#pc
A gamer known as Asterion built this unreleased replica of New York City in PC game CitiesXL. Those familiar with the city beyond Times Square should note landmarks such as the Lower East Side Projects, Columbus Circle, and Ground Zero. More »
#gamescom2010
The creators of Street Fighter and Tekken have been squabbling in Germany. They've been battling (playfully, with pranks) over Twitter all week. Who won? Take a look. More »
#zynga
A marketing stunt for the Facebook game Mafia Wars, which pasted fake $25,000 bills onto San Francisco's sidewalks, has the city's Department of Works steam cleaning them - and steaming mad. More »
Recording from Gamescom, Harmonix has issued a video response to the alleged Rock Band 3 song list leak from earlier this week. Three members of the studio appear on screen to discredit the -- wait a minute! Is that the entire setlist scrolling in the background?
Head past the break for the complete 83-track listing, as seen in Harmonix's tongue-in-cheek reveal.
For those who've been wondering how the recently announced BioShock Infinite's universe relates (if at all) to the original BioShock ... well, it would seem that answer isn't coming anytime soon.
Irrational Studios' big daddy, Ken Levine, told Joystiq at Gamescom today, "You can see from the gameplay perspective connections between the games, how it's a BioShock game. I think we'll learn over time about what and if the other connections are. But it's really important to me that the same way if I had talked to people about 'would you kindly' or anything like that ahead of time, it would have taken away a lot of the experience. We want to protect the experience."
When we politely pointed out that he had avoided answering the question on whether the game is set in the same universe, he simply reiterated, "We want to protect the experience." He did eventually note regarding criticisms of the game's name: "More will be understood in time. The name will become far less mysterious once you finish the game." Yeah, great -- that's two agonizing years from now!
One of Australia's largest video game developers, Krome Studios, revealed to Gamespot earlier today that it had placed an undisclosed number of staff "on notice pending the outcome of a number of upcoming projects." In addition, its entire Adelaide branch is also "on notice" for a four-week period, at the end of which it would be determined whether the studio would remain operational.
The Game Room and Blade Kitten developer faced similarly difficult times last November, when it underwent staff cuts across all three of its Australian branches, and once again this April, when "an unspecified number of positions" with the developer were dissolved. We wish everyone at Krome the best of luck, and sincerely hope that the warnings they've been issued don't come to fruition.
There is likely to be a low barrier of entry for THQ's downloadable Red Faction spinoff, Red Faction: Battlegrounds. At Gamescom, a THQ representative told Joystiq that the company may opt to give the game away as a pre-order bonus for Red Faction: Armageddon.
"No price yet," the rep said. "They are talking about possible pre-order specials. It's possible, hasn't been finalized yet, that if you pre-order Armageddon you may be able to toss this in as well. They obviously want to keep it as low as possible." Barring that, he said, THQ hopes to sell it for 400-800 Microsoft Points ($5-10). The freebie strategy fits with THQ core games VP Danny Bilson's strategy to use downloadable games to extend its brands.
In addition, the representative offered additional details on the downloadable title's planned DLC. "Two downloadable packs," he said, "one ties into the [Red Faction: Origins] miniseries ... it also has a Armageddon DLC pack."
The Irrational Behavior podcast season concludes this week with an episode dissecting the work that went into the BioShock Infinite reveal trailer. While it's a good listen all on its own, the podcast also reveals a handful of tidbits on the trailer's mysterious, mechanical assailant. The creature is known as an "Alpha," though the Irrational team also refers to him as the "Handyman."
Originally, the trailer was to offer a full glimpse of the Handyman, though that idea was later scrapped for the more "noir-ish" take used in the trailer. Apparently, the character design featured a "big goofy mustache" and a bowler hat, but Ken Levine dismissed the design as "something out of the Italian kids' menu."
The Handyman also had crab-like claws initially. These were later replaced by the fingered hands seen in the trailer, not only because they were better for grabbing and punching, but because they added a degree of humanity to the Handyman. Finally -- get this -- the Handyman was originally supposed to cry as he assaulted the protagonist Booker Dewitt, but the sound of a man sobbing didn't mesh well with the feeling of the trailer. Yeah, we can see how that might be jarring.
Ubisoft's entry into the already burgeoning Kinect casual sports game market was roughly 60% complete in a demo at Gamescom this week, so the game was still looking pretty rough around the edges. Of the six different sports available on the menu, only downhill skiing and boxing were available to play.
The skiing game was enjoyable enough, detecting slight variations in my lean to guide the on-screen skier down a pretty basic hill. The experience felt much smoother and more natural than similar games designed for the Wii balance board, which I usually find a bit twitchy in skiing simulations. I liked how the game recognized a low crouch as a way to improve aerodynamic speed, and how swooshing my arms at any time resulted in a satisfying ski pole push. Aside from some frequent graphical glitches (which made my skier look like he was showing off the bottom of his shoe), the demo was a great proof of concept.
It's time for another origin story of an industry presence. During a recent Gamescom interview with Ken Levine of Irrational Games we asked how the developer received its senseless, illogical name:
"Naming things is my least favorite thing to do. In terms of BioShock Infinite, the name doesn't make a lot of sense to people. Even naming BioShock, I was never like, 'Oh my god! That's exactly it!' 'Irrational, that's exactly it!' Names are difficult because you're trying to do so much work in such a little space. So we're never happy with it.
"Irrational was almost called 'Underwater Horse.' The reason that was, you know hex-based war games? My business partner John and I played this very complex World War II game where not only was there a horse-vs-horse combat table, it was so complex, but there was an underwater horse-vs.-underwater horse combat table. So we almost called the company that. We just couldn't come up with a name.
"[Irrational] was the name we all hated least. But now after fifteen years or whatever it's been -- thirteen years. I think the identity has sort of subsumed itself into the name and the word means something to us beyond what "irrational" means in the dictionary because it's a culture, it's a kind of game."
And what about the company's Prince-like name change from Irrational to 2K Boston, back to Irrational?
With a very dry and clipped delivery, Levine said, "It wasn't my idea to call it 2K Boston."
Like this feature? Be sure to check out the What's In A Name Archives.
One day before this year's Tokyo Game Show kicks off on September 16, Electronic Arts will hold its "EA Tokyo Showcase 2010" in the Shinjuku ward of the Japanese capitol. Nothing too exciting in that news alone but, as noted on the invitation it sent out today, the publisher plans to make "several all new game reveals and announcements" at the event.
TGS has become a venue for displaying and debuting games with international -- not just territorial -- appeal in recent years, especially for major players such as EA. Still, there's every possibility that the company will debut titles developed by its Japanese studio and partners, as it's done in the past. (Remember last year's promising, Zelda-like Tsujumi? We hope EA still does.)
Speaking of hope, this could finally be the venue EA chooses to show its "action horror" collaboration with Grasshopper Manufacture, Suda51, Shinji Mikami and former Silent Hill producer Akira Yamaoka. It was announced to much fanfare two years ago and hasn't been heard of since. Whatever's shown, we'll be there to cover it. (Though our fingers may hurt from being crossed very tightly for a Mirror's Edge 2 announcement.)
Want a pretty good PS3 arcade stick for a very good price? Amazon is selling the Hori Fighting Stick 3 for $30 today as its Deal of the Day. It might not be suitable for, say, EVO, but if you're a casual fighting game player, this is a nice option.
We already said this when we talked about the multiplayer gameplay in the upcoming Wii version of Goldeneye 007, but it bears repeating: This is not your Goldeneye N64 game all prettied up. In fact, an eyes-on walkthrough of the game's Jungle level at Gamescom this week showed off just how much first-person-shooter game design has changed in the last 13 years.
The changes were incredibly apparent right from the start, when the developers guiding the demo sneaked up behind a guard and took him out with the kind of close-quarters combat neck-snap you might expect to see in every bit of pop culture ever (but not the original Goldeneye). Taking out two more guards with headshots ensured that the alarm wouldn't be raised and the game could remain a Splinter Cell-style stealth experience for at least a while longer.
Since shortly after the Wii Remote first brought motion control to the masses, we've known that over-enthusiastic use (and slippery hands) can lead to controllers (and other things) getting broken. So what happens when Kinect's 3D camera turns your entire body into the controller? Well, not surprisingly, it turns out you're the one that could get broken.
"Versus mode was a bit too dangerous," Fighters Uncaged producer Luc Verdier said when asked about a competitive mode for his newly announced Kinect-enabled fighting game. "It's possible to do, but people just end up hitting each other." Thus, the game's only multiplayer mode is a cooperative battle, where two players work together against the artificial intelligence.
Of course, people don't usually end up killing one another while playing games like Just Dance, even if four players are moving about in an enclosed space. But Verdier said motion-controlled games where multiple players are synchronized are safer than games where the players can just "do whatever." We'd also hazard to guess that dancing players just tend to be less intentionally violent than fighting game players, especially when those fighting game players are actively playing.
A study recently conducted by the Department of Psychiatry at South Korea's Chung Ang University has found that StarCraft "addiction" can be treated with Bupropion, an antidepressant and anti-smoking aid. According to Wired, the study found that individuals who took the drug for six weeks saw their average StarCraft playtime decrease by 35.5 percent. Also -- we swear we're not making this up -- MRI scans showed that participant's brains reacted less strongly to pictures of Zerglings after the treatment.
Treating someone's obsessive behavior towards a video game with real-life pharmaceuticals is a fairly heavy prescription. Then again, out of the survey's eleven participants, six had dropped out of school for two months due to the amount of time they put into StarCraft every day. Two participants were divorced due to their demanding StarCraft schedules. Isn't it possible these people are suffering from depression because of their obsession with a video game? Or, rather, couldn't they have become obsessed with a video game because they were depressed? In either case, doesn't it kind of make sense to treat them with antidepressants?
Launching on September 15, Sony Online Entertainment's free-to-play MMO Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures has gone into public beta. You can head to the official site (linked below) and play right now. Three character races are available, but you are not (able to be) a Jedi ... yet.
Capcom released footage of Marvel vs. Capcom 3's newest fighters, Viewtiful Joe and Dormammu, and we're happy to report that they look suitably insane for the high-flying, explosive fighter. Dormammu (a demon) acknowledges Devil May Cry's Dante as a "demon hunter" in the game, which is a nice touch! Head past the break to see the new characters in action, along with a new trailer.
Speaking of the new characters and Dante, it occurred to us that with Joe, Dante, Trish (all of whom appeared in the PS2 version of Viewtiful Joe), and Amaterasu, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is turning into a Clover Studio reunion! Without any actual Clover Studio staff, of course. The game just needs Gene from God Hand and it'll be a total Clover tribute.
Like many Wii games before it, the upcoming revival of Goldeneye 007 supports a number of different controllers. You'll be able to play with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, the Classic Controller, a GameCube controller or even the Wii Zapper. But
surely one of these myriad methods must be the preferred control scheme among the development team, right?
Well, no, not really. "There's a house divided, at least amongst ourselves," said Activision production coordinator Graham Hagmaier while presenting a demo of the game at Gamescom this week. "A lot of us play with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. I prefer this particular scheme [the Classic Controller], just because I used to play a lot of FPS games on [the Xbox] 360 and PS3, and for a lot of people those are very popular formats. But it just depends on your proficiency with the controller."
The team's proficiency with the Wii Zapper was left unaddressed.
We showed you this image last night, which came from the second portion of the Iwata Asks feature on Metroid: Other M. What in the world is up with this suit? If broken Google translations are to be believed, this could be the new Gravity Suit. If that’s the correct answer, how [...]
I don’t think this article has done a very good job at putting together a worthy list of video game pets. They’ve forgotten one of the most important pets ever! Well, that’s in my opinion, but I think fans of No More Heroes will agree with me!
Just had this email invite from EA dropped into my inbox. It’s concerning an event one day prior to TGS. There’s one line in the email in particular that is very interesting…
Look for MANY of our top holiday games PLUS several all new game reveals and announcements
‘Several all new game reveals’…sure sounds interesting [...]
Direct link and 4 more videos here
It looks like these videos come from the official website, which has now locked down the other video content lined up. Again, don’t watch the clips linked above if you don’t want to see sector spoilers!
You’ll have to wait for new entries in the 7-part series every Friday, but at least you’re getting it for free! Remember, we’ve provided the info for you to preorder the full DVD. If you check out the first of seven clips and think that this DVD is for you, preorder your copy [...]
Looks like we’re going to get all kinds of shooter information in the next GamePro magazine. Not just details on games, but a look inside the genre itself. Plus, we’ll get another look at GoldenEye, which is reason enough to pick this issue up!
To put it bluntly, the game industry would not be anywhere near where it is now without the NES. That system was a major turning point for an industry that many thought was on its way out. Seriously, try to think of the gaming world today without all the innovation that the NES [...]
