In Other News...July 25th
 

- High Moon shows off multiplayer action from Fall of Cybertron.

- Looks like the Toejam and Earl games are coming to PS3. Time to get funkadelic.

- The Walking Dead is coming to iOS tomorrow. Seems like a good fit.

- Remember when the iOS Rock Band games almost came off the app store? Looks like it's happening for real this time.

- A man named Olaf is trying to buy a house in Skyrim without fighting a single monster. This is his story.

-World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria releases September 25th

- Gamasutra looks at the pros and cons of the Steam sales for smaller developers. On the pro side: huge boosts in sales, often extending long after the end of the sale. Greater exposure and DLC sales. While the cons are.... pretty much non-existent. Guess they're not 'devaluing their property' after all.

- The feds have banned Buckyballs, those rare-earth magnet puzzle toys you may have seen advertised on Woot and Think Geek. The Consumer Product Safety Comission has ruled that they pose such a substantial risk to kids if swallowed, that they have to be pulled. This is the first time the CPSC has made such a ruling in a decade.

I have some friends who have Buckyballs. They will not be happy to hear this news.

Also, it's a good thing they didn't try to ban the other kind of buckyball.



I've heard a lot of praise for Steam sales from smaller developers. It gives them much-needed exposure. Other platforms should take note.

I reeeeaaly hope Toejam and Earl will be Vita bound too.

I considered trying that "Olaf" thing in Skyrim, although some of their rules would get tossed out for violating the tedium statutes. The eating, sleeping and fast travel stuff is just a test of boredom endurance. Plus, being able to use weapons at all is a crutch. Total pacifism, baby!

Then again, I'd be more likely to try my alternate Skyrim idea: marry and murder everyone in the world, and take all their stuff. :)

Guild Wars 2 is another game that lends itself to alternate ideas. You can absolutely level all the way to the end without killing a single enemy. I'm just not sure it'd be FUN. :)

Dammit! I meant to order some Buckyballs but kept putting it off. Crap.

Hmm wonder if you can still buy them in Canada? I've never had them but now that they're getting banned I WANT THEM NOW. :)

Because children frequently buy items off Woot and ThinkGeek. Christ!

Also, man I hope Fall of Cybertron multiplayer takes off more than War for Cybertron did. Woefully overlooked game.

I live in Canada.

I shall become a buckyball kingpin.

http://www.jdmfilmreviews.com/userim...1163383922.jpg

Toejam and Earl are by and far my most characters from the 16 bit era. Even loved the second one. I wish they'd re-release the Xbox sequel. I never got the chance to play it.

Buckyballs are one of those things that kids see and like to swallow. There's been a lot of injuries to kids from a huge age range that have required surgery after they ingested a buckyball.

I think the problem with the toy is that nobody thinks about how the "block" of magnets breaks down instantly into tiny, indigestible balls. And the magnets just sit inside organs, requiring surgery to bull out. Furthermore, it's basically marketed as a toy. You can see where the desire to warn people about them comes from.

On the other hand, an outright ban is ridiculous. It smacks of pandering to an overreacting public (in an election year!) Kids eat things. How is that surprising? Don't put tiny, rare-earth metals in toy form around them. Especially ones that say DON'T GIVE TO KIDS, SCARY IF SWALLOWED on the box.

It doesn't help things that the maker made a stupid political statement about the whole thing.

Maybe stupid isn't the right word. It's a good strategy to stir up the anti-government/pro-market sector when you're facing a ban of your child-killing toy.

I'm not going to try the Olaf thing because I know for a fact I don't have that kind of patience. Reading his story was fun though and it made me want to play Skyrim again.

For those who have played The Walking Dead, would you recommend getting in on console or iOS? I really don't know anything about the gameplay, will it work for the iPad?

Will buy Toejam & Earl for sure. Would be nice if they added a save function though. That game took time.

I don't think there's anything majorly difficult about playing it on an iPad. Of course, if you've played other adventure games on iPad you have a fair idea of what to expect. The action scenes are nothing particularly challenging, you just have to click at the right spot on the screen.

So, pick your preferred platform :).

I got some buckyballs last year. I do keep them far away from my kids, even though they're old enough to know better than to stick them in their mouths.

I find it kind of funny that of all the things that can cause harm, they target these. Warnings, sure, but a ban? Seriously?

And I'm still hopeful that this won't impact my ability to get them up here in Canada. The only reason I don't have more of them is because they're pricey.

Suddenly I don't feel so sorry for them.

To be fair, any toy with tiny magnets has a good chance of being banned in the U.S. They really are quite dangerous to small children.

Damnit, I need to make sure my wife buys some of these for me ASAP. I had it on my X-Mas list, but if they're banned in the US, her store's mothercorp might decide to stop carrying them as well.

There was a warning on the packaging I believe, but the CPSC didn't think it was enough. It's not like a Barbie where they can remove a small accessory; the entire toy is considered dangerous. It sucks, because adults should be able to enjoy them just fine, but that's not how the legal system here works unfortunately.

Good lord, those videos are entertaining.