A Non-Freakout Christmas Kid

I'm sure that by now we are all familiar with the "kid gets video game system for Christmas and completely loses his mind" videos, such as this year's Xbox 360 Kid and and the classic (and best ever) Nintendo 64 Kid.

Earlier today I saw a video that is going around of a kid that is...wait for it...extremely thankful for his gift and expresses it in a socially approved way. It is a sort of sad commentary that a kid acting SANE is an anomaly video. I present it here for your enjoyment.

See more funny videos and Funny Videos at Today's Big Thing.

When I saw this video today the cynic that lives inside my head shed a single silent tear.

Don't tell anyone.

HT: lowtek

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The cake was a lie: Portal

I know I am way behind, but I finally got around to playing/beating Portal. I really wish I had played this sooner! Since it has been out for a few years now I won't go into tons of detail describing it but lazily link to other sources (IGN, Wiki). Portal is basically a puzzle game that you solve with your gun that shoots portals. As accurate a description that is, this teaser video does a better job of explaining how this works itself out in gameplay:

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From the robotic voice of GladOs (that my wife hates) saying hilarious things to the fun of just falling through a line of portals, Portals is one of the funnest games I have played in a while. You can pick it up in a variety of ways: Xbox Live, stand-alone, or (the way I recommend since you get Half Life 2) as part of The Orange Box collection. You can pick up The Orange Box for $15 used most places. The Xbox Live version does have an extra 14 challenges though....

Seriously, if you are any type of gamer I can't recommend this game and more strongly. It will only take you a few hours to get through it, but you will definitely want to replay it. I leave you with a video made to the greatest credits song ever, Portal's "Still Alive" (sung by GladOs itself):

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Project Natal Motion Sensing Controller for XBOX 360

I have to be honest, when I heard about this earlier today I thought it was something I wouldn't be interested. Now, after having watched the trailer, I think it is pretty awesome and look forward to seeing what developers do with it.

I will add links as they start showing up. Most of what I found so far are just reporting the announcement.



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1 vs 100

Oh, man. I can barely stand the wait! This Xbox Live game will be releasing May 24th so there isn't much longer. If you aren't familiar with it, 1 vs 100 is a live (as in live, not Xbox Live) game that is played with a lot of real people in real time. It is based on the NBC game show of the same name.

On Live you will compete against real people [thousands, even] for real prizes. The game will move much faster than the TV show did. I've heard that you average about 4 seconds to get your answer in. You are also ranked on speed so people cheating with Google shouldn't be a problem.

Did I mention yet that I am a HUGE trivia fan? Most of my knowledge is trivial in nature and I am pretty excited since people I know tend to not want to play me in trivia games. Links at the bottom for more info on everything.



Xbox.com Game Details Page

IGN Game Page


Here is an explanation of the game taken from About.com:

Overview:

1 vs. 100 pits a single contestant against a "mob" of 100. The contestant and the mob members must all answer general knowledge, multiple choice trivia questions to advance in the game. If a member of the mob answers incorrectly, they are eliminated and the contestant receives a pre-determined amount of money for each eliminated mob member. If a contestant answers a question incorrectly, they lose the game and walk away with nothing.

The first three questions in the game must be answered by the single contestant. After the third question, contestants can opt to walk away with their winnings or keep playing the game, but this decision must be made before seeing the next question. The amount of money to be won with each departing mob member increases as the game continues.

If a contestant can eliminate all 100 mob members, they win the grand prize of one million dollars.
Helps:

Contestants have three "helps" available to them during the course of the game. Helps can be used on any question, and players can use more than one help on a single question. Each of the three helps may only be used once, however.

* Poll the Mob – The contestant picks one of the three possible answers for their question, and then the mob is polled to see how many of them answered the same way. The contestant is then able to change their answer if they wish.

* Ask the Mob – Two mob members are randomly chosen. One of them has answered the question correctly, while the other has not. They each explain to the contestant why they chose their answer.

* Trust the Mob – The contestant's answer will match the one chosen by the majority of the mob's answers. In the case of a tie, the single contestant must chose which answer to lock in.

The Mob:

One of the innovative twists to this game is that the mob stands to win money as well. If a contestant answers a question incorrectly, thereby losing the game, all mob members who answered that particular question correctly get to split the remaining prize money between them. These members of the mob may also return to play in the next round, and continue playing until they have been eliminated.

The mob almost always features celebrities and/or groups of people who belong to the same organization, have the same careers, or have other things in common. Some of these groups have included Mensa members, models from Deal or No Deal, telemarketers, and former game show champions. Since 1 vs. 100 airs on NBC, it's not unusual to see past and present cast members from other NBC shows in the mob.

Lastly, here is a clip from the show to you a small taste of the game in action:



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Left 4 Dead

I have been playing a fair bit of the zombie-killing game known as Left 4 Dead and highly recommend it. I love killing zombies only slightly more than killing nazis. Anyway, one of the characters seems to hate just about everything. Someone took that and made this video which I think Francis would have appreciated it...but hated. I found this to be extremely funny, but if you haven't actually played the game then maybe it isn't.




Here is the game's trailer: