Kevin Kelly
Articles by Kevin Kelly
JBO: Joystiq Box Office, March 29 - April 2
We can't be gaming all the time, despite our best efforts, and from time to time we'll actually take advantage of the movie-playing abilities on our gaming systems. JBO features our top picks for XBL, PSN, Netflix's Watch Instantly and Blu-ray each week. Recommendation of the Week: The African Queen (Blu-ray: $39.99 MSRP, much lower at most retailers) Can you believe Humphrey Bogart only won one Oscar in his lifetime? It was for this movie. Personally, I think he was robbed from winning it for Casablanca, but The African Queen is a worthy win as well. He really delivers a powerful performance as Charlie Allnut, the rough and tumble boat captain working his boat, the African Queen. But it's Katherine Hepburn who really turns in a tour de force performance as Rose Sayer, a tough as nails missionary in East Africa. Paramount recently completed a massive 4k restoration on this title, and it looks simply amazing on Blu-ray. The standard Blu-ray set gets you the movie, while the slightly more expensive box set comes with a CD of the original radio production of The African Queen (with Bogart) and Hepburn's book The Making of The African Queen or How I Went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind. Seriously good filmmaking and performances against a wonderful story based on C.S. Forester's novel of the same name. Highly recommended. Now someone just put Bogey's The Caine Mutiny on Blu-ray and I'll be happy. Read on after the break for the rest of our recommendations, then chime in below!
Hands-on: Risk Factions (Classic Mode)
Risk: Factions is coming to Xbox Live Arcade this summer, and a version of the classic Risk board game, dubbed Classic Mode, will be included. The verdict? It's classic Risk, albeit with a couple of key tweaks. Most game-changing is a bonus star feature, which randomly awards players 1-2 "stars" at the end of a turn. Stars can be used to make additional troop movements. Additionally, Classic Mode abandons the card system of the original game. Getting rid of the cards streamlines the game a bit, and so does the option to skip the dice-rolling attacks (and just view the results), but the random star bonuses can lead to one player steamrolling the opponents rather quickly -- as happens to me and another human player in the video above. Just like in the original game, once a player builds up a powerful army, there's nothing to stop total domination of the game board. But that's always been a part of the game of Risk, and now, through Xbox Live, diehard tabletoppers can test their riskiest maneuvers on a truly worldwide battlefield, say, against an opponent from the Ukraine. One thing Risk: Factions is sorely lacking, however? Little wooden cubes. Toss in some DLC wooden cubes, and I'll be happy. %Gallery-89574%
Hands-on: Snoopy Flying Ace (XBLA)
Click to barnstorm into the gallery, and watch out for The Red Baron! First of all, this is not an April Fool's joke. Remember how passionate the Joystiq team got about Torchlight last year? That's how I'm feeling about Snoopy Flying Ace. There are two reasons for this: 1) the gameplay is a direct descendant of Crimson Skies, right down to the customizable weapons on your planes, and 2) you get to shoot down Lucy Van Pelt. It's payback for all those years of her yanking the football away from Charlie Brown at the last second. Charles Schulz might be spinning in his grave over this game, but points one and two combine into joyous gameplay with the lovable Peanuts gang that you've grown up with. Joystiq showed off the trailer for this almost two years ago, but now I've finally gotten my hands on the flight stick. Which also means I got to fly around as Snoopy in the seat of his faithful Sopwith Camel -- another childhood dream fulfilled. According to Clark Stacey from developer Smart Bomb Interactive, "It is, we maintain, the most detailed and realistic World War I simulation ever created; capturing every nuance of what it was like to be a dog flying a biplane over the skies of Europe in 1917. Consideration for the Nobel Prize for Literature has been bandied around the game with growing seriousness, and we are in talks concerning a possible film adaptation starring Uma Thurman as Snoopy." That's more of an adult dream, yet to be fulfilled. Update! Ask and you shall receive, courtesy of Clark at Smart Bomb: "Of COURSE you can fly the doghouse. We have two kill streak bonuses in the game for multiplayer. Shoot down 4 planes in a row and you get the Woodstock bonus: Woodstock appears perched on the back of your plane with a pair of six-guns, shooting anyone behind you. Score 9 unanswered kills in a row, and your plane transforms into Snoopy's doghouse, with the most powerful machine gun in the game. It's pretty cool to see your avatar flying around on it." Read on to find out why you're going to pick up this XBLA title later this year. %Gallery-89568%
Hands-on: The Silver Lining (the game Activison doesn't want you to play)
Here's the real reason Activision doesn't want you to play this fan-made sequel to the legendary King's Quest series: It caught a whiff of money. Rather than working out a deal with with the developer, Activision sent it a cease and desist, even after a deal had been worked out with Vivendi Universal games that would allow the game to be distributed for free (as long as King's Quest was taken out of the title).But the game does indeed exist. At least, one episode out of a proposed five does, although the developers are no longer actively working on it due to Activision's legal saber-rattling. I played it at PAX on a laptop belonging to one of the developers, and I'm desperately hoping that this will make its way into the wild so you can play it for yourself. If the developers are able to buy the license from Activision, that might actually happen. The Silver Lining might not have the words "King's Quest" in the title, but the heart of that series definitely beats in this game.%Gallery-89156%
Xbox Live 12 Month Messenger Gold Pack for less gold
Are you late to the Xbox Live game? If you've been delaying the jump to Gold membership (which you can try for free right now), this might be what you've been waiting for. The kit includes a 12-month Xbox Live gold subscription card (retails for $49.99), the Xbox Live Text Messaging Kit that includes the chatpad and a headset (normally $29.99), and Project Gotham Racing 4 (retails for $19.99). Normally all of that would go for about a hundred bucks, but Amazon has the pack for $52.54 with free shipping (it usually lists for $69.99). It's a great deal if you're needing to jump back in or renew, and you pick up a game and a chatpad in the process. We wish they'd included something sexier than PGR4, especially because you'd have to be nuts to pick that up for $19.99. But at this price, it's practically a freebie.
Submerge yourself into Naval Assault: The Killing Tide
click to DIVE into our gallery You're probably sitting around watching a rerun of The Hunt for Red October on cable right now, wondering aloud, "When are we going to see another decent submarine game?" You're even practicing your Sean Connery accent, which is good because, come this June, you'll have a chance to use it. 505 Games, who recently wowed us with both Backbreaker and Naughty Bear, are releasing Naval Assault: The Killing Tide on June 15 exclusively on the Xbox 360, just in time for a Submarine Summer. The game is "arcade style" according to the press release, meaning you Silent Hunter fans aren't going to get all the realism you want. Instead you'll have to settle for the historically accurate naval warzones of WWII and " an arsenal of faithfully recreated U.S. Naval submarines." Those subs will be armed with torpedoes and a deck gun, the better to take out enemy subs, ships, and planes. Though there aren't any in the gallery below, this game had better involve some periscopes ... or else. Gamers can play through the 30 solo missions after they launch from New York, or join three other players online for some multiplayer action. %Gallery-89455%
The Incredibles powering their way into LittleBigPlanet
How adorable is this? Just when you thought you might be done Sackboying around, they find a way to suck you right back in. This time it's a Disney/Pixar inspired Incredibles costume and level packs coming on April 8th. According to the PlayStation blog, "This huge pack features NINE costumes: all of The Incredibles family (including a "Retro" Mr. Incredible sporting his classic blue costume), their allies Frozone and Edna Mode, and their arch nemesis, Syndrome." You'll be able to purchase individual costumes as well, and download the Incredibles Level Kit that includes locations from the movie, and all the materials used to make it. Pixar may not have given us a sequel to The Incredibles yet, but now you can make your own. We can't wait to see what Syndrome looks like. Is Disney going to move their entire universe into LBP some day? Pirates of the Caribbean vs. The Incredibles, here we come. Dibs on Dash. [Thanks, Conor]
PAX (f)East your eyes on the PAX East gallery
Games, attendees, cosplayers, geekextremery, Blueberry MuffinTops, the Joystiq Podcast LIVE!, and more. That's what PAX is all about. There's a lot for your eyeball-spheres here, and we're going to share it with you in case you couldn't make it, or if you just want to relive the memories. Check out the images in the gallery below, which is still growing. Got your own PAX East action snaps? Send 'em in to us. We enjoy sharing the love. %Gallery-89141%
Hands-on: Red Dead Redemption
I love Westerns: Shane, Stagecoach, The Searchers, Rio Bravo, Unforgiven, Open Range. These are the immersive stories that I've always wanted to play in games. There have been some decent efforts, like Dead Man's Hand, Gun, Call of Juarez, and even Red Dead Revolver, but they all confine the player to narrow paths. What happened to the wide-open Wild West? Enter: Red Dead Redemption. This is the largest world Rockstar has ever created. Can you quantify that? "It's big," a representative assured me. %Gallery-43816%
Interview: The Path of Go developers (XBLA)
Nothing says intelligent, timeless strategy like Xbox Live Arcade, right? The Path of Go producer Joaquin Quiñonero Candela is determined to stop people from guffawing at that line when his team introduces this ancient Chinese tactical game to the realm of thumbsticks later this year. Developing Go is a very difficult undertaking, because it has more possible moves than Chess, on the order of 10174. Take that, Deep Blue! Gameplay also involves strange concepts like honor, and a lack of teabagging, which is hard to foist on the gaming community. However, we spent a few moment with the tutorial, and actually learned how Go works for the first time, and promptly had our ass kicked. So they did something right. We sat down with producer Joaquin and programmer Markus Jost at GDC this year to talk about the game, that the process was like, the innovative "Play By Message" feature, and how it was all born out of herd of sheep and a German Shepherd. Read on for the full interview.%Gallery-87790%
Inside the mouth of Rooster Teeth
You know Rooster Teeth from Red vs. Blue, but have you ever wanted to check out the interior of their sweet offices? Inconspicuously located above a coffee shop in Austin, Texas, we got a sneak peek at the place where all the magic happens during SXSW. That one shot of all of the different controllers? That's that heart and soul of the show, while the recording studio is a glamorously converted women's restroom. Oh, and for you Achievement Hunter fans out there? That comes to you from underneath the Rock 'em Sock 'em robots. Rooster Teeth will be showing off some of that magic as they bring a big change to the next season of Red vs. Blue, and we promised to keep our mouths shut after they gave us a sneak peek. But suffice it to say, it's packed with even more awesome hilariousness. Burnie Burns and the Rooster Teeth team toured us around their digs, although they're moving to a new studio soon. They'll be premiering parts of the new episode at PAX East this weekend, after which we can reveal said seekruts. %Gallery-88596%
Bring Dungeons and Dragons to your $15,000 game table
What happens when you marry board games and video games? The electrical pixel explosion of that chocolate into peanut butter hasn't been fully realized yet, so besides a handful of Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne and Hasbro Family Game Nights, there's not a heck of a lot going on. However, what happens when you force role-playing games and video games into a shotgun wedding? Pure magic for rich people. During GDC we took a look at a student project called SurfaceScapes that brings D&D to the Microsoft Surface. It's not just a simple "Ooooh, touch the screen to activate your character sheet!" port of the pen and paper game, but a touch-tastic experience that will blow your mind. Plot a miniature down on the Surface, and it recognizes your character. You can pull up radial menus for actions, spells, and attacks, see your line of sight, move your character, and run the entire game just using your power of touch.
JBO: Joystiq Box Office, March 22 - March 26
We can't be gaming all the time, despite our best efforts, and from time to time we'll actually take advantage of the movie-playing abilities on our gaming systems. JBO features our top picks for XBL, PSN, Netflix's Watch Instantly and Blu-ray each week. We're back! The Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco and South by Southwest in Austin combined to double-whammy JBO out of existence, but it's back with a vengeance this week, even during the midst of PAX East. So read the gaming news, cue up a movie, and let us know what you're watching. Recommendation of the Week: Breaking Bad (Blu-ray, Season 1 -- $49.95 and Season 2 -- $39.95, lower at retailers) Why are you reading this? You should be watching Breaking Bad. Seriously, I can wait until you're back to carry on. The internets will still be here. Back? See what we're talking about? Bryan Cranston is pure genius in this as a man at the end of his rope. He's a low-paid high school science teacher with a disabled son and a pregnant wife. He's working a demeaning second job at a car wash just to make ends meet, and, on top of that, he finds out he has inoperable lung cancer. So what does he do? He decides to start cooking crystal meth so he can leave his family a small fortune. The opening scene of episode one is worth the cost of both sets alone. This is genius basic cable programming from AMC that just started its third season this past week, so catch up on the first two seasons with these Blu-rays that look ultra-sharp with tons of extras. Read on after the break for the rest of our recommendations, then chime in below!
Red Dead Redemption has 'surprising' multiplayer, to be revealed in early April
We just spent some time getting our filthy hands even filthier inside of Red Dead Redemption, where we actually skinned a horse and instantly felt like we'd killed Trigger. But no-good horse killin' aside, the big news here is that multiplayer is coming to Red Dead Redemption. We don't know how just yet, but a Rockstar representative told us that it would incorporate multiplayer in a "surprising" way. Surprising as in it doesn't totally suck like in GTA IV? Aw, snap. Yeah, we went there. Now we'll have to worry about being skinned. More details are coming directly from the horse's mouth (sorry, couldn't resist) the week of April 5th, so stay tuned for more details when Rockstar reveals the secrets of what we like to call Red Dead Redemption: Posse Galore. %Gallery-43816%
Datapop 3.0 tunes to soothe your soul
We're in the relative calm before the PAX East storm, and to tide over your insatiable hunger for gaming related news and whimsicalities, we present you with some of the sights and sounds of Datapop 3.0. The chiptunes-based concert played its third iteration at SXSW last week, and included acts like The Mysterious H, Sievert, Nullsleep, IAYD, Hally, Random, Bit Shifter, nordloef, Talk to Animals, Starscream, Henry Homesweet, 8BK-ok, Sabrepulse vs. Saskrotch, Je Deviens DJ en 3 Jours, Anamanaguchi, and Trash80, with eyeball-blasting, pixelicious artwork provided by Jean Y. Kim, Omeros, Paris, and outpt. You can check out part of Nullsleep's set with visuals by Omeros and Jean Y. Jim in the video above, and then treat your ears to a snippet of Sievert's tunes at the bottom of this post. He actually pumped out a cover of Bit Shifter's famous "Reformat the Planet," but our mouth was on the ground for most of that one. Not only because he rocked it, but because he played the slot before Bit Shifter. That'd be like an opening group rocking out Green Day's "American Idiot" before they took the stage. Ballsy. Treat your ears, and get reading for some PAX-ing. %Gallery-89067%
Joyswag: win an Astro Gaming A30 headset for your games, music, phonecalls
How many of you right now are playing games and using your plain-jane television speakers to blast the sound out? With so much focus on high-definition visuals, gamers tend to treat sound as an afterthought. Especially if you have several systems, which means a tangle of spaghetti wires held together with spit and baling wire. Transitioning from your PC over to your PS3? It ain't that easy. Jumping from your Xbox to your iPhone? Ditch your headset, find your earbuds, unplug, plug, repeat. Thankfully, Astro Gaming realizes that gamers are constantly on the go, and they've just announced the A30 Headset that works with your PC, your console, your mobile phone, your music player, your portable gaming system, and anything else with a headphone jack. It features both a removable boom mic and an in-line microphone with a control button, meaning you can get your frag on with some buddies, then jack into your phone and call your mother. She loves hearing from you. We're giving away one Astro Gaming A30 Sound System, available in white or black, along with the Astro MixAmp and an optical cable, which you'll need to connect your system to your consoles. The headset includes all of the necessary connectors, the boom mic, the in-line mic, and a carrying case to keep everything organized. And if you're one of those people who geek out about opening gadget packaging, theirs is pure porn. Follow the instructions below to enter, and crank it up. How many different ways could you use these? Leave a comment telling us what game (including the platform), song, and caller you'd rock with these on your dome. You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec -- it has to do with Pierre Duchesne and he knows why). Limit 1 entry per person per day. This entry period ends at 6PM PT on Friday, March 19. At that time, we'll randomly select one winner to receive an Astro Gaming A30 Audio System, with the A30 Headset (in black or white) and a MixAmp (ARV: $229.95), along with a TOSLink optical cable. (ARV: $19.95) For a list of complete rules, click here. What is Joyswag? Since we don't keep the games and merchandise we receive for review or promotional purposes, it becomes "Joyswag," which is passed along to our readers. Please note that Joyswag may be in "used" condition. For more info on our policy, click here. %Gallery-88287%
Developer Tom Soderlund explains the frights of Ghostwire
Bumps in the night. Unexplained sounds. A chill up your spine. Extreme terror. These things aren't associated with the Nintendo DSi, unless you unexpectedly leave yours behind in a taxi. But A Different Game CEO Tom Soderlund wants to bring all of that augmented paranormal activity to your DSi with Ghostwire and turn you into a ghostbuster (minus the proton packs). Now you're armed with a stylus and the power of Nintendo. Originally conceived four years ago for Symbian-powered smartphones, the idea is to turn your handheld into a tool for communicating with the paranormal world. The built-in camera, sound meters, light meters are all a part of the experience, providing a combination of real-world and computer-generated data. Soderlund's team built an adventure game around it -- you talk to ghosts, find out what's troubling them, and either capture them or attempt to ease their pain.
Ghostwire might haunt iPhone, Android
Ghostwire lead developer Tom Soderlund told us at GDC that his upcoming DSi-exclusive Nintendo DS game might be coming to Apple's iPhone and Google's Android. The DSi version, published by Majesco, is set to come out near Halloween this year, and it's possible that other flavors might join it at that time. "With the DSi we have location to some extent using the wifi chip, because we can kind of recognize when the user is in a new location, or where they are somewhere they've been before." Soderlund said, "But, we're thinking of taking to the iPhone or the Android which have more emphasis on location-based gameplay.We hope Elvis' grave is first on the list.
SXSW: Creating 87 bazillion guns for Borderlands
Fact: there are 16,164,886 guns in Borderlands according to Gearbox Software developers Matthew Armstrong and Jimmy Sieben. That's a lot of guns. Remember that scene in The Matrix where Neo says "Guns. Lots and lots of guns."? It's a lot more than that. That's also the number of guns before the DLC, which has inflated it even further. So how do you have someone design each one of those firearms and build out the specs? Even if you only paid 25 cents per gun, that would still chew into your development budget to the tune of over four million dollars. So what do you do, hotshot? Easy! You make a system that does it all for you. In an SXSW panel, Sieben and Armstrong spoke about the systemic development tool named Gearbuilder that they developed, going into detail about how they created the system to handle the creation of that many customized guns. It generates the guns based on one of 12 different manufacturers, giving each one a different grip, body, cylinder, barrel and accessories. Based on those, that same system determines how much damage the gun will deal. But what's surprising is, as impressive a figure as 16 million is, it's still only one gun. Shoot on through the break for more.
Interview: Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells
Evan Wells doesn't look like he's old enough to be co-president of Naughty Dog, does he? Even after shepherding Uncharted 2 through development, which has picked up just about every award on the planet, he still maintains his youthful vim and vigor. While we don't know what his eternal youth secret is, he did give us the inside scoop on the workings at Naughty Dog when we spoke with him at GDC. Besides letting us know about their new studio and the hectic days just before shipping Uncharted 2, he also talks PlayStation Move development, Jak and Daxter plans (he wants to see one on the PS3), and expanding Uncharted to the PSP. Pause your game and head on through the break for the full interview. %Gallery-43763%