All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

InstantAction CEO Louis Castle is a big fan of "the kind of big, complicated games that cost a lot of money to make," he says. But he left a job making just those kinds of games at EA's Los Angeles studio in order to focus on finding "a new way to get the money needed to make those games." Without such a solution, Castle says we're "headed for a disaster in the retail space."

The core cause of this impending disaster, Castle argued in a keynote presentation at the Develop Conference in Brighton today, is the big-budget, hit-driven focus that has overtaken the industry. This mentality has made it hard to make a game with a budget of less than $20 million and hard to profit on a game that doesn't hit the top 20, Castle said. "Really, we're becoming the worst of what Hollywood did become at one point before the independent film festivals and such," he said.

Check out the best way to stay in shape.

PopCap Senior Designer David Bishop said today that the company is "looking to add social features to all our existing games going forward."

Speaking at the Develop Conference in Brighton, Bishop wouldn't elaborate on what kind of social features we could expect to see or which existing games might get the social treatment first, but he did mention sending cross-platform taunts and challenges in Peggle as a hypothetical example. When questioned, Bishop said we could expect to see these features rolling out in the next six to 12 months.

Ratings board reveals thousands of gamer e-mails accidently.

Ratings board reveals thousands of gamer e-mails accidently.

Ratings board reveals thousands of gamer e-mails accidently.

#badmomma An hour after hosing blood off the street and ordering a bystander away from the guy her twins had beaten into a seizure, according to cops, a Staten Island mom was back in Frontierville in search of tools and hardware. More »

I love driving fast cars — and destroying them. Ever since the original Twisted Metal in 1995, I have always loved games that give me both wheels and weapons. I’ve never been much of a simulation guy, so while I can appreciate Gran Turismo’s beauty and stunning accuracy, I’m the type of gamer who can’t help but wonder why a rocket launcher doesn’t come standard.

Today, the PlayStation 3 demo of Blur became available in the PlayStation Store — and you know what comes standard? Pools of lightning bolts, explosive mines, bursts of nitro speed, and big glowing red balls of homing-missile danger. This is the kind of arcade-style combat racing that gets my motor running. Oh, and the mileage is excellent — I’ve been playing Blur for weeks now and I’m still not bored.

The Blur multiplayer demo gives you a pretty sizeable chunk of what the game has to offer. A dozen real-world cars, including I’ll-never-own-it-but-I-can-drool rides like the Lotus Exige Cup 260 and Ford GT; six tracks in two gameplay modes; seven mods that let you tweak the game mechanics to match your style of play; all eight of the chaotic power-ups; and the ability to boast about your skills to friends on the PlayStation Network with a single button press. (The full retail version also lets you brag on Facebook and Twitter.)

I’ve been pretty vocal about my love of this game over at oneofswords.com. I have hosted PS3 Blur gameplay nights on multiple continents, and have more in the works. I shared some of my personal Blur strategies for success (and people used them against me). I even had Gareth Wilson, lead designer from developer Bizarre Creations, on my podcast to explain some of the choices that went into the game and wound up getting him to reveal a key to success that I’ve been personally milking all the way to the finish line.

If you haven’t tried Blur yet, it’s understandable – heaven knows there are plenty of options when it comes to quality PS3 racing games. But the demo’s free for the taking as of today, so check it out and let me know if you feel what I feel when you play it – I’m @OneOfSwords on Twitter. And know that I’m serious when I say I will see you on the track…

One of the few quality sports simulations on Wii returns for another year.

#northamerica Who's ready for adventure? Then you'd best fire up an instance of the North American PlayStation Store, where the adventures of DeathSpank awaits thee! It may be the brightest shining star of this week's downloadable additions to the PS3. More »

For nearly three months you've stared long and hard at the $150 Legendary Edition of Halo: Reach, but let's face it -- handing over $80 for the Limited Edition is a lot more palatable. Here's what you'll get:

• Custom case modeled after a recovered ONI data module
• In-game Elite armor set for multiplayer
• Artifact bag, which contains the personal notes and documents of the creator of the Spartan program: Dr. Catherine Halsey
• Dr. Halsey's ONI security badge
• An embroidered Spartan II patch
• Seventy bucks saved!

Didn’t we hear that the Little Nemo license was up for grabs right now? Either that, or it fell into the public domain situation? I don’t care what the truth is…I just want Capcom to get this baby out on the Virtual Console. Kick-ass music, gameplay and graphics…the best of what the [...]

The long-running RPG franchise returns.

#replicaweapons In American McGee's Alice, an older, abuse-ravaged, mentally unstable Alice cuts a bloody path through an equally twisted Wonderland using her trust Vorpal Sword. Now Epic Weapons brings the Vorpal Sword to life. More »

#ps3 Hello Games' Joe Danger has wheelied its way to sales success on the PlayStation Network, but the indie creators of the fun and vibrant stunt 'em up had a hard time convincing publishers that "fun" would sell. No really. More »

Some slim pickings this week. DeathSpank is the unquestionably the biggest part of this update -- lest you count the unsavory amount of add-ons EA Sports has managed to conjure up for NCAA Football 11.

Check out the full update after the break.

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#esrb Calling it a "truly disappointing" mistake, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board has apologized directly to those whose email addresses it exposed in a reply concerning Blizzard's now-abandoned plans to require forum members to use their real names. More »

Hello Games' Sean Murray learned a lot when looking for a third-party publisher for his company's recent PSN critical and sales success Joe Danger. But the final takeaway from all those lessons seems to boil down to the same thing: most of the big publishers do not know what they're doing in the downloadable games market.

Speaking at the Develop Conference in Brighton today, Murray presented much of the personal research and anecdotes that convinced him and the three friends that make up his tiny company to self-publish on PSN rather than attach themselves to an established third-party publisher. Chief among those reasons was the fact that digital downloads from big publishers don't tend to sell very well on the download services.

Excepting established franchise re-releases like Galaga and Street Fighter 2, which skew the data, Murray's research found that an overwhelming majority (77 percent) of original IP from third-party publishers sold a paltry 25,000 copies or less on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network. These weren't underappreciated critical gems either -- 68 percent of original IP third-party downloadable games earned a 65 percent or lower average on Metacritic, Murray said.

Ratings board reveals thousands of gamer e-mails accidently.

#relationships You spend your days playing with them. Maybe they're your backup in a first-person shooter. Perhaps they heal your World of Warcraft guild raids. You count on them, and they count on you, but do you count them as friends? More »

#clips Video games, from Space Invaders to Bubble Bobble(!), invade the slopes and skate parks of Mt. Hood's High Cascade in the best video ever to combine snowboarding and Super Mario World, pool tables and Portal, chiptunes and hip-hop. More »

Activision has announced that Eric Hirshberg has joined Activision Publishing* as its new CEO, replacing Mike Griffith, who is being promoted to the position of Vice Chairman of Activision Blizzard. Hirshberg was formerly the CEO and Chief Creative Officer of ad company Deutsch LA.

"In contemplating the requirements for the role of Activision Publishing's new CEO," Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said in the announcement, "we believed it was vital to have a leader who was a dedicated gamer, inspired creative thinker, and possessed the ability to manage and lead creative talent in a manner that produced both superior products and provided superior shareholder returns." Kotick called Hirshberg "one of the most inspiring people I know" with a "keen understanding of popular culture."

Hirshberg will report to (and inspire!) Activision Blizzard COO Thomas Tippl.

*Did you know? Activision Publishing, Inc. (a.k.a. "Activision") is a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, which is majority owned by media conglomerate Vivendi. Activision Publishing continues to exist as a separate brand entity, developing and publishing games, as does Blizzard Entertainment.

If you like Sin & Punishment's third-person shooting, don't miss this 1995 take on the same idea.

When it comes to football games -- heck, the sport in general -- it seems you're either on Team NFL or Team NCAA (sorry, XFL stalwarts), and that's a preference that bleeds into your decision of which football game you get invested in. I've always been a Madden guy myself, but in my time with NCAA Football 11, it's been made abundantly clear that I've done myself a great disservice ignoring the college series.

Stop your whining. More of the same is exactly what people want.

Stop your whining. More of the same is exactly what people want.

Stop your whining. More of the same is exactly what people want.

Stop your whining. More of the same is exactly what people want.