better part of a year geeking out over every geekable part of the wedding planning process. We used a wide variety of tools: a laser cutter, X-Acto knives, Photoshop, Blender, Python, PHP, and a mountain of support from family and friends. This was the start of us building our lives together, and we were going to start if off nerdy.
We agreed that we didn't want the wedding or the reception to directly reference any specific game, but all materials preceding the big day were fair play for homage.
I thought that the first level of Donkey Kong would look nice with some extra definition, so I used it as the basis for our “Save the Date†cards. I re-drew the level at double the resolution of the original, adding simple shadows and highlights as I saw fit. Kellbot and I replaced Pauline at the top of the structure, pleading for guests to attend.
The theme of the card sneakily served as foreshadowing for our reception venue: We had just booked the Phoenixville Foundry, a converted ironworking foundry showcasing multiple levels of exposed beams. The building’s aesthetic reminded me of Donkey Kong’s iconic stacked girders, and the idea coalesced naturally.
As web developers by trade, we had to do something particularly special for our wedding website. At its core was a fully automated RSVP system that grouped guests by party, allowed them to pick their desired entrees, and let them start organizing transportation if necessary.
Kellbot got the ball rolling on the design by mocking up a modified version of Super Mario Bros. 3's title screen. I took her concept and ran with it, drawing mario-esque versions of the bride and groom. With the finished design in place, Kellbot wrote some javascript that made the keyboard arrows mimic the functionality of the NES D-pad.
We built each section of the site as an homage to a different NES game: Super Mario Bros. 3 for the home page, Mega Man 4 for the wedding info page, and Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest) for the RSVP system.
Kellbot ended up coding the whole site, and it worked like a charm -- we didn’t process a single RSVP through the mail. If you're curious, you can check out the website yourself at either ChrisLovesKelly.com or KellyLovesChris.com.
