A Snapshot Of The World’s PC Gaming Rigs
I just logged into my Steam account, and was asked to take part in a hardware survey. You all know what that means. It means it’s time to take a look at Valve’s latest hardware survey results!
Released periodically over Valve’s online marketplace and gaming service, the immense popularity of Steam means these figures (the results of which are gathered from millions of users across the world) give us the best idea possible of just what makes up the “average” setup for the “average” PC gamer out there.
Here are the July 2009 results. To see them in more detail, hit the link below.
Metroid Prime Trilogy Lost its ‘Damn’
In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Admiral Dane expresses his frustration with the Space Pirates by letting out a rather mild profanity. “Damn,” to be precise. In the Metroid Prime Trilogy, which released a week ago, it’s been scrubbed.
See for yourself in the above comparison, uploaded yesterday by YouTube user ThunderChaosStudios. The cleanup didn’t affect the rating process at all. All three games in the trilogy were originally rated teen, and so is the trilogy. One wonders why someone went to the trouble of eliminating the only(?) swear word in the game, one you hear on television daily.
I’ve contacted a Nintendo public relations rep for comment. If we hear back, we’ll update the post here.
Metroid Prime: Corruptions Admiral Dane Drops the Curse Word [GoNintendo via Joystiq]
More Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story Gameplay Action
Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story is on a very very short list of games releasing before the holidays that I plan on purchasing—with my own money!—and completing from start to finish. That’s rare!
While not normally a fan of the role-playing game genre, I’ve been a big fan of the Mario & Luigi RPG games. The unappealing prospect of spelunking Bowser’s bowels isn’t something that will turn me off, not when I know that bad guy Fawful will be around delivering ace dialogue.
Two new videos from Nintendo show off some Bowser related gameplay, plus highlight some of the “belly laughs” we’ll be experiencing in Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story. The latter is just after this.
Eve Online: Dominion Coming This Winter
Developer CCP sets its sights on redefining EVE Online’s end game in EVE Online: Dominion, the 11th free expansion for the massively-multiplayer space sim, due out in winter 2009.
While work continues on the eagerly anticipated Walking in Stations update for EVE Online that will introduce avatars to the mix (recently renamed Incarna), EVE’s 11th free update will be the newly announced Dominion. Dominion is all about the end game, or as CCP puts it, “Dominion is all about ownership-how you conquer and hold space, how you hold sway over fellow capsuleers and how you wage war against any who stand in your way. How do you make a name for yourself in a universe of 300,000 other players?”
The update will feature a more dynamic alliance combat system, allowing for more tactical strategy to be utilized in combat, a direct result of player feedback on the current state of the game.
Dominion will also bring enhanced social networking features to EVE Online to help foster social interaction, epic pirate mission arcs (arrrrr!), and more updates to the graphics engine, doing for planets what Apocrypha did for asteroids.
CCP promises to reveal much more about the expansion in the coming months. For now, keep your eyes on the official EVE Online: Dominion website.
A Better Katamari?
Have you ever really liked a game, tried to convince your friend how good it is and then discovered, as you talk about it, that the game might make less sense the more you talk about it?
1up’s David Ellis put in a heroic effort during last week’s Listen Up podcast trying to describe the game Osmos. He was describing the game that I voted as best entry in this spring’s Independent Games Festival (it didn’t win.) And I pitied his attempts to describe it to his co-workers.
A little set-up, not that I think I can do much better than Ellis.
Osmos is a 2D PC puzzle game played from the overhead view that makes you think of flOw or the cell stage in Spore. You control one globule – or mote, in Ellis’ descriptions — with the goal of moving that globule into contact with smaller globules, automatically absorbing them and eventually being the largest globule in the playing field. Two complications: 1) If you go near larger globules in the playing field, they will siphon off your size, making you shrink as they gain size… 2) You can only propel yourself by jetting some of your mass behind your globule, shrinking yourself in the process and injecting more globules into the playing field in the process (Imagine retreating from a larger globule but having to fire off some of your mass into that larger one to escape — thereby making it larger).
OK. If I haven’t lost you yet, then here’s Ellis trying to describe the game’s wonderful Milky-Way-galaxy-style level at 9:34 of the podcast:
David Ellis: There are other levels where you start in orbit around this sun and all the globules are like asteroids and planets and meteorites, also orbiting around the sun, and you actually have to adjust your orbit on the fly to avoid larger motes but also…Garnett Lee, Listen Up host: So you already have momentum.
Ellis: You already have momentum. So you’re trying to actually adjust your orbital track while trying to catch up to other ones, but also not adjusting it in such a way that you lose your orbit, because then you’ll have to use a lot of the make-up of your character to actually get back into orbit. So you’ll actually be a lot smaller then. So you want to try to keep it pretty consistent all the way around. But you also want to adjust it so that you’re not just following in the same track but you are changing it every time around so you’re picking up more and more motes to make yourself much larger.
Don’t blame the messenger. Blame the complexity of even the simplest games. I’ve told people that the breakthrough of Osmos is that it tweaks the design fundamentals of Katamari Damacy. That game is all about gaining mass in order to absorb whatever is, at the moment, smaller. That dynamic is here, but coupled with the stress that larger things in the level are always a threat to roll you up. It’s like a Katamari MMO, except that it’s single-player.
Does that make sense?
Maybe you should just watch the trailer and try the demo from Hemisphere Games.
Osmos Trailer from hemisphere games on Vimeo.
Champions Online: A Tale Of Four Heroes
Join us, brave adventurers, as we put four superhero characters through their paces in Cryptic’s Champions Online. Fear the trickery of Bullshot! Feel the blades of Becca Danger! Generally look out for Super Crecente!
The early head-start for Cryptic’s new superhero MMO Champions Online kicked off this weekend, and despite having many other plans, I couldn’t resist the siren song of the spandex. Finding myself awake far too early on a Saturday morning, I couldn’t help my hand as it opened up Games Explorer and double-clicked on the Champions icon. Soon I was strapping on equipment, fastening my cape, checking my weapons, and in two cases growing a pair of breasts as I dived headlong into the world of Champions Online.
The Secret Origin of Bullshot
I’ve always had a weakness for superheroes that used bows, so archery was my first choice of powersets to explore. I started off with images of Hawkeye and Green Arrow in my head, but the game’s expansive character creation tool soon led me in an entirely new direction. I am not quite sure how I ended up trying out horns on my archer, but they fit perfectly. A nice brown color scheme later and Bullshot was born.
Champions Online isn’t quite the sort of persistent world MMO we’re used to. It’s made up of adventure instances, sort of like comic book issues, where a certain number of characters can play before a new instance is spawned. The starting zone, for instance, is set during an alien invasion of Millennium City. The player progresses through a series of quests that ultimately leads to an instanced mission, and then they progress to the next area of their choosing.
Bullshot had some troubles early on, as I hadn’t quite grasped how the powers work. Basically you have one power that builds up energy, and other powers that use said energy. It’s sort of like the rogue in World of Warcraft. You build up power using your weaker attack in order to unleash the big guns. Not quite understanding this, Bullshot died quite a few times.
Eventually he got to a public mission, which works a lot like public quests in Warhammer Online. A series of tasks is presented, such as kill 20 aliens, and all players participate until the next task is given. At the end of the quest the players are ranked and awarded prizes based on their participation. Having done terribly, all I got was a lousy health kit.
Then came the instanced mission, where the real foe behind the invasion is uncovered. It’s your first encounter with a supervillain, and if you know what you are doing it isn’t too hard, especially with a high-powered NPC at your side. Needless to say, I died several times. Luckily the supervillain’s health stayed where it was when I bought it, so killing him was only a matter of running back to finish him off.
After the grand finale of the alien invasion arc, I was presented with two different storylines to pick up – Canada or the desert. Choosing Canada, I was transported to a snowy base in the middle of nowhere, and urged to purchase my first new powers in six levels, along with a travel power. Eager to test out travelling, I chose swinging, thinking that shooting a bow with a line attached would fit Bullshot perfectly. I spent about an hour after that just swinging around, casting my line out to the empty sky, and generally having a blast before I decided to take a nap.
Enter Becca Danger
I’m also a fan of superheroes who are just normal people with a few extraordinary powers. Rather than continue with Bullshot, I created a female character. A simple girl with a t-shirt, jeans, a pair of swords, and big, clunky rocket boots. I showed the design to my girlfriend, who suggested I name my creation Becca, after the real name of Tank Girl. Craving a bit more of a twist, I added Danger as a last name, and Becca Danger was born.
Now that I had the hang of things, the tutorial level flew by in an hour, with nary a death. The dial swords powerset is unique in that many of its powers hit more than one enemy at a time, so I was tearing through aliens like there was no tomorrow. Finishing the opening in no time flat, I chose the desert this time around, granting Becca a few new powers and of course, activating those rocket boots.
Rocket boots are the fastest travel power, though they activate in stages, to keep things fair and balanced. Once you get up to speed, shooting around the sky is extremely entertaining.
The desert storyline involves freeing a research facility from radioactive mutants. I got Becca to level 9 by the end of the arc, though I did have to team up for one particularly difficult quest. My Champions Online team experience lasted all of 2 minutes, and we disbanded as soon as the boss monster was down. Otherwise, Becca was flying solo.
Once that arc completed I was delivered into a new, more expanded desert instance, with the facility rebuilt. New missions and more exploration awaited, but that would have to wait for the next issue.
Onyx is Born.
Sunday was a brand new day, and a brand new heroine was born. Inspired by Peter Milligan and Mike Allred’s stint on X-Force (renamed X-Statix before cancellation), I went with a rather quirky design for Onyx. Completely black, this powerhouse character wears the outfit of a classic 1970’s superhero, with her red glasses the only discernible facial feature. Very, very Allred.
Fortunately for me, Onyx proved more resilient than the characters of X-Statix, again breezing through the tutorial mission in record time, thanks to her uber-toughness and her powerful arsenal of punches. Again I chose Canada, giving her the earth flying power to coincide with her geological origin. Hovering about on a dislodged chunk of earth, I took on all manner of ice demons and ice zombies as I struggled to free the ice outpost from the ice evil. As it was getting late, I couldn’t see the mission through to completion, and my girlfriend wanted to watch Kate & Leopold. Not wanting any more ice, I decided to go with her plan.
But the best was yet to come…
The one…the only…Super Crecente
This morning I woke up early, and having a little bit of free time I decided to make one last hero. The gadgeteer in pink and yellow, his long tresses as much a weapon as his sonic blaster, Super Crecente arrived on the scene, taking down aliens as easily as if they were notes at a press conference.
I am not sure how he lost his eye, but I bet it was painful.
My time in Crecente’s shoes was short, as he has much smaller feet, and I actually enjoyed the concept of the gadgeteer power set and didn’t want to be locked into being Super Crecente until the end of time.
Those four characters represent about 13-14 hours worth of Champions Online. I’d say I had a bit of fun, though there wasn’t much in the way of chatting going on, so I couldn’t really gauge the community. With the game going live for everyone tomorrow, I expect that to change.
Feel free to hit me up in game if you’d like to take out a few mutants together. Just be warned that I have serious alt-character disease, so there’s no telling who I’ll be when you finally catch me.
GTA: Episodes From Liberty City Box Looks Like This
Here’s the final box art for Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, the stand-alone versions of Grand Theft Auto IV’s first and second doses of downloadable content.
Rockstar sure has been busy this weekend, releasing a set of screenshots for The Ballad of Gay Tony, announcing Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and Beaterator for the iPhone, and now we get our first look at the box art for Episodes from Liberty City. You’d think they’d just take the rest of the week off, but no – tomorrow they release the trailer for The Ballad of Gay Tony. Then they take a richly-deserved nap.
First DSi-only Games Hit Stores This Fall With Distinct Look
Nintendo’s Masato Kuwahara, project lead on the Nintendo DSi hardware, revealed that games playable only on the latest revision Nintendo DS were in the works at this year’s GDC. Those first DSi-only games will hit this fall, sources tell Kotaku.
Software that will only work on a Nintendo DSi will join titles playable on a Nintendo DS or DS Lite that also feature DSi-specific enhanced capabilities, like Ubisoft’s Jam Sessions 2 and My Healthy Cooking Coach. Games and apps that will only be playable on a DSi will be visually distinct from past product, sources say.
Those DSi-only games will be packaged in all-white game cases, making them stand out from the standard dark gray cases of currently available Nintendo DS games. Those cases will sport a warning that the software is only compatible with the Nintendo DSi. DSi-only game cards themselves will use a similar white plastic, but it’s unclear if those re-colored cards will have any difficulty fitting into a DS or DS Lite cartridge slot.
Another unknown is if DSi-only software will take advantage of the expanded tech specs unique to the Nintendo DSi.
It appears that, like Wii MotionPlus, that Nintendo will be letting third-party publishers take the lead in offering DSi-only software. Nintendo itself has offered plenty of downloadable DSiWare games that are system specific, but it has yet to announce any DSi-only retail games as part of its future lineup. Still a risky proposition, considering the comparatively smaller userbase of the DSi platform and the possibility for consumer confusion.
We contacted Nintendo for comment on the introduction of DSi-only games this year, but the company did not respond to requests before publishing.
Move Over Wii Sports, It’s Time For The Biggest Loser
This clip for The Biggest Loser, a cash-in on the TV show of the same name for the Wii, is too long. Too much menu footage. But in between that? We’re talking party game of the year here, people.
[via Go Nintendo]
My, A Lot Of People Play Runescape
Runescape tends to fly along under most people’s radars. Maybe because it’s free, maybe because it’s browser-based, maybe because of both. Doesn’t matter! Game’s still insanely popular.
Publishers Jagex have revealed that the game has had 105 million people sign up since launching eight years ago. Sure, it’s free to sign up, and there’ll be multiple accounts among that figure, but still. It’s an impressive number.
Not as impressive as the game’s active user base, though, which is a far more accurate way to gauge the health of an online game. Jagex say that, depending on whether you’re “taking a day, a week, three months”, Runescape has 10 million active players.
Jagex on RuneScape, MechScape and FunOrb [Eurogamer]
