Last night was another game night at gameLab but I ended up not going. No real reason… guess I was in an anti-social mood. So I just headed home after work (and got caught in the torrential rain-pour… once again, I’m really hating the fucking weather in NYC this summer) to catch up with the rest of the gaming world. And, no surprise, I missed a lot. Some of it is pretty old, obviously but its new(s) to me…
- First off, remember the Sega Fantasy flash films? Well that same guy has created a new, this one centering on Michael Jackson verus the rest of the video game world, and it seriously one the greatest things ever. To click here is to be amazed.
- Yesterday saw the release of Everyone Love Katamari and virtually every single person who’s played it has nothing but glowing things to say. It seems that this time around things are even more fantastical, with not only regular everyday people and animals to roll up, but centaurs, pixies, and leprechauns. Also according to ukresistence: “The scope is bigger. For example, in the high school level you can travel from room to room and they all load as seperate areas allowing for a whole new level of… er… levels. The boys’ shower room has a fat old man trying to peer over the lockers at the boys changing. Every day the game designers show us they understand their demographic better and better” Sounds fantastic! And check out the awesome soundtrack cover art.
Unfortunately for me, I am unable to play import games (I wrote about why the other day) so its gonna be pure torture waiting for the game to hit the US in the fall, but hey, at least we’re getting it. Though I might just break down and pick up the soundtrack. I hear there’s a zoo level where every animal you pick has it singing the Katamari theme. Pure unadulterated genius.
- Meanwhile on these shores, the game everyone loves to hate, Killer 7, finally comes out today. I’ll probably be picking it up later this afternoon. And as I’ve said countless times before, I know its gonna suck, but that’s not the point. I just find the overall look and atmosphere irresistible.
And surprisingly, its not getting totally slaughtered by every single critic, at the least those who get the whole arty-farty appeal of it. I think Edge gave it pretty decent marks.
- Another quick Capcom related tid-bit: Resident Evil for the DS is in the works! Its apparently a remake of the first game, but would use the camera and controls of part 4. Interesting.
- The next wave of Sega Ages titles have been announced, with the most interesting being the Gunstar Heroes Treasure Box, which will include Gunstar Heroes, Dynamite Headdy, and Alien Soldier! If there’s any company that is totally entitles to pimp their back catalogue, its Treasure. The chances of a Radiant Silvergun just became a little more real (did you know its the very best shooter of all time, huh?).
Also coming out is Panzer Dragoon. It would be nice if it included part 2 and the RPG as well (and then come to the US). At least its a straight forward port with stupid enhancements like the first wave of Sega Ages games. BTW, since I once again can’t play imports, its been driving me nuts to look at my copy of Virtua Racing Flat Out just sitting around collection dust, so I broke down and bought the US release Sega Classics collection which included all the other shovelware-quality reduxes which I don’t even want to touch just so I could play VR, the only decent conversion. Though with this Treasure compilation, I might just have to break down and get Japanese PS2.
Plus I heard from someone who just got a recent Ages game and he says that there was a postcard that asked what games would people like to see come out next. Included on the list were Sega Touring Car and… DAYTONA USA!!! If there is a God…
- But Sega are the masters of creating disappointment, such as when they just announced that the Streets of Rage games which were supposed to be included on the upcoming Sonic Gems Collection will be taken out for the US release. Why? Cuz with them, it would not get the E rating which Sega strives for with each Sonic game. Then what the fuck are they going to do with Shadow the Hedgehog then? He’s carry a realistic pistol for Christ’s sake.
Also, the Japanese soundtrack will not be included, just the US one, cuz of… get this, licensing issues. But Sega created the music themselves! WTF? Just another sad example of Sega of America yanking everyone’s chain. Sorta like how they told everyone that Rez was getting a re-release that never happened. Don’t get me wrong, I actually love the Spencer Nielsen composed US tunes, but the Japanese soundtrack is fantastic as well, and I’d love to play the game with its originally intended music.
Plus, still no word of Knuckles Chaotix on the collection. And where the fuck is NiGHTS?
- Yet another reason to get a modded/import PS2? Kenka Banchou, a high school bully simulator. Granted, Rockstar is coming out with their own later this year (and it looks as it might have some real potential), but I’m certain it won’t have awesome eighties Japanese hair cuts. That and laser beams from people’s eyes.
Unfortunately, I heard that opening tutorial is pretty much impossible to those who don’t understand a lick of kanji.
- Though I really haven’t been keeping a super close eye on things, I do know the homebrew scene keeps making progress with the PSP, and DS as well. On the DS front, I saw some blurry pics of a SNES emulator floating around, plus there’s apparently much better methods of emulation on PSPs with the latest firmware, ones that don’t requiring swapping discs like one such iteration of the v1.5 workaround which required it. Though now I hear Sony is becoming increasingly aggressive towards those who seek to play pirated games on the PSP, and their action may hurt the homebrew scene the most, which are only really interested in playing older systems and even their own games on Sony’s machine.
Also, Nintendo is now also releasing updates to their Play-Yan media player, to allow MP4 playback, which I guess is good news. Though I still find Nintendo’s whole multimedia approach to be rather messy and un-sexy when compared to Sony, but hey, at least their focus is still games.
According to recent articles, movies for the PSP have topped the 100,000 mark. Know what’s sadder than the fact that there’s now 4 times as many movies as there as games for the system? How with the exception of a very few, most of the films are such total shit.
- I was also disappointed to discover that the Adventure Player Studio, a PSP release that allows you to create your own games which I believe I once mentioned, is unfortunately quite poorly written.
- Remember that site that lets you create GBA cases to match the DS cases? Well those same people are now making cases for N64 games. And better yet, I understand that coming soon will be DVD covers for Dreamcast, PSone, and Saturn games (which I’ll totally be doing since I had to get rid of my Saturn boxes due to my tiny dorm room in college).
- Here’s some more images from the upcoming Bone game, including the characters and locations. Given the amount of involvement from Jeff Smith (last I heard he’s handpicking the voice-actors himself) and that folks working on the game were previously doing the Sam & Max sequel before it got axes, I’m confident that in such capable hands the game will turn out to be rather good.
- Did you know there was supposed to be a disk drive for the Sega Master System? I didn’t either till I saw this.
- Street Fighter vs Mortal Kombat, the impossible dream of an improbable fight, existing only in the minds of fanboys, right? Wrong, with the exception of the fanboy part. It’s actually happening, albeit in card format. Wow, a card game based on a fighting game.
- So I’m a pretty big fan of all the recent pixel Mario merchandising that’s going around, so this Mario mousepad sorta caught my eye.
I would have gotten it already if it didn’t look so damn uncomfortable. At least it seem to have some inherent use, unlike…
- Introducing the GameHand. According to the press release:
Zac Bandremer, a video game player for many years, had a problem. So did most of his friends, and presumably millions of other players around the world, as well. During intense video game play, hands would begin to slip on the smooth plastic controllers of their games, thereby affecting a player’s success, and ruining their fun. So Zac, along with his dad Scott, decided to do something about it. After experimenting with various materials, Zac and his dad have hit the bullseye.
“I take my video games seriously. I think most players do. With my dad’s help, we’ve come up with a radical looking glove that’s made with a super sticky palm that grips the controller like nothing else, and it looks really, really cool, too! All of my friends use it.”
With a worldwide potential market of tens of millions of people, and a price of under $20 a pair, Zac has big plans for the GameHand glove. GameHand currently is offered in three color combinations (black and red, black and blue, and black and neon yellow), is made from stretchable nylon/lycra which offers a one-size-fits-all perfect second-skin fit for all size hands, has exposed fingertips for maximum sensory experience, and even comes with a built-in sweatband and an easy in-easy out Velcro enclosure. The sticky palm and fingers are produced through a specialized embossed silicone process, with devastating effects.
Zac and his dad are now busy marketing GameHand to stores and distributors where video games are sold, as well as on their web site, www.GameHandGlove.com. Zac’s even writing a GameHand newsletter each month, as well as providing ZacChat for video game players to meet and talk about the latest in video game play. Zac is now being scheduled for interviews with all media outlets, as his is a classic story of young American entrepreneurial spirit at its best. As long as he gets his homework done, of course!
“I know I’m a kid and all, but my goal is to get this glove into the hands of players everywhere, and make this the biggest thing. That would be very cool. I’m really proud I helped invent the GameHand. You gotta love the glove! “
You know, nothing warms my heart like some guy using his kid to cash in on the video game craze. I wouldn’t be surprised if later down the road, expert game playing kids become just like fallen child star actors. And Zac, some advice… for the sake of your future, please just run away, before its too late.
- I really haven’t really talked about it, but there has been flood of stupid mainstream game related news items as of late. Aside from the stupid ones, like some kid getting electrocuted while playing or the British parent who was outraged when some Disney GBA game he got for his kids told them to “Fuck off and die!” in the opening credits (I believe he was duped into buying a pirated cartridge). most of them involving idiots of who hurt themselves or others and happen to be playing video games at the same time. One guy, again in UK I believe, was so annoyed by his crying infant child that he sat on him or her (and the British press had a field day by splashing “GameCube kills baby” on every cover) or some dumb kid that stabbed his baby nephew in the stomach, also while he was trying to concentrate on gaming (and believe it or not, it wasn’t a game like Grand Theft Auto that messed him up, but the Incredibles?).
But most seem to be coming from Asia, mostly China actually, where there’s been a slew of parents neglecting their children due to online game, leading to cases of death by starvation cuz mom and dad are at some internet cafe for days on end, or some kid killing some other kid real life due to the death of his online persona. So it seems that China is trying to take care of matters themselves according to this one article…
Game Addiction Clinic Opens In China
With stories of obsessed online games players from the Far East becoming a mainstay of video game news, the first officially licensed clinic for Internet addiction has been established in China, with a majority of its patients addicted to online game playing, according to an Associated Press report.
The government-owned clinic began taking patients in March, from its location on the campus of the Beijing Military Region Central Hospital. A dozen nurses and eleven doctors care for the patients, mostly youths aged 14 to 24 who, according to Chinese authorities, have lost sleep, weight and friends after becoming addicted to video games and online use.
Many patients suggest that their obsession began with a desire to escape day-to-day stress, especially pressure from parents to excel in school.
“All the children here have left school because they are playing games or in chat rooms everyday,” says the clinic’s director, Dr. Tao Ran. “They are suffering from depression, nervousness, fear and unwillingness to interact with others, panic and agitation. They also have sleep disorders, the shakes and numbness in their hands.”
The clinic has established a standard diagnostic test to determine whether someone is addicted, then uses a combination of therapy sessions, medication, acupuncture and sports like swimming and basketball to ease patients back into normal lives. Patients normally stay between ten and fifteen days at the equivalent of $48 a day, compared to an average city wage of $20 a week.
The clinic estimates that up to 2.5 million Chinese suffer from Internet addiction, although these figures are disputed. According to government figures, China has the world’s second-largest online population, after the United States, of 94 million people.
Internet use for business and education has been encouraged by the Chinese government, as video games have been accused of ?eroding public morality?, with Internet cafes regularly facing crackdowns and significant fines.
- Finally, at least for the time being (I’m not totally caught up with the gaming news, not even half-way), a lot of my cartooning friends will all be attending the San Diego Comic Con next week. And many of them are, how shall I say, bothered by the massive presence that video games have managed to make for itself in such a short time over the past few years. Well to all of them, I highly suggest that they check the following panel which takes place on Sunday:
1:30-2:30 Did Videogames Kill the Comic Book?
Videogame director David Jaffe (God of War, Twisted Metal: Black) was a slobbering fanboy when he first contacted comic writer Paul Jenkins (Spider-Man, Hulk, The Sentry) about working together on a series of videogames. Since then, the two have shared many conversations about the potential of the gaming medium, the worst parts of the games business, and the fact that games may have very well killed the comic book. In this one-hour discussion, Paul and David share these thoughts along with others, such as why most comic book videogames lack emotional impact and how to make the perfect comics-based game. As both Paul and David are pretty easygoing fellows, feel free to shout out questions and disagreements during the conversation. Room 6A
