Worst games ever

(via Kotaku)

Every once in a while, some gaming site or magazine does a worst games list, usually to compliment the best games list just published there or elsewhere. But now Wikipedia is getting in to the list business, with the Wikipedia list of computer and video games considered to be the worst ever. This list appears to be updated according to group discussions on the topic, which at least attempts to make it less vendetta oriented.

Here are just a few of the many bad games on the list.

  • Aquaman: Battle for Atlantis (2003, GameCube/PlayStation 2) This game inspired the golden mullet awards on G4‘s X-play, and X-Play also named it the worst GameCube game ever
  • Burning Desire (1982, Atari 2600) is a pornographic video game with crude graphics and boring, simplistic gameplay. It was considered to have one of the worst premises ever and the game had an explicit ending scene after each level.
  • Extreme Paintbrawl (1998, PC): Horrible physics, abysmal graphics, and a bad team A.I. gave this game the “honor” of being the worst video game ever reviewed by IGN (although, score-wise, it has been beaten out by Olympic Hockey Nagano ’98, which got a 0.0/10 on IGN, although the actual game was not reviewed. IGN went on to review as many games carrying the “Extreme” title as they could and bashed them for being so “extreme.” The game was lampooned for knowingly being shipped without any AI programming whatsoever; that section of the code had not even been implemented. PC Gamer US awarded the game one of its lowest scores ever, a 6%, advising gamers, “Avoid at all costs.” At the time, this was the lowest score ever “awarded” by PC Gamer US, and remained so for many years until it was eclipsed by “Skydive!” which was rated 5%.
  • Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon (1993, CD-i) is widely considered to be the worst Zelda game ever created. As part of the termination of a contract from Nintendo, Philips gained the license to produce three Zelda games. All three received overwhelmingly negative feedback and are referred to in some circles as the “Unholy Triforce.” They were notorious for bad animation, scripting, and voice acting, but The Wand of Gamelon was roundly condemned by all Zelda fans and is #6 on EGM’s 20 worst games list. Filter also ranked it #1 on their “Top 10 Worst Games of All Time” list.

I remember the Extreme Paintbrawl debacle. Shortly after PC Gamer wrote the horrible review of the game, one of the programmers for the program wrote in. I don’t remember the exact details, but I think he said the game was shipped early over the protests of the programmers because the company had to make a deadline. I believe he also said there was a patch that fixed the AI and made a number of improvements to the program and that perhaps the magazine should look at reviewing the patched version. The editor responded that they only reviewed shipped versions of games, so as to prevent exactly the problems seen with Extreme Paintbrawl. Too bad not enough companies learned the needed lesson that games should be relatively finished when shipped. I think most consumers don’t mind patches for odd minor bugs and omissions here and there, but to not even include AI and add that in a later patch? Well, no other company has been that bad that I know of, but a lot of companies have shipped incomplete games with plans to patch them later (I’m singling out Dungeon Lords as an example of this problem).

[tags]Worst games ever, The problem with incomplete games[/tags]

Animated Jigsaw puzzles

(via Neatorama)

I’ve been playing with the animated planet verson of this puzzler.  The author at Neatorama who pointed this out mentioned that it crashed his FireFox browser several times.  I did not try this in FireFox, opting to just use IE in case there were problems.  It also requires Shockwave (in fact, my system required that I update my Shockwave install).

moving-jigsaw-puzzle.jpg

[tags]Animated puzzles, Animated Jigsaw[/tags]

Celebrate 138 years of helium

On this day in 1868, the French astronomer Pierre Jules César Janssen discovered Helium.  Ever since, ordinary people have been talking with funny voices and laughing while destroying their esouphagus.

In 1862, impressed and fascinated by the spectroscopic work of Gustav Kirchhoff and Robert Bunsen, Janssen began his studies of the solar spectrum. His first important contribution was to demonstrate that some of the dark lines observed in the solar spectrum were caused by water vapor in the Earth’s atmosphere. He made lasting contributions in solar spectroscopy, in particular in the observation of solar prominences. Following his observations of the 1868 solar eclipse in India, he suggested that some of the unknown spectral lines observed above the solar limb were due to a hitherto unknown chemical element. J. Norman Lockyer independently and simultaneously arrived at same conclusion, and both men are now credited with the discovery of Helium.

I’m guessing it was a few years later that Helium was put in to balloons for all the spoken zaniness we’ve come to love Helium for, but noting the existance of this element in space was the important first step.

[tags]Pierre Jules César Janssen, Helium[/tags]

Ancient Ads

This is an old advertisement.  Most folks who visit this site will have seen this before.  But for reasons of nostalgia, I felt the need to post it anyway once I saw it at Modern Mechanix.

X-RAY SPECS ONLY $1.00
An Hilarious Optical Illusion
Scientific optical principle really works. Imagine—you put on the “X-Ray” Specs and hold your hand in front of you. You seem to be able to look right through the flesh and see the bones underneath. Look at your friend. Is that really his body you “see” under his clothes? Loads of laughs and fun at parties. Send only $1 plus 25c shipping charges. Money Back Guarantee. HONOR HOUSE PRODUCTS CORP., Lynbrook, N.Y. Dept. 97XR02

[tags]Modern Mechanix, X-Ray specs, Ancient ads[/tags]

On coulrophobia

A coworker was talking about fear of clowns today. I remembered reading something recently about some famous people who admitted to having a fear of clowns. I was trying to track down some names of said famous people when I found this freaky image:

You know, this would explain that fear some folks have.  That’s just not right.

[tags]Coulrophobia, Fear of clowns, Freaky clown baby[/tags]

Top 10 women of gaming

(via TechEBlog)

We really haven’t had enough gaming news on this site lately, have we? Well, let’s try to improve that. Our starting hook-up is a link to GameTrailers.com where we can watch a video about the top 10 women of all time in gaming. I’m going out on a limb here and guessing Samus and Lara Croft made the list. Want to check me on that? You’ll have to visit the GameTrailers folks and see.

Some of the women who made the list I wouldn’t have guessed beforehand, but I could agree with the selections after seeing and hearing the reasons.

[tags]Women of gaming, GameTrailers.com[/tags]

Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser

(via TechEBlog)
Blah, blah this. Blah, blah that. Reading the news some days can just leave you wondering “Where’s the good stories?” Well, unless, of course, you read your daily news here. In which case you’ll be wondering “Can I ever be as awesome as Randy?”

The answer is, no. But you can try. The world certainly needs more people whose awesomeness approaches mine. :)   I kid, I kid.  I’m not awesome – just brilliant!
Now, that out of the way, why in the world am I rambling? Because I just found another frikkin’ story about frikkin’ lasers!!! And you all know I love my frikkin’ lasers, sharks or no.

mthe-laser.jpgMTHEL uses directed energy (laser beam) to intercept aerial targets such as rockets, missiles, artillery shells and other aerial threats. The target destruction is achieved by projecting a highly focused, high-power laser beam, delivered by a chemical laser, with enough energy to affect the target, and explode it in midair. This operational concept is offering the first “reusable” interception element. Existing interceptors use kinetic energy kill vehicles (such as fragmentation warheads), which are not reusable.

Whoa! You had me at destruction.

And those of you looking at that thinking, “That doesn’t look so awesome,” how about if you have to carry it around in one of these:

mthe-carrier.jpg

Yes, sign me up when the order lines open.  Read all about it in Defense-Update’s look back on the MTHEL.  I think if aimed properly, it could even make a tasty batch of popcorn.

[tags]Laser, Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser, Real Genius[/tags]

Happy Birthday Gary Larson

Yes, that Gary Larson.  The creator of The Far Side comic strip.  Larson was born today in 1950.

“The Far Side” first appeared in the Seattle Times in 1978. It was first syndicated in 1980 by Chronicle Features.

The strip continued until January 1, 1995, when Larson retired from writing the comic.

[tags]Gary Larson. The Far Side, Happy Birthday[/tags]