Archive for July, 2007
Seeing Red: Heavenly Sword, From Xbox to PS3
The trailers are a fascinating watch as you can see the game and character progress. Don’t care what the haters say, I like Nariko’s fire truck-red locks best.
Heavenly Evolution [Destructoid]
Sharing Is Good: Korea Void of Game Retailers
There’s more to Korean gaming than StarCraft. There’s also World of Warcraft, for example. From a laundry list of popular games to a rundown of internet cafe culture, Korean-based writer Nick Rumas sheds light onto the Peninsula’s current scene. He writes:
To give you an idea of what things are like, I’ll use the area in which I live — Yangju, a northern suburb of Seoul well within reach of the massive Seoul Metro — as an example. The population, mostly made up of overflow from Seoul proper, is nearly 200,000, but there isn’t a single dedicated games store to be found in the entire city. The closest would be in the neighboring city of Uijeongbu (population of around 450,000), but even there, you’ll only find one fledgling shop in the dark recesses of an underground mall.
The shop owner is a friend of mine, and he’ll be the first to tell you that selling PC games in Korea is a dead end; he makes his money by selling console games, the kind that aren’t copied so easily.
Try introducing a pricey game console into a culture where P2P sharing thrives and see how far that gets you. And with consoles looking more and more PC-ish, fat chance Korean gamers will bite. Why would they?
State of Korea [Gamasutra]
Crime Doesn’t Pay: Kids Caught Up In GameStop Armed Robbery
A GameStop store in Arlington was robbed last week. Two masked men, one with a handgun, busted into the store and made off with what looks like a bunch of PS3s. Which is bad. Worse? Two ten year-old kids walked into the store while the robbery was in progress, and were ordered, at gunpoint, onto the ground. Nobody was hurt, and one of the crims was subsequently caught by police, but still. Threatening ten year-olds with a gun? Not cool. Kinda sad what people will do for a handful of consoles.
Arlington Boys Walk In On Video Store Robbery [CBS, via GamePolitics]
Legal Eagle: Boll Sued by NY Post
New York Postal? Geddit? So clever. The New York Post is suing “filmmaker” Uwe Boll for swiping the paper’s trademarked logo for his Postal movie website. The paper claims the Postal site goes pass the point of parody and into the realm of stealing. The Post demands that its design not be used in promotion for the controversial film and is seeking financial compensation for damage done by this promotion. The NY Post site appeared after the newspaper published an article on the film in mid-April. Here’s what Boll had to say at the time:
…the New York Post’s attempt to slander my character and my movie POSTAL by stating that the movie mocks and makes fun out of September 11 victims is entirely incorrect and false. Their approach to writing this article was totally unethical. In fact, during their research for the article, The New York Post had to replace the three journalists who choose to support my concept. The publisher chose to censor these journalists and had Jill Culora write the article without even conducting an interview with me to explain what the movie is about.
All this is nice and all, but when is someone gonna sue Boll for making shit films?
Chowderhead Sued [1Up]
Bullish: Barbie Diaries Dev Wants To Redefine Industry
Super-Ego games have today announced they’re working on something big. Something that will change the way we look at videogames forever. They’re going to be developing a current-gen experience that will “redefine the videogame industry through distinct and innovative titles focusing on rich, character-driven storylines”. This will come in the form of a major new IP which they’ll be announcing in the Fall. Excited? You should be: Super-Ego were behind…Barbie Diaries. The new IP will star the man pictured above, and you can check out a trailer at Super-Ego’s site. I imagine he’s what would happen if a Sim spoke English. And was really annoying prick. Can’t wait!
Super-Ego Games
Numbers Are Fun: Konami All Cashed Up
Sorry numbers fans. We got a little caught up in the news about Metal Gear Solid yesterday, forgot that the whole point of the analysts meeting in the first place was to discuss the company’s finances. Which, if you’re dying to know, are looking rosy. The whole company (games, slot machines & gyms) was up on the previous quarter, including the games division, which saw a sales increase of 8.6%, with net revenues totalling USD$292 million. Surprised? That’s what happens when you own Pro Evo and when you release Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. You make money.
Konami Consolidated Financial Results Q1 2008
After PGR4 Didn’t Fit On DVD Sony Says: Blu-Ray Was Totally Worth It
So PGR4 has issues fitting on a DVD. They had to axe day/night cycles, because they didn’t fit on the disc. Which has a few PGR fans feeling blue. Sony, though, Sony are happy. They’re chirping like little baby birds at feeding time. Dave “Don’t Hate On My Blu-Ray” Karraker:
We took a lot of heat at launch for including Blu-Ray in PS3. Now it looks like that investment is being justified.Next generation games simply need more space on the disc to contain all that high definition content. Take a look at Lair, for example, already pushing 25GB of content, and that is a first-generation title. At 50GB storage capacity, Blu-Ray gives the PS3 plenty of headroom for developers to fully realize their visions well into the future.
You can bet that if each of those words were a finger covered in sugar he’d have licked, sucked and kissed each one as they came out. That’s how sweet they would have sounded. Mmm mmm.
Blu-Ray investment justified, says Sony [Gamesindustry]
Clip: Tour of Giant Gundam
RX78 Attraction [Danny Choo]
Silence!: Phil Harrison Speaks On Madden, Home, Wipeout HD
The kids from 1UP and EGM sat down with Sony Worldwide Studios’ king cue ball Phil Harrison at E3 2007 to chat all things PlayStation software related. Of interest to console torch and pitchfork bearers is Harrison’s response to questions about Madden NFL 08’s underwhelming performance on the PLAYSTATION 3. Phil, why does the PS3 version run a last-gen 30 frames per second?
Well, I can only point to our own sports studio—1080p, 60 frames-per-second basketball game. I’m afraid I have no idea. We’re providing some tools and technologies from our worldwide studio’s core technology groups to 3rd parties now, as well. You may remember something from GDC, we announced this thing called Edge and that’s now widely deployed in the third party community, and that is clearly improving the developer’s ability to maximize what the CELL processor does. So, hopefully, that will assist folks like EA.
Phil later added that “It would concern me if the platform was incapable of doing it, but we’ve proven the platform is capable of doing it, so it’s not a PLAYSTATION 3 issue. I’m trying to be polite.”
Well played, Phil—but we’ll make sure to mention that an NBA game features about half the players on the court compared to an NFL game. There’s plenty more where that came from in the full video interview, including plenty of detail on this fall’s release of Home.
Second Comes Right After First: Mark Rein Ready For Epic’s Ass To Get Kicked
As good as Gears was, and as many copies as it sold, you always got the impression it was keeping Halo’s seat warm at the head of Microsoft’s first-party table. You know, keep the kids shooting on the 360 until Halo 3 came out. Think that’s a bit harsh? Rubbish, it’s the truth. Even Mark Rein agrees, to the point where he’s come to terms with it:
All those records we broke with Gears of War are going down on September 25. We’ve had a nice nine, ten months of being the record holder, and now we’re going to get our ass kicked. In a good way.
You’re a good sport, Mark.
Gears records “going down on September 25″ [CVG]
Day Note: ConCON
To: Ash
From: Crecente
Re: Car Navi Blows Chunks
Our van has an aftermarket GPS navigation system. I love it. I end up using it even when I don’t need to, which endlessly annoys my wife.
Today’s the last day of the month, and the beginning of a real whopper of a month. While July felt hectic with just E3, August has BlizzCon, QuakeCon, Fan Faire, PAX and Leipzig. It is going to fly by. I spent much of the day arranging our coverage for the three cons later this week. I suspect the most interesting will be BlizzCon, followed by QuakeCon and then Fan Faire. In the middle of my planning I decided to shoot the Penny Arcade guys an email begging them to move PAX to the first half of the year, when absolutely nothing happens. I have no idea how they feel about that, but it sure would make my life easier. 
What you missed:
SOE will be revealing a new game on Friday
Don’t forget your homework
Need us some interns
This is almost as bad as the PS3 price drop secret
Best of E3
LukeS spills the beans on H3 Co-Op
BlizzCon Deets
A Word From Our Sponsor: Forza 2 DLC Goes Live August 1, Sponsored By Nissan
The first batch of downloadable content for Turn 10 Studios’ Forza Motorsport 2 will be available to download just hours from now, scheduled to hit Xbox Live at 2 AM PDT late tonight/early tomorrow morning. The first pack is free and features three Nissan rides, the 2007 Sentra SE-R, Altima, and 350Z. Slightly less attractive for Microsoft Point misers is the Peugeot 908 race car which one can download from the Xbox Live Marketplace for 50 MS points, about 63 cents. Whatta bargain!
Further details, including info on some upcoming Nissan sponsored contests, at the official site.
Nissan Brings 2007 Cars to Forza Motorsport 2 [Forza Motorsport 2]
Whats In A Name?: Is World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King The New Expansion?
German ratings board USK—which you may know better as the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle—has revealed the name of one of Blizzard’s upcoming releases, World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. The title was rated with the descriptor that it would be the “Add On” was a “GC-demo” meaning that the game will be on hand, most likely playable, at Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany.
The expansion has been rumored to explore the frozen continent of Northrend for some time, with leaked documents lending more weight to that speculation appearing earlier this week.
Blizzard staffers revealed late last year that the company planned to ship yearly expansions following the release of The Burning Crusade, so it’s just about due for another dip into players’ wallets.
Just remember to call your mothers before you purchase this one, kids. She’ll miss you.
Titelsuche in der USK-Prüfdatenbank [USK via MMOGamer]
Words: Metal Gear Solid 2 Gets Re-Analyzed
After attempting to recount the plot line of Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 2 last night over beers—and failing spectacularly—I was pleased to see Simon from GameSetWatch linking to an extremely detailed analysis of the game’s narrative, analyzing the parallel, sometimes complimentary themes of the first two Metal Gear Solid scripts. A good read for anyone who has gotten over their Raiden hate and wants to revisit the often convoluted MGS storyline.
Driving Off the Map: A Formal Analysis of Metal Gear Solid 2 [Delta Translation Group via GSW]
Cheats: Forza Motorsport 2 - Achievements!
Race to win and get all these awesome achievements in Forza Motorsport 2!
Feature: 9 Reasons We’re Excited for Grand Theft Auto IV
Halo 3 isn’t the only mega-hit coming out this fall. Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV is poised to hit the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on October 16th, 2007. Here are the nine reasons we’ve circled this date on our calendars.
Cheats: DiRT - Achievements!
Every achievement you could ever want for DiRT!
Cheats: Call Of Juarez - Unlock Very Hard Mode!
Collect those posters and try out Very Hard mode!
Cheats: Tenchu Z - Secret Poses!
Try out these cool secret poses!
Cheats: Tenchu Z - Unlock The Army Costume!
Become an army ninja!
