entertainment Archive

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The David Choe Stern Interview

This interview is very long, but once you start listening to it, you won’t even notice the time going by. Plus, it’s the weekend, so you’ve got the time.

You’ll be absolutely enthralled by David Choe because he’s the honey badger of artists. He doesn’t give a shit about “normal” conventions or the decisions that normal people would make. He plays by his own rules and is completely candid with Howard. He tells stories about his time incarcerated in a Japanese prison where he had to bash his head in to cause a visible injury so the warden would take him to a hospital for internal bleeding treatment. He’ll tell you how he came to paint the walls of the original Facebook offices and how he came to the decision to choose shares in the company as payment rather than hard cash. There are some vulgar moments where he talks about sex and masturbation, but it’s all part of his profile.

It’s the most fascinating interview I’ve heard or read in a very long time.

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Monday Night Combat Looks Kind Of Fun

I’ve really come around on the developer walkthrough video as my pre-game release promotional content consumption of choice.

It offers these two simple, yet crucial, elements:

1) Real gameplay footage without bullshots/cutscene smoke and mirrors.

2) Informative narration straight from the game creators on how the game plays.

Unfortunately, dev walkthrough videos tend to run on the long side, so you have to have a little interest in the title before you commit the time to view them.

Let’s take care of that little detail for Uber Entertainment’s first title, Monday Night Combat.

It’s a class-based third person shooter. Focus is obviously on the 6v6 multiplayer and creating a “Monday Night Football” feel to each match. There’s a rewards and upgrade system where you can level up certain skills in the middle of the match and also on a meta-level between games too. From the looks of things it could be to the Xbox 360 what Team Fortress 2 is to the PC/Mac, especially at the $15 price point.

Sound interesting? Check out the two developer walkthrough videos below:

Part 1:

Part 2:

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Starcraft II Pros Vs. Joes Hilarity

It may be ultimately pointless and/or sadistic, but something about seeing professionals masquerade amongst the hoi polloi and utterly owning the unsuspecting  public in their craft is absolutely enthralling to me.

As part of their Starcraft 2 release coverage last week, TeamLiquid (a professional-level Starcraft community) posted a video of a diamond-level Starcraft 2 player playing through his five mandatory placement matches. Don’t worry if you’re not familiar with the terminology – all you have to know that this guy is really good and the reason he’s matched up against these poor victims is because everyone has to go through this process in order to be placed into the correct skill-level league. Kind of like taking a placement test to see if you’re in the gifted kid class or the short bus class.

You’ll see entertaining things such as writing out “LOL” in Auto-Turret placement in the enemy base or spelling out his online handle in the middle of the map using carefully placed units. You will also see ridiculous strategies utilized such as using double offensive Planetary Fortresses.

Basically, it’s a much nerdier equivalent of Jewel doing undercover karaoke. Well, maybe with more embarrassment for the common man.

(You can start the video at 3:10 if you want to skip past the internet gamer humor introduction.)