When Crecente shared tea and biscuits with Warhawk producer Dylan Jobe at GDC, he was told they were hoping to get the game’s second expansion out by either the second half of March or the first half of April. Looking like it’s the latter, as SCEA’s John Hight told Gamasutra yesterday: We just released an expansion on Warhawk in September, and we’ll release another one in April.
April it is, then! The State of PlayStation Network: John Hight Interviewed [Gamasutra]
Americans lurve online gaming. But what about Japanese? Nope! An online questionnaire poled 15,000 members of Japanese internet community MyVoice about their feelings towards online games. The sample was 54 percent female, 2 percent teen, 16 percent twenty-something, 37 percent thirty-something, 28 percent forty-something and 17 percent fifty-something. Over half of them were not interested in online games! That’s not including the 12 percent who are totally indifferent. And when asked what their image of online games was, the most common response was “Geekish.” And get this, only 1 percent of those poled use Macs to play online games. At least we have that in common!
Hit the jump for the full breakdown:
Seen the Robot Chicken Star Wars special yet? It’s…OK. Some awful stuff, some stuff you’ve seen before, but Admiral Ackbar’s cereal is always good for a chortle. I bring this up because it’s now available on the Xbox Live Video Marketplace for 240 MS points (US-only, though, I’m afraid).
For Nintendo, “okay” won’t cut it. Its games have a spit-shine sheen, and everything is just so. You know, perfect. So when Dylan Cuthbert, honcho at Pixel Junk dev Q-Games, worked at Nintendo on the Star Fox series in the 90′s, what did he learn? Cuthbert says: The main thing I learned at Nintendo was that being “anal” is the most important asset a game creator needs to have. Mr. Miyamoto has the uncanny ability to spot the most minute detail in any game; just the odd pixel out of place and he will strike upon it like an eagle. So, although we are nowhere near that level yet, I am trying to guide everyone at Q to get good at “the details”.
The other thing I learned from Nintendo, is learning to look at your game from a distance towards the end of development and decide what really needs to be done to make the game into a sell-able product. This is almost totally separate from the creative “game-making” process and most companies let their marketing departments do it which, in my opinion, is totally wrong.
Valuable lessons, indeed! If only more developers cut their teeth at Nintendo. If only… Q-Games Dylan Cuthbert [Destructoid][Pic]
Poor Guitar Hero III on the Wii. It’s had some problems. If it wasn’t mono-only sound, it was lawsuits over mono-only sound, and if it wasn’t lawsuits, it was botched sign-ups for replacement discs to fix mono-only sound. So it’s only right Activision try and make amends. A good place to start is this new Guitar Hero III bundle for the Australian market, which features not only the correct, Dolby Pro Logic II sound output, but also a second guitar controller. No price given just yet, but since the existing one-guitar pack goes for $140, this should come in at just under $200.
Editor’s note: All the details on the pack can be found in our story from yesterday.
Saints Row was one buggy game. So buggy it even got its own song, “Buggy Saints Row”. Surely this time around developer Volition learned from its mistakes last time. Maybe no! Says the game’s producer Greg Donovan about the upcoming sequel: It won’t be bug free. I don’t think any game is. But part of what we did was to start development early on. Our development schedule is all about getting the gameplay in and even though this (version of the game shown to press) is pre-alpha, we’re all about iterating the gameplay now.
Sure, not all games are bug free. It’s just some games are more bug free than others. Saints Row 2 Is Buggy [VideoGamer.com][Pic]
I just know there are people out there reading this who want a silver PS3. Need a silver PS3. You’ve got a silver TV, silver DVD player, silver PVR and you just can not sleep until you get rid of that awful black PS3 and get one that matches your trendy technophile lifestyle. You’d best hit up Play-Asia, then, who have started pre-orders for the unit at the all-too-reasonable (for an import, anyways) price of $US 429. PlayStation3 Console (HDD 40GB Model) Satin Silver [Play-Asia]
Excited about Super Smash Bros. Brawl? We’re willing to be not as much as the dude who created this special briefcase to lug the game around. Over at forum Wii Chat, poster Belarr writes: This is a custom case for my copy of SSBB, it was crafted out of a blue foam to specific dimensions and has a tight seal. Watcha think?
We think you have a messy room. That, and you don’t need a custom padded case, but a custom padded room. :) SSBB Case [Wii Chat via Go Nintendo]
Yeeees, more Kane! And not just regular Kane, new, improved CYBER KANE. And real, honest-to-goodness gameplay footage! This, ladies and gentlemen, is how you make a trailer.
Yes, we’re sure there will be a Heavenly Sword 2. It’s already written! Heck, developer Ninja Theory would like to make it into a trilogy. But first, it needs the opinions of regular folks. According to one Kotaku tipster, that’s exactly what Ninja Theory is doing. Last night, a focus group was apparently held by these people in Chicago. Writes the tipster: They initially asked for video game background, then they had a follow-up phone call asking which games I had played or owned, focusing heavily on Heavenly Sword. There were 3 surveys done on Monday, groups of 6 for the first 2, 4 for the last group (my group). Predominantly males, asking about our impressions on Prince of Persia, God of War, Ninja Gaiden and, of course, Heavenly Sword. Some questions were asked about why Heavenly Sword didn’t sell so well, what our impressions were on the gameplay, how the cutscenes were done, combat mechanics.
That’s sorta interesting. The really interesting part is what was hinted at regarding Heavenly Sword 2. That, after the jump:
