Archive for May 4th, 2007
Weird Science: How To Build A Fake WoW Lady
So great. This lady is the work of artist Max Kor, who built himself a World of Warcraft Night Elf from scratch, like some magical, pointy-eared Kelly LeBrock.
Not only is the 3D model amazing, he’s detailed how he went about building her, with tons of step-by-steps and progress shots for the budding artist/curious/lonely WoW player to admire.
Hit the link for more pics and info. But no touching.
The Night Elf [CGSociety]
Dizzy: Clip: Spidey Makes Me Queasy
I feel sick just watching this. And that’s on a wee little embedded video. The thought of playing it on my big TV has me worried I might just throw up all over my living room floor.
: The Spiny Norway Picture Mystery
“prickly”, “super mario bros.”, “oddities”, “europe”, “original”, “retro”
Now, this is mysterious. Reader Kim writes:
…found in Oslo, Norway. More specificly, on a building right next to Slottsparken, which surrounds The Royal Palace where our Norwegian Monarch lives.
Note, the pictures enclosed are not photographed by me.
Kind regards
Less who placed the Spiny there, more who the hell photographed it?! Arrrrgh. It’s killing me!
Gallery: Splinter Cell: Conviction: Scans: Screens: Nice
From the same issue of Finnish mag Pelaaja that broke the news of the new Clancy sneaky-poo game come these scans.
And I have to say, I’m loving Sam’s new look. Very Nick Nolte. Dishevelled, bearded, throwing chairs, attacking police officers…it’s a fresh way to take the series. Splinter Cell 5: Sam’s drunken decline.
[via Jeux France]
Ring The Till: Rumour: Lego Star Wars Heading To Wii
Codename Revolution are claiming to have seen a distributor’s list that shows a Lego Star Wars compilation coming to the Wii. Called Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, it should be arriving in time for Christmas, no doubt bundled with all kinds of added waggling and thrusting.
Oh, and lightsabre swinging. Least, there better be. Unconfirmed as of now, so take a pinch of salt or two, but shit, it’s Lego Star Wars. It’ll turn up on every system it can get its hands on.
LEGO Star Wars The Complete Saga [Codename Revolution, via Go Nintendo]
Woozy: Visit Super Potato, Get Seasick
Electronics site Akihabara News visits retro retailer Super Potato. Incessant video panning and swooping follows! Neat if you’ve never been to Super Potato, but it kinda has a hidden camera ambush vibe. That, or it’s like shopping with someone who has ADD.
Thanks, Mr. BENDER!
Skate.: Clip: Skate (The Controls)
My hands-on time with EA Black Box’s skate. pretty much ensured I’ll be picking it up at release. Watch this new clip and let me know if you’re not convinced. I’ll berate you in the comments.
Muddy Capitalisation: DevStation 07: MotorStorm Downloads Coming In Two Flavours?
Sony’s DevStation developer conference in London has just wound up, and scattered amongst the back-patting, drink-drinking and how’s-your-fathers were some scatterings of info. One was the fact God of War’s Kratos and Buzz’s Disco Steve are the two most popular avatar downloads for PS3 online users.
The other, interesting one is the division of download packs for MotorStorm. On the one hand there’ll be “premium” packs, adding “significant gameplay” to the game. Judging by the name and the division, I’m guessing these will most likely cost you cash. The others are “lite” packs, which again from the division sound less extensive and most likely free. Course, that’s just my guesswork, but I like my chances on this one.
Open Home as Sony talks to devs [Develop]
Note: Day Note: Parents
To: Ash
From: Crecente
The parents are in town, all three, for Tristan’s Birthday party. I spent the day trying to keep an eye on the site and spend a small amount of time with them.
What you missed:
Skate. impressions
Oh, good lord
Now, that’s a game I’d love to play
Boogie impressions
NOA moving
Right, I’m off try and squeeze some gaming in. I suspect it won’t happen though.
Killer App: Vib-Ribbon For PSN A Possibility
Masaya Matsuura, creator of PaRappa The Rapper and import-only release Vib-Ribbon, recently sat down with Gamasutra to talk about future projects.
While developer NaNaOn-Sha is hard at work on Tamagotchi games and bringing their casual music game Rhythmica to, well, everything under the sun, Matsuura drops hints about another Vib-Ribbon release, this time for the PlayStation Network.
Rhythmica is a very similar idea to Vib Ribbon — it’s about analyzing audio and creating a game from that data, but it uses MP3 audio instead of CDs. We are discussing the possibility of making a downloadable version of Vib Ribbon for Sony. But, I don’t know yet - Sony only recently launched their downloadable service in Japan, so maybe we need to wait a while before releasing a title with that kind of appeal.
Um, who do I have to kill, bribe or sleep with to get this on the PlayStation Store? I’d love to play some lo-fi Vib-Ribbon with the tracks I’ve ripped to my PS3. Make it happen, Sony!
Q&A: NanaOn-Sha’s Matsuura (Parappa) On The State Of Music Games [Gamasutra]
More Monster Hunter… Sigh: Clip: Monster Hunter Frontier Trailer/Game Play
Shot this footage of upcoming MMO Monster Hunter Frontier at the recent MH Festa in Osaka. Actually looks interesting. Well, somewhat.
No Fakey: Skate Hands-On
EA’s stab at the skateboarding genre, simply dubbed skate.—yes, with the period and lowercase initial S—was shown to the gaming press this week for an early look at how the game is progressing.
One of the first things you’ll notice about the game is that it doesn’t play, or look, like Activision’s long-in-the-tooth Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series of games. There’s less of a focus on massive combo stringing, complicated tricks, and the goal-defined level gameplay that Tony Hawk titles are known for.
With skate., the EA Black Box team has decided to focus on more fluid board control, greater realism and open-ended tasks. Players can choose to skate at their leisure around skate.’s photorealistic environments, mostly large public skate parks in the fictional city of San Vanelona, as well as take on tasks and challenges from other skaters and non-player characters populating the level. One such task was simply meeting a photographer’s requirements: score 400 points and perform a rail slide from a heelflip. Fairly straightforward, but not altogether easy.
Why? The game’s control scheme doesn’t coddle you by using simple directional presses and button combinations. You’ll have to work a little harder for those rail slides.
The controls are set up in a fashion familiar to anyone who’s played an EA-published game (Fight Night Round 3, Def Jam ICON) recently. The left analog stick directs your player around the game world, the right stick controls your board. Using the trademarked “FlickIt” controls, a quick up-down motion with the right analog stick will kickflip your board. Move the analog stick in a J-motion, from top to down to left, and you’ll pop shove-it. There are dozens of board moves that can be pulled off with simple gestures and they feel surprisingly effortless.
The rest of the controller is used for further body control. With the Xbox 360 controller, X and A perform left leg and right leg pushes, respectively, to gain speed. Right and left triggers will make your skater grab the board, depressing both will lay you down on the board for a coffin slide. Control feels natural, comfortable and refreshing in light of the white-knuckle button jamming you may be used to with Tony Hawk. What about the other buttons? B will act as a modifier for your tricks, with Y cycling through currently available tasks and challenges.
The skateboarding in skate. looks like mellow fun, and should give players an opportunity to cultivate their own style and suite of tricks.
One of the more interesting aspects of skate. is its planned use of the embedded video replay tool. The game will let players loop through the last 60 to 90 seconds of gameplay and record videos of memorable moments. Pull off an amazing set of tricks? Go into replay mode, edit out the fluff, pick your camera angles and save your video. EA will allow users to export these clips to your hard drive, then upload the fisheye lens-filtered videos to the skate. web site, letting other players rate and comment on your board skills. We were shown a preliminary version of the site, with movies uploaded on the fly, one that borrows heavily (and wisely) from YouTube.
The graphical style of skate. is gritty and realistic throughout, with real world brands like DC Shoes, Thrasher and Volcom driving home the realism. The HUD and overall design is rough and dirty, but thankfully features clear blue skies and realistic lighting. Expect in-game advertising to also add to the believability of the world. Graphically, the game looks fantastically realistic and you’ll get a better impression of the visuals with the gallery below.
The most important aspect to nail with skate. has to be the controls. From my initial spins, the team seems to have done it. While more in-depth play will reveal just how usable the two stick control set up will be, it looks like they’ve got a worthy competitor to the Tony Hawk series of games. With the community aspect looking like a winner, skate. seems like it could be a solid new IP for Electronic Arts and may lure lapsed THPS players back the skateboarding genre.
I Love Statistics: Parents Love the ESRB
Sixty percent of parents with children under 18 never allow those kids to play M rated games, while 34 percent only do sometimes, according to a recent study commissioned by the Entertainment Software Rating Board.
The study also shows that parents of children under the age of 13 are twice as likely as those with children 13 and older to “never” allow them to play M-rated games.
The study was conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates in early April, and surveyed over 500 parents who have purchased a computer or video game in the last six months and have children age 3 to 17 that play video games.
It’s interesting to see that 64 percent of parents seem to agree with the mature rating. While I appreciate the work of the ESRB, I can say that I find the T rating a bit too broad. Of course, as parents we all have to make our own decisions based on good information.
Hit the jump for more findings from the study.
Among the study’s other findings:
87% of parents find it “very important” to be able to monitor and regulate what their children watch, read and play
90% of parents surveyed said that the ratings are “very” (55%) to “somewhat” (35%) helpful in helping them buy and rent games they deem appropriate for their children
91% say the ESRB ratings are the “most important” (17%), a “very important” (52%), or a “somewhat important” (22%) consideration when selecting games
Other than ESRB ratings, parents turn to packaging (31%), other parents (29%), or their children (21%) as the top three sources of information about games
83% said that they would consider parental control settings to be “very” (53%) to “somewhat” (30%) helpful in allowing them to control the games their kids play.
“It’s extremely encouraging that the vast majority of parents are involved and informed when it comes to choosing which games are appropriate for their families,” said ESRB president Patricia Vance. “The ratings continue to be a very important, if not the most important tool to help parents make an informed decision, and it’s clear that parents are using and relying on them in growing numbers.”
“Awareness and use of the ratings is clearly continuing to rise to considerably high levels, still showing steady growth from where they were just a few years ago,” said Jay Campbell of Peter D. Hart Research Associates. “What is quite telling is that the number of parents who say they ‘never’ allow their children to play M-rated games rose as those who ’sometimes’ do declined. This suggests that parents are becoming more assertive in using the ratings to set and enforce restrictions with respect to the games they allow their children to play.”
Fake Money: Anshe Chung Becomes Entropia Banker
Second Lifer Anshe Chung (aka Ailin Graef), the game’s self-described first millionaire, just landed the right to lend money and collect interest in the virtual world of Entropia Universe.
Chung paid PED600,000 or $60,000 for the right to loan shark in the game. Entropia auctioned off six of the “banking licenses” in world. The lowest bid was PED590,608 and the highest was PED999,000.
The other licensees include John Jacobs, who last made the virtual news when he bought an Entropia space station for $100,000, a purchase that happened to coincide with him becoming a spokesperson for the game.
3PointD has the details on how the licenses work:
The licenses promise two years of exclusivity for the five virtual bankers. The licenses continue after that period, but more may be issued once the two years is up. Winners also get the right to help design the building they will do their business out of, on which they will also have to pay an unspecified rent.
To insure everything stays on the up and up, Entropia will force loans to be made through non-player characters that will “work” in the bank buildings. Bank owners will be able to have live staff on hand to help customers through the process, but the loans themselves must be made via the NPC.
A reserve of PED1 million (US$100,000) must be put up by each license winner within 20 days, according to Entropia. It doesn’t say whether this must be maintained intact or can be used for the business of banking, however. Bankers will also be forced to pay “a 5% percentage of all interests charged” to MindArk, the company behind Entropia.
Sounds like a license to print virtual money.
Anshe Chung Wins Entropia Banking License [3PointD]
Let There Be Fights: Hot Flashes: Bible Fight
Don’t write off Christian gaming. At least, not until you’ve played Bible Fight. This divine Flash-based game, hosted by Adult Swim and created by Pop & Company isn’t just some half-assed brawler, this is a gorgeously animated, hilarious one-way ticket to Hell with unbelievable attention to detail.
With seven selectable fighters, including Jesus, Satan, Noah, Eve (the obligatory T&A entry), Mary, Moses and one unlockable mystery character, there’s plenty to do here.
If you play only one Flash game this weekend, let it be this. Amen.
Bible Fight [Adult Swim via Digg]
