Apology time: During December’s snowpocalypse I completely failed to mention the sublimely awesome Metal Gear Solid downloadable content pack for LittleBigPlanet. Luckily the developers at Media Molecule just dropped a handful of clever LBP/MGS mashup artwork created within the DLC pack to further promote their game (and presumably make my telling you this in January […]
Video Games
Hearst Corporation Acquires, Murders EGM
Need proof that not even the bullshit profession of writing about videogames for a living is impervious to the current economic Ragnarok? EGM (aka Electronic Gaming Monthly) was shuttered earlier today after parent company Ziff Davis offloaded its videogame division to the Hearst Corporation. Solid numbers on just how many EGM staffers were handed walking […]
Introducting Paul Robertson, God’s Gift to Pixels
Is there anything Australians can’t do? Yes, they’re all descended from rapists and warlocks, but over the last few centuries they’ve produced both Paul Hogan and Yahoo Serious — a feat only matched by Norway, for a short period in 1982. Paul Robertson, one such downunderner, has consistently put America’s finest neo-retro, pixel-based, action short […]
Pata-Pata-Pata-Japanese Child Rearing!
Japanese kids look like tiny bundles of polite joy, but like our own tow-headed American bastard spawn, given the opportunity they’d eat you and everyone you love. The only way to soothe the savage beast, as this Japanese commerical for Patapon 2 demonstrates, is to drum their little asses right into a herd of sheep. […]
Life Sucks, Here’s a Ninja
Do you know what happens in the game industry on December 30 of every year? Absolutely nothing. How am I supposed to feed my family of 7 on the meager scraps The Merc throws my way if I can’t find content to offer the most attractive readers in Portland? Wm.™ Steven Humphrey lives in a […]
The Legend of the Trailer of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
There’s a new movie based on the Street Fighter line of videogames headed to theaters in February with nary a Van Damme or Raul Julia in sight. Hyde Park Entertainment, the people who cajoled Capcom into handing over the rights after the last movie on the subject was widely ridiculed as worse than cancer, released […]
Metallica: Courting The Youth Vote Since 1981
It’s time to face facts: Lars Ulrich’s “Kill The Internet” platform didn’t go over so well with Metallica’s key demographic of teenage social outcasts. You could almost hear the IRC channels and AOL chatrooms spring to life in a chorus of “LOLs” and “ROFLMFAOs” the moment Lars went on record against Napster. In an effort […]
Mini-Reviews: Valkyria Chronicles
Since I have to play a fuckton of games on a daily basis and the Mercury has a limited amount of review space, a lot of games fall through the cracks. Consider this my (hopefully weekly) attempt at covering as many of these titles as possible. I’ll mostly be choosing stuff that I’ve been enjoying […]
Buy Valkyria Chronicles! Please!
Look, I never ask you for anything. Ok, I borrowed your car once, and I stole your girlfriend’s belt when I was drunk last weekend, and I was the one who left your gate open that night your dog ran away, but I never ask for anything, right? I need you to go buy Valkyria […]
The Next Thing From That Katamari Guy
I’m going to assume you all played Katamari Damacy. Actually, scratch that — I’m going to assume that, like, six of you actually played it, but the rest of you were so inundated by references to the quirky ball-rolling action by those six that you essentially got the gist of the thing anyway. Good! Now […]
I’m Embarrassed by Spike’s Video Game Awards
Tonight saw the latest entry in Spike TV’s annual Video Game Awards “extravaganza” and while I couldn’t be bothered to fly down to Los Angeles to attend this thing in person I’ve spent the last few hours watching the tape-delayed televised feed. If you wanted to be polite, you could say I’m unimpressed. If you […]
Mini-Reviews: Call of Duty: World at War, I Made This. You Play This. We Are Enemies.
Since I have to play a fuckton of games on a daily basis and the Mercury has a limited amount of review space, a lot of games fall through the cracks. Consider this my (hopefully weekly) attempt at covering as many of these titles as possible. I’ll mostly be choosing stuff that I’ve been enjoying […]
