In today's supply drop of video game news: Apple says it is not interested in the console business of "traditional gaming", Naughty Dog founder Jason Rubin replaces Danny Bilson as president of publisher THQ.
Posted May 30, 2012 | 3:12 | 7,634 Views
Aubrey Serr of Wolfire Games demonstrates how two highly-skilled ninja rabbits would face off in mortal combat.
When deciding how to describe Overgrowth two touchstones leap to mind: Watership Down and Assassin's Creed. In this action-adventure game, you control an acrobatic ninja rabbit who is as nimble as he is deadly. Of course, his enemies are equally deadly, with all the same skills and abilities as the player. In the vein as the Ninja Gaiden series, victory comes from keen combat awareness and execution. Aubrey Surr of developer Wolfire Games joins us to demonstrate the game's locomotion and combat--both armed and unarmed. If you like what you see, be sure to check out the game's official site, as well as its predecessor, Lugaru.
Discover the rest of the Bay Area games back at this feature's hub page.
Maxwell McGee earned a degree in Journalism from the University of Arkansas, and has contributed to The Escapist, GamePro, PC Gamer, and more. His introduction to video games was Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on the Sega Genesis, and he has never looked back. He welcomes your feedback through the site, or Twitter.
Sources say Ziff Davis parent company J2 Global on the brink of closing bargain deal to acquire gaming label from News Corp.
Sources close to ongoing discussions have told The Wall Street Journal's AllThingsD that News Corp. is on the brink of closing a deal to sell IGN (and its network of sites) to Ziff Davis parent company J2 Global.
Exact terms of the reported deal were not disclosed, though sources said J2 Global scored a deal on IGN.
J2 Global is reportedly picking up the gaming unit for "considerably lower" than the $650 million News Corp. paid for it in late 2005. A report from October said News Corp. was hoping to get around $100 million for IGN.
IGN has been up for auction for the past six months, with past bidders reportedly including Break Media, SAY Media, and unnamed private equity firms.
IGN president Roy Bahat left the company in August.
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
This week we check out Dead Space 3, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Dragonborn, Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2, Fire Emblem: Awakening and Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time. Beats provided by DJ VInroc: http://www.thatsthatstuff.com.
Posted Feb 1, 2013 | 1:57 | 660 Views
Fire Emblem is the game that essentially kick-started the strategy role-playing game genre in Japan more than 20 years ago, and it has since grown into a thriving and complex niche. While some pioneering games have a tough time evolving along with the genres they helped form, Fire Emblem: Awakening takes many of the best elements of modern strategy RPGs and implements them beautifully into its classic, time-tested formula. The result is a high watermark for the franchise and one of the most engaging and enjoyable experiences on the 3DS yet.
Virion goes to war only because it's the best way to meet ladies.
The story in Awakening opens with your player-created avatar waking up in the company of a roving band of soldiers called the Shepherds. The Shepherds protect the interests of the citizens of the kingdom of Ylisse, which has recently been targeted by bandits from the kingdom of Plegia. Plegia is looking to incite a war based on past transgressions of Ylisse's rulers, but there's more to the sinister goings-on: strange beings called Risen are attacking towns, and a mysterious masked warrior named Marth claims to see a future in which humankind has been destroyed. While the narrative is filled with interesting melodrama and political intrigue, the unwavering evilness of some of the villains is ridiculous and makes some parts of the story hard to take seriously.
Fortunately, Fire Emblem: Awakening is more than just talking heads spouting off about vengeance and crushing foes before them: it's a robust turn-based, grid-driven strategy game. Like in many strategy RPGs, you move individual units around a grid, attacking foes while using terrain and character placement to get the upper hand. Certain units and attack types have priority over others: the three main weapons (swords, lances, and axes) form a rock-paper-scissors-style relationship. Archers have attack boosts against airborne units, magic spells can crush the defense of heavily armored fighters, and a host of other factors come into play. Odds and percentages are a key part of formulating your strategy, since some units also have a higher potentiality to hit or miss than others.
However, positioning is more important now than ever: standing next to allies can grant stat boosts, additional attacks, and protection. Keeping two characters in close proximity to each other can allow you to increase their relationship status between battles. In some cases, they can even fall in love and further increase stat boons when they are next to each other in combat. Characters can sometimes help each other in more direct ways, such as following up an attack with an extra strike and shielding each other from damage by foes, and these actions are also affected by how strongly their interpersonal relationships have developed. The burgeoning friendships and affections between allies carry outside of battle, too: visit the barracks to get a glimpse of how characters interact with one another in their off-duty time (as well as potentially gain experience and items), which is a very charming touch.
Like previous Fire Emblem games, Awakening is divided into chapters consisting of story sequences and battles. Unlike those games, however, it's not a strictly linear progression: you have a world map that allows you to fight side battles and visit shops in-between story events, which makes managing your gear and leveling up some of the lagging characters much easier. You can also play optional side missions with unique objectives in order to recruit new members to your merry band or obtain rare items. The map is constantly changing, too: traveling merchants show up to peddle rare wares, enemy Risen outbreaks happen in random locales, and a StreetPassed team of another player's warriors might even appear to fight or trade with you.
The class system has also received some welcome changes. In most Fire Emblem games, class progression is fairly linear, requiring specific items to level up to particular classes once a unit reaches a certain rank. These items are more available in Awakening, making it much easier to promote units. This time around, however, units can also reclass entirely with a special item, sometimes to wildly different classes than what they previously held. Each class learns unique skills that grant special boons during combat, which are retained even after switching to a new class, so changing and leveling up classes can often create some very powerful units if you are willing to invest the time and effort.
In today's supply drop of video game news: Apple says it is not interested in the console business of "traditional gaming", Naughty Dog founder Jason Rubin replaces Danny Bilson as president of publisher THQ.
Posted May 30, 2012 | 3:12 | 7,633 Views
We explore the changes to your benefits, challenge you to a Mario Kart Wii, and more.
- ENTER your best Mario Wii Score
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If you overheard the news about the subscription service changes this month, the changes we rolled out on the site today will be no surprise. Free registrants now have access to create a user created board, customize their forum name colors, and download videos in HD.
- User created boards: To create or change your UCB settings, go to members only and you'll find a way to create your UCB there.
- Custom forum name colors: To change the color of your username in the forums, go to your settings under members only.
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We're giving away Grand Theft Auto: Vice City swag in our bumper sticker contest.
Need something to do while you wait for Grand Theft Auto V to come out? We've got just the thing. With the recent release of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City to the PlayStation Network we have decided to have a bumper sticker creation contest.
Prizing:
We will be selecting 3 grand prize winners to receive a Grand Theft Auto Vice City 10th Anniversary prize pack. Five runner ups will be receiving a participation gift.
Guidelines:
- You must be a GameSpot registrant
- Winners will be announced later that day in the community news.
- Send your submissions to contests@gamespot.com; include your GameSpot username, real name, and your physical mailing address.
- Entries must be received by February 11th at 10:00am PST.
- Submission must include the following:
1) A Grand Theft Auto Logo
2) Your entry size should be no larger than 640x160 , and must be in the JPG format.
3) A slogan or catch phrase pertaining to the Grand Theft Auto Franchise.
For more information, you can check out our "Tips and Tricks", or the Official Rules and Guidelines for this contest.
Community Manager for GameSpot.com. Fan of all things gaming and a second generation gamer, she is a social butterfly and lover of bacon, Magic the Gathering, D20's and pie.
We had a short online chat with Az Samad, a Malaysian guitarist and composer who was a guest performer for Square Enix's Final Fantasy-themed music concert.
On November 2012, the Distant Worlds concert made its presence felt at the Kuala Lumpur Philharmonic Theatre in Malaysia. For those not in tune, the Distant Worlds concert is a celebration of music from the long-standing Square Enix franchise, Final Fantasy. The orchestral arrangements were done by local orchestra troupes, with conducting duties falling to Arnie Roth.
Kuala Lumpur-based musician Az Samad had the grand privilege of performing a rendition of Dear Friends (Final Fantasy V) and Vamo' Alla Flamenco (Final Fantasy IX) in front of a huge live audience in his home country. He is renowned for performing in the Folk Segovia Festival in Spain with the Tara Linda & The Tortilla Western Trio, as well as working with conductors Richard Kaufman and Mark Fitz-Gerald.
We had the opportunity to have a quick chat with the musician about his video game music cover work, as well as his thoughts on modern video game music.
Tell us about your background in music. When did you start?
I started playing when I was 16 years old. I was very blessed as my grandmother gave me RM80 to purchase my very first Sunburst Blue Kapok Guitar from the Spectrum shopping mall in Ampang, Kuala Lumpur. After 3 months, my dad noticed I was still intent on playing the guitar so he bought me a proper classical guitar on the condition that I took classical guitar lessons.
I was initially into hip hop & rap. I wanted a keyboard but never got one. Keyboards were so expensive!
The turning point was when a friend introduced me to Nirvana, which was a complete opposite of the R&B music that I was listening to. I enjoyed the different levels of energy in their Nevermind album. The MTV Unplugged in New York album inspired me to want to get a guitar because that was an acoustic album.
I lived in Boston for two years where I pursued my Bachelor of Music in Jazz Composition and Performance (Summa Cum Laude) from Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA. I also spent four years in Berkeley, California, and during that time, I obtained my Masters in Music (Jazz Studies) from San Jose State University.
My parents were very supportive and bought me supplementary learning material such as guitar magazines. On my side I would try to figure out as much as I could--ask a friend, check out books.
You recently performed for the Distant Worlds concert. Could you tell us more about your experience?
I started gaming on the Atari 2600 and then went through the NES, Super Nintendo, Gameboy and Sega Genesis when I was a kid. Video games were such a big influence in my life. To have had the opportunity to perform this music with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra as a guitar soloist is a huge honor.
I performed on two pieces, Dear Friends (Final Fantasy V) and Vamo' Alla Flamenco (Final Fantasy IX) for the concert. 'Dear Friends' was very special to me as it's a very beautiful piece and the melodies and harmonies really paint the beautiful poignant emotion in the song.
As part of my preparation, I listened to different versions of the pieces and also the original video game versions. It was a bit nostalgic listening to some of the video game music. Also very surreal to be actually playing this music because as a kid, I didn't play any musical instruments and now when I play and study this music--I can really see and hear more of how well crafted and composed it is.
I spent the past two month rehearsing for the show, from listening to different versions of the song to analyzing the chords and melody to figuring out alternate ways to play the parts. It's a process that I enjoy and through it, I understand and love the music more and more.
The Final Fantasy repertoire includes jazz elements. In addition to that, it includes world music, classical, rock and folk influences. For me, the best part of great video game music--especially in amazing RPGs--is that it can borrow freely from different musical styles and genres depending on the story. Also, it's all about painting a mood to color the emotion of the characters using beautiful and amazing music.
As a musician, what are your thoughts on this generation's video game music? Will it go beyond how it is right now in its state? If so, how?
I think it's an interesting time for video game music. There's so many ways to go for a composer. Because of the real wide range of possibilities that exist now, there really exists no real boundaries compared to how video game music used to be back in the '70s to '90s.
Video game music used to have much more hardware limitations and it was always very interesting to hear how the composers stretched the limits of the hardware. During the 8-bit gaming era, for instance the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) or Famicom only had five channels in mono. A lot of the time, the composer made it sound like there was a lot more happening. Compare that to the possibility of 256 channels on the XBox 360--it's pretty amazing how things have developed.
I think right now the main thing, as it's always been, is creativity. With more possibilities, any kind of music from really dense orchestrations to simple sparse atmospheric music to retro-tinged beats and melodies are at the disposal of video game composers. I think it will definitely go beyond with the possibility of any style of music or instrumentation being used to set the mood for different games.
In my opinion, because of how many platforms exist now--with games being developed for Android platform, iOS, mobile gaming, retro gaming, console, PC gaming and to some extent, arcade gaming--there exists the possibility for new games to be developed anywhere around the world. With this, there's a market for new composers with varied backgrounds and musical traditions to contribute music that is varied.
For example, if a team developed a game set in Brazil and wanted to have authentic Brazilian bossa novas, sambas and choro music in the game, it's possible to source a composer with that musical background. As more musicians compose for different video games, as more people get involved in it, new ideas will come in and hopefully it will enrich and stretch the dimension of gamers everywhere.
What are your future plans?
I would very much like to be able to score a video game in 2013 and will be reaching out to a game developer to explore possibilities. I'd love to score an atmospheric open-ended game, something like Shadow of The Colossus or a game with an interesting premise like Beyond Good and Evil.
I would also perhaps like to include some video game music into my solo repertoire and even with my Az Samad Trio.
Check out more of Az Samad's music on his site here.
Get in some action in Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 with Ryan Ramirez, watch augment this, and find out about our EA Sports Challenge livestream.
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GameSpot Australia is holding a new kind of competition to GameSpot members! Here's how it works: If you can beat the high score challenge staff set, take a photo or a screenshot of it and post it in the challenge discussion. Whoever posts the highest score by the time GameSpot AU goes live next week will be crowned WINNER on the live stream! You are allowed to submit multiple posts, so keep on trying to grab the best score! The latest challenge is in a game of Tetris. See if you can beat Edmond Tran's score: 237,459!
http://www.gamespot.com/forums/topic/29344024/battle-fight---episode-1-tetris
