Zoo Tycoon, one of the more low-key launch titles for the Xbox One, is offering players ways to help real-world animals. According to the Xbox Wire, Microsoft Studios is letting the player community vote on which of three challenges they can participate in. When the community attains the goal of the winning challenge, Microsoft and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums will make a donation to the related charity. The three charities are Rhino Rescue, Komodo Survival Program, and Tiger Species Survival Program.
Release 1,000 Rhinos to the wild in Zoo Tycoon and Microsoft and AZA will donate $10,000 to help protect and deter further poaching of rhino horns in Africa.
Adopt 1,000 Komodo Dragons in Zoo Tycoon and Microsoft and AZA will donate $10,000 to support the Komodo Survival Program’s work with the Indonesian Government to protect this species.
Release 1,000 Sumatran Tigers into the wild in Zoo Tycoon and Microsoft and AZA will donate $10,000 to the Tiger Species Survival Program to help reduce the number of Sumatran Tigers killed, displaced or caught in snares.
Zoo Tycoon’s challenge voting can be found in-game within the community features.
Tom Chick (far right) and Jason McMaster (center, wearing the crown) close out the holiday season with a very special tribute to the year’s best games.
Scott: What’s in that huge castle!? I want to know, but as you can see I need 130 green stars to unlock the super Bowser castle and I only have 114. I guess I need to go grind stars. Do I go back to world one or two? Should I try some of those harder levels I powered through just to get to the end? Is it time to finally figure out what the heck is going on with those Captain Toad levels? Ugh.
Tom: Obviously, I’m better than you at Super Mario 3D World, because at this point I have 124 stars. Of course, I’ve done all the Captain Toad levels as I found them; I enjoy the change of pace of solving a jumpless puzzle that I can turn around in my hands. But, yeah, it’s kind of a dick move to drop a “you shall not pass” in our way this late in the game. With the exception of a few optional levels, I thought I was ahead of the green star curve!
Back in May, a TV station in Alamogordo, New Mexico, reported that the city had struck a deal with a documentary filmmaker to excavate the legendary landfill that may contain the buried remains of millions of unsold E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial cartridges for the Atari 2600. Where is that movie? This rumored treasure trove of video gaming history must be uncovered!
It turns out that the film has gone to Xbox Entertainment Studios. According to Hollywood Reporter the documentary will be the first episode of an as-yet untitled series that will feature stories about gaming and the digital generation. The series will be produced Oscar winner Simon Chinn and his cousin Jonathan Chinn. The E.T. landfill episode will be directed by Zak Penn who also co-created Alphas for SyFy.
“When Simon and Jonathan Chinn approached me about this story, I knew it would be something important and fascinating. I wasn’t expecting to be handed the opportunity to uncover one of the most controversial mysteries of gaming lore.”
Shooting will begin in January. The series will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 and Xbox One entertainment systems.
Gamers are hilarious, right? Check out the nerds trying to gain legitimacy for their games by having so-called “cyberathletes” compete for money! Laughter abounds! These nerds are missing their Star Trek conventions! Neeeeerrrrrrds!
The creators of Monaco have posted some data here about how many people got all the way through the game. Fewer than one in ten players saw it through to the end. Which, naturally, must be frustrating for the developers, not to mention the people who didn’t finish. So today’s update cuts out big chunks of content in what’s labeled an “enhanced” version of Monaco.
From the linked developer’s blog:
We want more people to finish the campaigns, and we also personally kinda hate some of the levels. Certain areas feel redundant, certain levels feel tedious. Do you remember hating these parts? Both boat levels with the dogs, crossbows, and fire. Second floor of the hospital (the one that winds around amongst exam rooms). The giant, hard, palace level.
We did too!
In addition to cutting major parts of these, every level has seen some streamlining with this patch. Don’t worry, if you liked the old levels, they are still available if you play “Classic” mode, rather than “Enhanced”.
The new release also includes some revised gameplay, refined tutorial levels, and new maps. Also, the leaderboards are reset, so now is your chance to post a score in the top thousand or so, before all the serious Monacists get their heists on.
The best case scenario for any game is that it will be better than you expect. So if it’s worth calling out games that fell short of expectations on a most disappointing list, why not call out the games that exceeded expectations? Why not call out the pleasant surprises alongside the unpleasant surprises? So here is the opposite of this year’s most disappointing list.
After the jump, when expectation management goes wonderfully right.Continue reading →
Today’s free update for Grand Theft Auto V adds new capture-the-flag game modes. These are called “jobs”, which I presume explains why you get money for doing them. Not to mention “job points”. And these are no mere flags, which is why the modes aren’t technically called “capture-the-flag”. Instead, they are raid, hold, grand theft auto, and contend. Read the details about each mode here.
Or, heck, just jump online and start playing without having any idea what you’re supposed to do. It’s worked for me. I didn’t get my online character to level 12 by reading rules.
Tom: So, okay World Six, not bad. You even took a few bits that I thought would be terrible — such as the constantly dropping level where you have to keep jumping up to survive, and the boss monster that keeps splitting into a thousand tiny pieces that swarm me — and turned them into something I liked by the time it was over. I was sitting there playing thinking “ugh, this is going to be awful” and then it was over and I thought “oh, that was pretty cool”.
But it’s time to talk about the elephants in the room. It’s time to talk about a couple of enemies that have a serious impact on this game. It’s time to talk about two of Mario’s arch nemeses.
Flying Wild Hog’s bloody reboot of Shadow Warrior has been updated with a free gameplay mode and a new alternate weapon skin has been added. Update 1.1.0 comes with a wave-based survival mode. Players will face off against hordes of enemies in the Cemetary, Old Town or Fortress arenas. As part of a crossover promotion with Interceptor Entertainment, Rise of the Triad’s Excalibat uber-weapon can now be used in Shadow Warrior, while Lo Wang can be used in Rise of the Triad’s multiplayer modes.
Previous cross-promotional additions to Shadow Warrior have included the ice axe from The Walking Dead, and the Penetrator weapon from Saints Row IV. Let me know when they add – You know what? Nevermind. Nothing is going to be better than the Penetrator.
If you’ve paid any attention to the best sellers on Steam, you may have noticed that three open world survival games are dominating the top slots. It’s a crafting, gathering, killing, and building heyday! These games are hot and they’re not even complete yet!
After the break, we erect a hut, and hole up for the night!Continue reading →
Calling a game disappointing arguably has more to do with me than the game itself. Disappointment isn’t an inherent quality. It can’t exist without some sort of expectation in the first place. In many cases, these games are sequels, or the creations of developers with proven track records, or entries in established genres, or games with promising beginnings. But for various reasons, the central fact about these games is that I had personally hoped they would be better.
Motor Rock is $6.99 on Steam. It’s an isometric racer in the same style as Blizzard’s old Rock ‘n’ Roll Racing. That’s not particularly newsworthy, but what does raise an eyebrow is the development team’s blatant repurposing of Blizzard’s game. (Note that until recently, the game was actually called Rock’n’Roll Racing 3D.) Here are some choice bits from their official FAQ:
Primarily we looked up to Rock’n’Roll Racing which was released on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and the Super Nintendo game consoles and became a real hit. Rock’n’Roll Racing 3D is inspired by and developed in the traditions of the original game.
Question: And with copyright will not have problems? How about Blizzard?
Answer: We haven’t received a formal complaints. Playing a non-profit, and it’s based on the old brand. Much closer to the game, we will write to the Blizzard, just in case. I hope that we will not closed down.
Hey, they sent Blizzard a letter! I’m sure that’s good enough, right? If you want it, I’d advise you to get Motor Rock before Blizzard’s lawyers get wind of this game.
