Monday, April 28, 2008

Grand Theft Auto IV reviews (99.2% average)

Game Informer

6/1/2008
10 out of 10
100.0%
Official Xbox Magazine UK

5/1/2008
10 out of 10
100.0%

4/27/2008
10 out of 10
100.0%

4/27/2008
10 out of 10
100.0%

4/27/2008
5 out of 5
100.0%
GamePro

4/27/2008
5 out of 5
100.0%

4/27/2008
A+
100.0%

4/25/2008
10 out of 10
100.0%

4/27/2008
9.8 out of 10
98.0%
Xbox World Mag UK

6/1/2008
98 out of 100
98.0%

4/27/2008
9.5 out of 10
95.0%

Why I don't trust review scores anymore

Friday, April 25, 2008

Starbreeze interviewed

What can you tell us about a Darkness sequel, which was “announced” at Comic Con last week?

- [RN] The Darkness 2 is only a rumor at this point, and there’s no substance to that rumor. What we like you to report on however, is Chronicles of Riddick – The Assault on Dark Athena. There were rumors that it’s been cancelled, but that is not true. It’s alive and well!
Exclusive Interview: Starbreeze Discusses New Riddick Game, Darkness Sequel Rumors, and more! (Part 1 of 2)
Do you focus a lot on the scores, like on Metacritic and Game Rankings?

- [JA] Yes, and that is very important nowadays because it sometimes happens that publishers connect bonus deals to the scores a game gets on Game Rankings and such. The latest I heard is that it’s connected to the five biggest reviews, if you pass a certain score. And I think that is pretty damn interesting.

Because, it is a relatively good way to measure a game, and probably better, from a developers perspective, than sales figures, which you don’t have any control over. A developer can control the score and review a game gets relatively good, and reviewers tend to reward innovation. I like that way of thinking about it, to look more at actual reviews than sales figures.
Exclusive Interview: Starbreeze’s Jens Andersson discusses the gaming press and the neverending games-as-art debate (Part 2 of 2)

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

T-shirts



Worth noting is that I had to pay 12% t-shirt tax when importing t-shirts outside of EU, and the toll took 25% for swedish taxes aswell.

Fuel for the narcissist within me

The Making of Painkiller




Hitman is a puzzle game, not murder simulator

"There’s something on my mind. This being a Hitman retrospective you might think that thing would be murder, but actually it’s the nature of puzzles. You see, it seems to me that each level of a Hitman game isn’t merely a set of rooms full of enemies to be killed or out-sneaked, but rather a kind of multi-solution puzzle. Hitman is more like “Rubik’s Murder Sim” than it is like part of the linear of dude-shooting action games.

If a puzzle is “a toy, problem, or other contrivance designed to amuse by presenting difficulties to be solved by ingenuity or patient effort”, as my dictionary claims, then Hitman’s missions truly are nothing more than puzzles. You don’t need railgun twitch skills to feel supremely confident about your Hitman abilities."
Retro: Hitman Blood Money

Jack's letter to Take-Two chairman's mom

Dear Mrs. Zelnick:

Your son, as you may know (or maybe you don’t know), is Chairman of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., whose most popular video games are the Grand Theft Auto murder simulator games banned in some countries but sold to children here.

Your son last week was reported to have said the following about Grand Theft Auto IV, due to be released Tuesday, April 29: “We’ve already received numerous [GTA IV] reviews, and to a one, they are perfect scores. My mom couldn’t write better reviews…” Taking your son’s thought, I would encourage you either to play this game or have an adroit video gamer play it for you. Some of the latter gamers are on death row, so try to find one out in the civilian population who hasn’t killed someone yet.

What you will see in your son’s game, if this iteration of GTA is anything like its predecessors, is incredible interactive violence aimed at police officers (whom you can shoot in the head and see the blood spray), innocent bystanders (whom you can run over with your car just for the heck of it), and of course the plentiful female prostitutes you can have sex with and then filet with a knife or stomp with your feet in order to get your money back.

Experts note that the recent plethora of cop killings is caused in part by your darling son’s entrepreneurial energy. There are three policemen dead in Alabama because of Grand Theft Auto. I was on 60 Minutes about it. I hope Strauss has provided you with a flat screen tv to see the grief of the bereaved families that fills the screen.
It's been quite a while since I've written something about good sir Mr. Thompson, but this letter is just... something... to be able to not post about it. Follow the link below to read the rest of it, since the above text was just the warm up for good sir Mr. Thompson.

Jack Thompson sends letter to Take-Two chairman's mom
Jack Thompson, a sub-machine gun?
You don't know Jack about Thompson
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
Prison time for web comic?
Politicians sickens me
I'm OK

What is Love?

"Love (named 'for the Love of game development') is a massively multiplayer game.
You explore watercolour countrysides, fighting off hulking monsters, finding places to build settlements with your game-mates. The monsters (like the landscapes themselves) are generated from simple algorithms, and mutated semi-randomly: each is different, each some kind of freak of nature.

Eskil laughs as he shoots one where it's face could be. It wobbles and sighs before disappearing. As he plays, he talks about his plans. "Obviously, I want other players to explore this place with me. I think, just 200 people, would be a good start - we could have fun together." Can... can we play?

The technology behind Love means that the game is editable like nothing we've seen before. Eskil points his mouse at a wall and clicks - then stretches the terrain back and forth, terraforming at will. Then he fires a gun at the side of a wall and it's blown away - digging a cave into the side of a cliff. He then trots through this tunnel, dropping into pastures on the far side."
Preview: One man's mission to reinvent MMOs
Love

Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space

Warning: It's german only (atleast for now...)
Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space

Optimus Maximus is a $1600 reality

Optimus Maximus Keyboard
Optimus Keyboard

Old Sony game tester promotional video

Want to become a Playstation Videogame tester?

Alone in the Dark - Limited Edition

The full contents of the European Limited Edition box are as follows:
• Alone in the Dark game, one of the most anticipated games of the year;
• Figurine of the game's legendary hero, Edward Carnby;
• Official Soundtrack CD featuring 8 in-game tracks of original music by Olivier Derivière and performed by Grammy® Award-winning choir The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices;
• Full colour, bound art book featuring never before seen production sketches, storyboards and original artwork from Eden Games;
• 'Making Of' documentary feature DVD with exclusive interviews, behind the scenes footage and additional bonus content.
Alone In The Dark Euro Limited Edition

Monday, April 21, 2008

Story Must Die...

"A few years ago, a lovely chap writing a thesis on gaming visited PC Gamer to chat about what they believed made a great game. I remember incoherently trotting out the usual buzzwords: story, characterisation, freedom. In my head flickered Planescape, Deus Ex, System Shock 2... I really believed that story is all.

What a fool I was. How could I not see that story is what's holding games back from true greatness? Show me your finest cutscene, your most shocking twist, your most moving endgame cinematic, and I will give you exactly the same response as I would to the worst, the most predictable, the most leaden. All it does is rub in my face all the things the game won't let me do myself."
I can't say I'm as harsh as the above writer. I think story is an essential part of alot of good games, though the problem is most often that it usually takes the center stage ahead of the gameplay, stealing the control from the player.

What set games apart from other media is that they're interactive, and if that are taken away from them, they just become weak impersonations of books or movies. I've been wondering lately how much games could be dumbed down and made easy for the players, until they actually stop being considered as games and turn into realtime demos?

Story Must Die...

Tetris the Movie

Tetris the Movie

Friday, April 18, 2008

Call of Duty 4 sells over 9 million copies

That's more copies than Halo 3 for those who aren't keeping count. Although part of it is due to it being released on three platforms (as opposed to one), it's still the best selling game compared to the other releases up until a year ago. Will be interesting to see how Grand Theft Auto IV fares.

Call Of Duty 4 Sells 9 Million

High Voltage Quantum3 Wii Tech Demo

Exclusive First Look: The Conduit

Alone in the Dark 5 - Fire tech demonstration

Alone in the Dark adds skipping if you get stuck
Alone in the Dark 5 - Gameplay Trailer
Alone in the Dark 5 - Burning Chairs
Alone in the Dark 5 - Central Park Trailer

DreamWorks + Spielberg = Ghost in the Shell 3D

" 'Ghost in the Shell' is one of my favorite stories," Spielberg said. "It's a genre that has arrived, and we enthusiastically welcome it to DreamWorks."

DreamWorks prexy of production Adam Goodman said "Ghost in the Shell" is a property "that epitomizes 3-D live-action motion picture possibilities."

Avi Arad is at the forefront of comicbook-based material, having produced the three "Spider-Man" films, the three "X-Men" movies, the two "Fantastic Four" picss and the upcoming "Iron Man" and "The Incredible Hulk."

Moss' writing credits include "Street Kings," which bowed Friday, and "Last Man Home," in development at Universal.
DreamWorks to make 'Ghost' in 3-D

Gish 2 development videos


Thursday, April 17, 2008

NEC announces 120hz LCD displays

Although they're cursed (12ms delay), it's certainly a step in the right direction.

NEC LCD Technologies Announces New 22.5-inch LCD Module

Memo to self: Keep track of your schedule #3

Memo to self: Keep track of your schedule #2
Memo to self: Keep track of your schedule

"It might include copyrighted material"

"We appreciate your inquiry regarding the removal of content that you posted to the Facebook Service. As you have been notified, your video "Never Stay Tuned 3 - Bouncy Balls" was removed because we learned that it might include copyrighted material owned by a third party, such as background audio or a video clip.

Unfortunately, because the review process was performed by our automated system, we're unable to provide additional details about why your video was flagged as being copyright-infringing."
"Your video might include copyrighted material"

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

"Your video might include copyrighted material"

"Hello,

We have removed your video entitled "Never Stay Tuned 3 - Bouncy Balls" uploaded at 1:39am March 31st, 2008. We did this because we learned that your video might include copyrighted material owned by a third party, such as a video clip or background audio."
Oooook then... good to know. I wonder who the anal bastard it was who decided to file a complaint.

Never Stay Tuned 3

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

I made a panorama with my mobilephone - Deux

Some random mobilephone pictures
I'm back home from Xmas and New Year!
Heavy Rain
I made a panorama with my mobilephone :)
My new mobilephone 3
Sunset boulevard
Crimson Skies
Rainbows! :)
A Little Winter

Famulator Brings Retro Gaming Back

Famulator Brings Retro Gaming Back

New LittleBitPlanet trailer

Another World of Goo trailer!

World of Goo

Part of Eve Online source code leaked?

[20:44] [abuser] Could you certainly say me what your programmers did to secure clientside from exploiting Eve?
[20:44] [abuser] what’s certainly
[20:45] [abuser] I don’t have anything against content makers - their ideas are good, really good
[20:45] [abuser] I have full eve sourcecode, so you know what’s did, and what’s not;)
[20:46] [abuser] From all security i saw - were ROLE permissions for logins with priviliges higher than usual player, and some minor things in relation to prevent some remote service calls (some with potentially bad payload)
[20:46] [abuser] nothing else
[20:47] [abuser] is that called “programmers working on security”?
[20:47] [[IA]Morpheus] Are you cruising for a job or something?
[20:47] [abuser] Nah
[20:47] [abuser] neither job, neither anything else
[20:47] [abuser] you may think of in such direction
[20:48] [abuser] Digging the situation to uncover the truth :)
[20:49] [abuser] You may compare me to fox mulder from x-files series
[20:49] [abuser] it’s the best description of why i do this
[20:49] [[IA]Morpheus] Ah, well, nice to meet you Mr Mulder.
[20:50] [abuser] So… would you like to answer what AWESOME ccp programmers did in relation to client/server security (at least for client?)
[20:51] [[IA]Morpheus] No, we won’t respond to blackmail. If you think we don’t care or aren’t working on improving security you are sadly mistaken
---
"CCP is aware that an individual claims to have access to the source code of the EVE client. This access is not a security risk to CCP in any way. Access to the source code for the EVE client exposes no security vulnerabilities, has no privacy protection issues, and poses no threat to our customers' billing information.

The server-side interface used by the client is carefully protected to ensure that no abusive or unwanted information is transmitted to, or from the internal EVE server systems. Nothing the EVE client can do can affect the game state, no advantage can be gained by manipulating the EVE client, no advantageous or disadvantageous information can be transmitted to other EVE users by altering the EVE client."
Eve Online Source Code Leaked
eve online drama again ?
CCP plays down EVE Online source code leak

Last part of "Kungar av Counter-Strike"

Kungar av Counter-strike - del 1
Kungar av Counter-strike - del 2
Kungar av Counter-strike - del 3
Kungar av Counter-Strike stream and download

The Witcher gets modding tools

"CD Projekt has always been oriented to gamers' needs, so releasing an adventure editor for the modding community is an obvious move. It's quite a demanding tool, however, and it will bring loads of satisfaction to many of the fans. After all, we made The Witcher with this tool," said Adam Kiciński, CEO, CD Projekt RED. "We've also prepared the first official mod with a completely new adventure which will be available to download for free."
New Adventures Await The Witcher
The Witcher Patch

The Oblivion world in the Crytek engine

WIP - Oblivion to Crysis

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Demonoid is back!

"Welcome back!

Since a few months ago, Deimos, the site administrator, lacks the necessary time to take care of the website, because of personal matters he's been needing to attend to. For this reason, he has decided to leave the site staff.

Before leaving, he assigned a new site administrator from among his friends to take care of the site. The old moderator team will continue helping with the site, unchanged. We will try to keep running everything just as it always has been.

The trackers and website seem to be working properly, and should any issues arise, they will be taken care of as soon as possible. The site might be going on and offline over the next days as we work out any problems.

Welcome back, and enjoy your stay!"
Demonoid.com

Karoshi 2.0 - death by working even harder

Karoshi 2.0
Karoshi - death by working too hard

10 Features That Should Be In Every Shooter

10 Features That Should Be In Every Modern Shooter

Fallout 3 Collector's Edition Features

Fallout 3 Collector's Edition

Never Stay Tuned 3

I made a guest segment in Olibith's latest video, Never Stay Tuned 3, so I thought I might just aswell post about it here on the blog. If not that's a good reason enough to watch it, then do it for the sheer quality and enjoyment of it ;)

Never Stay Tuned 3

Animated Amiga Tribute by Eric Schwartz

Friday, April 11, 2008

Good price flights from Sweden to Japan

Japanspecialisten

Should I perhaps take a trip to Germany?

"Dear Dopefish,

as we have selected your film Among Fables and Men for this year's Bitfilm Festival, the crew members of this film are entitled to get free accreditations for the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film (May 1 to 6), into which the Bitfilm opening event will be embedded this year.

---

Of course you will also get a free accreditation for the Bitfilm closing event and award ceremony which will take place in Hamburg from July 10 to 12."
Wonderful news about Among Fables and Men

Today (and I have no more 8-bit ties!)

Avalanche - Game Developers Evening Pictures

Thursday, April 10, 2008

QuakeWorld and Quake 3 at Dreamhack

"During DreamHack Winter 2007 a tournament in the old-school game QuakeWorld was held. A lot of people signed up for the tournament and it was a huge hit!. Shouting esport fans created an incredible atmosphere in the esports arena, DreamArena, where the matches were showed on big screens and shout-casted by our commentators.

To pay homage to Quake and its important role to esports, DreamHack aims to hold a Quake Fest at all of our major events, under the name Quake Forever."
Dreamhack News

Kungar av Counter-Strike stream and download

Kungar av Counter-strike - del 1
Kungar av Counter-strike - del 2
Agnesfilm & Television - Kungar av Counter-Strike
The Art of Counter-Strike: eSport training

Philips Aurea


Philips Aurea
What is amBX?

Quake 3 on the iPhone / iPod touch

Website

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Yume Nikki

"In Yume Nikki (or “Dream Diary”), you play a young girl who can delve into a bizarre, and sometimes extremely frightening, dreamworld in order to collect “effects” that can alter her appearance in the dream. Some of the effects also have abilities that can be used there.

At (almost) any time, our heroine can wake herself up and return to her small, spartan apartment, where she can write in her diary (save), or play a simple minigame on the television."
Yume Nikki

I Wanna Be The Guy!



Ok, let's be frank here, I like hard games. I play games that most people would give up at just the first sight without even daring to touch them. I find myself most often selecting the hardest difficulty and still consider it like a trip in the forest. But... I Wanna Be The Guy!

I've been recom... no, challenged to play this game, but I've been putting it off due to I know it would drive me to insanity, and I haven't had the time that would be needed to actually play it through to the end.

I've come to realize that the name stands for "I Wanna Be The Guy, that actually completed this game". One day, I might actually pick it up and say that I want to be that guy... the guy. I still got things I want to finish in my life, so I'll put it off for now.

I Wanna Be The Guy
The World's Hardest Games
You Have to Burn the Rope!

Freeware Gymnast Game

Download available at Walaber.com

Monday, April 07, 2008

Eidos Montreal second project is Thief?

"Eidos-Montréal is proud to announce the recruitment for our 2nd “AAA” project.
… A hint! The title begins with the letter “ T ”…"
Let's see, Eidos IP's starting with T; Thief, Timesplitters, Tomb Raider, Trade Empires. I'm pretty sure Eidos got Tomb Raider covered already, and Trade Empires is a strategy game, which isn't exactly Eidos Montreal field of expertise as far as I'm guessing, nor do I believe they want to give that game a sequal when Eidos currently are having some money issues, and the fact that they have better alternatives to use before then.

Free Radical Design is rumored to be working on Timesplitters 4. That leaves us with Thief. It means Eidos Montreal gets to work with two legendary IP's, first Deus Ex 3, and now a sequal to Thief. Either they'll become one of the most hated studios ever for ruining two of the most beloved game franchises in existance, or one the most beloved ones if they manage to meet the expectations.

I hope for the later... I really love both those series, and I don't need to get a broken heart...

UPDATE:
"the first two games we develop will revive successful franchises"
I think that settles it.

Eidos Montreal