Friday, February 15, 2008
Samba Di Amigo: Shakycam
11:30PM Luke Plunkett | A shakycam vid of some German dudes playing Samba Di Amigo on the Wii has turned up. And…hrm. Look, maybe it’s on easy. Maybe the guy’s never played it before in his life. Maybe the light from the windows was interfering with the Wii Remote, maybe the lovely Sega handler hadn’t explained things properly to him or maybe it just looks so cold and lifeless because they’re, well, German. Those are all things to consider. Because if you watch this without considering them, you may be a little underwhelmed. SEGA Gamersday: Wii Insider Coverage [Wii Insider, via Go Nintendo] More »
Quick Samurai Showdown Sen Hands-on Impressions
11:00PM Brian Ashcraft | While SNK dazzled with King of Fighters XII (and maybe even stole Capcom’s thunder!), it seems to have missed its mark with its latest Samurai Shodown (AKA Samurai Spirits game. Comment czar Witzbold checked Samurai Spirits Sen out today at AOU, writing: So sad about Samurai Spirits. It has literally turned into a mixture of Tekken-ish gameplay with no real jumping, and a rather bland gameplay. D: The 3D characters dont even look that good. I mean there’s a friggin viking now. A big, fur wearing, horned helmet, axe weilding viking. It’s gone World Heroes on us! The game felt sluggish and unresponsive. So sad since I used to love the Samurai Spirits series. I hope they polish it up after the feedback that will be given after the show by the fans. Sad panda face. More »
Try A Halo Novel Before You Buy (Or Don’t)
10:30PM Luke Plunkett | You’re in a pickle. I can sense it. You love Halo. But you don’t love reading. Or, you love Halo, and love reading, but find the very notion of reading a book based on a videogame abhorrent. Either of those. What you need, then, is a preview of a Halo book (in this instance, Contact Harvest), let you test it out, try it on, see if it’s really you. Like this one, being hosted over at Spawn.com (ie McFarlane, who are churning out a new Spartan action figure every other week). After reading through the 20-page preview, I must say…if you’re a fan of overly-descriptive novels, full to the brim with nigh-impenetrable military jargon and acronyms, this one’s just calling out for you. Halo: Contact Harvest Preview [Spawn] More »
10:15PM Luke Plunkett | ON LOST ODYSSEY LOAD TIMES – I’ve been reading various stories and posts around the internets over the past few days concerning Lost Odyssey’s battle load times, and how some press outlets have reported regular load times of 30-60 seconds (which has obviously affected their reviews). Well, if this is putting you off, I can tell you the discs I received about a week and a half ago were final, retail discs, not “review code” for a debug unit, and the average load time for a battle is between 12-16 seconds. Which is totally bearable. More »
See Humans Play Street Fighter IV!!
10:00PM Brian Ashcraft |
Rare Atari Game For Sale, Got Half A Mil Handy?
9:30PM Luke Plunkett | Ever hear of Gamma Attack? Was put out by Gammation for the Atari 2600 back in the day. It’s bright, it’s colourful, and it’s also very, very rare. Someone who’s claiming to own a copy of the game has just put it up for auction. Starting bid? Oh, $US 499,999. And ninety-nine cents. Is the game even worth that much? It’s definitely rare, but…who knows. Probably not. That’s an awful lot of money. At least you’ll save on shipping, though: the seller will only part with the game if you arrange a face-to-face meeting with him. Which all sounds a bit fishy, but then, would you write a cheque for half a mil? No. Because when a chance pops up that you can fill a briefcase full of cash, meet a stranger in a deserted car park and exchange the goods under the watchful eyes of hired goons, you take it. Especially when it involves an Atari game, and not something more serious, like biological weapons, high-grade narcotics or, I don’t know, your daughter. Atari 2600 Gamma Attack [GameSniped] More »
Quick Street Fighter IV Hands-on Impressions
9:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Street Fighter IV is playable. Today, the wait at the AOU arcade show hit 90 minutes to play the game hit 90 minutes. Keep in mind: This is on the business day. So, what’s it like? Kotaku buddy Jean Snow was at AOU today and checked it out — even winning a perfect battle. Briefly, Jean tells us: Controls were what you would expect from the game, nice and tight. But the graphics, oh man, they look soooooo nice! The backgrounds are incredibly detailed. If you look at them, you noticed all sorts of nice things. Like some letters were falling off a sign after a big attack. The entire game is an absolutely stunning package. You play on a widescreen high-res screen, and all the characters were beautifully rendered. Even the chest hair on the wrestler guy Zangief looked nice! It’s one of the most beautiful, complete fighters I’ve seen. Ever. Look for more in-depth impressions when we get hands on with the game at GDC. [Thanks, Jean!] More »
Highlander Game Not Sounding Very Highlandery
8:30PM Luke Plunkett | This is bad news. Not the kind of bad news that’d compel you to clamber up on a rooftop, mind, but it’s pretty damn close. The upcoming Highlander game won’t feature Kurgan. Not at all. VG247 spoke with the game’s executive producer, Luke Timms, who broke the news: Kurgan, no, but there is one familiar character Highlander fans will be happy to see. Working closely with the original writer – David Abramowitz – ensures that we are in tune with what Highlander fans want and expect. What, just one? So there’s no Kurgan. The main character (ie you) isn’t Connor MacLeod of the clan MacLeod. At this rate there probably won’t be “Who Wants To Live Forever?” in it either. Widescreen Games, that “familiar” character had best be Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez, or you may as well just pack up and go home. No Kurgan in Highlander, confirms Widescreen [VG247] More »A Look At PS3’s PlayTV
8:00PM Brian Ashcraft | A BBC blogger got some hands on with the upcoming PlayTV. PlayTV is a jazzed up cable box for the PS3. The menus look pretty swank. The neat part? You can set something to record and switch off your console; It will then switch back on to record the show and shut itself off. Also, it supports subtitles and can live stream broadcasts onto the PSP. Slick! PlayTV in Action [Three Speech via Gay Gamer] More »
