Ironic to see this given our recent debates over Fallout: New Vegas, and worthy of discussion: The Escapist’s Editor-in-Chief Russ Pitts has written an open letter to the makers of games, asking them to stop making broken ones. I quote: How many of you know your history? How many of you know that the videogame industry, often considered “recession proof” once suffered a major crash, in the 1980s during the last great economic recession? How many …
It has been a lifetime since I contributed to Tap, but Steerpike’s/Matt’s latest IGDA article called “The Facts of Life” got my blood boiling. It had little to do with what Steerpike said, but a whole lot to do with the philosophy so current in our marketplace. The article pointed out a series of glitches and faux pas in Obsidian’s latest, Alpha Protocol, while indicating that he was able to “overlook its many, many, many, …
There’s a rumor – thanks 1UP – that a PS3-based, high-def collection of famed games Ico and Shadow of the Colossus will appear sometime in 2011, like the recent God of War HD collection. No official announcement has been made, but as 1UP points out, it would make fiscal sense for Team Ico to release an HD bundle of its games just before launching its still-mostly-under-wraps new title, The Last Guardian. Rant follows.
It’s in vogue these days after Kris Graft eloquently defended the various malignancies of Activision/Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick to support the man, claiming he does all he does as an effective executive officer and not as an imp of Satan himself. Of course, then Kotick goes and does something like giving a speech to the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference, during which he said – didn’t imply, said – that his goal is to “take …
The degree to which I hate Activision/Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is nigh-unmeasurable. I loathe the man; I hope he falls into a deep, deep hole with ground glass and spikes and hot lava and sharks and scorpions and poison and fire ants and chromic acid and knives and dead puppies at the bottom. I didn’t think it would be possible – you know, physically – for me to despise anyone in the games industry more …
I won’t even encourage the foolish idiocy of a psychologist’s new theory that videogames are physically addictive, like heroin, alcohol, and cigarettes – i.e., quitting them once addicted causes physical withdrawal symptoms that can, in some cases, even lead to death. No, that guy’s a laughingstock without my help. But I must express my outrage over the rape of the English language we see every day. We all have pet peeves. One of mine is …
It is my belief that the term “computer game” is a misnomer.I have no trouble accepting the word computer, since indeed, we experience them on a computer.It is the word “game” that I have problems with.Surely most gamers are sophisticated enough to accept the fact that we have progressed to the point that the word “game” is not only incongruous, it is incorrect.
Numbers aren’t happy for Platinum Games’ latest Madworld, the artistically gory black-and-white-and-red-all-over chainsaw brawler for the Wii. NPD reports that U.S. sales for the title hit a pathetic 66,000 for the month of March, and this in a period when we’re not seeing a lot of console blockbusters jockeying for attention. It’s a pity, but not unexpected.
Where to begin. Much worthier games than A2M’s upcoming Wet have been threatened with premature death on account of the Activision/Blizzard merger that killed Sierra. In fact, some people thought Wet would toddle off into the sunset, unremembered. After all, the game has no publisher, and Activision/Blizzard CEO and super-genius complete moron Bobby Kotick has indicated that his company will only produce 10-year, $100-million franchises from now on. Wet is new IP, and that don’t …
Intel’s Game On initiative has released a free two-new-mission pack for Ubisoft’s Far Cry 2. Each mission apparently covers a handful of objectives and adds maybe 3-6 hours to the game, depending on how omniscient or incompetent the AI decides to be during your particular play experience.
I always thought (always until this morning) that Strauss Zelnick, owner of ZelnickMedia and head of Take-Two Interactive, was somewhat more intelligent than other game publisher CEOs. EA’s John Ricitiello and Activision/Blizzard’s Bobby Kotick are imbeciles; everyone knows this. Their behavior and public remarks prove them to be, at the very least, mildly impaired and at worst utterly retarded – when Ricitiello or Kotick speak in public, they make Rick Wagoner’s testimony before Congress compare …
Frank and Joe Hardy, the original “It would have worked if it hadn’t been for those meddling kids and their dog!”, are making their way onto the DS early next year. (okay, so there wasn’t a talking dog helping solve Hardy Boys mysteries. Work with me here!)