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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