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We're Sending Two to the Tokyo Game Show
What. A. Contest. You want to go to Japan? With a friend? And not *just* Japan, but the Tokyo Game Show. Here's the deal: Today, we're kicking off a contest that will run through the end of March. We're going to run three (count 'em) trivia questions over this period in the form of sponsored polls. Today's is brought to you by Old Spice thank-you-very-much.OMG -- the Old Spice link goes to a Bruce Campbell commercial that's f'ing HILARIOUS! Click the link! It's worth it! lol
Sony to Include Portable Movie Files on Blu-Ray DVDs
Wow. In a move that runs against what has always seemed to be a deep-seeded paranoia about piracy, Sony told Bloomberg today that they plan to start including portable files on Blu-ray disc to let users copy movies to laptops and other portable electronics.HD-DVD is going to have a similar feature -- you can send clips you watch to your friends, since HD-DVD has networking capabilities.
I'll believe it when I see it. Sony is KNOWN for promising features to consumers to get them to adopt a format then *surprise* the features suddenly disappear.
I wouldn't count on this simply because one guy says its happeneing, even though he has a nice title.
Rumor: 1Up Welcomes New Dell Overlords
In what could be the greatest hoax since War of the Worlds (and I pray that it is), a giant Dell logo has risen out of the depths of the earth and plopped itself down on 1Up's home page. If you go to dell.1up.com, you will see a reconstructed 1Up page bearing a Dell logo in the upper corner plus other Dell bits and pieces. I went to the regular 1Up.com page and could see no difference, but several refreshes later and it appeared on that page as well.I see it on every page with Explorer.
Developers Protest Slamdance Game Festival
It appears the news we broke last week of Slamdance removing the Columbine game from their lists of finalists and why has created quite the shitstorm, for lack of a better word. Ian Bogost reports over on Water Cooler Games growing list of reactions to the decision: Kelee Santiago pulled Slamdance finalist and future PS3 title flOw from the competition in protest. To hear that the game had been pulled was deeply discouraging.They have to take a stance because it directly affects them! Their game could be pulled next because someone finds it offensive. I view it similarly to race or religion.
If an athlete was pulled from a sporting event because of his color -- would you seriously stay in the event just because you had a better chance? Or, would you stand for something more, realizing that there is a bigger picture out there ... besides the fact you could be the next to face discrimination.
The Great Xbox 360 Crap-Out Poll
With my Xbox 360 on the fritz, other commenters wrote in and said they had similar problems. We're a year into the console's life, haven't done a poll in a while and I need some hardly hard numbers. Consider this a quick and unscientific head count. Brian Ashcraft Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.There have been far too many reports of failing systems for this to be a fanboy issue. Mine died. My nephew's died. Friends on Xbox Live have had theirs die. The systems seem to be designed to last less than a year.
Warmonger Unveiled at CES
Colorado's own NetDevil unveiled today their latest game, a first-person shooter built around the AGEIA PhysX processor called Warmonger, Operation: Downtown Destruction. We first broke the news that NetDevil was working on a shooter a few weeks back. The game will be set in the year 2029 at the beginning of the Global Corporate Wars. The concept is that players need to take down a city one block at a time."Sure it's meant to get you to buy an AGEIA PhysX card, but there's nothing wrong with that. Most new PC games get you go upgrade nowadays."
Except for the fact that it drives consumers away ... I used to be a hardcore computer gamer -- big time! Until I noted the very fact you presented ... I have to upgrade with every new game. Meaning the $49.99 game is really closer to a couple hundred per game. That's just not gonna cut it.
It's the main reason for the decline of the PC gaming market.
Mortal Kombat II, Five Others To Hit PS3 Store
Sony and Midway today announced that six Midway downloadable titles are coming to the Playstation Network. Mortal Kombat II, Guantlet II, Joust, Rampage World Tour, Rampart and Championship Sprint were all hand selected because of their multiplayer capabilities, according to the release.BWAH-Hahahahaha ... remember the quote from David Jaffe?
"...I would say that there are pop songs by Ashlee Simpson and pop songs by the Beatles. My goal is to write pop songs like the Beatles, not like Ashlee Simpson. If you want Ashlee Simpson pop songs, go to Xbox Live Arcade. Actually, they're the oldies station, because all you're getting is Scramble and Pac-Man."
BWAH-HAHAHAHAHA. Joust. Gauntlet II.
LG Teams Up With Sega
I'm not quite sure what this is all about, but the Korea Times is reporting that Korean company LG Electronics has teamed up with Sega to show off three new HDTV models at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show. LG plans to introduce three new full HD TV models up to 60 inches in a joint-promotion with Japanese video game giant Sega. The company will display popular Sega games such as ``Virtua Fighter 5'' and ``Sonic'' on its full HD TVs at the expo.Possibly they want to remain neutral in the Blu-ray/HD-DVD situation ... since they are releasing a dual Blu-ray/HD-DVD player, they're a competitor with Sony and, in a way, with Microsoft -- since each supports one format.
Just a thought ... check out this story: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2079049,00.asp
EA Promises Creativity, World Sceptical
If you listen real hard, you will hear two sounds. The first is that of the sky falling. The second is that of pigs flying. Both are in response to this cracker by Alain Tascan, GM of EA Montreal: EA has realized that what we need now to stay number one and keep that edge is really to focus on creating new IP. I mean, we just did Superman Returns and all the sports, but we feel that we are now ready to take big bets on new IP, and not bet the farm on the established titles.Right."Keep that edge?" -- excuse me ... when was the last time EA HAD an edge?