You want to Talk Amongst Yourselves? It's ok I understand. Just be sure to talk about video games, guys. What games, you ask? Any games you want, of course.
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Normally, one would associate (often incorrectly!) that the Xbox Live Indie Games Channel was a place for hobbyists, or beginners, where the ugly mixes with the crude for a bargain price. Not so. Especially in Orbitron: Revolution's case.
Being developed by Firebase Industries (and with music by Audio Antics, of Geometry Wars fame), it's arcade classic Defender for the 21st century, and was recently handed in for the Dream Build Play 2011 Challenge.
Sharp Mode [GameSetWatch]
UPDATE - Just to be clear, while this is currently still in development and slated as an Indie game, by virtue of being entered in the Dream Build Play 2011 Challenge it could win a chance at becoming a full-fledged XBLA title.
The newest addition to Zynga's game family is Hanging With Friends, an app for iGadgets big and small. It's a twist on classic hangman, with elements of Scrabble and other word games thrown in.
You can only choose from a handful of letters when building your challenge (a la Scrabble), though you are given the whole alphabet to guess from when on the receiving end of a puzzle.
You play as a helpless avatar, tethered to a handful of balloons above a strangely friendly-looking volcano. Each puzzle that you solve correctly keeps you firmly above said volcano, but, after each failed attempt, you sink closer and closer to danger.
Once the game starts, you guess letters until you've either solved it or run out of strikes. Three elements that set the game off from just another hangman game are the Suspects, which shows you four letters, only one of which is in the puzzle, Extinguish, which eliminates four letters, and Revive which restores one of your lost strikes. The game is available as a free version for a limited time, before it's only available for $1.99. I recommend the free version, though it does feature ads. The trade-off is a fair one, however, considering the ads don't interrupt gameplay and are easy enough to dismiss.
If there's one thing Zynga knows how to do, its reach a wide audience using social networks and Hanging with Friends is another example of this. You can send out challenges to individual friends using your contact list, Facebook, Twitter, or With Friends profile. If everyone is being particularly slow returning the serve, it's easy enough to challenge the entire Twitterverse at once, or else find another lonely soul just looking to—ahem—hang. When I searched for a random opponent, my call for help was answered in under a minute. If you are stuck somewhere without internet, starting up a local game is just as easy. According to the Zynga website, up to 20 different challenges can be stored at once, so feel free to challenge away!
There is a basic filter that stops you from using gibberish words or proper nouns as challenges, though I don't think there's a filter banning inappropriate words. There is also no time limit on solving or creating puzzles, so nothing is to stop those dirty cheaters from using the internet to seriously stump you. Also, like Words with Friends there is a chat feature you can use to call those dirty cheaters out, or to swap tricks of the trade.
The iTunes page already features comments about bugs in the game, but the only bug I've encountered is occasionally being bumped out of the app while a page is loading. After almost two hours solid of playing the game, this only happened twice, and I could log back into the game immediately without trouble.
At the end of the day, Hanging with Friends is a cute addition to the Zynga collection. Unless you have absolutely no tolerance for ads, however, I would save my $1.99 and stick to the free version.
Hanging with Friends [iTunes]
Gated | TOKYO, JAPAN: Steins; Gate cosplayers cosplay at a recent event in Akihabara. (Photo: AbikaBlog)
The Wii U Will Not Play DVDs or Blu-ray Discs The Wii U plays games that run on a proprietary 25 GB format. As Kotaku previously reported, that's the same size as Blu-ray discs. But don't think that means the Wii U will run Blu-ray discs. Heck, it won't even run DVDs.
From Xbox Japan Girl to Idol You Can *Ahem* In 2008, Asami Sakurada (above, red beret) was unknown. She spent that September dressed as an Xbox Event companion at the Tokyo Game Show. Even in early 2010, she was doing booth companion work, appearing at AOU arcade show in the Konami booth. But by late 2010, she had a huge fan base, TV appearances, a record deal, and a hit song about, well, fucking.
Report: Sony Knew the PSN Leak Was Huge, it Just Waited to Tell You According to a report from Kyodo News, citing official Japanese government documentation, Sony Computer Entertainment knowingly delayed telling the public about the extent of an attack on its PlayStation Network so as not to "bewilder" its customers.
Modern Warfare 3 Shoots the Lights Out on Jimmy Fallon As promised, Late Night host Jimmy Fallon has kicked off his video game week with footage of Modern Warfare 3.
Iron Chef's Secret Ingredient Was… Pokémon! Iron Chef, a Japanese cooking show that began in 1992, has quite the cult following in certain Western countries thanks to years of dubbed episodes and re-runs.
Currently, two million people and counting have signed up for the Call of Duty: Elite beta&mdmash;that's in less than two weeks. That's...a lot! [One of Swords]
The Wii U plays games that run on a proprietary 25 GB format. As Kotaku previously reported, that's the same size as Blu-ray discs. But don't think that means the Wii U will run Blu-ray discs. Heck, it won't even run DVDs.
Speaking with investors and analysts, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata confirmed that the Wii U will not play DVDs nor will it play Blu-ray dics.
"Wii U does not have DVD or Blu-ray playback capabilities," said Iwata.
According to the Nintendo honcho, "The reason for that is that we feel that enough people already have devices that are capable of playing DVDs and Blu-ray, such that it didn't warrant the cost involved to build that functionality into the Wii U console because of the patents related to those technologies."
Nintendo's current console, the Wii, does not permit DVD movie playback.
Presentation - 2011 E3 Expo Analyst Q & A Session [Nintendo]
Toshihiro Nagoshi, who picked making video games over making porn, took a whiff of "Black Dragon" cologne, which is doing an in-game collaboration with the upcoming Yakuza: Of the End.
香水に詳しい名越監督にビックリ!? 『龍が如く』コラボ香水を開発スタッフが語る [電撃オンライン via はちま起稿]
According to THQ's Danny Bilson, Dawn of War III will "have a much larger strategic component to it, more of a global battle going on with little tactical things, sort of MMO-like". It's strongly hinted it'll be revealed (as though it hasn't already) in August. [Eurogamer]
Even with a recent resurgence of sorts, the time when true adventure gaming was a blockbuster genre is well and truly past. Those interested in re-living that past, or in finding out what all the fuss was about, can check out Hardcore Gaming 101's Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures.
The book sets out to catalogue the most important graphic adventure games of all time, specifically those released during the genre's "glory years" of 1984-2000 (though more contemporary games also feature). All the big names like Sierra and Lucasarts are there, as well as practically everyone else you've ever heard of, with other games featured ranging from Kojima's Snatcher to Simon the Sorcerer to the game that started it all, Zork.
The authors and editors are up-front in saying that not every game or developer is covered, but honestly, I couldn't think of a title I'd heard of/played that wasn't there.
Being written by a large group of contributors, there's no constant "voice" throughout the book, and as such the quality varies from piece to piece, but at the very least you'll learn a lot from each entry not just about what the game is about, but what (if anything) makes it worth looking at years or even decades down the line. Especially since most have been written as retrospective reviews, which can be helpful if you haven't played the game in question before.
It's comprehensiveness is also to be applauded. Coming in at over 750 pages, and featuring around 150 games, there's not much about the genre, its developers, franchises and games you won't be able to learn (or be reminded of) from this book.
Call us spoiled, but the presentation here is a little sparse. While the information is appreciated, this would have been nice as a glorious, hardcover coffee table book, really showing off a lot of the art that made these games special. A good-looking book would also have been a great way go convince people to pay for it, since much of the content is already available on Hardcore Gaming 101's site (though obviously not all of it, and not collected or edited like this).
What you get instead is a book with only the most basic formatting and some black & white images (though it should be noted, a Kindle version is available that is in colour).
If you're after something to really show off the games, like a big art book, this isn't for you. What it is, and this seems somewhat fitting for the genre, is a book forgoing flash and visuals for substance, favouring text and information over all, and on that count this book's a great read for fans of the genre (or would-be fans!).
The Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures was compiled and edited by Kurt Kalata, featuring reviews and features written for Hardcoregaming101.net. Retails for USD$27 on Amazon. A digital copy of the book was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.
In 2009, we told you about Spaniard Lucas Ordoñez, who won a Gran Turismo competition that gave him a shot at racing a real car. Fast forward to 2011 and the guy just made the podium at Le Mans, one of the world's most gruelling and prestigious car races.
Ordoñez, who only a few years ago was a uni student bumming around playing GT in his spare time, has been racing professionally for a little while now thanks to his win in the GT Academy competition (which gave game players the chance to race real cars), but there's a big difference between toiling away in the lower echelons of European motorsport to participating in the Le Mans 24 hour endurance race.
Part of the Signatech Nissan team, whose cars were complete with massive PlayStation livery, Ordoñez and his teammates Franck Mailleux and Soheil Ayari overcame two punctures to finish second in their class for the race, which while not second overall is still a great achievement.
Last time I ran a race that well I got a sore thumb and sore eyes. Ordoñez gets to stand on the podium, be showered with expensive champagne and race fast cars for a living. Well played, sir, well played.
GT Academy Winner Gains Podium Finish At Le Mans [PlayStation]