General gaming |
- The Best of 1UP 2011: Blogs
- PS Vita Video: Hands-on with Uncharted and Katamari
- BioWare vs. Bethesda: The Battle of the RPG Titans
- BioWare Recommends Avoiding The Old Republic's High Population Servers
- Kojima's Next Game is Set in an Exploration-Friendly Open World
- First Modern Warfare 3 DLC Debuts on Xbox Live in January
- Hironobu Sakaguchi on Final Fantasy I's Roller-Coaster Development
- What Japan's Game Biz Will Be Like in 2012
- Japan Review Check: PS Vita Launch Edition
| Posted: 21 Dec 2011 06:32 PM PST Feature  The Best of 1UP 2011: BlogsA collection of the best stories from our editorial blogs in 2011.By: 1UP Staff December 21, 2011 1UP's editorial blogs -- Retronauts, The Grind, Chiptuned, and all the rest -- enjoyed a renaissance this year. Old favorites were revitalized, forgotten blogs were relaunched and reinvented, and new ventures were set in motion. Altogether, our blogs represent a space where editors (and 1UP readers!) can share thoughtful musings and intriguing insights on topics both mainstream and arcane. Among other subjects, our blogs hosted in-depth discussions on major news events like the death of Steve Jobs, the potential retirement of Shigeru Miyamoto, and more. Check out some of our favorite entries below. Jump to: Best of News | Best of Podcasts | Best of Blogs | Best of Previews
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| PS Vita Video: Hands-on with Uncharted and Katamari Posted: 21 Dec 2011 05:46 PM PST We received our PlayStation Vita hardware from Japan a few days ago. Now we have games, too! Join me and Matt Leone as we check out the two hottest games for the system: Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Touch My Katamari. Both are Japanese retail versions, but interestingly enough Uncharted runs completely in English if your system is set to English-language. Pretty handy for us American types, eh? Hands on with Uncharted: Hands-on with Katamari: |
| BioWare vs. Bethesda: The Battle of the RPG Titans Posted: 21 Dec 2011 02:02 PM PST
Feature  BioWare vs. Bethesda: The Battle of the RPG TitansWe pit these legendary developers against each other in the ultimate Battle of the Time-Wasters.By: Scott Sharkey December 21, 2011 The last month or so has seen our social lives utterly devastated by the release of Skyrim. And with Mass Effect 3 on the horizon, we can look forward to continuing to avoid our friends and loved ones when we finally stop playing in the snow with elves and move on to shooting/sleeping with aliens. It's probably a good thing that the release dates of Bethesda and BioWare's blockbusters never seem to overlap, but some rotten little part of me wishes they would be forced to go toe to toe in a knock-down, drag-out fight for the privilege of keeping me from getting anything done. Once upon a time BioWare and Bethesda had a lot in common, but over the last decade or so the two premier Western RPG producers have drifted in such radically different directions that their games could probably be considered completely different species, or at least genres. Sure, we could just agree that different people like different things, and maybe some of us can even like both without any actual conflict of interest, but that's no fun. We'd much rather argue about who would win in a fight. |
| BioWare Recommends Avoiding The Old Republic's High Population Servers Posted: 21 Dec 2011 01:32 PM PST Even before Star Wars: The Old Republic was officially released on Tuesday, long server queues were a problem for many during the early access period. The long waits to play have only continued now that the game is available for everyone and, in certain cases, that's not about to change. "As many of you know, we're experiencing high load and corresponding queues on some servers," said senior online community manager Stephen Reid on the game's official forums. "This is to be expected during launch, as a high number of people want to play the game, and for long stretches at a time." |
| Kojima's Next Game is Set in an Exploration-Friendly Open World Posted: 21 Dec 2011 11:38 AM PST With Platinum Games handling development of Metal Gear Rising and the future of the core Metal Gear Solid series unclear, Hideo Kojima is currently busy at work on a new game that will be less linear than the sort of games we're used to seeing his name on. "The kind of game I'm making is some game that has a very wide entrance, a very open entrance," Kojima told CNN. "Rather than making something very cinematic, [I plan to] make something very free." |
| First Modern Warfare 3 DLC Debuts on Xbox Live in January Posted: 21 Dec 2011 10:09 AM PST Update: Bowling has released the first screenshot of the content coming in January on Twitter. What you see above is the first look at a new level named Park. Original Story: The first batch of downloadable content for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will be available in about a month's time, but only for Call of Duty Elite subscribers on Xbox 360 at first. |
| Hironobu Sakaguchi on Final Fantasy I's Roller-Coaster Development Posted: 21 Dec 2011 08:28 AM PST Back in the early '80s, though -- back when he was a shiftless college student and Square was a computer shop run as a side project for a construction company -- Sakaguchi's name didn't exactly turn heads. "I heard there was a neat computer shop in the Yokohama area where I lived, so I went over to check it out," he recalled in an interview published in Famitsu magazine this week. "They had all these PCs set up against the wall and you paid by the hour to use them -- PCs were kind of expensive back then, so it was hard to buy one all by yourself. There's a campus of [prestigious private school] Keio University in the area, so a lot of pretty smart college students hung out there. I think the president kind of figured the place would naturally evolve into a software house over time." |
| What Japan's Game Biz Will Be Like in 2012 Posted: 21 Dec 2011 07:47 AM PST It's toward the end of the year, and Japan's Famitsu magazine is obliging in this week's issue by asking some people what 2012 is going to be like for the country's game business. They asked two analysts: Masashi Morita, who works for Okasan Securities...and Yusho Fukuda, the guy who writes the magazine's horoscope column. "The Nintendo 3DS, released in the first half of last year, faced major difficulties at the expense of cell phone-based social gaming, which boomed by comparison," Morita said. "That started to turn around in the second half with the price cut and subsequent launch of several big-name titles. I'd like to see the 3DS regain its momentum in the holiday rush and use that to make bigger strides in 2012." |
| Japan Review Check: PS Vita Launch Edition Posted: 21 Dec 2011 07:25 AM PST The PS Vita is finally out in Japan, and this week's edition of Famitsu magazine finally features the editors' full roster of launch-game reviews. Their verdict? Pretty glowing -- nearly every time in the lineup, from brand names like Uncharted and Hot Shots Golf to less well-known titles like Ubisoft's Dark Quest received at least 30 out of 40 points, with only Michael Jackson: The Experience failing to impress much of anyone. "[The launch lineup] is nearly all ports of established series," editor Reona Ebihara wrote, "but I'm glad to see all of them adhere to at least a certain level of quality. If you want the broadest picture of the Vita's capabilities, I'd recommend Dynasty Warriors Next, Power Smash 4 and Uncharted. Those interested in long-lasting gameplay could do better with Lord of Apocalypse or Hot Shots Golf 6. Dark Quest is also good fun, if not very flashy -- raising characters and collecting items is addictive, and you find yourself wanting to pick it up whenever you have a spare moment." |
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