Coffee Talk #451: Your Favorite Super Bowl XLVI Commercials

Hundreds of millions of Super Bowl advertising dollars have come and gone. A few of you mentioned being underwhelmed with Super Bowl XLVI’s commercials and I mostly agree with that sentiment. Having said that, there were several spots that…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, M.I.A.’s middle finger, The Undertaker vs. Triple H WrestleMania rematch, or Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. being a weight cheat, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Hundreds of millions of Super Bowl advertising dollars have come and gone. A few of you mentioned being underwhelmed with Super Bowl XLVI’s commercials and I mostly agree with that sentiment. Having said that, there were several spots that caught my eye. Here are my 10 favorite Super Bowl XLVI commercials. After you’ve gobbled them up, please let me know which ads were your favorite.

1) The Avengers Teaser — Earth’s mightiest heroes (and also Hawkeye)! Scarlett Johansson in her remarkably tight Black Widow costume! I’m totally geeked out for this movie.

2) MetLife — Any commercial that brings together Voltron, Charlie Brown, Marvin the Martian, Mr. Magoo, etc. is pure win.

3) Kia — I will absolutely buy that men dream about Adriana Lima and dozens of other women in bikinis. I think it’s hilarious that Kia thinks men dream about old bands (Motley Crue) and old MMA fighters (Chuck Lidell).

4) Audi — Making fun of vampires is always a good thing.

5) Chevy Silverado — This was a cute and clever spot. Combining Barry Manilow, a post-apocalyptic world, and Twinkies is borderline genius.

6) Teleflora — More Adriana Lima! This time she shows off her body and her sexy Brazilian
accent.

7) Volkswagen — I’m a geek. This commercial features the Mos Eisley cantina. Of course I loved it!

8) G.I. Joe: Retaliation Teaser — The action looks slick and I’m a homer for movies starring The Rock.

9) Time Warner Cable — I’m really unhappy with my Time Warner Cable television and Internet service, but I have to give the company props for this commercial with Rick Gervais.

10) Fiat 500 Abarth — Sexy Italian woman dropping frothed milk on her breasts? Yes, you have my attention Fiat.

Final Fantasy VI Meets Pat Benatar

When last you heard from him, Justin Leeper (author of the book Still Man Fights) rapped about the Occupy movement. This time he’s gone in a totally different direction, melding Final Fantasy VI and Pat Benatar. Check out the song above and official description below:

I felt these two songs — “Love is a Battlefield” and “Decisive Battle” — would go well together, so I set out to mix them. I wrote some additional lyrics, got my wife to sing, and made a video using gameplay from one of my favorite games of all-time, Square’s Final Fantasy VI (FF III in the US on SNES).

The music is “Decisive Battle,” from the Final Fantasy VI soundtrack. Both It and the game’s likenesses are owned by Square Enix.

“Love is a Battlefield” was written by Mike Chapman and Holly Knight, and was made famous by Pat Benatar.

My wife Kate did the singing on this video. I did rap and additional lyrics.

As always, Justin is looking for feedback on his work. So please leave a comment here or on his YouTube page.

Get Up to 5GB of Additional Dropbox Storage For Free!

The outstanding Dropbox cloud-storage service is giving users up to 5GB of free space for some beta testing. The latest build of Dropbox features automatic photo and video uploading. The more photos and videos you upload, the more free space you get. Here are the specifics from the Dropbox Forums:

For every 500MB of photos and videos automatically uploaded, you’ll receive another 500MB space bonus, up to 4.5GB total. [Update: To clarify, you can get up to 5GB of free space with this feature, if you count the initial 500MB space for the first photo import].

I know a lot of you are big Dropbox fans and I encourage you to take advantage of this offer. That said, you should back up your Dropbox folder before you get started. This is beta software we’re talking about, after all.

Dropbox beta 1.3.12 is available for Linux, Mac OS, and Windows.

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Coffee Talk #450: If You Could Have One Materia…

Based off a message I sent in the More-or-Less-Official RPad.TV Google+ Chat Room, I’ve been thinking a lot about materia. You know, those lovely magical balls (mind out of the gutter!) used in the world of Final Fantasy VII. If you could have…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Demi Moore’s health problems, the Susan G Komen Foundation controversy, or Demi Lovato sexily licking a lollipop, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Based off a message I sent in the More-or-Less-Official RPad.TV Google+ Chat Room, I’ve been thinking a lot about materia. You know, those lovely magical balls (mind out of the gutter!) used in the world of Final Fantasy VII. If you could have one materia, what would it be and why? Would you go offensive? Maybe you’d like to summon Bahamut for afternoon tea chats? Or perhaps you’d like to heal you friends and family with restorative materia like Curaga or Esuna. Give it some thought and let me know your dream materia (please!).

Yuffie is a Materia Girl.

As for me, I’m stuck on a pair of materia from Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. Initially I was thinking that Costly Punch would be the way to go; it would pretty much let me win any fight in a cheap and annoying way that would mentally scar my opponents. However, I’m more of a thief than a fighter. Mug materia would be much more useful to me. Being able to steal and hit at the same time would rule! In my head, Mug would work with friendly slaps too. My victims would lose valuable possessions (or more likely, Pez dispensers) after innocent pats on the back thanks to the deceptively awesome power of Mug!

So how about it? If you have one materia, what would it be and why?

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

This weekend will be evenly split between my PlayStation 3 and my iPad 2. On the console side, I’ll be playing Final Fantasy XIII-2. My gaming-biz friends are all over the place with their opinions on the game. As a Final Fantasy homer, I’m pretty sure I’ll enjoy it. On the iPad side, I’ll be playing WinPokerHD. I’m headed to Las Vegas next week for DICE and I’ve randomly caught the video-poker bug. WinPokerHD is a fantastic training program that lets you practice, learn optimal play, and avoid mistakes. I used it a ton on my PC during my semi-pro gambling phase of 2001. Since video poker is played on a touchscreen, the game is even better on the iPad.

How about you? What’s on your weekend playlist?

Innovative Leisure Reunites Atari Arcade Creators

My friends Seamus Blackley (co-creator of the Xbox) and Vanessa Burnham (author of Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984) have revealed their next project: Innovative Leisure. The company reunites the incredible talent behind numerous Atari arcade classics and brings them under one roof to create iOS games. Here’s an excerpt from an excellent story by VentureBeat’s “Dancing” Dean Takahashi:

“We are looking at the new arcade, and 99 cents on the iPhone is the new quarter,” Blackley (pictured above), president of the startup Innovative Leisure, said in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. “People are playing on all these new devices and are finding the joy of the arcade games.”

The “Jedi Council” team includes Ed Rotberg, creator of the classic Atari game Battlezone; Owen Rubin, creator of Major Havoc and Space Duel; Rich Adam, creator of Gravitar and co-developer of Missile Command; Ed Logg, co-creator of Asteroids and Centipede; Dennis Koble, creator of Touch Me and Shooting Gallery; Tim Skelly, the only non-Atari veteran arcade game designer who worked for Cinematronics and created games such as Rip-Off; and Bruce Merrit, creator of Black Widow.

Innovative Leisure is so full of awesome that my head is on the verge of exploding. You can (but shouldn’t) ignore my personal biases for Seamus and Van; I adore both of them, so I’m obviously excited about their startup. You can’t ignore the talent and influence of the game creators working with them. This is the videogame equivalent of The Rat Pack getting back together to show the world their classic talents on a new medium. (Geeking out again.)

I’d love to hear what you think of Innovative Leisure. Are you excited by old-school Atari creators taking their talents to South Beach the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch?

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Final Fantasy XIII-2, Star Wars, and a Lack of Vision

My excellent friend, former coworker, and former roommate Gamasutra Christian Nutt wrote this phenomenal article about the Final Fantasy XIII series. He compares the criticism of XIII and XIII-2 to Harry Plinkett’s criticism of the Star Wars prequels. It’s seriously one of the best videogame articles I’ve read in months and I strongly urge you to check it out. Here’s a taste:

The Star Wars prequels are full of things we recognize from the original trilogy, but divorced from any dramatic intent. For example, Plinkett astutely points out that light sabers are incredibly overused in the newer films, so much so that fights lose their uniqueness and tension — the constant battles becoming simple, garish light shows. Moments from the original trilogy are deliberately referred to, but without any parallel in meaning, just in form.

So, too, is Final Fantasy XIII filled with Final Fantasy Stuff — most notably and stupidly, crystals — and it’s clear that all of that junk is there because the developers assume that it has to be there, not because it enriches the world or the game’s play experience.

“The new films just borrow and recycle from the original ideas, as if there’s no way to create anything new,” says Plinkett. And that’s what hamstrings Final Fantasy XIII, too.

Again, this is an outstanding article and you should read it when you have a chance. Keep in mind that I’m saying this as someone that likes FFXIII and the Star Wars prequels a little bit more than most people. While I don’t agree with all of Christian’s criticisms — or at least the degree of which they’re issues — I was just floored by the thoughtful and intelligent writing. After you’ve digested the article, please let me know what you thought of it.

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Humble Bundle Offers Great Games for Great Charities

Humble Bundle is a great way to enjoy some sweet games, support some lovely indie developers, and contribute to great charities. On the game side, you get Anomaly, Edge, Osmos, and World of Goo. The games are DRM-free and available on multiple platforms (Android, Linux, Mac OS, and Windows). You pay what you want for the games, which is very cool. What’s even cooler is that you can split up your payment; you can decide how much goes to the developer, the charities, and Humble Bundle.

I’d love to hear what you think of Humble Bundle. On paper, it seems like a win-win for gamers, developers, and charities. If you happen to pick up the games, please share your Humble Bundle experience.

Coffee Talk #449: Achievements, Cheats, and You

The other day, RPadholic Lunias wrote a great post about achievements killing cheat codes. While millions of gamers enjoy achievements, trophies, and negasonic teenage warheads, these features have definitely lessened the use of cheats…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Verve’s Ethiopia Lomi Peaberry, bone-in vs. boneless ribeye, or the apparent suicide of Soul Train creator Don Cornelius, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

The other day, RPadholic Lunias wrote a great post about achievements killing cheat codes. While millions of gamers enjoy achievements, trophies, and negasonic teenage warheads, these features have definitely lessened the use of cheats, cheat codes, and cheat devices. Do you miss the world of cheats? Or are you happy that the use of cheat codes has been curbed (or eliminated depending on your point of view) by achievements, trophies, and negaonic teenage warheads?

As for me, I definitely miss them. Even though the vast majority of my cheat use was for replays and I could probably still use cheats the same way today, I’m sure they would cost me a small amount of achievements or trophies. This, I cannot have. Yes, I’m one of those idiots that will sacrifice a bit of enjoyment for some meaningless points…though I suppose it’s really trading one type of enjoyment for another. I love my meaningless points!

How about you? Have achievements, trophies, and the like stopped you from cheating? Do you miss cheat codes? Out of curiosity, what’s your all-time favorite cheat code?