All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

The PlayStation Move gets its own light gun shooter, without the actual gun part.

[Logitech PC accessories] Despite fears about the languishing PC game industry, revenue seems to have grown a bit in 2009. According to PC Gaming Alliance's Horizons Report, revenue hit $13.1 billion in 2009, versus $11 billion in 2008.

Don't expect that growth to translate to increased shelf space for PC games, however. The report notes that digital distribution sales are way up, as are the sales of virtual items. "In 2009 we saw North America and Europe experience a rapid uptake in purchasing virtual items," PCGA president Randy Stude said. "This model is what drove growth in Asia and we think it is just starting to come to Western markets."

As expected, given the rise in digital distribution, packaged game sales have dropped for a second year, now accounting for just 20 percent of PC game revenue. It appears that PC games are going to go all digital unless we start seeing some really awesome cloth maps.

Guybrush Threepwood makes his return this summer.

"The Shoot" is a pretty fun title. The on-rails shooter propels you through a series of cheesy movie sets, populated by cardboard cut-out civilians, antiquated B-movie aliens and hulking robots. And then you shoot them ... on the shoot. See? What's more fun than a title with a double meaning?

Although the title is a riot, my time with the game left me feeling disappointed and annoyed. Lightgun shooters have a comfy home on Wii, and the point-and-shoot mechanics of games like House of the Dead: Overkill are a natural fit for the controller. The PlayStation Move is similarly well-suited, both in terms of aiming ability and comfortable weighting. But "The Shoot" felt like a second-rate shooting range, marked by a slow pace and obvious simplicity.

Those can't be trotted out as negatives for every gamer, but if you're a Joystiq reader, there's something you have to know: In order to activate a useful slow-motion effect in "The Shoot," you have to -- I'm not kidding -- spin around on the spot like a ballerina with an ice-cream cone in her hand. I imagine Sony would like to separate its motion controller from the Wii's stigma of vapid, gestural-overload games, so pulling an early-days Wii stunt like that makes for a bad impression.

Sony's fuzzball is cuter than a million babies, but is it fun?

There are two questions I'll try to answer with this quick hands-on preview. Firstly, is SOCOM 4 the true sequel to the SOCOM franchise we've been waiting for? Secondly, does the PlayStation Move controller work as intended?

It's hard to answer the first question, especially within the constraints of a ten-minute demo. What I can say is that even in this early state, SOCOM 4 looks very good, sporting incredibly detailed environments. While the early code has a noticeably choppy framerate, there was already a large number of objects in the environment. Whether its a car, a trash can, a thrown out mattress, there are tons of objects to take cover behind in the world.

Controlling your squad should be familiar to anyone that's played a recent SOCOM game. Holding L1 on the Move allows you to slightly slow down time and direct your team to move to position and await orders. You can even call in an airstrike by holding down the Move button and holding Down on a target. After sneaking down an alley, we were able to catch a large squad of soldiers lounging in an open field. They had no idea what hit them as the bombs dropped.

#gdc10 The Shoot is Sony's first light gun shooter for the newly named PlayStation Move controller, an arcade-style sci-fi shoot 'em up with a twist, in that you have to twist. More »

At a GDC 2010 event, LucasArts announced that The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is headed to a plethora of new platforms and services. First and foremost, it's been ported for both the PlayStation Network and Mac OS. Furthermore, the game is also making the jump to the Telltale games store as well as InstantAction.com. There are currently no details as to when the game will hit the services mentioned above, but rest assured we're following up with LucasArts right now.

It's worth noting that InstantAction.com is currently down for "maintenance," with the site's blog mentioning some "exciting announcements" in the near future. Regardless of when the game does show up, it's definitely good news for adventure fans that have been deprived of the remake thus far.

Third party developers and publishers enter the mix.

#move Another title shown off at the PlayStation Move's unveiling today is "Move Party" the working title of a PlayStation Eye-enabled casual game that puts the player on screen in the action. More »

#gdc Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge is coming to the iPhone, iPod Touch, Mac, PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 this summer. More »

At a pirate-themed party in San Francisco tonight (with special guests Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer!) LucasArts announced The Secret of Monkey Island 2: Special Edition, coming "this summer" on Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, PC, iPhone and iPod Touch. This isn't simply the same "special edition" treatment applied to last year's edition; instead, fans can expect a new control mechanism. "In addition to the point-and-click interface, we've added the ability to move Guybrush around, so you feel more connected to him," said LucasArts' Craig Derrick, project lead on all Monkey Island products. They've also added never-before-seen art from Peter Chan and Steve Purcell and developer commentary (!) for you Monkey Island fanboys out there (that's you).

Of course, that's in addition to all the stuff you'd expect from the special edition treatment, including high-definition art, remastered music, full voiceover track, and the ability to swap between original and "special edition" modes. Derrick even said they've "reimagined" each character, citing fan displeasure with Guybrush's hair in the first special edition. Really? We liked his hair ...

PlayStation Move is here. Now let's watch some reality television.

Wii Boxing gets bloody.

At Sony's special GDC event, Activision, Capcom, WB Games, Namco Bandai, Square Enix, Ubisoft, EA, Disney, Konami, Sega, Crave and Tecmo Koei all confirmed that they'll be supporting the Move in future versions of their games. Although that confirmation came in the form of a slide full of company logos and word from Sony vice-president of marketing and PSN that, "Virtually every third-party publisher" will support the new motion-control device.

Sony's Jack Tretton went on to say that 36 publishers and third-party developers will support it, and according to a press release, "In fiscal year 2010, SCE Worldwide Studios will also release more than 20 games that are either dedicated to or supported with the PlayStation Move platform. While this same group of publishers will probably support Microsoft's Project Natal as well, it's good to know that everyone is onboard. But onboard how? Are they developing Move departments that will get every possible ounce of gameplay out of these things? Or do they mean support like backrubs and cookies?

We aren't sure what titles will be supported just yet, but our team of Joystiqers are waving the Move about as you read this, and we'll have more news very soon.

Click for little-big size
In case this is your first visit to Joystiq, know that Sony has dropped major megatons this evening at its GDC press conference -- as well as one very small megaton: the PlayStation Move "sub-controller." What you see above is the little brother (if you will) to the main ice cream cone-esque Move wand and the enabler of all things analog stick-controlled.

As per Sony's announcement of Move, the sub-controller attachment is intended to "expand the game play options that PlayStation Move games can offer," and -- unlike Nintendo Wii's Nunchuk controller -- it will connect wirelessly to the console via Bluetooth. We'll have our hands-on with the PlayStation Move (and the sub-controller) for you later tonight. For now, ogle the high-res images in our gallery below.

We test out the sports compilation on Playstaion Move.

#move Here's video of two of the six games available in Sports Champions for the PlayStation Move, a table tennis game and a gladiator competition. More »

#move "Motion Fighter" is the working title of the fighting game showcasing the new PlayStation Move, revealed this afternoon at the Game Developers Conference. Sony's published eight screens of the game. Here they are. More »

We try out Zipper's latest with Sony's PlayStation Move motion controller.

I really want this game to be great. I have been hyping myself up a little to much for it and sometime that can be disastrous! March 23rd is right around the corner!

#gdc Among the titles for the PS3's Move motion controller being shown off at the Game Developers Conference today is Sports Champions, a very familiar sounding casual sports title. More »

UPDATE: Hit the play button in the Ustream box below to replay today’s PlayStation Move press conference from GDC.

Greetings from GDC 2010! This year we’re going big at the Game Developers Conference, with a major press event today. Couldn’t make it in? Sure you can! Just watch our live stream below.

The show starts at 4pm Pacific/7pm Eastern:

Free Videos by Ustream.TV

Click for little-big size
In case you weren't aware, Sony has dropping major megatons this evening at its GDC press conference -- as well as one very small megaton: the PlayStation Move "sub-controller." What you see above is the little brother (if you will) to the main ice cream cone-esque Move wand and the enabler of all things analog stick-controlled.

As per Sony's press release on the subject, the attachment is intended to "expand the game play options that PlayStation Move games can offer" and -- unlike the controller it'll no doubt be compared to -- is said to connect wirelessly via bluetooth to the console. We'll have our hands-on with the PlayStation Move (and the sub-controller) for you later on, but for now you can ogle some high-res pics in our gallery below.

Clean that pet, Playstation Move style.

The greatest motion-sensing bowling experience since that thing on Nintendo.

According to the block of info posted on European PlayStation Blog, there are a lot more PlayStation Move games out there to be seen than tonight's press release let on. Beyond the already revealed support for Move in SOCOM 4, LittleBigPlanet and EyePet, a whole mess of games were shown off at Sony's GDC event, from Move Party (um, a party game) to Slider (Mirror's Edge meets Pain?) to a Western shooter in The Shoot. (We've dropped a screen of Sports Champion above -- a game we think looks particularly fantastic.)

Oh, and the Euro Blog's mention of "DUKES" is just another name for that Motion Fighter game, which was mentioned onstage during this evening's press event -- so cool your heels and put the Jump to Conclusion mat back away. (We do rather like the name "Dukes," we'll admit; though we've been told it's a regional thing, and us North Americans are likely stuck with "Motion Fighter" instead.) We've yet to confirm which studios are developing which games, but you can be sure we'll ask Sony just as soon as we can. Here's the complete list of PlayStation Move titles that we know of, though, for now:

• Sports Champion
  
• The Shoot
  
• Slider
  
• TV Superstars
  
• Move Party
• Motion Fighter