General gaming

General gaming

Nintendo Uninterested in Free, Microtransaction-Based Games

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 06:19 PM PDT

Mario Party 8

Free-to-play games are becoming more and more common in the industry, and while a number of companies -- like EA and Ubisoft -- are giving the model a try, don't expect Nintendo to join in anytime soon. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has emphatically stated that Nintendo wants to preserve the value of software and is therefore not keen on releasing free-to-play titles.

"If we were simply going to say OK, the only the way we could sell more products is by decreasing the price, then there wouldn't be a bright future and the entire industry will fold," Iwata told All Things Digital. "When we look at the entire system of freemium, it's not always that everyone is happy with the offers. Actually, there's only a limited number of people who are willing to pay and many others are not paying for game titles at all.

"Nintendo is not interested," he said simply.

Call of Duty's Faux Time Cover Aimed to Attract Younger Readers

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 04:45 PM PDT

Time magazine Call of Duty faux cover

Time magazine generally isn't the type of reading material you'd expect the average Call of Duty fan to be interested in. That's precisely the reason the magazine's management allowed a faux cover to be made to promote Modern Warfare 3, a decision that has come under some fire.

Among the promotional posters located in some GameStop stores is the Time magazine cover pictured above. The Activision-created cover was created as a poster intended to be a pre-order bonus for GameStop customers. It's the first time the long-running magazine's cover has been allowed to be used as a promotional tool for a commercial product, according to the New York Times. The magazine has defended its decision to permit the cover to be made, saying that it's a great opportunity to lure in younger readers.

"This is where the boys are," said Time's publisher, Kim Kelleher, in an interview with the Times. "This is a great way to connect with millions of people we might not have otherwise connected with."

Duke Nukem Forever Stirring Up Controversy

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 04:05 PM PDT

As is to be expected, the release of Duke Nukem Forever has stirred quite a storm of controversy both in terms of its contents and the reviews that have been written about it so far. The members of the 1UP Community haven't been shy regarding their thoughts on both issues.

1UP member BrokenH posted a dedicated blog focusing on the less than savory morals and the picture it paints of women in games.

LulzSec Attacks EVE Online Again, CCP Warns of Possible Downtime

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 03:35 PM PDT

EVE Online

One of the targets attacked by Lulz Security yesterday, along with Minecraft and The Escapist, was EVE Online. A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack took down EVE's login servers and the game's official website with it. In response, developer CCP Games took the service temporarily offline twice in the past day and has warned users it may do so again if it feels the need. It might just be doing that as LulzSec has gone after the game for the second day in a row today.

CCP Chief Operating Officer Jón Hörðdal wrote in a message to the community last night addressing what the company does when faced with a DDoS attack: "Our policy in such cases is to mobilize a taskforce of internal and external experts to evaluate the situation. At 17:55 UTC, that group concluded that our best course of action was to go completely offline while an exhaustive scan of our entire infrastructure was executed. While some may feel that such a drastic reaction was not warranted, it is always our approach to err on the side of caution in order to ensure the best possible service for our players and the security of their personal, billing and account information."

He apologized for the lack of communication and frustration this caused, explaining that "it can often be counterproductive to containment to give out information while we are in the process of evaluating the scope of any potential problem."

Another Black Ops Map Pack is on the Way - Report

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 02:39 PM PDT

Call of Duty Black Ops DLC 3 map pack

It looks as if details on the third downloadable map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops have been leaked, just as they were for the second one in early April.

Much like the first two map packs, the third DLC pack will reportedly have four new competitive multiplayer maps (Hangar 18, Hazard, Drive-In, and Silo) and one new map for Zombies mode. This information comes by way of an alleged GameStop promotional poster sent to fansite Black Ops 24/7. It could very well be a fake picture, but information found in a Black Ops PC patch in early May indicated an upcoming level would be called Silo. Of course, someone looking to make a forgery would know this too, so it doesn't prove the image is real.

While Modern Warfare 2 received only two map packs, the previous Treyarch-developed CoD game, World at War, got three, so it would make sense for Black Ops to see at least one more DLC release.

Assassin's Creed Creative Director Starts Work at THQ

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 02:01 PM PDT

Assassin's Creed

After a lengthy wait, Patrice Désilets has finally begun work at THQ's new Montreal studio. He'll assume the role of creative director, the same title he held while working at Ubisoft Montreal on the Assassin's Creed series and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

The move was originally announced this past October. Désilets said at the time he would be waiting until summer 2011 before starting work at THQ "out of respect." It was later revealed that he had a non-compete clause in his Ubisoft contract that kicked into effect when he parted ways with the company last June.

"The creative freedom that THQ gives its artists and developers--and their willingness to make games that truly reflect an artistic vision--really drew me to THQ," he said as a part of today's announcement. "I plan to build an incredibly talented team at THQ, and am very anxious to get started on creating a new project."

Nintendo to Forgo DVD Playback (Again) With Wii U

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 12:58 PM PDT

Panasonic Q

Without going into great detail, Nintendo has stated that Wii U will use a proprietary disc format. No one was expecting it to use Blu-ray discs, and the expectation was that PlayStation 3 would continue to be the only game console capable of playing Blu-ray movies. Wii U won't be changing that, and it'll also be continuing the trend of Nintendo consoles not supporting DVD movies playback, too.

Nintendo has published the transcript from a Q&A session with investors that took place at E3 last week. When asked about the prospect of playing movies on DVD or Blu-ray, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata answered, "Wii U does not have DVD or Blu-ray playback capabilities. The reason for that is that we feel that enough people already have devices that are capable of playing DVDs and Blu-ray, such that it didn't warrant the cost involved to build that functionality into the Wii U console because of the patents related to those technologies."

Since Nintendo moved away from cartridge-based formats in its home consoles with GameCube, we've wondered when a Nintendo system would be capable of playing DVDs -- a feature that was included in the PlayStation 2 at launch in 2000. Panasonic released a GameCube/DVD player hybrid, known as the Q (pictured above), back in 2001. It ended up being discontinued and was never brought to regions outside of Japan. The Wii was originally planned to have DVD functionality before it was quietly removed and then promised to be coming a year after launch, in 2007. That never ended up happening, although modders found their own ways to make DVD playback possible on Wii.

Crysis 2 Pulled From Steam, EA Says Valve to Blame

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 11:21 AM PDT

Crysis 2

Crysis 2 has quietly disappeared from Steam, sparking speculation that Electronic Arts intentionally pulled the game in order to secure an additional exclusive for its newly-relaunched EA Store, now known as Origin.

We already know EA intends to sell digital copies of its upcoming MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic, exclusively through Origin. It'll still be avilable at retail as any other game would, but any chance of finding it on Steam, Direct2Drive, GamersGate, Impulse or any other digital distributor has been killed. Pulling Crysis 2 -- and the lack of availability of Alice: Madness Returns on Steam -- seems like a sign that EA might be making newer PC games exclusive to Origin. However, older EA titles are still available on Steam, and despite Crysis 2 being (up until a few moments ago) listed on EA's website as "only on Origin," both it and Alice continue to be sold on rival sites like Direct2Drive and Impulse.

In a statement sent to IGN, EA claims Crysis 2's removal from Steam "was not an EA decision or the result of any action by EA." It says Valve, the Half-Life and Portal developer behind Steam, is responsible for the game no longer being sold.

Japan Review Check: Gloria Union, Mass Effect 2

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 10:06 AM PDT


A selection of the most interesting games due to hit Japan next week, courtesy the review pages of Famitsu magazine:

- Gloria Union (8/8/8/8, 32 points): Sting's PSP follow-up to cult strategy RPG Yggdra Union doesn't rock the boat at all -- something every reviewer pointed out -- but still satisfies for the most part. "The system hasn't changed, but the game's still easy to access and offers a lot of strategy," one wrote. "It's fun to think over which characters to deploy and which cards to use. The story works well with the ship-based gameplay, and overall it's a reliably fun experience."

Another reviewer had some more pointed criticism: "The game maps are a little too simple. I would've liked to see them be a bit more Sting-like."

Top Irem Game Director Splits Off

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 09:16 AM PDT


If you know Irem as a modern developer at all, that's probably thanks to Kazuma Kujo. A man with a remarkably long career in the game business (the first Metal Slug is among his credits), Kujo was the chief creative force behind Steambot Chronicles, the Zettai Zetsumei Toshi series (released here under the names Disaster Report and Raw Danger!), and the more recent R-Type shooters and strategy games.

Irem is now Kujo-less, as the designer has left the company to establish Granzella, his own indie developer. Why did he leave? "The biggest reason is that, due to assorted issues, I wasn't going to be able to make games the way I used to; my freedom of expression had been greatly restricted," he told Famitsu magazine this week.

Kujo's departure came not long after Irem cancelled the release of the nearly-complete Zettai Zetsumei Toshi 4, a game where you must survive in a city besieged by natural disaster, in the wake of the Tohoku earthquake in March. However, Kujo denied that the cancellation had anything to do with the decision. "It was something I had been thinking about before then," he said. "The things we wanted to do were increasingly not what management wanted from us. We wanted to escalate on the things that resonated well with us. The fact that our parent company wasn't game-specific was both a blessing and a curse in some ways -- we could make games like Steambot and ZZT because we were an outsider in the game business. Starting about two years ago, though, I started to feel that what they wanted from us was diverging away from what gamers wanted."

Posted by Shri Krishna

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