Games Roundup — Week 2, June 2010
I know, I know…I’m as regular with games news as Lee/Miller on All-Star Batman and Robin…right, Shark Repellant?
Multiplatform news
GetGaming.com.au — 50% off your 1st month with Australia’s new postal mail game rental service! – Stevivor.com: This *may* be one of the reasons I’m so behind on life. Aussies, take advantage of our country’s first GameFly-esque service!
Study Finds That “Extreme Gamers” Play 48 Hours a Week – Slashdot: “Think you’re a big gamer? According to a new study from market research firm NPD Group, to be considered among the real hardcore you’ll need to play an average of 48.5 hours a week — nearly seven hours a day. This group of gamers is, on average, ‘29 years old, and — perhaps surprisingly — one-third of them are female. They’re more likely to play on consoles than on the PC, and on average they’ve purchased 24 titles in the past three months — a bill that could easily run over a thousand dollars. But dedicated though they may be, the Extreme Gamers are just a small minority: a mere 4% of the US’s 174-million-strong gaming public.”
1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die – Kotaku: “Coming this October from Universe Publishing, 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die sounds like the sort of book that could seriously chew up your free time from now until you die.”
Get the book. Play the games.
WB’s new ‘Mortal Kombat’ tests our might in 2011 – Joystiq: “Warner Bros. announced a new Mortal Kombat game this morning, and Seven of Nine is nowhere to be found. The game, called simply Mortal Kombat, appears to be a return to the classic Mortal Kombat 2/3 style of gameplay — extremely quick, 2D fighting — which has been given a fresh coat of 3D paint and a very noticeable 60 frames-per-second framerate. It also features a man being sliced open at the groin with a spinning hat.”
Capcom hopes to ‘heat up’ Resident Evil series to coincide with next film – Joystiq: “While the undead are typically characterized as being cold & clammy — not to mention their whole penchant for eating the living — Capcom COO Haruhiro Tsujimoto says he hopes to “heat up” the zombie-fueled Resident Evil game franchise to coincide with Resident Evil: Afterlife’s arrival in theaters this fall.”
Is This Shattered Dimensions’ Spider-Man 2099? – Kotaku: “A series of screenshots has slipped onto the web, showing off what looks like confirmation of Spider-Man’s 2099 alter-ego Miguel O’Hara’s appearance in Activision’s Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. While we were expecting a big reveal of the third of four dimensions featured in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, it looks like someone might have jumped the gun. All Games Beta posted these four screens, showing off the Spider-Man of Marvel’s 2099 universe, where Ghost Rider is an A.I. inside of a skull-headed robot.”
SO cool. Spiderman 2099 in Shattered Dimensions.
Portal 2 delayed until 2011 – Joystiq: “In another cheeky press release, Valve has announced that Portal 2 has been delayed until 2011. The sequel to 2007’s innovative (and tardy) first-person disorientation dissertation was originally scheduled to arrive on Xbox 360 and PC this holiday — and we all believed it. Still, there are worse fates to befall the industry, as Aperture Laboratories correctly notes that “all life on earth won’t instantaneously stop as every molecule in your body explodes at the speed of light, which is what would happen should a rip ever appear in the fabric of Valve Time.”
Rock Band 3 keyboard revealed, looks like a keyboard! – Engadget: “We’ve been wondering how a keyboard would look in the Rock Band universe: a row of colored buttons would make it hardly different than the guitar peripheral, while a real keyboard would… be just as hard to play as a real keyboard. Well, it looks like someone smarter than us has tackled the problem, implementing a Hannah Montana-style “Best of Both Worlds” solution.”
Xbox 360 news
One Year Later, Did These E3 Xbox 360 Promises Come True? – Kotaku: “Let’s separate the Xbox hype from the Xbox reality. Every year’s massive E3 gaming event includes big press conferences that promise gamers awesome things. One year past last E3, let’s see what Microsoft and friends said would be in our Xbox future — and what did or didn’t come true.”
Alan Wake spotted in live-action teaser – Joystiq: “Remedy has released a creepy, cryptic video for Alan Wake. So, it’s a lot like every Alan Wake video, but it’s especially like the Bright Falls prequel series in that it’s composed of live-action footage. The only thing that looks unrealistic, really, is the imperiled author’s jacket-hoodie combination.”
More live-action Alan Wake? Yes, please!
Playing Project Natal Sure Is Embarrassing – Kotaku: “Nobody looks good playing Project Natal. Nobody.Microsoft’s upcoming motion controlled Project Natal is controller-free. When the system was first showed at last year’s E3, it was assumed that Project Natal will involve flailing.”
Sony PlayStation3 and PSP News
One Year Later, Did These PS3 and PSP Promises Come True? – Kotaku: “The PlayStation people promise a lot of things. They did one year ago. Now those promises and plans are being checked, by me, to see which elements of their E3 2009 Sony hype came true and which did not.”
Stereoscopic 3D coming to PS3 – Joystiq: “What’s up, June 9th? It’s your buddies from Joystiq, coming to you direct from the future: June 10th. It’s incredible here, what with all the Floatshoes and the Hoverplanes (long story) but the best innovation? Stereoscopic 3D gaming on the PS3 kicked off today, with WipEout HD, PAIN, Super Stardust HD and the MotorStorm: Pacific Rift demo all going three-dimensional.”
It'll look like this...but in 3D!
Nintendo Wii and DS news
VI Fit Is Wii Sports For The Blind – Kotaku: “Wii Sports can be a big factor in getting sedentary children moving, but what about blind children? A video game research project at the University of Nevada, Reno, is creating Wii Sports-based PC games that don’t require eyesight to play.”
VI Fit: neat!
EA Sports Brings NHL Slapshot, Mini-Hockey Sticks, to Wii – Kotaku: “The Toronto Sun reported today that EA Sports’ upcoming NHL game for the Wii will be called NHL Slapshot, and it will be completely different from the main game. It will also ship with a mini-hockey stick peripheral.”
PC and iPhone news
Doctor Who: The Adventure Games now available (and free) in the UK – Joystiq: “Brilliant! Folks living in the land from whence the time-traveling, sonic-screwdriving adventurer originated can now download the first episode in Sumo Interactive’s Doctor Who: The Adventure Games for free. Titled “City of the Daleks,” the game sees the Doctor and his companion, Amy Pond, in an alternate version of London in 1963, where the nefarious Daleks have taken over the city and are baking cakes for everybody. (Just kidding! They’re murdering everyone. That’s what Daleks do.)”
Alas, no word on when we get this.
What Will The Next iPhone Mean For Gamers? – Kotaku: “Gizmodo has a nice rundown of what they expect to be happening at the BIG show come Monday, and they tend to nail this sort of thing. But what will it all mean to mobile gamers?”
The fine print
This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive roundup of the entire week’s news. All stories are chosen for no other reason than that they got my attention and might capture yours. If something you think is more important, chime in on the feedback; we’d love to hear comments and have a conversation about it.
For real-time updates on gaming’s big headlines, be sure to follow @StevivorGaming on Twitter!
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Seven Psychopaths – Podcast Review
The Cabin in the Woods – Podcast Review
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Priest – Cam Gigandet WonderCon Roundtable
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Weird Al Yankovic – The Interview
Dr Who Season 7 – TV Trailer
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 – Animated Movie Trailer
Skyfall – Domestic and International Movie Trailers
Cloud Atlas – Movie Trailer
Oz the Great and Powerful – Movie Trailer
