Real Ultimate Showdown FINAL ROUND
So it has come to this at last. 32 entered, and after this round, only one will leave, proving once and for all who the coolest group out there.
The road had been long to reach the final round. There were many surprise upsets along the way- some big favorites were knocked out early. We had no idea when it started that it would come down to this classic D&D matchups… but the people have spoken. Wizards and Dragons rock. But which one will win out?
Voting will end October 17 at 11:59 PM. VOTE FOR WHO YOU WANT TO WIN in this final round of the Real Ultimate Showdown!
About time!
Sonic will be a playable character in Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii. He joins Snake as a non-Nintendo IP brawler. Will we see any other surprises in the character list? Who would you like to see?
Inq. of the Week: Consoling Gamers
Our Classic Game Trilogies Inquisition was a big hit with people being forced to make the tough choice between many of their favorite classic games. Coming in tied at first place with 24% each is the Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Super Mario Bros. 3. Second place rightfully goes to Final Fantasy 3/6 with 19%, followed by Super Metroid in third. We’re really sorry for posting what was deemed the “most evil polls ever”, but thankfully many of you are Paladins and could easily resist it’s demonic tendrils.
With our poll two weeks ago flopping so badly, both Dave and I were amazed at the percentage of readers who don’t even own X-Box 360′s and therefore don’t care too much about Halo 3. Today I’m really curious what consoles you guys DO own (or have owned), because last week’s poll proved that we do indeed play videogames it just appears that we all are still stuck on the classics. So here it is:
Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.Real Ultimate Showdown Round 4
[This round is over, go vote in the FINAL ROUND]
The final four combatants… or is that the fatal four? The fighting grows more intense in this penultimate round of the Real Ultimate Showdown.
Venture on to vote for WHO YOU WANT TO WIN in both match ups to determine who will advance the final round, and whose proxy will have a chance to win the grand prize. Voting for this round ends October 10th, 11:59P EST.
Inq. of the Week: Classic Game Trilogies
So, how about that Halo 3, huh?… ::crickets::
Over 80% of you don’t own an Xbox 360, and won’t be picking one up to see what happens to the intrepid Master Chief and his supply of Mountain Dew. (No wonder Super-Soldiers were eliminated right away in the Real Ultimate Showdown.) At least 3 of you are hardcore and picked it up as soon as you could, and 3 of us decided to buy the game when the lines had died down a bit. I really want to buy it, but I have the feeling that it would impact my performance in grad school. Plus, my Halo 1 & 2 co-op partner moved to Canada, and I don’t have Xbox Live (still don’t want to pay for an adapter) so it just wouldn’t be the same!
Game trilogies and series have been around since the NES. They may seem more prevalent, and indeed it does seem like the big companies are way more interested in churning out sequels than coming up with new ideas. However, that doesn’t mean that the sequels are any worse than the originals… indeed, because of technology advancing, I often enjoy them more. (This is different than the movies, as we’ve discovered.) Inspired by the huge Halo 3 launch, and in playing more classic games via the Wii’s virtual console, I ask…
Loading ...I’ve defined “classic video games” to be Super Nintendo era and before. If there are any that you feel absolutely must be included, leave a comment, and my crack team of researchers will look into it!
[image credit: Mushroom Kingdom for this snapshot of the classic movie The Wizard]
Real Time Raytracing – One Possible Future of 3D Gaming
Introduction
We all love the wonderfully resplendent graphics possible on todays graphic hardware. It’s really quite amazing, the stuff we are able to squeeze out of some extremely complex arrays of silicon.
But current GPUs have a dirty little secret that I am going to share with you. Current GPUs are terrible kludges, composed of dirty trick layered haphazardly on dirty trick, resulting in an overly complex mess that requires leaf blowers to keep from melting down into slag. Raytracing could fix all that. [Read the rest of this article]
Real Ultimate Showdown Round 3
[This round is over, go vote in the FINAL ROUND]
Eight groups enter, only four will advance. The epic battle to determine what is the coolest thing of all rages on. Some unexpected warriors have made it this far, but they still have difficult battles ahead of them.
Below are the four match ups for the week. Remember to vote for WHO YOU WANT TO WIN! Six of you still have a shot at winning the grand prize… get the word out for everyone to vote! [Read the rest of this article]
Inq. of the Week: Halo 3
The most obvious choice for this week is to ask everyone about Halo 3, and whether you couldn’t care less or if you’re already waiting in line checking the site on a laptop or your iPhone! But first, let’s cover the results of Dave’s question about upcoming sci-fi shows premiering this week. The results are that exactly half of you don’t care, or don’t watch any tv. Congratulations! The show that got the most people interested/excited is not very surprisingly Bionic Woman, which premieres this Wednesday at 9pm (on sci-fi), with Pushing Daisies coming in second. Unfortunately Cavemen only got one vote, which I honestly can’t remember if it was mine or not, but needless to say not many people have hopes for a series based on what is a great series of commercials but shows little hope of filling out an entire episode, much less a season. Also unfortunate is that I have only heard disappointing things about Bionic Woman as well, but we can only hope it picks up later in the season, or just becomes a hit despite its quality *cough*heroes*cough*.
Now then, based on Microsoft’s and Bungie’s rabid advertising campaigns, not the least of all including some excellently delicious Mountain Dew variants, I assume you’re painfully aware that Halo 3 comes out at midnight tonight (ie – tomorrow). This finale to the trilogy (was it a trilogy from the get-go, is it only now a trilogy, if there’s a fourth does is its trilogy-ism revoked?) is being lauded as one of the most anticipated games ever, blah blah blah, yadda yadda. The reason it’s hotly anticipated is because the brains behind the series decided to blue-ball everyone with the absolute worst “ending” ever concieved in the second game. So the question I have for you is,
Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.The hype for this game really isn’t as pervasive as a lot of people would have you think, but to me it is more in the ridiculous direction then the annoying/in-your-face approach. For instance, the Washington Post had an article not particularly about Halo 3 as a game or its launch, instead they covered how members of the Redskins football team were given an early opportunity to play the game. What’s cool about it is that they got to play the game online, against members of other football teams across the United States. [Read the rest of this article]
Real Ultimate Showdown Round 2
[This round is over, go vote in the FINAL ROUND]
Vote on the Round 2 Matchups now! Remember, vote for who you WANT TO WIN and not necessarily who you think would win in a straight up fight. Voting ends at Wednesday, September 26 at 11:59PM EST. Especially for those of you still in the running for the grand prize, get the vote out! [Read the rest of this article]
Real Ultimate Showdown Round 1
[This round is over, go vote in the FINAL ROUND]
Many a rivalry is legendary. Pirates vs. Ninjas. Robots vs. Zombies. Werewolves vs. Unicorns. But which one of these groups is truly best?
joshx0rfz and I were talking about how the Muse video that was posted yesterday was all kinds of awesomeness, and discussed what else we’d like to see in it. Combine that with ChattyDM pointing me towards TV Tropes (and how it has ruined my life) and I’ve got to thinking about all those things we consider Awesome.
After much arguing about who our groups should be, we’ve come up with 16 matchups for you to vote on. The format is totally stolen somewhat borrowed from Comic Pants‘ Rumble Pants feature. It really is the best way to present these kinds of match ups. Today we’ve started with 16 matchups. The voting will last for one week, and end next Thursday at Midnight EST (for us late nighters, this means late Wednesday night.) Then we will see who advanced to the next set of matches, and so on, running for 5 weeks until we have an ultimate victor.
But I’m going a step further. This will be, in the two years since we opened, our first contest. To enter: comment on THIS POST with your ONE pick on who will take the entire title. First come, first serve for picks, which means there are only 32 entrants in the contest. Myself, Bartoneus, and joshx0rfz will not enter, but the contest is open to anyone else.
The GRAND PRIZE for picking the correct winner is a $10 Amazon Gift Certificate. (We will be checking the voting logs, so we can pick up if anyone is cheating or not.) At our discretion, we may also award other prizes (probably some posters) to those who pick someone who barely loses. Good luck!
It is important to note: you are not voting for who you logically think would win. (As if logic has any place in many of these.) You are voting in each match up on WHO YOU WOULD LIKE TO WIN.
And so… on to the match-ups!
