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Get your Table Tennis (demo) on
As many of you have already pointed out, the Table Tennis demo has hit Marketplace (even in Europe). If you'd like a description of the game, please see the above picture. That's really all there is to it. Clean, simple fun. If you haven't tried it out, give it a spin and tell us what you think.Note: not available in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore or Taiwan.
Take-Two finally reaches resolution
The FTC has left the building! Take-Two wipes its brow in both relief and aggravation. According to the article at 1up.com, Take-Two and the FTC have taken care of all the issues and no fines were assessed. Looks like Rockstar can come out of the crawlspace and breathe easier.All is not pizza and wine (if anyone gets the reference, you are greater than gold), as a consent order was still issued to Take-Two. Basically, it means they can't misrepresent the content of their games (saying there is alcohol consumption in a game, but omitting drug use, for example) and they also have to create a personal reviewing committee to make sure they're in line with the ESRB. All is well for now, but if something like this happens again, the FTC will come back with all the might the law will allow. Still, congrats on getting out of the noose, Take-Two! Now then, about making us some PS3 games...
Rockstar loses many PR's, Marketers
Rockstar and their parent, Take-Two Interactive, have had a ton of hot coffee poured on their laps lately (pun intended) with the FTC investigating the sexy add-on to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, grand jury supoenas, closing of two corporate buildings, plummeting stocks and overall sadness. With all this junk going on, many people from Rockstar games have apparently dashed off in the night. Oddly enough, according to GameDaily BIZ who compiled a list of the employees that left, many were involved Public Relations or Marketing. The two are fairly related, the former more consumer oriented and the latter business, so what does this portend?Perhaps the end of Rockstar is nigh -- their "on the edge" style of gaming may finally have crossed the border and the employees know it. At least, those who have to talk to people outside of their walls. It will be harder to garner support for their games with all these issues arising, and these PR and Marketing people vacating is practically a guarantee that there is little support left for Rockstar. On a positive spin, perhaps Rockstar is cutting costs and eliminating shoddy employees. Will there be a GTA5? If the world backs off of gaming censorship, indeed.[edit: fixed an awkward sentence or two]
Imagine Publishing behind GTA4 hoax
QJ reports that they have discovered the nefarious creator of the fake GTA4 screenshot. It turns out that the infamous email from a "disgruntled Rockstar employee" came from the mail servers of none other than Imagine Publishing. Imagine is responsible for several UK gaming mags including X360 and Retro Gamer. So why in the world would a publishing company release a fake screenshot? I think QJ has the right answer: Imagine wanted a story for their next issue. What do you think? Was it a prank gone too far or a diabolical corporate scheme?
GTA4: Girl Theft Auto [update 2]
According to 360Era.com this just might be a screen from Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV (click for an embiggened pic). Hmm, looks about on par with Table Tennis to me. So, is it real? Fake? Frankly, anything with a girl wielding a morning star has my approval. Update 1: It's fake. From Eurogamer: "Rockstar says that an image circulating around web-forums this afternoon, supposedly showing a TV screen running a debug version of Grand Theft Auto IV, is a hoax ... The image ... first showed up in the inboxes of various media organisations this morning under the subject line 'From a disgruntled ex-employee of Rockstar...' ... But that's not the case, Rockstar told us this afternoon. It really is a hoax." Man, fake news travels fast. This screen was circulated and debunked in a matter of hours. Simply amazing. Thanks, Josh. Update 2: It looks like QJ discovered the perpetrator behind this heinous crime. You won't believe who it is. Read the full story here.
GTAIV will share the Table Tennis engine
There's a rumor floating around these here internets suggesting that the next iteration of Rockstar's money-printing machine known as Grand Theft Auto will be using their own in-house RAGE engine (Rockstar Advanced Game Engine engine), recently seen in Table Tennis. Gamespot's Rumor Control traces the rumor to a TotalVideoGames.com post which mentioned, but neglected to link to, an MTV News report from over a month ago. That report stated, "The Rockstar reps explained that the game was running on RAGE, the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine. This is the graphics technology gamers are to expect from future Rockstar games, including the next GTA." I contacted MTV News' Stephen Totilo to see just how definite this was, and he returned, "I met with Rockstar publicists and producers for Table Tennis twice prior to the game's release. Both times they volunteered that RAGE would serve as the engine for all next-gen Rockstar games. 'Including GTA?' I asked both times. Including GTA they said both times." So there you have it folks. Following EA's acquisition of GTA's old-engine, Renderware, Rockstar has went and made their own. Sure, Table Tennis looks great but really, anything's better than the dated engine they're using now.
"Just press the green button", I said
"Just press the green button" Oh, those fateful little words. How naive I was to think that they wouldn't affect the ability that my sister was soon to display in a casual game of Rockstar's Table Tennis.
IGN, Rockstar Table Tennis sweepstakes
While the editors of IGN, GameSpy, and TeamXbox beat each other's brains out in their inter-company Table Tennis tourney, you can enter the Rockstar IGN sweepstakes for a shot at winning a Killerspin RAD table. Runner-up prizes include Killerspin Blast Racquets and t-shirts (no free copies of Table Tennis?). These giveaways might not make you Wang Liqin, but at least you'll look good down at your local ping pong hangout.See also: Metareview - Table Tennis
Metareview - Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis (Xbox 360)
When Rockstar announced their top secret new game, gamers were floored that the San Diego branch of the house that GTA built had traded in their baseball bats for ping pong paddles with Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis. Big question is, how did they do with this smaller-scale, (relatively) budget-priced title? According to the reviews that are beginning to appear, pretty darned well. The complaints focus on the title's sparse feature set while the praise focuses on the Xbox Live integration and the tight, elegant gameplay. Seriously, read through the reviews if you have a particular affinity for the words "subtle" and "nuanced." According to the reviews, Table Tennis provides a streamlined sports sim that's short on features but full of subtle gameplay, reflected in the (next-gen) budget price of $39.99. IGN (78/100) - "If you want a table tennis game that's strictly focused on great mechanics and addictive gameplay, but that lacks a reasonable single-player mode and is shockingly sparse, Rockstar Presents Table Tennis is your game." GamePro (85/100) - "The best thing about the gameplay is that it's all about reflex and intuition -- accessible to all, but hard to master online competitive play. Setting up power shots, killer topspin, and hitting the corners of the table becomes easy in short amount of time. This game is an instant classic and is guaranteed to please the masses." Eurogamer (90/100) - "It's the sign of a great sports game when you can't think of anything you'd want to change in the next version. It doesn't need another version."
PS2 Liberty City Stories delayed
Rockstar Games has confirmed that the PS2 port of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories has been pushed back to the end of May, and the actual release date could be even later than that. No details have been given for the delay, but with Table Tennis due out on May 26, Rockstar is probably just busy putting a final coat of polish on the ping pong balls. How many owners of the PSP Liberty City Stories are planning to buy the new console version, even if it has a Greatest Hits price, and no additional content?
Rockstar's Table Tennis is no joke
Rockstar's second-floor party pad sits at the top of a long flight of stairs just off of Bowery in Manhattan's Chinatown neighborhood. As I climbed those stairs on my way to an invitational afternoon of beer, food and Rockstar Games Presents: Table Tennis this Saturday, I half expected the door to burst open and a bunch of clowns to yell "April Fools!" It just didn't make much sense that famously reticent, infamously too-cool-for-the-media Rockstar had actually invited members of the press to see their latest game, nevermind a lowly blogger. But for once, they're probably happy to be talking about something other than whichever version of their marquee Grand Theft Auto series has been released, been hacked, been banned, been recalled, been reissued, been whatevered. Instead, when the door to the flat opened I was greeted by a bevvy of Rockstar marketers, three huge HD displays, and three Xbox 360s spinning a pre-release version of Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis. Turns out the game is no joke and that Rockstar's serious about seeing that the game sees the exposure they believe it deserves.
