Angled Whiteboards

An AW reader sent this is in and we thought it was just too funny to keep to ourselves. For those of you who remember our old intro video…

And on that note, have a great weekend!

March, march, march. On goes the Blitzkrieg. This week with a game that actually includes the very word that I keep nearly mistyping “-kreig”. And another about Jane Fonda’s mission to Berlin!

As for your regularly scheduled Blast Miner update, I’ve taken the conversation to the forums (where it belongs). AND — just to marry it with my OTHER current favorite game — I successfully recreated Blast Miner’s Easy Level 1 in Forge by dropping a Warthog onto a fusion coil right next to an oddball skull on Last Resort. Launched it right on top of that big outdoor fan thingy! Saved film at 11.

New games:

• IGI 2 Covert Strike
• The Cameron Files - Pharaoh’s Curse
• Strategic Command 2: Blitzkrieg
• Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

New on GameTap TV:

• GameTap News: PAX ‘07
• Play This Game: ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron
• A Quick Hit: Rob Zombie
• A Quick Hit: Tea Leaf Green
• A Quick Hit: The National

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be:

• Free

We’ve posted other animated whiteboards before - this one isn’t exactly a whiteboard. Artist Blu makes an animated white wall.

And, while we’re talking about animating things other than whiteboards, check this clever ad campaign about a boy who finds a sandwich. Sorta reminds me of one of my most favorite children’s books.

The WWII Blitzkrieg continues this week with Aces Over Europe and Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord (not actually a sequel to the hit game Overlord — though you control minion-like things called tanks and troops and whatnot). Project Eden has absolutely nothing to do with the second world war but does feature Real Meat. So.

Of far more importance right now, however, is hearing how much more I have to save on the Easy campaign in Blast Miner. So far I’ve saved $36,150. Who is the crazy old coot who’s more of a spendthrift than me? Step up! If I hear from no one I’ll start chipping away at the Medium levels. I’m sure I’ve got plenty of optimization to do there (first run through it looks like I only saved $19200 — WEAK!).

And for those of you who are completely stuck on any particular level, a guy named Bryan Ebstyne has set up a super-great website dedicated to the game: Blast Miner Gone Wild. He’s got video solutions for every single level. I’m avoiding most of them until I feel like I’ve solved them as cheaply as possible, but it’s nice to know that it’s there for later. (Oh, and Bryan, I’ve got you by 150 bucks on Easy level 1. KABOOM!)

New games:

• Project Eden
• Aces Over Europe
• Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord
• Gods: Lands of Infinity Special Edition

New on GameTap TV:

• GameTap News: Folklore
• Play This Game: Bubble Bobble
• Game Trailers: Gods: Lands of Infinity Special Edition
• Comic Con 2007 Part 1
• A Quick Hit: Dr. Dog (their latest album is fantastic, btw)
• A Quick Hit: The Decembrists
• Sealab 2021: Legacy of Laughter

Care:

• Free

A number of us at the office got a chance to see The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters when director Seth Gordon was in town a couple of weeks ago. It’s absolutely as great as the reviews have said.

All week in GameTap Watch, Plug and Play is featuring an interview with Gordon. Today he starts in on the amazing real-life human cartoon known as Billy Mitchell. He describes Mitchell as a character straight out of an 80s movie. Which makes all the sense in the world after yesterday’s revelation that the movie began without a specific video game (or players). Apparently, Gordon and producer Ed Cunningham started with nothing more than than the idea of creating a “sports movie where the sport was a video game.” Turns out the Donkey Kong narrative they stumbled into had a built-in Billy Zabka in Billy Mitchell. Score!

Well, it turns out that Jason Scott of the ever-interesting blog ASCII shot the video I posted about this weekend. (Which of course I’d have known already if I was better about keeping up with - and actually reading - my far-too-many subscriptions).

Jason is working on a documentary about Interactive Fiction, that I can’t wait to see. Here’s the YouTube version of the trailer for Get Lamp: