In the name of science and awesome, researchers from the University of Osaka in Japan created this Mario in a petri dish. How? By genetically engineering bacteria to express fluorescent proteins and carotenoid pigments.
via Mario Recreated In Petri Dish – Coolness – Kotaku
The developers here touch on one of my biggest gaming pet peeves in the video – enemies that don’t react to being hit. If I hit someone with an axe, they are going to stagger, get wounded, and possibly die. At least I am assuming this, as I’ve yet to test that. I can’t stand games where you swinging away at the enemy and they don’t react until they suddenly fall down dead. I guess what I am trying to say is that I want to feel like I am actually beating someone to death.
via Assassin’s Creed 2 Combat Is Just Plain Brutal – Assassin’s Creed II – Kotaku
Reminds me of Euphoria, the AI / Physics system where each agent seemingly reacts accordingly to player actions. They start to look hand animated and repeated after a few fights. That being said, this still beats the enemy non-reacting to anything but the deathblow.
The upcoming Heavy Rain features a sequence in which its female protagonist is forced to strip for a disgusting mob boss. It’s sex but it’s not sexy, and it moves the needle for games teaching us to differentiate the two.
.
.This is a departure from other gameplay-based depictions of sex, Williams argues, where the object was either to reveal skin or engage in a mini-game that “reduces sex to the stabbing motions of button mashing.” He says the breakthrough lies not necessarily in a mature depiction of sex, but in delivering a new perspective on how it is understood, even if it means forcing someone in an opposite gender role to see its more degrading side.
via Forced to Strip: How Games Might Teach Us More About Sex – heavy rain – Kotaku
It isn’t a tactical shooter, and it isn’t a talky RPG. It steps back to the base level of both genres and then piles style and energy on top. It’s the opposite of feature creep – returning to why people wanted to shoot monsters in the face and collect shiny things in the first place. From what I played, it wouldn’t be wrong to call it shallow. It would be wrong to call that shallowness a bad thing. Pitchford again: “we’re dancing around innovation more than we’ve ever done before.” In the land of the endless cover systems, unbound carnage is king.
I haven’t played a mindless shooter in a while now. Sure, TF2 is fun when your team isn’t composed of 4 medics and 4 spies who can’t take out a single sentry gun, L4D is fun but I want to shoot something other than zombies with something other than a pistol or a shotgun. I must admit I miss I miss playing Unreal Tournament, there’s nothing like mindless carnage fuelled by a 6-barrel rocket-launcher.
Even with Dragon Age: Origins, Left 4 Dead 2 coming out at the same time, Borderlands suddenly became a very viable year-end treat. Killing stuff: check; rewarding for kill baddies: check; lots of guns; check. From what I read, Borderlands is looking to be a FPS primarily built on top of a Diablo-eque loot system on crack.
Still gotta hope there’s enough local or at least regional server support and non-brainless community to play with.
[Why Everyone Should Be Watching the PSPgo - PspGo - Kotaku]
Video games stored on a disc of plastic and tucked away in a case are approaching extinction.
You can quibble about the when and the how of this happening, but the inevitability of games being sold online like music, free of their plastic prisons, is certain.
With the price drop of the PSP-3000, I’m looking into the possibility of getting one but I can’t see to find games I’d want to play on that system. That aside, I have to agree with the article pointing out that having physical game discs may soon be a thing of the past.In the past year, I’ve started buying games online via Steam and more recently Direct2Drive. Love the convenience and bye-bye to broken / cracked / defaced / microwaved game discs.
What I don’t get is why they gotta make the PSP Go so small… it’s about the size of an iPhone from what I understand.
Now in English voice-acting!
This is the third time I’m watching the trailer, still looks awesome to me. Would there be an Aerith moment again? Serah looks like she’s dying in the last scene, well she doesn’t have a big sword sticking out of her but she’s still dying.
Release date state side is stated as Spring 2010 and March 2010 on Wiki. Perhaps it’s time to save up for a next gen console…
Even I, who’s not a KOF follower, knows the King of Fighter is nothing like what these people are saying it is.
Can’t they at least have the decency to Google or Wiki “King of Fighters” before butchering it for Hollywood?
My idea for an integrated skills / inventory system via a grid layout apparently isn’t new any more. I recently picked up Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days and it has similar system in the form of the Panel System.
I’d still like to build a game around a similar system one day, probably with more emphasis on choice of trying to fill many small easy tiles/panels or best fit more powerful oddly-shaped ones.
Watching this trailer gives me goosebumps. I think the art direction in Square Enix is phenomenal, to be able to make humans look so good yet avoid the uncanny valley.
I think this is the kind of game which makes you buy a console just to play it.
PS: Watch the video in HD on YouTube.
Subby
Dumdum