Scourge of fans of both quality cinema and protecting the unspoiled reputation of gaming’s great franchises, Uwe Boll has also been known to come out swinging at critics of his work with such vastly intelligent retorts as calling the reviewer “stupid”. For years, many in the gaming community have been praying that no more of his hijinxs get funded by major movie studios and it looks like we may just get our way, thanks to Boll himself.

In a typically Bollian reaction to an online petition at FearNet, Uwe the Wonderful brushed aside the pleas of 18,000 people, all requesting that he stop making movies, by saying that the tally wasn’t enough. But there’s hope! As part of an interview with FearNet, Boll stated exactly how many signatures it would take for him to stop tormenting us and non-gaming movie-goers alike:

FearNet: Are you aware that there is a petition online, signed by 18,000 people, requesting that you stop making movies?

UB: Yeah, I know that. 18,000 is not enough to convince me.

Fearnet: How many would it take?

UB: One million. Now we have a new goal.

A million? Is that all? And here I thought this would be difficult. Since April 7th (yesterday), the petition tally has quadrupled to 121062 signatures.

Via | CaVG.com

I don’t know if I can stop laughing long enough to jam this out. Uwe Boll, the pinnacle of misguided movie-making and poor attitudes, got himself into a rather one-sided piss up with Game|Life’s Chris Kohler over Kohler’s review of Boll’s “masterpiece” Postal. It’s so nice to be able to have someone make a complete idiot of themselves with absolutely no prodding or degredation on the side of the second party.

The story goes a little something like this:

• Kohler writes a rather negative review of Postal after being present at the US premiere saying, among other things, that “I’m kind of sad I saw this for work, because maybe it would be awesome if I was blind drunk.”
• Boll gets all wound up about someone slamming his fine work and writes Game|Life with the intelligent reply that “your review shows me only that you dont understand anything about movies and that you are a untalented wanna bee filmmaker with no balls and no understanding what POSTAL is. you dont see courage because you are nothing. and no go to your mum and fuck her …because she cooks for you now since 30 years ..so she deserves it.”
• So ensues a rather long, but endlessly funny email exchange throughout which Kohler maintains every ounce of integrity and Boll just…well…yeah
• Kohler secures a telephone interview with the enraged director to clear up any misunderstandings and to get Boll’s perspective on his movie.

So basically Boll is saying that we shouldn’t say we highly dislike one of his movies because he feels they are perfect. To hell with journalistic integrity, freedom of speech, the appreciation of different styles of humour and..you know…personal opinions.

Image from HuzzahGoods.com

Or so thinks Quake designer John Romero, according to an interview recently conducted by Adrenaline Vault. His new company and their “first of its kind” PC MMORPG are still in development, but interviewers were able to get more general thoughts about the state and future of the industry from this seasoned veteran.
Romero feels that MMOs, mobile and PC episodic games are starting to step up to the fore as the new boss on the block. Among his other statements, the Slipgate Ironworks founder also had the following to say:

• “Next-gen console is big but its future isn’t too bright with the emergence of cheap PC multi-core processors and the big change the PC industry will go through during the next 5 years to accommodate the new multi-core-centric hardware designs.”

• there are still “too many bad clones of great games”

• the casual games explosion is “due for a settling down”

• mobile gaming will become “one of the biggest segments in the gaming industry”

• venture capital funding gives more opportunity to retail fully functional, compelling games

Apparently his comments were taken as inflammatory by some, and Romero responded on his personal blog here.

What else would he be with a name like Stroker Serpentine?
A gent, innocuously called Kevin Alderman by friends and family, is making a name for himself in the virtual landscape of Linden Lab’s constantly evolving community of Second Life.

The online entrepreneur, through the “erotic facilitat[ion]” of his avatar Stroker, sees the transfer of sexuality to the pixellated realm as an “inevitable progression”. In an interview with Wired Magazine, he describes the attraction to virtual reality as:

It’s interesting how much freedom you get in that you don’t have any inhibitions to restrain you. If you want to be a Gorean and prostitute yourself to a master or become their personal sex slave, then go for it. If you want to be an escort in Amsterdam, or a domme, go for it. So many freedoms — things you couldn’t normally do in real life or that you would love to do — the fantasy aspect is limitless.

Probably 60 percent of the women and men that come in-world at least try escorting or use the service because it’s the jumping off point, where you can explore your sexuality anonymously. You can see what it is that Second Life has to offer in terms of avie erotica.

Read the complete interview here to find out about the future of adult development in Second Life, Strokerz Toyz, and how he sold Amsterdam for $50K on eBay.

Via | Wired

So your co-editor emails you and tells you that her internet is broken. Do you: a) bawl hysterically at the humanity of it all, b) cackle maniacally at the opportunity, at long last, to carry out your diabolical plan, or c) post links to interviews with the co-editor in question and invite people to comment on her geekiness?

If you said (c), like you did on all those school test questions you didn’t know the answer to, you’re right!

Play-Girlz’s very own Ingrid Diaz was recently interviewed by geek chic central: geeksugar. Head on over to read up on your favourite b5 video game editor (next to me of course) and get her thoughts on blogging, gaming, geeks and hotties.

Here’s the link to the full interview:

Geeky Girl We Love: Ingrid Diaz of Play Girlz

Always remember… 7.82.

I mentioned a while back the upcoming expansion, Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles and a release date of March 26th has been set. The game, coming for both Xbox 360 and PC, and will be available for download and retail purchase respectively.

The Xbox 360 version will be downloadable from Xbox Live Marketplace for 2400 MS Points, while the PC version will set you back the usual-expansion-going rate of $29.99.

Click here to view the new trailer for the game courtesy of Bethesda. And check out the video below for an interview and preview of the game.

Via | VGGEN

What would happen if the razor sharp mind behind the Metal Gear Solid series were given creative license to make an MMORPG?

Rumour has it that it wouldn’t involve elves, or snakes, or anything currently out there for that matter. Hideo Kojima would make an MMORPG about zombies. In an interview with Edge Magazine, the enigmatic designer asked readers to:

“Imagine a large town where half the inhabitants are zombies. Users would subscribe, get inside the town and get bitten. At that stage they become undead and can’t control their character - all they can do is modify the camera angles. They’d see their character attacking humans and have to pay just to watch! The only way they could end it is by opening another account, hunting themselves down and killing themselves.”

Everyone seems to be clamouring about his brilliance (I don’t contest), but can you imagine paying not to do anything? I don’t even pay to play. If the idea ever came to fruition, I highly doubt that that sort of interactivity model would ever be deemed viable by Konami, and with that in mind, I’d love to see what other zombie-centric ideas the MGS mastermind could dream up.

Via | Games Radar

It’s been quite the journey for Nucleosys, the team behind the PC mystery/adventure game, Scratches. This game is a top 10 seller at Amazon, and has been released in various countries around the world. If you haven’t gotten your hands on it yet, you should.

I’ve been a huge fan of the game since I sampled its demo back in the day, and now that the game is out and about, it was time to check in with the guys at Nucleosys.

Agustin Cordes is one of the masterminds behind the game, and he was kind enough to answer my myriad of questions about the game, the team, and life as a game designer.

Read more

Why was I trying out Second Life last week? And why, you might ask, was I fiddling around trying determinedly to perfect Isaac on a computer that threatening to catch fire? I had the opportunity to attend a seminar series last week, naturally. Sponsored by FutureTAG, the Future Technologies Advisory Group, voice supported by Vivox, and attended by a strange combination of tech, media, and others, the coincidental opening of Uvvy Island and Transhumanist Day was an afternoon event not to be missed.

Me, I was really only there to try out the Vivox software because in my hatred of third party voice programs, it really has been the one that has shone through all the garbage. I had the opportunity to test it out at E3 and talked to some of the Vivox folks in Boston briefly. Clear as a bell. Clearer than my stupid telephone which no matter what channel I put it on goes wild with static if I even approach my laptop with it. So I had seen the software in EvE, but here was a chance to see it, use it and experiment with it in an interactive environment with a purpose. I could ask the presenter questions, chat with fellow conference goers and general just have a much more immersive conference experience.

Unfortunately for me, some conflict between my hardware and Second Life (so I was told) prevented me from actually using the Vivox Connector Client to join in on the chat, but it actually worked out almost for the better, seeing that I got to try out a nifty little trick that allowed Vivox to call me on the phone and add me to the voice chat at the conference. Great for folks who may not have the juice to be able to run some of the applications that come out these days, and there was only a minor reduction in quality that I\’m readily willing to blame on my phone. It really goes to show you how much VoIP software has improved to think that I was complaining about having to listen to a long distance conversation over my scratchy phone.

Read more

Fellow gaming site, Play Feed got a chance to interview Steve Taylor who is the president of Ninjabee and Wahoo Studios. If you don’t know, they are the folks behind the game Outpost Kaloki and Outpost Kaloki X (for the Xbox 360).

It’s a great interview, even if you’ve never heard of/played Outpost Kaloki (X).

Recommended reading for the day, found here.

(Thanks, Andru)