I'm thinking of redesigning the site in neon pink. Thoughts?
A quick note to later comers and lollygaggers: The award-winning, highly-praised by critics and gamers alike Resident Evil 4 has been added to the Gamecube's Player's Choice line. Thus, effective immediately, copies of the game now retail for $19.99. If you missed it the first time around, there's really no excuse not to check it out now.
Source: IGN
A writer at Kotaku has posted the results of an interesting little experiment. Noticing that both Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution have the Joan Jett classic "I Love Rock and Roll" on them, he proceded to set up both games using two systems (the PS2 version of Guitar Hero and the Xbox version of Karaoke), two TVs, and a bit of patience. The two games don't start the song at the same time, so he had to do some careful timing to get them lined up. The result? Well, there's a video at the link.
It's only a matter of time before someone finds a DDR song that matches "I Love Rock and Roll"'s beat and really ups the ante. On the subject, why not check out Gamespot's top ten rhythm games while you've got your dancin' shoes on.
Source: Kotaku
Game Politics is reporting that Blank Rome, a Philadelphia law firm which represents Take Two and Rockstar, has filed a complaint with the Florida Bar Association against outspoken anti-game activist and general nutjob Jack Thompson. This makes the third complaint against Thompson currently under investigation, the other two involving the Alabama Bar where Thompson had (note the past tense) a temporary license to practice law, and a previous issue regarding his attempts to get Howard Stern pulled off the air and thrown in jail for obscenity.
Thompson's response to the Blank Rome complaint read: "My lawyer and I just received word from The Florida Bar that Blank Rome has just filed a Bar complaint against me. Ah, how stupid can one bunch of porn lawyers get?"
Violent video games, in Thompson's mind, constitute "porn." Just in case you were wondering.
Source: Game Politics
StarForce is a copy protection program used in a number of PC titles such as Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood and, inexplicably, Trackmania Nations, which is a free-to-distribute title. It's known to install without the player's knowledge and cause instability and even crashes in computers, a claim which the makers refute and blame instead of "beginner-level hackers that try to go around our protection system." You can read more in detail about the woes associated with StarForce here.
It's precisely that article that caused a StarForce representative to threaten to sue the author of the piece, claiming it contains "insults, lies, false accusations and rumors." He goes on to say he has contacted the FBI on the matter "because what you are doing is harassment." It turns out that this isn't the first threat he's made, either; He also wrote a lenghty response to, of all things, a post by a reader on CNet talking about StarForce in the comment thread for their Sony Rootkit article.
What is it with all the loons in this industry lately?
Source: Boing Boing
Actual site graphics forthcoming. Dogg I got this totally wicked Java thing that makes pictures look like they're rippling on water.
You've heard about it, now give it a go yourself - Nintendo's oft-talked about Brain Training is coming to America, retitled as Brain Age. One of the reasons Brain Training has gotten such attention is its surprising popularity with older Japanese gamers, many of whom have never played a video game before.
Brain Age (known as Brain Training in Japan) was inspired by the work of Professor Ryuta Kawashima, a prominent Japanese neuroscientist. His studies evaluated the effect of performing reading and mathematic exercises to help stimulate the brain."Young or old, everyone looks for ways to get a mental edge," says Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales & marketing. "Our brain-training series, led by Brain Age, builds on the popularity of word and number puzzles and acts as a treadmill for the mind."
Brain Age offers a series of mental challenges in categories such as word memorization, counting and reading. Big Brain Academy, the second in the Brain Training series and also coming to America (known in Japan as Brain Flex), deals with subjects such as logic, memory, math and analysis. Eight people can play on a single card, and each activity takes less than a minute to complete. The more often people play, the better they get at completing the challenges, and thus lower their estimated "brain age."
Nintendo is looking to appeal to older gamers outside of Japan much as they did within it; They've announced plans to advertise Brain Age in Saga, a UK magazine aimed at readers over 50.
"I haven't seen this game yet, but from what I've read about it, it sounds like it could be terrific for [our readers]," [Saga rep] Soames told GamesIndustry.biz, adding that 'Use it or Lose it' - Saga's puzzle page - is one of the most popular sections of the magazine."We've done several pieces in the magazine recently drawing on medical research which shows it is exactly that - if you don't use it, you lose it. [Playing games] is one of the ways to stay mentally sharp and alert."
Brain Age is planned for an April 17 release. Big Brain Academy, will follow soon after on May 30.
Source: Joystiq
Blizzard got themselves in a bit of a pickle last week after sending a warning to a World of Warcraft player named Sara Andrews who was advertising her guild as "LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] friendly." The warning stated that Andrews was in breach under the "Harrassment - Sexual Orientation" category of the terms of use. The category in question refers to "both clear and masked language which... Insultingly refers to any aspect of sexual orientation pertaining to themselves or other players."
Andrews contacted Blizzard to contest the decision, but was told: "While some language in and of itself may not be offensive, it may incite certain responses in other players that will allow for discussion that we feel has no place in our game."
It turns out that Blizzard tries to control the decorum of in-game chat in part by barring mention of sensitive real world subjects such as religion, politics, or sexual orientation that often lead to harrassment. They feel that making a gay friendly guild -- even though it does not actually restrict the kind of people who are allowed to join -- is more likely to incite strife between members and lead to harrassment and discrimination. This may be the case -- hell, it's definitely the case. But should that justify Blizzard's actions? The issue is compounded when one considers that one of the reasons to create a gay friendly guild is to get away from abuse.
Andrews said that she planned to cancel her World of Warcraft subscription as a result of Blizzard's refusal to reverse their decision, arguing that the word "gay" is often used as a term of abuse by players along with more offensive slang words."It seems to be okay for general chat to be flooded with [these terms], yet advertising for a GLBT friendly environment where we don't have to deal with such language is deemed inappropriate," Andrews stated.
Blizzard still has yet to show any signs of budging on the topic, saying only that they will be "clarifying some of the language" in their policies to help avoid confusion in the future.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl has been one of the most anticipated and yet most delayed PC titles in recent years. IGN has news updates for the game dating back to April 5, 2002, back when its subtitle was Oblivion Lost. Publisher THQ has admitted that, among other things, the development team (GSC Gameworld) being located in Kiev, Ukraine made it hard to keep a constant eye on the game's status. Now comes news that THQ is getting fed up with the lack of progress.
"We don't care what shape the game will ship in anymore, - said one of the THQ bosses to an IGN journalist, - the game must ship in 2006". In addition to all this last week part of the original STALKER development team was moved to another project and another part was simply made redundant. "These were considerable dismissals," - told the source that still remained a member of the GSC staff, - "I heard that next week a THQ representative will arrive and he is going to stay until the project is finished."
One GSC member speculates that THQ may take the game away from them and hand it off to a different developer to finish. A programmer on the team says this would not be a good idea, because "The code is mostly not documented, they wouldn't understand a thing there." I'm not sure if he meant that to be reassuring, but (if it's true) it would be further evidence that GSC's operations are somewhat slipshod. Other quotes from members of the team in the article make the game sound more like a general concept than a game in real development. "STALKER always was in the state of general design. It's always been a project which was more spoken of than really done."
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. isn't quite in Duke Nukem Forever territory - There was a reasonably playable leaked alpha (a few, actually), and reporters have been given the opportunity to play it before, which is more than can be said for DNF. However, while it's too soon to say without knowing exactly what THQ has to work with, it's looking more and more like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. may limp to the finish rather than be the blockbuster it was hoped to be.
Source: Gameguru Mania
We're already a full month into 2006?
Saturdays are slow.
Dr. Bryan Raudenbush at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virgina has completed a study entitled Effects of Video Game Play Types on Pain Threshold and Tolerance, which seeks to determine how different genres of video games can distract patients from pain.
The study examined 6 genre types (action, puzzle, arcade, fighting, sport, and boxing). While playing a game for a 10-minute period participants were subjected to a cold pressor test while pain ratings were recorded on a scale from 0-10 every 30 seconds to a maximum of 5 minutes. Physiological measures were monitored (pulse, blood pressures, oxygen saturation) prior to and during these sessions. Additional questionnaires then measured aggressiveness, competitiveness, video game playing habits, mood, and workload.
The study showed that sports and fighting games were the most effective for distracting the player from pain, while also showing that the sports games produced the most anger. Radenbush went on to say suggest that games could be most helpful to children and young adults (the most common users of video games) undergoing painful procedures or suffering from chronic pain. He said that games could also be used in doctors' waiting rooms to distract children from upcoming surgical procedures.
Source: GameDaily
Tetris DS is the newest iteration of the classic puzzle game, this time with six modes take advantage of the DS' abilities (including online play). In addition, each mode has a different theme based on a classic Nintendo game, such as the classic Tetris mode which features Mario running and hopping on enemies as you play.
Four of the modes have yet to be revealed (Nintendo claims the info on them will be "released periodically"), but the newest mode unveiled is called Touch.
The second mode, called "Touch," utilizes the DS's touch screen for a unique form of play. You'll be able to drag the Tetriminos where you want them using the stylus and spin them by tapping them. Unlike regular Tetris, Touch isn't realtime, which means you can take all the time you need to plan your moves. It's not clear whether the screens below are taken from the Touch mode; it seems unlikely, though, as it would be impossible to drag the blocks onto the top screen.
The "screens below" refers to several new shots of a mode featuring a Balloon Fight theme, one of which seen here on the right. More screens available at the link, though one screen sorta says it all with Tetris.
Tetris DS is scheduled for March 20.
Source: Games Are Fun
From 4 color rebellion comes a warning to Animal Crossing: Wild World players about a bugged gift item that has the potential to wreck homes and villages.
From what people have been reporting, you’re receiving a letter from _blank_, marked as “From ” containg a gift named “Red Tulips”. The letter contains no content whatsoever and has no closing. The item shows up as a piece of furniture (green leef) and this is where the fun begins…
The gist is that if you drop the item somewhere, you'll lose that space forever. The space where you dropped the item will empty, and you can walk over it, but you will be unable to place another item over it or push furniture over it. If you drop it outself, it will plant a sprout no matter where you are, even on concrete. In short, if you get the letter, just leave it alone. If it's really freaking you out, you can apparently sell it to Tom Nook with no ill effects. For the curious, there's a video of the item in action.
According to a 4cr contributor, a Nintendo representative said the letter is not a glitch, but an unfinished letter that was sent out accidentally. Nintendo is currently working on a fix for those who have already dropped the item in their game.
I ride with Rodney.