Later this afternoon I’ll be trekking to Irvine (The OC!!!) for Blizzard’s Diablo III launch festivities. In addition to grabbing some cool footage of Blizzard fans enjoying the event, I have interviews with art director Christian Lichtner and game director Jay Wilson scheduled. Please let me know if you have any questions for these awesome creators. Naturally, I’ll give you credit in the video…so you can be immortal like Hulk Hogan.
After several relatively slow weeks, the ides of May takes the gaming world by storm. Blizzard’s Diablo III leads the way; millions of gamers have been waiting for this one for years and it’s almost here! Also high on many a gamers wish list is Rockstar’s Max Payne 3. With the show’s second season kicking all sorts of ass, Atlus should enjoy brisk sales of Game of Thrones. While I still have problems accepting that the movie actually exists, the companion videogame Battleship has me thinking about the impossibility of Rihanna and Turtle from Entourage joining the Navy. One of the oldest driving-game series makes a return in Test Drive: Ferrari Legends. Lastly, Mario Tennis Open has caused many of my friend to figure out where the hell they put their Nintendo 3DS systems.
Any of you picking up new games this week?
On Friday, my industry pal Michael and I were talking about PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. Obviously the game it’s most compared to is Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. The characters in Sony’s upcoming game simply don’t have the history of the characters in Nintendo’s games. That isn’t to say that the Sony characters…
Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Intelligentsia’s Panama El Machete, Jim Lampley’s The Fight Game on HBO, or Charlize Theron as Snow White, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
On Friday, my industry pal Michael and I were talking about PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. Obviously the game it’s most compared to is Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. The characters in Sony’s upcoming game simply don’t have the history of the characters in Nintendo’s games. That isn’t to say that the Sony characters are bad or inferior; they just haven’t been around long enough to invoke the feelings of nostalgia that the Super Smash Bros. games conjure.
The conversation moved onto discussing Sony’s mascots. Nintendo has a host to choose from, like Mario, Donkey Kong, Pikachu, Samus, etc. Millions of people automatically think of the Microsoft Xbox when Master Chief is mentioned. As for Sony…there are several candidates, but which ones stand out to you? Some great characters have been revealed for PlayStation All-Stars, but most of them are relatively new. Even the game’s oldest ones — Parappa the Rapper and Sweet Tooth — aren’t exactly mascot material.
In the original PlayStation days, there was an effort to make Crash Bandicoot the Sony PlayStation mascot. That was dropped when the character went to Unviersal Interactive. A generation of mascot making was lost as Crash and Spyro made way for Jak & Daxter and Ratchet & Clank. They were joined by great characters like Sly Cooper, Cole MacGrath, Kratos, etc.
Sony Defense Force members will say that the company simply has a lot of great games to choose from and that Microsoft put too many eggs in its Halo basket. Microsoft fanboys will argue that Sony has done a poor job at establishing its mascots. What say you? Are you a Kratos worshipper? Is Sackboy your man? In your mind, who are the best Sony PlayStation mascots?
Halfbrick has announced that the Facebook version of its excellent Jetpack Joyride is now in public beta. If you’re not familiar with the game, it’s one of the most successful and addictive iOS games on the market. The simple gameplay is brilliant for killing five minutes, but it’s so well executed that you could easily spend hours playing the game. I can’t praise the iPad version enough.
As for the Facebook version, it’s good but still needs work. Of course it’s still in beta, so I don’t expect it to be as polished. Playing the game on my MacBook Pro 15 (Late 2011) through Chrome was fun, but choppy. Hopefully Halfbrick will be able to smooth things out so that the Facebook version can run similarly to the iOS version.
Please, please check out this excellent game when you have a moment. I’d love hear about your experiences with Jetpack Joyride for Facebook.
Apple and Google have been conducting their little (okay, not so little) cold war for years. A lot of the fighting has happened in executive boardrooms and courtrooms, with consumers not seeing the fallout. It looks like that’s going to change with the release of iOS 6. Rumor has it that the iOS 6 version of the Maps app will drop Google Maps in favor of the technology Apple has been buying up. Here are the details from AllThingsD:
Between 2009 and 2011, Apple acquired three mapping companies in quick succession: Placebase, in 2009; 3-D mapping outfit Poly9 in 2010; and in 2011, C3 Technologies, a second 3-D mapping company. Three mapping-company acquisitions in as many years. But for good reason: Apple has been hard at work developing its own in-house mapping solution for iOS, and now it’s finally ready to debut it.
Sources describe the new Maps app as a forthcoming tentpole feature of iOS that will, in the words of one, “blow your head off.” I’m not quite sure what that means, and the source in question declined to elaborate, but it’s likely a reference to the photorealistic 3-D mapping tech Apple acquired when it purchased C3 Technologies. C3 did use missile-targeting technology to develop its gorgeous 3-D models of major cities, so …
Apple has been taking steps to ween itself off of Google’s numerous products. It was interesting to see Siri use Wolfram Alpha instead of a Google-based solution. Watching the company move away from Google Maps is another telling step. It looks like Baidu will be the default search engine for iOS devices sold in China. Can you imagine a day when Apple uses a non-Google search engine as the default choice for the rest of the world?
What do you make of Apple apparently ditching Google Maps on iOS? Do you think Apple’s new Maps app will blow your head off? What does that even mean?!?
My cool friend Ollie put together this cool video about my cool friend Anna Kipnis from Double Fine. Obviously there’s a lot of coolness going on, which means that you should watch this video. Anna talks about her background as a Russian spy, how she got into gaming, studying programming at Rutgers, and how she joined the Double Fine team. (She only talks about three of those four items.)
Please check out the video when you have a chance and let me know what you think (please)!
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Street Fighter, Capcom and Multiverse Studio have teamed up for Street Fighter Bobble Budd toys. The initial run includes four of the renowned world warriors: Blanka, Chun-Li, Ryu, and Sagat. While you know them to be fierce and menacing combatants in the videogames, they’re completely adorable in Bobble Budd form. Check out the image gallery below if you need more convincing.
The Street Fighter Bobble Budds are available from the Capcom Store for $10.95 each and as a complete set from SOTA toys for $47.96. Any of you interested in picking up these toys? Which Street Fighter Bobble Budd looks best to you? Perhaps it’s because I miss Thailand, but Sagat totally cracks me up.
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Intel has expanded its Video Superstars contest to include videogame trailers and short films. Previously, the contest allowed creators of music videos to compete for prizes. Adding videogame trailers to the mix gives independent developers a chance to shine. Fans of music, movies, and games are encouraged to check out the smorgasbord of content and vote. From what I understand, there will be some special surprises for those that participate. Stay tuned for news on those incentives.
Voting begins on May 24, 2012. There will be separate “best of” categories, including Action/Adventure/Shooter, RPG/MMO/Strategy, Casual/Puzzle, and Sports. According to the press release:
Video Game Trailer submissions begin May 7, 2012 and run through June 29. The first phase of fan voting begins May 24, and runs through June 29. Following the initial submission period, 10 semifinalists from each sub-category will compete for the top five slots within the Game Trailer category. A panel of judges will review the top 5 category finalists and winners will be announced in late July.
Please check out Video Superstars when you have a chance and let me know what you think (please!)
Unfortunately, I can’t let you know what I’m playing this weekend. It’s a secret Xbox 360 game for a secret project. I will tell you that it’s cool and a reboot of a classic franchise. Any guesses?!? If you guess correctly then…I still can’t tell you what the game is, but you’ll get magic/secret points for being awesome.
How about you? What’s on your weekend playlist?
Rumor has it that Microsoft is testing a version of Internet Explorer 9 customized for the Xbox 360. According to the slicksters at The Verge, this version of IE9 will use Kinect for motion controls and voice commands. Is this something you guys and dolls are interested in? Are you looking for a robust web-browsing experience on your home console?
I’ve never been impressed with web browsing on consoles. Part of it is that rendering can often be wonky and part of it is the gamepad interface. A Kinect-driven IE9 has the potential to solve both issues. Despite its many problems, Google TV’s version of Chrome showed that it’s possible to pull off a quality browsing experience on a television. I could see IE9 on Xbox 360 matching or exceeding that experience.
What are your thoughts on possibly having IE9 for Xbox 360?
