Much to the dismay of everyone who comes to the Saturday Scan exclusively for pictures of people from the '80s wearing funny clothes, I'm doing something a little different the next couple weeks. Days of Mana was a special feature focusing on Squaresoft's Secret of Mana that spanned three months of Nintendo Power starting in July of 1994. This in itself was unusual, as the magazine typically focused on new games, and Secret of Mana had been released in America in November of 1993.

But the feature was unusual all around. While most games got a kind of mini-strategy guide in the magazine -- usually annotated maps for the first few levels -- Days of Mana covered the entire course of Secret of Mana, from the beginning straight to the final boss. And yet for all it's length (or perhaps because of it), it didn't really offer much in the way of strategy beyond occassionally mentioning what spell worked well against a boss. It's primarily just a journal, written from the perspective of the main character, documenting the events of the game as they unfold.

The question becomes, then, why they would dedicate a total of 36 pages over three months to simply describing a single game released a half year earlier. In the issue preceding this one, they had an additional 4 pages talking about what made Secret of Mana appealing, even pulling out charts to demonstrate the lasting appeal of the adventure/RPG genre over action games.

My only guess is that it was a genuine effort on Nintendo's part to help RPGs gain a larger American audience. People could simply read what happens in the game and become interested -- after all, I couldn't write 36 pages about what happens in Contra -- and you wouldn't scare them off with the stuffy statistics of traditional RPGs. This may just sound like good business, but I've always been a little surprised at how open NP was to covering this niche genre that they themselves often said didn't quite "fit" with American sensibilities. I mean, they gave Illusion of Gaia a cover over Super Punch-Out!!, for God's sake.

So read on and enjoy remembering all the bits of SoM you've forgotten, or just look at the.. unique artistic interpretations of the game's characters (moogles are polar bears with wings, it seems). And if you've never played an RPG, who knows. Maybe, even 12 years later, the article will serve its purpose and get you interested.

Posted by Bill at 4:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Industry and multi-console news:

• Capcom has hired a former THQ exec for the purpose of securing new Hollywood franchises to turn into games. It's time to expand into making 500 sequels out of someone else's property.
• Siliconera has an interview with redspotgames about bringing a new shooter to the Dreamcast after so many years past the system's "death."
• Video Games Live is returning for a new concert at GDC 2007 The first 400 tickets will receive a 10% discount.
• If you need some reading material, you can work on this 64 page master's thesis on storytelling in single player action games.
• The first definite mention of Prey 2 has come in a CVG interview with Human Head co-founder Chris Rhinehart.
• Jack Thompson vows to bring more public nuisance suits against games in 2007. It worked so well against Bully.
• South Korea has lifted a ban on certain military games that dealt with Korean conflicts (such as Mercenaries and Ghost Recon 2).
• Okami producer Atsushi Inaba is rumored to have set up his own studio and is working on new games.
• A hacker claims to have broken the AACS encryption on HD DVDs using a 360 HD DVD drive.
• Graphics card manufacturer Nvidia and America's Next Top Model Adrienne Curry have teamed to create the "world's first real time, virtual celebrity."
• Now you can buy your own three dimensional eight level chess set. I don't even want to think about how you play this.
• Digg exposes you to some interesting things sometimes, but they don't always do it very well. They linked directly to this image and called it a scan from "some magazine decades ago," so God only knows where it's actually from. At any rate: This clearly very old prediction of what games will be like in the future actually does a pretty good job. You'll be able to play games with people hundreds of miles away with the magic of miniature radio transmitters!

PC news:

• The official website for Clusterball 2 has opened.
• Bit-Tech hands out their 2006 best of awards.
• An earthquake in Taiwan has disrupted the virtual currency market.
• WorthPlaying reports that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has finally been pegged down to a release date: March 16, 2007. If you've forgotten what it is, CVG has a preview here.
• Extreme Tech has a year-end wrap up of the best keyboards and mice.
• The executive producer of Command & Conquer 3 says the game won't have the classic C&C installer fans of the series are familiar with.
• CNet looks at the top ten Apple rumors of all time, with number one being that persistent myth that they're going to buy Nintendo.

Nintendo news:

• Game Trailers has a new preview video for Wario Ware Smooth Moves.
• Speaking of which, Siliconera explains how 12 person multiplayer works in Wario Ware.
• Square Enix has released an official trailer for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates. The PSP FFT trailer also used this tactic of several little screens of footage at once instead of one big one. I don't know why they're afraid to show gameplay clips at a size larger than a postage stamp.
• An Ebay seller has several auctions for NES consoles custom painted with retro scenes.
• The Wii Media Center is a program that lets you stream media from your computer to your Wii.

Sony news:

• Kotaku has a feature on the decline of prices in the PS3 grey market.
• Business Week estimates that the PS2 will outsell the PS3 next year.
• A RealMoney research analyst says the PS3 "is only one of many reasons to avoid shares of the consumer-electronics conglomerate, but it's certainly the most important."

Microsoft news:

• As they did with the Halo 3 Monday Night Football ad, GameVideos and 1up have joined together again to dissect the Halo Brute documentary.
• Realizing a lot of their games get rated Z in Japan (the strongest rating in their system), Microsoft has decided to go with it by holding an "Adult Games Festa" at the Akihabara UDX 3D Theater. Don't feel you're missing out: It's mostly games we're already familiar with, like Gears of War and Dead Rising.
• There is a dead man on a toilet hidden in Gears of War. Thrilling.
• Deciding that the video alone wasn't enough, one man has turned his montage of Saints Row bug videos into a musical.
• Word is coming of Battlestar Galactica Online for the 360, but the only info there is to go on at the moment is a listing at EB Games and a couple French video game sites.

Posted by Bill at 5:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Industry and multi-console news:

• I was afraid of this: Neil Gaiman says the news of him working with Roger Avary on a Silent Hill 2 script is a "discredited internet rumour." But "if I get home to find an invitation to write Silent Hill 2 with Roger is waiting for me I'll let you all know."
• Research conducted by psychologists at the University of Rochester finds that "the psychological 'pull' of games is largely due to their capacity to engender feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness."
• Yet more end of year commentary as Wired, Worth Playing, Elite Bastards, Eurogamer and even Amazon's editors all look back on the best and worst of the year. The Worth Playing article is just their honorable mentions so far; tomorrow they'll start handing out the real awards.
• Meanwhile, PC World ranks their 20 most innovative products of the year, number one of which is... Office 2007?
• The 2007 Slamdance Guerrilla Gamemaker Competition finalists have been announced, and range from flOw to Super Columbine Massacre RPG.
• A Wall Street Journal writer takes a power meter around his home to find what takes the most juice, and determines that electronic gadgets aren't the power hogs some think, especially compared to major appliances. In rebuttal, Dennis Forbes notes that while that's true to a point, overall trends in appliance power usage are going down, while home electronics are going up.
• Game Trailers has a new, uh.. game trailer for Virtua Tennis 3.
• Researchers have tried recreating the Milgram experiment virtually, in which human subjects must deliver shocks to a computer generated character instead of a real one. Oddly, several people still couldn't go through with it all the way.
• Insert Credit has a warning about buying from importer Toys n' Joys.
• Game Lemons ranks the ten hottest girl gamers (who are actually gamers). Unfortunately, four out of the ten are Frag Dolls, and I don't know how many games they actually play that they're not getting paid for.
• NexGenWars claims the 360 has sold 9 million units and the Wii 2 million. VGCharts says the 360 has sold 7.7 million and the Wii 3.2 million. Who to believe? Who the hell knows?
• The Stamford Advocate explains more about the Entertainment Consumers Association, a new non-profit organization which will "be the collective voice for interactive entertainment consumers."
• Late online holiday sales of consoles and games were up by 50% compared to last year. Only jewelry and watches had a greater increase compared to 2005 in online ordering.
• South Korea is considering a bill to prohibit the sale or purchase of virtual currency.
• A job listing for a Warhammer console producer suggests that Warhammer Online may come to consoles.

PC news:

• A Windows Vista presskit has info on the previously unannounced HP Pavillion tx1000 Notebook PC.
• Gamasutra has a mostly technical feature on the making of Mars Sucks, a prototype that was meant to determine whether a video game could be made out of Google Earth. They also provide the source code for anyone looking to improve upon it.
• The creators of Darwinia and Defcon have announced their next project, called Subversion.
• The beta for Goldeneye Source, a recreation of the classic N64 game in Half Life 2's Source engine, is now available for download.
• This video explains how to access hidden games in Mac OS X. I realize this is the PC section, but.. hell. Macs are personal and they're computers. It's close enough.

Nintendo news:

• Contra 3 is the latest title to be rated by the ESRB for the Wii, though who knows when we'll get it. The UK will be getting the European version of the game, Super Probotector, this Friday.
• The Mii MegaMall is an all-in-one Mii downloading tool.
• Gamestop is having a sale on certain Gamecube titles through January 2. You can get Chibi Robo, Battalion Wars, or even Donkey Kong Jungle Beat with two sets of bongos for just $10 each.
• New screenshots and box art for Sim City DS, which is a port of Sim City 3000. No word on whether it will be released outside of Japan.
• A Gamespot forumer has used a "super clawshot" code to get to inaccessible parts of Twilight Princess.
• Platinum members of the Japanese Club Nintendo get to choose from a personalized Wii remote flap or a copy of Tingle's Balloon Fight on the DS. Americans, of course, get nothing. Though I'm not sure I'd want to be exposed to Tingle's balloons.
• A second Animal Crossing movie trailer has been released.

Sony news:

• A new rumor says Best Buys are sitting on PS3s to have stock for a New Year's sale.
• Here's a direct feed version of the FFT PSP trailer, if you'd like to see what it looks like without people wandering in front of it.
• Tony Blair has taken a week-long holiday in Florida, and the tabloid press got pictures of, of all things, his wife hauling around a PS3.
• Brian Crecente gets his five year old to review the Shredder, a third party Guitar Hero controller that's supposedly easier for children to use because it's smaller. Unfortunately it does not make turtle soup.

Microsoft news:

• The UK edition of the Official Xbox Magazine says that Halo 3 beta invitations might come packed with retail copies of Crackdown.

Posted by Bill at 5:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Industry and multi-console news:

• According to a translation of a French interview with Christopher Gans, Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman will team up to write the Silent Hill 2 script.
• Having left the ESA, Doug Lowenstein will go on to head the Private Equity Council. So I guess he got a little burned out on the games industry.
• Sci-Fi nerds get more to salivate over as a Battlestar Galactica RPG game book is announced. (edit: It's a pen and paper RPG. Moved because I'm retarded.)
• This nine minute YouTube montage contains every fatality from Mortal Kombat 3.
• CVG has an interview with the designer and lead programmer for Civilization III and IV, talking about the state of the PC market and what he's looking forward to next year. He also has some kind words for Nintendo, saying "the one-two punch of the DS and the Wii is making Microsoft and Sony look like dinosaurs."
• The Escapist has a good collection of articles this week, covering the rise and fall of Troika, a look at the early years of Maxis, the trials and tribulations of localization, why parents make good game developers, and one man's experience playing female avatars in MMORPGs.
• Solvalou.com has a big archive of arcade game reviews from various magazines, ranging from the mid '80s to the early '90s. You can get nostalgic over a time when arcades actually meant something, or you can just lord your elite Future Knowledge over jerks like this, who call UN Squadron a "banal horizontal shooter" and then complain that Capcom is making yet another beat-em-up. Something called "Final Fight." That sure won't succeed.

PC news:

• Ars Technica argues that the flaws in Vista reported by the New York Times recently are exagerated.
• Amiga OS 4.0 has been released.
• GameTunnel has ranked their top ten indie games for December. They've started the announcements for game of the year in various categories, with the top ten of the year to be revealed December 30.
• FiringSquad has put up the first part of a Q&A with various developers about their thoughts on 2006 and what they expect out of 2007.

Nintendo news:

• Nintendo has updated their Virtual Console list for Japan with some of the titles they'll be seeing in January. Included on the list are Mario Kart, Fire Emblem and Kid Icarus.
• A survey conducted by Famitsu shows some mixed feelings among the Japanese towards the announcement of Dragon Quest IX.
• Pokemon Diamond and Pearl have sold five million units total, making them the best selling entries in the series so far.
• However, Pokemon Battle Revolution isn't doing so great, barely making the top ten and getting beaten out by Wii Sports.
• As long as you're doing everything else in your house with your Wii remote (besides actually playing your Wii), why not use it to control a Roomba.
• An open source Lemmings port has been released for the DS, along with a level editor.
• Warp Pipe has provided another link for tabbed Wii browsing in case the first one goes down.
• A writer for the Denver Post calls Wii Sports (specifically, the bowling part) the best game of the year.
• The British Chiropractors Association has developed a Wii Warm-Up to keep you from snapping in half every time you pick up your Wii remote.
• I4U's Gadget Model of the Month poses with the Wii. That's the Gadget Model of the Month: For when you've gotten to a point that just seeing attractive women holding electronics turns you on. At least it didn't turn out to be a pin-up calendar of that girl from Rescue Rangers.

Sony news:

• The recently announced PS3 version of Tekken 5 to be made available through the Playstation Store got a surprise debut in Japan today. It weighs in at 830 megs and 2,000 yen, or about $17.
• According to Destructoid, a Sony rep claims that PS3 kiosks freeze on purpose. "We do that so that people won't play it all day long," he explained. "Specifically during Motorstorm, we made it freeze up a lot."
• Pocket Gamer suggests the ten best PSP games of the year.
• If you're a real person who actually plays games and is looking for a PS3, you may be in luck as scalpers have begun returning their PS3s to stores. These dudes should've learned from the comics speculator "market."

Microsoft news:

• The last Live Arcade title for 2006 is out, and it's... New Rally-X.
• In slightly more hopeful Arcade news, Worms HD is in the final stages of development and will be officially unveiled at CES in January. The game will then be released on Live soon after.

Posted by Bill at 5:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Industry and multi-console news:

• EA has announced that Madden NFL has sold five million copies over ten different systems since its August release, making it the best selling game of the year.
• The official website for BioShock has opened.
• Adam Sandler has donated a Playstation 3 to a family fighting cancer from his home state of New Hampshire. The daughter has bone cancer that has spread to her lungs, and the son has lymphoma.
• A New Zealand transport spokesman blames "Playstations and X-boxes" for recent roadway deaths, "for making teens think they can drive stupidly and just push the reset button if anything goes wrong." Prior to 1978, all teenagers were perfect drivers.
• PC World looks at the history of game consoles as seen through their TV ads.
• Bonus Round is a new show being produced at GameTrailers that hopes to be a Crossfire for video games. Episode 2 features Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, composer Tommy Tallarico, and Scarface (the game) producer Peter Wanat talking about the Wii. It's an interesting idea, with a few flaws, like: A) Talking about whether the Wii "works" as a system has been beaten into the ground, and B) I do not actually want to hear what Tommy Tallarico thinks about anything.
• Gamasutra has an interview with the author of Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Superheroes and Make-Believe Violence, talking about violence in video games. On an unrelated note, the author looks uncannily like James Urbaniak.
• Sega and Hello Kitty company Sanrio have agreed to a "tie-up," meaning "for example, Hello Kitty may appear in our video game software." They will also "discuss jointly developing new products based on their stable of characters."
• Kotaku has an interview with Outkast's Big Boi about his involvement with the Def Jam games and gaming in general. The interviewer sounds so much like a white guy trying to be street that it hurts.
• The Hartford Courant notes that Joe Lieberman, who has been fighting against sex and violence in video games since the Night Trap days, also takes campaign contributions from the WWE.
• Big titles like Twilight Princess and Gears of War are $39 this week at Target.
• Game Studies is an "international journal of computer game research" and also probably too heady for 99% of the population to want to read. Features articles like "Street Fighter and The King of Fighters in Hong Kong: A Study of Cultural Consumption and Localization of Japanese Games in an Asian Context."

PC news:

• Armchair Arcade has put up the first part of a feature on the history of computer role playing games. This part focuses on 1980 through 1983.
• A new book has debuted called Unreal Tournament Game Programming for Teens. It's just like a regular Unreal programming book, but more rad.
• The Multi Theft Auto team has released a new montage of footage, teasing some of the features in their upcoming beta version.
• Acclaim has begun pre open beta testing for their martial arts MMORPG 9 Dragons, available for all players.
• A 2007 MMO calendar is being produced by MMO Portal, with all proceeds going to the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The calendar features original art from 12 different games, signed by their respective developers.
• CVG has a short interview with Half-Life plot man Marc Laidlaw.

Nintendo news:

• Nintendo will be launching the DS Lite in South Korea in January, and the Wii in late 2007.
• If you've resigned yourself to believing you'll never get a hole-in-one in Wii Sports yourself, you can watch someone else do it.
• I'm kind of surprised that this Link graffiti from back in September is still up, though admittedly looking a little worse for wear.
• Here's another gallery of Flash games for the Wii.
• The LA Times talks about Nintendo using "alpha moms" as grass roots campaigners to get parents interested in the Wii.

Sony news:

• Game Brink has a review of the import version of Armored Core 4, complete with several videos.
• This video seems to demonstrate that the PS3's portrait slideshow mode uses some kind of face detection algorithm.
• Fan art: Shadow of the Colossus + Katamari = Uh?

Microsoft news:

• New cars have been added to the Marketplace for Test Drive Unlimited, including one free car.
• The smaller 360 CPU reported yesterday has been delayed to mid 2007.
• Capcom plans to release six new 360 games in 2007.
• Armored Core 4 will hit the 360 in Japan on March 22.

Posted by Bill at 5:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It's Christmas why am I doing this :(

Industry and multi-console news:

• Santa Claus can be unlocked in Lego Star Wars II.
• 1up is handing out presents to various figures in the gaming world -- like giving EA a copy of the old Madden target video "to remind you what next-gen Madden should look like."
• A 4 color rebellion blogger notes that his local store is out of Wiis but still trying to sell PS3s. This isn't a PS3-bashing thing, it's just odd, is all.
• Somewhat similarly, a blogger at GigaGamez notices that Craigslisters are trading PS3s for Wiis.
• GameSetWatch has an interesting selection of Christmas cards from various game developers. Only Double Fine would work the phrase "F-ing great" into the poem on a Christmas card.
• Kotaku has a feature I've never noticed before called Arcade Flyer Art Saturday. I suppose it should be no surprise that both flyers they've shown so far have been heavy on sexual innuendo.
• SofaTube is a site meant to make YouTube easier to use on your TV by reskinning the site with larger fonts and easier navigation.
• LCD makers are under investigation to find if they've engaged in price fixing.
• For the first time in history, more households have DVD players than VCRs.
• Y'know, I wrote an article about this game a while back to save people the pain of having to actually experience it, and then someone goes and makes a nine minute montage of Tattoo Assassins fatalities anyway. I love the random scream during the hot dog fatality.
• New research from McMaster University suggests video games could be good for the brain.
• The Saturn Detective Club is a Japanese collection of scans of ads and flyers for various Saturn games. The site is in Japanese, but it's easy to get around: The links below the word "SEGASATURN" are galleries, and any link in a gallery with a T next to it has a scan. Keep in mind a few are ads for porn games which you may not want to be caught viewing at work. But there's always bugeyed Conehead elf. I don't know what's going on here.

PC news:

• Blizzard is testing new maintenance schedules for World of Warcraft in the hopes of reducing downtime.
• Valve has a note explaining the recent Steam outage.
• Merry Gear Solid is a Christmas-themed freeware game "in the vein of Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid series."
• Accordian Hero is a simple Flash game that mimics Guitar Hero's gameplay.
• This analysis of Vista's DRM is called "worrying" by some and nothing but a "scare article" by others. I'll let you decide for yourself.

Nintendo news:

• How to use tabbed browsing with your Wii.
• If you really want to take Wii hacking to the extreme, you can set the system up to control your house.
• GameVideos has a 51 video, fully narrated walkthrough for Twilight Princess.
• I wish I still had a friend who managed a movie theater so I, too, could play Wii Sports on a movie theater screen.
• Video: The seven most creative NES mods.
• Christmas has seen the first Virtual Console price increase, as R-Type goes for 800 points instead of the normal 600.
• Nintendo calls rumors of Wii Sports 2 just that: "pure rumor and speculation." Of course, in PR speak, sometimes that just means "we haven't announced anything."

Sony news:

• Futureshop.ca is selling 1000 60 gig PS3s. They still have 675 as of this writing.
• A gas station sign announces that "your kids want gift cards, not PS3!" Kids secretly want $600 worth of gas?
• Realizing their plain old system wouldn't go for much more than what they paid (if that) on Ebay, PS3Center.net decided to make a white PS3.
• Dark_AleX has released his 3.02 custom PSP firmware, allowing you to play your own PSX games on the PSP.
• I've said that car games already look realistic enough, and maybe that's true. But I can't deny that these Gran Turismo HD shots are Goddamn beautiful. They have comparison pictures between screenshots and real photos of the cars, as well as a couple Forza 2 shots for good measure. The Forza shots look a little.. cartoony?

Microsoft news:

• According to NexGen Wars, the 360 has passed 9 million units sold.
• I'm pretty sure this was announced some time ago, but in case you missed it: Starting in 2007, the 360 will get a new CPU which will hopefully run cooler.
• GameSetWatch contends that Viva Pinata is the most overlooked game of 2006.
• New video content is available on the Xbox Live Marketplace, including UFC's The Ultimate Fighter, Reno 911 Season 2, Barbarella, the Fighting Temptations, and Joe's Apartment. ...Wait a minute, who picks these things?

Posted by Bill at 5:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I'd almost consider not doing this post at all, but I suppose I need to write to confirm that there is absolutely nothing of interest coming out this week. Unless titles like Super Taxi Driver 2006 turn your crank. There actually seems to be a surprising number of titles at the Gamespot list, until you start crossreferencing them with other sites and see that many of them have already come out. Gamespot's schedule system just really sucks.

Posted by Bill at 2:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As you might imagine, things are winding down in preparation for the holidays, with most sites starting to put up "see you next year" messages. With real news slowing to a trickle, I fear the newsposts next week will be made up almost entirely of people getting Wiis for Christmas and then killing themselves with remotes.

Also, the Saturday Scan won't be up this weekend because hey, it's Christmas.

Also also, be sure to pull out your Saturn Sunday evening and play a bit of Christmas NiGHTS. It's only right.

Industry and multi-console news:

• Jun Takeuchi says not to expect Resident Evil 5 until at least 2008.
• NIS America is now taking pre-orders for the Disgaea anime. From what I've heard, the show isn't very good.
• Koei and Bandai Namco are teaming up to make, of all things, a Dynasty Warriors-type Gundam title.
• Mark Ecko says that he will make more games despite the failure of Getting Up.
• Cnet reviews the year's big video game stories.
• A marine who got shot in the head in Iraq is using his Xbox 360 to help him regain the use of his left hand.
• A new version of the SMS Phantasy Star fan translation has been put up, with a rewritten script courtesy of Gamasutra editor and LostLevels.org head honcho Frank Cifaldi.
• RedOctane, Activision and The Ant Commandos have settled out of court to resolve their peripheral suit.
• In London they're holding the Mindball Championship on December 28 and 29. The goal of Mindball is to push a ball over your opponent's goal line, but the trick is that the ball is controlled by an EEG machine on your head and will only respond to alpha and theta brain waves -- those associated with relaxation and drowsiness.
• This isn't really video game related, but you've gotta do something with that PS3 and 360 HD-DVD drive. High Def Digest looks at the best and worst high def discs of the year. Interesting to note that one of the worst was Talladega Nights, which Sony packed in with the PS3 presumably to show off Blu-ray's abilities.

PC news:

• Transmetropolitan author Warren Ellis has been hired by Reuters to write a weekly column about Second Life.

Nintendo news:

• Rumor: Wii Sports 2 is possibly in development, with swimming, horse riding and basketball said to be included.
• WiiKitty.com is a site for photos of cats with Wii remotes. No, I don't know why.
• Just in case you forgot, the Wii Opera browser is available now.
• New magazine scans show more Harvest Moon Wii screens.
• A series of e-mail exchanges documents a mother willing to pay $250 and "a bj to completion" for a Wii. It's the kind of holiday story that warms your heart.

Sony news:

• Woot.com sold 80 PS3s so they could buy their employees Wiis.
• PS1 title Medievil has been added to the Playstation Store.
• Sony has announced that the free Gran Turismo HD Concept download on December 24 will apply to America as well as Japan. Merry Christmas.

Microsoft news:

• Mercenaries 2 may not be PS3 exclusive after all, as you can see 360 dev kits in the background of recently posted video blogs about the game's development.
• Microsoft has extended the 360 warranty from 90 days to one year. The move is retroactive, meaning anyone who paid for repair on their out-of-warranty 360 is entitled to a refund.
• Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter examines why the 360 just isn't doing the sales he thought it would.
• Meanwhile, Reuters has an article about Xbox Live's failure to capture the mass market.
• Crackdown will be getting a playable demo January 18.

Posted by Bill at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Industry and multi-console news:

• Since everyone else has done it: Next Gen presents their top 50 games of the year.
• Behavioral research team Bunnyfoot finds that in-game ads are ineffective.
• The Frag Dolls have become the first female team to win a pro tournament.
• Large dots have been painted on Highway 55 in Minneapolis as a way to show drivers how much space was needed between cars. Naturally, then, someone came in and added Pac-Man.

PC news:

• A random Gnome presents a pictoral history of the FPS. Up to Doom, anyway.
• The publisher of the Left Behind books stands behind the Left Behind games.
• The popular You Don't Know Jack series has returned online, albeit in a limited form.
• You might get annoyed at Second Life, but without it, how could we get headlines like Interview Interrupted by Flying Penis Attack.

Nintendo news:

• Nintendo has confirmed there will be five Virtual Console titles for Christmas day: Super Mario Bros., Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, Super Castlevania IV, R-Type, and Toe Jam and Earl. They also debunked rumors that they'd be giving any VC titles away for free.
• A Transformers game is coming to the Wii, and two different games (?) coming to the DS.
• And if that isn't your thing, a Wii game based on High School Musical is in the works.
• The New York Times examines how the Wii remote works.
• Alright, you guys really have to find something else to do with your time: A guide to modding your Wii giftcard.
• Rumor: The trial Wii Opera browser will be missing features.
• The official site for It's A Wonderful World has opened -- it's the DS RPG from the Kingdom Hearts team, if you've forgotten. The site's all in Japanese, but there's a promotional video that shows some gameplay clips, and you can hear selections from the unusual psuedo hip hop soundtrack. Basically, imagine if Tetsuya Nomura had been in charge of Jet Set Radio, stylistically.

Sony news:

• PS3 Blu-ray remotes have been spotted in stores.
• Sony claims the PSP has been the second best selling console in the UK for the year, behind the DS but ahead of the PS2 and 360.
• The PSP v3.03 firmware upgrade has been released.
• And PS3 v1.32 firmware is up too.
• Three UPS employees have been charged with stealing $19,000 worth of PS3s from their distrobution center.
• PC World calls the PS3 one of the biggest technology mistakes of 2006.
• Splinter Cell: Double Agent will be coming to the PS3.

Microsoft news:

• Bethesda will be offering the Oblivion expansion pack Mehrune's Razor for free from December 22 to 31.
• The Burger King games have sold more than 2 million copies so far.
• Sega announced today that Virtual Fighter 5 will also be coming to the 360.
• This is an interesting, if unproven, theory: Someone on the NeoGAF board noticed that many Marketplace items are exactly 108 KB, suggesting that none of them contain actual content; you're just buying keys to unlock content already on the disc. It makes sense, though: having a Lego Star Wars save could unlock characters in Lego Star Wars II on the PC, meaning the characters were already on the disc. I doubt they'd take them off the disc just for the 360 version.

Posted by Bill at 5:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Industry and multi-console news:

• Illinois has agreed to pay the $520,000 it owes in legal fees to the ESA.
• Gamasutra runs down the most important games of 2006.
• Meanwhile, Next Gen looks at the biggest blunders of the year. A couple extra bits that were cut out of the main article can be found here.
• Not to be left out, Gamespot is also doing a best and worst of 2006 list, in both article and video form. The special achievement, dubious honors and genre awards are already up, with the platform and game of the year awards coming Thursday and Friday, respectively.
• Ubisoft has finally given a few details on their TMNT game, set for release ahead of the movie's opening in spring. The game is coming for pretty much every console imaginable, although the PS3 was strangely absent from the list.
• The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences will be awarding its first lifetime achievement awards to former Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa and chairman emeritus of NoA Howard Lincoln.
• Forbes breaks down where your $60 for a new game goes.
• The Collective has opened the official site for their next-gen game Harker, a "gothic action horror" game "inspired by the classic horror novel, Dracula."
• Funde Razor II raised a total of $4,216 for Child's Play.
• Gamespot interviews outgoing ESA president Doug Lowenstein.

PC news:

• FiringSquad lists their top 5 PC games of the year.
• Now Islamic groups want Wal-Mart to drop Left Behind, too.
• Auto Assault developer NetDevil is working on a new MMORPG for a major toy company.

Nintendo news:

• Some Firefox fiddling with the Virtual Console store leads one to find hidden entries for Super Mario Bros., Toe Jam and Earl, Urban Champion, R-Type, and Dungeon Explorer. When these games might be made available, who knows.
• Nintendo calls the recent Wii strap lawsuit "completely without merit."
• Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl will ship in the US on April 22.
• A trailer for Heroes of Mana on the DS has been added to Square's World of Mana site.
• WiiPlay's American release has been delayed to February.
• The Wii Forecast Channel uses accurate star charts for the globe view.
• The Joytech PowerStation looks to be the first third party rechargable Wii remote battery pack on the market, coming in late January.
• IGN has a head to head comparison between the Wii and Cube versions of Twilight Princess, though it's Insider only for now. There's an excerpt at the link, however, and it seems they picked the Cube as the overall winner.

Sony news:

• Ken Kutaragi has promised an AV-centric PS3. In other words, a home theater receiver type device that I guess would also function as a PS3.
• Online retail stock tracker NotifyWire says that PS3 bundles and Ebay auctions aren't selling as well as the 360 did in the same circumstance last year. This may mean people have less interest in the PS3, or it may mean everyone's finally gotten sick of paying inflated prices just to get a console.
• Tetsuya Nomura says there are several Kingdom Hearts projects in the works, with details sometime midway through 2007.
• Gran Turismo HD Concept, which serves as a demo for GT5, will be available for free to Japanese gamers in the Playstation Store starting December 24. The demo comes with 10 cars and an all new track, the Eiger Nordwand.
• FiringSquad has an interview with David Jaffe about Calling All Cars.
• A boatload of new Ninja Gaiden Sigma screenshots are now online.
• Square's World of Mana site has a new trailer for Dawn of Mana.

Microsoft news:

• The Halo 3 Brute documentary is available now on the Marketplace and at GameVideos.
• Activision will soon be releasing a free multiplayer map for Call of Duty 3.
• The guys at Rare decided to celebrate their recently completed Viva Pinata and Guy Fawkes Night at the same time by torching a giant pinata.
• Toys R Us is offering a free $100 gift card with the purchase of a 360.
• Xbox Live won't let you use the word Halo in your motto because it "contains inappropriate language."

Posted by Bill at 5:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Industry and multi-console news:

• FiringSquad looks back on the ten biggest stories of 2006.
• Yet another MoH title, Medal of Honor Vanguard, has been announced for the PS2 and Wii.
• One of the writers from Ain't It Cool News who got beaten up by Uwe Boll recounts his experience.
• Next Generation counts down the best games of the year in Japan.
• Popular Flash game Line Rider is coming to consoles. If you haven't played it, you can do so here. I don't know that a "toy" you doodle with for five minutes makes a great console purchase.

PC news:

• Valve and IGA have signed a deal to provide in-game ads for Counterstrike.
• The ESA has officially announced Doug Lowenstein's departure.
• Joystiq examines how Games for Windows Vista will change PC gaming.

Nintendo news:

• Nikkei Business recently had a feature showing some early Wii prototype controllers. No, nobody else knows what's going on with that giant star thing either.
• The Wii Forecast Channel launched today, and the Opera browser comes on Friday.
• Nintendo Power has given the first details on Mario Party 8.
• CVG cites "reliable sources" saying that Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, and Zelda DS have all been delayed until Christmas 2007.
• A piece of Nintendo history even I was unaware of: Super Mario Bros. Special, an obscure port (though using all new levels) of SMB, made by Hudson Soft for the Japanese PC-8001 computer. The article contains an emulator and ROM so you can try it yourself.

Sony news:

• Time puts the PS3 on a list of Five Things That Went from Buzz to Bust. "You know you're in trouble when you get beat by something called a Wii."
• Sony's Phil Harrison says you'll be seeing "user-created experiences" on the PS3 next year. Of course, they said that their online program would really kick off in the next year when the PS2 launched, too.
• The New York Times has an article on Guitar Hero's success, with comments from Barenaked Ladies guitarist Ed Robertson.
• Virtua Fighter 5 will be hitting PS3s in North America on February 20.
• Downloadable title FlOw has been delayed until January.
• A recent Sony Internet survey asked people what would "enhance" the PSP the most, and included such options as a hard drive and GPS. It also asked "Would you buy a new PSP if it included a HD or video out?" Adding more crap is surely the answer to the PSP's woes.
• MotorStorm was apparently rushed for its Japanese release, with IGN calling it "the most featureless racer I've ever played." In a true testament to IGN's hype ability, they say they're sure this will all be fixed for the American release and call the game "the most technically impressive game I've ever played."

Microsoft news:

• The Ho Ho Ho Pack has been released for Saints Row, enabling you to play the game dressed as Santa.
• Here's a studio version -- well, more like a living room version -- of Corporeal playing the Halo theme. You may recall there was a video of them playing it live a few months back.

Posted by Bill at 5:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Can you guess what this is supposed to be? Can your mind comprehend it? Do you have the capacity to behold such terrors?

It's a moogle. Or so it is said to be. It's from some sort of art show in London in 2002 called "Game On", about the history and development of computer games. The page this is on originally came to my attention because it showed the work of a woman who made a chocobo costume for the event for a client. The kicker was that she knew nothing about video games, and had to design the costume based solely on a text description with no visual aides whatsoever. This is what she came up with:

It's at the bottom of the page where we see other examples from other artists in the show, and their, um, interpretations of various characters. That's where the "moogle" comes in, along with the likes of Chun Li and Crash Bandicoot (looking more like Fox McCloud got a full-body dye job):

There has to be some critical bit of information I'm missing here. These are artists, for God's sake. If cosplayers can manage reasonable facsimiles using household items, surely artists can. But why was it comissioned in the first place? Isn't a gallery for showing things people actually wanted to make themselves?

There's also this bit at the end of her article about the costume's construction:

I saw the bird in the Barbican on the open evening, and again the other day. It is still holding up. It is a pity there wasn't more to explain why the costumes are in a computer game show, especially as most of them don't actually look like the actual character.

In the end, they didn't hire actors to wear the costumes, as it was too expensive.

Well it certainly sounds like this show is in good hands. Somehow it's still touring four years later. I can only hope they didn't take the moogle with them.

Posted by Bill at 6:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Industry and multi-console news:

• Gamespot is reporting that Doug Lowenstein is stepping down as president of the ESA.
• Eidos exec Ian Livingstone says the forthcoming Tomb Raider game graphics are "like watching television." I guess that's meant to be a good thing. They're also working on a third TR movie, though it's "nowhere near the green-light process" yet.
• Rumors are saying that MGS4 may come to the 360, supposedly because Konami is worried there wouldn't be enough PS3 units in circulation to make the game profitable. However, Konami has told CVG that it's still a PS3 exclusive.
• Gamasutra looks at litigations that changed the game industry.
• The Select Button forums has a post explaining how Famitsu works -- its supposedly "paid off" reviews, and how it's seen by the Japanese.
• Toys R Us says they will be receiving "thousands" of Wiis and 6000 PS3s in the week leading up to Christmas.
• Next Generation looks back at they year in pictures.
• A Something Awful former is having trouble with somebody Ebaying his game FAQs without permission. Ebay won't do anything about it.
• Another California legislator is targeting video games, but this is one we might actually be able to get behind: Lori Saldana intends to introduce a bill to stop in-game ads and spyware from being installed on your PC.
• Police officers in Salt Lake City have recruited a 15 year old boy to teach them how to pose as underage gamers to trap sexual predators.

PC news:

• A Half Life 2 co-op mod has been released, naturally called Follow Freeman.
• Examining the hype vs. the anti-hype about Second Life. Like most things, it's not everything it's made out to be, but it's also not like the naysayers say it is.
• Someone has uploaded a video of Peter Molyneux's presentation at the 2005 GDC, where he demoed The Room, an experiment in hyper-realism in games. As with most Molyneux projects, it's more noodling around with "isn't that neat" than actually coming up with anything useful.

Nintendo news:

• Today's new Virtual Console titles are Tennis, Space Harrier II and Military Madness.
• Despite the news that there would be one friend code per Wii, it seems Pokemon Battle Revolution uses its own, game-specific friend code.
• Super Swing Golf contains realtime cameltoe action.
• A CNN staffer describes her experience getting the last Wii in a shipment with a long line of people behind her.
• Line-ups for the Wii were spotted again this past weekend, and there were still plenty of people who didn't get one.
• Prince of Persia: Rival Swords will be coming to the Wii in March.
• Square has released a new Dragon Quest IX trailer.
• A class action lawsuit has been filed against Nintendo for their "defective" remote straps.
• A 3D fighting game called Legend of the Dragon has been announced for the Wii. It's apparently based on some cartoon I've never heard of.
• A rumor is going around that the DS will see another revision in 2007, with larger screens.
• More things to use remotes for: Air guitar. Excuse me, Wiitar. Egh.
• Someone on Ebay is selling a purse made from an NES.
• Here's a gallery of movie director Miis. Boy, if you want to be the life of the party, just show up with your Ingmar Bergman Mii.
• Video: If you do employ the trick of using candles in place of your sensor bar, try not to burn the damned place down.

Sony news:

• Sony is in talks with MovieLink, CinemaNow and Amazon.com to offer a PSP movie download service.
• GameVideos has the first footage of FFT on the PSP.
• A sequel to Disaster Report is coming to the PS2 in February.
• GameTrailers has new footage of MotorStorm from someone who owns a Japanese copy of the game. The game will ship with dictionaries alongside the definition of "floaty."

Microsoft news:

• The content producer for GRAW2 says Gears of War is "an absolutely awesome ten minutes, but if you play 20 minutes it doesn't bring anything new."
• Thieves in Florida tunnelled through a GameStop to steal 360s. They were looking for PS3s, but there weren't any.
• If you're going to make a Halo 3 case mod, make sure the 3 isn't backwards.
• Downloads of the two Lost Planet demos have passed the one million mark.

Posted by Bill at 5:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Five games are released in the United States this week. That's it. I guess no one wants to ship anything worthwhile a week before Christmas. Your choices are Rapala Trophies, a fishing sim on the 360; Bubble Bobble Evolution on the PSP; Alexey's Dwice, another PC puzzle game hoping to squeeze some sales out of the tagline "From the creator of Tetris!"; Paws and Claws Pet School on the PC; and 3D Model Trains for the PC.

Gamasutra's release list shows that the godless Japanese are clearly declaring a war on Christmas by releasing a large number of titles this week including new Tales and Seiken Densetsu games.

Posted by Bill at 1:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In light of the recent Sony PSP viral marketing debacle, let's take a look at another example of what happens when grey-haired ad men try to be down with the kids. In this case, it's a six page spread in Nintendo Power debuting their, uh.. memorable campaign meant to combat Sega's winning in-your-face attitude: Play It Loud.

I'll do you the courtesy of transcribing the roundabout text so you don't have to crane your neck. All awful formating and grammar errors are their own.

adj. 1. Marked by a high volume of sound, once matt put his head in a jet intake, he hasn't been the same 2. Noisy, life without amplification is like being a fish in a tank 3. Gaudy, as in color; flashy Purple Buzzcut, Orange Tongue, Diamond Studded Platinum Shoes 4. Brilliantly blinding and explosive cat'a-clys'mic 5. worthy "I have a dream..." 6. $$#@!!! 7. That which stands out, surpasses You have one chance to save Earth from Merle the mutant space bass. 9. Exceeding all limits 186,000 miles per second Break The Tank! Put your head in the noise. Hold on to your bass!

Findings from a recent study at the Institute of Loudicity: "...never before seen such...stunning, graphical, interfacial, multi-layered, omni-dimensional..." " measuring off the scale...subjects head literally exploded from excessive levels of fundorphins..." "...more titles...more technical breakthroughs...more stages...more conflict...more glory..." "...125% more resolution/damage release per level..." "...F=S/NES²..." "...criticality of responses umatched..." "...subjects exhibited increases in mental acuity...the ability to navigate wormholes in virtual space...fantasy worlds inhabited by freakishly human toon beings..." "...unheard of...unmatched...unexpected ...unusual...uncompromising...unconditional..." "...LOUD..."

[Me here -- I didn't plan on interjecting, but.. "fundorphins?" Are you shitting me?]

I wanted a new game, something bigger, expanding, as vast as a mind -> I wanted new sights, sounds, adventures, puzzles, scores, new lives to peel back the covers -> I searched the world, circled the globe, picked up every stone and threw them all back in the dust, and moved on until I came to this place -> I knew that my journey had ended, eyes open, ears ringing, mind basking in a universe of exploding horizons where rainbows came to earth -> here, dragons awoke, flight pierced the stars, my slam dunk shattered the house -> I knew challenges, the rush, the fierce joy, the soaring heights and the slapstick and the raw justice and the thrill of victory and the horror of the dead at night -> and I knew that what I wanted was found, the quiet pride of a life lived aloud, the games to measure my limits -> the life I longed to play--loud

Posted by Bill at 2:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)