Steven Spielberg posts (Subscribe to this feed)
Metareview -- Boom Blox (Wii)
They're tiny, they're toony, they're all a little looney, and in this video game they're exploding your TV. Steven Spielberg's first foray into video games brings us Boom Blox for the Wii. Reviews have been pretty glowing or just good. Don't expect some Spielberg epic here, it's definitely a casual title designed for the Wii, which apparently uses the Wiimote quite competently.
- 1Up (100/100): "Boom Blox is simply a laundry list of great features and options wrapped around an incredibly fun, expertly designed, and well-tuned puzzle game. Sure, its cute veneer won't do it any favors with the more intense console crowd, but I found it charming and refreshingly cheery. It's a casual game made for a casual crowd, but it's far and away the best one I've ever played. Buy this game."
- IGN (81/100): " If you're looking for a game you can play with friends and family - - one that everybody will be able to pick up and enjoy in a matter of minutes -- look no further than EA Boom Blox. It's a fun puzzler and also a game that really puts Nintendo's controller to great use."
- GameTap (80/100): "In Boom Blox, however, you might complete one level that is pretty challenging only to unlock a new level that's strangely simple, which is particularly odd in a game that requires you to finish one level in order to move on to the next. ... Nevertheless, Boom Blox is still a worthy purchase for Wii owners. It's one of those rare family games that doesn't fall into the genres of minigame collection or rhythm title, and your seven-year-old kid will have as much fun as you do."
Gallery: Boom Blox
Spielberg enters booming Jenga genre
Which of these two recently-announced Steven Spielberg games would you want to play?- an action-puzzle simulator that "neatly blends the creativity of the building-blocks game Jenga with the charm of a Saturday-morning cartoon," or
- a game in which "you're an ex-secret agent, and the bond that you forge while on the run with [a] computer-controlled woman -- good, bad, indifferent -- determines the nature of her special abilities and the ways in which she'll assist you."
Spielberg's Wii project to be released before April 2008
Electronic Arts said in a conference call today that the Steven Spielberg-helmed Wii project will be released during the upcoming fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2008. This would likely make the Wii project, dubbed "Wii Spielberg" in the conference call, his first of three games planned to be released.Regarding Spore's delay, EA's recently-returned CEO John Riccitiello said that though it might come out at the end of the fiscal year, it is more likely to be pushed until the following quarter, which puts the release date sometime before July 1, 2008.
The Spielberg Wii project is said to join other Army of Two, SKATE, EA Playground and Boogie as original IPs being released this fiscal year. In terms of quantity of release, EA said that they are planning around 20-23 games for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, 10-13 for Nintendo DS and 10-13 for the Wii.
Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Ten Unsung Games

Everyone knows about the good Indiana Jones games (because there have only been a couple), but do you remember the unsung games of Indy's yesteryear? Gnomeslair has compiled a list of the ten best unsung Indiana Jones games, and there's a few on there that really bring back memories. Although we'd have to argue and say that the Atari 2600 Raiders of the Lost Ark game wasn't really unsung ... people loved that game. Mostly because it was about the best you could do in 1982, and thankfully it wasn't the E.T. game.
Likewise with the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom arcade game that came out in 1985. That was a game that used a voice synthesizer ("Soon Kali Ma will rule the world!") and had that really fun mine cart sequence in it. Sure it got ridiculous, with Indy having to whip flaming hearts out of the air, but so what. It ate our quarters faster than anything.
Check out the list and let us know if these should be sung or unsung. It's really made us want to boot up ScummVM and play Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine all over again. Plus we might have to start bugging Nintendo and asking if Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures will be coming over to the Wii via the Virtual Console. And Lucasarts, when is your Indiana Jones game coming out, eh?
[Thanks, Konstantinos]
Not-so-secret projects probed
FiringSquad has done its best to out 18 high-profile "black ops" projects currently in development. While the site's sleuthing skills might not be up to par with Mr. Holmes', the report does a good job of rounding up under-the-radar titles that are begging for some attention.We'd like to direct the spotlight on two studios in particular: Tim Schafer's DoubleFine and Bungie expats Wideload, which are responsible for Psychonauts and Stubbs the Zombie, respectively (both titles landed in our top 10 'gems' of last generation). The two developers are hard at work on new projects; and with DoubleFine striking a publishing deal with Vivendi, its next game is sure to stir up more buzz (when it's time) than Majesco managed to generate for Psychonauts. Also, we can't wait to see what Warren Spector and Junction Point have under lock and key. Keep those ears (and eyes) glued to the street!
Joyswag: Miyamoberg is a hit!

After trawling through a considerable number of entries for our latest Joyswag contest and being subjected to images both hilarious and infinitely disturbing, we've finally picked four winners. There were plenty of superb entries, though it was certainly alarming to note how quickly we became numb to decapitated Sony executives, Indiana Jones crossovers and, lest we forget, gigantic male genitalia.
Transformers teaser arrives early

"It was the only warning we would ever get..." And without any warning, the Transformers movie teaser has arrived four days early. Paramount and Dreamworks have given us a pleasant surprise for the holiday weekend, but I wouldn't count on the multi-platform game launching ahead of schedule next Spring. It has been six months since Activision acquired publishing rights, and they still haven't announced a developer.
E3 euphoric over Indiana Jones 2007
"Man...merman!" That's what Indy's been waiting 18 years for. The fourth installment in the big screen Indiana Jones series will find Harrison Ford on the hunt for the Opal of the Merman Prince (working movie title). Whether or not this will be the plot of the tentatively-titled Indiana Jones 2007 is anybody's guess. While at E3, LucasArts wasn't forthcoming about storylines for their next gen adventure, but they did take home a GameSpy Best Tech Demo award for showcasing the new Euphoria technology. Developed by Industrial Light and Magic, Pixelux, and NaturalMotion, Euphoria enables characters to react convincingly to their surrounding environments.Now, if only George Lucas and Steven Spielberg can convince us that the film will ever get made.
Spielberg of gaming and Spielberg of movies play Wii

The AP managed to snap some shots of Shigeru Miyamoto -- often called the Spielberg of video games -- and Steven Spielberg -- the, uh, Spielberg of movies -- playing a quick round of tennis in LA last week, as celebrities are wont to do. Couple things though: they played using Nintendo's new Wii console, and they did it in amidst the frenzy of E3.
Really wish we got in there for this although, judging by the relatively empty space behind them, it appears Nintendo had these VIPs isolated from the unwashed masses. That reminds me, things to do before I die: play a Nintendo game with Shigeru Miyamoto.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]











