Monday, January 21, 2008
Far Cry 2 Won’t Ruin Itself With Mutants
11:30PM Luke Plunkett | Far Cry was great! Lazy tropical sunshine, garish shirts, great gunplay…oh, wait. No, then they bring in monsters, and the game is totally ruined. The balance, the fun, the bad-80’s-action-movie-vibe, all gone. So it’s not great. Thankfully Ubisoft, who are handling the development of the game’s sequel, are aware of this. And have promised not to do it again, with Far Cry 2 producer Lois-Pierre Pharand re-assuring us “Don’t expect mutants as some surprise later on”. Lois-Pierre, that is the best piece of Far Cry related news we’ve heard in years. New Far Cry 2 details emerge [Edge, via CVG] More »
Dynasty Warriors Remade as Dirty Movie
11:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Three things that Dynasty Warriors the game has in common with Cosplay Musou: Fancy costumes, third person point-of-view and repetitive scenes. Well that, and players say both relieve stress. This adult film stars Aika Miyazaki, Ai Katsuki, Rika Nagasawa and newcomer Tomoka Nozawa. Yes, that was a pun, a very embarrassing pun. Dynasty Warriors Dirty Movie [Not Safe For Work via Danny Choo] More »
Gears Of War Series 1 Figures (All Three, Real Photos)
10:30PM Luke Plunkett | OK, no more screwin’ around. No more pics of Marcus hiding in a dark, dark closet. No more shots of Cole standing proudly in the midnight rain. Action Figure Xpress have started pre-orders for the figures, and blown NECA’s cover by posting clear, finished shots of all three figures, including the hitherto-unseen Locust Drone. They’re listing a release date of April. [Action Figure Xpress] More »
Three New SSBB Characters Accidentally Leaked?
10:00PM Brian Ashcraft | New challengers! Accidentally! Apparently!! In one of the Smash Bros. DOJO!! updates last week, it was announced that stickers could power-up characters during Adventure Mode. In the Japanese preview clip, a couple new characters have been apparently revealed via in-game stickers. What looks like Pokémon Jigglypuff and Lucario seem to be visible. Lucario is really popular in Japan right now with 4, 5 and 6 year olds. So his inclusion makes sense! Also, Ness from the Earthbound series is visible as well in another frame. (To see that frame, click here.) The original clip that appeared on Nintendo’s site, which we’ve posted after the jump, contained these in-game stickers at about four minutes, twenty seconds in. The “corrected” clip doesn’t. But, who knows? Confirmation should come soon enough thanks to the DOJO!! publicity machine. More »
Rock Band Getting Physical Expansions (Plus, EA To Capitalise On Stupidity)
9:30PM Luke Plunkett | Sure, Rock Band’s getting constant DLC updates. Full album downloads, too (someday). But what if you don’t have your console of choice hooked up to the internets? No problem. MTV have told Reuters that once full albums start hitting and more and more artists are brought onboard, they’ll be releasing standalone expansions. MTVN’s Van Toffler: We are talking to tons of bands, from indie to the most established … to release not necessarily their entire catalog, but maybe some of their classic albums and do special packages around that. Exciting! Less exciting is a little footnote at the bottom of the same Reuters piece, outlining some plans EA have to find morons and take their money. EA’s “head of music”, Steve Schnur, says that EA are looking at ways to sell new soundtracks to existing games as DLC. In other words, you buy Madden, then 3-6 months later, you can pay real money for a new soundtrack for it. I’ll give you a moment. Don’t blame EA. Blame the people who have paid for things like cheat codes and unlockables, because they’re the ones proving this is a sound business plan. “Rock Band,” “Guitar Hero” drive digital song sales [Reuters] More »
Doki Doki Majo Manga Out Dirties DS Game
9:00PM Brian Ashcraft | We’re overdue, it’s been too long. Time for a Doki Doki Majo Shinpan post! The naughty DS game that let players “touch” 13 year old witches wasn’t nearly as dirty as it sounds. That’s what the Doki Doki Majo manga is for! The comic version has been serialised, but now a book collection is on sale in Den-Den Town and Akihabara. It’s not totally explicit, it’s just rather slimy. Gallery after the jump. Proceed with caution! More »
Gordon Freeman Pours Heart Out On Coast To Coast
8:30PM Luke Plunkett | We know. He can’t/doesn’t speak. And if he could/did, he’d be more of a man than to go whining about it on national radio. But if you can suspend enough disbelief to imagine he can/does, you can also muster a chuckle or two as George Noory, host of Coast to Coast AM, totally falls for it. More »
The True Meaning of Pikachu
8:00PM Brian Ashcraft | File this under “huh.” Ever wondered what “Pikachu” actually means? Sure, you have! “Pika” is from pikapika, which means to sparkle or glitter. “Chu” is from chuchu, the Japanese word for the sound mice make. So put them together, and you get “Pikachu,” AKA “Sparkle Mouse Noise.” A shame the localizers stuck with the Japanese original. We quite like that Sparkle Mouse Noise moniker. Pikachu’s Meaning [LongCountdown via Japundit] [Geek on Stun] More »
AI Learns To Play Games, John Connor Is Now Our Only Hope
7:30PM Luke Plunkett | The latest Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research contains new information on the future downfall of mankind. In particular, it contains details on a study by which an artificial intelligence was taught how to play Ms Pac-Man by some researchers from Eotvos University, in Hungary. This is a big deal, because previously the only games an AI could be taught were much simpler stuff, like chess (Ms Pac-Man’s ghosts don’t follow a routine, making it much more complex). By “teaching” it how to prioritise the stuff it’s taught after repeated instruction, the AI soon learned the most important thing to do in the game was avoid being eaten by a ghost, and that if the ghosts can be eaten, they should be eaten, because that earns the player points. Taking these to heart, the AI was pitted against 10 pathetic, human fleshbags. Those humans played 5 games each, and their average score was 8064. The AI then played 50 games, and its average score was…8186. Ms. Pac-Man Plays Herself [Robot News World, via Boing-Boing] More »
