By putting the tools to develop games into the hands of anyone with enough time and gumption to teach themselves coding has given the opportunity for unique and innovate game design to invade the industry over the past few years. Many of these new and innovative ideas are coming from small independent studios or in some cases have even been crafted by one individual. One such developer is the singular mind behind the DS adaptation of the popular “Lone Wolf” game-book franchise. Sitting in a place somewhere in between a traditional pen and paper RPG (By providing a simple dice combat system, inventory management as well as skill checks) and a choose your own adventure novel, I was quite intrigued by the incredibly polished experience that one person could create. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Frédéric Calendini, the mind behind the conceptualization and full development of the DS homebrew game.

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Whenever the topic of the future of gaming comes up, I immediately begin blathering on about immersion, and how as time goes on, games only get more immersive. Normally, I’m referring to top notch visuals, high quality surround sound, and deep, engaging plots. Fable 2 has shown me that immersion comes in more flavors than I had previously thought.
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I have recently been questioning the reasoning for why I play video game, and no matter how many answers I run through my head, the singular truth has evaded me for quite some time. I find myself thinking about the innate escapism that gaming provides while also fulfilling the need for instant gratification, but these answers feel empty. Is there some deeper meaning or is it simply providing another stimulus to break up the monotony of life?

Science would side with the latter, arguing that the reason for playing is purely based on the brain functions that are take place through the experience. Often when science and video games collide it usually entails a limited study about the effects of violent video games on “young impressionable youths,” while ignoring much else. However, in a 2005 study done by the Helsinki School of Economics¹ on the physiological and emotional responses induced throughout the experience of a game, it was found that “emotional game events may vary as a function of the active participation of the character.” To put it simply a positive emotion and physiological response was noted whenever a player was contributing to an experience no matter the positive or negative outcome in-game; while the negative emotions were only registered during a replay of a failed attempt of the game.

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We’ve drafted what we believe to be the first gaming DRM Bill of Rights. We’ve done so with the sincerest hopes that gamers and industry reps alike will look at it, and use it as a measuring stick to determine how much DRM is too much DRM. We did our best to be fair to both the publishers and the gamers with the things we included. Publishers have a right to protect their games from piracy, and gamers have the right to use those games without undue interruption. If you see something that doesn’t look right, or if you have an idea for an amendment, by all means tell us about it.

DRM Bill of Rights

-Mike Kurz

With the introduction of the slightly updated DS, named the DSi, Nintendo has entered into the handheld download market along with both the PSP, and Apple’s iPhone. Nintendo is in a unique position to use the download store on the Wii to its advantage as a foundation for how the download experience on the DSi will work. The DSi could revolutionize downloadable games, or become an interesting idea that was never brought to its true potential.

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UPDATE 4: It is confirmed that the beta keys mentioned in update 3 were definitely from GS. In the end, they did make good on their promise, and that’s a good thing. At some point along the way they may very well have been fibbing to the community, and that’s not such a good thing. I guess the moral of the story is to keep your eye on GS. Don’t take everything they tell you at face value. They’ve been around a long time, but that doesn’t make them above mistakes, and this situation is proof of that. They delivered the beta keys, but they still handled the situation poorly by misinforming (deliberately or accidentally) the community every step of the way. Take what Gamespot says with a grain of salt…. but you probably already knew that.

UPDATE 3: Some people on the GS forums are now claiming to have received codes from Gamespot. There’s even a screen shot of someone’s email, however, the email does look a little suspicious. The word “beta” is spelled “bet”, and Kristin says “Please only use this once as it will delete your copy if you try to use it multiple times.” possibly referring to the fact that your key will become invalid if you attempt to use it on two different PSN accounts. Despite the grammatical short comings of the email, it does seem possible that it is legit, which once again raises the question “What took so long?” Did they just get the keys from Sony? Did they have them all along? As answers surface, I’ll continue to update. Thanks to A Voice for pointing this out.

UPDATE 2: It now appears the codes mentioned in the last update were actually related to the official LBP website. Kristin did suggest that codes would be going out in the very near future, and that if you don’t get a key, watch this weeks episode of On The Spot for another chance to win one as they will have 2,000 more. So in summation, no keys have actually gone out from GS yet, but they’re promising 2,000 additional keys as prizes.

UPDATE:Some Gamespot users are reporting that they are receiving beta codes from Sony. It is unclear at this point whether they are directly related to Gamespot’s contest, or the littlebigplanet homepage’s contest. While it is good to see people getting their codes, this would sort of support the theory that GS was not up front with gamers when they said they had the codes in hand to give out as prizes. As info becomes available I’ll update this post.

Gamespot is at it again! You may remember earlier this year when GS got themselves in a sticky situation when Jeff Gerstmann was relieved of duty under suspicious circumstances. Long story short, there were Kane and Lynch ads all over GS when Gerstmann’s negative review of the game went up. Shortly thereafter, he found himself in the unemployment line. 

Well, it looks like GS is getting into new shenanigans this week. This time it’s all about littlebigplanet beta codes.

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Often times games use difficulty as a means to challenge a player and to increase the sense of accomplishment one feels after defeating a certain scenario. Sometimes though it seems that the difficulty in games can become almost impossible for a human to accomplish through normal means. I often find myself wanting a little robotic help during some particularly tough game outings, so here it is: The top 5 video games in which a cybernetic enhancement is needed.

1. Mushihime-sama

In the Words of Mike Kurz: “I can’t fathom fathoming victory in that fight”

The term bullet hell is defined as a game “in which the entire screen is often almost completely filled with enemy bullets.” Of all of the so called “bullet hell” games, one is just a bit more hellish then any others: Mushihime-sama. With a hit zone (the space on the screen in which an enemy attack will register as a hit) of only 1 pixel, Mushihime-sama is undoubtedly a game that would be a bit more manageable with the aid of a bionic eye to help with pattern recognition as well as the movement of your ship, however even with advanced technology at your disposal this game would still be hell.
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(image source: Nintendowiifanboy.com)

When Mega Man 9 made it’s triumphant 8-bit leap onto the virtual console on Monday, the online instruction manual lept onto the VC with it. That manual contained some information about future plans for some rather controversial DLC. Just about every video game released in the past decade has had multiple difficulty settings. Mega Man 9 will have them too….. (more…)

Back in July, right after E3 I recall listening to an episode of 1UP Yours in which Garnett Lee described a backstage encounter with Peter Molyneux. During that encounter, Molyneux showed Garnett some actual Fable 2 gameplay. After wandering about for a bit causing trouble, Molyneux led his wandering minstrel under a bridge and, to Garnett’s surprise, killed him dead. See, Garnett, along with the rest of us, was under the impression that the minstrel was a reward for doing good deeds. Molyneux explained that the minstrel was quite annoying, and he wanted to see how long gamers would put up with him before killing him.

I don’t think I ever laughed as hard as I did when I heard that story - that is until I hit up IGN this morning.
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“My vagina is angry.” Ok, so maybe angry isn’t the right word, but I am astounded by the treatment of females in the xbox gamer community. Within two weeks of being an Xbox Live member, I’ve been treated like a stripper, cam whore, bitch, cow, and somehow the “coolest chick on XBL.” Am I missing something here?

Over the years guys have learned how to treat women better in the home and the work place, so why does it all have to go to shit when they hop on Xbox Live? I know I’m not looking for special treatment when gaming, I just don’t want to feel like a target or 2nd class citizen, and I’m sure other chicks can relate. I don’t think you’re going to boot or harass every guy you don’t think is attractive from a game, so why get superficial over chicks?

I guess the best way to explain it is to give a glimpse into my world.

I enter an UNO game and instantly hear, “Hey look it’s a fat bitch,” followed by “Hey fat cow show us your panties.” Chill as I am I laugh it off, some people are perverts, oh well. Then I’m booted from the game. I’m not sure why I couldn’t stay and play. Was it because I’m a “fat bitch” or because this “fat cow” didn’t swoon and immediately drop trow to show off some undies?

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