General gaming |
- Saints Row: The Third PS3 Buyers Get Saints Row 2 for Free
- Join 1UP for Our Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Live Stream
- Get Access to the Star Wars: The Old Republic Beta
- The Two Weeks That Changed Level-5's Fate Forever
- Will Wright's Newest Project is Called HiveMind
- Capcom to Get Serious About Social Gaming
- Former Impulse Owner's Games Appear on Steam
- Review: LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 Does the Franchise Right
- 10 Years Later: How GameCube and Xbox Defined The Current Gen
- Final Fantasy Producer Talks About Not Ignoring the Action-RPG Trend
| Saints Row: The Third PS3 Buyers Get Saints Row 2 for Free Posted: 16 Nov 2011 04:08 PM PST Those who purchase a new copy of Saints Row: The Third on PlayStation 3 and redeem their online pass code soon enough are entitled to a free copy of Saints Row 2. During Sony's E3 press conference in June, it was announced that an exclusive mode of some sort would be included in the PS3 version of The Third. It was reported yesterday that the promised bonus appeared to be missing; the console versions of the game seem to be identical and THQ wasn't willing to comment on the situation. |
| Join 1UP for Our Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Live Stream Posted: 16 Nov 2011 03:55 PM PST What: 1UP Legend of Zelda Live Stream |
| Get Access to the Star Wars: The Old Republic Beta Posted: 16 Nov 2011 03:13 PM PST MMOs require a greater investment than your typical game in more ways than one. The time commitment is a great deal higher than most games, and besides the cost of the game itself, you're expected to pay a monthly fee for subscription-based MMOs. That's exactly why beta access is always much appreciated when it comes to MMOs -- you want to know what you're getting into before buying the game. A closed beta test of BioWare's upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic is currently taking place. If you're not fortunate enough to have already received an invite, you're not out of luck -- keys are being given away through IGN. All you'll need is either an IGN or FilePlanet account; simply log in and request a key by the end of Friday, November 18. |
| The Two Weeks That Changed Level-5's Fate Forever Posted: 16 Nov 2011 02:28 PM PST It would be fair to say that this week's issue of Famitsu magazine (cover pictured above) is a Level-5 lovefest. Japan's biggest game mag features no less than 56 pages all about the Fukuoka-based console and portable game developer, including a four-page tour of the offices and creators like Yuji Horii (Dragon Quest), Toshihiro Nagoshi (Yakuza), and Masahiro Sakurai (Smash Bros.) all talking about what a swell joint the company is. And they have a point -- between Professor Layton, Inazuma Eleven and Ni no Kuni, few Japanese devs have been able to launch so many successful franchises in such a relatively short period of time. It wasn't like this back in 1998, when Akihiro Hino -- then a programmer working for Japanese PC developer Riverhill Soft -- decided he had enough of working for someone else. "We created Level-5 because we wanted to the freedom to make what we wanted to make," Hino told Famitsu. "I had always wanted to make titles with children in mind, but I couldn't since that went against the direction of the company I was working at. [Riverhill Soft mostly made RPGs and adventure titles targeted for hardcore PC gamers.] So I wound up founding my own outfit with a few friends who shared my opinions. We started with nine people at first, but two more people joined us by the time we were officially a company." |
| Will Wright's Newest Project is Called HiveMind Posted: 16 Nov 2011 02:01 PM PST Will Wright is one of the most prominent game designers in history, having co-founded Maxis and created games such as The Sims, Spore, SimCity, and all the rest of the Sim line (Farm, Earth, Copter, and so on). He left Electronic Arts, Maxis' parent company, in 2009 to focus on his entertainment think tank, Stupid Fun Club, and while he continues to contribute to that, he has a big idea for his next game, which is known simply as HiveMind. The first details on the new game -- which is being developed at a new startup of the same name -- were unveiled today in an interview with VentureBeat. Wright seemed to be deliberately vague about many aspects of the game, including the actual gameplay mechanics, potentially because they simply have not been decided upon as of yet. |
| Capcom to Get Serious About Social Gaming Posted: 16 Nov 2011 01:38 PM PST Word broke in the Japanese media yesterday that the latest game in Capcom's massive (in Asia) Monster Hunter series of online-geared action RPGs is going to be exclusive to the Gree smartphone social-gaming platform in Japan. MonHan Tankenki: Maboroshi no Shima isn't the first time Capcom has dived into the social market (a Resident Evil-inspired social game has already broken a million registered users over there) but it marks a new and fundamental change in Capcom's approach to mobile -- one that, odd as it may be seem, is being led by Yoshinori Ono, better known overseas as the producer of the Street Fighter IV games. "Capcom has decided to look at the social-game field from the scope of the entire company," Ono told Famitsu magazine in an interview published this issue. "Instead of framing it in its own section like consoles or mobile games, it's something that all of Capcom development is involved with. When it came to be decided who would lead this effort, the baton went to myself since I had a great deal of experience with game communities and to [Monster Hunter Frontier producer] Kazunori Sugiura due to the knowledge he learned about customer service through his experience with MHF." |
| Former Impulse Owner's Games Appear on Steam Posted: 16 Nov 2011 12:36 PM PST Stardock and Valve were direct competitors not long ago. Valve operates the most popular digital PC game distribution service around, Steam, while Stardock was the force behind Impulse. Things are much different now than they were even less than a year ago, a reality that is made clear by seeing that Stardock has released its first game on Steam. Those who visit Steam today can pick up Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity for $14.99, a 25 percent discount off the usual $19.99 price. Trinity is a bundle of the Stardock-published 4X strategy game and its two expansion packs. While it's not the most timely release (the base game was released in 2008 and the two expansions came in 2009 and 2010), it is a quality game from a company whose games could only previously be found on Impulse or at retail. |
| Review: LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 Does the Franchise Right Posted: 16 Nov 2011 12:00 PM PST It's difficult for me to articulate why I love TT Games' various LEGO titles so much. Maybe it's my deep-seeded love of collecting digital trinkets, baubles, and doodads that stems back to Nintendo 64's many collect-a-thons. Perhaps it's the emphasis they place on splitscreen play that has become an endangered species in this post-online-multiplayer landscape that gaming currently resides in. Or maybe it's the fact that TT has continually tackled beloved properties and delivered some of the best gaming experiences those licenses have ever seen. Alright, so maybe it's not all that hard for me to define why I love games like LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7. If you played any of the three other LEGO titles released in the past year and a half, then you'll need little in terms of a tutorial: Choose your character from a pool of hundreds, and then explore every nook and cranny of the license with the goal of destroying, rebuilding, or otherwise terraforming the landscape. This time around you guide The Boy Who Lived through the final three books in his saga. With Voldemort resurrected, it's up to you to traverse England and destroy the seven Horcruxes that make up the soul of the Dark Lord. As always, the story is presented in charming cut-scenes that dole out whimsy in hefty amounts. |
| 10 Years Later: How GameCube and Xbox Defined The Current Gen Posted: 16 Nov 2011 10:54 AM PST
Feature  10 Years Later: How GameCube and Xbox Defined The Current GenPlayStation 2 may have dominated last generation, but its competitors set the stage for this one.By: Jeremy Parish November 16, 2011 No one would challenge the claim that Sony's PlayStation 2 was the decisive victor of the sixth generation of consoles, that nebulous post-32/64-bit era that never lent itself to an easily applied label. Not only was the PS2 the best-selling contender last generation, it remains the best-selling console ever, having moved more than 150 million systems worldwide and an unbelievable 1.5 billion pieces of software. Combined, its competitors -- Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's GameCube, both of which debuted within days of one another back in November 2001 -- didn't even manage half of that. The PS2 achieved a near-NES-level rout, dominating the market and forcing the competition to scramble to find other strategies. Yet where the NES had a clear successor in the Super NES, in many ways the PlayStation 3 feels like a follow-up in name only. Few of the series that defined last generation's most popular console have much traction these days, or else they've gone multiplatform. PS2 overwhelmed its rivals through a combination of perfect timing, a diverse but focused feature set, and a competitive price; PS3 blew what should have been a strong launch with a soft lineup and an excessively high price made necessary by Sony's desire to make it an all-in-one media center -- and in its quest to "only do everything," the PS3 has never really defined what it does best. Five years later, the system is hardly a failure; rather, it's essentially splitting the market with Microsoft's Xbox 360, which is a far cry from the total domination both of its predecessors enjoyed. Meanwhile, neither can hope to match the lifetime sales of Nintendo's Wii, the little white box that became a dark horse juggernaut. |
| Final Fantasy Producer Talks About Not Ignoring the Action-RPG Trend Posted: 16 Nov 2011 10:42 AM PST Square Enix is trying to resolve many of the issues fans had with Final Fantasy XIII with XIII-2 -- the game is less linear, for one. While our newest preview of the game notes combat isn't one of the aspects that's undergone a significant overhaul, that may not remain the case for future installments of the series. "I think the nature of the franchise is to present something new each time," Yoshinori Kitase told Edge. "In the global market we see many players moving away from games that used turn-based systems toward what you might term an action-RPG. |
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