Articles by tiny dancer
Fifteen "faithful" Atlus fans will be on the receiving end of an 8.5" tall Teddie plushie, according to the just-announced "Teddie for the Faithful" sweepstakes in honor of the upcoming Persona 4 for the PS2, which launches on December 9. Teddie is one of the stars of the game.
Now, the last time I saw 15 guys line up to take eight and a half inches from a bear I ended up with a stress disorder and a prescription for penicillin, so I'd like to keep this clean by encouraging all of you RPGaymers out there to sign up for the sweepstakes. If you're an existing Atlus Faithful member you'll be automatically entered, but non-members have until October 23 to sign up and be entered to win.
Git on it!
If any of you gamers are gearing up for E for All this weekend, make sure to stop by the West Hall of the LA Convention Center to check out the USA National Finals of the Olympics of gaming, the World Cyber Games. Over 200 competitors will be fragging their brains out to earn a spot on Team USA for the Grand Final this November.
Those Grand Finals will see the results of over 1,000,000 gamers from more than 75 countries, which is why Guinness World Records recognizes the games as the world's largest video game competition.
"For All" indeed. Check 'em out!
Moshi Moshi! Japanese site PC Watch reports that Sony has been considering cutting costs by re-using the PS3's Cell processor in designs for the PS4, and is currently sussing out developer reactions to such a scenario.
Such a move wouldn't be unprecedented - it would essentially mimic the very moderate increase in processing power between the GameCube and the Wii, although it's anybody's guess as to whether or not Sony would be able to spin such a half-step with the same kind of panache that Nintendo gave us the Wii.
And while decreases in die size and increases in the number of processors on-board could significantly impact the processing power of any second-generation Cell hardware, the PS4 is unlikely to sit as close to the cutting edge as does the PS3:
In a long technical analysis following the report, PC Watch voices the opinion that the PS4's performance would not increase significantly from that of the PS3 if this is true. While Moore's Law and the historical rate at which Sony has shrunk processors size would suggest that the Cell processor could reach as many as 32 cores, PC Watch expects that the cost of redesigning the Cell's layout -- which has apparently remained the same as it has shrunk from 90nm to 65nm, and from 65nm to 45nm -- would be prohibitive enough that Sony will stick with around 10 cores for the PS4.
I'd be surprised to see Sony doing anything but cutting costs and saving money for the forseeable future, due to production costs, absorbed losses and a few catastrophic exploding laptop battery recalls. So in that light I do think it's likely that we won't see Sony pushing the envelope with quite the same fiscal muster as we have during this hardware cycle. That should be fine - provided Sony keeps its prices down as well.
PS4 Based On Existing Cell Processor? [GameCyte]
I've been enjoying the Lego games in a pretty hardcore way for the last six months or so - not just because I'm a fan, but because the boyfriend is a superdy-duper-megafan. So with the benefit of some hot gay insight, I've been swimming neck-deep in Lego Gotham for the past week. Traveler's Tales has performed the same makeover we've become accustomed to, putting cutesy Lego touches on fearmonger Batman, his goofy sidekick Robin, and giving just about every conceivable Batman character a Lego pose. That formula is the game's biggest strength and its worst weakness, depending on the situation and your point of view.
There isn't a lot new here - if you enjoyed Lego Indiana Jones or the Lego Star Wars games, you'll find a lot more to love here. The frustrations from the previous games are all alive and well here also - some environmental glitches, unwieldy AI, and lackluster vehicle missions. The humor that made Lego Sean Connery and Lego Leia so recognizably funny isn't quite as alive here, because for the most part Lego Batman sticks to standard DC Batman schtick. It's still cute as hell to watch Catwoman strut her stuff, but it lacks the recognizable pop of iconic moments from George Lucas' Star Wars and Indiana Jones films.
Since the previous Lego games were all based on films, there was a certain common thread pulling the player along. If you hadn't seen Indy hiding behind a rolling gong in Temple of Doom, for instance, you might have been a bit lost at a certain point in the game's "Shanghai Showdown" level. Batman is missing some of these narrative hooks, which is a double edged sword: the game isn't tied down by film story points, but it can leave you up a creek if you get stuck.
For the second straight year, Nintendo has dominated Game Developer magazine's annual Top 20 Publishers report - a position long occupied by Electronic Arts. Game Dev figures their list based on revenue, number of games released, average review, and anonymous partner feedback, and this year it added "wide-ranging reputation survey" to the list of criteria.
And while Nintendo may be facing a bit of a critical backlash for its treatment/non-treatment of its core gamer audience, there's no denying that the numbers tell a different story; indeed, Nintendo's first-party Wii and DS releases seem to have secured its position at the top of the list.
EA, the former contender, sat pretty at #2 while Activision held onto #3 for the second year in a row. At #4, Ubisoft also maintained last year's rating, while SCEA entered the top five at the trailing position, given a bit of a boost after a relatively dismal 2007.
Far from being some number-crunched derivation, the Top 20 Publishers report involves over 300 industry professionals who gave their opinions and comments. Check out the details after the jump, if you please.
Yesterday the Dow Jones saw its worst point drop in history, losing about 7% of its total worth and sending financial markets into all kinds of mishegas while the NASDAQ lost 9% by falling 200 points. Yet games companies took less of a hit than other industries, showing that there's still plenty of money tied up in the industry machine - although given the cyclic nature of the games development cycle, I wouldn't necessarily look to today's numbers for a forecast... I'll be just as interested to see what investment decisions do or don't get made, and I would expect to see signs of financial concern amidst video game companies show up further downstream.
But in the short run, while Activision Blizzard lost the most ground - losing 13.8% or $2.26 per share, and high-trader EA lost $3.63 a share, or 9.16%, most game companies' losses were below the market average. THQ and Take-Two lost 7% and 4.5% respectively (although T2 closed at $15.43, a full $10 a share lower than EA's recently rebuffed bid of $25.74 a share).
Microsoft lost 8.72% and Sony just 5.09%, but despite all the losses the industry has an edge on the rest of the economy, according to perennial truth-man, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter:
"There really is no impact... nobody's running out of money,"
"Pretty much everything is going to get made as-is and sold... I don't see a global recession impacting games much."
Other analysts have gone so far as to suggest that the games industry will continue to grow and may even enjoy a "cocooning" effect that sees retailers increase their focus on "better cost-per-hour" items such as video games, compared to other media. That's a fair bet, as a $60 Blu-ray almost certainly won't give you as many hours of entertainment as your average game.
Analysts: Game Biz Sustains Even As Stocks Fall [Gamasutra]
While you might hope LucasArts' Force Unleashed team would be addressing some of the glaring targeting and other issues that have plagued reviews and consoles in the weeks following the release of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, it's an other area of fan-feedback that they've been working on: upcoming DLC features additional costumes and character modules that will be released "based on what we heard from fans."
This from executive producer Haden Blackman, who added: "But some were from us. We thought Ki-Adi-Mundi or Kiit Fisto would be exciting to see running around in our game."
Normally I'd take this opportunity to make a Kiit Fisto joke, but given the mixed reactions to the super-hyped Force Unleashed, I'll just move along...
Also out later this year is a new single-player mission for the game, set in the Jedi Temple of Coruscant, where the Secret Apprentice goes to learn about his father. More daddy issues from Star Wars? Color me unsurprised.
The DLC in the works will be available on the PS3 and Xbox 360, and should arrive in the next few months.
Force Unleashed DLC Campaign Coming Soon [VE3D]
Digital Extremes has put the finishing touches on the PS3 version of BioShock, and ye olde master disc has gone to the printer in time to bring BioShock to a PS3 near you by October 21 (although the international release ships a few days earlier, on October 17).
New content for the PS3 includes "Survivor" difficulty mode for all you badasses, trophy support as well as entirely new add-on DLC game content that will appear "shortly after launch," with pricing and availability to be announced soonish.
Having won over 50 different Game of the Year awards, it's no surprise to see 2K bringing its baby to the PS3, and the inclusion of the additional content is a great way to get yourself back to Rapture. While I'm not sure I can play through the game for a third time (or that my boyfriend will let me), I'll definitely be downloading the demo when it goes live this Thursday. Even if it's just to compare graphics and see how many splicers it takes to bring me down in Survivor mode.
D3's award-winning puzzle RPG, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, will soon make its iPhone and iPod Touch debut courtesy of Mac games pioneers TransGaming. The game initially designed by Infinite Interactive has been published by D3 onto just about every platform that could feasibly hold the addictive match-three puzzler, making the iPhone the next logical step.
D3Publisher's international uberboss, Yoji Takenaka, applauded the development:
"After making the rounds on consoles, PC and Mac, we are thrilled to have TransGaming bringing it back to a handheld device, and not just any handheld, but the iPhone--a platform that D3Publisher looks forward to utilizing to reach a whole new group of gamers with this title and many more to come."
No release date as of yet, but the press folks at D3 are promising that Puzzle Quest will show up in the iTunes App Store sometime this fall.
Make the jump for the full shebang.
Presidential politics is always a hot issue, even in the gaming world, and especially so here at GayGamer, where political and social issues underpin our very existence and frequently ignite robust discussions. So I was pleased to stumble upon this lighthearted, non-partisan bit of Second Life machinima over at GamePolitics.
With "Swift Kick Moms for Truth," a pair of maternal figures scold both major presidential candidates for deceptive ads while a virtual Tom Brokaw moderates sternly. Congrats to creators Silver and Goldie, voice artist Mark Winston, and the ever-dwindling capacity to laugh at ourselves.
I know that lil' polygonal numbah-suckah Dr Kawashima's always flappin' on about how his simple techniques will activate my gray matter, lower my brain's "age" and give me the power to manipulate objects with my mind (it's called a boyfriend), but a new study of 600 students across 32 UK schools makes an astounding claim: fooling around with Brain Age for 20 minutes at the beginning of every day (for nine weeks) boosted students math scores by an undeniable 50%.
"Computer games help flatten out the hierarchy that exists in schools - they are in the domain of the learner as opposed to the domain of the school and the added likelihood of learner place in their own learning being decided for them," said Derek Robertson, LTS's National Adviser for Emerging Technologies and Learning.
"This intervention encouraged all children to engage and get success in a different contextual framework; one in which they don't know their place."
Not only did boys and girls improve their test scores equally and initially less-able students improve the most, but their interpersonal relationships improved - as well as increased likelihood to take personal responsibility and an improved outlook toward school on the whole.
I wish they'd had magic video games in school when I was a kid: the most we ever got was a slow death from dysentery.
Study: Brain Age Boosts Student Math Performance By 50 Percent [Gamasutra]
EA may be facing legal fallout from its use of SecuROM with Spore, as well as continuing negative press from the draconian restrictions on user accounts (which it has relaxed to some degree), but none of that seems to be impacting sales.
Spore and Spore Galactic Edition took the top two spots for sales in the second week of September (ending Sep 13), and the Spore Creature Creator sat pretty at #4. Here's the whole chart, which isn't exactly brimming with diversity:
- Spore
- Spore Galactic Edition
- The Sims 2 Apartment Life
- Spore Creature Creator
- World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
- The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
- World Of Warcraft
- World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade
- Warcraft III Battle Chest
- Crysis
Three Spores, three WoWs (four if you count all Warcraft games) and two Sims 2s: that's not exactly a subtle trend. I'll confess, the PC gamer in me made a little "eep" noise when I saw this list.
Spore dominates US PC chart [GamesIndustry.biz]
And girls who like girls who like rumble packs!
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