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Worth Reading: 09/14/12

Don't worry about that guy, man. He's just your creepy uncle, and he wants to watch a video tape with you. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all.

No Caption Provided
When Brian Urlacher takes someone out, this is how it looks on my TV. I don't know abou you.
When Brian Urlacher takes someone out, this is how it looks on my TV. I don't know abou you.

This is going up right around the time the Big Live Live Show Live is coming to an end, so I’ll go ahead and thank you in advance for tuning in, and I’m just going to assume everything went perfect.

By perfect, of course, we managed to make everything that did go wrong seem 100% planned.

I’m also going to assume the Bears destroyed the Packers on Thursday Night Football, since I’m writing this hours before that event is happening. If it didn’t happen, I blame the replacement refs.

You’ve also gotten a glimpse at some of the new subscription content we’ll be rolling out in the weeks and months ahead, including what will finally happen to that pile of Jurassic Park games that has been taking up precious space on my desk. Space that could be devoted to other piles of junk. Wait, am I already assuming most of those games are not very good? Well, one way to find out. It's mostly an exercise in fultity so we can finally play Trespasser.

Join us, won’t you?

Hey, You Should Play This

No Caption Provided

When someone says “hey, there’s this text adventure that’s heavily influenced by David Lynch’s Lost Highway,” you can stop talking and just send me a link. That’s what I’ve done for you today with weird tape in the mail, an unsettling commentary on, well, I’ll just let you find out for yourself. It only takes a few minutes to guide through the adventure’s various permutations, and finding out what how else it can play out only takes a click of the browser button. By the end, you’ll be looking around your room, wondering if there’s a pile of brown stuff that you should really take care of.

And You Should Read This, Too

No Caption Provided

In the continued spirit (ho, ho, ho) of creepy stuff, I recently stumbled across this story about a cursed (hacked?) Pokemon cartridge. Apparently this story is the stuff of legend, but I’ve never heard of it before, and despite knowing it’s made the rounds and been roundly disproved, it’s still utterly creepy. Supposedly originated from the gross depths of 4chan, but it doesn’t really matter if that’s true or not, and only adds to the overall weirdness of the tale, which is currently archived at Tiny Cartridge. I’m told Polygon’s Phil Kollar asked the creators of the latest Pokemon game bout this story, so I’ll have to link that in an upcoming edition of Worth Reading, so this thing can come full circle.

[Thanks to NeoGAF user Metroid Killer for the art!]

If You Click It, This Will Play

I Don’t Know About This Kickstarter Thing, But These Projects Seem Pretty Cool

  • I'm always up for more Tecmo Bowl, as appears to be the case with the RPG-influenced Football Heroes.
  • Seems unlikely Papier Adventure will make it, but the idea of world inspired by sketches sounds great.
  • I keep telling myself board games would be fun to get into, and the horror-themed Tremulus sounds great.

Valve Just Launched Greenlight, So Here’s Some Games That Don’t Look Terrible

  • You might be tired of platformers, but I'm not, so long as it has a new take. Grappler seems on the right track.
  • The Stanley Parable is undergoing a self-inflicted remake, and I cannot freakin' wait.
  • There's probably not a game I'm looking forward to more than FRACT, to be quite honest.

Oh, And Other Stuff

Patrick Klepek on Google+

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patrickklepek

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Edited By patrickklepek
No Caption Provided
When Brian Urlacher takes someone out, this is how it looks on my TV. I don't know abou you.
When Brian Urlacher takes someone out, this is how it looks on my TV. I don't know abou you.

This is going up right around the time the Big Live Live Show Live is coming to an end, so I’ll go ahead and thank you in advance for tuning in, and I’m just going to assume everything went perfect.

By perfect, of course, we managed to make everything that did go wrong seem 100% planned.

I’m also going to assume the Bears destroyed the Packers on Thursday Night Football, since I’m writing this hours before that event is happening. If it didn’t happen, I blame the replacement refs.

You’ve also gotten a glimpse at some of the new subscription content we’ll be rolling out in the weeks and months ahead, including what will finally happen to that pile of Jurassic Park games that has been taking up precious space on my desk. Space that could be devoted to other piles of junk. Wait, am I already assuming most of those games are not very good? Well, one way to find out. It's mostly an exercise in fultity so we can finally play Trespasser.

Join us, won’t you?

Hey, You Should Play This

No Caption Provided

When someone says “hey, there’s this text adventure that’s heavily influenced by David Lynch’s Lost Highway,” you can stop talking and just send me a link. That’s what I’ve done for you today with weird tape in the mail, an unsettling commentary on, well, I’ll just let you find out for yourself. It only takes a few minutes to guide through the adventure’s various permutations, and finding out what how else it can play out only takes a click of the browser button. By the end, you’ll be looking around your room, wondering if there’s a pile of brown stuff that you should really take care of.

And You Should Read This, Too

No Caption Provided

In the continued spirit (ho, ho, ho) of creepy stuff, I recently stumbled across this story about a cursed (hacked?) Pokemon cartridge. Apparently this story is the stuff of legend, but I’ve never heard of it before, and despite knowing it’s made the rounds and been roundly disproved, it’s still utterly creepy. Supposedly originated from the gross depths of 4chan, but it doesn’t really matter if that’s true or not, and only adds to the overall weirdness of the tale, which is currently archived at Tiny Cartridge. I’m told Polygon’s Phil Kollar asked the creators of the latest Pokemon game bout this story, so I’ll have to link that in an upcoming edition of Worth Reading, so this thing can come full circle.

[Thanks to NeoGAF user Metroid Killer for the art!]

If You Click It, This Will Play

I Don’t Know About This Kickstarter Thing, But These Projects Seem Pretty Cool

  • I'm always up for more Tecmo Bowl, as appears to be the case with the RPG-influenced Football Heroes.
  • Seems unlikely Papier Adventure will make it, but the idea of world inspired by sketches sounds great.
  • I keep telling myself board games would be fun to get into, and the horror-themed Tremulus sounds great.

Valve Just Launched Greenlight, So Here’s Some Games That Don’t Look Terrible

  • You might be tired of platformers, but I'm not, so long as it has a new take. Grappler seems on the right track.
  • The Stanley Parable is undergoing a self-inflicted remake, and I cannot freakin' wait.
  • There's probably not a game I'm looking forward to more than FRACT, to be quite honest.

Oh, And Other Stuff

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fobwashed

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Edited By fobwashed

Takin the time, thx Tricky! The Stanley Parable was great. I'm a sucker for any accent that's not Californian.

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audiosnow

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Edited By audiosnow

Man, Tricky bein' busy even when he's busy!

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Cyrisaurus

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Edited By Cyrisaurus

Is the BLLSL going to be put up in parts, or by each segment?

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libb

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Edited By libb

Hey Tricky, the Packers beat the Bears. As they always should.

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Edited By TheGanjaKing

Just like a Bears fan to resort to surreality in order to see a victory over the Packers.

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pixelsnthoughts

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Edited By pixelsnthoughts

When addressing Brian Urlacher you have to realize.... it's all about ABOU.

Edit: BLLSL was awesome. Can't wait to dive into all these links later.

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retrovirus

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Edited By retrovirus

@TheGanjaKing said:

Just like a Bears fan to resort to surreality in order to see a victory over the Packers.

Seconded. Aaron Rodgers is a saint. No offense Patrick.

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ericdrum

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Edited By ericdrum

I need to have one Bears fan to just admit that Cutler sucks. Oh and...

GO!!!! PACK!!!! GO!!!!

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Edited By abendlaender

I remember that Pokemon story but I always felt it was more corny thant creepy. Like someone made up a story and tried waaaaaaaaaay to hard to make it creepy (which is essentially what happened). Wasn't there another "haunted" pokemon cartridge story though? Or was that a Majora's Mask thing?

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csl316

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Edited By csl316

Sorry, Patrick. We tried blaming Cutler's 4 interceptions on referees but that's just lying to ourselves.

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vikingdeath1

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Edited By vikingdeath1

Tricky i want more Spookin with Patrick soon okay?

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Nhoj_Sllew

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Edited By Nhoj_Sllew

can't wait for those JP videos!

I had A-Rod AND Matt Forte starting this week in my league, gonna be a rough sunday :P

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Wraith1

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Edited By Wraith1

Thanks for the includification link, being disabled myself I'm unable to play many video games anymore, which sucks big time

Also the super creepy pokemon hack reminds me of the ben drowned majora's mask cartridge story

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mdnthrvst

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Edited By mdnthrvst

>gross depths of 4chan

4chan isn't gross or depraved, it's harsh and cynical, and mostly Anonymous. Yes, there are porn boards, but mods enforce an SFW vs NSFW board division harshly, and you won't see any of it if you stick to the safe places.

The reason it earned its atrocious reputation, the Random board /b/, has been flooded with mainstream, bandwagoning idiots for YEARS now, who do nothing but ramble about pot and tits. It may once have been vile and depraved, but now it's just vile and idiotic. In other words, its very fame and reputation consumed its soul, and it currently exists on the same cultural level as YouTube comments. Distasteful, but no one really *cares*.

There are about sixty other boards, and not a single one of them is ever host to child porn, gore, murder, or whatever other silly exaggerations people have dreamt up. And if illegal material *is* posted, the offenders' IP addresses are reported to the Feds and they're summarily banned. We don't tolerate this.

I've seriously forged lasting friendships from the My Little Pony board, the Music board, the TWO Video Game boards, the Literature board, and the Paranormal board. These outdated, second-hand attacks that keep getting parroted by the internet-at-large are disheartening.

Just watch one of the many public lectures by our founder moot at TED, Web 2.0, and other conferences. Clean-shaven, articulate, intelligent, and one of the most respected advocates for online privacy in the modern Internet.

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Edited By shakesvoltage

FRACT: MUSIC IS THE WEAPON

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ThePhantomStranger

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I think you've lost me at the Creepy Black creepypasta. The picture is more interesting then the story, more so it isn't even a videogame like Slender! I honestly feel like you're trolling us now...

Now I feel like a douchebag and an asshole for saying all that.

EDIT: I played Weird Tape in the Mail WOW.

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Edited By gerp

TEAM BRAD

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Phatmac

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Edited By Phatmac

@gerp said:

TEAM BRAD

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dvdhaus

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Edited By dvdhaus

Hell Yeah Bill Music!

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deactivated-5ea641329300b

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That Pokemon story is good but I didn't find it as unsettling as I did with the story of the haunted Majora's Mask cartridge.

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Edited By bybeach

Melody's escape..right the hell on. Damn they sound familiar..something out of the 80's..

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Edited By Kaowas

Patrick Klepek may have written a good article, but Brad Shoemaker won the internet. Just sayin'! #teambrad

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Edited By xpgamer7

Speaking of Greenlight games, Purge looks interesting. The mechanics look cut and pasted out of Mirror's edge, and not much else but it's interesting.

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Edited By Foggen

Time to quit playing Super Hexagon.

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Edited By JSwan13

Ugh, thanks for reminding me abou the bears...

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Edited By rpgee

I'll say that seeing an article by The Economist on video games isn't all that surprising. They've written on them before, and tend to look at just about anything if it's worth talking about. Example: their technology quarterlies are amazing.

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Edited By Masha2932

I've just skipped through the 50min video on Silent Hill HD and wow, even with the little I saw Konami really did a really bad job with the port.

Good thing I didn't buy it.

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ossuary

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Edited By ossuary

My brother used to tell me a story about the "Skinny Guy." Way less scary than Slender Man. That thing just keeps getting bigger.

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PeasantAbuse

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Edited By PeasantAbuse

Cool stuff, Patrick have you seen the story about the haunted Majora's Mask cartridge? It's pretty good as well.

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SecondPersonShooter

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What the hell was that "weird tape in the mail" game supposed to convey? Seriously, I can't get anything out of it.

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Edited By angrygeometry

wow! thank you so much for featuring my game! the pokémon article/story is wonderfully creepy too. i remember playing the pokémon bootleg games (a bad translation of telefang i think?) and how warped they were. very cool stuff, and i'm glad you liked weird tape in the mail!

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DS23

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Edited By DS23

Love the Metal Gear linkage.

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Edited By Skanker

Ah, so you watched the Silent Hill HD review! I was going to send it to you, but I figured others would have done so already or you would have spotted it on neogaf yourself. I would have liked to hear your thoughts.

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Edited By sgt_waffles

I second your view on Urlacher, but man, Thursday's game was tough to watch. I hope the Bears got that pee-wee shit out of their system...

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Holy crap, Patrick Sutherland?

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Edited By Krystal_Sackful

Is Adam Dickinson a pseudonym for Cboyardee?.

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Edited By sawtooth

so... the silent hill collection is pretty fucked...

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Edited By Draxyle

Of course you had no time to append this to your kickstarter list, but I have to mention Obsidian's isometric RPG kickstarter, which is already pretty much guaranteed to go through.

I think this is one of their best moves. They can make the game they want to make, and it's not a bloated, overproduced title that's beyond their scope and capacity as a developer.

Of course, it can always end up being an abject failure in the end, but I'm definitely excited to see what comes out of this.

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Football Heroes looks amazing. I had to kickstart for it.

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Edited By Psychohead

@Abendlaender: There was indeed a Majora's Mask thing a while back. A guy going by the username "jadusable" was posting weird YouTube videos with some accompanying creepy text on 4chan. It evolved into a full blown ARG for a while, but the guy running it ran out of money/time/interest/what-have-you.

The whole Haunted Majora's Mask cart thing is documented over at http://jadusable.wikia.com/, which is probably the driest and least creepy way to partake, I fear. Still, a decent enough starting point for anyone interested would be with this article: http://jadusable.wikia.com/wiki/Arc_1/Day_four.wmv

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PokeIkzai

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Edited By PokeIkzai

I can not recommend enough that people watch that Silent Hill HD Review. It's probably the most thorough analysis of a game that I've ever seen. 2 hours but oh so worth it.

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@PokeIkzai said:

I can not recommend enough that people watch that Silent Hill HD Review. It's probably the most thorough analysis of a game that I've ever seen. 2 hours but oh so worth it.

I'm finally getting through that myself.

My goodness. I knew they were bad, but not that bad. I cannot believe that was approved for retail; it should have been outright cancelled. I don't think I've seen a more broken product in this era.

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Edited By deadmonkeys

Nonplussed by Tape In The Mail. Might have been the bad MS Paint drawings, lack of context, or maybe it just wasn't for me.

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Edited By tukenstein

@Abendlaender said:

I remember that Pokemon story but I always felt it was more corny thant creepy. Like someone made up a story and tried waaaaaaaaaay to hard to make it creepy (which is essentially what happened). Wasn't there another "haunted" pokemon cartridge story though? Or was that a Majora's Mask thing?

That Majora's Mask story was way creepier. Also, I'm very disappointed I didn't see that Silent Hill HD video before I went out and bought it. Months and months after purchase is a real bad time to get buyer's remorse. >.<

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Morridin

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Edited By Morridin

The graphics from Vitrium heavily remind me of Tron 2.0

<3

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Edited By Elwoodan

Love that the times article quotes the COO of EA about Valve "They’re on the cutting edge of the future of this industry", so Origin exclusives mean EA doesn't want to be on the cutting edge?

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elyk247

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Edited By elyk247

@gerp said:

TEAM BRAD

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Edited By Hailinel

Of note, the story "Super Creepy Pokemon Hack" has also been adapted as a visual novel of sorts on a DS ROM. Here's a Youtube video of this version: