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Guild Wars 2 Pays a Lasting Tribute to an Old Warrior
In whatever he chose to play, Roger Rall was a keystone member of his guild, the consummate teammate. As much as reveled in PvP in Warhammer Online, Dark Age of Camelot or Rift, his voice was unmistakably calm, clear and authoritative above the din of the battle. He went by “Oldroar,” and, at 65, he…
By Owen Good -
This Video Game Studio Says No One Can Taste the Difference Between Coke and Pepsi
Oh come on. Come on. Who can’t taste the difference between Coke and Pepsi? Coke is drier and chocolatey…er. Pepsi is sweeter and … fizz…ier? For real, there is a complete and total difference between the two soft drinks, one that developers at Double Fine failed to recognize with any consistency. Come on. Apparently bored…
By Owen Good -
Some Patent Troll is Suing Minecraft and an Ensemble Cast of Big Names
If Mojang and Markus “Notch” Persson, the creator of Minecraft, end up down at a courthouse in east Texas, they’ll probably see some familiar faces. Hell, it might be enough for a quorum of the Game Developers Conference. This morning, Notch tweeted that he awakened and discovered he’d been sued for patent infringement. And while…
By Owen Good -
The Big Winners in the Madden Lawsuit Are, Of Course, Lawyers
Electronic Arts will set up a $27 million fund to settle a class action lawsuit alleging its Madden NFL series was a price-gouging illegal monopoly. To no one’s surprise, the biggest payment out of that will be to lawyers. Terms are subject to a judge’s approval, but the plaintiff’s lawyers have agreed that when they…
By Owen Good -
Those Brain Butchers Mashed Up Total Recall‘s Trailer with Mass Effect
Illusive Man as Cohaagen, Miranda as Lori, Liara as Melina. And Shepard as Quaid. This is the audio from Total Recall‘s 2012 trailer and visuals from the Mass Effect trilogy, by an outfit called Node Studios. They’ve done three other mashups of recognizable trailers since June; this is probably the best of the four. Now,…
By Owen Good -
Savings on the Horizon
Just one upcoming release gets a discount this week, and Walmart is running a combination sale that’s attractive, but the games involved were released last year at the latest. If you’re looking to get a Kinect sensor, refurbished ones can be found cheap. Those savings and nearly 50 others highlight this week’s roundup of deals…
By Owen Good -
One Writer Must Impersonate 13 Twitter Accounts in Madden
The shrewdly conceived “virtual” Twitter feed that will supplying news updates in Madden NFL 13‘s new unified career mode may be fully branded, and use the real names of real NFL insiders, but neither are supplying the actual content. Back in April, I was told that EA Sports hired one guy whose job was to…
By Owen Good -
Madden‘s Exclusive NFL License Survives in $27 Million “Monopoly” Lawsuit Settlement
Madden‘s exclusive license with the NFL emerged unscathed from the $27 million settlement of a four-year-old class action lawsuit alleging that the deal was an illegal monopoly. Though gamers are entitled to some monetary refund if they bought an American football product from EA Sports between 2005 and now, it is a paltry sum—up to…
By Owen Good -
Would You Pay $260 for Xbox Live? Technically, I Just Did
Helplessly watching this sweating man thrust all of his body weight into my bedroom wall, grunting over the whine of the drill, I realized I was seeing and participating in the perfect metaphor for my attempts to connect my Xbox 360 to the Internet in my new home. “Man,” he said, “you’re a real tough…
By Owen Good -
Sorry, Coach. This Video Game Says You’re Getting Fired.
Poor Paul Wulff. I don’t think I played a dynasty season in NCAA Football 12 in which Washington State didn’t fire him. Like clockwork, his name was on the axe list when the annual “Coaching Carousel,” implemented last year, started to spin. He never had a winning season in Pullman and his two Pac-12 victories…
By Owen Good -
Follow the Rabbit‘s Got Enough Magic in Its Act
For as much as I’ve railed against derivative puzzles on mobile platforms, when one does it right, it is difficult to put down. Follow the Rabbit, released yesterday by Gamaga and publisher Armor Games, follows a very simple structure to create deviously complex levels and offers enough incentive to try your best, with escapes if…
By Owen Good -
Apple Store Rips Down Torchlight Ripoff
The mall cops in the iTunes App Store today finally ejected Armed Heroes Online, a Chinese-published MMO, sold only in iTunes’ Canadian store, which evidently stole most, if not all, of its audiovisual assets from the PC dungeon-crawling hit Torchlight. The takedown came about a week after demands from Torchlight‘s lawyers. That doesn’t mean Armed…
By Owen Good -
Scottish Team’s Bankruptcy Means FIFA 13 Faces a Financial Decision, Too
It’s a simple truth: A club that is relegated out of a league appearing in EA Sports’ FIFA runs the risk of getting relegated out of the video game, too. For the more popular sides, this usually isn’t much of a threat, and in any event many of the biggest leagues run two divisions deep,…
By Owen Good -
Recruiting Myself with NCAA Football and Wondering If I’ll Even Answer the Phone
Deciding where to go to college was very simple for me. It had nothing to do with a university convincing me to enroll there; it had everything to do with convincing one to actually admit me. N.C. State, for whatever reason, sent me the fat envelope in late 1990, and I said yes on the…
By Owen Good -
Double Dragon‘s High-Def Throwback Headbutts Into Consoles in September
We’re circumspect that a console do-over of Double Dragon could have the same appeal as the quarter-sucking vacuum cleaner that lined arcade walls in the 1980s. The air-guitaring at a stage’s end seems to be a bit much. But Double Dragon Neon will get its shot anyway come Sept. 11. Majesco said the game releases…
By Owen Good -
After 74 Emails, 27 Months and Six Phone Calls, a Sack of Cash Buys One of the Rarest Nintendo Cartridges
Three years ago, J.J. Hendricks (above, left) of Denver paid $17,500 for a rare Nintendo cartridge— Nintendo World Championships, one of about 26 copies of a game for a promotional tournament more than 20 years old. About a year later, he opened negotiations to buy a cartridge even more rare. The game in question is…
By Owen Good -
It’s July 18, Check the Security of Your Xbox Live Password Today
The general manager for Xbox Live today told gamers of the more aggressive steps the service was taking to combat online fraud and phishing scams—like those that have recently generated a wave of bad publicity—while reminding everyone to take some steps that would make that job a lot easier. In a post on the official…
By Owen Good -
Fight Night‘s Handlers Begin Work on EA Sports UFC
At E3, EA Sports’ top man—himself a mixed martial arts enthusiast who trains in the sport—was mum on the label’s plans for how its surprise acquisition of the UFC license would fit into its publishing calendar—or which of its studios would even develop it. “The ink is still wet,” on the deal, as Andrew Wilson…
By Owen Good -
We’ll Find Out Soon What the Madden Monopoly Settlement is Giving Us
Attorneys in the class-action lawsuit alleging that EA Sports’ exclusive publication of NFL football games constitutes an illegal monopoly last week told a judge that they have finalized settlement terms alluded to back in May, and that no later than a week from today, will file them with the court and a motion for the…
By Owen Good
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