Well, this is a difficult one for me to write, if only because if I don’t choose my words carefully I could wind up on the receiving end of a very nasty email from a person who theoretically has the authority to destroy a significant portion of my career. At the same time, though, it bears reporting, and this is one of those rare instances where writing with pure journalistic impartiality would actually come off …
Fit the First I alighted on an ingenious idea when I first played Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge. When I got stuck, I could simply write a letter to LucasArts describing my situation and, within about two weeks, they would write back, describing a solution.
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.
Since our tiny fists first clutched the Atari 2600 controller, we’ve been taught that story-driven games need to have stories – stories with beginnings, middles, and ends. Maybe that was wrong all this time.
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 …
Review by Toger Jules Verne’s Return to Mysterious Island Developer Tetraedge Games, Inc. Publisher Chillingo Ltd. Released June 2009 Available for iPhone/iPod Touch Time Played Finished Verdict: 4/5 Thumb Up I’m not what you’d call a “good” camper. The thought of sleeping on the ground while all manner of critters crawl hither and yon over my body is not my idea of fun… and we won’t even mention the lack of decent bathroom facilities while …
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 …
Review by Meho Krljic NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits Developer Over the Top Publisher Over the Top Released 16 June, 2009 Available for Wii (WiiWare) Time Played Six hours (but I am really slow) Verdict: 4/5 Thumbs Up “Being the goddess of night sucks when you’re up against an angry Sun. But it makes for lovely platform gaming.”
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 …
I’m proud to present our latest Celebrity Guest, Thomas J. Allen, Executive Director of the National Academy of Video Game Testers and Reviewers (NAViGaTR). My first collaboration with Tom was back in 2005, an article on Quality of Life in the games industry, eventually (after after 18 months and 21 drafts) published in Develop Magazine across the pond in Europe. Tom and I have since appeared together on industry panels, collaborated on other articles like this one, and generally created our own brand of trouble. Tom is one of those people with 10-12 wild schemes cooking at once, and I’ve managed to participate in a few of them without losing my life or spotless criminal record.
One of Tom’s many passions is film, so today he presents us with a rumination on what the last few years might have been like had the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which so recently announced that it was switching to ten nominees for Best Picture instead of five, decided to do so earlier. As with our other Celebrity Guests, Tom will hang around for a while to respond to comments. Enjoy!
— Steerpike
News across the wire (well, it’s yesterday’s news, we at Tap-Repeatedly pride ourselves on the timeliness of our reporting) states that id Software, once-mighty creators of DOOM, Quake, and… well, of DOOM and Quake, has been acquired by the mysterious ZeniMax Media Group, the parent company that also owns Bethesda Softworks of Elder Scrolls and Fallout 3 fame. With this buyout, Bethesda will now be publishing all of id’s games, severing the longstanding relationship between …
By now, I’m assuming you’ve all heard about LucasArts’ The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition? No? Venture forth from the cave, people. It’s a brave new world! Okay, so it’s not going to stop chunky, middle-aged people from wearing low-rise jeans, but is it a reboot of a much loved classic adventure game – with voices, re-mastered music and new, improved HD graphics coupled with the ability to seamlessly transition between the classic and …