what? no wii?
brawl comes out in little more than a week.
This Week in Gaming...
Moderators: Cagliostro, lucimay, Creator, Sorus
I'm probably not as good as picking out Wii stories as I don't have one, it also seems like Cnet and Ars Technica don't run as many articles on the Wii as the other consoles, aside from how well it's doing in sales/how there still aren't enough of them. Please feel free to post any gaming stories that interest you though.
I did notice this: Mario Kart Wii to support text chat, not voice
I'm not sure how I feel about this, I sure would like to replicate the same-room banter I enjoyed with my friends on old Mario Kart games while playing them online, but I can't imagine Nintendo want to emulate certain aspects of Xbox Live (I suspect most Wii owners want to live their lives without being called a "gay, fagging noob" by 12 year-old sociopaths on a regular basis). The text support is interesting, but I don't imagine it catching on. I'd recommend that they incorporate limited voice chat, i.e. if you play as a party you can enable it only for the people in that party. There's no real need to communicate to play Mario Kart, so I don't think open chat would be missed very much.
And Sony have finally done it, they've announced a game that makes me wish I had a PS3: WipEout HD
Maybe it's becaue I'm a veteran of mid-to-late 90s rave culture, but WipEout occupies its own special place in my heart. I've played every one to death, even WipEout Fusion on the PS2, which received mixed reviews. With WipEout Pulse on the PSP looking particularly awesome, I'm now very likely to buy a PSP with both that and WipEout Pure to try and stave off the cravings. If at some point in the future I'm wealthy enough to be able to drop £1000 on a good HD TV and a PS3, WipEout HD will be right at the top of my games list.
I did notice this: Mario Kart Wii to support text chat, not voice
I'm not sure how I feel about this, I sure would like to replicate the same-room banter I enjoyed with my friends on old Mario Kart games while playing them online, but I can't imagine Nintendo want to emulate certain aspects of Xbox Live (I suspect most Wii owners want to live their lives without being called a "gay, fagging noob" by 12 year-old sociopaths on a regular basis). The text support is interesting, but I don't imagine it catching on. I'd recommend that they incorporate limited voice chat, i.e. if you play as a party you can enable it only for the people in that party. There's no real need to communicate to play Mario Kart, so I don't think open chat would be missed very much.
And Sony have finally done it, they've announced a game that makes me wish I had a PS3: WipEout HD
Maybe it's becaue I'm a veteran of mid-to-late 90s rave culture, but WipEout occupies its own special place in my heart. I've played every one to death, even WipEout Fusion on the PS2, which received mixed reviews. With WipEout Pulse on the PSP looking particularly awesome, I'm now very likely to buy a PSP with both that and WipEout Pure to try and stave off the cravings. If at some point in the future I'm wealthy enough to be able to drop £1000 on a good HD TV and a PS3, WipEout HD will be right at the top of my games list.
Q. Why do Communists drink herbal tea?
A. Because proper tea is theft.
A. Because proper tea is theft.
Fans revive Space Hulk, Games Workshop have it pulled
I remember this game from the Amiga, very disappointing that GW would decide to stop them considering how Space Hulk is practically dead as a game. Of course, the IP involved is very much current to them so perhaps I shouldn't be surprised. Given the success of GW's recent PC games though, I wouldn't be surprised if a Space Hulk game was in the works already.
I remember this game from the Amiga, very disappointing that GW would decide to stop them considering how Space Hulk is practically dead as a game. Of course, the IP involved is very much current to them so perhaps I shouldn't be surprised. Given the success of GW's recent PC games though, I wouldn't be surprised if a Space Hulk game was in the works already.
Q. Why do Communists drink herbal tea?
A. Because proper tea is theft.
A. Because proper tea is theft.
Here's an article from Maxim which attempts to place a dollar value on in-game currencies by comparing the price of in-game items to those in the real world.
7 Video Game Currencist Stronger Than the US Dollar
Ars Technica published a response featuring some of the 'weaker' in-game currencies, including:
The Gil from Final Fantasy: One energy potion in FF costs $50, a can of Red Bull is about $2, therefore the Gil is worth about 4c!
The Poko from Pikmin 2: A bottle cap costs 100 Pokos. As bottle caps are practically worthless, that can't be good for the Pikmin economy.
The Linden Dollar (named after our own Linden Avery perhaps?) from Second Life can actually be exchanged for US dollars, but $1 costs 265 Linden Dollars.
The coins in World of Warcraft: Braxxis' Staff of Slumber costs around 41 gold coins (equivalent to 410,000 copper coins) in WoW, server economy variations withstanding. You can pick up a decent stun baton for $85, so a copper coin is worth 1/50 of one cent!
On a more depressing note, in 2006 the World of Warcraft gold piece was worth more than the Iraqi Dinar.
7 Video Game Currencist Stronger Than the US Dollar
Ars Technica published a response featuring some of the 'weaker' in-game currencies, including:
The Gil from Final Fantasy: One energy potion in FF costs $50, a can of Red Bull is about $2, therefore the Gil is worth about 4c!
The Poko from Pikmin 2: A bottle cap costs 100 Pokos. As bottle caps are practically worthless, that can't be good for the Pikmin economy.
The Linden Dollar (named after our own Linden Avery perhaps?) from Second Life can actually be exchanged for US dollars, but $1 costs 265 Linden Dollars.
The coins in World of Warcraft: Braxxis' Staff of Slumber costs around 41 gold coins (equivalent to 410,000 copper coins) in WoW, server economy variations withstanding. You can pick up a decent stun baton for $85, so a copper coin is worth 1/50 of one cent!
On a more depressing note, in 2006 the World of Warcraft gold piece was worth more than the Iraqi Dinar.
Q. Why do Communists drink herbal tea?
A. Because proper tea is theft.
A. Because proper tea is theft.
PC Mass Effect will need validation every 10 days
Apparently the game will need to contact EA's validation server at install and then again every 10 days to validate your copy. If you don't have an internet connection, the game will be unplayable and if you have a shaky internet connection like I do, then you stand a good chance of being without the game for a few days if it goes down at a bad time.
I've already got the game for 360, but according to the article EA are going to implement the same scheme on Spore. They are apprently oblivious to the snafu caused by Ubisoft's version of a similar validation system for Assassin's Creed, which left the game unplayable for many players.
I will not buy a game which has this kind of DRM on it, which sucks as I was still quite keen on getting Spore.
Apparently the game will need to contact EA's validation server at install and then again every 10 days to validate your copy. If you don't have an internet connection, the game will be unplayable and if you have a shaky internet connection like I do, then you stand a good chance of being without the game for a few days if it goes down at a bad time.
I've already got the game for 360, but according to the article EA are going to implement the same scheme on Spore. They are apprently oblivious to the snafu caused by Ubisoft's version of a similar validation system for Assassin's Creed, which left the game unplayable for many players.
I will not buy a game which has this kind of DRM on it, which sucks as I was still quite keen on getting Spore.
Q. Why do Communists drink herbal tea?
A. Because proper tea is theft.
A. Because proper tea is theft.