General gaming

General gaming

Take a Tour of the New Modern Warfare 3 Maps With Us

Posted: 25 Jan 2012 06:34 PM PST

Tracking Sounds Alone: Talking With Sound Shapes Creators Jonathan Mak and Shaw-Han Liem

Posted: 25 Jan 2012 03:28 PM PST

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Tracking Sounds Alone: Talking With Sound Shapes Creators Jonathan Mak and Shaw-Han Liem

Behind the scenes of Queasy Games' innovative Vita music-platformer.

By: Anthony John Agnello January 25, 2012

Queasy Games used to be a solo act. Jonathan Mak's operation was put on the map by Everyday Shooter, a moving work that blended minimalist graphics with basic shooting and evocative guitar rock in an "album of games." Now with musician Shaw-Han Liem (also known as I Am Robot and Proud) and Capybara Games on board, Queasy is a full-on band. Their first title is Sound Shapes for the Playstation Vita; Shapes is a game, sure, but it's also an instrument for making music in its own right. In this interview, Jon and Shaw-Han discuss the delicate art of collaboration, the difficulty of making games about music, and man-feelings.

1UP: Music games are different beasts now than they were fifteen years ago. What used to be considered a music game were things like Parappa the Rapper and Rez: rhythmic challenges that let you interact with songs in strange ways. Now most music games are just venues for listening to songs you're already familiar with while doing something physical, like Guitar Hero and Just Dance. Why aren't there more games about creating music or even just interacting with and changing music?

1UP Community Feature: Controllers We Love

Posted: 25 Jan 2012 02:55 PM PST

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1UP Community Feature: Controllers We Love

1UP Readers Discuss Comfort, Design, and Practicality

By: J. Kartje January 25, 2012

Picking a "BEST" controller is an impossible task. With so many iterations of so many different designs over the years, the question always leads to some heated discussions -- but there are a few things that we can all usually agree on:

Nintendo has been the most daring, from the ambitious-yet-impractical Power Glove to the upcoming Wii U tablet, which no one is quite sure about. Nintendo is always attempting innovation, and is never afraid to unveil something different. They aren't always met with critical acclaim, and one of our readers, ngamer-90, highlights the highs and the lows of what Nintendo puts in your hands.

BlizzCon Skipping Out on 2012

Posted: 25 Jan 2012 01:51 PM PST

BlizzCon

Blizzard's annual BlizzCon convention won't be sticking to its annual schedule this year. For the first time since 2006, Blizzard fans won't be gathering at the Anaheim Convention Center to celebrate all things Blizzard.

Blizzard made the surprising announcement on its blog earlier today. BlizzCon will return in 2013 -- it isn't a matter of the event being put on ice indefinitely -- and to make up for its absence this year, Blizzard announced the 2012 Battle.net World Championship. Set to be held later this year in Asia, it'll be home to the World Championship tournaments for both StarCraft II and World of Warcraft. It's another example of Blizzard supporting eSports and professional gaming, with it having already hosted tournaments at BlizzCon itself.

After Failing to Buy its Dev, Zynga Makes its Own Tiny Tower

Posted: 25 Jan 2012 11:10 AM PST

Dream Heights

The recent release of an iOS game from Zynga has prompted allegations that the FarmVille developer blatantly copied an existing game. Among those noting the similarities are the developers of the game it's accused of copying.

Dream Heights was released last week on the Canadian App Store, and although it remains unavailable in the United States, a quick glance at its screenshots reveal it to be very similar to NimbleBit's Tiny Tower. Tiny Tower is not some obscure iOS game hidden on the App Store, either -- Apple named it the iPhone Game of the Year for 2011 and it received a good amount of attention when it was released last June. And while Tiny Tower was clearly inspired by SimTower, Dream Heights is a different matter. Art style aside, the mechanics appear to be ripped directly from Tiny Tower.

Kid Icarus Uprising, "Hewdraw," and the Art of Great Localization

Posted: 25 Jan 2012 09:30 AM PST

During my hands-on session with Kid Icarus Uprising last week, only one facet of the game leapt out at me enough to comment on it: The boss Hewdraw.

I wasn't especially surprised to see Hewdraw in the game. It's always been pretty obvious that, given the limited amount of source material development team Project Sora has to work with, practically every element of the classic NES game to which Uprising serves as a sequel will show up in some form or another. About the only thing I haven't seen yet are (1) mallets to liberate Medusa-stoned soldiers and (2) Eggplant Wizards, though I've no doubt they're somewhere in there.

Posted by Shri Krishna

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