Had enough of Embedded Reporter? Too bad, you’re getting more videos today. Here’s another great Rooster Teeth short.
Deep from the trenches, it’s time for your Monday video feature: Embedded Reporter.
As I looked for a new video for this week’s Embedded Reporter, I came across one that was absolutely brilliant and well done. Naturally I chose to put this up instead. Hey guys, I didn’t talk about L4D2 on Friday, so I’m having some feelings of withdrawal. Enjoy!
Charlie and the gang continue their pursuit of Adachi bringing them to a familiar location.
Get Persona 4!
Insert another credit, because it’s time for your weekly video game news and you’ve just hit the Game Overview screen.
July was an interesting month for sales. It seems that if your name wasn’t EA or Nintendo, you didn’t even crack the top ten list for game sales. In fact, Nintendo’s month of dominance is even more astounding when you consider that the top sellers included New Super Mario Bros. and Mario Kart DS, games well past their prime. This tough economy is making it rough to be anyone but Nintendo, but I’m sure that the holiday season will bring other games to the forefront. There’s lots of good stuff in the pipe.
Speaking of dominance…
Pokémon Platinum launched about a year ago in Japan (September 2008). As of right now, lifetime, worldwide sales of that title have reached 5.66 million. That’s a lot of pokémon. Even more ridiculous are the lifetime sales figures for the franchise, which stand at 193 million units. It’s astounding to see just how well this series has done.
Expect that 193 million to increase by two come spring 2010, since Nintendo has announced that HeartGold and SoulSilver will be launching then. I’m a sucker for catching them all, so I’ll be picking both copies up, probably in the mail to spare myself some embarrassment at the store.
Expansion!
My most recent WoW relapse occurred around the launch of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. I can safely say that I’ve been cured of the need to grind in Azeroth, but that doesn’t mean I’m disinterested in rumors pertaining to the game’s expansions. While we’ll probably get most of this confirmed or denied at this weekend’s Blizzcon, there’s no harm in talking about proposed changes.
It’s MMO 101 to raise a level cap and open up classes to races to loosen restrictions and bring in more players and it’s MMO 201 to add in new races, so you shouldn’t be surprised to hear that the level cap will supposedly be 85, classes will be available to more races, and there are rumors that the Worgen and the Goblins will become the next playable races, but it’s most surprising to me to hear that they might remake classic Azeroth. That would be a monumental undertaking and it would seriously alter the way that people play the game to start. It would be cool to see them shake things up a bit.
I’ve also heard they’re buffing Onyxia so she’s less of a joke. Good on you Blizz.
Quick Update
While we’re talking about Blizzard, the Starcraft II LAN petition has reached 100,000 signatures. Unfortunately, 99,000 of those people (maybe more) will still buy the game when it launches, regardless of this petition. My guess is that Blizzard still doesn’t care. With how much money WoW makes them, they can easily shrug off a few lost purchases.
1776 Grudge?
Everyone loves when a company starts to talk price changes. Who wants to spend so much money on those consoles, right? I’m sure that the UK was thinking it was a good day when they heard that they were going to be changes to the MSRP of the 360, but it turns out that Microsoft is raising the price. By £30. That’s about $50.
Sorry England, I don’t know why M$ is treating you so poorly. I still like you guys.
OBJECTION!
Phoenix Wright is getting an UDON art book! Those guys are responsible for the fantastic Street Fighter comics and the new sprites in the HD Turbo Remix and they do fine work.
You can see images from the book here.
OVER 50%?!
It’s hardly scientific, but a Game Informer magazine survey suggests that the hardware failure rate for Xbox 360s over their lifetime has been over 50% (54.2%). This was revealed based on a survey of 5,000 of their readers and it’s kind of alarming. To be fair, the new hardware boards are supposed to have fixed this, but it’s still at a highly unacceptable level.
Also unacceptable, Microsoft is planning on cutting HDMI and component cables out of their packaging, forcing users to buy cables that used to come bundled. Thanks for being cheapskates guys, but I guess the economy’s pretty bad right now, so I can’t complain too much.
PERSONA!
I think it’s fair to say that I love the Persona series. A lot. I love seeing new games in the series announced and I’d love to see a remake of Persona 2 (both games). That’s what makes the announcement of a PSP version of P3 so strange. That game came out nearly two years ago and it’s getting a remake that allows the player to play as a female? More details as they become available, but I think I’m just bitter because I don’t have a PSP.
The Real Slim
After months of leaks and speculation, Sony finally confirmed the PS3 Slim at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany. The new hardware SKU will replace the older hardware and retail at $300 with some slight changes.
There will no longer be a power switch on the back and the power and eject buttons will be actual buttons instead of whatever tech they had there before, the system is obviously slimmer and smaller, there are only two USB ports, no media card slots, a new, faster disk drive, and, unfortunately, no custom OS (no Linux!), and no backwards compatibility.
Still, it’s a great deal for a blu-ray player and a fine system for gaming. Good to know it’s for real.
There you have it, the biggest news (to me) of the week. To those of you keeping score at home, yes, this is the first week I’ve gone without a Left 4 Dead 2-related story since forever ago and I’m devastated about it.
Adachi has run away into the world of the television, leaving Charlie and the gang to follow him. I’m pretty sure they intend to do some leveling first, but this mystery is close to being solved.
Well I wrote this already once, but the internet managed to lose it thanks to some internet problems. So here we go again. When we last left Dan, his children and Sancho had just discovered his statued form face down, the world going to hell all around him. I can’t even imagine what it must have felt like for Dan to see Sancho roll up with what could only be his children eight years after their birth.
I’ve gotta say, I felt pretty emotional seeing Dan’s children and Dan finally meet for the first time. Dan learned right away that Dave was able to wield the Zenithian Sword given to Dan by Pankraz all those years ago. It might be a bit premature to call Dave the Zenithian Hero right now, but I’d say his chances are pretty high. The happy family returns to Gotha to regroup. Dan still has a mission.
His attempts to protect his children are quickly thwarted, they are going with their father to save their mother. Dan’s protests are met by the ironclad argument that Dan used to adventure with Pankraz when he was the same age as Dave and Rebeca. Heading out to the field with Dan’s children in his party bookends the gameplay themes from the very beginning of the game. Dave and Rebeca may not be as weak, offensively, as Dan was back at the start of the game, but he’s certainly a lot sturdier than they are, a reflection of his age and experience (way to co-opt the mechanics to prove your point yet again Horii!) compared to that of his children. It’s a clever way to finally make the abstractions of levels and experience finally really mean something where they typically don’t in these games.
The next stop for our heroic family: Helunaptra. They’ve got that Zenithian Helmet and I have a sneaking suspicion that it might fit Dave.
Get Dragon Quest V!
Charlie and the gang have decided that, against all odds, Adachi must be the murderer. Are they right? Will they be able to catch him in time before he erases all the evidence?
It’s time for Wednesday Morning Quarterback, your weekly sports round-up.
Remember last week when I said the Marlins needed to start doing better for the rest of the season? Seems they took my urgings seriously. Counting Wednesday, the Marlins are 4-2 (good), with two of those wins coming from teams above them on the wild card (great). They’ve also got a streak of 13 straight games with ten or more hits (wow). At this time of writing, the Marlins are two back on the wild card and 4.5 back on the division. If they keep this amazing run up, they just might make it to the playoffs this year.
Another big moment this week: the Washington Nationals finally managed to secure Stephen Strasburg’s contract and sign their first-round draft pick this year. Fan confidence has been low this season, but the recent win streak combined with all around better baseball is combining to make it all seem a little less grim. This sign is clutch and we might even see him start a game down the stretch this year, although that’s not that likely. More likely is that we’ll see Strasburg take the mound next year alongside his young rotation to take on the NL East. I really hope this turns out well for Washington, the area needs a decent team and I’d love for the Nats to have success (so long as they don’t place better than the Marlins)
The Seekers of Truth continue to try and figure out just who is the real culprit behind the mysteries in Inaba. They’re getting close. It’s only a matter of time now.
Hi, I’m Eric and I’m a guest contributor to Dan’s blog. I plan on starting a column on Dan’s blog called “Objection” where I debunk rumors. I’m not sure how often this column will appear, but I’m sure we’ll get it figured out with time.
Today I wanted to debunk the rumor that there are no commercial games for Linux. First off, a really insanely quick primer. Linux (aka GNU/Linux to some) is a kernel (brains of an operating system) that is paired with a bunch of programs to make a fully-functional operating system. A Linux operating system package is called a distribution and a distribution can be compared to Microsoft’s Windows or Apple’s OSX. Linux is free software, but that’s not the same as freeware as in that video game you downloaded off the ‘net last night that was fun, but over quickly. Although Linux is often given away for free, the free in free software refers to the freedom to do whatever you want with it. You can take all the code and change it and get new functionality. The duality of these attributes leads most people to make the following generalizations about Linux users: they are cheap and they are hackers.
Therefore, some major game publishers have written off Linux because they assume no one using Linux would actually pay for a game. This turns out to be very wrong, as we will see. Still, it is true that most major games are not developed for Linux. You won’t see a Linux version of The Sims 3, Red Alert 3, or Starcraft 2. Well, you won’t see Starcraft 2 for any computer system at this point. These can be run on Linux with some massaging, but that’s a topic for another post. So does that mean you’re left running clones of games from the 80s/90s?
Man, this game feels really, really familiar. I feel like humming a russian song, but I don't know why...
OK, I guess penguins make about as much sense as bubble-blowing dinosaurs, right?
No! There are some independent games producers that have chosen to create native Linux games with great success. First of all, there’s 2d Boy’s “Word of Goo“. Now these guys are over-achievers because they have created versions of this game for Windows, Linux, Macintosh, and the Nintendo Wii.
The World of Goo
World of Goo is an awesome and unique game whose closest comparison is Lemmings. And it’s really only like Lemmings in the sense that you have creatures you have to get into an exit pipe (in Lemmings it was a house). Whereas the major challenge in Lemmings is that the little guys keep walking non-stop, the major challenge in World of Goo is physics. Basically you have goo balls which can be arranged in a lattice structure (as seen in the above screenshot). You have to create a structure that will get you from the beginning of the map to the pipe at the other end. While this may sound simple at first, it’s made hard by the fact that the bonds between the goo balls have a jello-like consistency to them. If you build out to the right, the structure will start bending over to the right. It also sways in the wind. The amazing playability from this game comes in the fact that each level is unique (although your skills build up) and every few levels you’re introduced to a new type of goo ball. Maybe this one can be detached or that one only needs one bond between balls. And the environment has all sorts of hazards to kill your little goo balls. It’s a very fun game, it only costs $20 and it works perfectly on Linux. I played it on my old Fedora (Linux) computer which had the AMD equivalent of a Pentium 4 and a 128 MB graphics card. With only a few audio glitches (and they BARELY happened), the game worked perfectly. I’ve also run it on my laptop with Crunch Bang Linux and whatever crap graphics card the laptop has and it worked perfectly with only a slight slowdown in one scene with hundreds of goo balls.
One important thing to mention, the developers had the following to say on their blog: “More copies of the game were sold via our website on the day the Linux version released than any other day. This day beat the previous record by 40%. There is a market for Linux games after all :)”
The other major indie game I know of that’s produced with a native Linux binary is On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, the Penny-Arcade game.
A game with an insanely long title, but just as much fun: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness
I’ve played games like this one before, but I can’t quite remember them, so I don’t know what to compare them to. It’s basically an RPG (NOT a jRPG, but not too far from that concept). It has all of the awesome hilarity of Penny Arcade. So if you like PA, you’ll like this game. If you hate PA, you’ll hate this game. It’s a testament to the fact that the guys behind PA know their audience that there are binaries for Linux, Mac, and Windows. Try out the free demo and see if you don’t end up paying for the full game.
So, you see, there are commercial games available for Linux. Even games like Unreal Tournament usually have a Linux binary. These games are amazing and worth checking out. Let me end by saying once again that there the commercial games that don’t work natively on Linux are legion. But the fact is that more independent game publishers (which is where all the cool stuff is nowadays) are starting to recognize Linux as a good potential games-buying space Especially now that the market is so sparse, Linux users will buy almost anything you put out there. So having a Linux computer doesn’t mean you’re sacrificing on ALL games. And, although it’s a topic for another day, there’s Wine for running some of the other games.
I hope you enjoyed, and until next time, this is Eric stealing the catchphrase, “OBJECTION!”
