To: Crecente From: Ashcraft
Week three of the wife in the hospital starts. Today she was feeling pretty bad, and her morning sickness is raging at full force. So exhausted taking care of the kid, writing magazine articles, blogging all day and finishing up my book. My schedule is insane.
What you missed last night See Mario Kart Wii ghost glitch cheat Nintendo of American’s new digs? Quake family treeThat MGS4 headset is real The *first* GTAIV review Games are bigger than movies? Oh really…
Looks like the EA cafeteria’s fresh out of humble pie. Speaking with the Financial Times, Electronic Arts boss John Riccitiello has said that like animation (Disney), television (NBC) and radio (CBS), gaming will one day be known for its one great company. And no, he doesn’t mean Atlus, Grasshopper or Introversion. Interactive entertainment is going to determine one great company and I think it’s this one. One of the reasons I’ve come back is to try to take it to the next step.
Good to see that even in the #2 position, EA have still got that top dog swagger. We’ll be games’ greatest ever company, say EA boss [MCV]
Movies, games, FIGHT! Electronic Arts’ honcho John Riccitiello has his finger on the pulse of something and noticed that movie people are worried about big time video games. When not trying to take over Grand Theft Auto IV publisher Take-Two, Riccitiello says:
Yes, Phil Harrison really does work for Infogrames/Atari. Like really. Instead, Harrison says this about upcoming Atari title Alone in the Dark and what the future holds for the company: I’m making is that I think the game is very relevant to the market, and I think will do very, very well. Can we afford as a company to chase that up, to USD 80 million, without downstream revenue? The answer is no.
So can we take that kind of production value and smash it into an online community and social experience? I hope so, but it won’t be Alone in the Dark.
Yeah, you read that right. Launches. Those Koreans who after 18 months sans official support still care, you have our sympathies. According to Nintendo Korea’s website, the console will be getting its long-overdue debut on April 26, and will retail for 220,000 Won ($US 225), albeit individually: Wii Sports will be packaged and sold separately, and will launch alongside Zack & Wiki, Wii Play, Super Swing Golf and four more unannounced titles. Nintendo Wii [Nintendo Korea, via Go Nintendo]
First reviews are much like first comments in threads. Sometimes a little too keen and eager to shout “FIRST!” This time, it’s The Official Xbox Magazine‘s turn with the first print review for Grand Theft IV. The bit-sized nuggets are: • Amazingly realistic world • Stunning action set pieces • Genuinely engrossing storyline • Hugely entertaining multiplayer • Vast in every aspect
What’s more, the mag adds GTA IV is “Utterly stunning in every respect.” For those of you who care about numbers, OXM gives the game a “10″. That means it’s friggin’ aces. (Still, from what Crecente wrote, this game sounds top drawer.) GTA 4 REVIEW [GTAForums Thanks, Zeliard!]
Not real. Pffft. What the hell do I know. Turns out that Bluetooth MGS4 headset is real, as over the weekend we learned that the product is not only already appearing in the catalogue of peripheral manufacturer PDP, but has also begun turning up in retail databases across Europe and the US. You can see above part of the entry in PDP’s latest retailer catalogue (full-page version after the click), which not only confirms the headset’s existence, but its feature set as well. For $US 60, you’ll be getting up to 8 hours talk time, a 30ft range, an auto-shut-off function to save battery life and a snazzy little carry case. The headset will be released on June 12, same day as the game itself.
Yes, there are Mac gamers. And some of them play World of Warcraft. This individual here laser-etched MacBook Pro. Took about twenty minutes to do on a laser-etching machine. Well, whaddaya think? MacBook WoW [Flickr via Geekcrafting and Uberdork via Alice]
Ever hear someone say “oh, man, that game’s just like that other game, just with different multiplayer”? Course you have. Most games are just successors/homages/rip-offs of games that came before them. As it is with most creative mediums. And few games inspired so many of its competitors/descendants than Quake did. Here, then, is Quake’s “family tree”, an academic pursuit that’s probably the only place on the internet you’ll see Daikatana, American McGee’s Alice, Hexen II and Half-Life 2 standing so close to one another without getting nervous. The Quake Family Tree [Wikipedia, via Boing-Boing]
