The Google Nexus One is now available with 3G support for AT&T in America and Rogers in Canada. This opens up Google’s Android 2.1 champion to millions of customers in North America. With a CDMA version passed by the FCC and rumored to be heading to Verizon as early as next week, the Nexus One will finally be in a position to do some damage (real marketing would help too!).
I know that some of you are on AT&T and a few of you are anti-iPhone. Are you interested in the latest version of the Nexus One?
Despite what some outlets have reported, I didn’t spend my “entire” time at GDC 2010 snooping for Nintendo information. One of the coolest things I saw at the show was stereoscopic 3D gaming on the PlayStation 3. This was a big deal at CES 2010, but I didn’t attend that show so I couldn’t experience it for myself. After seeing a few PlayStation 3 games in 3D, I must say that the tech is really cool and adds a new kind of fun.
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, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin on Monday Night Raw, Tiger Woods returning to golf at The Masters, or Agassi vs. Sampras, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
Despite what some outlets have reported, I didn’t spend my “entire” time at GDC 2010 snooping for Nintendo information. One of the coolest things I saw at the show was stereoscopic 3D gaming on the PlayStation 3. This was a big deal at CES 2010, but I didn’t attend that show so I couldn’t experience it for myself. After seeing a few PlayStation 3 games in 3D, I must say that the tech is really cool and adds a new kind of fun.
That said, I still have a lot of concerns about stereoscopic 3D gaming. RPadholic Smartguy pointed out that gamers that wear glasses might find it uncomfortable. I’m concerned about the additional weight on my head and a different type of eye strain limiting my playing sessions. It was totally fine for a few minutes MLB: The Show, but will I be able to pull off FFXIII or Dragon Age sessions with the 3D glasses?
Sony is going full-on with its stereoscopic 3D blitz (interesting story about that…later), but I wanted to see how you felt about this trend. Are you down with 3D gaming? Do you think 3D is the real deal? Or is it a fad that will get buried in a few years?
Sony Computer Entertainment of America has announced a limited-edition bundle for Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (PSP). The bundle includes a “spirited green” PSP-3000, a 2GB Memory Stick Pro Duo, and a movie voucher. It carries an MSRP of $199.99 and will be available on June 8, 2010. Here’s some more info from the press release:
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker game on UMD — Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker marks the return of the world-renowned stealth-action series. Hand-crafted by series creator Hideo Kojima, the all-new sequel delivers an original game design, story, and scenario as it picks up where Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater for the PlayStation 2 system leaves off
PlayStation Network downloadable movie voucher (U.S. residents only; title to be announced)
2GB Memory Stick Pro Duo — Leverages the PSP system’s multimedia functionality by storing photos, music, videos, and game saves
I totally dig the Peace Walker PSP’s color, but it’s not enough to get me to buy another PSP. I totally would have gone for a camouflage PSP Go, but that bundle would be too pricey for a lot of gamers. Any of you tempted by the “spirited green” PSP bundle?
Warning: this is going to be one of those “selfish” editions of Coffee Talk. You see, I had a pretty amazing time at GDC. The networking was fantastic — I bumped into hundreds of fantastic developers and great friends. I really enjoyed spending time in my old home city, San Francisco. It was just a wonderful blend of people, places, and circumstances…that was tarnished by two people from VGChartz. Before I get to that, let’s take a trip back to 2005.
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, Manny Pacquiao dominating Joshua Clottey, America screwing over Alex Lambert, or David Beckham missing the World Cup, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
VGChartz PR manager Brian Zucker says I have no credibility.
Warning: this is going to be one of those “selfish” editions of Coffee Talk. You see, I had a pretty amazing time at GDC. The networking was fantastic — I bumped into hundreds of fantastic developers and great friends. I really enjoyed spending time in my old home city, San Francisco. It was just a wonderful blend of people, places, and circumstances…that was tarnished by two people from VGChartz. Before I get to that, let’s take a trip back to 2005.
Right around GDC 2005, I posted the biggest story of my career. It was a three-part series on the console that would become the Xbox 360. I was either one of the first people or the first person to reveal features like achievements, gamercards, gamerscores, and gamertags. I worked hard on the story and was very proud of it.
Kotaku’s Brian Crecente totally ripped the third part of the feature. To be completely honest, he was absolutely right to do so. My editor…strongly suggested a third part just to get more page views. I hated writing that fluff after two highly informative pieces. All that aside, I was still annoyed that Crecente dismissed the first two parts of the feature as “some new information”. Some new information?!? Bullsh*t. I revealed a ton of facts and features that were only known by Microsoft and its software partners at the time.
Okay, back to the future (1.21 gigawatts!). The site has been getting great traffic since Friday thanks to a story I wrote about the successor to the Nintendo DS. Yes, I traded my “verbal entertainer” outfit for a journalist’s hat and got some pretty cool results. The story capped off a great week at GDC 2010…or so I thought. I was pissed off to learn that two people from VGChartz wrote negative things about my story, my site, and me on N4G.
First up was public relations manager Brian Zucker who wrote:
Im at GDC 2010 right now and this story is completely false. rpad.tv lost all credibility before it had any.
Yes, a guy with “public relations” in his title actually wrote that unsubstantiated and libelous comment backed up by nothing.
Here’s a follow-up comment from his coworker, community manager and senior editor Nick Pantazis:
This is completely fake. I’m also at GDC, the Nintendo reps here are completely uninvolved with the future of the DS and its development. This is 100% made-up on the spot. Do not support this website with hits.
VGChartz senior editor Nick Pantazis says I make stories up and you shouldn't read this site.
I guess Pantazis didn’t bother to read the part of the article where I said that none of the information came from Nintendo. Since he asked some rep at Nintendo’s booth about the article and he/she denied it, Pantazis felt it was okay to accuse me of making up the story and tell people not to go to my site.
VGChartz is a popular site and a great resource. It’s annoying that the company allows its employees to make accusations based on idiocy. It’s completely unprofessional. One of my friends said that I should cut these two a break since they’re college kids and I’ve been writing about games since before they hit puberty. I’m sorry. I can’t. I’m proud of what I’ve done over the years and I’m not going to let two children from a popular web site piss all over it.
When Brian Zucker has entertained and served as many readers as I have, then he can question my credibility. When Nick Pantazis questions all the developers I spoke to about the DS successor, then he can accuse me of making up stories and tell people not to visit my site. Until then, both of them should stop making baseless accusations and shut the hell up.
I stopped by BioWare’s suite at GDC 2010 to check out Dragon Age: Origins Awakening. Most of you know that Dragon Age was my favorite game of 2009 and I played through that sucker four times. As much as I love the Final Fantasy and Pokemon series, those games will have to take a backseat to this expansion pack. I already know that I’m going to love it, but in the spirit of my friend Augustine’s binary system, here’s a preview of the expansion using two categories: good and bad.
Good: Accompanying Awakening is a title update that will fix several issues with the original game. One of the biggest glitches it will patch is the dreaded dexterity bug in dagger-damage calculation. This bug made dexterity-based rogues far less effective than they should have been.
Bad: Players that went with cunning rogues will be steamed that their carefully crafted thieves will not be able to exploit the dexterity fix out of the box.
Good: Thankfully, the expansion has tomes that will allow you to redistribute character stats and specs. Keebler, my city elf rogue, will be deadlier than ever by the end of the week.
Bad: I don’t care if intelligent, talking darkspawn are supposed to be menacing. They (pictured in the header image) still look like evil raisins to me.
Good: Several characters will make cameo appearances in Awakening. Those of you keeping up with the expansion’s trailers already know that Alistair takes a break from ruling Ferelden to check up on your party.
Bad: Only Oghren returns as a playable character. I understand that new blood needs to be introduced and I’m looking forward to adventuring with the new characters, but I got super attached to Leliana, Shale, and Dog. I’m sure that those of you that worked hard to avoid the Leliana romance glitch will be disappointed that the sexy Orlesian bard will not playable.
Good: Fans of the original game will want to play the expansion at least twice. If you play as your original Dragon Age character, you’re viewed as the hero of Ferelden. People will treat your favorably and there should be some nice perks you can enjoy during Awakening. You can also start from scratch and play as a grey warden from Orlais. Some people will view you as an outsider, remembering the harsh treatment Ferelden received during the Orlesian occupation.
Good: There are loads of new talents and skills to enjoy. Characters will be able to craft their own enchantments (enchantment!). Bow slingers will get to abuse a new area-of-effect attack. As a rogue fan, I saw some outstanding defensive and offensive skills that left me drooling. Realizing that mages were ridiculously powerful in the original, BioWare wanted to beef up the other classes in the expansion.
Good: Enchantments (enchantment!) can be used in armor now!
Good: The dialogue seems well done. The characters had lots of great banter, with Oghren and Anders providing excellent comedy to Mhairi’s straight woman.
Good: Speaking of Mhairi, she was apparently requested by Dragon Age fans. All the tanks in the original were male. Mhairi will show that women can tank with the best of them.
Good: Each class has two new specializations to learn. It’s the same deal as the original; specializations can either be learned from other characters or through tomes.
Good: You have a new base of operations called Vigil’s Keep. No more crappy campsites for you and your party!
Bad: Vigil’s Keep requires some management. You can fortify its defenses or keep the local peasants happy. Sure, you can let your seneschal take care of things, but you really ought to do this yourself. It’s cool that it adds another activity to an already deep game, but it’s bad because it takes time away from killing evil raisins that are threatening the land.
Good: Since you’re the new commander of the grey wardens, you’ll be able to recruit new members to the cause. This includes busting out the right of conscription.
Bad: As you know, becoming a grey warden requires a ceremony that some of your recruits will not survive. I’m not even attached to the new characters in Awakening and I’m already sad that some of them will not make it to the end.
My binary preview is over, but I’ll be writing about the game a ton (not reviewing it!) as I play through it. I’m sure I’m going to have a blast and I hope some of you play it too so that we can chat it up. Is it Tuesday yet?!?
There are so many great games coming out this week! PlayStation 3 owners have God of War III to devour. Nintendo DS fans have Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver to suck up hours of their lives. Although Final Fantasy XIII has been the only game I’ve played since I came back from GDC 2010, I’m going to drop it like a bad habit when Dragon Age: Origins Awakening comes out.
But wait, there’s more! If you can’t get enough RPG excitement then you ought to check out Resonance of Fate from the fine people at Tri-Ace. Wii owners have Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon to keep them up at night. I’ve been saying this since last year, but my March is totally screwed. I have no idea how I’m going to be able to write for the site, work on Secret Project 2010 #1, play games, and sleep this month. Sheesh!
Let me know what games you’re planning to pick up this week. If you’re picking up a few, let me know what order you plan on playing them.
Here are NPD Group’s console software sales figures for February 2010 (sorry for the lateness!). Along with the usual Nintendo sales, there were some pleasant surprises that should make every hardcore gamer happy.
I’m thrilled that BioShock 2 snagged the top spot in February. I’m even more thrilled that Heavy Rain managed to crack the top 10, despite being released at the end of the month. As you can imagine, seeing a BioWare game on the list makes me happy (duh). It’s also cool to see a new IP like Dante’s Inferno make the cut. Last month I was surprised that Just Dance made the list, but a lot of people in the business play it (to my astonishment). One game designer I know shocked me at GDC when he said that he plays it for at least an hour a day.
Now’s the important part — let me know what you think of NPD Group’s top 10 games of February 2010. Anything surprise you?
NPD Group released its console sales data for February 2010 while I was at GDC. The numbers are pretty interesting. Check ’em out!
Nintendo DS: 613,200
Xbox 360: 422,000
Wii: 397,900
PlayStation 3: 360,100
PlayStation Portable: 133,400
PlayStation 2: 101,900
The continued onslaught of the Nintendo DS shouldn’t surprise anyone. It’s a great portable console with tons of games and a huge March release (Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver). I was a little surprised to see that the Xbox 360 beat out the Wii; logically there are more interesting games for the 360 in Q1 and the Wii has to slow down some time (right?), but Nintendo’s systems have been defying logic for quite some time. Sony continues to lag behind Microsoft in 2010, which is bad news if the company hopes to close the gap this year. That said, March should be more interesting for the PS3, with a number of excellent first-party games and the real version of Final Fantasy XIII.
Now unleash your Pach Attack and go after the numbers as if you were a very tall gaming analyst. I can’t wait to hear your analysis of NPD Group’s sales figures!
After GDC 2009, I got in trouble for complaining about the type of coverage provided by the site I worked for at the time. Almost everything was about product — previews written off of demos shown outside the show. I thought there should have been more of an emphasis on the GDC panels, game developers, and what it’s like to attend the show.
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, exotic dancers at videogame parties, one developer you’d love to have dinner with, or TiVo Premiere, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
After GDC 2009, I got in trouble for complaining about the type of coverage provided by the site I worked for at the time. Almost everything was about product — previews written off of demos shown outside the show. I thought there should have been more of an emphasis on the GDC panels, game developers, and what it’s like to attend the show.
The argument against me is that readers are most interested in games. I completely understand that point of view and it’s definitely the way to get the most traffic. Still, as someone that was supposed to be writing about GDC 2009, I wanted to emphasize the “big D” — developers. Publishers can give a game demo whenever, but the opportunity to attend amazing talks given by the top talent in game development is rare, as is the opportunity to give that kind of information to you.
As always, I want to know what you think. Do you like to read GDC stories about developers, trends in game creation, and the wonderful creators in the business? Or are you happy reading game previews that put the focus on products rather than people?
One of my missions for Game Developers Conference 2010 was to get more information on the successor to the Nintendo DS. I heard some cool rumblings about it in February and wanted to use the show to pester developers for confirmation. While nobody would tell me the name of the new handheld or the exact dimensions, I was able to extract some pretty cool tidbits on the “DS2”.
The system has two screens, just like the DS, but they are bigger and higher resolution. I’m sure most of you could have guessed that, but the interesting part is that the gap between the two screens is negligible. Developers will be able to use them as one giant screen. At the very least, this will allow for some awesome cutscenes. It also has some potentially cool gameplay potential, with developers shifting the action from dual screen to single screen depending on the situation.
The next Nintendo handheld has an accelerometer. I blame the iPhone for this. Everything has to have an accelerometer now. Yesterday I bought a sandwich at the Moscone Center and it had an accelerometer in it.
The dev kit is similar in power to the GameCube. Developers that worked on GameCube or Wii games will find it easy to create with. I found this information unusual. The DS successor is rumored to use an Nvidia Tegra chip, while the GameCube and Wii have PowerPC CPUs and ATI GPUs. The people familiar with the dev kit made it sound like there wasn’t much of a learning curve on the new system. I have to admit that I’m not familiar enough with Tegra, but I imagined developing for a system-on-a-chip platform to be different enough from developing for a CPU/GPU system. It could be ignorance on my part or maybe the DS2 uses something other than Tegra.
The developers I spoke with will be finished with their games before the end of the year. The Nintendo DS is still going strong and the company could delay the next handheld’s release if it wanted to, but it looks like an E3 2010 announcement and a late 2010 release.
That’s all I have for now. Remember, none of this information came from Nintendo. It came from developers that claim to be working on the new system. Some of them I’ve met before, while some were introduced to me by people that knew I was looking for DS2 details. Hopefully none of them were hammered and thinking, “Hey! Let’s mess with the guy trying to dig up Nintendo information.”
(PSP). The bundle includes a “spirited green” PSP-3000, a 2GB Memory Stick Pro Duo, and a movie voucher. It carries an MSRP of $199.99 and will be available on June 8, 2010. Here’s some more info from the press release:
to devour. Nintendo DS fans have 
from the fine people at Tri-Ace. Wii owners have 
to keep them up at night. I’ve been saying this since last year, but my March is totally screwed. I have no idea how I’m going to be able to write for the site, work on Secret Project 2010 #1, play games, and sleep this month. Sheesh!
(Xbox 360): 224,700
/
). I was a little surprised to see that the Xbox 360 beat out the Wii; logically there are more interesting games for the 360 in Q1 and the Wii has to slow down some time (right?), but Nintendo’s systems have been defying logic for quite some time. Sony continues to lag behind Microsoft in 2010, which is bad news if the company hopes to close the gap this year. That said, March should be more interesting for the PS3, with a number of excellent first-party games and the real version of 
.