Hot Stuff
The National Institute on Media and the Family will be shutting down at the end of 2009. NIMF, known for its annual Video Game Report Card, will be closing because of a lack of funding. Fairview Health Services, which supported NIMF annually with $750,000, could no longer meet its commitment thanks to economic woes.
President and founder Dr. David Walsh vowed to soldier on despite the organization's closing:
The current challenging economic environment accelerated those discussions making this the right time to begin transitioning the programs to other organizations who share our mission and values. I look forward to transitioning the Institute's programs to worthy organizations that I am confident will continue to educate parents and caregivers on our rapidly changing digital culture.
And in a blog post:
We've accomplished a lot of amazing things in the last thirteen years. And in that same amount of time there has been unprecedented technological innovation and an ever-increasing number of screens in young people's lives, making the Institute's mission just as relevant today as when we started. So while this chapter of the Institute's work is coming to a close, I am excited to transition the Institute's programs to organizations that will continue to foster the same important conversations and bring relevant solutions to parents.
NIMF's most recent Report Card gave high marks to the industry for education and enforcement of video game ratings - save an "incomplete" for Parental Involvement.
NIMF to Close at Year End [GamePolitics]
It's the season for giving and we've got some more great games to give away! This time we have two (2) copies of Dragon Age: Origins for the Xbox 360 to give away. I'm sure you're wondering what "Listen and Win" means, so without further ado, here's the rules of the contest.
Take a listen to our most recent podcast (#43 which you can find here) and be one of the first two people to return the questions below with the correct answers to info@gaygamer.net with the subject line "Listen and Win." If your email does not have that as the subject line, it will not be considered. Now, here are the questions.
- 1. What duo do Fruit Brute and Tiny Dancer compare themselves to?
- 2. What famous TV show did the duo in Question #1 come from?
- 3. What race and character class do Fruit Brute and Tiny Dancer play as in Dragon Age: Origins?
- 4. Which male character can you romance in Dragon Age: Origins? (character race and class, not his name)
- 5. Where did that character grow up?
- 6. What is the Japanese title of the Hotel Dusk sequel?
- 7. What game franchise has Fruit Brute given up on?
- 8. What is Fruit Brute and Tiny Dancer's favorite party game
- 9. Which characters do fruit Brute and Tiny Dancer play in Left4Dead 2, respectively.
- 10. What is video game character can Fruit Brute "get behind or in front of?"
Alrighty, there are your questions. Be aware that these are not necessarily in the order that they come in the podcast. You have the weekend to get your answers in and the winner will be announced on Monday. The first two people with all the correct answers will win the prizes. All answers must be submitted by 11:59pm PST on Sunday the 22nd.
Good Luck and Happy Listening!
As VorpalBunny let us know last week, they announced that they are making ports of the original No More Heroes game for both the PS3 and Xbox 360. They also announced that the game will be shipping in Japan on Feb. 25th; however, they still have yet to say when it'll be available for the rest of the world.
In the meantime, they've already launched the Japanese website for the new ports, now know as No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise. On the site you can see a number of hi-res screen shots from the game that show a glimpse of what fans will be getting on the higher resolution ports of the game. I decided to include a small gallery below to let you truly behold some of the video eye candy that will be cranked out for fans. At the same time, they've still kept the lovely 8-bit graphical interface that was part of the charm of the original title, so no worries about the developers selling out their souls to look pretty.
I wrote a review of this FPS/RTS hybrid MMOG back in September; a short month later Battleswarm has gone from open beta to full release yesterday as the free-to-play title opens its doors to any and all interested players.
Battleswarm is an innovative title that pits a team of human players fighting an alien horde controlled by another player on competitive maps. The humans play from typical first person perspective while the aliens march towards their opponents' base via an overhead, tactical perspective. Players can earn points in game that can be used to purchase upgrades, or fork over actual cash for credits to accomplish the same thing. Microtransactions are the business model for the title and in my time playing they're accomplished to a respectable degree.
People who play during its opening weekend will have the chance to win an Alienware m15x laptop as well as two thousand in-game prizes. If you're a fan of quick competitive games and interested in an MMOG outside the normal WoW mold then this is definitely worth checking out. At the very least its price of free, free, free means there's nothing to lose if it's not your tastes.
The GayGamer.net Podcast #43 is here! Join Fruit Brute and Tiny dancer as we discuss the game news of the last week including: The latest 360 update, keeping up with the Joneses, The God of War Collection on PS3, EA layoffs, a possible Hotel Dusk sequel plus more on the racy Dragon Age: Origins gay sex scene!
We're always looking for reader questions to answer on the show so if you have a query for the crew that you'd like answered or would just like to suggest a topic for discussion, send it here with the subject line "Podcast Question."
THIS LINK WILL TAKE YOU TO THE GAYGAMER.NET PODCAST ON ITUNES!
or if you prefer you can
DOWNLOAD THE FILE DIRECTLY HERE!
Today we learned the details of the BioShock 2 Special Edition, which forgoes the awesome Big Daddy figure for something a little more mature (and potentially less exciting). For the suggested price of $99.99 for the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, or $89.99 for the PC version, this single-production run Special Edition offers music and art to the BioShock 2 connoisseur, including two orchestral scores - one of which is vinyl - and plenty of pretty visuals.
The SE contains:
- Vinyl 180g LP with BioShock orchestral score
- Audio CD with BioShock 2 orchestral score
- Three vintage Rapture advertisement posters (rolled)
- BioShock 2 Art Book, 164 pages and hardcover
- BioShock 2 game
And while you might not be psyched to wait until February 9, 2010 to drop a hundy for this rarefied collection, at least we'll have a distraction from the most depressing month ever. And a five-day lead on Valentine's Day!
Today Sony held a media/investor conference to discuss some of the company's future plans. While not all of it is relevant to gaming, there was, of course, a portion of the conference that touched on Sony's plans for the PS3 (and to a lesser extent the PSP). Some interesting details were revealed which non-investors can learn all abut through the conference's slides made available here. Sony sees it's motion controller and 3D gaming (via special glasses and a firmware update) as two of the PS3's key advantages over the competition, all good stuff. But under the Playstation Network section of the presentation there is a tiny detail that might seem a little out of place.
The line "New revenue stream from subscription" appears on the slide detailing how PSN is one of the PS3's key advantages. Of course, this is meant for investors, so new revenue would be seen as an advantage. But as a gamer, this is worrying news. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I had always thought that that one of the PS3's key advantages over the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live was that PSN access was free.
Don't worry, at least too much yet. Online play will still be free through PSN. Shortly after the conference, Sony's Kaz Hirai commented on the subscription plans to reassure gamers that the current free services will stay the same.
"SCE will further increase sales by offering users new entertainment through the combination of hardware, software, peripheral and PlayStation Network. Especially in the online area, we are studying the possibility of introducing a subscription model, offering premium content and services, in addition to the current free services."
Premium content could mean any number of things ranging from more Qore-like content on PSN, to an MMO game, to exclusive Home channels, to early access to game betas and demos. It's good to know that the things on PSN that are currently free will stay that way, but I am very curious to see how Sony will introduce the new premium subscription content into PSN.
Hirai - Current PSN service to remain free, subs for "premium content and services" [VG247]
There have been a lot of recent releases in the FPS and RPG genres, but one category of games that's been sadly underrepresented in recent memory would be that strategy staple known as RTSes. However, aside from Starcraft 2, strategy aficionados now have something else to look forward to as the sequel to Gas Powered Games' Supreme Commander gets an official release date of spring 2010 from its publisher, Square Enix.
Supreme Commander 2 takes place twenty five years after the original game and will continue the story through an extensive single-player campaign as well as its compelling multiplayer modes. This is also the first time Square Enix is publishing a Western title within the Western market, as a result of its partnership with Gas Powered Games.
Personally I'm quite excited: both Supreme Commander and its expansion, Forged Alliance, have places of joy inside my heart, and I've played the game's multiplayer maps to death on top of that. The game will be released on both PC and the Xbox 360 at the same time. This should be considered an improvement towards console fans as the first title's port lagged behind the PC release by several months.
Update: After saying this, Square Enix went ahead and issued a press release dating the PC version as March 2, with the Xbox 360 version coming out on March 16.
Well, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'm banking on the fact that this footage of actual Star Trek Online space battles is worth well over a mint. That's right, the folks over at Cryptic Studios finally decided to release some battle footage from their upcoming MMO, Star Trek Online, which they picked up last year from their fallen brethren, Perpetual Entertainment. I have to admit, with both this MMO and the Old Republic MMO looming on the horizon, I'm one happy Sci-Fi camper.
In the video, the designers reveal that there are basically three different types of starships that you can pilot in the game, each better suited for a different role: tank, damage dealer, or support; however, there are many ways on top of the basic structure of the ship that you can further customize each ship, such as weapons, deflector dish, impulse engines, consoles, and even your bridge officers. Apparently your bridge officers act like your abilities and powers during combat, and all the other aspects let you tweak and configure your ship to behave in a variety of ways.
After looking at the combat in action, I have to say that this definitely blows the pants off anything we've seen before in online space combat (though as far as MMOs go, we really only have EVE Online to look at). Hopefully the upgrade and leveling system used in the game will add further to the combat system that they are displaying boldly here. Eager fans of the game can hopefully start beaming themselves into the Star Trek Online universe next Groundhog's Day, Feb 2nd, 2010.
Ars Technica has an amazing interview up right now with the CEO of Square Enix, Yoichi Wada. This prolific studio is responsible for such incredible franchises like Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, or their JRPG opus Chrono Trigger which is the recipient of more accolades and love than I can possibly get into here.
In the interview, Wada discusses his views on various issues affecting Japanese developers in the gaming industry right now; specifically speaking towards his company's move to diversify and appeal more towards a Western audience, for example, he made this comment that's likely to appeal to many of the company's Western fans who don't speak Japanese and hate waiting for English ports of their titles-- discussing their release dates on titles like FFXIII, he said the company was committed towards achieving parity between the Western and Japanese dates with future titles:
"For the last three years, we have worked very hard to close the gap between Japanese release timing and North American and European release timing," Wada said. "We tried to go for the global, simultaneous release [of FFXII] but that was something that was inconceivable, in a sense. But we have been able to close that release window gap to three months. For us, it was a very big step forward."
In the future, Wada says that these kinds of games, which are released so close to one another, will actually be held back in Japan to make way for a simultaneous worldwide release.
Wada also commented on the difficulties in bringing traditional Western titles to a Japanese audience that has generally been averse to them.
"The Japanese community tends to be closed," he told Ars. "In the past, Japanese retailers have said that Japanese gamers have their own idiosyncrasies and tastes, and that that is the reason why the audience is not accepting of overseas titles. But I believe that is not the case, it was just a matter of poorly executed marketing."
All in all it was a fascinating read from a developer that is arguably a powerhouse in the gaming industry.
Namco Bandai's We Cheer was a unique game for the Nintendo Wii that turned your Wiimotes into cherleading pom-poms, but suffered from a condition that afflicts many Wii games, inaccurate controls that threaten to make the game feel broken. Luckily, the sequel, We Cheer 2, manages to do what all good sequels should do, which is improve upon the original in every way. And that includes the controls! Make the jump for the full review!
God of War and God of War II came at the tail end of the PS2's life and they really showed (especially GOW II) what that console could really do. When the PS3 came along, people were anxiously awaiting to see what antics Kratos would get up to on the new platform and were treated with the announcement of God of War III. Then somewhere along the line, Sony decided to ditch backwards compatibility in the PS3 leaving any newcomers to the PS fold unaware of the great library of games the PS2 had to offer. This also made it difficult for those that decided to wait to purchase the PS3, instead hanging on to their precious older model. Once they did make the switchover, there was no more playing PS2 games unless you plugged the old girl in on another TV or had a switcher. So what does Sony do with all those awesome PS2 games that can no longer be played? Why, remake them of course!
The God of War Collection brings both the original game and its sequel to the PS3 with a graphical face lift as it were. All the graphics have been upgraded to 720p HD quality and the gameplay is as awesome as ever. I enjoyed revisiting the early games in the saga and I have to agree that the graphics look much sharper than they did on my old PS2 and tube TV. Some of the cutscenes however, still don't look quite up to snuff and it's a bit jarring to go from such crispness to a somewhat muddy, jaggy mess. And while the gameplay graphical upgrades look great, they also highlight some of the issues the game had in it's character modeling.
Still, despite those few little things the games look glorious and I think it's great that new folks will get a chance to experience these excellent titles despite the absence of backwards compatibility. I don't know if this re-release will compel those of you who have already played them to buy them again, but if you like to have all three of your franchise pieces on one console, this is the way to do it.
If you have never played God of War and it's sequel before and are planning on getting the third in the series, this is a perfect buy for you. It will get you used to the gameplay and keep you all up to date on the storyline so that when the new game launches in a few months, you'll be all up to speed. Plus, you get two games for the price of one. What could be better?
The God of War Collection launches today and is available for the low low price of $39.99. Help support GayGamer.net and make your purchase through our Amazon store where for the time being, it's only $36.99!
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