Justin McElroy
- http://www.joystiq.com/bloggers/justin-mcelroy/
Reviews editor Justin McElroy has been writing about video games since he started reviewing them for The Herald-Dispatch when he was 12 years old. Besides Joystiq, his work has appeared in Computer Games Magazine, GamePro, Official Xbox Magazine, PlayStation: The Official Magazine, PC Gamer, The Escapist, Gamezebo, Gamers With Jobs and GameDaily.
by Justin McElroy 
{ 6 hours ago } 
Our grandmother had this saying, "Handicrafts make for strange bedfellows." In fact, she believed in it so much she once stitched the saying into a pillow she made from the skin of drifters she had lured into her home and killed. True, you don't normally think "drifter murder" and "decorative pillows" as a pairing, so she had made her point. But we tried (and are still trying) to convince her that there are ways of stating her case that are both less illegal and involve less risk of contracting hepatitis C.
... So we guess what we're saying is that our grandmother would probably be way into
these Brutal Legend papercrafts.
by Justin McElroy { 18 hours ago }
As designer Adam Bormann dug through old code and notes while making
Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, he made a curious discovery. Along with notes from Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and crew, he also unearthed dialogue that didn't appear in the original game. Though the lines didn't make it into the special edition, Bormann, like a comedy archeologist, dusted off some of the best bits and
collected them on the LucasArts Workshop blog.
Though we can see why some of it was left out, we can't help but feel a little wistful about how close we came to being able to ask Meathook for a sample of stump balm. And yes, now that you mention it, Meathook's Stump Balm would make a very good name for a band.
by Justin McElroy { 19 hours ago }
Troubling news for pirates worried about their fearsome image today: In a recent survey of TIGA members, a majority of developers say that while piracy is a problem, it's not necessarily a fatal one to their business. While 90 percent of those polled think the issue is getting worse, only 60 percent call it a low threat with a mere 10 percent saying it represents a significant danger to their survival.
What are the other 90 percent worried about? Well, getting caught between
Mega Shark and Giant Octopus, naturally.
by Justin McElroy { 20 hours ago }
Zeebo, the 3G console available in countries like Brazil, Russia and China, reminds us that right after food, water and shelter, access to
Resident Evil 4 should be a top priority for all developing nations. It was revealed yesterday that Capcom will use the MascotCapsule eruption engine to port the well-received mobile version of
RE 4 to the platform.
You know, it's funny, we know
Resident Evil 4 was a classic, but we never expected it to become the new
Tetris -- ported to every system imaginable. Which reminds us: Shinji Mikami, be forewarned: You're probably going to have to
grow a beard.
by Justin McElroy { 1 day ago }
Printing a description on something doesn't necessarily make it so, as the hundreds of XXL T-shirts emblazoned with the words "Way 2 Sexy" all over our nation's Wal-Mart's will attest. But there's truth in advertising for this purse made out of a
Dance Dance Revolution dance pad, which is, in fact, pretty cool.
As a bonus with this
handy how-to, you get to see several lurid close-ups of a dance pad's guts. Sure, it's not the internet's biggest fetish group, but it's nice to see them being thrown a bone.
[Thanks,
Liz]
by Justin McElroy { 1 day ago }
The neat thing about doing something as unassailable and cool as designing a game for charity is that no one can make fun of your ideas without looking like a total jackass. Take
Charles Cecil, the man behind the
Broken Sword series, for instance. According to G4, he's creating an adventure game based on
Minesweeper. It's blogger gold, until you learn that he's making it for charity game publisher
OneBigGame.
So now, instead of the hilarious gag we instinctively created -- involving making a mustache out of honey and cat hair and then putting it on a mime -- we're just going to wish Cecil all the best. Dammit.
by Justin McElroy { 1 day ago }
Tecmo's trying to fill the arcade-basketball-shaped hole in your heart left by
NBA Street with
NBA Unrivaled, a retro hoops release from developer
A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. Games. Though the cleverly-named company is relatively new on the scene, it has experience to draw on after helping Sony build
NBA '08: The Life.
We're happy to see some fun-loving 5-on-5 take the court, but we're a little nervous about how quickly the game's sneaked up on us: It's arriving this Wednesday on XBLA, and later on PSN, barely enough time to get our sneakers laced up.
by Justin McElroy { 3 days ago } 
As if, in this world of economic hardship and international strife, you need another thing to worry about. iPhone developer Storm8 has been accused of stealing the phone numbers of players that downloaded its apps like
Vampires Live and
Zombies Live in a suit filed in San Francisco on behalf of Lynnwood, WA resident Michael Turner.
The company acknowledged the number harvesting in August, calling it a "bug," though the suit claims only specific code could have recorded and transmitted the numbers. So ... apparently that's a thing that happens. Have a great Saturday!
by Justin McElroy { 4 days ago }
When John Riccitiello needs to unwind from a long day as CEO of EA, he does it with dismemberment. That's the word from an
interview with Fox Business in which Riccy (No? Well, worth a shot) names
Dead Space as his favorite game of the past 12 months. We're assuming he's not talking about the Wii version of the game, since it's a
statistical improbability that he owns it.
After his revelation that
digital distribution offset retail sluggishness, the publishing boss went on to say it takes him around "50 to 60 hours" to finish a typical game. It prompts the question: Exactly how many times is he planning on fending off the necromorph threat?
by Justin McElroy { 4 days ago } 
It's our angriest podcast yet as we argue about the merits of this console generation,
Brutal Legend,
Uncharted 2,
Assassin's Creed II (barely) and the films of Gary Ross. Plus, as a special bonus, we mention having giveaway bags of Blueberry Muffin Tops cereal but completely forget to give them away. So, we'll do it right here.
Comment below with your thoughts on the podcast and you could win a Brush With Fame and some of the greatest cereal on the face of the earth. Oh, and thanks to Alan Black for his eco-friendly photoshop.
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Hosts: Christopher Grant (
@chrisgrant), Justin McElroy (
@justinmcelroy) and Ludwig Kietzmann (
@LudwigK)
Music: "
Gravity (Don't Let Me Go)" by
Jon Black, "Red Eye" by
Ben Kweller
For fans: Joystiq Podcast Facebook group
The Do It Line!: 1-(877)-JOYSTIQ
See all of this week's links (and what games we played) after the jump.Continued →
by Justin McElroy { 4 days ago } 
Though plenty of people -- analyst Michael Pachter chief among them -- are pretty certain that an
HD version of the Wii is in the pipeline, you're not going to catch Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Amie copping to it. Speaking with Geoff Keighley on
Gametrailers TV, the Regginator said, "Michael continues to be the only one who believes that this is gonna happen. I don't know how forcefully we can say there is no Wii HD."
It certainly sounds like a firm refusal, but let's all try to remember that the shelf life of a
Nintendo denial is
exactly 10 days.
by Justin McElroy { 5 days ago }
We don't want the big guys to have all the fun, so this week we're finding out the origins of a couple of indie names. First is Comet Crash developer Pelfast, and then we've got a bonus submission from indie gaming hub 2BeeGames.
"Back in college (early 2000), I needed a company name that represented graphics/animation -- where I thought I would end up. Pixel was a little overused, so I went with the lesser known abbreviation, pel, and ended up with Pelfast after a little brainstorming. A quick internet search turned up only one hit for pelfast: some kind of WWII military ammunition, so I felt it would work."
–John Bates, Pelfast founder
"2BeeGames has several meanings. Originally the 'two bees' referred to myself and my partner who came up with the idea for an indie game destination/community. As the concept of the site evolved into a place where we would hold competitions and publish the best games on the site, the name took on another meaning, as in a place where indie games go 'to be' published onto consoles. Now as our community grows, we're running with the bee theme and our community is called 'the hive'."
–Tony Tran, site manager
by Justin McElroy { 5 days ago } 
Poor PC gamers. First they hear the soul-crushing news that
Modern Warfare 2 won't
support dedicated servers, and now Infinity Ward has broken their hearts yet again. During a Best Buy online chat, the developer fired off a string of bad news, affirming a 9-vs-9 player limit, the inability to kick players from ranked matches and a lack of console commands.
Ars Technica has laid out the full list of disappointments, if you've got the stomach for it.
We feel for those of you on the PC side, but largely because you haven't yet had your spirits broken like your console brethren. We don't even notice having our dreams shattered any more (in fact, truth be told, we think we're starting to like it).
by Justin McElroy { 5 days ago }
Click to open the foil wrapper on a giant version.
Well, this is a rarity: A sports game mode that's too nerdy even for us. When "
Madden Ultimate Team" mode comes to
Madden 10 on 360 and PS3 for free in January, you'll collect packs of cards (or buy them via the in-game store) and use those cards to compose a fantasy team, customizing everything from your head coach and stadium to your plays and players. You can then pit your ultimate team against those of other players or the CPU. Think fantasy football mixed with ... well, let's be honest,
Pokemon.
Wow guys, really? Collectible card game battling? We thought
Madden players were supposed to be the cool ones, but you're getting into some really noogie-prone territory here.
by Justin McElroy { 6 days ago }
Tomorrow's one of those days when it'll be nice to be a PC gamer. Not only will you be able to get a title update for
Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising (the full details of which are
available here) you'll also be the first to get your hands on the "Skirmish" DLC, which includes four new multiplayer maps and two new Fire Team Engagement missions. The console title update (which you can read about
about here) is due on the 360 tomorrow and on the PS3 "shortly after."
Moreover, when Skirmish is eventually released on consoles, it'll come with a price tag of 400 points ($5) on 360 and $3.99 on PS3. Sure, the price discrepancy will cause a flare up in the console war, but what do you care? You're a PC gamer. You
rise above.
