Community creator Dan Harmon isn't a stranger to video games; he's been public about his love for the medium, so it wasn't surprising to see the first episode of last night's season finale hat trick devote itself completely to old-school gaming references. What would have been a throwaway gag in any other sitcom took over most of "Digital Estate Planning's" 22 minutes, as Jeff, Britta, Pierce, Shirley, Abed, Annie, and Troy found themselves participating in a multiplayer platformer in an attempt to wrest the Hawthorne Wipes fortune from the grasp of a bastard child. This episode overflowed with visual gags devoted to the blocky roots of gaming culture, most of which flew by at a blink-and-you'll-miss-it pace; but, thankfully, your friends at 1UP are here to comb over this chunk of comedy gold to dig out the purest pieces of retro gaming nostalgia. Read on, and be sure to let us know if any references slipped past our intricate knowledge of gaming's past.
"Digital Estate Planning's" title sequence doesn't seem to point to any specific title; it's more of a pastiche of retro games that gave the player a brief preview of all the playable characters and their awesome abilities. Though Gilbert's fake game offers a resolution and color depth the NES could only dream of, the opening credits feel a lot like the intro to the NES version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
As Electronic Arts continues to work toward having Origin reach feature parity with Steam -- and hopefully finding something unique it can offer in the process -- it also is focused on getting the software installed on as many computers as possible. Bundling it with EA's own computer games has proven to be one effective way of doing this, whether it be with Battlefield 3 or Mass Effect 3, as has exclusively offering the digital version of its big MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic, through the service. Now it's extending a helping hand to independent developers who have turned to crowd-funding to get their games made in a move that will further help to increase the size of Origin's userbase.
The publisher today announced it will waive Origin's distribution fees for 90 days for any developer wanting to bring its crowd-funded, downloadable PC game to the service, just so long as the game is ready to publish. Develop notes the only costs developers will be subjected to are those pertaining to transactions, such as the fee charged by credit card companies. Even with that small caveat, this is still a potentially great deal for independent developers who will be able to receive a significantly larger portion of revenue on each game it sells in the three months following release. Particularly when you consider many of the games that have been funded by Kickstarter are unlikely to ever be multi-million unit sellers, that extra money could prove to be a major boon.
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Before the advent of electricity, mankind rightly feared the darkness and the thousands of hungry wolves lurking within. Now that we live in a world where eternal daytime can be summoned with the flick of a light switch, the lessons taught by every fairy tale put to print -- stay out of dark, spooky places -- can safely be ignored, since our smartphones alone can easily cut a swath through the blackness of night. Still, crushing the anxieties of our lizard brains often proves impossible, as a simple evening power outage can quickly turn us from rational human beings into quivering masses who refuse to take candlelit trips to the bathroom alone for fear of wandering House Draculas. And we're not even safe in retreating to the escapist fantasies of video games; over the years, savvy developers have learned to exploit these primal phobias by designing worlds that turn from bad to ugly with the setting of the sun. The following games serve as fitting proof that -- as the popular Nickelodeon show once posited-- yes, we are afraid of the dark. Or if we're not, maybe we should be?
While it could have gone worse, Diablo III's first few days of availability have been plagued with a variety of issues. There were problem logging in including the dreaded Error 37, and similar sorts of issues have continued to crop up since then, leading to several instances of the servers being taken offline. This has all been widespread enough that Blizzard apologized for the situation, but really, these sorts of problems are to be expected following the release of an enormously popular online game. But not everyone wants Diablo III to be an online game, and those players have suffered right alongside those who do.
Aside from the times that the servers have been brought down for emergency maintenance, which invariably affect everyone, not everyone has been subjected to a less-than-ideal experience. Having skipped the launch rush on Tuesday, I've yet to run into any problems myself, save for one where I'm occasionally told someone I'm chatting with is not online, which requires me to re-send my message. Annoying, sure, but hardly a big deal, especially in light of people who are losing their Achievements or having trouble playing at all for one reason or another.
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With Lost Planet's roots firmly planted on consoles, it comes as a surprise that the series will soon be making a trip to portables in the form of E.X. Troopers for the Nintendo 3DS. Taking an anime-inspired look and featuring gameplay similar to its console brethren, it appears that the franchise will be bringing some familiar elements to Nintendo's smaller screens. As sudden as the announcement is, Capcom seems to be taking an unexpected approach for the franchise on portables.
More than two years after Infinity Ward founders Jason West and Vince Zampella first sued Activision, their case is finally set to head to trial on May 29. But before the case can be heard, documents have been released which shed light on some unsavory moves Activision made prior to firing West and Zampella in March 2010.
Prior to the start of the case, there have been some developments of note. Electronic Arts, the publisher of the game being produced by West and Zampella's new studio, Respawn Entertainment, was added in late 2010 as a defendant in Activision's counter-suit; Activision alleged EA conspired with the former IW heads to derail the Call of Duty franchise, among other things. Bloomberg reported yesterday the two publishers have reached a settlement, details of which were not made available.
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Some people approach games with a checklist of required features. "No multiplayer? Not even a half-hearted mode thrown in for the heck of it? No thanks!" "Where are my arbitrary achievements?" If internet forums are to be trusted -- and in my experience they always should be -- voice acting is increasingly becoming one such expectation.
When a game fails to check off enough boxes, it runs the risk of coming under scrutiny. Sometimes, though, the pressure to be all-inclusive is directly at odds with the experience a game is attempting to create. Sometimes, voice acting can be a detriment.
You may think of Gears of War when you hear the name "Epic Megagames." Or maybe Jazz Jackrabbit, if you live a lifestyle of old-school cred. Or perhaps what comes to mind is Unreal Engine 3, the behind-the-scenes game technology that's proven to be the current generation's Renderware. And these things are well and good! But over the past few years, Epic's made something of a name for itself with chair's Infinity Blade games.
Infinity Blade and its recent sequel boast what may well be the most spectacular graphics yet seen on iOS (running, not surprisingly, on a modified version of Epic's own Unreal Engine 3), but they impress less in the gameplay department. Certainly they're entertaining enough, but they amount to high-fantasy Punch-Out!! -- simple and limited. Now that the series is a bonafide money-maker for Epic, they're taking a much more direct approach to the property... and a more ambitious one, too. Infinity Blade Dungeons doesn't simply represent a new genre for the series; it's also the first Blade developed internally by Epic.
Everyone's favorite purveyor of exceedingly niche shoot-em-ups, Cave, is back again with Akai Katana, a welcome -- and rare -- appearance of one of their console games localized for the West. Not only that, it's a boxed retail game, and crazier yet, it's another horizontal bullet-hell shooter, just like their last Western retail release, Deathsmiles. And if Deathsmiles' gothic lolita stylings sent you running in the opposite direction, Akai Katana is a much more palatable action game, set in a world where young rebels use their warplanes and the power of the mystical Blood Swords to combat the endless hordes of imperial forces. Yeah, no one really plays these for the plots.
As in every shooter, you fly around the screen destroying enemies that appear from the other side of the screen, using regular speedy fire or more powerful, focused fire that slows your movement. The wrinkle in Akai Katana is that killing enemies earns energy orbs that will let you summon your "phantom." With enough energy you can switch to phantom form, where you become your humanoid spirit partner, who is invincible as long as you don't use the stronger fire. As enemy bullets bounce off the phantom, you can move left and right to bat the bullets around and turn them into point value tokens, though they don't last forever and neither does the phantom energy meter, so you'll have to know when to switch forms and collect them for your big scores.
Consider the following scenario from the Game of Thrones RPG: you get tasked with infiltrating a secure location, and beforehand you assemble a proper uniform -- gauntlets, boots, cape, and helmet -- to gain access. This sequence conjures up the same sort of tension as watching Tywin Lannister and Littlefinger's conversation at Harrenhal in the current season of the show, or reading the duel between The Red Viper and The Mountain That Rides from A Storm of Swords. There's a lot at stake, and one mistake could turn the whole affair catastrophic; but this time, you're in control of this tense situation. You walk up to a guard at a checkpoint, and he asks if he knows you because you seem familiar to him; to this, you reply that you have a very common face that elicits such a question often. Except, as noted earlier, not only are you in disguise, but as part of that disguise, you had put on a full helmet that completely envelops and obscures your face.
That kind of moment embodies playing Game of Thrones, where the occasional moments of intrigue and interest get stymied by bizarre little gaffes, mistakes, and janks. Why is there a conversation about the look of my face when I have a helmet on? It's not an instance of randomized NPC chatter that delightfully skips over the detail of whether the player is wearing a helmet or not -- it's a specific and scripted moment in a mandatory story quest that somehow got past the game's writers and testing. Read more »
It's certainly not easy to make a game based off a hit television
series; one has to only look back at properties like Buffy,
The
X-Files, and The Sopranos
to find examples of fantastic shows that transitioned into video games
via bland and uninspired adaptations. And the less said about the Home
Improvement
SNES game featuring dinosaurs, the better. Observing this
sad trend makes it all the more surprising that Telltale was
able to create a fantastic opening
to their downloadable series based on The Walking Dead.
Sadly the success that they had with the AMC hit caused an old wound to
open in the form of us thinking about the potential behind 2008's Lost: Via Domus,
and how it failed in every aspect that The Walking
Dead succeeds.
Ubisoft Montreal released their
adaptation of the ambitious ABC series at the very end of Lost's
third season. As the season finale dramatically widened the scope of
the series, Lost: Via Domus attempted to retread over the first 60
episodes by placing fans in the shoes of a brand new character. What
followed was a bland, uninspired trod through the jungle without any
focus whatsoever. Characters from the show would randomly pop-up for
the sole purpose of having fans recognize them, and strange gameplay
mechanics were shoehorned for no apparent reason. In short, the game
was a bit of a mess. So why is it that Telltale was able to succeed
with The
Walking Dead where Ubisoft
failed with Lost?
Ever since Square unveiled the Final Fantasy VII tech demo back in E3 of 2005, fans have been demanding the company bring their 1997 RPG classic to the era of HD consoles. Instead of delivering on the goods, however, Square decided to instead release port after port of their 2D Final Fantasies, along with the 13th (and unfortunately 14th) iteration of the series. With Final Fantasy XIII receiving mixed reviews and Final Fantasy XIV tainting the brand, it seems fans just want a reminder of why they loved the series in the first place. Instead of something new and different, Final Fantasy enthusiasts ultimately crave a prettier version of VII.
FIFA
12 was one of the strongest,
most rewarding sports titles I've ever played,
so while en route to EA's First Look Event at their studio in
Vancouver, I had absolutely no idea what to expect from FIFA 13.
Crazy new ball physics? Improved pitch patterns? A Steve Kean-branded
survival mode? The trinity of gameplay innovations from 12 (Tactical
Defending, Impact Engine, Precision Dribbling) seemed to be an
impossible act to follow. And, suffice it to say, EA isn't
doing another headline-grabbing revolution. Instead, they plan to
cultivate FIFA 12's triumph via intricate refinement. A series of
mini-revolutions, if you will.
Whereas FIFA 12's primary
additions were a trifecta, EA's incremental plan-of-attack for FIFA 13
is being divided into five. Now, I could easily spin a long and winding
yarn about these five features. That's been done before, and sometimes
it can get messy. Instead I thought I'd give you a brief synopsis of
each, and then explain what I feel the most significant takeaway is.
There
are few better feelings than
being genuinely surprised by something that you had no idea even
existed. Such was the case a few hours ago when I stumbled upon the
teaser trailer for Dreadline, an upcoming PC game from Eerie Canal
Entertainment. Turns out this is the freshman title by Eerie Canal, a
new team comprised of veterans from Irrational Games and Harmonix who
worked on titles like BioShock
and Rock
Band. One
could assume that Dreadline would include Objectivism via plastic
instruments, but then one would be terribly wrong.
The game places you in the role
of a team of creatures who evidently time travel just prior to infamous
historical disasters and completely decimate the victims moments before
their impending doom. This motley crew consists of an ornery mummy,
some sort of feral cat-girl, an ominous cube that looks like it was
pulled straight from a Phantasam
reboot, and a homicidal child in a
ghost costume.
Downloadable content has been one of the most popular trends this generation. Last year Activision tried to find out if a market exists for a subscription service for a non-MMO with Call of Duty Elite. As the latest numbers peg Elite subscriptions -- which cost $50 a year, or were free with Modern Warfare 3's Hardened Edition -- at 2 million, an audience does apparently exist that is willing to fork over money for more than just a la carte DLC. Electronic Arts is now rumored to be preparing a premium service for the Battlefield series which is said to be launching in only a few weeks' time.
Battlefieldo reported on Friday a "very reliable source" had shared with it a timeline for the forthcoming updates Battlefield 3 is receiving. In addition to a mention of a fifth expansion pack (beyond the already released Back to Karkand and the previously announced Close Quarters, Armored Kill, and End Game) is a strategy guide being released in June and, more notably, something called Battlefield Premium.
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Resistance Burning Skies presents another interesting facet on top of an issue I generally notice first with PSP titles and now in certain Vita ones: it's an admirable example of making a home console level experience fit onto a portable device, but it's not necessarily a good example of a great portable game. From playing the multiplayer for a couple hours, it already excels at feeling like a close approximation of a good console shooter, but its features seem to run slightly counter to the system's portable nature.
Burning Skies features the same bleak and oppressive aesthetic as 2011's
Resistance 3, and of course, thanks to the dual thumbsticks, it generally controls like you'd expect a Resistance title to. Unlike
Uncharted Golden Abyss, which felt like it had an obligation to shoehorn every Vita hardware feature into the game, Resistance: Burning Skies takes a more conservative approach to touch screen gimmickry. It took a bit of getting used to, but quickly tapping the touchscreen for a melee attack -- while not quite as immediate as clicking in a thumbstick -- didn't feel so bad. It probably helps that you're not required to swipe gestures for melee -- though some other touch screen actions called for some goofy gestures that seemed a bit impractical at times. I was content with tapping the screen to toss a grenade, as holding and swiping the arc to "aim" your toss felt a bit too distracting for me.
Note: There are some terms used throughout this piece that some readers may not familiar with. These are linked to outside articles that can add clarity.
Nothing lasts forever, not cold November rain, and not video games. The battery in your Earthbound cartridge will die, the cathode tube in that old Joust cabinet will burn out. Even code isn't immortal; emulators -- software that mimics old hardware to run classic games -- don't always offer a perfect solution, so that version of Super Mario Bros. on your PC might be close to the original, but not entirely. Time spares nothing. You'd think that between the twin marvels of emulation and digital distribution, it would at least be easier to preserve classic gaming. Anyone who's played an emulated PlayStation 2 game on their PlayStation 3 knows it's not that simple, that even something as basic as a new television standard can greatly alter a classic experience.
Starting today you can purchase Steam Wallet codes at GameStop stores. These codes, which are available in $20 and $50 denominations, can be added to a Steam account and used to purchase content through Valve's immensely popular digital distribution service. This move may come as a surprise to some as GameStop last year purchased Steam competitor Impulse, yet it actually is a very sensible move for both sides.
For GameStop, this is another way for it to insert itself into the sale of digital content. It already offers things like downloadable content and points for the console manufacturers' respective platforms, as well as (more recently) digital PC games through Impulse. Getting a cut of money spent on Steam is an obvious benefit, but there is more to it than that.
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It wasn't too long ago that
Sega gave us Sonic the
Hedgehog 4 Episode I, a new 2D
Sonic game that aped the original Genesis games. It wasn't amazing, but
wasn't exactly the grand betrayal many made it out to be, either.
Nevertheless, it was defecated on by the gaming public for many reasons
ranging from the valid to the insane. Sega apparently acknowledged the
vitriol and spent a couple of years producing Sonic the
Hedgehog 4 Episode II, redoing
the graphics, adding a couple of new features, and addressing the
myriad of quirks that only added to Sonic 4's bad reception. The result
is a game that neutralizes virtually all of the bullshit that stood out
in its predecessor, though on the whole, it carries a tradition that
probably still won't sit well with Sonic purists.
The set-up is about as pure as
can be, though: as usual, Dr. Eggman is up to no good, so Sonic, joined
this time by trusty pal Tails, dashes through a handful of different
worlds to defeat Eggman and Metal Sonic, the sub-antagonist from Sonic
CD. Sega's earlier insistence that Episode II had anything to do with
Sonic CD was tenuous at best, as it basically begins and ends with the
presence of Metal Sonic, and Episode II's stages are more a melange of
references to Sonic 2
and 3.
But that was
just marketing, and regardless, those stages look pretty good. Whereas
Episode I had a decidedly plastic pre-rendered look to it, Episode II's
stages, like the lush Sylvania Castle or the rolling dunes of the Oil
Desert zone, don't rely on 2D assets and look downright gorgeous at
times instead of looking cheap and pasted-in. In that sense, it's a
different game for sure.
There's a moment in Tony
Scott's 2004 film Man on Fire
where Christopher Walken attempts to make someone understand just what
kind of a man Denzel Washington's ex-CIA operative John Creasy is. He
calmly explains that, "A man can be an artist... in anything, food,
whatever. It depends on how good he is at it. Creasy's art is death,
and he's about to paint his masterpiece." This statement could just as
easily be used to describe the state of Max Payne in his third outing,
which fittingly draws ample inspiration from Man on Fire.
No matter how nightmarish his life may become, Max remains a steadfast
angel of death who'll stop at nothing on his road of revenge.
The many story and thematic
elements that Max Payne 3
shares with Scott's underrated film should not be frowned upon, but
rather embraced. Anyone who's played their share of Rockstar games
knows that the studio has never been one to be shy about the works of
art that influence them. Without the films of Martin Scorsese, Grand Theft Auto
would not exist in its current state. Without the contributions that
Sergio Leone made to the western genre, Red Dead
Redemption would've never been
able to ride off into the sunset of gaming history. In this respect,
sitting down with a Rockstar title is akin to taking a lesson from a
team of true pop-culture historians, and Max Payne 3 does not
disappoint in leading us on a journey through genre film and literature
past.
Your Retro Reference Guide to Community's "Digital Estate Planning" 
19.05.2012 1:57 
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