Newly released in the usa


Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction
by UBI Soft
Platform: Â*Â*Xbox 360
Release Date: April 13, 2010

Buy new: $64.99 $51.99

(Ranking is updated hourly. Visit the Hot New Releases in Video Games list for authoritative information on this product's current rank.)

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Anyone who grew up playing video games understands the impact of the music. But the internet has allowed all sorts of people to express their love in many different ways.
There's World of Warcraft-themed music based on existing songs like Ninja Raiders (Beyonce's Single Ladies) and Worgen of Stormwind (Warren Zevon's Werewolves of London), and some of the WoW developers themselves write original heavy metal tunes as the Level 80 Tauren Chieftains.

Older games, particularly from the older Nintendo systems, inspire reworked tunes, original tunes, and original web-based video series with musical episodes (NSFW warning!) There's also the now 2-volume Mega Man Rock Opera (previously). Brand-new games are also sources of inspiration.

There are also a whole collection of songs by major artists recorded in Simlish, which is pretty trippy. And in a fit of recursion, a song written for a game was made available in another game, which was then performed live by the creator. (Previously 1,2.)

Freedom (TM) (Hardcover)
By Daniel Suarez


Buy new: $17.79
48 used and new from $11.57
Customer Rating:

First tagged "video games" by K. McMillan "What do you see when you stand alone in the dark and the deoms come?"
Customer tags: technothrillers(13), technology(13), science fiction(13), daemon(13), thriller(10), gaming(10), computer(8), suspense(6), augmented reality(6), daniel suarez(4), computer gaming(2), bots(2)

Grab your Nintendo DSi, snap a shot of yourself and a friend and bust some of your best fighting moves as the eagerly anticipated Photo Dojo™ arrives on DSiWare. Once your muscles have been flexed on DSiWare get onto the Wii Shop Channel and download Muscle March which sees Tony and his muscle-bound crew hot on the heels of some lightning-quick protein powder thieves. Frantic macho posing in front of your TV required!

If that doesn’t whet your appetite, two epic struggles join Virtual Console. The first of this Hanabi festival duo let’s you fight an evil warlord to rescue the queen and her magical crystal balls in Milon's Secret Castle.

And finally, one of the import games most eagerly awaited by European Virtual Console fans makes it onto Wii Shop Channel! Download CASTLEVANIA RONDO OF BLOOD now to enjoy the best vampire slaying fun ever in a video game.

The Nintendo DSi Shop is certainly bursting at the seams this week, as not only Photo Dojo™, but in addition 4 brand new titles are added: Flips: The Enchanted Woods, Libera Wing, Flashlight and Car Jack Streets!


WiiWare - Muscle March

(NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe, 500 Wii Points)

Muscle March is a quirky Japanese action game stuffed full of macho bodybuilders. The all mighty protein powder has been stolen so it’s up to Tony and his muscle-bound crew to catch the thieves. Choose from a variety of perfectly moulded superstars and bring these terrible villains to justice. As each thief attempts their escape, they will smash through walls while making a variety of poses. You must match these poses to fit through the holes and catch up to the thieves to win back the protein powder.

Flex your muscles by yourself or with up to four friends in turn based macho excitement. For those to who want to strike a pose for a little longer, there’s also an Endless mode where players can pose until their muscles bulge and explode.

Muscle March will also be the first WiiWare title to offer a polar bear in a Speedo.

Virtual Console - Milon's Secret Castle

(HUDSON SOFT, NES, 600 Wii Points)

In a world where music is the language of the people, an evil warlord from the north arrives and captures the castle. The queen is imprisoned deep within the castle and the world's musical instruments are taken and hidden away.

Our hero, Milon, takes it upon himself to fight the warlord, rescue the queen and recover the queen's magical crystal balls - with only his wits and the magical Bubble to aid him on his quest. Help Milon along the way by looking for hidden doors, finding secret items, and defeating fierce enemies. Make sure to look for the shops inside the castle, where you can buy hints and valuable items.

And look out for Music Boxes - whenever Milon finds one, he will be transported to a bonus stage. Each music box you find will add a layer to the music in the bonus stages. Try to grab all seven music boxes to create a performance worthy of this epic game.

Virtual Console - CASTLEVANIA RONDO OF BLOOD

(KONAMI, Turbografx, 900 Wii Points)

This tenth action-packed instalment of the ever-popular Castlevania series depicts the next chapter in the epic struggle between the Belmont clan and the dark forces of Count Dracula. A true classic, this title is recognized far and wide for its beautifully rendered world, outstanding game balance and haunting CD-quality game music.

The player takes control of Richter, wielder of the clan’s traditional Vampire Killer whip, and guides him through a total of 13 stages, all filled with treacherous traps and hidden secrets. Using your legendary whip, passed down through generations of Belmonts, and a powerful selection of subweapons and Item Crash attacks, it’s up to you to destroy Dracula and his evil horde.

This time around, the Belmont hero isn't alone in his quest - if you find and rescue Maria Renard, she can be used as a playable character for even more vampire-slaying fun.

NINTENDO DSiWare - Photo Dojo™

(Nintendo, 200 Nintendo DSi Points)

Photo Dojo brings a new twist to the side-scrolling beat ‘em up – literally putting you in the middle of the action.

Using your Nintendo DSi system's camera, take photos of yourself performing punches, kicks and special moves, as well as victory and defeat poses. Next, add sound effects by recording your voice, or whatever you choose, with the microphone. Finally, snap a photo for the backdrop; the setting is entirely up to you. In just a few minutes you’ll have created your own personalised fighting game.

Battle solo against hordes of enemies, or invite a friend to capture their own likeness and fight each other in a one-on-one grudge match. And, because both players share the same Nintendo DSi, you’ll be getting up close and personal.

NINTENDO DSiWare - Flips: The Enchanted Woods

(Electronic Arts, 500 Nintendo DSi Points)

Joe, Beth and Frannie move to the country and find an Enchanted Wood right on their doorstep. And in the wood stands the magic Faraway Tree, and in that tree live the magical characters that soon become their new friends – Moon-Face, Silky the fairy, and Saucepan Man. Together they visit the strange lands (the Roundabout Land, the Land of Ice and Snow, Toyland and the Land of Take What You Want) which lie at the top of the tree and have the most exciting adventures – and narrow escapes.

Flips Interactive Books – the Fun New Way for Kids to Read.

NINTENDO DSiWare - Libera Wing

(Pixel Federation, 800 Nintendo DSi Points)

Earth Union controls a large part of outer space. All of a sudden, the connection with some of its stations is lost and there are rumours of enemy ships approaching.

Become the Captain of Libera Wing and save Earth Union from destruction in this Tower Defence style action-strategy game. Your objective is to combine the right strategy, item usage and command ship abilities. There are 36 story levels and 24 quick-play levels waiting for you.

NINTENDO DSiWare - Flashlight

(Kaasa, 200 Nintendo DSi Points)

When it is dark, people need a simple source of light. Flashlight changes the dual screen of your Nintendo DSi into a torch with added features. Change the colour and intensity of the light. Use your Nintendo DSi to read under the duvet or to get a serious source of light while taking night hikes.

Flashlight will also be helpful if you are stranded. You can use the warning light if your car breaks down and the S.O.S. function will come in handy if you ever get stranded on a deserted island.

NINTENDO DSiWare - Car Jack Streets

(Tag Games, 800 Nintendo DSi Points)

A critically acclaimed, high octane, action, driving and crime game with innovative real time game-play, stunning visuals and an awesome soundtrack.

Your gambling debts to the Italian mob are a million dollars and they are calling in the debt. Do you have what it takes to stay alive, pay your debt and rise to the top of the criminal underworld?

As the Wii Shop Channel and Nintendo DSi Shop are continually updated with exciting and refreshing games and applications, make sure you keep checking the Nintendo Channel, Wii Shop Channel and Nintendo DSi Shop for all the latest news and releases on already available and upcoming Virtual Console, WiiWare and Nintendo DSiWare titles.

Be sure to also check out Nintendo of Europe's WiiWare portal, which functions as the main hub for the latest WiiWare news and game sites, while at the same time providing the perfect entry point for newcomers to the service. Weekly and all-time Top 10 lists show which WiiWare titles the UK Club Nintendo members are currently downloading most, and which are the most popular of all time.

The portal also provides step-by-step tutorials explaining how to connect the Wii console to the Internet and how to download WiiWare games, as well as a video showing how to use Nintendo Points. Visit www.wiiware.co.uk for all the details. Downloaded games can be saved to Wii's internal memory or SD card and added to the console's Wii Menu or SD Card Menu for anytime easy access.

Streaming coverage in Uncharted territory.

The BAFTA Video Game Awards 2010 take place tonight and you're invited - to watch via a live webcast on the official website.

Dara O'Briain will be using his briain to make some funny jokes as host, and will be joined by Charlie Brooker, Alex Zane, Kevin Bishop, Jason Bradbury, Ralf Little and her out of Eastenders and maybe Google Image search, Michelle Ryan.

What will they wear, what will they wear.

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THQ Inc. today announced the release of Metro 2033™, a landmark title in the first-person genre. Based on a novel by the Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky, Metro 2033 combines classic first-person-shooter action with elements of survival horror and intelligent plot and character development not seen before in gaming, to create a true genre original. Metro 2033 is now available to purchase at retail stores around the world for both the Xbox 360ÂÂ@ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Games for WindowsÂÂ@.

"Metro 2033 offers gamers an experience unlike any other," said Richard Williams, Vice President, THQ Global Brand Management. "We’ve taken an extremely deep, engaging story, an incredible Russian twist on the post apocalyptic setting, and wrapped it up in some of the very best cinematic, first person action gameplay. The world of Metro 2033 is going to be talked about for years to come, just like other great gaming worlds that have gone before."

Metro 2033’s unique atmosphere is made possible by the brand new technology powering it. The proprietary 4A Engine produces some of the most spectacular visuals yet seen on Xbox 360, while PC owners will benefit from a host of advanced features that ensure Metro 2033 sets a new standard in graphical fidelity.

Metro 2033 has already earned critical acclaim around the globe, and is set to become the definitive ‘Sleeper Hit’ of 2010 as early reviews point to a modern classic:

”Bioshock crossed with Half-Life in Fallout’s world”

- 9 /10 - Xbox World 360 Magazine – UK

”There is only one word to describe the game: brilliant”

- 9 / 10 - GameReactor.de – Germany

”Metro 2033 is a fascinating world where each bullet is pure gold”

- 9 / 10 – 3DJuegos.com – Spain

The Launch trailer for Metro 2033 can be found on the official Metro 2033 website, Metro2033Game.com.

For more Metro 2033 news, visit Metro2033Game.com, follow Twitter.com/Metro2033 or become a fan at Facebook.com/Metro2033.

Double up for Stockholm-based developer, EA DICE, which won both the Swedish game of the decade as well as the Swedish Game of the year at the Swedish Video Game Awards 2010.

Sweden consolidated its position as one of the strongest game development countries over the past decade with the industry viewed as a growing cultural export that employs 1,400 people in Sweden. In order to mark the achievement, an award for the Swedish game of the decade was presented to EA DICE and their World War 2 depiction - Battlefield 1942. The game which was released in 2002 changed the overall perception of online gaming. The Stockholm based developer also went home with the Swedish Game of the Year award for its current sequel – Battlefield 1943.

"With so many successful games over the years, I believe DICE and the Battlefield franchise have achieved a unique status not only within the Swedish video game market, but internationally. Their greatness is so extensive that they may shortly have a gravitational pull of their own," jury chairman Ove Kaufeldt said.

The Game of the Year Award went to Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, an action adventure which sees the hero Nathan Drake is on the hunt for the lost treasure of Marco Polo. The Swedish people were also given the chance to vote for their game of the year in the People's choice award in collaboration with Pricerunner, CDON, GAME and Webhallen. The people chose Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – which won with 23 percent of the votes.

This year, the MDTS Honorary Award went to Heikki Karbing – who ran HK Electronics, one of the most successful importers of games in the 80s as well as accounting for over 70 percent of game sales in Sweden. HK Electronics garnered great success in 1988 with racing classic Out Run, which sold over 20 000 copies following its release on the Commodore 64. In the same year, Karbing’s company rose to prominence as the world's best gaming distributor of Activision. For his pioneering work in helping define and spread word of gaming culture as well as his courage to stand up against piracy - Heikki Karbing has been awarded the honorary prize.

For more information, history and photos from previous game awards visit: http://www.swedishgamesindustry.com/

Videogames players heading to i39 this April could return with more than new friends and happy memories as organiser Multiplay unveils the UK's biggest gaming bounty.

A total of over £20,000 will be up for grabs across five separate tournaments, making this the largest and potentially most profitable competitive gaming event of the year.

Europe's first official Battlefield: Bad Company 2 LAN competition will be held at i-39. Other tournaments include Counter-Strike: Source, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Team Fortress 2 and Heroes of Newerth; with prize pots varying between £5,000 and £6,250.

Up to 3,500 gamers are expected to attend the Newbury Racecourse event, which combines competitive multiplayer gaming with a host of social activities to make one of the most eclectic consumer events of the year. With attendees camping on site, its relaxed vibe has led it to be dubbed the "Glastonbury of gaming".

Those unlucky enough not to attend will be able to watch the competition streamed live to the i-series website ( http://iseries.multiplay.co.uk) - which in previous years has seen upwards of 70,000 people tune in during the competition, and over 22,000 access videos after the events.

"These tournaments are always competitive," says Craig Fletcher, managing director, Multiplay, "but with over £20,000 available, they're likely to be incredible to watch, let alone participate in. The i-series of events are the UK's best competitive multiplayer competitions - the titles themselves are worth their weight in gold, but the prize money on offer makes them even more desirable."

Tickets are selling fast, ranging from GBP 10 (day spectator) to GBP 90 (weekend "Bring Your Own Computer/Console"). Outside of some of the fiercest competition in the country, a dedicated consumer exhibition area has been confirmed. Nintendo, Ubisoft, World Cyber Games, Kustom PC, FSP, Crucial, Logitech, Western Digital, Antec, Ignition Entertainment, Projector Games, S2 Games and Mad Catz will each be showcasing their latest wares, with refreshments provided by Coca Cola and Papa Johns.

The annual BAFTA Video Games Awards take place at the Park Lane Hilton in London tonight, and Tech Digest will have live coverage from the event, as well as a run down on all the winners and losers. Hosted by...

The laws of physics are the ultimate ruleset. Gravity and momentum have been used for centuries to help create the rules of a game, from sports to dice to racing. One of the more exciting features of video games is that we can now change these fundamental rules of physics. Momentum doesn't have to exert any force at all, or gravity no longer has to point down.

Babies Dream of Dead Worlds is a platformer where gravity pulls you towards the vertical center of the level. If you're towards the top of the level, you get pulled down. If you're towards the bottom of the level, you get pulled up. You can still jump and move about in the air using the arrow keys, just like a normal platformer. However, you can also use the reconfiguration of gravity to your advantage by pushing up when above the center and pushing down when below, slingshotting your way to increased momentum.

The altered physics here provide ample opportunities for strange but satisfying level design. Throw in several teleporting vortexes and oddly shaped platforms, and it just becomes fun to jump around the level. Of course, there is a goal to each level. There are 3 goals, in fact: One set of levels has you collecting coins, one has you racing for time towards the goal, and one has you exploring the level and talking to people. Each set of levels follows a different character.

The art style is just as odd as the physics. Each character is represented by what looks like a flying dong with wings. It's really hard to tell, because all the art looks like it was done in MS Paint. It manages to work though, creating a weird, vaguely-detailed world that is full off-kilter-looking things. The music is just as odd: It's several short, sparse tracks on a constant loop throughout the level. The entire game gives an eerie vibe of quiet unease.

The story is very interesting, and it's worth your while to finish the short game; however, discussing anything about it will likely ruin it, as it's a story designed to reveal itself over the course of the game. I'd highly recommend finishing the game, as it only takes about 15-20 minutes.

Why You Should Check This Out: Babies Dream of Dead Worlds is a platformer with unique physics where instead of just jumping you're mostly riding gravity to where you want to go. A unique but vaguely disturbing art style is paired with some quiet, haunting music to give a constant sense of tension as the story unfolds throughout the game. It's a game that reveals itself as you play through its short 15-20 minute length.
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According to Games Investor Consulting analyst Nick Gibson, the absence of a video game adaptation of Summit Entertainment’s Twilight series has cost “millions” in lost opportunity for revenue.

"Given how hot a property it is, [a Twilight video game] could easily present a seven-figure exploitation opportunity, especially if publishers consider taking it beyond retail gaming and considers network gaming," he told MCV magazine.

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What is it with these Predators? Don’t they have anything else to do besides hunting and killing human beings? Don’t they have some kind of Predator opera to go to or Predator literature to create? Anyway, this is the trailer for Predators that we’ve been waiting for and it looks pretty cornhole. You know it’s going to be a rough movie when 90% of the trailer dialogue is screaming.

Why did Robert Rodriguez decide to make the movie? Kotaku blames money.

“In one of my kids movies, one of the kids was playing a video game,” Rodriguez recalled at a panel discussion this month. Rodriguez asked the kid what he was playing. “He [the kid] goes, ‘AvP. Respect the classics, man.’ …That’s not the classics, I gotta school this punk right now. Okay, I’m doing the Predator movie.”

Classics, huh?

PlayStation 3 game Uncharted 2 leads the nominations for the Bafta video game awards, ahead of the event on Friday night.

[In a GameSetWatch-exclusive set of blog posts covering the week of GDC 2010, Magical Wasteland blogger and Game Developer magazine columnist Matthew Burns concludes his journey through the San Francisco-based show. Previously: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 and Part 6.]

For me, the 2010 Game Developers Conference was a little like standing in the center of a three-way collision between art, technology and business– three trains barreling into each other with the full weight of their cross-cultural inertia behind them, the impact releasing tremendous energy and particles of a new, unknown type.

The trend-spotters registered, of course, the noise around social media (most of it seemed little more than just that: noise) and the still-echoing boom of free-to-play with real money transactions.

Three-dimensional displays requiring glasses continued to confound me as to their worth, even though a man in a business suit I randomly encountered at the Intel booth told me he thought in no uncertain terms it was the future. Strange “virtual reality” peripherals, exhibited at shows like this year after year and to no subsequent momentum, persisted in their search for relevance.

Many of sessions had to do with going or being independent in a world dominated by increasingly monolithic publishers. There was also tangible worry about layoffs, accompanied by an unsubstantiated hope that casual games or serious games might magically pick up the slack in available openings. Cell phones were an accepted, legitimate platform that nobody thought once to deride. Game developers are still mostly white males.

I must remind myself, however, that the eighteen-thousand strong attendance was only a fraction of the total developer community. For everyone who was there, many more stayed at home for monetary reasons, or because were stuck at work, unable to come because all hands were needed on deck for an upcoming milestone.

Some companies are willing to accept only a limited number of “slots,” ensuring that only the most important or most desirous were able to get one. I’d even heard tales of studios discouraging their employees from going at all because they were afraid networking at the show could lead to their finding better jobs elsewhere.

Back home in a familiar bed, recovering from the flu I picked up, I have trouble falling sleep even though I’m exhausted. There’s simply too much for me to be spun up about from the last six days. I drift in between wakefulness and dreams of a type I’ve never had before, feverishly plotting my next steps towards the realization of ideas both new and old. Like a student in a martial arts class, I’m beaten up, but oddly invigorated by it.

“Video games.” Someone started saying the phrase to punctuate the end of conversations: conversations about Bayonetta’s addiction to lollipops, forum-organized Activision “boycotts,” or Sonic the Hedgehog fans. Video games. The usage spreads, because what else can you say about this wide-ranging, incomparable, baffling land, with its sublime peaks and dispiriting trenches, its rich veins and its unexplored territory?

For every promising, flag-waving triumph of there are ten facepalm moments, but we stick with it regardless. We know that despite every disappointment, that there is something special to be found here.

Even Senator Yee in his amicus brief wrote that “the interactive nature of video games is vastly different than passively listening to music, watching a movie, or reading a book.” In this case the video game advocates and their would-be censors agree: games are a medium apart, something uniquely powerful (and perhaps, due to that very power, dangerous).

The natural instinct is to try to take its reins, and steer it like a beast in the direction we want it to go: to wrestle it into a career, or into money, or into the approval of others. We want to take what we see in video games and make it about us; or try to sum it all up in a few easy words or split it into overly simplistic categories. Agendas are advanced, ulterior motives lurk, and everyone holds in his or her mind some kind of ideal state.

But the whole of the thing– this gigantic ball of ideas and expectations and initiative called the game industry– is much too big, too disparate and too absurd to understand in any rational way, except as a inexorable force of nature. So to believe one could somehow control it is nothing more than fantasy.

[Special thanks to Simon Carless and Darius Kazemi for making this series possible.]

Il n'est plus nécessaire de présenter Red Steel 2 exclusif à la Wii. Le prochain FPS d'Ubisoft débarque dans une semaine et il est donc temps de convaincre les joueurs d'acheter le jeu.

Cette nouvelle vidéo très bien réalisée, nous montre les différents ennemis que l'on rencontrera lors de notre aventure. Il n'est pas difficile d'admettre que certains sont plutôt effrayants et très puissants. Bien sûr, vous aurez un large panel de coups combinant sabre et gun pour en venir à bout.

De plus, le Wii Motion Plus est l'accessoire obligatoire pour profiter pleinement du titre et vivre une expérience hors du commun. Croyez-nous, après les premiers essais, la maniabilité est excellente et le soft tient la plupart de ses promesses.

Pour plus d'informations, nous vous invitons à visiter le site officiel du jeu. Rendez-vous le 25 mars !

(Source : Gametrailers)

Video Games | Red Steel 2 | Enemies VignetteXBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Patrice est un passionné de retro gaming et de jeux d’arcade et il a inventé un petit boitier qui fait office d’adaptateur USB et qui permet de brancher n’importe quelle manette d’Atari2600, Atari 7800, NES, Master System, Megadrive, Super Nintendo, Gx4000, Pc Engine et de Super Gameboy…etc sur un PC classique.

L’idée ici c’est donc de pouvoir jouer à ses jeux préférés via émulateurs PC mais avec les manettes d’origine. Bien sûr, il faudra « adapter » chacune de vos manettes à ce système mais tout est très bien expliqué sur le site de Patrice.

En tout cas, je salue l’initiative .

[Photo]

Newly released at amazon UK


Red Dead Redemption (Xbox 360)
by Rockstar
Platform: Â*Â*Xbox 360
Release Date: 21 May 2010

Buy new: £49.99 £34.49

(Ranking is updated hourly. Visit the Hot Future Releases in PC & Video Games list for authoritative information on this product's current rank.)

J.R.R. Tolkien’s imagination has been the spawning point for many video-game projects, either directly or indirectly.  Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment are taking the direct approach with The Lord Of The Rings: War In The North.

[In this opinion piece, Game Developer EIC Brandon Sheffield takes Electronic Arts and Visceral to task for their competition asking fans to "design a kill" for Dead Space, calling it "incredibly regressive for our industry."]

Here we are in an era of video games coming under intense scrutiny for their violence, and for any hint of sexuality. This is an era in which the Australian and German governments are rejecting the sale of certain games by the handful, Venezuela has banned all “violent” video games with sweeping terms, and psychologists study the effects of violent games on behavior around the clock.

It’s in this climate that EA has chosen to launch its Design a Kill for Dead Space 2 contest, which to me runs second only to Acclaim’s attempt to buy ad space on tombstones in terms of irresponsibility.

Here’s the text from the press release, describing the contest:

"Have you ever played a video game and thought ‘wouldn’t it be cool if...’ Well, Visceral Games announced that fans of the critically-acclaimed Dead Space franchise can make their “what if” dreams a reality. This is their chance to design a kill and get it in the game. Players can submit ideas via text, video or still images.

Since the contest began last week, there are over 1,000 entries already, so the cooler the kill, the better chance it has of winning a place in the upcoming Dead Space 2 video game. To prove to the Visceral development team that they have the right stuff, players have to demonstrate Isaac Clarke defeating or dismembering various Necromorphs including the Slasher, Lurker, or Leaper using their own signature kill.

The grand prize winner will not only have an opportunity to have their dismemberment move recreated in the game but they’ll also win the opportunity to have their likeness modeled onto a non-player character in the game."

Where To Draw The Line?

I don’t believe we should shy away from violence in games – violence is a part of life, and can make for very interesting scenarios in games. And it’s no secret that a large majority of fun video games are based on conflict, much of which is combative. But I also believe that asking fans to think as hard as they can about an innovative way to kill someone is a very regressive thing for our industry.

Just think for a second about what EA is actually asking people to do. Yes, this is what many of us do every day – there are those of us who design combat and combat scenarios for a living. But asking fans to do it is just too much.

First, it’s acknowledging that games can inspire fans to think of ways to kill. Second, through promotion, the contest is saying this is a good thing to do, or that it would be fun, posing ‘wouldn’t it be cool if...’

Third, it’s implied that this is a proper way to enter the industry (that’s part of the implication, that this design will be your foot in the door). That really hammers home the misconception that all we do is think of ways for things to kill each other.

Fourth, it asks for documented evidence of this fan violence. EA must certainly have plenty at this point, with over 1,000 submissions, which anyone will be able to view once the competition is over at the official Facebook page.

Fuel For The Fire

Many in the mainstream media, parent-advocate groups, and in the public opinion at large consider the game-playing population to be mostly children. And for better or for worse, it’s likely that a number of children have in fact played the M-rated Dead Space. This kind of contest is amazing fodder for the groups that want to limit and restrict games, and it’s hard to believe EA or Visceral would not be aware of this.

If they are not aware of the regressive nature of this competition, as the video on the official page seems to suggest, that is incredibly unconscious, and certainly indicative of the immaturity of our industry. This seems like the sort of thing you should really think through. Perhaps we’re all so desensitized to violence in this industry that they did not think about it in this light.

If the intention is to get the contest to stir up controversy, well I suppose they may achieve their goal. If the mainstream media does get wind of the competition, and they get hold of even one video of a kid doing a “brutal kill” on his brother, the shitstorm begins. I do not think the results of this storm will be positive for anyone.

Little To Smile About

One of the images that accompanies the press release (above) shows a sample entry from an actual fan, in which all the descriptions of actions are accompanied by smiley faces, such as "knee in the head ^^." This description comes after the one that says "grabs the head and shoot in the neck."

You could argue that since the creatures you kill are not human, this is not so bad. I would disagree. They are humanoid enough, and asking fans to figure out a way to kill anything is enough to cause a horrified gut reaction in any parent or politician that may see it. A company as large as EA cannot simply make the “games are just fun” excuse. I do not believe this is an overreaction. I believe the reaction from those outside the game industry would be magnitudes above what I write here.

You could argue I’m bringing more attention to this contest by mentioning it here, and you’d be right. I think we have to take these things to task when we see them, and I can only hope that if an intrepid journalist is researching this “brutal kill” phenomenon they might see this article and pause before decrying the entire industry as actively breeding violence in its players.

Know that the assumptions and drives of one marketing campaign do not reflect the majority. There are those among us who recognize that this is regressive, and I would caution any game company against taking this sort of action in the future.

Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka brings together ten other people also named Hirokazu Tanaka, and they all sing a song about being named Hirokazu Tanaka.
You may know Hip Tanaka's other work already--he's one of the original chiptuners, having written the score for many popular Nintendo video games throughout the 1980's: [ Earthbound • 2 • 3 | Mother | Metroid (live) • 2 • 3 | Super Mario Land • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 | Tetris (arr.) | Balloon Fight | Fire Emblem | Kid Icarus ]
10-min Youtube (in French) which features his more famous works with accompanying gameplay • Interview • Interview • Bio

Il y a quelques jours, All-Nintendo vous proposait de découvrir les premières images du nouveau jeu NBA Jam d'Electronic Arts, exclusivement édité sur Wii (Lire l'article : NBA Jam sur Wii).

Aujourd'hui, nous vous offrons la dernière bande-annonce du jeu ! Comment ça, les Blancs ne savent pas sauter ?

Video Games | NBA JAM (2010) | Exclusive Debut Trailer HDXBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

For its third straight year, chip maker AMD will support the annual Games For Change Festival in New York. The event plays host to educators, activists and healthcare professionals looking to work with video games. This year, AMD will provide a $100,000 grant to sponsor a full-day design workshop geared at educators at the festival. The sponsorship promotes AMD's own Changing the Game initiative, which is designed to support developers in creating social issue games ...

One of my favorite talks from this year’s TED Conference in Long Beach was recently posted in the uber-popular TED Talks library: Game designer Jane McGonigal spoke about harnessing the power of game mechanics to make a better world.

McGonigal asks what would happen if we were able to tap into the emotional resonance and powerful feedback loops we find within games and apply them to solving real-world problems. Since we routinely save worlds inside of games, might there be a way to “learn the habits of heroes” and do more to incentivize world-changing in our offline real lives?

Dr. McGonigal is behind a number of the most notable alternate reality games and works as director of game research & development for the Institute for the Future. Her current project, EVOKE, embodies the theory behind her talk by engaging participants in a “10-week crash course in changing the world.”

Check out the talk below and let us know what you think: Can games teach us anything about how to make the world a better place?

Tags: activism, games, Jane McGonigal, TED, ted 2010, video games, world of warcraft, WoW

The culture clash between social games and core gamers was on full display at GDC. I have been called a traitor to the cause of core gamers, even. At the awards show, when a Zynga rep claimed the social games award for Farmville and did a little bit of recruiting from the stage, he was not only booed, but someone shouted out, “But you don’t make games!” This is a common sentiment out there in the usual gamer haunts.

I have many many thoughts on all this — and I have been posting some of them in various places when discussions arise.

Yes, Farmville is a game. It just requires fairly little skill compared to games for “advanced” gamers. But by any reasonable definition of game, it fits perfectly.

You have to make choices (they are strategic choices rather than real-time, but so what? Games have a long tradition of slower play). The choices require knowledge and skill (the skill is what gets derisively called “spreadsheet gaming” by the cognoscenti, but that’s a brush that EVE Online and other MMOs have been tarred with too). You have to prepare for the challenge. You can screw up. You get rewarded for doing well, etc.

It may seem elementary to those who can juggle complicated business sims, but think of it as the training wheels version for novices to that genre, and you won’t be far off. I think people who didn’t play games in the early days forget that the level of complexity they enjoy today is a phenomenon of the last ten years, a symptom of typical genre development. Social games are more advanced than most of the games made from 1970 to 1988.

Yes, social games truly are social. They just work on somewhat different modes than real-time synchronous games do. Instead of rewarding real-time teamwork the way that group combat in an MMO, playing on a soccer team, or being a member of a chorus line does, they reward asynchronous behaviors.

Most specifically, there is a lot of exactly the sort of weak-tie social design that was intrinsic to Star Wars Galaxies and Asheron’s Call: stuff around gifts, networks of mutual benefit, etc. More, they are exploring some of these things in a deeper way than MMOs do (because MMOs fall back on the synchronous crutch). Which is more indicative of social ties, a user who logs in once a week for a raid, or a user who logs in every day to send every friend a gift? The answer is not straightforward, if you dig into social networking data.

Yes, it is arguably even an MMO. The core activity is single-player, but the features around gifting, fertilizing, helping build structures collaboratively, etc, are all massively multiplayer techniques. Oh, they are not yet truly virtual worlds, though some of them do feature real-time chat, and more will over time, because in many many cases it is a value-add of a feature.

Long ago, I posed the question of whether American Idol was an MMO. And in that post, I said

It’s surprising, in a way, how little collective action matters in most MMOs. Here’s a medium that allows it better than any other game type, and yet we still see fairly little collective action — and when we do, it’s raids — arguably, exactly the wrong sort of collective action to really play to the strengths of what virtual spaces can do, precisely because what MMOs offer is spaces with thousands in them, not spaces with a few dozen.

Well, here we are. Collective action is starting to matter in the social games, and it’s going to matter more, not less precisely because it is an assumed core premise of the genre.

No, social games are not what we think of as a virtual world. But as I said the other day, that definition is evolving.

Yes, social games make money. Do some Googling, people! And no, it’s not all from scams.Yes, there are shady practices. But not all games use them, and if they do, it is less every day as the market gets cleaned up. And even when they do, they are not the bulk of the money.

Social games are not just a fad. There have been a lot of comparisons to things like motion control, 3d imaging, and so on. But back in 2008 there were Gamasutra articles about whether retro-looking gaming was a fad; before 3d graphics got good enough, there were questions about whether it was a fad… the key thing to look at here is whether there are underlying technical and social factors that are pushing development in a particular direction.

In the case of retro looks (which are now a firmly established aesthetic), the answer lay in the somewhat complicated fact that a younger gamer sees all previous aesthetics side-by-side and does not judge their quality based on technology, the way that older gamers do. A push towards innovation and artistic intent in game design called forth the ghost of the 8-bit era, and the pixelated look became an identity badge. Tech helped this along — the rise of Flash as a common game development platform resulted in a “Flash aesthetic” driven by the display limitations that today we see in console games such as PixelJunk Eden and Patapon.

In the case of 3d, the march of technology simply made it work over time, and it evolved from gimmick to tool. This may yet happen with 3d displays as well, or motion control.

In the case of social games, you have to look at the overall context too. As I have been saying for quite some time, all games are becoming connected experiences. And it turns out that social networks are becoming the glue. They are sweeping away all the “gamer-only” networks that so many companies started.

The value in these networks lies in the connectivity to friends, the easy distribution of content across the social graph, the web accessibility, and so on. These are things that we now take for granted. The genie is not going to go back into the bottle.

Now, is the investment level going to change? Absolutely. The white-hot heat around the segment will definitely subside as everyone gets used to the fact that the market is here to stay.

No, social games won’t turn into core games. This is one of the misconceptions that AAA developers often have as they try to establish themselves in the market. It is absolutely true that social games are going to grow more sophisticated over time. But they will do so by growing further along the direction they have already been going.

If you look at the AAA game world today, you can trace just about everything in it to the early core gamer market. Video games got going with sports, dragons, robots, guns, jumping & climbing, and cars. Those were the first big ideas. And here we are now, decades in, and they are still the big ideas. Many other ideas have come along since, but somehow they have always been quirky, “outside the mainstream” — like, say, when Rollercoaster Tycoon, or Guitar Hero, or The Sims came along. The only way something like “playing house” can possibly be “outside the mainstream” is if there’s a subculture in charge.

Well, social games are here and they managed to get themselves established largely without reference to those tropes. As a result, they have a different set of starting premises. Many of the things that were “quirky” are “normal” and vice versa. Central design tropes  include cooperation rather than competition; asynchronous rather than synchronous play; social dynamics; and a very different set of core cultural references. There’s more.

What will happen over time is that this new audience will grow in sophistication. They already take for granted all of the elements of a farming game, for example. You can think of the farming game as equivalent to any other genre, and replete with design tropes that are exactly equivalent to conventions like WASD, hit points, skill point allocation, rocket jumping, and tank-nuker-healer, if you like.

All that is going to happen is a recapitulation of design history, only with a new of new assumptions embedded in the games:

• a far broader set of cultural references.
• a new and different set of core artistic choices driven by different rendering technology
• a fresh and exciting set of design paradigms built around asynchronous sociability and large-scale weak-tie “guild” structures — hoo, is there a design essay lurking in the difference between a guild and a neighbor ring...!
• a whole new set of business models and practices

What this boils down to is that social games will grow along those axes, and not magically turn into what core gamers today consider to be core games. It’s a mistake to think that the game development industry is going to manage to magically make this audience fall in love with sports, dragons, robots, guns, jumping & climbing, and cars.

But there’s hope for core gamers nonetheless: These games are the new home of “worldy” games, in some ways. And they are bringing neglected genres back to life.

Social games are going to push boundaries in design areas that are currently neglected. A renaissance in simulation and strategy games is likely, and I don’t think it is an accident that so many prominent AAA strategy game developers are in social games now.

If what you have craved is greater user agency and impact on a persistent world, a greater sense of community and economic interdependence — those are features that are intrinsic to this new market. As an example, I would point out that there was a core MMO game that many of the readers of this blog loved that had a farming game where you had to check in every few days to collect your stuff and decide what to try to harvest next. And it’s wasn’t Farmville. It was Star Wars Galaxies. In many ways, the features that were seen as oddest or least “gamer-like” in the worldy MMOs are going to be among core features in the social games: housebuilding, shopkeeping, farming, dancing, dress-up, even hairdressing. Right now, these are one-to-a-game. But one possible direction of development is that they not be.

I have thoughts on what all this means for the core games we know and love, but I’ll leave those for another day.

Twitterers mostly consume news, MySpace users want games and entertainment, Facebookers are into both news and community and Digg’s audience has a mixed bag of interests.

This is all according to online advertising network Chitika, who set out to analyze the interests of MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and Digg users by comparing the genres of sites that receive traffic from these social networks. 287,090 impressions were used in the report, and based on this research, each social site has a distinct makeup of users with unique tastes.

The graphic below breaks it down. What’s most interesting is that nearly half the traffic (47%) that Twitter generates falls into the news category. In fact, Twitter users’ interest in the news genre surpasses that of Facebook users by nearly 20%, which would appear to make it the number-one social network for newsies.

Another interesting tidbit is that MySpace users have no interest in news whatsoever. Instead that corner of the web splits its interests between video games (28%) and celebrity and entertainment content (23%). This aligns with what we’ve seen in terms of MySpace’s business strategy around securing exclusive entertainment content over the past few months and where it’s likely headed for the future.

If anything this data points to the varied interests behind our current obsession with popular social networks. It’s important information for marketers, advertisers and brands hoping to appropriately leverage each site.

Image courtesy of ChrisAt, iStockphoto

Tags: digg, facebook, myspace, social media, stats, twitter

With nine months passed since its last issue, FORT90ZINE, the print rag from GameSetWatch NYC correspondent and Heavy.com blogger Matthew "Fort90" Hawkins, is making its return next month with a new issue and this capital cover from Mariel "Kinuko" Cartwright. It has Servbots, Solid Snake, and a reverse-handed Momohime; what's not to love?

Inside, the #3 issue includes a foreword by Life Meter's Dave Roman, a pin-up by Hilary Florido, and video game-related text from Hawkins and Brian Liloia. I've also contributed a little article for this release, so I guess you can take that either as an incentive or a warning if you're still undecided on whether to purchase the magazine.

Attract Mode, which offers a handsome collection of game zines like Raina Lee's 1-Up MegaZine and Mathew Kumar's exp., will sell the issue beginning next month. And while we're talking about Attract Mode, the video game culture shop will be at PAX East next weekend, selling its wares alongside 2 Player Productions in a shared booth.

PlayStation’s own Kevin Butler, VP of humorous adverts, is coming at you from the future in this latest promo clip for the recently-named Move motion controller.

While demoing the abilities of the Move with a boxing game and an FPS, Butler manages to poke fun at both the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft’s coming-soon Project Natal system for the Xbox 360 that takes motion control a step further by making your body the controller.

“Come on, who wants to pretend their hand is a gun? What is this, third grade?,” Butler asks, while stating that the Move offers “what we in the future call ‘buttons’ which turn out to be pretty important to those handful of millions of people who enjoy playing shooters, or platformers, well, anything that doesn’t involve catching a big, red ball” — the latter in reference to a Natal demo.

Hit play now to see the “now-eristic” Move in action, as well as a baseball tip-off for the coming season:

Tags: advertising, kevin butler, microsoft, motion gaming, Natal, Nintendo, playstation, playstation move, project natal, sony, video, video games, Wii, wiimote

Similar to Ashley Browning's video game minimalism images, this set of posters employs simple vector designs and familiar color palettes to create a close-up shot of a game character that almost immediately identifies the hero, all without showing his or her face.

Artist Justin Russo says he envisioned these images as he fell asleep one night, then put them together in Illustrator and Photoshop the next morning. Each poster also includes a quote from the subject character (which reminds me of another simplified video game poster set).

I've included several of Russo's images below, but you can see the full collection, which includes minimalist representations of Uncharted's Nathan Drake, Left 4 Dead's Louis, and several other game characters on his Behance profile.

[In his latest column for GameSetWatch, UK writer and journalist Fraser McMillan discusses Valve's seminal first-person action title Half-Life 2, examining and revisiting the smart design decisions behind the classic game.]

I've just finished Half-Life 2 for the first time. It has taken me three attempts - once on Xbox 360 and twice on PC - to see Valve's defining game to its conclusion. That this relatively minor feat took so long is entirely my fault, ironically a product of the impatient wish to blast through as quickly as possible.

Two and a half years after I initially booted it up, the end credits rolled. The final, completed playthrough attempt lasted less than a week, and I'm glad I bit the bullet and experienced it this way.

Not that it was anything like a chore; by taking things at my own, or, more accurately, Valve's pace, I had time to absorb the world and explore its nooks and crannies, my eyeline expertly guided by the seemingly omnipotent hand of City 17's creators.

I finally understand why everyone has waxed lyrical about Gordon Freeman's second adventure for the last half-decade or more. Conducive to this is the fact that my tastes have matured, and my thoughts on games delved into deeper, more analytical territory. Articulating why I liked X and disliked Y is no longer particularly hard in most cases.

When I can't explain these, it's usually because I was baffled by just how terrible each element of the design was. On a handful of occasions, though, it's a sign that what I played was so confoundingly fantastic that my critical brain didn't even attempt to kick in. This is the position I'm in now. Deconstructing Half-Life 2 feels wrong in a way, like teasing a dog with some food only to scoff it yourself. It shouldn't really be done because it's against the nature of the beast and could cheapen the experiences of all involved. It's not even entertaining; just perversely, cruelly compelling.

Half-Life 2 is designed so as to not appear designed. That's ostensibly odd, but makes a surprising amount of sense. A lot of effort has been poured in to create the impression of effortlessness. Most of what we do, see or hear in Half-Life 2 feels distinctly of our own volition. If not in the act itself, the mere observation of incidental detail off the critical path is a component of the illusion of presence and agency, even though each individual's journey will, in the end, be effectively identical to other players'.

This facet of its design makes itself known from the instant the G-Man's face fades out to reveal an unexceptional train car. As well as evoking the timeless introduction to its predecessor, this scene serves to create the illusion of reality; of an ambient world that exists beyond just our interfacing with it.

Airborne robots which we'll later come to despise fly by the carriage, inspiring curiosity. A fairly normal looking landscape passes increasingly slowly as the vehicle comes to a halt. Our two co-passengers occupy themselves, one waiting eagerly for the doors to open as the other sits opposite, dejectedly staring into nothingness. We can talk to the latter or leave him be. As we're let off, the former sighs; "Well, end of the line."

With this sequence, Valve instantly and very tangibly contend that though this remains a Half-Life game, it's one of an evolved character. They turned the first-person-shooter on its head with that first title, Citizen Kane-ing the genre to an extreme degree, but the setting allowed the team to concentrate on a specific goal without concerning themselves much with the outside world.

Forced to emerge from the secluded comfort zone of Black Mesa, the sequel establishes itself as both successor and pioneer from the off, and continues in this mould for much of its duration. It should be noted at this point that it's not perfect but - Freeman's basking in the adulation of every NPC notwithstanding - Half-Life 2's universe is absolutely convincing.

Not through the kind of emergent systems that make Far Cry 2's war-torn state so wonderfully plausible, but in an entirely different and equally valid manner, one that single-handedly authored a rigorous and, ultimately, highly successful template for linear video games that is still being ignored to this day.

It's all in creating an illusion of substance and openness and propelling the player through it at whatever pace is required. A lot of elements of Half-Life 2 feel dynamic in nature despite being at least somewhat intended or even heavily scripted.

The odd set-piece is obnoxiously predictable, but in a franchise that lives and breathes on these cues it's astounding how sparse these are. Allow yourself to be engulfed in the sly deception and these fade into such insignificance it's laughable. Many modern releases remain patronisingly transparent without anything close to such a sustained barrage of both subtle and overwhelming instances.

It's equally incredible when you realise just how paper thin the mirage is. Hang around too long in one spot or put on the blinkers and dash through and it's all too easy to break, but even when compelled to do so it's tough not to be rapidly, subconsciously re-immersed. We're the hapless cobras rising from the basket as Valve expertly play their tune, transitioning from staccato to legato when appropriate.

The reminders that this is a fully realised world continuously flow towards us, and by alternately sticking to convention and craftily subverting our expectations of what video games are, Half-Life 2 capitalises on our gullibility to this effect. How clever I thought I was by navigating over to the beach hut using painstakingly arranged miscellany and my trusty old gravity gun. Empty, besides some assorted junk and a small item crate. The ammunition it contained was already maxed out in my inventory.

At first I was scandalized; how dare you, Valve, how dare you so gratuitously undermine my efforts? Then I realized that my impression of this place as a cohesive, unified land that simply exists had been augmented. My irritation morphed into unabated admiration. Why does there have to be an explicit reward for venturing into a hidden or ostensibly unreachable spot? My prize was much more interesting.

Merely paying attention also pays dividends both in terms of the strength of the universe and the narrative. Peering through the view-box in the door you'll see something that often leads to far more questions than answers, but which also fleshes out the core experience. Keeping your eyes peeled means you can witness things that have the capacity to alter your perception of the City and its inhabitants or prepare you for a challenge ahead.

It's unlikely that many players have seen all of these, but both static and active environmental incidentals can frighten, inform, bait or warn. Some allow us to begin filling in the gaps ourselves in imagined ways. We begin to construct an image of who lived in this cell by its contents, what prompted that piece of graffiti or what unspeakable things must have befallen that rotting corpse in the viaduct. It happens infrequently enough to make the player feel special, as if they're the only one to have observed such details. Again, these can prompt the same reaction as a totally unscripted emergent event, but within a much more solid framing than any games of that particular propensity are likely to achieve any time soon.

I've noticed that actual examples of the virtues I've cited are somewhat lacking from this article. Perhaps, though, this stems from the broader effect of believability that Half-Life 2 so decisively realises. It already presents the most attractive science fiction setting yet seen in our medium, but the manner in which it shapes our experiences in such gentle and minor ways is its crowning achievement.

My failure to cherry pick the most impressive of these idiosyncrasies is indicative only of its intransigent formula. Memories of my time with the game are not necessarily of these individual pieces, but of the great chunks of the puzzle they gelled into. Firm authorial control in games, Valve have proven, can also relax when properly timed. The most important lesson we can extrapolate from Half-Life 2 is that if you're going to force us down a linear path, you should do your utmost to make it feel as far away from this reality as possible. Maybe it's obvious advice, but it's one that far too few have taken onboard over the years.