Trailer Park: Castle Crashers

Looks yummy. I loved Hominid and hopefully this will have a debut broader than just Live Arcade after it's release.

Fun Fact: Castle Crashers was one of the many titles that removed itself from Slamdance after they kicked Super Columbine Massacre RPG! out of the contest.



tagged: game, gaming

Chicago PS3 Launch With Interviews And Pics

“I’m against technology,” Rudy said. “It kills the innocence of people. They don’t talk to each other as much as before. They are either online or on the phone. There’s no physical interaction.”
Jason had a similarly pessimistic view: “Technology was meant to connect us all, but it failed.” Though they said they had the money to afford one, neither Rudy nor Jason has a cell phone.

-- PlayStation 3 release: Chicago gamers create utopia on a Best Buy sidewalk

I know this is way old at this point - but it serves as an interesting retrospective devoid of pole smacking and idiot store managers.



tagged: game, gaming

The Console War Winner: Nobody

The games industry has long been acknowledged as a lucrative business to be involved with, which is why reports from market analysts on the prospects for new consoles command such attention.

The latest, from respected analysts IDC, comes to the conclusion that none of the next-generation games machines currently on sale is likely to lord it over the others.

-- Analysts predict no dominant next-gen console

This seems to me to slowly be the most likely outcome within the next few years. I've said in the past the labelling anyone a "winner" is getting more and more myopic. Sheer numbers, however, are trending in Nintendo's favor for the near future. Sony and Microsoft will do better as HDTV adoption rises (and Sony will dominate over Microsoft in Japan and fight for ground elsewhere). It's a pretty jigsaw picture that doesn't exactly spell doom for anyone.

Of course this is horrible news. With no clear winner or loser - fanboys of every stripe will likely begin to riot. Web forums probably won't be safe to travel until 2010.




tagged: game, gaming

Counter-Strike On A Nokia

Counterstrike running on the Nokia N73, the future of mobile gaming does look bright. However this is not a mobile version of the game but a Counterstrike mod running using the C2doom emulator and boy it is smooth.

-- Counterstrike on Nokia N73 - Newlaunches.com





tagged: game, gaming

Indies, Consoles and Resources

To combat this problem, both Sony and Microsoft are dramatically increasing their investment in exclusive content for their consoles, and offering third-party developers financial incentives to keep games on one platform. While neither Sony nor Microsoft will admit to offering such incentives, Barton feels that this is the only explanation for keeping titles such as Gears of War on one console. "Third parties are not so concerned with using their treble-A IP to drive sales of someone else's hardware," he explained, "unless there is a very good, almost invariably financial, reason to do so."

As for the development houses that aren't purchased outright by Sony or Microsoft and can't get these aforementioned financial incentives, things look rough in the years ahead. Barton calls the next-gen game industry an "unforgiving environment for independents at the moment" as costs continue to ramp up without a proportionate increase in revenues.

However, there is a silver lining to this dark cloud, and it comes in an unlikely form: last-gen hardware. Barton says that the PlayStation 2 in particular offers a "huge potential user base to release games into" and feels that the platform will hang on into the next generation "longer than any other console in history." The continued strong sales of PS2s would tend to reinforce this prediction.

-- Rising game costs hurt indie developers, help last-gen consoles: analyst

I'm not sure I agree with the analysis. The PS2 might appeal to small, but well funded, studios for at least the coming year or so. Anything that can be ported to the platform seems like it would be a no-brainer to do so with it's massive consumer base. When it comes to low-cost independent development, though, the DS seems like a better option than the PS2. The expectation level for graphics is low, it's got a mature online component and also enjoys a huge audience.

All that said - I think things are getting ready to pop for indie and hobbyist development. Not right away, perhaps, but soon enough. XNA is one piece - but it will be curious to see what Nintendo and Sony do. I'd love to see Sony release (or even sell cheaply) a Linux SDK for the PS3 that would run ... on the PS3. It would be incredibly ideal to buy a console and be able to dev right up against it.






tagged: game, gaming

Games And Sex

A sex educator, a games developer and a grad student walk into a bar. Bartender says, "What is this, some kind of joke?"

All right, so maybe the Game Developers Conference and SXSW Interactive are not, technically, bars. But over the next 10 days, interactive media wonks will converge upon San Francisco and Austin, Texas, and I have it on good authority that taverns, saloons and pubs will figure prominently.

You can't present a comprehensive program about interactivity without acknowledging the role of sexuality in the development of interactive applications. And since I can't attend either conference in person, I figured I would call a few of the sex-tech speakers to find out what's on their minds for 2007.

-- Tech Expos Take a Stab at Sex

It's an interesting article - but mostly I needed a post to boost some flagging traffic and I figured the Whorecraft photostream I found was going too far.

And yes, the phrase "uncanny valley" gets used.


tagged: game, gaming

Kotaku Doesn't Play Ball - Sony Blackballs

Did you know the phrase blackball actually refers to a black ball? Learn something new every day.

Sony's apparently handed a darkly colored orb to Kotaku for posting PlayStation 3 rumors. These are rumors which Kotaku actually went through some effort to vet and verify. In doing so, Sony apparently threatened their "professional relationship" if Kotaku went forward with the post. Kotaku did and now Sony has pulled all their interviews and meetings with them.

An outsider's guess? Sony wanted to trumpet some new PlayStation 3 features at GDC and Kotaku stole their thunder. Sony needs to trumpet some new PlayStation 3 features - so I actually hope this is the case.

However this is a prime example that Sony's core problem with modern public relations is cultural. This is Dave Karraker, Senior Director of Corporate Communications, in his letter:

This included getting people access to executives, opening our events to more individuals and personally responding as quickly as possible to inquiries. This was done in good faith with the thought that the people I was working with would operate with the same integrity and courtesy I think I demonstrated when I was a reporter. Basically, I went out on a limb for a lot of people -- people SCEA PR and SCEA management had written off. I caught a lot of flack for it from folks, but I felt strongly it was the right thing to do.

I am very disappointed that after trying to work with you as closely as possible and provide you and your team with access and information, you chose to report on this rumor.... I can't defend outlets that can't work cooperatively with us.

-- Sony Blackballs Kotaku - Kotaku

As a reporter, and assuming the guess is right, Sony's executives should have realized they were scooped. Kotaku had the goods and every reason to move forward with them. Sony responded with threats. Now the result is that the rumor is out and Sony has severed ties.

Who wins?

Sony is completely out of touch here. Let's be frank. Kotaku can publish nearly any Internet rumor supported by the barest of forum fodder and still pretty much pay the bills with incoming traffic. In fact, I'm pretty certain at times they have. Yes, some people will stop reading them. I'm pretty certain I was one of them.

However, if I know that Kotaku would take the effort if only Sony would pick up the phone - I'd keep them on the feed reader. And now still do. Knowing that Sony is officially cutting off ties basically gives Kotaku carte blanc to print just about anything they want about Sony now. They can always point to Dave's email as proof they would vet the story if Sony would just let them.

It's Sony - not Kotaku - who should have been playing ball in this case. If they were about to be scooped they could have offered a trade to keep the post out until after the GDC keynote. Exclusives, swag, beer or whatever.

They didn't. Instead of trading - they resort to threats. Why? Culture. Pure and simple. The same company that thought faux ghetto speak on an even more faux blog doesn't think they should have to swap furs with the new media. Blogs are, apparently, the medium of hip music deejays who can't string sentences and really, really want a PSP. It's not just that Sony doesn't take the grassroots seriously - they're practically mocking them.

Kotaku exits the fray with more credibility. Sony just looks like a bully.

Update:

In a nutshell: The story remains up and Sony has re-invited us to the meetings and interviews initially scheduled for the Game Developers Conference.

It's unfortunate that we, not just Kotaku and Sony, but all of us had to go through this, but it's good to see the outcome: We were doing our job and Sony was doing theirs and now we can both continue to do so.

-- Sony and Kotaku Make-Up - Kotaku


tagged: game, gaming

Nintendo Guitar

Via TOKYOMANGO (their caps, not mine). Technically, I guess, a Famicom guitar.


tagged: game, gaming

TV Watch: Lost 'Tricia Tanaka Is Dead'

In summation - if this weren't a Hurley episode it probably would have sucked. He's played and written well and so even when his flashbacks offer virtually little in terms of character advancement or plot background ... it's at least interesting. Fluff - but fun and tasty fluff at least.

Scenes sans Hurley were jarring at best. Kate couldn't explain Sawyer's actions with Karl any better than I could last week ... which doesn't help the perception that it was just aggravated plot twisting. What was with the "sunlight showed us Otherville" crap too? I remember Locke looking at the Jesus Stick, but I don't recall any grand Indiana Jones moment which revealed some secret path to another camp. Did I miss something or is this another point where the writing is just sloppily trying to connect some dots?

And still every time Nikki or Paolo (or worse ... both) get a line its like nails on the chalkboard. The characters don't fit, the actors don't meld well with the old cast and the whole scenario just makes you hope for a polar bear driveby. As I said in the discussion from Heroes - the Lost producers keep contending that they can't simply answer questions because they would run out of material. However, it's not out fault they are trying to spread two or three seasons into five or six. Nikki and Paolo are just painful and obvious examples of trying to pad out the series.

The next couple episodes could be a make or break period for the show.




tagged: television , lost

Folk Devils

But in the ten years following Doom's release, homicide arrest rates fell by 77 percent among juveniles. School shootings remain extremely rare; even during the 1990s, when fears of school violence were high, students had less than a 7 in 10 million chance of being killed at school. During that time, video games became a major part of many young people's lives, few of whom will ever become violent, let alone kill. So why is the video game explanation so popular?

In 2000 the FBI issued a report on school rampage shootings, finding that their rarity prohibits the construction of a useful profile of a "typical" shooter. In the absence of a simple explanation, the public symbolically linked these rare and complex events to the shooters' alleged interest in video games, finding in them a catchall explanation for what seemed unexplainable-the white, middle-class school shooter. However, the concern about video games is out of proportion to their actual threat.

Politicians and other moral crusaders frequently create "folk devils," individuals or groups defined as evil and immoral. Folk devils allow us to channel our blame and fear, offering a clear course of action to remedy what many believe to be a growing problem. Video games, those who play them, and those who create them have become contemporary folk devils because they seem to pose a threat to children.

Such games have come to represent a variety of social anxieties: about youth violence, new computer technology, and the apparent decline in the ability of adults to control what young people do and know. Panics about youth and popular culture have emerged with the appearance of many new technologies. Over the past century, politicians have complained that cars, radio, movies, rock music, and even comic books caused youth immorality and crime, calling for control and sometimes censorship.

-- do video games kill? [via kotaku]

I've pounded the pulpit on this if not ad nauseum certainly ad redundum (if that's a real thing). Guys like BatJack have managed whole careers by selling folk devils to the media. We're becoming more and more of a phobic nation here in America - homophobic, xenophobic and now even technophobic. The unknown or unfamiliar is a convenient way to direct anger and fear - especially if they lack powerful lobbies or financial backing.

This post accuses gamers of doing a similar thing in reverse. It's an open letter to the Penny Arcade post about the "homeless killings". In short it says that they're irrelevant to games in general since there's only a singular quote (and not oft repeated) about a game and it never goes farther than that. (thanks to Curmudgeon Gamer for the find)

I think he's right - reading the mainstream press on this seems to make very little out of the game reference and never seem to try and make a broader connection. There are no politicians or attention whores trying to make them either. Gamers seem to make the case ... and then of course deny that it's plausible.

I get how it happens though. Gaming has been demonized so often that it is easy to see shadows as bogeymen. The folk devil of the folk devil, so to speak. When 60 Minutes takes a guy like Thompson and allows him to talk about cranial menus without so much of a blink ... and yet gamers aren't given an equal platform ... a persecution complex is very likely to rise. Because it is like persecution. It's not paranoia if they are actually out to get you.

Still, it's important to keep your wits about. It will only fan the flames when the guys who started the fire are having a break. We have to give not just the figureheads but the arguments as little credibility and attention as possible while still mounting a defense.





tagged: game, gaming

To Mercury News: No != Less

I just had a big response to Dean's statement that the PAL PS3 had "no" backward compatibility, when he goes and corrects himself:

I’m just starting to shake my head. Sony has announced that its PlayStation 3 consoles for the European market won’t be backward compatible with the PlayStation 2 or the PlayStation. (OK let me fix that: will be less backward compatible with the PS 2; PS 1 games compatible).

-- Sony’s Latest Black Eye: No (ok ok a fix: Less) Backward Compatibility In Europe.

People seriously need to stop freaking out - especially to the point of wildly misreporting the facts. Reading the press on this and announcing the PS3 has dropped all BC is about as bad as assuming the PlayStation 3 wouldn't play Blu-Ray movies (from the top 10 worst). There is simply a huge gap between zero and some unknown number. It's like I tell the guys who write the specs ... you have to appreciate that the difference between infinitiy and any number might be a problem.

The exact impact on this has yet to be determined - however, Sony has said they hope to have at least 1,000 PS2 titles working for the PS3 when it launches in European. The official Xbox site lists like 300 titles compatible with the 360 - and I've certainly never read Dean complain about the 360's BC strategy. Dean goes on to complain that some equestrian requires rumble, and hence doesn't work on the PS3 and (by his logic) that means another undetermined amount of titles won't run on the PS3.

I've stated many times that backwards compatibility is a huge selling point for me across any of the current gen consoles. Dean's stated that for him - it's not a big deal. If I'm willing to wait for the actual compatibility lists to hit - I think he can do the same.



tagged: game, gaming

Brief History Of Minesweeper

Minesweeper has its origins in the earliest mainframe games of the '60s and '70s. Wikipedia cites the earliest ancestor of Minesweeper as Jerimac Ratliff's Cube. But although Cube features "landmines," it's hard to consider this a predecessor of Minesweeper. In Cube, the mines are placed randomly and the only way to discover where they ends the game. You walk over a landmine and you die; you can't avoid the landmines or know where they are before you take a chance.

However, there are a number of very early "hide and seek" games about locating hidden spots on a grid. For example, in Bob Albrecht's Hurkle, you have to find a creature hiding on a ten-by-ten grid. After each guess, you're told in what general direction the Hurkle lies. Dana Noftle's Depth Charge is the same, but in three dimensions. Bud Valenti's Mugwump has multiple hidden targets, and after each guess, you get the approximate distance to each of them. Unlike Cube, these games match the general pattern of Minesweeper more closely: make a random guess to start, then start using the information provided by that first guess to uncover the hidden items. Of course, unlike Minesweeper (or Cube), the was no danger of "explosion," the only constraint was finding the secret locations in a limited number of guesses.

-- COLUMN: 'Beyond Tetris' - Minesweeper

Via kottke. Neat background info on what is one of the world's most popular games.



tagged: game, gaming

Comic Con 2007

Flickr naturally has a metric ton of Comic Con pics, including the one above from brainware3000's photostream (which I think is a monster from The Darkness). Also check out Wired's photo coverage.


tagged: comics, geeks

Does The Wii Add A New Moral Angle?

Rockstar Games (which is synonymous with controversy) recently announced the production of "Manhunt 2" for various consoles, including the Wii. While Nintendo has always allowed third-party developers to produce M-rated games for its systems, the company has still managed to appeal to a family audience, mostly through its own mascot characters like Mario, Link, Kirby and Yoshi. So those who claim violent games are marketed to kids might be looking at Nintendo more than Microsoft or Sony, whose consoles are squarely aimed at that 18-34 demographic. Nintendo's own reputation might work against it when parents see Mature games for a system they thought was squeaky clean.

But the new problem is the Wii itself. While most virtual violence is done by tapping buttons and rotating your thumb, the Wii's unique motion-sensing controls add realism by letting players go bowling or play tennis just by mimicking the movements. For games like "Manhunt 2," that might also include swinging your arm to stab someone or beat them with a baseball bat. That much realism can only add to the controversy over video game violence.

-- Kid-friendly Wii won't escape controversy much longer

It's an interesting point. A key aspect of the debate on video games is the user participation. I don't adhere to the "emulation is brain washing" theory that gets BatJack so excited. The distance between virtually firing a gun and actually firing a gun is hardly crossed by a more realistic controller. Still - if a morally questionable action in a game requires more participation to trigger - would that lower the number of people willing to do it? Is there a cost versus reward ratio between the amount of energy required to try kicking the hooker against seeing what will happen with said hooker?






tagged: game, gaming

Gamer's Help For OS X

Ever got stuck in a game? No? Honestly? Wow. Then congratulations. But for the rest of us, Gamer’s Help brings a relief. Gamer’s Help is an app for a quick access to our gaming database, which includes Cheat Codes, Walkthroughs, and much more for a growing number of games. And as with any of our apps, once you’ve registered, you have life-time supply of free updates!

-- Gamer's Help [OS X Downloads]

Sounds neat. Not sure how complete the database is - but since it's for OS X... it can't take long to compile, right? Doh!


tagged: game, gaming