Joystiq

We may be running out of 2009, but there was still a ton to report and talk about in PC gaming in the last week. Let's check out the big stories from the past seven days at Big Download:

Exclusive Features

• PC Game Multiplayer Holiday Gift Guide: Check out some gift ideas from Big Download from the current year and also some budget titles from past years that are still available.
• Left 4 Dead 2 Game Guide: Check out the last two campaign guides for Valve's zombie shooter (Flood of Hard Rain and Flee The Parish). Plus go back and check earlier entries in the series.
• R.U.S.E muliplayer hands-on: We check out the multiplayer beta test for the upcoming and different WWII RTS game from Eugen and Ubisoft.
• Unreal Tournament and Quake III Arena: 10 Years Later: We look back at the release of two of the most influential multiplayer shooters of all time.
• The Wake of Guybrush Threepwood: Is the hero of the Monkey Island series really dead? We try to find out in this preview of the fifth and final chapter of Telltale's downloadable adventure series.
• Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter Review: We give our final verdict to Croteam's FPS graphical remake.
• The Top 10 PC Game News Stories For November 2009: We give our picks for the biggest PC game news stories for last month.
• The State of Mac Gaming - Part 2: We continue our look at the current stats of games on the Mac platform in this second part of a four part series.
• Big Ideas: Our regular look at game thmese continues with an examination of death in games and possible alternatives.
• All You Need To Know: We give you the 411 on Ubisoft's upcoming stealth action game Splinter Cell Conviction.
• Freeware Friday: Our look at free PC games checks out the indie game title Probability O.
• Contests: You still have time to enter our Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter giveaway and check with Big Download next week for even more giveaway contests.

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We just don't get it, folks. Usually, the purchasing habits of the Japanese gaming populace is formulaic and predictable -- when a console diminishes in size, its sales spike into the stratosphere. However, the gigantified DSi LL managed to retain its commanding lead in this week's chart, despite its newfound largeness. At the same time, the PSP Go, which is considerably smaller than its UMD-reading predecessor, continues to plummet to the bottom of the rankings.

Our world's been flipped, turned upside-down! If this one constant rule, which has proven itself true time and time again throughout the annals of history, can be so easily dismissed, what other laws of nature can we ignore? Gravity? Thermodynamics? That one law that prevents us from smashing open gumball machines and harvesting the candies within? That path leads to anarchy, friends. Delicious, chewable anarchy.

- DSi LL: 67,243 33,310 (33.13%)
- PS3: 46,558 11,806 (33.97%)
- Wii: 46,673 13,829 (42.11%)
- PSP: 38,839 6,087 (18.59%)
- DSi: 37,021 4,951 (15.44%)
- DS Lite: 7,268 2,217 (43.89%)
- PSP Go: 3,809 765 (16.72%)
- Xbox 360: 3,685 400 (9.79%)
- PS2: 2,057 33 (1.63%)

[Source: Media Create]

See: The archives

Expanding upon statements from BioWare's Casey Hudson earlier this year, associate programmer Thomas Roy took to the developer's forums (requires login) recently to explain how Mass Effect 2 would be handling the promised lack of elevators (used in place of loading screens). As it turns out, rather than executing on BioWares's promise of "a completely new system" that's "part of the game experience," the studio will be implementing "loading screens and movies."

Though the game will still ask players to walk into an elevator, it will apparently cue up a loading screen that offers "interesting visuals and information." We'd like to point out that before Mr. Roy explains any of this, he says that the first game used elevators "so we [BioWare] didn't have to show boring loading screens" and they only made it into the second due to "a lot of complaints."

We're so broken up here -- on one hand, the developer is caving to the demands of the fans and critics. Score! On the other hand, Mr. Roy is telling us that loading screens are totally boring. If we demanded it, does that mean we're boring? Great, now we've got a total complex.

[Via Kotaku]

After suffering from a series of delays, Codemasters rallycross racer DiRT 2 is arriving on PCs this December 8. As confirmed by Codies community man "Ice" on the developer's forums, the game will be arriving a week late to the PC due to a reason that is "far too boring to go into." He assures fans that it's not a "technical issue in any way, shape, or form," and that he has assurance from the US office that the game's ship date is confirmed for December 8. Just a few more days, PC-owning DiRT fans! We promise this time!

There's a good reason why we never went into late-night comedy: We really didn't want to compete against lanky comic genius Conan O' Brien. We thought writing about (and, more often than not, making fun of) video games would be a career path where we'd never have to compete with the gargantuan Irish host -- unfortunately, in a recent episode of Late Night, Conan managed to encroach on our territory, making a joke at the expense of the recently released (and tepidly received) Avatar: The Game.

Check out the video of Conan's gag after the jump while we consider another career choice -- one that will definitely be devoid of Conan competition. (We're thinking about horse whispering. Seems pretty safe, right?)

[Via Kotaku]

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Boxing fans who were hoping to enhance their sweet, sweet scientific exploits in Fight Night Round 4 for the Xbox 360 were recently stricken with disappointment -- the game's latest DLC, the "Champions Pack 2," hit the Xbox Live Marketplace with a fairly problematic issue which caused the system to freeze up while downloading the content. This is doubly troubling, because as we understand it, downloading is actually a pretty important step in the DLC process.

EA Sports commented on the error on its official forums, stating that the DLC has been pulled from the Marketplace until a non-glitched version can be rolled out, hopefully "before the Christmas holidays." People who managed to download the DLC without freezing can still play the game, but won't be able to access the pack's locked content until the revised DLC is released. People who managed to download half of the DLC pack before freezing can play as Evander Holyfield's torso.

This has to be the most endearing display of cross-developer love we've seen during our games writing careers. Capcom's Shawn Baxter (a.k.a. "Snow,") recently posted on the company's community blog about his latest D.I.Y. project -- a real-life version of Fortune's Tower, one of the pub games featured in Fable II. Oh, and in Fable II Pub Games, though you probably didn't need us to tell you that.

Words can't really describe this two-month, $400 project as well as pictures, so hop on over to Capcom's blog and check out the delectable fruits of Baxter's labor. If you're of a crafty ilk, the post also contains a few blueprints you can follow to make your own Fortune's Tower set. We probably won't post about yours, though. This is a one-time thing.

What do you see in the ink blot above? A butterfly with cattails attached to its wings? Well, that probably means you're insane. The popular theory is that the image, which was linked to on the recently relocated official Dead Space Twitter page, is actually a teaser for Dead Space 2. This much is supported by the strange script featured at the bottom of the image (visible in the full picture, posted after the jump), which, when translated using this helpful guide (via horror game news blog Hell Descent), reads "the nightmare is over but it will not end."

There's also a few Necromorphs hidden in the ink blot, including Mr. "I'm going to stab you with these sharp tentacles" and Mr. "I'm just a baby but I'll bite your face off." (Disclaimer: Those probably aren't their Christian names.) We feel we can confidently add this to the growing pile of evidence for an upcoming announcement for the follow-up to last year's dismemberment simulator.

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Crystal Dynamics isn't exactly known for its wide array of game franchises -- since around 2003, the company has been pumping out nothing but Tomb Raider games. Normally we wouldn't lead a job listing post with such information, but when Crystal Dynamics says it's looking for developers who are "able to effectively create and lead the multiplayer vision and design effort," it gets us thinking that we could be tomb raiding with (against?) other actual human beings!

Considering this year's layoffs, we're not convinced that the developer could be working on another "AAA title" in addition to the Tomb Raider franchise. Given the leaked images of a "reboot" and assurance from Eidos "Life President" Ian Livingstone that Lara's next installment will "reinvigorate the franchise," we're pretty confident that Crystal Dynamics is hard at work on whatever the next game in the TR series will be. For now though, we have a job listing and plenty of educated guesses.

[Via CinemaBlend]

Twenty-six days stand between us and a brand new decade, so we thought we'd use this time to not only ask you guys your favorite webcomic from this past week, but to also learn what your favorite webcomic from the past ten years is. Go on, take some time to think. We know there have been a lot. We're going to go with Bigger Than Cheeses' "This is basically his entire day," which has brought more joy to our lives than anything or anyone else, ever. Share a link to your favorite webcomic of the 'aughts in the comments section!

On a more immediate note, here's our seven favorite gaming-related webcomics from this past week. Check them out, then vote for the best one in the poll after the jump!

A Mushroom Kingdom Carol Part 1 (Brawl in the Family)
Witchblades (Penny Arcade)
Assassin's Creed II (Another Video Game Webcomic)
The Princess Factor (Dipswitch)
Assassin's Edge (Virtual Shackles)
Rise From Your Grave (Nerf Now)
Thank You (It's-A-Me)

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If you're anything like us, you'll be spending a decent part of your holiday stuck in the seat of a train, bus, automobile, or aeroplane, heading towards wherever "home" is for the upcoming holidays. We know how nice it can be to pick up a new game or two for the travels ahead, and in the spirit of that we're giving out a DS/PSP travel pack for this week's Swag Saturday including both Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. Tell us your best (gaming or non-gaming) holiday travel story (keep it clean, folks! -- no "mile high club" stories!) and we'll pick one winner at random to receive the travel pack early this week. As always, keep an eye on the email address tied to your commenting name to find out if you've won!

• Leave a comment telling us your best (gaming or non-gaming) holiday travel story.
• You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec -- which may have to do with the Ubisoft Petz franchise)
• Limit 1 entry per person per day
• This entry period ends at 9:31PM ET on Sunday, December 6
  
• At that time, we'll randomly select one winner to receive one copy of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days for Nintendo DS ($35 ARV) and one copy of Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny for Sony PSP ($40 ARV).
• For a list of complete rules, click here

Though Brazil is no stranger to banning video games, a recently proposed bill from Senator Valdir Raupp certainly seems pretty drastic. Raupp's bill, which was recently passed by the Education Commission of the Senate, and will now go to vote in the Committee on Constitution and Justice, seeks to "curb the manufacture, distribution, importation, distribution, trading and custody, storage [of] the video games that affect the customs [and] traditions of the people, their worship, creeds, religions and symbols."

According to Brazilian news site UOL, if the bill passes, folks caught violating the law could be subject to one to three years imprisonment. That's quite a bit of jail time to serve for just importing a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV, dont'cha think?

[Via GamePolitics]

Eiji Aonuma has spent a lot of time developing Legend of Zelda games. In fact, he's been in a managerial role on the franchise ever since the series' arguably most popular installment, The Ocarina of Time. So when Mario creator (and his boss) Shigeru Miyamoto asked Aonuma and his team to develop an "Ura Zelda" (a flipped version of Ocarina of Time -- what would eventually become the Master Quest), Aonuma protested. Miyamoto's compromise, though, instead turned out to be a much greater challenge -- produce a sequel to OoT within one year.

"We were supposed to make its sequel in a year ... at first, we had absolutely no idea what sort of thing we were supposed to make, and we just kept expanding our plans," Aonuma told Nintendo prez Satoru Iwata during a recent Iwata Asks column."in the beginning, it was all trial and error ... ultimately, we adopted the 'three-day system,' and made it so that, if you couldn't clear the game inside of three days, the world was destroyed." Aonuma claims this concept was what allowed Majora's Mask to be created and released just 18 months after OoT came out. He also adds that lessons he learned from the development of Majora's Mask -- from having to remember a sequence of events in order to proceed, to "deep, compact play" -- helped to shape the development of the most recent Zelda release, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.

We'd like to say that Aonuma will have a break from the series after serving as producer on Spirit Tracks, but he's the man in charge of the upcoming LoZ game for the Wii. We're sorry, Mr. Aonuma! Keep on truckin'!


[Via Gamasutra]

Though we still don't know much about Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker's cast of characters, Konami sent out a batch of glamour shots for a few of the assumed super spies you'll be cavorting with during your time with the game. Our personal favorite? Definitely Chico. It takes a special breed of man to pull off an Ascot that expertly.

Check out all the portraits, as well as a bunch of new screenshots, in the gallery below.

Brütal Legend may have had a smaller-than-expected impact during the game's first month on shelves, but Double Fine head Tim Schafer remains nonplussed. In fact, he hasn't even seen the numbers yet, instead choosing to wait "'til after Christmas," he recently told GamePro. "I like to give it time, you know? I think many people look too soon but a lot of games I've worked on have succeeded based on word of mouth," he explained. And despite somewhat disappointed responses from critics, Schafer said he was happy "for the most part" with how the game was received.

While he's still not talking specifics, the idea of more downloadable content is clearly one Schafer's interested in. "We definitely want to do more DLC for both single-player and multiplayer, as well as some tuning patches," he said, and added that the developers are still watching multiplayer online to see what needs fixing. We're betting it won't be too long before we hear what the folks at Double Fine have in mind.