GAME Australia Lays Off 281 Employees, Closes 60 Stores 
How Diablo III's Always-On Internet Requirement Makes It A Better Game GAME: No Buyers Yet, Crisis To Drag On For Another Month 
Have Your Say On Video Game Pricing 
35,000 Telstra Passwords Reset After Games Services Hacked 
Dragon's Dogma: The Kotaku Review You’d think movie execs would be on a Minesweeper film adaptation like they would cocaine on a Hollywood hooker’s ass, but it took the artistic renegades from College Humuor to finally tap into drama of the PC logic game that has been detonating productivity for decades. Even Windows anti-fans should appreciate this one.
Thanks for the tip, Luc!
David Crane co-founded Atari. Not the crummy Atari of today, the real, proper, industry giant Atari. Dude also made Pitfall, so the least we can do is lend an ear when he’s got something to say. Yes, today’s video game business has become very derivative.
Reason? There’s two, he says, one being that naturally there’s only a limited number of stories that can be told. The other, though, is the size of development teams. Big teams and big money mean no big risks, so we get the same old crap over and over and over again. Pretty bleak worldview there, David. And a familiar one, one we’ve been hearing for, oh, about ten years now. It’s not all that bad. Is it? Activision Co-Founder on Today’s ‘Derivative’ Video Games [GameDaily]
Just hours after Judge Whyte ruled on a 2005 California game law targeting “ultra-violent” video games that would have imposed fines on retailers who sold age inappropriate games to minors, Governor Schwarzenegger issued a press release stating that his office will “vigorously defend this law and appeal it to the next level.” The politician maintains the bill is critical to aiding parents make sound purchasing decisions for their kids.
Ahnuld’s response to the ruling follows bill author Leland Yee’s statement that he was personally “shocked” to learn of the unconstitutional ruling, urging the Governor to appeal the decision.
Obviously, Arnold and his team will need to determine if the ruling has the ability to bleed, as that is the determining factor whether such a thing can be killed. It’s possible that the Governor will look into the eyes of Judge Whyte and inquire “What the hell are you?” or call him “One ugly son of a bitch.” Then Whyte will initiate a self-destruct sequence in his alien gavel amid booming laughter. Sorry, just trying to add some flair to an otherwise dry turn of events.
BREAKING: Schwarzenegger Will Appeal CA Video Game Ruling [Game Politics]
To: Ash From: Crecente Re: Mrs. Bashcraft Pwns
Crane games? I suck at crane games. It’s the only arcade redemption game I suck at, and I truly suck at it. We had to take our dogs to the vet today for their annual check-up. Turns out our border collie, Lucy, has cracked molars, so I need to get her teeth fixed… for $350. Ouch, but at least she’ll stop groaning in pain at night. Oh, and then on the way hope we stopped by a store so I could pick up a Sonic electric toothbrush… they really need to do some cross-promoting with Sega, don’t you think?
What you missed
MMOs are huge on computers. Not so huge on consoles — yet. There must be a reason for this. There is! Ragnarok creator Hak Kyu Kim explains: I’ve always been very interested in bringing my games to consoles. Due to the differences with respect to the tools that are currently available in consoles, it’s been difficult to pursue. With an MMO, the keyboard is used to play the game and to chat and to do other stuff, but in a console that’s not possible and that makes a huge difference.
Valve has opened the floodgates on its Steam Community upgrade to the digital delivery platform, giving Steam users a chance to beta test its new social networking capabilities available from within any Steam-based game. Users can opt in to the Community by going to File > Settings > Beta Participation and downloading the latest client update. They’ll then have access to new features like Friends, Groups, Chat (via IM or voice) and Events, allowing gamers to schedule matches and tournaments. The rest of the new beta features are listed in the press release after the jump.
Who’s up for some Counter-Strike tonight?
Japanese toy manufacturer Yujin is releasing a series of capsule toys featuring popular ships from classic shoot ‘em ups like Irem’s R-Type and Konami’s venerable Gradius series dubbed the “Shooting Video Game History Gashapon.”
New York based importer Nation Console Support is now taking pre-orders for the first releases in the series, listed below.
At BlizzCon, Blizzard presented StarCraft II in two distinct, delicious flavours: single player and multiplayer, with demo stations in the hundreds consistently occupied by BlizzCon attendees. The single player demo allowed for a 20 minute, one versus one match with the option of playing as Terrans vs. Protoss or vice versa. I played a number of games with each race, trying out different tech tree progressions and strategies—somewhat difficult to fully pursue in such a short time (and with rusty skills).
Anyone who has played the original StarCraft will feel right at home, as most, if not all, of the game’s shortcut keys and unit selection methods remain the same. It’s very easy to settle into a game of StarCraft II as the controls and interface are so similar to the first. The game’s HUD has thankfully evolved to add better control over your units and provides helpful information on upgrades, build times, skills and unit attributes.
The early game also feels comfortably similar, as each match started off with a handful of workers and infantry units, with base structures already pre-built. Strategically, things began to deviate from the original shortly after the early game. Obviously, you’ll notice StarCraft II‘s gorgeous graphics and stunning effects right away, all of which ran at a smooth clip on the Intel sponsored PCs, so it won’t feel too familiar.
In the first portion of my impressions, I’ll be focusing on the Terran faction.
SCEA’s senior marketing manager responsible for all things PlayStation Portable spoke with MTV News journo Stephen Totilo about the present and the future of the Sony handheld, revealing further details on the PSP’s camera, GPS and support for PlayStation Network titles. While the PSP camera and GPS device are being “tweaked” for a US release, no TV tuner is planned. And those original PSN games? Not before 2008, says Koller.
That means echochrome, the black and white puzzle game revealed at E3, will be delivered on UMD for the PSP, despite being planned for a PlayStation Network release for both the PLAYSTATION 3 and the PSP.
Holy Good Lordia! This is amazing. Apparently the Lego-techie modelled this LEGO creation after the official GH2 Gibson model. Then he just gutted a real controller and popped them into his LEGO creation so he could jam… LEGO style. Incredible LEGO Guitar Hero Controller is Fully Functional [Tech E Blog]
