News Roundup: The Secret Tunnel Rats World

by: Randy Kalista
NEWS - In GamingNexus news:

• Dull X-Blades.
• Impressions on Dark Athena.
• John Connor resists.
• Gaming Gibs for 4/7/2009.
• Ars Technica on Brutal Legend.
• Blood Bowl beta.
• The Secret World teaser.
• Two BFG GeForce GTX 275s.
• 200 billion token stimulus.
• Free WipEout HD update.
• Magician's Quest screens.
• Stardock's next Impulse.

• Favorable Godfather II review.
• The Secret World GDC interview.
  
• Uwe Boll on Tunnel Rats.

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Asylum Escape - The Cell

Asylum Escape - The Cell is another point and click type room escape game. You are a mentally ill patient at an insane asylum, who is bent upon escaping.The question is: can your feeble mind crack...

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Stardock releases next phase of their Impulse
service

by: Charles Husemann
NEWS - Stardock has released the latest phase of it's Impulse digital distribution service.  The latest update comes with a host of graphical changes but the significance of this release is more than a few graphic changes.  Phase 3 also includes the Impulse Reactor development platform that allows developers to add new features without the aid of a third party client as well as the Impulse Reactor Overlay which allows developers to tie in the Impulse service to see which of their friends are online, chat with them, and access profile data. 

The key feature of this release is Stardocks new DRM alternative GOO which will allow gamers to transfer the licenses of games they buy through the service.  This is the real heart of the system and provides the real differentiator for Stardocks digital distribution system.  There aren't a lot of games that take advantage of these systems yet but Stardock did announce that they have deals in progress with Paradox and Activision.

If you want more information you should check out Brad Wardell's blog post which provides a history of the service and where they are taking it in the future.Comment

Read The Full Article:
http://www.gamingnexus.com/FullNews/Stardock-releases-next-phase-of-their-Impulse
-service/Item12092.aspx

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Game Immitates Art: GLaDOS is Venus

Being my last semester of college, I've been working on a paper the length of a short book.  My subject is on the depiction of women in videogames - objectification, over-sexualization, all that fun -ation stuff.  Portal, being such an exception to the rule takes up quite a bit of space in my paper.  Upon researching the meaning behind the protagonist's name, Chell, I stumbled across a great article - it turns out that GLaDOS' pose (if such an acrimoniously designed robot can have a pose) is modeled after Boticelli's The Birth of Venus.

With Portal being full of symbolism, this reference isn't exactly a surprise, but it's something I never picked up on.  The author of the original article goes on to theorize that the symbolizism behind GLaDOS' pose is in the painting's name:

"...this actually validates my original hypothesis that GLaDOS wanted to be free.  You see, the name of that painting up there?  The full name of it is The Birth of Venus.   Birth is certainly freedom from the womb, non?  More amazing symbolism from the Valve folks."

Indeed!  I guess I really should have played through the game with the commentary on, as the director does mention that Venus was a main inspiration of GLaDOS.  By the way, the meaning of Chell's name I was looking for is a biblical reference meaning something along the lines of "daughter."  Anyone else got some wacky theories about Portal and its symbolism?

original article: http://www.game-ism.com/2008/04/09/glados-followup-shes-your-venus/

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