Friday, January 7, 2011

Gaming Today

Gaming Today

Somebody in China Wrote an In-Depth, Hands-On Playstation Phone Preview (PICS and VIDEO)

Posted: 07 Jan 2011 03:09 AM PST

Well, this is certainly interesting. A Chinese website called IT186 got a hold of some version of the Playstation Phone by some means, and they published a very lengthy, 12-page preview of the thing with tons of pictures and a few videos, which I have embedded below. This is pretty amusing timing, what with this coming up now during CES a day after Sony failed to make this official.

And they’ve got games running on it, which is cool. The tech specs they provide look pretty much like what we thought they would be, with a couple differences — it has Android 2.3 instead of 3.0 and 512MB ROM instead of 1gb. It does have Xperia branding, which means that it probably will get a name other than “Playstation Phone” when i is eventually announced.

Anyway, watch the videos below and then head over to IT186 for the full scoop. You may not be able to read it, but they’ve got a ton of pictures you can enjoy. I thought about stealing all their photos and posting them here, but then I remembered that I’m just an asshole, not a douchebag. (coughengadgetcough)

Here Are the Writers Guild’s Video Game Writing Nominees

Posted: 07 Jan 2011 12:43 AM PST

We’re in the midst of awards season for movies, but as games have become more of an established part of the mainstream, this is also slowly becoming awards season for games as well, what with the BAFTAs and the WGA giving out game awards. Today the Writers Guild of America announced its nominees, and here are your nominees for the Video Game Writing award:

Singularity

Assassins’ Creed: Brotherhood

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands

God of War III

Fallout: New Vegas

OK, so that’s an undeniably s–t list, but there is something you must keep in mind: only members of the WGA or folks applying to be members of the Guild are eligible. Even with the pool of candidates being limited, though, you gotta think they could’ve done better than this, but then again I really have no idea who in the gaming industry are guild members.

There really isn’t much reason or most game writers to be WGA members, though, because most often game writers are employees of the game’s developers (with few exceptions); they don’t need protection the way movie and TV writers do.

Really it just comes down to who submits their game for the award, because you’ll be eligible if you submit a guild application with the award submission. Folks probably just didn’t submit.

This just makes me wish they didn’t give this award, because they’re recognizing some really bad writing here. Having Singularity on here is like the WGA nominating, like, Timecop for a screenplay award. S–t, now that I think of it, Singularity really is just Timecop but with Russians. Huh.

The WGA will hand out its awards on February 5.

Red Dead Redemption Gets a Big Title Update

Posted: 06 Jan 2011 06:19 PM PST

Rockstar has been busy, and a big new title update rolling out for Red Dead Redemption is the proof. Tons of bugs have been identified, targeted and annihilated in the new update, which spans the core game and just about all of the add-on content on the market.

Two big changes in the update: the game no longer automatically reboots when you switch from single player to multiplayer, and Japanese players are now able to play with players from other countries online.

Check out the details below.

Red Dead Redemption:

  • The game no longer reboots when switching from MP to SP, or from regular SP to MP. Going to the main menu from any mode or leaving Undead Nightmare single player mode will still reboot (except Japan).
  • Lasso will now retract properly when thrown while riding fast on a horse.
  • Removed display message saying “This horse is now your trusty steed” when you hitch a horse that you already own.
  • Re-enabled world-wide multiplayer compatibility with Japan.
  • Fix for failing and retrying the mission You Shall Not Give False Testimony, Except for Profit where attempting to shoot the skull prevents John from using his gun until switching to an unarmed state and back.
  • Fix for Land Grab multiplayer mode where occasionally the match will start with the timer at 500 and the game doesn't end and no XP is awarded.
  • Fix for player becoming stuck indefinitely when sitting at a certain Liar’s Dice chair in Casa Madrugada.
  • Fix for the host entering an unresponsive loading screen when client opts to join another session as the lobby timer reaches 0 seconds.
  • Fix for picking up opponents bag at the same time as it is returned to their chest, during a game of Grab the Bag.
  • Fix for issue that causes multiple mine carts to appear when replaying Gaptooth Gang Hideout.
  • Fix for selecting private Free Roam during a barker countdown, which was causing a constant load.

Undead Nightmare DLC:

  • The Gunslinger Achievement/Trophy now recognizes zombies as enemies.
  • Fixed a disparity in the headshots and undead headshots stat when shooting zombie animals.
  • Fix for meter not advancing during Undead Overrun when one player leaves the game in progress.
  • Fix for player occasionally bonding with undead horses and the Four Horses of the Apocalypse.
  • Fix for occasional crashing or freezing in the Las Hermanas area & during the mission Mother Superior Blues.

Liars & Cheats DLC:

  • Fix for player becoming stuck indefinitely when sitting at certain Liar’s Dice chairs.
  • Fix for issues when a user is removed from a Liar's Dice session due to connection issues with other players, but the camera remains in the dice game while the player is returned to Free Roam or chooses other game modes.
  • Fix for issues with obtaining The Big Bluff Achievement (Xbox 360 only).

Undead Nightmare Disc:

  • Original Game mode option removed from main menu.
  • Fix for 75 second delay before displaying an error message when installing on a system with a completely full hard disk (PS3 only).

Phoenix, Haggar Step Into Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Ring (VIDEOS)

Posted: 06 Jan 2011 05:29 PM PST

The character reveals just keep rolling out for Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Today, we get Phoenix — otherwise known as the X-Men’s Jean Gray — from the Marvel Universe, and Mike Haggar of Final Fight for Capcom. Both have new trailer videos, which we’ve dropped in below.

One cool thing to note about the Phoenix trailer, as GameSpot pointed out: looks like at one point, Jean Gray actually turns into the spooky and powerful Dark Phoenix. It also seems like it fully restores her health, which then diminishes over time — suggesting she becomes more powerful, but the trade-off is a potentially quicker defeat.

As for the Haggar clip, well — just watch it.

Via Capcom Unity.

Play Rock Band with Friends Over Verizon’s 4G Network

Posted: 06 Jan 2011 04:32 PM PST

Verizon just wrapped up its keynote address at CES 2011 in Las Vegas, and during the show it talked all about its big new 4G LTE mobile broadband network and the kinds of things you’ll be able to do with it.

During the show, Electronic Arts Mobile VP Travis Boatman showed off video of 4G Verizon phones running Google’s Android operating system and Rock Band on the network. We didn’t get to see any devices actually in action, but what we did see was intriguing: four phones, each representing a different instrument, playing the same song. CNET had photos on their live blog, as well as lots of coverage from the whole press event.

We saw FIFA, Tetris, Need for Speed and Monopoly mentioned during the conference as being readied for 4G play. Those games exist on Android and iOS today, but the current 3G networks cellular carriers provide really aren’t fast enough for online gaming — if you want to play with others today, you need to connect your phone to a WiFi connection. Verizon says 4G will be 1o- to 20-times faster than 3G is today.

EA and Harmonix dropped a press release following the event, outlining what we can expect from the 4G version of Rock Band:

A Quick Play mode will provide casual jam sessions, and players can hit the road to rock sold-out stadiums in Tour Mode.  Buddy Lists, a feature exclusive to ROCK BAND on select Verizon Wireless 4G LTE devices, will allow players to join games, locate others they have recently played with and search for friends.

EA’s putting out 20 tracks on Rock Band when it’s released, but we’re not sure when that will be or how much it’ll cost. Check out the track list below. It’s probably not a stretch to expect to be able to purchase additional songs in the future, too.

  • “Attack,” 30 Seconds to Mars
  • “Girls Not Grey,” AFI
  • “Sabotage,” Beastie Boys
  • “All the Small Things,” blink-182
  • “Hanging on the Telephone,” Blondie
  • “Learn To Fly,” Foo Fighters
  • “Everlong,” Foo Fighters
  • “Bad to the Bone,” George Thorogood and the Destroyers
  • “Hymn #A43,” Jethro Tull
  • “Bad Reputation,” Joan Jett
  • “Simple Man,” Lynyrd Skynyrd
  • “Ace of Spades,” Mötorhead
  • “Give It All,” Rise Against
  • “Lazy Eye,” Silversun Pickups
  • “Cherub Rock,” Smashing Pumpkins
  • “Take the Money and Run,” Steve Miller Band
  • “Debaser,” The Pixies
  • “Move Along,” The All American Rejects
  • “We Got The Beat,” The Go Go’s
  • “Ladybug,” The Presidents of the United States of America

GameStop is Rollin’ In Dough After the Holidays

Posted: 06 Jan 2011 04:17 PM PST

Everybody knows the holidays are quite a lucrative time period for retailers, but if you’re curious what that means for GameStop, well, stop wondering, because I’m about to tell you.

GameStop recorded sales of $3.02 billion in November and December. Yeah. That’s a record for them and an increase of 5% over last year, which is a difference of $150-ish million, aka chump change. Sales were up in all individual areas, with the biggest increase, of course, coming in “peripherals and PC Games” (that’s really a category) thanks to the Move and WoW: Cataclysm.  Hardware also saw a health-ass bump what with Kinect moving a hella massive buttload on its own.

But the strangest stat of this news is that online purchases doubled last year’s numbers. How is that? GameStop has the same website now that they had last year, right? Did they have some badass holiday shipping deal or something? This seems kinda odd.

GameStop prexy Tony Bartel commented on that, putting some PR spin on it: “GameStop.com sales rose more than 100 per cent versus last year, far outpacing online industry growth during the period, remaining the fastest growing website in the videogame space.”

Yeah, but why is that? Are you growing quickly because nobody ever used your website before or is this like some legit exciting wow growth from already robust online sales? Hmm. More specifics and quotes at GI.biz

Amusingly, all this news was met by GameStop’s stock dropping 4.6% today.

Newell: PCs ‘Center of Innovation’ because of MMOs, Social Gaming

Posted: 06 Jan 2011 02:48 PM PST

Half-Life creator and Valve Software founder says when it comes to innovation in the gaming industry, the epicenter is still the PC market.

We see [the PC] as the centre of innovation of everything that's going on, whether it's microtransactions, MMOs, free-to-play, or something like CityVille which – after its first month – has 84 million people playing. To us, this is just an indication of why open platforms are where innovations are going to occur.

Kind of nice to know that Newell and Valve are still serious about the PC, especially since we’ve seen the company moving toward consoles a little more lately, as evidenced by the new boxes it just put out for Portal 2. He has a point, though. The biggest communities in gaming are casual games made by companies like Zynga — FarmVille, Mafia Wars and the like — and MMOs like World of Warcraft. Millions of players are turning out for these games, and they’re all doing so on PC.

The PC market could stand to see some new innovations in technology and not just how game companies collect players’ money, however, which is why things like gesture controllers on the PC (even if they’re not being used for gaming) and more services like Steam and Apple’s new Mac App Store are so refreshing. Newell might be right about PC innovation, but it’d be flashier and garner more attention if developers were showing off new ways to play their games, instead of just new ways to pay for them.

Via Gamersmint.

The Million-Dollar Perfect Game Returns in MLB 2K11

Posted: 06 Jan 2011 02:07 PM PST

Last year, @K Sports had a promotion for Major League Baseball 2K10 in which the first person to throw a perfect game — and film it — would get a million bucks. It happened on release day. I guess the gimmick sold a bunch of copies of the game for 2K, because they’re bringing it back in 2k11.

There are a few changes to the contest, however. First, while the game will be out on March 8, the contest won’t begin until April 1, which is MLB’s Opening Day (why would you play video game baseball on Opening Day?). Second, the age requirement has been lowered from 18 to 13. 2K’s Christ Snyder said they made the change because last year the son of that douchebag Roy Halladay (pictured, and f———————–k youuuuuuuuuuu), who was 13, was all pumped about getting the prize, and he apparently even had a perfect game through seven innings on the game’s release day*.

So that’s that. Time to start preparing a training regimen and planning that whole weekend. Go ahead and ask off from work on 4/1 (a Friday), which you should probably do anyway since it’s Opening Day, man.

*Come on, kid, your dad could write you a check for $1 million write now if he wants to, and that would be tax-free, at least. Know that if you pull it off this year, everyone will hate you forever.

Rock Band DLC Packs on Sale This Week

Posted: 06 Jan 2011 01:21 PM PST

Harmonix has 10 packs of Rock Band 3 downloadable content sale through Jan. 11, all of which are marked down at least 40 percent and some as much as half off.

Of all the packs, two are a complete albums — The Cars and Rush’s Moving Pictures. The rest are smaller packs, with prices almost exclusively reduced to 240 Microsoft Points, or about $2.50 on the Playstation Network. No love for Wii owners, though.

Here’s the complete list:

  • Oasis Pack 01 – 240 Points (was 440)
  • The Police Pack 01 – 240 Points (was 440)
  • The Offspring Pack 01 – 240 Points (was 440)
  • Nine Inch Nails Pack 01 – 240 Points (was 440)
  • Jimmy Buffett Pack 01 – 240 Points (was 440)
  • All That Remains Pack 01 – 240 Points (was 440)
  • Evanescence Pack 01 – 240 Points (was 440)
  • Rush Moving Pictures (album) – 440 Points (was 880)
  • The Cars (album) – 680 Points (was 1200)
  • Weezer Pack 02 – 240 Points (was 440)

Right before the New Year, Rock Band 3 received a few new track packs as well: a Johnny Cash pack featuring eight songs and a Paul McCartney pack with six. And if you’re looking for additional challenge, you can preorder Fender’s Squier Stratocaster actual guitar Rock Band guitar from Best Buy.

Killzone 3 Story Trailer Shows Awesome Helghast Infighting

Posted: 06 Jan 2011 01:09 PM PST

Scolar Visari got all killed to death at the end of Killzone 2,  and as happened after the death of the real-life Visari, the Helghast is kinda fractured after the loss of its supreme leader, and into that void enters Ray Winstone as the angry military guy and Malcolm McDowell as the creepy corporate/secret weapons guy (pictured), who in Killzone 3 make a fragile alliance to rule the Helghast and battle the ISA.

Being that my favorite part of Killzone 2 was the opening cinematic (not a dis on the rest of the game, which I love) with Brian Cox screaming his head off, I gotta say I dig the choice of McDowell and Winstone — both of whom are great at yelling.

Meanwhile, Sev and Narville and Rico are still down there f–king shit up. Here’s a new story trailer:

via Playstation Blog

The game is out, whoa, in like just over a month. Look for it February 22 only on the PS3.

Gameloft Partners with Panasonic to Put Games Straight to Connected TVs

Posted: 06 Jan 2011 12:22 PM PST

Mobile game developer Gameloft is expanding the number of things that will play its games to include connected Panasonic TVs, without the aid of consoles or anything else.

The developer announced the partnership with Panasonic at CES 2011 in Las Vegas and included details on its blog. The agreement will have Gameloft releasing several games with 3D graphics directly for Panasonic’s VIERA line of connected HDTVs.

Games mentioned in the lineup already include the FPS N.O.V.A.: Near Orbital Vanguard Alliance, UNO and Asphalt 5. All are games that currently appear on Apple’s iPhone and iPad, as well as Google’s Android platform for smartphones and tablets. Sounds like the VIERA setup will work pretty much the same way: you’ll access some kind of app store through your Panasonic TV, purchase and download apps through the interface, and download them straight to the TV to play.

Gameloft does a pretty good job with small-scale mobile games like N.O.V.A. 2, and many of those games come pretty close to the kinds of things you’d find on PC or consoles. Having Gameloft games beamed directly to your TV doesn’t sound too shabby — hopefully the graphics scale up sufficiently to still look good on a big TV. I wouldn’t expect the sort of quality you might get out of a PS3, though, especially since Gameloft games on iOS don’t usually break $10 and they’d have to be downloaded, so a smaller file size is better.

Sony Shows Prototype 3D Visor Thing at CES

Posted: 06 Jan 2011 11:45 AM PST

While it was talking about how it intends to add a third dimension to every product it sells, Sony tossed up a slide during its CES 2011 keynote showing a prototype 3D head-mounted display visor that looks suspiciously like the VR visor displays I thought we as a race of sentient beings decided were stupid about 15 years ago.

Sony Executive Deputy President Hiroshi Yoshioki talked about playing Gran Turismo 5 on the headset, which obviously isn’t anywhere near ready to be sold yet, and that it was cool because it meant his wife couldn’t distract him from the game. Hooray for spousal avoidance.

Here’s the picture from up on the big 3D screen at the presser:

Inside the headset are two screens, one for each eye — helping make the 3D experience even more dimensional because there’s no crossover between your eyeballs, which is the key to that whole stereoscopic Jedi mind trick with the glasses.

There aren’t too many more details than that. Yoshioki mentioned using the thing “on the couch or in flight,” which suggests compatibility with multiple devices, and I would have to assume it would connect to those devices wirelessly so as not to be totally useless.

The visor is still a prototype, meaning it may never materialize. Sony is right to proceed cautiously: last time people started putting visors on their heads and playing games with them, this happened:

FlatOut ‘Car Basher’ Wii Trailer

Posted: 06 Jan 2011 11:22 AM PST

Team6 has released a new trailer for FlatOut Wii. This trailer features about thirty seconds of the Car Basher game mode. You can download this video here or watch it below.

FlatOut is the highly anticipated next chapter of the popular FlatOut franchise, developed by Team6 game studios exclusively for the Wii system. With brand new physics, unequalled graphics, a new violent-driving reward system, new racing locations, new stunt arena themes, new battle arena, a complete new ‘car basher’ stuntmode and 16 over-the-top crazy vehicles to be demolished, FlatOut Wii takes racing to a whole new level of aggressive driving on the Wii. For the first time in FlatOut history, all gamemodes are available in ‘cooperation’ mode now!

Key features
- Stunning environments and realistic graphics: FlatOut Wii features some of the best graphics seen in a racegame for the Nintendo Wii.
- Authentic physics technology and design.
- Four spectacular gamemodes available in both single- and multiplayer.
- 16 Cars to be wrecked.
- Loads of violence and even more fun!

FlatOut is back, more aggressive and destructive than ever!

Exclusive for Nintendo Wii.


Forsaken World Developer Diary #2 (Video)

Posted: 06 Jan 2011 11:10 AM PST

It’s a brand new year and Perfect World Entertainment has kicked it off with the second Forsaken World developer diary on what players can look forward to in the different classes and occupations. Jonathan Belliss also unveils at the end of the video that players can anticipate Forsaken World launching early this year. You can download this video here or watch it below.

Apple Launches Mac App Store: Bring on Angry Birds

Posted: 06 Jan 2011 11:03 AM PST

Apple’s Mac version of its iOS iTunes App Store opened for business today, with  more than 1,000 apps and more than a few games. You probably won’t be surprised at all to hear that Angry Birds is there, and it’s already selling well.

Also showing up in the store so far this morning are Bejeweled 3 and Flight Control HD, as well as LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4. All have previously appeared on the iPhone and iPad and are pretty high-quality, as well as good sellers on those platforms. You’ll have to pay for them, though.

A few games are offered for free, as well: solitaire and poker to name two, but so far, nothing too exciting.

If the Mac App Store ends up being like the iTunes App Store (and I’d bet that it will be), expect to see a lot of sales, discounts, free offerings and lite versions of games scattered all over the place. Hopefully Apple will do a better job of policing this store than it does the one on iTunes, keeping the population down to a smaller number of higher-quality apps rather than a flood of crap that requires a shovel and a great deal of patience to traverse.
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