Month: February 2007

Bad Design 4

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It’s nobody’s favorite time again, time to be anal retentive about game design! This column is usually filled with great games that messed up in a few spots. Today’s entry is different because two of the three games are barely tolerable.

Hell hounds? More like heck hounds!

Heroes of Might and Magic 3: Lack of Interesting Conflict — Heroes 3 has the same problem War Craft 2 had. You either win a tremendous victory, or get your ass completely destroyed. There is very little middle ground in the game and even fewer turn arounds. While it may be just because I suck at the game, I never start a game losing and then slowly make a come from behind victory. I build a massive force and crush the enemy quickly, get devastated, or slowly lose more and more ground with each battle. →  Read the rest

Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest Impressions

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My girlfriend surprised me last night and bestowed upon me the greatest Valentine’s Day present ever given to a human being: the lost, but not forgotten, Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest for the GameCube.

Don’t know what Cubivore is? It’s no surprise, as it’s probably the rarest GameCube game ever made. If you can find it used, the game fetches for $30 at local game stores.

It was developed by Japanese developer Saru Brunei, and it was dead in the water before it was even released in 2002, mostly due to its extremely basic graphical presentation. It first started out as an N64 title, but was later released on the GC. Sadly, the graphics were never really spruced up for the new hardware.

The name says it all; everything in the game, from the land to enemies, are all made of cubes. →  Read the rest

Weekly News We Care About Wrap Up – 2.9.07

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Jack Tretton wants to give you $1200
In the March issue of EGM, Sony’s Jack Tretton declared, “If you can find a PS3 anywhere in North America that’s been on shelves for more than five minutes, I’ll give you 1,200 bucks for it.” This interview has been reported on before, but the quote is too funny not to highlight.

To make matters worse for Tretton, EGM responds to his offer by explaining that they called 18 random retailers and half of them had PS3s sitting on shelves. Tretton replied with, “I am not sitting in the store to know when they got put on the shelves or if a salesperson is giving you accurate information, but if only nine of the 18 stores you contacted had supplies, that seems to be a clear indication that sales continue to be outstanding.” →  Read the rest

Manhunt 2 Hunting Men on Wii

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Earlier this week, Rockstar announced that they are developing the sequel to 2003’s snuff-arific Manhunt for the PS2, PSP, and Wii, which will be cleverly dubbed Manhunt 2. All three will be released sometime this summer.

Many of you will probably remember Manhunt as the game that had you creating elaborate snuff films for the corrupt “Director,” using items like plastic bags and shards of glass to off your victims. It definitely wasn’t the nicest game ever made. You aren’t going to find any cute little bunnies running around with adorable smiles on their faces in this game.

So how the hell did this game end on the Wii, a Nintendo system, without the requisite cute little bunnies? You do have to wonder how Take2 and Rockstar decided to bring it to that system, based on the fact that Rockstar has put out very few games for any Nintendo system in the past. →  Read the rest

Review – Office Purks

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christian says:
About a month ago I played The Shivah. Although it was made in something simple like Adventure Game Studio, it had fantastic production values, a lot of craft to the graphical design, and some decent gameplay hampered by a lack of originality. Bottom line was that for the five five dollars I paid for it, I got a great little game that showed a lot of personality.

To me, this is what indie gaming is all about. Yes, I love to see innovations and new ideas floating around. But if an indie developer can get personal, to use their game to show us something special to them, then they’ve used their avenue of development to the fullest, because its something you just can’t do very easily within a big time studio. →  Read the rest

Hidden Beneath the Waves: Tech Guide to your PSP

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Having trouble figuring out how to make the most out of that super-sexy but dust-covered Sony PSP? Well, you came to the right place. In this guide, I will help you understand and utilize all of the abilities of the Playstation Portable. You’ll finally understand how to get podcasts, mp3’s, videos and demos working on your PSP. Sadly, this does not include homebrew, as that is beyond my technical expertise. I’m trying to make you use your PSP more, not break it in the process, as it is not legal to put homebrew on the system (dictated by Sony, of course).

Before you start, I suggest you go out and buy a 1GB Memory Stick Pro Duo from Sandisk. The memory card that Sony supplies (256MB) is far too small to use for anything worthwhile. →  Read the rest

Is Wii screwed?

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Amidst all the recent articles on how the Wii is creating gamers out of grandmas and still out of stock around the nation, there are murmurs of doubt. Few people doubt the control scheme; it works well and is a lot of fun. But it remains unclear if Nintendo will be able to satisfy either their hardcore fans or their new casual gamer audience. Detractors are already labeling the Wii a repeat of the Gamecube; a platform for Nintendo games but little else.

As expected, the Wii will have a solid lineup of first party games:

Animal Crossing
Battalion Wars 2*
Big Brain Academy
Disaster: Day of Crisis*
DK Bongo Blast*
Fire Emblem
Mario Kart (not officially announced)
Mario Party 8
Mario Strikers Charged*
Metroid Prime 3*
Kirby
Pokemon Battle Revolution
Project HAMMER
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Paper Mario
Super Smash Brother Brawl

* Published but not developed by Nintendo

This move looks unfair.

 →  Read the rest

Adventure Games on the Rebound? We Can Only Hope

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It’s official. I’ve been bitten by the adventure gaming bug. Yes, I know, I’m about ten years too late, but in the month of January, we have seen not one, but TWO adventure games come out for the DS. You have the awesome Phoenix Wright: Justice for All, and the excellent noir crime-drama Hotel Dusk: Room 215 from Cing. I bought them both and have been thoroughly enjoying myself.

And I think the bug has bitten another gamer on the net: a journalist by the name of Scott Nixon of Gamasutra. He has even written an article on the subject, asking for a rebirth of the once great genre, with an update to some of its outdated gameplay conventions (enough pixel-hunting!). It’s a great read for fans of the nearly dead genre, and I humbly suggest checking it out, courtesy of Gamasutra. →  Read the rest

Farewell to the Game Boy

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Since I, like many of my fellow videolamer staff, now have a DS Lite, I am enjoying many new and interesting games. It even has backwards compatibility, making my GBA titles more vibrant and colorful than ever. But I was left with a small pang of sadness when I noticed that the original Game Boy games – as had been reported – simply don’t fit into the GBA slot. This isn’t so much of a surprise, although I had been keeping up hope.

And so, I must bid farewell to my old portable games. They kept me engaged through even the longest road trips when I was younger, and I will now move on to newer, more colorful and touch-friendly games.

The original Game Boy somewhat resembles a grey brick. It’s large and quite heavy by today’s standards. →  Read the rest

Translations: Original Content or Pop Culture References?

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I’ve been playing a lot of Phoenix Wright: Justice for All lately, and I’ve been finding quite a few references to TV shows. They have one from the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air series, as well as one from a current soap opera, which will remain nameless to conceal the fact that I know a thing or two about a soap opera.

Now, I know some of you readers out there are hardcore RPG fans, and will probably get rubbed the wrong way from references like these. Something tells me that you would rather see more original jokes instead of some quote from a TV show. I personally have found no problem with this, but was wondering how everyone else felt on the subject.

It’s cool to see a game like Phoenix Wright talk about a TV show I grew up watching (not the soap opera), but on the other hand, it seems a little cheap to throw in some quick quote from a show, possibly crossing the border of funny to mainstream pop-culture that we all seem to hate. →  Read the rest

Review – Super Swing Golf

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After playing my first round of Wii Sports golf I couldn’t wait for a developer to make a golf simulator for the system. I’m a huge fan of the Tiger Woods and Links series and an actual real-life golfer and the possibility of getting a solid golf sim on the Wii was quite exciting. Until then, I’ll have to make due with Super Swing Golf.

The primary thing that makes Super Swing Golf practically unplayable is the swing controls. If you’re going to put out a golf sim you’d better made sure your swing mechanics are rock solid. I don’t care that it’s a pseudo-rpg. I don’t care about the cutesy graphics and plot. I don’t care about fantasy courses. I want to swing my Wiimote like a real golf club and get real club-like results. →  Read the rest

Weekly News We Care About Wrap Up – 2.2.07

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Sony contemplates PS3 price cuts
A little more than a week ago, Sony’s Jack Tretton said there would not be a price cut to the PS3 any time soon.

Soon after Takao Yuhara announced, “We may look at the price as part of our strategy to expand the market when the timing is right.” Most sites are running with the idea that Sony has changed their stance on price. It doesn’t seem clear that Yuhara means Sony will change pricing any time soon, nor does he mention any specific territory.

Sony claims that they took a hit from the PS3 price reduction in Japan, so it seems counterintuitive for them to talk about more cuts. They are likely doing damage control since about every gaming website not owned by Sony has chalked up the phenomenon of PS3s sitting on shelves to its exorbitant price. →  Read the rest

Nintendo Says “Huh?” to N64 Memory Pak on VC

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I think the Big N missed the memo that was sent around the office (or rather, world) on what their fans want. Nintendo apparently forgot to include any code in their emulation software to simulate the N64 Memory Pak peripheral. This means that any game that utilized it will have to forgo it completely. As of now, only Mario Kart 64 uses it for saving time trial ghosts, but there are games out there that use it far more extensively.

Games like WinBack, Shadowman, and Extreme-G all used the memory pak for single-player game saves. The peripheral, which would connect to the expansion bay on the N64 controller, was integral to the enjoyment of these otherwise great games of yesteryear. So what does Nintendo have to say for themselves? Apparently that we shouldn’t have even asked in the first place. →  Read the rest

A manifesto on Manifesto Games with a review of The Shivah for added value

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Greg Costikyan’s name comes up a lot when it comes to indie game development. Apparently, the man has worked on a few games and written some fiction in his life, and somehow he has become a major voice on independent games. He seems to believe that indie games can and will crush largescale publishers and end their greedy and bullying practices. To help do this, he has created Manifesto Games, a place where indie developers and fans can join together to buy, discuss and promote the best in indie gaming.

I have a lot of respect for Costikyan’s ideal, but every time I read anything written by him, I can’t help but feel that he’s batshit insane. Maybe that is too strong of a phrase, but he certainly reminds me of college students who worship indie anything like a religion and still think that communism can actually work (after all, his site is called Manifesto, and its splashed all over with red). →  Read the rest

The Circle is Now Complete: Wii News Channel Released

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After being MIA since launch, Nintendo finally released the News Channel for the Wii last Friday. Using the Associated Press as its information provider, the Wii News Channel lets you read regional, national and even international news stories, all at the click of your Wii-mote.

Nintendo, in all their wisdom, even included the Globe feature from the recently released Forecast Channel. If users want, they can rotate a realistic-looking 3D globe (complete with topographical data from NASA), looking for news stories from any region on Earth, as well as brush up on their geography. It still amazes me that the Sahara Desert is really that big. The damn thing covers almost half of the African continent.

Anyway, after using the News Channel for almost a week now, I’ve gone from not caring about any news to feverishly wanting to fire up the channel every night after work. →  Read the rest