All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

I don’t know the reasoning behind Nintendo’s choices for online purchase, nor do I understand why they randomly add games. Well, if you want to grab your VC games through a website, now you have 4 choices! Thanks to XKH for the heads up!

#humor This trailer, allegedly for a movie based on everyone's favorite edutainment game Oregon Trail, is so well done I honestly triple-checked to make sure the movie wasn't really being filmed. More »

For those of you keeping a diligent collection of Zynga executive trading cards, that 2009 Mark Vranesh as CFO card is about to become worth a whole lot more -- the social game company has just hired on Dave Wehner as its new CFO, pushing Vranesh to the chief accounting officer position. Vranesh's new position will have him reporting to the new CFO.

Wehner comes from a background in financial work, acting as the managing director at investment banking firm Allen & Co. since 2001. VentureBeat speculates that this hire could be one of many clues that the company is about to go public, but "a source familiar with the matter" believes that possibility is unlikely, instead positing that Zynga will continue hiring execs/buying other companies. Either way, we're still worried about the impending takeover of our lives by the Zynga/Google partnership. It's coming any day now, folks!

It's impossible to hate Stan Lee. No, trust us, we've tried -- it's like the dude's superpower is charisma or something. And in this latest video for Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, we get a glimpse at Lee loosing some of his sultry sounds.

#screengrab Yesterday, a dump truck unloaded 4,000 painted wooden letters in Tacoma, Wash.'s Tollefson Plaza, creating a giant interactive public art display. Kotaku reader shereni happened by and sends this shout-out from T-Town. More »

PC gamers will have to delay their journey into the land of Albion for a bit. Microsoft has confirmed today that the Windows version of Lionhead's action RPG Fable 3 will not, as originally planned, arrive on October 26 alongside the Xbox 360 release. "The console and PC versions are now on different schedules as we're focusing on building experiences optimized for each platform," the publisher said in a statement received by Joystiq. "We aren't announcing a ship date for the PC sku at this time, but expect news soon."

Although Microsoft couldn't provide us with a revised release date, it did seek to assure those PC players awaiting Fable 3 that it's not game over for that version. "We will be offering PC players the ability to pre-order 'Fable III' for Windows, and in fact, retailers such as Amazon.com and Game (UK) are taking preorders today for the PC version of Fable III," the company said.

Still, we don't expect Windows users to deliver a victorious arm pump emote until a new date is set in Bowerstone.

But then I scrolled down a little bit and WHOA THERE WE GO.

(This post is long, there is a TL;DR at the bottom if you don't feel like reading all of it.)

The reason I was going to ask this, though, is because I was considering doing a "Let's Play" of it--well, sort of.  It would be, like, an "in-character Let's Play" and most of the stuff would be clipped out.
Okay, basically, what I mean is, I'd be playing Minecraft to reach a certain made-up goal that I had planned out, and I would do commentary based on the thoughts of my character (think: "Gordon Freeman's Mind", for lack of a better comparison).
I need to know to things:
1.  Should it be a screenshot LP or a clipped video LP?  Either way, I'd add in a little story or something to make it more interesting.

2.   If it was a video LP: if the commentary was interesting and funny enough, and my voice doesn't grate your ears (which I don't think it will), would you watch this?  It probably won't span too long, and I'd make cuts so you'd get the gist of what happened that "day", and stuff like first-happenings or particularly interesting moments would be kept in.  I'd probably switch the character's perspective occasionally, between his thoughts at a given moment, or him reviewing over what happened that day.

TL;DR: Minecraft LP: screenshot or video? Would you watch/read it?

#science What if you're most treasured memories from childhood were false? A shocking new study finds that one in five people fondly recall events that never actually happened. More »

Okay, so we called StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty "timeless" in our review. Considering 12 years, 3 months, 28 days passed since the first game's release, those 108,048 hours were probably felt by some folks ... certainly not us, though, not at all -- we weren't even aware that 6,482,880 minutes had passed. Did other outlets think the 4,502 day wait was also worth it? Did they even feel every one of those agonizing 388,972,800 seconds?!

• VideoGamer (100/100): "StarCraft II can be daunting, distressing and demanding but it's one of the richest and most expertly produced video games of recent years. StarCraft II is a shot in the arm for the RTS genre, filling a void that's been left dormant for far too long - about 12 years, actually. StarCraft is dead. Long live StarCraft."
• GiantBomb (5/5): "StarCraft II expertly walks the line between remaining faithful to its design legacy and evolving everything about itself that can evolve without fundamentally changing what the game is. ... There's a good reason the original StarCraft persisted for over a decade, and its sequel is fully equipped to pick up the torch and carry on for at least as long. "
• GameTrailers (95/100): "If judged solely on its failure to resolve its story, Wings of Liberty could have been a disappointment. But with a production so carefully thought out, masterfully designed, and flawlessly executed, it's impossible to come away from the game with a negative impression. Starcraft II is the sequel that we've been waiting for."
• CVG (93/100): "Minor niggles such as a slightly dated look and a smaller scale than we've seen elsewhere are the price of such smooth-running gameplay - and the micromanagement that allows room for interpretation and playing style is a treat. Ultimately, it's a price worth paying. As one of the most anticipated games of all time, Blizzard had a great deal on its shoulders with this. We're pleased to say it doesn't disappoint."

What was once great is now...not so great.

#patch New plays, better AI, a suite of replay cameras and new "focus modes" are among features coming to the football title Backbreaker, possibly as soon as Wednesday, through one of the largest patches I've ever seen for a sports game. More »

If you've ever played Angry Birds, the headline above has already made your day. If you've played Angry Birds only to have a friend / significant other snatch it away -- a cruel reminder of your iPhone-less existence -- then the above headline has undoubtedly left you positively elated. Yes, Chillingo's Joe Wee has confirmed to The Sun that the addictive, Boom Blox-esque puzzler is headed to "Nintendo DS, Sony PSP and PS3."

The fact the game is slated for PS3 and PSP would suggest that Angry Birds will be released as a Mini, though Chillingo wouldn't provide Joystiq with any concrete details. Hopefully we'll hear more at Gamescom later this month.

Metroid: Other M is just around the corner, and I think we’re all ready to jump back into a Samus adventure. I find myself worried about Other M, just like I was worried about Metroid Prime. With the first Prime outing, I feared that the first-person view would ruin what Metroid was all [...]

Have you downloaded HoopWorld yet? I haven’t, and after seeing a bunch of footage, I think I’m missing out. I’m going to make a point to grab this game later on in the week, and hopefully I find it very enjoyable. I’m not anywhere near knowing what sort of DLC should be [...]

Absolute Chess is dated for August 9th. Check out more screens and info here function getVideo() { var so = new SWFObject("http://cdn.springboard.gorillanation.com/storage/xplayer/yo033.swf", "mplayer", "420", "340", "8", "#000000"); so.addParam("wmode","transparent"); so.addParam("swliveconnect", "true"); so.addParam("allowscriptaccess", "always"); so.addParam("allowfullscreen", "true"); so.addVariable("pid", "goni001"); so.addVariable("siteId", "485"); so.addVariable("videoId", "181843"); so.addVariable("file", "http://cms.springboard.gorillanation.com/xml_feeds_advanced/index/485/3/181843/"); so.addVariable("pageUrl", document.location); so.write("flashcontent_485_goni001_single_181843"); } getVideo(); Tales of Elastic Boy - Mission 1 is dated for August 30th. Check out more screens and info here

#review Castlevania Puzzle: Encore of the Night takes the classic Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and transforms it into a puzzle role-playing game. Can they do that? More »

I got to play the new Going Rogue expansion for City of Heroes at Comic-Con. I haven't played the six-year-old MMO in a while, so I was out of the loop -- since I'd last played it, Paragon Studios has updated the graphics, added a mission editor, and put out a host of other upgrades and features. But Going Rogue's big feature is something players have been asking about for a while: For the first time in the game, heroes and villains will be able to switch sides with an interesting set of morality quests.

Paragon Studios senior producer Jesse Caceres and the game's art lead, David Nakayama, told me that the alignment change is a natural evolution from all of the other customization choices they've given to players in the past. "One of our strengths is the character creation system," says Caceres, "and with the Mission Architect, players could custom create and craft their own stories, create their own villain groups. We want to give players more options, so with this expansion, we're giving them the freedom to change their alignments from Hero to Villain" (and vice versa).

#rumor Two communications today from Xfire, the social networking tool for PC gamers, indicate that the service has been sold off and most of its development team will be leaving as a result. Details other than that are sparse. More »

Sony's renting out its logo, so we're pitching products.

Mark Methenitis contributes Law of the Game on Joystiq ("LGJ"), a column on legal issues as they relate to video games:

I want to let everyone in on a little secret: Joystiq knew the name of the Kinect five days before it was announced to the public. For a variety of reasons, the story was never published, not the least of which was the possibility that "Kinect" was related to the ill-fated Kin rather than being the name for Natal. In any case, that is ancient history at this point. But where did this information come from? And more importantly, why is this relevant to the law at all? Well, it's a trademark issue, and one that's likely to be more and more prevalent going forward.

Everyone remembers countless times where trademark filings led to blog posts which outed new product names well in advance of their announcement. This is because trademark filings can be based on the "intent to use" a product name, rather than actually having the product available in the marketplace. "Intent to use" filings are a critical part of the modern product cycle, which requires a long term plan. It prevents someone else from showing up in stores the day before your product launches with a similar or identical name. But since filings at the Patent and Trademark Office are public record, it also lets everyone know what you're planning.

Sweet shopping, meh shooting.

Things were a bit slow in the news department last week, but that hasn't stopped us from soldiering on and producing a brand new Fancast for you. This week we talk about non-news, answer some Twitter questions and spend (perhaps too much) time discussing the state of the RPG.

Thanks to Jason for our new mention bump!

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Hosts: Richard Mitchell (SenseiRAM, @senseiram), Alexander Sliwinski (Sli Xander, @xandersliwinski) and Dave Hinkle (KnifefightYaDad, @davehinkle)

Music: Intro/Outro: "Electromooq" by Uma Floresta. Break: "Endless Shovel" by Rogue Wave.

For fans: Xbox 360 Fancast Facebook group

The eccentric combatants get super cute.

One of the best iPhone games is spreading its wings and leaving the nest.

One of the best iPhone games is spreading its wings and leaving the nest.