Archive for April 4th, 2007
Wii Blaster incoming
Filed under: Nintendo Wii
With the announcement of Resident Evil 4 and Umbrella Chronicles for the Wii, coupled with the still unreleased Virtual Console titles Duck Hunt and Hogan’s Alley, it’s time to start asking, “Where’s the Wii Zapper?” Gamestop has listed the Wii Blaster for $20 and what we strongly believe to be a placeholder date of May 1. Although, this isn’t necessarily the most improbable date with the Resident Evil games expected to have a summer release.
The Gamestop listing has no photo of the what the Zapper Blaster looks like now. The last time we saw her she was behind glass at E3 with a “work in progress” sign. We’re really looking forward to having a gun, these first-person shooters just don’t feel natural with a Wiimote. Now give us a game that allows for dual wielding Blasters and that’s a guaranteed $50 going to that publisher!
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Today’s game over video: The End of the World of Warcraft
Filed under: Culture, PC, Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox 360, Action, Adventure, First Person Shooters, Online, RPGs, Video, Competitive Gaming, MMO
One man decides to give up the World of Warcraft, for another addiction entirely, and the result is an experiment in cinematical over-the-topness. Sweeping soundtracks, fighting, Burning Crusade Collector’s Editions flying through the air … what more could you ask for?
If you’re going to give something up, it’s probably best to do in a grand way, involving videotape, your friends, trailers for other games, and lots of slow-motion. One thing everyone is asking though, would you go mental living in that house?
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News: Whoops! Microsoft goofs on Gears of War update announcement
Contrary to previous reports, the Gears of War update will not be released on Monday, April 9th, but on a date that still has yet to be determined.
News: Kojima confirms: Metal Gear Solid 4 will be PS3 exclusive
Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima simultaneously appeases Sony’s fanboys and disappoints Microsoft’s by stating that MGS4 will remain PS3-exclusive.
Review: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PS3)
One of the best RPGs of all time comes to the PS3 and as impossible as it sounds, it’s gotten better.
Preview: The Darkness
When furious firepower just won’t due, call on the evil power of the Darkness to get the job done.
News: PS3 dominates Australian software charts in spite of ho-hum launch
The hardware figures following launch day may have been disappointing, but data taken from recent Australian software charts has given Sony a new reason to smile.
News: Charitable Guitar Heroes II controllers up for auction on eBay
Activision and Red Bull team up with various celebrities to auction off custom Guitar Heroes Controllers to benefit the charity MusiCare.
Today in Joystiq: April 4, 2007
Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3
The picture worth a thousand giggles (thanks, Coneee). A note about yesterday’s picture: you’ve asked for a wallpaper with an anvil and a walrus. We ask why, but then we promise to try and get you that wallpaper-sized image tomorrow. Check out the highlights for today:
Joystiquery
Today’s throwbackiest video: Atari Pole Position commercial from the 80s
News
Brits ban ‘old’ Xbox 360 commercial
Defender of the Crown is back, and ready for more jousting
Shooting, fighting, androgyny: Senko no Ronde coming stateside
NiGHTS to have weather effects
School of Rock: free Guitar Hero strategy guide
Resident Evil 4 on Wii official, Umbrella Chronicles an on-rails shooter
Microsoft defends 120GB Xbox HDD price
Area 51 being renovated at Hollywood’s Paramount Pictures
Virtual Feds scope out ‘Second Life’ casinos
Square-Enix unveils yoga lessons and gardening for the DS
Game addiction on the rise, but ’stable’ genes should prevent violent outbursts
No Metroid Prime 3 until after June
Kojima interview reveals MGS4 tidbits
Rod Humble spills his thoughts on ‘The Marriage’
Red Octane responds to Xbox Guitar Hero II guitar issues
XBLA Sensible World of Soccer coming in … GOOOOOAAAAALLLL!
Schizophrenic man kills, says GTA told him to do it
Hospital Tycoon hoping to keep you in stitches this spring
Game store clerks risk all, speak out … anonymously
Buy Tony Hawk’s board-burdened GH guitar, help starving musicians
Chart-Track: 82% drop in UK PS3 sales ‘doesn’t mean anything’
Sony preps the PSP for an assault on the teen market
Forza 2 demo a reality, says Microsoft
Jack Thompson’s further Florida Bar issues
Rumors & Speculation
Is Bug Bash a game or something else entirely?
Culture & Community
Castlevania themes played on massive pipe organ
Laws in translation: Playable, English Wright demo
Should politics look more like games?
Another lucky Stacker video: guy wins an Xbox 360
Battlestar Galactica open source project is frackin’ sweet
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Jack Thompson’s further Florida Bar issues
Filed under: Culture, PC, Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox, Microsoft Xbox 360
The day of reckoning for Jack Thompson approaches ever so slowly — looks like somebody needs a luck dragon. Separately from another disciplinary hearing brought by the Florida Bar based on issues of misconduct, Thompson could be in trouble with the Florida Bar again over complaints filed by the judge from last year’s Bully suit. The Florida Supreme Court has assigned a Miami judge for trial and if the complaints by the judge are upheld Thompson would face professional sanctions.
The complaints brought by Judge Ronald Friedman were based on Thompson’s conduct during the Bully trial. The Bar believes Thompson lashed out against Friedman during the trial making statements with “a reckless disregard as to [their] truth.” The Bar points to statements made in the 15-page complaint which include gems from Thompson like, “Here’s a tip, Judge, I don’t practice law. I save lives from reckless jurists like you.” And about the game Bully, Thompson says to Friedman, “You missed the gay sex … I’m sure the voters are going to love that. Go ahead, Judge. File your bar complaint. Make my day.”
It’s no secret at this point the Thompson’s grip on reality is slipping. It seems the Florida Bar is looking to shut him down before he embarrasses the profession further. There is no word yet how this will affect Thompson’s lawsuit to stop Manhunt 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV from hitting store shelves.
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Battlestar Galactica open source project is frackin’ sweet
Filed under: Culture, Hacks, Mac, PC, Action, Adventure, Simulations
Listen up, nuggets. You’re in a Colonial Viper. You’ve got no wingman, three inbound Cylon Heavy Raiders, and you just spotted a Basestar several klicks away. What do you do? Choose your own adventure:
- Whiz your flight suit.
- Call for backup and fire up your FTL drive
- Hammer down the trigger and go for the gold
Now you can actually make the call yourself. The open source Beyond the Red Line project based on Battlestar Galactica has finally released demos of the game for the Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms. We downloaded it and took it for a spin. While there’s a fairly steep learning curve (much easier to deal with if you’ve played Freespace 2 a lot), the space combat and in-game elements are slick.
The game is powered by the new and improved Freespace 2 engine, although it’s entirely standalone so you don’t need Freespace to play it. They’ve put together their own audio for the entire demo, which includes original characters, voice acting, and soundtrack pieces from Bear McCreary and Richard Gibbs (composers for the show), online multiplayer that actually works, and it’s own storyline. In fact, if you haven’t seen season two, you’ll want to avoid the game for the spoilers.
While there aren’t any Six models in here, we like what they’ve put together so far. Plus our favorite word “free” is sandwiched in there too. It’ll give you something to do until the next season starts … in 2008.
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Another lucky Stacker video: guy wins an Xbox 360
Filed under: Arcade, Culture, Microsoft Xbox 360, Video, Casual
Okay, so we’ve had videos of people winning both Wii and now an Xbox 360 in these Stacker machines for (we hope) like a buck or two. Where’s the PlayStation 3 to complete the trifecta? Heck, we’d even settle for some video of a Nintendo DS or a PlayStation Portable sliding down the chute as a fairly worthwhile substitute.
One thing is for sure, whoever makes the Stacker games has to be loving all of this. As our own beloved Ludwig Kietzmann put it, “I want a video of someone winning a Stacker machine from a Stacker machine. ” Ditto.
On a side note: this video isn’t nearly as swear-filled as the Wii one. Yet another innovation from Nintendo, non-stop cursing. Zing! In fact, the whole video is a lot more sedate. The guy just sort of calmly walks away, vanishing into the night.
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Forza 2 demo a reality, says Microsoft
Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Driving
After popping up in a scanned page of Official Xbox Magazine, the Forza 2 demo has been given the official and unrelentingly green light by the Microsoft pit crew. The Redmond giant tells Eurogamer that further details regarding the demo, including its time of arrival on the Xbox Live Marketplace “will be confirmed in the coming weeks.”
As if sensing the impatience surrounding Forza 2’s May release, Microsoft also doled out another list of cars set to be featured in the final product. Though you might better judge them after the break, we feel confident in confirming them all to be fast, shiny and the sort of expensive that demands the use of words like “ludicrously,” “disgustingly,” “outrageously” and “quite.”
Continue reading Forza 2 demo a reality, says Microsoft
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Sony preps the PSP for an assault on the teen market
Filed under: Sony PSP, Business
The PlayStation Portable may not have a Hannah Montana to offer the kids, but that hasn’t stopped the 13-17 year old demographic from picking it up in droves. After the horrendous disaster that was the “All I Want For Christmas is a PSP” viral campaign, Sony is doing the smart thing when it comes to appealing to the younger set. They’re actually going to market the thing like sane, rational people.
“Dude, Get Your Own” — in addition to being a marriage of the Dell dude and the back of a Cheez-Its box — is the name of the new campaign. The Kohler[TM] sat down with PSP senior product manager John Koller to discuss the new face of the Poospé and how they plan to target the teen market.
Sony is simply not willing to back down with the PSP and the recent (albeit, ridiculously late) price drop and T-Mobile deal keep it a viable option to would-be portable gamers. We only have one request for the new campaign: no more rapping, please.
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Chart-Track: 82% drop in UK PS3 sales ‘doesn’t mean anything’
Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Business
Move along, folks. There’s nothing to see here.
Reacting to yesterday’s “leak” of PlayStation 3 sales data, which indicated an 82% drop during the week following the UK launch, Chart-Track’s Dorian Bloch expresses that we really shouldn’t put much that weight in the information his company works so hard to track and calculate. “A figure of an 82% drop has leaked out but that alone means nothing,” he tells Next-Generation. “Given how much pent up demand there was for PS3 and given the sophistication of pre-order systems now, it really doesn’t mean anything.”
Really? Perhaps we read it all wrong then, because the information allowed us to derive some context and conclude that the PS3 had sold an estimated 54% of its available stock (excluding supplemental post-launch shipments) in its second week, down from the 75% in week one. Coupling that with the significant drop in sales indicates, at the very least, that PS3 supply is by far exceeding demand. Furthermore, we estimated that the PS3 had accordingly sold 29,700 systems for the week, a figure which may be compared to the average number of PS3s sold in the last 4 weeks in doubly populated Japan — approximately 29,552. All that from a single statistic that doesn’t mean anything!
Bloch makes a better point when he notes that comparing the PS3 launch to that of the Xbox 360 or the Wii is difficult, considering the shortages that entangled both competing systems during their arrivals. He goes on to say that, “Judging a console based on nine days on sale is just crazy. It doesn’t make any sense.” Though we suspect the “sellout = success” crowd may be acting unfairly towards the PS3, it certainly isn’t enough to warrant downplaying a very significant sales statistic.
What doesn’t make any sense? Try the fact that someone like Bloch feels compelled to do damage control while Sony remains tight-lipped.
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Buy Tony Hawk’s board-burdened GH guitar, help starving musicians
Filed under: Culture, Hacks, Sony PlayStation 2, Online, Peripherals, Rhythm
Here’s a charity item we guarantee no one has ever auctioned off before: a Guitar Hero controller bonded to a skateboard fragment — with Tony Hawk’s siggy, no less. Bidding starts at $100 and proceeds go to the MusiCares organization, which catches panhandling musicians in a delicate safety net and provides them with “critical assistance” (read: not a record deal). Some 29 other celeb- and rocker-decorated GH controllers are also up on eBay to support the cause.
For anyone hoping for more than just a geeky display piece, please note the fine print: “Owing to customization, the controller is offered solely as an art object and is not guaranteed to have retained any functionality; buyers who choose to connect the controller to a console do so at their own risk.” (Ever seen a skate-guitar asplode…?)
[Via IGN]
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Chattin’ With Goichi Suda About Punks, Killer7 & No More Heroes
Last Saturday afternoon, I got the chance to sit down and have a little talk with Grasshopper Interactive boss (and super-nice guy) Goichi Suda. How’s the family, how’s the weather, when’s No More Heroes coming out, that kind of thing. Very cordial.
His address on day one of the conference was all about what makes him a punk designer, so I ask him why he thinks so few other developers adopt a similar strategy. “When you’re making games, it’s very important to have the funds to make the game”, he says. “So in order to get approval from your publisher, you have to be able to convince them that your game will be successful, which means you need to make your game more ’safe’”.
“So making games in a ‘punk style’ has a lot more risk”, he continues. “It is a lot more difficult and poses a lot of challenges to designers, so maybe that’s why not many other developers do it”. In other words, just like punk, most people aren’t fans of the end product.
Yet, just like punk, while the mass-market might shun him, he’s developed a cult following, including here in the west. I ask him why he thinks this is. “I’ve been watching western movies and listening to western music since I was little, so I think I’m really used to western culture”, he says.
“Before I got into making games I was always looking for something to do, that I believed in, that I could make for the western market”, Suda continues. “That’s where a lot of my original ideas are coming from, and once I was fortunate enough to be able to make Killer7, from the beginning I wanted to release the game overseas and give westerners something I felt they were looking for”.
“I also wanted to give them something that made them feel “oh, this is great”, or “oh, this is very different from other western games”, he says. “I think maybe that’s why some westerners like my ideas and my games”.
Another reason, I point out, is because your last two games were on Nintendo systems, as is your next one. Why the love? “The Wii, and also the DS, are both quite ‘different’ devices at their core”, he says. “So if a game developer has a very strict, safe idea of how to make a game, that makes it difficult for him, because what Nintendo are doing is totally new and fresh”.
“So I first have to destroy the way I’m thinking about how to make a game, then rebuild the game as I can see it working on the system”, he continues. “That’s what I find really interesting about making a game for the Wii”.
I point out that, for all their artistic vision, Killer7 and Contact had their fair share of flaws. So do you ever look back on your games with a critical eye? “I don’t really think about looking back on my past games”, he says. “Oh, except the PS2 version of Killer7. Some ‘other company’ ported the game to PS2, and I like working on all my games myself, so that’s the only thing I wish I could change”.
But surely you learn a lesson or two from how a game is received? I mean, Killer7 had a lot of fans, but most people either didn’t understand, or straight-up hated the game. “Well, it’s not just Killer7, people seem to either love or hate most of my games, there’s nobody in between!” he says.
“So I kind of expected that reaction. As for learning a lesson, I didn’t really ‘learn’ anything for No More Heroes because it’s a different kind of game, but maybe looking at how the western market reacted to Killer7 will help for the game we release after No More Heroes”.
Ah, No More Heroes. This writer, at least, is a little bit excited. So when’s it coming? During your address, a June-July release date was mentioned. “I’m looking at releasing the game in Japan sometime this year”, he says, “and hopefully either at the end of this year or early next year in Europe and the United States”. Ah. Translator error, then. Shame.
Reminding him that he’s on record as saying No More Heroes will be “as violent, or even more violent than Manhunt 2!”, I ask whether the issue of censorship is troubling him. If it’s ultra-violent, won’t that run the risk of it being banned in places like Germany or Australia?
“Well, Japan has a strict ratings system too, just like Australia and Germany”, Suda says. “I’m working on making changes to different versions of the game so that we can release the game everywhere”. No word on just what these changes were, sadly, but Germans might want to start thinking about importing anyway.
With the recent turmoil at Capcom over the whole Clover fiasco and the formation of Seeds, I figure I’ll ask if we can expect/hope for another collaboration with Shinji Mikami. “We’ve been talking about making another game like Killer7, so we’re not sure when that’s going to be”, he says. “But something will happen in the future, we really want to make it happen”.
Clip: Battle Storm: Senko No Ronde
Now this a game that the bums I sometimes call friends can sit down and be “entertained” by for at least a couple of hours after they go into a spacecake-induced coma while visiting me in Amsterdam. I, however, can appreciate it sober because I’m cool.
Coming out for Xbox in the US this May (though it has been in Japan for quite some time), Battle Storm: Senko no Ronde is the UbiSoft’s American version of the Japanese fighter/shooter that looks like it could melt your mind in about two seconds. I could easily take an epileptic seizure if that’s not available, though.
Shooting, fighting, androgyny: Senko no Ronde coming stateside [Joystiq]
Grant Morrison Visits Area 51
The film adaptation of Midway’s Area 51 just got far more talent working on it than it deserves, as Paramount Pictures hires comic book revolutionary Grant Morrison to pen the screenplay for the video game film.
Morrison’s works include amazing runs on the New X-men, Fantastic Four, Justice League of America, Doom Patrol, Animal Man, Superman, and most recently Batman and Wildcats. All good stuff, but for the real Morrison vibe you have to check out his DC Vertigo imprint work, such as Kid Eternity, the Invisibles, and Sebastian O.
Hopefully the ever inventive Morrison can turn the Area 51 movie project into something special, because frankly I wasn’t the least bit interested in this project until hearing that he signed on.
Comicbook author to write ‘Area 51′ [Variety]
Celebrity GH Controller Auction
Celebrities from the music, film, art and sports worlds have all pitched in to customize their own Guitar Hero 2 controllers for the Rock, Paint, Bid charity auction put together by Activision and Red Bull. The auction went live yesterday and runs through April 13.
The money raised will go to MusicCares, though I was a little disappointed to see that the auction manager, Kompolt, is apparently getting a 25 precent cut.
I hopped over to the eBay auction site and grabbed shots for all of the guitars currently up for sale. While some were totally phoned in, there are some really masterful creations up there.
Celebrity Control Auctions [eBay]
