I wrote about League of Legends a couple weeks ago as my must-try game of 2009. The game is starting to pick up some critical acclaim along with shameless endorsements from a large number of players. Riot announced on its official forums today that the game won the IGN Reader’s Choice Multiplayer Game as well as Strategy Game of the Year.
If you’ve been spending much time on the forums you know that Riot was offering up a free skin if it won two of the three awards the game was up for. Well, it won all three, meaning any player who had created an account prior to today will get a free Corki unlock along with the UFO skin.
Few things make me want to play a game more than an active/supportive community to developer relationship. From what I’ve seen so far, LoL has one of the best, and its little perks like this that make me think, ‘Should I try Heroes of Newerth?…Nah.’
James Cameron is notoriously grumpy when it comes to talking about his movies. In a sense, he has a right to be. People keep telling him his ideas just won’t work and he keeps proving them all wrong.
In his latest episode of mind-speaking, Cameron railed against people who have been comparing Avatar to Bungie’s Halo. “The funniest thing is when some of the so-called fanboys get up trashing Avatar for looking too much like Halo,” he told G4. “It’s like… pay attention. If I’m referencing anything, I’m referencing the source work for Halo, which is my own stuff.” He’s referring to Aliens, a movie Bungie has long said was inspiration for its hit franchise.
There may be more alien worlds coming from Cameron in the near future, who said he has plenty of stories but not enough time to make them all into movies. Oh, and if you haven’t seen Avatar yet, go.
If you’re going to deal in illicit substances, you’d think you might acquire some evasive skills along the way. Not so for Alfred Hightower, an Indiana man who was arrested this week on dealing charges. How was he caught? By playing World of Warcraft.
The Howard County Sheriff’s Department of Indiana contact Blizzard after learning that Hightower played a “warlock and witches game.” How long it took them to discover that meant WoW remains unknown. Deputy Matt Roberson had pretty much given up when he got a package in the mail.
“It had been three or four months since I had sent the subpoena. I just put it in the back of my mind and went on to do other things. Then I finally got a response from [Blizzard]. They sent me a package of information. They were very cooperative. It was nice that they were that willing to provide information.”
Included in the packet were IP addresses, billing info, and game info, including Hightower’s favorite servers. Hightower was picked up by Canadian authorities, to be returned to Indiana today.
According to a report from Reuters, EA is forging ahead with its Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online game, despite his recent PR snafus. The statement came from EA Sports prez Peter Moore, who reinforced the company’s stance that Tiger has a sponsorship for his golf skills, not his monogamy.
“Our relationship with Tiger has always been rooted in golf,” Moore wrote on EA’s blog itsinthegame.com. “We didn’t form a relationship with him so that he could act as an arm’s length endorser.” I thought the timing of the statement was odd, coming just four days after AT&T dropped Tiger from its payroll. I think EA’s doing the smart thing, though. Sure, people are pissed, but Tiger’s fans will be Tiger’s fans, and people who appreciate what he’s capable of on the golf course will still buy his games, regardless of how many women he’s nailing at the time.
I don’t know about you, but I spent many a late night gaming when I was 14. Sure, my parents tried to get me to go to bed, and more often than not I ignored them, but that was to my own consequence. They would wake me up ass early with expectations to clean the house or mow the lawn or any of those other childhood duties. An exhausted march around the yard behind a mower was so awful I started to manage my time and go to bed a little earlier. My parents were happy, I was well adjusted, and no one had to call the cops to get me to put down the controller.
That’s what Angela Mejia thought she had to do with her son. At 2:30 in the morning she caught him playing Grand Theft Auto. She tried turning off the console, but when it didn’t work she decided to turn to the authorities. The Boston Police were dispatched to convince the boy to go to bed.
As Mejia puts things, “I have support from my church, but I’m alone. I want to help my son, but I can’t find a way.” I’ll let you in on a little secret, lady. You’re too late. Way too late. If you have to call the cops to get him to go to bed you’ve been doing things wrong for years.
The world seems more conscious than ever of the existence and significance of video games, but it’s not like we’re seeing the voice actors and developers behind Halo showing up on Conan every night. He did make one of the first jabs at the video game world I’ve seen in the mainstream media. Check the video below:
The real game probably isn’t much better. I’m excited for the movie, but every development house should stay away from this kind of trash development unless they’re ready to make something really great. Rush jobs never look good.
Right up there with an AIDS vaccine and teleportation, Project Natal has made Time Magazine’s “50 Best Inventions of 2009” at number five. I’m still not sure whether it’s an ordered list (let’s hope it’s not) but the peripheral’s placement is yet another confirmation that people think this is a really big deal.
Since time immemorial — or at least since Pong — one barrier that has stood between gamers and total Tron-like immersion in their video games has been the controller: the joystick, trackball, mouse, light gun or whatever. This year Microsoft demonstrated a technology, code-named Project Natal, that enables players to control games using only body movements and voice commands, no controller required — the gamer’s body becomes the controller. Project Natal uses several cameras, plus a highly specialized microphone and a lot of fancy software, to track the gamer’s body and interpret his or her voice. You move your hand, and the Master Chief (or whoever) moves his hand. It’s that simple. And that cool.
Really, it’s not that simple. But it is cool, and nice accolade for the gaming industry.
Alongside this month’s release of Assassin’s Creed 2, Ubisoft has partnered with Penguin Books to bring us a novel based Ezio’s escapades. Assassin’s Creed: Renaissance will release on November 26th, roughly a week after the game launches.
“This partnership presents at last a way for traditional book-publishing to cross-over with the ever growing and increasingly exciting world of gaming media,” said Penguin editorial director Alex Clarke. I’m not sure what “at last” means in this situation. There have been books based on game franchises for quite a while now.
‘I will seek Vengeance upon those who betrayed my family. I am Ezio Auditore da Firenze. I am an Assassin…’ Betrayed by the ruling families of Italy, a young man embarks upon an epic quest for vengeance. To eradicate corruption and restore his family’s honour, he will learn the art of the assassins. Along the way, Ezio will call upon the wisdom of such great minds as Leonardo Da Vinci and Niccolo Machiavelli – knowing that survival is bound to the skills by which he must live. To his allies, he will become a force for change – fighting for freedom and justice. To his enemies, he will become a threat dedicated to the destruction of the tyrants abusing the people of Italy. So begins an epic story of power, revenge and conspiracy. Truth will be written in blood.
Now imagine reading that for 528 pages. I don’t know that I would make it through.
In a recent interview about Shadow Complex, the man himself, Orson Scott Card, talked a bit about his favorite types of video games: turn-based strategy. He’s no warmonger, though. OSC prefers games like the Civilization series, where you definitely have to be ready for battle, but most of your time is spent actually organizing and building up your civ.
“I like the turn-based strategy game and there aren’t very many of those made, and most of them are made badly,” OSC said. “Really Sid Meier is the only guy who does it reliably. And I wish more people would learn the lessons from the way he does it. Because I’ve looked at some of the other offerings and they emphasize the tedium and the fog of war.”
You can find the full interview at Big Download. If you made it through any of the later books in the Ender’s Game series or read much of Alvin Maker, I’m sure you’ll make it through just fine.
If you’re completely out of costume ideas for Saturday, Sega wants to offer a little help. Because really, what’s hotter than a busty witch dual-wielding Derringers? Nothing, that’s what.
Yes, the costume at right comes from Bayonetta, Sega’s witch-themed shooter set for a 2010 release. The heroine is a sexy mashup of witch, japanese school girl, and kung-fu master. Sega wants to make sure a few Bayonettas make the rounds this Halloween so it put together a little guide for making your Bayonetta as authentic and erotic as possible.
Even if you aren’t looking for a game-inspired costume this year, the page is worth a read. The game looks admittedly cool, but when you consider applying some of the…character design choices…to an actual human, it sounds totally batshit. For example, the description of Bayonetta’s guns reads, “Add-ons include a crystal in its center allowing it to magically summon bullets, as well as a rail on the top of the guns so they can be equipped on Bayonetta’s feet by sliding them into the gap in her high heels.” Just a little food for thought while you’re at your local thrift store this weekend.
