Articles by Asterick
So the Nintendo DSi was announced, and Wii Points mysteriously became Nintendo Points. This was to unify the naming between the points used on the DSi for downloadable games, as well as the points used in the Wii Shop Channel. Turns out, the naming is the only thing to be unified.
... Nintendo doesn't have an overarching account system to control digital distribution. Just as a precautionary warning the slide below confirms point cards cannot be used on a Wii and DSi. One card, one console.
In short, those 200 points that always seem to stay in the Wii Shop Channel wallet are going to stay there as they are non-transferable. Lack of architecture, or horrible cash scam? You decide!
Nintendo Points Are Either Wii Points Or DS Points, Not Both [Siliconera]
This is a friendly reminder that the two of the upcoming five Megaman 9 downloadable expansions have been made available on the Nintendo Wii. Personally, I still have yet to clear a single stage on the game because I'm mega lame.
- Endless Attack (300 Nintendo points)
- Proto Man (200 Nintendo points)
These will be made available for download through PSN and XBLA tomorrow (Tuesday) for those of us who did not opt for the WiiWare release. I am personally going to save my money until I suck less.
Nintendo seems to have it in for me. First it was the WiiMote. Okay, sure, I'll swing my arms and pretend to bowl. Sounds like fun to me. Next, it was WiiFit. I don't mind standing around and doing yoga poses, at least when I'm in spanky shorts it's in the comfort of my own home. Witnesses are kept to a minimum. Now they want me to go walking, you know, like outside and stuff.
Your Life Rhythm is the end result of the patented pedometer device that had surfaced around the blogowebs not so long ago. So, what does it do? Your guess is as good as mine, all I know is that it will log how many steps I'm taking and log your progress. Needless to say, if I get this the spanky shorts will have to stay inside.
Nintendo Pedometer Is For DS Walking Game [Kotaku]
Wait, I DO own a racing game other than WipEout HD! My playstation 3 has seen quite a bit of on time over the last week. Between WipEout HD and the LittleBigPlanet online beta (eat it suckas!) I've all but forgotten about my new copy of Disgaea 3, let alone the increasingly under used copy of Gran Turismo 5: Prologue.
Sony, perhaps seeing my game play log has updated their racing simulation title with a few new details that may even pull me away from my other download titles for a brief period of time. The update (available now) not only makes a few minor tweaks to gameplay, but also adds three new cars! Two of the three are the production vehicles: Ferrari California and Lotus Evora. Both very nice cars. The most intriguing of the three is of course the custom made GT by Citreon
The "GT by Citroen" concept car is the result of a groundbreaking collaboration between French automaker Citroen and Polyphony Digital. The formal debut of the vehicle took place yesterday at the Paris Motor Show, coinciding with the release of today's update to the game. A video of the "GT by Citroen" can be viewed in HD within Gran Turismo TV.
More information and photos are available on the Playstation blog
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Update Available Now! And Includes NEW CARS!! [Playstation.Blog]
After the EA Spore\Mass Effect\Bioshock fiasco, it is pretty safe to say that DRM is a bit of a hot topic in the game industry right now. Keeping with this theme, Fallout 3 developer Bethesda Softworks let us known all about the DRM they will be using. In short: it won't really exist.
[Fallout 3 will be] pretty similar to what we did for Oblivion, which was--we basically don't do any [DRM]--we do the mildest form possible. I actually don't know if I even want to get into what it is that we exactly do, but we try to be really noninvasive when it comes to that stuff.
And it is a pain in the ass--it is a pain in the ass that we have to do it at all in the first place. But when you spend tens of millions of dollars, we don't think it's right to just put something out there and let everybody do whatever they want and pass it around...
But no, we're pretty mild about how we do it, and we try to do it in a way that prevents folks from exploiting and distributing our games that we worked very hard on... It's very important for us not to ruin the experience for the person who did buy a copy, so we try to be very careful... We want to remove anything that is a hindrance or an annoyance to the player, we're trying to just get to the game and have fun...
Personally, I would like to see them bring back the Monkey Island code wheel. That copy protection was the bomb diggity, and as always, kudos to Bethesda for thinking of the end user.
Bethesda: No Nasty DRM for Fallout 3 [Game Politics]
I'm just going to say thank you Nintendo. Buried deep in the announcements from today's Nintendo event is the news that Doukutsu Monogatari (Cave Story) will be coming to WiiWare later this year. You heard me.
If you've never played Doukutsu Monogatari, I'm deeply and profoundly sorry. Created by a single man under the alias "Pixel", The game is essentially a weird collision between Super Metroid, Blaster Master, and a dash of pure concentrated win. All gamers must download and play this title. The game is available here, but I expect everyone with a Wii to purchase this title when it is finally released. No exceptions.
Cave Story coming to WiiWare this year [Nintendo Wii Fanboy]
If you're anything like me, you've been keeping a watchful eye on the Pandora, the open source hand held. Unlike most consoles, this system is being created by hobbiests, not a large corporation. Without going into major details, the system has some very nice specs for the price point.
The console officially went on sale (pre-orders) yesterday for the low low price of 197.77 GBP (~330 USD) internationally. Only 3000 units will be sold during the first batch, with another shipment being sold in 2009. In short: If you want one soon, you should order it now.
Where you can buy it:
The hand held is scheduled to ship at the end of November. For more details, consult their webpage.
Desperate to get yourself into the LittleBigPlanet beta? Ready to strap on those creative boots and start stomping out levels like nobody's business? You have to wait until the 22nd! Okay, this is only true for most of you.
Much like the EuroGamer "Zomg this was a bad idea" LBP beta key give away, G4 and GameTrailers are each giving out a small lump of beta codes for the industrious and persistant.
To enter with G4, simply go to this page, fill out the form before the 2nd. 2,000 lucky winners will receive a beta code on the 3rd. Huzzah!
GameTrailers method is slightly less elegant. Simply go to their site, register and speed up time so you can view their newsletter on Thursday. The page obviously does not work as of this moment, I operate in the real world and am not a magician (or am I?). Details will appear come tomorrow.
[via PS3 Fanboy]
Last week, The Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) refused to classify Silent Hill: Homecoming after review. This is essentially a death sentence for a video game, as it is illegal to sell until a rating has been applied. As a result, Konami may have to remove some content from the game itself.
...the OFLC cited several high impact scenes in the game, mostly focusing on drilling into and severing body parts. One scene in particular that was highlighted as a problem involved Alex (the main character) having a drill forced into his right eye socket, which caused a lot of blood to spray out. A couple of other scenes mentioned include one where Alex forces the drill up into an enemy's skull and another where Alex is cut in half by an enemy.
We haven't seen the Silent Hill scenes in question but based on the descriptions we find it hard to understand why the OFLC refused to permit them, considering the famous Resident Evil 4 chainsaw decapitations of Leon were passed without issue.
Yes, the game is violent. The game has always been violent and that is part of the atmosphere. Censorship is silly, and frankly, this game is more horrific than educational. It seems silly that Australia would take exception to something that is otherwise tolerated throughout the rest of the world.
On a completely unrelated topic: it is funny how the Playstation 3's software rarely has a region lock. Someone from a country like, say, Australia would have absolutely no problem buying a copy of an import video game. Running software without the need to modify or otherwise perform in illegal trade and hardware sales to get it to run sure is handy. Completely unrelated of course.
Konami May Tone Down Silent Hill: Homecoming for Aussie Market [Game Politics]
I junked out on Professor Layton and The Curious Village. So junked out that I unlocked and cleared every puzzle with maximum score. That was no small task, considering that I did not cheat to achieve this goal.
I know that the sequel has yet to hit the US shores, but the trailer for the third installment of this series is just too good to pass on. To quote the Teen Girl Squad: it is So good!
I'm going to have to ask you all to hold your rolling eyes for just a bit and hear me out. Yes, I'm once again talking about WipEout HD. You know what? I love the game and I think it is worth mentioning what it does right! Yes the game is limited on tracks, and the online connectivity has some hiccups but everywhere else the game shines through. Most specifically, maintaining 60 FPS at full 1080p with near zero slowdown.
Up until recently, this was pretty much considered a pipe dream, it takes a lot of horse power to produce that many pixels. The real question is: how did they do it? The long and short of it? Dynamic horizontal resolution.
The folks over at Digital Foundary did some sluthing, and determined that rather than upscaling a smaller frame buffer, or simply eat skipping frames, WipEout HD relies on a dynamic horizontal resolution. During normal game play, the game runs at 1080p (1920 x 1080px). Occasionally, this is simply too much for the system to handle. Instead, the system reduces the horizontal resolution of the game until the action calms down a bit.
The result? Game play which is fast and smooth like butter, and your mom. Oooh, burn. Now if only we could convince the makers of GTA IV, Halo 3, and Haze to employ these methods.
[via PS3 Fanboy]
<![CDATA[<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:af0e0dcd-5cff-43a2-bd32-4841fe6a89d1&showPlaylist=true&from=msnvideo" target="_new" title="Avatars in the new Xbox experience">Video: Avatars in the new Xbox experience</a>]]>
If you had not noticed already Xbox Live is, and will continue to be, down all day today for maintenance. While your experience today with the Xbox may be slightly less than stellar, the new Xbox experience is shaping up to be a nice update to the normally drab dashboard.
The sad thing is, most of the real juicy details are completely unattainable (side effect of the maintenance), so you kids are just going to have to be patient and wait until tomorrow to get the "inside scoop".
I've included a video scavenged from their developers blog. It covers the bulk of the avatar creation system, something I'm sure that I will have to pry myself away from.
When the site is back, be sure to check out the New Xbox Experience page. It has all sorts of interesting details on the update coming this November.
And girls who like girls who like rumble packs!
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