So "better" might be subjective. But while I absolutely adored Deus Ex: Human Revolution as it was, I would totally play this pop art version of it. It's also making my heart ache to play the game again.
We saw some screens of the shadow glitch last month, but you can see it above in all its colorful action.
This Is Your Brain on Deus Ex [YouTube via Reddit]
As has been written before, Sean Smith of the U.S. State Department also was a deeply committed presence inside the world of EVE Online, as well as outside it, serving on the unique Council of Stellar Management, a governing body selected by its peers and convened in the real world. Smith was killed Tuesday in an attack on the American mission in Libya.
The death of Smith, known as "Vile Rat," in both the EVE community and in the Something Awful forums associated with the game, touched a deep nerve of grief, sympathy and respect. Here is the game's in world tribute to Smith, with voice-over remarks from many of EVE's leading community members.
According to this video's explanation, "the tiny dots of light inside the bubbles are individual players paying their respects by lighting a "candle" using the in-game cynosural field item."
Further, the final words Smith transmitted inside EVE are as follows:
12:54:09 PM) vile_rat: assuming we don't die tonight. We saw one of our 'police' that guard the compound taking pictures
It evidently has less memory than his nonexistent wristwatch. And, in probably the most humiliating slam, "Apple charges less for memory, you motherfuckers!"
Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski did a cool Q&A on Reddit today. It's a great read!
But in case you're in a rush or you don't feel like going to Reddit, here's one of my favorite excerpts. Redditor cheesiepoofs asks:
1) How did you get to where you are in the videogame industry? How do you even get selected for leading the development of a videogame?
2) What point in your career did you go from being hired to make a game to being able to get games made? Have you gotten to that point? I imagine you've got quite the sway in the industry after all this time.
3) How much of development gets affected by the people funding the game itself? Is it just timelines or is it common for them to step in to make cuts to affect things like the target audience etc.?
And Bleszinski answers:
1) I kicked and screamed and clawed my way to where I am today. As I mentioned below, I seldom went out in my teens and 20's and focused on my career. I was never very good at graphics or code but I did both of them anyways and later found folks much better at both that I could work with. Remember, I've been at this for TWENTY YEARS now, as I started at 17. The one constant in this business (and in technology) is change.
2) I just made my own games, it's that simple. I also realized the value of being visible in the industry at an early age. I used to be a drama geek in high school. I played Mercutio in our high school's production of "Romeo and Juliet" and was a lead in our production of "Rumors" as well as "Ten Little Indians." (FUNFACT: I was in drama with Courtney Ford ("Dexter" "True Blood") and we still keep in touch. I got her to do Maria's voice in Gears 2.) Anyways I use those drama chops for interviews and stage presentations and what not.
3)Epic is NOT the typical developer as we are the ones who decide when our games ship as well as the games that we work on. We use a combination of gut and market conditions while also balancing what's best from the engine side of the business to decide what's next.
So there you go. Want to be a game designer? Do Shakespeare!
In a memorial service today for four American diplomats assassinated in Libya earlier this week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton paid tribute to Sean Smith, a consular officer for the United States who also served as a diplomat in EVE Online and as a member of that MMO's real-world governing body.
In her eulogy, Clinton directly referenced Smith's work in that video game's community.
Clinton, in a service attended by President Obama today at Andrews Air Force Base, said that Smith was survived by "a loving wife, Heather, two young children—Samantha and Nathan—and scores of grieving family, friends and colleagues.
"And that's just in this world," said Clinton, "because in the virtual worlds Sean helped create, he is also being mourned by countless competitors, collaborators and gamers, who shared his passion."
Smith died Tuesday in Libya in an attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission there, an attack apparently responding to a hate-filled, anti-Islam video produced and promoted by private American citizens and uploaded to the Internet earlier. Rioting continues across the Middle East in the aftermath of the attacks and the video's notoriety.
Smith was known as "Vile Rat" on the Something Awful forums and in Eve Online, and likewise fulfilled the role of a Diplomat in that game, as he did in his real world duty. He also served on the Council of Stellar Management (CSM), a panel of players voted into place by their peers, which represents community concerns in meetings with developer CCP.
I'm a sucker for watching a character visually evolve over time. It's almost like looking at alternate lives that a fictional character could've embodied with slightly different personalities. For example, you can see how Spryo the Dragon seemed to have an entirely different attitude in these early designs.
And though the movie's not quite out yet, you can see how the main character of the video game-centric feature film Wreck-It Ralph started out as more of a monster in this series of images released by Disney. I'm guessing that the prevailing wisdom argued that a more creature-like Ralph would have been harder to be sympathetic to. Who knows? Ralph's final Lil' Abner/Mario look works just fine, but I sure like the different illustrative styles that he journeyed through.
President Obama may not be in Madden NFL 13's Super Bowl celebration ceremony but that doesn't mean POTUS can't buy his way back into the game. Ads for his re-election campaign are popping up in the game's multiplayer menu, but only in targeted states.
Ohio, Nevada, Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire and Virginia are the battlegrounds getting hit with the political messaging, which means my home state of North Carolina, unlike 2008, isn't seen by that campaign to be in play. Four years ago, Obama's campaign hit Burnout Paradise and Need For Speed with in-game billboards targeted to voters in N.C., plus Ohio, Florida, Iowa, Colorado, Indiana, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada and Wisconsin.
AdWeek reports that Madden isn't the only EA game where Obama has bought ad space, though it didn't name any others. GamePolitics asked EA if it was accepting ad buys from any other campaign, and a company spokesman said the publisher was for "credible political candidates, similar to a TV, radio or online channel."
Obama Taps Video Games for Early Voting [AdWeek via GamePolitics]
A server-side update has returned the fantasy-draft option to Madden NFL under its new Connected Careers mode, but only for online leagues. Still, anyone present in a league before it begins is able to participate in a draft of all of the NFL's active talent, remaking and rebalancing each of the NFL's 32 franchises.
Fantasy Draft was originally tossed out when EA Sports developed "Connected Careers," which unified the game's Franchise and Superstar modes into the same structure, allowing those who control single players to play games against entire teams controlled by human opponents. The prolonged outcry over the loss of Fantasy Draft evidently pushed EA Sports to reincorporate it, though for now it is only restored to Online Connected Careers. Those playing offline connected careers must evidently wait on a patch.
To access fantasy draft, start a new Connected Careers league as a coach, and wait for anyone else you want to play with to join. Then, when it comes time to select the "Start League" option from the "My Actions" menu in the preseason, the league's commissioner will be presented with the opportunity of beginning the season with the rosters already in place or starting a fantasy draft.
In a draft, every human player will have 45 seconds to make a selection, and can fill up to 54 slots on the team (meaning at least one draftee must be cut in pre-season). The draft may be simulated from any point once all participants are done selecting the positions that matter most to them. Player salaries will be normalized and valued on the basis of the round in which they were drafted, to put every franchise on an even playing field for salary cap purposes.
No word yet on when this feature will be restored to Offline Connected Careers. For those who are still curious about the means to edit player appearances in Connected Careers, EA Sports said the Madden development team is "currently exploring the potential option to include additional functionality in Madden NFL 13 in an upcoming title update."
Fantasy Drafts Coming to Madden NFL 13 [EA Sports]
The mega-ambitious, long-in-development Half-Life remake/tribute Black Mesa is finished, and you can download it from Gamefront right now and give it a whirl.
You'll have to follow the instructions on the Gamefront page, as Black Mesa requires that you install the 2007 Source software development kit.
In the video above, you can see a comparison between the original Half-Life and the remake. Lookin' pretty good, Black Mesa. Let's see how you play.
Black Mesa is Live, Download it Here! [Gamefront]
Nintendo talked a lot about the Wii U yesterday, but there was one big topic they didn't cover: the MiiVerse, the console's version of a social network.
Turns out you'll see it as soon as you boot up the Wii U. In fact, according to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, who sat down with us at Kotaku's offices this afternoon, the machine's login screen is one big social network.
"When you turn on your Wii U, let's assume that you're connected," he said, "so when you turn on your Wii U what you're gonna see is that home screen with all of the Miis and the MiiVerse community, and what's trending, kind of the key comments that have bubbled up through the system. So as long as you're in a connected environment, that's the first screen you see."
Sounds like a Facebook newsfeed, doesn't it? Fils-Aime says the community of people will be curated by both you and Nintendo, not unlike your Facebook or Twitter. Seems to mesh well with Stephen's theory that Nintendo is trying to create its own social networking giant.
So who are the Miis invading your homepage? "These are your friends, these are people who have high reputation within the site, and so we've curated for you to see those messages," Fils-Aime said.
"So like Reggie Fils-Aime?" I asked. Could he be making appearances on our systems?
Sure. "We could also do some messages directly from Nintendo to that point," he said.
In addition to the Miis, Fils-Aime says there will be "what we're calling 'tiles.'"
"These'll be the key games that the community are playing, buzzing about," he said. "Because of the deep linkage through Nintendo TVii with video services, these could also be movies. They could be TV shows, could be a range of different content, but it's bubbling up through the community, with the exception of— I think the maximum of three tiles that we might be sending in terms of Nintendo thinking that something's interesting."
So that's the start-up screen. To get to the rest of your content—like the game in your drive, the newly announced Nintendo TVii and the digital eShop—you'll have to hit the home button. There are no channels on Wii U like there were on the Wii; instead you'll have "options for where you wanna go from there," Fils-Aime said. You could jump straight to Netflix, for example, or go into the separate MiiVerse application for more social options.
This MiiVerse application won't resemble Nintendo TVii in terms of interface or options, but it will let you send messages, see what your friends are doing, and recommend games to the people you know.
As we've seen, New Super Mario Bros. U uses the MiiVerse in an interesting way: as you walk through the world map, you'll see messages from other people offering tips, complaining about how hard a given level is, or even bragging about how awesome they are. Fils-Aime says other games can integrate the MiiVerse in similar fashion, "but it'll be driven by the individual developer."
They'll be showing other examples of how games can integrate the MiiVerse in the near future.
As for online networks? Reggie says the same thing: Stay tuned.
"And by that I mean, it's gonna be best for us to show the specific mechanics, how it works, for me to sit here and try to explain it to you without some nice visuals is gonna take our entire interview time," he said. "The key message I would communicate to your readers would be this: We have spent a lot of time and invested a lot of money to get our connected experiences right. And so when we highlight how the eShop will work, how the Nintendo Network is going to work, I think people are going to be very pleased."
And what about the much-reviled friend codes? Fils-Aime told us during E3 that they will indeed be back, albeit in a more convenient form. But he wouldn't share anything else today.
"We've heard the community feedback on friend codes and we're making it dramatically easier for you to connect with your friends," he said.
We'll have more from our extensive interview with Fils-Aime in the coming days.
