Category: Videogames

GameStop to Install DLC Kiosks in Stores

GameStop logo

In an effort to maintain its important position as the premiere American specialty retailer of videogames, GameStop COO Paul Raines has said that the company will be introducing downloadable-content (DLC) kiosks in its stores. Variety’s Chris Morris reported:

GameStop COO Paul Raines, speaking at the BMO Capital Markets entertainment conference today, detailed plans for the company to install kiosks in its stores next year, letting people buy digital add-ons for titles as they buy the retail game.

While I understand that some customers, like younger gamers without credit card access, will have to trek to a brick-and-mortar store to buy a points card, a DLC kiosk sounds completely stupid to me. I should probably reserve judgement until a demo of the kiosk is shown, so for now I’ll just say the idea is mostly stupid.

Of course, I could be wrong. Do you like the idea of DLC kiosks at GameStop? Would you purchase content from one of these machines?

Source

Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime Calls Out Rivals’ Motion Controls

Nintendo of America president and COO Reggie Fils-Aime dismissed the motion controllers coming from rivals Microsoft and Sony at BMO Capital Markets’ Digital Entertainment conference in New York. According to Gamasutra, the Reginator said:

All of this talk around new motion controllers does make me think about the people who initially said that the Wii Remote was just a fad. I wonder what happened to those people?

Yes, it could be that our current 100 percent marketshare in motion control could lose a couple of points, but…with a head-start of over 51 million controllers, I still like our chances.

Reggie Fils-Aime 2

I still find it amusing that people consider the Wii a fad. Merriam Webster defines a fad as “a practice or interest followed for a time with exaggerated zeal”. Whether you love it or hate it, there’s no denying that Nintendo has been outselling the competition for years. The Wii has consistently outsold the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. People are still buying more of these consoles today than any of the others. Explain to Reggie and me (mostly to me, because Reggie will zap you with his eye beams) how this is a fad.

Source

Are You Ready for Final Fantasy Friday the 13th?!?

FFXIII Lightning 2

Square Enix has some big plans for Final Fantasy XIII tomorrow. Its silly anagram teaser revealed that there will be a (hopefully) big announcement on Friday. Adding to the mix, Sony’s PlayStation Home will be showing a brand new FFXIII trailer in virtual theaters tomorrow. In a world full of mysterious teasers and ridiculous countdown clocks — mostly from Japanese publishers — I expect Square Enix to deliver something substantive tomorrow. Or maybe that’s wishful thinking….

What are you expecting from Final Fantasy Friday the 13th? North American release date info? Exclusive NA features revealed? An amazing act of kindness in which the company sends me one of those awesome white and pink limited edition FFXIII PS3s?!? Leave a comment and let me know (please)!

Oddworld’s Lorne Lanning on Reaching a New Audience on PSN

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee and Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus hitting Sony’s PlayStation Network. These are two fantastic games from one of the most creative and imaginative developers in the business: Oddworld Inhabitants. I recently asked company co-founder Lorne Lanning what it was like reaching a whole new generation of gamers through PSN. He told me:

It’s a joy to see the fan mail from new players that have just discovered these games. A bit time machine’ish I should say. The feedback is fresh, it’s new to them, so there’s something that feels very much like it did when the games first came out. A lot of people got passionate about Abe. Now we’re seeing it again, and it’s the same vibe and reaction of newness, but a different generation. A bit Déjà to the last millenium.

When I see them write, “I remember my father used to play, but I was too young” it’s a serious testament to just how quickly time flies and how quickly the times change. We’re thrilled that the Abe games are finding a new audience, especially considering that we didn’t even foresee the future of digital distribution back when we originally built these games. I mean, most people still didn’t know what www.com meant back in ’94 when we started building Abe. Strange how different a world it already is today.

Oddworld Abe 2

Strange? How about odd?!? Bwahahahahaha!!! Seriously though, this is just a snippet from my conversation with Lorne. He went over a wide variety of topics with me and his answers were most interesting (some of them even juicy!). Stay tuned for my full interview with Oddworld Inhabitants’ Lorne Lanning!

For now, I wanted to see if any of you have downloaded these Abe re-releases or if you’re planning to. Anyone digging the Oddworld universe more than a decade after it was revealed? Are you excited by the possibilities of more Oddworld games in the future?

Coffee Talk #24: Hilarious Happenings When Gaming Until 4AM

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, Verizon possibly getting a CDMA iPhone, how Filipinos around the world are preparing for Saturday’s Manny Pacquiao fight, or the odd things happening at Oddworld (hint, hint), Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Today’s Coffee Talk is probably going to be a little weird. I’m going to chalk it up to spending most of my nights playing Dragon Age: Origins until I’m passed out on my sofa. Maybe it’s because some of my game time has been logged while I’m loopy, but there are several things in DA that I find unintentionally hilarious.

Dragon Age Loghain

Let’s start with Teryn Loghain. Whenever I hear his name, I think of how many Asian people reverse their L’s and R’s. Lots of Asian peeps — including a lot of my friends and family — would call him Teryn Rogaine. If that were really his name, Ferelden would be safe from male pattern baldness.

Then there are the dwarven cities that are call “ortans”, as in Ortan Thaig. As a WWE fan, I can’t help but think of Randy Orton whenever these towns pop up. So yeah, I was totally adventuring in Randy Ortan Thaig.

I actually had a third one to mention, but then I realized that none of these things are that funny. They might be hilarious at 4AM when you can barely keep your eyes open or hold your controller, but Dragon Age already has all the humor you need. After all, it has a bisexual elf assassin in it — pretty hard to top that.

Can you remember any instances when a game railed you with unintentional comedy? How about a time when you found something in a game hilarious, but realized it wasn’t the next day?

Project Natal Pricing and Release Date Leaked

Gathering information from Microsoft’s visits with European publishers and developers, MCV has discovered possible pricing and release date info on Project Natal. The site reported:

Our sources say the innovative controller-free 360 camera will be released worldwide in November 2010.

The device should cost under £50 when sold solo. One publishing source says Microsoft is “trying to get as close as possible to ‘impulse buy’”. Another even says the camera could even retail for just £30.

Project Natal 2

For those of you that aren’t up on current currency conversions, that’s around $75 and $45, respectively.

Any thoughts on the rumored pricing for Project Natal?

Source

BioWare’s Mike Laidlaw Talks Combat in Dragon Age: Origins

BioWare lead designer Mike Laidlaw discusses combat design in Dragon Age: Origins in this video clip. He talks about how the team attempted to modernize the feel of Baldur’s Gate II and create “sword porn” for the game. All sorts of details on combat mechanics (accompanied by slick video) are shared by Laidlaw. Executive producer Mark Darrah, lead writer David Gaider, art director Dean Andersen, and lead character designer Shane Hawco bring their perspective to the mix too.

While I’m absolutely loving the game, I don’t really get the BG2 feel — more of a progression of Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect really — but perhaps you disagree. Maybe it’ll be more like BG2 when I play it on PC. Anyway, check out this cool video that talks about the combat in this outstanding game.

On a side note, let me know if you find it funny every time Laidlaw says about in his Canadian accent. “A-boot” always cracks me up.

Ken Kutaragi Working on Cloud Computing, Possibly Cloud Gaming

Ken KutaragiKen Kutaragi, often called “The Father of the PlayStation”, has started Cyber AI Entertainment Inc., along with another former Sony executive. According to Nikkei.com:

The executive who oversaw the development of the PlayStation game console has established a company that will tap the latest networking technologies.

With the spread of cloud computing, he is said to be considering the development of an advanced platform for entertainment.

This is a potentially huge development for the gaming world. Kutaragi was a huge part of Sony’s success with the PlayStation. While upcoming cloud gaming services like OnLive and Gaikai have generated some interest, a service backed by the “Father of the PlayStation” would make more people take a discless console more seriously. It’s important to keep in mind that Kutaragi just started the company and reasonable conditions for cloud gaming are still years away. While I’m excited the he’s getting back into the game, I don’t expect his company to produce anything any time soon.

Let me know what you think of Kutaragi possibly getting into cloud gaming. Just for the hell of it, here’s a picture of Ken and me from a Sony party at E3 2005.

Continue reading “Ken Kutaragi Working on Cloud Computing, Possibly Cloud Gaming”

How to Beat Every Monster in God of War in Less Than 10 Minutes

Lead QA tester Stephen Peterson shows off his mad God of War skills and shares tips on how to get one of the most difficult trophies in God of War: Collection: the “15 Min Fight Scenes” trophy. It’s a pretty rad video that’s sure to leave you impressed.

Any of you picking up God of War: Collection?

Coffee Talk #23: The Perils of Day One DLC

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, the rage of the Red Lanterns, how crazy British fans are for WWE, or the awesomeness of in-flight WiFi, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Launching downloadable content on day one is a sticky situation. You just bought a game. You want to jump right in and experience everything, but before you can do that you have to enter a bunch of DLC codes or purchase some additional content. After dropping $60, shouldn’t you be entitled to experience everything a game has to offer as soon as you pop it into your system of choice?

Dragon Age Shale

Free DLC I can totally understand. Some developers are using free DLC to combat piracy. It’s still a minor inconvenience, but it helps out a larger problem. What I do have an issue with is DLC you have to pay for on day one. I’m alarmed that some games — even ones I adore like Dragon Age: Origins — have additional content that’s available for purchase as soon as the game comes out. This stuff should be included on the disc or available as a free download.

I understand that game budgets are getting bigger all the time, but gamer’s budgets have been shrinking over the last few years. Combating piracy is one thing, but essentially raising the initial cost of the game is another.

What are you thoughts on day one DLC? Does it bother you that paid content is available when a game ships? Or do you think it’s the future of the business and that we’ll be paying more money at launch between the retail copy and DLC?