http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/96/19

An interesting article. However, I think a very obvious point seems to escape a lot of opinion articles. I keep hearing "they say they want innovation but they never want to plunk down the cash". However, there's something a lot more basic behind it. People don't KNOW about these amazing original games, especially in the white noise of terrible original games.

Someone already knows what to expect with a Final Fantasy game, but no one's ever heard of Okami. For all they know, it might totally suck, and in all likelihood, it probably is if one considers just the odds. The majority aren't running around reading news posts on gaming web logs like us. Further, there's the issue of money.

People WOULD spend the money on Okami if they could know beforehand that it was a good game.

So no, don't assume this is some artistic/political statement just like you always "KNEW" about the masses and you're totally so much more enlightened than they are. Most likely this has nothing to do with your crusade and it's just a lack of information on these newcomers.

In all honesty, you do it too. I never even considered TRYING Ty the Tazmanian Tiger, because it just looked like "yet another" platformer, you know, the churned out hundreds of boring platformers? In fact, I say that's the VERY REASON Psychonauts didn't sell well. Every person I talk to says they didn't think it would be a fun game not because "it was too original and different looking" (no one ever says or thinks that EVER), but the opposite, it looked "just like any other boring platformer". It took playing it myself to realize it actually WAS a fun game in it's own right and NOT just a boring clone.

In short, it's not that people "don't want an original game", it's much more likely that they just don't KNOW it's an original and fun game to begin with, and how WOULD they? No seriously, in the end that's the question we need to solve. How do you "tell the people"? I guess the first part would be convincing the advertisers to spend the money on these new games, but they did that with Psychonauts. Maybe the commercials should show gameplay and not just have "witty narrator dialog" and completely unrelated real world jokes. I think above all that, downloadable demos.

http://www.blizzard.com/

So apparently they did a history of their own games (Lost Vikings missing?) and a big ol' question mark at the end of that list. They have announced they are going to announce something... hurray?

Don't eat the government rationed greenly-tinted rolls distributed to the starving masses, they're actually made from the euthanized starving masses!!

Discuss.

(Funcom: The Longest Journey, Dreamfall, Anarchy Online, Age of Conan (upcoming))

It's got Ragnar Tornquist designing it, so the story and writing are guaranteed to be exceptional (Ragnar Tornquist is awesome! TLJ... so great... and his writing about game design is quite good too, in his blog and stuff.). It's also got some great concept art... gameplay? Who knows, we'll see. But I'm definitely interested.

Oh, they're also actually aiming at an adult marketplace... horror theme, M rating, concept art with partial (monster) nudity, and (best of all) presumably actually a script that assumes you're not an idiot...

http://kotaku.com/gaming/the-mmo-formerl...259777.php
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=154656

There are a lot of pieces of concept art now (and more gameplay details), but I'll post just a few...

There's no E3, sadly ( :bummed: ), but some news has been coming out anyway... (mostly seen via neogaf)

Square-Enix
New Announcements
Star Ocean 1+2 remakes collection - PSP
Star Ocean 4 - Undisclosed Platform
Final Fantasy IV DS - DS
Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon - Wii
Last Remnant - 360/PS3 (simultaneous US/Japan launch)

More details for old stuff
FF Dissidia - PSP (new?) (fighting game)
FFCC - Wii (trailer)
FFCC - The Crystal Bearers - DS
FF XII International - PS2 (likely Japan only)
DQ IX - DS
etc.

Tecmo
New Announcements
Project Rygar (new game) - Wii

More details
Ninja Gaiden DS - DS

Namco - New
Soul Calibur Legends - Wii (action-adventure)
Tamagochi - Wii

Atlus USA
Growlanser V - PS2

Sega-Sammy
New
Ghost Squad - Wii (arcade light gun game port)

More info (confirmation)
Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core - Wii

Lucasarts
Lego Star Wars - The Complete Collection (1+2) - Wii

EA
Unknown Spielburg game - unknown? multiplatform including Wii?
Sims 2, Ea Playground - Wii

And other stuff I'm sure. Given that Star Ocean 1+2 is on PSP, I'd bet that Star Ocean 4 is PS3/360 or PS3 only...would've liked to see it on Nintendo, after how awesome the second Star Ocean game was on PS1 (and the first one on SNES), but oh well...

For those of you who remember him, TC vet Demon is working at [[[[[ UNDISCLOSED BUSINESS IN REDMOND WASHINGTON ]]]]]], and if he does well he could be picking up a job there so everybody give him belly farts and perfume so this boy can make good!

if you need more hints, there's a reason i'm posting it *here*.

I have found this out the hard way.

As it turns out, there seems to be a widepread problem with updating to the latest Media Player if you already have Media Connect installed. Basically, the media sharing functionality dies.

In summery: My PC can still see my 360, but my 360 can't see my PC any more (worked perfectly until I upgraded).

If you never installed Media Connect and just straight installed the latest Media Player, you should be fine.

MS really needs to fix this bug... It's annoying...

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/...list208336

Watch that video, crank up the volume. That, my friends, is an engine.

http://www.bandaigames.channel.or.jp/list/ds_ppgz/

Apparently Bandai is making a Mario Party looking game based on this anime based on an american cartoon, and it's coming to the DS, but only the pink one apparently :D.

This only tells me that apparently this show is popular enough in Japan to justify it. I await the storm when it strikes the US coast.

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