On Friday, UK publication MCV reported that the future of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the game industry’s biggest annual trade event, is under discussion by the Entertainment Software Association and major publishers. According to unnamed insiders, many publishers feel that the event has gotten far too big and unwieldy, not to mention costly. “Costs have been getting out of hand. We’re talking double digit millions for some of us,” said an MCV source. “But that’s not just floorspace, of course - it’s build, parties, hotels, flights. Security, particularly, has become a massive cost.
“Today, the plot thickened, as both Next Generation and GameSpot are reporting that the event will no longer exist at all in its current form. Next Generation, currently running the headline “EXCLUSIVE: E3 FINISHED,” claims that the ESA’s Doug Lowenstein will announce within 48 hours that E3 has been cancelled for 2007 and beyond. “The days of an industry event attended by all the major publishers, spending big money, are gone,” reads the article. GameSpot reports that there may be a smaller industry event around the same time as E3, though it will not be held in E3’s traditional home base, the Los Angeles Convention Center. Such an event would support hundreds rather than thousands of attendees, and would be a more subdued preview event rather than a full-blown three-day industry party. GameSpot claims that the ESA will make its announcement tomorrow.
If this turns out to be the end of E3.. it will be a sad sad day indeed. E3 was the balls - out BEST show around. We should have known that with the booth babes being subdued, the end had to be near.*sniff* goodbye E3.. we barely knew ye.
This is so cool. Beta levels for Wind Waker have been found on the disc!
Now.. if any of them have any topless elves in them… we can get a nice lawsuite together!
We’d heard about this some time back, but we’d never seen a running video until recently and Fronz threatened to kill me if I didn’t post it asap. Now, you’re used to finding remnant developer BETA oddities in PC first person shooters by hacking away at the registry, but on a console… and in Zelda - The Wind Waker? Believe it - coders discovered ActionReplay codes that ulock trippy MonkeyBall-looking worlds that look completely like any Zelda experience you’ve ever played. Cellda’s Link finds himself in an Akira circus nightmare with checkered placeholder textures, long lakes, blocky bluffs, and a labyrynth of ladders right out of American Gladiators. None of this footage was ever meant for gamer’s eyes, but the experience is so interesting and surreal that I’d wish game developers would keep their best Betas in there (a-la DVD Bonus Materials, when there is surplus space available on the game disks).
Following in the vein of “Maniac Mansion” in “Day of the Tentacle”, and “Pitfall” in “Super Pitfall”, we have Doom in Doom III. I love these kinds of projects. As they illustrate how far technology moves.
The Terminal DOOM demo is a DOOM3 port - of sorts - of the Classic DOOM source as originally released in 1997. The playable demo is available for Windows and Linux, and supports all shareware and retail versions of DOOM. You will have to have the retail version of DOOM3 installed, and you will have to apply the version 1.3 patch to be able to run the Terminal DOOM demo. Once you applied the new patch, download the demo here from the mirror kindly provided by Ryan Gordon.
Well, with all the other stuff going in, its not too surprising that Blizzard might throw this in as a freebie. I suspect however, that it will cause all manner of balance issues. Hold on monkeys.. this is going to be a bumpy ride.
So what does all this background mean in terms of gameplay? Simply put: In The Burning Crusade, Alliance players can play as Draenei shamans, while Horde players can play as Blood Elf paladins. Previously, players on either side weren’t able to access those character classes; paladins were exclusive to the Alliance, while shamans were exclusive to the Horde. According to Blizzard, Horde paladins and Alliance shamans will have many of the same talents of their traditional counterparts, though they “will also enjoy some unique abilities to themselves, similar to the priest class’ racial specialties.” Since this new feature will fundamentally change the asymmetry between the game’s two factions, it will presumably have a significant impact on the way the game is played, especially in competitive player-versus-player combat.
I’m a 2d gamer, plain and simple. I enjoy fighters and shmups and not much else. The best way to play my favorite style of game? An arcade stick. I stumbled across this website of a very talented gentleman who contructs some stylish and sexy joysticks. If I had unlimited disposable income I would purchase every stick this guy makes. Check ‘em out and enjoy.
Some guy has made a video game that works on bio feedback. The trick is however, you have to relax to win.
Simmer Down Sprinter is a two player, sit-down, arcade style video game I designed and programmed in which players compete to move runners around a track. The game is controlled by player’s bio-feedback. The more relaxed the player becomes, the faster the runner moves around the track. Essentially it is a game of competitive relaxation.
The game is controlled by player’s bio-feedback. The more relaxed the player becomes, the faster the runner moves around the track. Essentially it is a game of competitive relaxation.I take the role of the runners in the video game, complete with track outfits in red and blue team-colors. Players rest hands on “team-colored” arm rests. The metal contacts detect changes in body temperature and galvanic skin resistance - similar to what is used for a polygraph test. When the player is more relaxed, the video of me running the track speeds up. If the player tenses up, the video slows down.
Fascinating take on a game system. But one question… do we need to be MORE sedentary while playing video games?
A small buisiness week article on Spore has come to my attention.
The really interesting bits are as follows:
…
When you’re satisfied with your creature’s physical appearance (and there are plenty of decorative fins, horns, and stalks with which to adorn it), it is time to color and texture it. Maxis developed a special intelligent texturing tool, which recognizes different body parts and essentially lets you airbrush your creature with your chosen color scheme, and you can add overlays, such as stripes running down its back. When your creature is done, the game generates stats for speed, attacking abilities and so on, which becomes its Sporepedia card (Spore is likely to come with an accompanying card game).
It may not be there in the same form in the final game, but you could also hit a menu item and send your creature to Maxis’ 3D printer, which automatically creates a model of it. It is likely that a model-making service (which will probably require payment) will be available when the game appears. And before you send your creature into the wild, you can put it into a testing ground – in which you can click a button and see what its babies will look like and, for example, hear what noise it will make (which is dictated by the type of mouth you chose). Taking your creature into the wild…
The accompanying card game, and the model service is a VERY cool idea added onto an already very cool game.
Maybe not *every* video game, but plenty. And they all play in a java applet. And they can be accessed from anywhere you have a web connection and Java.
E3: "Entertainment”, “Expo”, “Extinct”
