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Joystiq (12 unread)

Hands-on: PlayStation Move's Sports Champions

Posted: March 10th, 2010, 11:45pm EST by Ludwig Kietzmann

Click for the gallery of Champions
You might think it derisive to call Sports Champions (working title) the Wii Sports of PlayStation Move, but it's really intended as a compliment. Although the collection of sports-themed games are relatively simple, they adequately highlight the Move's motion-sensing capabilities and, most importantly, how they're distinguished from those offered by the Wii (something that another Move game, The Shoot, did not do). Like Wii Sports, Sports Champions seems good at selling you on the hardware's abilities -- and what they might mean in more elaborate games.

The Gladiator Duel sub-game is a simple affair of blocking and attacking (your character moves towards the opponent automatically), but the Move will take into account the height of your swings and the positioning of your shield (generated by a second Move controller). It'll also sense distance -- if you don't hold your weapon arm back, it'll swing into your own shield to deleterious effect. Aside from swinging and blocking, you can also move both arms upwards to activate a jumping attack, or shuffle the controllers to the side in order to roll out of the way from an incoming strike. Basic stuff, but natural enough to not come across as a tacked-on gesture.

Table Tennis was more promising, and easily bested the Wii's equivalent. Your paddle's angle and area of exposure is almost instantly determined by how you're holding the controller. The Move's weight, coupled with the game's quick response and predictable physics, made every swing feel ... just right. It'll be a shame if a table tennis game turns out to be one of the best launch games for Move, but at least it'll stand out as one of the best of its ilk. That's a win, right?
Gallery: PlayStation Move: Sports Champions
Hands-on: PlayStation Move's Sports Champions originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Lego Universe beta invites being sent out

Posted: March 10th, 2010, 11:30pm EST by David Hinkle

We're received a handful of tips, and Massively confirms it: beta invites for the surprisingly hype-worthy Lego Universe beta have started to roll out. It's something we entirely want in on.

But, alas, no invite for us. Our tips box is only a repository for our own sadness, as others regale us with tales of their conquests; their own acquired beta invites. No, it's fine -- don't worry about us. We're just going to sit in the corner, with our real-life Legos, pretending there are actual people behind those hopelessly optimistic smiles, willing to interact with us in a virtual world.
Lego Universe beta invites being sent out originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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PC gaming revenue grew in 2009 as retail PC game sales shrank

Posted: March 10th, 2010, 11:00pm EST by JC Fletcher

[Logitech PC accessories] Despite fears about the languishing PC game industry, revenue seems to have grown a bit in 2009. According to PC Gaming Alliance's Horizons Report, revenue hit $13.1 billion in 2009, versus $11 billion in 2008.

Don't expect that growth to translate to increased shelf space for PC games, however. The report notes that digital distribution sales are way up, as are the sales of virtual items. "In 2009 we saw North America and Europe experience a rapid uptake in purchasing virtual items," PCGA president Randy Stude said. "This model is what drove growth in Asia and we think it is just starting to come to Western markets."

As expected, given the rise in digital distribution, packaged game sales have dropped for a second year, now accounting for just 20 percent of PC game revenue. It appears that PC games are going to go all digital unless we start seeing some really awesome cloth maps.
PC gaming revenue grew in 2009 as retail PC game sales shrank originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Hands-on: PlayStation Move's 'The Shoot'

Posted: March 10th, 2010, 10:40pm EST by Ludwig Kietzmann

"The Shoot" is a pretty fun title. The on-rails shooter propels you through a series of cheesy movie sets, populated by cardboard cut-out civilians, antiquated B-movie aliens and hulking robots. And then you shoot them ... on the shoot. See? What's more fun than a title with a double meaning?

Although the title is a riot, my time with the game left me feeling disappointed and annoyed. Lightgun shooters have a comfy home on Wii, and the point-and-shoot mechanics of games like House of the Dead: Overkill are a natural fit for the controller. The PlayStation Move is similarly well-suited, both in terms of aiming ability and comfortable weighting. But "The Shoot" felt like a second-rate shooting range, marked by a slow pace and obvious simplicity.

Those can't be trotted out as negatives for every gamer, but if you're a Joystiq reader, there's something you have to know: In order to activate a useful slow-motion effect in "The Shoot," you have to -- I'm not kidding -- spin around on the spot like a ballerina with an ice-cream cone in her hand. I imagine Sony would like to separate its motion controller from the Wii's stigma of vapid, gestural-overload games, so pulling an early-days Wii stunt like that makes for a bad impression.
Gallery: PlayStation Move: The Shoot
Hands-on: PlayStation Move's 'The Shoot' originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Hands-on: SOCOM 4 (with PlayStation Move!)

Posted: March 10th, 2010, 10:30pm EST by Andrew Yoon

There are two questions I'll try to answer with this quick hands-on preview. Firstly, is SOCOM 4 the true sequel to the SOCOM franchise we've been waiting for? Secondly, does the PlayStation Move controller work as intended?

It's hard to answer the first question, especially within the constraints of a ten-minute demo. What I can say is that even in this early state, SOCOM 4 looks very good, sporting incredibly detailed environments. While the early code has a noticeably choppy framerate, there was already a large number of objects in the environment. Whether it's a car, a trash can, a thrown-out mattress, there are tons of objects to take cover behind in the world.

Controlling your squad should be familiar to anyone that's played a recent SOCOM game. Holding L1 on the Move allows you to slightly slow down time and direct your team to move to position and await orders. You can even call in an airstrike by holding down the Move button and holding Down on a target. After sneaking down an alley, we were able to catch a large squad of soldiers lounging in an open field. They had no idea what hit them as the bombs dropped.

Gallery: SOCOM 4
Continue reading Hands-on: SOCOM 4 (with PlayStation Move!)
Hands-on: SOCOM 4 (with PlayStation Move!) originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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First Monkey Island SE coming to PSN, Mac, Telltale, InstantAction

Posted: March 10th, 2010, 10:12pm EST by Richard Mitchell

At a GDC 2010 event, LucasArts announced that The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is headed to a plethora of new platforms and services. First and foremost, it's been ported for both the PlayStation Network and Mac OS. Furthermore, the game is also making the jump to the Telltale games store as well as InstantAction.com. There are currently no details as to when the game will hit the services mentioned above, but rest assured we're following up with LucasArts right now.

It's worth noting that InstantAction.com is currently down for "maintenance," with the site's blog mentioning some "exciting announcements" in the near future. Regardless of when the game does show up, it's definitely good news for adventure fans that have been deprived of the remake thus far.
First Monkey Island SE coming to PSN, Mac, Telltale, InstantAction originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Secret of Monkey Island 2: Special Edition announced for XBLA, PSN, PC, iPhone

Posted: March 10th, 2010, 10:05pm EST by Christopher Grant

At a pirate-themed party in San Francisco tonight (with special guests Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer!) LucasArts announced The Secret of Monkey Island 2: Special Edition, coming "this summer" on Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, PC, iPhone and iPod Touch. This isn't simply the same "special edition" treatment applied to last year's edition; instead, fans can expect a new control mechanism. "In addition to the point-and-click interface, we've added the ability to move Guybrush around, so you feel more connected to him," said LucasArts' Craig Derrick, project lead on all Monkey Island products. They've also added never-before-seen art from Peter Chan and Steve Purcell and developer commentary (!) for you Monkey Island fanboys out there (that's you).

Of course, that's in addition to all the stuff you'd expect from the special edition treatment, including high-definition art, remastered music, full voiceover track, and the ability to swap between original and "special edition" modes. Derrick even said they've "reimagined" each character, citing fan displeasure with Guybrush's hair in the first special edition. Really? We liked his hair ...

Gallery: Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: Lechuck's Revenge
The Secret of Monkey Island 2: Special Edition announced for XBLA, PSN, PC, iPhone originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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GDC: EA's Schappert touts DLC as most profitable form of digital distribution

Posted: March 10th, 2010, 10:00pm EST by Kevin Kelly

EA's chief operating officer John Schappert had a fireside chat with Alex Pham of the Los Angeles Times about "mythbusting" at GDC today. Unfortunately, not many myths were actually busted -- other than the one we heard that everything at GDC is exciting! But Schappert did speak briefly about DLC, talking up the fact that Dragon Age: Origins DLC has made over a million dollars (and that was by November's count!). He went on to explain that digital distribution, in all its forms, earned $575 million dollars for EA last year, and the publisher placed its expectations for this year at $750 million.

"The fastest growing area of digital distribution -- and that includes subscriptions and microtransactions -- is downloadable content," Schappert said. "It's the extension of your current game through expansion packs and downloadable content."
GDC: EA's Schappert touts DLC as most profitable form of digital distribution originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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GDC: This is what Unreal Engine 3 on iPhone looks like

Posted: March 10th, 2010, 9:35pm EST by Christopher Grant

Unreal Engine 3 on the iPhone ... it looked better in person!
While we've yet to see Unreal Engine 3 ported to Nintendo's Wii or Sony's PSP, Epic did undertake the considerable task of squeezing its seemingly ubiquitous middleware platform onto Apple's similarly ubiquitous iPhone. According to Epic's Josh Adams - Epic Games' senior console programmer - that could be due to fundamental hardware limitations in the other platforms. You see, the iPhone 3GS has a PowerVR SGX graphics processor which supports programmable shaders. According to Adams, "Programmable shaders are something UE3 is pretty much dependent on."

Though you're probably most familiar with Unreal Engine on Windows, Xbox 360, and PS3, Adams says the engine also runs on Nvidia's Tegra 2 platform, on Linux, and on Mac, though (Adams notes) "we haven't shipped any games on those platforms yet." Adams says the iPhone port was "a fun 'Can we get UE3 onto the iPhone?' kind of project." Though Adams' presentation was exceptionally technical - this is the Game Developers Conference, after all! - it's fascinating to hear about the technical underpinnings and workflows that result in this type of outcome.
Continue reading GDC: This is what Unreal Engine 3 on iPhone looks like
GDC: This is what Unreal Engine 3 on iPhone looks like originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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PlayStation Move sub-controller: Don't call it a Nunchuk

Posted: March 10th, 2010, 9:05pm EST by Ben Gilbert

Click for little-big size
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/playstation/The_PlayStation_Move_sub_controller_Don_t_call_it_a_Nunchuk'; In case this is your first visit to Joystiq, know that Sony has dropped major megatons this evening at its GDC press conference -- as well as one very small megaton: the PlayStation Move "sub-controller." What you see above is the little brother (if you will) to the main ice cream cone-esque Move wand and the enabler of all things analog stick-controlled.

As per Sony's announcement of Move, the sub-controller attachment is intended to "expand the game play options that PlayStation Move games can offer," and -- unlike Nintendo Wii's Nunchuk controller -- it will connect wirelessly to the console via Bluetooth. We'll have our hands-on with the PlayStation Move (and the sub-controller) for you later tonight. For now, ogle the high-res images in our gallery below.

Gallery: PlayStation Move
PlayStation Move sub-controller: Don't call it a Nunchuk originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The PlayStation Move games (we know of)

Posted: March 10th, 2010, 8:55pm EST by Ben Gilbert
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/playstation/The_PlayStation_Move_games_we_know_of_Joystiq'; According to the block of info posted on European PlayStation Blog, there are a lot more PlayStation Move games out there to be seen than tonight's press release let on. Beyond the already revealed support for Move in SOCOM 4, LittleBigPlanet and EyePet, a whole mess of games were shown off at Sony's GDC event, from Move Party (um, a party game) to Slider (Mirror's Edge meets Pain?) to a Western shooter in The Shoot. (We've dropped a screen of Sports Champion above -- a game we think looks particularly fantastic.)

Oh, and the Euro Blog's mention of "DUKES" is just another name for that Motion Fighter game, which was mentioned onstage during this evening's press event -- so cool your heels and put the Jump to Conclusion mat back away. (We do rather like the name "Dukes," we'll admit; though we've been told it's a regional thing, and us North Americans are likely stuck with "Motion Fighter" instead.) We've yet to confirm which studios are developing which games, but you can be sure we'll ask Sony just as soon as we can. Here's the complete list of PlayStation Move titles that we know of, though, for now:
- Sports Champion
- The Shoot
- Slider
- TV Superstars
- Move Party
- Motion Fighter
The PlayStation Move games (we know of) originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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PlayStation Move trailer shows you what you'll look like whilst Moving

Posted: March 10th, 2010, 8:36pm EST by Griffin McElroy

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/First_trailer_for_PlayStation_Move'; PlayStation Blog recently got its hands on a trailer for the very recently monikered PlayStation Move -- though it doesn't really contain any information which hasn't surfaced over the past few minutes (or rather, months). There's PlayStation Eye integration, voice support, and -- guess what! That ball on top? Totally changes colors.

The only new information this new trailer imparts is what you're going to look like while you play a game with the PlayStation Move. That is to say, infinitely dweeby. Check out the trailer above to see what we mean.

Gallery: PlayStation Move
PlayStation Move trailer shows you what you'll look like whilst Moving originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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