General gaming |
- DayZ Stands as a Shining Example of PC Gaming at Its Finest
- Koichi Nakamura Interview: On the Birth of the Console RPG
- Sound Shapes Review: Brilliant, Yet Barely Hinting at Its Own Greatness
- Why Skylanders Deserves Your Attention
| DayZ Stands as a Shining Example of PC Gaming at Its Finest Posted: 07 Aug 2012 01:35 PM PDT Unsurprising as it may be to hear in light of its success, DayZ is now officially on the path to becoming a standalone game. The increasingly popular ARMA II mod recently surpassed 1 million players, a milestone which coincides with today's announcement that ARMA developer Bohemia Interactive, along with DayZ designer Dean Hall, will be creating a version of DayZ that functions independently of the games currently required to play it. It's quite the success story -- the mod has only been available for about four months -- and is a testament to what's possible on computers. A quick glance at screenshots of DayZ might give the impression that it is nothing more than a dreary-looking zombie mod. Look a bit deeper and you'll find out there is a very good reason that, even with as many zombie games as there are out there, people are compelled to purchase a three-year-old military game best known to many as the source of footage mistook for an IRA film in a British documentary last year. |
| Koichi Nakamura Interview: On the Birth of the Console RPG Posted: 07 Aug 2012 01:06 PM PDT
Feature 1UP COVER STORY  1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF AUGUST 6 | DARING GAMES AND DESIGNERS Koichi Nakamura Interview: On the Birth of the Console RPGCover Story: The co-creator of Dragon Quest looks back on his company's work and discusses their current creations.W hen people talk and write about the Dragon Quest series, they tend to drop the same names: Yuji Horii, of course (the famously chain-smoking designer has become one of Japan's most beloved creators); Koichi Sugiyama (whose controversial political views seem a sharp contrast for his uplifting compositions); and Akira Toriyama (whose Dragon Quest fame is exceeded only by his other dragon-based legacy, Dragon Ball). Yet one key figure often tends to be overlooked: Koichi Nakamura, whose company Chun Soft did the heavy lifting for the first five Dragon Quest games. Although Nakamura and Chun Soft parted ways with the franchise two decades ago, their influence remains: Dragon Quest X has just launched in Japan, and Chun Soft's original Dragon Quest spin off Torneko's Big Adventure spawned the Mystery Dungeon franchise, which continues running strong to this day with branches focusing on Pokemon, Final Fantasy, and Chun Soft's own hero Shiren. We met with Nakamura to discuss his role in the creation of Dragon Quest, the company's move toward independence, and what Chun Soft has in the works currently. |
| Sound Shapes Review: Brilliant, Yet Barely Hinting at Its Own Greatness Posted: 07 Aug 2012 11:18 AM PDT 1UP COVER STORY 1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF AUGUST 6 | DARING GAMES AND DESIGNERS Y ou could almost be forgiven for writing off Sound Shapes as "just another psuedo-intellectual indie title." At first glance, it bears all the hallmarks of your stereotypical "hipster game." Simple play mechanics? Check. Sound Shapes controls with only the D-pad and two buttons. Minimalist visuals? Definitely. Its worlds are built on simple, hand-drawn and pixel and retro-vector graphics. A slick interface and decidedly un-corporate sense of identity? Absolutely. Not that polish and personality represent negative traits, of course. Fortunately, you only need a few minutes with the game to realize it's anything but a lazy or cynical attempt to ride the coattails of the retro-cool trend. Sound Shapes' distinctive aesthetics serve a definite purpose. The game is simple for a reason. Two reasons, actually: One, the level designs and game mechanics have been wed carefully to its music, which builds, Rez-like, as you complete each stage. And -- more importantly -- two, the real purpose of the game is for players to take up the reins and create their own Sound Shapes puzzles, so it needs to be approachable and uncluttered at every level. |
| Why Skylanders Deserves Your Attention Posted: 07 Aug 2012 08:22 AM PDT
Feature 1UP COVER STORY  1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF AUGUST 6 | DARING GAMES AND DESIGNERS Why Skylanders Deserves Your AttentionCover Story: Coming from the Call of Duty-making powerhouse, Skylanders might just be one of the freshest and riskiest games this generation underneath its toy-shilling exterior.T he Skylanders franchise, to the untrained eye, looks like something developed in a management board room, much like the He-Man and Transformers cartoons of the '80s -- engineered solely to sell children the next wave of toys. Compounding the negative aura around the budding new franchise is the fact that the publisher is Activision, noted for their oversaturation of the Guitar Hero and Call of Duty franchises. As such, Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure appeared to be a hollow game meant to ensnare children in a Pokemon-like fashion when it saw the light of day in early 2011. The truth is that while the game's mission might be to make money, Skylanders' soul is firmly planted in the realm of great video games.  |
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