Hasta La Gadget!

You know you’re getting old when you start thinking how something was better back in the day. Programmer Hugues Johnson was in placed that mood recently when he wrote about the history of the Legend of Zelda series. He thought the amount of hand-holding in the beloved series has become ridiculous. So he decided to let some steam out by mocking some of today’s gaming norms.

Aside from poking fun at the spoon-feeding that is rife in today’s videogames, Johnson also ridicules DLC and – the worst aspect infecting games today –  the always online requirement, aka The SimCity.

If you don’t see anything wrong with the Metal Gear image you probably don’t see the humor in any of these pictures. If that is indeed the case I recommend you watch this video. All gamers and developers must watch that video. But if you’re like me and you just want to sulk more, head to Johnson’s website to see more of his jokes.

[via Slashgamer]

Call Chell, she’s gonna love this! It’s a cake mix for making the chocolate cake that GLaDOS promised the hero of Portal as a prize. Is this Aperture Laboratories’ way of making amends to all its test subjects? Or is it just another ruse? Perhaps its decided to start things off with cake, with the murdering to come later?

You can order the cake mix from Amazon UK for £12 (~$18 USD). It comes with a candle, but you’ll have to supply the cherries. Also don’t be surprised if you get Deadly Neurotoxin instead.

[via Geekologie & Gaya Entertainment]

Do you love drumming your fingers on your car’s steering wheel while you drive? If Gregor “G-Man” Hanuschak has his way, soon you can actually make drum sounds when you tap on your steering wheel. G-Man invented Smack Attack, a steering wheel cover with 8 touch sensitive sensors.

The Smack Attack needs to be connected to an iOS device to work. From its mobile app you can set what samples will be triggered for each sensor. You can download more samples as they become available from the Smack Attack website or you can load your own sounds. You can play along with music, play solo or – get this – play together with other Smack Attack users.

While its maker suggests that using the Smack Attack could help you from falling asleep at the wheel, it could also just distract you from the task at hand – driving.

Ready to go on tour? Pledge at least $149 (USD) on Kickstarter and you’ll qualify for one of the first Smack Attack units if it gets funded.

[via Hacked Gadgets]

A company called Inkwell Ideas has come up with dice that can help budding dungeon masters or spice up the adventures of long-time parties. Aside from being numbered, each face on a DungeonMorphs die contains a piece of a map. Roll the five dice and voila, you get a randomized area.

Note that each face on all five dice is unique, meaning you have 7,776 combinations with just that one set. Get more sets and you get a bigger and more varied dungeon.

ThinkGeek is selling the Adventurer Set of DungeonMorphs Dice for $20 (USD), but there are two additional sets available on Inkwell Ideas’ website.

[via Nerd Approved]

Revoltech recently released this 25th Anniversary action figure of Naked Snake aka Big Boss from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. It comes with a lot of props, but the plainest of its props is also the best one: a cardboard box.

The Snake stealth item of choice is printed with “1987-2012″, which of course indicates the Metal Gear franchise’s first 25 years. Aside from the box, Big Boss has a lot of other toys, including an assault rifle, a handgun, a stun gun as well as “Zzzz” and “!” signs. Big Boss is also highly poseable – even his left eye is moveable – but his face is too cartoony for my taste. At least you can hide him in his box.

You can see lots of silly shots of the action figure on Amiami’s blog. It seems to be already sold out in toy stores, but you can still find a few units sneaking about on eBay. Just be prepared to pay significantly more than its original price.

[via Amiami via Kotaku]