Archive for November 9th, 2006
The Most Wacked Out Super Mario Speed Run Ever
It’s called Air and is simply a hacked Super Mario Bros. ROM. It makes no sense. At all.
EA: “Gears of War? Zero Innovation.”
Oh snap! Oh. Oh it’s ON now. Electronic Arts Montreal general manager Alain Tascan laid a little smack down on the competition.
What is Gears of War? I mean Gears of War brings nothing in terms of innovation to the shooter… Like, zero. Only two very brave UK-based journalists said, ‘You know what, Gears of War is a great game but it’s like what Quake was a few years ago.’
Dude. Army of Two had better be the best game EVER or you’re going to hear about this for a long time.
Tascan admits that he hasn’t actually played Gears yet—and neither have I—but is in essence calling out the industry for being putting graphics before gameplay. I can get behind that, Alain, but you really ought to focus on your own game a bit more.
Gears of War has ‘zero innovation’, says EA exec [Eurogamer]
PSP Clone Phone
Gotta love the lengths to which knock-offs go. Take this “PSP phone,” which looks like, well, a PSP but smaller. What’s more, it’s possible to play good games, Nintendo games on it, such as Super Mario Bros. It runs MP3s and MP4s as well, and there’s a camera built in. Major difference: The back doesn’t read PSP, but FUN. Indeed!
It’s Like a PSP, But Not [PhoneDaily, Thanks Pimski!]
Clips: South Park Wii Part Two
And the wonderful conclusion of South Park’s double homage to the Nintendo Wii, the Colorado school system and gay monkey frog sex.
South Park 1013 [DailyMotion, via Destructoid]
The Bosses Of Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz
Sega uploaded some new artwork of the bosses of Super Monkey Ball for the Nintendo Wii, which, I must say, are wicked CUTE. And cool. And vaguely disturbing at times.
Obviously, you should consider the following shots potential spoilers. Those of you on the fence about buying another Monkey Ball game, myself included, should at least check them out.
Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz Bosses Gallery
PlayStation 3 Manuals Online
With just eight days to go before some 400,000 of us are settling down for a day of next-gen PlayStation gaming, eBay listing, and/or factory fresh electronics box huffing, its time to start studying. If you don’t show expert level familiarity with the XMB, which Sony seriously says stands for Xross Media Bar, you’re going to be the laughing stock of the neighborhood.
Lucky for you, Sony’s got your back. They’ve finally finished posting the full PlayStation 3 manual online. From Music to Photos to Internet Browser, the full details of the PS3 interface are yours for the perusing.
With so much to read, I know what I’ll be doing tonight. (Drinking.)
Thanks for the heads up, Omlette!
PLAYSTATION®3 System Software User’s Guide
Gears of War Impressions
I have to admit that the hype worked on me. I was psyched when the final build of Gears of War for my debug arrived at my door.
But when I popped it in I fully expected that the game wasn’t going to live up to the hype. How could it? We’ve been hearing about this game in one form or another since before the Xbox 360 came out. I’ve been looking forward to it for months.
So when I started playing I did so with a pretty large chip on my shoulder. This game, I thought, is just going to be another shooter, it’s going to suck.
Well, I was right and wrong. In many ways it is just another shooter. It doesn’t change the way people game, it doesn’t create a whole new genre, it doesn’t do any juicing. But it is fun, a whole lotta fun, and it doesn’t get close to suck. Suck isn’t even a long flight or couple of boat rides away from Gears of War.
What I think Gears of War does best is give the genre some substance, some heft. When you move around, shoot, take on enemies, it feels substantial, like you’re really packed down with gear, like every step in painful. So many shooters end up with the feeling that you’re controlling ballerinas. Men in tights and gauze, skipping through the terrain like it doesn’t exist.
Gears weighs you down.
And the camera angles, what camera angels. When you run, for instance, the camera slips a bit behind and down, shooting up like maybe the cameraman is hauling his ass right behind you, camera held at his hip, running for his life. The view shakes and stutters and makes controlling your guy at a full run a bit hard.
On the one hand this control issue is a little overplayed and, I’m guessing, more of a design flaw, but it mostly works to keep you from running all over the place.
The way you guy jumps and moves around things is also pretty amazing, mostly enhanced by clever animation and camera angle work. The only issue is that to jump over things you need to press up against them first and then press a button. This makes your jumps and vaults more strategic and much slower and forces you to be careful and strategic at times when a typical gamer would likely just carelessly run through an area.
Again that’s good and bad, design flaw and interesting mechanic.
The game does, as promised, require you to stop and take your time. No charging around. But I don’t think that’s what makes this game so amazing; it’s really more about the overall feel and look of the game than anyone feature.
The only other issue I had with the game was artificial intelligence. Oddly, it was for my teammates and not the enemy that I had problems. For some reason they would occasionally get hung up or lost while running through an area. But when that didn’t happen they were amazing: Seeking cover and even providing covering fire.
While the campaign is very fun and packed with amazing level design and enough plot and variations to keep you both on your toes and enthralled, it is also very short. I played through three-fifths of the game on the medium setting in about three hours or so.
Multiplayer, though, really makes up for that.
I’ve grown so accustom to having to settle for something sub-par when online that I thought it was a requirement. But Gears seems to deliver all of the look and feel of the single-player game in the online environment.
You still scramble through the maps, slap up against debris and vault low walls. And the game still has that beautiful, cinematic run. But now you’re chain-sawing and kicking in the heads of friends.
Gears of War doesn’t change the shooter genre or even master a new sub-genre, it just polishes the hell out of it. I can’t image a better shooter will be coming to the console for quite awhile.
I still have to write my more in-depth review for the Rocky, but I suspect I’ll be giving the game a B+ or A- for the paper. We don’t do A+ so an A is 95 to 100 percent.
Second Life Getting TV Shows
In an effort to garner new viewers who have shunned watching television and, presumably, give something for Second Life players to quell the crushing boredom of walking around, chatting, and buying un-real estate while looking at eye wounding graphics, Rivers Run Red is bringing TV to Second Life.
Programming from Channel 4 and the Sci-Fi Channel is scheduled to show up on distribution points in the non-game starting at some point this November.
In-game channels are initially free, with Rivers Run Red expecting to ultimately feature 100 channels of programming, from commercial to user created content. Please, people, walk, do not run to the Second Life web site to download your installer. We don’t want anyone to get trampled to death.
Watch TV in Second Life [Eurogamer]
PlayStation 3 Network Games Priced, Sized
Sony Computer Entertainment is set to launch the PS3 in like, hours, over in Japan. Yeah, I had kind of forgotten, too. That means the PlayStation Network is going to be officially launching, too.
One of the downloadable arcade style titles from Sony themselves, Blast “Don’t Call It Geometry Wars” Factor has been priced and measured, according to IGN. Weighing in at a slim 95 MB, the first party downloadable game will set Japanese consumers back 840 yen. That’s seven bucks and change American, but since when does SCEA go by simple currency exchange rates? I’ll eat my hat* if its not $10.
* Please note I do not currently own a hat.
First PlayStation Network Pricing [IGN]
Yet Another Girl Gamer Calendar
Let’s make a girl gamer calendar. OK, what do we need, let me think. Girl in white teddy: Check. Girl with battle axe: Check. Girl with whip: Check. Girl dressed up as a devl: Check. Girl with a gun: Check. Girl doing anything even remotely gaming related: Naw.
For future reference, throw at least a generic controller in there for one photo if you’re making a “gamer” calendar, otherwise just call it what it is a girly calendar.
Tiger Woods Mistakes Digital Self For Analog Self
Apparently, the graphics boys at EA are so unfreakingbelievably talented, that Tiger Woods, who probably knows Tiger Woods when he sees him, was fooled by the photorealistic digital version of himself.
Speaking at the Montreal Games Summit, Glenn Entis, EA’s chief visual and technical officer, said of Tiger’s first take on e-Tiger:
“We really got no response. He just said, ‘Yeah?’, and it’s like, ‘Well, did you like it?’. His response was telling; he said, ‘Well, when are you going to show me the computer graphics?’. We figured if you can fool a guy who sees that face in the mirror every day, it’s got to be working.”
Yeah, I don’t really buy that line either. But Entis does admit that photorealism doesn’t mean squat if you haven’t got the non-robotic animation to back it up, which I do believe. The Tiger demo we got at E3 looked great in stills, but when he started speaking, total horror show!
Tiger Woods couldn’t tell himself from game version [Eurogamer]
Today’s hottest game video: wrestling surprise
Filed under: Culture, Nintendo GameCube, Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox, Microsoft Xbox 360, Sports, Video
Today’s most watched YouTube game video is going to soon be the subject of a very special post, so we’ll cover the number two spot. This second-place clip comes from WWE Smackdown vs. RAW 2007.
We peer into the behind-the-scenes soap-opera action that gives pro wrestling a story arc it always missed. We used to ask, “Why are these guys fighting?” Now we know, although this clip raises more questions than it answers.
After some wooden back-and-forth dialogue, the scene takes a surprise twist into gender bending. What? We don’t understand either, but maybe future scenes balance Bully’s boy-on-boy kissing.
See the whole video after the break.
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Today in Joystiq: November 9, 2006
MIGS 2006
MIGS06: Swag verdict is so-so
MIGS06: Reggie keepin’ it real on the show floor
Joystiquery
Joystiq video: Xbox 360 Wireless Headset review
Metareview - Call of Duty 3
Metareview - Elite Beat Agents
Off the Grid: Carcassonne review
Today’s hottest game video: PS3 pitchers
News
ESA head doesn’t like term “video game”
Microsoft sticks a fork in Vista, it’s done
Blizzard’s World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade to drop January 16
D&D Tactics coming soon to PSP
CoD2 vets have flashbacks in CoD3 multiplayer
PS3 firmware upgraded to 1.1, PSP 3.0 later
New PlayStation 3 commercial breaks a few eggs
Nintendo makes poopsky Wii advertorials
Casual gamer offers motion-sensing praise for the PS3
Virtual Console’s N64 titles don’t rumble
Nintendo prez reiterates growth “mantra” in keynote
Contra’s craptacular co-op
Gothic 3 demo available tomorrow
Get (Robo) blitzed with interview, t-shirt contest
Xbox 360 Video Marketplace walkthrough
Freebie 256MB Memory Stick for PSP, PS3
Kristanna Loken dumps Uwe Boll
Clans still possible for Gears of Wars ranked matches
Culture
TiVo Alert: History of video games on CNBC
NES Zapper tats
What the 2006 midterm means for gamers
Fanboys high jack Nintendo Wikipedia entry
Diddy plays PS3, why don’t you?
Aeropause: Get paid for your content
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Clans still possible for Gears of Wars ranked matches [update 1]
Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Action, Online
Mark Rein maintains that Microsoft prevented the developer from implementing clan support (e.g., Halo 2’s Party System) into Gears of Wars’ ranked multiplayer matches. But, in a recent interview with Gamer Andy, Epic’s VP did hint that team support could still be added, stating vaguely, “In the future we might roll out some additional functionality.”
In the meantime, a tedious workaround does exist. If one member hosts a ranked match, it’s possible for the rest of the clan to grab spots in the match via the custom search menu. Of course, this method will become more difficult as the Gears player base grows and you and your teammates’ TrueSkill ranks begin to differ.
Update: Gamer Andy contacted us to clarify that his conversation with Rein was not an interview. According to Gamer Andy, Rein’s comments did not hint at future clan-play implementation. The cryptic statement about upgrading functionality was just an offhanded remark delivered to steer the conversation toward a new direction (i.e. away from concerns about Gears’ multiplayer).
See also: Gears of War’s ranked matches smell rank
[Via 1UP]
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Aeropause: Get paid for your content
Filed under: PC, Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360
With all the talk about user-created content on the next gen consoles, there is one subject that doesn’t really come up: Will we get paid for it? Aeropause brings up this very question and points to the PC as an example of what is already done.
Console manufacturers aren’t planning online repositories of user-made material just because they’re nice; they want to get paid. Since we know businesses are only out for the money (duh), we need to know how much of that $2.50 mod we made is going to net us. Will we get paid per download? Will we get a flat fee? Will the publisher call intellectual property and pay us nothing? In any case, Aeropause says we should expect some compensation for content made; don’t let it be free … ever.
But the PC community has been giving away free content for years. Even Aeropause mentions that some free mods — like Counter-Strike — made it big, but they say we shouldn’t be giving anything away. We contend we should stick with the PC model. True, most user mods are junk — such as the bazillion player houses in Oblivion — but requiring us to pay for all of them won’t make things better; in fact, they’d get worse. The junk won’t go away. Instead, we won’t find out the mod is garbage until after we’ve spent our (or mommy and daddy’s) hard-earned money. Leave the payments to full XNA games.
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Kristanna Loken dumps Uwe Boll
Filed under: Culture
Infamous video game director Uwe Boll is going to have to find a new “star” to drag through the mud. Kristanna Loken, star of two Boll films — BloodRayne and the as-of-yet unreleased In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale – has thrown the “engaged to be engaged” ring back in Uwe’s face and has decided to move on to bigger and better things. BloodRayne 2 is just not in the Hollywood stars for Loken. Good move, Ms. Loken, Uwe just isn’t good enough for you.
Loken’s official statement is that she’s too busy working on Painkiller Jane, a Sci-Fi series. Replacing Loken as Rayne (and Uwe’s next “fling”) in BloodRayne 2 (the first one warranted a sequel?) is Natassia Malthe. After checking IMDB, we discovered that Malthe doesn’t exactly have a stellar career of her own. We have to respectfully inform Ms. Malthe that those “Oscars” in Uwe’s office are made of Papier-Mâchè.
Loken’s excuse for not working on a third Boll movie and reprising her role as Rayne is questionable. Maybe Loken decided it was about time to get out of the acting gutter and start working on some better projects? In any case, that hasn’t stopped Boll from wasting other people’s money; working on future flops such as Postal, Far Cry, Alone in the Dark 2 (again with the sequels) and non-gaming IP Seed. Who knows, maybe BloodRayne 2 will turn out like Superman Returns as Uwe claims; a dull movie that somehow managed to make a profit.
(We are proactively denying any future boxing challenges Uwe Boll may deliver … you fight too dirty, bro.)
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Freebie 256MB Memory Stick for PSP, PS3
Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Sony PSP, Peripherals
Circuit City’s got SanDisk 256MB Memory Stick PRO Duos on sale for $29.99, plus a $30 mail-in rebate, which leaves tax and shipping charges as the lone cost. Any PSP owners looking to upgrade from the measly 32MB card — or Core owners without a memory stick — should give this deal a hard look.
Future premium PlayStation 3 owners should also take advantage. Heck, you’ve already spent $599, why spend any more?
[Via Siliconera]
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Xbox 360 Video Marketplace walkthrough
Filed under: Culture, Microsoft Xbox 360, Online, Video
GameVideos plows through the ins and outs of Microsoft’s forthcoming Video Marketplace, featuring downloadable HD movie and television content. The service will launch with six partners (content providers), including CBS, Paramount, Turner, Ultimate Fighting Championship, Viacom, and Warner Bros. — remember, Apple’s video iTunes launched with only ABC/Disney. The Video Marketplace update is scheduled for November 22.
See also: Microsoft’s Scott Henson on TV and movies
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Diddy plays PS3, why don’t you?
Sony issued a press release today to tell us how cool the PlayStation 3 is. Their latest console is so cool that last night they invited a bunch of celebrities last night to an exclusive party in Beverly Hills and got Diddy to perform. In the span of 255 words, the press release managed to name drop 13 names — that’s one celebrity for every 19.6 words. We’re looking at 50 megafonzies here, folks.
Using celebrities to increase the “cool factor” of your product is not a novel concept. Nintendo of America’s Perrin Kaplan mentioned that Diddy and Uma Thurman had programmed her number into speed-dial, in hopes of scoring a Wii. Last year, Microsoft gave out Xbox 360s — already in short supply — to celebrities like Paris Hilton, who also found her way to last night’s PS3 party.
Not attending the party last night was Eric Cartman, who was last seen waiting outside of the local EV Games for a Wii.
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Fanboys hijack Nintendo Wikipedia entry
Filed under: Culture, Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360
This morning at 11:10 AM CST and presumably by either a friend of Sony or Microsoft, someone sabotaged Nintendo’s Wikipedia entry replacing the full article with the following thoughtful and provocative statement: “Nintendo Sucks!!!!!1″ In the short moments before Wikipedia admins could get the correct page back up, the assailant successfully misled several would-be Nintendo fans to assume the company had gone out of business, then deciding to “switch teams.” This is all according to an unsubstantiated Digger and Flickr user.
All in good fun. But vandalism (or hoax) FTW!
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