Life in Minecraft can be a scary thing, but also a romantic one. Build a life together, away from everything, and do your best to stay alive. But what about when that's no longer enough?
This music video for "From the Ground Up" explores those ideas in charming fashion. The video is by SlamacowCreations, and the song is written and performed by singer/songwriter Laura Shigihara, best known for her work on Plants vs. Zombies.
Nintendo's Zelda games are usually very good. Their music is among their better qualities. So an official Zelda concert should be good, right?
I went to one last night. I liked it, didn't love it... meaning it was a little more Zelda II for me, not so much Ocarina Of Time. And definitely not Majora's Mask, my favorite (go ahead, yell at me now).
The concert is officially called Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses. It's been touring around North America all year. The show I attended last night at Madison Square Garden's Theater in New York City appears to be the fifth to last perfomance.
The show runs a little over two hours, including three faux-surprise encores. The triple encore thing is weird and makes it feel like we're not at a concert but playing one of those video games that keeps having fake-out endings as the boss battle enters new phases. A Zelda symphony doesn't need that kind of gimmickry. The core music is good enough on its own. Listen to the concert's opening piece. I posted it up top. Good stuff, yes?
Last night's concert was running in MSG's "small room", as the Theater is sometimes called. The "big room"—where the Knicks play and the circus is held—was running a Justin Bieber concert. I can't vouch for the music in that one.
These people were not at MSG for the Bieber concert, that much I know.
I attended the concert on Nintendo's dime. They comped me and fellow Kotaku writer Jason Schreier. We were in section 100, row J, which means an oboist could have spit on us if they wanted to. We were that close. I sat two seats from intrepid Nintendo line-waiter Triforce Johnson, who had not been holding his seat there for the past month. During intermission we chatted about Wii U. He's trying mightily to master all the Zelda levels of Nintendo Land. Triforce wears a Power Glove. There were a small number of cosplayers.
Most people in the huge crowd seemed like ordinary concert-goers. Not many people in costume.
Between movements, we'd hear from the conductor or the guy who arranged the symphony. They'd name-check Zelda games and—wouldn't you know it?—Zelda II actually got a loud cheer. There were fans of lots of the games there. My favorite fans were the young women who sat behind me and sounded nearly in tears when some of the sweeter village and forest tunes would be played. They loved the gentler stuff. I think they had the right idea. The best Zelda music, I'll submit, are the pieces that you hear while you explore. The songs you hear when you are galloping across Hyrule field or sailing the ocean in Wind Waker are what Zelda music is to me.
Zelda games are games of curiosity more than they are games of clashes. These aren't combat epics. These are exploration adventures. So it was odd to hear the symphony's medleys favor some of the series' more martial music. The medleys were played in accompaniment with Zelda game footage and I can tell you that Jason and I wound up watching three Ganon battles from three games. These were major chunks of the symphony. It seemed out of balance.
Here's a big chunk of the Wind Waker part of the show. The sailing music worked for me. The Ganon stuff? Not really needed.
Nice touch: the conductor used a "real" Wind Waker for that movement.
During intermission I spotted the best-dressed person at the concert. It was a guy dressed as Skull-Kid, wearing the mask from my beloved Majora's Mask.
We did an interview. Me and the Skull-Kid/Majora's-Mask! Career highlight, people.
And then we settled in for more medleys. Some Twilight Princess. Some Link to the Past, which made for the best music of the night, surprisingly. Really strong stuff.
Our first two encores were "The Ballad of the Windfish" from Link's Awakening and "Gerudo Valley" from Ocarina of Time. Good pieces both, and the crowd was happy for these "bonuses".
Then, third encore: Majora's Mask. Happily, this medley was not as martial as the others. We got some time to just enjoy the softer part of that game's soundtrack before going into Majora's boss battle.
Cool experience? Yes.
Best possible Zelda concert? Not really. The music could use more room to breathe. I want to wander and wonder through a Zeldasymphony, not feel like I'm forever in battle. For me, that's what Zelda is all about.
This could only come from the great laboratory of death known as free-for-all in a multiplayer shooter. Given enough matches, enough combatants and enough button-spamming, you'll inevitably discover that a bouncing betty to the face is a one-hit kill Call of Duty: Black Ops II—without detonating.
Nintendo's got up a great Iwata Asks interview with the folks behind Paper Mario: Sticker Star that's worth a read.
Perhaps the most interesting part: Mario creator and legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto actually convinced them that story isn't necessary to a Paper Mario game. Which might be why, when compared to the other three Paper Mario games, Sticker Star's story just isn't up to par.
Here's an excerpt:
Iwata: Miyamoto-san really persevered with Paper Mario this time. Exactly what was he particular about?
Tanabe: Aside from wanting us to change the atmosphere a lot, there were two main things that Miyamoto-san said from the start of the project-"It's fine without a story, so do we really need one?" and "As much as possible, complete it with only characters from the Super Mario world.
Iwata: That's a difficult task. In some ways that would be the exact opposite direction from recent games in the series.
Tanabe: Yeah. With regard to the story, we did a survey over the Super Paper Mario24 game in Club Nintendo25, and not even 1% said the story was interesting. A lot of people said that the Flip26 move for switching between the 3D and 2D dimensions was fun.
Iwata: That project came together because of that idea. Kudo-san, you were in charge of the script, so what did you think about whether a story was really necessary or not?
Kudo: I originally saw it in a way that's similar to Miyamoto-san. Personally I think all we need is to have an objective to win the boss battle at the end of the game. I didn't think we necessarily needed a lengthy story like in an RPG. Instead, we looked at the characteristics of a portable game that can be played little by little in small pieces and packed in lots of little episodes and ideas. I always did like putting in little ideas, so I actually enjoyed it.
Hmm. Hmmmmmmmmmm. I don't know if I like this. I don't know if I like this one bit. Maybe that's why Sticker Starwasn't my favorite.
Forget whether you like Call of Duty or not. The thing to ponder today is whether the world likes Call of Duty as much as it used to.
A swarm of vultures might be premature. Black Ops II has already sold millions of copies. And it's a good game (at least we think so). But 2011's Modern Warfare 3 has not sold as well as 2010's Black Ops and now a stock analyst is saying that they think Black Ops II is on pace to sell fewer copies than Modern Warfare 3.
Here's an analyst note from the firm Sterne Agee that I got today. It's business-speak, but it's pretty easy to get the gist [key parts italicized by me for emphasis]:
ACTIVISION-BLIZZARD INC. (NASDAQ: ATVI) RATING: NEUTRAL
Price: $11.54
Price Target: NA
Analysts: Arvind Bhatia, CFA / Brett Strauser
2013 Estimates Appear Too High in Light of Slowing Call of Duty Sales; Downgrading to Neutral & Reducing Estimates
Our Call
We are downgrading to Neutral from Buy due to 1) concerns on CoD sales; 2) potential downside risk to the Street's 2013 estimates; and 3) console transition-related risks next year. We still like the story long-term, believe EPS growth will resume in 2014 and the company's strong FCF, cash dividend and buybacks should limit downside. As such, this is not a "Sell" call. However, we think shares may have limited upside in the near term as Street estimates are revised downward.
Call of Duty Showing Signs of Weakness.We believe unit sales of Call of Duty: Black Ops II are tracking down double digits y/y. Our checks show initial sales of CoD: Black Ops II at some retailers were down as much as 20%. Subsequently, it appears sales of CoD did pick up a bit over the Thanksgiving holiday. We think the current sales curve suggests CoD: Black Ops II unit sales in its first year could ultimately be down 10% to 15% y/y. If we are right, this would be the second year in a row this critical franchise will have seen units decline (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is down an estimated 5% versus Call of Duty: Black Ops). We estimate CoD generates 40% to 45% of the company's EBIT on an annual basis and it goes without saying that weakness in this franchise is a cause for concern. We think there are possibly three reasons for the weakness in Black Ops II: 1) We note that ratings for Black Ops II on average were slightly lower than Modern Warfare 3, which may have impacted initial sell-through; 2) Black Ops II launched only a week after Halo 4, which could have impacted its sales; and 3) Black Ops II launched only a week before Thanksgiving, which may have caused some consumers to delay purchases in anticipation of potential deals/discounts. Going forward, investors should keep in mind that next year EA (Buy - $15.03) is expected to be back with its Battlefield franchise, the chief competitor to Call of Duty. In addition, Respawn Entertainment (the former Infinity Ward guys) could have a first-person shooter (FPS) out in 2014 under its agreement with EA, making the FPS market even more competitive. On the other hand, Activision's partnership with Tencent for Call of Duty Online in China should start to pay off in the upcoming years, although not likely before 2014.
Reducing Estimates. We are lowering our 2013 revenue/EPS estimates to $4.3B/$0.85 from $4.74B/$1.10. Also, we are lowering our 2014 revenue/EPS estimates to $4.6B/$0.97 from $4.86B/$1.23.
If you hate Call of Duty, maybe you're happy. Maybe you're predicting that CoD will go the way of Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero, other previously-annual franchises milked to dormancy by Call of Duty publisher Activision.
Maybe you see this as the decline of the first-person shooter or the displacement of paid games with free-to-play. Certainly everyone will have a theory.
But maybe you've played Black Ops II and, like me, are a little puzzled. I barely play CoD multiplayer. Just the campaigns. That means I don't play the parts of the series that fuel its popularity. Nevertheless, I could have sworn that MW3 was not as good a game as Black Ops II in any way, single player or multi.
Yet the analysts here are saying that that Black Ops II got worse reviews than MW3.
They're probably going by Metacritic, which has the 360 version of Black Ops II at an 83. That's an average of review scores. (57 "positive" reviews, 5 "mixed", zero "negative".) IGN gives it a 93, Gamespot an 80, Giant Bomb an 80.
The Xbox 360 Metacritic for Modern Warfare 3 is 88. (79 "positive" reviews, 2 "mixed", zero "negative") IGN gives it a 90, GameSpot an 85, Giant Bomb an 80.
I asked folks on Twitter which game was better. I don't play multiplayer so help me out here, I said. And, it was more in favor of Black Ops II than not:
@stephentotilo blops2 is a better game overall no matter what ppl say. Mw3 went backwards in terms of innovation. Forget what people say…
It's not like quality automatically sells, but imagine if Black Ops II really is the better game over Modern Warfare 3. Imagine if Call of Duty goes in decline as it gets better?
According to business news site Bloomberg, Microsoft's next Xbox console will be released in time for the 2013 holiday season. That's "according to people familiar with the company's plans."
Those same "people" (so, not machines!) say it'll be out in time for Thanksgiving sales. They also say Microsoft is still debating internally whether to use their E3 press conference next year to reveal the machine, or hold " a separate event devoted solely to the machine".
This of course is, well nothing new. Many sources, Kotaku included, have been saying the same thing for a while now. But given the outlet in question this does at least add more fuel to the speculative fires that, yes, this time next year we'll have at least one more new console to play with.
You can read other stories about the next Xbox—code-named Durango—here.
An update to Madden NFL 13 rolling out tomorrow will deliver something called "Draft Duels" to Madden Ultimate Team, the game's hybrid fantasy team/card collecting mode. In it, players will open packs of cards, construct a team from their holdings—and their opponent's—and then duke it out in a standard multiplayer game.
In a Draft Duel, two participants decide whether to open one or three packs of cards to stock their teams. In the first round of drafting, players select a card from the packs they purchased. In subsequent rounds, they get to see the remaining cards their opponent holds. The draft then alternates between selecting one from their stock of cards and one from their opponents.
This condition inserts strategic choice into the draft, whether to build the best available team round-to-round, construct a team around a specific player, or simply try to deprive your opponent of quality players at a certain positions.
The draft continues until a starting lineup is stocked (or filled out with random cards, if necessary). The teams are then rated, and the owner of the best rated team gets either a coin bonus or a pack of cards to use in a future Draft Duel. After the game, the winner gets a payout commensurate to whether the game was a standard, "premium" or "elite"-ranked Draft Duel. Regardless, both participants get to keep all players they selected.
Draft Duel packs come in bronze, silver and gold gradings, and must be acquired through the normal route—with Madden coins earned in Ultimate Team play, or bought for real cash. Everyone who begins the mode gets a free pack to try it out. The mode is only available on the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game, as Madden NFL 13 on Wii U has no Ultimate Team mode. Game Informer has more information at the link.
American McGee and his Shanghai-based studio Spicy Horse continue to polish one of the most beautiful browser-based / Android games I've seen. With open beta looming, let's take a look at the dark and lovely Bloodroot Cemetery, the latest area revealed for Akaneiro: Demon Hunters.
Akaneiro is a action role-playing game that combines Japanese mythology and art with the tale of Red Riding Hood. Players don the mantle of a Red Hunter of the Order of Arkane, a human demon hunting organization rumored to have been founded by the real Red Riding Hood. The disciplines of the order are built upon three archetypes from the legend — The Red Girl, The Quiet Huntsman and the Forest Mother. It's a compelling concept, and one I can't wait to explore.
Perhaps my travels will take me to one particularly nasty cursed bit of forest real estate...
Bloodroot Cemetery
The site of countless ancient and forgotten battles, this dense and eerie forest cemetery is shrouded in an unnatural fog. Gnarled roots grasp at clusters of forgotten gravestones and choke weathered monuments.
Jinmenju trees have fed for centuries on the blood of soldier, monk and traveler alike. Their thirst is eternal and unquenchable.
I want to be there.
Spicy Horse is currently interested in adding a few more closed beta testers as they ramp up to the open beta. Think you can handle the hunt? Head over to the Akaneiro: Demon Hunters website and sign up.
He won't say what he did to get the details out of Nintendo's latest console, but he did tweet some juicy (and very, very technical) tidbits about the system:
Wii U codenames worth knowing: system Cafe, CPU Espresso, GPU/SoC/etc. Latte, ARM secure processor Starbuck (we made that one up).
But one insider who has had access to the machine says that the console's impressive AMD Radeon-based graphics chip is off-set by a CPU that runs at low speeds, can do out-of-order processing but has fewer threads than the 360.
Also worth noting: just last week, one of the developers behind Metro: Last Light said the Wii U has a "horrible, slow CPU." Martin's discoveries seem to match that theory, as well as Digital Foundry's thoughts on how Mass Effect 3 runs on the three different consoles.
We'll be following this story and continuing to talk to developers about the Wii U's power as time goes on.
A while back, Gamefly announced that they'd be getting into the game publishing business. Writer Rumble is the first game out of the gate and it turns out to be a surprisingly fun affair.
You get to pick from six influential scribes—Edgar Allen Poe, Agatha Christie, the Brothers Grimm, Jane Austen, Homer or H.P. Lovecraft—who throw words around like Street Fighter's Guile throws sonic booms. Players get a grid of jumbled letters to form words from and the words they make launch attacks against either human or monster opponents.
A variety of special powers can be equipped for each character, letting them double the damage of words or shuffle up a new pool of letters to draw from. The solo Survival Mode generates a nicely frantic pace to smacking down monsters as quick as you can. I've only been able to play local multiplayer but the vs. mode does feel a bit like a fighting game for word nerds. Not a bad nybrid to be, if you ask me.
Part of Writer Rumble's charm comes from its visual interpretations of the author characters. Poe has two raven sidekicks called Never and Moore and Lovecraft battles alongside a hulking cartoon Cthulhu. You want to make these guys badasses, despite the fact that seems to be a word that doesn't get recognized by the in-game dictionary. The game goes live in the App Store today. If you wind up getting it, it'll give new meaning to the phrase "strong vocabulary".
An update to Madden NFL 13 rolling out tomorrow will deliver something called "Draft Duels" to Madden Ultimate Team, the game's hybrid fantasy team/card collecting mode. In it, players will open packs of cards, construct a team from their holdings—and their opponent's—and then duke it out in a standard multiplayer game.
