Welcome to the second installment of She’s Got Game Weekly Wrap Up! As Denver prepares for the Snowpoclypse, I am gathering all the interesting gaming and geek blurbs from this week for you to enjoy in 15 inches of snow! This week we are playing Half-Life 2 to get Valve to release Half-Life 3, looking at some of the most sexist superhero costumes, sighing as GameStop reminds women that they would NEVER want video games as a Valentine’s Day gift, are unsure how to feel about a DragonAge anime, and laughing at the Minecraft Creeper’s new weakness.
Andy Chalk over on The Escapist brought to the attention of the general Half-Life public that a Steam group called “The Call for Communication” is asking that all fans play Half-Life 2 this weekend in an effort to push Valve to finally give some answers on the much-anticipated sequel. Gabe Newell, co-founder of Valve has been dropping hints that something major will be announced at this year’s E3 — but has been incredibly coy as to what it will be, saying only that it will be something with the number 3 in it. Too bad their most popular games are all awaiting their third installments. Obviously, there’s no saying that playing Half-Life this weekend will finally be the straw that broke Valve’s back, but they are a good set of games, so why not?
Cracked has a list this week on “The 5 Most Ridiculously Sexist Superhero Costumes“. Now you might be sarcastically wondering, “How could they possibly choose five from the increasingly large library of heroes who are showing less crime-fighting kick-ass and more of their…well, ass?’ Indeed, women in skimpy spandex fighting baddies has always been a difficult issue for women who enjoy comics. But their top five — four women and one man — really take the prize for showing that sometimes comic book writers really don’t give a crap that they are pandering, just as long as it’s something “enjoyable” to draw. Related: A 7-year-old girl responds to how Starfire’s newest re-boot impacts her viewpoint about her favorite comic book heroine.
I think most women I know can relate to the difficulties of entering a GameStop most of the time. For women, it has never been a comforting place to go to, especially when salesclerks assume you are just shopping for your boyfriend or looking for a long-term commitment from a complete stranger. That viewpoint seems to be a corporate-wide issue, thanks to this lovely ad. In this ad, GameStop openly states that while women don’t understand video games and loathe getting them as gifts, male customers can have their cake and eat it too. They are offering a package deal for pre-ordering Twisted Metal — you can get $10 off an order at Flowers.com “for her”.
Electronic Art’s subsidiary BioWare released a new video outlining their latest project in the DragonAge saga. Unfortunately it’s not a better sequel, but an anime created with FUNimation Studios. The video leaves me confused and insulted, mainly because the animation is awkward and the excitement of the BioWare team is creepy. While the anime is still under production, the preview fails to entice the viewer and the eye-rolling statement “…exciting on an intellectual level but more on an emotional level….” is just too much.
And finally, we have a video showcasing the new AI on Minecraft’s Creepers. The 1.2 update for Minecraft is proving to one of the larger updates since the game stepped out of Beta. The addition of cats as a domesticated mob makes things more interesting, plus the mob AIs are getting an overhaul. Skeletons have already been confirmed to have a different AI system and Creepers were also give a fun new update. The video shows an updated pathing system for the Creepers and how they interact with the newest mob.
And that wraps it up for this week’s Weekly Wrap Up! If you have an article you’d like recommend for the Wrap Up feel free to share at stephanie@pixelatedgeek.com.