General gaming

General gaming

Miyamoto On the Twists and Turns of Skyward Sword

Posted: 16 Nov 2011 06:56 AM PST

On the eve of The Legend of Zelda's 25th anniversary, Nintendo development head Shigeru Miyamoto takes a look back at Skyward Sword -- a game that took he and his team five years to complete -- and admits that development wasn't the smoothest of processes. "It's occasionally the case during game development that the project doesn't proceed along as planned or doesn't turn out as fun as expected when you make it," he told Famitsu magazine this week. "This Zelda had some of those problems. We ran into this issue of people wondering who really wants to make a Zelda sequel -- whether a sequel was necessary from the company standpoint, or whether it's just me saying 'Let's do it.' A game really gets its start when you have someone who says 'I want to do something like this,' but sometimes it's born simply because it's a series title or there's more story to cover."

It was an issue Miyamoto was struggling with even as his team tried to figure out what a Zelda sequel needed. "For us," he said, "games provide a structure for play, and if you're making a sequel, you have to have that desire to improve, strengthen, and expand things right at the core of the project. To put it in an extreme way, the ideal for me is to build the play structure up to a certain point, then decide whether to make it Zelda or Mario. It's like building up the engine and chassis, then deciding later what sort of car you want to use it on."

Call of Duty Elite Still Slated for PC Release

Posted: 15 Nov 2011 04:00 PM PST

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3

Despite a tweet sent out suggesting otherwise, Call of Duty Elite is still coming to PC -- we just don't know when.

The service's first week (it launched alongside Modern Warfare 3 last Tuesday) has hardly been what Activision, Beachhead, and all the rest involved with its creation could have been hoping for. Overwhelming demand resulted in a variety of issues as users found themselves unable to register, log in, or access some of the Founder perks they paid for. To make up for the mess, paying members (including anyone who signs up by the end of the month) will get an additional month of access to Elite on top of the year they paid $49.99 for. Those members are exclusively console players right now, however, as Elite has yet to be made available on PC.

Promised Saints Row: The Third PS3 Exclusive is Missing

Posted: 15 Nov 2011 03:06 PM PST

Saints Row The Third

Among the exclusives announced during Sony's E3 press conference this year were bonuses for a handful of EA games and THQ's Saints Row: The Third. Now that The Third is here, it seems as if that particular E3 reveal didn't pan out.

The nature of the bonus wasn't specified at the time; we simply knew it would include a mode centered around the game's signature weapon. Joystiq reports there doesn't appear to be anything exclusive to the PlayStation 3 version of the game and that THQ isn't commenting on the situation. It's speculated that Whored Mode could have once been the bonus, only that ended up in 360 and PC versions of the game in addition to the PS3 one. THQ wouldn't say if that was the case one way or the other.

Microsoft Xbox Turns 10 Years Old Today

Posted: 15 Nov 2011 01:28 PM PST

Microsoft Xbox

It was 10 years ago today that Microsoft entered the videogame console business with the release of the Xbox in North America. The system debuted at $299.99 and its release came more than a year after the PlayStation 2 had already debuted in western markets and three days before the GameCube, which will celebrate its tenth anniversary in North America on Friday. Xbox was the most powerful of the three consoles during that generation (four if you wish to include the Dreamcast), though that didn't translate into sales -- PS2 ended up dominating the console market for much of the decade, but Xbox did prove to be influential in the long run.

The Xbox name came from the original idea of creating a DirectX Box, DirectX being the name for a set of APIs used on computers. ('DirectX Box' ended up being shortened to 'Xbox.') The system was, like the PS2 and unlike the Dreamcast and GameCube, capable of playing DVDs in addition to games. Dolby 5.1 support and an integrated Ethernet port were both standard, as was an 8GB hard drive, a new concept for videogame consoles at the time. The obvious benefits of a hard drive included the ability to save games without a memory card and rip music from CDs that could then be listened to as a soundtrack in certain games. Its presence later opened the door for downloadable content in games like Halo 2. (A standard hard drive was abandoned for certain models of the Xbox 360, resulting in developers avoiding mandatory installs no matter the cost.)

The Simpsons Visit the Expensive Electronic Entertainment Expo

Posted: 15 Nov 2011 12:12 PM PST

The Simpsons E4

This week's episode of The Simpsons (the series' 492nd overall) featured an obvious take on the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known to most as E3. Following up on previous Surprise Dad Days like Cemetery Paintball and Go-Karts on Real Roads, Homer Simpson decided to take his kids to E4: the Expensive Electronic Entertainment Expo.

There were references all over the place, starting out with statues of the Master Chief, a Big Daddy, and a football (and chicken leg)-wielding John Madden. From there we get to see Furious Fliers, a version of Angry Birds that goes horribly wrong when an angry bird is sent into an under-construction children's hospital (complete with direct-from-Angry-Birds sound effects).

Despite the Litigation, Skyrim References Minecraft

Posted: 15 Nov 2011 10:55 AM PST

Skyrim Minecraft homage

By now you've likely heard all about the ongoing litigation between Bethesda and Mojang, developers of the Elder Scrolls series and Minecraft, respectively. While there is clearly some disagreement between the two when it comes to game names, that didn't dissuade Bethesda from including what appears to be an homage to Minecraft in the newly-released Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

The issues between the two companies don't actually involve Minecraft. It's Mojang's next game, the collectible card/board game hybrid Scrolls, that Bethesda has taken issue with, and it's largely due to its name. Bethesda feels 'Scrolls' is too close to 'The Elder Scrolls' and wants the name changed. Persson recommended this be settled with a friendly game of Quake 3 (a game developed by id Software, which is owned by Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media), though the issue instead went to court. An interim injunction was won by Mojang last month, with Bethesda given the option of appealing the decision.

Super Mario 3D Land NYC Launch Photo Gallery

Posted: 15 Nov 2011 10:31 AM PST

Feature

Super Mario 3D Land NYC Launch Photo Gallery

Nintendo throws a bash in Times Square for the release of Super Mario 3D Land.

By: 1UP Staff November 14, 2011

Super Mario 3D Land NYC Launch Photo Gallery

Photos courtesy of Anthony Parisi.


Review: Need for Speed The Run is Quick Time Uneventful

Posted: 15 Nov 2011 10:30 AM PST

A skintight-jumpsuit-clad Catherine Bach hoists open the door of a white Lamborghini Countach, pastes the number "155" over the speed limit sign, and then turns to offer a cheeky wave to the pursuing highway patrolman before slinking back into her supercar and disappearing over the horizon in the blink of an eye. This is not a scene from Need for Speed: The Run -- but perhaps it should be.

Instead, The Run takes an awkwardly serious approach to its story, eschewing the over-the-top fun and wackiness of its clear inspirations -- movies like the Cannonball Run series and classic arcade games like Cruis'n USA --to deliver a cross-country campaign that's sometimes exhilarating, but often frustrating and surprisingly banal.

Posted by Shri Krishna

Total Pageviews

statcounter

View My Stats