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USC will publish its students' games on PlayStation and Xbox
The premise of college is that it's going to prepare you with what you need to survive in a real-world work environment, but whether or not it fulfills that is another matter altogether. To that end, the University of Southern California has launched its own publishing label for video games in an effort to help students experience every aspect of making a game -- all the way to getting it in the hands of people outside of academia and onto PCs, PlayStations and Xboxes. USC Games Publishing's Tracy Fullerton tells Wired that the imprint is akin to the MIT Press. "These are not books that are going to necessarily be on The New York Times best-seller list, but these are the books that are important, that need to be out there in the zeitgeist."
Best of the Rest: Ross' Picks of 2007
Team Fortress 2 (Xbox 360, PC, PlayStation 3)While Portal is being given its much deserved credit for the year, and Half-Life 2 has enjoyed years of acclaim, let's not forget about the other pillar of Valve's The Orange Box. It's been eight years since the release of Team Fortress Classic, and the game has undergone so many revisions and delays we half expected it to be released alongside Duke Nukem Forever sometime in 2012. As it turned out, the game not only saw the light of day but ended up being an addictive online experience. As a console gamer enjoying this with a gamepad, I don't care much much for the sniper, soldier, demoman, or anything except medic and occasionally the engineer. There's something brutally satisfying about charging into battle behind a heavy weapons guy, dodging the occasional bullet (people still haven't learned) and injecting him with a team-killing jolt of invincibility. Hours of enjoyment and not a single bullet shot. Pure. Enjoyment.
PS3 Fanboy hands-on: fl0w expansi0n
There's a lot to like about Supervillian's expansion to the PSN "classic," fl0w. The expansion pack, which costs under $3, adds one new creature, the ability to play as different creatures in multiplayer, and a nifty new screenshot capture mode. Fans of the original fl0w will find these additions to be worth a purchase, as it has reinvigorated our love of this surreal and unique title.After the initial install, you'll see a brand new background appear for the game in the XMB. The soft blue that covers the XMB waves is much appreciated: it gives the game that much more character, even before the game actually launches. Once you get to the character select screen, you'll see a brand new addition -- it's our favorite creature yet, in fact.The new creature has some of the most "gameplay" of all the creatures in the game so far. It can retract its circular body in, and then spin rapidly out. Anything it hits will be stunned for a few seconds, leaving it vulnerable for consumption. The brief amount of time one has after the attack makes this one of the most timing-focused creatures in the game. It's beautiful, it's fast and deadly -- we love it.The new campaign is great, but our favorite addition is the ability to have multiple creatures in multiplayer. It really adds a whole new dynamic to the experience. In this mode, you'll see each of the creature's strengths and weaknesses, as you compete for food in unique ways. Taking screenshots during this mode will make the framerate stutter, but you can behold some of the game's most beautiful visuals during these sessions. Fans of fl0w owe it to themselves to check out this expansion.%Gallery-10969%
Everyday Shooter, fl0w, Calling All Cars on sale
In addition to a massive Store update, SCEA has temporarily reduced the price of three PSN downloadable titles. Now available for $4.99: Everyday Shooter, Jon Mak's synesthesia masterpiece is our pick. If you only have enough money for one download, make it this one. Calling All Cars, David Jaffe's gift to the PS3 world, is another great choice ... only if you have four controllers and three other friends. As a multiplayer game, it's madness, but single player gamers need not apply. fl0w, the is-it-art-or-game creation by thatgamecompany is an interesting experience that's for those with far more daring tastes in games. It might not have enough gameplay to keep you coming back. PixelJunk Racers is a collection of mini racing games. Often misunderstood, these are supposed to harken back to the era of 2D racing games ... something we've long gone from. These prices are valid until November 29th. [Via CAG]
30-inch OLED TV from Toshiba in 2009
Toshiba has announced plans to ship an organic electroluminescence (EL) display in 2009. The target size will be 30 inches, which beats most manufacturers' prototypes currently under development, like Sony's 27-inch OLED plans. Toshiba had previously planned 2015 as the launch window for OEL (more commonly known as OLED) sets, a launch timeframe which put them in that magical future land along with SED and FED displays. While Toshiba doesn't expect to compete directly against the behemoth of LCD at first, they believe the technology's superiority -- which includes lower manufacturing costs, and better viewing angles and contrast -- will be recognized as volume goes up. Your electroluminescent game of fl0w may never look better.
GDC 07: fl0w was almost on Wii
Jenova Chen, Kellee Santiago and the rest of the thatgamecompany team discussed their latest motion-controlled PS3 title fl0w. The game certainly would have been an incredible addition to the Wii library, considering its use of motion controls, relatively subdued graphics, and non-gamer-friendly gameplay. Santiago revealed that fl0w was pitched to two companies: Nintendo and Sony.Well, Sony won. Sony's aggressive approach to supporting new developers was what gave PS3 the edge. "They [Nintendo] weren't right for us at the time. Sony kind of came to us with the process of incubation ... They helped us get our studio started."Sony has proven at GDC that they care about developers through the announcement of Edge and extending their Network offerings to independent developers. When will Nintendo jump on the bandwagon, and give Wii owners the ability to download new, original content on the Wii Shop Channel?
DVD players finally more common than VCRs
The DVD celebrated its 10-year anniversary this fall, but DVD players have only just this week surpassed VHS players in number, according to a survey by Nielsen Media Research, as reported by the New York Times. Because Microsoft and Sony have entangled gaming in a new format war, we often blog on the HD-DVD versus Blu-ray debate that began this year. If DVD took ten years to reach this important milestone, how long will it take one of the new formats to "win," considering that the DVD didn't have to battle against a rival format? In 2016, won't the whole idea of physical distribution of digital content seem rather archaic? Will the DVD last long enough to bridge the gap to the all-digital utopia, or will we need a stopgap format like Blu-ray or HD-DVD? Nobody knows, but we do know that so long as games like fl0w and Geometry Wars exist, Luddite gamers can rest easy knowing that there will be at least some very good games that don't require a $200 gamble on stopgap formats.
