Remember back in late January when the world was all abuzz with iPad news and, more specifically, we named a handful of game genres we'd like to see on the upcoming tablet? If our spidey sense is functioning correctly, the recent announce of "Gender Wars: The Battle" -- a "turn-based tactic game" (read: RTS) -- seems to indicate Last Flight devs Bloober Team are avid Joystiq readers (obviously BT got its ideas from our post -- don't be so foolish!).
The game (as described by lead designer Peter Bielatowicz) is intended to be "easy to pick up and play" with what sounds like paired down tactical commands for "casual players." Producer Piotr Babieno explains the iPad development focus by saying, "We believe that tactic games will be one of [the] best and most successful games on [the] iPad platform." He also notes that the game will be released at a "very low price" to entice players to get hooked on the "series" and prepare them for future "Gender Wars" titles. And no, neither Beilatowicz or Babieno explain why it's called Gender Wars, but we'll hopefully find out when the game releases this March alongside Apple's new device.
The initially Xbox 360-exclusive BioShock was one of the major salvos in the ongoing console wars, waged on message boards and comment sections everywhere (including right here on this very site). Speaking with Destructoid, BioShock 2 producer Jordan Thomas expressed hope that the multi-platform sequel -- which launches today -- doesn't play a similarly divisive role. According to Thomas, "platform partisanship" is just silly and it "seems to flood the critical channels and drown out other creative discourse."
Which sounds about right -- whenever a piece of news comes up that swings even close to the differences between the various consoles, the discussion usually degenerates into the same old arguments, and new and more interesting issues get drowned out like Andrew Ryan's old city. 2K Marin didn't ask in so many words, but we will: Would you kindly all just get along?
Kotaku writes: "Visceral Games' Dead Space 2 may not be the next game you play in the sci-fi franchise. Recent surveys point to an Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network port of Wii misfire Dead Space Extraction and something brand new, Planet Cracker.
One survey's description of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 port of Dead Space Extraction indicates that any planned port of the game would feature the same on-rails "guided first-person experience" gameplay, pitched as an "interactive horror experience" in "full HD." A tentative price of $15 USD was mentioned in the survey forwarded to Kotaku."
RailSimulator has released an update for the Class 390 Electric Multiple Unit DLC for its train simulator Railworks, now available for download via Steam.
Earlier in the month Gearbox Software announced that a character from the upcoming third add-on pack (titled The Secret Armoury of General Knoxx) for Borderlands would have a Twitter account and would dispense information from it.
Well it seems as if the character has been revealed and it appears to be none other than General Knoxx himself!
We're almost certain that the Game Informer staff is delighted that information from their big L.A. Noire cover story is hitting the Web tubes. But it's not our fault. It's all Geoff Keighley's, who recently tweeted that the article about Rockstar's game reveals a September release date for it.
This is the part where I'm supposed to have something interesting to say. I totally don't because I don't get early access to magazines. I do, however, have access to some French onion dip. Excuse me for a few moments.
It looks like it'll be a bit before we real-time strategize troops by screaming into a microphone again. In a recent interview with VG247, Ubisoft Shanghai's Michael de Plater said that EndWar 2 is "on the backburner," adding no further details.
The original EndWar released on consoles in November 2008. A PC version lagged behind, releasing in February 2009. I heard that people liked the RTS despite its simple tactical formula (rock-paper-scissors). But people also like Oreos and Coca-Cola, and hell, you don't even order that stuff into your mouth.
Commenting. Regular features. Kotaku culture. If you are new to the site, there's a lot to absorb. It would be great if somebody condensed everything into one easy to follow guide. Somebody did.
Reader deanbmmv did. His guide explains the star system, profile pages, the hashtag system and even how to view a NSFW-free Kotaku. There are nuts and bolts things like how to do things in comments like embed images, put HTML and link to other comments. There are also housekeeping bits like how to submit Comments of the Week, a breakdown of special posts and a refresher on general etiquette.
This is the guide that we should have made, but never did. Like we said, Deanbmmv did. And for that, you should thank him.
We also thank reader bakagaijin for nominating deanbmmv's comment for Comment of the Week — we just did one better and decided to give the comment its own post.
You know, for all the talk of this being the "HD generation", we've got our suspicions that many of you are still toiling away on standard definition TV sets. It's time to turn those suspicions into science.
Below you'll find some polls. The second allows you to select multiple options, since there may be more than one factor contributing to your decision. We'd be ever so grateful if you could respond (honestly!), and help give us an idea of the breakdown between HDTV ("High Definition Television) and SDTV (Standard Definition Television) users out there among our readership.
By participating, you'll be contributing to science. And who knows. We may even be able to do something useful with all this data...
Game developer Blizzard has already shown the male version of the Diablo III monk. It hasn't shown the female version. Until now.
Diablo III has four character classes announced so: Witch Doctor, Wizard, Barbarian, and Monk. This concept art is for the female version of the existing monk.
In previous games, players were locked to a class/sex combo.
The character's official page has the female in-game character model as well. Check it out. And that pixie hair!
AV aficionados looking for a little more shine from their Netflix titles streamed over 360 or PS3 are in luck, as the film rental company announced today plans to beam its movies to your TV in "full" HD.
That means a 1080p video signal and 5.1 surround sound, just like the PS3 and Xbox video marketplaces can handle. Of course, options will initially be limited, as only 6% of Netflix's library supports this kind of quality, but there'll be plenty more HD content available as time goes on and more films are released to that standard.
For a while now, Activision Blizzard has held the title of #1 publisher in North America. It's a title it wrestled from EA. And EA will stop at nothing, fancy nomenclature included, to reclaim the title.
During the company's financial results report from earlier today, EA claim that from April 2009 to December 2009, it was the biggest-selling publisher of packaged goods in North America and Europe (Europe, we already knew). Not all goods, mind you. Just packaged ones.
Still, you may ask yourself how the hell that happens considering Activision is home to World of Warcraft, Guitar Hero and Call of Duty, but take a closer look at those titles. World of Warcraft is built on taking money from existing customers, not fresh unit sales. And that's online money, not "packaged goods" money. Guitar Hero, and it's new spin-off DJ Hero, both had highly disappointing years.
And while Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was the biggest-selling game in the world last year, it was only one game, it's 11.86 million units sold hardly enough to count for much against EA as a whole, for whom FIFA 10 - at 9.7 million sold - came close to beating it on its own.
EA, meanwhile, had FIFA 10, Madden 10, Dragon Age, Left 4 Dead 2 and The Sims 3 on its plate for 2009, all great games, all big sellers.
Now if only the publisher could find a way to translate that into profits....
We're pretty sure that the new Mass Effect 2-centric video from Mega64 that you'll find after the break is pretty funny. The crew seems to be grilling everyday citizens on censorship, specifically relating to all the xenofornication going down aboard the Normandy.
We say "pretty sure" and "seems" because ... well, we can't watch this sort of thing with the sound on because it makes us too uncomfortable. There, we said it out loud. That means we also have no idea if the language in the video is safe for work, since we can't hear it. Let's just play it safe and assume it's not, OK?
Disgaea developer and publisher Nippon Ichi didn't have the best 2009, dood. Last week, the company announced its earnings for the first nine months of its fiscal year (ending December 31, 2009), recording operating profits 97.5% lower than those of 2008.
This week, reacting to the news of the precipitous drop, investors freaked out a bit and the price of NIS stock on the Japanese JASDAQ exchange dropped ¥7,000 ($78.42), almost 20%. JASDAQ froze the price, or it might have dropped further. Siliconera posted a list of all recent and upcoming NIS games. Have a look -- we're sure NIS America would really, really appreciate a purchase of Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love or Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman 2 in the next few months.
It feels like the iPhone version of PopCap Games' Plants vs. Zombies is 65 million years in the making. We have known about its existence for so long that I almost don't believe PopCap when the company says February 15 is the date of arrival.
I'd even go so far as to say there's been a large enough gap between Plants vs. Zombies on PC and this iPhone port that I would gladly double dip. If I owned an iPhone, that is. Which I don't.
Too bad. Portable Wall-nuts sound like the best thing ever.
Kokoromi's yearly Gamma event has resulted in some pretty spectacular stuff. Passage, if you don't remember, was made specifically for entry into 2007's Gamma256 event. If you've ever played Paper Moon, you may be surprised to know it was created for last year's Gamma3D competition.
This year, the Gamma4 competition theme is "one-button games," and the folks at Kokoromi have run into a bit of a problem; they need more money to fund the event. To this end, the crew has launched a Kickstarter page.
In the likely event that you're not big on donating just for the sake of donating, you should probably know that by donating either $20 or $50 you'll also be getting a few free indie games as a reward for your generosity. The next ten people to donate $20 will get free copies of Crayon Physics Deluxe, and either AAAA(etc) A Reckless Disregard for Gravity, Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, or Critter Crunch. Throw in $50, and you'll get Audiosurf, Raptor Safari HD, And Yet It Moves, Osmos, and Zero Gear.
If you're into helping out the indie scene just for fun, call this a donation. If you want to get some good indie games for relatively cheap, call it an indie game sale. The choice is yours.
From website 4Gamer.net comes the news that Nintendo is developing new hardware, and Shigeru Miyamoto is working on a new Wii Motion Plus game.
The news is from a recent symposium in which Miyamoto discussed things like hamsters. 4Gamer does not quote him directly, but does state that Miyamoto revealed he is working on a game that uses Wii Motion Plus. This game is not the upcoming Legend of Zelda title.
At the 2008 E3 gaming expo in Los Angeles, Miyamoto announced that Nintendo was making a new Pikmin game.
What's more, 4Gamer reports that if Nintendo is working on new hardware that will be announced officially at a later date.
Here is a translation of the 4Gamer piece:
Regarding the next title everyone is interested in, there were some vague comments [from Miyamoto] that said the full body experience of Motion Plus will be used in Wii Legend of Zelda and another title. Since they are developing new hardware again, it seems like they would like to wait as an official announcement could be made shortly/later on.
The lack of direct quotes regarding both these issues are somewhat disconcerting with the recent he-said-she-said about things a Nintendo exec may or may not have said. 4Gamer did note that Miyamoto's remarks were "vague". The 4Gamer remarks are also vague, and what's more, peppered with speculation.
When contacted about Miyamoto's remarks, Nintendo of America replied, "Our development teams are always working on new possibilities for future hardware and software, but we have nothing to announce at this time."
Likewise, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata stated in a recent investors meeting, "Naturally, we are always developing new hardware."
Of course, Nintendo is working on new hardware and new games. The same is true for Sony and Microsoft. But is Nintendo announcing any of that new hardware in the new future? Nintendo does have a press conference later this month.
Commenting. Regular features. Kotaku culture. If you are new to the site, there's a lot to absorb. It would be great if somebody condensed everything into one easy to follow guide. Somebody did.
AV aficionados looking for a little more shine from their Netflix titles streamed over 360 or PS3 are in luck, as the film rental company announced today plans to beam its movies to your TV in "full" HD.
For a while now, Activision Blizzard has held the title of 
From website 4Gamer.net comes the news that Nintendo is developing new hardware, and Shigeru Miyamoto is working on a new Wii Motion Plus game.
