I don’t make it any further than the above screenshot in Maniacolus’ lovely Little Big Planet level, The gnome cave. That’s because Maniacolus built it with limited lives. When I lose those, the level ends and I have to restart from the very beginning. So I have the option of replaying over and over on the way back to that jump, or I can go play another lovely level with infinite lives, like Lockstitch’s Vile Anchorage. I do the latter. My Sack Girl still dies a lot, but she’s happier for never going farther backwards than the last check point.
As a guy who’s so bad at platformers that I break out in a cold sweat when I get to a part where I have to jump, I don’t understand why someone would make a level with limited lives. If you want people like me to see your work, don’t punish us by putting us back at the beginning. But that’s just the bad platform gamer in me talking. Part of the appeal of Little Big Planet is that there are so many different kinds of levels. If I wanted to play a punishing platformer, and I didn’t already have a copy of Donkey Kong Country Returns, I might enjoy banging my head against The gnome cave to work my way up the leaderboards.
Can you feel the excitement in the air? That’s millions of Call of Duty players quivering in anticipation for the First Strike add-on that goes live next week. For only $129.99 USD, they’ll get two new maps. One of them is a snowy base (pictured) that’s totally not Array and the other is a non-snowy base that’s totally not Launch.
AI War’s latest update is now live. If you’ve previously played this epic sci-fi RTS, prepare to re-learn it.
With this update, nearly every combat ship in the game has been rebalanced in an effort to integrate all the new units added over the past year. Golems have been completely revamped and the AI have received major intelligence upgrades such as more proactive retreats, a network of core shield generators, and the new “stalking” mechanic where it lies in wait until the player is at their most vulnerable.
And if you haven’t previously played it, the update intends to make it more accessible.
Players should also be pleased with significant adjustments to overall difficulty and the shortening of the early part of the game — allowing you to “get to the good part” faster. Not to mention tons of performance improvements, as well as more of a general accessibility regardless of what level of player you are.
Additionally, you can get the new $10 add-on, Light of the Spire, to give AI War a new story-based mode and shorter tower defense modes.
* 180 new ships, including massive “spirecraft” (larger than starships, smaller than golems).
* Nine new bonus ship classes featuring oversized starship-like spire ships.
* New Defender campaign type that allows for a way to play shorter sessions.
* New AI weapons: Beachheads AI Plot, 4 core guard posts, and 10 guardians.
* Exciting Fallen Spire story-based campaign-within-a-campaign. Alternate way to win!
* New in-game music tracks.
A Seattle Fox News affiliate thought they had a real “David and Goliath” human interest story when they recounted Microsoft’s cruelty to an autistic boy. It seems the boy was so good at games — think Dustin Hoffman counting toothpicks in Rain Man — that Microsoft thought he was cheating. So they zeroed out his achievements. But the boy’s mother wouldn’t let this stand. Like Norma Rae organizing unions, she rallied against injustice. She called the news to complain and they obligingly ran her story.
Except it turns out he was cheating. He had sent his account information to someone who hacked it offline to enable recon armor in Halo. Oops. Pwnt.
(Thanks Slashdot!)
