Using Team Fortress 2 to promote a job listing

A company looking to hire recruiters decided that many potential hires played Team Fortress 2. They paid prominent players to become "ambassadors" and the players changed their names to the company's job listing url, where I found this swell widescreen wallpaper:



They also created a poster/advertisement for players to post throughout the game world. There's no mention of whether Valve objected. Via.

*Previously: Team Fortress 2 paper toys.

Gravity screenshots

I like the look of the Sony Vita game Gravity:

Prepare yourself for a new perspective in gaming in this visually stunning cel-shaded adventure. Take gravity into your own hands as you take the role of a heroine seeking her past and the means to protect her future in a world that's falling apart. Shift from streets to walls and buildings as you manipulate gravity to save a city from its enemies and perils.

The screenshots at least look like what Spider-Man games should try. Via.

Star Wars: The Old Republic wallpapers

I meant to post this last night, but Blogger's image uploader wasn't working - - I cropped some wallpaper-sized stills featuring Darth Malgus and his master from The Old Republic's cinematic opening.

*Buy KOTOR toys at eBay.

Video of someone playing Zelda on the Wii U

This doesn't look appealing at all. Although I certainly understand that Nintendo wants to trick people into buying a seemingly cheap console with cutting edge graphics and then coerce them into buying three more extremely expensive controllers.

Gotham City Impostors gameplay video

Gotham City Impostors gameplay video. I cropped a few widescreen wallpaper-sized stills:

Puzzle Agent 2 trailer

Puzzle Agent 2 trailer. Preorder the game for $8.99 and get Puzzle Agent 1 (usually $5) free.

I cropped two widescreen wallpaper-sized stills:

New Bioshock Infinite gameplay video

New Bioshock Infinite gameplay video shows off combat (and Elizabeth's cleavage).

Opening cinematic for The Old Republic

A little repetitive of the cinematic videos to date, but still very cool - - the opening cinematic for The Old Republic.

Link roundup

1. If, like me, you downloaded Little Big Planet over the weekend, check out this welcome from Media Molecule. (The game's ok, the controls aren't that great considering it's such a simple platformer, and the levels I've tried in story mode and community mode haven't been interesting enough to make me want to play much more.)

2. Penelope Trunk says, "marrying a serial entrepreneur is like investing in a startup: You part with your sanity in exchange for a huge lottery ticket and a guarantee that life will be interesting," and then illustrates the point with an anecdote (there's a warrant out for her arrest).

3. The Event Horizon shirt I posted over the weekend is now on sale at Last Exit to Nowhere.

New trailer for The Old Republic

Good looking trailer for The Old Republic. Via.

Spider-Man: Edge of Time wallpaper and trailer (plus two game reviews)

Here's the trailer for Spider-Man: Edge of Time. I cropped a widescreen wallpaper featuring Anti-Venom:



Which all gives me a good reason to finally mention how much I liked the DS version of Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. I picked up Shattered Dimensions ($20 at Amazon) and Ben 10: Ultimate Alien (also $20) for my boys. But after they asked me for help with the Spidey game, I fell in love with it and claimed it for my own. The game is a lot like Metroid starring Spider-Man. He controls so well and has so many moves that for quite awhile I simply enjoyed swinging and crawling on walls. I highly, highly recommend it. (You can watch a full playthrough here.) I can't think of any game I've actually enjoyed replaying this much. My 4 and 6 year olds have also come to love it as long as I help them past the two or three tricky parts.

What's strange is that it and the Ben 10 game were both made by Griptonite. And Ben 10 was abysmal in every way - - the characters control terribly, it's difficult to see where to go next, the next platform is always off camera so jumps are blind and often fatal, save zones are too far apart, and cut scenes are long, boring and unskippable.

Link roundup

1. The makers of Deus Ex: Human Revolution get it. The easy difficulty mode is officially described as:

Tell Me A Story
You play games for their story and experience, not for their challenge or competitiveness. Enjoy the Deus Ex experience!

2. Great photo essay on Hell Week for Navy Seal hopefuls:

One particularly difficult stretch involves a length of time staying afloat in San Diego bay at night, and then laying down, shirtless on a steel pier. From what I was led to believe, while embracing the pier, certain classes have chanted, “The cold steel is sucking the life from my body. The cold steel is sucking the life from my body.”

3. I fear we're not even close to the end of the financial crisis. Unemployment in Spain is apparently over 20%.

Catwoman stars in the new Batman: Arkham City trailer

Catwoman (and her assets) stars in the new Batman: Arkham City trailer. Also, I cropped a widescreen wallpaper showing off Arkham Batman:



I'm guessing the trailer's by Blur Studio. Courtesy of, here's a wallpaper-sized still from the first Arkham City trailer:



And since I'm talking about Batman, check out this outstanding Joker illustration by Jock (apparently to be a Detective Comics cover):



Via.

*Buy Arkham Asylum toys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Thew new Deus Ex Revolution trailer is actually a little lackluster compared to the slick marketing materials. (And it's sad that seeing the Square Enix logo is now a turnoff.)

2. In light of the fact that Symbionic Titan was supposedly canceled for not making a viable toy line, it's interesting that Hasbro still won't commit to making toys for Disney's Avengers cartoon. (Which my boys would looove.)

3. Full scan of "Immune" - - imagine early chapters of The Stand illustrated by Frank Quitely.

New Alice: Madness Returns gameplay footage and wallpapers

This Alice: Madness Returns video really shows off how platforming-centric the game will be. (Hopefully those elements will be a lot more fun and forgiving than the first game.) I cropped some widescreen wallpaper-sized stills:






*Buy American McGee's Alice toys at eBay.

Lego Scythian

One more by Clay Morrow - - Lego Scythian from Sword and Sworcery.

Alice: Madness Returns Hysteria Mode

Via Kotaku, the screenshots show how Alice looks when she enters Hysteria mode in Alice: Madness Returns. And the video below shows the mode in action (35 seconds in):



*Buy American McGee's Alice toys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Some of those monstrous cupcakes I posted yesterday are now on sale.

2. Kotaku on Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning which is being developed by (among others) novelist R.A. Salvatore and Todd McFarlane:

The graphics and backstory may not have a lot of instant appeal...

3. Destructoid on Shinobi for the 3DS:

3D effects on or off, it didn't make all that much of a differen[ce] for these side-scrolling bits.

Link roundup

1. The Portal 2 soundtrack is available for free download. Ringtones, too. Via these sites.

2. Zero Punctuation doesn't have anything nice to say about Brink.

3. Move over Conan, here's a tale of Thongor, Warrior of Lost Lemuria.

Link roundup

1. Comment and win a copy of the 3D Art Book.

2. "China used prisoners in lucrative internet gaming work. Labour camp detainees endure hard labour by day, online 'gold farming' by night" Via.

3. I actually didn't like Baldur's Gate very much, but this makes me wish I had. (The 4 in 1 box set mentioned is $18 at Amazon.) Via.