Harley Quinn's Revenge Is Batman: Arkham City's Bad New Ending 
High Scores And Egos: There's Always A Bigger Doodle 
The Last Moments Of GAME 
How Bad User Interfaces Are Ruining Video Games And Other Wonderful Things 
She Tried To Make Good Video Games For Girls, Whatever That Meant 
The Story Of Doodle Jump: Brotherly Love And Digital Snacks As nice a machine as it is, a lot of developers are struggling when it comes to porting games to the PlayStation 3. If it’s an Xbox 360 game, or if the 360′s the lead platform, hoo-boy, we’ve got problems. Midway have certainly had problems, something they’re at least big enough to admit: For our first wave of next-gen games… lead development has been on the Xbox 360, due to its earlier introduction and larger installed base. We ran into some technical issues developing for the PlayStation 3 that have taken more time to finalise than we expected.
These include… making sure that the frame rate, networking, and graphical features are at parity between the platforms. We’ve also encountered challenges as a result of shipping two of the very first PS3 games using Epic’s Unreal Engine 3.
That was Midway boss David F. Zucker. Sounds messy. So what have Midway done about it?
We do believe that these technical issues are now complete at a core level in our engine. Looking ahead to 2008, we expect the PS3 versions of our titles to ship day and date with the Xbox 360 and other SKUs.
Glad to hear it! Let’s now hope Midway aren’t alone in rectifying this, because PS3 owners deserve a pinch better for their investment than stuff like delayed releases and frame rate issues. Zucker: PS3 Tech Issues Over [Gamasutra]
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s story comes this: The PlayStation 3 sales bonanza Japanese convenience store. While most stores discretely let players order consoles and games, this neighbourhood shop wants everyone to know it has PS3s! Those banners read:
A limited quantity of PS3 “beginners pack” just in stock. Now on sale!
The “Beginners Pack” refers to the Hot Shots Golf bundle offered in Japan this past summer. Can’t tell if this is a chain store or a Mom ‘n’ Pop operation. Besides the banners, there is a stack of Hot Shots Golf bundles and a bunch smokes behind the counter, too. No, this kind of thing (stacks of consoles in-store) is not normal here at all. The Japanese people are just as freaked out. My Neighborhood Conbini Selling Bundle [My Game News Flash]
2K were nice enough to send me a copy of NBA2K8 this week. Which is funny, because the last not-NBA-Jam basketball game I played was NBA Live. 95. So what’s changed in the interceding years? Oh, a whole bunch of stuff.
Well the game sure got prettier. I know it’s easier when you’ve only got ten players on-screen at once, but my goodness, this game is easy on the eye. Mostly due to the animation – this is the first sports game I’ve ever seen (and NBA/NASCAR/MLB aside I play a lot of sports games) where fluid, realistic animations have actually been strung together, creating what for the most part actually looks like ten real humans playing basketball, rather than ten textured, polygonal constructs.
According to an insider, Sony Computer Entertainment platform development head Izumi Kawanishi has been shuffled out of the division. Before we start, a bit about Kawanishi: He was key in the hardware development for the PS2, the PSP and the PS3, and he was the head of SCEI’s Network System Development Section and R&D Division. He was Sony Computer Entertainment’s Chief Technical Officer. Kawanishi previously worked closely with PlayStation father Ken Kutaragi and was an important member of the PlayStation team. We wrote “was,” because apparently he’s been moved out of Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. and is now working at Sony Corporation. According to our insider:
There was a little bit of a fight internally between Kawanishi-san and Kaz Hirai since SCEI has been pushing the PS3 as just a game console.
That does follow Hirai’s recent statements that the PS3 is a “game machine” as the company tries to recapture the gaming audience it has lost. Perhaps, Kawanishi still thinks of the console as a “super computer” or a hub-in-the-home. Perhaps. We’ve contacted Sony about Kawanishi’s current role, and will get back to you once we hear something.
Well she is! Ellen McLain, who voices Portal’s GLaDOS (and also HL2′s Overwatch), isn’t just a smooth talker. She’s a smooth (well…boisterous) singer as well, being classically trained as an operatic soprano with a stellar performing record to boot. So when she was offered the chance to quit talking and sing the unbelievably-awesome “Still Alive” for Portal’s credits sequence, she jumped at the chance. Fascinating! You can read more fascinating Portal stuff over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun, who after their brilliant Old Man Murray piece from the other day have followed it up with a top-shelf interview with Narbacular Drop (and now Valve devs) Kim Swift and Jeep Barrett. Go on, read it, it won’t hurt you. Portal’s Kim Swift and Jeep Barrett [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]
It’s not old people’s fault they are old. Blame their parents! AARP, formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons, has some gaming tips for those who have never played before or just arrived from the past via time machine. Game site Joystiq has pulled these choice quotes from the video (don’t trust the transcript!):
• “First you need to understand that there’s boxes.” (Referring to the consoles.) • “The controller actually controls it.” • “Most games just use one or two buttons.” • “It’s as easy as hooking up a CD player to your TV.”
Got it? Good. Thanks for the masterclass, AARP! How to Play Video Games [AARP via Joystiq]
What do we love giving away more than games? Gaming systems. So, for our next contest we are giving away the computer version of Midway’s BlackSite: Area 51 plus (yes, plus!) an Area 51 machine from Alienware (geddit? Area 51). That’s right, our next contest will have a high-end gaming PC up for grabs. There’s more! The winner will also get an Area 51 T-shirt, an “eyeblack” patch and a copy of Midway’s Stranglehold PC. The computer is a $US 3,000 dollar machine, making this one of the most expensive things we’ve given away. Like, ever. Hit the jump for the machine’s specs.
The folks over at Voodoo Extreme, bless their cotton socks, noticed that ZeniMax Online has registered the domain elderscrollsonline.com. For those not in the know, ZeniMax owns Bethesda, and as such, all the developer’s properties.
Don’t bother directing your browser to the site – it’s not up yet.
Now, this really shouldn’t come as a big surprise – ZeniMax Online’s been gearing up for a while now. Being an open world RPG series, Elder Scrolls is a ripe IP for the massively multiplayer gaming market.
I still think ZeniMax Online was also set up to take over work on the Fallout MMO, in case Interplay isn’t up to it. That we’ll know more about next year.
Elder Scrolls Online? [Voodoo Extreme]
Still not safely aboard the Uncharted hype train? Trust us, it’s brilliant. Only way it cold be more brilliant is if it actually starred Michael Douglas and you actually romanced a stone. Figuratively, of course. We don’t swing that way, and it’s a (mostly) safe bet Michael Douglas doesn’t either. Least not these days.
The film adaptation of Return to Castle Wolfenstein marks the first time Roger Avary has returned to the director’s chair since the critically lauded 2002 film, The Rules of Attraction. In that intern, he’s penned the Silent Hill film and Beowulf. Avary tells MTV:
I’m doing an adaptation of the game Return to Castle Wolfenstein. I just love the World War II guys-on-a-mission movies; to me, “Castle Wolfenstein” is all of that, plus monsters and horror and all that craziness jammed together. It’s my dream film.
Avary is tightlipped about whom he hopes to cast in the film, but previously stated the answer was in the game’s box art. Shooting could start early next year. That means that Avary could get his men-on-a-mission WWII film in the can before director Quentin Tarantino does. Tarantino has been working on a WWII script called Inglorious Bastards since the late 1990′s! Avary Talks Wolfenstein [MTV Movies via Multiplayer]
