Wario Land: Shake It
Have you seen this youtube Wario Land page yet? Damn that’s pretty sweet… had me smiling like a total goofball when I pulled it up. Some nice effects coding.
Can’t slap a picture up but here is the linky.
Line Rider
Hi everyone. It’s been a long time. I’ve been playing Line Rider.
Mmmm… liney.
ZOLTAR!
Remember Zoltar from our childhood days? Come on, think! Zoltar is the fortune telling machine that was the movie Big. Now that should ring a bell. Well looks like Zoltar has now become a mass production machine. You can purchase one for the low low price of $8,999.95. Here is a link if you want to purchase your own Zoltar!
Microsoft Announces XNA Game Studio Express
“Talking on the eve of its Gamefest event in Seattle, Microsoft has revealed XNA Game Studio Express, a new product which will allow indie developers and students to develop simultaneously on Xbox 360 and PC, and share their games to others in a new Xbox 360 ‘Creators Club’.”
Taken from the Gamasutra website.
Looks like Microsoft is ramping up for what will be one of the largest and most vicious console wars to date. This alone would convince me to purchase a 360 over the exorbitantly priced, PS3. Coupled with rumors that Microsoft is also planning project Panorama, a version of Live Arcade for Vista has me lickin’ my chops. There is slight catch, however.
Developers who want to share their homemade beauties with the Xbox 360 base will have to shell out $99 per year to be part of the “Creators Club”. A small price to pay for such a wide audience, IMO.
Related Gamasutra article, here and be sure to check out the XNA Game Studio Express FAQ, here.
Color me PSYCHED!!!
E3 Is Upon Us
Check out the E3 Insider site for up-to-the-minute coverage (I’m just hoping for some Wolfenstein action, myself).
Bethesda: Don’t Step In The Horse Manure
Bethesda software released a mod for their most recent uber-RPG Oblivion that allows the player to download and equip armor for a horse. Cool, right? Mos def – With one exception: players who want the armor have to shell out either $1.99 (PC) or $2.50 (XBox 360) for the mod. I’m just crushed at the thought of this business model catching on and bleeding into the market. With games starting to get so incredible, I guess it was just a matter of time before some wonderboy wants to withhold just a little bit of cool factor and bleed me nickel by dime to get the “full” game. And there’s more on the way…
Read more
YALL: Gaming Now and Then
Here’s yet another leached link for y’all: Gaming Now and Then
Very short and entertaining with plenty of pictures and no reading.
What else could you ask for on a Thursday morning?
(Besides a toasted everything bagle with bacon scallion cream cheese and large coffee, that is.)
The Blind Samurai Gamer
You read it right folks. Brice Mellen, blind since birth when he was struck with Leber’s disease learned to play video games when he was 6 years old. Brice honed his craft by listening to the sounds that are invoked when certain moves are made. His focus is primarily on fighting games and he’ll be testing his skills against some of the best when he enters a Mortal Kombat Deception tournament in Lincoln, Nebraska.
You can learn more about Brice here.
Nissan to Develop Xbox 360 Car
According to Motortrend, Nissan is developing a concept car that will include an embedded Xbox 360 video game console.
“A pure, powerful sports car with motorcycle-inspired styling, the rear-wheel drive URGE features a quick, high-revving, small-displacement engine, six-speed manual gearbox, brushed aluminum-alloy wheels, color-infused aluminum body panels and a driver-oriented cockpit with an integrated Xbox 360 gaming system.”
Apparantly the car will allow people to play games like Project Gotham Racing 3 (while parked of course) on a 7-inch flat-panel display.
More images can be found, here.
Crazy or cool?
The Ultimate Flight Sim
According to some rumors floating around the flight simulator community it seems that very soon when someone asks you what you did over the weekend you can say, “I circumnavigated the earth in a Mach-3 XB-70 Valkyrie. What did you do?”
The goal is simple enough. Create enough digital landscape to allow players to fly around the world.
For more info, you can check out X-Plane, here and X-Plane’s Global scenery project here.
