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Weekly Poll Results: Should There Be Video Game Competitions in the Olympics?
by Phillip Levin | 08/19/08 | 5:19 PM PST

At the beginning of each week, we update our Weekly Poll. You can check out the results for last week's poll just below.

What we asked: Should there be video game competitions in the Olympics?

What you said:

• Yes (35%)
  
• No (65%)

I voted for "no" because I've always thought of the Olympics as a competition of physical skill. Sure, video games can be played competitively, but they're about mental skill. Admittedly, there are physical elements to playing games, such as finger dexterity, but the Olympics are on a totally different level.

Anywho, we have another new poll up for this week. Be sure to check it out and vote.

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Media: BioWare's Sonic Video Insider, parts 1 and 2
by David Oxford | 08/19/08 | 5:16 PM PST

The boys over at BioWare have begun cranking out their own videos to familiarize DS owners with the ins, outs, and other intricacies of their upcoming RPG Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood.

The first is an intro of sorts, while the second (after the cut) shows off more of the gameplay elements.

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ESRB-Rejected 'Undisclosed DS Guitar Game' Ad by Mega64
by David Oxford | 08/19/08 | 4:53 PM PST

Ah, the ESRB. They're the ones who keep good people from doing bad things by rating all our favorite video games! But sometimes... sometimes they go too far by rejecting brilliant advertising for said games for silly reasons. For example, the following ad produced by the cheerful folks at Mega64 for an "undisclosed DS guitar game."

As an extra game, their YouTube account asks you to see if you can "figure out why the ad was rejected before the video ends!" (Good luck figuring that one out.)



Of course, it doesn't end there. They managed to creatively negate the unsavory elements in a much shorter cut of the video, which you can see after the jump.

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Rumor: Paul W.S. Anderson No Longer on Spy Hunter Movie?
by David Oxford | 08/19/08 | 4:39 PM PST

What's this? Sounds like the Spy Hunter movie, which has been in development hell for the last half-decade, may have just suffered another setback as it's now being said that director and writer Paul W.S. Anderson is no longer attached to the project.

It looks like the bigscreen version of "Spy Hunter" has taken a backseat because when asked about Spy Hunter and they way he answered the question to me at least, seems that he is not doing it anymore. He might write it but it sure looks like he will not be directing the project.

I've also been told from people who are close to the project is that Anderson is NOT doing the film and that he's been off the project. -- Kellvin Chavez, Latino Review

Well, that doesn't sound good. Here's what Anderson actually had to say:

Latino Review: Does this (movie) prepare you to do another [car film] like Spy Hunter?

Anderson: I had some what fun making this movie and I firmly believe this is the best, most spectacular car action I've ever seen in a film, I don't know if I'll ever do another car movie after this, because I really feel like we pushed it to the max and the only other car movie I'll do is maybe a sequel to this, knock on wood, if this movie does well enough to deserve that, I really think we've kind of raised the bar when it comes to car action….we've done everything practical, we've done spectacular stunts, we've kept it R rated, really hard, we've had the actors do a lot of their own driving, so you know, I think we've really maxed our car movie, so I think we've laid down a challenge to any one else, I think we're now the movie to beat.

What can I say? I think Anderson can do a good movie, and the Midway/Anderson combo worked pretty well for me when they did Mortal Kombat all those years ago (the sequel was awful, though).

More importantly, I think this is where he can do less damage. There's really not a whole lot to Spy Hunter than anyone can mess up, short of ditching the car. Just get him as far from Castlevania as you can drag him.

Seriously, ditching a whip, the whip, for a sword? That's akin to blasphemy, and I'll watch Blade again if I want that. To say nothing of the rest...

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Music Games Responsible for Nearly One-Third of Industry Growth in 2008
by Kombo Staff | 08/19/08 | 3:14 PM PST

It looks like the video game industry's growth of late owes a lot to plastic guitars; 32% in 2008 so far, to be precise. As GameDaily so succinctly puts it:

This, folks, is why Bobby Kotick can tell Warner Music to show some respect. The game industry is exploding, while the music industry is not. -- James Brightman, GameDaily

...sales of music-themed games responsible for 19% of overall industry software dollars in July (15% YTD) and 44% of y/y industry dollar growth during the month (32% of growth YTD). -- Ben Schachter, UBS analyst

That's brought the total to roughly $9.47 billion in the US through July, 35 percent ahead of 2007. And of course, Rock Band and Guitar Hero are a large part of that, with the latter seeing a growth of 87 percent in dollars, and up 82 percent in terms of units. And in July alone, the DS release On Tour brought in $15 million for July. Meanwhile, over that same month, Rock Band brought in nearly $47 million combined across the Xbox 360, Wii, and PlayStation 2.

And with the releases of Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour this holiday, sales are only likely to get bigger... perhaps encompassing more than a third of the industry's growth record for 2008.

It's no wonder Warner Bros. wants a cut.

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Dyack Banned from NeoGAF, 'the Worst Forum Out There'
by David Oxford | 08/19/08 | 12:35 PM PST

Dennis Dyack of Silicon Knights has received a prestigious honor: Being banned from NeoGAF, with whom he's recently had some issues.

So, what was the last straw?

VG247: Why did you pick NeoGAF specifically? It wasn't just NeoGAF that was picking on Too Human…

DD: NeoGAF is considered to be the worst, and I would say is probably the worst forum. And so, you might as well pick the worst one. Why not? So, that was the idea of that. -- Dennis Dyack to videogaming247

Not much to argue there, but then came this:

What is an appropriate action to take in response to the man who continues to post here? I won't be tolerating a second retconned "social experiment," a second call for NeoGAF's closing, or a second "worst forum" insult. You decided to ignore the option for real terms for your pointless tag bet, so with the majority of reviews condemning your magnum opus to mediocrity I'll claim a suitable prize by telling you to get the hell off NeoGAF. -- EviLore, NeoGAF

I believe that one of our Kombo forum users said it best:

...look how most of them are handling it, haha. Did you (GAF) really expect Dyack to just sit there and take the criticism and not be allowed to dish it out himself? It looks like they can dish it out, but they can't take it. -- ReaganYouth, Kombo Forums

We'll see if we can get any response from Mr. Dyack about his expulsion from NeoGAF.

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Media: Yet More Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Trailers
by Kombo Staff | 08/19/08 | 11:26 AM PST

Moving past the three-part puppet-show pilot that is Star Wars: Clone Wars, we brought yesterday the first world exclusive trailer of The Force Unleashed from GameTrailers.

And today? We do so again. Times five.



The other four come after the cut.

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Nintendo 'Disappointed' with Their E3 Performance
by Kombo Staff | 08/19/08 | 10:13 AM PST

A lot of people weren't terribly impressed with Nintendo's showing at E3. And the truth is, Nintendo wasn't too happy with it themselves.

we were disappointed with our performance at E3. There were titles like Wario which we think will be really fun titles that we should have show cased. We were excited that Mr. Miyamoto made the commitment that Pikmin is coming. It would have been nice if we could have said that on stage. But, we think it was a good recognition for us that we care for our core fans, and not just the new people who are now discovering Nintendo. -- Cammie Dunaway to VGChartz

The rest of the article deals in things like Dunaway's reaction to peoples' reaction to her, piracy and plans in Latin America, and more. Though I'm not sure how much that the above was "recognition" that they care for the core fans, but take what you can get, I guess.

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Master Chief's Metroid Makeover
by Kombo Staff | 08/18/08 | 6:54 PM PST

Ever since Halo landed on the Xbox and Samus ventured into first-person on the GameCube in Metroid Prime, there's been a small, slightly-hinted at rivalry between the two. And some fans? They've taken it to a whole 'nother level.

Since Halo came out for the Xbox in 2001, I've heard countless times how Master Chief looked oddly similar to Samus Aran. The user deathwind000 from eBay also thought the same. He has a Custom made Halo 3 Spartan action figure from McFarlane toys, but painted like the Samus Aran's Varia Suit. The seller is promising the paint job won't rub or chip off.

When anyone sees the picture above, it's really hard to argue that Bungie wasn't in some way influenced by Nintendo's Classic game-Metriod. If you're interested in bidding for the toy, it ends on August 17 and as we post this article, the current big is $20.51. After the Break look at more pictures. -- Jon Christensen, /gamer

What do you think? A definite resemblence, or just something akin to a Rorschach inkblot test?

Personally, I think if you recolor just about anything in the right way, you can make it look like something else. I could probably recolor Mario so that he looks like Samus or Master Chief.

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EB Games in Canada Offers Full Credit if You Don't Like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
by Kombo Staff | 08/18/08 | 4:58 PM PST

So, say you're in Canada, and you've preordered Star Wars: The Force Unleashed at EB Games. Then suppose the game sucks like Kirby riding a Hoover into a black hole. If you're able to draw this conclusion within a week of purchase, then it seems they're willing to give you full in-store trade credit. That's how damn confident they are in the title.

Of course, it's also worth noting that they ran a very similar deal on the PlayStation 3-exclusive title Haze, and that didn't end so well. Perhaps because Ubisoft knew it sucked outright, Force Unleashed will fare better. But why-- twice now-- has this deal not been in the States?

I'm not seeing anything about this program outside of Canada, which is probably due to the fact that GameStop knows those friendly Canadians are just too gosh-darn polite to take advantage, while in the states they'd have 50% of their inventory back by Friday. -- Mike Fahey, Kotaku

He might have a point there.

Click the image for a larger version of the flier.

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16-Year Old Drops Out of School to Play Guitar Hero
by Kombo Staff | 08/18/08 | 4:10 PM PST

Sixteen year old Blake Peebles of Raleigh, North Carolina is living the dream of many a video game-loving teenager: He's dropped out of high school in order to play more Guitar Hero.

Of course, he's not just playing for pleasure; he hones his skills in order to play competitively, though one has to question whether it's worth it for prizes such as gift certificates, gaming equipment and chicken sandwiches. Hey, I love a good chicken sandwich as much as anyone, but...

Of course, he isn't going without education...

[Blake's parents] pay for home tutors instead. Mom and Dad do this, even though there are very few people in this country who make their living playing competitive video games.

That is not to say that it was an easy decision for them to let Blake leave school last September. They would have preferred that he stay in high school with his brother. But he bugged them until they let him quit.

"We couldn't take the complaining anymore," says Hunter. "He always told me that he thought school was a waste of time."

More after the cut.

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Laying Odds on a Viewtiful Joe Return This Generation
by David Oxford | 08/18/08 | 3:46 PM PST

One of Capcom's original properties which debuted last generation as a part of the notorious "Capcom 5," Viewtiful Joe's star quickly rose, and soonafter, just as quickly fell.

This lead to the question on the Capcom*Unity forums as to how long Joe would be "resting" for, and if we might see another Viewtiful day in this generation. Of course, with the closing of Clover Studio, it seems that the original team may not be around for such a revival. Nonetheless...

Difficult to predict. There's no "percentage chance" that I could give you that would at all be accurate. If it strikes someone of influence (a producer of note, Inafune, Takeuchi, perhaps even me) that it's something that has potential (both gameplay and sales) then it could happen. If not, it won't. I can't predict who might or might not see that potential. -- Christian Svensson, Capcom Corporate Officer/VP of Strategic Planning & Business Development

Personally speaking, I wouldn't mind seeing some more Viewtiful Joe. NotAlexander, the person who posed the question, added:

Personally, I would LOVE to see Viewtiful Joe 3 on Wii Ware or XBLA (preferably WW for the GC controller support) split up as episodic content! That would definitely be a perfect fit for the game, if nothing else.

Sounds good to me!

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What Sets Spider-man: Web of Shadows Apart
by Kombo Staff | 08/18/08 | 3:00 PM PST



With recent outtings not inspiring people to say "wow" as they once did and some swinging new competition on the horizon from a particular Commando with a Bionic arm, Peter Parker's going to need something more to compete this time around. And luckily for him, it seems Activision has it all figured out. In addition to switching between the red and blue suit and the symbiote (plus symbiote "Wolvenom" Wolverine), aerial combat is the name of the game.

The game's draw, for me, is web-slinging aerial combat, fist-fights set 40 stories into the atmosphere with only the distant pavement as a safety net.

In the E3 trailer Spider-Man battled the flying villain Vulture above the New York City skyline, firing his web-shooters at his enemy both to fight and to keep himself aloft. Last week I witnessed such combat as fully-controllable, vertiginous gameplay. The mid-air combat resembles the aloft assaults gamers were able to execute earlier this year in Capcom's "Devil May Cry 4" using new protagonist Nero's magical Devil Bringer arm. That arm was essentially a grappling hook that could bring Nero close to his enemies. Knock an enemy up to the air, then grapple up to meet them. Punch them in the face thirty feet up, and grapple toward them again. This is the ability now attached to Spider-Man's wrists. This is what turned my head.

Of course, players won't be expected to fly through the air with the greatest of ease from the moment they press Start; there will be stages of combat learned before Spidey starts hosting fights in the New York skyline. However...

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Sonic Says: The Internet is for Porn
by David Oxford | 08/18/08 | 12:31 PM PST

Oh, wow. Some nice synching here. Not safe for work lyrics, though relatively mild for the most part. Thanks to Liz-sama for finding this.



If SatAM Sonic isn't your thing, you can see the X version (with Knuckles and Amy) after the cut.

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Houser: Hardcore/Casual Distinction 'Doesn't Make Sense to Us'
by Kombo Staff | 08/18/08 | 11:42 AM PST

I may not play a lot of Rockstar games, but there is one thing which their president, Sam Houser, and I agree on: We don't really get the whole division between "casual" and "hardcore" or "core" games.

The division doesn't make sense to us; good games will usually sell and be popular, bad games will struggle – of any type or genre or style. But we still believe big, high impact games will help the industry evolve and further surpass the movie industry as the next mass-market story telling medium.

Even with a title as "hardcore" as one might consider Grand Theft Auto IV to be, Rockstar tries to take into account the new people coming into the mix.

We always tried to make games that anyone could pick up and play. They may, over time, reveal a lot of structural and mechanical complexity, but the first mission of more or less any Rockstar game is very easy and engaging for a reason – because new people playing the game have to be gently led into the world of 3D action games, or open world racing games or whatever. This is the way we try to cater for a mass market ­– but we are focused on making digital worlds that are fun to explore and interlaced with rich narratives, that even the most casual player can become a part of, if they want to. The challenge is to make a game in which 'depth' does not result in complexity the first minutes you play. This is a challenge we've always tried to embrace, and I hope we are getting better at it, just as I hope we are getting better at everything.

With that in mind, Rockstar plans to move forward by "doing what they've always done," which is making games they want to play, and hoping there is an audience for them.

We don't believe in focus testing ideas (it's like asking an audience what album they want to hear – they don't know until they hear it!) or thinking of a target market or anything like that; it's an anathema to creativity. We are trying to make commercially viable art, not sell washing powder. -- Rockstar President Sam Houser to Develop Magazine