Oh, Bobby Kotick, you rascal you. Your corporate behavior isn’t enough, is it? No, the descent to the Dark Side must be paved with more than just unabashed greed and squicky business dealings. To be truly evil, you have to fire an employee who’s filed a sexual harassment charge. It’s a good thing the courts are less slime-covered than you.
Nihilistic and existential indie Immortal Defense has gone to a pay-whatever-you-want pricing model, provided whatever you want is more than $1.75. This odd, eerie, and emotional game got a lot of positive press when it appeared in 2007, and some gamers have been satisfied with the huge demo rather than investing in the full game. Now there’s no excuse! Contribute to the cause here. Email the author of this post at steerpike@tap-repeatedly.com.
Evil Avatar reports that Blizzard’s just-released Starcraft 2 is getting some heat from consumers, who’ve criticized the game for being “unfinished” – in the sense that this first installment, Wings of Liberty, only represents the human campaign. The Protoss and Zerg campaigns will ship as their own games, at $60 apiece, like this one.
Oh wow. The bomb has just dropped, folks. With this year’s Comic-Con in full swing in San Diego, lead producers on two of the industry’s most revered fighting franchises have just announced what must surely go down as one of the most exciting collaborations of well, ever really. Tekken? Street Fighter? There’s only way to find out! Fight!
Microsoft have gone announcement mad, ladies and gentlemen. Having officially unveiled and named Kinect as a live and working (well, sort of) consumer product at this years E3 conference in June, the company have finally made their intentions clear with regards to pricing. I’m sure Microsoft’s PR department would like you to be surprised by the official $149 price tag, although in typical fashion, every retailer in America has already leaked this figure at some point …
Tim Schafer of Double Fine Productions is a stud. I mean, this is the guy who gave us Psychonauts! Grim Fandango! Day of the Tentacle! Full Throttle! If I ever meet him I will kiss him. He probably wouldn’t appreciate it, but still. But I don’t think Tim will kiss Bobby Kotick, Activision/Blizzard CEO and asshole. There is no love there. But Tim is a nice guy and has apologized for calling Kotick a “prick,” …
Platform exclusivity is nothing new for major publishers. We live in an era where multi-million dollar deals are a regular occurrence in the constant quest to get one over the competition, whether that be to keep a franchise solely on one platform or even tempt one away from another; as demonstrated by the rather high profile “theft” of Final Fantasy XIII from it’s traditional PlayStation home at last years E3. For a development studio, the …
This is actually A/B vs. 40FIWE, Round 2, but that would just make for a confusing title card. Since we’re already world-famous for our exclusive, hard-hitting coverage of the ongoing saga between Activision/Blizzard and its former trophy studio Infinity Ward, we’ll stick with the title we know. 40 Former Infinity Ward Employees have also filed suit against the publishing giant, alongside former studio heads Jason West and Vince Zampella. The day before yesterday, they revised …
Playdead Games’ Limbo has been given a release date! It will finally see the light of day via Xbox Live Arcade on July 21, launching off this year’s “Summer of Arcade.” The asking price is 1200 Microsoft points, that’s $15 or £10.20 in real world currency. If you don’t know anything about the game, which was a winner at IGF 2010, you owe it to yourself to take a look. Email the author of this …
July’s big release on the gaming calendar is almost certainly Crackdown 2, the long awaited sequel to one of the best loved sandbox games of the current generation. Featuring a gorgeous cell shaded aesthetic, an emphasis on outrageous power ups and the super-addictive hunt for green agility orbs, Crackdown was an early flagship title for the Xbox 360 back in 2007 and has retained something of a cult status since; proving that not everybody bought …
Our pal and fellow oddity enthusiast Igor Hardy over at A Hardy Developer’s Journal that a trailer for his own upcoming adventure Snakes of Avalon is now available for perusal, ideally while heavily invested in and fueled by absinthe or something stronger. “Seeing you’re all into insanity and madness at Tap right now, I thought you might find this interesting,” said Igor. Great minds, my friend! Click the click to see the flick.
Today is a sad day, people. Today my iPhone died, after a good 12 months of faithful service. It’s Apple’s fault. The new iPhone OS update killed it, locking the device at about 1/8 of the “install complete” progress bar, and now I’m sad. iPhone completed me. It brought joy to my largely meaningless existence. It kept me sane on long plane rides, when just last week I watched The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus and …
It’s a good news day for Sony on no less than two financial fronts, as the company publicly declares that for the first time in almost 4 years, the PlayStation 3 is no longer hemorrhaging money from its every USB-shaped orifice.
Because I am ridiculously in love with all things Valve, and specifically Team Fortress 2, I thought I would share the latest piece of community news with you all, knowing that you will fully appreciate it as much as I do. Several months ago, Valve opened their doors to the Team Fortress 2 community, allowing any individual to create and submit new weapon models, hat designs and ‘misc’ items. Those lucky enough, having submitted designs that passed …
Troika’s Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines had a lot in common with Obsidian’s Alpha Protocol: both were just stupidly well-written, both did a great job with settings and characters, both offered a slew of unforgettable moments. And both were so broken upon release that they were nearly unplayable by many. Vampire, like Alpha Protocol, was the latest in a long line of well-written technical disasters from Troika, and it was Vampire that finally ruined the company. …