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1UP's Charity Sketch Auction Gallery

Posted: 05 Dec 2011 06:43 PM PST

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1UP's Charity Sketch Auction Gallery

By: Matt Leone December 5, 2011

Over the course of September and October, I think the rest of the 1UP team started to hate me for making them carry sketchbooks -- to the Penny Arcade Expo, Tokyo Game Show, developer offices, etc. The goal was to collect as many pen and pencil sketches as we could from people in the game industry.

We left the content up to them, and said we would auction off 100% of the profits for Red Cross disaster relief -- in part to help victims of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, covered in our feature How Japan's Earthquake Changed its Developers. The results originally appeared in the final issue of 1UP's print magazine, and now it's time to put the gallery online and kick off the auction.

Review: Corpse Party is a Bloody Good Time

Posted: 05 Dec 2011 06:15 PM PST

In a season riddled with life-changing mega-sequels, Corpse Party couldn't have arrived at a worse time -- especially on a platform so ravaged by the deadly tag team of piracy and disinterest. With its distinctly fan-made presentation and digital-only availability, XSEED's latest isn't going to turn heads like the Uncharteds and Modern Warfares of the world; though, in the case of Corpse Party, this lack of attention just might be for the best. While most of our modern gaming blockbusters seek to offer either awkwardly bloodless violence for the sake of the coveted catch-all Teen rating or Bruckheimer-esque glorification of combat, the folks at Team GrisGris obviously didn't suffer under these same publisher pressures. Corpse Party doesn't seek to cast the widest net possible with a series of escapist power fantasies that gently nudge players down a path of rewards; from the outset, the game wears its heartlessness on its sleeve, dispatching characters in ways that have yet to debut in your nightmares (but soon will). This glorified visual novel may resemble a B-tier Super Nintendo game on the surface, but nothing else I've played over the past 25 years has been so relentlessly brutal, bleak, and terrifying.

Though Corpse Party looks like an ancient JRPG, trappings like hit points, an inventory, and tile-based movement only exist as lip service; the "game" portions of Corpse Party act solely as a conduit for the narrative. Like Phoenix Wright and 999, Corpse Party is a visual novel, though it looks and plays decidedly more "gamey" than other entries in the genre. Instead of transitioning from static scene to static scene from a first-person perspective -- typical of the genre -- the game employs 2D sprites and an overhead perspective, providing players with a more familiar means of input. And since you're tasked with controlling a group of defenseless teens, combat simply isn't an option; the few foes found in the game most often kill with a single touch, making their presence more disturbing than any turn-based ghost battles ever could.

Review: Infinity Blade II Still Goes to Infinity -- But Only a Bit Beyond

Posted: 05 Dec 2011 04:00 PM PST

Upon finishing my first battle in Infinity Blade II, I was gravely concerned that developer Chair Entertainment had inadvertently created a parody of the original game's conceit, and that I was trapped in another endless loop of the same gameplay I'd so fully exhausted a year ago. I was dead wrong. It doesn't take long for this follow-up to the poster child for iPhone gaming to show its stuff and set it apart from its predecessor as a worthy sequel.

The first Infinity Blade was often rightly summed up as "Punch-Out!! with swords," though I could be heard to argue that the fighting system offered more depth than that description implied. That depth was easy to miss, however, as you could easily charge through the game never even using mechanics like the parry system. Infinity Blade II fixes that from the very beginning; by augmenting said parry system, better explaining it, and offering substantial incentive for using it in battles.

Vita May Limit You to One PSN Account Per System

Posted: 05 Dec 2011 03:41 PM PST

PlayStation Vita

If you're planning to pick up a PlayStation Vita early next year that you'll share with another person, be prepared to share your PlayStation Network account along with it. According to a catalog given out at a recent Vita event in Japan, a factory reset is required before being able to use a separate PSN account.

An FAQ section in the back of the catalog specifically addresses a question regarding the number of PSN accounts the system supports, according to a NeoGAF member. It's stated the system must be formatted back to the factory-default settings before a separate account be used.

Final Fantasy VII Opening Gets an Unreal Engine-Powered Remake

Posted: 05 Dec 2011 02:05 PM PST

An official Final Fantasy VII remake is unlikely to happen, at least in the near future, though if it did the game's director Yoshinori Kitase says he would be tempted to change things. He's not the only one who doesn't want to leave things alone, as a fan-made remake of the game's opening segment has been released which features portions of the game seen through a first-person perspective.

The project, known as Final Fantasy VII Remake, is a (somewhat) faithful remake of the early portion of the classic PS1 RPG, occasional first-person camera view aside. It runs on the freely available Unreal Development Kit (powered by Unreal Engine 3), chosen because of its power and the wide array of documentation available online, according to the project's website.

Ueda Still Working on The Last Guardian, No Word on Departure

Posted: 05 Dec 2011 12:36 PM PST

The Last Guardian

It was reported last week that Fumito Ueda, the man best known for his work on Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and the upcoming The Last Guardian, was leaving Sony. He has yet to address those rumors and Sony itself hasn't provided any comment more specific than its standard response to everything it chalks up to "rumor and speculation." In a tweet sent out earlier today, Ueda stated he is still at work on The Last Guardian but didn't acknowledge anything regarding his possible departure from Sony and Team Ico.

Ueda had gone silent on Twitter in recent days, fueling speculation that his tenure with Sony was coming to an end. He's begun talking once again today, including one message that reassured fans he is still working on The Last Guardian. Another message pointed out that the 10-year anniversary of Ico's release in Japan is December 6. None made any mention of his employment status.

Fallout: New Vegas Dev Explains Skyrim Lag

Posted: 05 Dec 2011 11:57 AM PST

Skyrim

Reports of Skyrim players encountering severe lag, particularly on PlayStation 3, continue to roll in even after the most recent patch was said to resolve those issues. From what we know this stems from the increasingly large size of players' save game files, a problem that may take a big investment to fix.

Obsidian Entertainment's Josh Sawyer offered up some thoughts on Skyrim's technical issues recently in response to questions he received on Formspring. Sawyer works as a project director at Obsidian, which developed Fallout: New Vegas using the same engine Bethesda used for its most recent game before Skyrim, Fallout 3. While Skyrim runs on a different set of technology, Sawyer does provide some insight into why the problem with lag hasn't been fixed more quickly and why the PS3 version has been especially troubled by it.

YouTube, TMZ Hitting 360 Later This Month; HBO Go, MLB.TV Next Year

Posted: 05 Dec 2011 10:04 AM PST

Xbox 360 content providers

With the big Xbox 360 fall dashboard update being released tomorrow, Microsoft has shed some light on when we'll begin to see the new slate of third-party content providers show up on the system.

Support for several dozen providers was announced in October, although it was unclear exactly when they would be coming. None were given exact release dates with the exception of the UFC app (which allows users to order pay-per-views, watch on-demand content, and more), and that did us little good -- it missed its original December 1 launch and is now coming on December 20.

Posted by Shri Krishna

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