December 2006
52 posts
Holiday Review
What a nice break. Back to the grind huh?
Zelda has some secret places.
New Super Mario Bros. tops Amazon’s top 10 games of the year.
More coming soon.
Super Mario Bros. Dec 25 Coming to Wii
Super Mario Bros. is coming to the Wii December 25th for 500 points. In addition, these classic games will be available soon:
* Street Fighter® II: The World Warrior (Super NES®, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points): This game revolutionized the fighting-game genre with characters that had unique fighting skills, speed, special moves and unique endings.
* Super Castlevania® IV (Super NES, 1...
First look at The Venice Project
GigaOM has some screenshots and analysis of the new startup by Skype/Kazaa guy Janus Friis.
Warhammer Online Interview
GameZone has a two part interview with the EA Mythic about their upcoming MMORPG Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. The game really looks great and has some features new to the MMORPG genre. Plus, it has 25 years of Warhammer storyline. Sounds like all the ingredients for an awesome MMORPG. We’ll see. In the meantime read this interview: Part 1 and Part 2 and watch the cinematic trailer....
Genesis Rising New Website and Beta Opens
Genesis Rising: The Universal Crusade, a space RTS that features 2-player coop mode, non-linear single player and a heavy emphasis on the RPG storyline. Not only that but it appears to be the first space game to use the latest in rendering. Combine this, with the fact that space games don’t have to render much environment (other than space) and you’re in for some pretty models. Genesis...
Thursday Morning Update
Nintendo has official responded to the nationwide class action lawsuit filed by Green Welling LLP. The lawsuit has not yet been official recognized by a judge. Nintendo’s response is as follows:
We believe the lawsuit to be completely without merit. Nintendo has a long tradition of delivering high-quality products and excellent customer service, and we take all reports from our customers...
Second Life Interview Crashed by Animated Attack
The good folks over at CNET’s News.com have an interview with Ailin Graef, aka Anshe Chung in Second Life. Apparently Ailin Graef has created quite the virtual Donald Trump real estate simulator in Second Life. According to her, she owns more than 1 million (real USD) dollars in virtual land assets.
The interview was supposed to take place at the CNET theater, which I’m assuming is...
Wednesday Morning Catch-up
Let’s see. Penny Arcade’s Tycho talks a little about his (and probably many others’) perception of casual gamers as it relates to the new Wii Weather Channel. Excerpt below:
The Wii’s Forecast Channel just debuted, with the Internet Channel (i.e., Opera for Devices) arriving later this week - treats for that new or even lapsed gamer referenced by Nintendo marketing...
4D Rulers unlock begging-mode
4D Rulers, a video game studio responsible for Gore and the AMP 2 3D engine has unlocked begging-mode to raise funds for a plan to save their business. If you’re feeling charitable, you can “invest” in their final plan for in-game advertisement-supported Gore 2 and receive 150% return on your investment (if everything goes correctly). Thank God the internet loves a fund...
Line Rider coming to Wii, DS
The hit flash game Line Rider, created in September of 2006, is coming to the Nintendo DS and Wii. The original creator of Line Rider, Boštjan Cadež, has sold the rights to inXile Entertainment, who in turn has arranged for release in Spring 2007 on DS and Wii. Line Rider has been an internet phenomenon spawning a slew of spin off flash games as well as incredible youtube videos.
Wii get Weather, Opera Friday
If you noticed your Wii updating this morning chances are it was downloading the update for the Wii weather channel. The weather channel lets you interactively browse the weather and other data, as well as click-and-drag around a 3D google earth style weather map.
Friday the Opera browser will be available for download.
Thanks Engadget for the photos More photos below the fold.
I refuse to call it the Wii.
Digg this
Update: While it’s obviously impossible to not call it the Wii with all of the news I cover related to it, this article should be taken in jest.
When the Nintendo Wii launched I made the decision to camp out at my local San Francisco Best Buy. It is the first console I have owned since the Sega Genesis and that was a long time ago when the only way a kid like me could obtain a...
Tuesday Morning Tech and Gaming Review
Not much exciting going on, but I think I found some noteworthy newsbits. Happy Holidays everyone. :)
In the IPTV world, there’s the tip of the iceburg showing as Zudeo signs BBC for HD content. Zudeo is an online video player launched recently by the makers of popular java-based bit torrent client Azureus. The BBC will be providing an initial licensing offering to customers of Red...
Half-Life 2 Coop - Play with up to 5 friends.
A demo of the HL2 Coop mod “Follow Freeman” was released. I haven’t played it yet but I’m going to try to find some people to play with. You can download it from a lot of places.
Monday Morning News Flood
Like all new technologies, not long after the Google Webtool Kit is released there are people making games with it. Like the new risk-inspired kdice and previously released poker game gpokr. Check them out, download the Google WTK and make something new.
According to EGM, Katamari is coming to the Wii in 2007 as well as PS3 and Xbox Live Arcade. It is unconfirmed with any official sources.
...
WarioWare for Wii
Looking forward to this!
Dragon Quest IX Video
Just heard about this awesome video Square-Enix put out for their upcoming Dragon Quest IX. Looks like you can expect an action RPG somewhat like Final Fantasy Crystal Cronicles. There’s also a lot of great artwork and they’re using some of the Nintendo DS touchpad although they only show it being used for mundane interface stuff.
Click here to view the video.
How to grow up and still be a gamer
1UP interviewed some well known gamers and scientists about how they balance their real lives and gaming. A great read.
Check it out.
Thursday Morning Wrap-up
If you’re feeling charitable please click the new Child’s Play button on the menubar to the right. Child’s Play is a great organisation run by the guys at Penny-Arcade.
Final Fantasy Tactics seems to be getting a sequel coming to an undisclosed nintendo handheld. The Sony PSP will get a remake of the original Final Fantasy Tactics. The sequal for DS will be called Final Fantasy...
IBM to start a Second Life Business Group
In January IBM will launch a business group to deal with the unique characteristics of making money in Second Life. IBM believes that Second Life has potential for the training of employees, conferences and meetings, and commerce. IBM execs have said that IBM Chief Executive Sam Palmisano’s arrival in Second Life was what sold it for them citing “If its good enough for him it’s...
Wednesday Morning Catch-up
I don’t know how many of you play second life but I’m sure only about half of those of you who do would actually admit to it. I’ve tried it but as I logged in my system, which runs world of warcraft at full settings perfectly, produced about 10 fps in second life. I quickly wrote the game off as unplayable. Maybe I would have stayed if there were more incentive than flying, goofy...
Adobe Photoshop CS3 Beta Available for Download on...
Adobe will make Photoshop CS3 available for download on Friday. The release is said to be a “screamer” on the new Intel-based Macs. According to sources you’ll need a valid CS2 serial number to download.
read more | digg story
Major Improvements to Google Finance
Google Finance has been on the receiving end of a usability stick today.
Red 5 Studios and 18.5 Million Dollars
Red 5 Studios, formed from key members of the World of Warcraft team at Blizzard, recently were awarded 18.5 Million dollars in funding on top of their working capital from WEBZEN earlier in the year. The 18.5M came from Benchmark Capital and Sierra Ventures.
The combination of Red 5 and Webzen seems to be a pretty large coupling. We’ll have to wait and see, though, how much experience was...
Tuesday Morning Catch-Up
There is some Mac Fanboy buzz about a new apple UI to be unveiled with Apples OS X Leopard called “Illuminous”. I’ll believe it when I see it. Slashfoods has an awesome collection of Food Hacks including my favorite: how to counteract hot pepper (chili) burns. Square Enix announced this morning that Dragon Quest 9 will be released on DS and not PS3 or Wii as one would expect. It...
Wii Virtual Console Titles for 12/11/2006
This week’s titles include Gunstar Heroes, Ice Hockey, Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, and Alien Crush. read more | digg story
DSButtons: Easy Way To Find Multiplayer Nintendo...
Digg This
When I first heard of the Nintendo DS and it’s wi-fi capability I instantly had a fantasy that read something like this: Another boring work day starts off with waking up and the usual bathroom routine then its off to the subway for the commute. I step on to the the regular train only this time some thing’s different. Four or five people are battling each other at Mario Kart...
Wordie: like flickr but without the photos
Check it out, Wordie is a community site for people who love words. You can create your own lists of words and share them. Add citations and comments to words and lists. I’m not sure how big this will be but it could do some good in helping people better understand our changing English language.
How Far Will Nerds Go? Wii Power Glove
As far as nerds go I think japan wins. Not only are they huge nerds but they attract many nerdy subcultures such as anime/manga/kosplay. They just dropped this wonderful gem on us. The hand crafted Power Glove for Nintendo Wii. It’s complete with finger activated button clicking and top-of-wrist mount.
For more information, checkout the japanese website with details of the construction.
...
Dear God - 1 Billion Score in Geometry Wars?
When K4rn4ge posted his 360,360,600 Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved score many assumed he had reached a place only Gods have known. Like that japanese guy in the hot dog eating contests, he is untouchable. But also just like the hot dog eating guy, K4rn4ge can’t settle for what he knows is not his best score. He recently revealed plans to attempt to break the one billion-point mark during...
uTorrent and Azureus Go Corporate, Leave Users...
digg story
Bram Cohen, creator of the bit torrent protocol and Ludvig Strigeus, writer of uTorrent recently posted a letter to their community forums detailing a merger between the two companies. uTorrent, known as an extremely well-coded, lightweight bit torrent client, has been a favorite among the most savvy file traders.
For many this news is troubling because of BitTorrent Inc’s...
Flags of the World
This is a funny flash animation showing the flags of the world with design client comments and how they would be modified after going through the design market.
You might only understand this if you work in the design industry.
Click here for Flags of the World
Video Game Awards Leeroy Jenkins Ads
The Spike TV Video Game Awards is running these pretty good Leeroy Jenkins spinoff commercials. Pretty good timing with many players returning to World of Warcraft for the 2.0.1 patch.
Click more to see the other two.
Resistance: Fall of Man Balancing Patch Details
According to a EuroGame article, Resistance: Fall of Man is getting a patch to revamp some online gameplay issues.
“I can’t yet talk about all the things we’ve changed, but I really think that people will be very pleased to see how responsive this is to some concerns that have come out since we went live,” he writes.
“We’ve addressed a few key balance issues...
It's....a Wii MONSTER!
Nintendo Says Wii Excitement to Blame for...
An Associated Press article recently released cited President Satoru Iwata of Nintendo discussing further investigation of the Wii strap breakage.
“Some people are getting a lot more excited than we’d expected,” Iwata said. “We need to better communicate to people how to deal with Wii as a new form of entertainment.”
However, spokespeople for Nintendo have...
Gamespot's 360 vs. PS3 Graphics Comparison
Gamespot has a great review of the Xbox 360 vs Playstation 3 graphics. They cover screenshot comparisons of Need for Speed Carbon, Call of Duty 3, Madden 07, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, NBA 2K7, Fight Night Round 3, Tony Hawk’s Project 8, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07.
The Xbox 360 had better graphics in almost all the games we examined. The 360’s biggest victories were in Madden 07 and...
Swivel Launches
Swivel, a new Minor Ventures company, launched it’s preview today. It’s a neat idea and I hope it takes off. I’ll be covering this more in the future.
Swivel is a place where curious people explore data — all kinds of data.
Swivel lets you explore data and share your insights with others. Swivel has data about politics, economics, weather, sports, business and more.
Swivel is...
The Downfall of Digg
“Digg is frankly becoming a chore to read… The interesting posts seem to languish somewhere near the bottom, whilst the usually insightful comments are increasingly full of annoying American kids and slanging matches.”
This is an interesting write up about how Digg requires a lot of work to find any stories of substance. Also worth checking out is this linked article about Mass...
Xbox 360 Pressing On for 10M Units Sold
Top execs at Microsoft have been rubbing it in that they will hit their 10M units sold mark by the end of 2006. Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, Peter Moore and Chris Liddell have been tooting their Microsoft horns a lot lately. Not quite the mark Bill Gates created at E3 in 2006 when he said “Before our competition even enters the marketplace we will have a 10 million-unit headstart with Xbox 360.” but...
Virtually Homeless
The Spain-based NGO Mensajeros de la Paz will be present in the virtual world of Second Life as a homeless teenager avatar named MensajerosDeLaPaz Jubilee. The avatar will have no belongings except for some paper, a cardboard box and and a sign that reads ‘Help a child have a second oportunity in his First Life.’
Maybe if we gave homeless children paypal accounts and blogs they could...
World of Warcraft Update 2.0.1
Digg This
Blizzard released a large content update today bringing their hugely popular World of Warcraft MMORPG up to version 2.0.1. Features of this content update include new honor system, looking for group system, talents, arena skirmishes and a whole lot more. The patch can be downloaded from a number of download sites including Fileshack. Click more for the complete list of 2.0.1 changes...
Independent Games Summit Schedule Posted
https://www.cmpevents.com/GD07/a.asp?option=C&V=11
Some topics of interest:
Making An Indie MMO (Daniel James, Three Rings) Monday - 2.00pm - 2.30pm
The business and creative mind behind games such as Puzzle Pirates and Bang! Howdy discusses the practical logistics of handling heavily invested online game players as an independent developer, discussing elements such as when and how to...
Pro gaming gains TV coverage on multiple networks
digg story
December 30, 2006 CBS will air They Got Game, Stars of the World Series of Video Games Presented by Intel. The show will feature the stories of five professional gamers including Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel. The World Series of Video Games (WSVG) has also signed agreements with other minor networks. Plans include up to 20 hours of airtime covering the WSVG events.
In its inaugural...
Halo 3 Beta Sign-up live
This is a link straight to the sign-up. You need a Xbox 360, Xbox Live Gold account, Passport account, and must be 18 yrs of age.
digg story
Azureus launches Zudeo, HD video sharing site
Today, Monday December 4th, the file sharing company Azureus, created of Azureus bit torrent client, released Zudeo. Powered by their Azureus 3.0 BT client, Zudeo is a video sharing site similar to youtube. The difference is that it’s HD, high-quality video distributed via bit torrent.
Even with bit torrent becoming a mainstream file sharing protocol, can Zudeo steal a large enough...
TiVoToGo DRM Reportedly Cracked
According to TivoLovers, a livejournal Tivo blog, the TiVoToGo DRM protection which halted users’ attempts to play their TiVo Recordings on multiple devices has been cracked. The SourceForge page for the crack has C source available for download. Running the command line program on a .tivo file will convert it into a DRM-stripped MPEG file. Additional documentation on the project, as well as...
Economist Predicts Taxation of Online Game Assets
“Given growth rates of 10 to 15 percent a month, the question is when, not if, Congress and IRS start paying attention to these issues,” said Dan Miller, a senior economist with the Congress’ Joint Economic Committee, who is also a fan of virtual worlds. “So it is incumbent on us to set the terms and the debate so we have a shaped tax policy toward virtual worlds and...
GameCube titles for waiting Wii owners
The Legend of Zelda:Twilight Princess is a great game, but after the third dungeon and 10 extra hours of sub quests, along with many sessions spent moving like a professional bowler and tennis player, I’m ready for something else.
Unfortunately, the Nintendo Wii’s launch titles aren’t very substantial for a PC gamer like me returning to consoles. Call of Duty 3 is the same as...
Adobe Photoshop CS3 Can't Come Soon Enough
Anyone who works in the design industry understands the title of this post. Photoshop SUCKS on an intel-based mac. It’s slow, there are lots of bugs, and it just makes you feel crippled. Well fret no more. According to this recent drop of information from an unnamed source, CS3 is due soon and with all the bells you expect. Here’s a short list. You can read the full article here.
...