Sunday, August 10, 2008
TF2: The Dark Snipe
11:00AM Owen Good | This picture (full size on the jump) is so massive its going to collapse on itself and form a black hole of win. The image is taken from the TF2 “Meet the Spy Sniper” trailer (at 0:28). It was the clear winner in a one-upsmanship photoshop contest at the Facepunch Studios Forums, about two weeks ago. (Warning, some of the other pics are pretty tasteless.) Alright, commence with your lines/puns from “The Dark Knight”. I’m the only guy in America who hasn’t seen it. We had to see frickin “Stepbrothers” instead when a bunch of friends went out last week. Who is Next on the Sniper’s Hitlist? [Facepunch Studios Forums, via Ubercharged] More »
How GameFly is Like Your Psycho Ex
10:00AM Owen Good | I don’t get these notices because, wisely, I didn’t opt in for the mailing list spam like this guy at The -Minus World. And he acknowledges that he could just as easily unsubscribe, but it’s much more fun to cast GameFly’s obsessive spam engine in the role of psychotic stalky ex. Especially when you can send yourself a message that says “You better not be fucking Netflix” and take a screenshot of that to illustrate the point. Oh, not to mention: “We’ve Received: A Restraining Order.” You can see the descent into madness in four well-done screen shots of his inbox. Gamefly Needs To Stop Acting Like A Psycho Ex-Girlfriend [The -Minus World] More »
Games and Learning: Opening Gateways?
9:30AM Maggie Greene | I was chatting with a fellow Chinese historian this weekend when he confessed that his interest in Chinese history could be traced back to receiving a copy of Romance of the Three Kingdoms for SNES. I thought of that while reading Duncan Fyfe’s essay on the potential ‘educational’ uses of regular, AAA titles — which isn’t really so much on the potential to educate as much as inspire (as insipid as that sounds) in subtle ways: Video games can be gateways to higher learning. Is it idealistic? Sure. But the base repudiation of idealism is so often used as a shield against saying anything interesting. Anti-idealism is what keeps triple-A games generic, and the reversal of that trend should already be a good enough target. Compare the social value of these games to that of Halo or Oblivion. They’re just as entertaining, but they are not relevant to any humanitarian or political discussion, and are certainly not literary. The Wire and The West Wing will not reform government but they will challenge and galvanise their viewers. I’d be curious to know how many people actually went out and tackled Ayn Rand after playing BioShock; I’m also a little skittish about the idea of heavy handed philosophy and the like making a strong appearance (one Xenosaga series was enough, thank you). Fyfe’s opinions aren’t new by any means, and can be found in just about any essay talking about more ‘grown up’ themes in games. Interesting essay and worth a look. Video Games Are The Silver Bullet [GameSetWatch] More »
How to Buy God of War 2 in Saudi Arabia
9:00AM Owen Good | Our gamer friends in Saudi Arabia can’t buy titles like God of War 2. Not only are they banned for sale within the country, if you order it online you risk having it confiscated, and then you have to pay a fat fine (about $US 125.) No surprise that this kind of crackdown only breeds a black market for the goods in question, and reader Alaa A. shows us how some retailers get around things so he and others can get their Kratos on. Alaa tells us that at Rashid mall in Khobar, he spied Chains of Olympus, the GOW version for the PSP. Wondering if that meant they also had GOW2 he inquired. Lo and behold, they did. And here’s the part where I want to imagine Alaa wearing a fedora and the clerk in an eyepatch, with a monkey perched on his shoulder, leading him into an anteroom while looking nervously over his shoulder. The guy handed Alaa a shrink-wrapped copy of Winning Eleven. When he opened it, inside was the God of War 2 disc, and the GoW cover neatly slid behind the Winning Eleven artwork. “I got for around $US 25 and it’s an original copy”, Alaa said. “Makes me feel dirty for some reason though”. Another pic below. More »
News
EA Exec Talks Dead Space, Dishes on Cliffy B
8:00AM Owen Good | EA executive producer Glen Schofield says that Cliff Bleszinski told him Dead Space “looks great” on the Unreal Engine. One problem, the game uses EA’s own graphical engine. It’s one highlight in a very revealing video interview that Planet Xbox 360 had with Schofield at EA’s Redwood Shores location about Dead Space. The entire video (.mpg) is on Planet Xbox 360’s site. Camera work’s a little shaky, but all you need is the audio. Schofield, with little prompting, talks very candidly about the game’s design, how it compares with other familiar titles, and how it all came to be. Schofield himself visited with horror directors Wes Craven and Eli Roth, and writer Warren Ellis, to inform EA’s perspective on horror and how it will translate into the gameplay. Craven had a “really deep philosophy” about horror, getting downright creepy because it involves a family aspect. Roth “was little more about torture porn than the horror”, Schofield says with a laugh. More »
A ‘Narrative Manifesto’: Collecting Current Musings
7:30AM Maggie Greene | Michael Abbott of the Brainy Gamer has a nice little roundup of some of the current thinking on narrative designs in games — it’s nice to have a couple of reasonably prominent writers/designers/etc. put together in one place, with easily digestible clips. And, as usual, the comments section is just as worthy of attention as the article itself. But is this emerging collective ‘manifesto’ really deserving of the title ‘manifesto’?: Perhaps “manifesto” is too strong a word for what I’m describing, but at the moment I can’t think of a better one. Most dictionaries define the term as a public declaration of intentions, motives or views. Beyond that simple definition, however, manifestos are intrinsically anti-status-quo. Regardless of its framework – politics, ideology or art – a manifesto is a defiant call for change and an implied “Who’s with me?” All of the people I’m about to describe are plugging into something that sounds very much like a collective manifesto to me. Many people currently writing about narrative and game design do share a lot of commonalities in thinking, so some sort of ‘collective manifesto’ (even just informally speaking) does make sense. Anyways, Abbott’s roundup isn’t particularly long, but worth a read; he’s done the work for you when it comes to pulling out some particularly salient bits of the essays. Narrative manifesto [Brainy Gamer] More »Playboy’s Jo Garcia on Madden
7:00AM Owen Good | No, not in THAT WAY. Pwn or Die (the Funny or Die network’s venture into gaming) talked to everybody’s favourite Cybergirl Gamer. She’s insistent that Madden 09 widows/girlfriends will be able to play the game with their significant others and have just as much fun. In fact, Jo’s gonna grab it, and she never thought she’d enjoy a sports title. But the training mode and the dual-difficulty levels for cooperative play sold her. And for you pervs, there’s nothing provocative in this, unless you count the glimpses of the covers of Playboy in the background. Oh yeah, you know you’re looking. I call that the 7-Eleven Eyeball, the scanning “Where is that thing I need” look on your face while you check out the covers of the girlie magazines. Actually, I use that when I’m at the grocery store and looking at Glamour. And Cosmo. And Woman’s World. Dude, the cake on last month’s cover was unreal. Where was I anyway … Jo Garcia Talks Madden 09 [Pwn or Die] More »
News
‘Going Rogue’: Leaving the Mainstream Behind
6:30AM Maggie Greene | The Escapist has an interesting article up on mainstream industry types who went indie — it delves into the reasoning behind a move, as well as the challenges and the positive aspects of moving from big studios to independent development. People making the transition have had to unlearn ‘mainstream’ habits or pick up new skills (like learning the tools of the PR trade) — and even with the plethora of portals and distribution options, the ‘independent’ distribution channels are still fraught with pitfalls, from distribution limitations to piracy: More »
Cryptic Exec: What’s In/Not In Star Trek Online
6:00AM Owen Good | Cryptic flacked its upcoming gameplay debut (and webcast) to the Associated Press, and the wire was a taker. Yesterday, the AP moved an interview with Jack Emmert, Cryptic’s chief creative officer, and he gives gamers an idea of what to expect, what not to expect, and a little of how the deal went down when they acquired the title from Perpetual Entertainment. Or, well, the licence, because there is nothing developed by Perpetual that’s going into the game. “We took no assets”, Emmert said. “There was nothing to be had, to be honest. We’re building everything from the ground up”. Emmert also assures us Sunday will be a bonafide gameplay reveal. “You’re going to see the actual game working and functioning”, said Emmert. “This isn’t renders. This isn’t concept art. Everything that people will see on Sunday is going to be taken right from ‘Star Trek Online’ as it stands today, so hardened people should know that a release date might be closer than they think”. If you don’t want to read the whole thing, here are the high points: More »
