General gaming

General gaming

One Year Later: The Tragedy and Triumph of 3DS

Posted: 21 Mar 2012 06:04 PM PDT

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One Year Later: The Tragedy and Triumph of 3DS

The highs and lows of Nintendo's latest handheld, and where it stands after a rocky first year.

By: Jeremy Parish March 21, 2012

A year ago next week, Nintendo's fifth generation of portable hardware arrived in the U.S. The 3DS found itself born into a hostile world: The market for dedicated portables had slid into decline while the bloom had begun to fade from the rose of the 3D visualization trend. The system didn't perform nearly to Nintendo's expectations thanks in part to an unreasonably high price; about half a year later the company drastically reduced the cost of the machine and offered 20 free games to early adopters by way of apology. While these facts would not normally inspire confidence, the 3DS has made steady inroads since then and could even be said to have established itself as a strong platform with a positive future. It's not all sunshine and roses for 3DS, but things are looking up. Let's explore the highs and lows of the system... starting (much like the platform itself) with the lows.

The Lows

The Frankenstick
Nothing symbolizes 3DS's most disastrous failings like the "Frankenstick," more properly known as the Circle Pad Pro. Its mere existence is a frank admission that Nintendo horribly miscalculated the needs and expectations of its consumers at the most basic design level -- and it's a clumsy, inelegant admission at that. The Circle Pad Pro is one part cradle, one part peripheral; it doesn't so much attach to the system as wrap around it, transforming the 3DS into an awkward goliath of a portable. On the plus side, it gives the 3DS much-needed dual stick controls, but at the price of making the entire device a chunky mess and likely splitting the market. Any eventual hardware redesign will need the Circle Pad Pro's feature set built in lest it be laughed out of stores... but should Nintendo actually go ahead with a right-stick-equipped redesign, they'll instantly divide gamers into haves and have-nots. It's an unmitigated disaster of ill-considered hardware design, and the cure is almost as bad as the sickness.

Ninja Gaiden 3 Review: American Ninja, the Video Game

Posted: 21 Mar 2012 05:39 PM PDT

Ninjas are cool, right? Take a look back at the great ninja craze of the 1980s and you'll find the black-clad assassins in almost everything from cheesy flicks like American Ninja to the totally tubular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. While I generally agree with the sentiment that ninjas are cool -- cooler than those dirty pirates, anyway -- no one should take the majority of '80s ninja films seriously. Those quick cash-ins delivered uninspired performances that serve as ill-fitting tributes to the source material despite good intentions. I adore TMNT to this day, and it's in no way the worst offender, but American attempts at making movies about ninjas generally fall well short of acceptable entertainment -- not to mention the fact that they have almost nothing to do with real ninjas, who were silent assassins.

The Ninja Gaiden series isn't big on stealth, either, and that's fine. But rather than try to expand on the series' history of intense action, developer Team Ninja set on a different approach for the third chapter in the series, one that cribs trends from contemporary blockbusters like Uncharted and Assassin's Creed. As a whole, Ninja Gaiden 3 appears to represent a Japanese developer's attempt to add a Western touch to an established brand. This philosophy, while possibly sincere, presents a mash-up of ideas that often fumble the concepts they're based on. I certainly don't mean to rant against Japanese game design or mock their games here. Yet trying to look past the obvious inspirations behind Ninja Gaiden 3 is like trying to ignore the hidden arrow in the FedEx logo -- once you see it, you can't unsee it.

BioWare Plans to Address Mass Effect 3 Ending Complaints

Posted: 21 Mar 2012 03:28 PM PDT

Mass Effect 3

The story below is spoiler-free.

The discussion regarding the ending of Mass Effect 3 over the past two weeks has been unrelenting -- although, in reality, it's only a small percentage of ME3 players who are actually taking part in it. Petitions have been signed and, amazingly enough, complaints filed with the Federal Trade Commission. While the endings have been defended by BioWare, the developer has also said it is listening to what fans are saying. Today it announced its intentions to partially acquiesce to the demands of those who are upset with the ending, but it sounds as if it'll do so without completely giving in.

Draw Something Now Officially a Zynga Title

Posted: 21 Mar 2012 02:02 PM PDT

Draw Something

Just as recent reports suggested, social game behemoth Zynga has acquired OMGPOP, the developer responsible for the smash hit Draw Something.

The company is not talking about how much it spent, but it's said to be around $200 million -- AllThingsD claims it's a deal worth $180 million, plus about $30 million in employee-retention payments. That is a huge sum of money for the New York City-based OMGPOP, which was founded in 2006, considering that, prior to Draw Something, it was not a big-name company. CEO Dan Porter said during a media briefing today it had racked up only 20 million registered users prior to the launch of Draw Something about six weeks ago.

Posted by Shri Krishna

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