GameCulture News

Battlestar Galactica multiplayer game in the works

JulieGray — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:56:44 -0600

As reported by the LA Times, Cylon-lovin' gamers everywhere will be thrilled to hear about the franchise being developed as an online multiplayer game.

The game will be introduced at the Game Developers Conference this week and like Quake Live, will be completely browser based and free to play:

"We're picking a point in the chronology of the series that fans are very familiar with to tell new stories," explained Bill Kispert, vice president of digital platforms for the partnerships and licensing department of Universal Pictures, which owns the "Battlestar Galactica" rights and made the game deal. "There will be space combat as well as missions and exploration."

Battlestar Galactica the game is set for an August/September release and will be published by BigPoint.

Via the LA Times

Image via GoreMasterNews

Game Guns — A Magic Wand with a Trigger

monkeysan — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:26:58 -0600

Chris Dahlen, shameless East Coast Liberal and erstwhile game journalist, learns a nice lesson about gun play from his son and Big Buck Hunter Pro:

We’re at Joe’s New York Pizza, having a slice while my wife is teaching a class. It’s a great pizzeria, except that they have a coin-op game in the restaurant, and it happens to be one of the only games I don’t want my four-year-old to play: Big Buck Hunter Pro.

“Why do you want to play that?” I said. I fumbled for a follow-up. “I’ve heard it’s not that good”...

Here’s the dilemma I faced. As a dad, do I let my kid try something he might enjoy more than I want him to? Should I let him make up his own mind, and trust his four-year-old judgement? Or do I shelter him from it, just as I’ve protected him from The Phantom Menace, jam bands, and the n-bomb?

“Come on, dad. I want to play it.”

I gave in.

My son’s aim was lousy. He was happy just to wave the rifle around and pull the trigger...

And that’s when I realized - my son understood this game better than I did. I was hung up on the form, while he went straight for the function. To him, a gun isn’t a weapon; it’s more like a magic wand with a trigger. In his imagination, it’s a tool that lets him reach out and make cool stuff happen. This is not bad, because the targets are not real, which is obvious. He doesn’t want to kill the wildlife; he just wants to make things explode.

While many of us fret about the social politics behind our interactive carnage, it's good to be reminded that sometimes, to paraphrase Freud, a videogame gun is just a cool way to make things blow up.

House of Spain — Zombie Panic in Wonderland

monkeysan — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:54:09 -0600

Lions and tigers and zombies, oh my. Cliche and tired for most, that tag line is actually well-deserved and made fresh again by Spanish dev Jose Manuel. With a penchant for transmuting literary gems into epic zombie shooters — well before Pride and Prejudice got infected — Manuel and his team at Akaoni Sutdio are set to follow up Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ with Zombie Panic in Wonderland. NintendoLife caught up with Manuel to ask him about his love of undead–folk tale mashups:

[F]olk tales and zombies are two themes that I’ve always particularly liked. When I was a child, my mother used to tell me stories before I went to sleep, and it was something I loved. Moreover, I've felt fascination for horror movies since I was very little. I think it all started when one night I got up while my parents were sleeping and turned the television on. It was past midnight, and The Night of the Living Dead was being broadcast. It was the first horror movie, and the first zombie movie I saw. I was really scared [laughs], but I loved it. Since then, every Tuesday I got up at the same time to see the horror movie of the week.

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Fail Over: Top 10 Halo 3 Suicides

monkeysan — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:22:33 -0600

Tuesday may just be the toughest day of the work week, but don't despair. Check out Anoj's "Top Ten Halo 3 Suicides" for a good laugh...or at least a reminder that life could be worse. Ouch.

[via Machinima.com]

When the mute button is bliss

JulieGray — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:51:19 -0600

If there's one thing I love about online gaming, it's the opportunity to see people at their very worst or their very best. People who are normally calm under pressure in person, can sometimes change into the most horrid of creatures online - especially in multiplayer games.

If you're likely to fall into one or several of the following categories (minus 'The Mute'), you may want to consider turning on the mute button. Ever tried playing an online multiplayer game with the mute button switched on? Oh the the experience can be utterly blissful! This is particularly so if you're the 'overly' competitive type that just revels in pointing out other people's faults during the worst possible time. I mean, there's no point yelling "WTF dude - why didn't you see the Sniper?!" down the mic when your friend has already respawned. Firstly, they've respawned and secondly, everyone knows a good sniper is one that's hidden from view...

But try putting it to the test. The next time you're gaming, switch on the mute button and try listening to what everyone else is saying. It can be one of the most hilarious things you'll ever do. Inbetween erratic fits of silent frustration, I quite often also find myself doubled over in hysterics at some of the things gamers will say when playing games. People will tend to take on certain personality types online and it's not too hard to pick them out.

Firstly, there's the "Oh WTF - how did I die just then?" type that will insist, no matter what the situation (even if they are running around in wide open spaces with bullets flying towards them from every direction) that they shouldn't have died. Duh. Try asking them why they didn't use cover - you know like, the entire forest of trees located all around the map and woah... the 'Gamer who should never die' will soon become 'The Rager'.

Hef Gives Mobsters Vintage Smut in Mafia II

monkeysan — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:37:53 -0600

Mafia II features a deep and compelling narrative that is embellished with a sophisticated, era-evoking atmosphere, according to 2K president Christoph Hartmann. Apparently, part of evoking that sophisticated atmosphere includes Hugh Hefner.

While anyone who's been to the Playboy Mansion might dispute the sophistication and class of that franchise, 2K has licensed more than 50 vintage covers and centerfolds, which we presume will litter the bathrooms and stand sentinel in the closets of wiseguys throughout the game.

Playboy's Editorial Directory, Jimmy Jellinek, says that “for more than 55 years, Playboy has been a part of America’s pop culture landscape, engaging its readers with insightful features, interviews and fashion spreads, as well as pictorials of some of the world’s most beautiful women. Mafia II is set when Playboy first came into vogue and features characters whose style and attitudes mirror content from our early issues."

The hitch, of course, is that because 2K only licensed vintage Playboy imagery, gamers won't have access to the classic excuse — "I bought it for the articles."

Experience Points: Never Diss Mario

John Keefer — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:17:52 -0600

In this week's episode. Vince commits a cardinal sin against Mario. Bad Vince, Bad.

Getting hyped for Halo: Reach

JulieGray — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:42:48 -0600

I've never been a huge fan of the Halo franchise which is kinda odd for me considering I love multiplayer shooters. But I have to admit, I am pretty hyped for Halo: Reach. I didn't play Halo: ODST and before deciding not to play it, I spoke to quite a few gamers on my buddy list to see what the general concensus was. Unless you're outside of the U.S., you probably won't come up against the problem of finding good games to play with reasonable lag but the idea of playing with a bad ping didn't really appeal to me. If I'm going to play a shooter and at least be on some sort of equal footing with the people I play against, ping and lag issues are important factors.

So, after finding out that most of my buddies wouldn't be picking up ODST, I decided to give it a miss as well. Now that Halo: Reach is around the corner (beta releasing in May), I'm beginning to pay more attention to the differences it has to offer over previous games in the franchise (as the video clip above shows-off well enough) and I'm thinking this might be a great multiplayer game for me to play. I've recently upgraded my internet connection as well which will be operating at three times the speed of my previous connection so it'll be game on in a serious way.

So, what is it about the Halo franchise that seems to make it so popular? I'd really love to hear what gamers think about Halo and why they think it's such a great game to play. And what about Halo: Reach? Are Halo gamers itching for a taste of it or will it be just another game to add to the collection?

Halo: Reach features the following elements which I'm really looking foward to:

Retro Consoles - how many can you name?

JulieGray — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:50:56 -0600

Unlike myself, I am sure there are many gamers out there who could probably put their retro gaming knowledge to the test by examining the image above. This pic displays some of the oldest gaming consoles/systems around (some of which I haven't even heard of, just quietly). Think you can name them all? Put your gaming knowledge to the test and let us know what you think here.

Image via Tumblr

Games Keep Spirits Up after Devastation

John Keefer — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:01:43 -0600

Chile was hit by a devastating quake last weekend, killing hundreds and leaving hundreds of thousands more homeless. How do you cope after something so terrible?

Well, some people apparently play games. A story on ZAM tells of a 33-year-old woman named Karen who was playing games when the quake hit. And two days later, after she discovered her family was OK, particularly those in the hardest hit areas, she was back playing games and making plans to play with friends.

From the story (she apologized for her broken English):

In this week, I only play Starcraft to keep my mind out of all this stuff. Today my best friend come to my house we start to talk and we decide to play this Friday and Saturday on my Xbox360... we are going to play Fifa 2010 and some Left 4 Dead to take out everything ... and try to relax ..."

Turns out hse had her spirits raised when on of the few things that survived was a World of Warcraft stein she had recently purchased (see picture). So I guess games can offer hope as well.

Video games and Fan Fiction

JulieGray — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:43:05 -0600

Fanfiction or 'Fanfics' are nothing new and there are thriving communities of writers who spend many dedicated hours writing about their favorite video game characters and publishing this work online. Gaming website 1UP recently published an informative article about this phenomenon with insight from some of the writers who create their very own characters and world's based on video games.

According to the article, one of the most prominent Fan Fiction communities online is FanFiction.Net which is home to thousands of writers. The website contains all sorts of content including fanfics based on movies, video games and books:

In 1998, a student named Xing Li founded Fanfiction.net, a general archive for fanfiction. Fanfiction.net's all-inclusive format defied the fandom-centric archives that were the norm at the time, and by 2002, over a hundred thousand writers had signed up for a chance to deposit their own works.

An Australian fanfic writer named 'Blaise' started writing fanfic pieces in 2007 and is particularly fond of writing fanfic based in the Final Fantasy universe:

"[The] Final Fantasy XII fandom got me committed to the idea of writing fanfiction because it had a massive range of possible works," she says. "There was no one style or genre being written, no one true pairing [also "OTP," a term that refers to a fan's favored romantic pairing in a game, book, or TV series], multiple options to meet any a reader's tastes, and a lot of people really enjoying themselves."
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Violence in video games and the impact on females

JulieGray — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:02:51 -0600

GamePolitics recently posted an article regarding a report dealing with many issues that include violence and the "Sexualisation of Girls" and how the impact of female characters in video games can influence them in a negative manner. As a female and gamer, I thought it would be interesting to comment on some of these findings.

I'd like to focus on the violence aspect specifically. Taken from the report:

Blind Gamer Beats "The Legend of Zelda"

John Keefer — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:32:23 -0600

It's nice to see "feel good" stories from the video game world, and we get a doozy courtesy of CNN.

Jordan Vermer, a blind gamer in Ontario, Canada, put out an online call for help. He wanted someone to help him beat his favorite game, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Despite the call, Jordan was skeptical that anyone would help him. "I thought that's far from reality. That's more fantasy than the game itself."

That's where a South Carolina man comes in, aided by three gaming buddies. Roy Williams, who at one time earlier in life was told that he might go blind, decided to help Jordan. Williams and his friends recorded every jump, move and button push in a document that could be sent to Jordan. Jordan's computer would then read the words to him so he could follow the directions.

After almost two years of effort and 100,000+ keystrokes, the project was complete ... and Jordan finally beat the game.

"I felt great," Jordan said afterward. "I felt strong. I felt like the sky's the limit."

Check out the CNN news story in the video. Definitely a feel good piece.

Twin Galaxies Founder Retires for Music Career

John Keefer — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:05:07 -0600

Twin Galaxies has been recording video game records for almost 20 years, and now, the man behind the company's success is hanging up his clipboard.

Walter Day, who founded the company in 1981 after finding no one was keeping track of video game scoring records, in retiring to pursue a music career, according to a Twin Galaxies press release. The company began as a small video game arcade in Ottumwa, Iowa, during the origin of the video game boom.

The 20,000 faces of World of Warcraft

JulieGray — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:43:58 -0600

I just received this email in my inbox from Blizzard and figured it was very much a blog-worthy topic. If you're a fan of World of Warcraft, you might already know about the mosaic project to create a World of Warcraft 'Battlecry' Mosaic from pictures submitted by 20,000 WoW players worldwide. Now that's definitely an epic undertaking!

You can view the full (very LARGE) mosaic here and details of the project here.

Image via Blizzard