General gaming

General gaming

What If EA Didn't Have Exclusive Rights to the NFL?

Posted: 25 May 2012 05:42 PM PDT

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1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF MAY 21 | WHAT IF?

What If EA Didn't Have Exclusive Rights to the NFL?

Cover Story: Football runs rampant in a very different video gaming space.

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ootball persists because its goals are simple even though the rules are complex. One team has four tries to move an egg-shaped ball to the end of a field and if they don't move it at least a certain distance within those tries, they have to give it to the team trying to stop them.

The actual rules of the NFL are dense though. NFL football makes baccarat look like rock-paper-scissor in terms of complexity, and the literal hundreds of NFL video games that have popped up in the past decade certainly aren't helpful for anyone who wants to learn about the intricacies of the sport. All Zynga's NFLVille teaches you about the game is that Peyton Manning looks horrifying as a big-eyed cartoon character and that convincing Facebook friends to help you gain yards is surprisingly easy and addictive.

Video Game Rumors from Another World

Posted: 25 May 2012 05:25 PM PDT

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1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF MAY 21 | WHAT IF?

Video Game Rumors from Another Reality

Cover Story: Not only are these game rumors not true, they're not even real rumors... at least, not in our world.

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n another world -- a more interesting world than our own -- the rumors below rule Internet forums, spread like the plague through the school yard, and merit regular debunking by Snopes' video game urban legends section (which doesn't even exist in our reality; that's how lame real life is). Please enjoy this glimpse into the playground lies of another universe's video game fandom.

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Parappa the Rapper's Brown Note

From the Chiptuned blog: "Parappa the Rapper's next-to-last stage features the hero rapping through a medley against his instructors for the right to jump to the front of the line of a gas station restroom before disaster strikes, messily. Rumor has it that this rap battle contains a brown note in order to increase the realism of the sequence. Gamers with audio setups capable of rendering a wide range of sound frequencies play this sequence at their own risk."

The Popularity of Atari's E.T. Shows No Signs of Slowing Down

Posted: 25 May 2012 05:06 PM PDT

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1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF MAY 21 | WHAT IF?

The Popularity of Atari's E.T. Shows No Signs of Slowing Down

Cover Story: But is it too little too late?

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lamogordo, New Mexico -- The dusty town of Alamogordo seems more like a relic of the highway culture of the 1950s and '60s than it does a future player in the world of video gaming. Currently known by few outside of the town and airmen who passed through a term at nearby Holloman Air Force Base, most of what would be considered "downtown" is nothing more than gas stations, hotels, and fast food. It's as though the town accepted its fate as a pass-through rather than a destination and grew-up accordingly. Even in the gilded age, when railroads ruled the vast expanses of America's west, steam engines passed right by Alamogordo (the local water is very hard, and reacted corrosively with the tanks on the great bellowing machines). In spite of the rugged beauty of the surrounding southwestern wilderness, including White Sands National Monument, Alamogordo would probably be largely ignored and its place in time and relevance set in stone. But a certain consumer electronics company has decided to give Alamogordo its own footnote in the history of video games (should such a book ever be written). The Atari corporation, makers of the hugely successful video game adaptation of Stephen Spielberg's film "E.T., The Extra-Terrestrial," have decided that the sleepy town an hour north of El Paso will be home to a grand new distribution and shipping center for their games and consoles.

In July of last year, when Howard Scott Warshaw was asked by his superiors to develop an E.T. game before Christmas, he told them flat-out "no way."

Because We May Sale Makes Indie Games Cheap(er) for a Week

Posted: 25 May 2012 04:03 PM PDT

Because We May

Independent game developers have at their disposal a wide variety of methods for trying to boost sales. Some of these include banding together with other indie titles to generate publicity, as seen time after time with the Humble Indie Bundle and its many imitators. The latest such scheme doesn't actually package unrelated games together or sell them at any price the buyer decides (as is the case with the HIB), but it is eye-catching in that there are a ton of indie games available right this very moment at heavily discounted prices.

The promotion, Because We May, runs for the last week of May (May 24 through June 1) and features games from Steam, iOS, Google Play, the Mac App Store, and the official websites of computer game developers. There is a wide array of titles available with more still being added, and none of this accounts for games that are on sale right now outside of the promotion (like Infinity Blade II, Grand Theft Auto III, and many of EA's titles).

Gravity Rush Review: A Topsy-Turvy Adventure

Posted: 25 May 2012 11:29 AM PDT

After a few minutes of playing Gravity Rush, you'd be hard-pressed not to fall head-over-heels-in-love with its stylish visuals and mechanics: An awfully fitting metaphor, given the game's emphasis on falling as a play mechanic. It's a topsy-turvy adventure that unfolds by allowing players to alter the direction of gravity at will. To some, the rules of Gravity Rush could look like flying, but it's actually more like falling with style. And like any free-fall, Gravity Daze eventually hits a stopping point at the end -- one that will either leave players satisfied or feeling severe disappointment.

The world of Gravity Rush comes to life through a beautiful cel-shaded art style that stands out considerably when compared to the realistic style of the Vita's other top-tier release, Uncharted: Golden Abyss. Color and expression dominate this game. Its style also helps to accentuate the incredibly fluid character animation of Kat, the game's mysterious protagonist. When you lean the Vita's analog stick forward, Kat gracefully slides into a fluid running motion that's both detailed and carries a feeling of actual momentum, all the way down to the bouncy movement of her blonde hair. Kat has no memory of her life before she woke up in floating city of Hekseville; with no other goals at hand, she decides to set up shop as a heroine and put her gravity-shifting powers to good use.

Posted by Shri Krishna

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