The big news of Saturday was the announcement of "Call of Duty 4", and we have the trailer for you!
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Monday, April 30, 2007
CALL OF DUTY 4 TRAILER
Friday, April 27, 2007
Just Another Reason Chuck Norris is Cooler Than You
For those of you who haven't seen this yet (like maybe you live in a cave, or you have been in a full body cast for a year or two, or you are just plain old), Fuel the Rebellion proudly presents
The Ultimate Showdown to the Ultimate Destiny.
Still think you are as Cool as Chuck Norris? Don't delude yourself. Take our quiz and weep.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
SO YOU WANT TO BE A GAME TESTER? (3 Tips & the Right Links to Get You Started)
Doh.
So many of us have expressed this interest at one time or another that the question seems down-right ridiculous.
But--and think carefully before you answer--do you really know what the job involves?
Testing a game requires you to play the game as the developers demand, find bugs and report them, have an eye for detail and some knowledge of the various genres. It does NOT mean you play your favorite shooter until you win.
Expect: to work long hours with little financial compensation and even less appreciation. Make no mistake, unless you are a professional game developer yourself, as a game tester you are the bottom man on the totem pole.
Expect: A short-term gig. You are there for one purpose and one purpose only, and once that has been completed, your job is done.
Don't expect: job security, a high standard of living while the testing is going on (or afterward, if the salary is typical of company standards) or to work in the comfort of your own home, with your own consoles. That's just not the way it's done.
But we know, even after all of the above, you are still reading this. You still want to do it, don't you?
HERE'S HOW TO MAKE IT HAPPEN:
1. Move.
If you don't live in a town where the huge gaming companies have a base, move now. They will not come to you. No matter how many levels you have beaten on how many games, they are not going to fly you in to test their games. Get real.
So where do you move to?
California
Seek out Newport Beach for Shiny Entertainment, creators of Earthworm Jim and Enter the Matrix. While you're in California, check out Agoura Hills-based THQ.
Washington
Don't like California? Fine. Redmond, Washington is even more of a hot spot for potential testers. That's where Nintendo looks for talent.
2. Work on Your Writing Skills
WTF? I have to know how to write, too? Yep. If you want to get ahead as a game tester, you have to be able to document bugs and phrase criticisms and critiques into well-formulated sentences in written reports. Don't believe us? Check this out:if you actually become a tester you're going to be writing up bugs quite often. I imagine they would want to see someone who can write properly since your writing is going to be floating around the company databases...
CS
QA Tester
Big Huge Games
My QA application included a cover letter that detailed all of the things I look for and/or enjoy in the games that I play. It was essentially a personal essay, but took no more than a single printed page. It must have helped, as I have just celebrated my sixth anniversary with the company.
SW
QA Ninja
BioWare Corp.
"Where quality begins with QA!"
Quotes from IGDA forum.
3. Learn Another Language
Hey, it may sound extreme, but if you want to run with the big dogs, you gotta...well, you know what we mean. Gaming is a global enterprise now, and the big game developers actively seek translators to avoid any "all your base are belong to us" glitches. And they just don't get any bigger than Blizzard nowadays, do they?
Oh, wait! Maybe they do. Ever heard of these guys?
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Saturday, April 21, 2007
A little FYI on FTR Editor
Want to know a little more about our Fuel the Rebellion crew? Check out our editor's profile over at MyLot.com: myLot User Profile
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Wii Wii Wii All the Way Home
So, watch MTV's Pimp My Ride lately? No, us neither. But apparently in the UK the show's really popular (They have morons in the UK, too? Go figure).
Anyway, we figured the UK version of Pimp My Ride deserves some props (that's us, down with the homeys) because while normally bright purple cars with huge gold lettering across the back windshield leave us cold, there's another aspect of "pimping" we can definitely get on board with:
Obviously the interior of a small hatchback isn’t the ideal environment for the frantic wand-waving required by most Wii games, so the modders have done the sensible thing and installed the console in the boot. Pop the trunk and a 19-inch LCD jumps to attention, letting you stand behind the motor and jump around with the Wiimote to your heart’s content.
We'd give them our car and let them purple-it-up royally (porphyrogene?) for the chance at a 19-inch LCD hooked up to a Wii in the trunk. Niiice.
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Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Special Guest Post: Reflections on a National Tragedy
The moment you hear the news, you feel pressure in your chest, like a lead weight pressing against your heart. Oh no, your mind registers numbly, it's happened again.
A wave of grief runs through you for the innocent victims caught up in something bigger and uglier than anyone could have anticipated, young lives cut tragically short by yet another gun-toting psychopath, families torn apart in a single afternoon.
And then--guiltily--you fervently give thanks that these weren't your children, that your family is intact.
In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, we will hear over and over again the same information: the methodical killer, shooting over and over again with a deadly calm as he stalks the campus, the shocked survivors somehow having the sense to "play possum" and go unnoticed in the midst of chaos, students barricading doors and tying make-shift tourniquets around bloody gun-shot wounds to save themselves.
Questions will be raised: did the police and campus security act quickly enough? Should there be sirens, alarms, an early warning system on college campuses? What about gun control? And the most disturbing query of all: What else could the professors who saw in this disturbed individual something frightening, some undefinable and yet somehow threatening quality, have done to keep all this from happening?
We need to ask all these questions. Not because we have a macabre curiousity about the minds of deranged killers, or because we are all sick voyeurs who need to experience vicariously the grief of the survivors and their families.
No, we ask these things to re-assure ourselves that we are immune, that we can't be touched by the same senseless tragedy. "It couldn't happen to me," we insist. "My family will never be threatened in this way. My children are safe."
But deep down inside we know the truth: it could happen to any of us.
We do the dead and injured, the suffering and the survivors a disservice when we suggest that had they simply done this or that, or if the police had just come sooner, or the teachers had just thrown this young man out of college, everything would have been all right.
The reality of the situation, no matter how hard it is to accept, is that we are dealing with a kind of madness here that none of us, not one of us, we who value life and love our families and treasure their lives and happiness above all else, can ever understand. There is no "why" that will explain it all to anyone's satisfaction, no reason that could possibly make sense in this senseless crime, no way to turn back the clock and make empty lives whole once more.
All we can really do is suffer along with those families, sending out to them our compassion and our fervent prayers that they will somehow make it through all this, all the while thanking god that we don't know, and hope we never find out, what it really is they are going through right now.
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Monday, April 16, 2007
Review of Super Paper Mario for Wii
There's a great review over at the Games section of Geek.com of the latest side-scrolling Mario game for the Wii:
Super Paper Mario
For any of you classic Nintendo lovers, this game heralds back to the good old Mario days. Check it out!
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Tuesday, April 10, 2007
SPRING SPECIAL FOR FUEL THE REBELLION READERS!
Ever tried DinoMite? Bejeweled? Zuma? NOW is the time to try out these top titles and download them CHEAPER THAN EVER BEFORE. How? With this EXCLUSIVE discount offer from Fuel the Rebellion. Now through May 10th, you can save on some of the most-downloaded games on the internet, including DinoMite, which we have played and enjoyed ourselves here at FTR. Unlike other simple puzzle games, DinoMite has the added bonus of a slingshot-style shooter for taking out the variously-colored "dinosaur eggs." You can earn bonuses by special moves like "Cambrian Combos" or slow down the hourglass by eliminating the right dino eggs. Each successive level grows harder--you know the drill.
Our Take: DinoMite is surprisingly addictive. We played it for weeks and with the added 5% discount our EXCLUSIVE coupon brings you, you can enjoy it more for even less (that makes sense, right?).
SPRING SPECIAL!
Fuel the Rebellion members enjoy an exclusive 5% discount on PopCap Games like Bejeweled and Zuma from now through May 10th when using the "Buy it Now" option! Click-through HERE for discount code and applicable games!
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Monday, April 9, 2007
Keith Richards Doesn't Know His Ash From a Hole in the Ground
Keith Richards may be a rebel, but his spokesman denies his bizarre, (almost) lucid account of snorting his father's ashes:
"He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared....It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive."
We at Fuel the Rebellion don't believe it for a minute, anyway. Keith is known for outrageous stories, like strychnine poisoning out-of-body experiences, falling out of palm trees...Those were at least entertaining. But this one is so creepy it--we can't resist ourselves--blows.
However, the folks at Disney aren't letting Keith publicize the latest "Pirates" movie, just in case the story is true. Apparently they are fine with a Keith-Richards-inspired Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) pretending to be dead, shooting a hole through a casket, and using the arm bones of a corpse as an oar, but actually snorting cremated ashes is a *little* too much.
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Sunday, April 8, 2007
HAPPY EASTER FROM FUEL THE REBELLION
Cute Bunny Case for Ipod Video From iattire:
Keep your iPod snuggled while you listen to your favorite tunes. Each Bunny has access to the headphone jack, and the sheer fabric lets you easily see the click-wheel to find your favorite sounds.
Bunny is made of fluffy pajama fleece. Comes with hand-made carrot.
Bunny, $19.99
Cute Bunny Case for Ipod Video From iattire:
Keep your iPod snuggled while you listen to your favorite tunes. Each Bunny has access to the headphone jack, and the sheer fabric lets you easily see the click-wheel to find your favorite sounds.
Bunny is made of fluffy pajama fleece. Comes with hand-made carrot.
Bunny, $19.99
Bloggerwave-A New Rebellion
Fuel the Rebellion has just joined the Bloggerwave network of bloggers, and we're so excited, we have to share the news. Why are we excited? Because Bloggerwave helps quality blogs like Fuel the Rebellion keep up the good fight by actually paying us for the reviews we write for you, our faithful following.
Now, you all know that Fuel the Rebellion has a policy that we don't review anything we haven't tried, and you know you can trust us to give you the real scoop. Don't worry, that won't change. You aren't going to see anything given a great review here unless we personally think it's a quality product or service. The only difference is, we don't have to beg you guys for donations 'n' stuff to keep going.
Are you a blogger, too? Check out Bloggerwave for yourself. You'll thank us for it.
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Saturday, April 7, 2007
Haven't I Heard That Somewhere Before?
Hey, remember when we reported on the whole PS3 20g going bust thing HERE?
Looks like it is finally getting reported in the mainstream news.
Best Buy has dropped the 20 gig PS3 from its stores, citing that 80% of the sales were for the 60 GB model...
Let me be among the first to proclaim the 20 gig PS3 officially dead. When Best Buy stopped selling them it was one thing, but when Sony stops carrying them in their stores? I think that's pretty much the nail in the coffin.
I say good riddance, this multiple-tiered system for consoles confused consumers and really did them no favor.
Italics, ours. From about.com
Once again, Fuel the Rebellion ruins the curve for everyone else.
Yeah, we know. We rock. Feel free to comment on our greatness.
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Star Wars: Empire at War released
Courtesy of MacGame Store.com:
Hot Release: Star Wars: Empire at War
Star Wars: Empire at War puts the power to command an entire war for the Star Wars galaxy in the hands of players, giving them the freedom to determine how they play the game within the completely scalable and accessible gameplay. Set a few years before the events of Episode IV: A New Hope, LucasArts’ Empire at War lets players wage war on the ground and in space, as well as experience the creation of the Rebel Alliance, the strengthening of the Empire and the beginnings of the Galactic Civil War.
Star Wars: Empire at War (boxed game)
Friday, April 6, 2007
Thursday, April 5, 2007
PS3 Puts It Out There
Here's a friendly reminder from Fuel the Rebellion: Get out the Cheez-Its, throw some Coke in a cooler and stock up on TP this weekend, gamers. Insomniac Games' designers (i.e. the guys that created Resistance: Fall of Man) will be online tomorrow at 8 EST (5 PST) to school you on how the game was meant to be played. You'll find them right there with the custom matches.
That's right, just Man vs Chimera (and thousands of your friends watching to see you screw up).
Image above left courtesy of Gamer's Outlet.
They have neat shirts 'n' stuff.
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Yeah, I knew that.
| Are You Cooler Than Chuck Norris? Your Result: You are as Cool as Chuck Norris You are practically a god. There should be statues erected in your honor. If I didn't know you better, I would think you WERE Chuck Norris. You aren't him, are you? Can I have your autograph? | |
| You are Almost As Cool as Chuck Norris | |
| You Will Never be as Cool as Chuck Norris | |
| You are a Joke. Who are You Kidding? | |
| Are You Cooler Than Chuck Norris? Create MySpace Quizzes | |
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Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Reviews: Mac Games, Part II
Tank O'Box is designed by the same folks who brought us Bubble Bobble Nostalgie. The Rhino, who is 11, was given a chance at this game. In the game, you are a tank
, and the game play has you fighting against panzer tanks, whether to shoot them before they shoot you, or to protect your headquarters from their attacks, etc. The display for the game is set up in such a way that it appears you are playing with a military model set up in a box at the center of a children's desk. The desk is decorated with colored crayon drawings and the like. Inside the box (hence the name Tank 0' Box; can't understand why it isn't Box O' Tanks), the realistic-looking little tanks turn into black smoking hulls when hit and then disappear. Your tank can roll over randomly appearing starred icons in blue and green to earn upgrades like faster speed, heavier shielding, or double-shooting guns. The Rhino enjoys games with "army guys" or a military theme, and after playing Tank O' Box for about 15 minutes, he said, "I like this game!" He enjoyed the arcade style immensely. However, when playing the "extra" section of the game, which gives you the opportunity to keep going after other tanks until you have beaten 100 of them, he became bored about halfway through and was ready to be done. My take: At $19.95 for the full version, this game is over-priced. You can play the first five levels in the trial version, however, for free. Here's the link to the trial version: 
___________________________
Mac Game Reviews, Part I
By popular demand, I am reviewing some Mac-compatible games for those of you with the OS-X-dot-something-or-other operating system. I'm a Mac user myself, so I can relate.
We have a policy that we like to personally try out everything we review, so there will be more reviews once I have tested more games out personally. Through the magic of the ethernet, you'll see this review while I'm on vacation this week. (I'll tell you all about my vacation when I get back from--get ready to sigh with envy--beautiful Maui).
Okay, so back to the game reviews!
Bubble Bobble Nostalgie--If, like me, you are old enough to remember games like "Dig Dug", "Mr. Do", "PacMan" and "Donkey Kong," this game will charm you. It's suitable both for kids who like arcade games and for Moms who don't game a lot and prefer cheerful, happy music to the sound of gunshots and bombs dropping.
In this game, you are a cute (and it really is adorable, I love it) 
dragon who blows bubbles (Of course!). You blow bubbles because some not very nice blue creatures (you can tell they aren't nice because they have little frowns on them, while your dragon smiles all the time) are after you. All you have to do is blow a bubble at them, and they will be caught in the bubble. Then your little dragon can either jump on them or run into them to make them pop and disappear. It's a simple game to learn, and you only need the arrow keys and the spacebar to play. You can even play two player, with two cute dragons, along with your child!
The game reminds me of Mr. Do because letters randomly show up in bubbles, and if you pop them, you can spell out "extend" to get an extra man. It's like Donkey Kong because you have little platforms to jump over and across while you are catching the bad guys in your bubbles (what's nice is you can't lose a man just from falling off a platform).
And it is like PacMan because cute food shows up for your dragon to eat! I've seen hot dogs, fudgesicles, lots of bananas, oranges and apples, ice cream sundaes, and, for some strange reason, a butterfly(?!). Plus, there are bonuses, like sneakers that make your dragon go faster.
Bubble Bobble Nostalgie is suitable for kids who like arcade games. The full version, which has 200 levels(!) costs only $14.95. It's available to try or buy through this link: 
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