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- Mario Kart 7 is Safe at Any Speed
- Webzen
- Why Gamecock Failed
- The King of Fighters Online (KR)
- Review: Assassin’s Creed Revelations is a Solid Sequel That Shows The Flaw of Annual Installments
| Mario Kart 7 is Safe at Any Speed Posted: 15 Nov 2011 09:44 AM PST Let’s face facts: regardless of what I say about Mario Kart 7, it’ll end up being one of the best-selling games on its platform, just like the past two installments. Though the presence of an actual challenge in Mario Kart DS didn’t detract from its popularity, Mario Kart Wii marked a new movement for the series, and one that essentially turned Mario Kart into a party game. Not that there’s anything wrong with party games, of course; it’s just that Mario Kart Wii made any display of skill a losing prospect, as it perpetually sabotaged success in an attempt to level the playing field. Some would view this approach as a masterstroke on Nintendo’s part, as it allows a group of people with differing skill sets to complete on equal ground without nasty things like “experience” getting in the way. As expected, Mario Kart 7 takes this same tack, and its regressive nature promises to annoy karting fans looking for the series to hop back on the highway to the danger zone. Before this ends up reading as a total condemnation of Mario Kart 7, it should be noted that the game features a few interesting additions. Instead of choosing from an array of vehicles — which has been the case since Double Dash — MK7 allows the player to individually choose the wheels, chassis, and glider for their kart, with each part affecting its stats in some way. Coins collected during a race can be cashed in for further parts; these coins also boost your kart’s acceleration (only during the race where you grabbed them, of course), and spice up things up a bit by hinting at prime power sliding arcs and possible shortcuts. If you’re looking for other interesting mechanics of twists on this staid series, you might want to look elsewhere; even the promise of land, sea, and air travel is little more than lip service, as indicated by Jeremy’s E3 preview. Posted by: admin in Gaming News Thank you for Visiting Gameforumer.com, Hope you enjoyed the stay with us. |
| Posted: 15 Nov 2011 09:44 AM PST
Next up will be Archlord Chronicles: Xenocide, now renamed as Archlord X: The Chronicles (link) for the English audience. If you read my previous posts, this title will be for the more PvP-oriented gamers. Fellow carebears like me should steer clear! I will be playing Webzen’s MMOFPS, Artic Combat (link) soon. Well, the China server that is, which is in Closed Beta 2 right now and I managed to get a key. Known as BATTERY in the region as well as Korea, I am really lazy thinking of playing an online shooter again… I might post some game footage this weekend. Posted by: admin in Gaming News Thank you for Visiting Gameforumer.com, Hope you enjoyed the stay with us. |
| Posted: 14 Nov 2011 09:41 PM PST Mike Wilson. Harry Miller, and Rick Stults had done this before. Wilson came from stints at id Software and Ion Storm, while Miller had served as CEO of Ritual Entertainment, and all three were founders of Gathering of Developers, a.k.a. God Games, publisher of a host of primarily PC titles in the ’90s, ranging from Max Payne and Mafia to Serious Sam and Stronghold. Between them they had amassed an impressive track record, green-lighting and funding eight original PC games that sold over a million units each, in the span of two years. In 2000, God Games sold to Take-Two for $30 million in stock, and subsequently folded into the 2K Games label.  After several years floating around the industry, the trio reunited in 2007 as Austin, Texas-based Gamecock, with the intent of providing an alternative to the prevailing corporate practices in game publishing. Its goals, as laid out in an early investor pitch document provided to 1UP, were as follows:
In keeping with the team’s history, Gamecock’s goals were idealistic, but envisioned more practically. “Our mission was simple: We felt like there was a void for original games from independent developers,” says Mike Wilson, who now runs Devolver Digital with Miller. “Medium-sized games to fill the gap between the huge franchise machines and the super-indies. It was similar to God Games, except that it wasn’t a crusade to try to change the industry as much as an opportunistic play for a perceived niche. But the principles were the same: All devs got to keep their [intellectual property], and got very, very good royalty rates if their games earned out.” As part of a PowerPoint presentation Wilson provided for this story — from when he was pitching the company as “Gone off Deep Games” (i.e. G.O.D. 2) to investors in 2003 (the team adopted “Gamecock” after the main investor suggested a change) — a slide reveals a game the company didn’t end up publishing: Hell on Wheels. It was an alluring prospect for mid-sized studios not looking to be gobbled up by huge publishers. “Gamecock offered a unique opportunity for developers: a game development partnership, instead of the parent-child relationship that most publishers like to foster,” says a developer brought into the Gamecock fold who wished to remain anonymous. “The developer retained IP ownership of their original creation. There was an open dialog between developer and publisher regarding all aspects, from game content to PR and marketing.” But where God Games was majority-owned by six founding studios — all of which were on the board, and helped the company select and evaluate titles and milestones — Gamecock was owned almost completely by its two billionaire investors. Posted by: admin in Gaming News Thank you for Visiting Gameforumer.com, Hope you enjoyed the stay with us. |
| The King of Fighters Online (KR) Posted: 14 Nov 2011 03:41 PM PST
It should be really interesting to see how the game plays, as Dragonfly is more adapt at developing online shooters rather than online action titles. In development also includes Kingdom Under Fire Online (link) and Samurai Showdown Online, yet another classic Japanese franchise of a fighting genre. Posted by: admin in Gaming News Thank you for Visiting Gameforumer.com, Hope you enjoyed the stay with us. |
| Review: Assassin’s Creed Revelations is a Solid Sequel That Shows The Flaw of Annual Installments Posted: 14 Nov 2011 09:40 AM PST Even as our consumer rights are slowly whittled away by binding arbitration clauses, draconian DRM, and “online passes,” we gamers still remain an awfully spoiled lot. And if you don’t believe me, here’s a stunning example: the asking price of the original NES Metal Gear in 1988? 50 American dollars. The cost of a fully remastered bundle containing Metal Gear Solid 2, Metal Gear Solid 3, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (not to mention bonus remakes of the original MSX Metal Gears 1 and 2), purchased in 2011? 50 American dollars. As a pure value proposition, that’s nearly impossible to beat; and, given the amount of finely crafted video game content contained in this little package, it’s unlikely that you’ll find a better disc to grace the system of your choice — though it helps to be on board with the polarizing quirks of the Metal Gear series. As a disclaimer, I feel it necessary to admit I’m a fan of most things Metal Gear, though it’s equally important to inform you that I haven’t let fanboyism shield me from its many flaws. Regardless of its various missteps, though, Metal Gear remains one of the few gaming franchises that exists solely as an auteurist expression, something that’s becoming increasingly rare in these design-by-committee days of game development. That said, either you jive with Hideo Kojima’s unique brand of lunacy, or you don’t; and no amount of high-def polish is going to change your mind. While the Peace Walker portion of this collection has been granted a much-needed overhaul to controls and online play, parts 2 and 3 are simply prettier — and these were very pretty games to begin with. Many would argue this collection provides the perfect opportunity to revamp the odd controls of Solids 2 and 3 (which were idiosyncratic at the time), but you only have to look at how Silicon Knights’ attempt to do just this in The Twin Snakes resulted in a horribly broken game — and besides, it’s highly unlikely that Hideo Kojima would allow Bluepoint Games to alter even a byte of his legacy. Posted by: admin in Gaming News Thank you for Visiting Gameforumer.com, Hope you enjoyed the stay with us. |
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