A question I’ve been mulling over for years now, is why is there not a Pokémon MMOG? It’s startlingly obvious and has genuinely remained on my mind for far too many hours lately. Considering Pokémon has sold in excess of 100 million units world wide, since the launch of Pokémon Red and Blue, I am stunned it isn’t already in production (although it should be noted Nintendo have squashed some fan attempts). What is even …

I’ve been playing Ninja Theory’s Heavenly Sword. I like it a lot.

I like it because I think I get what they were trying to do. They didn’t succeed all the time but you can perceive their intent, pulsing just under the gloss veneer of the game itself. Not only do I get what they were trying to do, I respect it, and because of that I’m going to reward them by buying Enslaved – which we learned today has sold a pitiful 460,000 units worldwide.

So we knew that From Software, creators of the glorious Demon’s Souls, were working on a “sequel.” Now we know its name: Dark Souls, to be published in the west by Namco-Bandai. That’s a bit of a surprise, since Atlus did so well with the original it seems they’d want sequel localization rights, but there you go. All we know right now is that it’ll be a PS3 exclusive in Japan but probably a PS3/360 …

It wouldn’t be sensationalist to state that RIFT is the most polished and accomplished MMOG BETA I have ever taken part in.  And while not fault free, the single problem I did encounter (being unable to login due to queueing issues), was when servers first opened; a problem undoubtedly linked to the sheer quantity of people flooding on-line.  The rest of my evening however, was flawless.

Rock Paper Shotgun are calling it “The Death of the Demo.” Could it be so? Newsy sources report that e-Distributor Direct2Drive are offering a new game rental service. Five dollars gets you five hours with a game… one that’s conveniently fully downloaded Directly 2 your Drive, as it were, should you decide to pony up full price after your time’s up.

Well, it’s semi-old news by now, but Square-Enix has announced Final Fantasy XIII-2, only the second time the developer has produced a direct sequel to its storied franchise. Typically each Final Fantasy takes place in a different world, full of different characters, but in this instance XIII’s director Motomu Toriyama determined that there was call for a sequel. It was in part, he claims, to allow the protagonist Lightning to find “a happy ending.” Sigh.

Sometimes, when you create something and don’t get all dicky when other people want to build on your work, nice things happen. Consider Beyond Black Mesa, an 11-minute fan short set in the world of Valve’s Half-Life 2, using characters from it. You see a lot of this stuff from fans, like the Purchase Brothers’ Escape From City-17, and the still-hopefully-in-development Black Mesa Source. The common thread among all of this is that Valve has …

I was meant to post this up ages ago — sorry HM — but better late than never, right? (“Better early than late!”) Anyway, in the same vein as our Revenge of the Titans discussion this one revolves around another — albeit very different — tower defence game: Radical Poesis Games’ Immortal Defense. Here’s a carrot: “The only problem is that, like Planescape: Torment, Immortal Defense has raised the bar.” If you haven’t already, go …

The article below represents months of work and appears in Well Played 2.0, a game studies textbook published by Carnegie-Mellon University under the guidance of Professor (and Celebrity Guest Editor) Drew Davidson.

Each chapter of Well Played discusses a single game or franchise, with both meanings of the well-played phrase in mind: the game must be well played as a book is well-read, and it must provide something to better the medium as a whole. Beyond that, the analytical expectations are dependent on the writer. My chapter was about the STALKER franchise, which I know and love well.

I really wanted to do a “director’s cut” version of the article for Tap, including self-made, narrated gameplay videos and the like, but a recent computer crash has eaten up all my STALKER saves. It’d just take too much time to put a project like that together. Instead please accept the odd embedded YouTube video, plus some additional pix and multimedia that don’t appear in the book.

This is a textbook chapter, not a blog post. As such it’s even longer, boringer, and more pedantic than I usually write. It even has footnotes. Enjoy!

Review by Gregg B Developer distractionware Publisher distractionware Released January 11, 2010 Available for Windows (version played), Mac OS X Time Played Completed in 5 (ish) hours Verdict: 5/5 Gold Star “It’s hard to believe that, after a tough 2009, VVVVVV was going to be Terry Cavanagh’s last game as a full-time independent developer. “The only thing I really had going for me was VVVVVV … I was having so much fun with it”, and …

A recent article on Jezebel got my attention – “Superheroines Always Get Superboobs.” Iris Ophelia quite rightly rails against the limited selection of body types for female avatars in the upcoming new MMO DC Universe Online, which are limited to “tall and busty,” “medium and busty,” and “preteen and busty.” Where’s “athletic?” Where’s “lean?” Where’s “pear-shaped?” Admittedly, DCUO is a comic-based MMO and this sort of thing has gone on in comics since forever. But it’s also …

You may have heard of a game at IGF 2010; a game called Boryokudan Rue. We touched on it briefly last March. Well, that game is no longer called Boryokudan Rue; it now goes by the much more conversation-friendly title Gemini Rue. Aside from that it seems nothing else has changed: it remains a point and click adventure game for personal computers; part sci-fi, part steampunk, and part 1990s-adventure-gaming-halcyon-days nostalgia that is sure to appeal …

2011 has started pretty much in the same way that 2010 ended; with a slew of rumours and hype about the next round of portable game consoles. Although Sony continues to dance around the Xperia Play – the as of yet unannounced but obviously real PlayStation Phone – we’re pretty much also guaranteed to see the long awaited PSP2 arrive during the next 12 months. Hey, you didn’t expect to see Miyamoto and chums have …

We’re getting all academic around here! Good buddy, all-around stud and Celebrity Guest Editor Ben Hoyt of 47Games pointed me to the yonder video of his friend professor Jeremy Douglass of UCSD giving what I can only describe as a really fascinating lecture on passwords. Sound boring? Sound pointless? Wrong! Not only is Dr. Douglass a great speaker, but he’s not just talking about how passwords should have symbols and capital letters. He’s talking about …

Drew Davidson, who is clearly better than me with deadlines (given that I kept him waiting 21 weeks past mine to deliver an article for Well Played 3.0), returns to us with another fascinating cross-cultural look at games. Inspired by the concept of bite-sizability and just as low on time to game as the rest of us, today talks about how snacks and games can co-relate, and what we can learn from each when thinking about good design. You’re on, Drew!

— S