Level Orange

As someone who’s played video games regularly for years, watching this video by photographer Robbie Cooper of young gamers and the emotion on their faces is both amusing and interesting.

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OK, so this might not be the most accurate depiction of me, but then again, I did try to make it as accurate as possible. I’ve played around with the new Avatars with the new Xbox 360 dashboard (wisely being marketed as the New Xbox Experience, or NXE, for anyone not into gaming), and I have to say, it’s kinda neat.

I’m not particularly a fan of the plans to capitalize on things like clothes and accessories and whatnot for the Avatars by game publishers and licensors, but I can understand the business sense of it. And after personally tinkering around with the system, I can see where it’s starting to come up short, assumedly so that third parties can come in and add even greater value to it.

I’ll be interested to see just how much a Halo or Rock Band t-shirt costs for an Avatar. One can only hope that a whole new outfit wouldn’t be much more than say, a set of gamerpics (roughly a buck or two), but with some publishers eager to nickel-and-dime gamers for every little item, I wouldn’t be surprised to see purchases like this broken down even further. “Want a new bracelet? How about a new baseball cap? That’ll be $1 each, please.”

Yeah, let’s hope not.

Today comes news of the first downloadable content to hit Xbox Live since the April release of Grand Theft Auto IV. The new episodic content, titled Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned, will hit XBL on February 17, 2009 and is the first of two new episodes to come to the platform. No other details, such as plot or price point, have been revealed, but stay tuned!

“Making these episodes has enabled us to expand the narrative and the experience of interacting with a game world in really innovative ways,” said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. “We hope fans of the game enjoy the new way of experiencing life in Liberty City contained in this first episode.”

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Now in the iTunes App Store: The Iconfactory’s Frenzic! Looks like fun and at a good price point, especially with the quality that Iconfactory brings to their work.

Wolfgang Ante, the game’s creator and lead engineer explained, “The iPhone’s revolutionary touch-screen interface combined with a simple premise that takes only minutes to learn, makes Frenzic a compelling game for players of all ages.”

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Funny thing came down the wire this morning about the findings of a new study by Nielsen revealing that modern gamers are in fact well-adjusted, everyday people like everyone else. Ya think?

Just as videogaming itself has become a fully integrated part of modern society, so has the core gamer. This study puts to rest the outdated image of the awkward and isolated male, and replaces it with a much more accurate and positive picture.

Well, I’m glad we can all move past childish stereotypes and be a part of the big boys club, i.e. be subject to all that great advertising and marketing. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to the basement to PWN N00BZ and write some more WoW fan fiction.

Tech news site Ars Technica ran an article yesterday about GameCyte, a relative newcomer to the gaming blog arena, charging it with not disclosing enough about its behind-the-scenes connections to TriplePoint, a PR firm that represents various game publishers.

While accusations of conflict of interest and unethical behavior can quickly escalate to distrust and defection amongst readers, the catalyst of Ars Technica’s piece–a positive review of a game published by Telltale Games, one of TriplePoint’s former clients–seems fairly innocuous on the surface. It’s a fair, adequately-written review of a highly-anticipated game that makes no bones about what there is to like and not like about the game itself. However, according to Ars Technica, the crucial missing element is that there is no statement about the thrice-removed connection between GameCyte and Telltale Games. If it were simply a matter of stating up front that GameCyte is a part of Pantheon Labs and let’s say Pantheon Labs was actually owned  by Telltale Games, then that wouldn’t be unheard of, but that’s not the case at all.

Yet, Ars Technica has drawn a hard line and demanded that any and all relationships between Pantheon Labs and TriplePoint must be disclosed at all times, which, along with being impractical, is simply unnecessary for the most part. From what I’ve seen, people who operate in the gaming press and industry have most likely come into contact with each other at some point or another and so painstakingly detailing and listing every single connection of everyone involved–as Ars Technica seems to suggest–is a task bordering on the ridiculous, especially with a PR firm. Is it really that surprising that these people that work or worked at a PR firm actually know other people in the gaming industry? Shock! Awe!

I’ve learned that you can only go so far to earn peoples’ trust before you’ve overextended yourself and/or possibly compromised your ability to actually produce quality content. While I think laying low is a reasonable reaction, given the speed and unchecked nature that news spreads across the net these days, I’d much rather see a statement or commentary from GameCyte directly to clear the air.

Now, for the sake of full disclosure, other than knowing a cool cat that works there, I don’t have any other affiliation (financial or otherwise) with GameCyte or Pantheon Labs, nor TriplePoint, Telltale Games nor your mom.

Not content with the immense popularity that the DS has built up over the years, Nintendo has now seen fit to introduce the DSi, a third iteration of the darling handheld console, but now with even more doo-dads and gizmos to make gamers drool.

I can’t help but wonder if the emergence of the iPhone/iPod touch as a possible rival is starting to have an effect, given the improvements added to the DSi. As Joystiq discovered, the iPod touch has some advantages over the DS (including the new DSi) and Sony’s PSP, on paper at least, but we all know specs are not what make a successful platform. Now if only Apple could get people to buy games…

Namco is bringing one of my personal arcade favorites, Pole Position, to the iPhone and iPod touch in the form of Pole Position: Remix. This new iteration of the racing classic, featuring three different control modes and unlockable items like themed race tracks and new vehicles, is available now in the iTunes App Store.

Ok, well, no spoilers here, but rather, out there.

Just this week, I’ve come close to stumbling upon spoilers for Halo 3 a few times now, and from some unlikely sources at that. Not just gaming sites and forums, but sites like YouTube, MySpace, etc are no shelter from spoilers, it seems. It only takes one person to post or leave a comment that can ruin what’s most likely a long-awaited experience for gamers around the world.

Other recent news also makes me think about how this affects other forms of entertainment, including books like the Harry Potter series, and films, like the just-revealed plot details of the fourth Indiana Jones film. It seems like there used to be a day when spoilers didn’t exist, but that was only because the world was a different place back then–the days when we didn’t have a global network which can spread information in an instant.

Imagine someone being able to give away the ending of The Empire Strikes Back way back in 1980, and how people would have been so pissed to have it ruined. And frankly, that probably did happen, but when news could only travel so far so fast in those days, it wouldn’t have had nearly the same widespread effect that it would today.

Thanks to my involvement with Podtacular, I was sent an invite from Bungie to check out the Halo 3 beta, but FOUR DAYS EARLY! This, of course, is because of the Friends & Family program, where Bungie has chosen selected members of the Halo gaming community to get a sneak peek before the thousands of others get to have at it.

My first impressions
All I can say it “FUN, FUN, FUN!”

Out of the three maps, I’m liking High Ground the best so far. Valhalla seems way too big for only eight people, and Snowbound, while it’s got some fun spots, has too much open ground IMO.

All the gadgets are pretty cool. So far, I’ve seen the Power Drainer, Bubble Shield and Portable Grav Lift, and the Bubble Shield is by far the most useful of the those.

The weapons are great too. The AR is back and looks like a great all-purpose starter weapon, new spike grenades are damn deadly, and even weapons like the Carbine and Plasma Rifle seem to be stronger now. On the other hand, rockets don’t lock on anymore, the Spartan Laser takes a lot of timing and the Spikers have been all but useless, and the new turrets remind me too much of Lost Planet, meaning that they’re really unwieldy and make you a big target when you’re in open ground or in really close quarters.

Overall, I’m really liking this early preview. Frankly, my interest in Halo had faded a while ago, but this has really brought me back into the fold. I was willing to wait calmly for the next six months or so until the game releases, but not anymore. I WANT HALO 3 NOW!

If you’d like to hear some first impressions, be sure to check out the Episode 113: Halo 3 beta impressionslatest episode of Podtacular, Episode 113: Halo 3 beta impressions.