The ESA (Entertainment Software Association) is one of the largest video game lobbyist groups (much like the NRA for the gun industry) in the United States, although that may not be true for long. Recently a mass exodus of developers, including Activision-Blizzard, the largest video game publisher in the world, has the future of the ESA in doubt.

It is the ESA’s job to lobby and represent video game publishers in Washington, officially stating that the ESA is

“dedicated to serving the business and public affairs needs of companies that publish video and computer games for video game consoles, personal computers, and the Internet.”

With the exit of publishers Activision-Blizzard, LucasArts, and Id Software one has to wonder if the ESA has not been doing its job to a level that these companies see fit for their investments. One of the most popular rumors as to explain for the decisions is the dislike for the current ESA head Mike Gallagher.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bionic Commando’s May Deployment Delayed (joystiq)

That’s right, you have to wait even longer for the release of this highly anticipated remake. The delay is due to bug fixes, and the burden of the submission process. Personally, I plan on isolating myself for no less than 48 hours after this game’s release so I can enjoy it properly.

Capcom Confirms Street Fighter IV Coming to PC, Xbox 360, PS3 (joystiq)

Previously only announced as an arcade title, Street Fighter IV has been confirmed to be releasing on consoles as well as PC later this year. I challenge any of you to a fight once this game is out. My gamertag is What The Geek.

G4 and Microsoft Partner for Shows on Xbox Live (kotaku)

I love Code Monkeys…. and now I can love it on my 360!! There’s actually a new, free episode up on XBL right now - go watch it. Dave gets boobs, and hilarity ensues.

The voice of GTAIV’s Roman is broke, rent him (xbox360fanboy)

In case you haven’t heard, the screen actor’s guild has some pretty lax policies when it comes to digital performances. So lax, in fact, that Jason Zumwalt is in financial trouble. His solution? A youtube video asking all of you to rent him. So go for it - help your cousin Roman out. I should also make it clear that you shouldn’t hate on Rockstar for the lack of residuals going to the actors - hate on the screen actors guild. They do nothing to enforce specific contract terms for digital works, leaving the actors to fend for themselves. Or, if you’d like, hate on the actors for complaining after the damage is done. I leave the decision on who to hate on to you, the reader.

-MIKE KURZ

So, word has it that Rock Band not only continues to be delayed for a European release, but that it will cost about 200 GBP (around $400 US) for the full ensemble, as opposed to the average retail price in the US of $150. To make up for the extortionist charge, a fifty quid (about $100) game-only version will be available, which will utilize any USB PC microphone.

Well, that’s spectacular if your idea of a rock band is American Idol. In fact, don’t they already have a few American Idol and karaoke games? Why shell out good money for a music game stripped of its most essential elements, namely the controllers? I would normally say that “it’s a bit like” followed by some hyperbolic example to put things in perspective, but my mind is boggled at some base level when it comes to how fundamentally, functionally, stupendously stupid this is.

What we have here is a failure to communicate, or at least a failure to comprehend what makes Rock Band such an awesome game. It isn’t just the ability to become the band member in game, it’s the simulation in real life. As South Park pointed out about the Guitar Hero series, you’re not going to learn how to play a real guitar through any simulator on the market. That’s not the point. The point is that you can imagine yourself on stage, playing a guitar while going through motions that simulate what you’re imaging. If you had to use a regular controller, the whole spirit of the game would be lost.

Rock Band is this at a higher level, as there’s a communal aspect to the game play which is one functionality of gaming that has sustained various titles for years. Sure, online team play and Guitar Hero’s co-op mode do involve player interaction, but the ability to bring your friends together to rock out makes the game communal and interactive in real life as well as in game. Like a real band, bonds are forged or broken based on who is pulling weight and who is sucking ass.

You’re not going to have that experience with a game and a single microphone, though at the prices being set in the European market, you’ll need to have a band of Rock Band-ready friends already established in order to pay for the full kit anyway. Whenever it’s released, that is.

-M. Elizabeth Williams

Game narrative has been around almost as long as video games themselves. Although many of the early stories were either self evident, such as Space Invaders or Frogger, while some made the imagination run wild… I still am not quite sure what is going on in Q*BERT or Pac-Man. As the home consoles gradually caught up with the arcade machines, it fell upon the instruction booklet to fill the void left by the small chip capacities, which in many cases were less then 100k in size.

With the PC, and its larger storage capacity, came text adventures and later the birth of point and click adventure games. This tech helped foster the evolution of the modern PC RPG which then evolved into the console RPG, with games series such as Dragon Quest, and Final Fantasy. Although sparse on narrative, these games laid the foundations for what would become the standard for future game narrative. Read the rest of this entry »

Alas, here we are. It’s late May in 2008, and there is something missing. It’s certainly not the first year, and unfortunately it won’t be the last. The Electronics Entertainment Expo is, as we knew it, gone. If you can recall, mid-May used to be the exciting time of the year for gamers. The equivalent of the comic industry’s San Diego Comic-Con, E3 was the mecca of fandom and press for video games, with the big companies announcing new hardware, games, innovations, and giving rousing press conferences. Remember the big-to-do about Reggie? All of it started at E3. Nowadays, E3 still exists, but in a form that is unrecognizable. Gone are the outrageous booths with playable demos and scantily clad women; what we have now is simply a lineup of press conferences. These still could prove to be exciting I suppose, but really, what’s the point?

I remember when I was younger, wishing that I could miraculously get a job at Babbage’s or Electronics Boutique (before they were all one in the same) so I could be a part of the “industry” and thus get to attend E3 as an industry person and play all the latest and greatest. That this dream will never be fulfilled is not what disappoints me. What truly sucks about it is that E3 was a week that usually blew your mind. Announcements came out of left field, and gamers peed their pants in excitement.

Granted, most of us could never go, so we got our news fed to us via video game websites, but think of their losses as well. That week in May probably provided a vast increase in traffic for these sites, with gamers looking for any info they can grab. Streaming videos, press conferences, interviews, and screen shots were all the rage. I know that we still get access to these things, and that there are still other trade shows, but it was the electricity of E3 that separated it from all the rest.

I think what truly irks me about the loss of E3, granted I’m sure that it cost everyone a great deal of money , is that this represents the moment that gaming truly stopped being what seemed like a tight knit group of counter-culture degenerates and became something else entirely. Yes, I know that gaming has been in the mainstream for many a year now, but still, with an industry as big as that to have such a close connection with fans is rare, and now it is effectively killed. Video games have become like the movie business, shrouded in secrecy and speculation until official announcements are made through a press conference or statement. Boring.

I know sales are great, and gaming has a spectacular future. I just want a show that will get me excited for the upcoming year. What better way to do that than to hold an over the top convention for the sole purpose of pumping everyone up? Perhaps someday, the fun will be resurrected.

-Joey Esposito

I’m pretty excited about this one. Most of us have had experience with a ‘Tycoon’ style game in the past. My personal experiences were generally good, but there’s no denying they’ve gotten pretty formulaic in recent years. Good thing for us Bandai Games is about to up the ante and incorporate some exciting genre-stretching features in its upcoming title, Space Station Tycoon.

IGN recently interviewed the guys behind Space Station Tycoon, who come off extremely passionate about their work on this project. Whenever I read that the developers actually had fun making a game I tend to pay a bit more attention to the fruits of their labor. Too many games feel like they were created by soulless money-driven lobotomized hamsters (with a penchant for endless sequels).

Space Station Tycoon feels special. The artistic style and focus on fun gameplay appear very reminiscent of Namco’s Katamari Damacy series. Anyone who has played the spiritual ancestor of Space Station Tycoon, Outpost Kaloki X for Xbox Live Arcade, will likely feel right at home, though it should be noted that this is neither a sequel nor port.

When asked whether the game will take a linear approach, Wahoo Studios project manager replied:

Jeremy Throckmorton: We decided on a nonlinear approach with this title. Shawn is able to travel to any location on the galactic map so long as he has a valid path there and meets the entry requirements.

This doesn’t sound 100% nonlinear, but some rigidity is a welcome component to effective story telling – another important part of Space Station Tycoon:

Jeremy Throckmorton: Players take on the role of Shawn, the previously mentioned wet-behind-the-ears kid. He’s the optimistically ambitious sort, and just a little too trusting of others. Needless to say, this finds him all kinds of trouble — trouble he happily deals with. The story advances as Shawn travels across the galaxy with his sidekick monkey Tam, exploring, building stations, and occasionally getting whisked away against his will to some remote region of space.

I’m already sold on this one, but what really seals the deal is its Co-op multiplayer. The details are sketchy but it looks like you’ll be able to recruit a friend to help work on a space station. In addition, there is mention of a “mobile gravity well” that will allow the player to mess around with their space stations, and its patrons, in some interesting ways. Wiimote + movable gravity wells + people = fun no matter how you shape it.

-CHRISTOPHER LEWIS

You remember the Prince of Persia games, right? Prince of Persia: “Shadow & Flame”, “Prince of Persia 3D”, “Sands of Time Trilogy”, etc. The Middle Eastern Prince, swords, fighting, saving the princess from the evil Jaffar, traveling through time, etc. Well, in the upcoming version, the Prince gets a facelift and also some nice looking weapons in the new version coming out for PS3 and 360. The art work looks more Middle Eastern than the last version of the game. One of the new artwork for the game can be seen at:Team XBox

~Charlise

You know the end is near when the word ‘marathon‘ is associated with morbidly obese video game addicted 26 year-olds. That die. From playing too hard.

The article never mentions what game the Chinese man was playing when he passed, but one thing is pretty certain - it wasn’t Wii Sports. On second thought, maybe it was. Maybe, and this is a shameless stretch, the excessive physical movement is what did him in. I know I’m not the only one breaking a sweat bowling in my living room.

Also not mentioned is what, exactly, this guy died of. Is it really possible to die from just sitting on your ass for a week? Does this mean tollbooth workers are at risk of suffering a similar fate?

And in case you were wondering, China now boasts an impressive 2.6 million internet addicts (see Fig. A), though roughly 2.5 million of those polled are almost definitely gold farmers.

-CHRISTOPHER LEWIS

That’s fuckin’ bananas.

-MIKE KURZ

I really like it when Jack Tretton speaks publicly. It makes me smile…. It makes me smile the same way I smile when I see a small child selling lemonade on the street with a sign that has lemonade misspelled. He’s at it again, and here’s some choice quotes regarding the fact that PS3’s are on store shelves:

“It’s a testament to the fact that we’ve been able to manufacture and ship units on a greater pace than any previous console,”

Oh, I see… it’s not that people haven’t been buying PS3’s it’s just that Sony’s been shipping them at the speed of light. Don’t be coy Mr. Tretton, you can tell us your secret… it’s ninjas isn’t it? Every store is assigned a PS3 ninja that hides in the ventilation system just waiting for a PS3 to be purchased, at which time he pops out of a vent, replaces the unit, and is gone before anyone sees him. That’s right Sony, I’m on to you.

Tretton had some things to say on the topic of Sony’s ambitious goal of selling 2 million units in the US by the end of March:

“We’re in pretty good shape to do that. The early returns are quite favourable,”

In case you haven’t seen the sales figures for January yet, here they are, and the Wii is outselling the PS3 almost 2:1 with 436,000 Wii’s sold against the PS3’s 244,000. The Wii will likely hit 2 million by the end of March based on the numbers. The PS3? Not so much.

-MIKE KURZ