Tuesday, August 28, 2007
More PlayStation Phone Hints, Nudges, Winks
11:40PM Luke Plunkett | Back in April, Pocket Gamer did some rumour-scrounging on the possibility of a PlayStation-branded phone. They didn’t get much. So come Leipzig, they tried to get more, cornering Sony Ericsson’s games division’s Peter Ahnegard and asking him about it again. This time, they got a little more. Still nothing concrete, mind, but it’s something: It’s obviously something that we’re looking at but right now I can’t really comment. Before Christmas, certainly… but exactly which Christmas I can’t confirm! Can’t comment on a comment? Jeez. Still, if the comment’s got a deadline, must be something behind it, so lets wait for Christmas, see if they bothered learning from the N-Gage’s multitude of mistakes. Sony Ericsson says definitely maybe to PlayStation phone [Pocket Gamer] More »
Pure, Uncut Night/Day Note HATE
11:00PM Brian Ashcraft | To: Crecente From: Bashcraft Late last week, I was reading through a forum, a forum I really like and respect — especially for the way they ban and lock down threads. Anyhoo, there was a thread where people we drinking Kotaku hatorade. Nothing new there! When you ban hammer as many people as us, you are bound to make bitter mortal enemies. And that’s a-ok! The interesting part was where one individual listed off the reasons why he/she/it disliked Kotaku: Stuff like he/she/it didn’t like the way we wrote or that we did no original news. (We do tonnes of original news and write decent enough! He/she/it should’ve hated on our spelling. Our spelling sucks.) The kicker? This individual totally hated our daily Notes. More »
GC Asia Announced Just To Piss Us Off
11:00PM Brian Ashcraft | ENOUGH WITH THE SHOWS. E3 ends, and shortly after that, there’s Leipzig. Just after that, there is PAX. Then? Then we’ve got the Tokyo Games Show. But between PAX and TGS, there’s GC Asia, which runs from September 6-9 in Singapore. Sony will be in appearance at GCA, showing off PS3 and PSP games, while Nintendo will be using the event to launch the Wii in the region (cue Wii Sports kiosks). Also, Electronic Arts will be showing off 15 titles, including Crysis, FIFA 08 and Rock Band. Expect appearances by Blizzard and Nokia NGage as well! Seriously. Event organisers, spread this stuff out so we can actually cover it all without dying. This is getting RIDICULOUS. GC Asia Info [Games Industry] More »
Coin-Collecting Akiba Idols In Furry MMO
10:40PM Brian Ashcraft | Nope, that isn’t a homeless cheerleader squad accepting donations. Well, they are accepting denotations, but they’re not homeless. That’s idol group Chu!Lips (a Japanese pun on “kiss” and “tulip”) collecting pocket change for the World Wildlife Fund. Why would Akihabara pop idols be doing that? More »
Make Your Own Monopoly Jokes With EA Board Game
10:20PM Luke Plunkett | EA and Hasbro have made nice, and will be soon be making sweet, sweet games together. Know what happens when deals like this go down? Novelty schwag gets sent out, that’s what. To remind us all that their union is a sign that good times are near, they sent out an EA-themed edition of Monopoly. Like, real Monopoly. It’s all very strange. Like how it’s not Battlefield 2142, it’s 2142 Battlefield. Or how you can buy Spore for $US200. Presumably so you can tell them to get a move on. Want To Play EA/Spore Monopoly? [GameSetWatch] More »
No Unreal Tournament III Demo
10:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Epic doesn’t do demos. They do games. ‘Cause when you have a small staff, you don’t have time to focus on other things. You can only focus on the game. Epic bossman Mark Rein (above, touching something) lays it all out: What we told Microsoft last year — they wanted a demo for Gears of War and we said ‘you’ve got a choice — you can have the demo this year or the game this year’… We’re not a big huge company with the resources to do that, and all the time we’re testing that demo we’re not testing our full game, which we need to be doing constantly… We’ll have a PC demo for UT, [but] I don’t think we’ll have a PS3 demo before the game ships. So if Epic doesn’t have the man power to make one UT3 demo for the PS3, how can they handle Unreal Engine developer support? No Demo [Eurogamer] More »
Games, Electric Shocks Show How Brain Handles Fear
9:30PM Luke Plunkett | A paper published in Science says videogames were used in a study determining the means with which the brain deals with imminent danger. The study used a “Pac-Man-like” game, where players moved a triangle through a maze, all the while avoiding a “predator”. If the predator caught the player, they’d receive an electric shock. What did this teach scientists? It helped show them which areas of the brain react, and how much they react, when someone’s confronted with fear. And this helped…how? No idea. Think it was just so the scientists could contribute to the greater body of knowledge by blowing their grant on a Pac-Man clone and frying a few hapless uni students. Video game sheds light on fear [BBC, thanks A Hewlett!] More »
NiGHTS Journey Of Dreams Delay?
9:20PM Brian Ashcraft | Word has it that NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams isn’t quite ready to wake up. According to NiGHTS fan site, the game is apparently delayed until Q1 2008. This holiday is jammed packed enough, so this delay could work out best for SEGA. The official NiGHTS US page shows the game is still on for this northern autumn, but we’re contacting SEGA to verify this rumour. Delay [NiGHTS into Dreams via Sega Nerds] More »
Not Nintencats, But Close
9:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Years later after Nintendogs first hit, we don’t get Nintencats, but a Nintencats clone. Dubbed Love Cat Life, the game lets players raise one of forty cats, dress them up and have them sing karaoke or toss free throws. Yes, karaoke and free throws — stuff that was sorely missed in Nintendogs. That Love Cat Life box art is really trying to capitalise on Nintendogs. Though, as much as I did enjoy Nintendogs, I can’t ever see myself playing it again. Like ever. So a cat sim? Eh… I hate cats. Cat Game [Official Site via Siliconera] More »
