This game is probably my favourite Battledrome game so far. Visit [adult swim]’s game site here and play the running-and-jumping star smashing game: Robot Unicorn Attack. It relies on fast reactions so multiple play throughs are a must.
The player is given three wishes to try and last as long as possible (it makes more sense when you’ve played the game). After the third wish the total score is displayed, this is what we will be using to compare performance. Just post your score in the comments of this post and the most impressive runs will be discussed on the next NGCast (which may be a while, due to Wardrox being on a boat!)
PS. The music playing in the background of this game is truly epic.
Go here. Play Tetris in your browser. Enter a world of relentless, nondeterministic polynomial complete, brain-melting, epoch-shattering, adrenaline-pumping falling tetrominoes, destined to ruin your day by being all organised and making a bloody mess. Pushing these rouge polyominoes into place will cause them to be banished into another world, and get you points.
Post your scores in the comments section of this post and we’ll have a look at the most impressive plays and decide who among you is the most able to waste their time play such logic-based games.
Back to a full console game for this round of the Battledrome.This week Wardrox and I are playing Burnout Paradise. Since we’re both rubbish at videogames, it will be a simple set of races, nothing as crazy as Road Rage or Stunt Run game modes. In order to keep things congruent between us and any of you community types who want to take part, the rules we are following have the road traffic on and the boost limit set to maximum.
We will have two sets of three rounds of races due to the fact we’re using two different cars, the races are these default Paradise Drives:
We can’t quite afford to buy every reader a copy of Left 4 Dead yet. Until then we will make-do with Left 4k Dead, which is exactly the same as Valve’s multiplayer zombie-fest in every way (give or take).
The Java4k site challenges people to write java games clocking in at less than 4 kilobytes. For such a harsh limit the quality of the games is very impressive.
The simplicity of the game somewhat works against us in regards to keeping track of scores. As zombie placement is random I think it should be fair to use zombie kill-count as the score we will be comparing. In the event of you actually being good at games, and managing to eliminate all the zombies in a stage, write the number down and add it to the kill count of the next room.
Bear in mind that stepping into the red rooms will instantly take you to the next level without giving you a chance to record your score before it resets. As usual, leave your scores in the comments and the most impressive (see: worrying) scores will be read on the NGCast.
Canabalt is this week’s Battledrome game in case you didn’t hear about it on the NGCast.
The game is simple this time (so you have no excuse for not participating): Jump over obstacles, through windows, and make leaps of faith without getting exploded or falling to your death. Press the space key a bunch of times. If you enjoy the game, why not buy the great, non-flash version it for your iPhone? Everyone else has.
Post your scores in comments on this post, impressive scores will be highlighted on the next NGCast.
This week Wardrox and I shall be clashing swords in the depths of Aperture Science’s testing facility. The ‘least time’ mode of the Xbox 360 version of Portal (found in The Orange Box) is what we will be playing. Six of the game’s Eleven chapters have time trials available. If you want to take part, be sure to have finished the game as you will need to have unlocked the advanced chambers (if you haven’t already done this, it won’t take long). Select the timed mode by starting a new game, sliding along to chapters 5-10 and pressing up or down.
Highlighting this mode will also display your current best time. Take a picture of it and post it in the comments of this post (I’m afraid this will require six separate pictures as there is no single leader-board to display them all).
Most impressive times will be read out on next week’s NGCast as Wardrox and myself try to understand how and why the game will have inevitably turned against us in order to molest our scores. Feel free to take part with screenshots from the PC version of the game, but let’s face it: that’s not a fair match.
The gauntlet is set: The rooftops of The City. This round of the ‘drome takes place in the retina-scarringly white-washed universe of Mirror’s Edge. The time trial mode is the obvious choice as it has a way of comparing times. Unfortunately, the demo of Mirror’s Edge required you to have used a special GameStop pre-order code to have unlocked the time trials. This means this week only those of us who have the full retail version of Mirror’s Edge can take part.
As mentioned in the NGCast, ‘Edge’ is the name of the timetrial (Wardrox accidentally called it a speed-run) we will be running and it can be accessed only after finished the ‘Prologue’ chapter of the story mode (this is right at the start of the game and not very difficult).
The first 15 people to be signed in and leave their postal addresses in the comments of this post gets one of these 2010 Tekken 6 calenders. Each pack has a bunch of double sided A4 pages, each page with a pic of a Tekken guy or gal and all the days of the month. Very helpful if you currently have neither.
Postage will be cheap-class and if you live somewhere stupid (e.g. a place competitions don’t normally ship to because it’s like the moon) and you win one, then I’ll email you and we can sort something out. You can owe me a beer or something. Anyone can enter and only one entry per person/address.
Oh, and each pack also has a code to redeem the Tekken 6 Elite Samurai DLC Pack, which gives you something. Probably. The code may only work on US accounts, but I’ve no idea really.
Update: As said in the comments, if you don’t want to give out your postal address to the internets, put “see email” in your comment and email your address to wardrox [art] gmail [durt] com (me).
As decided on the last NGCast, the game for the next round of our friendly little competition is Guitar Hero III: Legends of rock. In order to keep things nice and fair we shall both be downloading the demo version of the game from the Xbox marketplace (available here). Since we both have some familiarity with guitar-based rhythm games – myself owning two of the Guitar Hero games and Wardrox being no stranger to the Rock Band franchise – the difficulty level will be ‘hard’.
The demo has only five songs. As such, the winner of this weeks round will be decided thusly: The TOTAL score added together from all songs EXCEPT Hit Me With Your Best Shot, and Lay Down (due to the demo auto-quitting after four songs) on the hard playlist. But, how to go about ensuring there is no funny business? I’m afraid I can’t think of a way to go about doing that, meaning it’s honour-rules all round, boys and girls.
This was a tough one gang. There were some great visual entries, some clever haiku, and some frankly very disturbing images I won’t soon forget. Apparently Tribbles are alive and well in the consciousness of the Negative Gamer community, and you guys really are very clever.
Unfortunately there were only twelve codes to give out and, as cliché as it sounds, I really do wish we had enough for all who entered. I’d even like to give one to Gandy who has hatefully wished AIDS upon me and my family. But alas, he did not reference Tribbles in his curse against my auto immune system. So, sorry Gandy. I tried. For anyone who would like to review the entries here is the link to the original post for the competition.
If you could just pretend that there is a drum roll playing in the background, I give you in no particular order…THE WINNERS!
Hey there Negative Gamers, we’ve got codes. Codes I say! Thanks to GameTrailers we have a limited number of Star Trek Online Closed Beta codes for the community. So, seeing as we’re manipulative pricks with control issues over here we’d like to see the Negative Gamer community get its “Tribble” on.
In the comments below you can post a picture displaying a Tribble, write a haiku in tribute to Tribbles, or produce an original sketch or video of or about Tribbles (if you’re confused, this is what Tribbles are). Also, if you’re following me on Twitter feel free to direct entries there as well.
The contest will last for 24 hours so the winners will be sent codes tomorrow evening, Sunday January 10th.
If any of you are worried that Gandy will have an unfair advantage due to his disturbing involvement in the Furry community, he won’t. Apparently he likes his furry things, somewhat…larger shall we say?
We’ve already given away loads of codes for the Allods Online Closed Beta, and we have more than 60 still to give away! Better yet, because we’re awesome, there’s a couple of ways to get codes. You can either;
1. Submit a full list of nominations for the Negative Gamer Awards on the nominations post (we won’t count nominations that are just copies of others, put a bit of effort in!) Be sure to put “Allods Online Beta” in your comment so we know you’re after a code.
2. Leave a comment on this post explaining why you would like a code.
Make sure you’re signed in when you comment (if you need to register for Negative Gamer you can do so right here). We’ll give codes out to those who leave nominations first, then we’ll give codes out to those commenting here. We’ll be sure to update this post once we’ve given out all the codes.
Over the next few days we’ll be giving out 100 Allods Online beta codes, which is quite cool. Oh, and we’re starting with this post (details below). Over the next week we’ll be giving out beta codes across the site, on our Twitter and on our Facebook page, so if you keep an eye out and you’re highly likely to nab one.
The game is billed as a free to play MMORPG and from what I’ve played so far, it seems like it’ll be a great way to while away the festive evenings. Also, it’s free, not sure if I’ve mentioned that.
Though be warned, you’re going to see a lot of cleavage and arse (more than in your average MMO). Why the game has to have quite so much t&a I think only the PR department could say. For me it just makes me feel a bit awkward playing, though maybe that’s because I’m at home and trying to explain why my character’s skirt is half way up her backside to my parents is not the most fun. Still, equip yourself some Strength + 3 Pants and you’ll be fine. Update #3: Even more codes are being given out on this post here.
MrSoft would have won, but in his winning Haiku he admitted to not having a 360. What with the prize being an Xbox Live Indie Game, I feel that would have been something of a waste. So the real winning Haiku are;
This game looks real odd
Reminds me of marshmallows
You made me hungry
- Gamblor
Wibble wobble wib-
ble wobble wibble wobble
jelly on a plate.
- James_El
Waiting for the end,
You want me to do what, now?
Curse this normal job..
- ouched
A lot of the entries sadly didn’t count as Haiku as they had the wrong number of syllables in. Better luck next time, and congrats to our winners!
Hey you! NGCast listener, want to win some stuff? Well then, fortunately for you we have competition running. All you have to do is publicise the NGCast in some way. There are three different ways to win: Be randomly chosen from all of the entries, have the most successful entry, or have the most awesome entry (I suggest etching the logo onto the moon). Even a link on Twitter or Facebook will count! Just do something to get us listeners and throw us an email with proof of your sooth-saying at ngcast@negativegamer.com or leave a comment in episode 49’s post.
The dinosaur you see up there so garishly peddling our wares is from the town of Drumheller in Canada, which is also home of the world’s largest dinosaur! It’s sitting on the side of a highway, distracting drivers from the road. (Because before it had a sign in its mouth it wasn’t strange at all.)
Prizes are yet to be specified, but will be coming from myself (Half Left), Gandy, and Brandon so you can be sure of mental scarring quality goods.
A few days ago I put up a competition , the two winners of which would each get themselves a copy of the critically acclaimed Torchlight. Well, it gives me great pleasure to announce that the winners are; livestatic and dgoemans! (Check your emails for the download code.)
Patinahelix came in a very very close third (not that you get anything apart from some pride), but I thought it would make me look far to egotistical if he won. I’m just not that kind of boy. There were a lot of fantastic entries, so congrats to all who entered, you’re all winners in my book (apart from Brandon).
Runic Games, due to us being all super-sexy and the like, have given us a couple of codes for Torchlight to give away. As I am bad at thinking up competitions, this one is nice and simple. To win you just have to draw us a picture (see my example for inspiration) which has at least one of the following things in (it can have all of them if you want, but that might make the picture too awesome, so be careful):
You must be signed-up and logged in to enter, and you need to post your image in the comments of this post (if you’re not sure how to do that there’s a handy guide right here). Winners will be chosen based on how awesome the picture is. Anyone can enter and you can submit as many different entries as you like. Winners will be picked at some point on Thursday (5th Nov) so be quick!
On Wednesday, all going to plan, myself and Gandysampras will be joined by a few of the developers behind Torchlight, a Diablo-esque action RPG that costs $20 and comes with a free level editor. I’ve been playing it for the last few hours and although relatively basic it really is a very smooth, addictive and fun experience. Gandy will be posting his first impressions tomorrow (Monday).
As they are nice people the game’s developers, Runic, have given us a copy of the game (PC version) to give away! For a chance to win simply ask a good question in the forum thread (note: good) about the special NGCast. I’ll randomly pick a winner and announce who gets the game when the show goes up.
Above is a video of the winning entry by Rampancy who wins the silly big prize pack. It’s actually a proper game you can download here and is the closest anything has ever reached in getting me to spit my morning coffee all over my keyboard.
Second place, for sheer volume of entries, has to be honkwas-the-second with his lego dinosaurs, book reading and terrible Garry’s Mod video. Third place was a tough one, but excellent photoshops and a last-minute video (below) from James_El gets him third place.
This was a tough one gang. There were some great visual entries, some clever haiku, and some frankly very disturbing images I won’t soon forget. Apparently Tribbles are alive and well in the consciousness of the Negative Gamer community, and you guys really are very clever.
Hey there Negative Gamers, we’ve got codes. Codes I say! Thanks to 
We’ve already given away loads of codes for the 
Over the next few days we’ll be giving out 100 Allods Online beta codes, which is quite cool. Oh, and we’re starting with this post (details below). Over the next week we’ll be giving out beta codes across the site, on our 
MrSoft would have won, but in his winning Haiku he admitted to not having a 360. What with the prize being an Xbox Live Indie Game, I feel that would have been something of a waste. So the real winning Haiku are;
Runic Games, due to us being all super-sexy and the like, have given us a couple of codes for 
On Wednesday, all going to plan, myself and Gandysampras will be joined by a few of the developers behind 
iTunes