General Gaming

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

RSI– also known as “repetitive strain injury”– is a painful muscle/joint/bone/something condition that can be brought on by extensive and strenuous use of a particular muscle in the human body. The latest victim of this relatively common condition is Smash Bros. director and Kirby series creator Masahiro Sakura, who says many years of programming and testing has left his hands in pain too often to do excessive work:

“Using a mouse, keyboard or gamepad make my arm tired, so I can’t use them in a continual manner. The only device I can use for an extended period of time is a joystick. It’s posing problems when I’m test-playing something in progress.”

“I figure that if I cut down on writing emails and other things, try not to type in so much data myself, and start giving more verbal directions, that’ll reduce the amount of keyboard-oriented work I have to do. But if I’m going to be supervising other people’s work, there’s no way to cut down the amount of mouse usage I need to perform. I’m trying to work it with my left hand in order to give the right one some rest, but that definitely cuts down on my work efficiency…”

So what’s a prolific game designer to do!? Sakurai says he’s going to try using a trackball mouse instead of a traditional one. Best of luck to him! I hope it helps him regain the efficiency he desires.

Via Polygon

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

Everyone’s favorite (and only!) No More Heroes developer Grasshopper Manufacturer has been purchased by Ragnorak Online publisher “Gungho Online Entertainment”, but how this affects Suda51 and his team’s development process remains to be seen. Word on the street is that the developer will be operating as normal, and has teamed up purely to give them more resources to realize their vision.

“By joining GungHo Online Entertainment, we are aligning ourselves with a strong, established publishing force that will support our vision to further create inspired new games that appeal players across the world. The Grasshopper team and I have many new ideas to share with our fans as we move forward so this union with GOE will help us realize our future plans.” – Grasshopper Manufacturer Founder Goichi Suda

Via Eurogamer

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

“At Disney there’s very little [violent content], but I still want to make sure we’re asking ourselves the right questions in terms of that standard and also [ensure] we’re willing to be a part of a dialogue in today’s world that I think is pretty necessary in terms of what our role is and what our role should be.” – Disney CEO Robert Iger

A respectable point of view, if I do say so myself. Even though there isn’t a definitive link between violence in games and violent behavior, all of us– developers and gamers alike– need to be open to at least discussion and objectively examining our hobby just in case it plays any role in stuff like this. And if it doesn’t, the self-examination can only serve to increase our awareness about how much tasteless violence there is in video games, which is something we should strive to cut back on for the sake of the art.

Develop Online Via MCVUK

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

At first glance something like this comes off as a little “odd”, but when you get passed the weird translation oddities and the stigma of being weirdly artistic in this industry, I think this sort of thing is super awesome to see from a developer. The following is a (long) piece written by Earthbound series creator Shigesato Itio where he tells you exactly what the games mean to him as a person. It’s a pleasant little read if you’ve got some time to kill!

You can find it all after the break actually, since it’s pretty long.

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Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, General Gaming, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 0 comments

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The birth of the internet has brought about the death of “secretive” game design, but what is it, and can a few developers keep it on life support long enough for a resurgence?

Author: Austin

It might be the most common legitimate complaint among game-players this side of DLC being exploited to high heaven: Games nowadays are just too easy. We used to live in a golden age of toughness, and now our hands are held through even the most simplistic of tasks. We used to spend weeks or months trying one particular part in a game before we beat it. We used to get satisfaction from figuring these things out. Now you never spend more than half an hour on any given task before looking up the answer online and continuing on with the game. After all, anything that gets in the way of you having fun right this second is bad for the game, right?

Maybe. There’s no use starting off on a tirade about how easy games are bad, or how games built for constant stimulation are degrading the industry. There is then, similarly, no use in preaching the power of difficulty, or making the falsely “bold” claim that every game needs to be as hard as Mega Man 2. They don’t, and they aren’t. Any declaration of any type of game being intrinsically superior to any other type of game should be– though usually isn’t– ignored in lieu of fostering somewhat more positive discussion about a hobby and/or passion most of us share.

No, the problem is not that ridiculously easy games exist. The problem isn’t really even that ridiculously hard games don’t exist. The problem is that ridiculously hard games don’t exist in the same way that they used to.

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Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Gaming, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that THQ has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. After months of struggling, the company will now enter a purchasing agreement with a bidder to acquire “substantially all of the assets of THQ’s operating business, including THQ’s four owned studios and games in development.”

Filing for bankruptcy will allow for an easier transition of owned studios and games that are currently in the works. THQ Wireless, THQ Digital Studios Phoenix, Saints Row developer Volition Inc., and Darksiders creator Vigil Games are specifically mentioned in the announcement.

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Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, News | 0 comments

After any tragic public display of violence– such as the recent, heartbreaking shooting at Sandy Hook elementary in Newtown, Connecticut– there is always a certain subset of society that instantly tries to find something to blame like video games, movies, gun control laws, the media, etc. While narrowing the causes down to anything so simple is somewhat shortsighted and narrow-minded, it hasn’t stopped the UK tabloids from spreading misinformation about the shooter from Friday’s events.

“The Sun” and “The Daily Express” have both said they got information from a plumber (the irony is not lost) who got a look into the basement room where the shooter spent most of his time, and they said he appeared to play “Call of Duty” and “Dynasty Warriors”.

Via EuroGamer

Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 0 comments

I actually saw this on reddit a couple of days ago, but didn’t think it was news-worthy for our great website. Apparently, IGN has not such high standards.

I kid, of course. This is serious business, because the ultra-hard sequel to the ultra-tough game Dark Souls was announced just a few days ago for PS3, PC, and 360– but not for Wii U. Apparently a group of gamers is pretty frustrated by this, so they’ve started an online petition to try and get Namco Bandai to reconsider. Currently there are about 6,000 people who have pledged support, and while I’m not sure that’s quite enough to get the game released (try 100,000… or more!), it’s a start. If you would buy Dark Souls II on Wii U, add your name to the petition:

Via IGN

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Gaming, News | 0 comments

After laying off 150 staffers last month, Eurocom has now dismissed its remaining employees and will now close its doors. The company suffered from a “severe cash flow shortage” once it was unable to land expected development contracts.

42 staff were left at the studio following last month’s wave of redundancies. They were each let go this morning.

A lengthy statement from Eurocom can be found below.

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Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

“It is a challenging market, and challenging in a number of ways. From a gameplay immersiveness standpoint, from price point and business model standpoint, I mean it’s $40 for some of those games and you can get great experiences – not necessarily comparable experience, but great nonetheless – for seven dollars on a tablet. Our relationships with Sony and Nintendo are important and we continue to support them by creating games on both [Vita and 3DS] platforms. Beyond that the market’s going to speak ultimately as to the viability of those products.” – Activision’s Vice President of Mobile Development, Greg Canessa

Well, I think the market is speaking fairly strongly on the issue! The 3DS just recently surpassed the lifetime sales of the Gamecube (yes, after just two and a half years being out), it’s halfway to meeting the lifetime sales of the SNES, and two-thirds of the way to meeting the N64’s lifetime sales. On top of that, it’s still outselling the original DS on a week-to-week basis!

Vita isn’t doing so hot, but I think the 3DS’ performance alone speaks to how healthy/unhealthy the portable gaming market is.

Via CVG