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 Over in Japan, business site Nikkei.net has a consumer poll that shows where console’s internet use stand. In a six month period, both the Wii and the PS3 show drops in users using online, while the Xbox 360 increases by 0.10 percent. The Wii’s drop was slight, while the PS3′s was more significant. (Though, we imagine Super Smash Bros. Brawl will cause an online spike for the Wii.) And for portables, both the DS and the PSP are experiencing dips for online connection. For those who like numbers, here are numbers:
When the multi-platform games first came out, there was a difference. In some cases, take Madden 08, the PS3 version didn’t look so hot. It was evident that the PS3 version was an afterthought and that developers hadn’t quite come to grips with the hardware differences. Games like Call of Duty 4 and the upcoming Devil May Cry 4 show that the gap is closing. It’s getting harder to differentiate between the different versions, making the games truly multi-plat. This in line with what Capcom’s been saying: That there will be no major graphical differences between the two versions. Above is the Xbox 360 one, so hit the jump for the PS3 one. We can’t really tell them apart!
Yesterday we received a chat transcript that contained comments from a someone in “high position within the EB organisation”. According to the log, EB Games Australia had been left with millions of dollars worth of defective consoles.
The SMH managed to get in contact with Steve Wilson, chief executive for EB Games. According to Wilson, the rumour is nothing more than that – a rumour – a fact we did stress as a possibility in the original post.
Microsoft’s reluctance to comment on the issue did not help quell doubts, and continues to fuel my concerns that something is amiss. If there was no substance to the rumour, there’s no reason to be silent about it.
You’ll note that the SMH story has no comment from MS either.
I’d hate to think that such a situation existed between the two companies, so it’s good to hear that things aren’t as serious as we were led to believe. I’d still like Microsoft to clarify the matter, as the issue remains one-sided.
Oh – one final twist to the story comes from an email I received recently from a former EB Games employee. It’s readable in all its glory after the jump.
By now things like taking cover and co-op play are becoming standard fare. So how do developers mix it up? Big sloppy kisses! Multi-plat Faith and a .45 from Danish dev Deadline Games is Bonnie and Clyde and Gears of War. Set in the Great Depression, the game follows Luke and Ruby on the lam. Here’s how Deadline is turning conventions on their ear: After Luke and Ruby make it through a shoot out, she gives him a kiss. If Luke dies, Ruby gives him a “kiss of life” to bring him back. The character do more than just smooch. In single player, the game’s AI lets players do more than just lay down fire. It’s possible to pull off complex moves like tossing a can of petrol to your computer partner, who blows it to bits over a crowd of enemies. Game director Søren Lundgaard points out how the game differs from Gears of War:
We have a design rule to make sure that Ruby is really interesting and easy to play with. What we call it is ‘To play around with an unscripted A.I. you care for’ — that’s the line that we use internally. That means Ruby should be able to take the initiative on her own, not just react or be scripted to exactly what she has to do… That came mostly from playing some of the other co-op games — say a game like Gears of War, where you have a character with you most of the time, but you don’t really depend on him and it’s kind of like whenever he goes down, you fight on, and then he wakes up again after the battle is over. There’s no real connection.
That, and you don’t have Gears‘ Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago making out. The devs are hoping to get the game out in the next two years or so. Currently, however, Faith and a .45 doesn’t yet have a publisher. Faith and a 45 [1Up]
It was never going to last. What, Infinity Ward, you thought it was going to last? Bet you didn’t. Not deep down. You know nobody fucks with Microsoft’s talismanic champion, and especially not his disgruntled player base, so it’s little surprise to see that after only a week in second place, Halo 3 has returned to the summit of the Xbox Live charts, with Call of Duty 4 back at #2. Where they’ll both probably stay, nice and cosy-like. At least until Epic get around to releasing Gears 2, anyways. LIVE Activity for week of 1/21 [Microsoft]
Well, it’s not like the first Ninja Gaiden II screens were exactly pussyfooting around. Neither are these. These are grody, too! (This coming from someone who grew up watching Fulci and Argento giallo flicks.) Tecmo’s Itagaki, above, and his Team Ninja really have stepped up the gore for the Xbox 360 exclusive Gaiden sequel. Hit the jump for screenies of Ryu slicing and dicing. If digital meat makes you squeamish, you might wanna sit this round out.
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 fans, you’ve got it bad. You need more GRAW content. We’ve seen you. Checking your cover at every corner on the way to the shops, laying down covering fire for your wife as she fetches the morning paper, it’s sick. You need to stop. You need to get back into playing GRAW. A new DLC pack, just released, may help with this, as it adds a whole new co-op campaign to GRAW 2, taking place over nine maps (two new, seven recycled from earlier Ghost Recon games). Each will also be available for adversarial play, and the whole deal will set you back a quite-reasonable 800 MS points. A free weapons pack, consisting of seven new guns for the game, should also be turning up soon as well. Die-hard fans can revel in the press release after the click, if they so desire.
I wanted to like Just Cause. I liked the demo! But the full game, it had problems. Made me want to wait for the sequel. Well that sequel’s just had the wraps taken off, with some screenshots and info passed on to IGN. Some of the promised improvements include better enemy AI, a targeting system similar to Crackdown’s aim-at-specific-body-parts one, better vehicle handling, better vehicles (including a…Boeing 747), less “dead space” on the game’s maps and Rico’s grappling hook is now a permanent addition to your arsenal. Just Cause 2 will also be leaving South America behind, but lovers of lazy sunsets will be happy to know it’s taking place on a fictional Malay island, so you can still expect bad guys wearing bad tropical shirts to feature prominently. Just Cause 2 First Look [IGN]
To: Ashcraft From: McWhertor Re: So, Yeah, I Finally Plugged My Wii Into Internets
Congratulations on merging your Wii onto the information superhighway! There’s so much to see and do out there! May I suggest you take the Wii’s Opera web browser for a spin? You’ll probably think to yourself “Why the hell did he tell me to do this? It’s torture!” Okay, it’s not torture like acid to the face or watching Dragon Ball Z, but it’s definitely icky. That may be one of those “white whine” kind of things, but I can’t imagine having to lower myself to TV ‘net browsing.
The most exciting thing that happened to me today was a journey to Staples to fax something. Like television web browsers, I generally avoid faxing not unlike I avoid the plague. Also “exciting” was the crushing blow to what was our expected DICE coverage. Despite very much looking forward to the summit, at which Mizuguchi and Matsuura will appear, the folks responsible are imposing a hefty fee if we want to attend. As you know, we don’t pay to attend press events, outside of the usual travel and hotel expenses, so unless something changes, DICE is off. Frustrating, yes, and very unusual, but at least it will afford me the opportunity to visit Rockstar Games next week with Crecente.
Here’s the stuff you missed while you were writing Mini-Bash’s biography and guzzling sake.
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Gets A Date And Fat Price Tag Crysis For Consoles Comes Closer To Reality At GDC Some Dude Plays Guitar Hero And Actually Makes Women Scream, No Panties Are Thrown That Smash Bros. Brawl Shortage? Totally True! Too Human Might Be Coming In Too-Thousand Eight
What sucks worse than getting the Red Ring of Death? Getting the console fixed. Sure, there are some success stories regarding Xbox customer support. But there are some real headaches as well. Over at The Consumerist, tipster Jon took matters into his own hands. When his launch Xbox 360 crapped out, he emailed Bill Gates and customer service VP Kathleen Hogan. Within 24 hours, he got a reply from the escalation department saying that a new console was on its way. Jon tells The Consumerist:
