We owe a huge debt of gratitude to modder Michael "Bibin" Moffitt -- for years now, our eyes have undergone irreversible damage due to being frequently strained in order to play our Game Boy Pockets in ill-lighted environments. Using only an LED, some perspex and a diffusive layer, Bibin managed to add a backlight to his beloved Pocket, leading to illuminated rounds of Dr. Mario with little effect on the system's battery life. Good going, Bibin!
(Okay, seriously, nobody tell this guy about the Game Boy Light or GBA SP. It sounds like he worked really hard on this, and we don't want to ... ) Oh, hey, Bibin! You're still here! Sure, we'd love to play some Mario's Picross! What's that? Your mom made Rice Krispie Treats? Awesome.
We knew that THQ's financial turmoil last year led to the unceremonious execution of a few of their in-development titles, but the extent of the damage still isn't fully known to those outside of the company. Recently, two different sources confirmed one of the games that was given the ax -- a flying action game titled Stormbirds, which was being developed by the recently "realigned" THQ-owned studio Juice Games.
In addition to an opening cinematic for the game (captures from which are located in the gallery below) which was uploaded by CGI company Realtime:UK, tons of renders and gameplay details were recently posted to the personal blog of former Juice Games environmental artist Greg Calvert. Said blog post has since vanished, but not before our eagle-eyed PC-centric sister site Big Download grabbed the images. Shame, really -- it looks kind of neat.
[Update: The source requested we remove the copyrighted renders from the post.]
We live a fairly fast-paced, jet-setting lifestyle -- an unfortunate side-effect of which are the hours of frequent layovers we are forced to suffer while flying between Hugh Hefner's Sky Villa in Vegas and our private, opulent island getaway off the coast of O'ahu. These long stretches are made even more unbearable when we forget to pack our handhelds -- a situation that often causes us, in a sheer fit of boredom, to overdose on Dramamine and attempt to ride the baggage carousel.
Luckily, we'll never again have to know the firm, rubber-gloved grip of an annoyed Air Marshal -- Best Buy recently began offering DS Lites and select DS titles in their Best Buy Express vending machines. These machines are located at several major airports throughout the U.S., and sell a number of important devices for travelers, such as headphones, chargers, and most recently, Pokémans catching simulators.
Welcome to 2009, ladies and gentlemen. The world has changed very much in the last 24 hours -- we hear Zunes work again, for example.
Alexander Sliwinski: Despite GameFly allegedly having sent Prince of Persia on Monday, it's still not here. Hopefully, I'll get it tomorrow. The main weekend plan was to explore the Wasteland in Fallout 3 more. My second foray into the game is going much smoother and hours just melt away playing it.
Christopher Grant: Need to wrap up some of 2008, before I start my "To Be Played In 2009" pile. Got a little left of Mirror's Edge, about half of Far Cry 2, and the majority of Prince of Persia. Still, I'd rather be playing Fable 2 ... some more ... but there's almost nothing left for me to do in Albion. Where's that DLC, Lionhead?
Griffin McElroy: I'm going to either try to finish Metal Gear Solid 4, or instead download the Metal Gear Solid DLC for LittleBigPlanet, which I imagine will create a remarkably similar experience. When away from my beloved home consoles, I imagine I'll spend a great deal of time Triggering my Chronos.
Kevin Kelly: I'm still living in the non-electronic realm and itching for my consoles bigtime. I did tour Game Over Games in Austin thanks to a reader tip (thanks Adrian! Photos and report forthcoming) and it was awesome. Been playing a lot of Electronic Catch Phrase and tomorrow is board game night with some peeps - Power Grid and Agricola. Then Sunday... back to gaming bliss on my systems. Whew.
James Ransom-Wiley: Post-Christmas shopping spree! I got Microsoft Points, PSN bucks and *gulp* Wii Points to redeem ... suggestions? (I'm thinking save my Wii Points for Cave Story.)
Jason Dobson: Writing our "Best of the Rest" posts reminded me that I still have a few races to complete in GRiD, so I'll be getting back behind the wheel and trying to take the checkered flag.
Justin McElroy: I'm going to be playing some more Killzone 2 and finally trying to finish the last gasps for Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia.
Ludwig Kietzmann: is in the future and not willing to look back.
Randy Nelson: I'm already going through my fellow Joystiqers' "Best of the Best" lists for ideas on what to play next. I'll definitely be playing more Far Cry 2 -- my current addcition -- but really want to catch up on some of the less high-profile gems I inadvertently passed by: BoomBlox, GRiD, and, on Alexander's recommendation, Sins of a Solar Empire.
Ross Miller: Just got a shiny new 24-inch monitor for my PC, so it's time to play catch-up. Too bad I just missed the Steam sale, it seems. Also, I've got 1600 MS points and am not sure what to get. Help!
If you've ever wondered "Does anyone actually browse the web on consoles?," Market Share has an answer for you: yes, but not very many people. The firm reports that .04% of all web browsing is performed on PS3, compared to the .01% of Wii, the only other current-gen console with a browser.
Of course, PS3's browser is built-in; Wii's particular version of Opera costs 500 Wii Points ($5) and, well, people have to seek it out among the other WiiWare offerings. So, tell us, are you reading Joystiq on a console, and if so, which one?
Prince of Persia Wait ... really? This is in my personal list and not our main top ten? Look, I love my coworkers, but I'm going to punch them all in their stupid, stupid faces for this disgrace. Prince of Persia is one of this year's most elegantly designed games, one that does away with disruptive deaths and punishing repetition. While I'll concede that the difficulty posed to veteran platforming fans (myself included) is minor, I think it's naive to believe that every game is -- or should be -- designed with a similar, player-opposed intent and structure. This game and its seamless expression of motion isn't meant to be beaten, but enjoyed and absorbed. It's inspired, poetic and even funny. So what if it was easy?
Just like you, we get all sorts of gifts around the holidays here at Joystiq HQ. Probably unlike you, we don't keep any of them (even the good ones!). With that in mind, we've got five days of regift giveaways planned, where you get some free stuff (and we get some of our HQ real estate back).
Today, we're offering up this silver PSP-3000 Ratchet & Clank Entertainment Pack. Why do they call it the PSP-300 Ratchet & Clank Entertainment Pack? Well, it's tricky ... but we're professionals, so here goes. First, it contains a PSP-3000. Not a 1000 (they don't even make those anymore!) or a 2000, but an honestogoodness PSP-3000 ("better" screen and all). The Ratchet & Clank part? Well, it comes with Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters on UMD, so pretty self explanatory there. But the Entertainment part, yes ... this is a bit tougher. First, a copy of National Treasure 2 on UMD and nothing screams "entertainment" like Nicholas Cage tracking down history. Next, a download code for Echochrome, and a 1GB Memory Stick to hold it – if bending your mind sounds like a good time, this has your name all over it.
Here's how you win:
Leave a comment pondering what new features the inevitable PSP-4000 will introduce (internal memory!).
You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec)
Limit 1 entry per person
This entry period ends at 8:30 pm ET on Monday, January 5th. We'll randomly select 1 winner at that time to receive a Silver PSP-3000 Limited Edition Ratchet and Clank Entertainment Pack (ARV: $200). Please check your e-mail!
In celebration of the new year, Platinum Games posted on its Japanese site (and subsequently on its English-language Facebook page) this card featuring characters from its announced titles (from left to right) Mad World, Bayonetta and Infinite Space. More importantly, however, is the brand new logo that replaces the now-antiquated blocky design.
Company President / CEO Tatsuya Minami is said to be giving a more in-depth explanation of the new logo sometime later, but in case you were wondering now, that gray color is known as Platinum Silver. Yeah, they're classy like that.
Popping in to deliver some New Year tidings on the PlayStation Blog, Q-Games' president Dylan Cuthbert opined on his favorite games of ought-eight ... and teased that at least two new titles from his Kyoto-based studio are coming to Sony platforms in '09.
Cuthbert predicts that this year will be a grand one for games, "what with two or three more PixelJunk titles coming out." We've already seen one of them -- PixelJunk Monsters for PSP -- but the others? Given the number of tabled concepts Cuthbert recently showed Spike TV (skiing, fighting, etc.) we'd say a PixelJunk take on an established genre would be a shoe-in, but then there was the decidedly non-conformist -- and absolutely superb -- PixelJunk Eden last year. So, we can only ... imagine.
Oh, dear reader, we don't even know where to begin. In this Japanese trailer for Dead Rising: Chop Til You Drop for Wii, a zombie punk band entertains the entire cast of the game, zombies included. Witness flying chainsaws, slap-happy security guards and a very pushy, mic-stealing Frank West. The weirdest part of all? Zombie and Man living together in perfect harmony. Don't say we didn't warn you.
The Nielsen Company is best known for tracking television viewership, but its quantifying of what people spend their time doing doesn't end there. It also tracks console usage among its selected households, and, for 2008 (January through October, at least), the PlayStation 2 was played more than any other.
According to Nielsen's findings, PS2 accounted for 31.2% of all console usage minutes measured. Xbox 360 was a distant second with 17.2%, followed by Wii (13.4%), the original Xbox (9.7%), PS3 (7.3%), GameCube (4.6%), and "other" (16.2%). The fact that more hours were spent playing the original Xbox than PS3 is, well, surprising. PS2's dominance isn't; last we checked, there were 87.6 bazillion of them in the world (give or take a few trillion).
As CMT foretold, Roy Orbison tracks will be available as Rock Band DLC. Sadly, "I Drove All Night" isn't one of the songs, but there's still plenty of tracks to croon to while wearing giant black-rimmed glasses.
All tracks are masters and videos can be found after the break. The Xbox 360 will have the songs available for download Tuesday, January 6. The PS3 will receive them a week later on January 15, due to the PSN's holiday break. There's currently no word about when the two consoles will sync up again, but we've contacted Sony and HMX to find out.
We kick off the New Year with what has got to be the oddest episode of the Joystiq Podcast yet. In just two hours, a FedEx guy kidnaps Ludwig, Griffin and Justin tell how their dad almost stopped Hannah Montana before she began (which prompts the Jonas Brothers to travel back in time to kill him), and we pick apart our own Top 10 list. It's nutty.
Thanks to JPAG member Danny Lujan for indirectly providing the podcast art with the awesome Secret Santa gift he made.
Get the podcast: [iTunes] Subscribe to the Joystiq Podcast directly in iTunes [Zune] Subscribe to the Joystiq Podcast directly in the Zune Marketplace [RSS] Add the Joystiq Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator [MP3] Download the MP3 directly
Hosts: Chris Grant, Ludwig Kietzmann, Griffin McElroy and Justin McElroy
Culdcept Saga Culdcept's unique blending of Monopoly and card collecting finally tapped these shores in February. Though the series has never enjoyed much recognition outside of Japan, take one trip around the board and you'll see why Culdcept Saga remains one of the most addictive and fun strategy games available for any platform.
Peter Man Tell 'Em has kicked off '09 with a wildly entertaining review of Eurogamer's "Top 50 Games of 2008," headlining with the question on all of our minds: Where The FIFA? From the outset, Peter Moore's rant makes it clear that his is a man's world, summoning well wishes for his distinctly heterosexual males club -- also known as EA Sports Nation: "I hope you all have had a restful few days and have been able to get your sports fix in front of the TV without your wife/girlfriend/mom/mum giving you a bad time ... "
In Peter Man's real talk, there is no place for the seemingly sissy; games like Bangai-O Spirits or World of Goo. And Tomb Raider in the Top 50? No thanks. Who wants to play as ... a girl? (Note: Please excuse Boom Blox and Mirror's Edge's apparent lack of manliness -- trust Moore, it's in the game.) But, beneath the posturing exterior, Peter Man drops hints of latent insecurity. Though Moore has membership in an elite fraternity of buff game execs (true story: the presidency was decided by an arm wrestling match between Moore and Strauss -- guess who won?), he is just as susceptible as the rest of us are to body image issues perpetuated by games. How could Peter Man not be threatened by the sheer power of the Bangai-O bots? Or the Goo's killer combo of unrivaled flexibility and unnerving strength? Or Ms. Lara's emasculating sexuality?
The real tell, though, is this: "I was surprised to see Wii Fit included [at #25], which I thought would make the top 10," writes Moore. Clearly, this is a man obsessed with mastering the physical potentials of the body. A perfect fit for EA Sports, then. And a great businessman to boot. While the media continues the "Wii dissing," Peter Man is heaping on the Nintendo praise. After all, a man's world is measured by units. And no one put more units in gamers' hands -- heck! under their feet, too -- than Nintendo did last year.
Newsflash: Dying in games has been pushing up daisies for years
2008 holiday card blowout, now with exclusive music!
See everyone else's take on the best of 2008.
BigDownload's 2009 PC Game Preview
Telling Stories: Read how developers tackle the topic, one verb at a time
Listen to the Joystiq podcast (because your ears can't read)
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_thumbnail.jpg "Cellfactor: Psychokinetic Wars (PSN, XBLA)")
