Assassin’s Creed IV director says Black Flag is about bring new ideas while keeping the old ideas intact
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in News, Wii U | 0 comments
“With the scale and scope of the world we are building, the completely new setting, the new gameplay mechanics, and our new characters (both our hero and his supporting cast), we are definitely on track to get the job done and avoid fatigue altogether.”
– AC4 creative director Jean Guesdon
Another very public-relations-driven statement regarding the state of a franchise. Nothing wrong with being safe with your words regarding a game that you want to sell!
Famicom designer talks about the effect of limited specs on player imaginations
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
It is something often ignored by game designers today: “Bad” graphics can actually be a good thing for a game world, allowing players to stretch their imaginations and feel more involved with the world than they would with every last detailed rendered out for them. In an interview with Shunpure news, Famicom “creator” Masayuki Uemura touched on that sentiment himself:
– Famicom designer Masayuki Uemura
It’s a sentiment I could not agree with more, and something I’m very sad to see leaving the gaming industry as we move forward. Indie games are, thankfully, bringing the concept back perhaps without even knowing it, but to no longer see a game that feels as atmospheric and imaginative as The Legend of Zelda from a big-name developer will be a sad event indeed.
Nintendo says there’s a big advertising push for Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D in the UK, want “everyone” to know that DK is back
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
“Donkey Kong titles have always been enjoyed by all ages for generations and we expect this one to be no different.”
– Nintendo UK product manager, Roger Langford
It’s interesting: Initially this sounds like regular old PR talk, but if you think about it, Donkey Kong isn’t really the character that’s in the forefront of people’s minds when it comes to Nintendo. Any kid who’s thinking about Donkey Kong probably has a reference point of something like Smash Bros. or (even less likely) Donkey Kong in arcades or on the Wii virtual console. Most people don’t know that the ape has starred in some of the best platformers of our time, and I think that’s definitely worth spreading the word about!
Disney Infinity is only similar to Skylanders in that they both have figurines, according to the game’s producer
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in 3DS, News, Wii, Wii U | 0 comments
“And then of course the Toy Box mode is more Minecraft-meets-LittleBigPlanet. It’s something totally different where we allow kids to use their imagination and take our brands to build whatever they want.”
– Disney Interative executive producer John Vignocchi
This is the first I’m hearing about a “Minecraft-meets-LittleBigPlanet” mode, which actually sounds like it could be extremely neat, especially for younger kids. Regarding the similarities to Skylanders, I believe Vignocchi. It doesn’t seem like the two will be especially comparable in terms of gameplay, though I suppose that doesn’t overturn the fact that Disney only made this game because of Skylanders‘ success. It’s definitely a viable business decision!
The Guardian (UK newspaper) criticizes violent videos games such as Animal Crossing, Wii Sports, and Mario Party
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
Alas, the headline you read is not a joke. The popular UK newspaper ‘The Guardian’ published an article recently highlighting the games that were the top sellers of 2012 in the UK, and among the likes of Halo 4 and Black Ops 2 (which were brought up to illustrate a point about the content in best-selling games), they also allegedly mentioned some more family-friendly titles from the Big N. Here’s what the article tagged:
Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Mario Kart Wii were tagged as violent for “Comic Mischief”, Just Dance 3, Zumba Fitness, and Gran Turismo 5 were picked on for their “Lyrics”, Mario Party 9 and Kinect Sports were tagged as having “Cartoon Violence”, and Wii Sports was simply tagged with “Violence”. Note that I can’t access the actually article due to it being down for some reason, so all of this information comes from a third party.
I don’t think it’s news to anyone that certain newspapers or online outlets or TV stations don’t know the most about video games, and a lot of them have pretty bad preconceptions about the effects they have on people. No use lambasting them for the millionth time.
NintendoEverything Book Club (for Video Games!) – Super Mario RPG (Week 4 Details)
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Book Club, Features, Site updates | 0 comments
If you want to play along and discuss during the week, check out our forum thread here. If you missed out on the first week but you still want to participate, you’re looking at a total of about 11 hours of game-time this week to catch up!
Deadline for email submissions this week: May 4th
Since last week we obtained the fourth and fifth Stars (out of seven!) in the game, this week we’re just going to gather up the last of the seven stars! Don’t beat the final boss yet though– we’ll do that last section and a post-mortem on the game next week!
Also, please do not send us emails discussing portions of the game beyond where the book club is. We want to avoid spoilers and we don’t want to feel unable to answer your questions/respond to your comments, so if you’ve gotten ahead of everyone (which is fine!) do your best to only talk about the parts that we’ve all agreed upon. :]
Hit the break for info on how to participate in a discussion, plus other ‘Frequently Asked Questions’!
Here’s a Podcast – Episode 39!
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Podcast | 0 comments
Edit: I changed the podcast picture. It was too weird.
Despite being a bit late (sorry about that!), we managed to squeeze out another episode this week, and it was yet another great one! I don’t know what we’re drinking, but it’s making our podcasting skills way better– and way more fun for us! This week is all the regular stuff, a list about the top ten Wii U system sellers, and our week three discussion of Super Mario RPG!
Oh, I said at the beginning that it was “1:11PM”, but that was wrong. I can’t read clocks apparently, because it was actually 11:11PM.
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Iwata talks about the struggle of budgeting HD games, selling full priced titles
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 0 comments
This is something that has becoming a huge worry for me regarding Nintendo lately. In recent months it has become increasingly apparent that the Big N vastly underestimated how much more work has to go into HD games compared to what they did on Wii, and as a result we’ve seen their game budgets going up, their games getting delayed, and consequently their Wii U console not selling. It’s somewhat troublesome, but what does Nintendo’s CEO and President have to say about the situation?
“Among such packaged software, however, the sales of popular games are much larger than in the past. Therefore, if we create more hit games, the software development business can still be very profitable. All games break even if they sell millions of copies worldwide, so we will continue to do our best to develop games which have high sales potential.”
– Nintendo President Satoru Iwata
Sometimes I wish Nintendo would just go back to make games with N64-level tech scaled up to HD instead of worrying about all of this modern mumbo jumbo. The concept that all games have to sell millions and millions of copies to break even is quite troubling, but hopefully Nintendo will continue to develop low-budget games like Sin and Punishment and Punch Out!! alongside the big titles.
Square Enix Europe lays off workers due to financial woes
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, News | 0 comments
A rough patch in Square Enix’s life as a game developer and publisher doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon. Today, the Final Fantasy studio has announced their plans to lay off more workers from their European branch, citing a desire to “ensure we have the right structure, content and skills for the changing entertainment landscape”.
No word on exactly how many people will be getting laid off or when it’ll happen, but the statement reads that they’ll keep us updated “when the time is right”.
Eggbusters! – The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Podcast Stories, Videos | 0 comments
Oh man, I feel like a real square for forgetting the “The” in the title of the game in the video. Ah well.
Did you guys know that it’s National Prime Rib Day!? Probably not, because it’s an awfully obscure holiday. To celebrate, I decide to tackle three (yes, three!) Pig-related glitches from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. They’re all pretty useless, but they’re all pretty funny to look at as well!
Artwork courtesy of Andrew Nixon. :]
