Wondercon was packed full of convention goers and people that didn’t like to shower yesterday. It was actually great seeing how packed the show was as the show floor was almost half the size that it was last year. Most likely due to the fact that the economy sucks and that GDC took place during the same week as Wondercon last year. Still, the comic nerds came out in full force!...
March 3 is going to be a pretty exciting day for those who are into videogames. Microsoft has some interesting spring plans with Block Party, a sort of Summer of Arcade for the equinoctial crowd. Kicking things off on March 3 isToy Soldiers, an interesting mash-up of many different genres, coupled with the often ignored WWI time period. While not much has previously been known about the title, developer Signal Studios is aiming for a pretty original new title....
While Microsoft isn’t pushing 3D gaming as heavily as Sony is, you know they have to be thinking about it. And from the looks of things, it seems like they’re also working on it in some form. Engadgetcaught wind of a Korean press release that says that LG and Microsoft are going to buddy up and jointly market LG’s new 3D TVs alongside 3D-enabled Xbox 360 games in South Korea, moving later to greater Asia....
Probably one of the most painful lumps that Microsoft received this generation was when the announcement that HD-DVD was officially dead went down. Most Xbox 360 fans recognized the high-definition discs for what they were, but Microsoft still tried their best to keep the format afloat. According toSpong, Microsoft is about to toss out an update to Windows that will allow users to burn Blu-ray discs from their desktop. While it could just be an advancement that the inferior operating system needed, this could also possibly signal a shift towards realizing that Blu-ray is the only way to go, which in turn teases the Xbox 360 and Blu-ray love again....
The beta for XNA Game Studio 2.0 is out now andready to be downloaded. The most notable improvement over XNA Game Studio Express is the ability to bring your PC and/or Xbox 360 games online via Xbox Live and Games for Windows Live. That’s right, now your little XNA experiment can include cross-platform multiplayer, should you decide to go that route. All of the new features included with the latest version of Microsoft’s popular development platform aredetailed here....
The secondGame Developers Choice Online Awards nomineeshave been announced for 2011. This year there’s a variety of awards where all types of games are nominated, from Zynga’s Facebook games to more established MMOs and other popular online titles. The big announcement this year is thatEverQuestwill be receiving the Hall of Fame award, which recognizes online titles that have advanced the genre and pioneered major shifts in design.EverQuestis certainly a far recipient, considering it’s still going strong 12 years after its launch....
Through March,the 3DS has sold3.61 million units worldwide. All things considered, that figure is nothing to scoff at — but it is, however, below Nintendo’s projections. The company was expecting the 3DS to reach 4 million units sold by that point. “The great earthquake largely affected the sales,” cites president Satoru Iwata. “We originally expected that the value of 3D images without the need for special glasses would be automatically spread to some extent by many consumers experiencing the device by themselves and … together with people around them....
[SwE3tMadness continues her blog series on music in video games! This time, she talks about great songs in games that are simply too short, or get overlooked because they weren’t used properly. — JRo] Over the past few months I’ve talked a bit about how the use of music in games enhances the overall experience as a whole. A good soundtrack in a game creates a specific atmosphere that can change the way we view the events it accompanies....
You’d really, really have to like theMetal Gear Solidseries and its 4th game to spend the$10,100 it would cost to bid on this eBay item, but you don’t have to be a fan at all to appreciate the work that went into this mod. Morpheon Mods is responsible for the custom work on this PlayStation 3. It features a laser-cutMGS4marquee, hand-brushed metal accents, a laser etching of Solid Snake, nine coats of DuPont Chroma Clear clearcoat, and the signatures of Hideo Kojima and Naomi Hunter’s real-life model, Yumi Kikuchi....
Pre-order bonuses aren’t only for the big games. Even Wii JRPGs can get in on the action, with Ignition revealing that purchasingArc Rise FantasiaonAmazonwill net players an exclusive set of character profile cards. Profiling characters has never been easier! There are twelve cards in total, featuring art and information on the game’s wide-eyed cast. Knowing the age, height and weight of a JRPG’s characters is vitally important, so this set is a must for anybody who wantsArc Rise Fantasia....
Having existed only as a listing on retailer release sheets, a lot of people were starting to think thatAssassin’s CreedDS was nothing more than vaporware. Not the case, as aGoNintendoreader snagged some box art (which contains a slew of information about the game) from a local GameStop, proving that the game does indeed exist. Officially calledAssassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles, the Gameloft developed DS title will take place before the events of the console version....
You guys had a lot more to say aboutthe sales ofPersona 4then I thought you would yesterday, so I suspect you’d want to hear anything you can about the possibility ofPersona 5. Of course, there’s been no official confirmation on the title, but we’ve heard that composer Shoji Meguro is already hard at work on a score for a new game. Wonder what that might be? Jobentreported today (viaSiliconera) that Atlus Japan is on the lookout for a 360/PS3 programmer....
Hilary P. Helghast returns with the sexiest review for a beanbag you ever did see. This is the Sumo Titan beanbag chair, made by a company geared toward crafting furniture for layabout gamers such as yourself. In all seriousness, this beanbag has become a permanant fixture of my office, and the story Hilary tells of using it as a bed after a night of vomiting is actually based on a true story, since that happened to me....
