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High voltage
High Voltage Announces WiiWare Racer
Still not having a publisher for The Conduit doesn't mean High Voltage can't work on other things, such as the above High Voltage Hot Rod Show a WiiWare title due out sometime before the end of the year. Crazy action, don't-give-a-shit physics and a Dukes of Hazzard air horn make this look good for a few laughs among friends. You can have up to four races simultaneous in split-screen mode. Let's see Mr. 36-Man Warcraft dude take on that.
High Voltage Announces New WiiWare Racer [Nintendo Wii Fanboy]
Lets tgs
We're done counting the tens of thousands of votes you people cast in our "What The Hell Are These Guys Watching?" poll, and the results are in! So just what was it that had the Japanese crowd enthralled/confused? Was it Microsoft's star show-stopper, Star Ocean 4? Or perhaps the other Square Enix attention-grabber, Last Remnant? Or maybe, just maybe, it was the other other Square Enix 360 exclusive, Infinite Undiscovery?
More »
This Is What Those Guys Were Watching
We're done counting the tens of thousands of votes you people cast in our "What The Hell Are These Guys Watching?" poll, and the results are in! So just what was it that had the Japanese crowd enthralled/confused? Was it Microsoft's star show-stopper, Star Ocean 4? Or perhaps the other Square Enix attention-grabber, Last Remnant? Or maybe, just maybe, it was the other other Square Enix 360 exclusive, Infinite Undiscovery?
More »
2:20 PM on Sun Oct 12 2008
By Luke Plunkett
10,725 views,
58 comments
Latest by PuppyGuarder: I want to be the friend of that guy on the right in the brown shirt more »
Xbla
Microsoft Reconsidering XBLA Delisting Stance
Back in May, news that Microsoft would de-list low-selling, underperforming XBLA titles caused a bit of a stir. Well now that delisting might be put off or even canceled, according to Microsoft VP John Schappert.
Schappert told IGN that the original reports laying out how games would be targeted for deletion were, of course, taken out of context. Actually, I kind of buy his explanation. He said that the standards for delisting — a MetaCritic score of less than 65 and a trial conversion rate below 6 percent — were meant as parameters only, not absolute triggers for the XBLA axe. And that's good. Because Fable II: Pub Games is presently scoring a 55 on MetaCritic.
But ultimately, the new Xbox Live dashboard (not "experience") that goes live Nov. 19 might make delisting unnecessary. Originally, the idea was to reduce clutter in the marketplace. New sorting options in the new experience (ah, shit!) dash should make navigating the titles easier.
XBLA De-Listing Deferred [IGN via Gamasutra]
2:00 PM on Sun Oct 12 2008
By Owen Good
884 views,
15 comments
Game design
'Picture Imperfect': Issues of Video Game Cameras
Corvus of Man Bytes Blog has been posting an interesting series over the past month, contemplating issues of the camera in games: they've ranged from issues of reliance on gun sight type targeting to 'chasing third person cinema.' The last in the series dealing with the problems is on the problematic issue of exactly what the camera is suppose to represent and what it is supposed to do. As he notes, "The central question of these issues seems to be, 'Is the camera meant to represent our eyes, a camera lens, or a gun sight?' And the answer, for better or for worse, appears to be a flat 'Yes.'": More »
I am watching you julian ... like a shithawk
This Guy Won an Oscar Playing Gandhi
That's Ben Kingsley on the set of Prince of Persia. I think he's pointing out the production assistant who didn't peel the grapes for his trailer's fruit and cheese plates like he'd asked. Or he's getting into character to fuck some shit up as Nizam, the "villanous nobleman" who is the antagonist in the PoP movie due in 2010. Sista site Defamer got that up on Friday, but tipster rayk2099 pointed it out to us just now. Sir Ben's played some heavy-gravity roles in his day. If you want to call this a paycheck role, fine, but my guess is he's working about five times as hard as he did playing Vice President Nance in Dave.
Not getting enough game-movie goodness? Tipster Christian S. has alerted us to the first two Max Payne reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, from Australian site Urban Cinefile. The count so far is two green splats, no ripe-and-reds.
Ben Kingsley Loves You and You [Defamer, thanks rayk2099]
Audio
'Next-Gen Audio Square-Off': PS3 versus 360
In the battle over technological dominance, audio is one area that's usually ignored — Alexander Brandon set out to fix that, and interviewed Gene Semel (audio director of SCEA) and Brian Schmidt (head of the Xbox audio team). It's a pretty interesting interview, and while it's unclear who comes out on top (not sure it really matters), seeing what Semel and Schmidt have to say about their respective systems is pretty enlightening. On the question of the most interesting feature both systems have taken advantage of: More »
12:30 PM on Sun Oct 12 2008
By Maggie Greene
7,985 views,
44 comments
Latest by zoesch: Most people have ears made of cotton, wax and rocks, that's the unfortunate truth. For those people a 128kbps AAC more »
Oh lawd british
Crecente's DNA Reaches Orbit
Game designer Richard "Lord British" Garriott and his "immortality drive" — containing Crecente's genetic material — is officially in orbit now. Sorry I missed this earlier, but Garriott rode the candle out of Baikonur early Sunday, and his Soyuz craft will dock with the International Space Station on Tuesday to begin a 10-day span of experiments.
Not sure if there's any experimenting on the "immortality drive" to be done or not, but that was the keystone of his pre-flight hype. The drive contains the digitized DNA sequences of a bunch of earth types — our editor included, along with Stephen Colbert and Stephen Hawking. It'll stay aboard the space station in case life on earth is wiped out or something.
Garriott reportedly paid $30 million for his flight but said he was able to recoup "a significant slice" of that beforehand. He gets back to earth Oct. 24.
US Game Designer Blasts Into Space with DNA Cargo [Associated Press via Wired, AP Photo]
Tokyo game show 2008
On The Possibility Of 2D, HD, XBLA & PSN Sonic Games
Yesterday, I got the chance to sit down for tea and biscuits with Akinori Nishiyama, producer on Sega's upcoming Sonic reboot Sonic Unleashed. When you get a chance to ask someone high up at Sega why they, uh, don't make good Sonic games anymore, you don't pass that chance up. So I asked him, in light of the company's insistence on including 3D elements in Unleashed, whether Sega would be taking a leaf out of Capcom's book and putting out a 2D, HD Sonic remake (or even a new game) on XBLA or PSN? More »
music
