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Soccer? Pretty Great
Posted by Brian Ashcraft at 11:40 PM on July 1, 2008
To: Crecente
From: Bashcraft
So, yeah, everyday I've been playing soccer when the kid. When I was younger, I played soccer for a few years, but later, got more interested in baseball. The kid really likes soccer, and man, I'm quite enjoying it! Don't remember liking soccer this much. It's really a great game — love the passing, love it.
What you missed last night
Two New Tatsunoko vs. Capcom Characters Revealed!
Sony Files Multi-Touch Portable Patent
Microsoft: If We Launch A Game On 360 & PC Simultaneously, We Shoot Ourselves In The Foot
Too Human: "This Has To Be The Worst Game I've Played In The Last 5 Years"
Let's Dress Up Chun-Li
Rock Band 2's Guitar Is Easy On The Eye"
Too Human Hands-On: Six Hours In And Half-Way Home

Activision honcho Bobby Kotick is worried. Very worried. Video game consoles are expensive! And to buy them, you need money. Lots. As Kotick points out:
The recent location
Before Phil Harrison left Sony to work for Atari, he cleaned out his desk. But before that, he was inventing stuff. What kind of stuff? Futuristic stuff. A new Sony patent has surfaced for a handheld gizmo that features a touchscreen and "pressure pads" running around its edges. According to the US Patent and Trademark Office, it's a "handheld device with touchscreen and digital tactile pixels" that can also be used to control the touchscreen. There's no specific mention of the PlayStation Portable, but the patent does mention potential uses in phones, gaming devices and portable media players. What's more, it does sound suspiciously like what we heard last year about
While many publishers today see the PC as a handy way to make a quick buck on the side - see Capcom for reference - not everyone thinks releasing major titles on console and PC simultaneously is a good idea. Like, Microsoft Europe don't. Indeed, Microsoft Europe's Peter Zetterberg thinks it's a terrible idea. Why? Because while many people have PCs, not so many people own 360s. Using the German market as an example, he says:
Xbox 360's Achievements make a noise when unlocked. Not only that, a recognisable noise. But what about PlayStation Trophies? Will they make a noise? When the Sony 2.40 Firmware FAQ went live yesterday, it was sadly noted that the PS3 Trophies would not make an in-game sound effect when achieved. Wrong! Says Sony's Jeff Rubenstein:
Being an EA Sports game, when we talk the latest version of FIFA, we're not talking sweeping changes. We're talking the slightest of tinkering. Especially when you consider they're closing the gap on Pro Evo's lead in the quality stakes, and as such obviously don't want to go blowing that with any radical alterations. So when EA are talking up FIFA 09 with stuff like "Custom Team Tactics" (plus other "innovations" you could swear they already introduced between FIFA's 98-08), it's only of interest to the sharpest point of the FIFA fanbase. What is interesting, however, is an improved animation system (long FIFA's chief problem), as well as
Poor Denis Dyack. Too Human's not even out yet, and already, the knives are out. None sharper than this one: over on the Eurogamer boards, one of the site's mods - a chap who claims to be a journo - says his Too Human review NDA is "against [his] human rights". He also says "this has to be the worst game I've played in the last 5 years", citing everything from the game's animation to its supposedly repetitive combat. This follows on from a few hands-on impressions hitting yesterday that range from the
Look at your calendars! It's July. Last month was very busy for Japan's biggest Xbox 360 fanboy Jamzy. Jamzy occupied himself with video games, some lady's bellybutton and dog cake. Jamzy's list of game's he played last month includes two PSP games (Tales of Rebirth, Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G), two DS games (Derby Stallion DS, Daigassou Band Brothers DX) and two Xbox 360 games (Mobile Suit Gundam Operation: Troy, Battlefield Bad Company). That's right, Jamzy doesn't play PS3 or Wii -- he's serious, haircutting business! In the picture above, Jamzy plays through Battlefield Bad Company at an EA event. After the jump, his dog has a birthday part, and Jamzy puts the animal in funny outfits. Ah, to be the underdog's dog...
Gears of War has great gameplay. Beyond that, we really don't remember much about it. (Oh well, we remember that The Cliffster made it back when he had another name.) But according to voice actor Carlos Ferro, who's Dominic Santiago, the sequel packs an emotional wallop. Says Ferro:
Here comes a new challenger! Ack. Sorry. Couldn't resist. But then neither could Britons, as regardless of its agonisingly late release, Super Smash Bros. kicks off its stay in the charts at #1. Battlefield Bad Company also enjoys a surprisingly strong debut, entering the charts at #2 (and #7), while going the other way - and going the other way fast - is Metal Gear Solid 4, which drops from 1st to 5th, beaten out by such titles as the two above and...Big Beach Sports.
On the PS2, Sony offered a headset with the purchase of SOCOM, help sweeten the deal. Seemed to work well, so no reason to go changing things, is there? So when SOCOM Confrontation is
As we
Few, if any, surprises here. After all, the Sporepedia didn't get to a gagillion monsters entered without people picking up the tools to enter monsters, so seeing the Spore Creature Creator at the #1 spot in the PC sales charts is a given. It also means Maxis have another game to clutter these charts up with. What, The Sims aren't doing enough business for you these days?
Starting July 18th, Street Fighter IV will be playable in Japanese arcades. To save your arcade achievements, the game will use Taito's NESYS Card System. (Makes sense as the game runs on the Taito Type X2 arcade system board!) The NESYS Card will come in four patterns, all of which are pictured. This saved player data contains the player name that appears on-screen in versus mode. The player data can also be accessed individual cell phone SFIV player webpages, which feature stats and ranking as well as news about SFIV events. Via the mobile phone site, it's possible to create and name SFIV guilds. Players can then collect "guild points" and compete with other SFIV guilds to improve their ranking to boot!
Rock Band's guitar - when it worked - was great. Bigger unit, better fret placement, a more "grown-up" appearance...really good stuff, and a real improvement on the early Guitar Hero controllers. Still, that doesn't mean the design can't be improved upon for the game's sequel. Above, Rock Band 2's guitar controller. The licensing agreement with Fender obviously continues, except this time the guitar's finished in a lovely faux-wood finish. Some might baulk at the tackiness, but we're not talking kitchen floors here, people, we're talking plastic guitars for a videogame. Faux wood will do just fine. Bigger pics after the jump.
Don't let the name and the cute graphics fool you, Dokapon Kindom, the upcoming party RPG from Sting and Atlus, more than lives up to its subtitle "The Friendship Destroying Game". I had the pleasure of checking it out last week and testing my already somewhat tenuous relationship with my arch-enemy, GamePro's Travis Moses. It was a lot of fun and quite surpassed my expectations.
American McGee's Grimm has been somewhat of a mystery to me since it was announced. The concept sounded good, I mean anything based on Grimm's fairy tales always catches my interest. I had been anxious to see exactly what it was going to be like and today I got my chance. It was certainly different than what I expected it might be and way more as well.
That right there is the box art for upcoming tri-Ace developed, Square Enix published Xbox 360 game Infinite Undiscovery. While Square Enix never said that the single player game would have online play (hence the no "Xbox LIVE" box decal), the game's box art does have a "LIVE" logo on it (no "Xbox" though). Hrm, does that mean this offline game could very well feature online DLC? The Japanese Infinite Undiscovery
A mantra that should cause the clucking of tongues and the rolling of eyes! But no. This isn't some skateboarding series. It's no annually-updated football franchise. It's Cooking Mama! So it's with delight that we learn Majesco will be releasing a new Cooking Mama title this year, and an all-new one to boot. Called Cooking Mama World Kitchen, it's for the Wii, and aside from an entirely appropriate (and welcome) graphical upgrade, we're promised new minigame opportunities ("if you flip a burger too high, you can control Mama as she rushes in to save the day by catching it in her apron") and better motion control implementation. It should be out this holidays. Presser and NSFW screen after the jump.
After its recent location test, details about SEGA's new arcade racer R-Tuned: Ultimate Street Racing have hit. Before the race starts, players select their car and its neon lights. There are unlimited super boosts -- be careful as using it causes the steering wheel to shake and possibly lose control. Players can win money that's used to buy new cars. Racing locales include New York, Shinjuku, Shibuya and Hong Kong. All this wrapped in the same cabinet AMPlus is using for SEGA Race TV. Kind wish the cabinet's bottom was neon lit!
Downloading PS2 games on the PS3? 
I should preface this by saying the idea behind a hybrid class is fantastic. I'm the sort of player that can't stand being pigeon-holed. I like flexibility. To be stuck in the same role for months, even years, in a massively multiplayer online game sounds like torture - the sort you'd endure if someone were to swap your butt with your gonads and force you to sit the same way you always have.
I often use the example of
Just when we thought we were set for a good developer versus developer war of words, we find out that Treyarch has taken the high road, apologising for remarks made about Gearbox Software and its Brothers In Arms series. You may remember that
Update: The product page has been taken down; it looks like someone at Dick Smith may have made a boo-boo. EcoGamer recommends you give your local store a ring to see if it is willing to sell the console at the reduced price.
Sony's Eric Lempel has posted a somewhat exhaustive Q&A session on the PlayStation Blog, which details everything you may or may not have wanted to know about the console's major, upcoming firmware update. While I'm sure it was meant to be helpful, a read down his list of responses does little but drive home the point that, as neat the implementation of the trophy system is, the addition of the in-game XMB is nowhere near as useful as most of you thought/hoped it would be.
It's puzzling to think that Silicon Knights has been plugging away at Too Human for well over a decade now. Sure, it's been planned as epic stuff from the get go, back when it was a PlayStation title and boasted of a scope that would require four game discs over 80 hours of gameplay. It later became a GameCube title, a transition that obviously required much of its previous iteration to be scrapped.
I was going through a bunch of Diablo III screenshots, mourning the possible demise of the Necromancer, when I spotted this shot of a Barbarian character pounding the unlife out of a few skeletons. You'll notice he stands defiant on a circular stone ruin with ancient script imprinted around its circumference.
Have a QR-enabled phone and a burning desire to win a PS3? Then head over to our sister site,
If the Soulcalibur IV media flood has you pining for a simpler, more demure Ivy, perhaps this Soulcalibur III era Ivy from Enterbrain will fit the bill. Oh, sure, the breasts are still obscene and the outfit isn't exactly appropriate for Sunday mass, but at least there's some amount of coverage here. Plus, it's perfect for displaying on your work desk. What co-worker wouldn't impressed by $US 120 worth of PVC, moulded perfectly into Ivy form?
Doubtless you've by now heard of the book entitled
Fightin' words. That's what Call of Duty: World At War senior producer Noah Heller was speaking to Eurogamer when asked about Treyarch's World War II competition, Brothers In Arms. Asked about Gearbox Software's take on the genre, the newest iteration of which will be Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway, Heller said "I watched the trailer and I'm was like 'These guys aren't even in the same league.'" Heller has even more gentlemanly things to say about the Brothers In Arms series.
Microsoft may be dropping the price of the mid-range model of the Xbox 360, if a