Sidewalk fighting? Pfft -- no one cares. How about house fighting? A domestic drag! But fighting on the street? Hot damn -- now that's just super. Capcom's Community Manager Seth Killian knows all about raising dukes on the public pavement. In fact, Mr. Killian has such an extensive knowledge of outside butt-kicking that we made our five random questions extra difficult this time.
So let's find out if he can weather our hurricane kicks....
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My buddy Cesar Quintero over at Area 5 once told me a story about how he waited patiently for a wedding to start in Fallout 3 -- just so he could nuke everyone in attendance. He also told me about several other acts of horror that he'd committed in the open-world, do-anything-you-want-including-stuff-you-probably-shouldn't RPG, so that got me thinking:
People sure know how to act like a-holes when given the means.
(Hey, I'm not judging -- I did get the Achievement for planting a live grenade in someone's back pocket in the same game.)
So, for fun and curiosity's sake, we asked some of our game-industry friends what sort of sick, depraved, evil video-game deeds that they try to get away with when no one's looking (and sometimes, even when someone is), starting with the guys who made the wedding-slaughter simulator. And don't forget to share your own terrible tales in the comments below.
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Editor's note: The state of Japanese game development is an interesting subject. It's weird that, right now, I'm enjoying two very different RPG experiences -- one from Japan (Demon's Souls), and one from American (Dragon Age). And I'm really digging the Japanese game. Are you troubled by the state of Japanese development? -Jason
The 2009 Tokyo Game Show's over and done with, and very little big news came out of the event. Sadly, instead of returning to the U.S. excited about what's on the horizon from the country that used to be the de-facto leader of the gaming world, the press slunk back, seemingly dismayed at the state of development in Japan.
Even with huge titles like Final Fantasy 13 and The Last Guardian on the way, a pall hovers above the Japanese horizon because their leadership in the games realm seems to be coming to an end.
In a September 28 post, Brian Crecente of Kotaku.com said that this year's TGS revealed "an industry scrambling to stay relevant in an increasingly Westernized gaming world."
Crecente's story went on to say that "Capcom's famed developer Keiji Inafune, the man behind such hits as Mega Man, Onimusha, and Dead Rising, warned that Japanese game development has one foot in the grave."
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Editor's Note: The nerve! Patrick casts doubt on a mega-anticipated sequel to a beloved classic. But he does bring up some good points. Who here agrees...or thinks he's totally nuts? -Greg
In the summer of 2007 (2008 for PS3 owners), gamers were treated to an incredible gaming experience, one that won the heart of gamers and critics alike: 2K Boston's BioShock. Many of you, I am sure, were left with an indelible impression of wonder and excitement as a result of your exploration of the underwater city of Rapture, its inhabitants, and the adventure of which you just partaken.
The game's environment set the mood and the story took you on a wild ride that, in the end, likely left you wanting more. At least that is how I felt, and so with that I waited for word on an impending sequel.
When 2K Games finally announced a sequel, I was excited indeed and followed the news for the upcoming game closely...but a funny thing has happened to me on my path to the Sea of Dreams. I have recently noticed that my desired return to Rapture is not what it used to be; it has waned significantly, almost to the point of myself giving a big shrug to the game's recently announced release date of February 9, 2010.
How could this have happened? How could my interest for the sequel to one of my favorite games of all time fall away so? I took some time to analyse this situation, and I have came up with a few points that may be responsible for this phenomenon.
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Editor's note: How much of an effect does Metacritic's aggregate scores have on games? I've always wondered about this, but I've never analyzed the data. Luckily, Rob has, and he's sharing his examination of Metacritic scores and sales for May 2009 with us. -Jason
The September 2009 issue of Game Informer published a feature discussing the merits of review aggregator Metacritic through the lens of Glen Schofield, former general manager for Visceral Games, which developed and released Dead Space late last year.
Central to Schofield’s complaint is a lone score of 65 that caused the Xbox 360 version of Dead Space’s aggregate Metacritic score to drop one point from 90 to 89. Schofield states that “the difference between an 89 and a 90 is a big-ass deal.”
Games journalist Mitch Krpata criticized the article, claiming that Game Informer was calling for reviewers to inflate scores in order to keep the Metacritic aggregate high. Whether or not Game Informer actually implied such is irrelevant to the observation that review score inflation would be at the detriment of the gaming public.
However, we all know that publishers use Metacritic scores to pressure developers by tying those scores to monetary compensation. Are publishers justified in using Metacritic in such a way? I decided to investigate the issue by tracking game sales and their accompanying Metacritic scores to find out the relationship between the two.
Read more >>Editor's note: Shoe and I had just arrived to record the next episode of The Mobcast with Shadow Complex's Donald Mustard and 1UP's David Ellis when we learned about this story -- from the game's PR person, Donald's wife, Laura! Not only did Carlos get a Shadow Complex code, he also got a second code. And he's giving it away to the Bitmob community. Read on to find out how! -Jason
Tuesday night was crazy. I got to meet people who I admire in the industry: longtime game journalists Geoff Keighley and N'Gai Croal, Universal producer Pete Wanat, and Chair Entertainment creative director and lead designer Donald Mustard (Shadow Complex) and his wife, Laura. Before doing so, though, I had to drive out to Los Angeles -- an hour or so away from my humble home in Rialto, CA.
Read more >>Cologne's Gamescom is an avalanche of sausages and questionable haircuts. Today was media and exhibitors only…tomorrow, the gates open to the public and it really gets nuts. Here's what I've seen so far:
10AM-ish -- Microsoft/Lionhead Press Conference
I was promised a Microsoft/Lionhead press conference, but got the one-man Peter Molyneux show instead. The Fable creator made a quick announcement about Fable 2 episodic DLC, then launched into his main topic for the day, Fable 3.
"The third child is always the problem child," he said, and in true Molyneux's signature style, he teased a major tweak to the standard role-playing game format but wouldn't reveal exactly what he had in store. I think he said something about "removing a cornerstone."
Read more >>Editor's note: In the grand tradition of Folgers instant coffee commercials, I plan to switch out the innards of this multimillion dollar medical device with a Boong-Ga Boong-Ga arcade cabinet. Let's see if he notices the difference! -Demian
Pilots are one thing -- you know, since they shoot the "enemy" -- but now doctors will benefit from video game playing, as well? I came across the above scan in a promotional flier at a local hospital in Redlands, CA earlier today. Personally, I don't know if I'd trust a doctor looking into the first iteration of Nintendo's Virtual Boy to cut me up...would you?
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Editor's Note: Get confused whenever you get ready to fire up one of your favorite multiplayer games or when you're trying to figure out if you have enough Xbox Live Points to buy the latest downloadable treat? Andrew Hiscock shares some of the things he feels are most confusing about games today. -Jason
Videogame players have a remarkable ability to decipher complicated phenomena. Take your average videogame website. If you can navigate IGN.com, you deserve an honorary degree in geography. These skills are developed in dealing with our chosen hobby. User interfaces, hardware connectivity, and even the very games we play have developed a new tier of problem solving for humanity.
Should the world at large ever take these skills seriously, they would find a readily available segment of the population ready to be air-traffic controllers, IT consultants, and mediators for Middle East peace talks. If you can figure out any of the phenomena listed below, you'll be able to impress any old professor of quantum mechanics.
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Welcome to Bitmob.com, your resource for the hottest companies in [insert your city here]. Whether looking for a long-term relationship or something to spice things up on the side, you'll find a videogame company that offers deep connectivity and intuitive user interfaces, no matter who you are! Good luck, and happy merging, acquisitioning, and buy-outting!
Sega
Likes: What Nintendon't, Retro style, Pachinko
Dislikes: Console Manufacturing, Long dev times, New IPs
"Hi, all out there. A while ago I broke up with consoles, and now I'm playing the field. I'm happy where I am, and I'm not looking for commitment, just a night on the town and we'll see what happens. I'm a restless spirit, but don't call me whore, I'm just living my life!"
Editor's note: Poindexters, set your brains to "analyze." Andrew Hiscock comes back with another ridiculously researched piece that is quite interesting if you take the time to follow it through. Which you should! -Greg
If you've checked out some of my more statistics-focused articles (NeoGAF charts and Critically Acclaimed Retail Bombs), you know that I enjoy playing around with numbers. My last such article had me knee deep in gamerankings.com numbers. This work made me ask a series of questions that were irrelevant to my purposes at the time, so this time out, I decided to see if I could find those answers. First, I wanted to know how the games for each console are doing four years into the current generation. Secondly, I wanted to know how these games are doing over time. With this in mind, I ran out and got the gamerankings scores for every single current generation console game (with 5 reviews or more), and played around with the numbers a bit. The results are below.
Aggregate Aggregator
Fig. 1: Average review aggregate scores by console, year by year
The first figure represents the average review aggregates for all games (5 reviews or more) in a given year for each console. This includes everything for each console that has received 5 or more reviews -- retail releases, downloads, retro games, everything. The raw numbers are given below.
Read more >>Compared to outlandish ones like Final Fantasy or Xenosaga, Bethesda's RPGs are grounded in reality...relatively speaking. Vampirism, magic, mutants, and mini-nuke launchers aside, you can pretty much relate to the people and worlds in Oblivion and Fallout 3. Strangely enough, they're kinda normal.
Maybe that's because Todd Howard is kinda normal himself. Bethesda Game Studios' game director and executive producer is a big (make that huge) Bruce Springsteen fan. He watches Friday Night Lights. And he thinks he can become Batman someday. He's an everyday guy who just happens to make epic games for a living. Epic games that feel "normal," that is.
He's our latest subject in our 21 Random Qs interview, so let's get to know...Todd Howard.
1. What is your favorite end-of-the-world movie?
Todd Howard: 12 Monkeys.
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