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Saturday, August 23rd, 2008
Look closely (full size on the jump). Reader Ian S. found this back-to-college ad for Sears in his local paper. Looking at this guy’s set up, I’m betting the propmaster for this ad shoot is someone so out of it he refers to consoles generically not as “Nintendo” but as “the Sega.” Because that’s Solid Snake on the screen, and a 360 controller in our hip gamer friend’s hands. So here are my thoughts for what might be going on.
Golden Axe: Beast Rider Impressions Of Excessive Brown [Games Convention 2008]
Saturday, August 23rd, 2008
Don’t mix beer and wine. Ever. And don’t dabble in Golden Axe: Beast Rider when suffering from intercontinental jet lag. Let my folly become your wisdom. See, the Secret Level-developed update to the Golden Axe franchise is probably more… let’s say… relaxing than it should be. That’s a nice way of saying rather bland, as the rainbow of browns that permeate the game may lull hack ‘n’ slash fans into a restful slumber.
I mean, even the purple chicken things are brown.
Unless You’re Nintendo, Game Consoles Are Expensive [Business]
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
At the Games Convention Developers Dave Perry from Earthworm Jim developer Shiny Entertainment stated that Sony lost more money selling PS3 at a loss than it made during the five years of PlayStation 2 peak sales. That figure is estimated as being in the US$3 billion ballpark. The data that Perry cited came from DFC Intelligence. Not taking a stance on the “console war”, Perry was using this data to point out how much of an investment Sony was putting in the PS3.
Japan Is TOTALLY Sold Out of Xbox 360s (New Shippment Next Month!) [Only In Japan]
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
Remember when we thought the Xbox 360 was sold out at one Japanese store? That’s not all. It’s sold out across the whole damn country. Like, sold out sold out. It’s so sold out that Microsoft Japan actually put out an official statement about the situation in The Land of the Rising Sun, apologizing for the lack of consoles. Since demand has eclipsed supply, Microsoft’s supply has gone totally dry. The company is ramping up production, and the console will not be shipped to stores until next month.
We’ve translated the full statement after the jump.
To all customers
What’s Company Of Heroes: Men Of Valour? [Company Of Heroes]
Monday, August 18th, 2008
Besides an awfully generically-named videogame? Who knows! But there’s a listing for it on Amazon, with a projected release date of March 2009, and they say it’s from THQ. Taking all that into account - plus THQ and Relic’s love of the expansion pack (see Dawn of War), we’re just going to go ahead and start making plans for a second Call of Duty expansion. One that, we hope, includes the Russians. Oh, and if we’re lucky, some North African combat as well.
Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor [Amazon]
New Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII Images [PS3]
Monday, August 18th, 2008
The most recent issue of Japanese game magazine Famitsu PS3 has loads of details about upcoming Square Enix titles Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII. As we previously posted, the FFXIII demo will be longer than Advent Children and will be on a regular Blu-ray disc. FFXIII will have a party battle system, and the story is being written so that each character apparently seems like the protagonist (instead of simply a supporting character). The magazine features around 20 new screenshots of Final Fantasy XIII, apparently real time, too. There are real-time screens of Versus XIII. It seems that the clothing and the cars in Versus XIII have been tweaked and look different. AT TGS, we can supposedly look forward to the name of the prince and the heroine being announced. Click through the gallery below — there are some high quality Final Fantasy Versus XIII scans. (The FFXIII aren’t so high quality.)
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Famitsu PS3 [NeoGAF via Forever Fantasy]
Rockstar Doesn’t Get Hardcore/Casual Division [Gtaiv]
Monday, August 18th, 2008
Rockstar gets lots of things — like how to make and launch hugely successful games. But what’s one thing Rockstar does not get? Like at all? Company co-founder Sam Houser explains:
The division doesn’t make sense to us; good games will usually sell and be popular, bad games will struggle – of any type or genre or style. But we still believe big, high impact games will help the industry evolve and further surpass the movie industry as the next mass-market story telling medium.
In Which Owen Rants [Weekend Note]
Monday, August 18th, 2008
To: Luke, Bash
From: Owen
Re: Throat… Burns…
cc: Board of Directors, Rite-Aid Corporation (NYSE: RAD)
So I went into the Rite Aid yesterday to buy two damn things: Soap, specifically Old Spice High Endurance Body Wash, and Early Times. This is the Rite Aid next to Capcom so fuck you, it’s relevant. Now, in a drugstore, which would you expect to be more difficult to find? Oh, this ain’t North Carolina where the government sells you your booze. Because alcohol is a drug, my friend, we get to sell it at pharmacies in California, along with other health-relevant products like Dora the Explorer backpacks. So the corn squeezins are front and damn well center at any establishment with the liquor license, because it sure as hell cost a lot for the privilege.
The Week in Games: Quest for Quality [Week In Games]
Monday, August 18th, 2008
Looks like we’ve cycled over to a DLC week, headlined by Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty on PlayStation Network, with Galaga Legions coming out a day earlier (but far, far overshadowed) on XBLA. After R&C, it’s a very thin week. Interesting that a downloadable title is the heavy here. Anibus for Wii, I never heard of it and can’t find anything on, but it’s an Egyptian tomb crawler, but the God in question is Anubis. So maybe this is about a dyslexic archaeologist, I don’t know.
NSFW: Gamer Porn: Would You Pay for This? [Maximum Risky]
Sunday, August 17th, 2008
Early this morning we got a tip to that photo (and others), which is part of a gallery of the very attractive Ann Angel showing her lust for Master Chief. The tip backtracked to a site called Gamer Fetish (extremely NSFW, NSFchildren, NSFusing family computer at kitchen table, you name it). And I think it’s safe to say that geek porn is officially a growth segment for that business, no small feat considering the infinite variety of infinite fetishes/urges/niches served by online erotica.
New Olympic Event: The Xbox Put [Console Abuse]
Sunday, August 17th, 2008Everything is made more legitimate when described in a British accent, even when the narrator uses phrases like “video game things.” So here is British Gaming Blog’s “Summer Athletics Preview” — in which Eidos touted the release of its upcoming Summer Athletics (Sept. 30 in Europe for the Wii) with some events of its own — Xbox Put, the Wiilay, and the Gamecube Toss. Teaser only, they’ll have the full video up sometime later. But you can get a look at some Xboxes smashing on the concrete at Battersea Athletics Track. I bet they’d still work.
Nearly 150 Screenshots of Fallout 3 Leaked [Fallout 3]
Sunday, August 17th, 2008
Although I probably should leave anything in Japanese to Bash, pictures speak any language, and there are nearly 150 of them of Fallout 3 that have hit the Internet following the Zenimax Asia expo (Zenimax owns Fallout developer Bethesda.) Tipster Brother None, the forum admin over at No Mutants Allowed, writes: “Apparently the people viewing Fallout 3 in the ZeniMax Asia showing in Taiwan did not take their NDAs very seriously.” Apparently so. We have a gallery of 28 screenies on the jump, with a link to the entire set.
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Atari Games Too Bad to be True [Atari 2600]
Sunday, August 17th, 2008
Watercooler Games saw this earlier in the week and gave a detailed deconstruction of how a Free the Falklands! concept would be graphically impossible on the Atari 2600. I took one look and knew it was satire because one of the writers for this site, Jason Torchinsky, is a comedian and a name I remember as the editorial cartoonist of The Daily Tar Heel back when I was at N.C. State’s Technician in the early 1990s.
How Weight Watchers is Like an RPG [Dieting]
Sunday, August 17th, 2008
I need to lose weight, and the Weight Watchers points concept actually resonates with me, as I attempt to do something similar with my home meals, I just don’t count the calories like I should. But damn, it is hyperbranded as a female diet plan, and I’m self-conscious enough printing out a Men’s Health diet at the office. Still, Wired’s Clive Thompson has a different take on why WW works — it’s actually an RPG.
Ratchet & Clank: To be Continued in 2009 [Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest For Booty]
Saturday, August 16th, 2008
1Up’s played Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty (drops next week on the PlayStation Network) all the way to the end, and got the above teaser screen. Insomniac has said nothing, but it’s doubtful they’d tease anything other than a full retail release this far out. 1Up notes that it looks like Insomniac will be switching between Resistance and Ratchet titles every other year which is definitely pulling its weight for the PS3.
Ratchet & Clank Continue the Quest in Fall 2009 [1Up]