There’s a seemingly endless list of possibilites that Microsoft’s Project Natal could be used for but it seems that the developer behind PaRappa the Rapper, Masaya Matsuura, sees immense potential in one such possibility: music.
Mr. Matsurra was recently quoted to have said, “We are thinking about ideas, I think any kind of interaction will be good for music games, but the important thing will be how can we find the new breed of gameplay.”
Don’t go thinking this will be just another Guitar Hero/Rock Band rip off as Matsurra feels that genre of gameplay is covered quite well, “There is other attractive music, so pleas try to find another style, another interation, another gameplay with another type of music.”
What could Matsuura and NanoOn-Sha be cookin’ up? Only time will tell. Then again, it looks like PaRappa and Chop Chop Master Onion are playing a motion-controlled game in the above screen shot. Could there be a connectoin?
It seems that sometime last week an easter egg was found on Google’s homepage which you can see above. Look familiar? It should as it’s the mark of the Triforce found in the ever popular Zelda franchise.
It seems that this is the work of Zelda superfan/Google artist Susis Sahim who was tasked with designing some logos for Google. Instead of producing said logos, Sahim decided to slip in the Triforce image which was then promptly removed sometime after.
Let’s hope that Google can find the humor in this instead of giving Sahim the boot.
Here we go again, more PS3 Slim rumors — Buzz circulating the internet suggests that the PS3 Slim bundle is, in fact, coming to market this August bundled with Madden NFL 2010.
This rumor comes to us from the 1UP.com’s latest podcast in which David Ellis has been quoted to say:
It’s gonna be in August. Everything I’ve heard says it’s coming in August, it’s tied with Madden.
And, to add even more heat to the flame, Ellis said that this may have been the cause for Activision’s much publicized threat against Sony. Apparantly, the megapublisher was mad that Sony had opted to bundle an EA game with the console as opposed to an Activision one.
Take this as you will but at this point it remains just a rumor. We’ll have to wait until next month before we find out if a PS3 Slim is actually on its way to market.
President Barack Obama isn’t exactly a support of video games, as supported by several occasions in which he suggests that video games are a waste of time. This assumption is further supported by a speech given by Obama addressing the NAACP 100th anniversary commemoration, which gave African-American parents a few words of advice.
“For our kids to excel, we must accept our own responsibilities. That means putting away the Xbox and putting our kids to bed at a reasonable hour,” President Obama said. “It means attending those parent-teacher conferences, reading to our kids, and helping them with their homework.”
It’s not exactly good PR for Microsoft, but it should be considered an honor itself to have all of video games be referred to by a single console. However, Microsoft still has this to say:
“We agree with President Obama that it’s a time for families to work together so that kids use media in ways that are safe, healthy and balanced,” the press statement reads. “Xbox 360 is the only console gaming system that has a timer feature allowing parents to set time limits for their kids, as well as parent controls to enable parents to set limits on what their kids are playing and watching.”
In terms of video game release, summer is not the best for the gamers, few games are released, and of those, few are quality titles. Luckily, one of those few is Prototype, the 3rd person action game recently released on the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC (this review is based on the Xbox 360 version).
The game is set in an open world (many games are these days), this time, it’s a rendered version of Manhattan, which the player has the option of fully exploring. The story goes as follows: the military has blocked off Manhattan and is trying to contain an outbreak of a virus that turns people into mutants. Players assume the role of Alex Mercer, a character with not much background, as he wakes up and suffers from amnesia, and his initial reluctance to help or care means he almost serves as an anti-hero in the game. Not that it’s a bad thing. You soon discover that you have been infected with the same virus as many others, however, yours is a lot more serious case. For instance, you have a sort of mutated arm, which you can not only use to climb buildings, but to kill people across a distance, as it extends quite a lot.
The economic recession is really impacting the gaming industry, and it’s showing every day. The MMO division of Sony, Sony Online Entertainment, has confirmed that they have layed off 41 full-time employees, which is 5% of the workforce. The reason for this move is “In a move to increase operational efficiency and reduce costs…”
“SOE looks forward to continuing its leadership role in the online games industry as it celebrates the highly successful launch of Free Realms, the 10-year commemoration of its groundbreaking EverQuest franchise, and the continued performance of the company’s other games.”
Sony Online Entertainment refuses to comment any longer on the issue. It’s unknown if these were developer positions or what games these employees’ departure will be affected.
With all of the thousands of useless applications on the social networking website Facebook, it would only be a matter of time that video game developers would jump on the bandwagon and begin developing for the popular platform.
Ubisoft is one of the first to do this, and have already launched an application, TickTock, for the site. The application isn’t exactly a game, but more of a trivia challenge of how well you know your friends. Some type of bomb is created by you and six of your friends have to defuse it in order for you to win by answering trivia questions about your friends. The concept is very refreshing in a sea of Facebook applications (e.g. the very offensive Own Your Friends).
“We’re going to try to make best applications for Facebook, just like we make the best applications for the Xbox 360 and Wii,” said Laurent Detoc, president of Ubisoft North America.
The official Japanese website for Sega‘s Valkyria Chronicles 2 has launched recently, and along with the site comes some new screenshots for the game. Most of the content as of now is purely Japanese text, so you won’t benefit from it unless you can read Kanji.
Featured on the site is a blog which contains said screenshots, and an information page explaining the game’s concept. While you can’t expect the game to look as good as its home console counterpart, for the most part it looks impressive.
Valkyria Chronicles is slated for a winter release in Japan, with no planned release date in any other part of the world.
If you’ve been dying to see what the PSP versions of Gran Turismo and LittleBigPlanet will look like, your’e in luck. What you see above is a video demonstration of Gran Turismo being played on a PSP Go.
The video was reportedly taken at Fase Extra where attendees got a chance to place both LittleBigPlanet and Gran Turismo.
From the brief glimpse the videos provide, these games look to have none-too-bad graphics and stay true to their console counterparts. On a side note, the PSP Go looks a bit awkward to hold, don’t you think?
Video of LittleBigPlanet included after the break.
Have you guys all seen the YouTube video of the kid who made ridiculous amounts of Halo weapons out of cardboard? Well, this is the same thing, but a bit more extreme.
Showcased in the above video is a YouTube user by the name of Gradun66 who has made an exact replica of the pistol featured in Halo 1. It has a functioning magazine and bolt-action. There even seems to be a Battle Rifle of the same quality he is working on in the back.
The latest Halo game, Halo 3: ODST, will hit the market exclusively for the Xbox 360 on September 22nd.
In terms of video game release, summer is not the best for the gamers, few games are released, and of those, few are quality titles. Luckily, one of those few is Prototype, the 3rd person action game recently released on the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC (this review is based on the Xbox 360 version).
The economic recession is really impacting the gaming industry, and it’s showing every day. The MMO division of Sony, Sony Online Entertainment, has confirmed that they have layed off 41 full-time employees, which is 5% of the workforce. The reason for this move is “In a move to increase operational efficiency and reduce costs…”
With all of the thousands of 