Archive for: December, 2008

It didn’t take long for Left 4 Dead to become my favorite game of 2008. Despite playing some fifty hours of Grand Theft Auto IV, probably as much Peggle Nights and possibly even more Team Fortress 2, no game from 2008 was as perfect as Valve and Turtle Rock’s latest shooter. It’s not just that I happen to love things zombie related, particularly the dread of the Fast Zombie, but that Valve seems to have locked the rule set down so tightly and honed the look and feel so expertly, that to look back upon its development, when it existed in other incarnations, makes one realize it couldn’t have been so perfect unless it was released as it was.

Yeah, I’m calling it my Game of the Year!

It’s amazing the amount of personality Valve and Turtle Rock were able to pack into the four survivors with so little dialogue and traditional character development techniques. Same for the infected — each one is a thrill to play and feels completely unique.

Oh sure, they could have let us play “Death Toll” and “Dead Air” in multiplayer versus and I personally wouldn’t mind some new weapon options, but listening to the developer commentary is full of so many “I’m so glad they didn’t do that!” moments. And Valve loves to keep adding content to its games year after year, so I’m extremely excited to see what they offer us in 2009.

My Xbox Live gamertag is Meat Bun Mike and my Steam ID is Geek if you want to give co-op on expert a go sometime. I wouldn’t mind some better teammates…

Speaking of zombies, looks like I’ll be playing my possible GotY for 2009, Resident Evil 5, next week in Vegas. For the first time, finally. Good times.

Wait, what?

Is there seriously a game named SPACE DEADBEEF?  The answer is yes, and it’s excellent.  It is created by Yuji Yasuhara.  Yuji worked with the folks over at Polyphony Digital on a sleeper hit called Gran Tursimo.  But according to an 2006 interview with GameAxis, “Yuji Yasuhara’s favorite genre is not driving games, but shooters.”

So what do we have here?  An amazing little side-scrolling shooter for the iPhone, reminiscent of R-Type, U.N. Squadron, or Darius.  And you can’t beat the price.  For exactly zero dollars, you can download and be playing this gem of a game.  More exciting than that is its refreshing control scheme.  You target and maneuver the ship by touch.  Missiles will lock on to the hostile target of your choice, and fire upon release of your finger.  What results is a beautiful volley of contrails raining destruction.  But what goes around, comes around.  One hit, and you are toast.

This game has a modern, clean aesthetic fitting to its Gran Tursimo lineage.  I imagine SPACE DEADBEEF also steals a page from the GT playbook in it being a prologue to a future, more robust game, hopefully with tilt control and power-ups.

We made you some new shirts.

No need to thank us, really, it’s our pleasure.  We enjoy creating the shirts we wish existed, but someone neglected to make (until now!).

Speaking of things we wish existed, our advertising budget may be equivalent to an 11-year-old’s allowance, but that hasn’t kept the word from getting out about Meat Bun.  We love that many of you are repeat customers, and even referring your friends!  That means a hell of a lot to us.  We’ll keep trading in our valuable gaming hours coming up with these designs (though our backlog of unfinished games is getting pretty out of hand).

• Fight Night is back, and it’s out for (blood)
• Halo of the Bun has a “special place” in our hearts (gunmetal grey / black)
• We don’t talk about Street Fighter Club (black / glow-in-the-dark)
• M64 is for ‘core’ gamers (white / asphalt / black)
• And we didn’t forget you heavy-metal-bullet-hell fans (black / gold / baseball jersey)

As always, everything is designed and manufactured in California.  Please enjoy!

French jackass Remi Gaillard is completely hilarious. The banana peels and the speed camera at the end push this clip over the top!