Latest Gaming and MMORPG Updates

Steam Mobile App Lets You Shop and Chat From Your Phone
Alan Wake retail release coming to PC
TGS: How Food Gives Life to Namco’s Game Music
Five Ways Skyward Sword Went Wrong
NCsoft files lawsuit to thwart TERA launch
TERA Japan

Steam Mobile App Lets You Shop and Chat From Your Phone

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 06:09 AM PST

Steam Mobile

Valve has at long last released a Steam app mobile phones which brings with it much of Steam’s core functionality.

The app can be downloaded now for iOS and Android devices, but not everyone can make use of it just yet. With the app still in beta, Valve will be allowing gamers in as time goes on. In order to enroll for the beta, you’ll want to download the app, sign in with your Steam account, and then hope you’re selected.

Once you are allowed in (or you get in by virtue of the beta coming to a close), you’ll be able to do most of what you’d hope to with a Steam app: chat with friends, browse groups and profiles, check out screenshots and user-generated content, read Steam and gaming news, add games to your wishlist, and even buy games. The ability to make purchases is a particularly pleasant surprise; being able to buy games on the go means you never have to miss out on a Steam sale just because you’re away from the computer.

Based on my brief time spent playing around with the app on my iPhone 4S, it works every bit as well as you’d hope, and chatting in particular is quick and easy. Images can be somewhat slow to load and I see see no way to zoom in on screenshots, but the app is very responsive save for the occasional bit of slowdown that seems to resolve itself after a moment’s pause. There are some things that need work — the videos page is labeled “under construction” but does already allow you to view any that have been saved — like adding the ability to rearrange the items on your wishlist and trade items, but it’s still surprisingly feature-rich for a first release.

Steam Mobile

Valve talked about the possibility of Steam support on mobile platforms last year. “We do feel we’re late on mobile across many of Valve’s services,” Valve marketing VP Doug Lombardi said in May. “It is something we’re starting to look at now. People are starting to ask us for it. The more requests we receive, the more we feel the need to act on them.”

Fast forward to today. “The Steam app comes from many direct requests from our customers,” Valve president Gabe Newell said of the app’s release. “Seeing which of your friends are online and playing a game, sending quick messages, looking at screenshots for an upcoming game, or catching a sale – these are all features customers have requested. Mobile is changing way people interact, play games and consume media, and the Steam app is part of our commitment to meet customer demands and expand the service functionality of Steam to make it richer and more accessible for everyone.”

Steam Mobile

I’ve written before about how Electronic Arts’ Steam competitor, Origin, needs to differentiate itself from Steam. Mobile felt like a place for it to do it — Steam was limited to computers, and its community with it. Had EA gotten an Origin app like this on iOS and Android, that could have been at least one way for it to say, “Hey, look — we’re doing something they aren’t. If you want to talk to your gaming buddies, add them on Origin and you can talk to them from your phone.”

Instead Steam has beaten Origin to the punch once again. With Valve already making it clear it wants to make it easy to use Steam on your TV (a feature being prepared for launch), that’s another area where Origin can’t be first. Following the Wii U’s reveal last year, it was rumored that its open online platform would allow Origin to become the de facto online platform on the system. Given that any mobile offering is unlikely to top Steam’s (based on the lack of innovation we’ve seen from Origin on computers thus far), that could be one of the few ways left for EA to get a foothold against the competition.

Steam Mobile

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Alan Wake retail release coming to PC

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 06:08 AM PST

The boxed PC version of Remedy's action thriller doesn't have a release date just yet, but Nordic Games have announced that it will include both XBLA DLC packs 'The Signal' and 'The Writer'. Further details are said to be coming over the coming days and weeks.

"It goes without saying that we are very happy and proud to work together with some of the greatest talents and artists of the games industry", commented Lars Wingefors, CEO of Nordic Games. "We are really looking forward to the PC version of Alan Wake, especially as we are talking about a fantastic PC adaptation thereof, rather than a mere porting of the code," he added.

Visit www.alanwake.com if you need a refresher on what the game's all about and look out for more details on the release – and the promise of a proper adaptation of the code – in the coming weeks…

Alan Wake retail release coming to PC

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TGS: How Food Gives Life to Namco’s Game Music

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 01:28 AM PST

He might not look it at a glance, but Namco Sound Team member Go Shiina — best known for his work on Mr. Driller, Tales of Legendia, and Ace Combat — is obsessed with food. A slim man whose Cloud Strife-like mop of bleached hair adds several inches to his lanky height, Shiina says he looks to food to inspire his compositions.

As an example, he told me about his approach to writing the music for Gods Eater’s snow temple areas. For those dungeons, he spent time “researching” Taiwanese shaved ice desserts.

“Taiwanese shaved ice is different than Japanese shaved ice,” he says. “The Japanese version uses normal ice, so it has a sharp, stinging quality to it. In Taiwan, they use frozen condensed milk, so it feels softer and sweeter. And they add fruit to it, so it has a fuller texture and flavor.

“The snow areas in Gods Eater are full of Japanese-style temples, so I didn’t want to use Japanese shaved ice for inspiration. That would have been predictable and cheesy. Instead, I used a combination. When you’re in battle, the feel should be like Japanese ice — sharp and harsh. But outside of battle, when you’re just exploring, I wanted it to feel like Taiwanese ice: softer and less intense.”

Shiina most recently contributed the score for the Ace Combat trailer Namco played at Nintendo’s recent 3DS press conference. For that bombastic, film-like orchestral track, Shiina jokes that he used fast food as inspiration for that particular piece.

“I had to put it together in a hurry,” explains.

Stay tuned for our full profile on this prolific composer, which will explore further insights into the creative impact of food, spreadsheets, and Christina Ricci.

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Five Ways Skyward Sword Went Wrong

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 06:05 PM PST

Since its humble 8-bit beginnings, Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda series acted as the frontrunner for both game design and technology, offering well-crafted worlds much larger and content-heavy than its competitors. Just as Link’s debut proved the true potential of the NES, Ocarina of Time convinced the world that polygonal third-person gaming could be more than an ambitious-but-clumsy mess. Soon after Zelda’s monumental N64 installment, the series expanded its scope by playing with time travel (Majora’s Mask), and opening up an entire ocean of possibilities for young Link to explore (The Wind Waker); but from 2006′s Twilight Princess onwards, The Legend of Zelda swapped its once-daring nature for a more eager-to-please, conservative philosophy which proves irritating for those who’ve stuck with the series for more than two decades. Skyward Sword is the latest victim of Nintendo’s one-size-fits-all style of game design, and as a result, falls short of the potential possible from a studio overflowing with talent.

Skyward Sword is not a bad game, but a deeply frustrating one. Baby steps like user-dictated UI options, impeccable motion controls, and an evolution in dungeon design show that Nintendo may be on the right track in some respects, but the following flaws of Skyward Sword do their best to pin down this formerly free-roaming series.

Note for the spoiler sensitive: this article covers certain topics you may want to remain ignorant of until you finish the game.

Content Spread too Thin

Skyward Sword suffers from the same issues that plagued 2006′s Okami; the latter overcompensated for its Twilight Princess competition by delivering an oversized adventure that often dragged like a real Neverending Story. Nintendo’s latest Zelda exhibits the same insecurity, no doubt brought on by massive 2011 releases like Dark Souls and Skyrim; their advertising campaign even boasted this would be the biggest and boldest Zelda to date. But instead of providing a variety of content, Skyward Sword chooses to shamelessly recycle. Much of the game involves Link revisiting old areas under the thinnest of pretenses, where he undergoes tedious and unimaginative tasks like tracking down collections of hidden items and participating in a series of mandatory and increasingly dull time trials. And considering the fact that Skyward’s version of Hyrule contains only three distinct settings, the constant backtracking wears out its welcome far before you realize the entire game plays like a broken record. Skyward Sword has its share of amazing moments, but they’re hard to remember when separated by so much padding.

An Unchanging World

Compared to the most recent games in the Zelda series, Skyward Sword presents a remarkably static world. While Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, and The Wind Waker each provide instruments capable of changing the weather, time, and other features of Link’s environment, Skyward’s harp offers nothing but a stupid-easy mini-game used to unlock a series of prescribed places. Past Zelda games empowered players by giving them the ability to shape the world, which is exactly why Skyward’s puzzles seem so uncreative in comparison — they’re mostly tied to the game’s motion-control input, rather than the inspired tools of Zeldas past. Even the series’ day/night cycle has been excised in Skyward Sword, replaced with a binary option (the equivalent of a virtual light switch) used to solve a handful of side-quests in a shockingly small number of locations. The former ability to tinker with so many elements of Hyrule gave this fictional world a certain sense of veracity; in comparison, Skyward Sword comes off as a look-but-don’t-touch Zelda museum.

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NCsoft files lawsuit to thwart TERA launch

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 06:05 PM PST

In a complaint filed in New York federal court on Jan. 9, South Korea-based NCsoft, which specializes in massively multiplayer online role-playing games, or MMORPGs, says it has brought similar claims against Bluehole and its ex-employees in Korea, but that Bluehole is now planning to release an English-language version of its game in the U.S.
NCsoft maintains that Bluehole and its U.S. subsidiary En Masse Entertainment Inc. were founded by a group of NCsoft employees who quit to go into business for themselves in the midst of creating a new game called Lineage 3.
"These individuals did not leave NCsoft empty-handed or with benign intent," the complaint alleges. "To the contrary, they made off with copious amounts of confidential and proprietary NCsoft information, computer software, hardware and artwork relating to Lineage 3."
"Their business plan was simple and audacious: create a competing product using the very work they had done while at NCsoft, launch it themselves to great fanfare and acclaim, and, in the process, deal a crippling blow to their former employer," the complaint said.
The former employees were convicted in Korea of stealing trade secrets from NCsoft in 2009, and the convictions were mostly upheld by an appellate court, according to the complaint.
NCsoft also lodged a civil complaint against the individuals and Bluehole in Korea in 2010. The company won damages and an injunction barring the individuals from using NCsoft’s proprietary information going forward. However, the damages award was overturned by an appellate court.
Appeals of both the criminal and civil cases are currently pending before Korea’s highest court.
Despite the litigation, Bluehole launched its game, Tera, in Korea last year, and has announced plans to release an English version in the U.S., the complaint alleges.
The current lawsuit claims that the U.S. version of Tera makes use of NCsoft’s trade secrets, including documents, source code, artwork and know-how related to the development on Lineage 3, and copyrighted works, including concept art created for Lineage 3.
It also asserts claims of breach of confidence, unfair competition and unjust enrichment.
The suit seeks temporary and permanent injunctions blocking the release of Tera in the U.S., as well as enhanced damages for Bluehole’s alleged misconduct.
Bluehole was not available for comment on Friday.
NCsoft is represented by Gene W. Lee, Jeanne C. Curtis and Peter J. Brody of Ropes Gray LLP.
Counsel information for the defendants was not immediately available.
The case is NCsoft Corp. et al. v. Bluehole Studio Inc. et al., case number 1:12-cv-00172, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New York.

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TERA Japan

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 01:26 PM PST

So, Tokyo Game Show 2011 is in full gear over the past few days, but there was only a handful of MMORPGs in the show. TERA Japan, which went into the commercial phase recently, was no doubt present to push for more players after its initial success. 2 different packages were available and given to visitors of the game’s booth, but I think there were some requirements before they can be gotten.

Both packages are basically the same, except that one of it has a 300-piece puzzle while the other has a Steelseries mouse with TERA’s game logo simply printed on it. Each package also has a code for a 3-day free trail period without the need to register for an actual account.

According to some bloggers, there is actually more merchandise given out! There is a series of badges, some picture cards with profiles of each race at the back, a mousepad and the already mentioned retail game packages. The badges and stuff were actually given out before at the official release press conference back in July, it seems there were spares! Awesome stuff!