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Ultima Online revisits dynamic content with Magincia reconstruction
Long before RIFT barreled on to the MMO scene and made a buzz-phrase out of "dynamic content," Ultima Online developers were busily pumping out some dynamic content of their own. In the fall of 2007, the influential fantasy sandbox title saw a horde of nasty demons descend upon the hapless town of Magincia and raze it to the ground despite (or in some cases, because of) the efforts of players on each of the game's shards. The invasion was part of a larger story cycle called Warriors of Destiny, and a new event is now brewing that will bring players back to the site of the ruined town. As part of the New Magincia rebuilding process, the provisional government of Britannia is holding a lottery for 22 land plots atop the city ruins. Said plots may be used for residences or shops at the winning player's discretion. The city is also playing host to a new public gardening mechanic, and you can find all the details at the official Ultima Online website.
Stinkweed and stars: Wizard101's latest update improves the quality of life
Budding magicians will find Wizard101 a friendlier and more colorful place following the recent February update to the game. Topping the list of additions are two new castles: a cash shop-only tropical island and a craftable Celestial Observatory. The Observatory represents a truly monumental undertaking for the crafting set, although some would argue that the result is well worth the time spent on it. The update's other major focus is on smoothing out some of the lumpy bits of in-game gardening, which now should be much more user-friendly for those with green thumbs. We can safely speak for everyone when we say, "Thank goodness that Stinkweed now grows faster!" Wizard101's also started a membership program for anyone who uses a credit card for their subscription during the previous 30 days. As a reward to players who use this form of payment, KingsIsle will refill their energy faster, increase the size of their backpacks, expand their friends list, and quicken their hatching and crafting timers. You can read the full update notes over at Wizard101.
Choose My Adventure: There's no crying in the Spiral edition
Ah, another week of playing in the Spiral of Wizard101. It's been a lot of fun so far, and I've learned more than I thought I would. Of course, the game continues to run smoothly without almost any issues, and the combat is really starting to ramp up. I've barely dipped my toes into crafting and gathering, only going so far as to take on the first quest in a line that seems to explain it. I even dabbled in pet-raising and games, as well, probably the main area in which I can see the need for more improvement. Other than that, I mostly enjoyed jumping into open groups with other players. Solo play is a blast, for sure, but having three other wizards at your side as you battle a gaggle of baddies is a sight to be seen. I'll have to get much better, though, in spite of finding it easy to mow down my enemies. I've started to notice chinks in the armor of my deck and have begun to wonder what it is I am doing wrong. I have an idea, but more testing is needed. Click past the cut to read the details of my adventure, and maybe you can give me some advice, too!
Kingsisle shines some light on Wizard101 gardening
If you're a player of Wizard101, the surprisingly deep card-based MMO from Kingsisle Entertainment, then you were probably surprised when gardening made an appearance on the test server last week. I know I heard a gasp of surprise as my wife logged in to take a look! It seems as though players will now be able to grow their own plants, complete with their own personalities and faces. Well, things were still a bit foggy so we decided to fire off a few questions (with the help of our friend Fallon at Diary of a Wizard) in the hopes that our thumbs would become a little greener. Thankfully, Fred Howard, V.P. of marketing at Kingsisle, was able to answer them all. Join us past the cut for the full interview!
5 Apps for the weekend warrior
Getting through the work week is hard enough for most of us... but the minute Friday afternoon rolls around, there's a certain breed that face the weekend with a long list of "honey do" projects and household duties. Yes, the weekend warriors need iPhone app love too -- whether to help with those maintenance challenges, or find ways to make the break from the day job a bit more enjoyable. Here's a five app collection just for you, my brothers and sisters in the two-day sprint; enjoy. Weber's On The Grill™ [iTunes link] for iPhone, at $4.99, would seem to be a bit pricey compared to other grill-centric cooking apps selling for $0.99 (dadoo's Grill Guide) or the large number of free and well-regarded cookbook apps on the store (check out Epicurious Recipies & Shopping List, for one). Nevertheless, if you're serious about getting the most out of your grill, the $5 you spend on this app will be well worth it. Weber may be the world's largest grill manufacturer, but the relationship of Weber owners to their grills feels more personal than mass-marketed; in fact, the slightly obsessive and cultish fandom around the Weber brand may seem a wee bit familiar to, uh, owners of a particular company's computers, music players and cellphones. Ahem. The iPhone app takes the Weber customer very seriously, providing a great collection of hundreds of recipes along with grilling technique guides (including videos from chef Jamie Purviance), time and temperature recommendations, a handy shopping list manager, and a convenient cooking timer right in the app. About the only thing that's missing is an optional meat thermometer to plug into the dock connector (which I would totally buy if they made one). %Gallery-70121%
Square-Enix cracks down on gardeners, sends out bans
If you've got a green thumb, you probably now have a sore thumb thanks to the Square-Enix banhammer. Gardeners across Final Fantasy XI have been complaining on fan forums that they've recently lost their accounts, only now tying the cause of their bans to their gardening activities.Community site Pet Food Alpha has reported that Square-Enix is specifically targeting players who own more than one character for the explicit reason of gardening. Any level character can garden -- even right from the start of the game -- but no character can have more than 10 flowerpots at a time in their house. This has sparked players to purchase more character slots to simply expand their gardening enterprises, a common practice that has been done by players for over six years.Players are unclear if these bans have been handed our by individuals on the RMT Task Force, or if they bans were created by one of Square-Enix's new automated tools. We'll keep our eyes on this story and update as new information comes in.
Enjoy some sunshine with Gardening Mama
Majesco has to make sure it keeps the Cooking Mama voice actress on its payroll. She is basically magical. We love the Cooking Mama games enough to be interested in Gardening Mama anyway, but Mama's encouraging, heavily-accented narration makes us really want to do some fake gardening in the "first gardening game on DS" (which must mean that Majesco doesn't count farming as gardening)! How great would it feel to be told you're "even better than Mama" at pouring water into the ground? Pretty great. We never get such an enthusiastic "Bravo!" when we spray stuff on plants. We could use more of that kind of feedback in our lives. %Gallery-35422%
Water saplings! Add soil! Dilute serum!: Gardening Mama dishes out the orders
Wiiz has another six screens of Gardening Mama, Majesco's game for people who, like us, think gardening is a bit rubbish and not really worth our time. Naturally, we think simulating this activity through our DSes is perfectly fine, mainly because it doesn't involve getting wet feet and cold hands. So we're massive hypocrites. Sue us.These new screenshots deal with some of the new tasks we'll face as virtual gardeners. We're told to "Add more soil!" "Water the sapling!" "Dilute the serum!" "Squash those viruses!" No matter what she or her garden is going through, Mama greets all of these challenges with the same reaction: that calm (yet determined) smile. We doubt we'll manage to be quite as composed.%Gallery-35422%
Gardening Mama to sprout in Spring
Tired of wrestling with assorted meats and vegetables, Mama has moved from the confines of Majesco's kitchen and into the fresh outdoors, or at least she will next Spring when Gardening Mama is released for the Nintendo DS. Developed by the folks responsible for Mama's culinary exploits, the game will allow players to "plant, nurture and harvest" flowers, fruits and veggies growing in her backyard. Perhaps this is the beginning of a trend for Mama as she explores the world outside of her kitchen to discover firsthand just where her ingredients come from. We gleefully await the arrival of Slaughterhouse Mama to deliver some delicious reindeer steaks just in time for next year's holiday rush. Gallery: Gardening Mama [Via DS Fanboy]
Spring is the season for Gardening Mama in North America
We didn't think Majesco would find any reason not to pick this up, but we're glad to see an official announcement. The company will publish Cooking Mama Ltd.'s latest, Gardening Mama, in North America, with a scheduled spring 2009 release.According to the press release, Gardening Mama features not only planting and maintaining crops, but also segments in which players use those crops after harvesting -- including examples like making strawberry jam and carving pumpkins. Gardening Mama also features four-player multiplayer gardening, and the ability to share the products of your labor with other players online.%Gallery-35422%
Metareview -- Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise
With Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise having released on September 2nd here in North America (and September 5th in Europe), you've all had some time to play the game. There aren't many reviews out there right now, but the ones that are available seem to generally laud the game's ambitious efforts. After we check in with the critics, toss your two cents in.So let's get to the scores! IGN (85/100) thinks it's quite the game: "Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise takes the original 360 effort as a template, and brings the 'go at your own pace,' free-form design to the Nintendo DS, beautifully. The visuals are crisp and colorful, the audio is a mix of in-game animal sounds and VO taken from the TV show, and its easy to control the world with a quick swipe or tap of a stylus. There are some basic changes to be had, such as the lack of camera control, the removal of the somewhat pesky mini-games for mating, and the general spectacle of watching your Piñatas move around in beautiful HD, but the core gameplay more than survives in its conversion to the pocket platform, and Viva Piñata is left with just as much magic on DS as it has on 360." Eurogamer (80/100) says the game isn't for kids, but good nonetheless: "However, what Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise loses in coming second, and not having a triple-core PowerPC chip to drive its graphics, it makes up with its new, much better stylus-based interface, and Rare's impressive feat of retaining the vast majority of the original game's best features, in roughly the same measures. It's still a bit too complex to work as a kids' game (for that you might be better with the 360 sequel's co-op mode, where you can pick up a second pad and offer a helping hand), but for everybody else it comes highly recommended." Edge Magazine (70/100) said: "If Pocket Paradise makes you want to throw it against something, though, it's only because it succeeds in making gardening compulsive." [Oct 2008, p.96] %Gallery-8991%
Sweet, delicious release date and teaser for Viva Pinata
One of Rare's overworked carrier pigeons just landed on our windowsill, bringing with it some candy crucial news: Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise will be launching across North America on September 2nd, in Europe on September 5th, and in the rest of the world beginning September 11th. That's exciting enough (and hey: really soon), but that's not where the happy news ends: Rare also took the time to film a second spoof video for its game, again poking fun at the terribly serious Halo 3 teasers from 2007. You can watch the first after the break (and please do watch it if you haven't already).Release dates here"Museum" video hereOur Rare interview here%Gallery-8991%
Rumor: Pikmin 3 to bloom next March?
Okay, we'd advise you take this news with a pinch huge damn barrel of salt, but UK-based retailer Play.com now has Pikmin 3 listed for release on March 27th, 2009. Our first thoughts upon spying this detail were as follows: March 27th, 2009 is a rather random date to simply pluck out of thin air, don'cha think? It's also a Friday, the day when games usually launch in Euroland. Play is a UK-based site, so this may well be a European date (if it's even true). The specificity of the date only makes it more convincing to us. March 27th, 2009 really is quite a long way off. Boo hoo. Heck, it's the weekend, so let the wanton speculation ensue!
E308: Fresh Viva Pinata screens hunted down
Hacking our way through the undergrowth that surrounds our local press site, we located ten new wild and untamed Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise screenshots! Like the heartless types we are, we instantly clubbed them, bagged them, removed them from their natural habitat, and dropped them in our gallery for the rest of the world to gawk at.Disappointingly, a quick inspection reveals no new species (there are seven fresh piñatas in this remake), but there's a bright side, reader: the most cheerful DS boxart of 2008 so far.%Gallery-8991%[Via press release]
E308: A new Pikmin sprouts!
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Nintendo_announces_third_Pikmin_game'; Shigeru Miyamoto just dropped the most mega of tons over at Nintendo's 2008 E3 Developer Roundtable, and in the most understated way possible. Speaking to a crowd of around 100 press members, Shiggy casually announced: "We're making Pikmin." And that was it: a mere three words, but some of the most precious we've heard yet during this year's E3. You can see the team's response above, but how about you? Delighted, or what?
DS Fanboy interview -- Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise
Rare's Viva Piñata first charmed gamers back in 2006, when it appeared on the Xbox 360. Instantly, the title's original premise of nurturing beautifully animated piñatas in a garden of your own making helped it stand out in the crowd. On a system more renowned for third-person adventure games and futuristic shooters, Viva Piñata was a delightful revelation.Soon, the candy-filled creatures will be making their debut on the DS in Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise. Based on the original Viva Piñata title, what we've seen so far suggests that the team have achieved something we'd have never expected: they've managed to squeeze an Xbox 360 title on to Nintendo's handheld, while preserving every feature and trinket that was available in the original.With its fertilizer and shovel prepared for Pocket Paradise's release later this year, DS Fanboy sat down with Pocket Paradise Producer Paul Machacek and Software Development Engineer Joe Humfrey to chat about why they brought Viva Piñata to the DS, the jump from analog stick to stylus control, and the emotions involved in seeing your very first Mousemallow perish. Go past the break for our full interview!%Gallery-8991%
Viva Pinata Pocket Paradise media is for mature audiences
This latest set of Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise screenshots contains adult content, and should be viewed with parental guidance. Be sure that your state or municipality does not have obscenity laws against viewing scenes of piñata romance before venturing into our gallery.In addition, we've embedded the first two Viva Piñata videos after the break -- they're too hot for the front page due to graphic Whirlm content. Well, one of them is. The other one's mostly gardening. Although, now that we think about it, considering that the Piñatas are basically ambulatory plant matter, it's all mostly gardening. Naughty gardening. %Gallery-8991%
Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise gets its own little oasis online
Rare has kept quiet for the most part about Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise, preferring, for the most part, to limit themselves to releasing one screenshot every couple of months and making some joke about the game's progress. Now they've boldly opened a website for the game! Which even has information! And screenshots, which we've added to our gallery. There's an interview with some of the Pocket Paradise team as well, which is mostly jokes!Looks like players who have already broken open the 360 game will have something to look forward to here: new piñatas, which will also appear in the 360 sequel Trouble in Paradise. The DS game will also use a new episodic format in addition to the Playground mode.%Gallery-8991%
Viva Pinata almost had DS/360 connectivity
The new Viva Piñata game on the Xbox 360 uses the Xbox Live Vision camera to read codes found on Viva Piñata cards, unlocking new piñatas. It's an impractical feature (if only there were some other way to enter short text strings into a game ...) but it's a fun gimmick. And it's designed such that the camera can read card images not just from physical cards, but from screens on computers and portable devices, which enhances the possibilities for sharing.The DS has a Viva Piñata game (Pocket Paradise). The DS has screens. Wouldn't it be awesome if you could use the DS game to send stuff to the 360 game? It would be -- and is! Rare had it implemented, according to MTV Multiplayer's interview with Rare's Justin Cook, but too late. "We got it to work, but it was too late in the development cycle," Cook said. "It's one of those things where you just kick yourself." A strange statement coming from Rare. Can't they just delay the game for a couple of years?%Gallery-8991%
IGN smashes open Rare producer, gorges on new Viva Pinata details
With development on Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise now wrapped up, IGN got some face time with producer Paul Machacek to discuss numerous aspects of the project, from the challenges of remaking an Xbox 360 game on the DS to some of the modes that the handheld version will support.The most heartening news of all is that Pocket Paradise sounds likes a fairly faithful interpretation of the charming 360 game. Technical limitations mean that the fully 3D world has had to be scrapped in favor of a hybrid 2D/3D environment, but every piñata is fully modeled in 3D (to aid "really fluid, smooth animation"), and Rare even managed to echo some of the papery fur rendering in the grass texture. There are FMV sequences galore, featuring both romance dances and excerpts from the TV series.Absolutely everything can be controlled with the stylus (buttons can be used for shortcuts), and there's a wireless mode which allows players to send crates packed with whatever they like to their friends' gardens (though no online mode, unfortunately). Oh, and alongside the main garden, there is a Sandbox mode, described by Machacek as "great for younger players to play with their favorite pets [or] to demonstrate a particular piñata to your friends that you've already found but have since removed from your garden."As much as we're irritated by Viva Piñata for repeatedly making us hunt for that "n" with the funny squiggle above it, we're now getting increasingly keen to give this a whirl. Anyone else feel the same way?%Gallery-8991%
