General gaming

General gaming

The Old Republic Still Going Strong, Even With a 400k Subscriber Drop

Posted: 09 May 2012 05:12 PM PDT

Star Wars The Old Republic

Three months ago, Electronic Arts boasted its new MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic, had amassed 1.7 million subscribers. That number is a far cry from what World of Warcraft has, though it is a very strong showing for a subscription-based MMO in a market that is becoming much more free-to-play-centric. The publisher updated investors again on the status of TOR this week, revealing it has seen a drop-off of 400,000 subscribers to 1.3 million. That's nearly one in four players who have stopped playing over that span of time, which surely means it's time to sound the alarm and for those who voted EA as the worst company in America to start celebrating, right? In fact, this may not be as bad as it seems.

A 23-percent decline is a substantial figure any way you slice it. Yet it's important to remember this is still early in the life of the game; if this were to happen a year from now it would be more troubling. At this point in time, it's natural for an MMO to lose a chunk of people who wanted to try the game out and nothing more. It seems entirely feasible a chunk of casual players tried the game out but didn't want to pay a monthly subscription, which is essentially what the drop was attributed to in an EA conference call with investors on Monday.

Wolfenstein 3D Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary in Style

Posted: 09 May 2012 04:37 PM PDT

With Wolfenstein 3D celebrating its 20th anniversary this month, it's fitting -- if unexpected -- to see a nearly 30-minute developer commentary track from industry legend John Carmack exploring his memories and recollections from the early days of id Software. Despite the march of time and technology since the game's 1992 release, you can't help but be charmed by the man's enthusiasm for his early days in the industry.

Why Donkey Kong Country is a Better Platformer Than Super Mario Bros.

Posted: 09 May 2012 03:08 PM PDT

I know that it's absurd to compare two games that were released over a decade apart, but what the hell, but I'm going to do it anyway. I've recently become a bit of a pariah among my fellow 1UP editors due to my opinions on Donkey Kong Country, Rare's 1994 foray into the world of the SNES. While few would dispute the game's technological merits, not many around these parts agree with me that DKC is a far better and much more playable platformer than the original Super Mario Bros.

Please set down your pitchforks and extinguish those torches.

Donkey Kong Country was the game that began Rare's ascent to creative bliss. Anyone who owned a Super Nintendo or a Nintendo 64 has undoubtedly fond memories of playing any number of the British developer's classic titles, whether it was slapping down Jago in Killer Instinct or planting the perfect proximity mine in GoldenEye, and this hot streak all began with the reinvention of Mario's original nemesis. A few years after the plumber journeyed around the world, Donkey Kong was tasked with exploring his island in search of his stolen banana hoard. The game was a dense, cutting-edge package that showcased the power of the SNES and provided what I feel to be a perfect platforming experience. As you can probably tell by the video below, my fellow editors do not share in these views.

dkc

Re-Examining the Role of Digital Death

Posted: 09 May 2012 01:44 PM PDT

Feature

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Re-Examining the Role of Digital Death

How death has evolved over the four decades of gaming.

By: Nickolai Adkins May 9, 2012

There is possibly no greater representative icon for the entirety of gaming than that of the game over screen. That negative void with stolid letters painted cryptically across; there is a certain mysticism surrounding the screen, the dark back corners of arcade holes that once used to thrive, and the natural competition to overcome the inevitability of failure that it represents.

Bore with the medium's creation in arcade cabinets and the surrounding culture that developed after their inception, the challenge of prolonging play time and avoiding inevitable failure in death became the central function for nearly every game created to date. In the form of a barrel throwing gorilla, the simple existence of a play clock, infinite and unseen pits that trail into the unknown below the screens of any number of platformers, or even in competition between players, video games have always been a participatory form of near exclusive survival.

Two Possible Reasons for BioShock Infinite's 2013 Delay

Posted: 09 May 2012 01:22 PM PDT

BioShock Infinite

BioShock Infinite was among the most anticipated games scheduled for release this fall. It's still shaping up to be one of the bigger launches of the year, it's just that year will be next year. Infinite's release was officially pushed back today from its scheduled date on October 16 until February 26, 2013. The reason for this is said to be because of a goal to make it as great as can be, and while I don't doubt there is a desire to do that, there may be other factors which contributed to the decision to delay the game's release by four months.

A message to fans from developer Irrational Games' creative director, Ken Levine, was distributed to the press and posted online today. In it he claims that, since announcing the October release date in March, the team realized "that some specific tweaks and improvements will make Infinite into something even more extraordinary. Therefore, to give our talented team the time they need, we've decided to move the game's release to February 26, 2013. We wanted to let our loyal (and very patient!) fans know this as soon as possible.

Posted by Shri Krishna

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