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The Daily Grind: What's the most bizarre thing you've ever seen in an MMO?
I loved Zentia before it was shuttered in the West, but it has to be one of the most bizarre games I've ever played. Not only did it mix cartoony graphics and Daoist mythology and conga lines in the streets, but you could play a baby. No, really. An actual baby. I rolled my Vajra Guardian (a tanky character) as a baby in a diaper because why not? You don't get opportunities like that every day. What's the most bizarre thing you've ever seen in an MMO? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Madden's weird ad campaign stars Kevin Hart, Dave Franco
The start of the NFL season and launch of Madden NFL 15 is just around the corner, which means we're in the midst of the really weird part of the football offseason. Fans are desperate for anything new on Johnny Manziel and Madden players are clamoring for the last scraps of details for the game they'll be pouring hundreds of hours into. That restlessness must have seeped into EA Sports' headquarters, as the publisher just kicked off an ad campaign that stars comedian Kevin Hart and "Neighbors" actor Dave Franco. The three-minute commercial features cameos from NFL players like 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, Eagles running back LeSean McCoy, Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant and Broncos linebacker Von Miller, in which the players sputter "blah blah blah" for a good 15 seconds.
'Wearable eyes' take all the work out of having emotions
Ever seen one of those funny novelty spectacles with eyes drawn on them? Dr. Hirotaka Osawa from Tsukuba University in Japan has designed a high-tech version of those called AgencyGlass, and they have eyes that actually move. The digital eyes blink when you nod or shake your head, look up when you tilt your head down and (best of all) it stays open even while you doze off, all thanks to a gyroscope and an accelerometer that detects head movement. That's not all they can do, though -- the eyes also automatically look up when the system determines that a person is looking at you, as taken by the accompanying camera. In fact, Osawa designed the bizarre smartglasses for that purpose: to make you look friendlier and less socially awkward than you actually are.
Expect anything but math in zany PC sequel Frog Fractions 2
Among our Best of the Rest picks for 2012 was a small, free Flash-based game called Frog Fractions. Now, the game's sequel is seeking $60,000 on Kickstarter to bring more unexpected fun to players. Developed by Jim Crawford (under the guise of the developer name Twinbeard), the first Frog Fractions operated under the premise of being a piece of "edutainment," as players expected to learn about fractions while catching flies as a frog. As the game unwound, the adventure became strange and fractions became an afterthought. Crawford's pitch for Frog Fractions 2 carries on with the same charade, even noting that "most Kickstarters are very detailed about what you're paying for, but the nature of this one is that you're paying for a surprise." Crawford said he created Frog Fractions "explicitly to evoke the air of mystery that all video games held in the 1980s," and that "Frog Fractions 2 will evoke that same feeling even more strongly." Crawford also noted that the game's final name will not be Frog Fractions 2, and it will be "larger in scope than Frog Fractions, containing multiple levels of secrets that will take you many play sessions to discover." "I can't describe what I'm going to make in detail, but I can tell you that I've been thinking about how to properly follow up Frog Fractions for the past year, and I believe I can make something genuinely awesome," he said. The crowdfunding campaign for Frog Fractions 2 (working title) will end on April 9. The game is planned for PC, with Mac and Linux ports to follow. [Image: Twinbeard]
WoW Archivist: WoW's 18 weirdest quest items
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Adventuring in Azeroth has never been what some would call "conventional." The weird happens everyday for the heroes of the Alliance and the Horde. After all, we inhabit a world of talking walruses, and recreational marmot punting. But some quest items go above and beyond into the realm of the truly bizarre. In no particular order, here are my top 18. 1. Valoren's Shrinkage Totem In a questionable mashup of Free Willy, Seinfeld, and a certain infamous subgenre of Japanese hentai, Wavespeaker Valoren asks you to use his "shrinkage totem" on the tentacle horrors imprisoning Wil'hai the whale shark. Why does Valoren carry such a thing around with him? It's better not to ask such questions. As if we needed another reason to avoid questing in Vashj'ir, Blizzard went out of their way to remind us how all that cold water affects male genitalia. The totem works as advertised, and I can't help but feel a pang of sympathy for those tentacles when they shrivel up.
Japanese company takes pod concept mobile, keeps ants from your Grey Poupon (video)
The great outdoors not civilized enough? From the country with a dearth of space but no shortage of singular ideas comes the Zero Pod, letting you renounce the flimsy tent and enjoy nature in solid-framed style. Made up of "about 40 components," the structure can be placed on flat ground, steep hills, or even turned into a kit houseboat, judging by manufacturer DCW's video after the break. Claiming it can be assembled easily "by two women" in half a day, with knock-down taking a bit longer, the company added that the pods could also be put together as modules for use as hotel annexes. We'll have to see about the price, but if the pod lets us be in nature while keeping it off us, we're not going to quibble about a few yen.
The Final Fantasy wears Prada
Square Enix revealed this morning that the latest issue of male fashion mag Arena Homme+ features the cast of Final Fantasy XIII-2 in... Prada's 2012 Spring/Summer men's collection.The issue goes on sale April 12 and features Lightning, Noel, Snow, Sazh and Hope in Prada, which is certainly an upgrade from wearing all those clothes with extraneous buckles. (Note: Buckles are for belts, not hats, shoes or sleeve liners.)"I've always been interested by the power of video games and their place in society, and the amount of work that's gone into this project blows my mind. We're incredibly pleased with the result," Max Pearmain, Editor of Arena Homme+, said of the collaboration.This isn't the first time designer fashion and video games have collided, but this one is most clearly intentional -- unlike Dance Central's Lanvin ad and the whole Pyramid Head model thing.%Gallery-152233%
Kinect-powered theme park opens in South Korea
While South Korea's cousins to the north are busying themselves with their new glorious leader, the folks in the south's Ilsan districts of Gyeonggi-do are being entranced by American technology. An entire theme park has been created using Microsoft's Kinect tech combined with RFID wristbands that allow attendees to create avatar representations of themselves and move through the park while interacting with its various "attractions."But what are these attractions, you ask? They're just as bizarre as you might think, with things like "The Ender Mirror" allowing photo-taking powered by smiles, "Live360," which creates a 360-degree video game "with multiple story endings in a huge space," and much more. The park is being touted as "the world's first 4D avatar theme park," which we find hard to argue with. The question then becomes whether the world asked for such a theme park, which we find much, much easier to dispute.
TIGA: UK 'brain drain' sees nearly half of laid-off devs leaving country
Britain's developer workforce has fallen 10 percent since 2008, and 41 percent of studio employees laid off between 2009 and 2011 have relocated out of the country, UK-games trade association TIGA reports. TIGA is publishing a survey from Games Investor Consulting that covers three-fourths of the UK games industry and warns of a brain drain in the UK.Bizarre Creations, a Liverpool studio that closed in 2010, saw one-third of its former employees leave the UK for new jobs in the games industry, according to the report. It also claims that countries such as Canada can entice UK talent because they benefit from tax breaks that reduce the cost of game development. The UK currently doesn't have comparable tax breaks, but "the video games industry is exactly the kind of sector that the Government should be supporting to help rebalance the UK economy," TIGA CEO Richard Wilson says.
In Memoriam: Twelve studios we lost in 2011
Beyond the game industry's expected annual layoffs and studio closures, 2011 saw a variety of surprisingly high-profile devs shut their doors ... forever. From Geometry Wars/Project Gotham Racing dev house Bizarre Creations in the UK to LA Noire creator Team Bondi in Australia and even Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom devs Game Republic in Japan, it wasn't a good year to need a stable job in game development. IGN has a rundown of twelve especially notable losses (including the aforementioned studios, sans Game Republic), which run the gamut of industry publishers. As it turns out, it's not one particular publisher that's especially willing to cut studios in the face of financial loss -- it's all of them. [Image credit: Flickr user 'age_six_racer']
Bizarre fell into 'making games to fill slots,' says ex-creative director
Members of defunct developer Bizarre Creations recently provided Edge with more insight into what eventually led to the studio's shuttering. The general impression, beyond former design manager Gareth Wilson's reiteration of a "perfect storm of unfortunate circumstances," is that Bizarre's independent culture began to deteriorate following the Activision acquisition. "We weren't an independent studio making 'our' games anymore," said former creative director Martyn Chudley. "We were making games to fill slots. Although we did all believe in them, they were more the products of committees and analysts. The culture we'd worked on for so long gradually eroded just enough so that it wasn't 'ours' anymore." Chudley also claimed that the studio was given the opportunity to buy itself back, but as commercial manager Sarah Chudley explained it, the studio had grown considerably since the Activision takeover and "we just didn't have the skills, capability or finances to look after over 200 people." Without a third party coming in to assume control, it seemed wiser for everyone to walk away.
Ex-Bizarre devs form 'micro-studio' Hogrocket
As you peruse the smoldering remains of Bizarre Creations, you catch the faintest stirring out of the corner of your eye. You turn just in time to see, there, rising from the ashes, it's ... a pig in a spaceship? Okay, so we don't know why Bizarre refugees Ben Ward (studio communications), Peter Collier (former level designer) and Geometry Wars creator Stephen Cakebread settled on "Hogrocket" as the name for their new UK studio, but we're glad to see them getting back to work. The freshly announced "micro-studio" says it'll target iPad/iPhone with its first batch of games. It may be a little early for such proclamations, but if Hogrocket turns out mobile games as addictive as Geometry Wars with any regularity then ... well, this little piggy will be going to our wallets more times than we care to think about.
Bizarre's Wilson: 'perfect storm' led to studio's death
Less than a week after we said "goodbye" to Bizarre Creations, the Blur-ry details of what killed the developer are starting to come into focus. Eurogamer has an interview with Gareth Wilson, former design manager at the studio, who has since gone on to take a position at Sumo Digital. Wilson called Bizarre's death a "perfect storm of unfortunate circumstances." Wilson explained that getting attention for Blur, a new IP, at this point in the console cycle, was difficult -- especially with high-quality breakouts and juggernaut competition on the field. He believes that the quality of the competition, along with the state of the global economy, meant that gamers weren't ready to "take a risk." He points out several other quality IPs like Enslaved, Alan Wake and Vanquish that also struggled in 2010. Wilson now feels that the "middle ground," selling two to three million units is "getting hard to find," explaining "Games either 'break out' and sell four million plus, or really struggle to break even."
I Can't Believe It's An HTC Tattoo In My Butter!
So the story goes that some store-bought Norwegian butter was eaten away to reveal a very special Android-powered surprise at the bottom. It looks to us like the butter could have possibly been packed back in after the fact to create the effect, but even so: if you're willing to sacrifice a Tattoo in such spectacular fashion, you deserve a little recognition. [Thanks, Arif]
Activision finds no Bizarre buyers, recommends closure
Activision has recommended Bizarre Creations for closure, saying it has exhausted other options. Speaking with Develop, Activision Worlwide Studios' COO Coddy Johnson said he wanted "to be clear" that the publisher tried to keep the group together by finding a buyer, but after exploring leads with "pretty much anyone you can imagine in the industry," they were left with the option of "last resort." Activision made it known in early November that the Liverpool-based studio had entered a consultation period, a 90-day phase under UK law that warns of potential closure. On the same day as the announcement, Activision closed Iowa-based Budcat in the US. At the time, Activision said that, despite a substantial investment in creating a new IP, Blur did not find a commercial audience. If you are an employee of the studio and have anything more to share, please feel free to contact us.
Bond behind the wheel in new Blood Stone trailer
In the words of designer Sandy Lockie, Bizarre Creations has "a fantastic pedigree" when it comes to racing games -- "just such a good fit for a Bond game." Lockie himself also has a fantastic pedigree for rad hair. Scraggly chin beard? That too.
Watch this James Bond 007: Blood Stone trailer by any means necessary
Your task isn't nearly as daunting as the one facing Bizarre's Bond in Blood Stone. The iconic spy is sent to Istanbul to intercept the sale of "mission-critical biotechnology," and is granted inevitably catastrophic permission to do so "by any means necessary." The only thing in Istanbul we don't feel sorry for is the drill on loan from Total Recall.
James Bond 007: Blood Stone hurled through holiday release window, courtesy of Bizarre
Assassinating months of speculation, Activision has finally announced its new James Bond game, helmed by Project Gotham Racing and Blur developer Bizarre Creations. Featuring an original story by Bruce Feirstein (who penned the screenplay for GoldenEye and the script for 2003's Bond game, Everything or Nothing), James Bond 007: Blood Stone features a mix of third-person cover-based shooting, hand-to-hand combat and "adrenaline-fuelled driving sequences" on land and sea -- and air, if there are enough exploding ramps. Daniel Craig will reprise his role as suave spy guy (it's not like they need him for a movie right now) alongside Judi Dench, who once again plays stern boss lady "M." Grammy award-winning singer Joss Stone will be playing Blood Stone's obligatory gun-toting temptress, presumably because Oliver Stone couldn't quite pull off the evening gowns. Stone -- that's Joss -- will also provide the game's original theme song, "I'll Take it All," with the aid of Dave Stewart from the Eurythmics. Bizarre's James Bond 007: Blood Stone is set to launch on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this holiday season. N-Space is developing a DS version for the same time frame. You can watch the trailer for the console version here. %Gallery-97612%
Review: Blur
Blur is a great proof of concept. Bizarre Creations set out to update Mario Kart's tried and true formula with real cars in a "mature" setting -- and for the most part, the developer succeeded. Racing has a great sense of speed, enemy AI isn't nearly as elastic (even in the harder levels) as in Nintendo's kart racer and the power-up mechanics offer a balanced selection of weapons, making gameplay more tactical than dependent on dumb luck. However, between a poorly paced campaign, a small handful of available race modes and an uninspired sense of style (from the announcer to the menu layouts), I found myself wanting much more from the single-player campaign. The best part of the game is its plain-Jane racing but, unfortunately, Blur forces you to complete its two lesser modes (Destruction and Checkpoint) in order to get to all of it. Combine that with an exponentially increasing difficulty level in the game's later competitions and you've got Blur: a fun, interesting racing game with terrible structure. %Gallery-63796%
Metareview: Blur
Reviews have begun to inch out for Bizarre's new arcadey racer Blur and, at the risk of spoiling the metareview in the first sentence, they're pretty darn good! Maybe not "change your life" good, but at least "put this in your game box and fun will come out" good. What? That's not specific enough for you? OK, fine, here: Telegraph (9/10): "Every inch of Blur feels like it's crafted with the player in mind, offering them a huge, slick and exciting racing package. While it can frustrate, with the balance of powerups occasionally off-kilter, it only serves to push you onto the next race, to undo the injustice, to mete out your revenge." GameInformer (8.5/10): "Blur is a game built on versatility. Power-ups aren't simply offensive or defensive; they are tools you can use in different ways depending on the situation. A Barge blast is always handy to disrupt any cars in your immediate vicinity, but it can also be deployed as a momentary shield. Likewise, most power-ups come with an alternate fire option. For instance, your garden-variety Nitro boost can alternately be used to slow you down – useful for those really tight corners." Eurogamer (8/10): "Handling is rich and dramatic. Acceleration and drifting are sympathetic enough to correct the rear if you're showing your inexperience, but the relationship between gas, brake, traction and apex remains complex. And it's fast."
