EA has started a new game division, named Blueprint. Plans are for Blueprint to launch both existing EA brands and new concepts from small developers into major social networks like Facebook. The division is already hooking up with mega-talent agency Creative Artists Agency for talent and funding. In stealth-mode since September, their first title takes the popular Wii Smarty Pants game to Facebook:
EA is currently testing the waters with such a game–Facebook Smarty Pants, a repurposed version of last year’s Wii-exclusive trivia title Smarty Pants.
Working with social application development house Context Optional, the two companies created the title, an online-only application that challenges gamers in many of the same ways the Wii game did (only without the Wii controller interface).
Seriously? Did EA run out of ideas? Since when does a small developer need help to launch a Facebook app? Unless a couple of college kids really want to meet an actress or model from CAA’s talent pool I don’t know why they’d need EA’s help.
Tip to current Facebook developers: launch version 1 on your own. If it takes off then version 2 can go to the next level with the extra resources of Blueprint, plus you’ll get a bigger share of ownership if the game already has an audience.
The Writers’ Strike is finally over. The Writers Guild just hours ago approved a settlement with the media companies. Now they can get back to making really bad movies out of our favorite video games.
We at Engamer seek to ask the tough questions, so I’ll get right to it: Which aspect of the Mario Bros. would you most like in real life? The poll is posted after the jump.
So far, giant gold coins are winning by a good margin, of course, but that’s because people voted without thinking very hard about how many places actually accept huge gold coins as legal tender, and they also neglected to consider how many actual, easy-to-use dollar bills they could procure if they were able to shoot fire balls out of their hands. Also, think of all the ladies and/or dudes you could impress or kidnap, as the case may be.
There are only five options listed. Are there any that aren’t on there you would like to have been able to vote for? Being able to wear the same red overalls every day without people judging? Turning into a flying raccoon whenever a certain type of leaf touched you? Warp zones? What’s your Mario wish?
Stuck in an office today? No console for me here either. At least I’ve just found the One Semester of Spanish Love Song. My highschool Spanish is almost gone, but I never could have done any better than this:
flOw, downloadable from the PlayStation Store, is a great veg out game. Problem is that it only lasts about a day in front of the console before it’s played through, and a few weekends later it’s a bit played out. Should be perfect as a waiting-on-someone-else, mobile game though. The soundtrack is just as haunting as the PS3 version (probably not THX certified though) and definitely better than the normal chattering of coffee shop visitors on their mobile phones.
The brains behind Brain Age, Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, may be smart but he’s turned down about $11 million in royalties form Nintendo. The money is his share of the $22 million in royalties Nintendo owes Tohoku University for the technology in the 17 million copies of Brain Age (Brain Training outside of North America).
After years of gaming, but not ever having picked up Brain Age, I’m convinced that it’s just a game. Basically, no matter what’s happening on-screen you get better with practice. Maybe the activities in this game apply to real life better, maybe not, but playing any game is going to do your brain more good than scrolling through the TiVo. No amount of support from Nicole Kidman, Patrick Stewart, or any other celebrity is going to convince me that Brain Age is any better for me than a steady diet of Gears of War and Guitar Hero.
Extra credit or something to Dr. Kawashima for not taking the money, but he sounds like a fossil. Despite his success developing games for Nintendo he only allows his sons to play video games for an hour a day on weekends and not at all during the week and he’s completely stopped playing video games too. Apparently his “hobby” is research. Do you really want to spend an hour having that kind of fun?
Only one PC game in 2007 sold over a million units (and it’s name is Warcraft). The PC game take of $911 million is a lot of money, but console games had a record year and total sales of $17.94 billion. Another comparison, the #10 console game sold twice as many units as the #2 PC game.
Game publishers need to wake up and realize it’s a lot easier to buy a console than a new PC. Both Crysis and Bioshock were huge titles available, on the PC, and made headlines. Neither made the PC top 10 list though. The numbers are over at Shacknews (2007 PC sales and 2007 console sales) and are worth some attention. WoW is actually the number one and two PC game for sales. It doesn’t change that fact that Mario Party 8 beat out the whole rest of the PC game field, but it stands out to me that none of the six Warcraft or The Sims games on the top 10 list require much PC hardware to run.
What does that mean to gamers? … you’re better off paying eBay release-day prices for a Wii, PS3, and XBox 360 than you are to drop $4,000 on a new gaming PC.
The latest Bungiepodcast chats with Christian Allen, their new Lead Designer, about his background in the game industry.
Why should you care though? Because he drops a hint about the next Bungie title being something completely new than Halo or anything they’ve done before. It sounds a lot like he’s leading up to it while talking about his background.
Enough hinting. I admit. I have no idea what the next game could be like. Anyone got any thoughts?
Turok gets one thumb up and several hours from me the last few nights. Gameplay is smooth and fast and the dinosaurs aren’t as tough to deal with as I expected, but they’re still a fun distraction that can be used for a bit of tactical advantage during a big multiplayer game. Here’s a quick MP video, unfortunately it’s shy on much dinosaur action:
The different-from-normal weapons are a big draw too. A bit more challenging to fight with than typical Halo 3 cannons. The bow is a sweet weapon as long as you’re holding it and avoiding the knife is a really good idea. The most fun weapon is the shotgun’s secondary mode and the havoc it causes. It’s a heck of a lot of fun to lob a flare into a crowded room or a sniper post. Dinosaurs like the heat, they’ll move in on the flare and tear up the place.
There are some problems reported with MP server lag. They mostly seem to be resolved tonight. Things are good enough that my wireless network is probably dropping more often than the servers.
The real problem … if you want to play with the cool kids stay off the busy Turok servers and drop a comment on Kotaku.
Gamers are getting noticed from all over recently and some of the first companies to notice us were the energy drink makers and convenience stores. How do you pick a drink though? There’s only a few brands in-stock at any store so it’s not like there’s tons of reviews an comparisons.
Not any more though, the huge review of energy drinks “Pure Energy: A Critical Look At Energy Drinks” over at (the competition) Kotaku is as complete a list as I’ve ever seen. Here’s the taste and “buzz” summary:
Author Mike Fahey likes the wickedly sweet-tasting drinks a bit more than I do (like Monster and Full Throttle) and I think he might have borderline OD’d when he gave Full Throttle a “1 of 10″ for buzz-factor. Other than those, most of his comparisons are pretty on-target and I’m sure glad that I’m not the one who got an assignment to test all these drinks and lost nights of sleep and had minor amnesia in the process.
The guys over at College Humor TV aren’t very good at Guitar Hero (it’s OK guys, neither am I). To make up for their poor playing they’re going to be mopping up the mess and leftovers from the Guitar Hero rockstars. Check out the Roadie Hero trailer above.
Devil May Cry 4 looks like one of the best games (other than Super Smash Bros Brawl) there is to wait around for. These trailer (above) and gameplay (that’s HD, low-def here) videos are leaving me drooling to grab it on Tuesday (Feb 5th).
Gameplay is far more important to me than graphics or storyline (Gah! Did I just say that?). Seriously though, there are some pretty sweet pictures on Flickr but you can’t play them and I don’t care if I’m shooting, slashing, or smashing as long as it’s fun and going somewhere. Based on the reviews (and #2) there’s going to be a lot of gameplay too. Enemies regenerate and Capcom is known for making hard games - it’s a good thing that the action is fast and combat is so sweet. There are two characters to play in this over-the-top action too, first Dante and then Nero from earlier in the series. Rumors of all sorts of secret extras that the game press can’t talk about should keep things exciting too. Play up.
The only part of Super Smash Bros Brawl not in the dozens of game trailers that have hit North America is the incredible Final Smash attacks. Now that the game has been released in Japan (and handily sold 500,000 copies despite Nintendo’s distribution problems) the Final Smashes are all over the internet. They’re a bit hard to find though, among the thousands of YouTube video that every kiddie who knows how has uploaded. We’ve got the Final Smash video, in all its surprise-spoiling grandeur (don’t watch if you like to be surprised).
The incredible eight-minute video is after the jump, or hop over to Joystiq to read descriptions (and cheesy power & “coolness” ratings) about every Final Smash.
The internet stinks sometimes, but this isn’t a spam-blog or an ugly made by a friend-of-a-friend site. What They Play is a professional site built for parents, and it’s about video games.
The site reviews video games for all systems (Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, PC, & older consoles) and gives each a rating. None of these ratings are on a 9-out-of-10 scale either. What They Play uses ESRB ratings to pronounce games “safe” for various ages. I’ll lay odds that the site is affiliated with Jack Thompson given that the game ratings are fairly harsh and put almost every popular game on the market in the “Teen” (13 or older) category and anything remotely like a shooter in the “Mature” (17 and older) category.
Some examples:
Halo 3 is rated “Mature” - as in only for ages 17 and over
It takes a lightweight like Lego Star Wars to pull in an “Everyone 10+” (like they need two levels of Everyone ratings…)
Major games like Rock Band, Guitar Hero II & III, and Super Smash Bros Brawl are rated “Teen” - only for ages 13 and over
If you still live at home and rely on your parents’ green (or at least a credit card or ride to the store) to buy games you’d better add whattheyplay.com to the Hosts file on all household PCs.
Louis on Gamefly: A Completely Biased Review - Are there any of these services that do it right? I just cancelled gameznflix after nothing shipped for 2 weeks although I had 33 items in my queue!...
Bryan on Gamefly: A Completely Biased Review - I’ve had GF for approx 2 yrs now. Live in Fla. And during the first yr, i’d have to agree about the slow shipping/lack of inventory...
EA has started a new game division, named Blueprint. Plans are for Blueprint to launch both existing EA brands and new concepts from small developers into major social networks like Facebook. The division is already hooking up with mega-talent agency Creative Artists Agency for talent and funding. In stealth-mode since September, their first title takes the popular Wii Smarty Pants game to Facebook:
We at Engamer seek to ask the tough questions, so I’ll get right to it: Which aspect of the Mario Bros. would you most like in real life? The poll is posted after the jump.
