Oh Dreamcast…you fickle bitch. Raising the hopes of gamers and then smashing them on the floor like a stupid-frigging-controller after a particularly frustrating Ikaruga session. But nobody’s hopes and dreams were smashed quite as tragically as the 9-09-99 Dreamcast launch team. Still, tragic as it must have been to work tirelessly on what was to be The Next Cool Thing, only to see it fail epically, that was a whole ten years ago. A lot has happened since then. New jobs were found. Families were started. Somehow, somewhere, game journalists got together and decided that Seaman will forever and always be put on every Weirdest Game List that will ever be written. And slowly, the dream team got over the tragedy. Oh yes, let’s not forget that this is America, and in America, as soon as we get over a heartache, we hit the nearest karaoke bar.
And no one throws a karaoke party like Dreamcast’s rock star PR girl, Heather Hawkins. How much does she rock? She had her trademark blue hair waaaay before accepting the gig at the home of Sonic. She also rocks hard enough to take upon herself to not let this momentous, ninetastic date go by without throwing a kick ass party. Well, almost kick ass, she did mention in her Evite that this event was no-frills and specifically stated that there was no money to “…to hire Verne Troyer to make an appearance, nor have roaming jello shot girls” (Yep, they had both those crazy expensive, yet annoying-sounding perks at the original launch party), but would provide 1999-themed Karaoke, quipping “Chumbawumba, anyone?”.
Yesterday, as the start-time neared, she kept invitees updated on the party preparations, tweeting that she wasn’t brave enough to draw a chalk swirl on the sidewalk outside of Annie’s Social Club, the downtown SF rock club where this all went down. Still someone had the guts to decorate a cake with a big, sugary orange swirl (I’m sure soon someone will tell me who made the cake and perhaps even send me a picture to post for you all); and lots of members of the launch team had the guts to show up, bearing swag and mementos dug out of closets and storage spaces. Also attending were wigs so big no human head could possibly hold them, Former SOA prez, Bernie Stolar (gasp)and rockstar COO, Peter Moore.
Now, I was not there, but former launch team member, Mike Spiegelman, told me that Stolar and Moore gave speeches that were freaking amazing, and Heather has mentioned that she is still a bit peeved that no journalists thought this event was important enough to cover. Well, Heather, I think it’s important enough, but then, as I’ve said before, I’m not a journalist. I’m just someone who writes stuff on the internet that no one reads.
But if you were there, or you wish you were there, or you had a 9-09-99 party of your own, please leave all the torrid details in the comments section.
For the second straight year, some good folks have taken over a small portion of the internet and spent their time garnering donations for the Child’s Play Charity by completing a Mario Marathon. The group has spent over 50 hours to this point (as of 12:30 pm Sunday) playing through the NES, Super NES, N64, GameCube, and Wii Mario games, attempting to get 100% completion on each one, and they’ve raised over $14,000 dollars from fans across the globe for their efforts.
You can watch the marathon over at (appropriately enough) http://www.MarioMarathon.com and donate via PayPal directly from the site. They’re also trending pretty well on Twitter, with loads of people “chatting” via the message service. Head over and check these guys out! It’s like hanging around the house playing games with 1200 of your closest friends.
Since 2003, over 100,000 gamers worldwide have banded together through Child’s Play, a community based charity grown and nurtured from the game culture and industry. Over 3.5 million dollars in donations of toys, games, books and cash for sick kids in children’s hospitals across North America and the world have been collected since our inception.
As many Halo fans know, the good peeps over at Bungie have a sort of fetish with the number seven. As such, they choose July 7 (07/07, get it?) to celebrate Bungie Day, and give their fans some sweet stuff in the process. Last year, they celebrated the fact that, altogether, people had amassed nearly 7,000,000,000 (that’s seven billion for those of you who forgot math class already) kills in the Halo 3 campaign mode. Today, it’s the much-sought-after Recon armor up for grabs.
How do you win it? Beat a foursome of Bungie’s own in a random online match today. You’ll need all of the downloadable maps, but if you jump into today’s special playlist, you have a chance of going up against four people with flaming heads (in-game, of course - it’d be tough for them to talk through their headsets if their heads were really on fire), and if you and your buddies can find a way to defeat them, you’re on your way to fancy Recon armor.
There are other ways that the Bungie folks may be doling it out, but they haven’t yet revealed those secrets. In fact, they’re not going to until sometime after 07/07, so the best advice is really to just go play as much as you can (and try to win and do cool stuff, probably).
So get out there and have some fun in matchmaking! I’ll be joining in the fun after work.
In the midst of all the mind-boggling announcements at Microsoft’s E3 press conference today, there were 2 huge presentations for Halo nuts like myself.
First was the reveal of some actual gameplay footage from the upcoming Halo 3: ODST - plus a release date: September 22, 2009. That’s 113 days and counting for the slackers out there. The game looks fantastic, playing off of Halo 3’s strengths and not really messing with what ain’t broken, plus adding in some cool new visual enhancements to the standard HUD. Also, Firefly nerds will love hearing Nathan Fillion at the beginning and Adam Baldwin about halfway through, continuing their awesome tradition of being part of the Halo universe.
But wait, there’s more! Bungie and Microsoft then went about blowing our minds just a little bit more by unveiling Halo: Reach, an entirely new game for which we have absolutely no frickin’ information, other than the precious hopes of millions that it takes place during the events of the novel The Fall of Reach and that it includes Spartans (as evidenced by the “Sierra” call signs heard in the brief, gameplay-free trailer). Halo: Reach, as the trailer says, “Falls 2010.”
Everything can be viewed and downloaded at Bungie’s site. Enjoy.
So there I was, sitting in front of the TV with my trusty notepad, writing down all the new game announcements and release dates. And then came the end of the Microsoft press-conference. I was expecting one last yeehah! type speech before I could go and update the blog, and then it came.
Project Natal. Full body motion capture gaming.
No controller. Just a set top box and some amazing software that’s recognizing everything you do - your movements, your surroundings, your voice. Game control has never been more direct.
Now this isn’t coming in 2009. But when it gets here, if the technology indeed holds up, this will be very, very major.
Microsoft demonstrated the technology in 3 ways.
First, Ricochet - a 3D breakout-type game where you move your hands, feet and everything else to deflect balls at a platform of blocks. Nothing special game-wise, but pretty rocking as a technology demo - the girl on the stage was jumping around wildly, no controllers, no gadgets attached to her body anywhere, and she was translating onto the screen in a pretty darn snappy manner. Cool.
Second - a painting program controlled with simple voice, hand and full body commands. All right as a tech demo, not something I would ever actually do.
And third, came the real stunner - a demo created by Lionhead, presented by Peter Molyneux, where a boy game character named Milo interacts with a player - a girl named Claire. They hold a fluid conversation across the TV screen. Milo reacts real-time to things Clair says and the way she says them. He throws her a pair of googles - she makes a catching motion. She draws a picture for him - and passes it right into the game world as it is instantly scanned and processed by the Natal hardware/software magic.
Needless to say, it is a pretty stunning demo. Now go search YouTube for “E3 2009 Natal” and be amazed for yourself.
While I wait for the Microsoft E3 Conference to begin (alas, in front of a TV!), I’ve been browsing around and noticed that one of my most anticipated games - Brutal Legend - is gracing the front of the E3 venue this year. Woohoo!
For the latest hands-on impressions of the game and interview with the lead designer Erik Robson, check out the latest at this GameSpot article.
Sony many not have formally announced it yet, but video and images of its new PSP, the PSP Go, are already all over the web (notably YouTube), thanks to a leak of an interview with the Qore video magazine. As anticipated, the device gets rid of the UMD slot, adds 16gigs of integrated memory (and a mini memory stick expansion slot), and places a bet on downloadable content.
My initial reaction is that of light disappointment, notably on the visual design. The industry commentators aren’t quite saying it yet, but gauging by early internet reactions (and my own eyes), it is abundantly clear that Go isn’t going to knock anyone off their feet with its visual style. In fact, its a downright design dud. The wide rings around the digital pad and the button area look downright strange, and the whole thing kind of has that “barren piece of plastic” look.
Moving on to functional characteristics, there is still only 1 analog stick, and the screen is actually a bit smaller than on the PSP 3000, probably in the attempt to reduce the overall weight of the device, which is 20% lighter than the PSP 3000. No one has mentioned neither the presence nor the absence of a touch screen, and a slight chance remains that the device indeed sports one (which would be a big plus). The device does have Bluetooth.
The biggest bet here, though, is on the downloadable digital content, and that’s what is ultimately going to make or break the PSP Go. Apple has shown us the way, and Sony is quick to jump on the bandwagon here (and rightly so), by releasing a mobile platform squarely targeted at the DLC market. The new PSP will integrate with Sony’s version of the AppStore, and there is already talk of games such as Jack and Dexter and MGS being available in downloadable. How well Sony executes that downloadable application platform strategy will ultimately matter a hell of a lot more than the device itself.
I will end my comments here for now, since Sony still has the last word with their official announcement which will be coming soon. There is still room for some positive surprises about the device, so lets keep our fingers crossed for now. Meanwhile, you can check out the YoutTube video below.
If you are twiddling your thumbs waiting for this year’s E3 to finally kick off and start feeding gaming news to your information-starved brain, consider checking out episode 304 of the Bonus Round podcast. Host Geoff Keighley is joined by Andy McNamara, Editor-in-Chief of Game Informer, Brian Crecente, Managing Editor of Kotaku, and N’Gai Croal, Game Consultant at Hit Detection to talk about what might be coming up at this year’s show. The episode is split into several pieces, the first dedicated to third party publishers (as well as a discussion of this year’s rejuvenated E3 format), the second to Microsoft, and the third to Sony. (Part 4, Nintendo, will be coming later this week).
It’s a nice, long, laid back conversation, perfect for listening to in the background while you do whatever it is you like to do most with your eyes (I like to keep mine closed just to keep myself out of trouble). There is obviously no breaking news here, but its a nice round-up of all the rumors and game announcements of the past 6 months, which will get you pumped and ready for what’s coming on June 2nd.
The folks over at Bioware prepared this trailer as, well, a teaser of the teaser that they are going to show at E3. Blowing right past the obvious hilarity of that statement, the video (as you will see for yourself) gives some sneak peeks at what’s about to come to us Mass Effect fans in the next installment of the game. The major changes that the team seems to be stressing are the beefed up combat system, which is supposed be much more intense and dynamic, more powerful weapons and a darker tone to the overall story.
For me personally, this is exciting even if ME2 turns out to be just more of ME1. Sure, improvements are always nice, but there are just not that many stellar Western-style RPGs out there, and I get button-happy whenever I know that something as great as Mass Effect is coming back for another pass.
We’ll keep you posted on the E3 progress of Mass Effect 2. Meanwhile, make sure to keep drinking and smoking, and get some sex if you can. It’s good for the stress.
The latest update to the Nintendo DS line - the DSi - finally released today, and boy is it hard to put down. Let me show you what it’s all about. Hey, the bigger guys can get to do their own “unboxing” special reports when they get the systems ahead of us regular folk, why can’t we join in the fun, too, right?
