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Ahh cute, Viva Piata Valentine wallpapers
As part of Microsoft's Let's Play on Valentines Day celebration not only are they urging fellow gardeners to trade piñatas, but also posted some downloadable goodies too. Over at the official Viva Piñata website they put up a few downloadable wallpapers for you to send to your loved one or to simply spiff up your own desktop. And for those of you who are in a relationship, remember this Wednesday is Valentines Day. Forget the candy and flowers, just snuggle up for a nice romantic four hour Viva Piñata gaming session. You just can't get much more romantic than that.
Rare going to reveal wild card Piatas?
Over at the Viva Pinata Forum Rare's very own BIGsheep decided to run a poll asking fans which wild card piñata they'd like to see. And for those of you who aren't in the loop, wild card piñatas are extremely rare, randomly born, and there is no concrete formula on how to create them. Think of them as genetic screw ups that are one in a million. Anyway, BIGsheep's poll ends in roughly a week and we're curious to see what will happened when the poll ends. Is he going to be kind enough to show us what the wild card piñata looks like, maybe lift the lid on his entire wild card stash? We'll just have to wait and see what goes down with this wild card poll fiasco. And don't forget to vote![Thanks, jimmcq]
Gates: If you want to play online, get an Xbox
var digg_url = 'http://www.digg.com/gaming_news/Gates_If_you_want_to_play_online_get_an_Xbox'; In the first part of an informative interview conducted by Mercury News' Dean Takahashi, Bill Gates responds to the suggestion that Nintendo's Wii may come out on top thanks to its unique controller and cheaper price tag. "Look at the graphics," he says. "Look at Nintendo's execution in terms of online capability. We have this thing that nobody has ever seen before. When you say to your friend, hey let's play online, you say then you have to buy an Xbox. That's what 10 million people say."When peer pressure isn't selling Xbox Live, Gates points out that endeavours like cross-platform Vista gaming and IPTV are pushing the online service forward. However, he also believes that "Nintendo did some things right," going on to mention Microsoft's acquisition of Rare and the "huge success" that was Viva Piñata. Though many critics believe the game is a return to prominence for Rare, its lacklustre sales may lead others to agree with Gates for the wrong reason -- "Nintendo did some things right" by selling the developer when they did.Be sure to check out the rest of the interview for some interesting tidbits on the Xbox 360's IPTV, the continued absence of a larger hard drive and how Sony "didn't know what they were doing" with the Cell processor.
Shipping this week: frickin' Lost Planet edition!
After a one week vacation, the world of Xbox 360 releases has returned, and no triumphant return would be complete without gifts. This week's gift isn't some crappy t-shirt hastily purchased at an airport gift shop either. No, this week is a doozy. It's a general policy that we like to have at least three titles to merit a bulleted list, but this week is special. It's the first game of the new year and it's a pretty big game to boot. As such, we present you with the combined North American/European shipping list for the week of January 8.Shipping this week in North America and Europe: Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Also worth noting, Japan will get its first crack at Viva Piñata this week (except it has been renamed Atsumare! Piñata). Let's introduce them. Japan, this is addiction. Addiction, Japan. So, who's picking up Lost Planet?
Splitsville for Rare
Two of Rare's founders have called it quits with the company, and the internet is all abuzz with talk of Rare ... and Nintendo. Microsoft bought Rare back in 2002, and the devs carried one of the most-hyped launch games for the 360, but it's still the association with Nintendo that lingers when people mention the company. So it's not surprising, particuarly with Diddy Kong Racing just around the bend for the DS, that people have begun to speculate about what happens now. All anyone knows right now is that Chris and Tim Stamper left Rare for "other opportunities." That doesn't begin to answer any of the questions about what this means for Rare and Microsoft, or Rare and Nintendo, or even just the Stampers themselves. What led to the departure? Rare's last few efforts, while at times critically acclaimed, have not exactly brought home the bacon, and the situation surrounding E3 2004, DS dev kits, and Microsoft's denials make it seem as though there might have been a disconnect between the development company and their new bosses. We'll keep an eye on this story as it develops -- if it develops -- and what it might mean for Nintendo.
Rare's brothers in charge call it quits
Two of Rare's three founders, Chris and Tim Stamper, have decided to pack their bags and head for greener pastures. While some may assume that this departure is the result of Viva Piñata's undeservedly low sales and a string of games that failed to live up to their potential -- Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Kameo, Perfect Dark Zero -- Microsoft assures the world that the brothers are "simply leaving to pursue other opportunities." Studio veterans, Mark Betteridge and Greg Mayles will take over the roles of Studio Director and Creative Director, respectively.Viva Piñata was quite an achievement, fellas. 360 Fanboy wishes the Stampers nothing but the best.[Via Joystiq]
Viva Piata, the most overlooked game this year?
Simon over at Game Set Watch wrote up an article explaining his reasons for why both the media and online communities haven't pushed Viva Piñata into the mainstream. Ultimately, Viva Piñata hasn't yet reached its mass appeal, yet garners not only great reviews, but praise from those who give it a chance. If you haven't noticed, all of us at Fanboy Towers enjoy the game and some are even mildly addicted. We feel the problem may be that Viva Piñata is just so hard to explain, hard to get its point across, and hard to market. It offers so much, has so many intricacies and appeals to such a wide audience ... it's difficult to package their gaming message into one nice box. Just another good read and if you haven't picked up Piñata, buy it with all the money you get from returning those crappy Christmas gifts.[Via Digg]
1UP hands out their gaming presents
For Christmas 1UP decided to hand out gifts to the gaming industry's most elite, selecting only gifts that suite their prospective owners. Not only is their list hilariously true, but we're a little bitter that we didn't think of doing this. Some of our favorites have to be a one year Xbox Live subscription card to Phil Harrison to show him how an online service is supposed to work, the matchmaking source code from Halo 2 given to both Cliffy B and Mark Rein, a box of Trojans to Bethesda because whoever purchased that horse armor got it up the a**, and an apology letter to Rare because first impressions aren't always accurate and Viva Piñata rocks. We agree, these are the gifts everyone should have received. Do you have any gifts that 1UP forgot to mention and who should Santa deliver them to? Make a list, check it twice, and post it for all to see.
Get your vote on, Gamespot's game of the year
It's the end of one long gaming year and that could only mean one thing, Gamespot has just announced its nominees for 2006 Game of the Year. Among the ten nominees there are quite a few great 360 games on the list including Dead Rising, Oblivion, Rainbow Six Vegas, Viva Piñata, and our little engine that could Gears of War. It's nice to see that so many high profile games from the 360 made the list and that Oblivion may have some of its stiffest competition yet. Visit their site, vote for who you think deserves the crown, and wait patiently for the winner to be announced. It's a difficult decision so we're totally opting for a write-in and voting for Viva Gears Rising ... that's one great game.
Viva Pinata's abhorrent behavior
Viva Piñata was designed from the ground up to be a marketing machine. Microsoft will do anything to get attention for the franchise, even splurging to make Mario López dance for us at the Santa Monica Pier. It's all good that those cute and colorful Piñata's got an E rating, but those who have played the game know that below its kid friendly E rating lies some dark AO rated themes. Faith over at The Girl Gamer, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, has unleashed a diatribe on the sins glorified in Viva Piñata. The piñata's "dance" to breed, with no gender assignment to them, and parents can "dance" with their offspring to have more piñata children. Faith says, "Is Microsoft trying to teach our kids that having relations with your family is OK? They should have made it true to real life and had the baby piñatas come out disfigured or something ... how do we know we aren't breeding boy piñatas together?" Viva Piñata is by no means the first production geared for children with underlying adult themes. Scooby-Doo's drug themes, X-Men's commentary on civil rights and prejudice, the Smurfs -- well, there's way too much subtext in the Smurfs. Viva Piñata clearly has themes of incest and let's not forget the fact that you raise these cute animals to be shipped off and inhumanely beaten to death.
Holy candy Batman! World's largest piata
It looks like Horstachio from Viva Piñata has been getting around lately. With the world's largest piñata party happening a few weeks ago, this week in Mexico the Xbox team there decided to create the world's largest piñata! The construction took three weeks, over 45 constructors, 800 other helpers, and came in at a whopping 4,400 pounds (without candy filling ... we think). Congrats you silly Xbox team in Mexico, that's one large Horstachio! Now if we could just figure out how to get this guy into our Viva Piñata garden ... anyone know what the world's largest Horstachio likes to eat?
Perplexed by my quiet 360, how does yours work? [update 1]
Recently I've had some issues with my 360. I think it decided that it would rather kill itself than let me play Viva Piñata ... but that was its decision not mine. So, I sold it "as-is" and picked me up a new one locally, pretty new box and all! Though I noticed an interesting quirk after playing Gears recently. I noticed something that didn't happen on my previous 360 model. When playing Gears, throughout multiplayer (specifically when sitting in a lobby), the humming of the disc drive couldn't be heard, because the spinning of the disc actually slowed down. My previous Xbox 360 kept rotating the disc full speed, never missing a step, and never altered the spin speed ever. My spiffy new 360 must be uber smart and knows when it doesn't have to spin at 400 MPH, thus creating a moment of silent bliss. At first it startled me as I wondered why the disc quit spinning, but now it's just a welcomed surprise to hear the quiet. Does your 360 spin down when playing certain games or am I just drinking too much Pepto-Bismol?Update 1: It looks like I found the answer to my perplexion! Previously, my other console was rocking a Hitachi DVD drive (the more common LOUD version) as opposed to the Samsung model (which is known to be quieter and more rare). I checked out my new console and it looks like I have a Samsung DVD drive in my 360. This could be why certain games read differently by slowing down etc. Let's do some more investigative work ... anyone whose disc drive spins down during games (like mine) head over to Llamma's site and verify which drive you have. I'm thinking this is how the Samsung drive works, but we'll get to the bottom of this as a team. Teamwork FTW!
Viva Piata: candy coated crack
360 Fanboy blogger, Dustin Burg, laid his hands on Viva Piñata a few days ago, and my rental copy showed up yesterday. Having finished blogging for the day, I popped the game into my 360. I did nothing else for two hours straight. I only stopped because my wife came home and we were going to dinner. When we got back from dinner (coincidentally, it was Mexican food), I showed Viva Piñata to my wife. Now, we play a few games together -- mostly dungeon crawlers and puzzle games -- but for the most part, I am the gamer of the house. Still, she loves The Sims and it shares many similarities with VP. She started playing at 7:00 and did not set the controller down until nearly 11:00. The urge to do "just one more thing" is a quality that Viva Piñata absolutely nails. Whether it's meeting the mating requirements for a species, building that house, or just planting seeds, you will always have something you need to attend to. Once you've done that, you'll remember that other thing you wanted to do, and so on and so forth. So, let this be a warning for those who haven't picked this up, and those who want that perfect game for the casual gamers in your house: Viva Piñata will claim your soul and your 360. Remember that before you hand the controller over to someone else "just to try it out."
Viva Pinata invasion results in Mario Lopez dancing
How on earth did this guy not win? Check out the moves. Joystiq attended a Microsoft Viva Piñata event on the California coast yesterday, held at the world famous Santa Monica Pier. There must have been about a billion piñatas everywhere, but none of them were harmed during the event. Not a single one. How can you possibly set a bunch of kids loose on a bunch of papier måché animals and not expect them to a) want to whack the crap out of them, and b) grab all the candy that comes spilling out? Well, Microsoft is changing one mind at a time. This was an event for kids, and there was the requisite face painting, picture taking, game playing, and ... Mario López? We're still not sure what he was doing there, other than the fact that yes, he's Mexican ... and was on Dancing with the Stars. Okay, so in stretch maybe we cou ... no, we still don't buy it. In addition to the tons of piñatas, the Spanish-language L.A. radio station La Raza 97.9 was also there to kick up the Latino factor with some jams and prizes. Unfortunately, there was no spicy food served at this event, much to our chagrin. However, they did have this commercial for the game playing on some sweet HDTVs. We could laugh at that all day. Well, through at least three viewings. Check out our photocomic spread of the event after the jump. Just don't say we didn't warn you.
A virgin to the world of Viva Piata
Tonight I'm getting my hands on a copy of Viva Piñata. I've never really played many sim games other than Sim City 2000 back in the day ... so I may be a little rusty when it comes to playing with piñatas in a living/breathing virtual world. Anyway, I'm looking to you fellow fanboy readers for some advice. Anyone have a copy of Viva Piñata, do you have any advice for me, any warnings, any crates you want to send me? I want to know the secrets to getting the best possible experience I can from this game. I guess I'm just uber excited about getting my hands on these fluffy little guys and maybe whacking one open to see what spills out. Come on fanboys, take off your alpha male hats, activate your piñata brain, and give me some advice on the world of Viva Piñata. I've got my pen ready.
Rare reluctant to pursue Microsoft's vision
Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, Rare's lead designer Gregg Mayles sounded reluctant about developing downloadable content for Viva Piñata. "We've got plenty of ideas for what we can do ... But the jury is still out," said Mayles. For now, Rare seems content to sit back and watch other studios' successes and failures. It's clear that if Rare is to continue to provide downloadable content, it doesn't want to go the EA route; that's not to say the developer is in the business of hand-outs. Ill-reception of Kameo's premium content has forced Rare to rethink its strategy, leading the studio to consider that resources are perhaps better spent on the 'next' project. Despite forming a branch of the Microsoft camp, Rare is having a difficult time adopting its parent company's content-for-now, content-for-later model.
Viva Pinata takes stab at Genji jokes
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Xbox_360_s_Viva_Pinata_Makes_Fun_of_PS3_s_Genji'; Rare's latest title, Viva Pinata, looks to have reopened the now-infamous -- and somewhat tiresome -- crab joke from Sony's E3 2006 press conference. A GameSpot forum member stumbled upon this during his game time and took a picture for everyone's amusement. Consider this one company using a first-party title to give its heated competitor a paper cut and pouring lemon juice on it.After the E3 2006 press conference, the PlayStation 3 title Genji: Day of the Blade was derided for the description of "real-time weapon changing" and "giant enemy crabs" which you could "attack for massive damage." The meme has gone on to be more popular than the game itself, which has received poor reviews since its release alongside the PS3. Viva Pinata, for its part, has actually garnered some positive critical reception, given developer Rare some much-needed praise.Now that Microsoft has taken the bait and retold a seven month old joke, can we please, please, please let it go?See Also: Pile on: Contact takes a jab at Sony meme[Thanks, Brandon][Update: Missed one part of the joke -- real time weapons changing -- and fixed Rare's first-party status.]
Create a piata and join the party
Yesterday I mentioned the fun Viva Piñata party going down at the Santa Monica pier on December 2nd, but it kind of sucks if you don't live nearby to enjoy the festivities. No worries, because John over at Gamerscore Blog is welcoming all fans, who want to partake in the fun, to create a piñata and send him a picture of it. You can create your piñata on the Viva Piñata game, draw one, paint one, or make a real life piñata, then send him a picture of it and they'll add it to their "Virtual Piñata Wall" on the pier for everyone to see on December 2nd. They are also giving away prizes to some lucky fans who send in their piñata art. So, get to it and start making that lizardrop or batsucker piñata and your efforts will be showcased at the piñata party!
You're invited to a piata party
If you live in the LA area, have kids, are a kid at heart, or just love Viva Piñata then make your way to the world's largest piñata party! Gamerscore Blog has posted an invite to anyone interested in participating in their Viva Piñata bash that is going down on December 2nd at the Santa Monica Pier. Not only will you be able to play Viva Piñata, but there will be face painting, free rides, prizes galore, cartoons, get your picture taken with the Viva Piñata characters, and a 35 foot tall Horstachio! I know ... I'm even getting excited! And since the whole event is free, bring your kids, nephews, cousins and even the annoying neighbor kids down to the pier for some piñata fun. Thanks again Microsoft, we love your marketing events ... they make us so happy.
Metareview: Viva Piata
Microsoft's Pokémon inspired children's title, Viva Piñata has finally hit the market and is picking up some reviews. Most of the reviews are very positive, though some note that Viva Piñata probably won't satisfy the twitch-happy Gears of War crowd. Then again, it's not really designed for action fans, though many reviews are claiming that it's actually very complex. Sitting somewhere between The Sims and Animal Crossing, Viva Piñata is performing admirably. It currently has an average of 85 on Metacritic. Gamespot (8.3/10) - "It oozes charm and personality from its every papier-mâché-covered pore. While it's accessible enough for those with very little gaming experience (and their children), it also has enough depth to keep any of you with a Pokemon-style "gotta catch 'em all" mentality--or perhaps a penchant for gardening--entertained for many hours." IGN (8.5/10) - "... it seems like a serious oversight to not include the ability to show off your garden in some way to your friends. Here is a game where you spend all of your time cultivating and shaping your garden space -- and you can't show it to anybody on Live. The only way for them to see it is to be right next to you." 1UP (9/10) - "Rare has certainly recaptured its former glory here, and in producing one of the most misunderstood games of the year, it has also produced one of the finest in its history, and certainly one of the most intriguing on 360. To dismiss it as "just for kids" would be foolish. You are not too cool to enjoy this game." 1UP wasn't the only review to share the ironic sentiment that Viva Piñata -- a franchise specifically designed to rake in your kids' cash -- is one of the best Rare games in years. Will Microsoft's famous investment finally pay off?
