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Cursed Mountain: A Religious Experience
You can learn a lot from a behind-the-scenes movie. Today, I learned that mountains are women, Bardo probably sucks and Buddhist mountain climbers could potentially be the best zombies ever. Cursed Mountain is a survival horror game for the Wii about a mountaineer searching for his lost brother. It looks creepy and seems to involve…
By AJ Glasser -
GLAAD Panel: Pearls of Wisdom And Points Of Discussion
I’ve got a re-cap of last Saturday’s Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation right here, but if you’re looking for quick quotes and interesting issues to rehash, here are a few gems. Caryl Shaw, Senior Producer at EA’s Maxis To developers: “Who doesn’t want to be a gay super hero? Are you thinking about this…
By AJ Glasser -
Your Comments Fuel Gay Gaming Conference
Physically, you may not have been at EA Redwood Shores this weekend. But if you commented on to Justin Cole’s op-ed column to Kotaku, you were there in spirit. Cole used commenters’ responses to his post, The Impact of Homophobia in Virtual Communities, to drive discussion among panelists Caryl Shaw (Senior Producer at EA’s Maxis),…
By AJ Glasser -
Can’t Wait For Diabolical Box? Here’s a Professor Layton Movie Trailer
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box isn’t due Stateside for another month or so, but this full theatrical trailer for the movie that’s not coming out in North America should tide you over. Sadly, I don’t think the trailer is a puzzle like the first two teaser trailers we saw back in March. However, the…
By AJ Glasser -
Fat Princess Developer Holds Court
If there was ever anything you wanted to know about Fat Princess — aside from her exact dress size — now’s the time to ask. Developer Titan Studios plans to answer a selection of fan-submitted questions in a PlayStation Eye conference next week. You can submit your own question here, after scrolling past three new…
By AJ Glasser -
Nobuo Uematsu Sells Out San Francisco
If you missed Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu in Seattle last weekend and you don’t have tickets to this weekend’s show in San Francisco, you’ll just have to move to Japan and stalk him. The July 18th San Francisco performance of Distant Worlds: the music of FINAL FANTASY sold out within weeks of the tickets…
By AJ Glasser -
The Fantastic Fieldrunners Makes The PAX 10
Fieldrunners, the pretty successful tower defense title for the iPhone, landed a spot today in the Penny Arcade Expo’s PAX 10 indie game selections. If you don’t own an iPhone, you might know the game from a panel I covered at a Game Developers Conference 2009 called “No Publisher? No Problem! iPhone for Indies.” Fieldrunner…
By AJ Glasser -
At Long Last… Moogle Shoes! Sort Of
It’s no secret that I have a thing for gaming-themed shoes (it’s a chick thing), so I simply have to blog about Daniel “Brass Monki” Reese’s custom video game shoes — featuring Moogles. Normally, you don’t see Moogle-related fashion items when searching for Final Fantasy apparel. I had a particularly fruitless search for someone’s Christmas…
By AJ Glasser -
GameStop, SMU, AIAS Announce Indie Game Challenge
GameStop is teaming up with The Guildhall game development graduate program at Southern Methodist University and the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences to create the Indie Game Challenge. The contest invites both professional and non-professional game developers to submit betas and pitches, which will be judged by officials from the AIAS. The Challenge is…
By AJ Glasser -
Here’s What You Missed At CA Extreme 2009
I spent most of my time at California Extreme reminding myself why I never beat Dragon’s Lair, but other people were busy winning tournaments and stuff at the massive arcade and pinball show. Keith Elwin, number one pinball player in the world, walked away from the modern and solid state tournaments with a couple of…
By AJ Glasser -
Double Round-Up Special: 1C and Ubisoft
The hazy period between Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett’s untimely ends and the celebration of my our great nation’s birthday was dominated by two game companies that couldn’t be more different. We all know (and possibly love) Ubisoft – the French game studio has been bringing us multiplatform hits for years. This month’s preview event…
By AJ Glasser -
Fighting Fantasy DS Preview: Choose Your Own Adventure Makes A Comeback
Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain was a 1982 choose-your-own-adventure book written by now-game developers Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. Now it’s a 2009 DS action role-playing game. Choose-your-own-adventure books were popular in the 1980s. Nowadays, I can only find them at garage sales with a lot of the stat pages missing. I didn’t…
By AJ Glasser -
Reviews
Kodu Game Lab Micro-Review: Baby’s First Game Development Kit
Who says you have to go to college for an expensive game developer’s education? Microsoft Research’s Kodu puts the power of a dev kit right in your hand for a mere $5. Kodu Game Lab isn’t a video game, per se, but a lot of the pre-packaged worlds that come with the Game Lab certainly…
By AJ Glasser -
Five Things You Need To Know About Champions Online
Last night, Cryptic Studios held an event that was all about the player versus player combat in its upcoming massively multiplayer online superhero game, Champions Online. The basic need-to-know info about this game is this: it’s City of Heroes, only bigger and better. And, no, Marvel and/or DC Comics won’t be suing anybody anytime soon…
By AJ Glasser -
My Love Affair With Arcades Continues
While researching my feature, When The Best Part of The Beach Is The Arcade, I discovered California Extreme — an annual arcade and pinball gaming showcase in California. This year’s show goes down the weekend of July 11 at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara. Ticket prices are $60 for the whole weekend, $35 for…
By AJ Glasser -
Academy of Champions Preview: It’s Harry Potter But With Soccer And Sam Fisher
What is it about British academies that’s so appealing? Is it the uniforms, the block scheduling or the fact that they all look like castles out of fairy tales? Whatever it is, it’s part of Academy of Champions‘ charm right from the menu screen. The cartoony soccer game opens with a giant castle where soccer…
By AJ Glasser -
C.O.P. The Recruit Preview: If Only Becoming A Police Officer Were So Easy
Before you ask, here’s what C.O.P. stands for: Criminal Overturn Program. Don’t feel bad, I never would have guessed that either. C.O.P. The Recruit is all about a petty criminal who becomes a one man episode of Miami Vice set in New York City. Rather than using the DS to capture the city in a…
By AJ Glasser -
When The Best Part of The Beach Is The Arcade
What do you think of when you imagine going to the beach on a hot summer day? Sunblock, towels, bikinis maybe? Not me. I think about Galaga. Less than 150 feet from any shoreline near a beach boardwalk, there’s probably a video game arcade. Beach arcades have been around even before there were video games…
By AJ Glasser -
Shaun White Snowboarding World Stage Preview: Snow In Summer
What better way to cool down a group of games writers in the middle of summer than showing them a video game about snowboarding? I’m not a fan of the Wii Balance Board, so I wasn’t really looking forward to “feet-on time” with the game until I saw the demo master wipe out on a…
By AJ Glasser -
TMNT Smash-Up Preview: Will The Real April O’Neil Please Stand Up?
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up aims to combine not only the best of Wii fighting games with the TMNT franchise, but also to combine the best parts of the franchise into one game. To that end, there will allegedly be different characters from the new kids TV show, the old kids TV show, the comic…
By AJ Glasser
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