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 Just an hour or so ago I received a press kit for the Limited Edition Yellow PSP Slim & Lite, which is to be bundled with EA’s The Simpsons Game. You’ll be able to purchase said bundle starting from November 15, for the more than acceptable price of $299.
No PSP was included, but there was a packet of yellow jellybeans and two one Simpsons-themed shotglasses shotglass.
As you may have deduced, there should have been two shotglasses. Sadly, one failed to make the journey to my humble pad intact.
If those old Violet Crumble ads are to be believed, it’s the way it shatters that matters. Unless it’s something fragile. Like a shotglass. Mainly for the reason that it’s made of glass.
You can see both a whole shotglass, and less-than-whole shotglass, after the jump.
First, a confession. I’ve been playing Naruto: Rise of a Ninja on Xbox 360 the last couple of days. I can assure you this was not part of the original plan.
No, the plan was to just give it a go, because I believe everything deserves a fair chance. Except maybe chloroform or blunt head trauma. I don’t have anything against anime – I think it’s great, actually – but I could never summon the desire to give a flying crap, or half a flying crap, about Pokemon, Dragon Ball Z and, of course, Naruto.
Looking for a Wii this holiday season? TJ Maxx will have them, oddly enough, along with a bunch of hastily thrown together accessories you probably don’t want or need. It’s all available this weekend at the low, low price of $US 399. Details are scarce but TJ Maxx says the ten attached accessories are “great” and that this “ultimate” Wii bundle compares pricewise to a $US 510 package. As the sign says, this is only at select stores and quantities are limited. Limited only to the desperate, I assume.
Thanks for the photo, Vibhor.
It’s time for more weird stuff from my personal collection. One of the things that has interested me, both in my research and my design work, is advertising games (three chapters of my recent book Persuasive Games are devoted to it). We may think that advertising in games is as new as the web, or dynamic in-game ads, but it goes back much further than that.
The games depicted above aren’t the first advergames (more on that another day), but they are among my favorites. They are Chase the Chuckwagon, created for Purina, and Tooth Protectors, for Johnson & Johnson.
According to a report from InformationWeek, Georgia resident Francisco Garcia has filed suit against Microsoft for what he claims was a “fraudulently induced… contractual relationship for Xbox Live services.” The problem? Seems that Garcia’s underage son used his debit card to sign up for an Xbox Live account. When the yearly auto-rebilling hit, it sent daddy Garcia’s account into overdraft, netting him a $US 35 overdraft penalty. Serious business.
The report doesn’t specify how much Garcia is seeking but mentions that Microsoft is attempting to have the case thrown out of court.
Microsoft Hit With Class Action Suit Over Xbox Live Fees [Information Week - thanks, coalhalo!]
Buzz is my secret love.
I suck at trivia nights (oh boy, do I suck), but stick that custom USB controller with the big red button in my hand, and I’m more of a gun than a Kalashnikova.
Dedicated fans, and even a few casual players, will know that Australia’s own Jason Donovan provides the voice of the game’s titular character for the Oz version. The man does an excellent job of providing Buzz with just right amounts of sarcasm, sincerity and chauvinism.
Classic stuff.
If you’d like to let JD know how much you love him in Buzz, or simply how much you love him, he’ll be in Australia very soon to help Sony celebrate the PS2′s seventh birthday.
If you live in Sydney, Donovan will be on the 6th floor of Myer in Pitt Street Mall on November 21st from 1PM. Residents of Melbourne will have the same opportunity on the 22nd from 1PM, at the Myer store on Lonsdale Street, up on the 4th floor.
Press release after the jump.
Oh, not in a bad way. You didn’t think based on that headline that… no… oh, no. He’s quite a swell fellow that Tim Schafer, despite the potty mouth. He’s simply crafted one of the finest analogies in response to questions if he and the team at Double Fine Productions are working on an Xbox Live Arcade title. With Schafer speaking warmly of “blue-sky prototyping” and of a flood of ideas during the development of Psychonauts that didn’t make the cut, one would assume that Double Fine was dedicating at least some resources to Epic Saga: Extreme Fighter HD Remix. Nope, says Schafer.
But he does say:
Who doesn’t want to make Xbox Live Arcade games? It’s like when you see a Great Dane taking a giant shit and then you see a poodle taking a little Tootsie Roll shit. The poodle is so cute, but at the end of the day you’re still picking up shit.
Best. Analogy. Ever. ?.
There’s plenty more in the way of Schafer quality goodness at the Gamasutra’s coverage of the 2007 IGDA Leadership Forum session.
IGDA Forum: Tim Schafer Gets (More) Creative [Gamasutra]
Championship Gaming Series has announced details on their inaugural World Final, which is to take place December 6th through the 14th at Sony Studios in Los Angeles. Teams from across the globe will descend upon California during the week to compete in rounds of Counter-Strike Source, FIFA 2007 (PC), Dead or Alive 4, and Project Gotham Racing 3, all for a chance at some of the million dollar purse. The event will be broadcast all over the world to “more than 350,000,000 viewers.” “The CGS World Final represents a watershed moment in the history of pro gaming and we are proud to broadcast to more than 350 million viewers globally,” said Andy Reif, CGS commissioner and CEO.
Now of course that is assuming the viewers are actually watching the World Finals, but it is a good start. Hit the jump for prize money breakdowns, participating teams, and where in your area you can tune in.
The recently launched Official Xbox Magazine web site has an extensive interview with the man behind Harmonix and its soon to be released Rock Band, featuring some tantalising new details. In addition to being revealingly coy about the possibility of a wireless cowbell controller, Alex Rigopulos dishes more on the real world stuff that you’ll be able to buy via Rock Band. Sure, it sounds like much of what will be done may have the glitz and glamor of a Cafepress shop, but the list of proposed things that Rock Band will spawn are impressive.
Rigopulos says:
We’re going to be able to export to your web pages, and from there you’ll be able to take your band avatars, pose them, create album covers with your band logo and different scenes with your avatars. And then you’ll be able to turn that into real world stuff. For example, figurines based upon your Rock Band avatars, t-shirts with your fake band’s album art and your tour dates on the back from your accomplishments within the game, bumper stickers, old records, things like that. Really cool real-world merchandise based on this fictitious band that you’ve created in the game.
Finally, some clutter I can get behind! Add that to a library of tunes that Rigopulos hopes to have in the thousands and the $US 180 buy-in isn’t starting to sound like the expensive part. Simply oodles more details on the game over at OXM.
The latest game game to take full advantage of the PSP’s Remote Play feature, one that allows PlayStation 3 games to be playable on the handheld, is Imabikisou. That’s the Chunsoft developed, Sega published interactive horror fiction game that 99.99% of you will never ever play. It follows the game that 99.98% of you will never play, Lair, as the second game to make the Remote Play screen jump—that we know of.
According to Impress Game Watch, the game plays just fine, minus some squished kanji that makes reading a bit more challenging.
PlayStation 3 Remote Play [Impress Game Watch via Siliconera]
