Gaming Steve Review: Wipeout Pulse

Wipeout Pulse
Developer: SCE Studios Liverpool / SCEE
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Price: $29.99
Platform: PSP
Category: Racing
ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
Release Date: February 12, 2008 (US), December 14, 2007 (Europe), December 12, 2007 (Australia)

For those of you who have not played much of the long-running Wipeout series, allow me to explain what it's all about. Basically, the series is set in the future, where F1 racing is now seen as old-hat, so the people have decided to create anti-gravity racing machines capable of achieving speeds up to 1000km/h for their racing pleasure. Not content with injecting more speed and lack of gravity into the mix, they also apparently decided to give the racers access to weapons, boost pads, and shields, as well as what can only be described as brain-bending tracks to race their little ships on. Even the most speed-loving gamers should be quaking in their boots just thinking about it.

Back when I was younger, with my little grey PS1, I had the attention span of a small fish and the gameplay experience of Jack Thompson. In essence, I was awful at games. When Wipeout came out, I played the demo, crashed a load of times, and subsequently threw it away. The series went on without me, achieving greatness in the form of various sequels across various platforms. Following a mediocre stop on the PS2, it's now becoming a nice little series on the PSP, with the prequel Wipeout Pure back in 2005. This was a good return to past form for the series, and now we pick the story up with its sequel, Wipeout Pulse.

The game is not easier than its predecessors, but it is a refined beast, carrying on the good standing the series has on the PSP thanks to Pure. This is a game fans of the series and those that are new to it all can enjoy, and Sony chose this specific title to bring the PlayStation Network to the PSP for the first time. It's packed full of nice little bits that add up to give a nice big result.

What's most important to the Wipeout series is its unique gameplay. Pulse doesn't disappoint in this area, it's full-on, mad, and incredibly challenging. This is all achieved by the viciously tight courses and the dangerous AI, which coupled with the new weapons, will make you feel lucky every time you finish a race.

The game modes are now built to show this off, with Eliminator returning from Wipeout 3 to truly put the cat amongst the pigeons. If you cannot remember what this one is all about, it's basically what it says on the tin, an epic battle taking place across a single course, with the first team to 10 kills winning. In short, it's not for those with a nervous disposition. Other additions include the Speed-Lap and Head-to-head, which are fairly self-explanatory but they don't add too much to the gameplay, or at least not as much as Eliminator.

When information of the game was first revealed, everyone went mad about the "Mag-Strip", which basically sticks your craft to the track. This was included because it allows the player to go down straight 90 degree drops and to go through the loops. Apparently it was going to "break the gameplay", but I can assure you that it doesn't detract anything from the game, mainly because you only experience it for a few seconds as you speed straight on by. Loops are quite fun, but soon the novelty wears off when you realise it's just another distraction in the game's box of tricks to slow down the feeling of monotony so common with Wipeout games.

As is usually the case, the full game doesn't start until the Phantom Class. This is the very pinnacle of speed, where everything starts to fall into place and it all goes so fast that you are actually guaranteed to crash. That's all well, but you still have to grind through all of the other slow classes until you can get to the full meat of the experience, and that is not good at all. If there was some way to skip the slower classes, it would allow those that are fairly experienced with the game to get to the part they want.

Looking at the multiplayer features, there is obviously the traditional Ad-Hoc mode, but what I liked was the Infrastructure Mode, which actually uses the PlayStation Network, the first time it's appeared on the PSP. However, there was a few glitches signing in with the system, but once I managed to get into the server list, it was remarkably easy to join a match and get going. My in-game experience was very solid. The loading times were adequate, there was barely any lag, and it was just generally fun. Disappointingly, there is no way to communicate with your enemies, but I think a rocket up the back of their ship is all the communication that's needed in this arena.

Music is another key feature of the Wipeout series, and while this list could be described as being a bit too "European" for western audiences, I think it's a genuinely good playlist that sets the tone of the game nicely, with some thumping beats and electronic. The game also supports custom soundtracks so you can play your mp3's from your memory sticks if the included playlist isn't your bag. Another useful feature is the ability to take screenshots in-game, which came in rather useful for this review funnily enough.

To conclude, this is a great start to what could be a great year of releases for the PSP. Even though the system has an abundance of racing games, Pulse definitely stands out amongst the crowd despite its flaws and repetitiveness. There is quite a lot on offer here, and I think it shall keep you busy for quite a while. Besides, I don't think you're going to see that many games this year that let you travel over 900km/h, unless Fable 2 has an anti-gravity hovering vehicle mode or Wipeout HD finally arrives for PS3.

PLUSES: Great gameplay, online multiplayer, huge amount of content. Genuinely mad speeds that seem audacious even in today's fast world.

MINUSES: Slightly repetitive, real action still doesn't start until Phantom class, new modes seem tacked on.

FINAL VERDICT: 8.0 BUY IT!

Posted by Chris Holmes at 12:45 PM | Comments (7) | Posted to PSP | Review |      

Metal Gear Solid 4 Dated "Late Q2 2008" Along With MGS4-PS3 Bundle, Online Beta

A few important pieces of Sony news surfaced yesterday, most notably a slightly more finalized release date for the highly anticipated Metal Gear Solid 4.

Gamers can expect to see the game sometime in "late Q2 2008". Earlier reports stated the date as June 12, 2008, but that date has been shot down by Sony.

Sony also confirmed that the Dualshock 3 will be coming to America in April for $54.99 alone, or in a special $499.99 PS3 Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle which includes the game, an 80GB PS3, and the new rumble equipped controller. Sound like a good deal to me!

Last but not least is a special Beta for the separate game, Metal Gear Online, accessed by pre-ordering the Metal Gear Solid 4. The Beta will be launched some time in April. All together, this looks to be an oddly excellent summer for gamers.

Posted by Clayton Ashley at 12:00 PM | Comments (2) | Posted to PlayStation 3 |      

The First Big Gaming Time Sink of 2008: Phun (with Physics!)

If you thought that the Falling Sand Game and Desktop Tower Defense already took up too much of your time, then quick, avert your eyes! The simple, 2D physics simulator, Phun, will suck you in and never let your go!

Phun is a fairly deep, yet easily accessible 2D physics simulator. It's not a "game" in the technical sense, but you can easily spend hours messing with it.

You can create blocks, springs, pistons, liquids, and freehand objects, all of which can have their friction, mass, and "bounciness" changed. Examples of complex motors and machines come with the game, as well as catapults and cars.

The possibilities are almost unlimited: make two battering rams and charge them into each other. Build a tower and play a game of Jenga or just destroy it with a catapult. Change their density, friction, and gravity to create perpetual motion machines or super dense bullets of doom. I'm sorry if you enjoyed your spare time. Really I am.

Video after the jump.

Posted by Clayton Ashley at 12:30 AM | Comments (11) | Posted to PC |      

Gaming Steve Episode 71 - 02.24.2008

The Game Developers Conference has come to an end and I've put together a fantastic roundtable to recap the show.

On the show I have Brent Lassi from VirginWorlds.com, Michael Zenke from Slashdot and Massively.com, and Michael Gordon Shapiro from MikeMusic.com (and the man responsible for the Gaming Steve theme song).

Mike even sings a bit of his theme song on the show ... something to behold. Enjoy!

Gaming Steve Episode 71 Program

• Game Developers Conference Day 3 Recap
• How on earth did one guy create an MMORPG with a player base of 1.8 million people?
• The Chronicles of Spellborn is still alive and kicking.
• What are Cryptic Studios and Jack Emmert up to?
• What did game designers rant about this year?
• Why do game developers dress so poorly?
• What crazy game did Steve Meretzky design at this year's Game Design Challenge?
• WebWars: EVE sounds freaking awesome.
• Why is Age of Conan – Hyborian Adventures going for an M-rating?
• Why is GDC the place to be if you want to get into the game industry.
• Finally, we get all goofy after three intense days.

Download the show (56 minutes): Gaming Steve Episode 71 (MP3).

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Posted by Gaming Steve at 10:30 PM | Comments (12) | Posted to MMORPG | Podcast |      

Take-Two Blocks EA's Unsolicited Proposal As Inadequate

Earlier it reported that EA's John Riccitiello contacted Take-Two in the hope of purchasing the publisher in a $2 Billion deal. Take-Two released a statement and rejected the deal as inadequate.

The main complaint over the alleged deal from Take-Two is that EA only wishes to purchase them to take advantage of the upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto IV, and quoting their press release; it was "highly opportunistic". Also, the press release stated that "the offer values the company at a significant discount to its public peers and does not compensate Take-Two for its intrinsic value and the substantial synergies that the proposed combination would create".

Strauss Zelnick, Executive Chairman of the Board of Take-Two stated,

"Electronic Arts' proposal provides insufficient value to our shareholders and comes at absolutely the wrong time given the crucial initiatives underway at the Company. Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our creative and business teams, Take-Two has made enormous strides in the past 10 months toward our common goal of being the most creative, innovative and efficient company in our industry. We're extremely proud of our unique portfolio of game franchises, exceptional creative talent and loyal consumer following. Our Board believes that we will build greater value for our stakeholders by remaining relentlessly focused on our strategy and delivering on our mission of making the highest quality interactive entertainment."

Personally, I'm really happy to see Take-Two fighting back and showing that they are the ones with all the cards. This news should also be a cause for relief amongst fans too, who had a meltdown earlier following the unveiling of the EA proposal. The options for EA are now fairly limited, with the unconfirmed key prospect of them now going for a hostile takeover of the company.

Posted by Chris Holmes at 5:00 PM | Comments (0) | Posted to Business |      

EA Proposes to Acquire Take-Two for $2.0 Billion

On Sunday, EA announced that it has proposed to purchase Take-Two for $26 per share in cash, which is equal to approximately $2.0 billion and an 64% percent premium on the going rate for the stock over the last 30 days. The move is bound to give the publisher near-complete dominance in the gaming world, giving them complete control of some of the best IPs in the industry. EA have cheekily set up a takeover website, eatake2.com, which outlines the takeover details.

"Our all-cash proposal is a unique opportunity for Take-Two shareholders to realize immediate value at a substantial premium, while creating long-term value for EA shareholders," said John Riccitiello, CEO of EA. "Take-Two's game designers would also benefit from EA's financial resources, stable, game-focused management team, and strong global publishing capabilities."

However, this is not going to be pretty for us gamers, with EA's current strategy of releasing sequels every year not only hurting the pockets of gamers, but also perhaps the quality of it's games. Hopefully, EA can see that some of the best titles in the industry are those which have been given a reasonable amount of time to ferment.

Also, we must remember this is just a proposal, and Take-Two recently dismissed a $25 per share merger from EA, so perhaps it might not happen, if we're lucky. If it does happen though, it raises a huge question for the future of the industry, with less competition and too many "super-publishers", could creativity be throttled in favor of regular yearly sequels?

Posted by Chris Holmes at 3:00 PM | Comments (3) | Posted to Business |      

Puzzle Quest Sequel Unveiled (Again): Galactrix

The sequel to last years surprise hit "puzzle RPG hardcore casual game", Puzzle Quest, was revealed last week as the Sci-Fi themed hexagonal puzzle RPG, Puzzle Quest: Galactrix.

The game was actually announced last year in April, but was today re-branded as part of the Puzzle Quest series. The game's basic puzzle combat has been tweaked beyond the implementation of the hexagonal shapes. Gravity will now play a part, meaning when orbit around a planet pieces will fall down, but in empty space pieces follow their momentum and will move wherever you send them.

Players can also look forward to building space ships and traversing solar systems (and perhaps entire galaxies) as well as another ... deeply involving plot. The game will be released later this year for Xbox 360, PC, and DS, but strangely has not confirmed for the PSP.

Posted by Clayton Ashley at 12:00 PM | Comments (1) | Posted to DS | PC | PSP | Wii | Xbox |      

Commodore 64 Coming To Virtual Console

Nintendo today confirmed that it will be expanding its Virtual Console selection to include the legendary Commodore 64 in Europe. American Commodore fans are currently being snubbed, with no confirmation of them appearing on the Virtual Console service over the pond. Moreover, each game will cost you 500 Wii Points, which is actually more expensive than most of the new C64 games back in their day. The first few games that will be available on the service will be International Karate and Uridium, with more titles to follow.

"The massive impact the Commodore 64 had on video-gaming is still evident today with many gamers remembering the computer and its games with great fondness," Bala Keilman, CEO of Commodore Gaming stated. "By working with Nintendo of Europe, we are ensuring that future generations of gamers can play some of the best and most popular titles that kick-started the computer games revolution and so keep the C64 legacy in gamers hearts."

Laurent Fischer, Managing Director of European Marketing & PR of Nintendo Europe continued: "We are extremely pleased to be working with Commodore Gaming to provide even more retro hits for Wii owners to choose from on Virtual Console. With over 184 classic titles now available to enjoy, Virtual Console on Wii is a great way for users to access a breadth of classic retro games. We hope that this great choice of games will bring nostalgia to our gaming fans, while an entirely new generation of video game players can experience a host of classic games for the very first time."

Personally, I am quite looking forward to revisiting old Commodore 64 classics, but that price point is nearly enough to make me get up and climb into my attic to try and find my original C64 console. Moreover, I'm skeptical of how some of the games will handle on the Wii, and the reception they will get on VC will definitely be something to look out for.

Posted by Chris Holmes at 11:50 PM | Comments (3) | Posted to Wii |      

GDC08: Portal's "Still Alive" coming to Rock Band

Huge Success! The song that kept GlaDOS in all of our hearts well after Portal came to an end (which won GDC's Game of the Year award by the way) will be coming to Harmonix's rock band simulator... Rock Band in the form of DLC. From the Rock Band Blog:

That is when we jumped on-stage and pulled out our Rock Band equipment piece by piece. Dan Teasdale (one of our senior designers) started picking a three person band with Jonathan and Alex Rigopulos (co-founder of Harmonix and head honcho). When they got to the song list they scrolled through an almost infinite amount of DLC until eventually they stopped on one-

"Still Alive" by GlaDOS.

Yup. That is the song that Jonathan wrote that is the credits song at the end of Portal. The crowd went nuts. Earlier we had turned the backing vocals all the way down and the microphone vocals all the way up so we could actually hear his voice instead of GLaDOS. Alex was on drums ruling it, and Dan Teasdale held his own on guitar. By the end of the song even the people in the back of the room were screaming. It was an awesome way to debut a song we've been working on.

Details including "when" and "how" weren't released, so we can only hope it will be soon (and cheap or free!). It's hard to overstate my satisfaction...

Posted by Clayton Ashley at 11:45 PM | Comments (4) | Posted to PlayStation 3 | Xbox |      

Gaming Steve Episode 70 - 02.21.2008

Sorry I didn't have a show yesterday as I was having "hardware issues". But I'm back today with a quick recap of GDC 2008 days 1 and 2, plus a little interview with Spore Producer Caryl Shaw.

Caryl sat down with me to talk all things Spore for a good half hour, so stop reading this and start listening to the show. Enjoy!

Gaming Steve Episode 70 Program

• Game Developers Conference Days 1 & 2 Recap
• Xbox 360 finally allows anyone to develop for their system.
• Ninja Gaiden II gets dated.
• Peter Molyneux does his snake-oil dance for Fable 2 ... and we eat it up.
• Gears of War 2 is announced and dated, guess the rumors were true.
• Jack Emmert goes off on MMO developers.
• Interview with Caryl Shaw, Producer for Spore from Maxis.

Download the show (48 minutes): Gaming Steve Episode 70 (MP3).

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Posted by Gaming Steve at 7:00 PM | Comments (8) | Posted to Interview | Podcast | Spore |      

GDC08: Sony's PhyreEngine Brings Powerful Development to PS3 ... and Xbox 360?

Sony touted their free to use cross-platform development engine at GDC, with some interesting details. Perhaps most of note is the fact that this Sony created development engine can be used to make games for the PS3 as well as the PC and Xbox 360.

So far three games have used the engine (flOw, Gripshift, and DiRT), with two of those games being available on the Xbox 360 (the fact that two of them have sTranGe CAPiTALiZATiON is mere coincidence). So why give a powerful "graphics engine", with "full source code and artwork" to developers working on multi-platform titles?

It would seem Sony is looking at the market realistically, and seeing more and more games going multi-platform. With the PhyreEngine, Sony hopes game developers will make games on the PS3 first (like Burnout: Paradise) and then port them over the the Xbox 360. Usually multi-platform games are made the other way around, being that the Xbox 360 is easier to develop on (and slightly less powerful). Sony understands that the console the game is made on first (the Lead Platform), is usually the the console the game ends up running on better. Hopefully we will see the continued success of Sony's new found "logical thinking" strategy.

Posted by Clayton Ashley at 5:30 PM | Comments (4) | Posted to PlayStation 3 | Xbox |      

GDC08: Spore City Music Planner Demostration

A demonstration of the city music planner that I recorded from the Spore talk, "Procedural Music in Spore" from the Game Developers Conference 2008.

Posted by Gaming Steve at 4:10 AM | Comments (3) | Posted to Spore |      

GDC08: Spore Spaceship Editor Demostration

A demonstration of the spaceship editor that I recorded from the Spore talk, "Procedural Music in Spore" from the Game Developers Conference 2008.

Posted by Gaming Steve at 4:05 AM | Comments (3) | Posted to Spore |      

GDC08: Spore Creature Editor Demostration

A demonstration of the creature editor that I recorded from the Spore talk, "Procedural Music in Spore" from the Game Developers Conference 2008.

Posted by Gaming Steve at 4:00 AM | Comments (4) | Posted to Spore |      

GDC08: New Spore Pictures from Spore GDC Talks

Today I attended two different talks on Spore today and managed to take as many pictures as I could while liveblogging those events. I'll also be posting several videos I took at those events later today once I can find some stable bandwidth to upload these monsters.

All of the pictures were taken from the latest build of Spore , enjoy!

Posted by Gaming Steve at 8:30 PM | Comments (24) | Posted to Spore |      

GDC08: Fable 2 Getting 2-Player (Maybe Online) Co-op

More details about Fable 2 have been revealed at GDC including 2-player co-op on one machine, though Peter Molyneux wouldn't rule out the feature being implemented online. Currently players will be able to instantly join another players game (unfortunately without their now synonymous canine companion) to delve into dungeons and even meet the family.

In order to keep the context of a world that responds to all of your actions, Molyneux explained that a friend you bring into your world can have a drastic effect on it. In a specific case, a friend Molyneux brought into his world shot and killed the husband of his female character. His husband would be dead for ever and his child would most likely be sent to an orphanage.

During combat your friend could gain experience and money, even playing on someone else console, by using their Gamertag. The graphics have reportedly been made much prettier since the games last showing. Also announced was an Xbox Live Arcade full of minigames related to the Fable 2 universe. Players will be able to earn money through activities such as gambling and then use it in the full game, which will be released a few weeks later (neither games release date was announced).

Posted by Clayton Ashley at 8:00 PM | Comments (3) | Posted to Xbox |      

GDC08: Gears of War 2 Announced

Microsoft finally lifted the curtain on Epic’s highly-rumoured Gears of War 2 at their GDC Keynote today. The game is slated to be released this November in a press release after the conference, which also included a nice quote from everyone’s friend, CliffyB, lead designer for Epic Games:

"To our team the original game was just a tease, the appetizer to the Gears of War characters and new style of gameplay. We were so amped to get to the next chapter, and dig deeper into the universe of this franchise. Gears of War 2 is an even bigger, better, and more badass experience than the first game, and we can’t wait to get it in the hands of eager gamers this November."

Also, the trailer that appeared at the keynote was released on Xbox Live earlier, along with a free picture pack and a free theme for your perusal, as part of Microsoft’s “Bringing it Home” initiative. Full trailer after the break.

Posted by Chris Holmes at 7:45 PM | Comments (0) | Posted to Xbox |      

GDC08: Liveblogging "Pollination the Universe: User-Generated Content in Spore"

2:25 – Okay, this I did not expect. The talk is in a conference room underground and I can’t get a signal. So this will be a delayed liveblog, sorry everyone.

2:28 – Caryl Shaw started her talk, said that the European version is coming out first is that Europe is a much larger PC market than the States.

2:30 – Started the talk, explaining how they thought the game was going to dispute the content using an aesthetic matching system, but it seems like they are going in a new direction.

2:33 – They needed to build a way to organize the content and distribute it. This is what her talk is going to be about, how to organize all of the content.

2:34 – Their main goals were to encourage content discovery – the first time you encounter something within the game which is new you will get the “card” which contains all of the user creation information on it.

2:35 – Achievement system will reward you throughout the game using a variety of features and methods.

2:36 – Talking about quality and how quality metrics are being measured. The best content is not always the most popular content and they wanted to create a system which will reward content which isn't just the most popular.

2:37 – You can create buddy lists, Sporecasts, ban stuff that you don’t like, can browse, search and sort for items both within the Sporepedia as well as on the web.

2:38 – Showing the community web site, looks like a social network site for just Spore. Has personal info, featured content, subscribed Sporecasts, my creatures, widgets, stats, and more. This will live at Spore.com

2:39 – There is an in-game user-page for Spore very similar to what is on the web site. Looks very similar to your profile within Steam

2:40 – Extensive social networking tools – search, comment system, storytelling movie-making system,

2:41 – Cayrl opened the game and showed how the login feature worked. Looked like any other MMORPG login screen actually.

2:42 – You can put your creature on a t-shirt or mug and they are working on the ability to create a 3D creature but they are really fragile and they need figure out how to ship these figures without breaking them.

2:43 – You will also be able to create comic books based upon your Spore content. They are working with a comic book software creation company, but she wouldn’t say who.

2:45 – You can jump right into the game and access ANY editor at any time.

2:46 – Got yelled at that I couldn’t film the talk, nice.

2:47 – Caryl started to build her creature, the interface is REALLY cleaned up from the last time I saw it.

2:48 – You can paint a creature “like” something. So she tried to paint her creature using the same paint scheme as a Gamecube. I also saw an Xbox 360, PS3, and other systems in there.

2:49 – You can record a movie directly within the game and then upload your move, from within the game, directly to YouTube. That is slick.

2:50 – Showing off the Sporepedia now, you can “test out” other people’s creatures and see how they work.

2:51 – All the card within the Sporepedia are only a PNG file and ALL the information for each creature is within the PNG file. Each file is around 30k in size. You can email these PNG files to anyone you want and then drag-and-drop those PNG files directly into the game and it will be added.

2:53 – Demoing a cheeto creature, it is amazing that you can basically make anything you want within this game. The creatures she is showing is going by fast and furious but it seems like you can make anything you want.

2:54 – You can leave comments on other people’s creatures, users,

2:55 – You can “subscribe” to your friends stuff and the game will increase the chance that you’ll see creatures within your game.

2:57 – Demoing a creature which looks like a cricket and it actually got a gasp from the audience it was so cool.

2:58 – Sporecasts are themed groupings of content. So you can create groupings on any subject you want, demoing “cool buildings” right now.

2:59 – They made it really hard to make “realistic” creatures on purpose, but people are still managing to do it.

3:00 – Showing off a city hall which looks like a stack of sushi.

3:01 – Showing off how you start a new Civilization game. You first select your “theme” for the game based upon a premade list, you then select the “type” of game you want to play – Military, Religious or Economic, name your planet, select your color for your empire, and then select your assets within the game. Your creatures and your city hall.

3:03 – They are working on the transitions on the game.

3:04 – The game crashed while she was going to start showing the Civ game, I guess they have more work to do on it.

3:05 – Tried to show off the Civ game again, again it crashed. Doh.

3:06 – Started the backup version of the game and is now playing the off-line version.

3:08 – Took a question, the DS and the PC versions won’t share content. But the PC and Mac versions will share content.

3:09 – Game started up, it looks like a simplified version of Civilization actually. She places a few vehicles, buildings. Showing off the music system within the game and how you can create music and then save it as a PNG file just like anything else within the game.

3:12 – Caryl finished up her talk early and is now taking Q&A.

3:14 – Expects people to create their own widgets for just Spore.

3:15 – Looking at the live Sporepedia. Interestingly there are only 1791 of “everything” on the server right now, and Caryl herself made 70 items. So it looks like they have a lot more, a lot more, to add to the game for the “off-line” experience.

3:17—You can’t take someone else’s creation, add a single thing, and then upload it and take credit for it.

3:18 – Someone is asking if you can sell your content within the game or you can buy content within the game. So far that is not within the game and right now everything is free, but EA owns the software and he will have the final decision.

3:23 – Talking about load testing the Spore servers. The Sims 2 had over 700,000 people register within the first week and they know that Spore will likely far exceed that number. So they are testing the servers extensively and will try to have 100% uptime.

3:25 – Talking about toolsets for just people to manage community aspects – Sporemasters.

3:26 – All movies are saved in AVI of the PC and something which works within iMovie on the Mac.

3:30 – The talk ended and I have a ton of pictures and video to show. I'll upload those later for everyone to see!

Posted by Gaming Steve at 6:45 PM | Comments (9) | Posted to Spore |      

Nintendo Dates Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii for Europe

Today, Nintendo has revealed the dates for two of their most anticipated Wii games in Europe. Mario Kart Wii will be released on April 11th, with Wii Fit slated to be released later on April 25th.

That Mario Kart Wii European release date is good, as it’s a day after the Japanese release, and a US release date hasn’t been confirmed yet. Perhaps Nintendo is feeling guilty about the Smash wait and wants to make amends to their loyal European fans. This could also be a tactic they are adopting that stops fans from importing consoles, as people are so fed up of the delays that they are just simply getting a US Wii and a small power transformer, and reaping the rewards.

The fact that Wii Fit is coming out a month before the US release in Europe is also a very good move by Nintendo, as it allows them to test what the US reaction to the game will be in a “lesser” territory, and thus prepare accordingly. Such an obscure title could go either way in terms of sales, so this idea of a “first-run” will help them in pitching to the right market.

Nintendo is showing Europe that it can have some games before or around the same time as the US, and this is extremely encouraging for the foreseeable future. If this trend can continue, then perhaps there is hope for this unfortunately unlucky region.

Posted by Chris Holmes at 5:00 PM | Comments (3) | Posted to Wii |      

Microsoft Announces Xbox Live Community Arcade

After two years of keynotes and press events, Microsoft seems to have finally committed to their "YouTube of games" with Xbox Live Community Arcade. Based of the XNA development software, gamers will soon be able to make games on PC and move them to either the Xbox 360 or the Zune.

Using peer reviews, Microsoft hopes that "Game distribution will be democratized, allowing the community to control the content". (Chris Satchel, Game Developer Group General Manager). Gamers will be able to create a "creator identity" similar to that of their gamer tag (though couldn't they use the one they already have?) so users can find preferred game makers, as well as games that suit their tastes based on descriptive sliders.

This could potentially be huge, considering how big social networks and YouTube have gotten. Hopefully Microsoft can make an experience as cohesive as the rest of the Xbox Live experience.

Posted by Clayton Ashley at 4:45 PM | Comments (1) | Posted to Xbox |      

GDC08: Liveblogging "Procedural Music in Spore"

11:57 - Just ran from the Microsoft keynote -- biggest news was Gears of War 2 announced for release this November 2008. Also ran into Caryl Shaw who is giving a Spore speech at 2:30 PM PST. She said to me that she was "going to be showing a lot, I should be really happy with what I see." Can't wait.

12:02 - Still waiting for the talk to start, the lots of people still walking over from the Keynote no doubt.

12:02 - Kent Jolly began his talk, started to talk about the background of procedural music in Spore.

12:04 - At first they didn't think they were going to do procedural music as it was going to be a huge undertaking on top of an already huge project.

12:06 - The other issue was making sure that procedural music didn't take up too much CPU-wise. So far this is a very hardcore developer lecture where they appear to be talking about the real background info on making a system rather than gameplay elements so far...

12:07 - Big turning point was Brain Eno and when he joined the team to develop the music.

12:14 - Kent demoed very simple drum sounds being created using a simple procedural tool. Mostly just demoing very simple sounds, very hardcore development talk right now.

12:17 - Yeah! Jumping into the game and the creator editor!

12:18 - Slight detour, showing Brain Eno's thoughts on how to make the music and it looks insanely complex, sounds it too and they dropped his tool from the game. Still waiting to see the music in the game.

12:20 - Finally jumped into the game and the creator editor.

12:24 - Sorry for the delay, just recorded several minutes of creating a creator. Each section of the editor will cause a different type of sound. Also depending upon the "type" of creator you create will change the music type. Create a create with a lot of weapons and the music will be much darker. The music will try to reflect the "feel" of your creature AS you create it.

12:27 - Aaron McLeran started to talk and is now speaking about the spaceship editor.

12:28 - Main goals was to create music which never repeats, is always interesting and fun to listen to, the music is playful, and that the music responds to the user.

12:29 - In the UFO editor it will be more "futuristic" while the creator editor had more "tribal" music.

12:32 - Now showing the Air Vehicle editor.

12:33 - The music will also change depending upon the "type" of society you build. If you build a religious society your music will have a more "religious" feel with pipe organs and such. The music will reflect the type of game you are playing as well as the society you are building.

12:35 - Wow, I just looked behind me (I'm in the front row) and the room is freaking packed. Who would think that a talk about music would get sold out?

12:36 - Each and every aspect of the various editors will play music and beats. You can actually create a song just by building a creator. Aaron actually created a small song while creating a UFO while he was painting it, very cool.

12:39 - Back into the programming tool and back to hardcore development talking.

12:45 - Hardcore music theory going on right now, showing how they managed to take classic pieces of music and had it procedurally generated within their tool.

12:47 - More talk, starting to upload the videos I took from the editors for you to see these editors and music in action...

12:50 - About to start taking questions, still demoing the music tool and how simple beats can be created. Interesting but really high level that people within the game itself wouldn't care anything out.

12:51 - Wrapping up, whoa, just went back into the game.

12:52 - Showing where you can customize the music yourself. You can do it within the Civ game and we're seeing the city music planner.

12:55 - You can create the beat, anthem, and ambiance sounds within the City planner. The music creator works very much like the other editors within the game -- very simple to use yet amazingly complex.

12:56 - You can save your music and trade it just like anything else within the game.

12:59 - Q&A time, nearly all of the music within the game is created procedurally. Another person asked that if you create music within the game and then want to release it who gets the royalty checks. Kent joked that EA would get those.

1:02 - The talk is over, I'm uploading the videos and I'll post those as soon as they're ready. Also the program they were using to create the music was MAX/MSP and PD ... probably should have mentioned that earlier.

Posted by Gaming Steve at 2:57 PM | Comments (11) | Posted to Spore |      

At GDC and Not Liveblogging the Microsoft Keynote

Hey all I'm here at GDC, waiting for the Microsoft event to start, but I won't be liveblogging the Microsoft Keynote in order to save my laptop battery for the two Spore talks later today.

Tune back at 3:00 EST PM for "Procedural Music in Spore" and then later at 5:30 PM EST for "Pollination the Universe: User-generated Content in Spore" where I'll be liveblogging those two talks.

Also make sure to check back for my podcast which wraps-up the day's events. Need to save my battery for the back-to-back Spore talks!

Posted by Gaming Steve at 1:25 PM | Comments (5) | Posted to Xbox |      

GDC08: Ridiculously Good Real Time Motion Capture from Mova for Unreal Engine 3

Without the need of those goofy mo-cap ping pong balls, motion capture company Mova is bringing near photo realistic quality motion capture to the most popular current generation graphics engine. Using an array of cameras, powerful software maps 100,000 polygons in real time to create highly life like facial expressions. Mova founder Steve Perlman had this to say in Joystiq's scoop:

"This pushes Unreal Engine 3 to its very limit ... it's about as photo-real as you can get in real time. People have never had this kind of data available before in a game context ... their heads are spinning. What you're seeing right there is the result of, having time to wrap our heads around this thing and see how we're going to use it, and yes, we can in fact get a face that looks almost photo-real – you know, not quite, but almost photo-real – running in a game engine today."

This technology could save thousands of dollars and time. With the traditional mo-cap of the day, game makers get blocky, skeletal motion that they then have to turn into a convincing character. Mova's technology makes a near perfect face almost immediately after a shoot and seems to actually avoid the uncanny valley. Combining this with the extensive technologies already found in the Unreal Engine III, we games can hope for developers to spend more time on gameplay and story, and less time trying to get the tech right.

Posted by Clayton Ashley at 4:00 PM | Comments (6) | Posted to Business | PC | PlayStation 3 | Xbox |      

Toshiba Discontinues HD DVD, Blu-ray Wins the Race

The high-def format race is finally over. Toshiba announced today it will no longer develop, make, or market HD DVD players and recorders.

"We concluded that a swift decision would be best," Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida told reporters in Tokyo after making the announcement.

To some this may be a surprise, and to HD DVD owners possibly even a huge letdown, but to others it's simply understandable as to why Toshiba has discontinued the HD DVD player. Blu-ray was winning the format wars and it seemed that Blu-ray finally got to a tipping point where it was inevitable they were going to win in the long run.

Perhaps it was the inclusion within the PlayStation 3, perhaps it was superior format, perhaps it was millions in back-door bribes. Whatever the end reason, Blu-ray has won and HD DVD is now officially dead.

This holiday season Sony's Blu-ray had a much more appealing marketing and management plan, dealing a massive blow to HD DVD's sales and ultimately leading to their demise.

Fortunately for XBox 360 owners the HD DVD is not an allowed format for video games on the console, but anyone who bought the extra accessory to enjoy the high-definition quality DVD's on their system are going to have to consider other outlets. Not to worry though; at CES 2008 Microsoft stated that if the consumers demanded Blu-ray over HD-DVD, they would certainly begin supporting it.

Sorry to see you go HD DVD. You had a nice run.

Posted by Steven Mills at 11:45 AM | Comments (4) | Posted to Business | PlayStation 3 | Xbox |      

Rumor: Microsoft to Acquire Epic Games?

Yesterday a GamePro editor created quite the stir by speculating that Microsoft may be acquiring Epic Games for approximately $1 billion. While Microsoft would certainly be interested in Gears of War and Unreal Tournament, the majority of the buyout would certainly be for the Unreal Engine 3.

Of course this is all purely speculation – however, Microsoft is holding a briefing tomorrow (February 19) where they are expected to make a couple announcements, and Epic is having theirs on Thursday (February 20). Coincidence ... or the announcement of a big acquisition?

It's become quite a task in this industry to find out when a large company will be buying another, and most of the time any false accusations are almost immediately shot down by the smaller company. This is not the case in this incident, however. Epic Vice President Mark Rein told GamePro that if they wanted speculation, they should start out at least $2 billion as Epic wasn't going to be cheap.

What does this mean for gamers? Besides the fact that Microsoft would have a powerful engine licensed for all their future games (Unreal Engine 3) and Gears of War 2 and Unreal Tournament would certainly become Xbox 360 and PC exclusive. Or this could just be a crazy rumor and nothing more. Find out later this week.

Posted by Steven Mills at 11:30 AM | Comments (0) | Posted to Business | Rumor |      

Gaming Steve Review: Devil May Cry 4

Devil May Cry 4
Developer: Capcom Production Studio 1
Publisher: Capcom
Price: $59.99
Platform: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC
Category: Action
ESRB Rating: M for Mature
Release Date: February 5, 2008 (US), January 31, 2008 (Japan), February 8, 2008 (Europe), February 7, 2008 (Australia)

DMC ain't normally my thing to be honest. While dabbling in past Cry titles for example, I've typically given up within the