Liberty City vs New York City

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It’s no surprise that the amount of detail in Grand Theft Auto IV is stunning.  Graphically, it justifies the Guiness World Record breaking sales numbers in its first week of sales.  While I have yet to try my hand at the awesome power of this game (I know, shocking!) I can still appreciate the coolness of this photo set by Matthew Johnston.

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The images speak for themselves - Enjoy!

Submitted by Jeff

Alaskan Playgrounds: Way More Dangerous Than Philly’s

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… since this particular family lives on the outskirts of Anchorage, they decided to build a sturdy, colorful playground for their 3 and 4 year old sons, with smooth-stone gravel all around it to avoid knee scrapes and other injuries.

They finished building it on Saturday evening, and the following morning, as mom was about to wake up the boys and have them go out to play in their new play center, this is what she saw from the upstairs window.

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Say what you want about how dangerous Philly can get, but at least we don’t have BEARS running around in our playgrounds. We’ve got peacocks in South Jersey and dolphins in our river… but nope. No bears.

Alaskan Playground @ TCNJ Blog

Beyond Good & Evil: Sequel In The Works! Yes!

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In my fine opinion, Beyond Good & Evil is easily one of the best games ever to be released on the original XBox console. It provided innovative, animated graphics, a compelling storyline, and provided gamers with a female video game character that, for once, was not a bundle of cliches. She wasn’t some over sexualized vixen with torn clothes and heaving, practically exposed breasts, but instead, a normal looking (despite green lipstick) woman, who wore jeans and a t-shirt.

While some people might disagree with me on the beauty of this game (Ben!), I highly recommend finding it in your local Gamestop’s used section. You won’t be dissapointed.

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That being said, I was thrilled this morning when I read about a possible sequel. A team of ten to twelve programers have been working on Beyond Good & Evil 2, and unfortunately, still have to wait for the suits at Ubisoft to green-light the project before it kicks into full production. It’s okay though. I have a glimmer of hope, and will happily wait.

Read more about it over on Joystiq.

NES Coffee Table: Actually Works!

NES Coffee Table: Actually Works!

We love anything involving modded NES gear. This gorgeous gigantic Nintendo controller, which is also a coffee table, is no exception. Kyle Downes is the artist behind this awesome piece of furniture… and it actually works. He custom built a computer board into the thing. Inside, you can store lots of video game swag.

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The glass on the table comes off when you’re ready to play. So ridiculously cool. Tim, I’d like to you start, post haste, on a fully functional N64 coffee table. I don’t care how hard it’ll be to click the trigger on the bottom… no, I also don’t care how hard it’ll be to handle the joystick… Tim, TIM. Get to work.

NES Controller Table via TechnaBob

Adama ‘08: You Have To Roll A Hard Six

Adama ‘08: You Have To Roll A Hard Six

Sometimes you just have to.

It’s a simple website, just that splash image, but check out Vote-Adama.com.

Tim and I are thinking of doing some crazy street art and taping these signs all over Center City. I suppose it won’t be street art as much as it is humorous vandalism… but whatever.

Vote-Adama.com

Japanese Army of Darkness Poster: Bruce Campbell (Soup)

Japanese Army of Darkness Poster: Bruce Campbell (Soup)

I collect a lot of movie posters. Originals, the cool double sided posters you can only get in the theaters. So whenever I see an international poster that looks this sweet, I drool a little bit. Of course, some of the drooling in this case can be attributed to Bruce Campbell. *sigh* he’s one dreamy B-movie actor.

I’m not quite sure what the “moooooon” thing is, or why there are killer whales swimming in the background, but honestly, I really don’t care. I just want this thing.

Army of Darkness in Japanese via Neatorama

Your Plants Can Talk To You… Using Twitter

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Did you know that your house plant can also Twitter? They can! And chances are, what they’re saying is just as interesting as hearing you talk about where you are, what bar you’re getting drunk at, or what you’re making for dinner.

Thanks to the guys at Adafruit, for a mere $160, you can build and install a device next to your plant that will allow it to tweet, telling you whether it needs water.

Can I get one of these for my chinchilla? That way he can twitter me next time he falls in the toilet.

Adafruit Twitter Gadget via TechnoBob

Sleeveface: Amazing Activity For Vinyl Collectors

Sleeveface: Amazing Activity For Vinyl Collectors

What is Sleevefacing? Their blog defines it as one or more persons obscuring or augmenting any part of their body or bodies with record sleeve(s) causing an illusion. Jeff over at Used Wigs provided the link to this, and I’ve gotta say, it’s absolutely hysterical.

The images range from the humorous to the extremely creative.

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Here’s one of my favorite pieces.

Anyhow, I think I’ll be taking a trip to the Book Trader in Old City sometime this week, where they sell used vinyls for a dollar a piece upstairs. Could make for some fun sleevefacing. Jeff, you in?

Sleevefacing via Used Wigs

Star Wars Ewok Gospel: A Musical Tribute

It’s been a quarter of a century now, people, since the Rebels won the day
They destroyed that evil empire and the galaxy was saved
Han Solo, Luke, Leia, Lando — they’re the heroes we all recall
But let’s not forget about their big-hearted friends who are only one meter tall

I’m talking about the Ewoks
They were more than just cute, cuddly bears
Let’s give some credit to the Ewoks
Without their help, the Alliance didn’t have a prayer.

I… there… there are no words. As of right now, this video only has a meager seven thousand plays. How is this possible? Pass this video along to every Star Wars fan you know. All of them.

You can download the full MP3 here, in case you want to listen to this everyday. I know I do.

Thanks for the tip Brian!

Battlestar Galactica Cake: From Our BSG Party

Battlestar Galactica Cake: From Our BSG Party

Behold! The Battlestar Galactica Cake!

This past weekend, we threw a Battlestar Galactica party in Old City. Working together with The Hacktory (Far! Lauren!) and Indy Hall (Alex!), the event was a great success, with over two dozen people showing up to play some BSG on XBox Live Arcade, try out Far’s trippy sunglasses, and watch some great episodes of BSG on Alex’s high definition projector.

The best part of the event however, was Zoe Lukas’ Battlestar Galactica cake.

Battlestar Galactica Cake: From Our BSG Party

Here’s a sweet detail of one of the cylon raiders. The cake was chocolate devil’s food cake with raspberry jam and ganache filling, and was absolutely delicious.

Everything on the cake was edible. The giant Battlestar Galactica (which was ceremonially given to Alex Hillman, for letting us host the event at Indy Hall), the cylon raiders, the cute explosions, the raptors… everything.

We’ll have some photos up of the event soon, but for now, enjoy these shots of the cake. And check out Zoe’s flickr for even higher rez images.

Battlestar Galactica Cake @ Whipped Bake Shop

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