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Game Developers’ Choice Online Awards Honor Rift, Minecraft, and Everquest
Tonight at the second annual Game Developers’ Choice Online Awards in Austin, the GDC honored the best in online gaming. Three Rings Design’s won Best Online Game Design with their charming MMO Spiral Knights. KingsIsle Entertainment’s Wizard 101 won the Audience Award, and Minecraft won both of the categories in which it was nominated, Best…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 12, 2011 -
How PopCap “Acquired” EA
At GDC online this morning, PopCap co-founder John Vechey gave a keynote in which he discussed PopCap evolution from a PC game company into a social game company, and how embracing change has allowed them to grow and thrive in a shifting industry. The largest change, he said, came from PopCap’s acquisition by EA earlier…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 12, 2011 -
Three Hours With the Surprisingly Ambitious (and Tougher) Assassin’s Creed Revelations
I’m consistently impressed by Ubisoft’s apparent ability to crank out complete Assassin’s Creed games each year. When Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood was released a mere year after Assassin’s Creed II, many were expecting more of an expansion pack. What we got was a full-fledged game, the deepest and most involved Assassin’s Creed yet. After spending an…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 11, 2011 -
We Will Have Neural-Implant Gaming in 20 Years (and Parents Will Hate It), Says Prediction-Happy Atari Founder
When do we get the Seinfeld of video games? Why won’t there be any major new gaming consoles? And just when will get video game technology implanted in our brains? At GDC Online in Austin, Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell predicted and expounded upon many things. He opened the GDC’s narrative summit with a wide-ranging talk…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 10, 2011 -
Battlefield 3‘s Executive Producer Talks Beta Reactions, Certification Delays, and Post-Release Support
Last week, I attended an all-day Battlefield 3 event in San Francisco. Over the course of the day, I had a chance to try out the game’s multiplayer, single-player, and co-op sections. Multiplayer impressions are here, and my take on the single-player missions I played is here In addition to playing the game, I had…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 10, 2011 -
How Atari Sent Steve Jobs On a Spiritual Quest to India
At his talk at GDC Online in Austin, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell talked about a wide variety of things, among which was Apple founder Steve Jobs, who he hired back in 1974. (For a complete story, see this great article at Gamasutra. “I gave Steve Jobs his first job,” Bushnell said, “That’s an interesting resume…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 10, 2011 -
For All Its Airplanes, Earthquakes and Explosions, Battlefield 3‘s Campaign Is Remarkably Dull
At EA’s all-day Battlefield 3 event yesterday, I had a chance to play through a handful of single-player missions on PC in addition to the multiplayer modes that I detailed earlier today. It’s been said (and repeated) that “no one plays Battlefield for the campaign,” and that may well be true, but the extreme graphical…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 7, 2011 -
Battlefield 3‘s PC Multiplayer Is Fun—When It Works
I’m rolling in the back of an armored jeep, manning the .50 cal doing 40 MPH over a wide swath of grassland, heading straight for a contested jumble of buildings in the middle of a huge map. A jet roars overhead, inbound to the same location. It’s all very exciting, and… bam. I’m dropped from…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 7, 2011 -
Create Your Own Musical Villages With the Lovely Isle of Tune HD
Take one part Sim City, one part Rock Band, and one part music sequencer and you’ve pretty much got Isle of Tune, which was released today for the iPad. It’s not quite a “game,” but it’s still totally cool enough to merit consideration for our Gaming App of the Day. Created for PC earlier in…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 7, 2011 -
Assassin’s Creed Needs to Be More Difficult
I’ve been revisiting Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood in anticipation of the soon-to-be-released fourth game in the series, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. I started a new game, and within an hour or so protagonist Ezio Auditore was effortlessly laying waste to dozens upon dozens of enemies—guys on horseback, heavily armored pikemen, and scores of sword-wielding Roman guards. I…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 5, 2011 -
Stop Playing Video Games! Get a Job! Get Married! Be a Man!
Look, I’d just as soon avoid getting too het up about this latest mainstream diss on video games. But CNN’s William Bennett has forced my hand, penning a new article about the decline of the American male titled “Why men are in trouble.” Leading the article is a stock image of a gray-flecked adult holding…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 4, 2011 -
Here’s Crysis, Lookin’ Mighty Fine On Xbox 360
Today, Crytek’s landmark 2007 PC game Crysis was re-released as a downloadable game for both Xbox 360 and PS3. I’ve already had a chance to play the game and really liked it, in particular its improved controls, strong visuals, and directly-translated open gameplay. It’s a strong port of a good game. Now I’ve got my…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 4, 2011 -
Read The Prologue From The New Infinity Blade Novel
Along with Epic’s announcement of Chair’s upcoming iOS sequel Infinity Blade 2 came the reveal that novelist Brandon Sanderson has published a novel based on the world of Infinity Blade. Epic was kind enough to send along a lengthy excerpt from the book—I’ve taken the prologue and reprinted it here. Several additional chapters is available…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 4, 2011 -
10 Questions Siri Should Be Able to Answer for Gamers
Today at Apple’s live iPhone event, Apple’s Scott Forstall demoed a new iteration of the personal assistant “Siri,” an artificial intelligence that understands questions users ask and responds with helpful information. Siri itself isn’t new, but this latest version of the program is exclusive to the just-announced iPhone 4s It’s nice to be able to…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 4, 2011 -
This Pac-Man Musical Makes Me Weirdly Hungry
I’ve seen mock musicals for a good number of video games, but still I enjoyed this excerpt from Pac-Man The Musical entitled “A Pacapella Song.” (Though if I’m being a stickler, it’s not technically a cappella, since the song has instrumental musical accompaniment.) In the song, the ghosts from Pac-Man sing about how excited they…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 3, 2011 -
Skyward Sword‘s Motion Controls Feel Fine, Just Fine
Ever since Nintendo announced the Wii’s upcoming The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, there has been much debate and consternation over its control scheme. Skyward Sword will be the first Zelda game to use Nintendo’s more advanced Motion Plus controls for the Wii—players will either have to buy the MP add-on for their standard Wii…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 3, 2011 -
Less Than One Hour Left to Bid on This Porny 1980’s Sierra Game
A copy of the On-Line Systems’ 1981 Apple II game Softporn Adventure is about to sell on eBay, and you could still be the one to walk off with it! On-Line would go on to become Sierra, and Softporn Adventure is commonly held up as a precursor to the publisher’s more well-known sexytime adventure Leisure…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 3, 2011 -
Notch Offered to Give Up “Scrolls” Trademark, Bethesda Sued Anyway
Markus “Notch” Persson, the maker of Minecraft, says his company Mojang volunteered both to drop the trademark request for the title of their upcoming game “Scrolls” and to add a subtitle in order to to avoid being sued by Skyrim juggernaut Bethesda, but that Bethesda refused. He shared this fact in response to a piece…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 3, 2011 -
The Game of Thrones RPG Is Actually Happening
Back when we started seeing screenshots and hearing talk of Cyanide’s RTS Game of Thrones: Genesis, there was a fair amount of skepticism about the game. Each time we posted about it, folks would express doubt that this game was accurately channeling George RR Martin’s fiction, or the HBO series that it has inspired. Part…
By Kirk Hamilton Published September 30, 2011 -
The Joker Dies in the First Act of Arkham City (Or Does He?)
Now, okay. Do keep in mind that this is “Comic Book Death” we’re talking about here, which is only slightly above “Anime Death” in terms of “deaths that don’t really count”. But sad to say, it does look as though very early on in Batman: Arkham City, the J-man will bite the big one, and…
By Kirk Hamilton Published September 30, 2011
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