Friday, August 24, 2007
My Friggin’ Face Hurts, Part II (Electric Boogaloo)
11:40PM Brian Ashcraft | To: Crecente From: Ashcraft It was wrong. It hurt. This is going to be short. Today, I went to the dentist to finish up getting a cavity drilled out of my head. I got something like three shots in the muscle that connects my jaw to my skull. Plus, four in my gum. So even now, I can’t really open my mouth. Sensation has come back to my tongue and lips though. The cavity was very close to the tooth’s nerve, so the dentist wanted to get Novocain to the nerve connected to the pulp. Here’s the kicker: There’s another nerve, and that one didn’t go numb. Meaning those shots were kinda useless and this afternoon wasn’t very pleasant. Dinner was pudding. Yum yum! What you missed last night: Mark Wilson’s Haze seconds Falcon is coming MGS4 may have limited online Hey PC users, take a chill pill I can’t wait for Kane & Lynch More »
Hellgate’s European Pricing Structure Announced
11:20PM Luke Plunkett | I don’t like two-tiered pricing structures. I’m a gaming socialist, I like everyone on the level. But that’s me. Not necessarily you. For those not so fussed, Flagship have announced the pricing structure for Hellgate: London for the European market. Subscribers can cough up €9.99/£6.99 a month if they want to get “new character classes, areas, monsters, items and raid content [and] new game modes”. Players who don’t want to pay still don’t have to, but you get to wear sack-cloth armour and sleep outside with the rest of the bums. The game’s out November 2 in Europe if you’re interested. More »This Is What LocoRoco On The PS3 Looks Like
10:40PM Luke Plunkett | Ever see this on PSP? This looks the same! Except it’ll be shinier, because it’ll be on a bigger screen, which should make both moving the blob AND attempts at identifying primitive racial stereotyping amongst enemy characters that much easier. Oh, and a warning: if you’ve got sensitive teeth, don’t watch this. It’s so sugary! It’ll rot your teeth to your jawbone. LocoRoco PS3 Trailer [Game1, thanks Willem!] More »
id’s Tech 5 Was Not For Rage, Was For Something Else
10:20PM Luke Plunkett | Seems id’s shiny new Tech 5 engine wasn’t built for Rage, even though it’ll be the first game to feature it. id’s Todd Hollenshead: We didn’t design the game for Rage and then John Carmack worked on the technology to make it work; John was working on some technology and we thought we had one direction we wanted to go in in respect to a different game. But as technology evolved it basically got about a year into it and effectively we sad ‘we’re going to throw all that away and start a new project. Shame. As much as it’s probable the game was a dark, grimy sci-fi shooter, I’d like to think it was a bright, cheery, first-person adventure. With puppies and rainbows. New engine wasn’t for Rage, Id reveals [CVG] More »
Ubisoft Boss Sees Growth In Gaming’s Future
9:30PM Luke Plunkett | The tastefully-named Yves Guillemot, boss of Ubisoft, isn’t just boss of Ubisoft. He’s also a formula 1 test driver, amateur cosmonaut and budding fortune-teller. Here, he offers his vision for the future growth of the industry: There are so many new customers to the business; this is going to grow the market tremendously. I expect the market to grow by 50 percent in the next four years. Why? He says casual games will drive the market, because they cost nothing to make yet rake in a tonne of cash. I’d imagine he’s placing special emphasis on Ubisoft’s casual games there. Which can mean only one thing: more Rabbids. Awesome. Ubisoft Expects Rapid Market Growth [Next-Gen] More »
“Console Manufacturer” Working On 3D Blu-Ray Gaming
9:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Forget 4D, we’ll settle with 3D. At a recent U.S. press event, Mitsubishi demoed its fancy 3D googles (above). The tech works with DLP TVs and projectors, but not with plasma and LCD displays. The company is even developing a Blu-ray player that can convert 2D movies into 3D on the fly, which *might* be available as early as next year. The kicker? According to CNET’s Crave: Mitsubishi hinted that it was in discussions with one game console manufacturer to integrate the 3D technology into the system. The Wii’s not capable of such feats and Microsoft’s in the HD DVD camp, so one would have to assume it’s Sony and the PS3. Plus Nintendo’s probably not eager to get back into 3D. People still have Virtual Boy headaches. 3D Mitsubishi [Crave via Gizmodo] More »
Is This Nerdom’s iDOLM@STER Killer?
8:30PM Brian Ashcraft | Pure nerd heroin. Don’t think of PC game TimeLeap as a rip-off of Namco’s pop idol sim THE iDOLM@STER. No, think of the erotic PC game as an expansion. For those who missed it, Namco’s THE iDOLM@STER was by no means an erotic game (though, it did have some saucy dialogue and spicy costumes). A Japanese cult hit of sorts, the game did a decent showing on the Xbox 360 in Japan. TimeLeap hopes to capitalise on that. Besides the standard adult scenes of you-know-what, TimeLeap also features characters rendered in 3D much like THE iDOLM@STER. The pop music is pure saccharine, too. Hit the jump for look at TimeLeap. More »
Nintendo Europe Release Schedule Updated, Contains News
8:30PM Luke Plunkett | If you remember E3, you’ll remember Nintendo Europe unveiled a release schedule that had some good stuff in it. Release dates that were pleasing on the eyes and ears, yes, but also a sneaky and entirely unintentional announcement that Advance Wars 2 on the DS was due very soon. Cometh the Leipzig, cometh the updated release list, and again, there’s a new game featured: DS Novel. It’s a “tentative title”, of which we know nothing about, but I’d imagine it involves a lot of reading. Or writing. Or maybe even both. Q4 Release Update [Nintendo Europe] More »
Sony Says Develop PS2 Games, Become Billionaire
7:40PM Brian Ashcraft | Sony hasn’t given up on the PlayStation 2, so you shouldn’t either! Sure, PS3 sales aren’t spectacular, but the PS2 continues to perform really well. The console has sold over 100 million units globally since its 2000 launch. PS2 games continue to be released, and there are little signs of support slowing down. SCEE boss David Reeves says: We are committing funds for PS2 … we encourage third parties to continue development for PS2. If they bring a PS3 version out, they can bring a PS2 version out as well… There is a lot of money still. What happened last time with PS1 is that they left a lot of money on the table by making the transition too quickly… You can set up your external company now, and in the next five years you can become a billionaire just developing for PS2. So remember game developers! You’re throwing away money on those Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. Just stick to the DS PS2 and watch the mad profits pour in. PS2 Ain’t Dead [Reuters] More »
