... if Gamestop's listing of an EA classics collection for PSP is accurate, that is.
Quote:Retail Radar: PSP to get EA retro comp
GameStop details 14-game collection of old-school classics, says Electronic Arts is bringing Syndicate, Ultima, Wing Commander, and more to PSP.
By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot
Posted Aug 14, 2006 7:12 pm ET
Publishers like Capcom, Sega, Midway, Taito, and Namco have been offering retro-themed compilations for years on a variety of platforms. However, the biggest third-party publisher of them all, Electronic Arts, has generally shied away from the practice, other than a few offerings such as the recent Command & Conquer: The First Decade collection.
That might be changing, if a new GameStop product listing is accurate. According to the retailer, Electronic Arts is jumping into the retro trend headfirst with EA Replay for the PSP. Slated for release October 3 with a price tag of $29.99, the compilation will let players relive 14 of the publisher's back-catalog offerings, including fondly remembered hits like Syndicate, Ultima VII: The Black Gate, Road Rash, Wing Commander, and Jungle Strike. Some of the games will support head-to-head multiplayer action, all will be playable in widescreen or normal views, and all of them will allow players to save their games at any time. The site even says it will include unlockable game art.
The full list of games listed for the compilation is included below, along with their first release dates and systems. Given the difficulties inherent in porting a keyboard-and-mouse control scheme to PSP, it is likely that the compilation would feature shrunken-down versions of the games' console versions, so those are the dates and systems given below.
B.O.B.--1993--SNES and Genesis
Budokan--1990--Genesis
Desert Strike--1993--SNES and Genesis
Jungle Strike--1993--SNES and Genesis
Haunting Starring Polterguy--1993--Genesis
Mutant League Football--1993--Genesis
Road Rash--1992--Genesis, later on 3DO
Road Rash II--1993--Genesis
Road Rash III--1995--Genesis
Syndicate--1995--SNES, 3DO, Jaguar
Ultima: The Black Gate--1994--SNES
Virtual Pinball--1993--Genesis
Wing Commander--1993--SNES
Wing Commander: The Secret Missions--1993--SNES
Please note, while retailer listings frequently jump the gun on publishers' product announcements, they should not be taken as final confirmation of a game's existence; nor should the absence of a listing be considered as proof that a game isn't coming to a given platform.
Of these games, I have Wing Commander (PC), Wing Commander: The Secret Missions 1 and 2 (PC), Wing Commander: The Secret Missions (1) (SNES), Road Rash II (Genesis), and Haunting starring Polterguy (Genesis)... and I've played quite a bit of Desert Strike and some Syndicate. (and bits of some of the games in the Ultima series, but not seriously enough to count it really...)
That's a very nice collection... Wing Commander and its first expansion pack (hopefully minus the horrible slowdown that kills the SNES versions.. of course PC ports would be best, as the graphics are far better there (and there's also a PC-only second expansion pack), but whatever...)), Syndicate (classic!), Haunting, Ultima VII (if this is true it's the not as good SNES port and not the great PC game though, which would be an odd choice...)... Desert Strike too, though it's aged somewhat hard (same with Road Rash -- tried playing Road Rash II, it doesn't look so good anymore...)... even with those caviats though, and the fact that it might not be real and even if it is it's on PSP, hopefully this means that in the future EA will make other classic games it has in its catalog available... like, oh, all of their SNES and Genesis stuff on the Wii? :) Sure, sure, I just countered half of that point by saying "most of EA's non-sports titles of the early '90s are PC ports of games that were better on PC", and it's true, but even so, it'd be nice to see... (they have many more than just these, to say the least)
EA may be Sequels, Inc. now, but them and the companies they consumed used to make a lot of great games... perhaps, like Lucasarts, they don't want people to see them because it'll remind people that their company used to actually make interesting games, but that doesn't change that fact. :)
On a related note, I got EA's Genesis port of the early '90s New World Computing (later on the makers of Heroes of Might & Magic) PC RPG 'Faery Tale Adventure' today. $2 game complete with case and manual > game I will probably never play because of 36-letter password save system (with save anywhere! :D)... :)
... contraversial, that is. It's actually a completely tame game... the only people bound to be offended are gamers who wanted GTA in School... seems like Rockstar really wants to tone down its negative image in the media... but this? Doesn't sound so interesting...
First heard about this a couple of days ago in the paper (New York Times: easily best paper in the country)... here's a copy of the article (since you people still haven't bothered to make an account at NY Times Online, have you...)
Quote:With Bully, Rockstar Looks to Beat the Grand Theft Auto Rap
Rockstar Games
Scenes from Bully by Rockstar Games. In the game giving a smaller child a noogie or other gentle razzing is allowed, though it is not encouraged.
Article Tools Sponsored By
By SETH SCHIESEL
Published: August 10, 2006
Rockstar Games, best known for its violent, controversial and wildly popular Grand Theft Auto series, today plans to unveil its major game for the holiday season: a whimsical boarding-school romp called Bully.
A scene from the game Bully, in which standing up to and even fist-fighting bullies to stop them from tormenting others is encouraged.
When Rockstar first mentioned Bully to the public more than a year ago at a video-game trade show, the project sent a wave of concern through the industry. Anti-game activists claimed that it would encourage players to become bullies themselves. Even some executives at other game companies feared that Bully, coming from Rockstar, a company that has long been a lightning rod for politicians and others fearful of video games, would drag the entire industry into yet another quagmire of criticism.
It appears, however, that those claims and fears may have been overblown. Rather than thrusting the player into the role of a tough, the entire point of the game is that bullies (noticeable at a distance by their distinctive white shirts) are everyone’s enemies. A player takes the role of Jimmy, a new 15-year-old student trying to navigate the complex social hierarchies of boarding school while earning respect from various factions like the nerds, the preppies, the jocks and even the teachers.
Standing up to and even fist-fighting bullies to stop them from tormenting geeks and other students is encouraged. Giving a smaller child a noogie or other gentle razzing is allowed, though not encouraged. Hitting a smaller child, a girl of any age or an adult is strictly forbidden. You can try it, but you will not get away with it. The dramatic, ton-of-bricks response from school security, complete with purposely boring punishments, is meant to be a strong disincentive.
In short: old-time adolescent high jinks like setting off a stink bomb are O.K.; serious delinquency and criminality are not. The player is certainly not meant to be a total goody two-shoes — that would make a seriously boring game — but he is a cutup and a scamp rather than a seriously bad kid. Unlike real-life boarding schools, you can’t get drunk or use drugs. If a player skips class, the prefects come looking. If a player sleeps too little, your character begins to feel sluggish and unresponsive.
The broader point is that rather than simply transferring the wanton violence and mayhem of the Grand Theft Auto series to a juvenile setting, Rockstar seems to have pulled out that game’s most compelling elements — an open world for the player to explore, tightly defined and memorable characters, a strong story line, high-end voice acting — and rewrapped them in a game that the company clearly hopes will be rated T for Teen rather than M for Mature.
The game sanitizes many aspects of the modern prep school experience. There is no mission to sneak into a girl’s dorm at night and have sex. There is no plan to hide drug use from the authorities. There is no quest to find a liquor store in town that will sell to you.
In short it’s not really a boarding-school simulation, and that may be a good thing. Compared with real life, Rockstar has totally played down sex, drugs and alcohol. But as befits a game called Bully, it has certainly blown out of proportion the amount of real bullying that goes on these days.
In terms of the prevalence of actual physical intimidation, what Rockstar has done (perhaps unawares) is to take the reality of an all-boys school and shoehorn it into a coed environment. An all-boys school can really be like “Lord of the Flies” or a prison, combat brigade or any other all-male environment: brutal and physically hierarchical. But one of the miracles of coeducation is that as soon as girls are around, the boys often start treating one another in a more civilized fashion, even among themselves. As soon as there are girls on the campus, it’s not cool to be a bully anymore.
Bully the game does not capture that. The fictional school is coed, but among themselves the boys act as if they haven’t seen a girl in months.
In the end, though, that is what the public expects of its boarding-school vision. In the end it is irrelevant whether Bully is truly realistic, just as it is irrelevant whether “The West Wing’’ is a truly realistic depiction of the White House or if James Bond is a realistic secret agent. What matters is whether the material up for sale fits into the public’s idealized image of the subject in question. Bully certainly does that.
Rockstar knows, however, that no matter what the company says before the game comes out this fall, the final product will be dissected and analyzed like perhaps no video game before it. Rockstar caused a firestorm of controversy for itself and the entire industry last year when Internet hackers uncovered a hidden scene in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas that depicted the protagonist performing sexlike motions with his girlfriend.
That controversy prompted politicians from Capitol Hill to California to introduce legislation regulating the sale of video games (though such laws have routinely been thrown out by courts) as well as an investigation of Rockstar by the Federal Trade Commission, which concluded with a wrist-slap warning against deceptive marketing but no financial penalties. It is no leap to suggest that if any risqué or even marginal content is found in Bully, things will not go well for Rockstar or its corporate parent, Take-Two Interactive, which is already under federal investigation for its bookkeeping.
But if the game manages to avoid the pitfalls of controversy, it is positioned to be one of the big hits of the holiday season. Sony certainly hopes so. Rockstar plans to announce today that Bully will be available exclusively for Sony’s PlayStation 2 game console, which has sold more than 100 million units worldwide. The game is scheduled to go on sale in October.
That could be a little confusing for some consumers because Sony plans to introduce the PS2’s successor, the PlayStation 3, this November. Bully, however, will not be available for the newer system. With the PS2 near the end of its life cycle, Bully could be one of the last big hits for that system.
Bah, why don't they just make the Battle Royale America that they all know we want... that wouldn't cause any contraversy at all! :D
... okay, maybe not such a good idea, but still, it seems like they could come up with something better than this...
Just testing my new... old keyboard. I spilled something on my mac keyboard, so it's back to the old dell board, which is nice because it remembers me, loves me, feels me. Guess what I spilled on it. I'll give you a hint: It was semen.
Insert word stronger than "hate" at your discretion...
Quote:"Dear Valued E3Expo Exhibitor,
As you may have read in the enclosed Press Release, the 2007 E3Expo has been officially cancelled. As the industry has evolved and matured over the past 12 years, the needs of the exhibitors and key attendees have also changed. To address this change, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has announced a new event tentatively scheduled for July 2007.
Details of the event have not been finalized at this time, however our vision and goal is to create a more intimate climate for personalized meetings and product demonstrations. The ESA will announce additional details and information in the ensuing weeks and months.
We would like to take this opportunity to extend our sincere and profound gratitude for your past support of this event. It has been exciting and rewarding to see the growth and significance of this industry mirrored on the exhibit floor of the E3Expo through the years. We look forward to many more years of industry growth, vitality and opportunity.
Because everyone knows that good games only come from major publishers, and game impressions worth paying attention to only come from major industry publications, right?
The industry sure knows so, because that's exactly what the new "E3" is. If you're not a big publisher or a major publication, you're irrelevant and unwelcome.
Looks like Nintendogs has made them want to go back to their old series.
Look at that idiotic commentary. Any of them ever consider "research" before? It sure helps before you make a claim.
Basically, they are all saying they ripped off Nintendogs. That's an interesting idea, except do they even realize that Petz has been around since the mid 90's? If anything Nintendogs ripped off Petz.
At any rate, we'll see if they can play catch up to what Nintendo's done. So far, at least they aren't doing the stupid "version" thing Nintendo pioneered with Pokemon. Seriously that was the most blatant "we want more money so we'll make you pay for the same game over and over again for slight differences rather than release it all as a single package" thing ever, and honestly I wish they'd stop.
I will say I've yet to get Nintendogs simply because I'm waiting them out to see who comes up with a kitty cat game based on that first.
What, do I really need a full review of this waste of time? :) Uhh... there's lots of mostly pointless blood and gore (fountains of blood, decapitations, swords cutting people apart, etc)? Doesn't really make it worth watching though... plenty of bad acting, pointless plot points... Uwe Boll clearly was trying for an epic (oooh, the people who we cared about are dead! ... for the third time in the movie! ... I was supposed to care about them? They never even talked... oh, maybe that kid... a bit... vaguely... (spoilers? Eh, not so much... did you expect anyone other than the main character to survive the film? Then you're not watching the right movie...) but it just doesn't work. Not that that's at all surprising. :D "This is a big dramatic sad scene because everyone is dead" just isn't nearly as moving as Boll thinks. And plus, when you have so MANY scenes which end in piles of bodies...
The plot is also confusing at times (and is lacking in explanation of plenty of things), but all kinds of movies and TV shows, both good and bad, have that problem to varying degrees, so that was more expected... doesn't excuse it, but iffy plots is an all too common movie flaw... still through, there are a LOT of dropped or completely incomprehensible plot points. It's pretty painful at times... :)
The fight at the end was stupid too. For a movie that should be about BloodRayne, why are the two major male characters doing most of the fighting... (not to mention the brilliant plan our three remaining characters had for getting into the evil badguy's castle! ... oh wait, they didn't have one and it just seems to all work out in the end through pure luck? Right... so, so bad...)
Why did I rent it? At this local rental place each day you get a free movie from some specific section with each rental (except weekends, when it's rent 2 to get 1 free), and tuesdays is 'action'... last time I rented the (very good!) Underworld (director's cut). I wasn't exactly expecting anything of that caliber this time (though I wasn't expecting that last time either, but my hopes were higher than for a Uwe Boll film... :D), and my expectations were met. If any movie with this much gore can be bland and uninteresting, this is it...
I don't get why this guy is celebrating this. What is WITH these idiotic people who think it's "okay" to endanger someone else's life so long as they have fun and they themselves don't think it's "that bad a risk"?
No, you NEVER HAVE PERMISSION TO ENDANGER MY LIFE JUST TO GET YOUR KICKS, EVER! That means NO running up to me and punching me in the face, no driving by and shooting me with a paintball gun, no various fake-outs meant to make me fall down in an attempt to avoid you, no DRIVING A ROOMBA THROUGH TRAFFIC just to pretend you are playing frogger, ignoring the fact that people could get into a serious accident.
Rule 2, you aren't even allowed to damage my STUFF just to have fun.
Why do people think "it's fine"? Do they really have any idea what people actually have to deal with? Ugh, this stuff just sickens me.
Here's a fun idea. Let's kidnap you and torture you for a few years because I think the look on your face would be hilarious. We could post it online, and people would LAAAUGH, and if you bother pointing out all the pain we'd say "oh yeesh take a chill pill it's just having fun".
As my "buy way more old games than you probably should" thing continues, today I only spent $17, but got great stuff... SNES Yoshi's Island ($6), for one, but finally the store that got a Sega CD a few weeks ago got another Genesis 1, this one with a working power supply... so I got a Sega CD. :) The Genesis 1 it came with seems to be broken, but oh well... since I only have one Genesis 1 power supply I can't use them together anyway... (running it with my Genesis 2 I got a few months back). Price (SCD, Genesis, power supply, RFU)? $5... untested, but fortunately the thing that I wanted, the Sega CD, works fine. :) Had to clean the connector, but now it works, battery RAM included... (I can tell because it's full -- three Lunar saves are filling it up. Sadly no Lunar game, though... :()
Hmm, Sega CD games... not many available around here. I've only seen Battlecorps, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Loadstar, Sewer Shark, Star Wars: Rebel Assualt (*tries to tell self:* I already have two copies of the better PC version... I already have two copies of the better PC version...), and Third World War. Since getting all of them would cost about $23, I might end up with all six (though I might be able to resist Sewer Shark, given its quite poor reputation)... we'll see.
... I know I've made previous threads like this, but still... (though it is true that as the summer progressed I greatly slowed down my game buying -- just didn't have enough money... bought a lot of stuff the first month, but quite less since then. Still, I got stuff like Illusion of Gaia ($10, haven't started it yet), Mario Paint with mouse and mousepad (also $10 - more for the novelty of the thing...)... a $5 copy of Donkey Kong Country III... Genesis games like Ranger-X and (personal favorite of mine) Outrun 2019... I just got a Genesis in the beginning of t summer yest I have about 35 games... Dynamite Headdy, Lightening Force, Thunder Force II, Sonics 1, 2, and Knuckles, Rocket Knight Adventures, Contra: Hard Corps...Hardball III (my favorite baseball series...)...
Oh yeah, and Turrican for Gameboy. :) (The Turrican series is awesome, I was really happy to find this one, despite the obvious problems that come from porting a PC(Amiga, Commodore 64, etc, not DOS or Mac)/Genesis game to the Gameboy... you have five weapons, for instance, which are a bit confusing to access, and the massive levels lead to tiny sprites (to try to fit everything on the screen)... oh well, fun anyway.)... Metroid: Zero Mission for GBA too. Plenty of others too, everything except what I got today is on my IGN list. (I like lists, so I enjoy keeping it up to date... it's so much simpler than spreadsheets or pieces of paper and the back pages of notebooks and stuff, like I used to do! :D)
Found this enlightening (from over at badastronomy.com). The last thing we need is to send a picture of a soup can great distances only for them to think it's our god (or worse, a threat of invasion).
Quote:I am not an artist, though I appreciate art. I like some types, I don’t like others, just like most humans. There’s a great deal of art I don’t understand, which itself is understandable: art is a way of expressing what is happening inside one’s mind.
We all have different experiences, making a complete understanding of a piece of artwork impossible. But we have enough similar experiences that the work will translate– it will just touch us all in a different way. It may even invoke a reaction totally unanticipated by the artist, but this is part and parcel of what makes art, well, art.
So when an artist says something like this, I have to react:
If I were [ET] trying to communicate with beings elsewhere in the universe…I’d try to express something about myself in the most universal language I could imagine: I’d send art.
My reaction? This guy is a goofball.
Art is the least universal communication method there is. It changes from person to person. Heck, it changes even in one person; I listen to Tchaikovsky as well as ABBA. It’s difficult to understand art from another culture without first knowing something about that culture — scholars still argue over the meaning of cave art from tens of thousands of years ago, and those guys were still human. This pretty much precludes understanding alien art, especially if it is sent via radio from another star without any sort of lesson in alien sociology. And even if it does invoke a reaction in us humans, it almost certainly won’t be what the aliens had in mind.
Have no doubt, art is part of what it is to be human. That cave art I mentioned indicates that there was something different about the creatures who drew it over their ancient ancestors. Animals, it seems likely, don’t grasp metaphors, and seeing the Universe metaphorically is what art is.
Metaphors depend on their context. I suspect that even if aliens had art, we wouldn’t even recognize it as such.
The Universal language, if there is such a thing, is the language the Universe itself speaks: math. The symbols might change, but the relationships (like gravity dropping off with the square of the distance, and the peak wavelength emitted by a star depending linearly on temperature) are true everywhere.
I’m not trying to be a soulless scientist stereotype here; like I said, I have my own eye for art (I recently discovered Leonardo Nierman, and if anyone wants to buy me one of his paintings, there was a version of "Firebird" I saw in a gallery in New Orleans for only $15,000). Art is a way of expressing our desires, our fears, our human qualities… which is precisely what makes it such a terrible way to try to communicate with aliens.
There’s a poetry in the idea of using art to communicate that appeals to our emotion, but poetry just won’t work as a way to initiate contact. Binary streams of ones and zeros may seem cold and heartless… but aliens may in fact have lower body temperatures and no hearts.
![[Image: 10bull_CA0.600.jpg]](http://graphics10.nytimes.com/images/2006/08/10/arts/10bull_CA0.600.jpg)
![[Image: 10bull_CA1.650.jpg]](http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/08/10/arts/10bull_CA1.650.jpg)
