In a terse press release, the International Game Developers Association announced that Dr. Tim Langdell of Edge Games has voluntarily resigned his position on the IGDA board. As such, the recently announced special membership meeting to vote on Langdell’s possible ouster will no longer take place. Regardless of your position on the recent furor over Dr. Langdell’s and his company’s behavior, it is interesting that Langdell’s resignation comes at a time when public opinion was …
This week’s Wii Virtual Console treat is the original Phantasy Star, first seen on the Sega Master System. It costs 500 “Wii Points,” but I’m not sure of the exchange rate on that. This is where it started, people, the console RPG that spawned a franchise and still claims devotees to this day. Phantasy Star is a dark and often disturbing tale of heroism, revenge, and power-mad governance with distinct overtones of Nazism, Big-Brotherism, Fascism, …
All MMOers, even those who don’t play, should watch The Guild, actress/writer/geek grrl hottie Felicia Day’s hilariously goofy and surprisingly accurate webshow send-up of what happens when game junkies meet in meatspace. Day is a Real Life actress, having appeared in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, House, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, and various commercials involving Cheetos and washing machines. Her scripts for The Guild bely a whip-smart sense of humor and true understanding of geekery. The …
Shadow Complex, Chair Entertainment’s XBLA-available, Unreal 3.0-powered, side-scrolling, 2.5D send up to Super Metroid’s and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night’s beloved exploratory action platforming is by all accounts a pretty good game. I just started it, so I’ll withhold judgment, but it does look great so far. Problem? Shadow Complex takes place in the fictional universe of Empire, a novel by acclaimed sci-fi-ist Orson Scott Card. Card consulted on the game’s development and has been …
Here, there, and everywhere, Sony has finally revealed what we all knew: the PS3 Slim is a reality, it is a PS3, and it is slim. And it’s $299, and God dammit, but now there’s just no reason not to get the thing.
Edge Games has released a public statement regarding the Edge trademark infringement fiasco, and though it’s unpleasantly formatted there is a lot of interesting reading there. In the meantime, the IGDA has finally acted, as a corps of disillusioned members (using somewhat less than unsleazy means) finally got enough signatures from members to force a special meeting, the purpose of which is to discuss the removal of Tim Langdell from the IGDA Board of Directors. …
Shack and others are reporting on what may or may not be revered designer Warren Spector’s next effort, codenamed Epic Mickey. Since Spector’s Junction Point studio was acquired by Disney, everyone sort of assumed he’d be making a mouse-themed game (assumed, but hoped it wasn’t true), and now it’s semi-official. According to Shack, the game will be Wii-only, and tells the story of obsolete Disney characters seeking to destroy Mickey Mouse. I’m not sure about …
With the all press that LucasArts has gotten for releasing Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition and several of its classic adventures on Steam, it was really just a question of time before other publishers would follow. First to jump on the “everything old is new again” bandwagon: Activision with news that they’ve expanded their offerings on Steam to include the King’s Quest and Space Quest Collections, Aces of the Galaxy, Time Shift and 3D …
Edge – and just about every other news source online – is reporting that Take-Two’s Bioshock 2 has been delayed until 2010, off from its earlier release date of November 2009. As some outlets note, November 2009 is already fiscal 2010 for the publisher, which means that this will not upset the balance sheets, and will probably ensure that Bioshock 2 doesn’t get lost in the holiday release madness.
The second Mario Marathon is up and running right now, to benefit Penny Arcade’s Child’s Play Charity. Three crazy people will play through the seven core Super Mario Bros. games on Wii Virtual Console in one weekend, nonstop, with limited sleep. Hilarity will ensue. Donations will be made, to buy games, toys, books, and other goodies for the kids in children’s hospitals across the world. These kids suffer plenty, and anything that the gaming community …
Those with Showtime can check out tonight’s episode of Penn & Teller: Bullshit! at 10:00pm Eastern/Pacific. In this one, the duo of corpulent and silent will go out of their way to ridicule anti-game activists (including the disbarred but not forgotten Jack Thompson) convinced that videogames cause violence. The clip above was snagged from GamePolitics, once (rightly) described as “one of the few sites you must visit every day if you consider yourself serious about …
Today, Google has announced its own operating system (Chrome OS) targeting netbooks. Links can be found: here, there, and everywhere.
All during this past weekend, LucasArts has been teasing its Twitter followers with hints of a big announcement for fans of their back catalog. The wait is finally over. After years of pleading and begging from its dedicated fan-base LucasArts has answered the call and plans to re-release some of its back catalog. Partnering with Steam, LucasArts is releasing – in a first round – 10 games on July 8, 2009: Armed and Dangerous Indiana …
Has anyone heard of Trine or tried out the demo? Developed by Frozenbyte, Trine is billed as a physics-based, action/puzzle platformer with three different swap-able player characters – Wizard, Thief, Knight – who each have specific abilities to help you solve puzzles and defeat the undead that populate the game world. The wizard can create objects out of thin air, the thief is agile and can latch onto solid objects and the knight is a …
T-R Regular and all-around-good-guy Igor Hardy of A Hardy Developer’s Workshop is pleased and proud to announce the demo release of his own game, Frantic Franko: A Bergzwerg Gone Berserk. As crazed and campy as the title makes it out to be, FF is sure to charm slightly off-kilter adventure lovers with its clever conversation system, Verbcoin-powered action interface, and loony attitude. Toss in Łukasz Pawlik’s soundtrack and we have ourselves a winner. Check out …