Archive for October 3rd, 2006
Luigi Drawn in 3D
Jim at the Daily Drawing does it again! This time, though, he wasn’t content to bring pencil to paper, but rather sculpted Luigi out of polygonal playdough. Awesome.
PS3 Accessories Priced (In Japan)
Sony has officially announced the price for some of their Playstation 3 accessories in Japan.
SixAxis controller: 5,000 yen (or $39.99)
BD Remote: 3,600 yen (or $29.99)
Memory Card Adapter, which lets you use PS2 Memory Cards): 1,500 yen (or $12.99)
Of course the converted price may not have any basis in fact. But if it’s even close, these are pretty decent prices. Especially when you consider that Best Buy lists the Xbox 360 wireless controller for $50.
I’ve contacted SCEA about U.S. prices and will update when and if I hear something.
Playstaiton 3 Japan [SCEI]
This Day in Gaming, October 3rd
1998: Inforian launches 2000: The Quest, on the Internet. This isn’t just a game - or a quest. It’s “a Mensa workout in cyberspace”. Two types of people in the world: those you are smart enough to join Mensa, and those who are smart enough not to join Mensa. Choose your side.
1998: Tiger announced Giga-Fighters - little digital pets that can fight other little digital pets. Don’t kids these days know that’s what chickens are for?
2002: Codemasters releases Prisoner of War for PC in the US. I don’t know what’s so fun about getting tortured and starved to the point where one man dies and you contemplate eating him - but hey - different strokes.
Have gaming history, trivia, or famous birthdays you’d like to see in TDIG? Drop us a line at tdig@kotaku.com
Two Atari 2600 Adver-Games
Lest the ghastly, ghoulish visage of the Burger King leering creepily from the cover of an Xbox game fool you, adver-games are nothing new. In fact, they are so old, they go back to the Atari 2600.
For example, Johnson & Johnson Presents Tooth Protectors: The Video Game or Purina’s Chase the Chuck Wagon…
As B&B&P&S says:
…think about how embedded games were in the 80’s when a dog food company is able to put out a specialized game ONLY available via postal mail.
Of course, not all adver-games suck. Nerf Arena Blast was pretty dang fun, and I do have a soft spot, for whatever reason, for Yo! Noid.
Adver-games are nothing new [B&B&P&S]
Take Apart A PSP In Minutes
While we don’t recommend you try this at home, this video demonstration shows how to take apart your PSP bolt-by-bolt and put it back together. (Some modder is actually showing how to install a PSP mod called PSPTV.) It reminds us of scenes in movies where soldiers take apart their rifles blindfolded but with added irritating music.
More Here [Aeropause]
LocoRoco Plushes Won’t Stop the Music
Anne Packrat wrote to say that she made these LocoRoco plushes, mostly by hand, in a futile attempt to get the music to stop playing in her head. The plushes didn’t stop the music in my head either, but they did make me giggle a little. I would love to take one of these and just bean the crap out of someone in the head with it while shouting the nonsense words as loud as I could. Yes, I have issues.
Sword of the Stars vs. Tom Chick
Sword of the Stars, by most accounts, was a rather forgettable space strategy game with a gorgeous look to it and some of the most obnoxious, petulant twerps as developers this side of Derek Smart.
Case in point, Martin Cirulis — CEO of Kerberos — has recently gone absolutely bat-shit crazy on Tom Chick, one of the best known writers in video games journalism. Chick dared to give Sword of the Stars a negative review, you see, even though Chick wrote the manual for not-really-a-competitor game Galactic Civilization 2. As a one-time contractor. With no vested financial interest whatsoever in the sales of that title.
In response, Chick has written a long rebuttal, filled with common sense. But it’s hardly needed. Chick sums up the kind of company we’re dealing with.
Cirulis’ insinuations via email, first through his hired PR agency to my editors and then directly from him to me, have been insulting. He’s questioned my integrity and made cryptic remarks about resorting to “other venues” to resolve the issue. It reminds me of his other attempts to mute negative opinions. Cirulis bullied Worthplaying into revising a skeptical preview and then running a new preview written by one of his personal friends. After the demo for Sword of the Stars was released, critical posts and threads were routinely removed from Kerberos’ message board and people who didn’t like the game were banned. Posting as “mecron”, Cirulis dismisses complaints with accusations of “GalCiv2 fanboy”. Or “manual writer”.
Martin, take a lesson from Derek Smart: as a small time developer specializing in unorthodox games set in outer space, you can either be well-loved and listen to criticism… or you can be an insufferable cunt. But not both! [
What's the deal with...the developer of Sword of the Stars? [Qt3]
Microsoft’s Review: Gears of War Is Great
Gears of War is not a decent game. It’s not “okay.” It will kick your fuckin’ teeth in. Who says? Ken Lobb. And who’s he? He’s one of the folks behind Golden Eye 007. Ken’s review:
I finished the game for the first time this afternoon… This game is insanely good. I have always thought that this was going to be a game that would really matter to us, but DAMN!!! The story is cool, the gameplay is far more varied than I expected, the graphics blew my mind, and continued to get better and better through the whole experience. Every time I stopped playing over the last few days, I have been pulled back for more, and have been thinking about what I just went through, and where I was going to be headed next. Awesome!
Oh, and Ken works for Microsoft, too. Way to pull that company line! Can’t wait for your review of Halo 3. (That being said, GoW does look pretty dang cool.)
Ken’s Two Cents [Aeropause]
New Consoles (and the NES) Sized Up For Your Pleasure
Jason Chen at gearheaded brother site Gizmodo has done the internet a public service. Jason points to a graph of sized up next-gen consoles: The PLAYSTATION 3, the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii. For shits and giggles, the NES has even been included. No surprises (the PS3 is huge, the Wii ain’t), but still helpful when planning on how much space you’ll need to clear for each machine. Curious, does the PS3 knock the Xbox off the biggest console pedestal?
Graphed For You [Gizmodo]
Importers Prepare to PS3 Price Gouge, Start Pre-Orders
Wow, importer Lik-Sang has started accepting pre-orders for the Playstation 3 and 20 PS3 games for no money down. Reading through the rules, everything seems pretty cool: You can always cancel, you can change which one you want, you can choose between U.S. and Japan versions. Then I noticed the “Extra Note” tucked down at the bottom of the page.
” Be prepared that the day-1 prices will be much higher than the manufacturers suggested retail price,” it starts. Uh, oh, can you say price gauging?
Hit the jump for their very long “Extra Note” which uses phrases like “There is never enough of the good stuff on launch day” and “Mastercard would call that ‘priceless
Fortunately, they do allow you to just sit on your pre-order even after the PS3 hits, if you don’t want to pay the obviously bloated price.
Extra note: Be prepared that the day-1 prices will be much higher than the manufacturers suggested retail price. Experienced and veteran hardcore gamers, who are not importing a system for the first time, know that buying a PS3 at launch or a PSP at launch is not the same thing as simply buying a mere PlayStation 3 or a random PSP off some supermarket shelf. You’re paying for the privilege of getting it two months before the massive overflow. Especially with the long forecasted shortages (only 100.000 units for Japan at release date), MasterCard would call that ‘priceless’. There is never enough of the good stuff on a launch day, and Lik Sang is required to pay premium pricing to get earlybird stock in sufficient levels for everybody. We can only extend these offers to you during the first couple of months, while waiting for the market to stabilize. But that’s the beauty of the No Money Down Special Pre-Order system, you can always ignore day-1 prices and wait for a few more days, a few more weeks, or even several months, until the price goes down to an acceptable level. Without ever losing your pre-order position!
A History Of Video Game Covers
Over at our favorite mainstream gaming news site, 1UP, Kurt Kalata has put up just an excellent history of video game cover art, from the bizarre imaginings of early cover artists attempting to extrapolate a four-pixel sprite into an incredibly detailed painting to the modern disparity between American, European and Japanese cover designs.
I have to admit, I really love those old covers. You can just imagine some random cover artist just pouring the booze down his throat as he tries to do the impossible: take all of Pac-Man’s abstraction and trying to sum it up in a picture that tells some kind of story. “Okay, so there’s this floating yellow pizza, and he has to eat dots and fruits, and he runs around a maze, and ghosts chase him! Wait! I got it! What if he’s a deformed, buck-toothed jogger, the dots are hamburgers, and ghosts are chasing him around a castle? That makes sense, right?” Well, I’m sure it does when you’ve got a 9am deadline and you’re on your third bottle of scotch.
Judging A Game By Its Cover [1Up]
Blow Up Bunnies With Secret Splinter Cell Site
Anything that features exploding bunnies is A-OK in my book. a cool little viral site for Splinter Cell: Double Agent just popped up. The Fifth Freedom looks like an infomercial for a spy start kit, complete with weapons, disguises and Bleed Out, a blood stain remover. Toupee-wearing John Badsky talks to callers and pitches the Girls of the NSA calendar with equal alacrity. And then there’s the Morality Test with the cutest big-eyed bunnies you’ve ever seen. Man they make a mess when they explode.
Make Your Own Mii
One of the readers of Joystiq, a delightfully obsessive-compulsive type, was thoughtful enough to put together a more or less exact simulacrum of the Wii’s Mii Generator and let Joystiq host it. As you can see, it works rather well, and much like the real thing: see my incredibly accurate homunculus, above, which accurately captures my buck teeth, my hydrocephalus and exactly why I got my nickname ‘Stubby Flo’ in a saw mill accident when I was ten. If I only I could give my Mii bigger tits, the illusion would be complete. Give it a try for yourself.
Mii Generator [Joystiq]
Fighting The Good Fight, Another PSP Bundle Hits Japan
Yes, yes, the DS pwned Japan, okay, okay. We get it. But, what is Sony going to do about it? Bundles! There is another announced, which will drop in limited numbers on October 19th. It includes a one GB Memory Stick PRO, a special pouch, USB cable, a stand, AC adaptor and a battery. The included portable will be either black or white and the peripherals will correspond to those colors. Here’s the kicker: Apparently the price is open.
New Bundle [Game Watch Impress]
Canada’s PS3 Billboard
Reader Jacob sent along pics of this Toronto PLAYSTATION 3 billboard. While looking at it, we didn’t think about whether it was aesthetically pleasing or even had nice SPIDERMAN font, but rather: Isn’t it waaay low to the ground to be a billboard? Baffled.
PS3 Billboard Pics [Flickr, Thanks Jacob!]
Block Live Camera Porn
Msoft wrote to let me know that you can in-fact block unwanted Live Vision video streams in games like Uno. Good thing, because the complaints about abuses keep rolling in. So if you’re one of those people whose virgin eyes or delicate nature is offended by the sight of nubile nudity or hardcore porn (yes, both have already happened in Uno) then here’s your ticket out of virtual Gomorrah.
To block incoming video hope into Uno’s Help & Options screen, then go to Camera Settings and press the Y button to disable your camera. Voila, no more free streaming porn.
You can also change your settings to only allow friends to communicate with you and finally, you can file a complaint against people who flash their frank and two beans at your right after you win a hand of Uno.
Three Ways to Protect Yourself [Gamerscore Blog]
Final Fantasy XII Pirated 30 Days Before US Release
We got an email from an anonymous tipster yesterday, indicating that the US version of Final Fantasy XII had been leaked in ISO form to various torrent sites. We checked when we heard it, but didn’t come up with anything that looked legit.
Doublechecking today, it certainly appears to be for real. Commenters on Digg are confirming the validity of the torrents and that it is a leaked, legitimate copy of the US version of FFXII… 30 days before release.
Obviously, we’re not informing you of this so you can rush out and download it, but more so you’ve got the proper background when heads at Sony or Square-Enix roll. And we’re betting at least one coconut will.
New Mass Effect eye candy
Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Adventure, RPGs
IGN’s new Mass Effect screenshots show that BioWare’s sci-fi RPG is progressing nicely in the visuals department. Our X06 recon team was also impressed with the game’s conversation branching and squad command features. The only bad thing about this game so far is that it won’t be out until next year. How do you and your Xbox 360 plan to pass the time?
See also: BioWare prepares to conquer portable gaming
Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Virtual Console All Locked Up
The Virtual Console? Region locked. Yep. European gamers get European versions, Americans get American and the Japanese get all the cool stuff. The Virtual Console will be dishing up titles from the NES, Super NES, Nintendo 64, the Sega Genesis and the TurboGrafx at a rate of 10 per month. Cool, but still… What’s more, while the Wii is compatible with all GameCube software, these titles will be region locked, too. This region locked nonsense has gotten me bummed out about the Wii. The lack of such protection on the DS is one of the things that makes the portable so darn cool. Surely, Nintendo must understand this. Surely.
Nintendo UK Says Wii All Locked Up [Eurogamer]
NBA Live 07
Extra jerseys for your favorite ballers.
