bookworm-adventures
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PAX 2009 Omegathon events and contenders revealed
At last, the terror-inducing gauntlet of games that participants in this year's Omegathon must navigate has been revealed by a recent press release. Listed below are the six rounds that will serve as the unforgiving battlegrounds for twenty contestants (who are named after the break) -- we can't wait to see how tournament-style Bookworm Adventures will play out. Blood will be shed, boys will become men, girls will likewise become women -- and only one will triumph with tickets to this year's Tokyo Game Show (and $5,000 in walkin' around money) clutched in their victorious paw. Round 1: Mario Kart Wii Round 2: Bookworm Adventures Round 3: Halo 3: ODST Round 4: Unnamed rhythm game (DJ Hero or The Beatles: Rock Band, perhaps?) Round 5: Connect Four Final Round: ????? %Gallery-30939%
PopCap announces Bookworm Adventures 2
There's a ton of good lookin' games coming out this fall, though few offerings seem as though they'll help beef up our vocabulary while indulging our base desire for molasses-slow turn-based combat. Yes, we realize that's a rather specific niche -- but it's one that will be filled quite nicely by PopCap's Bookworm Adventures 2, which will be released on July 30 for $19.99 on the casual game developer's official site.If you never experienced the Boggle meets Final Fantasy action of the original Bookworm Adventures, PopCap has a free trial available. Just don't blame us when your friends start complaining about your new proclivity for dropping six-dollar words.
Best of the rest: Ross' picks
Lumines Live! (XBLA) On a big screen with surround sound, Q Entertainment's Lumines Live was easily the most-played game in my library (if you stretch the definition of library to digitally distributed titles). Although I railed against how microtransactions were implemented in this title and still think the extent to which they disclosed the dearth of features was misleading, both the Basic and Advanced Pack got more than enough play time, as did the multiplayer. It is the best Xbox Live Arcade title since Geometry Wars.
Casual games are serious business
The Associated Press describes the state of casual games, giving an overview of the business side of the industry. The story quotes research group DFC Intelligence, putting the annual revenue of these games at nearly a billion dollars -- and that number doesn't even include casual games on "handheld devices."With all of that money in play, the casual games segment is beginning to look like a microcosm of the whole games industry; even casual games are becoming sequel- and hit-driven titles. The article says PopCap took two-and-a-half years and $700,000 to develop a sequel to Bookworm Adventures, while just a few years ago, three developers could create a game for $100,000 in less than six months.We hope that the casual market balances cash-cow sequels with new game types. We action-puzzle fans can only play Tetris -- or Bookworm Adventures -- so many times.
