Archive for May 18th, 2006
Brain Age owners flaunt their art [update 1]
Filed under: Culture, Nintendo DS
[Via Wonderland]
Update: I misspelled “Brain” in the title. What? It’s early!
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The Xbox 360 Japanese Fish Sim
Tokyo game maker Frontier Groove has made its underwater 3D aquarium game AQUAZONE for computer gamers and cell phoners. And now add the 360 to that list. The console version boasts 14 type of fish, including that one from Finding Nemo. Think of it as your own personal HD fish thank, but without minus the algae scrubbing. —Brian Ashcraft
Screens Here [Watch Impress]
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Related: Kotaku Stalku: Kojima At Msoft E3 Booth
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Today in Joystiq: May 18, 2006
Joystiquery
A guide to Joystiq star-whoring
Overheard: polite clapping is quite enough, fanboys
News
CliffyB’s guided tour through Gears of War
Where’s J Allard? Working at Wal-Mart
Infinium founder busted!
UK PS3 comes in at £425, Sony loses its marbles
Scarface babe roster announced
Second Life publisher sued: Bragg v. Linden Research
A fluff-tacular Final Fantasy III trailer
A second life for Uru Live
E3 boosts Xbox Live Marketplace downloads
Rumors & Speculation
Background downloading for Xbox Live this month
Next-gen Rez sequel in the cards?
Culture
Heavy Rain in the “Uncanny Valley”
Sony can’t sell PSPs in Europe! OMG WTF?!
Llama team’s Rockstar-edition Xbox 360 mod
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Overheard: polite clapping for Nintendo is quite enough, fanboys
Filed under: Culture, E3, Business
Fellow Joystiq blogger Chris Grant forwarded the following quote to me and asked, “Why does this sound like something you’d say?”
Washington Post blogger Mike Musgrove overheard one member of a cluster of bloggers behind him caution his fellow bloggers just prior to the beginning of the Nintendo’s E3 press conference: “Remember, no fanboyism — if something happens, polite clapping is enough.”
Hilarious!
… but only for a moment. Editorialising follows after the post break.
The quote is funny because it typifies so much of what’s wrong with “reporting” at E3. First, we’ve got to give credit to the anonymous blogger who at least recognized the need to remain calm and somewhat even-keeled: good job. You recognized that you were there to provide coverage and to keep a level head about you, even as the company on the stage did their best to inundate you with trickery designed to sweep you off your feet. For that, you deserve recognition.
It’s unfortunate, however, that many members of the E3 “press” failed to quell their enthusiasm. I now recall in embarrassment the hoots and yells that routinely break out at E3 press conferences, particularly the Nintendo conference. Such ad-hoc outbursts of passion are appropriate at a pep rally, or at an Evangelical telethon, but they’re completely out of place in a room that’s supposedly full of members of the press (wouldn’t be much of a press conference without press there, would it?).
Why do press allow themselves to get carried way past the point of no-return, past the junction of logic and reason, to the point that they’ve lost all rational ability to see the hype for what it is?
Whoever you “press” are, this is a message for you: if you’re a so-called “member of the press” and you screamed ecstatically — if you lost yourself — at any of the big three press conferences at E3, you should be ashamed. Your inability to keep your head in the face of a PR blitz means that you’re doing Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo’s work for them. When you bleat out a cheer at the beck of some spot-lit shepherd, you’ve just done the marketer’s work for him. When you clap extra-enthusiastically, you’ve turned teamkiller on your fellow members of the press corps. When you stomp your feet (yes, I saw foot stomping) you turn aid these companies in their efforts to overwhelm our senses; you turn the aural guns on your teammates in the audience.
Here’s to hoping you greenhorns get your acts together for the next big media event. A little less fanboy, a little more Cronkite, if you can muster it.
[Via Video Game Media Watch]
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E3 boosts Xbox Live Marketplace downloads
Filed under: Culture, Microsoft Xbox 360, Online, E3, Business
In other Xbox Live news, Microsoft’s “Bring it home” campaign resulted in over five million Marketplace downloads last week during E3. 1.5 million gamers visited the Xbox online service to download high definition content, the most popular of which was the Halo 3 trailer. According to the ever-quotable Peter Moore, “While others talk about online entertainment in the console space, we are delivering it in glorious high-definition to the millions of members we have across 24 countries.”
The E3 traffic, assisted by free Gold service from Verizon and Adidas, has pushed the total number of Marketplace downloads to 24 million pieces of digital content since launch. What did you download from Xbox Live during the expo?
See also: Rumor: Background downloading for Xbox Live this month
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A second life for Uru Live
Filed under: PC, Retro, Adventure, Puzzle, E3
Myst fans who weren’t stymied by installation problems and frequent crashes in the Uru spin-off games were left lamenting the cancellation of Uru Live back in early 2004. The opportunity to build virtual neighborhoods and engage in multiplayer exploration of the Miller brothers’ wondrous ages was taken away when Ubisoft decided there were not enough projected subscribers to support an online service.
Enter GameTap. Last week at E3, Ted Turner’s on-demand gaming service announced they will team with developer Cyan Worlds to give Uru a proper online home this holiday season. The decision was due in no small part to the active Uru Live community that nurtured the franchise after the plug was pulled two years ago. Read more about these fan-created services in the CNET article, and for more information on the game itself, visit Uru Live where you can sign up for the beta.
Now, maybe Ted can do something about Duke Nukem Forever.
[Thanks to Daniel at CNET]
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Rakka Deer Bakes Intellivision Cake
Reader DBW wrote us in response to our More Retro Baking post, Kotakuite DBW pointed out that Rakka Deer — that sweetly-scented exotic blossom who baked the Centipede string of cupcakes and opium-like entranced us — did him the favor of baking him an Intellivision cake to help promote his book Lucky Wander Boy… which is also frostily edible.
With my junta of velvet-clad friends swirling brandy goblets about in musty libraries while smoking latakia in ponderous meerschaums and politely chuckling over qutations from Trollope, I have clearly been gallavanting about in the wrong social circles. - Florian Eckhardt
as finished as it’s gonna’ get! [Flickr]
Previously: More Retro Baking
PS3 Online Is Like Really, Really “Free”
At Sony’s E3 presser, the company announced the online service would be “free.” But, as soon as bossman Kaz Hirai failed to mention online play, people jumped to the conclusion that “free” was cockamamy bull. However, Sony Computer Entertainment has told game site PS3 Land the following:
Please note that online gaming will be free right out of the box.
Even Microsoft can’t dangle this kind of carrot. A bonus like free online play just might make up for the console’s astronomical price. —Brian Ashcraft
More Here [PS3Land]
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How to Look Cool with a Pac Man Hat
The poor Namco booth trools were forced to stuff there sweaty heads into Pac-Man hats for three days of show floor hell last week. After watching the Pac heads in the wild for awhile, I noticed that some of them were trying to make the whole wearing-a-plush-mascot-on-the-head thing look cool. Apparently, pulling Pac-Man back on your head so your hair juts out through his mouth means you’re the bomb, while wearing him all crooked and shit means your totally gangsta. —Brian Crecente
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Super Mario Scarf!
The handsome lad who owns this scarf certainly knows how to gird his thorax in style. One side of the scarf has the normal pixel representations of Super Mario Brothers characters sewn into it, but flip the scarf over and they all get smushed. Are you a girl who can knit such a scarf? Will you marry us? We don’t care how fat, how ugly, how questionable your hygiene is — we will honor our vow. - Florian Eckhardt
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Related: Rakka Deer Bakes Intellivision Cake
Related: More Retro Baking!
Your Own Personal Kaz Hirai Quote Machine
Sony Computer Entertainment honcho Kaz Hirai is chockfull of fab catch phrases from the PS3 presser at E3. Quotes like “Woah!”, “I’m not a very good player” and of course, “Riiiiidge Raaaaacer” made an otherwise dull press conference slightly less dull. Mind you, it was still dull. The open-shirt exec (Kaz, darlin’, buy a neck-tie) gets his own fan-made soundboard, providing approximately four minutes of amusement.
KazHiraiSoundboard [Official Site] Thanks Chakal!
Real Life Halo Warthog
Tiscali games points out that Peugeot’s latest concpet car, a dune buggy of sorts, bears an amazing resemblance to Halo’s Warthog. I wonder if it comes in camo green? —Brian Crecente
Real Life Halo Test Drive a Warthog [Tiscali]
Resident Evil 4 Platinum Announced
If you haven’t played Resident Evil 4 yet, you should. We here at Kotaku show an unabashed appreciation for the visceral thrill of blowing a zombie’s head off with a shotgun and you Kotakuites should too. So we’re pleased to report that gamers who haven’t yet played RE4 yet that a $20 buck Platinum version should be released in October. Sure, you won’t get that swank tin case, but you will gain inner knowledge of the thrill of shooting a Ganados in the kneecap, then piledriving his skull into gelatinous ooze when he stumbles! - Florian Eckhardt
Resident Evil 4 Platinum Announced [Evil Avatar]
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E306: First Annual Swag Off… The Winner! (Bonus: Pro-Level Swag Tips!)
We sent select members of Team Kotaku—highly trained athletes to a man—on a mad dash through the E3 show floor last week to collect the most swag in thirty minutes. This year’s winner? Mark Wilson, one of our sweaty-browed video producers. Pictured is his winning (by value) swag haul—and he came in with a minute to spare. (Honorable mention to Jason Chen for winning the ‘Volume’ prize, and Lia Bulaong for ‘Weight.’)
We’ll be giving the sum total of the swag harvested to one lucky (?) winner here soon, giving you a part of the E3 experience in the comfort of your own, single-user-body-odor home. In the meantime, enjoy Mark’s tips on how to garner the most swag in the least amount of time, after the jump.
Swag like a pro! (And maybe we’ll see you in the Swag Off next year!)
After triumphing in the First Annual Kotaku Swag Off, I’ve been getting quite a few calls - a book deal, movie rights for the book deal, a lawsuit for the movie rights for the book deal - but I decided since Kotaku was there for me when I was just a “normal”, I would give them the official exclusive.
I wish I could teach you the way of the swag, but honestly, I think it’s one of those things you are born with. But since you weren’t, read on after the jump for how the pros do it.
Swag tip 1: You need to ask.
E3 isn’t about the games; it’s about the swag. Don’t be distracted by the Wii and other trinkets. Go right to the reception desk and actually ask someone if they are giving anything away.
Swag tip 2: You need to ask for more than one.
Two is always better than one, especially with swag. After you get a piece of swag, take it and ask if you could get just one more. I mean, there are all sorts of holidays going on after E3 and I know my mom will love the God of War t-shirt.
Swag tip 3: Say you’re someone of legitimacy.
To a faceless company, sometimes the average person isn’t worth the sweet, sweet nectar of the swag. But a little affiliation goes a long way. I was with Kotaku, and I said so right in my introduction. Of course since you aren’t with Kotaku, say you are with Joystiq. It won’t bother us.
Swag tip 4: Gloat.
Swag may fade, but glory lasts forever. —Mark Wilson
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Related: How to Look Cool with a Pac Man Hat
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Mario iPod, Final Fantasy iPod, Dragon Ball iPod Ads
Japanese site Nyasoku has a neato thread going of imaginary iPod ads that feature loads and loads of video game superstars. Hit the jump to view some of the standouts. —Brian Ashcraft
More Here [Nyasoku]
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Related: Swedish Paper Reveals Wii Pricing?
MTV’s Best of for E306
MTV’s GameTrailers have cobbled together their own Best of E3 Awards, because lord knows we need more of those. This one has 22 categories and 110 nominees. It doesn’t help that the GameTrailers awards make their first screw-up in the very first category.
According to the press release, all of the nominees, with the exception of the best trailer award, were playable at the show. So how did Assassin’s Creed make the list? Or do they mean that it was playable by the people doing the demo, because to the best of my knowledge only the people demoing the game actually got their hands on a controller.
The winners of this latest awards line-up will be announced on Friday. Hit the jump for the full list of finalists. —Brian Crecente
GENERAL AWARDS:
Best of Show
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii) Nintendo
Crysis (PC) Electronic Arts
Gears of War (Xbox 360) Microsoft
Assassins Creed (Ubisoft) PlayStation 3
Rainbow Six: Vegas (Ubisoft) Xbox 360
Best Trailer
Super Smash Bros.: Brawl (Nintendo) Wii
Metal Gear Solid: Guns of the Patriots (Konami) PlayStation 3
Assassins Creed (Ubisoft) PlayStation 3
Final Fantasy XIII (Square Enix) PlayStation 3
Tony Hawk’s Project 8 (Activision) PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Most Innovative
Spore (Electronic Arts) PC
Loco Roco (SCEA) Sony PSP
Eye of Judgment (SCEA) PlayStation 3
WarioWare: Smooth Moves (Nintendo) Wii
Assassins Creed (Ubisoft) PlayStation 3
Best Graphics
Gears of War (Microsoft Game Studios) Xbox 360
Resistance: Fall of Man (SCEA) PlayStation 3
Rainbow Six: Vegas (Ubisoft) Xbox 360
Crysis (Electronic Arts) PC
Heavenly Sword (SCEA) PlayStation 3
Best Hardware
Nintendo Wii
Xbox 360
PlayStation 3
Nintendo DS
Sony PSP
Best User Submitted E3 Video
Nominees and winner announced on Friday on the E3 edition of GT Weekly.
GENRE AWARDS:
Best Shooter
Crysis (Electronic Arts) PC
Gears of War (Microsoft Game Studios) Xbox 360
Resistance: Fall of Man (SCEA) PlayStation 3
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (Activision) PC
Lost Planet (Capcom) Xbox 360
Best Action/Adventure
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo) Wii
Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo) Wii
Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Ubisoft) Xbox 360
Assassins Creed (Ubisoft) PlayStation 3
God of War II (SCEA) PlayStation 2
Best Puzzle
Loco Roco (SCEA) Sony PSP
Every Extend Extra (Q Entertainment) Sony PSP
WarioWare: Smooth Moves (Nintendo) Wii
Lumines II (Buena Vista Games) Sony PSP
Capcom Puzzle Worlds (Capcom) Sony PSP
Best Strategy
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (Electronic Arts) PC
Panzer Tactics DS (CDV Software) Nintendo DS
Supreme Commander (THQ) PC
Heroes of Might and Magic V (Ubisoft) PC
The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle Earth II (Electronic Arts) Xbox 360
Best Role-Playing
Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix) PlayStation 2
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (Blizzard Entertainment) PC
BioShock (Take-Two) PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Mass Effect (Microsoft Game Studios) Xbox 360
Tabula Rasa (NCSoft) PC
Best Sports
Madden NFL 07 (Electronic Arts) Xbox 360
Wii Sports (Nintendo) Wii
NCAA Football 07 (Electronic Arts) Xbox 360
NBA 2K7 (Take-Two) Xbox 360
Rockstar Presents Table Tennis (Rockstar Games) Xbox 360
Best Online
The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar (Midway) PC
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (Blizzard Entertainment) PC
Tabula Rasa (NCSoft) PC
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (Activision) PC
Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising (SOE) PC
Best Racing
Test Drive Unlimited (Atari) Xbox 360
Gran Turismo HD (SCEA) PlayStation 3
Moto GP 06 (THQ) Xbox 360
Motorstorm (SCEA) PlayStation 3
Diddy Kong Racing (Nintendo) Nintendo DS
Best Fighting
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (Midway) PlayStation 2, Xbox
Tekken: Dark Resurrection (Namco) Sony PSP
Virtua Fighter 5 (Sega) PlayStation 3
Powerstone Collection (Capcom) Sony PSP
WWE Smackdown! vs RAW 07 (THQ) Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Best Simulation
Spore (Electronic Arts) PC
Chrome Hounds (Sega) Xbox 360
Microsoft Flight Simulator X (Microsoft Game Studios) PC
Guitar Hero 2 (RedOctane) PlayStation 2
Gran Turismo HD (SCEA) PlayStation 3
PLATFORM AWARDS:
Best Xbox 360
Rainbow Six: Vegas (Ubisoft) Xbox 360
Gears of War (Microsoft Game Studios) Xbox 360
Lost Planet (Capcom) Xbox 360
Mass Effect (Microsoft Game Studios) Xbox 360
Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Ubisoft) Xbox 360
Best PlayStation 3
Resistance: Fall of Man (SCEA) PlayStation 3
Warhawk (SCEA) PlayStation 3
Heavenly Sword (SCEA) PlayStation 3
Gran Turismo HD (SCEA) PlayStation 3
The Eye of Judgment (SCEA) PlayStation 3
Best Wii
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo) Wii
Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo) Wii
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Nintendo) Wii
Wii Sports (Nintendo) Wii
Red Steel (Ubisoft) Wii
Best Nintendo DS
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (Konami) Nintendo DS
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo) Nintendo DS
New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo) Nintendo DS
Star Fox DS (Nintendo) Nintendo DS
Yoshi’s Island 2 (Nintendo) Nintendo DS
Best Sony PSP
Killzone Liberation (SCEA) Sony PSP
Loco Roco (SCEA) Sony PSP
Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters (SCEA) Sony PSP
Tekken: Dark Resurrection (Namco Bandai) Sony PSP
Gitaroo-Man Lives! (Koei) Sony PSP
Best PC
Crysis (Electronic Arts) PC
Spore (Electronic Arts) PC
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (Activision) PC
Tabula Rasa (NCSoft) PC
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (Blizzard Entertainment) PC
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Related: Gametrailers Snatched Up by MTV
Microsoft’s Official “Hacked 360″ Response
The Gamerscore blog has the news:
The core security system has not been broken. However, on some Xbox 360 consoles the authentication protocol between the optical disc drive and the console may be attacked via a complex software and hardware modification which could allow people to play illegally copied and modified games.
Just part of Microsoft’s official response to the has-it-or-hasn’t-it Xbox 360 hack. The comments make for a pretty interesting read, too. —Alice Taylor
Microsoft’s Official “Hacked 360″ Response [Gamerscore Blog]
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Thieves Den Coming to Oblivion
Well, well, Bethesda does seem to be pretty good at rooting around within the sofa cushions for yet another ill-conceived piece of episodic content to try to sell us, don’t they?
Their upcoming Oblivion download is called ‘The Thieves Den’ and it “is a treacherous hive of villainy referred to by the creators as being like Goonies.” Full of Corey Feldman, in other words. This is another Orrery, basically being another place to put your stuff… you fight for the cave and, if you manage to gain control, you can send out a squadron of pirates to pillage, rape and plunder while mopping up rum with their beards and singing your name.
Actually, this one sounds better than the last few, but pirates pretty much singlehandedly redeem almost any piece of crap, don’t they? Look for ‘The Thieves Den’ in the XBox Marketplace in the coming weeks. - Florian Eckhardt
New Oblivion Content in Two Weeks [1UP]
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A fluff-tacular Final Fantasy III trailer
Filed under: Nintendo DS, RPGs
Game Brink is hosting the official Final Fantasy III trailer, a remake of the original FF III on the DS. The entire 2-minute trailer consists of approximately 10 seconds of total gameplay footage. The majority of the trailer is pre-rendered CG and self-promoting hype. here’s how the trailer breaks down:
- 0:00 to 0:36 — Fluff text, decreeing this game as “The only Final Fantasy that never reached Western shores.”
- 00:37 to 00:45 — hand-drawn artwork from the game.
- 00:46 to 1:19 — Some beautiful CG work of the main characters riding Chocobos alongside a rising airship.
- 1:20 to 1:31 — Actual gameplay footage.
- 1:31 to 1:37 — More CG, including our heros facing off against a giant Cerberus-style beast.
- 1:38 to 2:00 — More fluff text: “Complete the Fantasy.”
To be fair, the CG video was impressive and what we see of the gameplay we like. Final Fantasy III is due out late this year.
[Thanks, Miyamootoo]
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At E3, That Was Not a Wii, But a GameCube
Pictures are surfacing of what Nintendo really rolled out at E3. It wasn’t the Wii console folks were playing, but next-gen development kits stuffed in GameCube casings. Ninty fanboys are *surprise* getting a little too excited about this, claiming that the graphics shown at E3 were not real Wii graphics, that the system’s graphics card is still in development, blah, blah, blah. Empty hopes and wet dreams aside, most likely what the world saw at E3 will set the tone for how first-gen Wii games are gonna look. Chin up, because that’s not necessarily a bad thing. —Brian Ashcraft
Forum Thread Here [Nintendo Insider Forums] Thanks, Kyle!
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Related: Mario iPod, Final Fantasy iPod, Dragon Ball iPod Ads
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