Tuesday, March 4, 2008
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Army Of Two, Now With Added Mastodon
11:45PM Luke Plunkett | That’s a trailer for Army of Two. Lots of shit exploding and flying around, lots of men running, shooting, etc, but the standout for me isn’t the game (especially since there’s no “game” in that footage). It’s the music! That’s Mastodon in the background, warbling out the most metal cover of Three Dog Night’s “One” you’ve ever heard. [via The PRP] More »
Machinarium, From The Makers of Samorost
11:30PM Luke Plunkett | Ah, Samorost. So beautiful! So woefully underappreciated by the gaming public at large. Maybe machinarium, the Samorost team’s latest outing, will fare better. It’s a “full-scale” adventure game for the PC, and should be out later this year. More info is coming “sooner or later”, so for now, pass the day away gazing at these gorgeous screenshots. More »
The $US 400 Arcade Game… Cardboard? Oh Yes.
11:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Developer Cave has churned out some amazing shmups. Amazingly hard and amazingly great. Have a gander at MUSHIHIME SAMA FUTARI and DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou. Truly stuff for the utterly devoted. People who are so into Cave shmups that they’d pay ¥44,500 ($US 430) for a cardboard box! This isn’t just any old cardboard box, but a Cave cardboard box which has Cave’s Muromachi era shooter Guwange written on the outside. It also has DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou handwritten on it as well. Meaning? This cardboard box was used to send out a Guwange arcade board in 1999 and then presumably a DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou one in 2002. It’s not just cardboard! It’s Cave cardboard, dammit! Not sure I’d pay four large for it, but I do understand. When I met Cave’s resident genius Tsuneki Ikeda, I asked for his autograph, and I never do that. Cave Cardboard [Yahoo!] More »
So, Which Publisher’s Games Get The Best Scores? (PART II)
10:45PM Luke Plunkett | Last month, in the wake of EA’s analyst presentation, we threw up a little graph they’d used to highlight their market position in terms of average review scores. It was nice, but it was also brief. Some publishers were missing, and it was only for 2007. Their curiosity well and truly piqued, Next-Gen have dug through the same data, expanded it to include all publishers who released ten or more game sin the US during a calendar year, then went back to 2006 and 2005 and got data for them, too. All terribly exhaustive, and all terribly exciting. 2007’s data is above, hit the link below for the rest. THE RATINGS RANKINGS [Next-Gen] More »
Brits Now Paid For Pre-Ordering GTA IV
10:30PM Luke Plunkett | Britons being paid in Microsoft points for pre-ordering Lost Odyssey, that was understandable: while it’s a good game, it’s hardly a sequel to a AAA franchise, licensed property or sports game, so retailers had a job on their hands trying to sell the thing. But offering 500 MS points to people pre-ordering GTA IV? It’s like money for nothing. Yes, I know it’s only GAME/GameStation stores offering the deal, and yes, I know they’ll say it’s to encourage people to order the game from their stores, but where else were you going to pre-order it from? Tescos? Grand Theft Auto IV [GAME] More »
Japanese PSPs *Finally* Getting Skype
10:00PM Brian Ashcraft | A two-month delay later, and Japan is finally getting its PSP Skype connected. Europe and the US have been chattering away on PSP Skype since January, while Japanese gamers waited. The reason? The Skype mic Sony Computer Entertainment Japan had slated for release didn’t meet Skype specs. Two new mics will go on sale in Japan on March 19th, one for ¥2,500 ($US 24) and ¥4,000 ($US 39). A software update will hit the day before. PSP for Skype for Japan [Mainichi] More »
Space Hulk Gets A Touch-Up
9:30PM Luke Plunkett | You’ve either played Space Hulk (the “accessible” board game) or Space Hulk (the old PC/Amiga/3D0 game) by now. I’m just going to assume that. This, then, is truly a pleasant surprise: A group of guys going by the name Teardown have, with the blessing of both EA and the Games Workshop, released a free-to-play update of the old classic. It lacks the first-person mode of the old computerised version, but anyone aching for another go-round of the board game will find this does the job quite nicely. Space Hulk [Teardown] More »
Meet The Boy Scrubbing Game’s Female Producer
9:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Remember Duel Love? That female-geared DS game that has players whip the sweat off fetching young males. It’s a Japanese dating game that centres around a school’s secret fight club. Players “help” the fighters by wiping off sweat, treating injuries or giving “massages”. The game’s out this month, and that’s the game’s producer decked out in Duel Love gear. Here’s what she says about her boy sweat scrubbing game: Spring’s in bloom! The season of love has arrived. Now, people want to fall in love, some people are tired of love, other want to forget it. Wouldn’t you like to start fresh with Duel Love’s Passion Mode? If lovey-dovey couples can play together, it’ll be no accident that they get aroused! Hit the jump for a picture of this saucy female game producer. More »
Wii TV Guide Channel Launches In Japan
8:30PM Luke Plunkett | Nintendo released their latest Wii channel today: the TV Friend Channel. What is it? A TV Guide. With benefits. Yes, on the surface, it’s just a TV guide with the ability to highlight shows you’d like to watch. BORING. Some of the things Nintendo have added to spice things up a little, however, aren’t quite boring. For one, while the Channel’s running, it’ll let you use your Wii Remote as a TV Remote. Pointless, yes, but interesting nonetheless. The Channel will also have limited community features: you’ll be able to see what shows your friends have highlighted, and Nintendo will centrally track these records (as well as star-ratings for each program). Still pointless, but a little more interesting. Finally, it’ll also let you register your mobile number and e-mail address: mark a show on the guide that you wanna see, and 30 minutes before it starts you’ll get a text message and/or an email about it. That’s not pointless. It’s downright useful! TV No Tomo [Nintendo] More »
