Happy Friday, listeners! This week we sat in a circle and recorded our Puzzle Game addicts’ support group session. I don’t think anyone came out of it any less hooked on block dropping, but we sure had fun talking about it anyway. Highlights include:
Every week, features editor Anthony Burch discusses/monologues/rants about some aspect of game design or gamer culture that he finds interesting for his “Rev Rant” video series. Have you playedEdmund? This week’s rant will probably make a bit more sense if you have (I’d also recommendBack Door Man, albeit for completely different reasons). Even if you haven’t, however, this rant deals with challenge of making sure, especially in regards to “artgames” likeEdmundorSilent Hill 2, that the player’s interpretational goals and the game’s thematic ideas are in the same basic ballpark....
Trippy We really likedBit.Trip Beat. Combining old-school gameplay with an awesomely neo-retro aesthetic and just plain awe-inspiring level design, this first installment of Gaijin Games’ new WiiWare series encapsulated everything great about indie development. Less than five months after the release ofBeat, the fellas at Gaijin are back with the second installment in the six-partBit.Tripseries, entitledCore. Eschewing theBreakout-esque gameplay of the first game with…well, with a mechanic a bit too complex to describe in a single pre-jump paragraph,Corepresumably seeks to provide a completely differentBit....
Heads up, PlayStation 3 owners. Would ports ofRez HD,Every Extend Extra Extreme, andMeteos Warsto PlayStation Network be relevant to your interests? If “yes” is your answer — and why wouldn’t it be — then you need to demand satisfaction from Q Entertainment. Asnoticed by Siliconera, the company has no plans for any of the previously mentioned ports. However, the studiowent on to tweethow “if the demand is there, you never know....
To update the alleged happenings of one very allegedly stupid person, GameLife’s Andrew Rosenblum has pleaded not guilty to three counts of threatening to commit a crime and has had his bail placed at $50,000. Once Rosenblum is released, hewill be placedunder house arrest. In case you forgotwhat happened yesterday, Rosenblum has been accused of sending some very untimely messages in ways that aren’t too bright at a time so close to theVirginia Tech tragedy....
We expected a glorious spray of Nintendo DS successor rumors after hearing thatit would be, allegedly, revealed at GDC 2010. But while we haven’t been assaulted, it doesn’t mean more rumors haven’t been uttered. For example, French Web siteGame Kultis reporting, via unnamed sources, that devs have their hands on successor kits. Thatshouldsound familiar. The original “DS 2” rumor had as much in it, but we’re guessing — and really this is all a fun guessing game — that Game Kult’s sources are a little further east than the original stories’ sources....
A batch of images purported to be the very firstMassive Action Gamescreenshots have found their way onto Flickr and are currently drawing interest from … well … me, mainly. While a lot of the screens are merely environments or character concepts, a small number of shots show what appears to be a first-person perspective, indicating for the first time thatMassive Action Gamewill be an FPS. With Sony due to reveal solid details about the game very soon, it’s possible that these are indeed leaked shots....
Last week it was reported that Mistwalker boss andFinal Fantasycreator Hironobu Sakaguchiwould be retiringafterThe Last Story. This week, it turns out that there was a translation error and that Sakaguchi does in fact have no plans to retire after the Wii game is done. “Emotionally it feels like this is my last work, while pouring everything I have gotten into this project,” is what he actually said. So, Sakaguchi will still stick around after the rather cool looking roleplaying game is finished....
We’ve known for agood whilethatSam and Max: Season Onewas headed to the Wii. What we still don’t have is good indication of a release date. The newest information that we have is that the gmes is still slated for the fall of this year, as opposed to the date listed on the publisher’s website which placesit in August. Scheduling conflicts aside,Sam and Maxis looking like an excellent port. The trailer and screenshots we recently acquired show the same classy and humorous episodic flair that the series has become known for on the various platforms it has come across thus far....
Really SanDisk? You really had to do this? As you’re able to see, SanDisk is set to release aRock Band 2themed 2GB SD Card for the Wii. The card will hold about 75 downloadable songs forRock Band 2and will go for $12.99 when it’s released this Spring. The sad thing about this is that you know there are people out there who will think that this SD Card canonlywork withRock Band 2....
We all know how frustrating it can be when an intense online battle is crippled by lag or poor network performance. It’s enough to make you want to punch somebody in the face, especially if you were … well, about toliterallypunch a guy in the face. But ifSNK Playmorehas anything to say about it, you won’t be experiencing any of that withKing of Fighters XII. After receiving a small number of reports from players who’ve run into some minor issues while playing online, SNK Playmore has already jumped on it with an official patch to be released same-day with the PS3 version, and one for Xbox 360 following closely behind....
Back when we told you how Sony and Columbia Pictures’movies disappeared off of Netflixright around the same time streaming service went live with the New Xbox Experience, some called the move a “f*ck you” from Sony to Xbox 360 owning Netflix users. It wasn’t that, but the timing was funny. Well, the “not available” tag is gone now from most of their movies today.GamesIndustry.bizsays that the Sony-owned Columbia Pictures flicks are good to go....
Producer forFar Cry 2Louis-Pierre Pharand toldEurogamertoday that there would not be a demo for any version ofFar Cry 2. His reasoning behind forgoing a demo is fairly standard for open world games. He said that it “became too complex” and instead of eating up development time, he would rather put development efforts “into the game so everyone can enjoy a better, more polished experience.” Pharand isn’t a heartbreaker though. After spilling the unfortunate demo news, he was quick to boast aboutFar Cry 2:...
