GDC Imbues Cocksure Codemonkey With False Sense of Coolness [Syndicated]

It’s been two days since Jake’s plane from sunny SFO landed in flat OKC, but his friends think the real Jake is still somewhere hiding deep within the halls of the San Francisco Moscone Center. This new Jake is new. More

GDC Imbues Cocksure Codemonkey With False Sense of Coolness [Syndicated]

It’s been two days since Jake’s plane from sunny SFO landed in flat OKC, but his friends think the real Jake is still somewhere hiding deep within the halls of the San Francisco Moscone Center. This new Jake is new. More

The Nintendo Download: Nintendo’s Got Your Final Fantasy Right Here [Downloadables]

Final Fantasy II spearheads this week’s Nintendo Download, which explores the mysterious worlds of fantasy, horror, and learning Spanish. It might not be Final Fantasy XIII, but Final Fantasy II, or Final Fantasy IV in Japan, makes up for the lack of newness with sheer quality. Lightning, Snow, and Hope have nothing on Cecil, Rydia, and Edward, though the latter might be a bit too spoony for some tastes. For more fantasy, check out Max & the Magic Marker, Press Play’s WiiWare game about a boy drawing his way through his imagination, or Elemental Masters, a fantasy-based trading card game for DSiWare from lbxgames. If horror is more to your liking, Chillingo’s Dracula: Undead Awakening appears on WiiWare and DSiWare this week, with early teen horror fans getting another dose of Too Ghoul for School in EA’s Flips: The Bubonic Builders for the DSi. Check out the gallery for the official descriptions, and remember, if you hate galleries, you’ll love clicking here . Max & the Magic Marker Publisher: Press Play Players: 1 ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Comic Mischief Price: 1,000 Wii Points Description: One day Max gets a mysterious marker in the mail. Not knowing better, the first thing he draws is a wacky, purple monster. As soon as the marker leaves the paper, the monster comes to life and jumps off the paper and into another drawing. With the monster on the loose and messing with Max’s drawings, Max has no choice but to go after it. Armed with the magic marker, you must help Max track the monster through 15 inventive and challenging levels. You’ll need more than good will and quick reflexes to tackle the challenges ahead. Draw freely inside the game to help Max defeat enemies, overcome obstacles and solve puzzles. As you draw stairs, seesaws, balloons, surfboards and whatever else you can think of, your creations will interact with the physical environment, making every session unique. Dracula – Undead Awakening Publisher: Chillingo Players: 1 ESRB Rating: T (Teen) – Fantasy Violence Price: 1,000 Wii Points Description: Are you a vampire hunter? Are you ready to battle legions of undead foes including zombies, ghouls and werewolves? You’ll need to wield an arsenal of powerful weaponry while using your skill and intelligence. Uncover devastating firepower – machine guns, buzz-saws, flamethrowers and more – and choose upgrades for them as well as unique new perks for your character as your enemies increase in number and ferocity. You’re a tough customer, but beware – Lord Dracula is always on the hunt, and you are his prey. Enemies in Dracula have one thing in common: Undead, lycanthrope or mutant, they’re all after your flesh. FINAL FANTASY II Original platform: Super NES Publisher: Square Enix Players: 1 ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes Price: 800 Wii Points Description: Follow the dark knight Cecil – Lord Captain of Baron’s elite force, the Red Wings – as he embarks on a fateful journey riddled with trials, betrayals, friendship, loss and self-discovery. Plagued with uncertainty over his monarch’s motives, can Cecil turn away from the path of darkness and destruction? Elemental Masters Publisher: lbxgames Players: 1-2 ESRB Rating: T (Teen) – Animated Blood, Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes Price: 800 Nintendo DSi Points Description: In this fantasy card game, stand your ground in a quest filled with magic and adventure, and experience a thrilling combination of strategy and role-playing. Choose your character, build up your army in your card deck and fight the mystical creatures of Elendior. With thoughtful use of your cards, you’ll obtain the monsters of your enemy and support your attacks by using arcane spells and the rules of dark magic. Dive into this captivating story in the quest mode or duel with your friends in multiplayer mode. More than 100 creatures in numerous maps are waiting for you. 4 TRAVELLERS – Play Spanish Publisher: AGENIUS Interactive Players: 1-4 ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) Price: 800 Nintendo DSi Points Description: Whether played alone or together with friends, 4 TRAVELLERS can teach you new words in Spanish. The game is suitable for both young and old, and no previous knowledge is necessary. The more you play, the more your Spanish vocabulary increases. You can also play and learn with the game’s unique learning mode. The game is perfect to bring on your trip, with more than 240 carefully selected words included specifically for this occasion. Dracula – Undead Awakening Publisher: Chillingo Players: 1 ESRB Rating: T (Teen) – Fantasy Violence Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points Description: Are you a vampire hunter? Are you ready to battle legions of undead foes including zombies, ghouls and werewolves? You’ll need to wield an arsenal of powerful weaponry while using your skill and intelligence. Uncover devastating firepower – machine guns, buzz-saws, flamethrowers and more – and choose upgrades for them as well as unique new perks for your character as your enemies increase in number and ferocity. You’re a tough customer, but beware – Lord Dracula is always on the hunt, and you are his prey. Enemies in Dracula have one thing in common: Undead, lycanthrope or mutant, they’re all after your flesh. [image via NintendoLife ] Flips: The Bubonic Builders Publisher: Electronic Arts Players: 1 ESRB Rating: Not Rated Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points Description: Flips Interactive Books are the fun new way for kids to read. The builders are in to replace the girls’ toilet block, but they’re more interested in cups of tea and instant noodle snacks than doing any work. James suspects foul play, but Alexander and Lenny are doubtful until a strange accident hammers the truth home. How will the three friends stop St. Sebastian’s from being reduced to rubble?

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The Nintendo Download: Nintendo’s Got Your Final Fantasy Right Here [Downloadables]

Major League Baseball 2K10 Review: Pitching With Two Strikes [Review]

If MLB 2K9 had been an actual ballplayer, last year’s performance would have sent it to the minors, if not the waiver wire. After a soul-searching offseason, 2K Sports decided to focus on the fundamentals for MLB 2K10. This year’s game fixates on the batter-pitcher matchups that infuse every at-bat with suspense and dramatic potential. That is, of course, one component of a much larger simulation sports consumers expect. Is Major League Baseball 2K10 a short-term specialist, or can it deliver a complete game? Loved Pitching Power: Mapping your pitches to the analog sticks is not new to this game, but I came away from MLB 2K10 feeling the designers finally nailed what they set out to do last year. By incorporating a pitch-selection button (last year, it just interpreted your gesture), the game provides a truer fidelity to what you intend to throw while still incorporating variables in its effectiveness. The overall effect is to make you feel very much in charge on the mound, and not subject to a battle of pitch and swing ratings. It’s also very satisfying. When you crank a 12-6 curveball, which requires you to wind the right stick 8 pm to 10 pm, and freeze the No. 5 hitter for a called strike three, it’s a fists-in-the-air moment. The analog controls are better tuned than last year but not so unforgiving that, say, cutting the corner on the slider’s motion results in a wild pitch. There’s always the pitch analyzer to show you the path your stick traveled, and you can enable it for every pitch or just the ones you blow. After three or four games you’ll build a quick familiarity with the standard pitching motions. After five, you’ll really get off on putting them over the plate with oomph. On Pro difficulty, it’s a little too easy. I threw a lot of 10 strikeout games, including with Carl Pavano (who hasn’t done that since 2003) but that was on Pro difficulty, so serious hurlers will want to pitch on a higher difficulty or with tuned gameplay sliders. My Player: 2K Sports’ first stab at a singleplayer career mode in baseball is mostly a success – if you pick a pitcher. I did, so I found it enjoyable. This is the quarterback position of baseball, offering the most interaction with the game, and in this mode is a more likely choice so I give My Player a passing grade. My Player’s biggest drawback is the lack of a difficulty selection (by default, I think, you’re playing at the Pro level. And that’s it.) Superior players will probably get bored with My Player after two full seasons, either as a smoking ace or a hitter stranded in the minors, toiling for upgrade points. There’s a bit of a balance issue, though. Pitchers, by the volume of career events in which they’re involved, advance very quickly. You’re given one set of call-up goals and after that, it’s automatic to the majors. Or it was for me, anyway. While the training drills were routine enough that I didn’t feel my player was learning the trade entirely in live-fire action, he still ended up in the majors with just three pitches, with movement and control ratings in the 50s. While hitters may spend a realistically long time in the minors, it will feel like too long for some. If you’re a power-hitting outfielder, you’re looking at four plate appearances and a handful of outfield chances a game, and that, plus the drills, makes for a long bus ride. If you want to go hitter, I definitely recommend an infield position. MLB Today: My knowledge of this is largely drawn from the preview I got in January. As the Major League Baseball season is not yet underway, I can’t testify to this in practice. But I love the concept. MLB Today will provide you your team’s roster – both reflecting the real-life matchup of the day and any platoon arrangements (righty-lefty lineups) the team commonly uses. For those without intimate firsthand knowledge of how their favorite team has adjusted its lineup or reset its rotation midseason, MLB Today will do all of that work. Underneath, it’s built on the same concept as NBA Today in NBA 2K10 – in that the announcers’ commentary will adapt to and remark on past performance in a dynamic season. This is true for the persistent modes, too; I heard it even a few games into the My Player season, and it sounded lively. Booth Revue: It’s vogue to bag on sports commentary, but Gary Thorne, Steve Phillips and even John Kruk provide some very strong, well written and delivered dialogue. If you play with the same team you’ll certainly hear the same anecdotes, especially establishing the starting pitcher or a superstar’s first at-bat. But the commentary engine does a good job of blending real names with variables such as the previous at-bat’s result, what pitch got him out, what he blasted, etc. And then MLB Today should step in to cut down on the repetition. (When you’re playing opening day all the time, you’re bound to hear the same stuff.) If you play a plethora of teams and situations it is apparent how committed the game is in delivering a live broadcast. Kruk is by no means my favorite broadcaster and when I tried to discern why I disliked him in this game, it’s because I realized even he was in natural character. Hated Mangled Multiplayer: Early on the game was hamstrung by a freeze during the multiplayer ready screen – so bad that the only way to get back to the game was to quit back to the dashboard and start all over. It appears it will require a patch to completely resolve this, which tells you how bad this problem is. Game invitations sent to friends in your list are not affected, but I was unable to connect in a ranked match against a random opponent until the weekend. When I got in, I found the game completely warped to the favor of the pitcher. This is largely because of the palpable lag in your commands. (They’re there in pitching, but don’t do as much damage.) I was late on every swing. On the hill, with the Cubs’ 67-rated Carlos Silva against the Yankees, I chucked fastballs down the pipe and my opponent still fouled them off. I don’t prefer multiplayer in sports sims anyway, but the problems weighing down this experience mean I’d only take on someone in my friends list as a casual challenge, and I don’t think any of mine have this game. Subpar Visuals: Yes, they’ve solved the terrible framerate problems in last year’s game. But still, visually, MLB 2K10 isn’t an immersive or particularly visually appealing game, and that’s even without knowing what it is up against in MLB The Show. While the project takes pains to incorporate two-player animations – such as broken-up double-plays or collisions at the plate – these are not frequent enough occurences to raise your overall impression of the action. There is a lot of stop-and-start, and jerky transitions out of, say, a swing animation into running. Players at the end of a fielding play don’t stand around reacting naturally, they drop into a hands-up ready posture. The players faces have been upgraded, but oconsidering how bad MLB 2K9 was, the game still has a long way to go. Tim Lincecum looks like a skinny, brunette Chris Griffin from the Family Guy. And the poor quality of the uniform backs has been discussed before. You’re going to be frequently reminded that you’re playing a game, not watching one, and not in good ways. Airhead Intelligence: While the game strongly improves the physics and the actual gameplay, the decisions driving both remains simplistic and predictable. In My Player, as a pitcher, your manager’s leash will be based solely on your pitch count. I got into terrible late inning jams, emerged still with a lead, and still found myself batting in the bottom of the seventh or eighth. Pitchers won’t sacrifice bunt on you even with zero or one out and the booth crew calling for the obvious attempt. Opposing defenses will largely play you straight up rather than shift. Trading players and grabbing free agents in franchise mode, the game will mostly indulge whatever you intend to do, realistically to your advantage or not. Swing Shift: This seems like a conference-room bright idea that never materialized in the design process. MLB 2K10 incorporates what is essentially an intentional foul swat to prolong an at-bat and harass the opposing pitcher into making a mistake or throwing a more preferable pitch. Against a computer AI, it was too easily implemented – sometimes even for hits. And as a pitcher against a bot hitter, it seemed like the game was still working on the assumption that a human would be fouling off the two-strike pitches I threw. I got a ton of backward Ks, in other words, and saw nowhere near the rate of foul balls you get in a game like MLB The Show. The defensive swing also isn’t a natural feeling, flicking the stick to the side instead of forward. Add to that the herky-jerky check swing mechanic that was patched in very late and you have four different swings, only two of which are meaningful: Straight up and power. While the game’s cut down on cheap home runs, power overall has really taken a hit. You’re going to have to guess correctly with the power swing to clear the fences. I won games with base hits, walks and a double or lucky triple. Small picture, MLB 2K10 is a winner. (If, however, you’re looking for multiplayer baseball, wait until the game is patched.) It delivers on its marketing promise and creates some truly memorable individual matchups. When you pitch your way out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam, under this control scheme, you feel it for a long time. Backing out to the bigger picture, it’s not really a high quality sim, although I’ll allow that MLB Today, once it can draw on a reasonable sample size of stats, might deliver a higher fidelity. Still, too much about My Player and Franchise seems to be stage managed or indulgent of user whim. But for what it had to get right, MLB 2K10 came through. It’s a recommendable game on the Xbox 360. The gameplay is well tuned and, melded with the more deterministic batting and hitting controls, doesn’t seem as inscrutably random as you can encounter when unknown players face pitching meters. That may sound like damnation by faint praise, but it’s not. More than anything 2K Sports had to hit the core gameplay square or else it was looking at total product failure. MLB 2K10 is not a perfect game. But it is a quality start. Major League Baseball 2K10 was developed by Visual Concepts/2K Sports and published by 2K Games for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on March 2. Retails for $59.99 USD. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played all game types in both single and multiplayer modes. Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ .

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Major League Baseball 2K10 Review: Pitching With Two Strikes [Review]

Games Provide Comfort to Chilean Woman Pulling Through Quake [Feel Good]

A Chilean woman coping with the devastation wrought by last week’s earthquake has looked to games to provide some comfort and normalcy, and a fragile World of Warcraft collectible that somehow managed to survive is her symbol of hope. Karen, the gamer, was not near the worst of the shaking – she’s in Santiago, some 200 miles north of Concepcíon, the epicenter. It was still bad enough to toss fragile keepsakes and glasses and shatter them on the floor of her home. Except for that stein, a World of Warcraft “Blood of the Horde” collectible that only suffered some light damage to its flip top. Karen figured, if that piece of ceramic was tough enough to make it through, then perhaps her friends and family further to the south also hung in there and pulled through. “Only the top is a little mess up but everything its fine,” Karen said (in broken English) in a cathartic thank-you email to the stein’s maker, Taverncraft “I know its stupid but it was like … a little breath for me … we joke about it and the stein help us to relax in that moment …” She continued: All i wanna say that you made a good product and little stein give me hope, and have family in Concepcion and the other region that are the most affected for the earthquake and when I see the stein without a scratch for me was like … yeah maybe my family made it too… that day I couldn’t sleep… and only yesterday i have news all my family from the south are alive The MMO site ZAM contacted Karen and found she was playing Guitar Hero: Metallica with friends when the quake hit past 3 a.m. local time. In addition to her Warcraft gaming (she’s an Orc enhancement shaman, name of Taoren) she also plays Starcraft, and has organized FIFA 10 and Left 4 Dead gaming nights for her friends this weekend, to help keep everyone’s mind off the disaster, if only for a couple of hours. World of Warcraft Player Digs Out of Chilean Quake [ZAM. Image via ZAM.]

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Games Provide Comfort to Chilean Woman Pulling Through Quake [Feel Good]

EA Shows Off Mirror’s Edge, Skate-It, And World Adventures On The iPhone [EA Mobile]

EA Mobile passes along a set of new screenshots showing off three big titles they’re bringing to the iPhone in the coming months – Skate-It, Mirror’s Edge, and The Sims 3 World Adventures. We’ve seen plenty of MIrror’s Edge for the iPhone over the past few months, and The Sims 3 World Adventures was a given, considering the strong sales of the iPhone version of The Sims 3. That leaves Skate-It, the iPhone version of EA’s popular skateboarding game, more popular than ever thanks to the failure of Activision’s Tony Hawk Ride. The iPhone version features the fictional city of San Vanelona as well as several real world locations, through which players will use their fingers to pull off moves using the series’ signature Flick-it controls. They’ve even packed in the series’ recording option, so you can save your moves and show off to your friends. EA Mobile has done a fine job of porting EA titles to the iPhone so far. Let’s hope they keep it up the trend with these three.

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EA Shows Off Mirror’s Edge, Skate-It, And World Adventures On The iPhone [EA Mobile]

EA Shows Off Mirror’s Edge, Skate-It, And World Adventures On The iPhone [EA Mobile]

EA Mobile passes along a set of new screenshots showing off three big titles they’re bringing to the iPhone in the coming months – Skate-It, Mirror’s Edge, and The Sims 3 World Adventures. We’ve seen plenty of MIrror’s Edge for the iPhone over the past few months, and The Sims 3 World Adventures was a given, considering the strong sales of the iPhone version of The Sims 3. That leaves Skate-It, the iPhone version of EA’s popular skateboarding game, more popular than ever thanks to the failure of Activision’s Tony Hawk Ride. The iPhone version features the fictional city of San Vanelona as well as several real world locations, through which players will use their fingers to pull off moves using the series’ signature Flick-it controls. They’ve even packed in the series’ recording option, so you can save your moves and show off to your friends. EA Mobile has done a fine job of porting EA titles to the iPhone so far. Let’s hope they keep it up the trend with these three.

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EA Shows Off Mirror’s Edge, Skate-It, And World Adventures On The iPhone [EA Mobile]

EA Shows Off Mirror’s Edge, Skate-It, And World Adventures On The iPhone [EA Mobile]

EA Mobile passes along a set of new screenshots showing off three big titles they’re bringing to the iPhone in the coming months – Skate-It, Mirror’s Edge, and The Sims 3 World Adventures. We’ve seen plenty of MIrror’s Edge for the iPhone over the past few months, and The Sims 3 World Adventures was a given, considering the strong sales of the iPhone version of The Sims 3. That leaves Skate-It, the iPhone version of EA’s popular skateboarding game, more popular than ever thanks to the failure of Activision’s Tony Hawk Ride. The iPhone version features the fictional city of San Vanelona as well as several real world locations, through which players will use their fingers to pull off moves using the series’ signature Flick-it controls. They’ve even packed in the series’ recording option, so you can save your moves and show off to your friends. EA Mobile has done a fine job of porting EA titles to the iPhone so far. Let’s hope they keep it up the trend with these three.

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EA Shows Off Mirror’s Edge, Skate-It, And World Adventures On The iPhone [EA Mobile]

EA Shows Off Mirror’s Edge, Skate-It, And World Adventures On The iPhone [EA Mobile]

EA Mobile passes along a set of new screenshots showing off three big titles they’re bringing to the iPhone in the coming months – Skate-It, Mirror’s Edge, and The Sims 3 World Adventures. We’ve seen plenty of MIrror’s Edge for the iPhone over the past few months, and The Sims 3 World Adventures was a given, considering the strong sales of the iPhone version of The Sims 3. That leaves Skate-It, the iPhone version of EA’s popular skateboarding game, more popular than ever thanks to the failure of Activision’s Tony Hawk Ride. The iPhone version features the fictional city of San Vanelona as well as several real world locations, through which players will use their fingers to pull off moves using the series’ signature Flick-it controls. They’ve even packed in the series’ recording option, so you can save your moves and show off to your friends. EA Mobile has done a fine job of porting EA titles to the iPhone so far. Let’s hope they keep it up the trend with these three.

The rest is here:
EA Shows Off Mirror’s Edge, Skate-It, And World Adventures On The iPhone [EA Mobile]

EA Shows Off Mirror’s Edge, Skate-It, And World Adventures On The iPhone [EA Mobile]

EA Mobile passes along a set of new screenshots showing off three big titles they’re bringing to the iPhone in the coming months – Skate-It, Mirror’s Edge, and The Sims 3 World Adventures. We’ve seen plenty of MIrror’s Edge for the iPhone over the past few months, and The Sims 3 World Adventures was a given, considering the strong sales of the iPhone version of The Sims 3. That leaves Skate-It, the iPhone version of EA’s popular skateboarding game, more popular than ever thanks to the failure of Activision’s Tony Hawk Ride. The iPhone version features the fictional city of San Vanelona as well as several real world locations, through which players will use their fingers to pull off moves using the series’ signature Flick-it controls. They’ve even packed in the series’ recording option, so you can save your moves and show off to your friends. EA Mobile has done a fine job of porting EA titles to the iPhone so far. Let’s hope they keep it up the trend with these three.

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EA Shows Off Mirror’s Edge, Skate-It, And World Adventures On The iPhone [EA Mobile]

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