Posted on Feb 17, 2008 under Main |
Majed Athab
Filed under: News
Quite a lot of tantalizing news concerning Fallout 3 was dropped by Peter Hines (Bethesda Softwork’s VP of marketing) in a recent interview. He compared the new game to another Bethesda RPG epic, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and revealed that Fallout 3’s world would be a smaller size at around 50-80% than that of Oblivion’s. A smaller world for Fallout 3 is actually befitting in the sense that interesting locales in a sparsely populated post-apocalyptic wasteland would logically be more far-in-between than that of the bustling Imperial Cyrodiil in Oblivion.
Another revelation was in the voice acting department; when questioned about criticism on Oblivion’s lack of voice acting, Hines replied that Fallout 3 would have “two or three times more” than that of Oblivion. Hines also declared that Ron Perlman, will reprise his narrator role as he did in the first two Fallouts. Liam Neeson has also been added to the roster doing the voice of the main character’s father — a character central to the plot of Fallout 3. There are quite a few more interesting bits in the interview, so you might want to have a read of it for yourself.
[Via Kotaku]
bethesda, bethesda-softworks, fallout, fallout-3, fallout3
Source: Fallout 3 interview reveals world size and voice actors
Posted on Feb 16, 2008 under Main |
The New York Post, a daily tabloid, has a story in this morning’s edition with this screaming headline:
College Killer Crazy for Violent Vid Game
The article, written by a pair of Post reporters, claims that NIU rampage killer, 27-year-old Stephen Kazmierczak, was “obsessed” with Counter-Strike, which the paper describes as “an ultra-violent video game.”
The Post quoted a former dorm mate of Kazmierczak’s, Ben Woloszyn:
He played a lot of video games, especially Counter-Strike, really loud.
The Post article appears to draw a linkage between the player’s actions in the game and Kazmierczak’s shooting spree:
In the game, players use imaginary money to buy shotguns, pistols and other equipment they need to move around an imaginary world in which they’re constantly under threat of being killed by roving terrorists.
In real life, Kazmierczak - who had become “erratic” recently after shunning medication for an undisclosed illness - purchased weapons like those used in Counter-Strike, including a Glock handgun and a pump-action Remington shotgun…
Down near the bottom of the article, the Post also mentions the killer’s very short-lived stints in the Army and as a corrections officer. These episodes appear to suggest an unstable nature.
GP: While the Post article seems to confirm other reports indicating that Kazmierczak had significant mental health issues, exactly why the paper chose to focus on his past video game play is not clear. Personally, I’m far more concerned about a disturbed person with a gun than I am about a disturbed person with a video game.
We should note that the New York Post is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns Fox News, which, as GamePolitics readers well know, frequently uses sensationalized reporting to smear video games.
Is there a connection?
Hey, as they say on Fox, we report. You decide.
I’d be remiss not to point out that game violence critic Jack Thompson alerted me to the Post report via several e-mails, one of which arrived under the subject line:
Screw Dennis McCauley and Hal Halpin and the ECA Donkey They Rode In On…
I kid you not.
Full Disclosure Dept: The ECA is the parent company of GamePolitics.
UPDATE: A piece in the Northwest Herald also mentions the shooter’s Counter-Strike play:
Kazmierczak often would play the video game Counter Strike, a first-person shooting game, the roommates said, but they were quick to add that the game was nothing unusual for dormitory halls.
This entry was posted on Saturday, February 16th, 2008 at 10:02 am and is filed under Controversial Games, Media, ECA, Jack Thompson. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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Source: NY Post: “College Killer Crazy for Violent Vid Game”
Posted on Feb 16, 2008 under Main |
Nick Doerr
Filed under: Videos and Screenshots
We would never have expected 2008 to be the year of the fighter. Just off the top of our heads, we’ve got Tekken 6, Soul Calibur IV, BlazeBlue, Battle Fantasia, Street Fighter IV, and King of Fighters XII on their way. That’s an amazing lineup not just for console gamers, but for those who go to tournaments to show off their skill — this is unprecedented. Many of these games are brand new or with greatly tuned mechanics. The above video of the King of Fighters XII video shows you what to expect here — the key note is their return to 2D high-res sprites. Good for SNK. Of course, we’d love a higher quality video, but for now, this will do.
king-of-fighters-xii, kofxii, snk
Source: The KOFXII video shows a return to 2D roots
Posted on Feb 16, 2008 under Main |
It appears that the US’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, has just announced that it’s Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores across the country will be carrying Blu-ray products exclusively, and will phase out the lose commercially popular HD DVD format.
HD DVD will be phased out over the next several months as the remaining HD DVD stock is sold off, restocking the gained shelf Blu-ray movies and hardware machines.
“We’ve listened to our customers, who are showing a clear preference toward Blu-ray products and movies with their purchases,” said Gary Severson, Senior V.P., Home Entertainment, Wal-Mart, U.S. “With the customers best interest in all we do, we wanted to share our decision and timeline with them as soon as possible, knowing it will help simplify their purchase decision, increase selection, and increase adoption long term. We anticipate enhancing our selection with continued great values in hi-definition Blu-ray products, so our customers can further enhance their entertainment experience at home.”
This isn’t the first retailer to make such a decision; Best Buy, Netflix and others have also recently announced Blu-ray as either their favoured or exclusive format.
It looks like HD DVD is on its last leg.
Source: Wal-Mart phasing out HD DVD to support Blu-ray exclusively
Posted on Feb 16, 2008 under Main |
Just in time to be late for Valentine’s Day, Joystiq’s own Kyle Orland takes a look at the role love plays in game journalism, as part of his Media Coverage column at GameDaily.
In his column, Kyle talks to a number of game journalists about the relationship between their jobs and their romantic lives. For some, their commitment to video games is a hurdle in getting a relationship to work. For others, a similar commitment from their significant others’ is most definitely a requirement.
A lot of the journalists featured aren’t normally ones to wear their hearts on their sleeves, so Kyle’s piece offers an interesting opportunity to see how their jobs fit in with their personal lives. Of course, for some it works out better than for others, like one lucky Joystiq blogger whose better half also happens to be a games journalist herself.
Source: Media Coverage dissects the perils of love and game journalism
Posted on Feb 16, 2008 under Main |
Colin Torretta
Filed under: Multimedia, News
This spring, Sony and Wizards of the Coast will be releasing the first expansion to their augmented reality/CCG experiment phenomenon, Eye of Judgment, and we have the very first look at one of the cards from the new set. Not only that, in anticipation of the upcoming release of the new expansion — we will also be posting an interview with the creator of the game, Yusuke Watanabe, in the coming weeks. Also, keep checking the official PlayStation.Blog today for their official unveiling of the first Eye of Judgment expansion.
In the meantime, hit the jump for the first look at ‘Lament for Clare Wil’ and marvel at its ninja-stopping powers.
Title:
Lament for Clare Wil
Cost:
1 mana
Text:
All enemies are dealt magic damage equal to the number of Dodge attempts they have.
eoj, eye-of-judgment
Source: PS3 Fanboy exclusive: first card revealed from the upcoming Eye of Judgment expansion
Posted on Feb 16, 2008 under Main |
Andrew Yoon
Filed under: Blu-ray
The pieces are falling into place. It shouldn’t be too long before Toshiba and the rest of the HD DVD group call it quits (check out the latest rumor). Especially with this piece of news: the world’s largest public corporation, Wal-Mart, is planning on becoming a Blu-ray exclusive distributor. This comes just a few days after a similar announcement from video rental service Netflix.
According to Check Out (an official Wal-Mart blog), “by June Wal-Mart will only be carrying Blu-ray movies and hardware machines, and of course standard def movies, DVD players, and up convert players. Not sure of the short term pricing plans, but history tells us that as more people move to a new technology prices typically go down.”
This news should come as a relief to those following the format war. We’re relieved as well, because it means that we’re one step closer to not having to write anymore format war news again in the future. Can’t wait until we have the headline: “it’s really over, folks.”
[Thanks, Brian!]
blu-ray, wal-mart
Source: World’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, going Blu-ray
Posted on Feb 16, 2008 under Main |
Terrence Stasse
Filed under: News, MMO
With the Marvel MMO officially dead and buried, what’s a poor Superhero-MMO developer to do? Turns out that Cryptic Studios, creators of City of Heroes, City of Villains, (and would-be creators of Marvel Unniverse Online) already has another project going. That explains why we’ve been in the dark about the Marvel MMO for so long, Cryptic’s been busy with another project! That new project is called Champions Online and is based on the old-school tabletop RPG of the same name (sans “online”). Champions is still a superhero world, with plenty of customizability that should work great for the world of an MMO. The main character creation mechanic, called the Hero System, allows the player to create custom super-powers. The depth of a tabletop game with the fun of a superhero MMO? Sounds good, though we’ll always miss the Marvel MMO.
[Via Joystiq]
champions-online, cryptic, mmo
Source: Goodbye Marvel MMO, Hello Champions Online
Posted on Feb 15, 2008 under Main |
Andrew Yoon
Filed under: Business
Looks like PS3 really is gaining momentum. January showed some incredible performance for Sony’s newest home console, as it was able to beat its major competitor, the Xbox 360. In fact, it almost sold as much as the Wii, falling short only a measly 5k systems for the month. Here are the numbers:
- Wii: 274K
- PS3: 269K
- PS2: 264K
- DS Lite: 251K
- Xbox 360: 230K
- PSP: 230K
There’s still a long way to go in this console war, but January has been quite favorable for Sony. Will Sony be able to capitalize on this newfound momentum? With a killer line-up of games for the rest of year, we’d like to think so. Update: Comment from SCEA’s Jack Tretton, after the cut.
[Via Joystiq]
“Coming off a great holiday sales season we see strong momentum behind PS3 in 2008, and feel confident about the year ahead. We have an exceptionally diverse lineup of exclusive games, from Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Metal Gear Solid 4 and Resistance 2 to more mainstream games such as LittleBigPlanet and SingStar. Beyond that, we have Blu-ray emerging as the de facto high def standard, the developer community is hitting their stride, consumers are recognizing the tremendous value and innovative services such as PlayStation Home are all in the works, so this is definitely shaping up to be a breakthrough year for us.” - Jack Tretton, CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment America
npd, ps3, sales
Source: NPD: PS3 nearly matches Wii, outsells 360 in January
Posted on Feb 15, 2008 under Main |
One year after EGM’s infamous BattleStation cover feature on the PS3’s problems, the latest issue has a feature that’s quite a bit more bullish about the system’s chances in the coming year. Included in that feature is an interesting interview with two PlayStation executives that reveals some interesting thoughts on the future of backward compatibility on the PS3.
First off, VP of Marketing Peter Dille said point blank that backward compatibility was “important” to Sony, and stressed that there’s still a model on the market that offers the features (for $100 extra, of course). What’s more, according to PSN Operation Director Eric Lempel, downloadable PS2 title might be possible even on versions of the system that don’t support disc-based backward compatibility at all. “There are possibilities through technology and software emulation to make that possible,” Lempel said, intriguingly.
The entire interview is a must-read for anyone interested in a somewhat defensive take on everything from PS3 motion sensitivity to hard drive sizes and system pricing. Well worth wading into the tree-killing magazine racks of your local newsstand.
Source: Sony execs talk backward compatibility, PS3 comeback