Jason Rohrer, famed creator of brilliant freeware titles like “Passage” and “Gravitation” recently put up a new website for his next game, “Diamond Trust of London.”  So far it’s just a partially censored document and some screen shots, but that’s a hell of a lot more then there used to be.  It’s looking like an old school strategy game, quality unknown, but it’s not like Rohrer hasn’t had at least one similar project.  “Cultivation,” a real-time strategy about community and compromise is among his best works so far.  Here’s hoping this will be another great game.

“Diamond Trust of London” will be released in 2010 for the Nintendo DS and is being distributed by Majesco.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

“But, Tom!”, you ask, “Good Batman games have been made in the past! Remember this gem? ” Very true, but one thing is for damn certain. This was a high budget title. A game that was looked forward to. A Batman game. But more importantly, a superhero game. And now we’ve all seen it with our own eyes. Yes, dear readers, we not only have a good superhero game, we have a great superhero game. Not only does Arkham Asylum fit into the source material so well, but it satisfies Batman comic nerds, gamers, casuals, and the ever-growing category of Achievement Whores. This is a game that should be played by, truly, everyone, regardless of gaming style or Batman know-how.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game

Remember this? If that wasn’t painful enough… remember these? Well have you played this? The new Ghostbusters game that came out this summer is… good. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a great game. It has technical limitations and other problems that could have been fixed by more time in the dev-oven, but the point remains: This is not a bad game by any means. Saying that it is the best Ghostbusters game ever isn’t saying much, but reporting that this game is fun, is. This game contains fun, sticks wonderfully to the source material, is a huge compliment to Ghostbusters nerds, and most importantly, fun. Did I mention that playing this game was actually fun? I had real, non-diluted, 100%  not-from-concentrate enjoyment while playing this game. Yet another sign of the coming meteor strike that will wipe earth from this very galaxy.

The only thing left to happen (since Sonic and Mario have starred in a game together..) is for there to be an absolutely mind-blowing Superman game. Which we all know won’t ever happen. For now, Earth will continue on, but if you want a reason to plan ahead, here’s a list of why the end of the world won’t happen for some time:

• Nintendo is still making retarded changes to their handheld lineup.
• Nintendo is still making fucking weird Wii hardware.
• A Spyro film is coming out, and no one cares.
• Video game movies still suck.
• Bunjie is still making Halo games
• and fanboys are still buying these overly-hyped mediocre shooters.

Go ahead and make your own informed decision about the rest of your life, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

And yet another random chatter podcast! An impromptu look at the current gaming news! Download, listen, enjoy!

Seventy Two Pin Connector Podcast: Episode 035 – Jitterbug!

Yea I have my reasons the post got deleted. Pic related it’s my bitch.

-Tom

What’s the first thing you think of when I say “Download and Play”? Bad things I assume. Whether its the activation fiasco that occurred during the launch of Half-Life 2 or the horrible DRM associated with any Direct2Drive purchase, chances are, like me, you’ve given up on online purchases and stick to physical disks. Whether its DRM, the lack of service, the general disregard of support, or just not having a badass box to place atop your desk, most people have given up on digital downloads, and I don’t blame them.

But then, out of fucking nowhere, I find GOG. No… not God… GOG. Good Old Games.

Good Old Games is a website centered around the user experience. Never before have I paid so little for a game (well… two) and received so much. I went onto the website, created an account, and then proceeded to buy the Fallout Bundle. This pack (for the ever so special price of $10) contained Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 with no DRM, and completely repacked to work just fine with XP/Vista computers.

One of the huge problems with playing the older games is that most of the time, the computer you’re using to play the game is just too damn new, too damn different, or too damn fast to run the damn things correctly. Damn. GoG allows you to skip all the wonders of configuring, scraping around for old hardware, and scouring the internet for patches to get your oldy-time favorites to work with that shiny new box of yours, and it just works. You get a really simple, absolutely wonderful, double-click install to run, but the fun doesn’t stop there.

Under the game download link, there’s a little section called “Additional Content” and is by far the best part of the site. The Fallout series makes the most of this section, more than other games they offer, but by no means are you being ripped of in any way. I have the option to download, for both Fallout 1 and Fallout 2:

Game Manuals

The Fallout Bible

Quick Reference Cards

Avatars

PipBoy Avatars

High-Resolution Wallpapers

Fallout Series Wallpapers

Concept Artwork

and the Original Soundtracks

Yea, for free. Free. Like no extra charge free. Like straight mp3′s. Like no DRM. Like all of this, the first two full Fallout games, and again: No DRM. So what are you waiting for? Go hit GoG.com and find something you like. I would have to recommend the Fallout series, but there are so many great games here, even one two at no charge! Go try out GoG.com for free and download “Beneath A Steel Sky”, you won’t regret it.

http://www.gog.com

All right, readers, here’s the deal. Talkshoe worked well, it really did, when we were all on separate phone lines. That’s the thing, we’d have to be miles away for talkshoe to work fine. If we’re in the same room, running off the same internet connection, it likes to freak the fuck out, making the Talkshoe recording and the live stream choppy as hell and a bitch to listen to. I’m fed up.. I hate putting the live listeners through a circus act to get a ‘listenable’ stream. The need to constantly disconnect and reconnect has me looking for a new audio stream solution.

Here’s the gist of it: No Live Feeds Until We Can Ditch Talkshoe.

I love the chatroom, I love people calling in, I love the interactive elements of our show. But it’s getting rediculous. I’m thinking a straight live stream with Skype call ins. I need you to leave comments, yes, you, the reader. Here’s where you can help us make things better. If you know of a live streaming service that works well, if you know of a better service to help us do this live show, let us know. We want a chat room, calls ins, but this doesn’t have to be integrated. We can go straight IRC, Skype, and a stream. Let us know of any suggestions or what you’d like to see.

Next order of business: Emails!!

Here’s everyone, we made some mistakes in the podcast:
Tom – tom”AT”seventytwopinconnector.com
Brett – morter1987″AT”seventytwopinconnector.com
Scott – skizzicarus”AT”seventytwopinconnector.com
Greg – Greg”AT”seventytwopinconnector.com
Chad – chadzelenger”AT”seventytwopinconnector.com
Aaron – AaronBell”AT”seventytwopinconnector.com
Keith – keith”AT”seventytwopinconnector.com

General Mail, Hate, Praise, Questions, Topics, Whatever -
Fanmail”AT”seventytwopinconnector.com

Go ahead and send those emails, again, MP3′s will stay here, flash player will stay here, everything else stays the same, the only thing that is changing is the live stream (until we can work out a good replacement solution). Peace until the next post (we do have another minicast due out soon).
-Tom

My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-77749cf55a53971412ae58f2132cf7e0}

Edit: You can now stream our podcast through a flash-player thanks to PodNova. Here it is! I’m also looking throwning a flash player on the main page so you can check out the podcast without ever downloading anything.