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If GTA IV is going to be truly groundbreaking, then it will have to break ground in another realm: Real-life crimes to blame on it. Happily, GamesRadar is on the leading edge of this, spotting eight new crimes that imbecilic mainstream media will be thrilled to pin on "gamers", Rockstar, and this particular title.
As an 8-year-old in 1981, I would read this Atari game catalogue and think about all the amazing $US 40 games they offered that my paperboy earnings could not cover. And then I'd turn to the back page and read about the Atari Game Club, in Sunnyvale, California.
Sunnyvale. It had a videogame Wonkaland sound to it. Sunnyvale. Where, maybe, Pac-Man was the mayor. And Ms. Pac-Man was the wife of the mayor. And Jr. Pac-Man was the butane-huffing embarrassment son of the mayor. And Mario ran the public works. And Donkey Kong drove a bus. And Frogger was the crossing guard. And Pengo was an exhibit at the zoo. And Zeke the Zookeeper ...
Sometimes I pick up my controller, even if I'm not playing any games, and fly it around imagining it's a space fighter. That's about as far as I get with modding these things. But HacknMod has a few fun projects cooler than that, if you don't mind putting your controller, or two, out of service while you get it right. Even if you aren't mechanically inclined, they're cool to look at. The how-tos include:
Told you we'd have another Hot Flash. And here's a sweet one right in your hot little hands: Compulse, which excels as only a flash game can: stupid-simple premise, a thought-provoking challenge, addictive replay and best of all, entrancing Asian-theme music. Best of all, it will save your progress (specific to your IP address). And when you start, it tells you "A game has been created in your honour." It's like being pampered at a gamer's day spa.
Compulse [jmtb02 Studios]
Min Kim, Nexon America's director of game operations, sat down with Gamasutra to talk about the free to play model, Nexon's expansion to the 360 and the DS. On the issue of people dismissing the business model:
I don't want to discount people, but I don't think they're doing all the right research, because I see all the misconceptions that people have about what our business is. If they're going to ask the right questions, we could probably tell them.Or if they would just go in and experience our games. A lot of people talk about it like, "Hey, this can't work," or "It doesn't have the right balance," and then when I ask them questions like, "Have you played it or seen it?" they're like, "No, but it's like this!" and I'm like... (laughs)
Brandon Erickson at Gamecritics puts forth an interesting question. Is there a "critical period" in children for learning video game skills, the same as there is for language? It doesn't preclude the learning of languages, or the innate hand-eye coordination specific to video games, later in life, but it may explain why younger kids who grow up using controllers second nature will, depending on the game, always whip the arse of an adult who learned on that stupid Colecovision phone-looking thing.
Only a Game has a fun post on the 'top 10 video game emotions' - emotions that people recognise as both present while they're playing, and enhancements of gameplay:
Based on the 1,040 responses to the DGD2 survey, I have ranked the top 10 emotions with their average score out of 5 to get a rough-and-ready estimate of the popularity of various emotions. This isn't a strict scientific measure, as such, but the highest scoring emotions are those for which the majority of people not only recognised having that emotion while playing games, but recognised it enhanced their enjoyment.
When it came time to pop the question, reader Brian Klima did it right. No scoreboard message at a baseball game, no skywriting, no jewelry buried in the dessert. He proposed marriage to his one true love with all the charm and romance that is Super Smash Bros. Brawl Grab your hankies and hit the jump.
My undergraduate thesis was long, kinda boring, and involved dead imperialists; two students at McMaster University have created a Half-Life 2 mod called Half-Life Havoc for theirs, and attached a little paper on the history of video game physics.
Sir Cucumber at The Resigned Gamer has penned four haiku (haikus? Is this like "deer" or something ...) on the essence of video game love, prefaced with a rather creepy comparison to ... uh, butter. Nnnhkay. The chuckles include Disaster Report, Bully (the obligatory dude-on-dude kissing) Mappy-Land (at left) and Wall Street Kid. Enjoy.
Daniel Cook of Lost Garden has another thought provoking article up on Gamasutra, this one on the casual games market. Targeted more at developers, it's still an interesting look at the promises and pitfalls of the current distribution models:
I'm not much of a religious man, but every time I have to break out the kitchen shears to open a set of earbuds or a spare controller, I consider joining a faith just so I can believe in a hell just so whoever designed clamshell packaging can burn in it.
I'm not entirely sure what's going on with the HBMG Foundation's 'ArtSpark' competition (designing a stage play or a video game seems to be a pretty broad spectrum of potential products), but in case you're feeling creative, submit an application for the 2008 collaborative competition. Since we here at Kotaku didn't get the information until yesterday, the nice people at HBMG are apparently willing to extend the deadline a little for those of you who came by this information on Kotaku.
Grand Theft Auto IV has been on pre-order in my Amazon account ever since I got laid off last May and bought a lot of crap with my severance. The original release date was, what, October? At that time I thought I'd still be looking for work, and GTA is one of the great unemployed game franchises of all time. But fortunately (or not, if you have really distorted priorities) I have a job now.
Mainland China is the place to be for outsourcing, but Disney's game branch is bypassing that whole 'farming out to other companies' thing in lieu of purchasing GameStar, the company they've been using for outsourcing. Founded in '02, GameStar has offices in Shanghai and Wuhan, and will become the sixth studio in Disney's gaming portfolio.
Remember the hand-holding satire "You Have to Burn the Rope" from last week? If the game play was a little ... unsophisticated, then at least the soundtrack got a solid thumbs up from the peanut gallery here. "It's like Still Alive epic!" said commenter Bokusatsu_Tenshi. t0yrobo called it "better than the Portal song."
As a colour-blind gamer, I can't recall having many eye-rubbing hangups over which side to attack, who was friend or who was foe. You don't need colours to tell the opposite side in a game like Star Wars: Battlefront, for example, and the only way to miss red versus blue in Halo would be to lack all colour vision. And Guitar Hero is more about finger position than it is the hue of the button to push.
Happy Saturday to all of you out in Kotakopolis. Here's a quick recap of our original stories in the past week, highlighted by Flynn getting sucked into a real-life, real-time spy mystery like a wide-eyed, amnesiac Matt Damon.
We also got looks at child labour inside the Bashcraft origami household sweatshop, and a set of diapers for leaky bladder Fahey. Let's not forget Crecente's magnum opus on Grand Theft Auto IV's multiplayer modes, four in all, and a followup.
Finally, for a week that began by asking for gamers to confess their neurotic behaviour, we got a picture of that guy to the left, which does a fine job of answering the question. If you missed any of these stories now's your chance to catch up before we hit the weekend report.
(Also, this is as good a space as any to ask this, since it isn't worth a post unto itself. I'm looking for some good gaming headphones. If any of you have a favourite pair, let me know in the comments. I take my audio pretty seriously. Thanks.)
Telltale Games Demos Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People For WiiWare
The Nintendo Media Summit Day One Wrap-Up
Nintendo Demos Mario Super Sluggers For Wii
LE Metal Gear Solid 4 Will Only Be Available at GameStop
Growing Up With Fallout 3
Why The Bad Company Win Isn't A Win At All
Teen Dating Violence Design Challenge Extended
Professor De Marco and the Mysterious Cell Phone Part 3: The Reveal
Rock Band European Release Doesn't Include Australia
The Ultimate Fanboy
GTA IV Multiplayer: Just the Facts Please
Creepy Crawlers: Hands On With Deadly Creatures
Arcana Heart Review: Fatal Fists Of Female Fury
Hands on With GTA Multiplayer: City of Chaos
Monolith Wasn't Taking The Piss
Red Planet: Hands on With Red Faction Guerrilla
Undiscouraged, Mini Bash Creates Seven Origami Lites
Rough Riding: Hands on With Baja
Ninja Gaiden II Impressions: Bloodbath
Doodle Hex Gameplay Video
Are You a Neurotic Gamer?
