NEW ROLITO TOY: PATAPON X OUR ONE TRUE HEART
Apparently not one to take the release of the second Patapon game sitting down (yuk), Rolito has revealed that Medicom is expanding their licensed toy series from the previously shown Bearbrick to this stand-ee plush warrior. I’m completely sold (read: a sucker), but listen, Medicom: what the world really needs is a sound-activated Patapon that lets you tap a rhythm and have it respond in turn. Isn’t it obvious?
Rolitoland: Patapon X Medicom (4)
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SPACE INVADERS ON YOUR SIDE
With my Space Invaders enthusiasm in full swing now that Get Even has finally been released, I was doubly pleased to see Final Invader DX, an indie competition submission that, like Get Even, tells the tale from an Invader’s perspective. This time it’s a traitorous octo-invader who steals top secret plans and defects to Earth not wanting to take a suicide mission from an overzealous commander.
The best part: a vaguely Mr. Driller/Elevator Action-esque second act that sees the invader working his way down through caverns to get to the UFO (and the perfectly timed “thank you but” message just as you think you’ve reached the end), and the Darius style warning messages which ChangeV complains no one noticed, but we did, ChangeV, we did.
Final Invader DX (.zip) [via auntie pixelante]
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COUNTDOWN TO BRüTALITY
The primary reason I’m excited for Spike TV’s forthcoming Video Game Awards show? Even apart from the fact that I returned to serve as one of its judges, the ceremony will include the first new look in over a year at DoubleFine’s black metal adventure Brütal Legend, the sophomore game from the studio behind Psychonauts, headed by former LucasArts designer Tim Schafer.
That year long wait has been a tumultuous one: as with the Ghostbusters game, the Vivendi/Activision merger put the future of the game in some jeopardy, and its new publisher is still not yet known. Schafer went so far as to devise an encoded threat level system to let people know where the game stands, which he’s just raised to Haunted Sandalwood, or “omg I think there may be some news this month,” which we’re going to go ahead and guess will come alongside the new video.
Jack Black — who plays Brütal Legend‘s hessian lead — will host the awards show, which will also see appearances by Will Wright, Hideo Kojima, Cliff Bleszinski, Fallout 3 producer Todd Howard, and LittleBigPlanet‘s Alex Evans. Spike TV will air the show live Sunday, December 14 At 9:00 PM ET.
See more posts about: Brütal Legend, Double Fine, Offworld Originals, Xbox 360
HOW EVERGREEN, CITY 17
Gamasutra notes that Game Informer magazine has run life to date retail sales for Valve’s Half-Life franchise, and even not counting units sold through its Steam service (keeping those figures traditionally tightly held), the numbers are duly impressive:
Half-Life – 9.3 million
Half-Life: Opposing Force – 1.1 million
Half-Life: Blue Shift – 800,000Counter-Strike – 4.2 million
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero – 2.9 million
Counter Strike: Source – 2.1 million
Counter-Strike [Xbox] – 1.5 millionHalf-Life 2 – 6.5 million
Half-Life 2: Episode One – 1.4 millionThe Orange Box – 3 million
Left 4 Dead – 3.6-3.9 million (projected)
As Gamasutra points out, while the figures on their face would suggest a downward trend in sales for each new volume of the game, the 2004 release of Half-Life 2 was the first to be released simultaneously at retail and via Steam.
Analysis: Valve’s Lifetime Retail Sales For Half-Life, Counter-Strike Franchises [Gamasutra]
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RAGDOLL METAPHYSICS: 2008 AND THE INDIE RENAISSANCE
There’s nothing about 2008 that I’ll remember more fondly than the bold success of independent games developers. Based on the past couple of years, and the guiding lights of companies like Introversion, I had been anticipating some positive trends for 2008, but things really started to clarify at February’s San Francisco GDC. The signs were all there: 2008 was going to be a crucial year for the indie gaming scene.
It’s fair to say that the Independent Game Summit was brimming with energy, and the independent developers had more to say – and more to be happy about – than any of the scores of well-paid big-studio professionals who were strolling lackadaisically around the convention centre halls. In fact, seeing games like World of Goo and Fez in motion was pretty unsettling: they were so imaginative, and so cogent, that the idea of their being built up by two man teams seemed absurd. If I were a developer working in a big studio game, I would have been rethinking my life choices around that time. (more…)
See more posts about: Introversion, Offworld Originals, Ragdoll Metaphysics
QU’EST-CE QUE C’EST BANJO?
Submitted without a trace of irony, the latest viral video for the recently released Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (and by proxy its just-released Xbox Live Arcade remake counterpart).
Apart from the honestly amusing Jinjo postcard, in keeping with Rare tradition, the video does contain hints of cute industry in-jokes (Kazooie apparently off taking part in a Women in Games conference), which carry through in the game itself, as with Humba’s continual references to her all-girl clan the ‘Hag Trolls,’ a play on Ubisoft’s Frag Dolls. The game always reserves its sharpest barbs for itself, though, from its very opening act, which sets you on a trademark ‘collect-a-thon’ before reeling you back in and starting the game proper.
An Eiffel of Banjo [YouTube]
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GHOSTBUSTERS: THE GAME: THE NEW TRAILER
Just as we said we hadn’t seen near enough of the Ghostbusters game yet, Atari delivers, with digital Bill Murray looking so much more spritely than we’ve seen him in his last howevermany sad sack films.
YouTube – Ghostbusters: The Video Game – Atari Live Trailer
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LITTLEBIGPLANET’S ALEX EVANS MAKING WIRED STORE APPEARANCE
If you’re in NYC for Blip Fest or otherwise, it’s not too late to sign up to see Media Molecule founder and LittleBigPlanet programming lead Alex Evans at the Wired Store on December 4th, where, if you’re lucky, he’ll show off his demonstration video of the 2D prototype that sold the game to Sony.
Little known fact you can impress him by knowing: prior to his work with Bullfrog/Lionhead, Evans was a demoscene coder by the name of Statix, and, as his newer moniker Bluespoon, did generative visuals for the 2004 Squarepusher and Jamie Lidell tour with London Sinfonietta. No joke!
Meet LittleBigPlanet Maker Alex Evans at Wired Store Thursday
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BECAUSE HE COULD PART DEUX: THE ORIGINATOR’S NEW PORTABLE XBOX 360 EXPERIENCE
Following on Technabob’s Atari 2600 gently crammed in a Sega Game Gear shell, Ben Heck — the grandfather of all bizarro and beautiful gaming hardware hacks — has revealed his latest: a new revision of his laptop Xbox 360s. This time Heck notes:
It differs from my past Xbox 360 laptops in several ways:
* Removable standard Xbox 360 hard drive for easy profile/data swapping
* Both memory card slots accessible, same reason.
* No keyboard! Really, they have those chat pads, what’s the point? (Besides looking cool)
* Simplified layout of ports and buttons.
* Internal wi-fi module, no external antenna. Antenna is strung out inside unit like other consoles/laptops.
* Beveled edges! Countersunk screws!
The unit’s also got a built in Live Vision camera, an easy access panel to the 360’s hard drive, and as usual, is completely desirable for all its impractical manufacturing.
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GIMME GIMME GIMME SINGSTAR ABBA
The main reason I’m happy to see today’s release of SingStar ABBA: they were (I’m man enough to admit) my first musical love (at 3!), and I’ve secretly been waiting my whole life for a valid excuse to recreate a performance as epic as Partridge’s above from the comfort of my own bedroom.
SingStar ABBA [PlayStation.com]
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