I thought this was going to be a little lame, but it’s actually pretty hilarious.

Eminem seems to be getting in on Soulja Boy’s music and videogaming status in this clip. In the video (probably NSFW audio), he makes damn sure that all of you Left 4 Dead players out there know what to do in a certain situation. In fact, he seems very passionate about the subject indeed, and rightly so. It’s a little known fact that over 100% of Left 4 Dead players have suffered at some point from the affliction that Eminem so boldly and admirably attempts to prevent. Good on you, Mr. Marshall Bruce Mathers III. Good on you.

You may or may not remember the video we featured about Bike Hero (how could you forget, it was awesome), which actually turned out to be a viral marketing ad and while not “fake” was, well… fake. It seems YouTube’s Guitar Hero superstud Freddie Wong didn’t think it was all that awesome and decided to show the world (or at least the YouTube community) what a real Bike Hero looks like.

Yes, he just played ‘Through the Fire and Flames’ on Expert with a wireless guitar, on his bike, while following the TV in the back of a buddy’s car. Or maybe he played it earlier and just ran a recording through the screen. Who knows, but it was still funny.

LittleBigPlanet’s Sackboy makes his way through a Super Mario Bros World 1 remake created using the LBP level editor. Hit the jump and watch Super Sackboy rescue the princess as only he can.

Youtube member pahndo claims credit for this awesome creation, so head on over to his page and show him some love if you enjoy it.

[Thanks Brian]

Aux hai! Just here to prove that viral marketing works by making sure you’ve seen this nifty Wario Land: Shake It! promotion on YouTube. It’s more fun if I don’t tell you all about it, so just click the link already!

The more I see, the more I believe. When I spoke to an EA/Tiburon employee at this years E3, he told me that the company was really trying to change the way they interact with their community. Well, it seems they are putting their money were their mouth is, and doing just that.

It wasn’t long ago that Levinator25, a Tiger Woods 2008 gamer, uploaded a glitch he had found in the game to Youtube. The bug allowed his virtual Tiger Woods to make a shot as he hovered over a body of water.

In a hilarious response from EA Sports, the following video claims that the “feature” was not a glitch, and calls on the real life Woods to prove it.

Source: Joystiq

N’Gai Croal, videogame and internet writer for Newsweek magazine, has determined that since Youtube, Spore, Little Big Planet, and Wikipedia are almost completely dependent on user generated content, this makes Web (and Game) 2.0 something like the 21st century equivalent of textile mills or coal mines. Sweatshop labor– really? Hyperbolic much?

N’Gai’s been on the mark before– his “Who’s Being Naive?” column is required reading if you want to begin to understand the complex and weirdly Hollywood relationship between game publishers and journalists– but I can’t help but feel he’s being a bit alarmist in talking about these modern-day online “sweatshops”.

One quick point is that there are real sweatshops still in existence, and the conditions can’t be better than the average Wikipedia editor’s computer den. Those textile mills and coal mines may not be common in America anymore, but in the impoverished nations of the world, a day job creating Youtube clips probably sounds pretty sweet.

But another point N’Gai is missing is that Youtube and Spore don’t solicit their users’ content through economic pressures or necessities. Nobody is born into a poor family of laborers who toil over the perfect level in Little Big Planet.

The key question N’Gai asks is, “is it really entertaining to update a Wikipedia entry?”, and this is a question that he answers incorrectly. His assumption is that it’s not, and therefore people are being used as cheap labor.

But actually, it’s a lot of fun to update a Wikipedia entry. Thousands of volunteer editors wouldn’t do it for free if it wasn’t. And yes, that alone justifies the effort. Tooling around with the Spore creature creator is a blast, and that doesn’t make everyone into some unofficial EA employee.

The really smart game developers are learning to harness the interest people bring to a collaborative project to create something that is equal parts product and popular movement.

There’s a straight line to be drawn through to viral marketing as well– people will distribute their own advertising materials just because it’s seen as fun or cool on its own. This doesn’t turn your average person into a Madison Avenue advertising executive, so spending an evening creating a custom level in Unreal Tournament 3 doesn’t make them into unpaid computer programmers either.

As the tools to make such creations possible become easier to use, and that line between professional and amateur development is blurred, we’re not becoming sweatshop laborers. We’re just becoming smarter consumers.

Source: Newsweek

Did you know you could make the future brighter just by fighting? Well, maybe not, but silly Japanese songs like this certainly brighten my day. Enjoy this absurd bit of, well, let’s just call it “culture”.

Ever thought a tank on legs would look stupid and too far fetched to be made real?  Yes, we’ve seen legged robots that are able to keep themselves upright, but give them a poke or a sharp incline and they are far from agile.  However, the days of Metal Gear are closing in on us.  Follow the link for a video of the incredible quadruped robot, BigDog.

This advanced robot, with suitable Metal Gear Solid name, is a sight to behold.  It appears to share uncanny similarities to the dystopian Gear depicted in Kojima’s MGS series, such as Crying Wolf from MGS4’s Beauty and the Beast Corp.

Sporting four legs, BigDog can walk, run, climb on rough terrain and carry heavy loads.  The quadruped robot is being developed by Boston Dynamics with the aim to create a rough-terrain mobility robot.

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BigDog’s articulated legs are so shockingly animal-like in their balance and agility, matched by the on-board computer’s decision making on differing surfaces, that you might mistake it for MGS4’s creepy Gekko’s.  In fact, filter the buzz coming from the petrol engine that drives the hydraulic actuation system, turn it into a moo or howl and you’re surely in Snake’s world now. 

Imagine a pack of these things galloping towards you in the battlefield…  Cure your fear by watching the less agile and pedestrian BigDog Beta:

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Source: Boston Dynamics

Want to know how much grown women love Wiis? Want to learn how much Americans like to keep fit? Want to see the reactions of ladies when they get free stuff? Want to know where all the Wiis and Wii fit have gone!? Ellen shows us how in a disturbing, yet hilarious giveaway.

Look out for the above lady in this snippet of Ellen’s audience weeing themselves over the Nintendo Wii.

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Wouldn’t you like to work at Insomniac Games? Their own Jack Black sings about working for the studio and why you should apply. Even though you might be distracted by the hilarious singing from the whole studio, there are some Resistance 2 Easter Eggs…

The first of which being “12 new Chimerian enemies”! Now that is a lot of new enemies to add to the franchise. Another exciting easter egg is the supposed date “0708″. Could Resistance 2 be coming out in July of this year? Or is this the date for a big Resistance 2 reveal? A public multiplayer beta? Or the demo?

To watch the guys sing and find out that they consume 2,600 muffins per year, along with less obvious Resistance 2 details, enjoy the video.

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Among the flurry of details released today about Spore, coming September 7th for the PC, one interesting tidbit might have been missed along the way. When you create your custom alien race, spaceship, or vehicles in Spore, you can upload videos of them to your Youtube account with just one click from inside Spore.

The creature customization is easily the most impressive thing about Spore, a game that seems very impressive throughout. While on tour at Maxis Studios, we caught a peek at alien designs that borrowed liberally from some other intellectual properties, from a spaceship that looked like the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine, to aliens that looked like Spongebob Squarepants and the cast of South Park.

The ability to share these creations on Youtube with such ease should mean that we’ll see a lot of great customized characters and vehicles. Nearly any types of sci-fi or fantasy vehicles you can think to build, from X-Wings to the USS Enterprise, are possible in Spore. Sharing them online means that while lawyers trying to protect these IPs might get all worked up, there’s no way for other companies to police this content in the same way that City of Heroes was dinged for allowing users to create their own in-game X-Men.

We think this new feature is stunningly disruptive. If you thought that custom Miis were great, like the online videos of diminutive Hitlers and Kim Jong Ils, you haven’t seen anything yet.

Devil May Cry’s combat has amazing depth and unless you know how to master its secrets, you won’t be able to conquer its true style. With the addition of Nero and his devil bringer arm the possibilities have increased; the pumping action has been multiplied.

This can be seen in a 10 minute play through of the demo, which manages to take it all the way to beating the hell out of Beriel.

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You’re going to have to practice day and night to get the timing right, but when you do, you’ll look as good as this:

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When you fight stylistically you’ll have earned the right to taunt your opponents and even show off by playing a little bit of air guitar. If only we were this good when we play Devil May Cry.

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It turns out that setting your sales presentation to the tune of the Metal Gear Solid theme makes it a whole lot more fun to watch. It’s a fitting soundtrack for the epic brawl between various Japanese game companies slugging it out for market share between 1996-2007 in graph form.

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Both Sony’s dramatic rise to power in the mid-90s and Nintendo’s more recent revival are documented, though it’s sad to see how easily Sega (and other competitors, like Bandai and their Wonderswan portable) are so easily squeezed out of the market as these two giants do battle. Not surprisingly, Microsoft’s presence is virtually insignificant.

Odd, and entirely true; Square Enix put a trailer for the new installment of their much-loved series online – and then tried to prevent fans from getting to it.

It seems you’re only worthy enough to see the video if you are both a registered SE member and have a serial number from the Star Ocean 1 remake on PSP– which was only released today, in Japan. Plus, there’s no scheduled European or North American release date.

All that effort, just for a trailer? If there’s method to this madness, then we don’t see it. Good thing some bright spark went and youtube’d it. There’s nothing on show in terms of plot or game mechanics, but it’s gorgeous enough to set your tongues wagging at any rate.

Whoever said Squenix was a cocktease when it comes to trailers?

After reporting the revelation that Playstation 1 games could now be played on PSP’s via remote play, they can now be played on Apple’s iPhone, though the touch-screen controls could take some time getting used to.

The emulator is unofficial, but after being under an intensive beta it is now fit for the public on both the iPhone and the iPod Touch. At version 1, psx4iphone already sports impressive controls, a good compatibility rate and save states.

The software is on Installer.app (unofficial website for iPhone software) and can also be downloaded for manual installation here.

For more information please visit the creators of the emulator at ZodTTD and watch this following video demonstration:
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Paul’s hair has always been ridiculous and now as Namco christen his new item move as “Long Paul” we get to see his hair grow like he was dunked in some radioactive miracle grow:

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Bruce moves like a chicken, so why not make him lay chickens? Namco says yes sir!

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Leo’s got hold of a pistol, though I feel it’d be more humorous if a flag saying “BANG!” popped out when he shot it:

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Funny stuff. More videos of the item moves can be found at SDTekken.

What’s also new in the Tekken world? Namco have revealed the complete list of Tekken moves – that’s right 117 pages of Tekken 6 moves. The list can be downloaded here as a PDF file (needs Adobe Acrobat Reader).

To end, how about a bad ass unblockable move from Miguel, a new character in the Tekken franchise:

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Now that’s what I’m talking about!

One of the flat-out coolest endeavours I’ve seen in awhile comes from “hattoriyaro,” who’s using a specialized program to turn the individual notes of MIDI music into complex animations. Among his creations are several dedicated to classic video games from Megaman 2 to *ahem* “cult classic” Cheetahmen. Hit the jump for videos and more information on how it’s done.

Looking not unlike some crazy Beatmania video, Hattoriyaro’s creations seem to be inspired by the way that we “see” music. Not merely flashy background animations, but the kinds of patterns that emerge as a waterfall of notes cascades from the top to bottom of your screen (as shown above), or when a series of explosions look more like an elaborate bed of flowers in Every Extend Extra.

Combining that principal (and some creativity) with a freeware program called The Music Animation Machine (which represents music in terms of colored bars as opposed to traditional notes on a scale) results in the following:

Dr. Mario
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Mega Man 2 Dr. Wiley Stage
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and my personal favorite…

Chrono Trigger
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You can check out several more of these game-inspired videos on Hattoriyaro’s Youtube page, and there are many from other musical genres located at the MAM site linked above. The actual representations may vary in complexity, but even the most abstract moments carry with them a subtle beauty any nostalgic gamer can appreciate.