This week we’re joined by Monaco designer Andy Schatz who recognizes Tom Chick’s intellectual acumen at things like geometry and stealth gameplay, while he also recognizes that some people — he’s too polite to call out McMaster by name — need Moles in their games. We also discuss Korean pop on the Vita, a card game about tragedies befalling hapless families, and a match-3 that’s more than just a match-3.
Podcast (games): Play in new window | Download
Subscribe:
Is your Wii’s light slowly pulsing with a blue glow? It may be that update from last year that you still haven’t downloaded, but it could also be the message Nintendo sent out to explain the benefits of owning a Wii U instead of the sad Wii you have now.
It’s time to discover Wii U.
Wii U is an all-new home console from Nintendo. It’s not just an upgrade – it’s an entirely new system that will change the way you and your family experience games and entertainment.
Nintendo of America’s newly appointed CEO, Satoru Iwata, told stockholders after the last financial briefing that the company hadn’t educated consumers on the Wii U system.
Some have the misunderstanding that Wii U is just Wii with a pad for games, and others even consider Wii U GamePad as a peripheral device connectable to Wii. We feel deeply responsible for not having tried hard enough to have consumers understand the product.
Blasting a spam message to everyone owning a Wii is one way to do it, I guess.
Annual Call of Duty installments are as predictable as bad food being served at my birthday parties. It’s a tradition.
We’ve known for a few days that this year’s game was going to be titled Call of Duty: Ghosts, but we have official confirmation that the game will be shown at the next-gen Xbox reveal event on May 21st. Hey, you can already preorder it! You know, just in case you were scared that your local retailer might run out of the game that typically gets printed in runs of a jillion at a time.
No other details have been confirmed except that the game has masks and guns. I’ll predict that it will also feature some gameplay that involves shooting people.
As we all know, asymmetry makes all game designs better. Which is one of the reasons chess isn’t very good. The only asymmetry they had invented back when they made chess was which side goes first. Weak. If I made chess, only white would get bishops and only black would get rooks. The white queen would be able to take two turns in a row once per game. The black queen could resurrect the king once. Also, I would include more than one map with the game.
If the developers at Pocketwatch had invented chess, I would strive to be a Bobby Fisher.
But after the jump, they didn’t make chess. They made Monaco. Continue reading →
Edelson LLC on behalf of their client Damion Perrine has filed a lawsuit against Gearbox and Sega in California. Polygon reports that the suit contends that Gearbox and Sega falsely advertised Aliens: Colonial Marines by showing demo footage that differed, sometimes in vast ways, from the final game.
“Each of the ‘actual gameplay’ demonstrations purported to show consumers exactly what they would be buying: a cutting edge video game with very specific features and qualities,” the claim reads. “Unfortunately for their fans, Defendants never told anyone – consumers, industry critics, reviewers, or reporters – that their ‘actual gameplay’ demonstration advertising campaign bore little resemblance to the retail product that would eventually be sold to a large community of unwitting purchasers.”
The suit also accuses Sega of using the press review embargo to surpress the information that consumers needed to make an informed purchasing decision. The filing seeks damages for people that bought the game on the release day, or as a preorder.
Sega Europe added a disclaimer to video footage of the game on April 3rd after a customer filed a complaint with the UK’s Advertising Standards Agency.
“Sega Europe acknowledged your objection that the trailers did not accurately reflect the final content of the game. They agreed to add a disclaimer, both on their website and in all relevant YouTube videos, which explains that the trailers depict footage of the demo versions of the game.”
