General Discussion [ Page 45 ]

Does Anyone Know More About This Game?

I watched this game video today that is both awesome and confusing. It's a bit confusing because I have no idea what the game is because the video is entirely in what I think is Japanese. That said, the game seems to be of a little girl with antlers in a style similar to Limbo. The art and music are pretty unique and I hope this eventually makes it's way to the states.

Does anyone know anything about this game or know someone that can read the text in the trailer?

Every Super NES Start Sequence

Seriously, cataloged in this YouTube video is every Super Nintendo game start sequence in alphabetical order. If there is no English translation of a game, they use the Japanese version. The video is only 9 hours and three minutes so start watching now!

The Elder Scrolls Online Is Out

The Elder Scrolls Online, "available now" is news to me!

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/04/2014 at 10:54pm

Awesome, can't wait to try this out. Hopefully it goes free to play or whatever.

Oh, and you missed a post title :D

Travis Admin wrote on 04/05/2014 at 03:32am

I played in a couple of the beta events and was... not exactly impressed.

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/05/2014 at 02:46pm

Travis: What was it you didn't like?

Travis Admin wrote on 04/05/2014 at 03:11pm

All the bugginess of it at least can be forgiven since it was a beta, but the combat just wasn't interesting, the voice acting (with some notable exceptions) was pretty rough...

Overall it seems like a lot of great ideas that they just didn't polish enough. Hopefully as time goes on they can fix some of it.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 04/05/2014 at 07:33pm

Good eye, Jon!

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

It's official: Amazon set-top box, out today, plays games

We've heard rumors for months about an Amazon set-top box or console, and recently saw some very convincing leaked images of an Amazon controller. All the rumor and speculation ends today, however, because Amazon is now shipping the Fire TV, their new set top box that will stream your media and play games.

What's more, Amazon has formed Amazon Game Studios to develop games for the device. One game, out now, is called Sev Zero and looks like a pretty good shooter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXI898kyBgM

It's pretty impressive to me that they managed to keep an entire game studio secret for long enough to pull this off.

The FireTV itself will set you back $99, and the... Read All

scrypt Supporter wrote on 04/02/2014 at 09:21pm

This is huge. I would expect Apple to follow suit, probably as early as this fall. I'm really surprised (and disappointed) that Apple didn't do this first, actually. They've had everything in place for years. Now Amazon has the infrastructure, hardware, and customer base, to be one of the hottest thing in home entertainment (no pun intended). If it works. I like the idea of the mic on the remote. Looks like it has double the gpu power that the Ouya has, too. Very, very interesting.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 04/02/2014 at 10:05pm

Eh, I don't know how well this is going to do. It's interesting as a media device, but with more and more TV's being "smart," most of the features of the box are being built directly into TV's. And as far as games, I think the kid who gets this as a game system will feel like the kids back in the 80's who got a VTech Socrates rather than a Nintendo.

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/03/2014 at 04:05am

@scrypt I agree. I expected Apple to do this first so it's cool and strange to see Amazon head in. That said, I am happy they have as this set top box is the most powerful of the bunch and I hope it sparks a "cheaper set top box spec war."

@Adym It isn't the greatest offering as far as games go right now for sure. That said, over time I imagine more developers will port games over and things should work pretty well. Amazons Android store isn't too bad and it's catalog of games is growing. It hits the right price point and has enough power to play some games. That said, this ain't gonna run BioShock Infinite.

Orionnoir wrote on 04/03/2014 at 03:18pm

Well maybe its because Apple 'sort of' did this... e.g., AppleTv + Airplay? I push whatever I am playing to it at times. Ironically just to record videos for demos... I don't really use it for anything but capturing a stream now that I think about it. I did demo a few games to my kids with it. Ok so maybe its not even remotely a single purpose console device experience. But my point is Apple might feel like they already HAVE entered the market... That is a very un-researched opinion. I do believe Apple is a horribly small company for the revenue stream they achieve. And at times it feels like they are holding this stuff together with bailing wire and duct tape. Covered in a a very pretty surface layer... but underneath there is chaos and hell chained with fury and just waiting to crack the surface and spew forth its vitriol onto the consumer or developer in some fashion if allowed.

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/04/2014 at 12:28am

Apple does have Apple TV for sure and like you say you can fling stuff from your iPad, iPhone and Mac to it. I think what we were talking about it not doing was having an app store and official controller. Right now you just get the apps it comes with, which is nice BUT no app store. So for me, it seems like Apple is right on the line of having something that could be WAY better.

On thing that keeps me away from the Apple option is I serve all my media off a NAS. Apple TV requires you fling content on it through the iPhone through AirPlay. If Apple TV had an app store I could use my NAS and uPNP.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 04/04/2014 at 01:15am

One thing you can do is configure something else to act as an Airplay server. It's a little cumbersome, I've never done it, so I don't know how predictable it is.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 04/04/2014 at 01:16am

As far as serving media, Apple TV primarily works through iTunes on a network Mac/PC. iOS apps require mirroring from an iPhone or iPad. Like you say, Jon, without access to native, downloadable apps, it is quite lacking compared to a Roku or Fire TV. That said, I love my Apple TV, and hope that, someday, Apple sees it's full potential. I hope the Fire TV will do just that. I tried Airplay once for gaming, and it's not optimal, or even playable. They have much work to do.

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/04/2014 at 01:19am

Airplay is great for Apple gear and I love the idea, I just hope it becomes a more open standard so you don't need to only use Apple stuff with it.

That said, if Apple TV got the full app store treatment i'd be more down with it so I can use non-Apple internal file sharing and such. But as is, it's kind of Apple only and whereas I do use iTunes, my NAS is always on for the reason of file sharing, I don't need to have my laptop on for it to magically work, Apple just makes me have use it.

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

April Fools 2014 Video Game Fake Story Roundup

Every year the Internet explodes with fake news on April Fools. Since some of the stories in gaming can be fun, I decided to catalog them here. If you have a particular story that isn't noted, hit up the comments.

Blizzard Outcasts is the new fake brawler by Blizzard. That said, fighting as Deckard Cain sounds pretty rad. http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/games/outcasts/

While not gaming related, Think Geek has a pretty fun Flux Capacitor USB car charger. http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/1ba1/?srp=2

Guild Wars 2 set all the in game players heads to bobble. http://i.imgur.com/m4GmxvB.jpg

Path of Exile just went pay to win. Candy Crush players rejoice. ... Read All

Humble Bundle: PC And Android 9

"Humble Bundle: PC and Android 9 features six brilliant games ready to play on four platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux and Android. Pay what you want to receive the mind-bending puzzle adventure series, Broken Sword 2, the physics-based construction puzzler, Bridge Constructor, the stylistic typographic puzzler, Type:Rider, and the visually stunning action-adventure game, Ravensword: Shadowlands. If you pay more than the average, you'll also get the award-winning tower defense game, Kingdom Rush, and the retro-style pixel-art RPG, Knights of Pen and Paper +1 Edition."

I have been waiting to nab Kingdom Rush & Knights of Pen and Paper on PC for quite some time. Now that... Read All

Game Pricing in The Download Age

One of the coolest parts of being in gaming is how many awesome games we have access to. Steam, GoG, Origin, iOS and Android stores all let you buy a ton of awesome games for much less than the traditional $60 console price point. That said, many triple A games that come out sell digitally and physically for the same price. YouTube gaming sensation Boggie2988 made a video recently that caught my attention I linked above. He asks Microsoft and Sony to change the pricing model for digital content because the digital versions of games don't allow trading and loaning yet are cheaper to distribute.

This is something that's bugged me for quite a long time that doesn't stop... Read All

Goodbye Oculus VR.

I had such high hopes. I can't believe this... just ruined my day.

https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10101319050523971?stream_ref=1

Travis Admin wrote on 03/25/2014 at 10:14pm

I was on my way over here to post this.

Sigh.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 03/25/2014 at 10:14pm

Hmmmm, I guess I'm glad it's still moving forward? I'm not crazy about FB owning it, but glad it's not completely dying.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/25/2014 at 10:18pm

Yeah I mean I know I'm being a pessimist about this, we don't know what will happen yet. But it just makes me uneasy.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 03/25/2014 at 10:36pm

http://nooooooooooooooo.com/

Ok, ok, calm down... don't be so pessimistic. I mean this could be a good thing right? Now Oculus has a huge stack of cash behind them to advance the technology right? And all the parody Facebook VR videos and meme's we're about to get are going to make for some solid comedy.

How long until the Oculus starts tracking your eye movements to see which ads you look at and for how long, so to better target you with future advertisements? >.<

Timogorgon Member wrote on 03/25/2014 at 11:07pm

Already some interesting news on this:

Apparently there was a version of Minecraft being developed for Oculus. Not anymore according to Notch: https://twitter.com/notch/status/448586381565390848

Engadget has an article about the deal with this disheartening quote. This is from the "update" while on a conference call with Mark Zuckerberg: "Specifically, he talked about the potential of a virtual communication network, buying virtual goods, and down the line, advertising."
Article: http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/25/facebook-oculus-vr-2-billion/

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/25/2014 at 11:11pm

What the.... I mean I guess Oculus would have been purchased and... I just never thought it would be Facebook.

Wow, need a bit to process this. I mean Zuck is right, it is the future but...

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 03/25/2014 at 11:12pm

Watching the Dev Days videos, it seems like a lot of people don't like FB (it seemed to be a running theme that you shouldn't be on FB. Never really for any specific reason, just "If you're still on FB, you've made some poor life choices"), so I am interested in seeing how Valve and Steam react to this.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/25/2014 at 11:19pm

Interesting.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/26/2014 at 09:09am

Life is such a damn cartoon sometimes. I want Microsoft and Facebook to release a platform that has nothing but advertisements on it. Static ads, and 30-60 second spots of pure consumer targeted drama. They could call it something classy like "Ads, MF" or "PinkEye 360."

In truth, I haven't been keenly interested in VR. I'll holster any real opinions until I've actually tried it. However, I'm not a fan of Facebook. I think Facebook actually did give me pinkeye once.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/26/2014 at 03:29pm

Most startups (Oculus, etc) are created to get acquired. They take investment and either want to grow huge to IPO or sell. In this case Oculus raised a huge amount of cash from the community, which give it a shot in the arm popularity wise but didn't seem to change the companies strategy.

So basically, when you fund a Kickstarter yo are basically pre-ordering something. So if you think your dollars mean "oh hey, stay independent guys" well, apparently that's not what it means at all. Cause Facebook be all like, 2 BILLION and Oculus be all THANKS FOR THE MONEY!

That said, yay for them and all that but like you guys, this just doesn't seem awesome. That said, I bet in the end the Oculus will still be great and they are still focused on games.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/26/2014 at 03:30pm

On the other hand, I am very happy that Valve and other companies are still in the VR business.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/26/2014 at 04:40pm

This comment sums up my feelings on it. "I don't want to live in a future where a handful of giant companies are dividing up every piece of creative enterprise that stands a chance of reaching mass market"

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/26/facebook-and-oculus-rift-game-developers-react

It's insane to see the developer support falling off. Notch pulled the plans for a version of Minecraft for the Oculus, tons of others are dropping.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/26/2014 at 07:07pm

Kickstarter funding may not be implicit with staying independent, but I'll bet it makes people think twice about funding tech projects in the future, if they see that their $2M contribution could just be funding a $2B buyout. If I had Kickstarted OR, I would be pissed right now, because instead of supporting the vision of Oculus VR, now I've successfully funded the vision of Facebook. A scarier thought might be that their visions were aligned in the first place, in which case I doubt as many would have cared about OR in the first place. If this were LOST, Oculus VR would be J.J. Abrams, Facebook would be Damon Lindelof, and it might sound all well and good for a while, but in the end it's just a steaming pile of horseshit.

The magic is gone.

(I don't really think Damon Lindelof is as frustrating as Facebook, but, as a writer, he does frustrate the shit out of me sometimes. :D)

Travis Admin wrote on 03/26/2014 at 08:16pm

I love Lindelof but yeah, frustrating is a fine word to describe him.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/26/2014 at 09:15pm

Here's another recent example of Goliath controlling David, what consumers are agreeing to, and how it can go very wrong:

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/03/26/xbox-one-griefers-may-have-twitch-privileges-dessert-taken-away/

Timogorgon Member wrote on 03/30/2014 at 06:04pm

John Carmack has weighed in about the Facebook buyout over on Peter Berkman's (a member of chip-tunes band Anamanaguchi) Tumbler page. Kind of a weird place to make his first comments, but whatever.

Joystiq has a summary of Carmack's comments: http://www.joystiq.com/2014/03/30/john-carmack-on-facebook-buy-of-oculus-they-get-the-big-pictur/
Carmack's original comments: http://peterberkman.tumblr.com/post/80827337212/wrong-and-right-reasons-to-be-upset-about-oculus#comment-1310233365

Apparently the Facebook buyout was a surprise to him, although he seems fairly OK with the decision.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/31/2014 at 06:59pm

Whereas I agree with him, the buyout still feels odd. Then again, he says outright there could have been a better pairing other places.

That said, who would have offered the 2 billion buyout?

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Mozilla and Unity3D To Bring Native Games To the Web

"Mozilla and Unity are announcing new deployment tools bringing Unity-authored games to the Web without the need for plugins, made possible thanks to Mozilla-pioneered technologies including WebGL, a Web graphics library and asm.js, a supercharged subset of JavaScript. Unity’s WebGL add-on will be made available with the release of Unity 5.0 later this year."

Using open web technology such as WebGL and asm.js it should be pretty easy for developers to port their games to the web using the upcoming version of Unity. Currently Unity web games require a browser plugin and after the new version is out developers can start building native browser games.

Now that Internet... Read All

Cheerful Ghost Roundtable: S2 E5 The Indelible Nature of ...

In this episode of The Cheerful Ghost Roundtable we are talk about a smattering of game related bits such as the new Steam Controller re-design, Gauntlet Reboot & Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls. We also chat about what games we've been playing as well as other awesomery not found anywhere else(except for the other places you can find them).

What We are Playing & Drinking

0.25m scrypt: Darksiders & Darksiders II, Dark Souls & Pinball FX2

2.00m WhiteboySlim: GTA V Online & Ocarina of Time Remaster

5.00m Travis: Portal 2, Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake & Super Mario World

6.30m jdodson: Portal 2, Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake, Diablo III 2.0.X & Nom... Read All