Archive for January, 2007
Poll: Still Playing With Your Wii?
So, the honeymoon’s over and the novelty’s worn off by now. A good chunk of us got our Wiis and have played Wii Sports, Twilight Princess or Wario Ware: Smooth Moves into the ground. As Greg Howson at Guardian’s Gamesblog points out:
I appreciate there is always a post launch lull, but I’m struggling to get too excited about the Wii at the moment. The terrible Call of Duty 3 makes me fear for future Wii conversions of multi format games, while the Virtual Console downloads are technically flawed and far too familiar.
Do know what he means. I will occasionally play a pick-up round of Wii Tennis with Mrs. Bashcraft, but that’s about it at the moment. (McWhertor, on the other hand, spent yesterday playing Wario Ware: Smooth Moves alone. Yes, ALONE.) So it’s poll time! And for the really chatty-types, clack away in the comments section:
Playing With Your Wii? [Guardian, Image From Infendo]
Games for Windows editors not sold on Vista yet
Filed under: PC
“Speaking of things that suck … hey! How about that Windows Vista?”
In the latest Games for Windows: The Official Magazine’s podcast (01/31), four of their editors (Editor-In-Chief Jeff Green, Ryan Scott, Darren Gladstone, Shawn Elliot) sound off on whether they’ll upgrade to Microsoft’s latest operating system and if it’s wise for anyone to fork over the $99 to do so.
Despite receiving a free copy, Jeff Green stays adamant in his decision not to upgrade to Windows Vista saying, “I’m afraid it’s going to break my machine.” While Green goes on to say that he’ll wait for the first service pack update, Gladstone already has Vista up and running on his test machine.
When it comes to encouraging others to take the Vista plunge, Gladstone advises folks to hold back the urge and wait until they buy their next computer and for more Direct X10 games to be made available. The duo also harp on the hassle new security measures cause casual and indie games.
News Editor, Shawn Elliot, will be hitting up Green for his free copy and installing it on his back-up machine — not quite willing to fully commit just yet. Ryan Scott doesn’t give his opinion on the matter, but the mixed signals make for an all-around low opinion of Vista in its current state. As Games for Windows, formerly known as Computer Gaming World, remains an independent publication, this wouldn’t be the first time editors from an official Ziff Davis outlet haven’t wanted the shiniest new toy.
[Update: We checked our calender and yes, it was January.]
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Porn Manager 2 Finally Announced
Where the hell was I when Porn Manager 1 came out? Oh. Right. Not playing mobile phone games. Fortunately, I was around today when HandyGames announced the sequel to the hugely successful mobile game JeuxVideo called the “management game with a lot of various aspects.”
In the sequel, you’re Hugo Hafner, the “erotic scene’s star producer” and your goal is to “extensively care for your girls in your pompous villa, arrange many parties and have fun with your guests and your roommates.” Also, you’re apparently supposed to “convince the young beauties constantly with a fine figure and enough endurance” because “the Grim Reaper is constantly closing in!”.
I thought about trying to decipher what that all means, but realized, hey, it’s a German mobile phone game. I’d want those minutes back on my death bed.
The extensive feature list and unmissable press release are after the jump.
HandyGamesTM starts in 2007 with “Porn Manager 2 - The Villa”
After the huge success of Porn Manager, HandyGames™ proudly presents this year’s top seller, which is based on the motto „Enjoy your life to the fullest!”!
As the erotic scene’s star producer you have reached everything during your professional life: girls, fame and lots of money!
You slip into the role of the most enviable man of the world! It’s your task to enjoy your retirement as long as possible in the most comfortable way and to reach a truly biblical age!
Because your elixir of life are pretty, glamorous girls, you have to try to gather as many of them around you as possible. Since you are a true gentleman, you extensively care for your girls in your pompous villa, arrange many parties and have fun with your guests and your roommates.
A life of total privacy wouldn’t be suitable for an old pickup like you! Invite the press regularly and use your beautiful girls to increase your popularity. Convince the young beauties constantly with a fine figure and enough endurance.
Try hard - the Grim Reaper is constantly closing in!
As from the 6th February 2007 will Hugo Hafner’s funny game be available for download.
Features:
* Lead an excessive evening of life in your pompous villa!
* Enjoy the presence of the world’s most beautiful women
* Parties, press and glamour aplenty are the key to a long life
* Extensively care for your girls
* Clothe your beauties according to your wishes and make generous gifts
* Countless possibilities and actions
* Huge villa with Chill-Out area, love nest and legendary grotto of lust
* Tutorial-tour through the villa
* Savegame
* Highscore
* Simple controls
Online Retailer Ends Game Sales, Calls Industry “Dumb, Greedy”
Online retailer DVD Empire has announced that they’re getting out of the video game retail business, citing an inability to make a profit selling games under the current business model. In their explanation to current customers, they outline seven reasons why current business practices make it, in their words, “impossible for us to make money selling video games.”
The reasons? High wholesale prices on software—”they set the retail price at just $5 above the product cost (buy it for $54.99, sell it for $59.99)”—and hardware—”take a $400 console; we only make $5 on the sale–that is a .01% gross margin.”
Worst of all? Lack of price protection and rampant price drops on bad or stagnant titles.
The game industry releases many bad games, and word of mouth spreads fast to the consumer. All of those bunk games sit on our shelves. If we do end up selling them, we lose more money, due to the lack of price protection. They won’t let us return the bombs. Of course, if the video game industry produced quality games, we wouldn’t have this issue.
The only good news here is that DVD Empire is clearing out its entire video game stock at 20% off. Enjoy, cheapasses.
DVD Empire [via Gamespot]
Def Jam Icon Demo Won’t Hit Live This Week
EA’s out to make us look bad, as the Def Jam Icon demo promised for Xbox Live tomorrow isn’t quite going to make it. No date on when gamers can now expect the trial version featuring Big Boi and T.I. other than that it would be available “worldwide” sometime “soon.”
Def Jam Icon Demo Hits Live This Week [Kotaku]
Ghosts Busted On Mario Kart 64 For VC
The recent Virtual Console release of the Nintendo 64 iteration of Mario Kart had one minor problem (well, a couple minor problems, from what we’re hearing); you couldn’t save Time Trial ghost data to the Wii. What is often a very helpful guide for those of us trying to best our karting lap scores is something the Wii simply won’t be able to support without a fix.
So how about that fix? Pro-G got the following statement from Nintendo about the issue.
Due to unavoidable technical reasons unfortunately it is not possible to save ghost data from Mario Kart 64’s Time Trials in the Virtual Console version of the game.
Unavoidable? Really? Sure, it’s outlined in the Virtual Console Shop Channel but that doesn’t make the hurt any less worse. Let’s hope Nintendo can find some way to squeeze 256KB of data out of the Wiis internal storage to address this issue in a future update.
No fix coming for Mario Kart on Wii Virtual Console [Pro-G]
Will Wright, iNiS Dude Talk Up DICE 07
Spore man and media darling Will Wright will be one of the speakers at next week’s DICE Summit in Henderson, Nevada. Will’s speech will focus on the staffing of the Spore development and is appropriately titled “I am not alone in this universe: Will Wright speaks on building the SPORE team” and goes down on Thursday, February 8 at 2:45 PM.
Also wowing the DICE crowd one day later with his insight into the game development process is iNiS co-founder Keiichi Yano. His company is responsible for the awesome music games Gitaroo Man and Elite Beat Agents and will speak on, you guessed it, music in games with “Yeah! The Mathematics of Music and the Emotion of Game Design.” Killer.
Guess what? I’ll be there, with a seat up front. Our coverage of DICE starts next Wednesday when I drive into town, ready to interview developers, executives and industry professionals who will in turn, ask me “How did you get so handsome?” I shan’t give away my secrets!
WILL WRIGHT TO REVEAL INSIGHTS ON FORMING THE TEAM THAT BREATHES LIFE INTO SPORE AT D.I.C.E. SUMMIT 2007
CALABASAS, Calif. - January 31, 2007 - Creating a game about creation takes more than just the hands of a legend, the world renowned Will Wright called upon a team of developers to bring the highly anticipated, SPORE to life. Wright shares his philosophy on forming this development team at the D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit® 2007. Wright’s presentation, “I am not alone in this universe: Will Wright speaks on building the SPORE team,” will take place on Tuesday, February 8 at 2:45 p.m.
Will Wright is Maxis’ chief designer and co-founder. Wright’s SimCity–The City Simulator garnered 24 domestic and international awards. Wright followed up this blockbuster with SimEarth–The Living Planet, SimAnt–The Electronic Ant Colony, SimCity 2000, SimCopterare, SimCity 3000 and SimCity 4. Wright’s groundbreaking game The Sims became a cultural phenomenon. In September 2004, The Sims 2 sold more than 1 million copies in the first 10 days worldwide - becoming the fastest selling PC game ever.
Wright, an inductee of the AIAS Hall of Fame, will join a line up of high-profile speakers, including Doug Lowenstein of the ESA, Phil Harrison of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and Chris Taylor of Gas Powered Games. The D.I.C.E. Summit will be held at the Green Valley Ranch Resort, Spa and Casino in Las Vegas, Feb. 7 - 9, 2007.
Clip: Crackdown Achievements
Msoft’s John Porcaro put together this cool little video showing some of the achievements you can unlock in Crackdown on the Xbox 360. The clip shows, in order, Body Juggler, Chain Banger, Driving High, First Blood, Front Flipper, Stunt Driver, Car Juggler, Shot-Putting, Global Impact, Airtime Assassin, High Flyer and Base Jumper.
Body Juggling rocks.
Shadow of the Colossus Gets Movie Cameo
Looks like Team Ico’s Shadow of the Colossus is getting some late Hollywood love in the form of a cameo in Adam Sandler’s newest movie Reign Over Me. The trailer for the drama looks like heavy stuff, not on par with Sandler’s typical comedy roles. It’s hard to imagine which will be more tear-jerking, the heartwrenching flying colossus battle or the relationship between the Sandler’s Dylan-esque widower and Don Cheadle’s p-whipped doctor.
Thanks for the tip, Keith!
Reign Over Me [Apple Trailers]
Unlockable Costumes of God of War II
I was nosing around my copy of the God of War II Colossus Battle Demo disc after beating the shortish demo and noticed that they had Treasures listed under options on the main menu.
X-ing through I found it was a list of what I believe are the unlockables for the full version of the game, at least that’s the only thing that makes sense since you need to beat the game or do other things that would be impossible on the demo to unlock them.
Hit the jump for the full list, including the description of the seven unlockable costumes.
Treasures
Hall of Titans: Seven rooms, seven challenges. Beat the game to unlock.
Arena of Fates: Control your own destiny and wage combat on your own terms. Achieve Titan rank in challenge mode.
Titan Mode: Beat the game to unlock.
Urns of Power: Collect precious urns and wield ultimate power. Beat the game to unlock.
Costumes
One: Kratos’ life has always been an upstream battle.
Two: I always wondered what they did with the body.
Three: The path to revenge is a dark one.
Four: Why be a god when you can be a goddess.
Five: Classics never go out of style.
Six: The only thing that haunts a ghost is his past.
Seven: You worked so hard the first time, it would be a shame to let it go to waste.
Movies
High Res: Watch all of the cut-scenes in high resolution.
Story: Watch the cut-scenes chronologically.
Bonus DVD Content
Tech Art Pipeline
Orchestra
Voices of God of War II
Level Art Concepts
Creature Concept Art
First Play Test
First Halloween Party
Press Event
Tutorial
Boss Character Concept Art
Combat System
Animation
Cinematics
Kratos Concept to Completion
Concept Art
Cut Levels
Level Art Design
Alright, get to guessing what exactly those costumes are. Here’s hoping the first one is Kratos as a carp… or salmon.
Taito Legends 2 Comes Stateside, Brings Retro Goodness With It
Sega brought over the first Taito Legends in late 2005, but North American retro arcade gamers haven’t been able to get their hands on the sequel. Loaded with amazing, obscure Taito releases from the past twenty years, the full line-up includes:
Arabian Magic
Bonze Adventure
Cameltry
Chack’n Pop
Crazy Balloon
Darius Gaiden
Dungeon Magic
Elevator Action Returns
The Fairyland Story
Front Line
Gekirindan
Grid Seeker: Project Storm Hammer
Growl
Gun Frontier
Insector X
Kuri Kinton
Legend Of Kage
Liquid Kids
Lunar Rescue
Metal Black
Puzzle Bobble 2
Qix
Rastan 2
Space Invaders 95
Violence Fight
And even more! If you’re looking for a shmup fix, lots of brawlers and a handful of Bubble Bobble clones, look no further. It hits the PlayStation 2 sometime in March. 2007 is looking to be a banner year for retro gaming.
Pre-order Bullet Witch, Get Bullet Witch Comic
You know Bullet Witch right? It’s one of those near future, post-apocalyptic, zombie killing, withcraft ‘n’ guns games. The kind that aren’t too good (Ashcraft says it’s “shit”), but star a nubile protagonist with a hellspawn exterminating streak decked out in costumes unsuitable for combat, making it an instant purchase for the lonely, Xbox 360-owning Japanese crowd.
While our man in Japan says the controls are wonk, the third-person shooter from AQ Interactive is being localized by Atari for a late February release. They’re throwing out an extra incentive—outside of revealing outfits—in the form of a pre-order only comic book. While I think it would’ve secured more reservations if they’d gone with the school girl outfit cover, it looks pretty nice.
Anyone out there hungry to get their Bullet Witch on next month?
Pre-order Bullet Witch & get a free comic book of the game! [Gamertag Radio]
Link Ice, Ice Baby
This is simply spectacular. If Nintendo doesn’t have this sculpture at their next big event, with chilled Tanqueray pouring from his sword, I’m going to be deeply disappointed.
[Thanks Bryan]
Today’s hottest game video: Wii Boxing beat-down [update 1]
Filed under: Nintendo Wii, Sports, Video
Today’s most-watched YouTube game video shows a violent — and possibly deadly — end of a Wii Sports boxing match. (Who are we kidding? Nintendo made sure to show the loser standing up in the far corner after each bout, so surely no Miis get too hurt.)
After the break, watch a fierce KO-punch that results in a near-somersault by the opposing player. Then watch it again in slow motion.
[Update 1: We send a big nod (and the wish to never meet in a Wii Boxing ring) to The1Qwerty who created the video. Sorry we missed mentioning you when first linking the video from YouTube.]
Continue reading Today’s hottest game video: Wii Boxing beat-down [update 1]
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Today in Joystiq: January 31, 2007
Filed under: Culture
We interrupt our usual video game-related Flickr images to have a good laugh at this LED Mooninite, who caused a stir in Boston today. The [adult swim] ad, which has been up for two weeks advertising Aqua Teen Hunger Force and its upcoming film ATHF colon Movie Film for Theaters, was suspected today to be a bomb and prompted authorities to now arrest a man in connection with the marketing campaign, according to the front page CNN.com article. The absurdity gives the Joystiq Consortium a migraine.
Allow us to quote from the Mooninite Ignignokt, who also has an LED display (Err is pictured), “everyone, bow your heads and pretend to be serious.” Check out the highlights for today:
Joystiquery
Columbine game blocked from receiving Slamdance special jury prize
Joystiq interviews Joseph Olin, president of the AIAS
Poll results: The best way to first-person shoot
Today’s hottest game video: UT3
News
NFL2K rises from grave as All-Pro Football 2K8
Game & Watch classic hidden in DS dictionary
God of War 2 videos are hack-a-licious
PS3 ads turn up in Xbox 360 game (inadvertently)
Moscow’s Lineage II meet up murder
PSP firmware 3.10 released, and decrypted
GRAW 2 demo assaults XBL Gold members
PS3 Unreal Tournament 3 not delayed
Saints Row confirmed for PS3
Vice City Stories PS2 port plugged, then pulled from PlayStation.com
Vista update improves “legacy” game support
Sony exec talks further PS3 price slashing in Japan
Gray Lady confirms Wii’s early success
Godzilla ‘Unleashed’ on Wii, DS, PSP
Sony not ready to rumble with Splitfish
Wii VC’s Mario Kart 64 to remain ghostless
Anti-masterpiece theater presents: Postal
Shadow of the Colossus cameo in new Sandler, Cheadle flick
NY Times crossword puzzler headed to DS
Rumors & Speculation
Rumor: Dell considers gaming handheld
Culture
The SEGA of a different kind
Wii mod moves those Gamecube ports to the front
Dev tells all: Street Fighter The Movie (The Game)
Sony Sauce for your PS3 BBQ, sir? Only in Japan!
(Tecmo) Super Bowl XLI
David Jaffe hates focus testing
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Spider-Man 3 The Game The Web Site
The official site for the upcoming Spider-Man 3 game adaptation is live, giving friendly neighborhood gaming fans a very brief look at the game. Featuring little more than a trailer, some wallpapers and a brief developer blog (all unfortunately wrapped up in a crusty, bitter Flash shell), the site promises development updates from developers Treyarch and Vicarious Visions. With only 93 days before the film and the game’s release, let’s hope they find the time.
The game trailer looks to be the same from clip from E306, which showcases little more than the “actual in game model” and some very dark environments. In other words, watch this space for actual updates.
Spider-Man 3 The Game is currently scheduled for the PLAYSTATION 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC, DS, PSP and PlayStation 2. Everybody’s happy!
Spider-Man 3 The Game Official Site
Sony: Wii “Impulse Buy”, NYT: It Radiates Fun!
The New York Times is reporting that the Nintendo Wii has “upset the order of the video game world” leading them to claim that the only console seaworthy of navigating the Blue Ocean is leading the PLAYSTATION 3 in buzz and sales. Even moms love it!
“You’re up and you’re moving, and it makes you feel more involved,” said Tracy Ciardiello, 28, a stay-at-home mother [...] “After an hour, a thing pops on the screen that says, ‘Why not take a rest?’ That just made me laugh.”
Sony Computer Entertainment America’s David Karraker, on the other hand, isn’t showing Wii quite the same love, claiming that it may be “considered an impulse buy more than anything else.” SCEA couldn’t be more right. I’ve been witness to no less than thirty people on three separate occasions just impulsively snapping up Wiis after waiting for hours outside my local Best Buy. My assumption was always that they were getting up early to hoard additional copies of Mobile Suit Gundam: Target In Sight and thought “Maybe I’ll grab a Wii since I’m out of bed at 6 AM on a Sunday!”
Nintendo’s Wii, Radiating Fun, Is Eclipsing Sony Machine [NYT]
Westword On the Tetris Building
Fellow Denver pub Westword contacted me yesterday about my mini-obsession with that Tetris building. You know, the one that had windows broken out to form Tetris pieces.
Joel Warner was working on a story for Westword’s blog about the Internet. He used the story to point out that while some people are trying to “clean up” the blogosphere, which he describes as a mess, chock full of factually questionable information, often people just don’t care.
Very true. Still worth doing I think, when it benefits your readers.
On Tuesday, Crecente posted his Tetris photo on his video game blog, Kotaku. That image looks very similar to those posted on December 3 by DenverInfill as part of a story about a new Embassy Suites tower going up on the property.
This led to yesterday being the “day of hell,” says Gonzalez. About two dozen pending prints of his Tetris vandalism photo were canceled. A photo editor called to warn him about manipulating photos. He received numerous angry e-mails and calls from strangers — and a couple of death threats. Through it all, he maintains his innocence. “I didn’t mess with the window panes. It does look funky, but I took the shot seven months ago. A lot changes in seven months,” he says, adding he has the negatives to prove it. “The logic is, why if it’s fake, would I have given him the address? And I wish he had contacted me before he put up the post.”
Both Gonzalez and Crecente are amazed at the online clamor generated by their blogs . “Who cares in the end?” asks Gonzalez. “It’s just getting somewhat ridiculous.”
Crecente agrees. “I don’t like being in position of debunking a picture. The weird thing is, who cares if he did fake it? I still think it’s a neat image.” - Joel Warner
Indeed, I’m actually playing around with the idea of buying a copy… if he’d sell it to me.
Blog Eat Blog [Westword]
David Jaffe hates focus testing
Filed under: Culture, Sony PlayStation 3, Action, Driving, Online
We know that some of you out there don’t appreciate Jaffe’s verbose language or feel like the designer, who’s probably known best for God of War, hasn’t “earned” his street cred yet, but naysayers can still walk away from this transcript with an understanding of the inordinate amount of anxiety put on game makers when they watch their projects get critiqued and criticized by various demographic representative, for better and worse, and how technical issues will vastly affect the situation.
Calling All Cars is planned for a release next month in the range of $5 to $10.
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More Damn Cakes
Okay people, apparently we are going a bit cake crazy as of late. I am scared to open my inbox for fear of cake spilling out all over the place, making me spend hours scraping frosting off of press releases and screenshots. Take this one, for instance, from Kotakuite Adam’s wedding rehearsal dinner.
Nicely shaped, good attention to detail. The only thing that could improve this one is if it was a birthday cake and the candles were inside the cartridge slot, which you would then have to open and blow into in order to have all of your birthday wishes come true. Still think a better choice would have been the Snes, because then you could use a buttercream frosting with a little caramelized sugar on top to simulate yellowing plastic…damn it. Now you’ve got me doing it too.
Soon I’ll end up like Bonnie over at Heroine Sheik, who has been reduced to obsessively creating game cake mosaics. I picture her rocking manically back and forth in her head as she cuts and pastes again and again, chanting “cakes!” and giggling in a broken sort of way.
