New game releases of May 20-26
Killzone: Mercenary shoots onto Vita on September 10
Trion Worlds hit with more layoffs, Defiance team impacted
Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault defending Vita next week
Game & Wario was originally going to be pre-installed on Wii U
Evening Reading: Weekend Confirmed
by Garnett Lee, Dec 04, 2009 6:21pm PSTNot really sure where the confusion started but to clear it up once and for all; yes, this is the Evening Reading post. And here we are at the end of another week the biggest news of which was the excessive use of the word "javelin" in non-Olympic sport related stories. I have to admit I've never gotten the extreme to which griefing and glitching grows in game communities. Sure, there's the whole hahaha, wasn't that funny of it but the number of people who seriously get off on screwing up games makes me wonder what the hell.
I think part of the phenomenon comes not from anything to do with the game but the sense of power derived from breaking the rules to put yourself in charge. It is just a game after all so the consequences are what? Nothing really. That unhooks the usual restraints and it's hard to really reestablish them in a virtual world to put things back in balance. Server tools definitely go a long way in cases where you get admins who care enough to manage things by hand. But for the vast majority of open servers across PCs and consoles the hope lies with designers finding a solution to a better self-policing community.
Here's the rest of what we were up to today:
- The Australians brought out he banhammer again, this time for Aliens vs. Predator
- Homefront isn't even out yet but there's already DLC and a sequel planned
- Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalked set to hit PSP in May for US and Eurpoe
- Brink may be delayed but it sure is looking good in these new videos
After her high-profile trial that included all kinds of accusations, American student Amanda Knox found guilty of murdering her roommate in Italy
British professional tennis player Andy Murray got dumped by his gorgeous girlfriend Kim Sears for his seven-hour-a-day PS3 habit
Okay, so the Hollywood Reporter broke down the ten most watched shows (individual episodes) since 2000. No surprise to see Friends there at the top but Joe Millionaire in thrid?
As long as we're chronicling the decade we might as well take a look at the evolution of the hipster
And since it's Friday I figure this is the perfect time for a NSFW link so hey, if you have a snugie, check out the snuggiesutra for some creative ways to put it to good use
Reviewing A Game On Their Terms: The Increasingly Prominent "Review Event"
"Looking back at Halo 2, my first Bungie review title, we built these events around a desire to deliver the best possible experience to players," says Brian Jarrard, community lead at Bungie. "We had nice HD televisions, 5.1 surround sound and a comfortable environment. It was a way to help make sure reviewers experienced the game the way Bungie intended."
(Rockstar Games and Infinity Ward did not respond to requests for comment about their respective review events. Activision reps declined comment when asked.)...
"Sometimes these sessions work out great," Gerstmann says, "Sometimes they're sparsely attended or not entirely representative of the average user experience. I played Call of Duty: World at War online with a couple of journalists and a handful of QA guys who were instructed to take it easy on us. That didn't feel terribly 'real' to me." But there's a catch. "The downside of testing multiplayer in a controlled environment (like a review event) is that you have no idea how the game will react in an actual real world situation, where ping times and the quality of the average player's broadband connection are a major factor."...
Dan "Shoe" Hsu, former editor in chief of EGM and Bitmob.com co-founder—who has since returned to the revived Electronic Gaming Monthly print magazine—has his own concerns about the nature of review events. He's personally participated in review events "under a 'controlled environment'" for 2K Games' BioShock and Bungie's Halo 2.
"I have very mixed feelings about this," Hsu says. "At EGM, we would never, ever want to taint the reviews process in any way. Our readers don't play games under these conditions — in nice hotel suites with developers, producers, and PR nearby. Why would we as professional critics? Can we fairly review something if we're playing under different circumstances than our audience?"
"At the same time, who would we be hurting if we banned such events? Those same readers," Hsu says. "Now we can't get a review out to them in time for it to be relevant."
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