As you've surely already noticed, a handful of our more travel-hardened writers have spent the past few days in the natal region of this humble weekly feature in order to more aptly cover the industry happenings at the Tokyo Game Show 2008. While we've missed their presence dearly, particularly at our bimonthly badminton tournament against other gaming blogs (Kietzmann is quite the racqueteer, you see), we've found their overseas stationing to be quite profitable for us homebound 'Stiqers.
You see, thanks to the inexplicable magic of time zones, it's a bit after midday tomorrow in Tokyo at the time of this posting. Our overseas cohorts have discovered a number of startling, time-sensitive pieces of valuable information, then sent them hurtling westward (geographically) and backward (chronologically) to the rest of the staff. We've been using this information to gain a valuable edge in the somewhat turbulent American investment market -- much like the oft-exploited sports almanac from Back to the Future lore (sans the frequent demands for its immolation by absent-minded, silver-haired chronophysicists).
Fret not, dear readers -- we can hear your requests for these valuable investment protips through the insulation provided by our wide-brimmed moneyhats. Here, we'll break you off a piece -- following an unlikely endorsement from acclaimed Japanese film critic Tadao Sato, Beverly Hills Chihuahuawill set the highest single-day box office record in cinematic history tomorrow, and will remain at the top of the charts worldwide for fourteen months. As such, you might want to consider dropping a few bucks on Disney (DIS), and, of course, Chihuawow! (CWOW!), the West Coast's most prestigious Chihuahua distribution outlet.
... We might have an improper homonym there. We're all a bit worn out (har) from the multitude of conferences this weekend and had to kick (har) this to the until tonight. Here are our picks for the week's best game-related webcomics, be sure to vote for your favorite!
Those who needed further proof of the overwhelming eccentricity of Ultima developer Richard Garriott (aka Lord British) will be pleased to hear that the NCSoft producer disembarked on a journey to the International Space Station aboard Russia's Soyuz TMA-13 capsule this morning. The reason for the $30 million extraterrestrial excursion (besides Lord B.'s desire to follow in the footsteps of his father, American astronaut Owen Garriott) was to allow the game designer to conduct experiments while aboard the station. Oh, and to ensure the eternal preservation of the human race. No biggie.
Geeze...what a busy week...full of ups and downs...and the stock market was busy too. We kid. Anyway, check out our highlights over at Big Download for the past week.
Video Game Cosplay Gallery: We are getting close to Halloween so here are some video game related costumes you might want to check out.
MacMonday: This week's look at Mac gaming takes a look at the puzzle title Magic Match Adventures
MODMonday: Our look at Max Payne mods takes a look at the total conversion Polar Paradise
Big Ideas: Should technology drive the PC game industry? Our latest look at themes in the industry says, "No".
Big Iron: Our weekly hardware column asks the question: "32-bit or 64-bit?"
Alt-Tab: Our weekly column takes a hands-on look at the Demigod beta test.
Freeware Friday: Our weekly look at free games is for a title that's just hard to describe:Barkley, Shut Up And Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the HoopZ Barkley SaGa
Virtual Bargin Bin: Our weekly look at cheap games is for BioShock and the Grand Theft Auto Collection
Story guru Leonard Boyarsky and background artist Chris Donnelson spoke at yesterday's Diablo III Lore & Art panel just before the closing BlizzCon eremonies, and they detailed how the background of the previous two Diablo games will tie into this one. Check out the highlights after the break, and find out how the gameplay has been changed to emphasize the story and art in this title, and what's been happening in the 20 in-game years since the events of Diablo II.
We all reacted similarly to the news of a DHL freight train derailment in which 21,600 Xbox 360s were lost due to "impact damage, wetting, pilfering and shortage" -- no, not by inquiring about the well-being of those who were on board at the time of the crash. That would be silly. We reacted, as anyone would, with general concern for the Redmond-based software juggernaut whose precious cargo was destroyed in the accident.
That's why we were so glad to hear that Microsoft recently filed a complaint against DHL in which they call for $2 million in damages to replace the missing consoles, stating that the shipping company "negligently breached its duties as a common carrier, handler, bailee, warehouseman, agent, or in other capabilities." We agree -- it was incredibly negligent of DHL to allow their train to crash like that. Really, terribly unprofessional.
The passage of time, not to mention the opening of the Tokyo Game Show floor to the public, was not kind to our good friend, the Monster Hunter 3 line. Whereas our initial pass demonstrated a long and winding queue, the first public day of the show saw the orderly arrangement swallowed whole by a pulsating mass of patient onlookers.
As if navigating the area wasn't hampered enough, the monstrously popular booth also saw its crowd overlap with the one swarming the opposing Square Enix booth. The bloggers foolish enough to pass through this patch of people (including the one who wrote these hands-on impressions) were forever lost and shall be mourned.
Long-time World of Warcraftplayers have probably had run-ins with "multiboxers", players with multiple accounts who control more than one character at a time, during their illustrious adventuring careers -- but we're fairly sure no Azerothian has ever seen anything like this. A WoWplayer by the name of Prepared, using the terrifying eleven-computer rig you see above, has begun tooling around Azeroth in his own 36-shaman raid party. When asked how he controls so many characters at once, Prepared was unable to respond, as he is an octopus.
However, he was able to share some of the financial demands imposed upon his single-player raid machine, such as his six-month subscription plan for each of the accounts, which runs him $5,711 annually. He also plans to pick up 36 copies of the title's upcoming expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, which he estimates will cost him $1,500. The price doesn't bother Prepared, who remarks, "there are more expensive hobbies out there than World of Warcraft." Yes, like that black tar heroin "hobby" our uncle Marco recently took up.
Spelunker is a remake of the NES classic from Irem. Does it look familiar to you? Do you remember the game from way back in the day, 20 years ago? If you do, it's probably because the aesthetics haven't changed much. Though boasting updated, modern graphics, the game's visuals retain a retro-stylized feel. The 2D characters are still there. The lifts and ladders are still in the places they would've been. Overall, it looks like an interesting title for those old-school gamers looking for a blast from the past.
Of course, the question is: How does it play? First off, the controls are simple enough. It's a 2D game with a focus on platform jumping, with other actions including: riding down elevators; leaping over pits; climbing ladders; and dodging fire, steam, and toxic liquids. You can collect items such as bombs to demolish obstacles in your way, or keys in order to progress through locked sections of a stage. It all sounds very simple, familiar and arcadey -- in other words, a perfect fit for a PSN game. Right?
We're honestly starting to feel like Resident Evil 5 is this year's Metal Gear Solid 4. The game constantly generated enormous lines at the Tokyo Game Show, not only due to its playable demo but its multiple, action-packed trailers. Though not devoid of exciting gameplay footage, the content was clearly centered on the game's plot and remarkably high production values.
If you're not afraid of M-rated mutilation and potentially gigantic spoilers, be sure to check out the special TGS trailers we've placed after the break. Especially the second one.
The movie sharing feature won't make the service's November 19 launch; however, it could conceivably be added in at a later date says Albert Penello, group marketing manager for the Xbox 360. Penello told MTV Multiplayer that such capabilities are "certainly the aspiration" which we're pretty sure is marketing manager for "we're working on it." It's not like there won't be plenty to take in once NXE is released though, for the time being, it looks like any DVD launch parties (even those for swank 70s cop shows!) will be single living room affairs. Sorry, Grandma!
An article purported to be from the Associated Press has been floating around today that very casually dates PlayStation's Home for November 19 -- coincidentally, the same day as the New Xbox Experience launch. The origins of this version stem from The Inquirer ("Sony, Microsoft begin battle of virtual worlds"). It's also interesting to note that the article does not mention NXE's simultaneous launch date.
When you search the AP website, however, you will instead come across a "Sony, Microsoft virtual communities to start" from the same day (via Yahoo!). In this version, Home is "dated" for "later this year," while NXE is coming November 19. Both pieces also use the exact same quotes from Enterbrain's Hirokazu Hamamura, Sony's Ryoji Akagawa and Microsoft's John Schappert. It's likely that the former piece was an earlier, now-corrected draft from the AP or a gross misread by The Inquirer (and subsequently propagated from there).
It should also be noted that at Sony's Tokyo Game Show press conference this weekend, the company announced an open beta for Home would be launching in Japan this month and end in November. We've gone ahead and contacted Sony and AP to confirm.
Ah, the Square Enix Mega Theater. It's always something to look forward to at every TGS. We took the time to check out the theater and see what's cooking behind those big, black walls. Square Enix showed off trailers for nine games and a film in the Mega Theater, including two PS3 titles, the Advent Children Complete movie, and four PSP titles. Grab the full scoop on each title in our Square Enix Closed Theater impressions.
Chris Metzen and Andrew Chambers sat down at BlizzCon to chat about the lore and story behind the universe of Starcraft II. As we saw in the gameplay panel yesterday, Blizzard is aiming to really break a lot of new characters into the foreground using the adventure game-style cutscenes, and Metzen and Chambers seem really excited to bring some new faces into the RTS staple sequel.
To start off the panel, they ran through a few of the folks we'll meet in the Terran campaign. Dr. Hanson is a "Dr. Lady with glasses (so she looks really cute)," said Chambers -- originally she was designed to be a male citizen kind of person (someone the player just helps to make their way through the campaign), but they moved on to try and make Jim Raynor (Starcraft's protagionist) a sort of romantic interest. As much of a romantic interest as a hard-bitten mercenary can have, anyway.
We're still recovering from our trip to TGS (in fact, we're still here in Tokyo). However, we thought you'd appreciate this list of new games which will definitely be supporting Trophies when they release on the PS3. Big first-party and third-party titles can be found on this list:
Demon's Soul
Derby Time Online
Gomibako
Quantum Theory
Resident Evil 5
Street Fighter IV
White Knight Chronicles
Yakuza 3
Unfortunately, the status of other big PS3 games, like Final Fantasy XIII, is still TBD. To check out the full list of Trophy-supported games on PS3, don't forget to check out PS3 Fanboy's Trophy Portal.
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