Category: Videogames

Ico and Shadow of the Colossus in HD: Do You Care?

There’s an interesting rumor floating around that Sony will release HD versions of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus on one Blu-ray disc. The bundle would be similar to God of War: Collection. The “Team Ico” collection would be a great way to introduce new players to two great games and generate buzz for The Last Guardian. What I really want to know is are you going to go my way do you care?

I would absolutely love a Team Ico compilation. I adored Ico and wish more people bought it. The game is one of my favorite examples of “games as art” — its use of music, color, and fictitious languages was truly unique. I’d love for more people to experience the game. Perhaps it will do better as a re-release.

What say you?!? Do you care about a possible Team Ico collection?

Does Steve Jobs Understand the Gaming Market?

I discussed this with a few of you last night, but I’m pretty sure Steve Jobs is pretty misinformed about the gaming market. This is disappointing to me personally because he’s one of the most fascinating people on the planet and second to Muhammad Ali on my “people I’d love to have dinner with” list. Considering how much money the iPad, iPod, and iPhone are making with games, you’d think he’d understand the market better. Last night at D8 he said (via Engadget):

Clearly iPhone plus iPod Touch have created a new class of gaming. It’s a subset of casual gaming, but it’s surprising how good some of them are. They’re almost as good as console gaming in terms of graphics. Console games the software is $30 or $40 a game. It’s cheaper on iPhone, so the market has exploded.

I love me some iPhone games, but I’ve yet to see one that was “almost as good as console gaming in terms of graphics”. I’ve also yet to see new home-console games that cost $30 to $40. Now, there are a few ways to write this off. You can say that he was speaking specifically about handheld consoles. Apple has always been weak with gaming, so perhaps this is something Jobs has never cared to understand on a deep level. As for the price difference, I suppose it’s easy to be $20 to $30 off when you’re a billionaire. At the end of the day I just get the sense that he doesn’t really know gaming or care to know it.

Some of you have already given me your opinions on the matter, but I want to hear from more of you. Does Steve Jobs know what the hell he’s talking about when it comes to games?

Virgin Returns to Games with…a Frickin’ Countdown Clock

For the last week, rumors have been swirling about Virgin’s return to the gaming world. Virgin Interactive was once a big player in the business, releasing several major titles in the ’90s. It didn’t keep pace with the rapidly changing market and quickly fell apart at the end of that decade. Fortunately Sir Richard Branson, chairman of the Virgin Group, is a billionaire and can afford to fund another foray into gaming.

A lot has changed since Virgin Interactive was around. It will be interesting to see how Virgin Gaming will be different than its predecessor. It certainly has the opportunity to take advantage of a weak market and shake things up with a huge infusion of cash. I just wish it didn’t use that stupid countdown clock gimmick.

What do you expect from Virgin Gaming? Does the Virgin brand mean anything to you? Will the company focus on consoles, downloads, or social games? Any guesses as to what (specifically) the clock is counting down to?

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Buy a PSPgo and Get Three Games for Free

Sony Computer Entertainment America has announced a promotion for its PSPgo handheld gaming system — buy a PSPgo by March 31, 2011 and get a coupon code good for three downloadable games. The PSPgo is sexy as hell, but it hasn’t sold as well as Sony would have liked. Perhaps this promotion will give it a boost. Here are more details from marketing manager Kristin Neirinckx (great Scrabble score on her last name):

If you purchase a PSPgo system from today through March 31, 2011, you will receive an e-mail with a PlayStation Network voucher to download three games absolutely free! With premiere titles such as LittleBigPlanet, Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters and SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3, the PSPgo “Digital Game Pack” offers you an $80 value while giving you access to a great variety of our biggest games to get you started gaming on-the-go. What better way to get started with an all digital, full-scale, console-quality handheld gaming experience?

Are any of you tempted by this promotion? Do you think it’s enough to give the PSPgo a significant sales spike? Or is the portable in dire need of a price cut?

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L1 Games’ Chet Muzzalupo Continues to Fight EA Online Pass

Level One Games’, an independent game store in Ohio, owner Chet Muzzalupo has posted another rant against EA Online Pass. Crusading against what he calls “Nazi-esque extortion” by EA, Muzzalupo gets down and dirty in this video. He questions what the “$10 solution” is paying for and who it’s really going to. He wonders why EA execs are making so much money while making it more difficult for its fans to buy games. At the end of the video he issues at challenge to any EA exec that will take him on.

Check out the video if you have a chance and let me know what you think of Muzzalupo’s opinions (please).

Wipeout, Star Strike, and Mr. Pain Going 3D on PlayStation 3

Wipeout HD, Star Strike HD, and Mr. Pain will be getting downloaded patches on June 10 that allow the games to be experienced in stereoscopic 3D. As of this writing, the download date has only been confirmed for Japan. Andriasang has the skinny:

The three lucky first recipients of 3D support will be Wipeout HD, Star Strike HD and Mr. Pain. Current owners will be able to update Wipeout and Star Strike to 3D support for free. Mr. Pain will require a separate ¥300 purchase to unlock a 3D mode.

Those who haven’t purchased the games yet will of course still be able to buy them, with pricing set at the current ¥1,800 for Wipeout HD and ¥800 for for Star Strike. Mr. Pain will be available for ¥1,000, but even new purchasers will have to spend ¥300 extra to get the 3D mode.

It will be interesting to see how well these downloads perform. It’s a real chicken-and-egg scenario here (Aristotle was right, btw). There aren’t many gamers that can experience 3D on PS3, but until there are enough compelling titles available there’s no incentive to upgrade.

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Pokemon Black and White Confirmed for Spring 2011 in America

Nintendo has confirmed that Pokemon Black and Pokemon White for Nintendo DS will ship in spring 2011. It also confirmed the Western names for the new legendary Pokemon. Gracing the cover of Black will be Reshiram, while Zekrom will be on the cover of White. Here’s a snippet from the press release:

The launch of Pokémon Black Version and Pokémon White Version follows the incredible consumer response to Pokémon HeartGold Version and Pokémon SoulSilver Version, which have sold more than 8.4 million units combined worldwide to date. The Pokémon video game series has sold more than 200 million units worldwide since it was first introduced 14 years ago.

I’m always down for more Pokemon RPGs. I’ll just have to sing a few lines from the cartoon: “Pokemon! It’s you and me. I know it’s my destiny!”

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

I think I’m finally over my Scrabble phase (well…mostly). This weekend I want to jump back into the world of gamers’ games! I have Alan Wake and Split / Second waiting on my Xbox 360. This seems like a fine weekend to tackle both. On the downloadable front, I’m going to give Rocket Knight a shot. It looks like a cool old-school platformer. Lastly, I ordered Glory of Heracles in a pretty awesome Amazon deal. It’ll be arriving today and I’m totally down for some turn-based RPG excitement on my DS.

As always, I want to know what you’re playing this weekend!

Mark Hamill to Retire as The Joker in Batman: Arkham Asylum 2

Actor and nerd icon Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker, Cocknocker) has done a tremendous job voicing The Joker in Batman: The Animated Series and Batman: Arkham Asylum. Sadly, his run as The Joker is coming to an end. He recently told IGN:

This will be my last, there’s no question about that. But it’s the last hurrah.

As a huge mark for Hamill (see what I did there?) and Kevin Conroy, I’m sad that the duo won’t be sharing the screen again. They are absolutely brilliant together. Like most people that grew up on Star Wars, Hamill was pretty much the coolest person on Earth to me as a kid. When I grew up and found out he was a comic-book nerd, my respect for him increased tenfold. I’m sad that he won’t be back as The Joker. On the plus side, I’m looking forward to Arkham Asylum 2 more than ever!

I know a few of you are big fans of Batman: The Animated Series. Are you going to miss Hamill? What are some of your favorite moments of him as The Joker? Did you think he meant he was retiring as The Joker for good or just from the videogame series?

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