Wonderland

Xbox Live

There's an almost Renaissance quality to this picture, don't you think?

Teletubbies flash game - with chainsaws

You can just about see my chainsaw to the right there, just before I put Doo-Doo (WaWa? Pee-Pee?) out of its misery.

Zombie Preparedness Kit

Zombie Preparedness Kit 
Originally uploaded by Pac Mantis.

I think so! I'm off to the craft shop this instant.

(via Craft:zine, the blog of the upcoming mag Craft:, a complement to Make:)

LonelyGirl15

Is LonelyGirl15 an ARG?

Some folk think so..

Lost in Blue 2

Practically Survivor, the game, this - two characters get washed up on an island, and the aim of the game is to survive. Hunting, fishing, basket-weaving, you get the drift.

Some things, however, are a little stale:

For further variety, the male character is more physically adept at climbing, fighting and recovering his energy levels, while the female can hold her breath longer, is a dab hand with the bow and arrow and makes a better meal.

You cook the female?!

Ah. If only.

No Words

No Words 
Originally uploaded by est0al.

Cosplayers, or just fashion? Are we becoming more like videogame characters?

Ping Pong earrings

Yours for a puny $3.50.

Games for the ladies

Do you think we're about to see a vogue of female-focused game titles?

First, there's rumblings like this article on finding the feminine side of computers and how gaming companies are all aware that the next ramping up of income is likely to come from a female playerbase. In the same vein there's that chap from EA confirming their interest in the female dollar. Then there's reviews extolling the Nancy Drew series of games, a series aimed primarily at 12-15 year old girls. Not to mention all the rabidly pink consoles popping up all over the place.

But most obviously, there are now FIVE count 'em, five explicitly 'female-friendly' titles in the US PC top ten. Franchised to the hilt, admittedly, but here we have it: The Sims 2, Nancy Drew: Danger By Design, The Sims 2: Open For Business, The Sims 2: Family Fun Stuff, and Paws & Claws Pet Vet.

I'm focusing on the explicit here, because obviously plenty of females play World of Warcraft, for instance. Not half the playerbase, and it's certainly not marketed to females, but still. I'm talking about games that are designed from the outset to attract females, and games that are marketed to some degree in female media.

So five PC games in the top ten. This feels new, but I had a rummage around - has this changed significantly from a few years ago? Well actually.. not so much. Here's the chart from August 2004:

1) Madden NFL 2004
2) The Sims: Superstar
3) Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight
4) Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
5) The Sims Deluxe
6) Zoo Tycoon: Complete Collection
7) Diablo 2
8) Age of Mythology
9) Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided
10) The Sims: Unleashed

Three Sims franchises again - good lord, how much money has EA made on this series already? - and a Zoo Tycoon collection.

So if we're seeing a beginning of a move towards grabbing that billion dollar market made of lovely ladies, it's a tentative start, with the non-Sims titles cautiously tiptoeing towards the teenage girl set first. Easy target, a large proportion of them already have a handheld and a mobile.

Retail will have to smarten up its act, of course - high street gaming shops are universally stinky, sweaty places with chewing gum ground into the carpet. Marketing too - banner ad spend on mainstream-friendly sites like Neopets, MySpace or Pogo or MSN.com will have to go up. Ach, it doesn't feel like rocket science, does it?

I predict games on shelves in Claire's Accessories by this time next year, and Game might've shampooed its carpet and invested in some air freshener by then. Wouldn't that be nice?

Free gaming icons

Here's a freebie pack o' icons, for your everyday (personal, desktop) use. IM icons, phone wallpapers, whatever. They're shiny!

Alternatively if you're after something more isometric, these are also free:

New XBox 360 powerpack

This is proving to be weirdly, horribly difficult - I need a US powerpack to power up my UK Xbox 360, and I can't find any anywhere. RadioShack don't sell them. XBox dot com doesn't. Microsoft don't seem to sell them, and they're super rare on eBay. I can't play Dead Rising! This is an emergency! Plus it's stupid, and making me grumpy.

Am I missing something obvious, does anyone know?