Gaming Today |
- Breaking: Portal 2 on PS3 Features Cross-Platform Play!
- You Can Gran Turismo Anywhere Starting in February
- Four Hot New LA Noire Screens
- PS3 Hack Suit Delayed By Jurisdiction Questions
- Kinect Controls Humanoid Robot; Cylons Not Far Off (VIDEO)
- Playstation Phone For Sale in China
- Making History II: The War of the World v1.22 Demo
- Call of Duty Multiplayer Now ‘Unplayable’, Thanks To PS3 Hack
- Microsoft Prepping Kinect Move to PC, Rumor Says
- Paper Half-Life (VIDEO)
- Akuma, Taskmaster to Beat Hell Out of Each Other in MvC3 (TRAILER)
- LA Noire, Obvious Non-truth Make Cover of Playstation: The Official Magazine
- ‘Splosion Man vs. MaXplosion: On Imitation, Cloning and Ethics
- 40 Precious Sackboys
- Title Update Tanks AC Brotherhood Multiplayer
| Breaking: Portal 2 on PS3 Features Cross-Platform Play! Posted: 17 Jan 2011 11:27 PM PST
Huge news from Valve: Portal 2 on Playstation 3 will feature full Steam functionality — meaning PC and Mac players and PS3 players will be capable of playing with one another in the game’s cooperative mode. The awesomeness doesn’t end there, however. Every Playstation 3 Portal 2 purchase will also net players a FREE copy of the game for PC and Mac. Yes, that’s free. Free, free, free, free, free Portal 2. The Steam compatibility also means cloud-based saved games for PS3 players and cross-platform chat. Yup, you can talk to your Steam friends from your PS3 and vice-versa. Valve’s Gabe Newell said in a press release that more Steam/PS3 connectivity goodness is on the way in the future as well, adding more Steam functions to future DLC and content releases. Here’s a shot across Microsoft’s bow if ever there was one. Steam is a huge PC community of gamers, and now they can play with their Sony-fan friends. Meanwhile, Xbox 360 gets zip. Seems it’s not all bad news and root key hacks over in the Sony camp these days. I hate to admit it, but I’ll be buying a PS3 copy of Portal 2 directly, and getting a refund on the Xbox 360 one I already bought. Anybody else suddenly really, really excited about April?
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| You Can Gran Turismo Anywhere Starting in February Posted: 17 Jan 2011 09:53 PM PST
There’s a strange part of the Gran Turismo franchise that I’ve never been able to really enjoy; I’m talking, of course, about B-spec mode, in which you watch a computer driver on your team race, and you give him or her instructions like “drive faster,” “drive slower,” drive at the same speed.” Even so, it’s a useful mode to have when you need to do something other than play video games even though you really, really need to earn some more GT bucks so you can get that sweet-ass whatever that drives fast. To make that even more convenient for you, the B-spec section of the GT5 website promises “Gran Turismo Anywhere,” which lets you run B-spec mode, yes, from anywhere. This feature does not yet exist, but Yamauchi-san tweeted last week that we can expect this feature to go live in early February. WOO. Here’s the full description of this feature from the GT5 site:
This is nice, and it would be nicer if I didn’t work from my couch six feet from my PS3 and can do this all day anyway, but oh well. Hopefully this will work on my phone, so I can do this when I go to the movies or at the bar. I assume doing this at the bar would make me irresistible to the ladies, because when they ask what I’m doing I can say I’m monitoring the Japanese racing team I own and of course they would believe me.
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| Posted: 17 Jan 2011 06:27 PM PST
Rockstar published a blog post today talking about LA Noire‘s interrogations that can basically be summed up as: “Our game about being a detective works the way a game about being a detective should.” What that means for the game is anyone’s guess, because at this point in history you can usually count on games never being as complex as they’re described by the PR lackeys who talk them up. But the highlight of the post is the accompanying screenshots of interrogations. They’re attractive.    
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| PS3 Hack Suit Delayed By Jurisdiction Questions Posted: 17 Jan 2011 04:54 PM PST
While the Playstation 3 gaming community is starting to feel the crap getting heaped down on them from the homebrew crowd intent on rendering multiplayer no fun for anyone, it seems George “GeoHot” Hotz is getting a slight delay of Sony’s intended retribution. Joystiq is reporting that lawyers are fighting over which court has jurisdiction in Sony’s lawsuit against Hotz for publicizing the PS3 root key, basically opening the door for piracy on the console and as Call of Duty 4 and Modern Warfare 2 players are finding, to all kinds of cheating. San Francisco District Court Judge Susan Illston, currently presiding over the case, raised questions about California’s jurisdiction because GeoHot is from New Jersey. Sony wants the case tried in California — or at least not delayed to move it to Jersey — and is arguing that most of the services used to disseminate the root key, including YouTube and Twitter, are based in California. PayPal, which GeoHot supposedly used to receive donations on his website, is also set up in California. But Illston isn’t buying the PayPal argument, it seems. “If having a PayPal account were enough, then there would be personal jurisdiction in this court over everybody, and that just can’t be right,” she said. So it could be a while before Sony gets to take on its hackers. Not that it’s going to close Sony’s Pandora’s Box or anything.
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| Kinect Controls Humanoid Robot; Cylons Not Far Off (VIDEO) Posted: 17 Jan 2011 04:26 PM PST
I don’t know much about this video, except that we’re seeing Kinect tell a robot what to do. The robot does not carry a gun and is not beating up other robots or criminals, but it’s not really much of a stretch to imagine it doing so. Forget pretending to be a superhero or playing some DC-based MMO — build a robot and drive it with Kinect, then send it out to go break up muggings and stop bank robberies. This video says that’s a much more plausible, realistic plan.
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| Playstation Phone For Sale in China Posted: 17 Jan 2011 04:08 PM PST
I’m starting to wonder why the Sony Ericcson hasn’t announced the Playstation Phone, since it seems the Xperia Play is about three inches from available — and in China, closer than that. According to RegHardware, Taiwanese site ePrice found and purchased the Playstation Phone in China, where it was apparently on sale. They played with it and at least RegHardware thinks it’s the real deal and not a knock-off made form cobbled-together phone and PSP Go parts. There’s no carrier service for the phone, so ePrice’s model doesn’t do much, and its Playstation Pocket app doesn’t do anything. We’ve seen the supposed Xperia Play running a few PSX games from the app, but so far what we’ve heard about the phone’s functionality is pretty limited. Otherwise, everything is the same from what we’ve heard so far, including the 4-inch touchscreen and the Android 2.3 operating system. Still, weird that Sony hasn’t got its phone on a leash and that it’s out wandering around so much.
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| Making History II: The War of the World v1.22 Demo Posted: 17 Jan 2011 03:56 PM PST
International trade, religious and cultural strife, military campaigns, diplomatic negotiations… here, you control it all. MAKING HISTORY II: The War of the World gives players the power to take full control of any world nation, colonies, regions, cities, and military units during the time leading up to and during the Second World War. Armchair generals and fans of grand strategy can take their turns building great empires or protecting the world from tyranny during these pivotal moments in world history. Need more info? Check out the official site and game details or just download your flavor of the demo below. Download the English Demo             Making History II 1.22 Release Notes Bug Fixes UI Content
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| Call of Duty Multiplayer Now ‘Unplayable’, Thanks To PS3 Hack Posted: 17 Jan 2011 03:37 PM PST
This won’t come as a shock to anyone, but remember that shockingly successful PS3 root key hack? Turns out GameFront’s Phil Owen was right: Pandora’s Box is open, and it looks like it contained nothing but dicks. Who have invaded PSN and filled it full of cheapo cheats that have rendered Call of Duty’s various multiplayers functionally unplayable. Joystiq reports that legit players are absolutely fuming over this, and for good reason. Unfair advantages abound, legit players are finding their stats deleted and getting their asses unfairly kicked, and generally, the only people enjoying themselves are the jerks lording it over everyone else. So it’s basically like High School. Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling weighed in Over at their official forums, acknowledging the problem, but unfortunately, also advising the CoD community that they are effectively screwed for the foreseeable future:
Sorry guys, but it gets worse. If you’ve already been shafted by the nefarious douchbaggery of hacking asshats, it’s a warm cup of SOL.
They insist that they’re working on a solution to this but, as they’re admittedly limited by the fact that the problem is in the PS3′s firmware, it looks like it’s the Sony cavalry or none at all. The good news for Call of Duty fans is that Black Ops multiplayer has its own security system that isn’t dependent on Sony. The bad news for everyone else is that it’s only a matter of time before you are all f’d to the highest degree possible. Red Dead Redemption fans might want to watch their backs.
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| Microsoft Prepping Kinect Move to PC, Rumor Says Posted: 17 Jan 2011 03:22 PM PST
Rumor has it, Microsoft is working on software development kits to put the Kinect on PC in the next few months, just in time to compete for market share with a few other gesture-control systems headed to shelves. Microsoft news site WinRumors has the story, which cites unnamed sources and says an SDK and drivers for the Kinect are being prepped for a beta release. This is just a week or so after Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Kinect would make its way to the PC, but didn’t give a timetable or any details. The report says third-party developers will be able to use the kit and drivers to create Kinect-enabled PC programs, and that includes games. You can expect that it’ll quickly be able to handle multimedia functionality, too, in order to take on Kinect developer PrimeSense’s PC-enabled multimedia controller. Microsoft probably can’t get to get the PC Kinect onto shelves, since the Xbox 360 unit has shipped more than 8 million units. Meanwhile, plenty of people have already hooked their Kinects to PCs to do all kinds of awesome things — including play video games. Via Joystiq.
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| Posted: 17 Jan 2011 03:05 PM PST
This needs no introduction, and so I will give it none. Just watch. (yes, I know these aren’t that new, really, but they’re new to me and they don’t have a lot of views on the ytubes)
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| Akuma, Taskmaster to Beat Hell Out of Each Other in MvC3 (TRAILER) Posted: 17 Jan 2011 02:43 PM PST
This just in: two more characters you IGN got the reveal in the form of two more MvC3 trailers, one for Akuma of Capcom’s Street Fighter and the other for Marvel’s Taskmaster. The report says the two are considered “secret” characters, which means they need to be unlocked somehow — but we’re not sure how just yet. There’s just a month or so to go before MvC3′s Feb. 18 release, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear about a few more characters between now and then. Via IGN and Game Informer.
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| LA Noire, Obvious Non-truth Make Cover of Playstation: The Official Magazine Posted: 17 Jan 2011 02:37 PM PST
Team Bondi is developing LA Noire. Team Bondi is not Rockstar Games. Rockstar Games is publishing LA Noire. Got that cleared up? Aight, moving on. LA Noire is all over the cover of Playstation: The Official Magazine this month. They’ve got a WORLD EXCLUSIVE! feature, says the cover. LA Noire is “from the makers of GTA and Red Dead Redempion,” it says. Wait, what? Who developed LA Noire? Was it Rockstar North, makers of GTA? Rockstar San Diego, makers of Red Dead? No, it was, as we’ve already established, Team Bondi. What LA Noire and GTA and Red Dead all have in common is a publisher, Rockstar Games. A publisher does not “make” games. Hollywood has a way of doing this kind of thing that doesn’t involve them; they say “from the studio that brought you…” They don’t say Transformers: Dark of the Moon is “from the director of Jurassic Park” because that’s openly misleading and they’d get hammered for saying that. The games industry, generally, also avoids doing this, or else we’d get a lot of s–t like that. Imagine these ads: “Fable: from the makers of Halo!” “Dead Space: from the makers of System Shock 2!” “Uncharted: from the makers of God of War!” “Shift 2 Unleashed: from the makers of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit!” This, of course, is not a legal issue given that the cover of a magazine is editorial space. Still, some PR asshole is responsible for that line being there, and so this is very annoying. And in that context, the Playstation blog headline announcing this cover is pretty amusing: “L.A. Noire Muscles Its Way Onto the Cover of PlayStation: The Official Magazine” Here’s the full cover:
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| ‘Splosion Man vs. MaXplosion: On Imitation, Cloning and Ethics Posted: 17 Jan 2011 02:15 PM PST
‘Splosion Man and MaXplosion — two games, one concept. That’s the stance of Twisted Pixel, the guys who created ‘Splosion Man and called out Capcom Mobile over the release of the similar but iPhone-bound MaXplosion. The two games aren’t just remarkably similar, they’re basically the same. Both are platformers in which the main character has the ability to create explosions. These explosions are used to propel both characters through the air, to bounce off walls, and to trigger explosives for greater lift and speed. Both carry “par times” for each stage, both have one hidden object to find per level, both are about science experiments escaping the scientists that are experimenting on them. It’s pretty clear that MaXplosion isn’t just inspired by ‘Splosion Man, it’s a replication of the game with a tweaked art style, on a different platform.
It’s ridiculous, and it shows some pretty rough things about the gaming industry as a whole and mobile gaming in particular, where this kind of thing happens all the time. For one, Twisted Pixel doesn’t seem to be planning to attempt any legal recourse for the apparent plagiarism, mostly because they could potentially get outspent and otherwise squashed by the much bigger and better-equipped Capcom. While Capcom came forward with a release not quite apologizing for the development (and denying the insinuation that Capcom stole the idea after Twisted Pixel brought ‘Splosion Man to the company for publishing), a minor PR statement expressing “sadness” over the situation isn’t the same as rectifying it. Now, it’s fair that neither ‘Splosion Man or MaXplosion are extremely original. Both borrow liberally from other gaming conventions, as do most games available today. More than probably any other entertainment industry, just about every game is built on the shoulders of games that came before them, and new games are more about expanding what’s already out there than creating something wholly new. But “similar” isn’t “same”: Guitar Hero and Rock Band are awfully similar, but each offers at least a slightly different experience. But in most sectors, one game company can’t just flatly rip off another. Gamers and game journalists pick up on the similarities quickly, so they get called out. A game that takes too liberally from another game is always worse than its inspiration, as well — so basically, all stealing from another company really gets you is a worse game of which people make fun, comparing it to its better counterpart while also faulting you for not creating an original product.
Then there’s mobile gaming, a market that has exploded and is thick with terrible clones of decent games. Wander around for a few minutes on iTunes and you can find about two billion games that slightly tweak the Angry Birds formula, or worse, just remake it — most recently there’s Bullistic, in which Millipede Creative Development attempted to do their own take on Rovio Mobile’s famous bird-slinging game. That one’s at least free. But there are plenty of other examples of games in which various animals are shot from a slingshot at a structure filled with things that need to be smashed. The pictures on the screen are different; the gameplay is the same. In the App Store, the issue is that there are about a million little developers who can quickly whip up a game and get it pushed through to the marketplace. Apple lets it happen — doesn’t matter to them whose copyrights are being infringed so long as they’re making money off everyone — and one would assume that small-time developers don’t have the money or energy to try to take on so many imitators. LimaSky, the creator of the uber-popular Doodle Jump, made an attempt to protect its copyright by hassling everyone who makes a game with “doodle” in the name. The Internet rose up and slapped the company around a bit in terms of public relations because of what many players saw as LimaSky overstepping, and all those potential trademark claims have been dropped as a result. Basically, it’s a horrific legal quagmire. It’d be a pain for anybody to fight a video game copyright claim — good luck proving your concept is original while the other guy’s isn’t — so it comes down to ethics, really, as well as an idea of what you can get away with.
Seems to me, Capcom Mobile thought that in the App Store, they could get away with blatantly stealing another company’s game, giving it another coat of paint. They were right, and except for some public backlash, the consequences are minimal. MaXplosion continues to be on sale in the App Store, and as “sad” as Capcom might be about the situation, they’re not turning down any money. The “sad” part probably relates a lot more to being caught. That makes me sad, too. Video games are constantly fighting stigma in the mainstream about somehow being a lesser medium than other forms of expression, and here we have a big player in the industry in Capcom pretty much stooping to IP theft to make a quick buck. Obviously the corner-cutting is a testament to what the company thinks about mobile games and their players, and maybe about players in general. It’s not okay to rip off anybody’s work and creativity — even if you’re “just” making an iPhone game.
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| Posted: 17 Jan 2011 01:52 PM PST It’s LittleBigPlanet 2 week! This is a mini-large deal, and not just because Sony is working to try to break some miniscule enormous world records. No, this is small huge because LBP is awesome, and my way of paying homage to that tiny giant awesomeness is to present you with a baby massive gallery of very precious sackboys as created by medium normal human beings not employed by Sony. Most of these sackboys were created in the game, but I couldn’t help but include some custom sackboy plushes as well, and there might also be a sackboy cake in there somewhere.
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| Title Update Tanks AC Brotherhood Multiplayer Posted: 17 Jan 2011 01:20 PM PST
The Animus seems to be broken for some participants in the Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood multiplayer experiment over at Abstergo. Not as broken as the image above (no reported lobotomies), but apparently enough to render AC Brotherhood’s online mode unplayable for Xbox 360 gamers. Ubisoft acknowledged the failure in a Tweet and it seems that the problem is something to do with a recent title update for Brotherhood. They’re working to fix it right now. Meantime, you’ll have to find something else to play on your day off. I’ve heard good things about Microbot. And there’s always Call of Duty: Black Ops, especially since you’ll want to be limbered up for the new DLC package coming to Xbox 360 on Feb. 1. Via Joystiq.
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