The Code Games News Report 03.31.07
Posted by Shawn Struck on 03.31.2007
1up Says "That's Bullshit", GTA IV Trailer, And More Link You Can Roll A Katamari At.
2K Systems Kills System Shock Podcast; 1UP Features Editor Says "That's Bullshit".
Legendary game creator,r and the creative whirlwind behind Bioshock, Ken Levine was also the man behind two of the tightest, smartest, and coolest first-person shooters ever: System Shock and System Shock 2! And since the man behind Bioshock was in the studio, and Bioshock's release is just around the corner, 1UP.com figured that Ken Levine would be the perfect guest at the perfect time to discuss the System Shock series on "Retronauts", a retro-game theme podcast.
However, no System Shock Retronauts was ever recorded, despite Jeremy Parish being strongly for it, despite 1up.com being strongly for it , and despite Ken Levine HIMSELF being strongly for it. Why? As Jeremy says...
Our plans fell through at the last moment when his corporate handlers, 2K Games, told us in no uncertain terms that there would be no System Shock-oriented podcast. Turns out the System Shocks are still an EA property, and 2K finds the notion of promoting EA products unacceptable. Never mind that the games are ten, fifteen years old, out of print, have a direct bearing on Bioshock and reflect the work and evolution of the man they're dragging around for their press tour. None of that matters, because they do not talk about EA games.
French, Swiss and Canadian readers will need to pardon my French, but that is bullshit.
[...]
Can you imagine if Interscope took U2 on a press tour to promote a new album but refused to let the band talk about anything they recorded on the Island label? Or if Paramount refused to let Harrison Ford discuss his work for other studios in the run-up to Indiana Jones IV? This is the same thing. I'm sure it's no one person's fault, because this sort of thick-headedness is institutional in nature. But it's still thick-headedness, and it's a disservice to everyone: it robs us of a chance to learn more about the medium we write about, it robs gamers of a chance to understand the history and context behind upcoming games, it robs creators of a chance to take credit for a true body of work.
You know, I could almost, almost, see 2K's point if EA was planning on re-releasing the System Shock games, or perhaps making a System Shock 3. But they AREN'T. System Shock and System Shock 2 are close to 15 years old. They're out of print. They are related to the game BioShock, which IS going to be released soon .
I'm hoping that this instance of corporate stupidity is just 2K's lawyers acting on autopilot. Or maybe they're just a little distracted, what with all the frenzy over the recent shareholders' meeting. I daresay that this kind of pig-headedness is one of the reason's 2K's in such dire straits.
Full disclosure: I am a freelance writer for 1UP.com, and Jeremy's my boss. I STILL think 2K's being really stupid and has only served to generate even more bad publicity for themselves.
This Week's Now That's Cool:
"NaNA-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na Katamari Crafts're Nifty..." (via Seibei Industries)
T-shirt designer extraordinaire David Murray one-ups a cross-stitched portrait of Katamari Damacy's Prince of the Cosmos with a multimedia work featuring the Prince of All Cosmos rolling what looks like ~2 meter katamari across a meadow…only to be one-upped in response. From the post:
Months passed without much thought of Katamari Crafts, until I received a small box in the mail last month. Inside was an invitation to Round Two in the form of a sculpted katamari…but that's not all. There were also a number of meticulously sculpted and detailed objects, and a number of small magnets - all of the objects have a metal core, and can be connected to the katamari by way of magnets. What's more, there was even a little Prince of the Cosmos to push the katamari around!
Words cannot describe this beauty. You can see larger photos of this on my Flickr, but here are some of the best ones in blog-sized form.
The beauty is in the details - the battery says "BATAMARI" on it, the fire extinguisher says "Katamari Fire Dept," and other such goodness.
This just goes to show how awesome a game is when it can inspire all sorts of Katamari homemade tributes? Don't believe me? Check out BoingBoing's posts on the scads of other Katamari-craft out there:
No, I don't mean cheat codes, I mean things like ways to get extra processing power out of the DS, as mentioned in this article
For example, you can get cartoon-shading on DS games without any extra processing overhead, although you have to do a trick with the screen size.
Turns out the DS is really a pretty capable 3-D portable! I mean, according to the games studio PG spoke with, the DS can even handle Mipmapping! That's pretty insane right there!
And if you like portable games, but are more of a music fan than a pixel pusher, check out this article where noted chip tune musician Herbert Weixelbaum has a lengthy page comparing the sound output of various Game Boy models. Surprisingly, the GBA seems to have better sound than the GBA SP! His notes:
the sound is bassy, with little background noise. from the advance on all models lack the rhythmic noise, which results from panning without a note on the older game boys. when lsdj samples are used, there is a pitched noise added. this is very noticeable with older lsdj versions. in newer lsdj versions, which are somewhat optimized towards the usage of samples, this is less noticeable. when the song is stopped, you can hear a clearly noticable cracking sound. the waveform looks close to that of the original game boy.
Dunno about you, but that certainly surprised ME.
This Week's "All YouTube, All The Time":
GTA IV Trailer, Super Percussion Bros., and Piano Fantasy
Rockstar finally released a trailer for its long-anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV. You can see it here:
Now, doing arrangements of video game classic tunes for a music class' final isn't exactly new (my senior year in high school saw me get official permission from Nobuo Uematsu to arrange the opera song from FFVI), but it's pretty much always AWESOME. Check it out:
Speaking of Final Fantasy and arranged music, if you've never heard him, time to check out PIano Squal, byatches. You only WISH you could be this big a pianist:
iPick The Box (via ArsTechnica)
So, Apple recently annouced the Apple TV, sending gadget geeks into a collective nerdgasm heard at a remote listening station in Antarctica. But is it really any better than some previous generation hardware? Johnathan Gitlin doesn't think so:
In these days of PS3s and Xbox 360s, it's easy to forget the consoles that came before them. But they're still there, and with the prices falling by the day and huge libraries of games that you know will work without emulation issues, there's still life in them. Just buying the XBox for a disposable weekend of Forza might be seen as wasteful, but Microsoft's first foray into the games console market has more uses than just gaming. In fact, in the following ways it may even be a better media investment than competing products. What does it do better than the much hyped-AppleTV, for instance?
Lower price: $99 sure is cheap compared to $300
Open standards for types of files: Being able to play DivX or WMV content is good
It also plays games: It's still a games console, after all
I've always wanted to pick up an xbox dirt cheap and then turn it into a media center/NES emulator... but since NESTERDC runs 9 out of the 10 NES games, I want to play, I don't really have the motivation anymore.
Pimping Is Easy When You Use The Code!
Vincent Chiucchitells you all about the possibilities of Dragonball Z MMOG in this week's Select and Start News Report. What he doesn't tell you, however, is that you have to wait three server rollovers for Goku to power up.
The SIXAXIS. Andrew Mellick. PS3 UK Launch figures and facts. Longer sentences.
Damian Sarcuni, our resident Angry Gamer, serves up a heapin' helpin' of Angry Gaming with a side of CHEESE-- or rather cheesy things in games.
The Fun Factor shoots first with Lego Star Wars in Cory Moore's latest column on the games that were just plain FUN, and why.
Our very own towering Nintendo para-elemental, Theo Fraser, brings you the latest Nintendophiles-- Spiderman 3, Pilotwings on the Wii, and much to see.
T-shirt designer extraordinaire David Murray one-ups a cross-stitched portrait of Katamari Damacy's Prince of the Cosmos with a multimedia work featuring the Prince of All Cosmos rolling what looks like ~2 meter katamari across a meadow…only to be one-upped in response. From the post:
