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 We’re all big fans of Zero Punctuation around here, so we were pretty eager to read Boing Boing Gadgets’ interview with auteur Ben “Yahtzee” Crenshaw (why we didn’t do one ourselves…hindsight). In addition to talking about his favorite games (Silent Hill 2, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Portal), Crenshaw finally laid to rest the debates we’ve had over how long these spots take to produce.
I usually take a few days to play through the game and I’ll usually finish it, or get as far as I can before I feel I can formulate an opinion. After that I’ll devote a day to writing the script…Then comes making the images, which usually takes me 2 or 3 days. I used to record the speech first, but I found that I’d sometimes want to make changes to the script while making the images, especially if I wanted to reword a phrase that I found too hard to visualise. Once the images are done, recording the narration and stringing it all together in Windows Movie Maker is the easy part.
We’d always known it: when the project’s said and done the time approaches a full work week. For those interested in the rest of the interview, hit up BBG.
A Nice Little Q&A with Zero Punctuation’s Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw [boingboinggadgets]
By: Maggie Greene
Embroidery is a fine and ancient art, and counted cross-stitch is one of the easiest and most user-friendly varieties. Unlike other art forms that require some sort of innate or trained talent with the medium, just about anyone can put together cross-stitch projects that are pleasant to look at.
Unfortunately, unless you’re really into Winnie the Pooh, elaborate alphabets, Precious Moments, or various types of wild animals looking pensive or free-spirited, the embroidery aisle at your local craft store can be lacking in the ‘Why yes, I do want to spend tens of hours of my life on that’ kits. But with a little extra work and planning, it’s easy to put together your own project; until the major publishers start retailing Final Fantasy and Bioshock stitching kits, the best way for game fans to mix two things that usually don’t go together – the kitsch of cross-stitch and the oh-so-modern medium of video games – is to plan and chart your own.
Sony has to be in a pretty good mood lately. Not only is their Blu-ray format winning the war, but the company has managed to shrink they Blu-ray laser to a size just shy of 3mm thick. What’s that mean? The technology is finally small enough for 9.5mm laptop drives (which could lead to a smaller PS3 design), but maybe even more importantly, the lasers are cheaper and easier to produce (whether or not this cost savings was included in Sony’s recent $US 400 PS3 manufacturing estimate is unknown). Oh, and for film buffs, the new lasers can read organic dye, allowing current DVD plants to more easily retool for Blu-ray production. All in all, this is nothing but good news for everyone.
For Blu-ray, optical disk drive recording playback slimline design [Sony via Gizmodo]
Steel Penny Games, an Austin-based indie developer founded by Naughty Dog veterans Jason Hughes and Andrew Gilmour, have announced to the world their acceptance into Nintendo’s WiiWare developer program, and are hard at work in delivering an original IP title for release later this year. Game details are sketchy, other than the fact that it will “blends a challenging puzzle game with dramatic fantasy environments and appealing characters.” I am guessing it might have something to do with Bruiser & Scratch in Case of the Puzzling Paw, a causal game already announced on Steel Penny’s homepage, though the description lacks any mention of specific platform. The press release mentions creating a new IP to span a series of games, and the “in” portion of the game title seems to indicate multiple episodes. With the company aiming for a Summer 2008 release, I’m sure we’ll find out what they’ve got up their sleeve soon enough.
With the word “recession” silently pursed on everyone’s lips, it’s surprising to groups like Nintendo and Microsoft, dancing around in a full hoot and holler, banging pots with spoons in celebration of their profits. So BloggingStocks points out that, hey, maybe the modern video game market is recession-proof. During a time when people might not buy a $US 20,000 car, consoles appear to fall in a pricepoint sweetspot while offering many hours of entertainment for the investment (and to a heavy gamer, that can be far more hours a week than even a car to a heavy commuter).
But does this mean games are really recession-proof? While it’s tough to imagine Nintendo doing much better, one has to wonder if the crazy numbers we’re seeing in the video game industry could be even bigger in different circumstances, fueled in part by an American economy running a higher level of octane.
Can Nintendo withstand a recession? [BloggingStocks via Maxconsole] [gettyimages]
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare completely kicked 2007′s ass. This is the gist of the latest press release from Activision, which pulls out the NPD, Chart Track, and GFK Group numbers showing that not only has the game sold in excess of 7 million copies across all platforms since its release in November, but also wound up selling the most units of any game on any system worldwide during calendar year 2007. “We’re very excited about this achievement especially given so many competitive titles this year,” said Will Kassoy, senior vice president, global brand management, Activision Publishing, Inc. “Consumer and critics agree that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is one of the best games ever created and further establishes Call of Duty as one of the premiere brands in the industry.”
While the game came in third in US software sales behind Halo 3 and Wii Play, it turns out the United States is just one of many countries that thinks shooting other people is a worthwhile pastime. Hit the jump for more Activision self-love.
I ended up doing a nearly all-nighter earlier this week so I could play through the finalists for the Independent Games Festival. There are, as always, a number of fantastic games in the mix. Most of them, unfortunately, can’t be played by the public. What can be played are the finalists for best Web game. My personal choice for the best of the lot? Tri-Achnid.
In the game you control a three-legged spider by clicking on its feet and moving the legs. The feet cling to things you touch them to and the ball of a body sort of follows along. Later on you also get to spin webs and attack things. The object of the game is to care for your egg sack, typically by carrying it from place to place in your mouth. Yes, the idea gives me the willies too, but at least it doesn’t involve accidentally drinking an entire spider.
If I thought I could get away with simply posting this video and the word “drool” underneath it, then you wouldn’t be reading this sentence right now. LucasArts showcases the triple-play of Havok physics, Pixelux’s Digital Molecular Matter, and NaturalMotion’s Euphoria, showing how the three technologies are combining to make Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for the PS3 and Xbox 360 the ultimate Jedi game. I’m planning on spending my entire time with the game just running around breaking things and going, “Ooooooo, lookatthat!” Sure it’s a massive, irrational intrusion into Star Wars canon, but when you compare it to Soulcalibur IV suddenly it doesn’t seem so bad.
Sega’s answer to the NES will soon be making an appearance on the Nintendo Wii as Sega announces the impending release of Sega Master System titles for the Virtual Console. SMS games will be showing up in Japan first, with Fist of the North Star and Fantasy Zone at 600 and 500 Wii points, with European and US releases to follow later this year. Sega also plans on distributing Game Gear and Sega Mark III titles along with the SMS favs. I have to admit that I never actually owned a Master System, which didn’t quite take off here in the states, so I am looking forward to filling a gap in my gaming knowledge with delicious Sega goodness from back in the day while I patiently wait for them to start releasing Sega Nomad* games.
Master System Meets Wii [IGN] * – Yes, that was a joke.
If you’re looking for a lovely way to look busy on a lazy Friday afternoon, then independent developer Dejobaan Games has got just the thing. They’ve just released their latest title, The Wonderful End of the World, which casts you as a super absorbent puppet tasked with collecting as much of the world as you can before it is eaten by “mythological demon with the head of a fish.” It plays a lot like Katamari Damacy – in fact, the first level of the two-level demo had me ready to dismiss it as a throwaway clone – but then I got to level 2 and fell in love. Set in a video game world, the second level starts you off in a game of Pong, which is set within a game of Pac-Man, which is set within a game of Centipede, with Tetris blocks and Tron light cycles running about and Space Invaders descending overhead. I swoon! It’s PC Katamari Damacy on crack, all for $US 19.95. Hit the link below to give the game a go!
The Wonderful End Of The World [Dejobaan Games]
