Three Words I Said To The Man I Defeated In Gears Of War That I'll Never Say Again 
New Doom 3 For Xbox 360 And PlayStation 3 Supports Head-Mounted Displays 
Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land 
Why Robin Makes Batman Better 
Resistance: Burning Skies: The Kotaku Review 
Harley Quinn's Revenge Is Batman: Arkham City's Bad New Ending First announced in July at Comic-Con, we now have the first hard details on the official, Crysis-branded PC that’s due for release later this month. The end result of an assurance by Crytek that their games game could run – at “high” settings – on a $US 900 machine, the rig actually comes in at $US 699, has been christened the “Warhead PC” in honour of the upcoming expansion, and will launch alongside it on September 16. Specs are as follows.
- CPU: Intel Core Duo e7300 (@2.66GHz) – GFX: Nvidia 9800GT – RAM: 2GB
Bear in mind this isn’t an official announcement, just some stuff reported by journo Chris Remo, who had a chance to check the machine out last week. The official word will come down later this week, and should be accompanied not only by the rest of the tech specs, but also some shots of the final exterior, since it’s unknown whether the one pictured is the full retail model, or is just rocking the same hardware.
Despite some early, Germanic hiccups, Spore seems to be going down quite well with both the reviewing and buying public at large. Oh, except the kids over at Amazon. Despite enjoying the game itself, they’ve bombarded the game with 1-star reviews, as backlash for EA’s insistence on using the awful Securom anti-piracy measures, which limit the number of times you can install a game on your PC. At time of writing, there were over 100 “reviews” of the game, nearly 90 of them giving the game a single, damning star. Might sound petulant to some, but if you’re going to protest against something you don’t like, you may as well do it somewhere effective (ie the world’s largest online retailer) as opposed to somewhere ineffective (ie your navel-gazing gaming message board of choice).
Spore losing the DRM Fight [Fred Benenson's Blog, via Boing-Boing]
Spore! It’s out. You might be playing it (right now, even), you might not. Yes, this Week In Games is late (sorry). And the big release is Spore. There are other games out this week as well. Those are listed below.
Sunday (Sept. 7) Spore (PC, Mac) Spore Creatures DS (DS)
Monday (Sept. 8) NHL 2K9 (Wii) Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise DS (DS) Lock’s Quest DS (DS)
Tuesday (Sept.9) Yakuza 2 (PS2) Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI (PC) NHL 09 (360) TNA iMPACT! (360) Zoids Assault (360) Active Life: Outdoor Challenge (Wii) Hell’s Kitchen (Wii) The Price is Right (Wii)
Wednesday (Sept. 10) Dragonball Z: Trilogy (PS2)
So… Spore. Whaddaya think?
Square Enix has announced its Tokyo Game Show plans. The company will be showing lots of its big titles — like Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Dragon Quest IX. But what will simply be in trailer form and what will be playable on the show floor?
That, after the jump as well as the slated release info for Square Enix’s big announced titles.
The build-up for this title has been immense — and the reviews are rolling in. There were those first Spore reviews, and yes, there were pros and there were cons. Many don’t like that the gameplay for Spore really isn’t all that complex. It’s too casual, some say! What does Will Wright think of the reviews, though?
We were very focused, if anything, on making a game for more casual players. Spore has more depth than, let’s say, The Sims did. But we looked at the Metacritic scores for Sims 2, which was around 90, and something like Half-Life, which was 97, and we decided — quite a while back — that we would rather have the Metacritic and sales of “Sims 2″ than the Metacritic and sales of Half-Life.
Oh. Okay.
Will Wright Reacts To Critical ‘Spore’ Reviews, Reveals Personal Playing Style [Multiplayer]
With all those gajillion characters in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, there was one glaring omission: Mega-Man. The Capcom mascott seems like a sure fit for Smash Bros. So what gives? Did Capcom refuse to let the character appear in the game? Mega-Man creator Keiji Inafune answers:
That is probably a question better suited for Nintendo than for Capcom. If they were to ask, I see no reason to say no. We’ll see what happens.
Does that mean Nintendo didn’t ask? If so, why didn’t it? Questions, questions, questions. There’s more questions over at the official Capcom Blog. Answers, too. Read them if you like.
Inafune-san Answers Your Questions! [Capcom]
Flaw or solid design decision? Bad content or work in progress? When you jump online to browse the forum of your favourite MMO, what are you likely to type out in response to criticism? Dave Kidd over at Trembling Hand has written a great piece that should help you identify whether you’re an MMO apologist or fan. From the story:
They’re ultra conservative about the state of the game, and they place enormous faith in the wisdom and work ethic of its creators. They’ll excuse clearly broken parts of the game as ‘design decisions’ and they see criticism as a personal attack on the developer — and thus themselves — and consequently respond defensively. It’s a black and white world for the Apologist and you’re either with him or against him.
Have you been caught out as a sycophant? You might find the answer is “yes”.
Are You a MMO Fan or an Apologist? [Trembling Hand]
We all know with World of Warcraft under its belt, Blizzard is a force to be reckoned with. At Activate Asia 08, Activision Blizzard’s senior VP and MD Philip Earl agreed with this sentiment, stating that, with the exception of Australia and NZ, the two companies will have separate offices to handle their respective titles. As for us, Activision Blizzard handles it all – Call of Duty and World of Warcraft alike.
Sounds simple enough, right? Mostly, until you throw in the fact Blizzard will handle Sierra products in Southeast Asia. What’s left of Sierra that is.
If there’s one thing I’ll miss about being a games journo, it’s the promos. They can range from truly excellent to downright WTF, but today THQ has firmly landed in the former category with this branded Saints Row 2 bulletproof vest, which arrived on my doorstep this morning.
It’s not a real vest, just a decent approximation, though if I walked into a bank with this baby and a spray-painted cap gun, I’m sure I’d end up on the ground with a real weapon stuck in my back. That’s what I like to think, in the fantasy land in my head, anyway.
It’s a shame – of sorts – that it has my name on it. It’d make an excellent giveaway otherwise. A less exciting photo of the other side, after the jump.
Update: Okay, not only has THQ confirmed it’s for Saints Row 2, but it’s written on the back of the vest. Where did the confusion come from? Ultor is present in both games.
Stop asking, Tool fans. Actually, stop endlessly whining, because you’ve got your wish: Tool will be appearing in Guitar Hero: World Tour. Not literally appearing, mind you, as they won’t be in-game characters, but they will have an in-game arena, which they co-designed and which will highlight “the art style that has become a staple in their music videos, live shows and album artwork”. The songs featured are all of the more recent variety (no Forty-Six & 2, sorry), with Parabola and Schism from Lateralus joined by Vicarious, from 10,000 Days.
