Every so often, Snack or Die comes up with something that I think even I could make and have come out looking vaguely like their descriptions. Like these tasty-looking GlaDOS cupcakes. The Portal AI has never looked so delicious as when covered by icing and gummy candies! I'm not sure I'd be so careful as to give the exact number of dots depending on the color of the cores... I'd probably just want to ice them as quickly as possible to get them in my belly. But it's the details that matter, right? I'm gonna have to get one of our manservents in the Gay Gamer Castle to whip up a batch of these!
Portal GlaDOS Cupcakes [Snack or Die]
Square Enix has partnered with DC Comics' Wildstorm imprint to create a custom three-part comic series that will explore the backstory of the upcoming action-RPG NIER.
"We are extremely excited to partner with the storytellers at DC Comics to further explore the complex tale of NIER; to explore its unusual characters; and, to introduce new fans to a storyline that will challenge what they know from beginning to end," said John Yamamoto, president and chief executive officer of Square Enix, Inc. "NIER is a game that paints a sophisticated and graphic picture of the despair resulting from an apocalyptic plague and the triumph of a father's will to protect his most prized possession, his daughter. DC Comics' ability to create colorful and engaging comics will help deliver NIER's unusual story to gamers and prepare them for what lies ahead in the game. By exploring the comics, gamers will understand the basis of Nier's world before they even pick up a sword or cast a spell."
The comics will be available at the game's official website, on Xbox LIVE Arcade and the PlayStation Store between now and the game's release on April 27. The comics will reveal clues about key players from the game and address issues that set up the apocalyptic world of the game. The NIER comics are being produced by Emmy-winning creator Ricardo Sanchez and artists Pop Mhan, Eddie Nuñez, and Carlos D'Anda.
Episode #51 is here! Join Fruit Brute and Tiny Dancer as we discuss a wide range of topics including: GDC, Heavy Rain, God of War III, Final Fantasy XIII, the Sony Move, Lady Gaga on Rock Band, Steam on the Mac and much, much more!
We're always looking for reader questions to answer on the show so if you have a query for the crew that you'd like answered or would just like to suggest a topic for discussion, send it here with the subject line "Podcast Question."
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So out of the many, many times gay gamers have been bashed or insulted or ignored wholesale by the gaming community and developers, the
incident that stands out most sharply to this queer hobbyist is a video made to promote one of the biggest-selling games of all time last year--yes, the "Fight Against Grenade Spam" PSA video for
Modern Warfare 2. Even if it had come from a much smaller or less public group, the final message of that promotion would have had as much tact as a Phelps on Sunday, and as much ignomity. Coming from a major publisher, it saw enough righteous backlash by the media and gamers that Infinity Ward
finally took the video down.
That was a happy day, and so is this one: DICE, the developers of another rather large FPS experience known as Battlefield: Bad Company 2, have put together their own PSA about the effects of random grenades, with the infamous Infinity Ward video directly in their sites of ideas to lampoon.
Bad Company has always had an irreverent Down Periscope feel to its dialog, and that comes through in the PSA above. After baseball pitcher CC Sabathia berates one of the game's characters for throwing random grenades, the PSA gets hijacked: "Hi, I'm private Terrence Sweetwater of 222nd Army Battalion, and I'm here to talk to you about random baseball pitchers who talk to you about random grenades!"
Sweetwater continues to go on a tear, but the best part about this video isn't just the references to "computer games of this particular genre," or the highlighting of BC2's one-upping features such as destructable terrain and vehicle combat.
No, the best part about the video at the end, which triumphantly adds a single word to turn the homophobic slur from the Modern Warfare video into F.R.A.G.S., which--surprise!--is actually related to grenades and not to creating a hostile online environment for queer gamers.
The unconcerned cast of Bad Company do take some potshots at snowmobiles and heartbeat sensors in the game, but actually parodying the machinima advertisements from their 'rival' game takes some guts. Even for those who might not see the value of blowing things up in online shooters, the message of friendliness DICE puts out is definitely appreciated.
Leave it up to developers talking freely at GDC to spark a bit of hope to the masses that expected more love interests in this year's big RPG, Mass Effects 2 or last year's Dragon Age: Origins. Apparently when interviewing Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka from Bioware last week at GDC, Kotaku reporter Stephen Totilo apparently stumbled upon some DLC ideas that are currently being kicked around for Bioware games, one of which could be a possible "romance pack" of sorts for their games.
The conversation arrived at this revelation after Greg mentioned that if players really asked for new missions using the new DLC vehicle, the Hammerhead, that they might make more by means of DLC. Part in jest, the comment was made that since a vocal part of the community seems to have wanted more romance options available to Shepard in the game, then maybe they should also work on that too. Greg and Ray's thoughts on the issue were thus:
"You know, It's possible," he said. Mentioning a character from Dragon Age, he suggested there could be a "Take Leliana on a date pack."
"That is a pretty good idea," Muzyka chimed in, sounding as if this was the first he'd heard of it.
"I've mentioned it to the guys," Zeschuk told me and Muzyka. "And maybe we will."
So there you have it. Granted, the conversation didn't really involve the possible inclusion of more LGBT relationship opportunities in the content, but I think we can all agree that there is a portion of the fan base that would be very pleased if they did include such content. I guess fans can hope, and that's about all we'll be able to do for a while, since it seems as though if they were to make the content, it hasn't even started on yet.
Mass Effect, Dragon Age Creators Consider The Post-Release "Romance Pack" [Kotaku]
It may not be quite the deluge of games that the past few weeks have been, but what this most recent batch of indie games lacks in quantity they make up for in quality. Word games and puzzle games are the order of the day, with a new twist on Puzzle Quest, a Diablo-esque action RPG, and a flight game sprinkled in for good measure.
Games reviewed this week include War of Words, ColorBox, Word Duelist, Masters of Belial, and Space Nuggets. Check out these reviews and the games that have received updates after the break.
Yet another twist in the continuing saga of the R18+ content classification issue in Australia, GamePolitics is reporting that Facebook staff has removed the group Grow Up Australia, organized around protesting the lack of such a classification level in the country.
While Facebook provided no specific rationality for the group being disabled, their boilerplate stated:
"...groups that are hateful, threatening or obscene are not allowed." Additionally, Facebook removes groups that "attack an individual or group, or advertise a product or service."
Group Up Australia staff claimed that no administrators have posted any such content on the page, and they had been heavily moderating member content. In the interim they've created a Facebook fan page while they try and get Facebook to reinstate the original group.
Grow Up Australia worked with EB Games recently to promote a wildly successful petition to the government in response to their recent discussion paper.
Facebook Boots Grow Up Australia Group [via GamePolitics]
Square Enix announced today that Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep will be heading exclusively to PSP's this summer. They're promising that this fifth installment of the popular RPG series "is a prequel that reveals the untold origins of the popular Kingdom Hearts franchise."
Birth By Sleep features three main characters: Terra, Ventus and Aqua, with three unique gaming experiences that all have to be played to experience the whole story. It also has never-before-seen Disney worlds and characters like Sleeping Beauty's Enchanted Dominion, the Dwarf Woodlands from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Deep Space from Lilo and Stitch. There's also new game features and four multiplayer modes.
I'm kind of over Kingdom Hearts, but if you're not, I've got a whole press release from Squeenix after the jump if you're interested!
Just a quick update for any of you hoping and waiting for a patch that will fix the bug that killed your game of Heavy Rain. After speaking with Quantic Dream and being told that a patch was in the works, now Sam from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has been posting the following on message boards:
The latest news is that the game patch has now completed development and is currently in the final stages of testing. While a fixed release date is not currently available we are expecting the update to be released very soon. As mentioned previously, this patch is not targetted purely at the issues reported in this thread but does address a range of minor issues which could be contributing factors. Given the small percentage of players affected by these issues and the difficulty that has been had in reproducing them here we're optimistic that this patch resolves your problems but cannot guarantee that this will be the case. As ever, once there is more news I'll update you all further, however in the meantime we appreciate your patience in this matter.
I understand that a game like Heavy Rain is a very complex undertaking and with the sheer variety of paths you can take through the narrative, it's only natural that some bugs might slip through. But not being able to load and continue your saved game? That's kind of a big one. My only concern is that he says that the patch will address "a range of minor issues" that he hopes will fix everything. Yeah, that's not making me real confident, there, Sam.
A lot of noise has been made recently about Ubisoft's new DRM scheme; the platform, which will be on all upcoming titles released by the developer, requires a constant internet connection to play purchased games, whether single player or otherwise. Already rolled out for the PC version of Assassin's Creed 2, the service has been plagued by down times, denial-of-service attacks, and a lot of upset gamers.
In a lengthy article at CNET, author Josh Lowensohn goes into detail about how possibly the best way to avoid DRM in PC games is to simply avoid being a first adopter. Pointing out how titles like Spore and Bioshock eventually had their DRM patched out, or were released on other storefronts sans invasive piracy protection, he explains that the adage usually tends to be that DRM is pulled as a game's shelf-life increases.
Although this may be a good way to stick it to publishers like EA and Ubisoft, Lowensohn also points out that it's easier said than done. Most gamers don't want to wait months or years to purchase the newest title, and most people will be willing to suck up DRM frustration to play a title on its launch day. Still, if any such boycott ever did get off the ground and manage to materialize into something respectable, it may send a clear message to publishers who are considering these draconian methods in their own titles.
One Solution for DRM-Free Games: Wait [via GamePolitics]
It's been just under two years since the last
Monster Hunter on PSP released in Japan, and about seven months since
Tri hit the Wii. Today, at a Monster Hunter event in Japan, Capcom put out some news that will make fans of slaying giant beasts with giant weapons even happier:
Monster Hunter Freedom 3 will be out by the end of the year.
The press release promises new monsters, weapons, and armor, but the announcement trailer also shows off a few exciting features - a Japanese-themed base town to contrast with the mountain and island huts of games past, at least two Felyne companions for solo hunters, and the return of the gunlance weapon.
Capcom also promises "polished" co-op gameplay - one can only hope this means the option to connect with hunters online via wi-fi, rather than just in one's immediate vicinity. However, this isn't a feature Japanese gamers need quite as much as do we Westerners, so it's hard to guess whether resources will go into netplay. The end of the press release also mentions a theme park experience called "Monster Hunter World," to be found in the Kumamoto Prefecture for the next month or so. Give it a look if you're over there, and watch out for vespoids! They sting.
To see the announcement trailer and press release for Monster Hunter Freedom 3, hit the jump below!
If GDC is any indication, there's going to be a lot of downloadable titles this year across every platform. One of the few PS3 only downloadable titles I ran into was Blade Kitten from Krome Studios. As their first original IP since Ty the Tasmanian Tiger back in 2002, Blade Kitten shifts away from Krome's predominately E-rated history and into T-rated territory.
Playing as a 2.5D action platformer (3D graphics with 2d gameplay), players hack and slash their way through enemies as Kit, a bounty hunter with cat ears and a pink tail. The action and climbing aspects of the game felt smooth as Kit gracefully destroyed anything standing in her path, but frantic as a lost SNES/Genesis game. More specifically, the game's biggest influence appears to be Strider, and Kit easily stands toe to toe with the arcade classic. With a giant floating sword with a personality of its own, Kit is able to use it as a melee or range based weapon with ease. As she pummels numerous foes, her rage meter will build, allowing her to perform more advanced take downs when activated. Along the way, Kit will occasionally put her cute flying squirrel-like sidekick character to good use and interact with some of the background elements. Purists will be happy to know that the game isn't set to include any type of SixAxis control as Krome felt that they didn't fit into the game naturally.
One of the most pleasant surprises about the game is how Krome was able to find a balance between what I would call "annoyingly super cute" and "Team Ninja Sexploitation." Yes, Kit is an anime-inspired cat girl with sizable breasts, but the character isn't some vapid sidekick waiting to happen. In cutscenes, she's a capable and just a little bit sexy without over doing it. Whether this is because the lighthearted nature of the plot or how Blade Kitten originally began as a comic book created by Krome Studios co-founder, Steve Stamatiadis, it's clear that Kit isn't just there to be ogled at.
Players will be able to get their paws on Blade Kitten this spring in the form of two episodes, with DLC possibly released down the road. There will be plenty of trophies to earn and final cost for the two episodes will only set you back about $20.
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