Category: Gaming

Any gaming post.

Worth1000 beta games photochop

If you are a gamer with a sense of humor, you really need to check out the latest Worth1000 Beta Busts photochopping contest.  I’m still working my way through all the entries, but this contest looks to have the highest ratio of good to meh submissions I’ve seen yet on the site.  Such entries and Mario Kombat, Final Fantasy XXX (a must see cover), Ratchet and Frank (Zappa’s got your back), Super Mario Bloodlust, and more.  There are pages and pages of entries, and most are worth seeing.

The beta version is the test version of the video game….the way it was intended by the video game designers before the big studio calls for changes.

The rules of this game are thus:
You are to take a still, box or ad from a video game and edit it so as to represent a version of the game that never made it to the consumer. It might be helpful to briefly discuss the original game in your author’s comments for people who never heard of it. As always, quality is a must. We will remove poor entries no matter how much we like you. You’ll have 48 hours for this contest, so make your submissions count.

And here are a couple of the entries.  Check out the full contest to see the other great games.

chlamydia-clip.jpg

w1000-halo-kitty.jpg

[tags]Worth1000, Beta Busts, Photochopping, Photochops[/tags]

Sony warns of greater gaming division losses

The writeup at ArsTechnica has all the gory details.  Sony has announced that the cost of some components for the PlayStation 3 have gone up.  After a US$231 loss for the division last quarter, Sony is warning of a greater loss than originally expected around the PlayStation 3 launch.

According to Merrill Lynch Japan, such a move could result in a second-year loss for Sony of US$730 million, and another loss of US$457 million in its third year. This would be in stark contrast to the PS2, which was profitable in its second year, to the tune of US$757 million.

. . .

So if the game console business is getting so expensive, why do companies like Sony and Microsoft continue to chase it? Each company is looking at the long term benefits of having the dominant game console market share, and each company has additional reasons to promote its own console. Sony, on one hand, is clearly anxious to push the Blu-ray format in order to create a market for the high-definition movie standard they are promoting. Microsoft, on the other hand, likes the idea of the Xbox serving as an entertainment hub that links seamlessly to computers running the Media Center Edition of Windows.

Then there’s Nintendo, who have consistently turned a profit with their gaming hardware and never seemed to jump on the bandwagon of losing money selling high-powered units below cost in order to make it back with game sales and third-party license fees.

The rest of this year and early next will be interesting in the console business, I suppose.  I want Sony to do well with the PlayStation 3, but more and more it sounds like a troubled console, or at least a troubled launch.

[tags]Sony, PlayStation 3[/tags]

City of Heroes lore

This one is completely, totally, and unashamedly for City of Heroes players only. If you don’t play City of Heroes, please go to the next post, as this will mean nothing to you.

Now, for the three of you that get to this section, if you want to know more of the lore of City of Heroes, hit this forum thread for all kinds of details and wondrous information.

  • Nowaki:
    Did you know that the last contact you get in the Outbreak tutorial, Coyote is a tribute to the first member of the City of Heroes pre-beta community.His forum handle was Kiyotee, his real name was Matt Bragg. He was an active contributing member of the pre-beta community for 2 years, one of the nicest guys around, but died tragically around the time the game was released.

    The tutorial character Coyote, bear’s Matt’s name and character’s identity.

  • IanTheM1:
    I’m guessing Kings Row was left without a trainer for a while because…Back in Beta, Galaxy City didn’t exist!

    That’s right, back in Beta you went straight to Atlas after being forced to do the tutorial. Kings Row appropriately had retired police officer Michael Knight AKA Back Alley Brawler serving as the trainer of Kings Row.

    Since Beta had become so crowded, there was a call for a second starting zone, thus Galaxy City was born, and Brawler moved there.

    Since Galaxy didn’t exist at the time, Kings Row connected to Perez Park! You can still see the spot where the old gate was. It’s in the northeast part of High Park. You can’t miss the lookout posts and the fenced in section.

  • Bad_Luck:
    Break-frees were originally Disciplines, which didn’t negate holds, they only added defense against them. For a while you could trade in bounty in SC and get them instead of break-frees.Unyielding used to root you to one spot.

There’s around 50 pages of posts there now. Some of the information is getting off the CoH lore/backstory and into the CoH history and what-used-to-be, but it’s still interesting to folks that play the game, I think.

[tags]City of Heroes lore[/tags]

Massive history of Infocom available online

Too many of you are too young to know WTF I’m talking about here.  But for the 3 people who see this story and recognize the name Infocom, you can read a 51 page discourse on the rise and fall of this historic company.  If you don’t want to download and read the previously linked PDF, you can hit the introduction page to view a section by section layout or a slideshow of highlights.

To save you the trouble of tracking down information about Infocom (known first for Zork), I’ll go ahead and throw out an info link for the lazy here.  Also, to get a sample of Infocom’s work, try out Zork online.

[tags]Infocom, Interactive Fiction, Zork universe, Z-Machine[/tags]

Assassin’s Creed 360 previewed

(via Joystiq)

Very recently I noted that Assassin’s Creed, once believed to be a PlayStation 3 exclusive, will be asscreed360.jpgcoming to at least the XBox360 as well. ComputerAndVideogames.com has the preview of the XBox360 version.

However, as Joystiq notes:

No release date, general or specific, was announced, nor was there talk of how the game controls (an indication the CVG team likely did not see a playable version). This is another PS3 title that was once thought exclusive but now confirmed multiplatform. It could still be a timed exclusive for Sony, but to what extent is the company’s PR line (i.e. not concerned with exclusives) reflective of internal opinion?

I’m really looking forward to this game. That is, assuming I can ever afford an XBox360. My gaming budget is a bit less than it used to be. Funny what a wife and 2 children does to your financial priorities…

[tags]Assassin’s Creed, XBox360, Joystiq[/tags]

New gaming comic I’m watching

While checking hooked-20060718-clip.jpgout a recent Joystiq’s weekly comic wrap-up, I saw a link I hadn’t seen (or at least hadn’t paid attention to) before – Hooked on Polygon. Based on the first comic I saw, concerning Peter Jackson and the Halo movie, I’m going to keep visiting. The why and wherefor of this comic:

Okay so today’s comic is inspired by last week’s Denzel Washington scare. Apparently someone somewhere saw Mr. Washington and Peter Jackson having a meeting. From that single sighting, it was obvious that Denzel MUST be cast as Master Chief in the HALO movie. I mean, what else could they be talking about, right?

After reading that, I starting thinking about other scenarios little Petey Jackson could be seen in, and possibly transformed into a HALO movie rumor nugget.

Then I picked the best ideas in my noggin and drew them. It’s funny, because the panels that you see above look EXACTLY like the scenes in my head as they played out, except cartoon-ized. It doesn’t always work that way.

And I think that’s a pretty accurate portrayal of much of the blogosphere.

[tags]Hooked on Polygon, Web comics, Peter Jackson, Halo movie[/tags]

New Atari 2600 cartridge released

(via boingboing)
atari-aclvl1.jpgThis isn’t an officially supported Atari company cartridge, but with the whole retro-gaming scene getting so popular, expect to see more of these in the future. The original release of the game A-VCS-tec Challenge was 55 signed, numbered, boxed cartridges. Those are long gone. But additional runs for those wanting their own non-limited edition cartridge are planned.

The game is a conceptually simple race for distant object, but with an Aztec them and really nice (for Atari 2600) graphics. Controls are simple, as would be expected for such a limited joystick as the 2600 had.  I still have a working Atari 2600 – perhaps I should try to buy myself a copy?
[tags]Atari 2600, Retro-gaming[/tags]

Wolfking FPS keyboard

(via Gizmodo)

Peripheral manufacturers are routinely trying to come up with “the next big thing” in controllers – especially for the PC shooter crowd. The most recent entry we’ve seen is this FPS keyboard from Wolf King. The half-plus keyboard is designed for left hand use so you can keep your right hand on the mouse. It has all the keys you normally can easily reach with your left hand, plus F1 through F12 in easy reach circling the top of the keyboard. Additionally, some of the right-hand side keys have been moved to be somewhat accesible. All this, and it’s only $34.99.

wolfking.jpg

[tags]FPS controller, Wolfking, FPS[/tags]

Just say no to NCAA 2007 for the PSP

I don’t have a PSP, and if I did, I wouldn’t be buying NCAA 2007, as I’m not into sports games.  But, for those of you that are into sports games and that do have a PSP, make sure you avoid NCAA 2007 for the PSP.

There is apparently a bug in the PSP version of NCAA 2007 that can only be described as crippling. Thanks to Jesse Leimkuehler for alerting me to this.

As reported in various forums, in the PSP version of a game, the ball is spotted at the point where a runner first makes contact with a defender, NOT where he actually gets tackled.

Here’s an example: let’s say you’re on the 50 yard line. You run the ball wide on a pitch. The first time a defender touches you is at the 45. You break a tackle at the 45 and take it all the way for a touchdown.

Oh, wait–no you didn’t. The ball will get spotted at the 45.

Oh, yeah. That’s a bug.

[tags]PSP, EA Sports, NCAA 2007[/tags]