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 Once again, further proof that mainstream press shouldn’t let just anyone cover games! National Public Radio’s Chana Joffe-Walt has an interview with Halo: Contact Harvest author Joseph Staten. The book was a New York Times best seller, but Joffe-Walt couldn’t care less. Not only is she ignorant about gaming, she’s brings her own ill-informed predujices to the the interview. There are exchanges like this:
Joffe-Walt: “Yes, my fellow non-gaming Luddities, there is a story to Halo. I know, I thought the same thing. Isn’t gaming all just shoot’em up? Why do you need story?” Staten: “I think to understand why stories are important in games, you need to actually play them.”
But wait, there’s more! That, after the jump.
Mmm, de-licious! What better way to say I love you than with diamonds. But for those who can’t afford pricey stones, there’s this: Mii-shaped chocolates. Perfect for Valentine’s Day! Priced at $US 14.95, the set comes in milk and white chocolate, and it’s possible to switch out the girl for another boy (vice versa). Sadly, the chocolate figures aren’t based on your own Miis. Probably for the best — imagine biting your loved one’s chocolate Mii head off. The horror. Valentine Geekery! [Paul Page Designs via Boinkology via Yum Sugar via BB Gadgets]
Warm your printer up. While trawling through the deepest, darkest recesses of his memory, Joel over at Boing-Boing found what is quite possibly the best thing existing on the internet today. That’s right: the blueprints for four Terran Confederation starfighters. From the original Wing Commander. And they’re hi-res. In the future, when you children’s children ask you why, at 80 years of age, you keep yammering on about how gaming has yet to see a sci-fi series match Wing Commander’s sense of nerdy detail and space opera, you can dust these off and show them. God I miss this series. So damn much. *sniff* Get Them While They’re Blue [via Boing-Boing Gadgets]
Back in 2007, game designer Masaya Matsuura mentioned that he was in talks with Sony for a PSN downloadable version of PS1 cult classic Vib Ribbon. The original game loaded into the PS1′s RAM and let players use their own music CDs to play off. The game would generate unique levels based on the music. So when a Vib Ribbon appeared on the PEGI (Pan European Game Information) homepage, the remake seemed all systems go. Not so fast! Says a Sony spokesperson:
… as far as I’m aware there is no new version in the works. We regularly have our games rated so this may not mean it’s actually going to be released but you can always keep your fingers crossed.
What does that mean? Besides that this spokesperson doesn’t know what’s going on, not much! Don’t rule anything out just yet. Vib Ribbon Coming? [VideoGamer]
No, it’s not a double post—this week we have twice the sales data to drink in, this time representing weekly software sales in Japan from December 31 to January 6. And this chart is nothing short of total Nintendo domination, as the top ten games sold that week were all for the Nintendo DS and Wii. In fact, eight of the top ten were published by Nintendo themselves, with Square-Enix picking up the other two spots.
As you already know, Wii Fit passed a million sold already. It looks like it won’t be long until Super Mario Galaxy matches that and Mario Party DS, again at number one, doubles that.
Sure, I’m over them, but I’m in the clear minority; most of you lot can’t get enough of achievement points. You crave them. Oh, except for people who own only a PS3. You don’t. But you soon will, and not just in Home’s promised “trophy shelf” system either. PSN boss Eric Lempel: I know that an achievement system is very important to our consumers. With Home, and in addition to Home, we have some very exciting programs planned to recognize our consumers gaming skills and loyalty in new ways that go well beyond a single score.
In addition to Home? Well beyond a single score? Intriguing. And that whole business of rewarding loyalty…hints at a Club Nintendo-style members reward club, perhaps? Who knows, we’re just thinking aloud, but we’ve thought aloud of things a lot more ridiculous than that. PSN – Future Tool of Destruction? [Next-Gen]
Is this the final death blow for HD-DVD? Variety is reporting that Universal Studios will follow Warner Bros., New Line and possibly Paramount toward the cooling blue light of Blu-ray allegiance, as the studio’s commitment to supporting HD-DVD exclusively has ended. That doesn’t necessarily mean that Universal is abandoning the HD-DVD format as Warner plans to, however, as Variety writes that the company still has plans to support the Toshiba backed hi-def discs.
Though HD-DVD backers may still limp along in their support or fanboyism of a movie format, this “war” couldn’t look any more like one camp has won at this point. It’s all over but the crying, blanket clutching and Michael Bay gloating, it seems.
Blu-ray could win high-def battle [Variety]
David Jaffe’s sick of multiple consoles. 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, it’s doing his head in. Instead, like both Dennis Dyack and myself – it’s the closest I ever came to an impassioned, soapbox speech in a school playground – he’d prefer a future in which there’s only one console. We have it with DVD, we had it with VHS. We have it with televisions (in the sense that- for the most part- every tv is capable of broadcasting the same signal). So what do we lose by having it for game consoles?
Aside from NPD pissing contests, nothing! Which is why it’s all the more pity that it’ll never happen. But dream on, Jaffe. Dream on! ALL FOR ONE!….? [Jaffe's Blog]
At least, that’s what the press release I just received says! It also mentions that the publisher will be handling the Wii exclusive Soul Calibur Legends. Both SC IV and Legends are out “Winter” 2008. Though, judging by the heavy Europe focus of the release, means summer for us.
Which is now. Or next month. One of those.
If you missed Kotaku US’ coverage of Soul Calibur IV at CES, not to mention the seriously funky Star Wars related news, don’t worry, just click the rather obvious hyperlinks and you’ll be up-to-date in no time.
The aforementioned press release can be read in its entirety after the jump.
The Japanese PLAYSTATION Store (their caps, not ours) is making a THE JUDGMENT BIOLITH ~ The Machine God’s Mutiny (ditto) available for download starting March 27. That’s a change from the original February release date. This is the second entry in THE EYE OF JUDGMENT series. A third expansion pack in the series will be available this summer. New Eye of Judgment [Famitsu Thanks, Jay!]
