Well here I am at E3, exhausted after Microsoft's brilliant press conference (I have my new Xbox 360 being sent express post to the lucky winner of last weeks competition). Hopefully the performers of Cirque du Soleil are not too exhausted today when they will be prancing around acting as Dodongos and Buzzblobs with the most realistic of movements, for the inevitable announcement of Zelda Wii at the Nintendo press conference (Do I get a free Wii?).
But there is more amazing news fresh off the floors of E3, coming from the most unlikely of sources, Ubisoft! We spoke one-on-one with a source at Ubisoft about the upcoming title Michael Jackson The Game, and when it came to the timing of the release almost one year after the death of Michael Jackson something surprising came up; delays his death caused within the video game industry. Yes, Michael Jackson was actually working closely with a few game developers before he died, on top of his whirlwind global tour schedule. I do digress...
The latest iteration of the Pokemon series (Black/White) was actually slated for a 2009 release, with the theme song to be performed by Michael Jackon. But with the pop-stars unexpected death almost one year ago today, the game had to be pushed back to 2010 while N*SYNC reformed to perform the song in Jackson's heed.
How is this related to Ubisoft? Only God knows. But at least the news is out there now. I am off to get a coffee and keep you updated on any other E3 news!
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
Thursday, 15 April 2010
Nintendo 3DS console a farce?
Some quick news grabbed from over at Kotaku-
So here it is. Nintendo never leaked the announcement of the 3DS, infact they never intended to make the console at all. Sony Computer Entertainment leaked the news as a way to stop sales of Nintendo's new DSi XL console, with Nintendo expected to deny the rumours of the 3DS and destroy consumer confidence in the brand. Now Nintendo has been forced to not only accept that the rumour is true, but to also make a brand new console before the 2010 E3 trade show. But it's not all that bad, because the 3DS is expected to be an overclocked DS with users to don stereoscopic goggles; already manufactured in the late 80s before the iron curtain fell, for the Soviet Union's Special Operations Forces.
So here it is. Nintendo never leaked the announcement of the 3DS, infact they never intended to make the console at all. Sony Computer Entertainment leaked the news as a way to stop sales of Nintendo's new DSi XL console, with Nintendo expected to deny the rumours of the 3DS and destroy consumer confidence in the brand. Now Nintendo has been forced to not only accept that the rumour is true, but to also make a brand new console before the 2010 E3 trade show. But it's not all that bad, because the 3DS is expected to be an overclocked DS with users to don stereoscopic goggles; already manufactured in the late 80s before the iron curtain fell, for the Soviet Union's Special Operations Forces.
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Halo 3: ODST review.
Written by the famous electronic musician 'malakian', this belated review may be helpful over the Christmas buying season for those of you considering purchasing this game for a loved one. Please be aware that the views of the original author are not the views of the PDB writing staff.
im playing through odst
i'm nearly done i think
it's been 10% fun, 90% boredom
in halo 3 you are master chief and can dual wield guns, punch niggas to death etc
in this you are a weak human and cant even dual wield
and there is even less enemies
and much less fun
less of the same enemies btw.
3/10
im playing through odst
i'm nearly done i think
it's been 10% fun, 90% boredom
in halo 3 you are master chief and can dual wield guns, punch niggas to death etc
in this you are a weak human and cant even dual wield
and there is even less enemies
and much less fun
less of the same enemies btw.
3/10
Monday, 28 September 2009
SEGA to re-enter console collective
BREAKING news, former video game industry heavyweight Sega announces it's re-entry in to the console market to head up against Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. A spokesperson for the company this morning announced the project, codenamed Pluto, is set for a late 2010 release as a race to be the first of the next-gen systems.
COO for Sega's Western markets, Michael Hayes, denies the announcement but refuses to make any official comment only fueling further speculation. Facing financial trouble Sega bowed out of the console hardware race in January 2001 after dismal sales of their Dreamcast console, to focus on creating software for other platforms.
Sega has steadily grown since 2001, with a strong arcade division and growing software sales for home consoles. With strong financial backing Sega is set to become a household name once more.
COO for Sega's Western markets, Michael Hayes, denies the announcement but refuses to make any official comment only fueling further speculation. Facing financial trouble Sega bowed out of the console hardware race in January 2001 after dismal sales of their Dreamcast console, to focus on creating software for other platforms.
Sega has steadily grown since 2001, with a strong arcade division and growing software sales for home consoles. With strong financial backing Sega is set to become a household name once more.
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
The forgotten few...
1983, Australian Outback.
Let me begin by trying to explain something I don't seem to be able to sum up in a single word (Maybe one of my many readers can tell me what I am trying to say, in the comments section below). Do you know that feeling when you've done something horrible wrong? And you just try your hardest to hide the fact, but when someones eyes fix on your face, you can just tell they know what you've done. That is what I am looking for, in a word.
Up to this point in time the video game industry had glided along hastle free, not being caught up in any massive dramas or cover-ups (that could be the word). Sure, the commotion caused over the full-frontal nudity of Puck-man only a few years earlier in 1980 was something you are still hearing about in the news today when someone mentions violence caused by video games, but that is still considered a mere drop in the pond when it comes to what happened next.
The story that you all know and some of you accept, is the story of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial created by Howard Scott Warshaw(If he was the extra, who was the first? Hah!). Atari existed as a very large corporation, as evidence of this I cite the CIA World Fact Book for Personal Computer ownership in the United States for the year 1981, which to date, is the only year that 100% of the US population had at least one PC per person per household. To put that in to perspective, only 68% of the US population has a PC right now, you parents were more tech savvy than you.
But I digress, for those of you that don't know the story it is that of the speculated landfill, where millions of unsold copies of the Atari 2600 game E.T. ended up. In 1982 the E.T. video game was released in small quantities to the press to critical acclaim. The game made many technical advancements on the Atari 2600 and was lauded as a master-piece of it's time, with an amazing plot never before seen in a graphical adventure (prior to this games with any storyline substance were released as text adventure games).
But what went wrong? Steven Spielberg. Steven Spielberg was a little known man with ambitions to make it big in Hollywood, who at the time was working for a small video-game publication known as 'Atari News'. With the help of his computer programmer friends, Steven Spielberg reverse-engineered the Atari 2600 game and managed to steal a text file contained within, which detailed quite well the entire plot and script for the game. Within the year and before the official release of the game, Steven Spielberg had released a movie which was loosely based on the game.
The movie is a success, and Steven Spielberg is somebody. But only weeks after the release of the movie, and amidst a litany of law-suits, the game was released to the public. To avoid any legal action against himself, Warshaw changed minor story elements within the game. Surely, if any positive was to come out of this, it was that the E.T. brand was absolutely massive. Unfortunately this happened at a time of global financial recession, and when it came to entertainment it was either a movie or a video-game, not both. Many people in the public felt that Warshaw had ripped off the movie and tried to radically re-create it in his own image to fool the public in to thinking it was his idea.
So great were the merits of this game based on the press release issue, that Atari spent nearly every last dollar it had earnt in computer sales on copies of this game (Remember that Atari at this time was bigger than MicroSoft). The publics demand did not meet expectations, and Atari was beginning to lose value on the stock market as worried investors twittered together, scared that their returns would be copies of the E.T. game. In a store room that took up most of the US state of Nevada, at least 50 million copies of the game sat waiting for store orders. It was estimated by Nolan Bushnell himself that every American citizen would want at least one copy of this game for themself, and so it was that almost that many copies were made.
Losing millions of dollars every day in storage costs, Atari eventually had not a cent left. With no money at all and the price of landfill at a premium, Atari were forced to find a free alternative. This was to bury every unsold copy of the game in a giant hole which was known as Texas (since then a bustling city has spouted from the plastic remains). I tell you this, and with what I expect to be shock, I continue by saying that this is not the true horror that occured within the video game industry. For what is less well known that the true story of E.T., is the story of what happened next.
Image: Photograph of buried games.
After the great video game crash of 1983, which was blamed solely on the events previously explained, Atari underwent massive change and was actually sold. The original staff were not to be seen at the new Atari Corp., but instead all disappeared. Disappeared just like the stock of games. It is rumoured that to hide any link between the Atari games in Texas and the missing employees, they were all killed and then buried in the Australian Outback. This truly is a shocking look back at history, but is one that people have to sometimes take.
Let me begin by trying to explain something I don't seem to be able to sum up in a single word (Maybe one of my many readers can tell me what I am trying to say, in the comments section below). Do you know that feeling when you've done something horrible wrong? And you just try your hardest to hide the fact, but when someones eyes fix on your face, you can just tell they know what you've done. That is what I am looking for, in a word.
Up to this point in time the video game industry had glided along hastle free, not being caught up in any massive dramas or cover-ups (that could be the word). Sure, the commotion caused over the full-frontal nudity of Puck-man only a few years earlier in 1980 was something you are still hearing about in the news today when someone mentions violence caused by video games, but that is still considered a mere drop in the pond when it comes to what happened next.
The story that you all know and some of you accept, is the story of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial created by Howard Scott Warshaw(If he was the extra, who was the first? Hah!). Atari existed as a very large corporation, as evidence of this I cite the CIA World Fact Book for Personal Computer ownership in the United States for the year 1981, which to date, is the only year that 100% of the US population had at least one PC per person per household. To put that in to perspective, only 68% of the US population has a PC right now, you parents were more tech savvy than you.
But I digress, for those of you that don't know the story it is that of the speculated landfill, where millions of unsold copies of the Atari 2600 game E.T. ended up. In 1982 the E.T. video game was released in small quantities to the press to critical acclaim. The game made many technical advancements on the Atari 2600 and was lauded as a master-piece of it's time, with an amazing plot never before seen in a graphical adventure (prior to this games with any storyline substance were released as text adventure games).
But what went wrong? Steven Spielberg. Steven Spielberg was a little known man with ambitions to make it big in Hollywood, who at the time was working for a small video-game publication known as 'Atari News'. With the help of his computer programmer friends, Steven Spielberg reverse-engineered the Atari 2600 game and managed to steal a text file contained within, which detailed quite well the entire plot and script for the game. Within the year and before the official release of the game, Steven Spielberg had released a movie which was loosely based on the game.
The movie is a success, and Steven Spielberg is somebody. But only weeks after the release of the movie, and amidst a litany of law-suits, the game was released to the public. To avoid any legal action against himself, Warshaw changed minor story elements within the game. Surely, if any positive was to come out of this, it was that the E.T. brand was absolutely massive. Unfortunately this happened at a time of global financial recession, and when it came to entertainment it was either a movie or a video-game, not both. Many people in the public felt that Warshaw had ripped off the movie and tried to radically re-create it in his own image to fool the public in to thinking it was his idea.
So great were the merits of this game based on the press release issue, that Atari spent nearly every last dollar it had earnt in computer sales on copies of this game (Remember that Atari at this time was bigger than MicroSoft). The publics demand did not meet expectations, and Atari was beginning to lose value on the stock market as worried investors twittered together, scared that their returns would be copies of the E.T. game. In a store room that took up most of the US state of Nevada, at least 50 million copies of the game sat waiting for store orders. It was estimated by Nolan Bushnell himself that every American citizen would want at least one copy of this game for themself, and so it was that almost that many copies were made.
Losing millions of dollars every day in storage costs, Atari eventually had not a cent left. With no money at all and the price of landfill at a premium, Atari were forced to find a free alternative. This was to bury every unsold copy of the game in a giant hole which was known as Texas (since then a bustling city has spouted from the plastic remains). I tell you this, and with what I expect to be shock, I continue by saying that this is not the true horror that occured within the video game industry. For what is less well known that the true story of E.T., is the story of what happened next.Image: Photograph of buried games.
After the great video game crash of 1983, which was blamed solely on the events previously explained, Atari underwent massive change and was actually sold. The original staff were not to be seen at the new Atari Corp., but instead all disappeared. Disappeared just like the stock of games. It is rumoured that to hide any link between the Atari games in Texas and the missing employees, they were all killed and then buried in the Australian Outback. This truly is a shocking look back at history, but is one that people have to sometimes take.
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
1971
1971, Japan.
Tired of Scrabble, fondu and brown (or orange) coloured curtains, the Australian public turned to Japanese experts to create what would be considered by many video-game industry experts to be, "What could be the greatest home video-game system of the Winter of 1971". Led by Koyo Ayatama, renowned physicist and inventor of the common house-hold turtle, a team of approximately 5 to 18 Japanese pre-graduate University students were tossed a life-line by the then Liberal Prime Minister John Gorton, of AUD$1.6M.
It is understood that time passed, and things happened. Which brings us to the end of this history lesson. Time passed, and through the ravages of history, the story was lost. The fate of the infamous ErectraVision lies unknown. Once the project was completed John Gorton was elected out of office, and became a recluse. Two prototype consoles are known to be in existance. One is housed at the Ayatama Bread Shop behind a closed door, available for technical demonstration upon request, and the other is held in Canberra's ministerial offices.
Tired of Scrabble, fondu and brown (or orange) coloured curtains, the Australian public turned to Japanese experts to create what would be considered by many video-game industry experts to be, "What could be the greatest home video-game system of the Winter of 1971". Led by Koyo Ayatama, renowned physicist and inventor of the common house-hold turtle, a team of approximately 5 to 18 Japanese pre-graduate University students were tossed a life-line by the then Liberal Prime Minister John Gorton, of AUD$1.6M.
It is understood that time passed, and things happened. Which brings us to the end of this history lesson. Time passed, and through the ravages of history, the story was lost. The fate of the infamous ErectraVision lies unknown. Once the project was completed John Gorton was elected out of office, and became a recluse. Two prototype consoles are known to be in existance. One is housed at the Ayatama Bread Shop behind a closed door, available for technical demonstration upon request, and the other is held in Canberra's ministerial offices.
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