#japan
At the 2009 E3 gaming expo in Los Angeles, Nintendo revealed the Wii Vitality Sensor for the first time. The peripheral was M.I.A. at the following E3. And at a recent investors meeting, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata didn't explicitly provide an update. More »
#capcom
Keiji Inafune of Mega-Man and Dead Rising fame made no secret that he hated his job. Late last week, the game designer finally left Capcom, a company he worked at for 23 years. The developer's Osaka headquarters says why. More »
#ubisoft
Michael Jackson's white glove, which he first wore when performing the moonwalk for the first time, became a trademark symbol of one of the greatest musicians to have ever lived. And it's now free for purchasers of a Wii game! More »
The European PS3 release of the Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition isn't as ultimate as buyers would probably like. Players are reporting that the "Return to Ostagar" content, one of seven DLC packs supposed to be included in the package, is missing. It's in the menu, but doesn't load. Just one more problem for this bizarrely troublesome content.
According to Eurogamer, EA is aware of the issue, and is giving vouchers for the Ostagar DLC to those affected. Just contact Customer Services to have them return Ostagar to you. And now we know why it wasn't named the "Return to Ostagar Is Definitely On the Disc" Edition.
#review
Popular puzzle game Angry Birds is all dressed up for All Hallows' Eve. Nothing quite says "Halloween" like smashing pumpkins, green pigs in ghost costumes and birds flying through the air. Trick or treat! More »
As you can see, GameStop Canada has received the same makeover that GameStop.com recently received. Not a major overhaul, but there are a few nice changes that should make shopping for games easier. Seems a bit more well cared-for, and nicely put-together. Thanks to KnucklesSonic for the heads up!
A portion of a NintendoLife review…
The presentation might look a little cheap, but most of the games are both fun and addictive. It’s unlikely that the waggling will make you particularly “fit,” but the “fun” in the title is one word with which we certainly can’t argue.
Do you work at a small, Boston-area game company? Would you like thousands and thousands of people to see your game? If so, sign up for PAX East's Boston Indie Showcase. Penny Arcade is accepting applications today through January 11. Not only will people at the show see your game, but it'll be announced on the site.
Last year's Showcase ... showcased six games, including Slam Bolt Scrappers and AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! A Reckless Disregard for Gravity. We encourage you to enter, especially if your game's title is easier to remember and/or type than those.
#indie
The new Xbox 360 dashboard is clean. It's very white. It's also got a lot of indie developers for the platform upset with Microsoft, accusing the platform holder of putting their baby in the corner. More »
#screengrab
The United States Supreme Court building, Monday night. We'll be inside on Tuesday, covering the Court's first case about video games. It pits California against the game industry over a law that would make the sale of very violent games to kids illegal. More »
It can be difficult to sift through the many, many Xbox Live Indie Games, but every once in a while one manages to catch our eye with unique presentation. Enter Starlight, a game that unites quirky, hand drawn graphics with an interesting mechanic that has players shifting between parallel worlds.
#crytek
When Far Cry developers Crytek bought shuttered British studio Free Radical, many wondered how long it would be until we saw the return of the Timesplitters franchise. That time may be soon. More »
During last week's GameCity conference, Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi explained his departure from Namco Bandai in an interview with Eurogamer. "The games I was making were not necessarily the best-selling ones," he said. "I realized Namco was, as a business, going down a bit. Also, my colleagues were leaving to do another project. I started to feel like I didn't belong there any more."
On the subject of why his own games didn't sell better: "Maybe because they're not so interesting," Takahashi said. "The reason why is one of the things I'm trying to find out. If I knew, I wouldn't struggle. I don't know." Personally, we hope he never learns the secrets to game industry success (like Unreal Engine and Nolan North). He opined that the constant development of sequels by major publishers is "boring," while also admitting that he understood the business perspective. "I haven't seen anyone trying to make something really new out of the profit they made from those sequels," he said.
Since leaving, Takahashi and his wife have formed a new company, Uvula. He's also working on a playground in Nottingham, the town that hosts GameCity. "I'm going to work on more videogames," Takahashi said, including ideas to present to other publishers. "In general, I want to work on lots of different things that I couldn't work on when I was at Namco."
#screengrab
The Zerg and Protoss player base uses Comedy Central's Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear as a platform to bring sanity to StarCraft II multiplayer. He'll get to it, guys, just like getting Arrested Development back on TV. Thanks, Jordan! More »
#screengrab
What's this? A video game thing in my nightly off-topic post? Don't worry, dear reader with an interest in things not just video game related. This post is still for you. We've got sports too! More »
The studio formerly known as Free Radical Design may now be called Crytek UK, but that doesn't mean it has abandoned its popular TimeSplitters franchise. Managing director Karl Hilton said the developer is still shopping around that IP to publishers to see if it's something they're interested in. We've known that Crytek UK has been working on both another TimeSplitters and some sort of original FPS IP for a while now, but Hilton says the coin flip hasn't landed yet. "If [publishers are] keen for a TS game," he says, "then we'd be happy to do one. If they'd like us to develop something new then we'd do that."
Hilton also says that even if it is agreed that Crytek UK will create a new TimeSplitters game, it may not look like the old ones. Publishers are excited about the brand, he says, but they may need it to be updated or tweaked in some way. But Hilton guarantees players that no matter what personality a new TimeSplitters game might eventually bear, it will definitely be a strong one. Doesn't matter to us, either, Mr. Hilton -- just please make sure that we get to play as a monkey at some point.
#newreleases
Get your lean on this week when Microsoft finally unleashes Kinect on the Xbox 360 owning populace. But if you're not a fan of motion-controlled games that make you sweat, there's plenty of Bond, Kratos and Pikachu on tap! More »
#valve
The makers of Half-Life, Team Fortress and Portal are taking popular Warcraft III mod Defense of the Ancients and making it their own. The man behind it all gets into the nitty-gritty of the all-new Dota in a new Q&A. More »
Here's a thought experiment. Would it be worse if: Yu Suzuki's Shenmue story continued, but in the form of a mobile game that none of us will ever play, or
a new (mobile, Japanese) Shenmue game was made by Suzuki, and didn't continue the story?
Both of those are kind of hellish -- the first means that we'd only be able to catch up with our pal Ryo through online summaries by fans, while the second would mean that the Shenmue story was being drawn out even more without reaching any kind of resolution.
Shenmue Town, the Japan-only mobile game announced last month, will be a "side story" to the Shenmue games, developed by Yu Suzuki's Ys Net and managed by Sunsoft. So Suzuki finally figured out a way to make more Shenmue ... and it's a "side story." There are still few details about the game: Andriasang reports that you'll start in Yokusuka, setting for the first Dreamcast game, as Ryo Hazuki. Art on the official site is all Dreamcast-era character art, with a note that "Shenmue returns" and an invitation to "Come back this winter."
Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune has blasted the Japanese gaming industry in an interview conducted by 4Gamer.net right after his recent exit from Capcom, and translated by a NeoGAF forum user. In it, Inafune says that Japanese publishers are "making developers into salarymen" and that he could no longer be the designer he wanted to be at Capcom. Inafune also revealed that he would have liked to have worked alongside his former employer after the split, perhaps as an outside contractor, but was told, "That won't be necessary."
Inafune is quite honest in the interview, commenting that Capcom won't survive using its current employment structure, and that the company will have to pare down its internal workforce and commission Western developers to help make its games in the future. Western developers, says Inafune, are "far and away more passionate" than Capcom's internal teams -- and technically superior, as well.
As for what's next, it sounds like Inafune is planning to start his own company. He says he wants to "do business" and be a "further driving force" in the Japanese games industry. It's a pretty epic interview; you can read it in its entirety at the via link.
There's only one staunch barrier to entry with this game, and it's right on the front of the box. "Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja: Storm 2," with its awkward colon placement, speaks to fans of the serialized manga and its long-running anime adaptation so fluently, it sounds like gibberish to anyone else. Oh, and there's a "2" in the title, so now I can't follow because I don't know what happened in Gibberish 1.
If you manage to get past the cover (featuring Naruto and his friend-turned-rival Sasuke, by the way), you'll find an energetic and accessible adventure that respectfully harnesses its source material, without locking out newcomers. Fans tuned in to keywords like chakra, Rasengan and Orochimaru will be more invested in the story, and everyone else will find some way to survive a fighting game without being ensconced in the narrative. Just pretend it's called Ninja Tornado Fight.
