General gaming

General gaming

OP-ED: What is Telltale's Place in a Post-Double Fine Kickstarter World?

Posted: 17 Feb 2012 03:54 PM PST

I can't help but wonder if the folks at Telltale Games felt a bit slighted by the fanfare and jubilation surrounding last week's announcement of the Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter, which, as of this moment, has more than quadrupled its goal -- and with more than three weeks to go. As champagne bottles pop worldwide in celebration of Tim Schafer's return to the genre that made him famous, gamers seem to be ignoring the fact that Telltale successfully brought back the PC adventure game seven years ago; though you wouldn't know it by looking at their most recent release.

In recent years, Telltale has moved away from the classic adventure format by making more approachable games branded with licenses like Back to the Future and Jurassic Park. As they transition to properties demanding far more spectacle than the Sam and Max and Monkey Island episodes of the past, Telltale has struggled with giving these productions the high-budget polish expected by fans of the source material. But do they need to be so ambitious when adventure enthusiasts obviously have a strong desire for the tried and true?

Metal Gear Solid 3: The Boss of Stealth Action Games

Posted: 17 Feb 2012 03:36 PM PST

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Metal Gear Solid 3: The Boss of Stealth Action Games

Exploring the innovations that made Snake's '60s adventure a best-in-class production.

By: Jeremy Parish February 17, 2012

Hideo Kojima has been trying to make a video game for 25 years now. With Metal Gear Solid 3, he very nearly succeeded.

This isn't to say Kojima hasn't overseen the creation of quite a few games in his time -- from whimsical penguin racers to vampiric spaghetti westerns with overtones of Norse legend, he's had his hand in several greats. But he's best known for the Metal Gear series, the ongoing saga of a guy named Dave who constantly, reluctantly finds himself as the world's last resort against utter nuclear armageddon, and all just because he happens to possess an acute genetic disposition to be adept at killing people. (He inherited it from his dad. Whom he killed. Twice. Once with hairspray.)

A Peek Inside Vita's Development

Posted: 17 Feb 2012 03:28 PM PST

Shuhei Yoshida

As the man in charge of Sony's Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida (above) oversees the teams behind Uncharted, Gran Turismo, Little Big Planet, and many others. And for the past few years he's also played a key role on Vita, serving as a sort of middleman between the company's software teams and its hardware division. At last week's DICE conference, I asked him a handful of questions about Vita's development history to date.

1UP: Do you remember the first meeting you ever had talking about Vita?

How to Map Right Analog Stick Controls on PlayStation Vita

Posted: 17 Feb 2012 03:10 PM PST

The PlayStation Vita introduces support for a second analog stick to a catalogue of great PSP games. But how exactly do you use it? After scratching out heads for a few minutes to figure it out, Bob and I got together and recorded this guerrilla-style video to show you how. In it, we play Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker -- a brilliant portable entry in the tactical espionage action series and one that benefits nicely from Vita's added stick support.

Check out the video for more impressions and how tos, or head over to our Vita hub for everything you need to read on Sony's new system.

Black Ops 2 Looking Increasingly Likely as the Next Call of Duty

Posted: 17 Feb 2012 01:41 PM PST

Call of Duty: Black Ops

A new Call of Duty game release is expected every year, making last week's news that, yes, 2012 will see a new game in the series come out no real surprise. With Infinity Ward and Treyarch continuing to alternate releases, this year is Treyarch's turn to bring out a game. At this point we don't know any of the specifics, but it's looking increasingly likely that it will be a direct sequel to Black Ops, at least in terms of naming.

After previously acquiring Black Ops-related domain names (from BlackOps3.com up through BlackOps6.com), Activision reportedly got its hands on BlackOps2.com not long ago. The domain acquisition on its own didn't seem like a confirmation that Black Ops would receive a follow-up; many companies purchase domains in order to simply have their hands on them so others cannot profit on their intellectual property. Other times it's done to avoid embarrassing situations where a URL based on a game's name cannot be used to promote the competition -- a situation Activision found itself in last year when ModernWarfare3.com was home to a site knocking Call of Duty and encouraging visitors to pick up Battlefield 3. Activision decided to take action against the domain owner in an effort to acquire it, which it managed to do successfully. The entire situation could have been avoided had it simply registered the domain sooner, so BlackOps2.com falling into the hands of Activision seemed insignificant on its own.

Escape Plan Review: Back Touch is Not Your Friend

Posted: 17 Feb 2012 10:24 AM PST

Look at a screenshot, and you might not know if Escape Plan is a puzzle game or a platformer. That's OK; the game hasn't really decided either. At times, it's a puzzle game, asking you to think your way to the other side of the room, but mostly it's a platformer where you know what to do instantly and the challenge comes from doing it. But you can't jump between platforms, so I'm not really sure what to call it.

Escape Plan is essentially an escort game where you, as a never-mentioned outside force, guide two characters (Lil and Laarg) through small rooms -- usually left-to-right, sometimes while floating, dashing, or butt-stomping. Unlike most platformers, you have limited control over the characters. You can tell them to walk or not, but that's essentially "go" or "stop." The challenge comes from how you play with the environments -- changing the route or moving objects out of the way to clear a path.

Posted by Shri Krishna

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