Let´s make a mini-me!

http://www.tektek.org/dream/

http://fractal.neottdesign.com/avatars.php

In sanscrit, the term Avatar comes to mean “the terrestrial incarnation of a god”. In nerd, it is an image that you use to represent yourself in forums or while chatting, usually a picture of some person or character you feel attached to or a caricature of yourself.

Besides searching for a premade picture, you can make use of one of the many avilable automated generators, from which I chose the two examples above, to tailor one to your liking. The Gaia Dream Creator offers you full-body manga style characters with lots of accesories and a high cuteness factor; the Avatar Creator (which I found in numerous sites) is a flash application focused on face portraits. Both of them are very intuitive to use, and the Gaia Creator even outputs a rendered image that automatically gets hosted in ImageShack for you to use; as for the Avatar Creator, you´ll need to make a screen capture (printscreen button), then paste and cut the portrait with an appropriate program. Have fun!

[Update|26.12.05] If you liked the Dream Creator, you may want to try gavsim too.

Jump, Rotobo, jump!

http://www.miniglobz.com/games/rotobo_en.html

Rotobo is a level- based Flash game by GlobZ where, from a top-down view, you handle a little robot which has to achieve the goal by jumping from platform to platform without falling in the surrounding magma.
As well thought as the game is, the interaction is very simple: the robot´s head is constantly spinning and its eyes tell the direction of the jump; by pressing and holding the left mouse button (or the space bar), you control its height and length; finally, when you land, Rotobo´s head starts to spin again in the opposite direction. But beware! once in the air you can´t change directions, and when you want to get the bonus items and finish the level quickly for extra points, thinking twice usually means one less life. 😛
In all a very nice game with solid visuals and gameplay, its only drawback is the lack of sound, but that doesn´t make it less amusing!

Glest 1.2.1 released

http://www.glest.org/

New features in this version are:
– New tileset objects
– AI now expands its base
– 2 new maps: “in the forest” and “island siege”
– Improved existing maps
– Pathfinding optimizations
– Fixed issues in windowed mode
– Balance changes
– Enemy projectiles are visible when being attacked outside the sight range
– Fixed crash when trying to build a unit without be_built skill

Glest 1.1.0 released

http://www.glest.org/

This version merges the previously available data (rc7) and binaries (rc5) in a single installation package, which replaces the former version in the downloads section; it also features maps adapted to the new tilesets. Moreover, Zanni made a big effort to update the whole web site so that it could benefit of the CSS technology, and we made a presentation of Glest at the Mundos Digitales festival, as we were finalists of the videogames workshop.

War of the Worlds: afterthoughts

http://www.waroftheworlds.com/

A contemporary retelling of H.G. Wells´s seminal classic, the sci-fi adventure thriller reveals the extraordinary battle for the future of humankind(…)


I found the film to have many things in common with Encounters…, and it does very well in creating an atmosphere which I hadn´t seen for ages in these kind of films. In my opinion, it has many great moments, my favorites those where the desperate masses are shown as being as dangerous and scary as the extraterrestrials themselves. The sound is great (I loved the impressive sound the big machines make), and the music fantastic, as it not only supports the action but stands on its own and deserves being heard alone.

However, though the tension rises constantly throughout the movie, I found the end to be Continue reading War of the Worlds: afterthoughts

A Parallel Universe: Noctis

http://anywherebb.com/noctis.html

For most people, the thought of going into space and exploring such sights is an impossible dream. But no longer; Noctis allows you to do just that.

Warning(1): if you only like games with luscious graphics, surround sound and the like, this game is not for you.

Noctis is a space exploration game which relies much more on your imagination than on your computer’s graphics card. This fact, and also that the controls are difficult to understand in the beginning, will discourage many from trying it. However, those adventurous people who aren’t afraid to put something of their own in the game will embark on an amazing journey into the realms of the unknown. There’s a peculiar sensation which accompanies the traveller when finding a planet to which no one has ever been before, releasing the pod and landing, to be finally confronted with a surreal landscape of vivid, silent colors, spattered with odd trees and animals; when walking along the shores of vast seas, along the walls of vast ruins; when drifting among endless words of endless stars…

I personally don’t mind that this game looks as though it is from another era. It is, literally, another universe. And even though I wish there was some investor out there that could help it develop to its full potential, and I dream on how a crossbreed between Noctis and Mojoworld or Bryce would look like, I just love it the way it is.

Warning(2): if you plan on trying the game, be sure to update your imagination’s drivers 😉

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