As if you don't waste enough of your time in a gamer's haze, here's Kotaku: a gamer's guide that goes beyond the press release. Gossip, cheats, criticism, design, nostalgia, prediction. Don't get a life just yet.
Little Big Planet on the PC? Bwah? Reader ... [PS3]
Little Big Planet on the PC? Bwah? Reader Jacob writes: "Got these display boxes in at work for Little Big Planet on the PC, How Very Queer!!!" Pretty sure this is nothing more than a screw-up (not on Jacob's part, mind you!) and rather certain we'll only be seeing it on the PS3, but yeah, LBP on the PC would be pretty neat. That is, if you own a PC and are excited about LittleBigPlanet. If not, then oh well.
Forget that talk of Resident Evil 5 going to the Wii for a moment, and consider that other platform. The one that's a lot more likely to get a version of Resident Evil 5. Yeah, the PC. It's yet to be confirmed, but that doesn't stop Capcom's Christian Svensson from talking around it:
I know that Inafune-san and I are both huge proponents of the PC platform and Capcom is an active participant in the PCGA. We do believe in the future of the platform and that contrary to what retail data shows, it is growing. Our rosy prognostications aside, somewhere the P&Ls of Capcom Japan's outings on the platform are going to come up and they are likely to have a bearing on the decision making process for future titles. That's my longwinded way of saying "stay tuned because it's not clear yet".
Funny, we thought that was your longwinded way of saying "well, everything else we've done lately has come to the PC, so of course it is, silly".
Metal Gear Solid 4 Thrown In FOR FREE!! [Only In Japan]
Previously, we brought word that Metal Gear Solid 4 appeared to be hitting the bargain bin — a mere month and a half after the game was released. (A shame, because it is a great game, even if it hasn't sold close to million copies in Japan!) Now it seems the Metal Gear Solid 4 40GB PS3 bundle's price is getting slashed at Akihabara retailer Gamers. (No clue about the gajillion other shops in Japan!) The price has been lowered from ¥49,800 (US$454) to ¥39,800 ($363) for a store sale — meaning that it's going for about what regular 40GB PS3s fetch without the game. That's right, Metal Gear Solid 4 for free. No need to be sad! That's what us shopper people can a good deal.
Lawrence Taylor has quickly shot up my list of great people to interview. There was this Blitz: The League 2 launch party somewhere around Times Square tonight. Press people and whoever else got to play the game as well as take advantage of the open bar. The highlight of the night, however, was when I interviewed Lawrence Taylor -the football guy on the cover - in a round-table discussion. I didn't get a chance to ask a lot of questions, so when I did, I simply asked "Why should anyone buy Blitz 2 over Madden 09?" His response was, well, very...positional.
Why should anyone buy Blitz: The League 2 over Madden 09?
Lawrence Taylor:
“That’s a good question. Well, it all depends. If you're use to the missionary position, that’s what you’re going to do. But if you want to sit there and experiment? From the behind, then maybe a little doggystyle and all that stuff, then you’re going to buy Blitz 2. Now you (pointing at me), you might like missionary. That’s something you can control. It’s going to be the same thing every time. But if you want to experience and enjoy it. And get downright dirty with it, then you’re going to get Blitz 2."
Uh..ok. I was kinda expecting your typical "The graphics are hot" speech, but it seems like he knows what he's talking about...I think. I was afraid to ask him what position I'd like if I bought neither game. Oh well.
Oh, in case you were wondering why kind of watch a man such as Lawrence Taylor wears, I snapped a picture of it. That wouldn't fit around both my wrists combined. I spent the rest of the night standing around drinking free Budlight. Check out the gallery below for some more shots.
A 41-year-old woman in Singapore claims she was duped into paying SGD$1000 (US$722) for a PSP. The woman, who is named as simply "Nicole", priced the Sony portable in various shops, noting it ranged between the equivalent of US$217 and US$434. She visited a shop owned by Yeow Tat Trading Enterprises, telling the friendly and helpful clerk that she was looking for a PSP for her daughter.
The clerk supposedly told her that while the games were free of charge, the woman needed to pay for the PSP hardware and software upgrading license. The bill? SGD$3,500 (US$2,530). Says Nicole: "I was shocked. I thought he had written an extra zero by mistake... I told him that if the upgraded PSP was going to cost as much as a laptop, I might as well get my daughter a laptop." Then the clerk reduced the price to SGD$3,100 and then down to SGD$2,610, saying it wouldn't have the anti-virus software.
When the woman asked why other shops didn't charge as much, the store clerk replied that those stores were selling PSPs that did not have original licenses for the software. Convinced, she paid SGD$2,600 (US$1,880), but went back the next day after her brother told her she overpaid. She asked to see the licenses for the software, but was told they were confidential. The store agreed to wave the service charge. The woman ended up paying SGD$1,000 (US$722) after getting a SGD$1,600 discount. Says the woman: It was still very expensive but I did not want to waste time... All the while, the sales assistant had an innocent face, and was helpful and appeared sincere... My friends all say I'm so stupid.
Pretty sure more than your friends are saying that, Nicole.
Sega Admit, OK, Sonic Has Been A Bit Crap Lately [Sonic]
Sonic 1 was great! Sonic 2 was good! Heck, I even loved Sonic 3. But almost every Sonic since has been a bit, well, rubbish. Which has been a problem for Sega for, oh, over a decade now. We know it, you know it, so it's little surprise to see that, yes, even Sega know it, too, with Sega USA's Sean Ratcliffe saying:
Some of that criticism is probably warranted. We definitely recognize that a franchise that has been going as long as Sonic, you really have to put a huge amount of effort in to make sure that you maintain that quality, and arguably a disproportionate amount of effort. However, I would say we recognize it, which is why you're seeing us this year taking the first steps in making sure the quality is right, and we're constantly looking at innovation.
Oh, wonderful. Though you've got to wonder why they're taking the "first steps in making sure the quality is right" in 2008.
Japanese People Acutally Lining Up For Xbox 360 Exclusive? Oh Yes. [Tales Of Vesperia]
Check Hell, because we think it's official frozen over. That right there was the line at the Akihabara Yodobashi Camera earlier this morning for Xbox 360 exclusive Tales of Vesperia. It was over a hundred people — small potatoes for, say, a Poké launch, but shocking for an Xbox 360 title in Japan. The game and an Xbox 360 went on sale, and there was a stage event with the game's creative producer Yoshito Higuchi and producer Tsutomu Gouda, telling fans how that they created a beautiful looking Tales for the Xbox 360. Joked Gouda:
Even though the Olympics are starting, everyone please enjoy playing Tales of Versperia.
Pro wrestler Wataru Sakata, who is married to Wii Fit spokesperson Eiko Koike, was also on hand to help promote the game and do the countdown to game's sales launch. Reader Jamie, who emailed us from the event, puts it in better prospective: "Queues are small but they're selling a steady stream of consoles."
BioShock Movie Staying Faithul To Source, Won't Star Kate Hudson [Bioshock]
PHEW. Speaking with VG247 at the Develop conference in Brighton (fun fact: I used to live in neighbouring Seaford), BioShock creator Ken Levine has told everyone to relax. The upcoming BioShock movie project is staying faithful to the source:
You’re always going to be worried that in that first meeting they’re going to be, like, ‘OK, it’s Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey on a desert island hunting for pirate treasure,’ but it’s not going to go that way
My expectation at this time, from everything that I’ve heard, is that it will very much honour the dramatic and thematic elements of the game… They certainly understand the material and are able to provide a stamp of their own.
Thank goodness for that. But, now you mention it, that wouldn't be the worst Uncharted movie...
Ubisoft Suing Disc Production Company Over Assassin's Creed Piracy [Ubisoft]
When launching Assassin's Creed on the PC earlier this year, Ubisoft contracted Charlotte-based Optical Experts Manufacturing to produce the retail copies of the game disc. Part of that contract was an assurance on the part of OEM that they had top-shelf security measures in place, and that no game disc would ever leave their premises. Thing is, in February - six weeks before the game's launch - a pirated version of the game turned up on the internets. A pirated version that was found to have come from an OEM-produced disc, that had been uploaded from the home of an OEM employee. Oops. Ubisoft are suing OEM for breach of contract, negligence and copyright infringement, to the tune of $10 million. Neither Ubisoft or OEM have yet commented on the lawsuit.
Boy, we were all excited when Ghostbusters: The Game was announced. Then we got all sad when the Activision Blizzard merger pulled the rug out from underneath us. Who was going to publish this game from developer Terminal Reality? Everything was all uncertain, and we were sad. Now Terminal Reality honcho Mark Randel says:
Ghostbusters will be published. That’s all I can say at the moment.
Nerds Get Slaughtered In 'LAN Party Massacre' [Movies]
As a fan of the massacre film genre — I was raised on mass unsuspecting teen killing flicks like Chopping Mall, Happy Birthday To Me and Slumber Party Massacre — I may just have a soft spot for the schtick of seeing a dozen kids die in increasingly brutal yet comedic ways. That's why I'm not giving up on LAN Party Massacre, due to be released in 2009, self-described as a "comedy/horror slash film" that's a "direct parody of video game culture, but a classic slasher film at heart."
It might be the little touches, like the F5 Energy Drink that sponsors the doomed titular LAN party or the film's featured pro gamer "Mort@lity," or maybe I'm just watching the teaser trailer with blood tinted glasses.
LAN Party Massacre is obviously gory, so if you start to feel queasy when prosthetic throats are ripped out of spokesmodels, you may want to pass on the trailer at the official site.
Inside The 60GB 360: Old CPU, New Memory Chips [Xbox 360]
The new Xbox 360 has a 60GB HDD, which is new, but what about the rest of the console? Anything new inside the unit? Hacker extraordinaire Ben Heck got hold of one and busted it open like a naughty coconut to find out. What he found was that the new console has the same GPU, same 65nm CPU and same heatsink as we've been seeing for a while now, so don't expect any heat/noise improvements on that front (at least for the next few months), though he did notice that some of the console's memory chips have been moved from the bottom of the board, which should ease up on heating in that part of the 360. Other than that...yeah, it's a 360, with 40 extra GB.
Virtually Tour Tokyo's Gaming Mecca With Google Maps [Sightseeing]
Want to go to Akihabara and bask in the glory of millions of tons of video games, capsule toys, manga and electronics? Probably not if you're paying for the plane ticket over there. Fortunately, with the awesome power of Google Maps and Street View, you can scoot around Akiba virtually, checking out all the good game shops — their facades anyway.
To complete the illusion, you can import stuff from Play-Asia or NCS while you browse. It won't have the same sort of instant gratification, but at least you'll know where Super Potato is, unlike me, who has never been able to find the goddamn place whenever I go to Electric Town.
ASUS 'Eee Stick' Like Nothing Wii've Ever Seen Before [Revolutionary]
The engineers at ASUS have done it again, unveiling "another world's first" with the Eee Stick, a new controller that "translates users' physical hand motions into corresponding movements onscreen." It's so fresh, so revolutionary, so ahead of its time, that we can't even begin to wrap our heads around it.
According to the press release, it comes in three parts, an Activation stick, a Navigation stick and a 2.4GHz RF dongle. We love anything with dongles. It also has three operation modes, perfect for sports, action, racing, flight and beat 'em ups, as well as first person shooters and light gun games. That's pretty much everything!
Peacemongers Protest Ubisoft HQ Over War Games Claims [America's Army]
San Franciscans who had an open afternoon took to the streets today to protest the work of Ubisoft and the United States Army, claiming that the America's Army line of video games "has been developed by the United States Army to recruit children under the age of 17 in violation of the U.N. Optional Protocol and international law." Fortunately, Wired's Game|Life was on hand to capture the action, beat by beat.
In short, the protest group Bay Area Direct Action feels that, due to the 'Teen' rating of the America's Army series, Ubisoft is in violation of "international law" by making joining the Army seem totally rad — just like sitting on your ass playing video games all day, instead of focusing on how you could be maimed or killed or mentally scarred for life.
Wired points out how wrong this is in between bouts of dissecting how ill-prepared the group was with clever signs, pun-laden chants and logic. Since it went down in San Francisco, so a genuinely crazy guy shows up. It's worth a read.
Rumor: Medal of Honor Going To Afghanistan [Medal Of Honor: Operation Anaconda]
According to a report from French site JeuxVideo, the next entry in the Medal of Honor series is going to take place in modern day Afghanistan and release under the title Medal of Honor: Operation Anaconda. Details on the rumored EA published sequel were culled from a questionnaire, passed on to JeuxVideo.
The Operation Anaconda subtitle refers to the U.S. military operation of the same name, in which U.S. and Afghan forces targeted al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in Shahi-Kot Valley and Arma Mountains of Afghanistan.
MOH:OA is said by the (machine translated) survey to feature front line combat, sniper duties and "drone attack" command gameplay, as well as 60 customizable weapons. Sadly, it does not appear to feature giant anacondas, Ice Cube or the line "There's snakes out there this big?!"
Patrick Stewart Engages Brain Age 2 Pitch Engines At Shill Factor Ten [Celebrity Endorsements]
It's hard not to think of Patrick Stewart in his creepy Extras faux persona, in which he talks about his screenplay that involves him telekinetically removing women's clothing. We're just thankful that he's not tearing the clothes off of his fellow female traveler while she plays Brain Age 2 in this commercial. We're going to need a higher quality version of this for animated GIF purposes. That "The synapses are firing!" moment is gold.
Talkman Travel Helps PSP Owners Pick Up Foreigners This Thursday [PSP]
Japanese gamers have had access to the Talkman translation software on their PSPs for close to three years now. Even the Euros got their fix of Talkman! North Americans are finally getting it this Thursday via the PlayStation Store in the form of Talkman Travel, three language-based downloads that feature built-in translated phrases, photos of popular international destinations and even... wait for it... mini-games!
You'll be able to (attempt to) pick up chicks (or dudes) in Japanese, French or Italian using Talkman Travel, as well as find places to eat, relieve yourself legally, and haggle for chintzy souvenirs. At only $6 a pop, I don't think I can heed Crecente's advice that Talkman's "sorta shit."
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames on PlayStation 2 [Mercenaries 2: World In Flames]
We touched on the assignment system in Mercenaries 2: World in Flames and showed you what it looks like on the current gen. However, for all of you that haven't made the switch to the Xbox 360 or PS3 fear not, Mercenaries 2 is also hitting PlayStation 2. If you want to take a look at the linked video you can make a comparison, but our consensus is the PlayStation 2 version ain't half bad. The game comes out to you on August 31st.
So last night Trish and Tristan came up to my loft office and gave me a late birthday present: A beautifully framed piece of art from I-Am 8 -Bit. It's a pretty amazing piece of art, especially with the color-matching frame. Can't wait until I figure out where to hang it.
New Heavy Rain Screens Drizzle Out [Quantic Dream]
What little we know about Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain is that it can render faces — specifically wet faces — like nothing we've seen on a console before. Brand new screen shots of the PlayStation 3 game(?) really drive the point home that fans of wet faces will be crying tears of joy.
Other things we learn about Heavy Rain is it features an obese man, plus the front and back of a motorcycle. We're sure to learn much more about Heavy Rain at the Leipzig Games Convention. Promise.
R&C: Quest for Booty Is For Everybody [PlayStation Network]
Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty will be hitting PSN pretty soon. By now, you’re all familiar with the details since its E3 announcement. A short but sweet extended expansion for Tools of Destruction for a low, low price of $15. I got a demo of it today, and while it’s a PSN-only download game, don’t expect the graphics to take a hit, in fact, expect to see some improvements.
It’s a wonder how Insomniac finds the time to make Resistance 2 and sprinkle on a little Ratchet and Clank in the same year. But they did, and boy you really have to hand it to them. Sure Quest for Booty is a short game, around 4 to 5 hours, but it still looks as good as any other game out there. It uses the same engine as Tools of Destruction, which Insomniac knows like the back of their hand, and that allowed the team to add some new lighting and environmental effects for new areas of the game.
Something I didn’t really love about the later Ratchet titles was the focus on weapons. I like more platform-y games. So I was excited to find out there is less emphasis on weapons this time and more placed on platforming and puzzle solving. Ratchet doesn’t even start with a weapon; you have to wack stuff with your wrench early on until you find one.
The level I saw didn’t showcase it, but the theme of the game is about pirates and swashbuckling, so that’s pretty exciting. I mean, pirates are awesome, right?
The gameplay itself is straight-up Ratchet, though. If you know the series, you’ll feel right at home. I was told Insomniac wanted to release this to get people to try Ratchet who didn’t before and who are new to the series. How that translates into the overall difficulty of the game remains to be seen.
Also, there are no trophies in this game, at the time of launch anyway. There’s nothing stopping them from adding them in down the road, however. No saved data info from Tools of Destruction will carry over into Quest for Booty, either. They wanted to make this a completely separate experience.
One little hint was dropped to me about the ending. I had asked if the storyline for Quest for Booty would carry over into the next Ratchet game. I was told you’re going to have to beat the game and find out and that there may be something interesting. Don’t take that as any kind of confirmation, though.
World’s Top Gamer “Fatal1ty” will not be at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX)
PAX is proud to announce that they will not be welcoming E-sportsman Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel to the event.
“There is no one else in the video game industry quite like Fatal1ty and we’re thrilled that he won't be attending our show” said Gabe, Chief Executive Officer of the Penny Arcade Expo, the greatest video game festival in the universe. “Seriously, if he even tries to come we'll kick him out.”
Fantastic news! Hey, I wonder if Gabe and Tycho will let me submit a list of other people who won't be welcome at PAX... let's see...
Warhawk Getting Jetpacks In New Patch, Says GameFAQs [Playstation 3]
The release of Warhawkversion 1.5 is not only bringing with it a slew of Trophies, game modes and online options, it may be bringing an entirely new vehicle type — jetpacks!
A posted list of alleged 57 attainable Trophies in the PlayStation 3 version of Warhawk features three jetpack specific achievements — Aerial Ballet, Are You Aim-Botting? and That Was Some Bug. Jobe may have been hinting at the inclusion of the new ride on a post about the Warhawk 1.4 update on the official PlayStation Blog last month.
Consider it rumor for now (*cough* GameFAQs *cough*), until we get some confirmation from SCEA and/or Incognito.
Don't Let Sackboy's Cute Face Fool You, LBP Is Hard [Littlebigplanet]
At this point, I’ve seen and heard enough about LittleBigPlanet that I feel as though the game isn’t even real and that it’s never actually coming out. Thankfully, Sony brought along their first-party titles for us New Yorkers to try out and I can confirm that the game does in fact exist and will be coming out this fall. But after finally getting my hands on it, I think I’m going to have to turn down my hype meter just a bit.
When I got my hands on the controller and got booted up to the LittleBigPlanet title screen, the first thing I wanted to do was to make stuff. I think I’ve seen enough the gameplay from finished levels to know how it’ll work when it’s put together, but I felt since I didn’t have a whole lot of time, I wanted to dig deeper in the creation tools.
Without any real tutorial of the controls, I just started messing around. The first thing I popped in the environment was a sombrero. OK, easy. But the Sony rep and I decided we wanted to give the sombrero wheels and drive it off a ramp. Now this is when things started to get a little harder.
I think something that’s being overlooked with this game is the learning curve. I found it to be very overwhelming.
If you wanted to build a sombrero car, you have to attach it to a piece of wood (or something flat). But since the sombrero is two blocks long in width, you have to make sure your surface is just as long or it won’t let you do it. And if you’re not completely familiar with the system like I was, it’s easy to get stuck and frustrated when something doesn’t work.
So we finally got the hat on the piece of wood and I put some wheels on. But then since the hat is light, we had to make sure it’s glued down or it will blow off. Then we had to add two motors (one for each wheel) and manually go in and alter the settings to adjust the speed of the car.
I don’t know how long it took for me to build that sombrero car, but it took a lot longer than I thought it would, and it didn’t even look like something I wanted to save and share with my friends. We never did get a chance to drive it off a ramp both because I had to go, and the ramp itself wasn’t even done. :(
We also tried to attach one wheel to a can of tuna, which was dubbed the “Tuna Cycle,” but it didn’t work.
Granted, this was my first time with the game, but isn’t this supposed to be accessible? I had an easier time with SOCOM from earlier in the day. The Sony rep did mention there would be a full tutorial of the controls in the final version, which is probably the one feature I’m most excited about.
Design Your Own Board for Shaun White [(The Game, Not The Person)]
Ubisoft is running a design contest over on their Shaun White Snowboarding site that give people a chance to design a real-life Burton snowboard and win a Wii.
Gamers get a chance to download a blank snowboard, fancy it up with their own designs and then enter it into the contest. Every other week until October, two of the designs will be selected to be included in the video game. Fans will than vote to decide which two boards they like best, both of which will be turned into real Burton snowboards.
According to the fine print, the winners selected on Aug. 15 will be added into the game "before it hits shelves" and receive a Wii and a Wii Fit balance board.
Kim Kardashian Joins List Of FaceBreaker "Celebrities" [Ea Sports Freestyle]
Add one more face to the list of possibly known faces in FaceBreaker. GameDaily writes today that Kim Kardashian, famous for some reason that I'm unaware of other than having sex on the internet, will join the line-up of "celebrity" boxers in FaceBreaker. GameDaily says she's a "TV personality", if that clears up anything for you. She's also listed as being a "celebutant" which, I'll assume, means she's famous by design.
They also have video of a digital Peter Moore beating Ms. Kardashian, which may dovetail with some EA Sports erotic fanfics you've been writing.
Resistance 2, Hold On To Those Resistance Saves [Resistance 2]
While I didn’t attend E3 – I was hanging out in Kotaku Tower with Luke working the night shift – I did get to see the presentation of Resistance 2 just like everyone else. But since I didn’t get to see the game in person, I had to make due by viewing screenshots and somewhat muddy-looking movies on my computer. At the time, I wasn’t too impressed with the game from a graphical standpoint. I mean, it looked great, but after sitting down on a nice couch in front of a big-ass TV, I can say with confidence that, yes, Resistance 2 does look amazing.
Insomiac’s James Stevenson gave me a run-through of the Resistance 2 demo from E3.
I wasn’t surprised when I first saw the leviathan trouncing its way through the flooded streets of Chicago like I was during E3. I knew he was coming. But I was able to see just how much detail is actually on the leviathan model itself and how much intricate detail was going on in the animations on its face. They’ll be focusing more on larger bosses this time around, Stevenson told me, so I expect to see many more “wow” moments like this
I was told there would also be a lot more effects added to the final game, too. This will be most noticeable during the sequence where Nathan is running up the stairs in the building with the leviathan peering in at him. All the while the building will be on fire and smoke will be billowing about.
One section that still leaves me troubled is when Nathan is crossing the scaffolding between buildings. After seeing Mirror’s Edge and how careful you have to be crossing smaller platforms, it left me a bit disappointed you can blindly run through that with out any worry of plummeting to your death.
Not only do the enemies animate well (thanks in part due to them all being motion-captured), but they also travel in groups and will try to flank you. Luckily, the new Magnum in the game allows you to shoot your bullets into objects and detonate them like a remote bomb. This looks like it will be useful for slower enemies, but for larger, faster groups, I’d stick with the good ‘ol machine gun.
I asked if players should bother keep their Resistance 1 save file on their PS3 in the event they’ll receive a carry over bonus like in the Ratchet & Clank games. While James wouldn’t confirm anything, he said there might be something, such as a medal. So it sounds like you should hold off on deleting your old save for a little while longer just in case.
KingIsle entertainment has announced the launch of the open beta for their family-friendly MMO Wizard101, which combines magical adventures with card-based spellcasting battles to create something that seems to have attracted a larger following than they originally expected. Never underestimate the power of rabid card-game fans.
"We more than doubled our anticipated beta audience for Wizard101," said KingsIsle CEO Elie Akilian. "It turns out that the solid game mechanics and whimsical fantasy environment appeal even beyond the tween audience. We've had a great response from testers that included everyone from grandmas who play with a grandchild sitting in their lap to twenty-something traditional gamers."
Not to mention thirty-something traditional gamers! Anyone and everyone can head over to www.wizard101.com right now, download the client, and start getting completely thrashed by children half your age. It'll be awesome.
KingsIsle Entertainment Launches Open Beta Testing Phase for Wizard101
Beta Testers Find Virtual World Brings the Family Together For Shared Playtime
PLANO, TEXAS- Aug 06, 2008 - Online entertainment company KingsIsle Entertainment, Inc announced the successful completion of closed beta testing for virtual world Wizard101. The final beta testing phase has now been opened to the general public at www.wizard101.com. Wizard101, which emphasizes magical adventure and card-collecting in an online 3D world of Wizards, is expected to officially launch within the next month.
"We more than doubled our anticipated beta audience for Wizard101," said KingsIsle CEO Elie Akilian. "It turns out that the solid game mechanics and whimsical fantasy environment appeal even beyond the tween audience. We've had a great response from testers that included everyone from grandmas who play with a grandchild sitting in their lap to twenty-something traditional gamers."
Wizard101's collaborative play style supports an environment where players benefit from working together in adventure quests. A tiered chat system and pre-defined character name generator create a safe community for younger players while an Arena provides a spot for more traditional gamers to show off their player versus player spell-casting skills. As they adventure, players can upgrade their costume and magical accessories, adopt bizarre pets, solve puzzles and play mini-games. At launch, Wizard101 will be free to play, with advanced play content available by subscription.
KingsIsle had Wizard101 under development for three years before the beta period, which means testers experienced a very fully fleshed out game with detailed graphics, fantastic worlds and fully-functional game play. There has been an increasing online buzz about Wizard101. Testers, including those below from esteemed virtual community The Syndicate® have been saying things like:
"Wizard101 is a great game for the whole family, especially for kids. I watch my 6 year old AND my 14 year old laughing with each other instead of irritating one another, as brothers tend to do. I play right along side of my kids."
"Having been a gamer for 30 years now, playing with my kids has to be the most fun I have ever had ... They enjoy the ability to get many different spells and see all the amazing animations, and both are always wanting to start new wizards to try the others. I think the variety of schools and the spells that goes with them makes Wizard101 stand out over [other online games]."
Anyone with a PC who would like to join the final beta testing phase can now sign up at www.wizard101.com and instantly download and install the initial software to join the large cast of good, bad, and frequently silly in-game characters and other players. Beta testers play the game for free and provide feedback to the game's creators leading up to the official launch.
Time Warner revealed in its quarterly earnings statement today that GameTap owner Turner has decided to sell off the subscription model gaming service. That release noted an "$18 million noncash impairment" — read: write-off — as a result of the decision to lose GameTap. It did not name a buyer.
GameTap closed down its editorial division earlier this year to "focus the business on our biggest strength, which is our game catalog." The service also recently dropped Myst Online from its line-up, lobbing control back to its creators.
SOCOM: Confrontation Will Make You Love PSN [Socom: Confrontation]
I had a chance to sit down and get a nice long demo of upcoming SOCOM: Confrontation for the PS3. As someone who wasn’t big into the previous titles in the series before, I wasn’t sure how in the hell I’d like this one. As it turns out, it’s very easy to pick up and get into. And of all the major PS3 releases this fall – and there’s a lot of them - SOCOM is the game you might want to keep an eye on.
It seems like every online shooter coming out nowadays is held to a much higher standard than before when it comes to features and modes. Everyone is trying to outdo each other by having larger multiplayer maps, better cover systems, or smarter AI bots. So it was refreshing to see that SOCOM: Confrontation went the simple route and included none of these.
SOCOM is strictly multiplayer-only (read: no bots) and consists of seven maps. Five are for 32 players and the other two are for only 16. The level I was shown was for 32 players and we played against the QA testers back in Foster City. The game was a little laggy, but nothing that broke the gamplay.
I was surprised when I was told there’s no cover system of any kind. Moving the analog stick slightly forward will allow you to crouch-run, like in Metal Gear Solid 4. Also, for you Sixaxis fans out there, tilting the controller left and right when immobile will allow for peaking around corners. It worked pretty well, but I didn’t think it was all that useful since the gunfire can get hectic at times.
Graphically, the game looks phenomenal. While certain areas look better than others, the overall scope of the map I saw was impressive. In terms of destructibility, there isn’t a lot to blow up. You can blow up cars and barrels, but don’t expect to blow away pieces of buildings or terrain.
While I wasn’t given specific details on trophies, and since there’s no single player campaign, it appears they’ll be tied to your online stats. I assume that means there will be trophies for number of kills, accuracy, victories etc…
There’s also a great deal of customization for your character. You can select from a variety of armor pieces and weapons to bring into a fight, each affecting your overall movement speed and accuracy. There’s also an option to make your own badge if you’re hardcore enough to start making clans.
For a $40 PSN game, this is looking like a title online shooter fans will have a hard to passing up.
Bug Major Nelson For Maddenpalooza Tickets [Madden Nfl 09]
Fans hoping to get into EA's celebration of all things Madden at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California this Monday have pretty limited options when it comes to scoring entry into the event. They can either win tickets via local Southern California radio stations, or stand in line and hope they're one of the first 1,00 people there. Xbox Live's Larry Hryb offers gamers a third option for acquiring Maddenpalooza tickets - email him!
EA has hooked the Major up with 25 pairs of tickets, which he will award randomly to folks who email him between now and 9AM Pacific time tomorrow. He'll notify winners tomorrow afternoon, giving you a good four days to figure out how the hell you're going to make it to Pasadena in time. PROTIP - If you live in Pasadena, don't move.
Eternity's Child Review - Pretty Hate Machine [Review]
From the moment I first laid eyes on Eternity's Child I was expecting something special. An ambitious little title from artist Luc Bernard, the story concept captivated me just as much as the artwork. Flooded planet and mechanized animals aside, Eternity's Child was the simple story of a boy seeking acceptance in a world that had no place for him. Of course many things have changed since that initial story. Main character Angel found a winged girlfriend, the game was announced as a PC and WiiWare title, and a dual-character control system was revealed, but it was still the same concept I initially fell for, wasn't it? Will Angel find the acceptance he so desperately seeks, or should gamers turn a blind eye to his plight? Hit the jump and weigh his fate.
Loved The Art Design: Luc Bernard's artwork for Eternity's Child is what drew me to the title in the first place, and it looks even better in motion. The animation purposefully mimics 2D marionette movement to give the whole game a pop-up book sort of feel. The Music: Sean Beeson's score for the game would be completely at home in one of the more whimsical Tim Burton films. Hard to believe this much work went into such a tiny game. The Price: The game only costs $4.99 via Steam, for which you get the 20 levels that make up the first chapter and the promise of free addition chapters in the future. The Level Editor: Just an extra bit of fluff that lets you mess about with Bernard's artwork or add your own to comedic effect.
Hated The Story, Or Lack Thereof: Bernard wrote a wonderful background for the story involving a dark future where the earth has been flooded, the wingless hunt down the winged out of revenge, and nature is slowly being overtaken by the mechanical, all of which is addressed in a scrolling text opening and then never really visited again. Such an intriguing story needs to be explored, not ignored.
The Two-Character Mechanic: While it looks good on paper, having one character platforming and the other shooting feels completely unnecessary. Most of the time the two are completely separate, with Angel standing still while Rose shoots the enemies. When it is essential to run and shoot at the same time, the mechanic just feels unwieldy. The Enemies: Aside from lacking variety, the enemies in Eternity's Child are a bit on the stupid side, especially the giant mechanical birds, who are a major threat until you realize that simply moving back past their activation point sends them back to their starting position. Move forward, shoot, move back, repeat.
Level Design: While the levels in Eternity's Child are beautiful, they seem to favor chaos more than order. Timing jumps can be a chaotic affair, while platforms in one particular level had no real sense of timing at all, causing me to sink into the ocean again and again until I was ready to strangle someone. At times I enjoyed the challenge; other times I felt I was being screwed by poor design choices.
It's important to note that Eternity's Child is still very much a work in progress, despite its status as a Steam release. Just yesterday the game was patched to make the giant bird enemies die a little easier, and Luc has informed me that more changes are on the way – removing the Destructoid robot, adding new achievements, and possibly getting rid of the particularly sadistic roller coaster level, which had me shouting curse words I hadn't used in years. It's nice to see the team actively tweaking the title, though I'm not sure it will be enough to reconcile the clashing of excellent artistic design versus sub-par gameplay.
Eternity's Child does have a lot to offer for $5 – beautiful graphics, enchanting music, and a level editor to muck about with – all it's lacking is solid gameplay to complete the package.
Eternity's Child was developed by Luc Bernard and Silver Sphere Studios, published by Silver Sphere Studios. Released on July 31st on on Steam. Played game to completion.
Thai Ministry of Health's 10 Most Dangerous Games [Grand Theft Auto IV]
In what appears to be the wake of the Thai killing linked to Grand Theft Auto IV, the Thai Ministry of Health has put together a list of the ten most dangerous video games, Cnet Asia reports.
The original press release is in Thai, which I don't read, but the Cnet Asia reporter seems to be saying the release of the list and the killing are related. Now that Thailand has decided to pull one game from shelves, what's to stop them from pulling the ten on this list, which includes God of War and 300, the game, not the movie.
SOCOM: Confrontation will be hitting North American stores and the Playstation Network on Oct. 14 for $40 to $60, depending on the bundle you choose.
The SOCOM folks broke down the bundle options on their site a bit earlier today and it looks an awful lot like the options Warhawk gamers were given. While they haven't yet nailed it down, the team hopes to have the game hit the rest of the world at the same time.
And now for your choices:
$59.99 SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation (Bundle Version) Includes SOCOM Confrontation, a newly designed Bluetooth® Headset for the PLAYSTATION®3 system and exclusive Behind the Scenes videos.
$39.99 SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation (Stand Alone Version) For all of the people who want SOCOM: Confrontation on a disc. Does not include the headset or the Behind the Scenes videos.
$39.99 SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation on the PlayStation Network SOCOM Confrontation downloadable from the PSN without ever leaving you couch. Does not include the headset or the Behind the Scenes videos.
I sure hope that headset is SOCOM-themed. If you're going to buy the game, which option do you think you will be picking up.
Win GC Tickets With The Chronicles Of Spellborn [Gc08]
An MMORPG I've been keeping track of for quite some time, The Chronicles of Spellborn will be making a showing at the Games Convention at Leipzig this year, and they want to bring a few fans along for the ride. They've just updated their website with the fourth installment of their extensive game timeline, and to reward gamers who've been able to keep up they've asked a simple question: Which Vhelgar have been revealed in the Timeline so far? Find the answer to the question among the game's lore and email it to gewinnspiel@frogster-ip.de along with your contact information and you could be among 15 lucky winners of a one-day GC pass. Of course you'll still have to make your way to Germany to attend, but the thought is nice. isn't it? Here's some screens from the latest lore update to help assuage the disappoint of those of us without the ability to make last-minute trips to Germany.
Little Big Planet on the PC? Bwah? Reader Jacob writes: "Got these display boxes in at work for Little Big Planet on the PC, How Very Queer!!!" Pretty sure this is nothing more than a screw-up (not on Jacob's part, mind you!) and rather certain we'll only be seeing it on the PS3, but yeah, LBP on the PC would be pretty neat. That is, if you own a PC and are excited about LittleBigPlanet. If not, then oh well.
Forget that talk of Resident Evil 5 going to the Wii for a moment, and consider that other platform. The one that's a lot more likely to get a version of Resident Evil 5. Yeah, the PC. It's yet to be confirmed, but that doesn't stop Capcom's Christian Svensson from talking around it:
Previously, we brought word that Metal Gear Solid 4 appeared to be hitting 
Lawrence Taylor has quickly shot up my list of great people to interview. There was this Blitz: The League 2 launch party somewhere around Times Square tonight. Press people and whoever else got to play the game as well as take advantage of the open bar. The highlight of the night, however, was when I interviewed Lawrence Taylor -the football guy on the cover - in a round-table discussion. I didn't get a chance to ask a lot of questions, so when I did, I simply asked "Why should anyone buy Blitz 2 over Madden 09?" His response was, well, very...positional.
Sonic 1 was great! Sonic 2 was good! Heck, I even loved Sonic 3. But almost every Sonic since has been a bit, well, rubbish. Which has been a problem for Sega for, oh, over a decade now. We know it, you know it, so it's little surprise to see that, yes, even Sega know it, too, with Sega USA's Sean Ratcliffe saying:
Check Hell, because we think it's official frozen over. That right there was the line at the Akihabara Yodobashi Camera earlier this morning for Xbox 360 exclusive Tales of Vesperia. It was over a hundred people — small potatoes for, say, a Poké launch, but shocking for an Xbox 360 title in Japan. The game and an Xbox 360 went on sale, and there was a stage event with the game's creative producer Yoshito Higuchi and producer Tsutomu Gouda, telling fans how that they created a beautiful looking Tales for the Xbox 360. Joked Gouda:
PHEW. Speaking with VG247 at the Develop conference in Brighton (fun fact: I used to live in neighbouring Seaford), BioShock creator Ken Levine has told everyone to relax. The upcoming BioShock movie project is staying faithful to the source:
When launching Assassin's Creed on the PC earlier this year, Ubisoft contracted Charlotte-based Optical Experts Manufacturing to produce the retail copies of the game disc. Part of that contract was an assurance on the part of OEM that they had top-shelf security measures in place, and that no game disc would ever leave their premises. Thing is, in February - six weeks before the game's launch - a pirated version of the game turned up on the internets. A pirated version that was found to have come from an OEM-produced disc, that had been uploaded from the home of an OEM employee. Oops. Ubisoft are suing OEM for breach of contract, negligence and copyright infringement, to the tune of $10 million. Neither Ubisoft or OEM have yet commented on the lawsuit.
Boy, we were all excited when Ghostbusters: The Game was announced. Then we got all sad when the Activision Blizzard merger pulled the rug out from underneath us. Who was going to publish this game from developer Terminal Reality? Everything was all uncertain, and we were sad. Now Terminal Reality honcho Mark Randel says:
As a fan of the massacre film genre — I was raised on mass unsuspecting teen killing flicks like Chopping Mall, Happy Birthday To Me and Slumber Party Massacre — I may just have a soft spot for the schtick of seeing a dozen kids die in increasingly brutal yet comedic ways. That's why I'm not giving up on LAN Party Massacre, due to be released in 2009, self-described as a "comedy/horror slash film" that's a "direct parody of video game culture, but a classic slasher film at heart."
The new Xbox 360 has a 60GB HDD, which is new, but what about the rest of the console? Anything new inside the unit? Hacker extraordinaire Ben Heck got hold of one and busted it open like a naughty coconut to find out. What he found was that the new console has the same GPU, same 65nm CPU and same heatsink as we've been seeing for a while now, so don't expect any heat/noise improvements on that front (at least for the next few months), though he did notice that some of the console's memory chips have been moved from the bottom of the board, which should ease up on heating in that part of the 360. Other than that...yeah, it's a 360, with 40 extra GB.
Want to go to Akihabara and bask in the glory of millions of tons of video games, capsule toys, manga and electronics? Probably not if you're paying for the plane ticket over there. Fortunately, with the awesome power of Google Maps and Street View, you can scoot around Akiba virtually, checking out all the good game shops — their facades anyway.
The engineers at ASUS have done it again, unveiling "another world's first" with the Eee Stick, a new controller that "translates users' physical hand motions into corresponding movements onscreen." It's so fresh, so revolutionary, so ahead of its time, that we can't even begin to wrap our heads around it.
San Franciscans who had an open afternoon took to the streets today to protest the work of Ubisoft and the United States Army, claiming that the America's Army line of video games "has been developed by the United States Army to recruit children under the age of 17 in violation of the U.N. Optional Protocol and international law." Fortunately, Wired's Game|Life was on hand to capture the action, beat by beat.
According to a report from French site JeuxVideo, the next entry in the Medal of Honor series is going to take place in modern day Afghanistan and release under the title Medal of Honor: Operation Anaconda. Details on the rumored EA published sequel were culled from a questionnaire, passed on to JeuxVideo.
Japanese gamers have had access to the Talkman translation software on their PSPs for close to three years now. Even the Euros got their fix of Talkman! North Americans are finally getting it this Thursday via the PlayStation Store in the form of Talkman Travel, three language-based downloads that feature built-in translated phrases, photos of popular international destinations and even... wait for it... mini-games!
What little we know about Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain is that it can render faces — specifically wet faces — like nothing we've seen on a console before. Brand new screen shots of the PlayStation 3 game(?) really drive the point home that fans of wet faces will be crying tears of joy.
Apparently in reaction to gamer-centric convention 
The release of Warhawk 
Ubisoft is running a design contest over on their Shaun White Snowboarding site that give people a chance to design a real-life Burton snowboard and win a Wii.
Add one more face to the list of possibly known faces in FaceBreaker. GameDaily writes today that Kim Kardashian, famous for some reason that I'm unaware of other than having sex on the internet, will join the line-up of "celebrity" boxers in FaceBreaker. GameDaily says she's a "TV personality", if that clears up anything for you. She's also listed as being a "celebutant" which, I'll assume, means she's famous by design.
While I didn’t attend E3 – I was hanging out in Kotaku Tower with Luke working the night shift – I did get to see the presentation of Resistance 2 just like everyone else. But since I didn’t get to see the game in person, I had to make due by viewing screenshots and somewhat muddy-looking movies on my computer. At the time, I wasn’t too impressed with the game from a graphical standpoint. I mean, it looked great, but after sitting down on a nice couch in front of a big-ass TV, I can say with confidence that, yes, Resistance 2 does look amazing.
KingIsle entertainment has announced the launch of the open beta for their family-friendly MMO Wizard101, which combines magical adventures with card-based spellcasting battles to create something that seems to have attracted a larger following than they originally expected. Never underestimate the power of 
Time Warner revealed in its quarterly earnings statement today that GameTap owner Turner has decided to sell off the subscription model gaming service. That release noted an "$18 million noncash impairment" — read: write-off — as a result of the decision to lose GameTap. It did not name a buyer.
Fans hoping to get into EA's 
From the moment I 
In what appears to be the wake of the 
SOCOM: Confrontation will be hitting North American stores and the Playstation Network on Oct. 14 for $40 to $60, depending on the bundle you choose.
An MMORPG I've been keeping track of for quite some time, The Chronicles of Spellborn will be making a showing at the Games Convention at Leipzig this year, and they want to bring a few fans along for the ride. They've just updated their