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In this corner: Electronic Arts New Fight Night Round 4
With pulsing music and an authentic boxing ring set up in the games giant's motion capture studio, "Sugar" Ray Leonard, Lennox Lewis and Ronald "Winky" Wright all came bounding out from behind a curtain to take centre stage under a sea of red lights and cameras that would capture their every move. With pulsing music and an authentic boxing ring set up in the games giant's motion capture studio, "Sugar" Ray Leonard, Lennox Lewis a... more
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Mass stupidity
G4 host Adama Sessler gives his opinion on the whole Fox News/Mass Effect imbroglio in this clip from a recent episode of X-Play. He presents the facts with much more aplomb and fairness than Fox did, but in the end turns the tables to give the network and author Cooper Lawrence a taste of their own medicine. Although Lawrence has since apologized for her missteps, it's still fun to watch Sessler take her and the dubious Fox News to task. G4 host Adama Sessler gives his opinion on the whole Fox News/Mass Effect imbroglio in this clip from a recent episode of X-Play. He p... more
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GameTap losing over 7% of games; EA, Interplay and other publishers gone Dec. 11
Just as GameTap celebrated hitting 1,000 games on the service, it'll get to repeat the milestone all over again as it loses 70+ games in a couple weeks. Apparently EA, Interplay, Atari and some lesser-known publishers will end their affiliation with the service December 11. GameTap Editorial Director Douglass Perry says GameTap signs contracts with a publisher which have a beginning and an end. He says none of the games on the service are permanent. Perry also says they were unaware they'd have to pull all those titles when celebrating their 1,000 game mark.
We're currently trying to get a fuller explanation of the current situation. Perry says that GameTap will continue to expand their library despite this setback, but the issue seems to be a wake-up call to many subscribers that GameTap isn't the repository of gaming that they once thought. Although it's unofficial whether GameTap didn't want to pony up the cash to extend the contracts or the publishers asked for too much money to renew -- we're pretty sure GameTap isn't happy about dipping below the 1,000 game mark they recently hyped. It's also not a great day for the company when their subscribers learn quite harshly that games on the service have a virtual shelf life.
Losing all the classic EA stuff really sucks.
Ones that hurt:
Crusader
Wing Commander
Ultima
Command & Conquer
Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Descent: Freespace
Freespace 2
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
SimCity Classic
SimCity 2000
Just as GameTap celebrated hitting 1,000 games on the service, it'll get to repeat the milestone all over again as it loses 70+ games ... more -
Rock Band: Meet the new boss; Same as the old boss
Rock Band is an amazing game made impossibly more fun with a fully formed foursome of wannabe rock stars. I dont need to tell you that. You have already heard it from every corner of the World Wide Web, as fans and critics describe struggling through falsetto abominations of Bostons Brad Delp in Foreplay/Longtime or unleashing the otherworldly scream of adolescent rage that is Pete Townshend in Wont Get Fooled Again with infectious enthusiasm. You already understand that Drum Hero alone may be worth the price of admission, a nuanced article of play that perhaps makes you feel more like playing an actual instrument than the artificial guitar ever could. You know that Rock Band meets expectations, offering a playstyle that calls back the Guitar Hero series while introducing a new dynamic to the experience.
You do also know that you should own Rock Band, right? Rock Band is an amazing game made impossibly more fun with a fully formed foursome of wannabe rock stars. I dont need to tell you tha... more -
And Justice For All
First off, if you want to know how complicated the drums can get, there's a mind-blowing video on YouTube of a guy 5-starring "And Justice for All." He's rated #1 on the leaderboards as of this afternoon, and he hits 98% of the notes on what looks like a tremendously difficult song. Watch the video here, and be sure you're sitting down. First off, if you want to know how complicated the drums can get, there's a mind-blowing video on YouTube of a guy 5-starring "And Jus... more
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Rock Band
Excited doesn't even come close to describing how I feel.
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Want to work for Bioware?
So here's the situation we're in. BioWare games require a great deal of
writing. Storylines, world building, characters, journals - and about a
bazillion lines of dialogue. What makes my job harder is not only does
all of this writing have to be high quality - something not always
demanded in our industry - it can only be done by writers who understand
the complexities of interactive fiction. Take the average screenwriter
who doesn't play RPGs, place him in front of the writing tool from
Neverwinter Nights and you'll get a linear story with a complete lack of
Player agency and no interesting decisions. Just trying to explain the
concept behind writing without a protagonist to someone who has never
even been a dungeon master can be like showing card tricks to a dog.
Which brings me to the current problem. The BioWare MMO is the largest
thing we've ever done by leaps and bounds. We're talking a double digit
writing staff working for years (yes we've already been working for well
over a year). Now I've realized I need even more writers and I've got no
reliable way of predicting where they're going to come from. In the
history of the company, we've had published fantasy authors,
screenwriters and editors all wash out of BioWare's training program. On
the flip side, we've had fantastic kids right of college, an ex CNN
producer and a former gift wrapping clerk from Singapore all succeed in
the BioWare writer family. Previous job of lead writer for Baldur's Gate
2, the highest rated PC RPG in history? Travelodge manager.
So yes, we're shaking the usual trees and our HR folks are turning over
all the rocks they can think of but I had to go through over three
hundred qualified candidates to find the team I have now so a lot of
those trees have done already been shook. With that level of challenge
around finding writers, I want to throw out an open invitation for
anyone out there that thinks might be the strange combination of RPG
fiend and talented writer to grab a copy of Neverwinter Nights and start
putting together a writing sample. I don't care if you can script, just
put three guys in a field and attach conversations to them. Make the
plot compelling, write the NPCs as real people who could exist in a
believable world even if the PC wasn't there, give me an interesting
choice or two and you're done -- easily something can be done over a
weekend and there's a ton of great community support online if you're
really tech deficient.
Anyone out there want to write for the game company with three of the
top five rated RPGs of all time on their biggest project ever?
Cheers,
Daniel Erickson
Principal Lead Writer
BioWare Austin So here's the situation we're in. BioWare games require a great deal of ... more -
World Bore Two
Isn't patriotism a strange thing? I agree with the point Richard Dawkins made once that patriotism is the kissing cousin to religious fundamentalism. Both demand that the practitioner blindly trumpet the superiority of one mode of thinking above all others for no rational reason. And both also discourage questioning the truth of the facts offered because such a thing is somehow morally wrong. I bring this up because I reviewed Medal of Honor: Airborne and some people seem to have taken it all as a personal disservice to the randomly-chosen land mass upon which they first gained consciousness in this lifetime. Isn't patriotism a strange thing? I agree with the point Richard Dawkins made once that patriotism is the kissing cousin to religious ... more
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Chromeo free w/ RSVP Halloween Nite in SF
@ Fat City. Sponsored by EA huh?... I see The Sims: Hipster Expansion Pack in your future...
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Electronic Arts
