Gaming Links
A few gaming links for you while I rue the cloudy skies that will totally obscure Eli 6.6's view of the total lunar eclipse tonight.Times I will ever use the word "rue" again: zero.
Kotaku liveblogged the Microsoft GDC event. Of note: gamers will now have access to XNA games via Xbox Live Arcade, which is nifty, and information about Fable 2, including an outstanding co-op mode where you can play with your friend in his game, then take the experience you earned back to your game. That's quite a bit of awesome.
Also very cool is that there will arcade mini-games on Live that will be playable before the game is released, and the money you win in those mini-games can then be transferred into Fable 2.
Oh, and Gears of War 2 is coming out in November.
David Braben is developing a game for WiiWare called LostWinds, and N'Gai Croal has an interview with Braben that discusses the game. Here's an excerpt:
Who's the main character? What's the goal and what's the game play?
Braben: The main character is a guy called Toku, a young boy who's discovered this wind spirit that's trapped in a stone. You control both Toku using the device called the nunchuck. He's actually quite vulnerable, in terms of where he can go--also there are things in the world that are threatening--but you also control the wind spirit that he's able to release which is called Enril. And the wind spirit is controlled by the Wiimote.
By moving the Wiimote around, in different shapes, you can create gentle breezes of wind or strong gusts, or even by twisting it around, little sort of water sticks. The game overall is designed to be a really sort of graceful, beautiful experience where you're using these essentially two separate characters in combination, and that brings us all sorts of possibilities in the way the game works, which makes it feel very fresh.
The interview also has quite a few details on how Wiiware is going to work when it's rolled out on May 12.
Neil Sorens has written an article for Gamasutra titled Stories From The Sandbox, and it discusses how designers should place greater emphasis on turning player experiences into in-game stories.
I can't remember if I've linked to this before (that's my problem, really, not yours), but Vic Davis (Armageddon Empires) writes an extremely interesting and thoughtful blog called Forgotten Lore, and it's an excellent read.
Brandon Cackowski-Schnell, writer of the Mr. Binky's Random Stuff feature at GameShark, sends up No More Heroes this week. And also in regards to No More Heroes, D France let me know that he saw it on sale at his local Wal-Mart this week for $25. That is insane.
Finally, Jim Gindin, a legend in the text-sim genre, is celebrating the tenth anniversary of his founding of Solecismic Software by having a one-day sale on both Front Office Football ($19.95) and The College Years ($12.95). Those are terrific prices for the deepest football sims around. Just head over to the Solecismic Software website for details. Thanks to Craig Scarborough for the info.
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