At the very top of the ranks at Microsoft sits the world’s scariest man, Steve Ballmer. The dude is fcking freaky, no question. In the past he has scared the sht out of me from a distance at press conferences. Just his existence gives me the creeps sometimes. For this reason alone I think he should step down. I feel like he would be a good franchise manager for a local cluster of Cold Stone Creamery locations or something....
Yesterday,I reporteda story from British newspaperThe Guardianabout Midway Newcastle’s two week deadline: if they don’t find a buyer by the end of the month, they’ll have to close up shop. In that article, the fact that the game Midway Newcastle has been working on for three months was unannounced was pretty clear. In fact, studio chief Craig Duncan mentioned that they’re still trying to pin the game’s story down: “Which authors are we getting to help write the story and character arcs?...
Booting upNCAA, grabbing your favorite team, and then utilizing “QB No. 5” has a tendency to break the college football experience. EA understands that.NCAA Football 09will be the first time players will be allowed to create their own rosters and upload them through the game’s network to share with others. This new option makes it much easier for players to get rosters since it forgoes going onto a website and jacking in a memory card or some other peripheral....
Look at what we have here — a new trailer for The Behemoth’s Xbox Live Arcade title,Castle Crashers! Since the game actually looks fun and completely unique, that means it’ll probably take nine months to get certified for Live Arcade once it’s complete. If it were something likePaperboy 5: Paperboy in Space, on the other hand, we’d be playing it by next Wednesday (with gamer pictures and a theme to match)....
Right this way, my darlings! We’ve movedThe Destructoid Showto a new set. It’s a little smaller, and I’m not entirely sure we can afford it, but it’s in a great neighborhood, and it’s a nice place to raise a family. You know, when the time comes. We needsetwarming gifts. In today’s episode, we start things off by sexually harassing YOU, the viewer. Then Tara drops someout-of-the-blue infoaboutAmerica 2049,I make stupidMetal Gear Solidjokes aboutwhat Hideo Kojima will be announcing at E3, and it looks like those guys who madeGod of Waron PSP haveposted some revealingjob listings....
A group of screenshots of the newMario Sports Mixhave been released that show basketball, volleyball, dodgeball and hockey being played by lovable, iconic Nintendo characters. I would suspect that these are more party-oriented in nature, simply by virtue of having so many sports in a single release. Interestingly, the shots we see here show no more than two human players at any given time, so perhaps there’s more depth than my expectations would suggest....
All good things must come to an end and apparently that also applies to whatever it is that I do here. As you may have gleaned from the headline, this is my last post here at Destructoid. I’ve been offered a job withWired, and aside from collecting their large checks, I’ll be writing on a daily basis for theirGame|Lifeblog. It took a lot of soul-searching and counting zeros to come to this decision, but since my goals in life all revolve aroundswimming in Scrooge-McDuckian vaults of gold coins, you’re able to see how this route was almost predetermined....
Nielsen ratings are awesome, partially because they keep my favorite T.V. show (JAG) alive and well. Nielsen also collects videogame data. The kicker is that the demographic willing to fill out the questionnaires aren’t exactly “in the now” like the majority of us are. The latest console usage chart indicates that the PlayStation 2 is still rocking hard and the super spectacular crazy-selling Wii only nabbed third place. Charts like this aren’t exactly great barometers, nor can any analysis derived from be taken too seriously....
About a year ago we told you about a possible price fixing scandal between Japanese LCD makersSharp and Hitachi, involving the Nintendo DS LCD screens. The two companies are said to have made a deal where the price of these screens would stay fixed, despite falling prices and competition. The issue was remained fairly quiet until now. It turns out that Sharp was slapped with a cease and desist order and an administrative surcharge payment order from the Japan Fair Trade Commission....
The famous Nintendo Seal of Quality is being givenits own office, with Nintendo aiming to improve the quality of its first party games by splitting quality control off into its own branch. The new division is called Mario Club and its job is to ensure that Nintendo games reach a certain standard with extensive playtesting and bug hunting. Contract employees will become full-time Mario Club employees and work conditions for quality testers will apparently improve quite a bit....
Activision said they do not expect a new Bungie title for the 2011 year. However, they are very serious about the new IP Bungie is developing and consider it to have “tremendous long term potential.” They also see it as a driver for key strategic growth initiatives. I suppose that is meant to make you feel good as a shareholder. While no details on the Bungie game are expected any time soon, Activision did mention they are planning new released for franchises like Spider-Man, Bakugan, Cabelas and Family Guy....
In comparing his series toMortal Kombat,Street Fighter IVproducer Yoshinori Ono has claimed that the two fighting games represent fundamental differences between Eastern and Western game design, withMortal Kombatexemplifying Western “result” oriented gameplay. “I think it represents the difference in philosophy. I find Japanese games tend to find the ‘process’ of playing the game as the activity and the result may not matter,” he said. “So inStreet Fighterwhen you’re playing it’s the moment to moment gameplay that should be the best, whether you win or lose doesn’t really matter....
Fire Hose Games’Slam Bolt Scrapperswas my personal favorite game at PAX Prime. So much so, that I found myself continuously pushing it on my coworkers, and in some cases, dragging them back to the booth with me. They loved it, too. It’s weird. At first, you aren’t sure what’s happening on the screen.Slam Bolt Scrappersinvolves two teams floating around, beating up on each other, fighting demons — who then proceed to turn into colored blocks — and using said blocks as if they were playingTetris....
