August 2009 Archives
Sony's seemingly apparent lack of an ability to prevent the spread of crazy rumors that later turn out to be true hasn't stopped it from poking fun at itself while playing the innocent bystander.
For a long while now, everyone had been speculating that the PS3 would become smaller (like the slim PS2) and that a price drop was imminent. To many, this made sense in order to help bolster its numbers against its rivals and to give consumers another reason to choose it instead.
The only question was when and it didn't help that Sony's poker face held up in the face of rampant speculation and scrutiny. Even at their past news conference at E3, SCEA President and CEO, Jack Tretton, had joked with the crowd in saying that they at least kept one thing quiet with the surprise announcement of Final Fantasy XIV, taking it all in stride. But with the news of the new price drop at Gamescom, Sony's starting to come out swinging with a nicely sized funny bone.
A clever commercial celebrating the new price point has come out along with another piece reminding everyone that it does everything aside from being able to launch satellites (although I'm sure someone is thinking of how). I like the approach that they're taking with these and hope to see what else they'll do. It's certainly head and shoulders above their previous artsy attempts that were almost as disturbing as finding the Burger King in bed with you.
Update 9.7.09: I had a feeling that saying "Nigerian millionaire" was going to ruffle a few feathers, even though it was a clear hint to the advance-fee scams made infamous via e-mail. The new commercial replaces the line following the part where he says you can't believe everything on the internet with "That's how World War 1 started."...which is bizarre. That makes as much sense as saying "That's why Caesar was stabbed.". I guess in this case, retroactive humor is hard, but you can still watch the original below.
Frustrated by Ninja Gaiden's merciless difficulty? Beat down by too many skill based games tested by pro-gamers that actually make money doing what they love? Just want to enjoy the game without feeling the need to break the controller at the same time?
Well, it seems that Bayonetta might have the answer. Platinum Games has shown off some footage displaying what might be the easiest difficulty setting ever to be designed with an "Automatic Mode" allowing it to be played with one hand, nearly guaranteeing that no one will be left out of the experience. Designer Hideki Kamiya also calls it "Mommy Mode".
Talented character designer, Mari Shimazaki, demonstrates how easy it is to annihilate foes using it.
Swedish band Rymdreglage has posted an 8-bit flashback on Youtube with a music video that should take a lot of players back to the eighties. Homages to Pac-Man, the Commodore, and even a tanooki dressed Mario come alive to the tune of the beeping and booping music. According to Lego blog, The Brothers Brick, over 1500 hours were spent in creating the stop motion Lego animation seen in the clip.
And it's not a bad slice of gaming flavored music, either. Incredible work.
With the G.I. Joe movie out, the inevitable, action packed, tie-in was almost expected. It isn't the first time that the Joes have seen themselves in the hands of gamers, either, as their adventures have taken them to the Atari 2600, the Commodore 64, and even into the arcade with blistering, four player co-op against the nefarious plans of Cobra. The new game takes place right after the film finishes up and introduces a number of nostalgic pieces to tug on the memories of its fans from the 80s. Unfortunately, even for this fan, there seem to be a few accessories missing from this blister pack.
Celebrity gossip site TMZ normally doesn't report on gadgets, devices, or anything gaming related until Sears' "human cooking line" popped up on their radar.
At first glance, it looks like your listing for a typical Kenmore 4-Burner until you take a look at the department that it is listed under. A few possibilities come to mind: the site was hacked, someone was bored at work (and may eventually be fired), someone was being let go at work and decided to be funny on the way out, or they outsourced their website to cannibals.
The department link goes nowhere, but the page is still live as of this writing. If you put the words "Sears Kenmore human cooking" in Google, that's what currently comes up as the first link.
I'm kind of disappointed that they didn't offer a copy of Soylent Green with the burner.
UPDATE, 12:15 PM: It didn't take Sears too long to fix this one. All I can say from an IT perspective is that today is going to be a very bad day for someone in that department if they were responsible. As for the Google results, that will take a little more time to clear out, but the screenie below shows what was on there.
UPDATE: A post on Reddit has explained just how a "human cooking" line had appeared on Sears. If you don't like technical explanations, you can always read what rumor-debunking site, Snopes, has to say about it instead. But suffice it to say, no one at Sears intentionally defaced the site to appeal to cannibals.
This week, Gamescom is being held for the first time in Germany as Europe's version of E3. Along with Sony's news concerning PS3's slimmer look and lower price, gamers have also been eagerly awaiting any new tidbits that the exhibitors might share with the crowd and so far, they haven't disappointed.
Castlevania's new iteration had been unveiled at E3 with little else to go on, but a new trailer from Gamescom has dropped a few more hints on what the gameplay should look like. To say that what we've seen so far shares reminds me of God of War would be an understatement, there's really nothing wrong with that if the formula can work and feel like a Castelvania. Kojima Productions is involved with this which should be enough to get people excited.
While most of those that have seen the E3 trailer won't see too much that is new, the trailer does show off a cinematic shedding a little more light on the story as well as the whip being used Tomb Raider-style in swinging through an obstacle. And it also ends with only a voice that can only belong to the series' main villain.
Patrick Stewart (Star Trek, X-Men, Dune), , Robert Carlyle (The World is Not Enough), and Natascha McElhone (Solaris, Ronin) are listed in the trailer below in voicing the characters that you will be hearing and there's a fourth who I'm assuming is Dracula. Rumor has it that Lucius Malfoy himself, Jason Isaacs, might be the voice taunting Gabriel at the end who can only be the vampire himself.
In case you haven't hear, there's some news from Sony at Gamescom in Germany -- a smaller, less pricier version of the PS3. The PS3 Slim is real. Even the price is smaller, checking in at $299. You can hear SCEA lead dog Jack Tretton give a rundown of the system over at the PlayStation blog.
I like the design. I like the price, especially since I got my original monolith PS3 bundled with Uncharted and Motorstorm for a heap of cash. However, I also like being able to play stuff like God of War, Vagrant Story, Shadow of the Colossus, Okami and a bunch of other PS2 classics. It was actually a big selling point for me. I imagine a lot of people are going to see this as the tipping point to go and get one. (or, perhaps 360 owners are sick of worrying about their system red-ringing every time they turn it on). However, I'm also curious to see what happens in regards to trade-ins. Anger? Rage? Or a silent resignation that you wanted to be an early adopter, succeeded, and probably knew something like this was going to occur?
Other highlights: It uses less power, which means it's not going to make as much noise as the earlier black fortress edition that everyone has. Thing is, compared to the 360, the PS3 is practically the Red October in terms of silent running. So that's not really a major selling point for me -- besides, are you really going to notice system noise when Kratos is disemboweling centaurs in HD? The volume's not going to be up for that? Other cute tech bits include "Bravia Sync," which enables Bravia TV's XMB (cross-media bar) to be controlled through the PS3. There's also a feature that turns off the PS3 when the TV shuts down, because apparently we can't have people mustering the energy to push another button.
We'll get to see how this plays out, starting Sept. 1. My original PS3 is staying where it is, unless our new dog does something menacing to it.
Images of a youthful Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali tell you almost everything you need to know about Fight Night Round 4, the latest edition of EA's boxing franchise.
Those two fighters set the tone for the whole game, making it a feel like a playful romanticizing of the sweet science that focuses on boxing's past while relying on players' creativity to bolster the present -- because let's be honest, unless you're a huge fan of the lighter-weight divisions, the present isn't that great.
Today's the 20th Anniversary for the Sega Genesis! The days of blast processing, doing what Nintendon't, and rising from your grave are back again among the die hard fans that still remember the 16-bit wars and the games that they had spawned. The Genesis was the platform of choice for many players during the day, especially thanks to a blitzkrieg of savvy marketing moves and third-party titles...and some of the most entertaining commercials to ever come out in a battle between consoles, the kind that aren't seen today because someone might get their feelings hurt. With lawyers.
Sega would also use the Genesis to pioneer several important advances that, while they may not have been as successful as Sega had hoped at the time, went on to help pave the way for the next generation on. Backwards compatibility with the Master System was handled with a module that snapped on top of the system, a CD ROM drive was made available for it to support the new medium, and the Sega MegaNet in Japan was arguably the first to allow multiplayer over consoles.
So if you still have a Genesis, or one of Sega's Genesis compilations, take some time out to enjoy some old school fun. SEGA!!!
8monkeylabs and Phantom EFX have released a demo for Darkest of Days, a time traveling FPS which casts you as a survivor plucked from certain death in order to serve as an anonymous guardian of history thanks to advanced technology. Although history remembers you as a dead man making you prime material for recruitment, you'll soon be on the front lines in defending the timestream from someone else's idea of history.
The demo knows how to get things started with a bang and the engine wasn't kidding about boasting about filling the screen with lots and lots of soldiers (i.e. targets) for you to fend off. It includes the intro battle in which you relive your final moments at Custer's Last Stand, a training level, and a jump to the Battle of Antietam during the Civil War to save someone who shouldn't be in the fight.
And because you're working for a highly advanced group of time travelers, you might also have to take care of things the old fashioned way: with superior firepower...such as an assault rifle for breaking through Confederate lines...
Oh yes.
By the way, that circle thing that winds up around the reticle and the green block? That's the game's version of "active reload". By hitting the reload button as the bar passes through the green area, you finish reloading your weapon much faster. It varies depending on what you have, but in the case of the Springfield rifle, it cut roughly 2/3s of the time needed to get it ready for another shot.
But along with that awesome moment, the demo also has a few iffy things...some of the voice acting is a little bland and there are some invisible walls that are a bit too obvious...but the overall atmosphere in staging a big battle piece if great stuff. That, and this is only a small piece of a game that will take you from Antietam to Pompeii to WW2. The game is due out for both the PC and the Xbox 360 in September.
Fans of the cartoon should park anything that they love about the series from the 80s, and basically everything that they know about the characters, at the door if they decide to see this movie. And fill up on lots and lots of popcorn. Some cheese nachos might not be a bad idea, either. For everyone in general, just park your brain at home because you won't need it here.
...and it turns out that I might have a future in rescuing kittens from trees because...
Noble and true, you are the hero other heroes aspire to be. You are a natural leader, selfless and kind, who will put the lives of others above your own, and are steadfast in your pursuit of justice.
As part of the promotion for Cryptic's new MMO, the upcoming Champions Online, they've provided a clever quiz for you to take in order to see just what kind of hero or villain you might be. Unlike their previous work with City of Heroes/Villains, Champions Online is actually based on the long-running pen and paper system developed by Hero Games which is replete with its own pantheon of super-powered characters.
So why not take a break and take the quiz. Punching through it again, and being a little more creative with my answers, it also turns out that I might also have a future as a Bondsian megavillain with wicked powers, because...
You are pure evil, and hate personified. You don't care anything about your fellow man, and are guided only by your desire to rule over your inferiors, i.e. everybody but you. 'Mercy,' you ask, prior to grinding an enemy beneath your mighty heel, 'What is mercy?'
On Wolfenstein's official forums, id Community Manager, Pete Sokal, has posted up news that a build of the Multiplayer portion of the game has been leaked. From the announcement, he says:
It was brought to our attention on Friday, 7/31 that a build of the Wolfenstein Multiplayer was leaked and is now being distributed illegally through breach of NDA and mirrors posted on the internet. I must warn anyone involved that Activision's legal department is taking this matter very seriously.
In short, if you see it out there, do your best to resist the temptation to grab it. On the other hand, it would be nice if PC players were given another, more legal, kind of handout in the form of a decent pre-order incentive, or even a Collector's Edition.
PC gamers have apparently gotten a lot less love than their console peers when it comes to pre-orders. Console gamers can look forward to goodies such as early access to upgrades and two thousand pieces of gold with which to purchase others in multiplayer. PC players receive the obligatory Gamestop guarantee of getting the game by August 18th if they opt for overnight shipping...just like everyone else. I remember when the CE edition for RTCW came in a collector's tin with a cool poster and a neat patch.
Come on. On Bioshock's release, its CE came with a Big Daddy and a free replacement was quickly offered in case it was broken, not to mention the downloadable art and music that were made available to everyone. I'm not asking for a B.J. Blaskowicz action figure, but something other than the box and manual would be nice.
I can't be the only one slightly weirded-out by this. It's probably residual paranoia from the Terminator movies, but things that move with this kind of surgical precision make me think horrible things.
This writer has to confess that he had pretty much no interest in ever seeing "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" until reading this review in Empire Online.
Read the whole thing if you want, but there was one line that piqued my interest:
"G.I. Joe has a robot tuna."
There were no other details in the review about the tuna. Do the good guys employ the robot tuna, or does Cobra use military fish for evil?
Do weaponized tuna explode after being caught by tuna fisherman, disrupting the world's fish supplies and forcing people to eat more red meat, gradually increasing the free world's risk of heart attack and stroke until Cobra is ready to strike?
Ridiculous, right?
No.
Turns out a little research, AKA a Google search, turns up a 2008 article in Information Week about how the real U.S. Office of Naval Research awarded a grant to some Massachusetts researchers to develop an actual robotic tuna.
The device is intended to mimic the bluefin tuna's anatomy and swimming prowess, and according to the article, could be used by the U.S. military for underwater surveillance missions.
