Just look at that screen comparison! It’s apparently even nicer than the DS screen somehow. I hardly play my GBA at all these days and I’m still tempted. (from GameSpot)
How soon until we get a new DS, if ever? Presumably they’ll do a prettier, smaller version like the GBA SP was.
It covers both the old and the new. Be warned though, as I unfortunately discovered it’s fairly spoiler heavy for season 2.
I love Wikis, with so many links per article you can get completely lost in them, all the while learning new things or even finding something you can contribute to them.
They said it was done with 1.0. They were wrong. Despite running on the aging Half Life engine, Action Half Life is still some of the most fun I have ever had online. John Woo would be proud of the shoot diving, akimbo weapons, kung fu and movie-inspired settings and characters. It’s great to see the community come together and continue development - you really must give it a try.
Late Night Consoling over at ShackNews comes highly recommended as a nice roundup of console news. It’s on its third editor but the quality has never wavered. Today’s instalment includes fighting words from Phil Harrison at Sony Europe:
[DS] won’t have a lasting impact beyond that of a gimmick - so the
long-lasting appeal of the platform is at peril as a direct result of
that.
Someone give this man a copy of Nintendogs and tell him you can play it for 10 hours on a single charge. Nintendo will continue to dominate the hand held sector, I do not doubt that.
Noted in the same article is the fact that the DS has over 50% of the Japanese hardware market this week. The only problem the DS has is that is isn’t as pretty as the PSP - other than that it’s cheaper, more comfortable to hold, I’ve spent more time playing it (fun as Wipeout Pure was), it has far better battery life and I’m not worried about taking it out with me for fear of it being damaged or nicked like the PSP.
The PSP is just TOO nice but suffers from consequent design compromises. It really needs more good games. Anyone who thinks the PSP is going to "win" based on its single real advantage of better graphics is missing the bigger picture. Given just how arrogant they’ve been about the PS3 and PSP I’d honestly love it for the DS to continue taking Sony down a notch and the Xbox 360 to follow suit.
Remember my little write up of the Half-Life 2 talk in London back in July? Remember how Valve decided to stylise the characters a little so they didn’t look hit the uncanny valley and thus look creepy? Well, someone’s now put the creepy back in. I shall summarise my opinion on this with a smiley, like so:
:|
Everyone saw this coming, nobody cared. Well, except the players who are currently busy roasting Turbine.
Possibly somewhat harsh but from the outset AC2 completely failed to distinguish itself. Might their D&D and Middle-earth MMO titles fare better? Probably. Alright, hopefully - Turbine seem a good bunch of guys and I’m sure AC2 taught them some tough lessons.
It’s interesting to read that they partially rely on "sleeper accounts", people who rarely play, for income. Seems these usually get cancelled during billing system transitions - I wonder if that impacted Matrix Online much during their move the SOE.
The Rio Karma really was just a bit special - it blew away the 1st gen iPods for features and battery life. Sadly, I just spotted on CNet that Rio is no more so we’ll never see the Chroma and I’m once again stuck deciding which MP3 player to eventually buy. Gapless playback, crazy battery life, ogg support, USB mass storage support, USB charging, colour screen… too much to ask?
That’s Battlestar Galactica Collectible Card Game. What sci-fi property doesn’t have a CCG or RPG these days?
Game play will mirror the
intrigue of the television show: Players won’t know whom to trust, who
the Cylon agents are or where the next attack will come from! Players
will battle for ownership of resources and influence in order to
control the fleet.
The comments to the news item are great - I had no idea there was so much bitterness towards Ronald Moore. He’s doing a fantastic job with BSG, what else matters? Much as I love sci-fi it really can breed tiresomely rabid purists sometimes. (cheers to Chris Morris for that one)
Artist Palle Torsson has used Unreal Tournament 2003 to carefully recreate settings of frightening or violent film scenes (video here). Using a game to create art by recreating film sets is certainly an interesting idea. Even though I don’t recognise some of the films it’s a strangely creepy achievement too. (via the ever splendid we make money not art)
More and more I’m convinced that Prince of Persia 3 is going to be spot on. Better balance between puzzles and fighting, both Prince voices return (the Dark Prince voiced by the Warrior Within guy, the original Prince by the original actor) and even Farah returns with assurances that she won’t have become a 2-dimensional grungy killing machine as one might fear after Warrior Within.
The trailers give the impression they’ve got the look and feel of the series back on track too. Unexpected redemption for the disappointingly shallow and soulless Warrior Within? It clearly has the potential to be just that.
Speaking of Benders, here’s one with a PC inside. His mouth is the CD drive, his chest opens up and his eyes glow, though sadly they’re not telescopic. Or is that just asking too much? (via boingboing)
