Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Alright, we’re back. There was a distinct lack of updates due to some deadlines that just decided to all end at the same time leading to a whole team going into crunchmode. Thankfully we survived it and the next few months should be back to normal.
But that doesn’t mean no videgames were played, although this was restricted to just one title: GTA - Chinatown Wars, the new sandbox title from Rockstar for DS. According to the almighty Metacritic (and a whole load of folks around the internet) the best game on DS. Now I don’t think there can be such a thing as a ‘best’ game, but it sure is enjoyable.
Host Master
GDC is underway, and Tim Schafer is stated to host the GDC Awards this year. So what better way to prepare his speeches than by playing a game? And that’s just what can be done: Host Master is an oldschool point & click adventure in which you have to help Tim Schafer write his speech, finding jokes in every location. 22 are needed to succesfully host the show, but it’s always funny to try with less.
The Payne Returns
Big news today with the announcement of a new Max Payne game. I have bought the second game a while ago, but haven’t had the chance to play it yet. So as of now, I only remember the first Max game (I am furiously blocking out the abysmal movie) and I only have fond memories of it. Of course, back in 2001 we were still enthralled by all the bullet-time magic and it was quite an event to be playing such a game.
Nowadays, I doubt if Max Payne would still be up to par. I remember its shortness being its best feature, as it was over before the game mechanics could become stale. Let’s hope developer Rockstar has the wit of the original developer to keep it as short as possible. And to begin a Bully sequel right afterwards …
Someone Else’s Reader of the Week: edition 2009/03/20
This week, we are going back to the summer op 1993. It was a pretty quiet summer, with the highpoint being the admission of public to Buckingham Palace for the very first time, and the lowpoint being the loss of communication with the Mars Observer, just three days before it entering orbit around Mars.
But there were games being played, especially on Mega Drive and Super Nintendo. It was hard to know what was coming out and when, thus the plethora of questions regarding this subject in every letter.
True Physics in your Wii
A small news item today, but one that I find interesting and very telling: Nvidia now Wii third party tools provider. Wii developers now have the well known PhysX SDK from Nvidia to their disposal, which means more realistic game environments.
Of course, this is a really good development for all Wii developers and owners. It has long been argued that Wii just couldn’t do this kind of physics, but Nvidia proves it can be done. But we don’t know yet what games will be using this new technology and when they will come out. But I feel there are two important conclusions that can be had from this news item.
Out Of The Game
The Brodeo still is sorely missed. It was the podcast that made podcasts cool to listen to, that introduced a whole lot of newcomers to a new medium, and that could be listened to over and over again. Now, it is back .. Well, sort of.
Apparently, the lure of podcasting was too great to Shawn Elliott, Jeff Green and Robert Ashley, and now they have teamed up with N’Gai Croal and Luke Smith to form ‘Out Of The Game’.
Everything is still new and fresh, as is the sound quality, but the people haven’t changed and still are the best podcasting cast one can imagine. Go listen to it, now, and be happy.
I am a Hero now
A few weeks ago, I talked about Battlefield Heroes accepting registrations for the beta again. Today, I received my key and I finally could try out the new BF game. Of course, the NDA is still in full force so I really can’t go into details.
The only thing I can say is that, even though it is a really casual game, as promised, it really is a lot of fun. It still retains that BF vibe, but everything is much more streamlined and easier to pick up. Honestly, I can’t wait until this gets a wide open beta, but I fear that is still some months away. In the meantime, go register yourself so you can snap up one of those elusive keys.
Three Moves Ahead
I love listening to podcasts, and I listen to quite a few. But I am also pretty quick at deleting a cast from my iTunes if I feel that it hasn’t been quite as interesting for the last few weeks. That’s why the list on the right here changes quite a lot.
Sometimes a podcast comes along which I know beforehand I will listen to it for a long time. Idle Thumbs and A Life Well Wasted are recent examples, and Three Moves Ahead can now be added to that list. Only three episodes are released so far, but they all deal with the fantastic subgenre of strategic (PC) gaming. They have renewed my interest to replay all these old (and new) strategy games, and they sure know what they are talking about. There aren’t a lot of new strategy games coming out nowadays, but more than enough have come out over the years which means that their subject material is almost limitless. I sure am curious to see how this cast will evolve over time.
Someone Else’s Reader of the Week: edition of Friday the 13th 09
I’ve had some trouble putting this feature together for the last two weeks, but it is back. Not even this illustrous date can hold it back.
We are eagerly awaiting the release of Windows 7, which promises to be a true return to form and will allow me to skip Vista all together. Back in the days, there was even more choice: IBM had its own operatoring system: OS2. And believe me, Windows 3.11 looked as good as Mac OS today, when compared to IBM’s monstrously bad idea. But there were some customers who unknowingly bought computers with this OS pre-installed on it. And when they tried to play games, boy, did it go wrong.
The Sadness of an Inventor
I love behind the scenes stories, especially when they come out after a few years when all business opportunities are gone and people can really speak their mind. And that is just what Miyamoto did in the latest Famitsu issue, as reported by Eurogamer and 1Up.
We already knew that th eGamecube wasn’t the success that Nintendo envisioned, and that the Wii and DS were radical changes to shed off the legacy of the N64 and the GC. But especially interesting to me is that the NES classic releases on GBA were already part of that big plan.
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