What not to Watch

February 1, 2010 - Leave a Response

Also known as “Why in the hell do you want this terrible job so bad?!” You can catch a preview for PSN’s upcoming reality show HERE.

A few surprises:
1. It’s produced by the folks who brought you VH1’s Rock of Love.
2. As you’ll see from the above video, David Jaffe* is one of the judges.
3. Even videogame reality shows have skanky chicks: “No one’s really ever asked if I have a boyfriend, so I’ll kinda keep it on the DL and see how it goes,” says one contestant who is then shown cuddling up with another.
4. Another one of the judges is Ketherine De Leon – the producer of Playstation Home, a trainwreck in of itself.
5. If this preview is a accurate sampling of the show, there will be gratuitous overuse of the term “game over”.

Also, for those of you who question the idea that being a Playstation game tester is undesirable job see the recent Penny Arcade comic strip about it.

Awesome! So get excited… or terrified. Also be ready for massive gamer stereotyping.

___________________________________plane.emblem

* According to David Jaffe, “I started as a Tester 15 years ago with Sony. And testing is still one of the best ways to break into the industry.” -via the official PSN site. Interesting, but I don’s see any of these people becoming design leads on God of War 4… just sayin’.

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On the Cheap!

February 1, 2010 - 2 Responses

Bout to get in da club

Thanks to some of my Twitter friends (gadgetman007 and Mehar Gill), I was steered to this little deal at newegg! $7.99 with free shipping, not bad. Looks like Newegg is clearing out some of their games stock. It might be a good time to check em’ out since I noticed a lot of other games going for a sub $10 price w/ free shipping. It’s funny that I find my self with this game as I was bashing it just a few days ago. My recent doting about Split Second got people talking about a similar game slated for the same release window: Blur (Bizarre Creations). Watching a recent developer diary video for the title got me feeling a bit wishy washy about it so I was going to take a “wait and see” approach to the game. There seems to be a lot more compelling software up for grabs. Then I made the alleged mistake of saying “I mean they did make geometry wars but… they also made The Club” (referring to Bizarre Creations). Then I was I was hit by a barrage of people telling me that The Club is good! I based my statement on the yawn inducing demo. So let’s see if it can capture me with it’s high score-perfect run replayability.

I figure it’s worth the less-than-a-rental price to entertain my curiosity. Now to find the time to play it… don’t worry, I’ll squeeze it in!

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Revisiting Split Second’s Minimalist design

January 29, 2010 - Leave a Response

I don’t mean to go on and on about Split Second (I’m actually working on a big feature article which I’ll publish soon ;)   ) but I couldn’t help but notice Kotaku’s own Stephen Totilo making strikingly similar observations about the game. Totilo is a games journalist I really respect and I was downright tickled that he made a lot of similar conclusions. I’m really jealous because he’s actually gotten hands-on time with the game. Anyway click the link below to check it out:

“Things We Don’t Need to See, Such as our Speed”

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It’s All in the Details

January 23, 2010 - One Response

It’s all in the details. It seems altogether likely as a running theme throughout the next year of videogame software. The current generation of consoles are rolling into the mature stages of their respective life cycles and bang-wow graphics aren’t really going to differentiate great games anymore. Why? Well, they all look pretty fantastic for the most part. Whats really going to set certain titles apart are feature sets and simple refinement. In a world where the market is seeing a flood of top tier triple-A products, consumer choice is paramount. Gamers will pay a lot more attention to the details in the coming year than they ever have before, less transfixed by shiny wonderment.

I ran into a nice little example of the idea this afternoon while watching a recent trailer for Disney Interactive’s upcoming arcade racer Split Second. Not only is it a stunning looker, it’s got some nice subtle touches that I’ve never seen in a racing title before. Current race position and vital power-up info are displayed on your car’s rear bumper allowing you to keep your eyes on the road. I think they’re on to something here. This will be huge benefit to a game like Split Second where, as the name implies, every second counts. I mean, how many times have you found yourself fixated on your position in a racing game? Obsessively peeking at your 2/8 placement in the top right corner only to slam into a wall in the last lap because you weren’t watching where the hell you were going? I think it’s genius! Why hasn’t anyone thought of this before?! As an added bonus, more screen area will be freed up to take in every detail of the massive chaos going on all around you. Minimal, less invasive HUDs FOR THE WIN!

You’ll want to watch this one in 720p ;)

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plane.emblem

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Heracles Busts out of Nowhere

January 16, 2010 - Leave a Response

So admittedly, I was completely unawares that this game was even in existence until yesterday. But here it is, Glory of Heracles is an upcoming Nintendo DS title that just oozes with potential I haven’t seen in a NDS game for a good while. It has a style strongly reminiscent of an old GBA friend – Golden Sun, with its sharp pre-rendered looking set pieces and over the shoulder battle perspectives. Judging from the look of the game’s screens, I can just as well bid the developers at Camelot Software to take their sweet time with the actual Golden Sun sequel announced at last summer’s E3.  It is set to release on the 19th of this month. It’s being pretty aggressively marketed on gaming websites (1up and Kotaku) and I just saw a full page spread in this month’s Game Informer which I was thumbing through yesterday. Since I was running into it everywhere I turned, I gave it a little peaky peak online.  See for yourself in the photos past the break.

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