ThreadShadow

Kevin Butler: VP of the unemployment line. Sad. When things went south with that they really went south! He was quite a good campaign/mascot, and Sony has thrown him to the wolves while taking a big old chuck out of his rear end themselves.

I don't care for any version of this game, but I have a question.

How can Tecmo release this version on other systems when Nintendo helped them tune it up so much?

Free is nice, and I appreciate it, but I was a little underwhelmed. Oh no, I thought, not another Breakout game!!! I've never been comfortable with Wipeout games be they 3D or 2D. Scribble Shooter was amusing.

So anyway, what category does this fall under? Minis, Mobile, PSN, or is it yet another outlet for little games?

I'm not interested in this game, but I will say, after trying the demo, that it has one of the most beautiful overworld maps.

"YOU SHALL NOT DOWNLOAD THIS GAME!" -Gandalf

I tried the Karateka demo on Xbox, and I was all like, meh, but the game started and I started playing, and wow, it's on my "Get" list now. Fun!

I want to get Quantum Conundrum too. Does the PS3 version have a lot of graphical clipping and tearing? My PS3 demo did.

Ouch! Even Sony didn't like Allstars. Note to SuperBot from Sony. Dear SuperBot, you've just been streamlined, don't let the door hit your rear ends on the way out. Love, Sony.

Why? WHY? Why did I buy this? I think I thought I'd actually be able to make music with this app, not just track after track of techno drum beats. I want my money back!

All that's happening at this event is the announcement of Cross Game Chat for PS3.

She's dressed in a greek fashion, so I expect it is the new gow game. Boooorrring!!! Heavenly Sword 2 would be a welcome surprise, but I don't think Sony cares about the HS IP.
Hey! Maybe Nintendo could help Sony produce Heavenly Sword 2 in exchange for HS2 appearing exclusively on the Wii U!

@Stuffgamer1 Are you sure? Hmm,, maybe...
To me it kinda looks like an E3 picture and I can imagine Bill Trinen trying out the competitions games, and having his picture taken with an old friend. Since Andreas worked for old Rare on N64 games, I can imagine a possible friendship, so even if the guy works for the enemy Bill would have his picture taken with Andreas.
Of course, that all depends on it actually being Trinen, which as you state may not be him. Hmm...probably isn't him. Maybe it's someone from NintendoLife or PushSquare?

I can imagine the guy being tired of Kinect, joins Sony, Sony puts the EyeToy in front of him smiling expectantly!

This is what I've been hearing with my eyes around the internet.

Apparently it comprises about 35 members, all of which were former Vigil Studios staff.

I think Crytek just pulled a fast one. Crytek saved money(?) by not buying Vigil, instead opened Crytek USA (in Austin Texas), waited for Vigil to be dissolved then welcomed in as many ex-employees as possible. And put the main guy in charge of Vigil in charge of Crytek USA.

Quite sneaky!

Now, I read that Crytek is not interested in purchasing the Darksiders IP, but maybe, just maybe, might they snap up the "crawler" IP when it goes up for auction on Feb 7 (?) ?

I think it must have been a talent hunt, because I read that Nintendo snatched up a handful of Vigil employees (as well as Junction Point and Bioware employees) to beef up Retro Studios.

I think that's Bill Trinen from Nintendo on the right. I wonder if good ol' Ken Lobb is still happy working for MS...

I really enjoyed the demo. I plan on buying this for the Wii U.

@Sammy How did you get this info so early?

1.Samurai Beatdown
2.Beats Slider
3.Cubixx
4.?
5.?
6.?

I played the demo for Cubixx on some system. It's a good concept, and a fresh take on Qix, and it was fun, but imo not "money" fun. So I'll definitely pick it up for free. I'm sure that makes Laughing Jackal feel good. Sorry.

Hey, who picked up the Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune license?

If HomeFront had gone to EA, then the HomeFront series could've been officially connected to the Freedom Fighters universe. Because that's important.

Did Double Fine get what they were looking for?

Platinum Games just tweeted, in jest I'm sure, that they want to buy Vigil on the cheap.

I feel bad for Jason Rubin. From what I've seen he can make fun games, and it sounds like he was busting his butt to keep THQ afloat while trying to reorganize it.
Is it just me or do you think he was trying to turn it from publisher to dev house? If he'd had a chance perhaps he could have turned it into the next NaughtyDog or Bungie or something.

Looks like Patrice Desilets can't get away from Ubi-soft.
There's an old saying for that.
"You can take the dev out of Ubi-soft, but you can't stop Ubi-soft from hunting down that dev and buying up his new studio when his parent company gets sold out on him."
Imagine. He leaves Ubisoft and has to wait out his non-compete claus, then when it's finally up and he can get to work Ubisoft walks in and says "Congratulations you're an employee of Ubisoft!".

Perhaps they are secretly allowing the Vita to recognize more then one hundred apps on the 32gig card?

@Swiket HA! Hilarious and scarey! Excellent work.

I think the "Z" button came about because the N64 controller needed access to the isolated "L" button, plus it was good design to have a trigger button there. You could hold the N64 controller three different ways.

But when you get to the GC configuration, the "L" button becomes the "Z" button because of the sticks new proximity to it. And essentially the "Z" button on the GC controller was completely unneeded, as "L" was doing all it's jobs.

Also I hear Miyamoto wanted to completely ditch the Dpad on the GC controller, but since there was so much in house protest they shrunk it and stuck it there where you see it today. It simply wasn't designed for high use on the GC controller.

As for the nature of the "L" and "R" buttons on the GC controller, their secret function was touted as a real cool function upon reveal. You can depress the trigger to a point, which allows function A, but if you give it that extra "click" you activate function B. So they tried to pass it off as each trigger was like two buttons. Now that I think about it, it's kind of a strange take on clicking in the control stick for an extra function.

@Squiggle55 Yeah, I'm wondering the same thing. I wonder what the next five will be. I bet Life of Pixel will be one just because I bought it...it was well worth it though in my opinion. Great little game. Reminds me of what that other dev tried to do with 8Bit Boy,...which they really didn't pull off well imo.

Anyway, I expect Super Crate Box might turn out to be one.

Maybe Sony will reveal the Xbox 720, and MS will reveal the PS4...you know, just to mess with everyone's heads at E3.

So now Dead Space AND FFXIII take place in the Mass Effect universe!

Kano sure is hefting two big ones in that trailer! -sorry.

Awe, I thought this was going to be about "Storm" the game that was on PSN then wasn't. I wish that game would come back so I could purchase it with money. I hear MS pooped it's diapers about something and Sony had to take the game off PSN Store. Sad.
As for the actual topic and company at hand. I'm looking forward to "Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons". Sounds interesting.

The Dualshock design is rightly one of the best in the industry. Afterall it was modelled on the beautiful simplicity of the SNES/SFC controller which is one of the best controllers of all time!

As for the L2/R2 buttons/triggers; For me they both have pros and cons to the way they feel. I've had no noticeable trouble with the DS3 triggers, but they aren't the best.

Two flaws in the Dualshock design, imo, have been.1. No memory card slot, (back when memory cards mattered). 2. The dpad. It's never been a killer dpad, good, perhaps even second best to Nintendo's, but it's always been the squeaky wheel on an otherwise amazingly well designed device.

Nintendo should license out it's copyrighted dpad design, so all games may benefit from it's beauty.

I like rumours about systems, and games that may or may not be in development. That whole "surfergirl" thing was really interesting.

"looks sort of rubbish,"? Sammy, sometimes I just don't know what you crazy kids are all about these days! Ha!
Some of the other "leaked" character art is poor, but the environmental art, grand scale art, and this piece shown here, while rough, that's production art for you, is all really quite nice and excites ones imagination. At least it excites mine.

To tell you the truth though, I doubt Bungie would release a piece that looked anything like what it looks like now. I'll bet that it's an older piece, just like some of the leaked art looks like it would have been drawn up fairly early in the development cycle.

Everyone gets off the monorail looking normal and fine. Lightning gets off the monorail looking like a complete idiot. facepalm!!!

Oh, oh, I'm Canadian!....but I'm stuck with my 80gig-NoB/C-Original. If I ever get a new PS3, this is what I'll get. Cooool! I like that it's the super slim too.

What was great about this game? I've never played it, but I often hear people comment about it just as you two have.

Wow, I never thought the whole concept of Tomb Raider could be misunderstood this much! This isn't Tomb Raider, and this isn't Tomb Raider multiplayer either. Like others here are saying Tomb Raider multiplayer should actually be co-op based, not deathmatch. This is just Eidos attempt at FarCry and slapping the Tomb Raider brand on it.

@Paranoimia

Yes, I agree that Gamestops business practises aren't up to par. Honestly, your example one trade-in prices is spot on, but neither of us believe the used game market should be shut down because of Gamestops/ or other big box resellers' bad policies. It's free enterprise, and they are free to be greedy, and we are free to buy from them or not. But we as consumers should have the right to "sell on" our used games. And that's the main thing I'd like to emphasize. I'm not sticking up for Gamestops greed, just my rights as a consumer to sell and buy used games.
Devs and resellers hashing out a deal for a percentage of the resale price? If movies get a cut of rentals, then I can see publishers/devs getting a cut of rentals, but movies still don't get a cut of resales, so why should publishers/devs? Then we get into the area of greedy publishers. Would the developers actually see any of that profit, or would publishers keep the lions share? We might still see devs shutting down left, right, and centre.

Hmmm, if I'm a starving beanbag chair maker, why should I expect to have a hand in every resale of one of my chairs evermore? That question still bugs me. Plus the fact that like you said, some games cost more to make then movies, yet brand new at retail they still cost more then a retail cd or dvd. Oh yeah, you talked about the initial take on tickets etc....but then it seems like comparatively the two should break about even...maybe?

Hmm anyway, thanks for the discussion. Beautiful cat avatar! I have a silly cat very similar to that, long haired though.

@Ginkgo

Well, besides the whole treating consumers as pirates idea. "We want you to have our games but we don't want you to have our games" sort of thing...I call it the Dennis Dyak Dichotomy, MS and Sony especially are heading into a world where advertising to the extreme is on the dashboards and soon to be interrupting our gameplay. (If they can get away with it, they will.)

Good business is about pleasing the customer so they will return, not snagging them in a net and wringing every last ounce of currency from their wallet while bombarding them with ads and shutting away pieces and portions of games behind further monetary barriers. How is it making consumers happy when they "find ways to further monetize" such and such a service/ or aspect of gaming?

And as for games themselves, yes "more realistic, more immersive...entire worlds to roam and explore..." is great in many ways, but for some unfortunate reason that all seems to go hand in hand with more blood, more gore, increasingly excessive violence, endless and pervasive profanity, and darker more brooding heroes with nothing redeemable about them. Vampires, Ghosts, Zombies and Demons in all their gruesome detail are emblazoned across every package.
Gaming is a huge piano and the industry is playing the same four notes. Fortunately there are a few out there creating great things but it's few and far between.

Yes, I'm an older mature gamer but I don't get enjoyment from these things. I'm not amused by excessive blood/gore and violence, neither am I impressed when the same strings of cuss words come out of the villain and heroes mouths.

And that's another point. Almost every great series that didn't need these things before, now for some reason needs to include these things? We all loved MGS on PSone the way it was, so why did they need to boost the profanity for MGS4, and Revengeance? Tomb Raider seems like it's just a blood bath now, and I see it too has the descriptor for "Strong Language". Why do I need an exaggerated lesson in human anatomy when I shoot an enemy, why the geysers of blood?
Why the need to drop swear bombs in games, when in order to establish said gritty brooding atmosphere, they never needed it before in the same type of game?

If this is "mature" gaming then they are going to have to count this mature gamer out.

Games I like or miss. Well, the Legend of Zelda series is one of my top favorites. And that is because in my opinion Nintendo still knows how to deliver a "mature" gaming experience. Thus, why I'm sticking with Nintendo a little longer. Fumito Ueda's stuff is great, and I've enjoyed thatgamecompanies outings so far. I get a lot of enjoyment from a lot of the "indie" games that are coming out since 2007.
Super Mario Bros series, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI-VII, Portal series, MGS(PSone), LoZ: Oot/MM/WW/TP/SS. The Halo series (especially because I played it with someone I care about), Lostwinds series, Super Metroid, Prime series, Limbo. Super Mario Kart (SNES), Legend of Legaia, Super Mario Galaxy, Rareware of old.

Hmmm. So while most of my favorite games have probably already been made, I'm sure a 360, PS3, Vita, and especially a 3DS and Wii U will allow me to experience anything in the future that may catch my interest.

Not sure If I answered your questions...but thanks for asking and Happy New Year to you!

No offense to the designers or the replica makers, but to me that looks like a mess, poorly designed, and ugly.

@Gamer83 Oh yeah, 3DS!
As Samuel L. Jackson said as Jedi Master Mace Windu in George Lucas' movie Star Wars Episode II Attack of the Clones, "I agree.".
If it came out for 3DS I'd definitely buy that version too.

@Sammy Thanks for talking about this issue. It's a concern to many, and it's good to talk about it.
Many companies are showing a continuing trend towards increasingly aggressive anti-consumer behaviour. All grasping at money that isn't theirs to touch. It's ridiculous. In this day and age, we need to be sure of one thing. If they can get away with it, or more appropriately WHEN they can get away with it, they will.

1. "Hardware is not infallible". Right, but why should this stop Sony from having people buy a new system, and replace their now useless library with more brand new games? It hasn't stopped Nintendo-at least on the digital side. Your Wiiware/VC games are tied to the system, and if that goes south, you'll have to rebuy your digital library. In the righteous anti-piracy cause, why can't Sony make that jump and require people to rebuy their retail titles too?

2. "Online pass-while controversial in it's first innings". I'd say it is still controversial, and rightly so.

3. "publishers to recoup costs from pre-owned games". I still can't believe this concept. Why isn't the movie industry crying about recouping costs from the sale of pre-owned movies at summer yard sales etc.? Why doesn't the game industry take the next step and pull a percentage off eBay from all their used game sales. Recoup their costs? They did that when they sold their product the first time end of story. They can't have their hand on that product forever more once it's out in the market. They need to learn to keep their greedy fingers out of my pockets, but as long as people don't fuss they'll get away with it, and push it further next time.

4. "serious competitive disadvantage". Sony and MS see each other as competitors, so if Microsoft is also doing this (which has been rumoured at times) then neither of them are disadvantaged by banning used games. And both can marginalise Nintendo because "it's a fun toy for kids", but we have blood swear, shoot kill 3 and our systems are the only ones that play it, so do as we say!

5. "upset the retail space". How so? I'm sure stores would love to sell multiple new copies of one game to single consumers.

6. "the scheme was never implemented, making the backlash at the time look laughable..". Perhaps the backlash at the time contributed to the scheme never being implemented? Once the backlash stops, companies, more likely then not, will push into that territory again, and if there is apathy, they'll settle right in, make it law, make it "just the way things are" and move on to the next scheme.

I like buying my games brand new too, but I'm not against buying a luxury item at significantly lower prices used. After all why should I pay $40-$60 for a new game when new dvds and cds cost $18-$25?

This is just one reason why I won't be along for the ride with Sony or MS anymore, anyway. This is my last generation with them. I'm going back to being Nintendo-centric, but even the Wii U will most likely be my last system. I don't like where the game industry as a whole is going, and all my favorite games are in the past.

We probably don't agree on the issue at hand, but thanks again for the article Sammy. Happy New Year!

I wonder why the PSP mini "Jetpack Joyride" was left sky high at 3.99?

It's not the best, it's not the worst. I give it a positive meh!

huh huh,...monkeys. Is there anything they can't do?

I'll certainly pick it up again if it comes out for Wii U.

Get that girl a beach ball or a sandcastle ASAP!

Speaking of Motorstorm. Does anyone know why SCEA dropped the two track packs for Pacific Rift? In know Pacific Rift doesn't support online play anymore, but someone in Europe told me the Euro store still has them.

Just imagine what they could do with a Skyrim-esque game on PS3! PS3, a system they know as well as the back of their hand and can push to it's limits and beyond!

So looking forward to The Last Guardian release in 2013. And surprisingly looking forward to FF Versus XIII. It actually has me excited the way the old PSone installments and XII did. Some third party titles I'm just not sure what system I'll be getting them for. As for TR, the more info I read/see, the more iffy it becomes. I mention that because it's the only one mentioned that I'm interested in. I think I'll get StarHawk.

Looks cute. I'll give the demo a try.

@get2sammyb
Thanks, Trophies patch must still be in certification over here then.

Let me just say, I'm not sad they are reusing an engine to make sequels to a game. I really don't mind that. How I would have loved Nintendo to make two sequels to Twilight Princess using the Twilight Princess engine. All the effort can be focused on other areas instead of banging out a new engine every time.

But when you get into game content, that's what it is about for me. I mean, it says Lightning can climb places,...will that be like when they gave me jump button which allows me to freely jump except when I need to jump to a higher level? No for that I need to go to a specific "jump" point. Unless the demo misled me that's the case with FFXIII-2, and it boggles my mind.

To put it broadly; If I have to press a button to climb a ladder, then Square-Enix has failed again imo.

I think the "Majora's Mask" mechanic is fun and welcome, and interesting to see if they get it right. But remember when FFXIII-2 was compared to Chrono Trigger for it's time travel mechanic? I think the general consensus on that is they failed to deliver on that particular comparison.

Also no first-person look ability is an insult to all your hard working 3d poly and texture artists, so make sure it exists in Lightning Returns.

Does anyone know when Versus XIII (FFXV?) is coming out?

Speaking of Trophies. Does Frobisher Says have Trophies yet? I bought the super fun pack and mine still doesn't have Trophies. Has the Trophies patch shipped in North America yet?

What about a "Love not War" mode where you give your opponent a back massage? If Kojima was in charge of this it would be a reality! Except it would have a silly made up word name...

I bet "traditional" RE fans would be singing it's praises if it had been a visual novel. "Lovin' this gameplay!!!".

I'm not a fan of the RE series. I've played demos for three RE games. I'm a big fan of couch-co-op/System Link though.