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Manhunt 2's crazy story revealed
Occasionally, game details slip out of Gamestop's website, like drool from a bulldog's mouth. This is such an occasion. Visiting Gamestop's Manhunt 2 page reveals story details on the mysterious Manhunt 2. What do PSP gamer's have to look forward to in this macabre title? Let's have the game description itself tell us. "An experiment at a secret research facility has gone catastrophically wrong. Daniel Lamb and Leo Kasper are the only surviving subjects. The Pickman Project will stop at nothing to hunt them down and stop the truth from getting out. Demented screams echo around the dank asylum that has caged you for the last six years. You open your eyes. A white-coated body slumps to the floor through your shaking hands. A bloody syringe slips from your arm. Waves of confusion and paranoia crash over you. You have no idea who you are or how you got here. The door to your cell is open. One choice. One chance. They took your life. Time to take it back." Pickman Project? I wonder if Miyamoto is behind this. [Via Kotaku]
Which system has the best Puzzle Quest?
Michael Fahey from Kotaku has lost his mind. In a consumerist rage, he went out and bought both the DS and PSP versions of Puzzle Quest. Luckily, his insanity proves to have a use, since he's able to compare the two versions. Which system came out of the bloody cage match a winner? Lucky for PSP owners, Puzzle Quest is best on Sony's portable. Better graphics, better sound and better AI make the PSP version the clear choice to buy if you have both systems. On the downside, they mention that the PSP Puzzle Quest has load times, but anyone who plays PSP (or any disc based system) should be used to that by now. [Thanks Colin]
Surfing penguins on their way
Penguins are as popular as sugar substitutes lately and so it's no surprise that Sony Pictures is making a penguin movie called Surf's Up. It's also no surprise that a game based on the movie is being created. Especially since screens and info on the game were part of the leaked Ubisoft files from last year. Ubisoft seems to be doing a lot of licensed games lately, we'll have to see how this week's TMNT turns out to garner an opinion on whether they're interested in making them more than just cash-ins. [ Via Kotaku ]
PSP2 definitely coming?
Kotaku seems to think so. In a news post today they stated that various third party highly placed sources definitively confirm that the PSP2 is on the way (though it won't look like this). Apparently, third party publishers want to have games ready for the PSP2's launch, but Sony hasn't yet given them the kind of info they need to start creating games. This isn't a strange practice as with any system, the first party companies get the dev kits and system specs first, but hopefully they don't wait too long to send out that info. The rumor is that clear info on the PSP2 will hit at this year's E3 with a possibility of the system launching as early as the end of this year. The system is said to have a beautiful screen (no change there), faster load times, better buttons, 8 gig internal flash, UMD support, and the possibility of a touch-screen and built-in camera. Kotaku didn't list their source specifically (why would they, no one wants to lose a job), but they were right about Sony's Home, so there's always a possibility this rumor will hold true as well. I personally think it's too early for a PSP2, but if it supports my old games I'd definitely upgrade.
Sony blackballs Kotaku for rumor report [update 1]
Earlier today, gaming blog Kotaku reported on a rumored PlayStation 3 feature, set to be unveiled during next week's Game Developer's Conference. The key word, of course, is "rumored," a word which has since gotten the blog into hot water with Sony. The original article, which boasted one anonymous source, a smattering of founded speculation and repeated use of the aforementioned keyword, detailed "PlayStation Home," a visual mixture of the Xbox 360's achievement system and the Wii's customizable avatars. Though most rumors come and go with little input from publishers ("no comment" has become de rigueur), this one became notable as soon as Kotaku was asked to take it down. In a calm and straightforward follow-up article, Kotaku's Brian Crecente reveals that the blog's failure to comply has led to a complete dismissal and excommunication from Sony. It seems clear that such a response lends the rumor more veracity, but the response itself is far more interesting in what it means for the rest of the blogosphere.What did Kotaku do wrong? In contacting Sony for comment on the initial story, Crecente was informed that publishing the report could harm the business relationship between the two entities. Unresponsive to thinly-veiled threats, Crecente published the story, citing concern with informing readers and not with maintaining a corporation's announcement schedule. In an e-mail to Crecente, David Karakker, senior director of Sony's corporate communications, stated that, "I am very disappointed that after trying to work with you as closely as possible and provide you and your team with access and information, you chose to report on this rumor.... I can't defend outlets that can't work cooperatively with us."This doesn't appear to be an issue of cooperation at all. It's an issue of control. A major corporation is lashing out at a news platform where it is unable to pull all the strings and directly exert influence. In the ideal world of public relations, journalists would regurgitate press releases verbatim with nary a thought spared to truth or timing. All this comes just a week before GDC and Sony's promised meeting with bloggers -- the opening of a dialogue between "us" and "them." By doing our job and informing readers, have we become the enemy?[Update: Sony and Kotaku have settled their differences and reopened communications. As Brian Crecente puts it, "We were doing our job and Sony was doing theirs and now we can both continue to do so." Thanks AssemblyLineHuman.]
Meet PSP-tan
The Japanese have a popular trend of turning inanimate objects into cute women. They've previously done so with Windows (among other operating systems) and planes. But the PSP's time has finally come and multiple artists are making renditions of PSP-tan. The idea is to make a girl that is cute, but a visual representation of the PSP and I think the example to the right does a good job. There aren't a lot of PSP-tan renditions out there though, so I command our readers to make their own versions and I'll put them up on PSP Fan Art Friday! [Via Kotaku]
G4 "debates" the PSP and DS debacle
We showed you the offending EB Games ad. Then, DS Fanboy rather maturely copied the story from us, refusing to partake in a fanboy mudslinging battle. (And thankfully, no one tried to impersonate me in the comments! Thanks, guys.) It will certainly be interesting to see what kind of sensationalistic spin DS Fanboy will put on this rather silly "debate" from G4's Attack of the Show. While we wait, check out what the editors of our rivals, Kotaku and Destructoid, had to say about the future of the handheld battle. While they complain about the lack of good games for our system, let me point out that I am exhausted from having reviewed seven games in the last week, many of them being quite good. I guess silly things like "facts" don't bother the most opinionated of fanboys.
When a PSP and a Game Boy make love
This very-obviously fake design is a loving homage to gaming's past. The Game Boy is the first handheld gaming system I've ever owned, and it's incredible to see how tech has evolved since then. ModSoul, the designer of this clever creation, also enhanced this baby with something PSP owners have been clamoring for a long time: dual analog sticks.[Via Kotaku]
Twilight Princess Impressions [update 1]
You've read "impressions" of Twilight Princess before, from those lucky enough to get some time with it at a Fusion Tour or at either of the previous two E3 conventions. But this close to launch time, we're starting to see impressions ... people who have had extended time (dozens of hours) with the absolute final version of the game.The Official Nintendo Magazine forums are giving a sneak peak of their upcoming issue, detailing a player's experiences throughout the whole of the game. ***THERE ARE HEAVY SPOILERS IN THIS POST.*** Be careful. If you're not willing to ruin anything (and there's nothing major), then the gist of it is, it kicks ass in every way possible. The controls don't hinder the gameplay at all, and as expected, the game itself is an impossible masterpiece of gaming. Seriously, what did you expect?If you'd like to read a few less spoiler-tastic impressions from the Japanese, Kotaku has posted some translated impressions from Famitsu and Game Watch. Once again, both laud the immersive control experience and just about everything else.[For a large, wallpaper-sized version of the post picture, check it out here.][Update 1: loltypo.]
Rumor: Silent Hill Origins in trouble?
Our eagerly-anticipated Silent Hill Origins may be in a little bit of trouble. The game's developer, Climax, recently laid off 14 of its workers in order to "integrate into a single management structure." (Source: Gamespot) According to Kotaku (you should already put on your "doubt" visors), the main reasoning behind the lay-offs was to "salvage the disastrous development of Silent Hill Origins for the PSP." The article continues to state that "the game had been cut extensively... shriveled down to a handful of much smaller levels and three to four hours of gameplay... Konami was understandably disappointed... and employees were told there were "no assurances" that the Origins project would continue."While it would be disastrous if this rumor were true, I'm going to take a leap of faith and say it's untrue. The Kotaku report states that a working engine wasn't made available until June, which sounds false considering the game's incredible graphics engine (which was playable). Secondly, I highly doubt the folks at Konami would allow for a high-caliber project like this to fall apart, especially with their other high-profile PSP titles coming down the pipeline. Lastly, a developer in supposedly as much trouble as Climax wouldn't also be working on another high-profile game: Oblivion for the PSP. Climax is a relatively prolific developer: a few layoffs most likely won't affect the future of any of the games in development.[Via PSP-Vault]
Cave Story, a freeware game heading to the PSP
It seems like Sony is starting to make a habit of taking freeware games and bringing them to their video game systems. First it was Flow on the PS3, and now it's Cave Story on the PSP.However, I may be going out on a limb here, but I think it's safe to say Cave Story will receive some drastic graphical improvements before it reaches our hands. At least I hope it does. The game is being developed by Variant Interactive and should be released in 2007.In case you're like me and have never heard of this game before, it's about a boy who wakes up inside and "delves into the rocky tunnels in search of clues to his where abouts and his identity. Meanwhile, a mad doctor makes use of an enchanted crown to enslave a race of rabbit-like creatures, known as Mimigas.As the boy travels through the cave, searching for an exit, he meets Sue, a mimiga unlike all the others. Soon he is caught up in an adventure beyond imagination as the fate of both human and mimiga races hang in the balance," according to Variant's website.How do you guys feel about having to pay for a freeware title, even if it's been upgraded?[Via Kotaku]
No more dev-kits? Sounds like a pack of lies...
Kotaku isn't exactly the best source of information and there's a pretty decent counterpoint to their new "mole" who claims that there are no more PS3 dev-kits. Let's first toss up the mole's quote."Sony has run out of PS3 test kits to give to developers. Since the announcement of the European launch being delayed, nobody has any idea what's going to happen with the PS3 port of F.E.A.R... specially since we only have the one PS3. And it's a devkit. In case you haven't seen those things, they sound like giant vacuum cleaners. They're reportedly ridiculously complicated to use, specially when upgrading the firmware. It has just the one controller, and it's not even the proper PS3 one even! It doesn't have those "innovative" changes from the PS3 controller, it's just a Dual Shock 2 with a USB Mini port."All right, first off, we feel IGN is a much more reliable source of information as well as a named "mole" -- namely, Sega. A long while back we talked about Sega's and IGN's reaction to the dev kit. Let's dissect Kotaku's mole now (ignoring the F.E.A.R. comment, which has already been confirmed it's coming to PS3). The dev-kits run quietly, not like vacuum cleaners. Easy to program for and understand, not complicated, not "specially" when upgrading firmware. The controller comment is false, as IGN's comments about how the wireless controllers could detect what machine and port they were plugged into directly imply a wireless setup. Now, if Sony gets bad press, we won't dance around the truth too much. But don't make up stuff to kick them when they're down. The end.
360 sells out ... in Japan?
See that red sticker? Know what it says? Yeah, neither do we, but according to Kotaku the gist of it is this: "SOLD OUT." That's right, a single, solitary Japanese store, known as Bic Camera, has managed to sell all of its Xbox 360 stock (except for the special World Cup ones, anyway). The fanboy in us hopes beyond hope that this marks the beginning of Japan's acceptance of the 360, thus sparking a flood of wacky Japanese games that just never saw the light of day on the original Xbox. The realist in us, however, knows better. As our tipster points out, this is more likely a sign of the impending Robot Apocalypse®. "A Japanese store is sold out of Xbox 360s! Run for your lives!!!!"[Thanks, Lorul2]
Rumors: Jaffe's episodic crying adventure & streaming PS3 media
The Kotaku Rumor Mill has churned out some pretty nifty PSP rumors. Here they are, bullet-pointed for your reading pleasure: We knew that David "God of War" Jaffe is developing a PSP game that would make you cry (something that porn can't do). However, the Rumor Mill suggests that his new adventure will go all Half-Life on us, becoming an episodic adventure. Each "episode" supposedly comes in at a whopping 700MB! Well, if each episodic download is 700MB, that would be much too large for most Memory Sticks. It seems like Sony might be making a hard drive for the PSP. Kotaku and myself don't seem to think that'll happen. The PSP will be able to stream music and video from the PS3 via any wi-fi connection, a la Location Free Player. Sounds a great bonus for PSP owners, especially if they're paying $600 for the system, a price which might be too cheap. Remember kids, these are just rumors, so that means that they might not come true. But if they did come true, which one fancies you the most?
VGMWatch tackles the "what's a blogger" question
We often get caught in the debate over bloggers versus journalists. For starters, I think we have to be clear that the definition of journalist is a rather broad one so, depending on which definition you subscribe to, bloggers either are or aren't journalists. When we post a (rather awesome) picture of a Zelda tattoo, there are no cries that such a thing isn't newsworthy (often the contrary), while a 4 hour-old press release is met with cries of "OLD" echoing acoss the comment forms. Clearly the metric for calibrating such a distinction is loose at best. So it is in this mess that Kyle Orland, of Video Game Media Watch, finds himself while answering a reader's question: "I understand that bloggers don't really see themselves as journalists per se, but what, exactly, is their role?"Orland frames his response with two examples: one from this very blog and a series of posts (1, 2) concerning the backwards compatibility of our much-beloved Psychonauts; the other concerns the slap-fight between gaming-blog Kotaku and gaming-megasite IGN. In all, Orland presents some interesting commentary on where blogs fit into the larger gaming media and offers this rather potent distillation of our role:If journalism is the first draft of history, blogs are the first draft of journalism. You can look into the sausage factory and see all the swirling rumors, competing theories, and developing bits of conventional wisdom that go into making a delicious story, in close to real time. This is one main reason why they've beome so popular so quickly - people love taking a peek behind the curtain to see the emperor, um, making sausage.Orland's example illustrates both the advantages (delicious sausage) and shortcomings (what's in it?) of the format. As the most popular gaming blog on the internet, we work hard to maintain our credibility through discriminating story selection, proper sourcing, timely and transparent updates, and accountability via our open comment system. And, while we strive to keep errors to a minimum, if something is erroneous or misleading, we can count on you guys to let us know. And if it's old, we're sure you'll let us know that too.
Complain about a PSP game, get some BBQ utensils
Turns out that when a gamer becomes upset, publishers make with the bribes! At least that's how it went in this case when Matt sent a letter to Capcom complaining about some of the features in Monster Hunter Freedom for the PSP. According to his letter to Kotaku, he was greeted by a very friendly customer service associate who took his address down and soon after sent him a rather splendid BBQ utensil set. Anyone else have some decent customer service stories? Some not so decent stories?
It's Luigi! (in the form of a quilt)
I'm not sure that this is exactly my kind of bedsheet (despite the obvious connection I have to these types of things, and before you ask, my surname does not mean "quilt-like"), but if second-best Italian plumbers are your thing, then feel free to dream about snuggling up to Luigi with this home-made quilt.[Via Kotaku]
50 DKP Dives -- the new Leeroy
The words "50 DKP MINUS" are becoming somewhat legendary even in non-WoW circles, but have you ever wondered about the guy who originally uttered them? Wagner James Au has interviewed Dives, leader of the Wipe Club, and the interview contains some real insight into the life of this particular raid leader.Turns out that, for those following the Onyxia Wipe closely, Crushim didn't actually get -50 DKP once the situation was explained. Thank goodness for that then.
Prospect of HDTV sales keeps Best Buy's stock highly rated
Maybe confusion is slowing HDTV sales, or maybe not, but one Piper Jaffray analyst thinks Best Buy's stock is a good pick because of their tech support business and also the growing market for high definition TV's and next generation game consoles. I haven't been in a Best Buy in a while to check out their "personal shopping assistants", but a blogger at Kotaku did and had a decent, if mixed experience. PSA's or not, they seem to be very optimistic expecting DTV sales growth of 100% next year. Any of you had help or no someone who had help from one of Best Buy's "blue shirts"?
