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Ninja Gaiden hacks its way onto the PS3
Dubbed Ninja Gaiden Sigma, the next installment of the Ninja Gaiden series is coming to the PS3. There's not too much known about it yet, but you'll probably get some play time (gameplay, we mean!) with the lusty Rachel, a scantly-clad female who has appeared in other Ninja Gaiden titles. The thing that haunts these games the most is the supposed difficulty -- meaning, it's very, very hard. Those who played the Xbox iterations can attest: the game was darn tough! The addition of Ninja Gaiden Black didn't help too much, but it gave Xbox owners a taste of Devil May Cry meets Shinobi minus stupid aggravating falling-into-a-pit deaths. If you tried Shinobi, you know what we mean. Well, if any details surface about this new title at the Tokyo Game Show, we'll bring it to you right away. [via Joystiq]
Next Ninja Gaiden goes PS3
According to the latest issue of Famitsu (conveyed by CVG), the next installment of Ninja Gaiden is PlayStation 3-bound. Entitled Ninja Gaiden Sigma, the game will let you play as Rachel from Ninja Gaiden Black. Although a drunken Tomonobu Itagaki revealed in early July that Ninja Gaiden 2 is in the works, there is no confirmation that this is the same project. As CVG hypothesizes, the title could be a remake of Ninja Gaiden Black with some bonus content and spiffier visuals. There is no indication that Sigma will be exclusive to Sony's console. In recent years, Itagaki has focused exclusively on Microsoft's console. Is this a sign of a waning relationship between Microsoft and Team Ninja, or is the house that Dead or Alive built hoping to attract a larger Japanese following (if you didn't know, gamers in the Land of the Rising Sun hate freedom shun Microsoft consoles like the Black Death). Famitsu lists no release date for the project; we'll let you know if any more details should spill at the Tokyo Games Show.
UK sales charts, September 9-16: Lego leads the board
Despite entering the charts at number three last week, Lego Star Wars II has proved a popular favourite with the British public, rising to snatch the top spot from Dead Rising this week. The rest of the chart follows in similar vein, demonstrating only a slight shuffle from last week's positions. Several Xbox 360 titles are selling well, but the multiformat nature of Lego Star Wars may have tipped it to the top -- that, and it's Lego, man. 1. Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy 2. Dead Rising 3. Saints Row 4. Cars 5. Test Drive Unlimited 6. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training 7. New Super Mario Bros. 8. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories 9. Lego Star Wars 10. The Sims 2
Joystiq interview: Jenova Chen
Xinghan (Jenova) Chen has big dreams. A recent graduate of the University of Southern California's School of Cinema & Television, Chen focused his master's thesis on changing how game designers look at difficulty and redefine the concept of Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment. With two award-winning independent games (flOw and Cloud) under his belt as well as contributions to a multitude of other games, Chen's resume reads like an old professional in the gaming field. We had a chance to speak with Chen to talk about his thesis, its (mis)interpretations, and his current work with Maxis. Why did you choose this project as your Master's Thesis? The Master's Thesis has to have some contribution to the field that you want to be a master. For me, I have created so many games in the past I feel just creating another game is not contributing anything. I'm more interesting in coming up with another solution in better game design that can be used by other game designers to attract more gamers. For other industries, any kind of interactive design, the theories in this project are helpful.
Metareview - LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
Traveller's Tales was on to something when they decided to take the popular LEGO brand of Star Wars toys and make a video game based on our favorite bricks. The resulting LEGO Star Wars was a novel, family-oriented romp through the galaxy far, far away. LucasArts was more Force sensitive this time around and assumed publishing duties from Eidos for the sequel, LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy. Overall marks are only slightly higher than the first game, but critics agree the stronger source material makes The Original Trilogy worth its weight in galactic credits. GameSpy (90/100) thinks the sequel's enhanced "born to build" features will appeal to the kid in all of us: "There are a lot more LEGO elements scattered throughout each stage than there was in the first game. By blowing up LEGO objects, you'll often be able to rebuild the scattered bricks into new items that can be used to reach otherwise hidden areas. It really gives you the feeling that you're playing within a living LEGO world." 1UP (80/100) knows the only substitute for a good blaster is a good ship: "While the vehicular stages vary in terms of quality, the mere fact that so many exist really adds to the scope of the game. Lego Star Wars II offers a surprising amount of playtime, and is much larger and longer than the original game (which was one of its biggest criticisms)." GameSpot (77/100) discovered that fancy next-gen visuals not make one great: "The current-gen console versions all look slightly better than the original Lego Star Wars, while the PC version looks a bit better than those, since it can run at much higher resolutions. The Xbox 360 version has the most graphical flair, with better reflections, better explosions, and a cool lens-focus effect. It's definitely the best-looking version, but it's also got a very minor frame rate problem that crops up when there are a lot of particle effects." See also: Batman to LEGO brick consoles everywhere
Limited edition Shadow of the Colossus tee
We're certain this limited edition Shadow of the Colossus tee will have some of our readers fumbling through their chubby trifolds, weaving in and out of grocery club cards, de-laminated licenses, and ATM receipts, just to find that one credit card that isn't maxed out on import video games. But you'd better be quick, cause these are limited editions. Due to go on sale tomorrow, this $30 CAD (about $27 USD) shirt features a towering colossus (number three if we're not mistaken) being approached by Agro carrying our fearless protagonist. It comes in the regular assortment of sizes (which are the same in Canada as the States, no?) but there's only 200 to go around. So, if you managed to find that credit card, you still have to be quick (feel free to insert your own 12:01 joke here). [Thanks, jerry]
Blog debate: PS3 to load games slower than the Xbox 360
From the "PS3 can't get a publicity break" file comes news that the system's Blu-ray load times will be slower than the DVD speeds of the Xbox 360. Following our post regarding Resistance: Fall of Man's beefy 22GBs of data, Microsoft's Andre Vrignaud (aka Ozymandias) wrote about why storage capacity isn't as important as drive speed and -- wouldn'tcha know it? -- Blu-ray has bunches of the former and not so much of the latter. Former Sony employee Mark DeLoura responded with a long, thoughtful response sticking up for the format that fanboys love to hate, talking textures, audio, and even read speed. Naturally, there's some guffawing from the other side of the aisle as Ozymandias takes umbrage with some of DeLoura's claims, notably that textures and other media will take up a sizable chunk of that Blu-ray disc. One area they are in agreement on is that Blu-ray's read speed isn't as fast as the Xbox 360's. Says DeLoura: "Admittedly, Blu-Ray looks dicey from several non-capacity angles. Blu-Ray movies require a 1.5x Blu-Ray drive, or 54Mbits/second. Sony announced that PS3 uses a 2x BD drive, which is 72Mbits/second or 9MB/second. The Xbox 360 uses a 12x DVD, which should give it about 16MB/second. That is significantly faster for games and will result in shorter load times. And that 12x DVD drive should be a whole lot cheaper. (Note that the PS3 drive will do 8x DVD, and even that is faster than 2x BD.)" Says Ozymandias in response: "This is pretty much what I've been saying regarding drive speeds. A good example of where we're pretty clearly agreeing." So, they're in agreement. The PS3 will load slower than the Xbox 360, leading one to question whether bragging about 22GB discs is the most prudent course of action. Let's hope they use the compression technologies touched on in the debate to shrink the data down considerably, even if it obviates a key selling point of the console. ... but wait, it's not all settled. Be sure to read the comments on Ozymandias' last post to get a bunch of great feedback, including this gem on the finer differences between CAV and CLV drives ("a BD25 on PS3 fares better than a DVD9 on the 360"), or Kim Pallister's link back to his own feedback on the fight and the "innovator's dilemma." [Thanks, Hank; via DigitalBattle] Grist - Will Resistance: FoM justify the PS3 pricetag? [Joystiq] Point - Drive Speed More Relevant to Games Than Capacity [Ozymandias] Counterpoint - On PS3 and Blu-Ray [Mark DeLoura] Counter-counterpoint - Oddly, We're in Violent Agreement [Ozymandias]
Up close with BWii
The newly-announced Battalion Wars 2 is playable in Leipzig, and the initial opinions are positive. Graphically, the game sports little difference from the prior GameCube version, but word is that the controls for BWii are smooth and the gameplay is interesting enough that the game manages to feel new and fresh. It's not all roses, though -- IGN reports, after their time with the game, that a few of the maneuvers feel a little awkward, but from their short time with the game, these bumps didn't seem insurmountable. Apparently, BWii will offer several online multiplayer modes, but all that is confirmed at this time is a four-player Capture the Flag. In tanks. Or maybe even in boats. Oh yeah.
Will Resistance: FoM justify the PS3 pricetag? [update 1]
Insomniac Games, the guys behind the Ratchet and Clank series, were in the Big Apple showing off the latest build of their upcoming PS3 launch title, Resistance: Fall of Man. Kotaku had a Gawker cameraman on the scene to grab some video, and MTV News' Stephen Totilo managed the impossible. He extracted some positive press about the PS3 (Sony must be furious at Insomniac, this goes against their entire pre-launch strategy). Turns out that Blu-ray drive that every armchair analyst is convinced is a giant wooden equine built to penetrate our consumer-weary walls and then attack with an army of HD movies may actually be useful for gaming afterall. The game currently takes up 22GB! That's seven whole gee-bees more than a single layer HD-DVD disc that the Xbox 360 won't (?) be using for gaming. The Dual Shake functionality that was supposedly tacked on at the last minute ... well, it looks like it was still tacked on; nevertheless, it holds some serious promise. Ninety days before this thing has to be on store shelves the developers have still not activated the functionality on the controller, but they have added in some clever gameplay currently triggered with a button press. Shake off a melee attack by shaking the controller, or introduce the end of your rifle to their face with a quick jab of your right hand. Sure, you won't feel the vibration when that blow connects, but it's something. But there's also multiplayer. How will Sony's secretive service compare to the superlative Xbox Live? R: FoM will feature: "40-player online matches at launch; 60 levels of player progression while playing online; two-player offline co-op." 60 levels of player progression ... sounds like another popular online game. According to MTV News, Insomniac even promised "better, deeper support than any Xbox Live title." Has the PS3 buzz finally begun? We've been increasingly anxious that someone at Sony didn't get the memo that their latest and greatest was launching in a few scant months. [Update: Insomniac's Ryan Schneider called MTV News to clarify what exactly is on those 22GBs. "While the music and vocals in Resistance take up only about 1 Gigabyte of disc space, graphics, level data and programming code occupy most of the remaining 21."] Watch - New Resistance: Fall of Man video Read - MTV News on Resistance: Fall of Man
Grid Wars author comments on clone's creation
Grid Wars creator Mark Incitti said he doubts his freeware PC game is affecting sales of the Xbox 360's Geometry Wars, as Bizarre creations recently alleged. In an interview with Eurogamer, Incitti said the game started out more as a Robotron/Smash TV-style game, but started to morph in response to news that Bizarre was not working on a PC version of the popular Xbox Live Arcade shooter. Incitti also said that he was in talks with Bizarre for months before he pulled the game from his site, and that offers to change the game's aesthetics and name were ignored. All in all, Incitti doesn't seem too bitter about being asked to remove the game, but he said he hopes other Geometry Wars clones get the same treatment from Bizarre.
Bizarre defends going after Geometry Wars clones
A few days ago, we reported on Bizarre Creations efforts to remove Geometry Wars clone Grid Wars from the internet. Bizarre recently posted an extensive justification of their actions to the community at large on their official forums. Among Bizarre's more salient points: Only hardcore gamers can tell the differences between these clones and Geometry Wars. Clones weaken the brand and discourage us from releasing Geometry Wars on new platforms. Geometry Wars is a rare example of and indie-owned, wholly original intellectual property, and that deserves protection. Simplicity of design does not warrant theft. Not wanting to buy an Xbox 360 does not warrant theft. All good points, but arguments alone aren't likely to stem the tide of freely available Geometry Wars clones on the internet. At the very least, though, they might make you feel guilty for helping discourage originality in video game design. Shame on you. Shame! [Via Gamasutra]
Your mom plays Xbox 360 games
The elusive "casual market" has recently become quite the sought-after prey for game publishers, each one attempting in its own way to hunt down those who would normally shy away from complex and scary video games. Nintendo isn't the only company to have Grandma firmly set in a Zapper scope -- the other major players are also taking aim, Microsoft with Xbox Live Arcade and Sony with Singstar microphones. With this in mind, Alex Petraglia decided to test whether or not Microsoft in particular was actually hitting their target. After all, he had the equipment necessary to conduct such an inquest: one Xbox 360 console, several Xbox 360 games and one willing female parental unit. Alex introduced his mom to a wide variety of XBLA and full retail titles, documenting her performance and struggles. The article places his thoughts alongside those written by his mother and it makes for some very interesting reading. It seems the most difficult acclimations involved controls and finding the correct path through a level. The 53 year-old Mrs. P notes that "the biggest problem is a simple lack of experience. It seemed like, in a game such as Prey, you [Alex] knew exactly where to go after looking at a puzzle or roadblock, whereas it'd take me an exorbitant amount of time to move onto the next task or area. And it took me a very long time to develop the ability to move freely in the game and feel comfortable with the controls, to some extent." Other points of interest include her first interpretation of Geometry Wars ("she flew directly into the first target, thinking maybe that was the point of the game") and her eventual favorite, Condemned (!). "I think strong dramatic elements, like story and visuals and music, would be a bigger draw to older generations than unique gameplay mechanics or what have you." [Thanks Alex P!]
Bizarre tries to stop Geometry Wars clone
Imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery, but Bizarre Creations isn't feeling very flattered about Grid Wars. The company thinks the PC game is impacting the sales of Xbox Live Arcade's Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, and has asked the game's creator, Mark Incitti, to "stop infringing our IP and pull the game Grid Wars from the internet for download." Incitti has voluntarily agreed to this request. The line between inspiration and rip-off is extremely fine here. On the one hand, everything about Grid Wars -- from the graphical style to the enemies to the basic gameplay -- is extremely reminiscent of Geometry Wars. On the other hand, Grid Wars does offer some refinements to the Geometry Wars system, like collectible power ups and a slower-paced build up of the action. Regardless of the legal threats, it seems doubtful that Bizarre will be able to put the genie back in the bottle. The game is still available through a World of Stuart review and doubtless countless other sties. Even if Grid Wars is eradicated from the internet, other clones like HGEWars, Grid Assault, and Trigonometry Wars are available. Whether Bizzare likes it or not, it looks like Geometry Wars clones are destined to be as common as those of Tetris and Pac-man. [Via GameSetWatch]
Dead Head Fred not dead: new screenshots
Dead Head Fred is a game you should keep your eyes on: not only because the title rhymes, but because it is one of the few truly original PSP-exclusive action games in development for our system. You play Fred, who was recently killed by decapitation. Now that you're undead, you're on a mission to get revenge. But, being beheaded has a few benefits. One, for example, is the ability to rip off enemy heads and use them as your own for special powers! It's like Mega Man, only a bit more morbid...The game combines platforming, fighting, puzzle solving and a whole lot of dark humor. It's scheduled for a January 2007 release, so keep your eyes peeled for more coverage on this unique game. Until then, check out the new screenshots posted by Gamespot.
Geometry War without end
As we prepare to do a little -- ok, alot of street fighting this Wednesday, let's not forget the game that put Xbox Live Arcade on the map. Here's an interview with elite Geometry Warrior Trey Landry, aka BigDaddy21, currently #1 on the leaderboard with a score of 125, 261, 170. Not bad, but like Bruce Lee said, geometrical shapes don't hit back. [Thanks Mark]
Scarface joins next-gen cancellation list
It's hard out there for a gangsta. After the Sopranos just got the next-gen axe, Scarface follows suit and blows up plans for an Xbox 360 release. According to GameSpot, Vivendi has just announced that any chance for a 360 release is dunzo, but to make up for it, a PSP iteration of the game will come out this fall. While it's true the developers have been very mum on the next-gen version (in fact when we played the game not too long ago, they had told us there wouldn't be one), it was announced back in 2005 that it was considered. Well now it's official, no next-gen version. What's going on here people? Are we really starting to see the effects of large budgets for next-gen games exploding in developer's faces? Somewhere, a Nintendo exec is laughing.
Change desktop wallpaper with an Automator action
Sometimes randomly rotating your desktop wallpaper through the Desktop System Preferences pane is just a little overkill. Wouldn't it be nice if you had a simple drag-and-drop Automator action for setting your own wallpaper whenever your heart desired a change of pace? Then why not use this macosxhints post to make one. A few simple steps creates an action that you save as an app somewhere (I named my action 'Wallpaper') and simply link to in your Dock. For added convenience I saved it as a Finder plugin so I can right-click any picture I find to quickly chose Automator > Wallpaper from the context menu. Handy.As an extra tip: make sure you turn off automatic wallpaper rotation in the Desktop Preferences pane if it's on. Otherwise, at least from my testing, this action won't work.
Stranglehold: can you taste the cinema?
Anything that has John Woo's name on it should automatically come with a warning label. You're almost guaranteed to walk away with a bruised noggin... if you walk away at all. Enter Stranglehold: his brand new PS3-powered videogame sequel to none other than the oh-so-action-packed Hard Boiled. IGN got the chance to chat it up with Jason Kaehler, who is the Art Director on the game. They talked about how much effort is going into just creating the detailed characters you will see in the title. For example, instead of relying on sketches and concept art alone, Midway actually had a casting call where hundreds of extras came in to have their likeness captured via photographs. So next time you see a call for "Gritty, rugged, mean-looking bad asses," keep your options open because you could find yourself immortalized in the next interactive cinematic videogame. Check out the article for more (and some new screens too).
Location Switch Automator action
Location Switch is an Automator action that adds some painfully missing features to Mac OS X's built-in Locations option (y'know, that feature you never touch in the Apple menu?). Location Switch can a whole host of application preferences and settings based on which location you chose, such as sound volume, SMTP servers, default printer, etc. Before you use it, however, the action requires some customization on your part, so check out the accompanying ReadMe file for instructions, and open the action in Automator to give it your personal touch.Location Switch is available free from Automator World, but if you enjoy it, consider sending its creator, Charles Schoenfeld, a donation at his site.[via Hawk Wings]
Colossal figurine ... at 1/150 scale
We've been spending most of our free time feeding this dog radioactive kibble in a poorly thought out plan to make him 100 feet tall. Every night, we lay out an oversized bowl, filled to the brim with a dangerous concoction of kibble laced with some radioactive waste that Ludwig found out back. Every night the dog eats it and every morning he's the same size. Not sure that radioactive waste is radioactive at all. On to Plan B: We'll instead focus our efforts on shrinking ourselves and then ascend this 195mm (that's about 7.7", yanks) Shadow of the Colossus figurine and plunge our (now shrunken) swords into its dense resin exterior. 'Course we'll need to order the thing from Japan first and, at ,290 (that's about $90, everyone), it's not coming cheap. Compared to the rough numbers we've been putting together, it's the shrinking machine and not the figurine that's going to set us back. [Via NeoGAF]
