Even as our consumer rights are slowly whittled away by binding arbitration clauses, draconian DRM, and “online passes,” we gamers still remain an awfully spoiled lot. And if you don’t believe me, here’s a stunning example: the asking price of the original NES Metal Gear in 1988? 50 American dollars. The cost of a fully remastered bundle containing Metal Gear Solid 2, Metal Gear Solid 3, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (not to mention bonus remakes of the original MSX Metal Gears 1 and 2), purchased in 2011? 50 American dollars. As a pure value proposition, that’s nearly impossible to beat; and, given the amount of finely crafted video game content contained in this little package, it’s unlikely that you’ll find a better disc to grace the system of your choice — though it helps to be on board with the polarizing quirks of the Metal Gear series.
As a disclaimer, I feel it necessary to admit I’m a fan of most things Metal Gear, though it’s equally important to inform you that I haven’t let fanboyism shield me from its many flaws. Regardless of its various missteps, though, Metal Gear remains one of the few gaming franchises that exists solely as an auteurist expression, something that’s becoming increasingly rare in these design-by-committee days of game development. That said, either you jive with Hideo Kojima’s unique brand of lunacy, or you don’t; and no amount of high-def polish is going to change your mind. While the Peace Walker portion of this collection has been granted a much-needed overhaul to controls and online play, parts 2 and 3 are simply prettier — and these were very pretty games to begin with. Many would argue this collection provides the perfect opportunity to revamp the odd controls of Solids 2 and 3 (which were idiosyncratic at the time), but you only have to look at how Silicon Knights’ attempt to do just this in The Twin Snakes resulted in a horribly broken game — and besides, it’s highly unlikely that Hideo Kojima would allow Bluepoint Games to alter even a byte of his legacy.
Spike TV is starting to ramp up the excitement for the 2011 Video Game Awards and is teasing some of the announcements that will be made at the show. Last year’s show featured the likes of Mass Effect 3, Prototype 2, Insane, Resistance 3, Uncharted 3, Forza 4, Skyrim, and more. We don’t know the full lineup yet — and we likely won’t until the show actually takes place — but the first batch of games you can count on hearing about includes the new Alan Wake, something from BioWare, and Metal Gear Solid: Rising.
In an announcement about Survivor and The Voice’s Mark Burnett signing on as an executive producer, it’s stated that Metal Gear Solid: Rising will be “revealed” at the show.
Dip a toe into any comments section or message board and you’ll find the countless faceless hordes of the Internet levying their complaints and passionate arguments about the controversies of the day. This is simply how the Internet works — outrage is the web’s number one export. To a certain extent, it’s healthy to vent about whatever’s gotten under your skin. But inevitably, we sometimes get our proverbial underpants in a twist over relatively unimportant things; we jump to conclusions, misunderstand, or just overestimate the importance of a given problem. Of course, video games aren’t exempt from this phenomenon; in fact, some of our greatest e-wars were fought over gaming controversies that fizzled out so fast, it’s hard to remember why they had any fizz at all.
All but 25 staff at the Canadian video game development studio Silicon Knights have been laid off, according to sources close to the company.
Silicon Knights has not officially confirmed the cuts, but two credible independent sources contacted us with the information over the weekend. One wrote that “Silicon Knights has had massive layoffs. They are now down to a core staff of 25 people.” The other said, “It may interest you to note that SK laid off all but 25 employees today.”
A universal problem with canon — whether for a video game, a television series, a saga in either graphic or prose novel form — is that it takes commitment and following to fully enjoy. A property with a deep canon rewards those who have followed from the beginning and can pick up on all the jokes, references, “previously ons”, and so forth. But if you haven’t been actively following said property, then such a thing might appear daunting; which leads to, “nah, I didn’t play the others, so I’ll skip this one.” One solution that other media has provided is the standalone special: a frivolous holiday themed adventure that requires little knowledge and has no bearing on the story. Think Star Wars: Holiday Special or It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. inFamous: Festival of Blood presents itself as a video game equivalent of such.
Festival of Blood has no particular time or place — it simply chronicles a tall tale told from faithful sidekick Zeke to a prospective woman at a bar. In an attempt to snare her, Zeke goes off about Pyre Night, a local festival in New Marais, and Cole MacGrath’s solitary crappy night celebrating it. That is, how Cole gets bitten by Bloody Mary, a local vampire queen, and spends the whole night trying to figure out how to break free from turning into her vampire thrall.
At any nerd culture event like New York Comic-Con, the dealer’s room is always fairly massive and includes local video game peddlers eager to share their wares with the public. Sometimes, the games in question are downright ancient — most dealers’ offerings fizzle out around the NES era, but every once in a while there’s some real legacy content. This year’s NYCC is no different, with a handful of the countless retail booths selling Atari VCS games, Intellivision carts, Game & Watch systems, and even older wares.
Still, the absolute oldest video game item at the show appears to be this Pong clone, which my Internet research suggests was produced by a German company as one of countless ripoffs of Atari’s home game megahit. I can’t find a specific date for this particular unit, because it’s pretty obscure even as far as Pong clones go, but chatter on AtariAge and other, similar collector forums pins its chip design to about 1977. That makes it roughly a year older than the Magnavox Odyssey2 being sold in the same booth (it hails from 1978).
I like me some cross-over events in comics but I sure hope this is the last time it shows up in a Spider-Man video game for at least a couple of years. Last year’s Spidey adventure was split across various dimensions — this time around we have a time vortex as the central plot device starring Spider-Man 2099 and Amazing Spider-Man in developer Beenox’s latest, Spider-Man Edge of Time. It’s a capable superhero action game that demonstrates that the team is getting better at crafting a Spider-Man game, but like most comic-licensed properties there is still room for improvement.
The plot itself is… a little silly. But that’s why I like my superhero comics. This game nails the whole “comic book mini-series cross-over event” and Peter David (co-creator of Spider-Man 2099) deserves some props for the story. Each of the Spider-Men are well written and performed just as well with O’Hara’s inability to take a joke clashing with Parker’s wisecracks throughout the adventure.
I was fortunate enough (and, indeed, old enough) to see a number of the NBA’s legends play in person in the ’80s and ’90s. Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Dr. J, and many others passed through Salt Lake City to take on the Jazz when I was a teenager — and I saw them all. I was even in the stands for Michael Jordan’s title-winning jumpshot over Bryon Russell (he pushed off!) in the 1998 NBA Finals. As a result, I have a pretty deep respect — reverence even — for the players who helped shape the NBA. It’s nice, then, to see that a video game developer shares this same level of respect… mostly.
Playing the NBA’s Greatest mode in NBA 2K12, which gathers together 15 of the league’s all-time great players and the complete rosters of more than 30 teams, is a fitting tribute to those basketball gods. Every game is meticulously recreated with era-specific visuals (like a grainy black-and-white presentation for Bill Russell’s 1965 Celtics squad) and commentary that informs and entertains about the legend you’re playing. The rules are altered to fit the period, and players play the way they did at that point in time. It’s almost like a playable museum of NBA history — the kind of thing you’d relish sharing with your friends online. Except that you can’t.
Though he started as a mere clone of his sibling, Luigi’s role has grown far more complex.
By: Francesco Dagostino October 5, 2011
Ah, the neverending struggle for video game heroes to keep abreast of the times. From their humble, pixel-based roots, these digital characters evolved into complex, emotional individuals — seemingly, in the blink of an eye. After all, strengthening the connection between avatar and player became a necessity as the ever-changing medium of video games increased in complexity over the years.
And this process went well beyond mere design: appealing color palettes, fancy clothes and spikey hairstyles weren’t enough to make a character stand out. And thus, some became tarnished by the pitiless course of time, some faded, while others survived and matured thanks to the skillfull planning of their creators — and some even grew spontaneously, like ivy creeping its way up a damp stone wall.
Back when BioWare pushed back Dragon Age Origins’ release date one last time, from October 20 to November 3, they also announced the PlayStation 3 version would be following “later in November.” Not so anymore. Bioware co-founder Ray Muzyka has confirmed the game will release on the PS3 on November 3 right along with the 360 and PC versions in North America (via GameSpot).
The confirmation comes along with the announcement that the game has gone gold and is heading toward mass manufacturing, so stalwart fans who’ve been looking forward to this game for five frickin’ years can rest assured it won’t be delayed again. Musyka also confirmed that the PS3 version’s PlayStation Trophies will correspond with the previously revealed Achievements for the 360 version.
Now, there is one bit of bad news if you’re reading this in Europe, as the PS3 version of Dragon Age Origins is still releasing later in November there. “[We're] still working on the EU release timing for PS3,” said Muzyka. “We’ll have an announcement on that shortly — [it's] still planned for some time a bit later in November.”
