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New games flood App Store before impending holiday release freeze
The App Store is in constant danger of new release bombardments, sure, but many companies adhere to a regular, weekly bombing run beginning each Wednesday, through the wee hours of the night (UTC), dropping their new iPhone and iPad games on Apple's marketplace while many of us are snoozing. Last night was no exception -- actually, scratch that. It was exceptional! Pending the start of the "iTunes Connect Holiday Shutdown" next Thursday -- a six-day lockout period when developers will be unable to release or update apps, including games -- an army of companies, armed with their big holiday releases (for little iDevices), launched a massive attack on the App Store last night. What began as a few warning shots yesterday grew into a full-on assault, led by Gameloft's crisp clones, NOVA 2 and Shadow Guardian, and Square Enix's surprise (and apparently rushed) port of Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. Even Sega couldn't resist launching a few more classics in Altered Beast and Sonic Spinball. And what's this ... Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3? Hey, if Street Fighter IV worked ... Pursue our complete list of new release highlights after the break, and then make double-sure "Santa" knows you've been good enough for an iTunes gift card this year.
World of Goo oozes onto iPad Dec. 16
People spend money on all sorts of protectors and cases designed to keep goo off of their shiny iPads. Next Thursday, December 16, they'll be paying to put goo on them. Ironic much?
Steam offering Machinarium, Torchlight and Indie pack for $5 each
Steam's "Give and Get" sale continues today, with yesterday's tempting one-day discounts giving way to an even better batch. You'll be able to buy the gorgeous Machinarium or Runic's dungeon jaunt, Torchlight, for $5 each. And if you're smart, you'll consider spending that same amount on the "Indie Clever Pack," which comprises World of Goo, VVVVVV, Eufloria, Doc Clock: The Toasted Sandwich of Time and Iron Grip: Warlord. At the time of publishing (3PM EST), you have 22 hours left on the following options: Machinarium -- $5 Torchlight -- $5 Indie Clever Pack -- $4.99 Blur -- $14.99 Tropico 3: Gold Edition -- $7.50 Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box -- $14.99 Empire: Total War -- $14.99 Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2 Gold Edition -- $13.60 ARMA 2: Operation Arrowhead -- $19.99 Steam's gift packs for today include a Portal six-pack for $14.99 and ten copies of Irrational's Freedom Force for a patently silly $7.49.
World of Goo coming to iPad, Gunstar Heroes out now
Here are two good pieces of news for iOS gamers. First up, World of Goo, the practically classic indie game that has you building little structures out of blobs of goo, is headed to the App Store just as soon as Apple approves the app for iPad. The app will feature one-screen multiplayer, with up to 11 fingers building up and drawing goo paths out on the screen. There's no iPhone version yet, but it's not outside the range of reason, as long as 2D Boy can make it run "buttery smooth." And Sega's classic side-scroller Gunstar Heroes is now out on the iPhone as a US$2.99 app. Early word on the game is that it's an excellent port of the much-loved Genesis title. As with most ports, the controls simply consist of on-screen buttons, which can sometimes get in the way of the action. But if you're a Gunstar Heroes fan, you've probably headed over to the App Store to download the game anyway -- it's got quite a rabid following. And finally, if you are an iOS gamer, stay tuned later on this week. I'm expecting to see some gigantic sales on the App Store for Black Friday, and we'll be covering and collecting as many of them as possible. Be sure to follow us over on Twitter as well -- sometimes we'll fit in even more quick sales over there.
World of Goo iPad (WogPad) out 'as soon as we get approved by Apple'
2D Boy wants you to know that its sticky puzzle game, World of Goo, is almost available on the iPad. Furthermore, the developer says it's perfectly acceptable for you to start referring to your iPad as the "WogPad," per the forthcoming release, even though the game is still pending Apple's App Store approval process. For now, 2D Boy answered some burning questions from fans, explaining what's going on with iPhone/iPod Touch versions. "There's a lot of iGoo to pour in, and we don't want to release something if it doesn't run absolutely buttery smooth." They also detailed the iPad version's multiplayer, which "you can play two handed, with friends, an animal, anything up to eleven fleshy things touching the screen", and confirmed that, yes, you can totally wear a Goo Ball on your head while playing the forthcoming game. Oh, right, and 2D Boy also says that a sequel to World of Goo would be "something we would enjoy working on," but it would have to "feel like a perfect and appropriate continuation of the first game." Whether it would be made for the WogPad or not, we can't say.
OnLive now working over Wi-Fi, announces 'Indie Fest'
OnLive has begun rolling out support for Wi-Fi connections to its cloud gaming service. So sure is the company that it can offer lag free streaming of game content that it is bringing Wi-Fi support to subscribers before it planned to. Support is still in beta, but most OnLive members are supposed to see the fuctionality available sometime this month. OnLive users with questions can get answers from this FAQ. Additionally, the company has announced an initiative to support indie games on the service, offering its developer tools and SDK to independent game companies to sell their titles to subscribers. This coming weekend, OnLive is holding an "Indie Fest," offering discounts of up to 75% on great indie games like World of Goo, Trine, and AaaaaAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! We would like to know how offering indie games for cheap means you're supporting the developers, but it's cool -- we don't understand how the whole streaming things works so well either.
OnLive: The first few weeks
Much like reviewing an MMO, I didn't really feel comfortable "reviewing" OnLive and I don't know that I ever will. I can (and will) make a handful of declarative statements about my feelings on the service as it stands right now, but, like an MMO, sweeping changes could occur tomorrow that obliviate all previous statements. That said, as of right now, OnLive works. In my experience with the service -- on both coasts and three major US cities -- it was quick, responsive, and relatively free of bugs (though I did encounter a couple). And demos are available for almost every game, so I put at least a bit of time in with nearly every title currently playable. Dirt 2 with DirectX 11 running on my 10-month-old (Apple!) laptop? Speeds along without a hitch. Unreal Tournament 3? No issues (well, other than not finding anyone to play against outside of bots). I was also able to hook up a wired Xbox 360 controller without any additional installation and it worked flawlessly -- the Xbox guide button even brought up the OnLive guide and auto-paused games (madness!). And though I probably wouldn't suggest OnLIve for hardcore, twitch gamers -- and neither would the company itself -- I would absolutely recommend it to everyone else.%Gallery-48489%
Crazy summer Steam sale includes some fantastic Mac games
The PC gaming community has long enjoyed the ridiculously awesome Steam sales Valve loves to break out during holidays and at other fun times of the year. The sales deliver game bundles for crazy cheap prices, even on AAA current titles. Steam's summer sale kicked off a couple of days ago. For the first time, Mac gamers get to join in on the fun thanks to Steam's recent adoption of OS X. While there are hundreds of Mac & PC titles on sale through July 4th, most of the best deals are found on a few select games featured each day. Today's sales have two good selections that Mac gamers may want to check out. For strategy fans Paradox Interactive's deep historical real-time strategy game Europa Universalis III lets the player control a European nation and rewrite history between 1453 and 1820 AD. For adventure gamers, a bundle of all five episodes of the previously mentioned Telltale Games' Tales of Monkey Island is also available at a great price. The clock is ticking -- but thankfully Valve offsets the time for most US timezones so you can get a chance to pick them up in the morning. If those two games don't belong to any of your favorite genres, there are a bunch of other titles included in the full sale. Right now is a great time to pick up any of Valve's growing list of games released for OS X with first-person shooters Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Portal and Half-Life 2. Better yet, grab the Valve Complete Pack for all of them so you're ready to go when Left 4 Dead 2 arrives on OS X.
One-quarter of Humble Indie Bundle downloads were pirated
Perhaps you've heard of (or purchased!) the Humble Indie Bundle -- a set of five DRM-free indie games, which you can choose your own price for, the entirety of which goes to two completely deserving charities. Despite the bundle's altruism and affordability, Wolfire Games reports that over one quarter of the total downloads of the package were pirated. You read that right -- a grip of people have stolen the choose-your-own-price indie-bundle-for-charity. Talk about sticking it to The Man. This fraction of creeps shouldn't cheapen the fact that the bundle's already brought in $716,944 for the five games, as well as the Child's Play and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, but it's still pretty disheartening. If you'll excuse us, we need to go watch Happy-Go-Lucky or perhaps a few episodes of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition until we regain our faith in humanity. [Via Ars Technica]
Humble Indie Bundle offers five great Mac games for pay-what-you-will
A group of independent game developers have released a "Humble Indie Bundle," and if you're a Mac gamer, it's a treasure trove. For a donation of your choice (the retail value is set at $80, but you can pay what you want, and you can even specify whether your money goes to the game developers or a couple of different charities), you can pick up the indie classics World of Goo, Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru, and Penumbra Overture, all playable on Mac, Linux, and Windows. Amazing deal, and this is about the most generous and customer-friendly way to do it. Any one of these games is well worth the purchase, and not only are you supporting developers and charities, but you're supporting the decision to release great games like this cross-platform, without DRM, and without a publisher or middleman getting in the way and taking a cut. Excellent deal -- they've already raised over $31,000, and if you play games on your Mac at all, definitely head over there and put ten or twenty dollars in the pot to support the bundle.
Humble Indie Bundle: Pay what you want for World of Goo and four others
You've commented on Joystiq posts about oppressive DRM many times before. You dutifully wear your Target-purchased indie game t-shirt every week without fail. And you read every Joystiq Indie Pitch we post. But if you want to put some money towards supporting indie games, you won't find a better way to do it than this. Wolfire Games and a few other indie developers have put together the "Humble Indie Bundle" sale, offering five terrific award-winning indie games (World of Goo, Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru and Penumbra Overture) for the low, low price of ... whatever you want. That's right -- they're asking you to pay what you feel is right for these bundled, non-DRM, developer-owned Mac, Linux or PC games. And that's not all: You can even specify part or all of your donation to go to a charity, either Child's Play or the Electronic Frontier Foundation. That's about as selfless as it gets in gaming -- pay what you think it's worth, to charity or the people who made it. The average donation so far is about $8.00, but individuals have donated as much as $500 to the effort. You get lots of chances to say you support indie gaming, but fewer great chances like this to put your money where your mouth is. And walking away with five great indie titles to play doesn't hurt, either.
This Week on the Nintendo Channel: Ron Carmel sucks goo in WarioWare D.I.Y.
This week's Nintendo Channel update features one half of 2D Boy, the indie developer responsible for the very fun World of Goo. Using WarioWare D.I.Y., he makes a neat goo-inspired mini-game. The difference between his video and Sakurai's and Sakamoto's is that Carmel makes it look way easier. Good job, Ron! Head past the break for the full list of this week's content.
Mac games on sale at Direct2Drive until March 11
Wow, Macs as a gaming platform is totally en vogue this week. First, we've got Valve teasing something Apple related. Now, Direct2Drive is holding a sale on all its Mac games ... you know, all five of them. Kidding, there's way more than five. Some big ones in there too, like Dragon Age: Origins, offered at 50 percent off ($33). Other highlights include: Sims 3 – $25 Prince of Persia (the latest one) – $25 Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – $15 World of Goo – $10 The sale lasts one week, until March 11, 2010, at 10AM Pacific. Looks like Direct2Drive wants to get one good sales push in before Steam allegedly comes to Mac.
Games for Windows Live adding Games on Demand beginning Dec. 15
Games on Demand, a.k.a. full game downloads, is one of the more recent additions to Xbox Live -- and today Microsoft has announced that it's bringing the service to its Games For Windows Live platform beginning December 15. GFWL creative director Chuck Osieja calls the initiative "Microsoft's return to delivering Windows games built on unique LIVE experiences." The service has a rocky history of sporadic supported releases and last summer ditched its subscription fees in the face of competition from the likes of Steam. The move puts Microsoft up against Valve's digi-distribution service, which similarly offers community features and its own Achievements system, but boasts a much larger catalog at present. The GFWL Games on Demand initial lineup will include Resident Evil 5, Red Faction: Guerrilla and Battlestations Pacific along with new GFWL-enabled versions of 2D Boy's excellent World of Goo and Hemisphere Games' Osmos -- all titles currently offered by Steam, with some available via Stardock's Impulse service. Microsoft hasn't divulged pricing for titles offered via GFWL Games on Demand. A reworked version of the former Windows Vista Ultimate Extra Tinker will be made available free to GFWL users when the Games on Demand service launches a week from next Tuesday.
Steam Deals Day Four: Prince of Persia, Lucidity, Guild Wars marked down
The next-to-last day of Steam's "Early Holiday Sale" brings with it an eclectic collection of discounted PC titles, including last year's Prince of Persia ($14.99), Battlefield 2 ($14.99), Lucidity ($2.49) and Guild Wars Trilogy ($24.99). Also, here's a link to a Black Friday sale for a 1TB internal HDD. If you've been following this Steam sale for the past few days, you're probably hurting for hard drive space right about now. Make sure you free up some room before tomorrow -- at 8 a.m. PST, the last batch of 24-hour sales will be announced. Stay tuned!
NintendoWare Weekly: WiiWare demos, Pokemon Rumble, Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures
This week, we get our first taste of Nintendo's new WiiWare demos. Surprisingly, it didn't take Nintendo that long to flip the switch for North America, considering the company revealed the long-overdue feature -- and day-one annoyance -- only earlier this month. And on top of the free trial versions of select WiiWare titles (five total this week!), there are also two new Virtual Console titles to enjoy, as well as three new DSiWare games. Hit the break for the full list.
A world of data from the World of Goo birthday sale
Following the completion of the World of Goo birthday sale, 2D Boy gathered up all the statistics it had from the "pay what you want" sale and connected them all into a big pile of interconnected info blobs. After the last stat update, when the developer revealed that many people were buying the game for one cent, something magical happened! The average price went up by a noticeable amount.Linux users were, on average, more generous with their purchase prices (maybe they offset the money they don't spend on operating systems?), and Swiss buyers were the most "generous," according to a metric that compares average purchase price to a country's per-capita GDP. The most generous individual? One "Stuart", who handed over $150 for a copy of World of Goo!Meanwhile, the average purchase price for the WiiWare version was $15 -- because the sale didn't apply to that version.
Devs show Steam love as Pitchford defends his criticism
Just under two weeks ago, Gearbox Software's Randy Pitchford let out his less than pleasant feelings regarding digital distribution platform Steam and its owner, Valve Software. Today, Ars Techinca posted a rundown of developers from World of Goo's 2D Boy to Sam & Max's Telltale Games who all feel ... the exact opposite of Pitchford. "If this is exploitation, more please," Audiosurf creator Dylan Fitterer said.According to Telltale CTO Kevin Bruner, "Steam may be one the greatest things to happen recently ... we put Steam as one of the A-list distribution channels; up there with XBLA and WiiWare." The praise doesn't stop there -- Ars points out that it was unable to find even one developer who would "admit to feeling exploited" by Valve's business practices concerning Steam. We reached out to Pitchford, who told us, "As a gamer, I love Valve ... as a customer, I love Steam." He clarified, "From an industry perspective, Steam would be even better off if it were a separate company ... trust issues that result from conflict of interest could be mitigated." To Pitchford, it's a question of appearances rather than actual impropriety. "It's just perception within segments of the publishing and development community that, I guess, no one is really talking about."We've posted Pitchford's entire (and quite lengthy) response after the break. Hopefully we're not alone in hoping everyone will just hug it out.
World of Goo birthday sale deemed 'huge success'
2D Boy seems quite satisfied with the results of its "pay what you want" World of Goo experiment. In celebration of Goo's first birthday, developer 2D Boy allowed people to determine the game's price at checkout. The result: 57,000 sales at an average price of $2.03. Although a significant number took the game at one penny (really, people?!), the developer's graph of purchases reveals that almost as many bought the game for $1. There were also sales spikes at $5 and $10.What's probably most interesting is that while this experiment was going on at 2D Boy's site, sales on Valve's digital distribution service, Steam, went up by 40 percent from the previous week, at $20 a pop. WiiWare sales increased by nine percent, but the devs aren't sure if that was just normal fluctuation.2D Boy also put up a survey asking why customers decided on the amount they paid. The top answer, at 22.7 percent, was "That's All I can Afford Right Now." We seriously hope those weren't the penny payers, because that's just tragic (even in a recession). A close second, at 22.1 percent, were people who wanted to support the pay-what-you-want model.
World of Goo on sale for 'your' price; iPhone port coming
My my, how time flies. On this date one year ago, World of Goo entered our lives and, well ... it made everything all gooey. (The good, warm kinda gooey.) To celebrate the game's birthday, 2D Boy is offering the title for -- wait for it -- whatever price you want to pay.Seriously, once you enter a price into the appropriate checkout field, you buy the game for that amount. We'd encourage you to cough up as much as you can spare though, because 2D Boy totally deserves your money. The sale ends Monday, October 19, so start digging under those couch cushions.You may also want to set aside some loose change for the upcoming World of Goo iPhone port. 2D Boy has a build running on a 3GS right now and is working to get the game going on the vanilla 3G. We'll be sure to keep you posted on its progress.
