year-one
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GDC 2013: James Ohlen on how F2P saved SWTOR
If you've been following BioWare for any length of time, then you know James Ohlen. When I interviewed him a couple of years back at PAX East and again last year at the Star Wars: The Old Republic guild summit, I could feel his sincere passion for the game. Ohlen joined the SWTOR project at its inception and held the creative director position for well over half a decade. SWTOR is as much his game as anyone's. As is common at the Game Developers Conference, developers speak candidly to other future game-creators about the inner workings of their studios' biggest projects. Sometimes those tales are cautionary; some are inspiring. This time, Ohlen's told the story of SWTOR, the game that currently holds the record as the second largest subscription MMO ever, and how free-to-play turned what could have been a tale of utter failure into a story of success.
Leeroy-related extras on recent DVD releases
Recently two different movies have included their own versions of the world famous Leeroy Jenkins video in their DVD extras. Year One is the first -- the video, which you can watch after the link below, isn't a perfect reproduction, but it is funny to see Vinnie Jones and the other actors (including McLovin as Leeroy) try to wrap all of the WoW jargon and nonsense jokes from the original into their idea of a scene that makes sense. There's another Leeroy Jenkins related extra on the Monsters vs. Aliens DVD -- this one's just a set of storyboards, but it does feature the voice cast, including Kiefer Sutherland and Seth Rogen, doing their own little version of the scene. It's not quite as faithful as the Year One version, but it does feature Rogen doing the Leeroy yell, and that's worth watching by itself. You can watch that video after the break as well. Both are worth a chuckle -- it's wild to see a meme like Leeroy sneak out into mainstream media.
Wii is one (in Europe)!
We acknowledged the one-year anniversary of the Wii's launch in North America with a whole week of celebratory, misty-eyed posts, so we'd feel a little neglectful if we didn't tip our hat to the console's first birthday in Europe.There has been both highs and lows in the last twelve months for European Wii owners, but today isn't just about reflection -- it's also about looking forward to the future highs and lows! And who knows, maybe twelve months from now we'll be able to, y'know, walk in a shop and actually buy a Wii. Stranger things have happened.Regardless, happy birthday, lil' guy!
Virtual Console: The good, the bad and the ugly
Over the last year, Nintendo has presented us with tons of games over their digital download service, the Virtual Console. We've played many of these games, some of which have been bad and some of which have been pretty good. So, we figured it would be nice to take a look at all of the bad games we played and all of the good ones. On top of that, the staff has decided to submit all of their own personal favorites.Over the past year, we've played a heck of a lot of Virtual Console games. Just look at those lists past the break and tell us there isn't a ton of titles available on the Virtual Console. And, in looking back, we're glad that the majority of them were good, because it fills us with hope for the next year on Nintendo's Virtual Console.
So, how much does a blog spend on VC games?
With this week being dedicated to the first birthday of our most favorite thing on this planet, the Wii, we looked at every possible aspect of the console we wanted to discuss. All of our launch day stories, its first year when compared to the GameCube and, last but not least, Nintendo's first foray into the downloadable content arena. And, as many of you faithful readers know, we love checking out what the service has for download every Monday.
Year one: GameCube vs. Wii
var digg_url = 'http://www.digg.com/nintendo_wii/Year_One_GameCube_vs_Wii'; We imagine the GameCube isn't all that fond of the Wii, as the Wii managed to do everything the GameCube wished to do, only better. And, with the Wii having a year under its belt now, we figured it would be interesting to go back and look at the GameCube's first year and see how the two stacked up.
