March 14th, 2010 |
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Filed under: Mac, PC, Meta (about Joystiq)  Exclusive features
Continue reading The Best of Big Download: March 8-14
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March 14th, 2010 |
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 [Flickr user Kossy@FINEDAYS]
If you guys like mathematical equations -- and, since you're a regular reader of the Japanese hardware sales feature, we're guessing you are -- then you're going to love this little ditty we whipped up earlier today:"A blogger flies west across three time zones at 450mph for five hours. Upon his arrival, he covers a week-long gaming convention. On his return trip, the blogger takes a red-eye with a connecting flight east across three time zones at 475mph for six hours. Daylight Saving Time goes into effect while the blogger is in the air. On the first flight, the blogger is seated between the two lankiest human beings to ever grace the face of God's green earth. When the blogger arrives on the east coast, how many hours of jetlag is he suffering from, and how long of a nap will he need to take in order to recover? Solve for x." The answers are, of course, 14 hours, 35 hours and π, respectively. - PSP: 64,808  27,470 (73.57%)- Wii: 33,880  2,361 (6.51%)- PS3: 28,824 1,061 (3.82%) - DSi LL: 23,611 994 (4.04%)- DSi: 15,017 569 (3.65%)- DS Lite: 4,316 713 (14.18%)- Xbox 360: 2,764 254 (10.12%)- PS2: 1,839 73 (3.82%)- PSP Go: 1,275 21 (1.62%)[Source: Media Create] Read: The lanky archives
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March 14th, 2010 |
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 He also talked about the "unholy alliance" between players and developers -- not only is the relationship beneficial for both parties (players offer their money, developers offer their time and talent), but it's also one of "mutually-assured destruction," as players can break contact with (or even just belief in) the game anytime they feel it's not fun any more, and developers can "really mess up the game, too." Everything in the game, said Meier, should be designed with an eye towards this alliance -- the AI should live to serve the player, the graphics and gameplay should engage imagination, and even options screens and load/save settings should be developed with an eye towards preserving the relationship. Civilization Network was mentioned under a section Meier called "my bad" -- along with the original ideas to make Civ real-time (whoops) and make the tech path random, he said that the CN team had considered letting players give gold to each other on Facebook, but during playtesting, found that players never actually did. He did say that the game is deep into testing currently, and that it will allow co-op, singleplayer, and competitive gameplay, and that it will be interesting whether players play for just "a little time a day" or more than that. At the end of the talk, in reply to a question about where he saw gaming going, Meier declared that "this is the year of Civilization!" With CN coming soon and Civ V due out this fall, we can't wait to send our Settlers out into the world.
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March 14th, 2010 |
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 That said, the announcer probably says "Kaboom!" four or five times. And yeah, somewhere in the middle there, we realized that NBA Jam just doesn't have that many catchphrases. But that's okay with us -- the gameplay looks fantastic! We'll have our impressions of the game up in a few weeks, but for now you can peep the trailer yourself after the break. Continue reading Newest NBA Jam trailer brings plenty of extra heat
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March 14th, 2010 |
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 Ideally, Perlman would like the OnLive service to be added to set top boxes -- including adding the service to existing boxes via software update. "If it has a USB port [for the controller] and we have adequate performance in there, then it's conceivable we can do it," Perlman told Joystiq. "A lot of them just have built-in latency because they assume they're using a conventional compression algorithm [for video]. In that case there's nothing we can do." Perlman echoed previous statements, saying that he expects OnLive to be "scrutinized" for any latency issues that may arise, especially considering OnLive is unique in that it "demands the connection to be exactly what it's spec'd to be." We'll certainly find out when it arrives this June.
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March 14th, 2010 |
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 Toriyama's main point during his presentation is that Agito and Versus won't be sequels to the recently released Final Fantasy XIII -- they'll both have their own unique set of characters, gameplay systems and overarching stories. The only thing connecting them is the "Crystal Mythos" motif -- a theme where the fates of ordinary humans are controlled by omnipotent gods. Players of Final Fantasy XIII should already be acquainted with this storytelling device. The other detail about the series Toriyama mentioned was that, like XIII, the rest of the series will continue to focus on story-driven gameplay rather than allowing the player to explore an open world. For better or worse, it sounds like Versus and Agito will possess the same linearity for which XIII was frequently criticized.
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March 14th, 2010 |
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 Most UI panels at the Game Developers' Conference tend to be full of dry technical information, all about how the team developed their own font kerning tool and organized menu elements in a data-driven fashion. The Harmonix UI panel this morning hosted by Senior Artist Kevin McGinnis did have that stuff (McGinnis is a self-diagnosed font geek, and did sound overly excited about formatting bitmaps), but it was also full of art -- beautiful The Beatles: Rock Band inspired art. McGinnis talked about the different concepts the team had tried -- they first attempted to do a very clean, serene respectful version of the menus, but then decided to go much more colorful. They hired a few artists to build the menus up into actual 3D spaces (after accidentally telling Apple Corps that yes, the menus would all be animated), and McGinnis even showed off the 3D model that the camera zooms around in to guide the player into the game. You can see all of the art in the gallery below, from the various pieces of flair to the menu designs and concept work.
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March 14th, 2010 |
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 Probably the most interesting statistic that Divnich dropped: An average of only 4 percent of Xbox gamers actually managed to earn all of the achievements in any given game. When focusing only on major, "AAA" titles, that number drops to 2 percent. Meanwhile, less than 10 percent of consumers get more than 80 percent of Achievements. Furthermore, Divnich noted that only 27 percent of users manage to unlock more than 50 percent of Achievements. Divnich concluded his talk by saying that developers should learn as much as possible from Achievements. He advised studios to use them as motivational tool for users noting that the number of unlocked Achievements tends to drop off at around 30 percent. He added that gamers who manage to unlock at least 80 percent of Achievements are typically motivated to unlock the remaining 20 percent. Finally, Divnich stated that developers can use Achievements as a form of direct user feedback. By observing which Achievements are unlocked, developers can see the parts of a game that players enjoy. This, in turn, can help developers decide what to focus on in the sequel. Beyond that, Achievement monitoring could even help them decide whether to make a sequel at all.
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March 14th, 2010 |
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 The advice was wide-ranging, though all the panelists agreed that the best way to get a game noticed is to submit it to as many competitions and festivals as possible. Swift specifically noted that it's a good idea to literally drag people to come and play your game at festivals and shows like GDC. The game itself should "grab" players as well, with Korba saying that a festival showing of a game should be get players involved within five minutes. Continue reading GDC 2010: From student game to success
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March 14th, 2010 |
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 Unfortunately, it seems that if you didn't register many moons ago, you still might not be eligible for inclusion, as the developers also reveal that "We have no plans to make an open beta at this time." Considering the game is still planned for release in the first half of this year, though, it would seem that even without a beta invite you'll be playing the game fairly soon. [Via BigDownload]
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