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The Virtual Menagerie: A look back at our techno pets
Pets are great. But if you're too lazy, busy or overcome with allergies for the real thing, you have a host of digital alternatives. They've found homes on our computers, in addictive little eggs and even housed insemi-realistic representations of actual animals. Their souls may be entirely digital, but that hasn't stopped consumers from coddling and caring for these code-based creatures. Join us as we take a look at some of the digital, virtual and robotic pets that have captured our hearts over the years.
It puts the dog food in the basket or else it gets the hose again: Ubisoft announces Petz World
Several MMOs, such as Free Realms, flirt with the concept of virtual pet ownership and conditioning, but it looks like Ubisoft is ready for a full-fledged commitment to the concept with Petz World. Gamasutra reported that Firma Studio is developing the free-to-play MMO, which will be published by Ubisoft in 2011. Based on the popular Dogz and Catz virtual pet simulators that date all the way back to the stone age of the internet (1995!), Petz has since expanded the franchise to include a wide variety of animals including hamsters, tigers and horses. In these games, players "adopt" a virtual pet of their choice, provide for their needs, and train their behavior through repeated actions. Repeated actions -- that sounds right up an MMO's alley, doesn't it? Ubisoft hopes that Petz World will bring parents and children closer together through the gameplay. The MMO will involve a large variety of collecting, achievements and unlockables as players scour the world for cool pets and conquer special challenges. Ubisoft's Chris Early thinks there's enough to appeal to a wide demographic: "This game is a unique way for children and parents to play games together." This is the latest move by the publisher to expand into the casual MMO landscape, following other titles like Might and Magic: Heroes Kingdoms.
Bury the Shovelware: Petz Dogz Fashion
This title seemed to be doomed from the beginning: it's made by Ubisoft, it's a pet simulator, and it uses Z's where there should be S's. But you may be surprised to learn that this actually isn't quite a terrible game. Yet it's still shovelware. So how does one achieve this seemingly contradictory state? Last week, we discussed imitation. While Best of Tests DS was clearly trying to bite off some of the Brain Age momentum, its limited content and awful design made it a lackluster game. Thus, it was easily identified as shovelware. But what does one do when a seemingly good game is, at its core, nothing more than a simple clone of an existing title (albeit a well done clone)? Here's my take on things.
Transgaming makes deal with Ubisoft
First EA, and now gaming giant Ubisoft has inked a deal with Transgaming to wrap their titles in Cider and port them over to the Mac. Which seems like great news -- Ubisoft has a huge number of quality titles, and bringing those to the Mac must be great for gamers who appreciate a better operating system. But not so fast.First things first, Cider hasn't exactly proven itself in terms of making great games, or even ports for that matter. And apparently Ubisoft is taking it slow -- rather than bring us games like Prince of Persia, Assassin's Creed or the great Rainbow Six Vegas series, we're getting... wait for it... Catz and Dogz. Oh, and CSI: Hard Evidence, which was hardly a blockbuster on game shelves.It's definitely good news that Mac gamers are getting more to play, but if this is all we're going to get, they can keep it. If they wanted to port us Far Cry 2 when it comes out, or maybe even the long-awaited Beyond Good and Evil 2 whenever it's done, awesome. But if all we're going to get is years-old bottom-of-the-barrel crapware, we'll stick with original Mac game developers, thanks.[via Big Download]
Ubisoft Montreal vs. Dog Z
As hated as Ubisoft's Petz games are by the "hardcore" blog-reading crowd, kids apparently eat them up (the games, not pets). They're so important that, according to Ubisoft's Benoit Galarneau, the company's Montreal studio (Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Assassin's Creed) is handling development of the latest Wii game in the series, Dogz 2008. "We did this one internally," Galarneau said, "because we feel that as the casual market is growing, we feel that our Petz line will explode, and we need to raise the quality of the game to make sure that no competitor will steal our position as pet people."This interview is actually the most we've heard Ubisoft open up about this type of game. Galarneau discusses the differences in regional markets, in-game advertising, and failure states in casual games. But the really interesting part comes at the end, when the subject of the Z came up. Ubisoft inherited the "Petz" naming convention from the original PF Magic-developed series, and kept it. Now the company sees it as kind of an identifying trademark. "But one thing we have to make sure of is that people understand that the one with the "z" is the one we're pushing. It's not just "Pets" or "Dogs", as any dog or any pet. It's Petz. My team would say "Dog Z" most of the time."When told by Gamasutra's Brandon Sheffield that "Dog Z" sounds like a specific dog, Galarneau said "There will be Dog Z in the game, in fact."
Casual Wii games cost Ubisoft serious dollarz
Poor old Ubisoft. Contrary to popular belief, it turns out that casual games won't pay for your entire HQ to be paved in gold. According to Ubisoft North American president Laurent Detoc, this is because any savings made on developing such titles goes towards marketing the things, which apparently costs an arm and a leg."The margins on these games are good when you look at development, but it takes a lot of marketing dollars," revealed Detoc to Gamasutra, instantly endearing himself to all of us hardcore gamers who can't stand a lot of the casual tat on the Wii. "It's like packaged goods. You have to think about marketing, retail space, branding." My, isn't it nice to see that the creative flame still burns bright in the industry?Anyway, Ubisoft is especially struggling with its Wii line-up of casual fare, with Detoc admitting that much work is to be done if Ubi's games are to "sell as well as Nintendo's own Wii titles." Needless to say, our hearts bleed.
Amazon unbags Catz 2 sale
Wait! Before you roll your eyes and scroll past this post in search of non Petz news, we want to make sure you know that unlike the DS and PC versions, Petz Catz 2 isn't your garden-variety shovelware pet sim.It's more of a light RPG adventure in which you, a kitten, set out to retrieve a magical top hat from a mean wolf. Of course, along the way, you'll have several different minigames and side quests which you can pounce into, instead. Also, you can put hats on cats.If that short description -- or the prospect of adorning cats with hats -- interests you at all, Amazon has the game on sale for a super cheap $7.99 until the end of the day. If you're more of a puppy person, you can also pick up the palette-swapped canine complement, Petz Dogz 2, for only $9.99. [Via CAG]Read - Petz Catz 2 for $7.99Read - Petz Dogz 2 for $9.99
Five games to buy for people you hate
Gaming sites are inundated with holiday gift guides at the end of the year, listing the best and most popular games that everyone pretty much already has (or knows about). Well, we're not going in for that this year. Our gift guide will help you find the best gifts in categories the other sites won't cover -- because we just made them up.Do you just love handing out the most horrific holiday gifts? If you're the kind of person who actually tucks sticks and coal into the stocking of a loved one on Christmas Eve, then this list is for you. It's all about the worst of the worst, the bottom of the barrel -- the games you would shudder to find on your own shelf, or worse, tainting your DS. Before you ask -- yes, we do love to see you cringe and suffer at the horrors we spring on you. Aren't we sweet?
Adopt Petz Catz 2 for ten bucks
Sure, it's third-party pet-sim shovelware, but if you're looking for a cheap Christmas gift to throw at the preteen brats in your family, look no further! For today only, Amazon has Petz Catz 2 on sale at a discount price of $9.99. Slap another $15+ item onto your order, like a copy of Final Fantasy 3 for yourself, and you can even take advantage of the online shop's Free Super Save Shipping.Ubisoft actually put together some adorable commercials for Catz 2 and other games in the Petz series. Nom nom nom past the post break for those short videos.
The truth about Catz and Dogz, as told by EBGames commenters
The issue of which pet-care game is the best is much too divisive to solve here. Even splitting them up into categories: horse, cat, hamster, etc. (as well as the non-pet care games involving human babies) is just much too controversial for us to make our own call.GamesRadar's staff, hoping to put this issue to rest, turned to the EBGames user comments for each game to determine which was the best. Using this resource, they were able to get expert reviews, like this one for Nintendogs: "this is wat i said to my mom when it came out! " o.m.g i really need to get this game." she said ok." To be fair, a lot of the commenters, especially for these games, are children, and probably don't need to be made fun of. But some of the comments run a little psychotic: "I had my nintendo ds for a while now and i have been ready for this moment," a commenter said about Imagine Babyz. What rituals must one go through to prepare for Imagine Babyz?
More Petz for your DS
Remember when we said that everybody wants a piece of the virtual pets pie? We weren't lying and now Ubisoft plans to extend their Petz franchise. Not only will you have cuddly Catz and Dogz, you will now have Horsez and, get this, Hamsterz Life. I guess Barbie's Horse Adventures isn't enough anymore. Want more? Released this September is Dogz Fashion for GBA. This, obviously, concentrates the most on prizes. Now you have to give your animals baths and such. Best thing about this new line of Petz, in our opinion, are the hamsters. They always did smell a little funny and now you don't have to, um, smell them.
