Avatar Kinect Fail!

Uploaded by TheMediaCows on Jul 31, 2011

As we test the Avatar Kinect feature, hilarity ensues. Enjoy!

Halo Kinect project under way?

According to Whois records, Microsoft has registered the domain kinecthalo.com, fueling the rumors that a release of a motion-controlled Halo game would be in the company’s future plans. Since Bungie’s departure from the franchise, its current developer, 343 Industries, has been reported working on a “new high-profile Halo experience” and a possible HD remake of Halo: Combat Evolved.

While Kinect has been a massive success since launch, and Halo being… well, Halo, it comes as no surprise that Microsoft would do something like this, especially after the news of Gears of War: Exile, which is yet another high-profiled franchise within Microsoft’s realm rumored to get the Kinect treatment. The question is, how will they fare if released? Is the tech mature enough to handle these franchises?

Homefront dev explains the importance of dedicated servers

Following the wildly negative reaction to Modern Warfare 2's lack of dedicated servers on PC, one of the marketing bullet points for THQ's FPS Homefront has been its promise of such dedicated servers -- not only on PC, but on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, as well. But how important are they?

"You have to think about your constraints when you're making a game," Homefront senior designer Brian Holinka, of developer Kaos Studios, explained to us at a recent press event for the game. "If we host a server on a console, all of a sudden, that console is both server and it's playing the game. That really lowers everything: player count, the number of vehicles, everything. Dedicated servers allow us to offload all that work and basically all the client has to worry about is running the game."

Through dedicated servers, Homefront will support a chaotic 16-versus-16 online mode, where every player can summon a vehicle at will. "It means everything is bigger -- there's more players, more vehicles, more targets, more airstrikes," Holinka hyped.

"It really helps us offload a lot of work," he reiterated about the servers, "and now our scope is a lot bigger." But can you really call a 32-player match "a lot," when a game like MAG has littered the virtual battlefield with 256 players? We asked Holinka why Kaos wasn't using the dedicated servers to expand the number of players per match even further, and he reminded us that "we had more in Frontlines," the studio's previous game. Apparently, the team tested out larger battles for Homefront, but "it just didn't work," Holinka said. "We just found it wasn't fun. It just plays better at 32."

"If you played a level with 50 or 60 people in there," the developer found, "every time you turn around, you'd get shot."

Via:Joystiq

Bulletstorm shows off more skillshots, still no sign of 'drilldo'

Bulletstorm's latest skillkill trailer misses the mark by not showing us the skillshots we really want to see - "Gag Reflex" showed up in last one. Thankfully, we can try to figure them out for ourselves when the demo hits January 25.

Digital Foundry pits PS3 Mass Effect 2 against Xbox 360 original

Not satisfied with its analysis of the PS3 Mass Effect 2 demo -- which was apparently based on old code -- Digital Foundry has posted a lengthy comparison of the PS3 and Xbox 360 retail editions of Mass Effect 2. There's a lot of information to digest in the article, including several videos and screenshots. The upshot: Most gamers won't notice the differences between the two games, though it seems the 360 version barely edges out the PS3 one in terms of a consistent frame-rate.

The only significant difference, which boils down to personal preference, is the lighting in the two games. DF notes that the PS3 version's lighting is generally brighter than the 360 game, though not necessarily improved from a technical standpoint. The article also examines the effectiveness of the PS3's "Genesis" comic intro, as opposed to actually playing the original Mass Effect on 360.

In the end, if you just have to own the most technically impressive version, DF suggests you choose ... the PC version, of course.

Source: Eurogamer

Via:Joystiq

Marvel vs. Capcom 3's alternate costumes' comic book origins explored

Apparently, a little bit more thought went into the alternate costumes of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 than just "hey, this outfit would probably look cool in red and black." IGN recently explored the canonical comic book origins of a handful of Marvel fighters' extra duds, including Storm's crimson X-Treme X-Men get-up, Dormammu's Strange Tales green-and-yellow armor, and Captain America's Red Guardian costume, which, as you probably sussed out, is pretty red.

It looks like Capcom (with a lot of help from Marvel, of course) is taking these character skins pretty seriously. We're happy to see that so much consideration went into these outfits -- but we can't wait to see how they explain all the different additional costumes for Capcom's fighters. "Oh, you don't remember that time that Haggar wore a bright purple chest-belt? That was a real thing that happened, we promise."

Source: IGN

Mama Mia! Majesco cooks up $2.1 million fiscal-year loss

Majesco Entertainment ended its last fiscal year (on October 31, 2010) with a $2.1 million loss -- which is better than the $6.6 million it flambéed the previous fiscal year. The financially troubled publisher is pinning its hopes in the new fiscal year (which began Nov. 1) on Crafting Mama, Babysitting Mama and Zumba Fitness, which has already sold a half-million units since its mid-November release. Majesco has also planted one of those money-growing trees: a Facebook game, Friends Cafe.

With its focus on mass-market appeal, Majesco could well bake up some profits this fiscal year. We'll keep watch over its shoulder, though, mindful to leave a clear path to the fire extinguisher in case the money continues to burn.

Source: Majesco

Download a big old pile of bodies in Castlevania: Harmony of Despair

If you and your fellow vampire hunters are looking for a new monster that doesn't belong in this world, you'll be happy to learn that new DLC is now available for Castlevania: Harmony of Despair. "Extra Stage: The One Who is Many," the DLC pack recently announced for Japan, is priced at 320 Microsoft Points ($4).

Even if you hadn't read up on it in the past, Castlevaniacs could probably guess from the title that this DLC pack will feature Legion. Unlike most other Castlevanias, you'll actually be able to gather more bodies of your own (in the form of your friends) to fight this pile of bodies.

Via:Joystiq

Red Dead Redemption multiplayer XP challenge for Avatar awards begins

With all of the planned DLC out the door and a shelf full of Game of the Year awards to display, you might think Rockstar is done riding the Red Dead Redemption train -- but not so fast, pardner. A Rockstar XP challenge is now underway in the Wild West shooter which has players collectively earning XP in the multiplayer modes towards unlocking special Avatar awards for Xbox Live and PlayStation Home for everyone. The items include system-specific versions of both the RDR T-shirt and John Marston's in-game Elegant Suit.

Of course, each system's goodies will only unlock when the totals for the platform are met. You can watch the bars rise on the official Rockstar Games newswire or Social Club site. What'er you waitin' for, cowboys and cowgirls? Get to yer XP earnin'!

Via:Joystiq

Source: Rockstar Games

Activision finds no Bizarre buyers, recommends closure

Activision has recommended Bizarre Creations for closure, saying it has exhausted other options. Speaking with Develop, Activision Worlwide Studios' COO Coddy Johnson said he wanted "to be clear" that the publisher tried to keep the group together by finding a buyer, but after exploring leads with "pretty much anyone you can imagine in the industry," they were left with the option of "last resort."

Activision made it known in early November that the Liverpool-based studio had entered a consultation period, a 90-day phase under UK law that warns of potential closure. On the same day as the announcement, Activision closed Iowa-based Budcat in the US. At the time, Activision said that, despite a substantial investment in creating a new IP, Blur did not find a commercial audience.

If you are an employee of the studio and have anything more to share, please feel free to contact us.

Via:Joystiq

Crytek: Crysis 2 needs 90+ score to make an impact

Crytek executive producer Nathan Camarillo has said he believes the studio’s latest game, Crysis 2, needs review scores to average over 90 percent if the game is to make an impact.

EA Partners boss David DeMartin’s recently commented that the game would easily average over 90 percent on Metacritic, and in response to this Camarillo told CVG:

“We’re going to put out the best game that we can make and that’s probably over a 90 rated, although it’s up to the reviewers obviously. I hope he didn’t jinx us.”

Camarillo went on to say that review scores are very important to any company, and those who don’t make the 90 mark are less likely to make an impact.

“I think you have to be 90 plus to make an impact in any genre now. The quality bar is so high and publishers and developers have put so much effort against high quality games.”

“If you want to be recognised at all, regardless of genre, like anything you need to create the highest quality product possible and anything else is not going to get noticed.”

Crysis 2 is due to release on March 25 on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. Pre-order the limited edition here for the standard price.

Via

Angry Birds (for PlayStation 3, PSP)

Controls: Jerky

Angry Birds has become a casual gaming sensation, and one of the premiere smartphone games. It's the new Bejeweled, the new Tetris, the new Solitaire. There's something inexplicably addictive and entertaining about using a giant slingshot to send birds crashing through pigs' fortifications. Now it's come to Sony's gaming systems as a PlayStation mini, a $3.99 downloadable game you can play on both the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable. But before PS fans get too excited, be aware that Angry Birds for Sony's gaming platforms isn't as smart as the smartphone versions.

On one hand, this port of Angry Birds is faithful to the original game. On the other hand, too little was changed for the game to be very fun on the PS3, and performance issues hinder its playability on the PSP. The game comes with just 63 levels (though there is the potential for more in the future). Considering that smartphone versions cost less and include more than three times as many levels (not even including the Angry Birds Seasons games), it's not nearly as tempting as it could be.

For both PlayStation versions of the game, the controls are very simple, but they're not nearly as satisfying as the touch-screen controls found on smartphone versions. The left analog stick (on the PS3) or analog disc (on the PSP) aims the slingshot, X fires, and the shoulder buttons pan the map back and forth so you can look over the level. You can fire the slingshot by flicking the analog stick/disc for a more tactile sensation, but it's an unreliable way to play the game, and you'll find yourself nudging the controller in just the wrong way at a crucial time, sending your bird hopping uselessly just a few feet instead of flying across the level.

Specifications

Platform

Sony PSP, PlayStation 3

Genre

Board/Puzzle

ESRB Rating

E for Everybody

More

Graphics: It's No Super Meat Boy
Visually, Angry Birds has not changed one whit from its smartphone versions. On both the PS3 and PSP, the game features the same cartoony, simple graphics used before, and the menu layout is identical. Regardless of the platform, the game is standard definition. While it looks fine on the PSP (despite some slight pixilation around straight lines placed on angles, on the PS3 it looks blocky and unpleasant, like a smartphone screen blown up to HDTV size. The menus, the sprites, the animations, they're all jarringly full of pixels. While pixilated sprites might be acceptable in retro-themed games, in these days of high-res, hand-drawn sprites in games like Castle Crashers and Super Meat Boy, Angry Birds just looks dated.

On the smaller screen of the PSP, Angry Birds looks much nicer. Unfortunately, the lower processing power leads to some other flaws in the game. You can expect to see significant choppiness and stuttering of the picture during particularly spectacular launches as the handheld's CPU works to keep up. A perfect, pig-crushing throw feels much less satisfying when you watch it jerk along at a few frames per second, hiccupping as the wood, stone, and glass walls shatter and fall.

At Least it's Ch eap
Between its lackluster presentation on the PS3 and jerky game play on the PSP, the PlayStation Mini version of Angry Birds isn't the best version of the game for either platform. However, at $3.99 and packed with dozens of levels, it's a cheap way to sate your bird-flinging thirst if you don't have an Android, iPhone, or iPad. If you have any of the aforementioned mobile devices, use them. Lower prices, more levels, and a much more satisfying touch-screen control system make this one of the few cases where iPhones and Android phones can handle a game far better than either of Sony's systems.

Source:PcMag

Via:PcMag

THQ and Mattel enter game deal, includes Masters of the Universe rights

THQ will target kids with a new multi-year, multiplatform "alliance" with Mattel -- that's for sure. What we're not so sure about is whether those targets are intended to be kids of the 80s or their kids of today. A news announcement reads like a who's who of garage-sale name drops: Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price, Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, Masters of the Universe, and even Polly Pocket (who's apparently still going strong these days).

While the deal with Mattel encompasses games that could appear on any platform imaginable, THQ did specifically note the potential in re-introducing the toy maker's brands through the uDraw GameTablet for Wii. "As we have shown with the combination of uDraw and Pictionary, there is enormous potential for the strategic relationship between THQ and Mattel," said Martin Good, executive veep of THQ's Kids, Family and Casual Games division.

The brilliant part about all this is that when you hand over THQ's Tablet and a copy of the He-Man: By the Power of Grayscale drawing game to the GameStop clerk, you simply say, "It's for my kid" -- and he sort of has to believe you.
[Image source: Madman Entertainment; credit: Mattel]
Source: THQ
Via:Joystiq

Red Dead and Limbo lead nominees for 2011 GDC Awards

It's almost time once again for the industry's premier awards show that doesn't feature regular appearances by Jersey Shore cast members: the 11th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. The event's organizers have released the mercifully Mountain Dew-based-category-free list of nominees, which includes a number of potential merits for Limbo, Red Dead Redemption, Mass Effect 2 and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.

Check out the full list of nominees after the jump and discuss your favorites in the comments! (Oh, that's your pick for Best Visual Arts? Well, we can't say we agree with you, there.)

2011 GDCA Nominees

Best Game Design

• Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo)
• Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
• Limbo (Playdead)
• Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
• God of War III (SCE Santa Monica)

Innovation

• Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream)
• Kirby's Epic Yarn (Good-Feel & HAL Laboratory)
• Minecraft (Mojang)
• Limbo (Playdead)
• Dance Central (Harmonix)

Best Technology

• Starcraft II (Blizzard)
• Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
• Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream)
• Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
• God of War III (SCE Santa Monica)

Best Handheld Game

• God of War: Ghost of Sparta (Ready At Dawn/SCE Santa Monica)
• Cut the Rope (ZeptoLab)
• Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (Kojima Productions)
• Game Dev Story (Kairosoft)
• Dragon Quest IX (Level 5)

Best Audio

• Limbo (Playdead)
• Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
• Halo: Reach (Bungie)
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (DICE)
• Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)

Best Downloadable Game

• Costume Quest (Double Fine)
• Limbo (Playdead)
• Super Meat Boy (Team Meat)
• Minecraft (Mojang)
• Monday Night Combat (Uber Entertainment)

Best Writing

• Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
• Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream)
• Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
• Costume Quest (Double Fine)
• Fallout: New Vegas (Obsidian)

Best Debut Game

• Limbo (Playdead)
• Darksiders (Vigil Games)
• Minecraft (Mojang)
• Monday Night Combat (Uber Entertainment)
• Super Meat Boy (Team Meat)

Best Visual Arts

• God of War III (SCE Santa Monica)
• Limbo (Playdead)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops (Treyarch)
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft Montreal)
• Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)

Game of the Year

• Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
• Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops (Treyarch)
• Limbo (Playdead)
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft Montreal)

Kinect Hacks: Quick-time gestures with Indigo Prophecy

Kinect modder extraordinaire Jack Schofield's latest gesture-based infusion of a gaming classic is so obvious, we're a little upset we didn't think of it first: David Cage's original QTE-filled piece of interactive drama, Indigo Prophecy. Check out a lengthy video demonstration below.


Source: YouTube user Demize2010
Via: Joystiq

Capcom Store offers free shirt with Marvel vs. Capcom 3 pre-order

Are you looking for a fashion statement which will inform passersby that you could air juggle their pathetic frame for entire days with little to no effort? Good news: The Capcom Store is offering just such a shirt with pre-orders for Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds Special Edition.

The deal is only available to North American shoppers -- fortunately, this regional exclusivity means shipping for both the game and shirt is on the house. We're not sure how long the pre-order offer will be available, so you might want to strike while the iron is still hot.
Source: Capcom Store

Fatshark announces Hamilton's Great Adventure

Fatshark, the studio behind class-based shooter, Lead & Gold, has announced its next project: Hamilton's Great Adventure. A pretty stark departure from shooting up the ol' west, Hamilton's Great Adventure is an action puzzle game featuring an Indiana Jones-esque protagonist. Together with his bird Sasha, he must "crack crafty conundrums and challenges." The game is scheduled to arrive this April, with versions planned for consoles (we're guessing PS3 and 360) and PC.
Source: Fatshark

MicroBot review: Biohazardous waste

Developers love to hear that their gameplay is "fluid." Extensive amounts of time are spent polishing and tweaking in order to find that perfect motion that gives their game that oh-so-sweet liquidity. And when they pull it off, it's great ... except in the case of twin-stick shooter MicroBot, where it's somehow detrimental.

MicroBot takes fluidity too far. The player takes control of a tiny robot searching a human body for other (infected) robots in order to destroy them. Of course, that means you'll spend your time floating around with the more molecular parts of the human body, so be prepared for some appropriately, well, floaty controls.

Microbot

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And that doesn't help when you're battling one of the story mode's five bosses and their increasingly screen-filling weaponry. To make matters worse, there are often currents pushing your ship into various spikes and enemies that populate the edges of the levels, leading to dozens of cheap and frustrating deaths. Come to think of it, why are there spikes inside blood vessels? Sharp things and body parts rarely go well together.

Granted, MicroBot may look really good with its bodily theme and excellent fluid physics, but once you get past the initial "Ooh, pretty" you'll realize that each level, despite being randomly generated, is incredibly repetitious and boring. The plodding speed of your miniature virus-destroying vessel and its inability to make the necessary hairpin turns force you to stay in each level far past the point of boredom.

That's not to say it's a completely static experience, though. MicroBot allows the player to upgrade their ship using Atoms picked up by exploring new areas or destroying enemies and certain parts of the environment. The system allows for a lot of customization, letting you equip everything from basic machine guns to homing missiles, to new propulsion engines, to an almost entirely useless grappling hook. Even after you get all the hubs (you can attach seven pieces of equipment in total), you'll find that there isn't any real reason to use anything but the most powerful weapons, leaving the more interesting options on the sidelines.

Once another player is injected into the mix (get it? injected?) things pick up a bit, but questionable design decisions mar the co-op experience as well. On top of the control issues, tacking another player onto the game causes the camera to go a little bit nuts, leading to even more cheap deaths. Adding to the infuriation, once a player dies, he or she is dead until the other teammate drops as well. There were points where my teammate would die early on and it would simply turn into a single-player experience until I said "screw it" and steered into some spikes a few times. Why not have an immediate respawn at the cost of a few points to keep things co-op and enjoyable?

Derivative, yet lacking in what makes twin-stick shooters like Geometry Wars and Robotron: 2084 great, MicroBot's intravenous adventure makes what should be an adrenaline-fueled genre boring with lackluster controls, dull levels, and lame co-op. Honestly ... it's enough to make you sick.

Hothead sheds more light on the death of Penny Arcade Adventures

Back when the discontinuation of the Penny Arcade Adventures series was first announced, Team PA explained that the decision was made due to the team's concern about developer Hothead being forced to split attention between PAA and then-recently-announced DeathSpank. As PA writer Jerry Holkins told it: "I think they could've made DeathSpank and Episode 3 but I think Episode 3 would've suffered. I mean, I know it would have suffered. So we'd rather not do it than do it half-assed and so we're going to finish that story but it's going to be on our website."

Today, in an interview with Eurogamer, Hothead director of technology Joel DeYoung laid a little more blame at the feet of Holkins, implying that Tycho's alter ego had trouble keeping up with the workload required. "I think he really struggled to get the volume of text written for Episode 1, and then with Episode 2 coming out so quickly thereafter - it was five-and-a-half months," DeYoung said. "That was not worked on in parallel, and getting him to deliver that text was, er, frankly quite a struggle."

This revelation comes a few days after Hothead erroneously teased that Episode 3 would be produced if the first two sold well on the Mac App Store, a notion that PA artist Mike Krahulik quickly batted down on Twitter.

Though we may never know the real cause behind Episode 3's termination, whether it's Penny Arcade or Hothead that had too much on its plate, we'd imagine the truth, as is usually the case in situations like these, hovers somewhere in between.
Source: Eurogamer

Xbox's David Dennis on December NPDs, 'best month ever for Xbox 360 hardware sales'

Xbox 360 had a good year. It could've been exclusive hits like Halo Reach, which landed in the No. 3 spot on the top selling games of 2010, according to NPD. Or it could've been the Xbox 360 S console refresh which, since its unveiling at E3 last June, has remained on top of the monthly home console sales numbers for an impressive six months straight. Or maybe it was the Kinect, which shipped a whopping eight million units by the end of the year, and sold well over its five million unit goal.

In actuality, it was all three, and Xbox's David Dennis was making the media rounds tonight to talk about it. "We're super pleased with the response we saw," Dennis said, "and we're just working hard to get supply back on the shelves and keep January and February on track as well." During the second half of the December, Dennis said Microsoft resorted to air shipping consoles in to meet customer demand.

"For us, the focus was trying to get as much on the shelves before that last push before Christmas. It's not cheap to do things like that but we've got a bunch of really smart MBAs to figure out the right balance when to shift back to our traditional process." That traditional process is the far more affordable, but far slower, ocean-based freight. It's not like there aren't any more Xboxes to go around, retailers will simply have "fewer than [they] normally would have."

These [Kinect] games have a lot of staying power, especially ones like Kinect Sports and Dance Central- David Dennis

With both the Xbox 360 and Kinect selling so well in December, it was surprising to learn that no Xbox 360-exclusive titles made it to the NPD's list of top 10 sellers for the month. Dennis says that, internally, they don't compare themselves to handheld titles, so on his list he's got Kinect Sports at No. 8. NPD analyst Anita Frazier says, "On an SKU basis, games that are in the top 10 for the month that aren't reflected in our title-level best-selling list include Kinect Sports [...] and Dance Central from Microsoft."

Though Ubisoft managed to get similarly casual Wii-exclusive titles Just Dance 2 and Michael Jackson: The Experience into the top 10, on a per SKU basis (removing the weighting given to titles like Madden NFL 11, which shipped on five separate platforms) Microsoft did have two hits with Kinect Sports and Dance Central, on a platform with a much smaller install base than the Wii. "These games have a lot of staying power, especially games like Kinect Sports and Dance Central," Dennis said. "They're highly social, a lot of fun for parties and that sort of thing. They'll continue to attach strong to Kinect through its life cycle."

Another major source of Microsoft's great year for Xbox? Digital. While a lot of that money is spent exclusively online through Xbox Live, points and subscription cards "grew the most in unit volume vs. 2009" for both December and for all of 2010, according to Frazier. Dennis says, "our transactions over Xbox Live are generating more revenue than our subscriptions, so if you do some napkin math [...] you get to some pretty big numbers pretty quick." With over half of the 30 million Xbox Live members paying to be Gold members, that gets you roughly $750m per year in subscription revenue alone. And Microsoft is generating more revenue from Xbox Live transactions. At that scale, it's easy to understand why points and subscription cards would be strong retail performers, contributing to the impressive $6.2 billion spent by consumers at retail in 2010.
Source:Joystiq