Category: Videogames

Kanye West Performing at Call of Duty XP Convention

As we discussed in yesterday’s Coffee Talk, renowned hip-hop artist and producer Kanye West will be performing at Activision’s Call of Duty XP convention. He’ll be taking the stage on September 3, 2011. My personal dream is that Taylor Swift shows up and interrupts his show…but I don’t see that happening. Here’s a clip from the press release:

In his first public performance since the release of his fifth #1 album, the global smash “Watch the Throne,” Kanye West is set to close Call of Duty XP, the only full-immersion fan experience for Call of Duty gamers. West will take the stage at 8PM on Saturday, September 3rd, capping an impressive roster of firsts for casual and hardcore Call of Duty fans alike, including the world premiere of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer, the first public hands-on with the title, the finals of the Call of Duty $1 Million tournament sponsored by Xbox 360, Call of Duty-inspired live action-experiences and much more. Call of Duty XP takes place September 2nd and 3rd, 2011, in Los Angeles, California.

What do you think of Kanye performing at a Call of Duty convention? Are there any recording artists that you think match up well with certain games? As I mentioned yesterday, Yasumi Matsuno is a Queen mark and litters his game with all sorts of Queen references. Ice-T has a connection with Gears of War. Jack Black is a known Grand Theft Auto homer. Name some recording artists and match ’em up with games (please)!

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Character Creation Screens

Here are a bunch of screens of the character creation process in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The screenshots show the facial presets for the game’s various races. Head shots of argonians, dark elves, nords, orcs, and more are included. Some of you will recall that Skyrim was in my E3 2011 personal top five. My head is currently swimming with character creation ideas. I want to play now!!!

How about you? What kind of character do you plan on playing as in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim?

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Coffee Talk #388: Make Your Own Videogame Convention

With Halo Fest taking place this weekend and Call of Duty XP in a few weeks followed by Blizzcon a bit later, I was wondering what the videogame convention of your dreams would be like. Would you want a convention…

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, your favorite shot of alcohol, Klatch’s Panama Carmen Estate 1750 Reserve, or Derek Jeter rocking it the second half of the season, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Today’s Coffee Talk is a quickie as I’ll be flying back to California by the time you’re reading this. With Halo Fest taking place this weekend and Call of Duty XP in a few weeks followed by Blizzcon a bit later, I was wondering what the videogame convention of your dreams would be like. Would you want a convention centered around a certain developer or publisher? Or would you want a convention all about your favorite gaming franchise?

This is never going to happen, but I’m going to dream about Matsuno Mania 3000. It’s a three-day convention that celebrates the games created by Yasumi Matsuno and his team. It’s full of Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics panels. Matsuno is a known Queen mark, so the surviving members of the band would be the musical guests (Brian May rules!). This sounds like the best event ever (in my head)!!!

What’s the videogame convention of your dreams like? Name it, describe it, and share it (please)!

PlayStation Home Getting Massive Overhaul: Do You Care?

Sony Computer Entertainment America has announced that PlayStation Home will be getting a massive redesign later this year. The new PlayStation Home will feature “an all-new hub that integrates games, quests, community events and user-generated content, while providing players with additional navigation, shopping, socialization and entertainment options.” Here’s the rundown of Home’s “new core experience” from today’s press release:

  • The Hub: The new, futuristic Hub brings games directly to players with a featured game front-and-center upon login, the Activity Board where players can engage in quests and community activities, and a direct path to free games via the teleporter.
  • Action District: A gathering place for the hardcore demographic, the Action District has a gritty, urban feel reminiscent of a first-person shooter level and provides a direct travel point to action and horror games.
  • Sportswalk: The Sportswalk has an exciting outside-the-stadium feel with instant major league sports scores, headlines and highlights, ample space for sports-themed games and provides direct travel points to sports-related games.
  • Adventure District: The Adventure District drops you in a lush island jungle with an air of mystery, hidden treasure and discovery, where players will be able to launch directly into adventure-themed games.
  • Pier Park: A waterfront boardwalk leads players to carnival, puzzle, outdoor and arcade games. Take a ride on the Pier Park Ferris wheel or visit the arcade for some bright entertainment.

I really wanted to like PlayStation Home when I first learned about it. Unfortunately, the project I learned about was nothing like the product that launched. Dueling ideologies transformed Home into something I was looking forward to into something I find extremely boring. Don’t get me wrong, I fully understand that Home is very popular. I just don’t understand why people are digging it. Perhaps the new PlayStation Home will be more to my liking.

How about you? Are you looking forward to the new PlayStation Home? Or does it still seem boring?

Serah Kicks Ass in the Latest Final Fantasy XIII-2 Screens

The latest batch of Final Fantasy XIII-2 screens shows Serah Farron in action. As you can tell from the images, she’s no longer Lightning’s little sister that needs protection. She kicks all sorts of ass with a bow and sword. With the way that many Asian people switch R’s and L’s, I’m calling her Serah Fallon…which makes her related to Jimmy Fallon.

Anyway, check out the screens and let me know what you think (please)!

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Deus Ex: Human Revolution — The Clothing Line

Square Enix, Eidos Montreal, and musterbrand have teamed up for a clothing line inspired by Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Aimed to be a cut above the standard videogame t-shirts, this premium clothing line includes a trench coat, jeans, and a bandanna in addition to t-shirts. Here’s more from musterbrand CEO Knut Jochen Bergel:

Standard logoed T-shirts, sweatshirts, and hats are the norm. musterbrand’s clothing lines are designed by top stylists, woven from the highest quality material, and cut so sharply they should come with a warning. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is already drawing praise for its unique design and playability — we’re aiming to replicate the game’s popularity with our clothing line too.

These Deus Ex: Human Revolution threads look really cool…but are probably too cool for me. I’m more of a sports coat and jeans guy. I don’t think I’m ready for clothes that are “cut so sharply they should come with a warning”. That could be dangerous.

How about you? Any interest in Deus Ex: Human Revolution clothing by musterbrand?

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Are You a Nintendo 3DS Ambassador?

As many of you know, in addition to slicing the price of its 3DS portable gaming console, Nintendo will be rewarding early adopters with its Nintendo 3DS Ambassador Program. Ambassadors get to fly around the world and represent Nintendo to participating governments. Ambassadors will be rewarded with 20 free downloadable games for the 3DS, including 10 that are exclusive to the program.

Some retailers were selling the 3DS at a discounted price several days before the official price drop on August 12, 2011. This allowed savvy gamers to snatch up a cheaper 3DS and enjoy the benefits of the 3DS Ambassador Program.

Did any of you take advantage of this deal? Are any of you 3DS Ambassadors?

John Carmack Talks Licensing, Mobile, Tools, and More

Gamasutra has a must-read interview with id Software’s John Carmack. The brilliant programmer covers a wide variety of topics in this four-page interview, including Rage, frame rate, the decision to stop licensing id Tech, the benefits of being acquired by ZeniMax, the true power of mobile devices, and more. I highly recommend reading the whole thing. You’ll be a smarter gamer for it. Here are some highlights:

Why the company stopped licensing its id Tech engine:

It’s interesting when you look back at our technology licensing — it was never really a business that I wanted to be in. In the very early days, people would pester us, and we would just throw out some ridiculous terms, and we were surprised that people were taking us up on it.

I didn’t want to be in the process of supporting a lot of outside teams — because we feel beholden to not make radical changes, and pull the rug out from underneath lots of other people. If it’s your own team, you can make the sensible decision of “It’s going to be worth it. It’s going to suck for a while, but we can make our way through it.” But you don’t want to do that to other people.

Why Microsoft gives its Xbox 360 developers expensive tools for free:

Microsoft has got some pretty good static analysis tools, and normally they make you buy, like an $8,000 professional edition of Visual Studio, but they give it for free to all Xbox developers — which I think says an interesting thing about this stuff. Where Microsoft figures that, well, nobody blames them for crappy software on Windows, but they do blame Microsoft a bit for crappy software on 360, so it’s in their best interest to put more static analysis tools available there.

One of the biggest problems with PC game development:

It’s pretty sad, the fact that we have these PCs that are sometimes 10 times as powerful, and we have more trouble holding 60 frames per second on the PCs because of drive and OS unoptimalities. And there are reasons for all of them. I’ve done enough driver work on OpenGL to understand why things wind up the way they are.

And sure, on the PC, you can go ahead and you’re running two megapixels. You can turn on anti-aliasing, and you can have much bigger page tables for the virtual textures, and all this stuff. But still, if you want it to get done in like 16 milliseconds, the graphics drivers are a huge hindrance right there.

As I said before, it’s a fantastic interview. Carmack is awesome. I guarantee you’ll learn at least four things from this story. Now go read it!

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This Week’s Videogame Releases

After several dry weeks in August, there are finally some great games coming out! Deus Ex: Human Revolution has been getting a ton of hype. I loved the original and can’t wait to dive into this one. Gamers looking to show off their martial prowess online will want to pick up Street Fighter 3: Third Strike Online Edition. A lot of hardcore gamers feel that this game is the pinnacle of 2D fighting. On Sunday, Nintendo will have four great old games rebranded as $19.99 Nintendo Selects for Wii.

Any of you picking up new games this week?

Coffee Talk #387: Games That All Look the Same to You

Are there any game genres that look all the same to you? For example, I have several casual-gamer friends that can’t tell the difference between Battlefield, Call of Duty, and Medal of Honor. They see all World War II…

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 rebellion in Libya, Klatch’s El Salvador Yellow Bourbon, or the brawl between Georgetown and the Bayi Military Rockets baseketball teams leading to World War III, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Are there any game genres that look all the same to you? For example, I have several casual-gamer friends that can’t tell the difference between Battlefield, Call of Duty, and Medal of Honor. They see all World War II first-personshooters as the same. The issue isn’t restricted to casual gamers either. I have friends in the videogame business that think all Japanese RPGs are the same. They see some effeminate male protagonist with impossible hair saving the world against some generic evil guy.

As for me, all the tower defense games in the world have blended together into one unidentifiable mess. I’m sure that there are plenty of differences between tower defense games, but aside from South Park Let’s Go Tower Defense Play! I can’t tell these games apart. Part of it is due to a lack of interest and part of it stems from the overwhelming tower defense choices on Android and iOS. There are just too many of them!

Now it’s your turn! Are there any game genres that all look the same to you?