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 It’s official. It’s Leisure Suit Larry week this week, and this week only, at Kotaku Tower. Between Al Lowe speaking and rumours of a new game in the series, we’ve had about all the Larry news we need. All that could top the week off would be some lovely pieces of Larry-inspired art. And…what’s this? Why it’s exactly that. Some of Larry’s lady friends, stitched into cute little quilts. Perfect to throw across the back of the couch or to hold in the deepest, darkest hours of the night, when only you and your blankie know what’s going down in your bedroom.
Sarah J. Pierce [via Boing Boing]
Everyone’s favourite thespian and all around bad muthafucka Samuel L. Jackson will once again host Spike TV’s 2007 Video Game Awards in Vega$. This is the third year in a row for Mr. Jackson to host the event — so either he likes it or it likes him! Other celebrities in attendance include Tia Carrera, Dave Navarro and Flynn De Marco. The show airs Sunday, December 9th. So if you have a TV, flip it on. If not, read a book or stare at the wall.
Jackson Back Hosting [Gay Gamer]
Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario since Super Mario 64, has announced that he’s started working on his autobiography. He’ll talk about creating the voice of Mario, doing the voice of Mario and, well, the voice of Mario. Yes, the book is bound to be infinitely better if you imagine Martinet reading it. He better call it “It’sa Me, Charles Martinet”! Mario Interview [CVG via Go Nintendo]
NGamer has some details on the upcoming family-fun-time Wii/PS2 version of Ghostbusters. Some will inform you, some will allay your fears, others may well leave you a little upset. Good news first: the game’s set in 1991, so you don’t need to worry about how Pete Venkman busting his hip or Janine’s struggles with the onset of menopause. It’ll also feature the Stay Puft marshmallow man and the creepy librarian from the first movie’s intro. Less good news: while there’s ten single-player missions, the bulk of the game is indeed focused around multiplayer party sideshows, like who can bust up the most furniture, a 2v2 battle mode, ghost-catching races, that sort of stuff. Which is fine if you’re into that thing. But would you really be into that more than the PS3/360 version?
[NGamer, via Gamespot]
Those tumultuous, exciting days of big corporate takeovers in the gaming business are just about done, reckons EA boss John Riccitiello. Think it helps in his line of thinking that they just picked up BioWare and Pandemic? Bet it does. Is it ripe (for mergers), or has it already been picked? I would argue that it’s been largely picked.
That doesn’t mean it’s done. I think there will be more consolidation to come. But let’s just say a lot has already happened.
OK, John, so if the BIG takeovers are done, what’s a company to do if it’s looking for a bargain? Man’s got an answer: either spend that cash in shoring up your own internal development studios with a quality creative team, or…make more casual games. Whichever suits.
EA chief sees fewer big industry mergers [Reuters]
Earlier today, we brought the grim news that Hudson axed a chunk of its staff. And right before the holidays, too. Apparently, the mobile phones division got hit the hardest. Hudson spokesperson John Lee sent us this official statement regarding the bloodletting:
Hudson Entertainment today announced a reorganization of its mobile games division. While the mobile game business has continued to grow over the last 3 years, porting cost management continues to be a challenge. As a result, Hudson has reduced its Q&A and porting staff, and initiated a more cost effective outsourced solution. Hudson will continue to develop, publish and market mobile games, with eight game titles on the product roadmap for 2008, including Bomberman Land, Military Madness 2, R-Type, as well as three new IPs. Hudson’s other business lines, including music, console games and digital downloads are unaffected.
“It is always a difficult decision to layoff staff members, but it was important that we realign our mobile games business to ensure that we can move forward.” says John Greiner, President and CEO of Hudson. “We are excited about recent developments in the mobile industry and we strongly believe in the future of the mobile phone as a content distribution channel. We will continue to produce and distribute quality games and other content for mobile phones.”
Yesterday, I posted volume one of my impressions of the PlayStation 3 version of Valve’s The Orange Box, the one handled by EA UK. It’s arriving about two months later than its PC and Xbox 360 counterparts and amid some controversy. I spent a few more hours with the PS3 port again today, to get a more complete feel for the game’s performance. Those overly sensitive to spoilers, which I’ll do my best to avoid, may want to skip to the end.
Having worked my way through the first three chapters of Half-Life 2: Episode Two, I stopped just before one of the episode’s key vehicle sequences. This portion of the game was deemed one of the worst, in terms of technical performance. Assessments of those moments are mostly accurate. Yes, the frame rate takes some heavy dips, but at no point did it become unplayable. Slideshow? Nah. At least not for me.
TBWA/Chiat/Day are Sony Computer Entertainment America’s ad agency. Have been for 13 years now, from the launch of the original PlayStation through to the swirly black octopus-looking PS3 ads you’re seeing on your TVs and internets today. But if some “inside sources” from the advertising scene are to be believed, they’ve been given the boot by Sony following a review of the company’s $US 150 million advertising account. Neither TBWA nor Sony have been able to confirm this, but if said insiders are on the money, either Publicis in the West (those paper cut-out HP ads) or Deutsch (Ikea) will now be handing the account. Sadly, this move does not adversely affect SCEE’s This Is Living campaign, which is free to continue to confuse/horrify audiences the world over.
Sony Drops TBWA From PlayStation Review [Advertising Age, via GameDaily]
To: Ash From: Fahey Re: Mickey Mouse Doesn’t Look Like a Mouse
For various and sundry personal reasons, I’ve been since approximately 7AM yesterday morning. Sometimes it seems like trouble waits until the most inconvenient moment to arise, such as the day before I have to fill in for Crecente and Wilson most of the day. Still, the day wasn’t too too rough. I did mange to misname a major upcoming game and post a duplicate story about the Halo lawsuit, and in the process of trying to unpublish it managed to somehow burn it into the site permanently, but other than that I think it’s been pretty smooth.
Mind you, I don’t even know how I am managing to type this sentence right now. Lifting my fingertips from the keyboard alone is taking a monumental effort, and my thoughts seem to keep trailing off in the middle of
What you missed: Gamespot Editor Fired Over Kane & Lynch Review? MGS4 Needs To Sell Over A Million On Day One Domino’s Delivers 12 Days Of Xbox Chessmaster Coming to Live Hudson: Happy Holidays, You’re Fired
Variety is reporting that Sony plans to bring a high-definition video on demand service to Japanese customers early next year, courtesy of the PlayStation 3. Sony has already revealed plans for such a service in the Korean market, with SCEA’s Jack Tretton hinting at a similar plan for the North American market at E3 2007. With UK customers already in line for a VOD service on the PSP, it should come as no surprise that Japan is getting access, too.
The Variety story, based on Japanese reports, writes that content indirectly tied to Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, will kick off the service, presumably through the already confirmed GT TV. Can’t be too long after that before Sony provides yet another way for you to watch Spider-Man 2.
Sony adds VOD to PS3 [Variety]
