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Dragon's Dogma: The Kotaku Review Nintendo have updated their Japanese Virtual Console page, and in doing so have left an alluring little tease. They’re displaying eight console boxes when there’s only six consoles on the VC, with the remaining two boxes greyed out. Did Nintendo suddenly get big on asymmetrical websites? Not likely. Expect two more consoles to be announced, and announced soon, with one (hopefully/probably) being the Master System, and the other, a complete mystery. Virtual Console [Nintendo, via Go Nintendo]
To: Luke From: Crecente Re: Salami & Jarlsberg
Cold meats and cheese? That sounds good, especially if you have beer and wine handy. I think I tend to mix it up a bit, usually a pasta and a Turkey, with all of the usual accouterments. This year we’ll be doing the Turkey and such in a little Georgia town called Moultrie, with my dad.
Man, remember the days when things just died around December 15 or so? No news, no new games, nothing to do but happily stare at the wall and think about the upcoming festivities? Today has been insanely busy. To make matters worse McWhertor is winging his way back home for the holidays, so he’s been out of pocket. I ended up working from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. with only a few short breaks in between today. Man, I need a drink.
What you missed: GameStop Outlines “Wii Certificate Program” E3 Returns to Los Angeles, But Remains Booth Babe Free Sonic Races To Your iPod Mini Me Does World of Warcraft LEGO Racers Being Remade as Flash Game It Pays to Be a Kotaku Kommenter… Or it Could PSOne Discs Playable on PSP Via Remote Play Open World vs. Real World, And My Feelings on the Burnout Paradise Demo Duke Nukem Forever Trailer Hits Tomorrow
Professor Ryuta Kawashima is the master of brain training. Having trained the brains of millions of gamers, he has now taken the next logical step – training the brains of Toyotas. Toyota and Kawashima are currently together on various technologies to help older drivers drive safely. Technologies such as intelligent systems that monitor a driver’s behavior in order to curb dangerous behavior, such as sudden increases or decreases in speed, falling asleep at the wheel, or getting in the car in the first place. “We envision future cars will be able to monitor brain and emotional activity to back up elderly drivers,” said Kawashima, a Tohoku University scientist who worked on Nintendo Co.’s best-selling “Brain Age” games _ and whose smiling image is the guide in the series.
While I am all for promoting driving safety, I just don’t know about helping the elderly drive longer. I respect the elderly. I have some of the elderly in my family. I just think there is a certain point where you have to resign yourself that you can no longer safely operate a vehicle. I know Kawashima’s heart is in the right place, but age happens.
A post over at Next Gen Boards has a slew of pictures take from a recent trip take to Chernobyl. The images are pretty creepy, but also do a good job of illustrating how well Infinity Ward captured the feel and look of the actual place in Call of Duty 4.
I mocked up the image above using shots from the thread, which were taken in game and in city. Pretty neat.
A Map in Real Life [Next Gen Boards]
Unreal Tournament III is one of the fastest, deadliest shooters around these days on the PC and PlayStation 3, and now early next year Mac gamers will be able to join the battle, no Boot Camp required. MacSoft has announced the Macintosh version of Unreal Tournament 3 to be released in earl 2008 for ultra-stylish computer users everywhere. “MacSoft couldn’t be happier to bring Unreal Tournament 3′s insane fast-paced action and brutal weaponry to the Mac,” said Peter Tamte, president of MacSoft parent company Destineer. “We have a long history of bringing the Unreal series to Mac gamers, and with its expanded campaign mode and killer vehicles, Unreal Tournament 3 is the biggest, best and bloodiest game in the series yet.”
I could poke fun at Mac users here, but I’ve come to the realisation that the only reason I don’t own a Mac is that I just can’t afford one right now. Sometimes I hold up pictures of them from magazines in front of my desk and pretend I am hip and happening too. *sniffle*
GDC’s Jamil Moledina has updated his “Director’s Cut” blog with details on four new sessions that will be taking place at next year’s conference. Here’s the summary, for those not into the whole reading thing:
• A talk by Ken Rolston and Mark Nelson of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion discussing collaborative writing • A talk by Rob Pardo, VP of Design for Blizzard, about the company’s approach to multiplayer game design, both what they’ve learned through titles like World of Warcraft and how they’re applying them forward • A talk with Harmonix’s VP of Product Development, Greg LoPiccolo that is a postmortem of a postmortem – a first for GDC – of course, about Rock Band • A talk with Haden Blackman of LucasArts about the convergent pipeline used in making the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
I find all of these pretty interesting, but top of my list is the Harmonix postmortem postmortem, that could be quite interesting.
“I hear there’s a survey up at Kotaku Australia.”
“Really? Like, really?“
“It’s true man, there’s like, questions and stuff.”
“And stuff? It’s been ages since I’ve seen stuff in a survey!”
“I know, oh my God, it’s so great. But there’s-”
“What?”
“There’s something-”
“What? Don’t keep me in suspense here!
“Oh my God, let me speak!”
“Like, sorry!”
“It’s so totally alright. Anyway, as I was saying, there’s like a $250 gift voucher to be won if you complete the survey.”
“Oh…”
“…My…”
“…God! Why are we sitting here talking, let’s go get us some survey action!”
“I love action!”
“So do I! Oh, my, God!”
This evening’s Take-Two Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2007 Results Conference Call wasn’t exactly a Queens of the Stone Age concert, I know shocking right? There were some marginally interesting tidbits that floated out of the stream of fiscal data.
Here’s a break-down of highlights and fun quotes, including one confirming the non-existence of Grand Theft Auto IV for the Wii:
Our local CBS affiliate here in Atlanta just aired a special report on the impact Penny-Arcade’s annual Child’s Play charity drive has had on Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, one of the leading pediatric hospitals in the country. The story looks at the effects of the effort through the eyes of DeAngelis Davis, an Atlanta teen in the hospital for heart problems, who passes the time playing Dragon Ball Z on his PS2 with his mom. Sure hospital rep Steven Wagner is a little mixed up about the origins of Child’s Play, and the video does contain an unfortunately funny cut to the EKG monitor after the line, “he’ll challenge his mom Angela to a game,” but it’s nice to see the mainstream media in a tiny town like Atlanta pick up on the gist of what Child’s Play is all about.
It’s by no means a magical experience, but I did get a smirk out of Ubisoft’s Christmas video, which arrived in my inbox not too long ago.
I should warn you it has rabbids in it. Raving rabbids, as they’re called. I think they’re the freakiest creatures I’ve ever seen, ignoring my brother’s ex-girlfriend.
We called her “Eggface”.
