Luke Plunkett

College Professor Trolls For Science, Finds People Hate Him

Media professor David Myers, from Loyola University, has been studying how people interact in online games. Of interest to us is his account of what happened when he started trolling people. Myers has been studying human interaction in City of Heroes since it first launched all the way back in 2004, and with his character…

Don’t Rule Out Microtransactions For World Of Warcraft

While “free to play, pay to upgrade” is a payment structure more and more online games are adopting, the continued success of Blizzard’s World of Warcraft shows there’s still life in the old-fashioned model of paying a flat monthly subscription fee. That’s not to say, however, that Blizzard haven’t noticed the commercial appeal of microtransactions.…

PC Sales Charts: ArmA II vs The Sims

As we enter a bold new era for the humble PC sales chart, we find this week two games dominating all others atop the digital download charts. And those two games are The Sims 3, which charts on both PC and Mac, and Bohemia Interactive’s excellent (though buggy) ArmA II. Nice to see Steam gamers…

Konami Ditching Stupid Online ID Codes?

Konami’s online games – like Metal Gear Online – have really suffered from the company’s insistence on using two proprietary online IDs, despite the fact your console already has one. Looks like that practice may be coming to an end. Yes, up til now if you wanted to play a Konami game on your console,…

Left 4 Dead 2 Might Work With Left 4 Dead 1

The centre of the firestorm over the announcement of Left 4 Dead 2 seems to be that Left 4 Dead 1 players feel they’re being left behind. But what if they’re not? Speaking with TVG, Valve’s Doug Lombardi has said that the develoeprs are looking into allowing cross-play between owners of both games. “That’s something…

British Sales Charts

Still with the face-punching! Last time we checked, Fight Night Round 4 was dominating the British charts. This time around, little has changed. Sure, Wii Fit has squeezed back into second place, but Fight Night is still at #1 and #3. As for newcomers, Tiger Woods 10 had an impressive debut at 9, 10 &…

You Don’t Have As Many PS2 Games As This Guy

The PS2 has been out for a while now. Most of you probably have a few games for the system still lying around the house. Reader Syd doesn’t have a few. He has a lot. Syd – a collector who runs…The Personal Computer Museum– is on a bit of a PS2 bender at the moment,…

Pre-Order Left 4 Dead 2, Get Demo Early

If you’re a sane, reasonable person who, of their own volition, chooses to pre-order Left 4 Dead 2, well, you’re in luck. Because early purchasers will get early access to the game’s demo. While a multiplayer demo will be released for everyone on both 360 and PC, anyone preordering the 360 version or pre-purchasing the…

Waiter, There’s Final Fantasy In My Serbian Pop Music Video

This is Milan Stankovic. He’s a Serbian pop star. So dreamy! Anyway, he (or at least his production crew) may also be big Final Fantasy fans, judging by that looping animation in the background. [thanks Miodrag!]

Get Your Fingers Sweaty With A DDR Alarm Clock

This thing is wrong on so many levels. Your fingers shouldn’t have to work at 6:30am. J-pop should never be played at 6:30am. And there is nothing “perfect” about being woken up by an alarm clock. Course, that’s just my $0.02. If you’re a DDR fanatic and can see yourself enjoying this, rather than smashing…

How Mario Galaxy Looks In 720p

Remember those “HD” Wii videos? This is just like them! Only, it’s Mario Galaxy, not Smash Bros. And they’re lovely big screenshots, not blurry little internet videos. To refresh, these games are displaying in what is essentially high definition, as they’re being run through a Wii emulator on a PC. So if the Wii could…

Take A Tour Through Michael Jackson’s Private Arcade Game Collection

You’ve seen the guide book, now see the exhibition itself, as you take a 360-degree tour through Michael Jackson’s impressive personal collection of arcade cabinets, which were on display in Beverley Hills earlier this year. If you’re at work or on a slower computer, beware: the tour is heavy going on your web browser. But…

Designing BioShock 2’s Little Sisters

Like they did with the Big Daddies, 2K have released some concept art for BioShock’s tiniest denizens, the Little Sisters. Unlike the first lot, which showed the initial designs for the original Big Daddies, these show how 2K Marin – the developers working on the sequel – have gone about depicting the Little Sisters for…

Tecmo Koei Boss: PS3 Price Cut Plskthx

While not as belligerent as Activision’s calls, newly-merged company Tecmo Koei would still like Sony to cut the price of the PS3. And are asking them publicly to do just that. Speaking with CVG, CEO Kenji Matsubara has said “Whenever I discuss this with Sony reps I always ask them: ‘Please cut the price’, but…

Japanese Games Market Down A Whopping 25%

Publisher/market research firm Enterbrain this week released some sales data for the Japanese market. And the data is not good. From a period roughly running from January 2009 to the end of June, hardware sales in Japan were down around 28% from the same time last year. The drop in software sales wasn’t quite as…

LittleBigPlanet: We’re Ready To Believe You

Not much of a teaser this, is it? Unless there’s some obscure British pop culture icon that also says “who ya gonna call?” we’re somehow not aware of, it’s pretty clear we’ll soon be getting some Ghostbusters DLC for LBP. Cuddly proton packs? Big-eyed slimer? The chance to create a level where Janine is brought…

PS3 Bundle Includes MGS4, Killzone 2 [Update]

Normally, hardware bundles are a spotty affair. A game you don’t really want, or two games, one you kinda want, one you just do not want. But this bundle, on sale at Best Buy next Sunday, looks great! Sent in by a Best Buy employee, and confirmed by other BB employees, it’s an 80GB PS3…

It’s EGM, But Not As You Know It

Electronic Gaming Monthly died, then was risen. But when it makes its eventual return, it won’t be in any form, shape or guise you’re used to. Owner Steve Harris says: First and foremost, we’re planning to incorporate digital content within the magazine. This includes professionally-produced video, audio and other types of content. We’re also going…

First Dante’s Inferno Gameplay Footage

So Dante’s Inferno is “EA does God of War”. Doesn’t bother us. Dead Space was “EA does Resident Evil”, and it was great. These are the same guys, we expect the same results.

Sesame Street Says Video Games Are OK

We’re not normally in need of celebrity endorsement of our entertainment medium of choice. But when it’s Big Bird, Grover and Oscar the Grouch singing gaming’s praises, we’ll take it. Game Changer, a report issued by the Joan Ganz Clooney Center from the Sesame Workshop, basically says that governments, the healthcare industry and schools should…