It's the second week of the Hanabi festival for the PAL Region, which gives players a chance to check out titles that never made it's way here. Last week we received two excellent shooters and a puzzle game, and this time we get... two excellent shooters and a puzzle game (and a billiards game), this time with a very Japanese vibe!
First up is Metal Slug (Neo Geo, 900 Points), the run n' gun coin-op classic. For those of unfamiliar with the game and the series, it's simply just about picking up your controller and blasting everything that moves (except your partner in co-op mode who joins you in the genocide of your enemies). It's simple but heaps of fun, and is a reminder that not all games need extreme depth to be enjoyable.
Next is Puyo Puyo 2: Tsuu (MegaDrive, 900 Points), which even though released in March in the US is still seen as part of the Hanabi Festival line up (not that I'm complaining, it's a good thing!). The western world did technically get this title, but under the re-branded Doctor Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine(also on the VC). Pretty much the same as all of it's puyo brothers and sisters, the game forces you to think fast and create chains of 3 or more same colored "puyos" that fall from the screen. Let and too many pile up and it's game over. Multi player and it's awesomely super cuteness (which I'm a huge sucker for I sadly admit) make this a fun puzzle game.
Cho Aniki (TurboGrafix, 900 Points) finally and surprisingly makes it way to the VC in all of it's weird and wonderful glory. In this infamous side-scrolling shooter, you take control of ethier Idaten, a guy or Benten, a gal (Adon and Samson the two very beefed up guys the series is known for only play a secondary role in this title) as they fly around and shoot up the most bizarre stuff. Sadly unlike the other titles this week, the game only supports single player, but makes up for it with multiple difficulty levels.
Hopefully this great batch will get you through till the next and final week of the Hanabi festival. As usual, have a great week of gaming!
I'm sure many of you have heard about Folding@Home, which uses the idle processing power of your PC, Mac, or PS3 to work through the complex protein folding calculations needed to help find cures to serious diseases such as cancer, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's. Well, a new game has emerged that seems like it would be the bastard child of the PS3 has making sweet love to folding@home. The new game is called Foldit, and is very much like folding in that it is trying to figure out how to properly fold proteins; however, instead of CPU power, it is harnessing the human mind and competitive spirit. The great part is that you don't need to be a molecular biologist to play the game:
Foldit capitalizes on people's natural 3-D problem-solving skills. The intuitive skills that make someone good at playing Foldit are not necessarily the ones that make a top biologist. Baker says his 13-year-old son is faster at folding proteins than he is. Others may be even faster. Eventually, the researchers hope to advance science by discovering protein-folding prodigies who have natural abilities to see proteins in 3-D.
"Some people are just able to look at the game and in less than two minutes, get to the top score," said Popovic. "They can't even explain what they're doing, but somehow they're able to do it."
The game itself was made by a group of graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Washington, who put over a year to ensure that the game was accurate and engaging. The game currently presents known unfolded proteins and sees how quickly people can understand and manipulate the proteins given the set rules of needed to create the correctly folded protein. Currently they have tested the game with over 1,000 people and plan to release the game public this week. At the same time they will be offering proteins of unknown final folding shapes. And then comes the Nobel Prize worthy help:
Eventually, the researchers hope to present a medical nemesis, such as HIV or malaria, and challenge players to devise a protein with just the right shape to lock into the virus and deactivate it. Winning protein designs will be synthesized in Baker's lab and tested in petri dishes. High-scoring players will be credited in scientific publications the way that top Rosetta@home contributors already are credited for their computer time.
Overall it sounds like a game with a very lofty ambition and hopefully it makes waves as to what we can do with gaming. The article also goes on to describe how they plan to form a multiplayer community around the game to encourage people to work as groups to solve the more complex problems. Who knows, today's King of Kong could be tomorrow's Nobel Prize winner.
Ripped right from the pages of Variety: Universal Studios has signed a deal to turn last year's hit BioShock into a film. This has been hinted at for a while but this is the first time we've gotten actual confirmation. Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski has been tapped to direct and John Logan, who penned The Aviator has been tapped to write the script.
Take 2's Strauss Zelnick is cutting quite the deal that will ensure that BioShock gets made and doesn't get axed like the doomed Halo movie. Ken Levine is also currently being consulted although it is unsure whether he will have a hand in the final product. I truly pray that he does and that BioShock turns out to be just as fine a film as it was a game. I will be on the edge of my seat to see what they do with this one and crossing my fingers that it doesn't turn out to be another Blood Rayne... or another Resident Evil... or another Silent Hill... or another (fill in the blank)
Seemly one part MTV's Cribs, and one part a promotional video showcasing a hotel's accommodations and facilities, this video functions as proof positive that people give Blizzard tremendous amounts of money.
Ri-damn-diculous amounts of money. Really, all this video is missing is a montage of kids soaring down a water ride (a flume, perhaps) and several slow pan shots of couples with faces ill lit by torches embedded into the coastline while their excessive jewelry fragments the light into a veritable techicolor dream over the camera's lens.
Blizzard, you're ballin'.
So please, stop acting all humble.
Announced earlier this year, the Skype phone service integration with the PSP-2000 has been a bit of a pain to setup. Owners of the newer model PlayStation Portable were required to track down the remote control unit for the PSP-1000, while also being required to purchase a specific Sony headset just to get the system operational.
Though hardly a complete fix to all of your Skype woes, this $29.95 MSRP kit definitely simplifies the process.
Alas, what took Sony so long to release this accessory kit, and why they still have not developed support for the TalkMan microphone are guaranteed to remain mysteries.
Sierra put a demo of its upcoming The Bourne Conspiracy on Xbox LIVE, so I thought I'd take a break from wreaking havoc in Liberty City to try playing as human weapon Jason Bourne for a change. The demo offers up a nice sampling of the different gameplay elements offered in the full game.
The Bourne movies established the action as intensely fast-paced and frenetic. And Sierra did a reasonably impressive job of incorporating that pacing into the game without leaving the player feeling like the game is out of his control. At times the transitions from combat to gunplay to Quick Time events can leave you a little unbalanced, but overall, it's not as bad as I'd feared. The main trick they've given you is a quick press of Y allows you to activate a special sense that shows you on the map where you must go next, and where the enemies are. On-screen, it slows the action and highlights key items, allowing you to plan your next move and giving you the feeling of being a superspy.
For specific impressions of each section of the demo, make the jump!
Wii Fit is going to sell like hot cakes. You know it, I know it, and, as soon as the major TV talk show blitz starts, so will you mother, aunt, dad, etc. With just about every primary game retailer having already closed down pre-orders, Wii Fit will be drawing in tremendous revenue for Nintendo. So, with that in mind, why wouldn't the largest third party manufacturer consider jumping into the fitness crazy as well?
"We're watching very closely what the Wii Fit board does... And we're working on stuff, trying to work out how we can use EA Sports applications there. We also need to make sure we're delivering something that's truly exercise. I'll call Wii Fit more eastern fitness, where it senses weight and balance, like Tai-Chi. It's more about holistic fitness. I don't think the board is going to take a pounding. We need to look more at western fitness in which I can actually be moving and start to sweat a little bit, and that's what we're working on right now."
"It can't feel like a workout. We need to distract people and not make this exercise feel like work, but like they're having fun. So mini-games, things where you're actually laughing out loud, that's the stuff we're working on. It's something I've always been passionate about, and who better than us to go and play in that market?"
Given Electronic Arts president Peter Moore's previous work experience as a physical education instructor, and a new corporate initiative in creating fun games for everyone, EA's physical fitness title may end up being a welcome supplement to the Wii Fit workout.
Fancy a trip back to Middle Earth? Well, the Middle Earth as seen in Peter Jackson's Academy Award-winning film trilogy? Well, Pandemic Studios has just announced the development of The Lord Of The Rings: Conquest, due out in the fall of 2008 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and Nintendo DS. (Where's the Wii love?)
Coming from the developer who brought us the Star Wars Battlefront games, Conquest will let players engage the epic battles of the movie trilogy from whichever side they want. So when you're tired of swinging Aragon's sword, you can see how Sauron's staff feels in your hand. Wait, that sounded a little dirty.
"Our Pandemic Studios creative teams have years of expertise bringing giant battlefields to life," says Andrew Goldman , Pandemic Studios co-founder and general manager. "We've always wanted to harness our experience in a fantasy universe with warriors, archers, mages and castle sieges. Of course, there is truly no better fantasy world to recreate than the enormity of 'The Lord of the Rings' realm."
There's a poorly-designed (and in-development)website up, and they're going to premiere some game footage and the first trailer exclusively on Spike TV's GameTrailers TV on Friday, June 20. Oh, and I've put the full press release after the jump if you're really that interested.
If you are unfamiliar with Marvels "Super Hero Squad" line of toys, I'll explain. It's a series of small figures, usually sold in packs, with tiny, super-deformed figures of various Marvel heroes and Villains. The catch is, every single damn one of them is grinning like a madman. Even the bad guys. It actually freaks me out a bit because Galactus, Sentinels, Apocalypse... these are villains who actively try to commit genocide. Seeing them look this... happy... is just creepy to me.
Now it looks like they'll be in a series of games from THQ. I'm guessing the gameplay will probably be similar to the recent Lego games. Personally, I'm not sure I can handle the cute.
According to a post on the id Software homepage, production has begun on Doom 4. This time, the battle moves from Mars to Earth.
The last Doom game drove sales of the first generation of DirectX 9 video cards, can Doom 4 do something similar for DirectX 10? More importantly, will it be able to overcome the shadow of Doom 3's lackluster "stuff jumping out at you from secret hidden doors" gameplay? (Yeah it was scary at first, then it just got predictable).
Even more critical, does this mean another movie with The Rock? Now THAT's scary.
As much as I would like to take credit for finding all the games I talk about, I cannot. Much of what I've played over the years I have been exposed to vicariously by recommendation or pure providence. During a period in college, I was living with two friends. One of these friends is what I would consider one of the biggest video gamers I've ever met. He wasn't interested in the more mainstream titles, and between the two of us, I think we have played just about every obscure and abstract game ever created. In celebration of gaming oddities, this week I will be discussing one of the first games he ever introduced me to, KID's Top Shop.
Why Top Shop was created is something of a mystery to me. KID (Kindle Imagine Develop) was a company that specialized in the bishōjo games. These games, while popular in Japan, rarely had much to do with mainstream game play. The general concept of a bishōjo title consists of a series of girls with which the protagonist pursues until they are able to perform sexual acts with their girl of choice. KID had a few successful series in this genre, covering various platforms. At some point, KID decided to create a board game. This is, as far as I can tell, the only game that they have created that doesn't involve the pursuit of women. Even more remarkable, A1 games and Agetec teamed up to bring this game to the US.
Top Shop is a simple game for the Sony PlayStation. The game is similar to Monopoly, wherein players are placed in an empty mall with an initially fixed purse. The malls come in various shapes and sizes, and players must compete for control over the retail promised land. Each turn consists of rolling the dice, moving their player through the mall, and buying stores to suck money from other characters. If a player lands on a store in which they do not own, they are required to buy an item from the store's stock. When a store does not have any more stock, players may buy out that store and expand their own retail chain.
Combined with buying properties and items, players are given the chance to earn points for buying items. These items can then be used to purchase cards or cause other events to happen. Events in the game consist of the ability to restock stores that you could not otherwise access directly or causing another player lose a turn. The game is over when someone amasses a fixed amount of money, or a bunch of other players go bankrupt. Top Shop was not a terribly complicated game.
Simplicity aside, the game is obscenely fun. Top Shop's simplicity lies in it needing only a limited amount of input to play and a minimal amount of strategy to win. As a result, the game was the focus of many nights of drunken gaming. The game's graphics are average, though probably even dated considering the game was created in 1999. The entire interface is created in 2d, and the only on screen animation is an occasional dice roll and cheery, perpetually smiling characters.
I eventually moved, relocating myself across the state, and my roommate was kind enough to leave his copy of Top Shop with me. I still occasionally crack out the video game, enjoying the simple pleasure of crushing the aspirations of a would be store mogul. Sadly, KID is now a defunct company, so it is unlikely that we will be seeing a sequel any time soon. To this day I have yet to see another copy of this title in the wild, which may cause you to question whether the game worth buying. The simple answer is yes, but only if it is found for cheap.
If you are a PC owner without a PS3 then you owe it to yourself to head on over to Steam and download a copy of Everyday Shooter. I have this game downloaded from the PSn Store and it is one of my favorites. Whenever I turn on my PS3 I invariably end up playing it for a bit before moving on to other things. Fantastic visual style, great music, simple but fun gameplay, what could be better? You can download it for yourself from steam for $9.99 starting today and believe me, it is well worth the price. Order within this first week and get 10% off!
As an added bonus, a demo for Portal is now also available...
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It's the second week of the Hanabi festival for the PAL Region, which gives players a chance to check out titles that never made it's way here. Last week we received two excellent shooters and a puzzle game, and this time we get... two excellent shooters and a puzzle game (and a billiards game), this time with a very Japanese vibe!
