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 For those who want to beta test Nintendo games in Japan, listen up: Nintendo is looking for folks to beta what’s rumoured to be Mario Kart Wii. Working hours are Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm. There’s only an hour break for lunch, and the salary starts at ¥900 ($US 8.40) per hour with the possibility of a raise. Travel expenses and health insurance are covered as well. The trial period last two weeks, while the actual gig could last up to six months. Interested parties should be aware that the testing will be done at Nintendo’s Kyoto Research Center. Not too shabby, this. Nintendo Part Time Gig [Nintendo.co.jp]
The BBC’s Watchdog program is upset with Brain Training. Very upset! Host Nicky Campbell has criticised the game and accused it of “discrimination”, after hearing testimony from folks who can’t be understood by the game thanks to their strong accents. That’d be northerners, Scots, Northern Irish, and Welsh, then. In other words, nearly half the population of the United Kingdom. My advice: learn to deal with the disappointment, and move on. Many Americans and Australians, and in particular New Zealanders and South Africans, are all in the same boat, and our lives aren’t lying in ruins just yet. Brain Training discriminates against Northerners, says Watchdog [CVG][Pic]
Here’s the Crysis editor at work. Hard work. Someone has piled up 1000 nuclear canisters in the Crysis world editor and made them go ka-boom. The explosion that follows shows how the game engine renders physics for individual particles. Kinda interesting to see the engine’s wheels churn!
The Game Developers Association of Australia will be hosting a private function for CEOs and investors during this year’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. The aim of the event is to provide high-level decision makers the chance to get involved in the Oz games industry, and if we can make it tantalising enough, ink a few deals. Says GDAA CEO Greg Bondar:
GDC is a world class event and an important event on the Australian game developers’ calendar and GDAA will be making the point to all international investors, publishers and game developers that making games is a serious business in Australia.
It’s great to see that Australia will be representing at GDC 2008. When you take into consideration what Auran’s Graham Edelsten had to say about the lack of overseas investment in local game developers, anything to boost confidence or provide some knowledge on the matter is a good thing.
A press release-looking thing after the jump.
The latest Command & Conquer Battlecast, the official, full-of-ham video podcast of the series, has teased fans with news of a new product announcement, due in two weeks time. One that will give you “one more reason to cheer”. It can’t be a C&C3 expansion, that’s already underway. It can’t be Tiberium, because that’s well out of the bag. Which when you look at the Command & Conquer universe leaves us with… Red Alert! Yes, the best damn games in the series. EA, if this is indeed the case, and you’re making another Red Alert game, so help me God, you’d better get Kari Wuhrer on the phone.
PS – Yes, it could – hypothetically - be another Generals game, but they said it was a reason to cheer, not bitch about why they weren’t making another Red Alert. Commandier & Conquerier [Rock, Paper, Shotgun][Img]
Publisher THQ finally has a new Chief Financial Officer. Good for THQ. The awesomely named Colin Slade (not pictured) will take over the open CFO slot. Says Slade: THQ is a terrific company with a strong financial foundation and I am excited to play a part in driving the company’s continued growth, With my prior experience in the technology industry, I understand the complexities of developing software in a rapidly changing environment and I look forward to working with Brian and the rest of THQ’s management team to maximise opportunities as we move forward.
His prior experience in the tech industry includes working for a measurement company, a graphic software company and an accounting firm. Good for him. New CFO [Game Daily][Pic]
As you’ve no doubt heard by now, Devil May Cry 4 has a mandatory install. One which, upon insertion of the game disc, takes 22-25 minutes to complete. And oh how you complained. Some for no reason other than to whine, but others, with a bit more of a point, wondering why it was again they preferred console games to PC games. Well, Capcom have swiftly responded, informing you that while the game’s installing you get 22-25 minutes worth of story primers and concept art, as well as the handy reminder that, well…the human body requires sustenance to survive: If you don’t want to watch the “Previously, on Devil May Cry…” portion of the install process, go make a sandwich and grab a soda, then come on back. You’re going to be spending some serious time with this game, and we don’t want you going hungry. Low blood sugar will make you dizzy and you’ll need to be focused like an Alan Parsons Project to defeat the enemies in this game.
They’d also like to remind you that it’s a one-off install, and that the whole point of it is so you can play the rest of the game enjoying “near-Super Nintendo speed load times”. Now it’s just up to you to decide whether that’s enough to coax you back from hate’s precipice. Sigh. DMC4 “load times” on PS3. DO NOT PANIC! [Capcom][Pic]
I’m sick of Rock Band updates that don’t appeal to me (recent news of Faith No More notwithstanding). Sick of boring, repetitive songs from big-name bands. Sick of the number of songs offered that, you know…fail to do as advertised: namely rock. So I figured I’d go one better than the usual “oh I wish it had more Iron Maiden” I see in every Rock Band post comments section and put this together. Here, then, is my totally biased, totally objective, totally exhaustive list of tracks that could and should be featured in future Rock Band DLC updates.
The main prerequisite for making this list? The song had to rock. And in the case of the ones that don’t necessarily rock (B.B. King, for example), they’re there to break things up, like Guitar Hero I did so successfully with Stevie Ray Vaughn and Bowie. Also, I tried (and failed) to go for artists not previously featured in either Guitar Hero or Rock Band, and artists that may be a little less known than the big-label, big-name bands that we normally get 3-4 times a month. Finally, I tried (and again failed…with individual explanations below) to make sure every song was varied and interesting to play, not just listen to.
It would be safe to call Daxter *the* PSP game. First released in 2006, it’s been bundled with the handheld twice: With the Ceramic White unit and the new silver Slim & Lite PSP. Now, developer Ready At Dawn announces that December was one of the game’s strongest months and that the game has sold 2 million copies of Daxter worldwide. From Ready At Dawn’s website: Daxter has been an incredible success for us, especially considering it was our very first game as a company.
Congrats! Over 2 Million Served [Ready At Dawn Studios]
Best Buy doesn’t lie, as the threat of the Devil May Cry anime’s cancellation truly has ended. An anonymous employee has provided us with photos of the new ADV Films discs in hand, complete with Best Buy price tags and manufacturer labels, definitive proof that the publisher has made good on its release. We wrote last week that the Capcom licensed series was one of many ADV titles whose future was in doubt after the publisher dropped dozens of upcoming releases from its web site, but it appears DMC is good to go. Thanks for the heads up, anonymous.
