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http://kotaku.com/5041543/pet-ownership-and-you-eyepet-screens-surface

Unfortunately their images are down but I bet you can find video on youtube about it. Its a very compelling demo where it took nothing more than the EyeToy to interpret your moves in 3D to interact with virtual pet. The question is how much of it was smoke/mirrors/vaporware.

The Duke Nukem trilogy is a trio of side-scrollers for handheld consoles..

Microsoft is allegedly working on a system that detects the users body movement, no control required. If they get that to work well I'm thinking its going to trump the shit out of any controller based system. http://kotaku.com/5236404/microsofts-full-body-motion-controller-revealed

Especially when it comes to one's own product. It usually just encourages people to find ways to prove you wrong...........

Or corporations. Gamestop in this case. Although they were probably more motivated from a hissy fit at stardock daring to release it online, cutting out them as a middleman, when gamestop has faithfully treated PC games like garbage.

He's already responded, and reassured us all the show will continue:

In response to [GamePolitics'] speculation that "the... decision almost certainly ends Thompson's fight to have his permanent disbarment overturned," - Not at all. I have four more options, all better than this one. This was the longest of shots. All four of the others are much, much shorter shots. Stay tuned. As Winston Churchill implored: "Never give in. Never, never, never, never, never."

http://kotaku.com/5223111/supreme-court-on-jack-thompson-appeal-no-thanks

Yes, it's Amazons favourite excuse as of late. Remember when DRM and Starforce caused a consumer backlash which generated thousands of negative reviews for Spore? Somehow, they all got lost due to a mysterious glitch too!

Every games news site in town reports the selective censoring... and within hours the mysterious glitch is just as mysteriously solved.

let me ask you, what kind of glitch would cause material whose topics are at odds with conservative Christian values not to show up on the main search engine? Not just gay and lesbian titles, but 'Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica' also. Someone at Amazon has been caught with their pants down i'd say...

Anyone remember the massive public protest against the stupid Spore DRM scheme? If you look up the game on Amazon, you can still see the extremely low rating people are giving it.

Well, a couple of weeks later and Amazon had had enough. Even though the concerns about DRM and Starforce were definitely something consumers would want to know before they bought the product, one day the reviews just dissappeared. The cause? A mysterious glitch! Sound familiar? The publicity from game news sites was so bad they put the reviews back up almost instantly.

Kind of proves that Amazon haven't really learned their lesson about what kind of behaviour will and won't be tolerated by the public. How many gay and lesbian customers is this incident going to lose them, I wonder? Was is worth it to appease whoever paid them to do it?

It's noteworthy that not too long after this event, Mr. Della Rocca left the IGDA. I haven't had the time to watch the whole video yet since I'm on my way out the door to work, but a few days ago, Della Rocca put a large rant up on his website excoriating members of the IGDA for not wanting to get anything done. Summary at Kotaku:

Sorry for not having the leadership skills to beat the barriers of participation inequality. Less than 1% of the IGDA membership are truly active in driving the org forward. Sorry for not doing a better job building up a strong pipeline of community leaders and volunteers. Sorry for not overcoming your general apathy and laziness.

Sorry for not doing a better job of roping in all the snipers from the sidelines. Turns out you are all pretty damn good at bitching and complaining and being critical. But then you don't actually do anything about it and you don't get involved. Sorry for not bringing critics under the tent and getting them to work at improving things.

Sorry for not getting you to be more serious about the profession of game development. You are no longer a bunch of hacks. This is a real art and science. We need to be way more deliberate and control the path the profession takes as it evolves into the future.

It's a bit worrisome. In an industry that seems pretty staunch against unionization, who's going to make any change if even the groups that do exists for the rank and file aren't willing to take any voice in the matter?

The guys from Kotaku tested it. You can read about it here: http://kotaku.com/5181300/onlive-makes-pc-upgrades-extinct-lets-you-play-crysis-on-your-tv
Basically, they were impressed with how well it worked, but acknowledged the fact that there were only a few hundred internal beta testers using the system in a controlled environment at the same time.

There was a rumor a few years back that Sierra was willing to hand over the entire franchise to anybody around $100,000 or so I heard. Apparently its considered worthless to them.

It's no longer a rumor, InterActiveCorp/GarageGames bought the entire Starsiege IP from Activision late last year at what I can only assume was a fire sale price. They're going to be relaunching Tribes 1 as a browser game.

Here, found a pict of the actual ad:

http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/resources/2008/01/Bitchadmikewilson.jpg

-- Why, in this day and age, are physical boxed copies retailing for less than the digital variant?

Because the retail stores refuse to carry it otherwise. Retail is still 70-80% of sales.

http://kotaku.com/5136323/why-is-gamestop-no-longer-selling-dawn-of-war-ii

You mean like Bob's Game?

The analogy isn't perfect, as Bob's Game is a single-player adventure. There's no drawback to putting a single-player game on a PC or a phone. In fact, the Kotaku article mentions that Bob posted that he's porting his work to Steam (Windows) and three PDA/phone platforms (Pandora, Android, and iPhone).

The trouble comes when an indie developer wants to develop and self-publish a casual party game, one that shows all players' characters on the same screen. The PC is capable of reading four USB game controllers plugged into a hub, but games designed for sharing a monitor really need a 26" or bigger monitor, not the 14" built into a notebook PC. Sure, any $500 TV has VGA and HDMI inputs and can be used as a monitor for an indie party game. But until more people replace the CRT SDTVs in their living rooms with such HDTVs, consoles are the most reliable way to get TV output.

You mean like Bob's Game?

http://kotaku.com/5159508/first-trailer-and-screens-for-motorstorm-arctic-edge

looks fairly alright, im actually thinking about buying PSP recently, which would be the first gaming console i owed since Amiga CDTV

I'm just going off of this: http://kotaku.com/5026559/xbox-division-finally-reports-profitable-year

Not likely to happen anytime soon with rumours that Brighter Minds Media have filed for bankruptcy.

... Except Brighter Minds never developed World of Goo in the first place -- that distinction belongs to the tiny 2D Boy dev house. They note on their blog that the Linux version is coming along. Sure, it's been slow as molasses, but I'd say that it might actually be "likely to happen some time soon". :)

Cheers,

I remember when World of Goo was released, with Linux support promised (still not here)..

Not likely to happen anytime soon with rumours that Brighter Minds Media have filed for bankruptcy.

I'll start with the disclaimer. I like the idea of copyright law, I think the current implementation is ridiculous, I write software for a living, in fact, I use to write game software and plan on doing it again in the future, etc. Having said that...

It's a business model issue. If piracy is rampant, games will have to come up with new models. Valve and Blizzard seem to be able to do so while piracy is rampant. In fact, Blizzard is making more money each year with World of Warcraft than Epic will likely ever make with Gears of War. Maybe Epic should have been thinking about new business models instead of new DRM which didn't stop piracy at all, has now thoroughly pissed off their paying customers, consequently will increase piracy rates in the future for their games or others with DRM. So in their desire to stop pirates, they not only failed miserably, they've also now pissed off their fans and paying customers. I'm guessing now that this has happened, many (I'm not saying most, just many) of the people who have given them money, wouldn't buy Gears of War 2 for the PC even if they did release it, which they won't because their DRM failed so miserably.

Yet here you are saying its necessary. Why? What did it give them? People who pirate still got it through piracy, people who paid for it got a worse experience than those who pirated it, and Epic had to pay time and money adding and testing it, which either decreased their profit or increased the costs to customers, which likely decreased their revenue, which would again decrease their profit. Apparently they didn't spend enough time testing the DRM. Should they have spent more time and money? No, as we see, it was already a waste of effort. Instead, they could have spent some time thinking up a new business model. They could have used it as an indication that there are customers out there that are under-served, perhaps it was an indication they were charging too much, they could have used it as free advertising, they could have found some other scarcity to sell, but instead they chose to go the more costly and annoying route which has been shown time and time again to be an utter and complete absolute dismal failure.

Does this EA announcement count?

From this article: "According to prosectors, Petric, 16 at the time of the shooting, was forbidden to buy Halo 3 by his parents, Mark and Susan Petric. The teen snuck out to purchase the game anyway, and was caught by his parents upon his return. The game was locked up in Mark's lockbox, along with a 9mm handgun." So no, a history of violence wasn't mentioned in the articles I have seen so far. However, it also says he didn't have a copy of the game. From the same article: "Lawyers for the accused delivered a brief statement at the opening of the trial, explaining that their client had be under a large amount of stress after being homebound for a year due to a snowboarding accident with nothing to do but watch television and play video games." So, presumably he hadn't been playing the game elsewhere. But don't worry... "Dad, I'm so sorry for what I did to Mom, to you and to the family," Daniel Petric said, according to his father. "I'm so glad you are alive." "You're my son," Mark Petric responded. "You're my boy." Dad forgives him...

This is quite revealing. I think it's safe to say there is at least some degree of a lack of rationality in that family that is not Halo 3 related

From this article:
"According to prosectors, Petric, 16 at the time of the shooting, was forbidden to buy Halo 3 by his parents, Mark and Susan Petric. The teen snuck out to purchase the game anyway, and was caught by his parents upon his return. The game was locked up in Mark's lockbox, along with a 9mm handgun."

So no, a history of violence wasn't mentioned in the articles I have seen so far. However, it also says he didn't have a copy of the game.

From the same article:
"Lawyers for the accused delivered a brief statement at the opening of the trial, explaining that their client had be under a large amount of stress after being homebound for a year due to a snowboarding accident with nothing to do but watch television and play video games."

So, presumably he hadn't been playing the game elsewhere.

But don't worry...
"Dad, I'm so sorry for what I did to Mom, to you and to the family," Daniel Petric said, according to his father. "I'm so glad you are alive."
"You're my son," Mark Petric responded. "You're my boy."
Dad forgives him...

Does his appointment know who our base are belong to?

I love having a presidential nerd. ;)

Nintendo has always played the legal card to the maximum extent possible, going all the way back to the days of draconian contracts that forbade you from making a game for anyone else if Nintendo published one of your games. They tried to control even how much you can advertise. It got ruled invalid eventually, but in the meantime, yes, they did try to put anyone out of business who no loner toes the Nintendo line.

Or here in Europe they tried to strong-arm the retailers into what they can and can't sell, and basically used the European market as an experiment in whether they can make more money with only a handful of games and restricting access to anything else. They actually got slapped with an anti-trust for that, and were found guilty. Worse yet, it turned out that they knew they're in violation of the law, and had planned to violate it, thinking they can make more money than the fine can possibly be. (Wrong guess.)

To get back to patents and to more recent times, they also patented or filed for patent:

- the XBox Live, basically

- emulation of its own consoles, again, to try to keep other people from doing it (and, yes, they tried to bully emulator developpers before)

- weird stuff, like comparing each other's avatars online, never mind that people have been holding costume contests in COH since the fucking launch in 2004

- something as broad as making a stage magician kinda game/sim

- a "wearable" controller to digitize body motions, never mind that motion capture has been done before like that for ages

- a rechargeable game controller never mind that chargers like that existed for mice, headsets, and everything for freaking ages before that

- just about anything you can put a motion detector into, from bikes to teddy bears

- horror games, or at least stuff like hallucinations or hearing voices in games, never mind that neither is new, and an insanity sim had even been made to train police in how to deal with dementia people

Etc.

Some of those seem to even exist just to keep others from doing it. E.g., they filed for a patent for console online gaming, at a time where they were publicly bashing it and saying they have no intention to do that.

Frankly, I don't get the hardon some people seem to get about Nintendo. While they do have a couple of talented designers, the management has an uninterrupted history of being evil fucks that make MS look good by comparison. They tried every possible way to lock competitors out, and developers in, some of which MS so far never even dreamed about. E.g., I don't remember MS suing anyone for developing for the Mac too. They too broke anti-trust laws. Etc.

And at least the previous management had no problem with even insulting its customers, especially if, god forbid, they're asking for a genre Nintendo isn't currently selling. Yamauchi publicly called RPG gamers "depressed gamers who like to sit alone in their dark rooms and play slow games", for example.

The only thing that changed that was the GameCube being the second dud in a row, which prompted a mellowing out of attitude. If they ever get back in a positio

I'm not so sure that this is a bad thing. Sure, some of the writers there were good at what they did, but an equal number of them just wrote tripe that was painful to read. Seriously, the caliber of their writing was about what you'd see in a high school journalism class. This, of course, leads every jackass with an Internet connection who got a C or better in his/her creative writing class to start up a video game site (searching Google for 'Video Game Blog' returns over 22 million results).

So now we have this enormous glut of information, and mediocrity has somehow risen to the top. I have very rarely found anything worth reading on 1up.com and don't really understand why some of its staff got put on such high pedestals. Hsu is a arrogant jackass who thrives on 'shaking things up' just to generate controversy, Mielke has a bizarre condescending attitude about him, Sharkey doesn't own a spellchecker and has trouble writing coherent prose, and so on.

It's not like 1up had a chance anyway, they were going up against sites that value quantity over quality. They were going head-to-head with sites who mostly aggregate news with some snarky commentary and could update every twenty minutes of nearly every hour, every day. Anyone trying to compete with that is just deluding themselves into thinking that their brand of original content is going to survive the day.

Most video game players want their information in quick bursts that they read, process, and giggle at the snark, then come back for a few more tidbits later to repeat the process. They just look at the final score for your lengthy, painstakingly-crafted game reviews. They mostly check out previews for the pretty pictures. They do not care about the lengthy article discussing the evolution of the crate from NES to XBox360, and they mostly do not care what you have to say about anything if it takes more than 30 seconds to read.

So, yes, it's sad to see anyone lose their livelihood, but they've been crushed and overtaken by the inexorable progress of the Coalition of Mediocrity that's pervading the Internet and making it nigh impossible for anyone else's voice to be heard over the crapstorm.

"The makers have abandoned the IP (Dungeon Keeper)"

They have? What rock have you been hiding under?

So, for $5, I can browse the web in 480i on a SD tv? Or for $30 I can get Opera on my DS? Gosh, that sure is tempting.

We'll just ignore that the web browsers builtin to the PS3 and PSP cost absolutely nothing, and do a great deal more than the Nintendo ones.

Oh, and unlike on the Wii or DS, you can acutally save files, because, you know, you have a memory stick or hard drive. You know, hard drives, the things only "geeks and otaku" use, according to Nintendo.

Charging for an internet browser is pathetic at this point. It should not cost 500 'points' (why not list things in real money? Sony does this, MS and Nintendo fail). It should come with the system. There's no excuse other than Nintendo's naked greed.

Because companies have NEVER been known to nickel and dime people with small surcharges on things that they didn't agree to.

Because companies have NEVER been known to offer something for "free" then kick in normal charges after a given time due to some tiny print somewhere.

Because companies NEVER lose/leak personal customer data.

Because every single person at the company is completely trustworthy and would never take credit card numbers or illegally profit from anything that didn't belong to them.

Because it's so easy and takes up absolutely no time or money to take a company, especially one located in Korea, to court when the law "kicks in".

Another point to note though is the average Wii game sells for 25% less than the average 360 game, so there's still more more money being spent on Xbox 360 games.

You might be right. But if the wii's trend lines continue, it won't be true for long.

That said, Dev's don't really care about "money spent". They care about money in their pocket, after expenses.

The average xbox game costs more to make. And they pay a lot more in licensing fees to MS too. So the higher sticker price on an xbox game doesn't remotely translate to higher profit per unit sold.

Also, I'm not sure how true the 25m units is. Vgchartz.com has always been incorrect on XBox 360 sales figures

I wouldn't blindly trust a number from vgchartz either. But 25M is straight from the mouth of Microsoft:

"In her presentation to the BMO Capital Markets Conference this morning, Microsoft's Mindy Mount noted that the Xbox 360's installation base will hit 25 million sometime this month, surpassing the installation base for the original Xbox. The 360 will hit that figure in three years, compared to more than five for the original machine."

http://kotaku.com/5086505/microsoft-360-install-base-to-overtake-original-xbox-this-month

I'm not really sure what your point is, there's no reason Nintendo couldn't entertain both audiences, currently they're ignoring the hardcore audience

Nintendo has never been a 'hardcore gamer' publisher. That's ALWAYS been the 3rd parties. Nintendo isn't blocking them from developing for the Wii, they just haven't stepped up yet. For their own reasons (not all of them good.)

whilst Microsoft and Sony are increasing their appeal to the casual audience with titles like LittleBigPlanet, Lips, Viva Pinata. Even Microsoft's revamp of their interface and Sony's home are clearly much more geared towards the casual audience. Nintendo is at risk of losing some of it's userbase, without taking any of Microsoft and Sony's back to make up for it.

Yes, MS and Sony are expanding their appeal. They've seen the grass is pretty green on the casual side. The next generation will be interesting, to say the least. But MS/Sony have a tough juggling act if they target the casuals too hard they'll alienate their base. If they pander to their base, Nintendo will dominate the casuals again.

Regardless even those like me who do have a 360 or PS3 as well wouldn't have bought these consoles if the Wii had the titles to entertain them and Nintendo would've easily been able to pull in more software sales as a result if they were to satisfy both audiences.

And that ties back to the 3rd party devs. They thought the Wii would be gamecube 2.0. Obviously the last 2 years have been a wake up call, but the big games take 2 years to make, so they are still ramping up. I =think= we will see those 'deep' games hit the Wii, because at this point, the Wii is big enough that there really ARE enough consoles out there that the 'ex-PC-gamer who has a Wii but not a 360' demographic is large enough to make it profitable.

Actually, they just overhauled the system complete with a protocol for explicitly citing the violation and an opportunity to edit and republish.

Tectoy is launching its Zeebo console which downloads games over a 3G network. The hardware looks a lot like a cell phone but you connect it to your TV.

This article includes a video of a demo (in Portuguese).

As someone who played Half-Life and particularly Team Fortress Classic for numerous years and clans at a fairly advanced level (not to mention all the Quakes, Unreal Tourney, etc. etc.) this whole story is a gigantic WTF for me.

The ranting and frothing of the various console owners who, quite simply don't have a clue - or appreciate - what the in-game console is or does is stunning. I suppose it's kinda to be expected from not really having a keyboard to access this stuff but the responses from the vast majority are shocking (see the kotaku article on this:
http://kotaku.com/5106048/left-4-dead-xbox-360-hacks-to-ruin-everything ).

First off these aren't hacks or exploits in the traditional sense and generally can't be run unless the server owner has set their server to cheat mode on (console command: sv_cheats 1). The reporting of this isn't crystal clear in the Half-Life engine and can catch people unawares, but only the server host/admin can adjust it. I suppose this wasn't such a big deal back in the day when a 'server' was usually dedicated as opposed to the way it runs on todays consoles (the host player runs the server and plays in it at the same time). At any rate, I imagine that even on the Xbox only the host player can run these commands (or anyone with remote server admin logon). It's not like JoeySmacktard can join your game and use these commands without you going out your way to allow him to do so.

Secondly, this kind of tweaking is absolutely HILARIOUS (at least amongst consenting adults ;) ). I've some fond memories of many games and mods run on my LAN with friends running around maps in low gravity, movement speed set to several hundred miles per hour or friction set to be negative, throwing everyone all over the place. If valve truly has nuked these commands for good on xbox then I can only say it is a sad day for console owners of the game. It's a co-op game for god's sake, you're probably playing with good friends and once you've worked your way through the standard game such 'tweaks' really give it a new lease of life.

If these commands were left in without sv_cheats being the toggle and usable by anyone on the server - I will humbly stand corrected. But frankly I doubt it. Glad I'll be getting the PC version so that this sort of stuff is left optional to me - as it should be.

Rockstar only delayed release on the consoles because it had to release the two concurrently.

And, while the game is plenty enjoyable on the PS3, the performance is still a bit behind the 360. You'll see lower framerates in big chases, and the whole thing's already running at a lower resolution than native 720p.

Rockstar says that all versions of the game will feature SecuROM, including digital versions online

Not quite all, I imagine.

I don't even play these games. The humor I see in it is that Spore was cracked on September 3rd--four days before its launch date. Um, are they really under the impression that one of these schemes might stop the hackers?

At some point you have to acknowledge that you're just annoying your entire fan base to play a cat-and-mouse game with some hackers (that you're losing in an embarrassing way).

more hype for "Bike Hero", the viral marketing ad...
http://kotaku.com/5095091/yes-bike-hero-was-viral-marketing?gh

From the publishers point of view it does not matter. The great majority of games generate revenue at the time of sale only. It doesn't matter to the publisher if the buyers play the game for 5 hours or 50. The publisher sees each instance of this as a lost chance to make revenue. The only type of game where I could see this making a difference is a game that has a monthly fee, but these games don't have a piracy problem because they are server based like World of Warcraft and access can be easily controlled by the developers.

That fact is that for your average popular PC game 70-90% of the people who played the game at some time never bought a copy. I've read similar developer accounts for the last few years. It's the reason publishers feel they have to include restrictive DRM in their PC games. For whatever reason, the vast majority of PC gamers don't pay for their games and developers are beginning to notice and shift their focus over to the consoles e.g. Gears of War 2 was abandoned on the PC due to piracy concerns. Only games that use online authentication like Steam or niche games with an established fanbase stand a chance on the PC platform. Even Call of Duty 4 had 90% of the people playing it on the PC never buy a copy.

http://kotaku.com/5056532/why-no-gears-of-war-2-for-pc-well-piracy-for-one

You do absolutely none of that in Little Big Planet. Your goal is to conquer the level while collecting more score than your opponents. There's no learning, no teaching, no research, and no social skills. You just run through the levels trying to get as much score as possible - score which is gained by, amongst other things, killing monsters.

Hi! You're a fuckin' dumbass!
Proof you don't know wtf you talking about.
More proof.

LBP is a giant sandbox, where you can build whatever you want. Those are just two examples of what you can build with it.

You do absolutely none of that in Little Big Planet. Your goal is to conquer the level while collecting more score than your opponents. There's no learning, no teaching, no research, and no social skills. You just run through the levels trying to get as much score as possible - score which is gained by, amongst other things, killing monsters.

Hi! You're a fuckin' dumbass!
Proof you don't know wtf you talking about.
More proof.

LBP is a giant sandbox, where you can build whatever you want. Those are just two examples of what you can build with it.

I think one of the greatest games to EVER be released would have to be Grim Fandango. It's packed with an awesome story, along with some beautiful scenery and voice acting that I'm still yet to see outdone in any games over the past 10 years. If anyone else reading this hasn't played the game, then I high recommend you go out and find it (or stay inside and find it online). For those unfamiliar with it, it plays in the same sort of style as Monkey Island.

Seriously, check it out. They've just recently released the original design document, it's worth checking it out (They've taken the original story down... But Kotaku's mirror is still available)

http://kotaku.com/5077780/tim-shafer-publishes-original-grim-fandango-design-doc

I don't see why this is modded flamebait. He has a legitimate point. Let's face it, processor-wise and capability-wise the Wii is little more than a slightly improved Gamecube.

Let's face it, you are essentially trolling here.

Processor-wise and capability-wise the Wii is more than twice as powerful as a gamecube by any reasonable measuring.

The whole console was built around the controller,

What precisely do you think a gaming console should have been built around? Blu-Ray?

as has every game for the system.

That simply isn't true.

This is a fun novelty, for sure (and great for parties). But it would still be more than fair to call it a "gimmick,"

http://kotaku.com/5071145/sony-patents-ultrasonic-waggle-controller-technology

Hint: a "gimmick" that proceeds to be copied into every future console made by every competitor is not a gimmick. Motion control is here to stay, deal with it.

especially as so many Wii owners are now admitting that their Wii's spend most of the time these days gathering dust (only broken out for friends and parties).

Right, because 'core gamer' fanbois starting threads about their Wii collecting dust being repeated on every gaming forum every couple months should be taken seriously. And as for casual gamers -- what do you expect? Most things we do casually collects dust most of the time. Part of the definition of 'casual' is that we don't obsessively do it all the time.

While consoles like the 360 and PS3 move forward,

Wii is reliably outselling the PS3 and 360 by 2:1 or more. The Wii is not being left behind.

many Wii owners are increasingly disappointed by scarce offerings and underpowered performance

Yes, its abject disappointment that causes title after title to sell out. SSBB sold out and was hard to find for a few weeks. MarioKart sold out and was hard to find for few weeks. I have still yet to see Wii Fit in stock anywhere.

Its true a small class of Wii owners are disappointed by a scarcity of offerings in a genre that is better served by the other consoles anyway. To them I say, "Hey moron, buy another console."

(look at Yahtzee's recent review of the Wii version of The Force Unleashed for a pretty good summary of this problem).

The 'problem' with Force Unleashed as he so eloquently pointed out, really had NOTHING to do with the Wii. In particular he complained that:

a) the graphics would have been considered poor even on the Xbox 1.
b) the level design was BAD
c) Lucas is an idiot
d) the motion control system was terrible
e) Lucas is really an idiot
f) lack of balance - the force powers made the light sabre a pointless distraction

In other words, Wii owners are the victim of a particularly shitty cash grabbing port of an already flawed game.

Nobody expects the graphics to be on par with the PS3, but to look like rubbish compared to LAST gen consoles reflects on the developer not the console. Ditto for bad level design. Ditto for bad controls. (We have a number examples of games that do motion control VERY WELL -- resident evil 4, metroid prime, etc -- so when a game shows up with shitty controls, its the developers fault.)

And as for Lucas being a complete idiot, and the lack of balance between sabre and force -- those are in ample evidence on the PS3 version too.

So what exactly was the 'problem' with the Wii?

http://kotaku.com/5071682/sarah-palin-to-shoot-moose-obama-in-mercs-2

Pretty clever advertising, I must admit.

Now how can anybody criticize either of them on their foreign policy experience...

Damn... And I was sooo looking forward to RA3.

But, I cannot in good consience support a company like this. The whole DRM thing was bad enough, I hate being told something I PURCHASED installed spyware that is phoning home to the mothership, AND I can only install it so may times before it becomes deactivated... But to now say that if I say or do something they don't like, they will cut me off?!?

Bullshit!

I don't care that they retracted their latest blunder, it's the sheer audacity that they would even consider it in the first place that pisses me off! There are plenty of other companies making games without these ridiculous rules and regulations, and I for one intend to support them, and I urge you to do the same! Fight back against tyranny with the only weapon you have - Your CASH!!

It seems that Blizzard has a clue:
http://kotaku.com/5064195/blizzard-drm-for-diablo-iii-no-thanks-we-have-battlenet

As do these guys:
http://www.gog.com/

So who are the bad guys?
EA Games for obvious reasons
UbiSoft for their use of SecuROM
BioWare for the Mass Effect Fiasco

Who else would you put on the naughty and nice list?

http://kotaku.com/5071682/sarah-palin-to-shoot-moose-obama-in-mercs-2

Pretty clever advertising, I must admit.

http://kotaku.com/5070957/backtalk-in-eas-forums-get-banned-from-your-games

This is what I mean by slippery slope.

Stop asking permission to use things. Demand they give you control.

I am complaining about the price because I don't want 18 AC/DC songs. I only want a few of them, and that's not worth $40 to me. AC/DC says they sell albums, not songs, and that's their right. It's also my right to complain about it and not purchase any of their stuff.

Fair enough. The Beatles are an album band too, though, and with the exception of "1" and the Cirque du Soleil show, their albums haven't been chopped up and rearranged. I'd expect the same kind of treatment here.

By the way, I just noticed this update [xbox360fanboy.com] to the news. Apparently, this Beatles "thing" is not going to be a Rock Band-branded game. So there's a possibility that the songs won't even be transferable to Rock Band.

According to this, the game's going to be compatible with the Rock Band instruments, and they haven't said that the music WON'T appear in Rock BAnd, dodging that question when it came up. Don't discount the possibility based on what we don't know.

Not yet, but they're making progress.

Steam DRM prevents legit customers from playing legally purchased product.

The PC version of the game is unplayable until it has been registered via Steam network.

You shouldn't have to call home to ask permission to play a legally purchased game.

You are, actually, wrong by making this comparison because, in your examples, the goods you're talking about are physical goods. If someone would take them from you, you wouldn't be able to use them anymore. On the other hand, digital goods are different. If somebody makes a copy of your content, both of you will be able to use that content afterwards.

Yes, indeed, you could argue that the content creator would loose a potential customer. Nevertheless, that isn't exactly true. What they actually lose is free publicity because the people that don't purchase the content legaly might either not purchase it at all or decide to purchase it ONLY after trying it for free. And trying the whole thing is not the same thing as trying the demo, so, plese, don't go to the demo line.

As further proof of what I just said, check out http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=17350, or, if you want the short version http://kotaku.com/tag/reflexive-arcade/. There are a lot of other examples but this would degenerate into an encyclopedia of game producers coming to terms with the real world and it would take to long.

From: http://kotaku.com/5065106/nsiders-letter-to-sony-and-media-molecule-re-quran-references

"We Muslims consider the mixing of music and words from our Holy Quran deeply offending. We hope you would remove that track from the game immediately via an online update, and make sure that all future shipments of the game disk do not contain it."

Personally, I consider censoring art "deeply offending." Sony, you're losing a customer if you cave to the demands of any religious group. Hey Muslims, don't buy the game.

"Effectively each game in the will be an expansion"

http://kotaku.com/5062018/starcraft-ii-lead-producer-on-the-split-single-player-campaign