The Select and Start News Report: 08.25.08
Posted by Vincent Chiucchi on 08.25.2008
Artist creates controversial drawing involving the WTC, Rock the Vote teams up with Xbox 360, Tecmo president leaves company, music peripherals on consoles to be universal, and more
So I see this commercial for a show or movie or something called "Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds," and I'm immediately confused. I haven't paid any attention to this Hannah Montana craze, but I do know that she's played by Miley Cyrus, so it made no sense to me to call it "Best of Both Worlds" if they're the same person. It was then I was told that Hannah Montana is supposed to be the secret life of Miley Cyrus. So basically, a girl who is the daughter of a famous singer has a secret identity of being a famous pop singer?
You know, I think I realize now what parents were going through when Pokemon was popular.
Big News
REGISTER TO VOTE ON XBOX LIVE [credit: Gamasutra, GamePolitics, The Escapist, GameDaily]
Through a new partnership between Microsoft and activist organization Rock the Vote starting today, Xbox Live users can now register to vote, voice opinions on presidential candidates and participate in polls. Microsoft will be appearing at both the Republican and Democratic conventions to promote the new deal and educate delegates about the built-in parental controls of the Xbox 360.
That sounds like a good idea in theory, until you get a headset and actually listen to the kind of people that inhabit Xbox Live:
Do you really want those kind of people to vote?
SPACE INVADERS + WORLD TRADE CENTER = CONTROVERSY
At the Games Convention being held in Leipzig, Germany, a work by French-American artist Douglas Edric Stanley showed what appeared to be a huge interactive version of Space Invaders with the aliens attacking the twin towers. So of course, the public was outraged (at least here in NYC) about how this guy was trivializing the events of 9/11. So what exactly is the message this guy is trying to send with this work? According to a press release on his site:
French-American artist Douglas Edric Stanley has found an unusual – though obvious – metaphor with his work "Invaders!", which is based on the 1978 arcade original. In his interactive large installation, the players must prevent the catastrophe by controlling the well- known cannon at the lower screen border with their bodies and firing it using arm movements. Like the original, this trial is ultimately unsuccessful, thus creating an articulated and critical commentary about the current war strategy. In this regard, Douglas Edric Stanley sees Space Invaders as "a social tale that can be related to historical tales without losing its poetic power"
Personally, I still don't like it, and you can come up with any kind of reason for your work Stanley, but people here are always going to look at this and think it's horrible. Kind of like those muslims to that Muhammed cartoon. You know, that would actually make a lot more sense if that was the message being conveyed.
Meanwhile, Taito could be suing them over using the Space Invaders name without their knowledge.
TECMO PRESIDENT LEAVES COMPANY; SAYS IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ITAGAKI [credit: GameSpot, GameDaily]
Things continue to get worse for Tecmo ever since Itagaki left and decided to sue them. A statement from the company announced the resignation of company president Yoshimi Yasuda, a major factor for the lawsuit, effective on September 1st. The stated reason for his leaving is due to "personal reasons."
Reasons that have nothing to do with Itagaki leaving your company, then suing you, then having two more people representing everybody sue you, and stocks going down because of said lawsuits? I'd really like to know what these reasons are.
SONY ANNOUNCES CROSS COMPATIBILITY WITH PS3 MUSIC GAMES; MICROSOFT ANNOUNCES SAME FOR XBOX 360 [credit: GameDaily, GameSpot]
In what can only be described as a big sigh of relief for those running out of space for all those music peripherals, Sony announced that drum sets and guitar peripherals from Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Revolution, plus the microphone from SingStar, will be compatible with all the titles mentioned. They are also currently working on making Rock Band and Guitar Hero peripherals compatible with each other. Just a couple days after Sony's announcement, Microsoft announced that it was doing the same thing for those games (except SingStar) on the Xbox 360.
OH MY LORDS THANK YOU! As great as the music genre of gaming is becoming, the biggest problem is deciding you like two different kinds of music games and suddenly you have to make room for all the different peripherals. That problem could be a thing of the past with this announcement of universal compatibility.
[credit: GameDaily, Gamasutra]
This week's lawsuit is Maryland electronics lab Hillcrest Laboratories suing Nintendo for patent infringment on motion control technology and graphical interface software on a television screen. Hillcrest aims to block imports of the Wii and its accessories in the U.S. in a complaint filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Oh great, another lawsuit against Nintendo. Sad thing is, these people just might win the lawsuit considering the people at Anascape got $21 million from Nintendo over the GameCube controllers. Mind you, GameCube was out for five years by the time these people sued, and doing a Google search on this company turns up nothing. I believe Anascape was nothing more then a fake company trying to get money out of the big boys. If a fake company can get money from Nintendo, who knows what real companies can do. Or maybe Texas is just fucking stupid for giving Anascape the money.
In other lawsuit news, Silicon Knights is still pissed off at Epic over the Unreal Engine. In the original lawsuit, SK claimed that they received an incomplete version of Epic's Unreal Engine 3 middleware too late into the development of Too Human, while Epic saved the best of Unreal Engine for Gears of War. So SK made an entirely new engine for Too Human, and Epic filed a counterclaim saying they stole their technology. Game designer American McGee, known for creating Alice and more recently the Grimm episodic games appearing on GameTap, thinks that "there's more than a little UE3 still in Too Human" considering how almost impossible it is to create an entirely new engine and a game with it within one year.
Tidbit News
-Due to what they say is a poor economy, Ziff Davis is canceling this year's Digital Life Expo event that was to take place in late September here in New York City. As someone who liked the events, all I have to say is...NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! [credit: Gamasutra]
-Team 3D, Brother Devon and Brother Ray, were recently announced as joining the roster for the TNA iMPACT game. Speaking of which, it seems some group called 420Chan hacked the "Who is Suicide" MySpace (Suicide is the Story Mode's main character) with Ric Flair pictures. [credit: Destructoid]
-You know those multiple games in one bootleg systems you find in a mall or flea market? Since they usually contain a load of NES games, selling them is illegal. Kifah Maswadi learned this the hard way, because he has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for selling such systems. Maswadi was also ordered to pay $415,900 for copyright infringement to perform 50 hours of community service educating others about the pitfalls of copyright infringement while serving three years of supervised release. [credit: GameDaily]
-Is the 80GB PS3 looking too small for you? Why not save your money and wait for Sony's recently announced 160GB version that will come packed with Uncharted Drake's Fortune. The pack will launch in November for $499.99 and will include a 160GB PS3, the game, a PlayStation Network voucher for Idol Minds' downloadable game Pain, and a DualShock 3 wireless controller. [credit: Gamasutra]
-Utah's KSL-5 recently reported that 27-year-old man Daniel Savino led state police on a 100 MPH chase before causing a fiery accident said that such risky driving had always worked for him in video games. No specific video game was mentioned, and it's likely this guy is a freaking idiot. [credit: GamePolitics]
-Sony announced that it will launch a new PlayStation Portable model, PSP-3000, which will feature an improved LCD screen and a built-in microphone, for all major territories in October 2008. The upgraded hardware will come in three colors -- Piano Black, Pearl White, and Mystic Silver, and will replace the PSP-2000 in all current retail configurations, including the $169 PSP Core Pack and the various $199 PSP Entertainment Packs. [credit: Gamasutra, GameSpot]
-The PC Gaming Alliance (PCGA) announced today the major findings of its "Horizons" Report on the gaming industry. PCGA president Randy Stude announced that PC gaming was a $10.7 billion industry in 2007. He also revealed that only 30% of these revenues stemmed from retail and that most of the growth came from the Asia region, which is approaching half of total worldwide sales. [credit: GameDaily]
-The organizers of the GC Developers Conference (GCDC) announced that the three day event saw record attendance. 1,250 attendees came from over 40 countries to network and participate in the conference's events. [credit: GameDaily]
-A 33-year-old North Carolina postal worker was arrested after she traveled to Delaware in an attempt to kidnap the 50-something man who jilted her on Second Life. I remember a time when people used to do this based on real life relationships rather then MMO ones. Good times. [credit: GamePolitics]
Gaming Calendar
August 25th - Mario Super Sluggers (Wii)
August 26th - Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice (PS3)
Summer 2008 - Air Traffic Chaos (DS)
September 2nd - Infinite Undiscovery (Xbox 360)
September 5th:
-FaceBreaker (X360, PS3)
-Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise (Xbox 360)
September 7th - Spore (PC)
September 16th - Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen (DS)
September 18th - Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (PC)
September 22nd - Sim City Creator (Wii, DS)
September 23rd:
-Disgaea DS
-Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure (DS)
September 29th:
-Kirby Super Star Ultra (DS)
-Wario Land: Shake It! (Wii)
September 2008:
-TNA iMPACT (Multi)
-Rock Band 2 (Xbox 360)
October 3-5 - E for All 2008 to be held
October 9-13 - The Tokyo Game Show 2008 to be held
October 21st:
-Dead Space (X360)
-Fable II (X360)
October 28th - Fallout 3 (Xbox 360)
October 2008:
-LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
-Bioshock ported to the PS3
-Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 (Xbox 360, PC)
November 4th - Left 4 Dead (PC, X360)
November 7th - Gears of War 2 (X360)
November 11th - Eternal Poison (PS2)
November 14th - Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (Xbox 360)
Fall 2008:
-Resistance: Fall of Man 2 (PS3)
-MySims Kingdom (DS, Wii)
March 13th 2009 - Resident Evil 5 (X360)
Videos of the Day
Levinator25 on YouTube posted a video about a glitch in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 where Tiger can stand on water and swing the ball from there. EA posted a video response showing that isn't a glitch...
New trailer for Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
That's all of this week. I'm going back to playing Soul Calibur IV, because it is awesome. Except for The Apprentice. That guy is such a cheap bastard.
