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We can’t quite afford to buy every reader a copy of Left 4 Dead yet. Until then we will make-do with Left 4k Dead, which is exactly the same as Valve’s multiplayer zombie-fest in every way (give or take).
The Java4k site challenges people to write java games clocking in at less than 4 kilobytes. For such a harsh limit the quality of the games is very impressive.
The simplicity of the game somewhat works against us in regards to keeping track of scores. As zombie placement is random I think it should be fair to use zombie kill-count as the score we will be comparing. In the event of you actually being good at games, and managing to eliminate all the zombies in a stage, write the number down and add it to the kill count of the next room.
Bear in mind that stepping into the red rooms will instantly take you to the next level without giving you a chance to record your score before it resets. As usual, leave your scores in the comments and the most impressive (see: worrying) scores will be read on the NGCast.
Dave Anderson, the head of multimedia development at BBC Worldwide, spoke of plans to regenerate the video game aspect of the Doctor Who franchise in a recent interview with MCV. This follows the news that the BBC are planning to “get back into gaming” by turning several IPs into “DS, Wii, iPhone and internet games”.
“We’re having lots of interesting discussions for a variety of ideas around Doctor Who” detailed Mr Anderson, going on to talk about the prospect of “boxed product console games”, “virtual worlds” and “other experiences”. The BBC are opening up negotiations with publishers and developers for licensing deals, with Mr Anderson stating that “the deals [the BBC] are looking at are in different spaces, probably looking at overlapping but different audiences and are certainly delivering a different kind of experience.”
The focus looks to be on the casual gaming market so expect the overlaps to occur between younger ages. BBC Worldwide claim that their plans are to target “all audiences” but without mentioning the Playstation 3 or Xbox 360, and by choosing words like “internet” as opposed to “PC”, the target market seems to be very clear.
Usually I have a problem with the real-time strategy genre. I certainly appreciate the classics like Starcraft, Command and Conquer, and Civilization. Most of the time I tend to get bored with the genre as a whole. So I was excited when I had the chance to review Marvelous Galaxy, a new Indie Game RTS. I thought this would be a change to get back into strategy games. Thanks to creator Darix for sending us a review copy.
Marvelous Galaxy is a traditional RTS set in the far-flung reaches of the universe. As the leader of a small planet’s army, you’re tasked with gathering resources to forge your way across the stars. Along with resource management you partake in traditional RTS combat with your robot hordes descending on opposing forces to win resources and rule over the entire galaxy.
GamePolitics report that the Venezuelan government have passed a proposed law that makes it illegal to produce, sell, or import games and toys deemed too violent by Venezuela’s consumer protection society. It is a measure being taken to try and lower the nation’s notoriously high violent crime rates.
Breaking the law can carry jail time of between three and five years depending on the severity of the offence. In addition to the games and toys being banned, adverts for the sales of such articles will also be stopped from appearing on national media such as television.
Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, is widely regarded to have the highest murder-rate in the world due to drug and gang-related violence. The government stopped releasing official figures in 2005
Released on Tuesday for digital download Torchlight is the first game to come out of the relatively newly formed Runic Games studio. Torchlight is an action RPG title in the vein of Diablo with stylised graphics described as a cross between Dragon Age and The Incredibles. This is the studio’s first release, however Runic is made up of many industry veterans including staff from Blizzard North and those who worked on the original Diablo game. Runic were kind enough to send us a copy of the game for review to allow us to experience the mountains of loot, randomly generated dungeons and fast paced action RPG gameplay for ourselves. Unfortunately the editing tools weren’t available at the time of review.
The small town of Torchlight is under attack by creatures of all shapes and sizes and the people of the town believe the mines to be the reason behind their sudden appearance. The mystical ore Ember that the miners are collecting seems to corrupt everything that it comes into contact with and it’s up to you to find the source of the corruption. Though the story may sound like an epic journey it does seem under-represented in the game, with a short cutscene or paragraph of text appearing at rare intervals to progress it further.
It seems that the members of the Left 4 Dead 2 boycott group have finally come to their senses and are planning to disband on October 21. The group’s 41,000 members will just have to find something else to complain about now that they believe that their goal has been accomplished. A group admin, Agent of Chaos, commented on the closure of the group:
Our goal wasn’t to steer people away from L4D2, it was to get Valve’s attention and have them support original L4D. We succeeded and that’s where our mission ends; nothing more or less.
UPDATE: Looks like EA have rectified the mistake made earlier today. The three games now come out at £14.99 total and it only took them seven hours to notice. Surely a company as big as EA can sort out such a damaging mistake quicker than this. Even when you look past the monetary losses (especially for a company as successful as EA) the embarrassment alone would be encouragement enough to get it sorted out as quick as humanly possible.
In regards to the money, I really do wonder how many people would have actually downloaded these games had it cost them a single penny. I’m wagering not very many at all. Unfortunately still no response direct from EA themselves, maybe they are just too embarrassed to comment. Read more →
Whilst idling my little heart out in the Negative Gamer IRC channel earlier today our glorious leader linked me to a video of a game I had no idea existed; Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron. After a quick rummage around the intertubes I found out it was coming to DS and PSP sometime in the next month or so.
Unfortunately I let the Battlefront fanboy in me take over and allowed myself to get excited at the prospect of a portable, multiplayer Battlefront game before taking into account the ‘particulars’ of the platform.
Relax dear friends, as I present to you an ignorant analysis of the greatest game I’ve never played.
Welcome to what looks to be a bit of a Monkey Island extravaganza here on Negative Gamer. Stay with us as we play catch up with the first two episodes of the Tales of Monkey Island series in preparation for the release of the newest episode later this week.
The Monkey Island series holds a very special place in many gamers’ hearts, and rightly so too. The original Lucasarts series was the granddaddy of point and click adventure gaming, combining ludicrous humour with a fantastic story. It’s understandable then that the Tales of Monkey Island series is surrounded by a fair share of hype and anticipation. However, I think many fans of the old games don’t know whether to get excited or not, especially with the game once again entering 3D territory (we all know how well that went last time don’t we?). Another question I couldn’t stop asking myself before playing was this: can Telltale really do justice to an old series whilst still keeping it fresh and enjoyable?
As a few of you may know I have a soft spot for MMOGs, having played numerous different iterations of the standard formula of grinding to level so that you can grind for gear so you can grind to level. Even though this sounds like the least amount of fun anyone could have with a game, every so often I’ll get a little itch that makes me crave the MMO atmosphere and style of play. I can’t tell you exactly what draws me back in, maybe it’s the epic, sprawling worlds or perhaps the persistent population of other players, but what I can tell you is that now is one of those times.
Morgan Jones, the 27 year old Alabama WoW player that was arrested last year on charges of kidnapping a 14 year old girl has been sentenced to nine years in prison. He was sentenced for the apparently lesser charge of travel for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct. Upon release he will be monitored for a further 50 years to make sure he doesn’t make a habit of having sex with children.
Now before I get a little bit annoyed at the focus of around 90% of the news coverage on this particular issue let me just say that I completely agree with the sentence that he received and think he is an awful awful man. Any guy that drives across the country to help a 14 year old run away whilst also getting her drunk and having sex with her is, to put it simply wrong in the head. Read more →
In the most important news since the world was stunned at the release of the NXE, Playstation Home is entering into a battle. A battle of such epic proportions that if lost, will result in giant hamsters becoming our evil overlords. If you care at all about the fate of your race then you need to get into Home today at 8pm PST and dance the night away for the sake of mankind.
For a while now I’ve being waiting for the PS3 to get its killer app, that one thing that just blows you away. I was sceptical of Home at first, but this settles it. Home is the place to be, and I will be selling my 360 and Wii. There’s no point to a console if I can’t compete in an inter-species dance off, after this everything else will just seem stale.
In preparation for this momentous occasion I have been practising my dance moves in real life that I hope to translate into Home later on today. I’ve been working hard, so I’m pretty sure I can beat this.
Via: US PS Blog
It looks like some people in Germany really do have it in for gaming. As I’m sure you already know the sale of violent games is banned over there, however a recent proposal by 16 Interior Ministers could see that the law be expanded to also cover the production and distribution of violent video games. This would result in studios such as Germany based Crytek having to either outsource development (of their violent games) to other countries or even move the entire studio abroad.
It isn’t just the idea itself that seems idiotic to me, once again these politicians are attempting to link violent video games with various school shootings, most prominently the shooting occurring on March 11th in Winnenden. Hmm, wouldn’t that be the shooting involving “true gun fanatic” Tim Kretschmer that seemingly learned how to use guns via games rather than the massive stockpile of weaponry around his home.
I wonder if this little debacle could have anything to do with the fast approaching elections this September. What better a way to appeal to the idiotic masses than place blame on something that is easily controllable (video games) than something that isn’t fully understood (the human psyche). I hope that eventually people realise that they don’t need a scapegoat to blame tragedies on, or to utilise to push your political agenda. Try the more novel approach and find out the facts and tell the truth, you might just feel better about yourself.
Via GamesPolitics
Speaking with Computer and Video Games Peter Molyneux said that it will be “[a]lmost impossible to form an inappropriate relationship” with Milo in his Natal project unveiled in the Microsoft press conference.
Oh Peter, you really do underestimate humanity. People are going to be showing that poor boy pictures of penises from day one, not to mention trying to do all manner of other inappropriate things. I would have thought such a master of “innovation” as Peter Molyneux would understand that if people can do something they will, just because they can.
I’m sure they have built in a hilarious response to swearing, but just how far can they go to make sure people aren’t doing inappropriate things to Milo without breaking the immersion or limiting the actual interactions you have with him? As many of you know I’m not really sold on the whole ‘Project Natal’ thing yet, and won’t be until I get my grubby mitts on the tech. But even I will have to see how far the technology can be pushed once it finally does arrive.
Edge, the award winning game from Mobigame for the iPhone / iPod touch has recently been pulled from the app store pending a legal battle with Tim Langdell (artist’s impression to the left) over the trademark “Edge”.
Up to this point it seems Langdell has made a career of profiting from other people’s work, threatening to sue anyone who so much as utters the word “edge”. He has managed to cause problems not only within the gaming world, but also in movies and other popular media.
“We have legal issues with a man named Tim Langdell,” says Mobigame’s David Papazian. “If you already asked why Soul Edge (the Namco game) was called Soul Blade and later Soulcalibur in the US, you have your answer.” (Via Fingergaming)
Once upon a time Tim did make the odd video game. Who could forget such timeless classics as “Garfield: Big Fat Hairy Deal” and “Snoopy: The Case of the Missing Blanket.” Nothing has come out of Edge Games since 1994, yet Langdell is on the board of the IGDA, a non-profit organisation that strives to empower game developers and advocate on their behalf. Surely the entire point of the IDGA is to fight against everything this man stands for? Langdell was also a speaker at this year’s GDC, giving three lectures on how to cash in on a video game IP.
It boggles the mind how someone who makes a living from the harassment of others can be in such influential positions within the industry. All I can say is that in my opinion the world would be a much nicer place if people like our friend Tim Langdell didn’t exist.
Via TIGSource
Just as I thought Microsoft were scraping the bottom of the barrel when it came to promotions and advertising, this little gem pops up. To celebrate Memorial Day and remember those who have fallen in conflict, we get to shoot each other in the face. Recreating the battles we are solemnly thinking about. Fantastic.
In their own words:
Memorial Day, originally known as Decoration Day, was first observed in 1868 to pay tribute to casualties of the Civil War. In addition to honoring our service men and women who have fallen in battle, this holiday also marks the unofficial start of summer, and Xbox LIVE is ready to kick it off with a bang.
You may remember a while back the story about the state of California passing a law that made it illegal to sell violent video games to minors. As I’m sure we all know by now the law was thrown out and deemed unconstitutional by a judge.
Not one to give up so easily, Gov. Schwarzenegger ordered an appeal to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court, but yet again the law was deemed unconstitutional and the previous ruling upheld. Well, Gov. Schwarzenegger is back, and in true terminator fashion just keeps on pursuing his target, relentlessly, without need for rest or sustenance. The final say on the issue now lies with the Supreme Court, who I can only imagine will end up at the same ruling as the previous four judges.
I really was hoping I had heard the last of this story when it was overruled for the second time, but it seems our beloved Arnie just doesn’t know when to quit. Not only is he pursuing legislation that will have little to no impact on children actually playing violent video games, but he is also wasting vast amounts of the taxpayers’ money doing so (reportedly a whopping $400,000 in legal fees alone to date). This frivolous spending comes at a time when the state of California is going through one of the worst fiscal crises it has ever faced, and this can only make things worse. When the appeal does eventually get shot down, Gov. Schwarzenegger is going to have a lot to answer to. Especially to the taxpayers in his state.
Via GamePolitics
Bionic grappling
Overpowered weaponry
Spiderman with guns
I remember a time when every game I owned could be replayed and enjoyed countless times. Each game had at least some semblance of replay value. I lost this feeling around the end of the 16-bit era. Now when I look at my games collection trying to find something to play, the choices are few and far between. Do games really have less replayability? Or have I just become jaded over the years?
iTunes