Developers Protest Slamdance Game Festival

I have to say, I do understand and respect the reasoning of the Slamdance sponsors, and subsequently the response of the Slamdance festival itself. While I don't agree with it at all, it's business (money) that really has the final say most of the time.

The problem as I see it with video games as an art form is in its short and largely one-dimensional history. Only recently have games aspired to be more than simple entertainment—hell, only recently have games been around. And in a world where the most respected things are the ones with long-established reputations, it's a hard fact that it will take a long, long time for games to break through the historical stigmas and change cultural—global—attitudes.

While I've never played it, I commend Donny Ledonne and games like SCMRPG for trying to create something not just different, but significant. I think we should defend things like this—not necessarily the games, but their value and merit. However, I'm wary of Mr. Croal's comparison (even if it is a loose one) to Maus or Guernica because I think it neglects the fact that not only is the game controversial, but so is the medium itself. I can see how it would be extremely difficult for most people to see SCMRPG as anything more than a game, when all it has to distinguish itself from an exploitative triviality (superficially, at least) is the author's defense and explanation. Controversial art and literature at least have the collective historical weight of their respective media to lend validity and significance.

I hope to see more shitstorms like this in the future. I hope controversies like this keep happening. Nothing's going to change overnight, and the discussion needs to keep going.

by MisterSleep

Apple's Steve Jobs "Trash-Talks" PSP

A few things come to mind about the iPhone and why I don't think it will be the uber-cool Nokia/NDS/PSP killer:

1) screen: Yes, that thing looks like it will suffer from "PSP grease stain-itis" as soon as it's in your hands.

2) interface: Now I know I will probably get roasted on this, what with Apple's legendary status as developers of user-friendly UI and all, but my main gripe is not the design of the interface per se, but the lack of tactile feedback. It's a screen - that's it. No discernable features apart from a slick, flat screen. In other words, soft buttons. Anyone who's ever used those universal remote controls with soft buttons only know what I am talking about: It is literally impossible to use the device without looking at the screen. I personally think that the iPhone interface idea is slick (not that Nokia hasn't designed something similar, albeit in a prototype stage) but it could certainly benefit from some hard buttons.

3) game franchises: what game franchises? You can bet that Nintendo won't be developing games for an iPhone. Microsoft, with their game developer buying sprees, would probably put their money on a product that they developed (Zune, anyone?), and not the iPhone. Ditto for Sony. That leaves some indie developers, and some larger developers/publishers that are platform-agnostic - SEGA comes to mind. Oh, and EA. But that still leaves out boatloads of franchises that simply would never make it to the iPhone.

4) price: 600usd? Get the fuck outta here. I need a phone to make PHONE CALLS, thank you! My Motorola W222 doesn't take photos, doesn't handle video, doesn't do shit apart from FM radio, which I never use. Oh, it makes phone calls too. What's best is that with service plan and all, it costs me 0usd for 2400 minutes/month for one year (the mobile phone company rebates me part of the initial payment every month for one year, by which they will have rebated my full payment. I don't see that happening with the iPhone ever, at those prices).

Oh, and L_K_M, aren't you contradicting yourself? You DON'T NEED a 600usd phone that also takes pictures, plays music and video, and runs games. You need a PHONE. All the other features on the iPhone are for entertainment, like that 600usd toy you mention. Doesn't that make the iPhone a... phone with a bunch of toy-like features that just jack its price up?

Gio, some people prefer to buy things separately, mainly because they appreciate quality. No mobile phone is going to compete against my DSLR camera in terms of functionality and quality. No mobile phone is going to compete against my 3CCD HD camcorder in terms of functionality and quality. No mobile phone is going to compete against my NDS in terms of sheer gaming enjoyment (at least not anytime soon). A deal? For paying for shit I won't ever use?

Of course, some people do like the convenience of Swiss Army Knife-type gadgets, but for me the quality just doesn't cut it (I work in professional media, hence my inclination for quality vs useless features I will never use).

But this is all moot. It's an Apple product, so the Mac faithful that follow Steve Jobs around like so many lemmings will absolutely gobble it up. Given the company's size, all they need is to sell a few to their loyal fanatics and Apple will enjoy smooth sailing from here on.

by laputaquelepario

Here It Is, The Official Korean DS

Bold is the new cool.

by Zenith

Sharp's AQUOS TVs Just For Gaming

For the sake of clarity, the 'Dynamic Contrast' thing needs explaining:

The TV's have fancy circuitry which controls the brightness of the backlight on the LCD, in effect turning down the brightness for darker scenes, so as to give better blacks/dark colours.

However, this is across the whole screen, so, for each individual frame, the TV behaves and looks like one with its "native contrast ratio"... in this case 1300:1.

The "dynamic contrast ratio" of 8500:1 is a comparison between the blackest black it can produce, and the whitest white... but these can never co-exist on the same frame. Infact, as no response time is quoted specifically for the backlight, it may take some time to go from its dimmest state to its brightest state, so it is possible that they may not even be able to co-exist across frames too close together either.

The most important thing to know, of course, is that picture quality can't be proven by statistics like this, and there's no substitute for actually seeing the monitor before you buy it.

Also, in response to Justcrim: The 360 can output 1080p over component and these TV's can recieve it, so technically both consoles can give a "Full HD" picture on this TV... not that either console actually renders it's games at 1080p (with the exception of a few Playstation Network titles) which is what really matters.

In reality, both consoles render the majority of their games at 1280x720, and then scale them (Scaling is BAD ok? You lose picture clarity, which, if I remember right, was the whole reason for HDTV in the first place!) to whichever output you choose... so while 1080p might sound better on paper, it will actually look worse than a 720p native display. Therefore, a 1080p TV isn't what you want for gaming. (For now anyway... there are one or two 1080p titles planned for the PS3, and Microsoft have said 1080p games are possible for the 360, but it's unlikely to become standard.)

For the optimum picture, you want a 720p TV. (Not that they're easy to find... as most of them are actually 1366x768, aka WXGA... which, as far as I know, is only output by the 360, via the VGA cable - not a single HDDVD/Bluray player or HDTV network actually uses this resolution!) Outputting 720p to a 720p native display (or a CRT that supports 720p) is the only way to avoid scaling and the picture quality loss it entails.

Sorry about the rant, but the confusion surrounding HD really gets on my tits.

by hinges

Microsoft Got An Emmy, Nintendo Got An Emmy, Sony Got Another...

Who collects these things?

Seriously, you can give an award for anyone to anything it seems.

We'll use the pro sports measure of a record to determine the value an award. The shorted the name (Most Homeruns)the greater the renown (verse something like, Most homeruns at home, on grass, while it is raining at night with more then 35,000 fans in attendance)

this 'Outstanding Innovation and Achievement in Advanced Media Peripheral Development and Technological Impact of Video Game Controllers for the Best Use of Personal Media Display and Presentation Technology Pioneering Work in a Near and Real-Time Fully Graphics Processors scored on he Best Use of Personal Media Display and Presentation Technology Pioneering Work in Near and Real-Time Fully Programmable Shading Via Modern Graphics Processors'

Shit simply fucking doesn't fly assholes.

by huginn

Apple iPhone Not Developer Friendly

I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that Apple has screwed up akin to Sony with the PS3...

This device is only barely 'next-gen' (name any truly new feature), it's too big for a phone, too small for a UMPC, has been hyped for far too long to deliver on the dreams and too expensive for the majority to consider seriously as a replacement or alternative for all the other cool stuff we have to choose from.

I think Apple will be successful getting into some new markets, but I think that hindsight will show that the first edition iPhone was a loss-leader. Fortunately for Apple they can afford this kind of 'mistake', and they will certainly claim a victory regardless of the reality.

by huygir

Rabid Japanese Xbox 360 Fan Art

PS3-tan will be 300 pounds of large and in charge.

by NinjaBall

Don't know how to comment on Kotaku? Here's how. Beware: We ban. Loads. This week, we axed off tons of dead weight. And next week? Wash, rinse, repeat!

Contact information for this author is not available.