GamerDNA wrapped up the second day on the show floor at E3 with a good ol' fashioned TweetUp at the Sheraton in Downtown LA. The event bought together folks from all over the industry, from devs to journalists to PR folks, under the same roof to chill out with a few drinks and enjoy the pleasures of not standing in a crazed, sweaty booth for hours on end.
In case you're unfamiliar, GamerDNA features a database which highlights the current trends in the gaming industry, letting players create their own profiles and track their achievements and played games when and wherever they want. We'll be checking back in with Sam Houston of GamerDNA, who's been filling us in on the Twitter trends at E3, so keep an eye out later on Thursday!
E3 is just next week, and it's going to be pretty much chaos. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited, but I'm also sorta mentally preparing myself for a week of not eating or sleeping (but drinking more than I probably should). Anyway, since there's just so much going on next week I wanted to narrow down the 5 titles which I'm most pumped about…if only to make sure I don't miss 'em. In no particular order:
Brutal Legend
I've seen it twice so far, and every time I do I want to see even more of it. Tim Schafer's ode to metal is hilarious, looks great and features Zelda-esque exploration that could be pumped right into my veins to bring pure, unadulterated joy. So yeah, seeing more of this would be nice.
The Chicago Blackhawks made a solid run into the NHL post-season this year, making it to the the semi-finals before falling to the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday. In such a high pressure situation, how did the Blackhawks players calm their nerves before the big game? A little "Mario Kart," of course!
Speaking with the Chicago Tribune, Blackhawks forward Colin Fraser was eager to talk about their gaming regimen. "We've been playing 'Mario Kart' the whole playoffs in the hotel."
Patrick Kane, the Blackhawks' 20-year-old phenom (and the cover athlete for EA's NHL 10), has also gotten in on the action: "A lot of the guys say I'm the worst player, but that's because they've been playing at home. Sometimes you play two or three hours and you don't know where the time went."
This isn't the first time athletes have reported addiction to video games. In 2006, Detroit Tigers pitcher Joel Zumaya was sidelined after playing hours of Guitar Hero, royally screwing up his throwing wrist and forearm. Thankfully the Blackhawks didn't have any such injuries, and if a turtle shell had dropped on the ice, I have no doubt the game's outcome would've been different.
Kotaku is running an interesting series on Robots in Gaming this week, and one of the posts dealt with the three laws governing artificial intelligence, as laid out by Isaac Asimov in his series of very nerdy but very enjoyable books. They are as follows:
1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2) A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
The most prolific AI designers of our time are, of course, video game designers, so Kotaku asked a few of them if they had their own laws for creating video game AI. My favorite answer came from Todd Howard of Bethesda Studios:
"I'll give you one from the old Terminator games, since the new movie is coming out. The Terminator cannot be reasoned with, can't be bargained with, and cannot be stopped. Unless of course he hits a chair, and since he can't path around it, we have him just start shooting."
Check out the more fleshed out (but slightly less enjoyable) responses from Epic Games and Relic over at Kotaku.
And you thought you were busy! John Carmack of id Software is frighteningly clever, and has been working on bringing "DOOM" to the iPhone over the last few weeks. Apparently the game is already in beta and will be released to the App Store sometime next month.
John talks at length about the process of bringing "DOOM" to the iPhone, debating whether to update the art (as he did with "Wolfenstein 3D"), but in the end it looks like we'll be getting a classic-looking "DOOM," which is fine by me.
The most exciting aspect about the release, though, is the inclusion of multiplayer over WiFi. There haven't been too many iPhone games that support this kind of feature (especially not shooters), and the prospect of getting one of the earliest multiplayer shooters up and running on the iPhone gets me pretty giddy inside. After launch the game will be updated with the iPhone's 3.0 firmware to allow for Bluetooth multiplayer, as well, which means you won't even need a net connection to play nearby friends.
I've spent a good 6 hours with "Wolf 3D" on my iPhone, and I'm sure "DOOM" will follow suit.
Sony announced today that they'll be added a new space in "PlayStation Home" called the BUZZ! HQ. Like previous "Home" spaces, the BUZZ! HQ will be themed like the PlayStation-exclusive trivia game and can act as a lobby for meeting up with other "BUZZ!" fans.
More interesting is that it'll allow players to compete in live trivia competitions with 64 other players. How it works is pretty innovative: A question is posed at the top of the screen and you'll have to run and stand on a specific color, which is coded to your answer. You can see what they're trying to do in the trailer below, but I think it's a pretty excellent idea. Until now there haven't been a whole lot of reason to visit these "spaces," as they're usually just dolled-up game lobbies. By integrating the game itself into Home (and offering Home prizes like furniture for your digital house), they should get a lot more foot traffic.
Is this Sony's attempt to beat Microsoft to the punch with the upcoming release of "1 vs. 100"? It's certainly not a bad start, though in terms of overall features there's still a ways to go. Sony should definitely keep this up if they want to make Home a more viable location, though. 3D chat lobbies aren't going to get butts in the seats, I'm afraid.
Variety seems to be the name of the game when it comes to the line-up, as it’s pretty much all over the place. I’ve spent quite a bit of time with "Wolfenstein, "Transformers" and "Marvel", but apart from a trailer, Modern Warfare 2 remains shrouded in mystery. There’s also the insane skateboard controller of Tony Hawk: Ride, which I’m definitely eager to get my hands on. And then there’s DJ Hero, which I’m hoping won’t overwhelm my limited ability to multi-task.
More important, how the heck am I going to get through all of these games in the 2 hours I have allotted to meet with Activision? This is unfortunately the blessing and the curse of E3: Lots of awesome games and no time to play them.
FROM MOVIES BLOG: I've been meaning to serve up this news for a few days now, but the 2009 MTV Movie Awards train stops for no one. At the premiere of "Terminator Salvation," producer Dan Lin stopped to chat with About.com about some of his upcoming projects, particularly the planned reboot of the “Lara Croft” series (popularly known as an adaptation of the “Tomb Raider” series of video games).
Lin describes the project as a "character-oriented… more realistic" origin story for the popular treasure seeker. He clarifies shortly after that, comparing what he intends to be "character-driven action" in the “Croft” reboot to what audiences saw in last weekend’s "Terminator Salvation."
My name is Russ Frushtick and today is my first day as the new Video Games Editor for MTV News. Part of my job will be managing MTV's Multiplayer Blog, which is nothing short of a great honor. I was a big fan of Stephen, Tracey and Patrick's work and I can only hope to do justice to the legacy of quality writing and reporting that they've left behind.
I'm not going to wax poetic for too long, I'm sure you're more interested in reading about video games than little ol' me, but I just wanted to introduce myself. If you'd like to know more about me, feel free to follow me on Twitter (@RussFrushtick) or, I don't know, Google me. There's probably some pretty embarrassing stuff out there.
