Kotaku, the Gamer’s Guide

although I work for a "game developer" that doesn't actually make video games... (we make slot machine games) we threw a disbarment party at my work today, there was no cake, but there was chocolate coconut pie.

I have both the Xbox 360 and the PS3, and if I had to list a major flaw, it would have to be the 360's server rollback last holiday season. When my Bioshock achievments got wiped, my Xbox was unpluged and hasn't been turned on since. I also have to admit though that I bought GTA for my Xbox, although I haven't played it yet. The real reason the Xbox version of this game is better has to be the DLC.

Very good read... but as a person sitting on the inside of the industry, I would like to make a few counter points.

You are right in the fact that "the industry is young" is a BS excuse, the true state of the game industry is better related to the CA gold rush of the wild west. Game companies see one formula that works and then rush towards it, (after all theres gold in them there hills....), they pump as much money as they can into the titles that sell off of the point that they are just like the last great game. After all we developers need to eat too.... The downside to this is it does not breed any true art. Games that change the way we look at things are often copied, but rarely do well on their own. (Think about Okami, it was truly art in game form, but where is Clover now?).

The issue also stems from how console development works, after all, who wants to pay the insane licence fees for a title the are not sure will sell. Sure, it could be made for the computer, but we all know that the true PC gamer is a dying breed.

The game industry is in sad shape at the moment, and it will take an almost complete rework to change the direction that it is headed. Until the day that that happens we will be stuck playing the next ripoff of Final Fantasy or Halo, while waiting on a new masterpiece to appear in the cluster f*** that is the local game store.

Now to go and dig up my copy of ICO...

@Tei: ouch, stop it, that hurts.

On to the topic: this has actually been a long time fact, a couple of game companies that I have worked at have hired people in the Sales department to sign up for every possible message board and spread good publicity about the game in the weeks leading up to it shipping. Hell, we even have everybodys most hated lawyer who has posted here.

The evil empire is just that evil, they really can't be stopped, the only thing to be thankful for is the fact that, at least they aren't sending ads into our dreams.

...yet...

go for a white mage on the other wrist, end of story, as its the only thing that really makes sense...

maple story is fun to play, as are most of the other Nexon games, though the real catch is that all though the games are free to play, they suffer from poor GM presence (read as non-existent), as well as the fact that for certain games (ex. Mabinogi) only pretend to be free, as you have to pay to be able to do the storyline quest. FtP is a great busniess model, as people will pay more for extras, when they think that they don't have to. It just needs to be done right, (aka treat the game community as if it were a PtP game, and offer the same support), after all, they are makeing the same amount of money off of it, if not more.

The sad fact of the matter is, not that the designers couldn't come up with a better character model, but that they probobly did this by design. The sad state of the world today, is that you don't hear kids driving down the road blaring classical,the blues, or indie music, what you do hear is rap... Now, I am not saying that hip-hop is bad music, because it isn't, what I am saying is that kids will listen to what the radio and MTV tell them to. The problem that this creates for the game designers is that, to appeal to the above mentioned kids (read as casual gamers), they have to conform to the MTV sterotypes. On a similar note,this is also why the scientist in any video game is white,skiny, wheres glasses, and talks funny...

this is a fake video, period. The person that actually managed to get a "public beta" copy of home, had a version number of 1.0 this states (at 3mins 42secs in) that it is version 0.8.3 which is the current "closed beta" version. Nothing to see here folks, move along...

Not to stray off of topic, but isn't today the day the Flynn is due to be taken off and murdered...er ...um ...I mean find out about the mysterious cell phone thing....

Back on topic the new Red Faction game looks to be more of the same that made the first one so great. Although the first game was nothing to write home about in terms of game play, it was to say the very least a revolution in game design. I look forward to "seeing more of"/reserving this game.

rofl, thats so sad, yet I can't stop laughing. The real victim in all this is the poor little hedgehog. I hope that they lock that guy up and feed him to other no so friendly woodland animals....

roflmao, I have to give mad props to who ever the attackers were, I personaly think that Second Life is a waste of time (discovered after 10mins with the game). However the sick and twisted sociopath in me thinks that f***ing with people in it would be all to fun. People really do take games to seriously (although I'd be out of a job if they didn't).

I actualy have to point out that the uniforms in the first picture actually look more like a very old Soviet issue standered then they do the other above pointed out type. Regardless of all of that , both picks are very nicely done, yet really don't scream playstation, but maybe thats just me.

Art Points = 10/10
Ad Points = 2/10

the cops must be to busy arresting terriost on WoW.... makes me hope that some one goes to the press with this story and that someone loses their job over it...

Makes me sad... A console that actually tapped the indie game crowd would make a killing. Dev kits wouldn't even have to be free, let them charge 500-1000 dollors a pop, and it would spread like wild fire. After all who has 10k sitting around for a developer licence and then another 1 to 500k for a dev-kit.

Super Mario Brothers was the first game that I ever beat, although I would have to say the first game that I ever considered that I was done with, was Sword Quest: Fire World for atari2600. The first game(non-console) that I even beat was Bard's Tale on my Commadore64, which happened well before I ever got an NES.

Didn't Nvidia partner with Ageia? Where is the Video card with the added Physx processer that we were promised?

Not buying it, there have been way to many "leaks" about the PSN, home, etc. for me to believe another one. Very "RUMOR" until sony says otherwise.

A fellow programmer pointed Kotaku out at work one day, been checking the site daily ever since.

greatest car add ever...

...in a way this furthers the point that games are art... in this case really really bad art, that no one likes, but art none the less... I have to give them points though for going for an original idea.

Kotaku

fawrh