The rate games keep on advancing, I didn’t think anything was holding them back. Turns out things are, though, holding games back. One of them is that consoles still use silicon chips, which according to some boffins from Glasgow University and the US Semiconductor Research Corporation have hit the wall. A lot of computer games still feel very unrealistic and flat. What gamers want is to develop games that make you feel as though you are part of the synthesised world.
It is the silicon chips installed in games consoles which are holding this development back and so by increasing the power of chips a whole new generation of computer games can be launched. Seems a new era of “super chips”, which the researchers are currently working on, will be taking their place, and could be available to platform holders within 3 years. Onwards and upwards! Super chips to boost computer games [Yorkshire Post, via Game|Life]
Time to party like it’s Christmas 2006! Nintendo’s strategy of wrapping the Wii Remote in grippy-rubber and strapping, so as to avoid any unsightly injuries or damage, has done wonders in curbing the number of Wii Remote-related accidents and injuries. Pity, then, it’s all for naught when people use rubbish third-party peripherals. Like crummy plastic baseball bats. [via Videosift]
Official SCEE blog Three Speech told us Everyday Shooter was coming to the PAL PSN in December. They promised. And yet, here we are, with the last Thursday for 2007 now upon us, and there’s no Everyday Shooter. We’re all out of 2007, Sony. And we are not happy.
On a calmer note, the PAL stores did get three demos. One for Super Stardust HD, one for Snakeball and, interestingly, one for The Club. That one’s 1.7GB, and is definitely worth your time/bandwidth.
To: Luke From: Crecente Re: Trampoline
After a mere two days of free Wii gameplay my dad has become a self-medicating gamer. A person who, when dinner is done and the child goes to bed, will sneak off to the back room to play Wii Sports or Table Tennis, unbidden. In fact tonight, after playing a bit of Super Mario Galaxy with my son riding shotgun, I decided to retire to the leather couches in the family room to relax despite my dad’s repeated request to play games with him. In short, I’ve created a monster. Job done.
What you missed: Tom Sawyer Rock Band Drumming on Expert Video Games Damage Your Frontal Lobe Xbox 360 Games Don’t Sell In Japan Xbox 360 Getting Motion Controls (…thanks?) Building Another World – The Year Zero ARG Merry Christmas, You Live, Here’s an Xbox 360 Wardive, Wi-Fi Hotspot DS Game Kotaku’s GOTY Finalists Konami Adds “Jubeat” To Bemani Line-Up
The newest member of the Bemani family—which includes ˆ, Guitar Freaks, Pop ‘n’ Music, et al.—in Japanese arcades is jubeat, a touch-panel game that… well, we’re not sure what the hell is going on with this one yet. It’s currently on location test in Japan, so we’re sure to see how the game behaves in motion soon enough, but it appears that players will have to frantically slap display screens in time to J-pop tunes, competing with others via local or internet connection. That mysterious glowing cube on top of the cabinet? Unsure, but it may simply be for decoration and to increase the obnoxiousness of the seizure inducing lightshow. More on jubeat as we learn about it.
jubeat [Konami via Arcade Heroes]
Man, Atari just can’t catch a break. With the exception of the publisher not having its Dragon Ball Z licensing rights retracted by lawsuit, it’s just been bad news compounding bad news for the company. It doesn’t get any better, as today NASDAQ notified the company that its publicly traded stock may be delisted for having too little market value. We just hope they got the message, as I’ve heard rumors that they didn’t pay their phone bill and the last remaining email server was burned so executives could stay warm. Here’s to hoping they can still get one of those “pay as you go” cell phones to stay in touch. They’ve got until March 20th to sort it out, so keep them in your thoughts and prayers. God bless.
Atari Gets Warning From Nasdaq [Forbes]
We spend the entire year talking up some games and smack talking others, but we’ve never actually posted what we think were the best games of the year. Not until now, that is.
Starting earlier this month I polled Kotaku Tower to find out what they thought were the best and worst games for each platform. I also asked them what they thought were the best Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network games of the year. While I’m a judge for a number of awards, including the Spike TV, Best of E3, IGF and even the Rocky Mountain News, I don’t typically have the power to design how the awards should be given out.
Most awards tend to annoy me on two levels. First is the almost pathological need to vote for the best games of the year well before the year is over. It’s just plain stupid. Sure you can get early builds, and play demos, but why not wait until all of the games are out for the year before starting the vote? The other thing that bothers me is how some award shows bunch all of the platforms into one category. Why would an Xbox 360 owner care if a Playstation 3 game has a better action title? Why would a Wii owner care if the 360′s shooter is better? It’s just silly and almost feels more like flamebait than anything worthwhile for the readers.
OK, rant over. Hit the jump for our list of finalists and check back next week to see which games ended up taking the Goatie.
Selling 330,000 copies of Mario Party DS a week in Japan is impressive, to say the least, but when the nation is snapping up nearly as many Nintendo DS handhelds in the same time frame, it goes a long to explaining the resurgence. Nintendo once again dominates (Ed’s note: look up synonym for dominate) the Media Create sales charts this week, selling hardware at nearly twice the rate of its competitors combined. Someone over there likes their mini-games!
Nintendo DS Lite – 279,551 Wii – 232,907 PSP – 171,804 PlayStation 3 – 58,167 PlayStation 2 – 20,391 Xbox 360 – 7,908You may remember that Japanese toy manufacturer Max Factory achieved some degree of success with its “GIRL-FIGHTING” line of Street Fighter PVC statues—Chun-Li, Cammy and an upskirt-fiend friendly Sakura were produced in 2006. It appears that the company may be once again going after the “I’m attracted to toys” crowd, as this expertly sculpted prototype of Capcom’s thick-thighed fighter Chun-Li made an appearance at the most recent World Hobby Festival in Tokyo, Japan. To bad about that face, though. No clear word yet on whether it’s going to be produced or, if so, when. But given that Street Fighter IV producers are adamant about staying true to the otherworldly quads of Chun-Li, a promotional tie-in between the game and the sculpt don’t seem out of bounds.
Chun-Li At WHF17 [Moeyo - warning, often NSFW!]
Wardive is a neat use for your aftermarket DS flash cartridge that won’t make Mario cry. A homebrew game, it uses the DS’s Wi-Fi to scope out local hotspots. Then these hotspots become enemies in an ever-evolving battlefield (pending you move around a bit).
Your route to work can then become a map, with different levels of play (with varying difficulty) available just by walking a different way home. It’s a simple idea that, who knows, might even be as fun as it is original. Has anyone tried it out?
