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The ETQW community has just started putting the call out on the forums for noteworthy recipients of "awards" for this season. Be sure to check out this action, if only for the creativity in award names.
luckless is doing the driving on this one - check out the meat of his post:
...then get to voting - don't do it in the comments for this post - do it on luckless' thread: Vote on the ETQW awards thread (And no, I have no idea why this is showing up as being in the 'Wii' forums either...)
FIFA 10 demo impressions
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As keen eyed footy fans may have noticed, a demo version of FIFA 10 is out for PC (grab it here from our downloads section), PlayStation Network and Xbox Live.
What started as just a quick trip to download the demo off Live and confirm it actually worked prior to posting this up turned into a bit of a footy session. Assuming FIFA 10 doesn't deviate too far from the demo, it looks pretty solid stuff. As long time punters know, we've slowly been sucked into FIFA from our original place on the Pro Evolution Soccer fan club. While this year's Pro Evo is *promising* change - in the past Konami has allowed FIFA's lacking gameplay and control to catch up in quality to its superior licensed content and visuals without much response. When EUFA Euro 2008 was released by EA, it marked for us the point where the the FIFA team had caught up to the formidable-but-developmentally-static Pro Evo. First impressions from the Xbox version of the demo: - the visuals don't seem much improved from the last year's when viewed "still" or standing in place - animation on the replays looks a little ropy when players are shown zoomed in - there's less fluidity of motion - the level of moves and animation in normal gameplay - with the camera zoomed out - is superb. There's plenty of those little authentic touches which players love to see: clearing a ball out of a penalty-line scramble saw my player lunge frantically at the ball in an ungainly but definitely realistic manner. - the ball physics aren't crazy, a chief complaint in the past about FIFA games. Shots on goal and also in the loading screen/player vs goalie mini-game were flighted realistically. We have seen a cross which swung quite drastically - but we're hoping that's an intentional, controllable inclusion - it definitely wasn't the norm. One thing we don't see modelled in FIFA that well is dip on the ball. In the past they went crazy with it (too much) but now it's hard to detect much at all. - shooting still lacks the kind of precision feel, control and consistency of Pro Evo. With PES you seem to be on a lot more solid ground when you fire at goal - it still seems a little less certain here. See also our flighting comments immediately above. - defence is well weighted. I've been cheating - playing as Juventus vs the Chicago Fire in the demo. The opposition keep formation in a realistic manner, and if you do break the line you won't suddenly see a turbocharged fullback hauling in your overpaid italian superstar striker like he's standing still. - the officiating is a bit inconsistent for our tastes. My striker has a clear path to goal and is brought down from behind without a whistle, let alone a red card; two minutes later my forward is merely jostled in the goal area and I get given a penalty kick. Midfield scrambles are also a bit scary in this regard - if you rely on the trusty "hold down the defensive press" button too long you're going to have a long day. - the passing game - crucially - remains rewarding. I couldn't brute force my way upfield by trying to blast past defenders, but if I controlled the ball and moved it about my midfielders we did see defenders getting pushed out of position ready to be caught out by an opportune through ball. - EA (at least on Xbox 360 controllers) persist in stupidly tweaking their "alternate" control mechanism. "Alternate" is a FIFA euphemism for "like Pro Evo", but whether it's the 360 controller not being as useful as the Dual Shock or another reason, the shoulder buttons are messed with. Easily fixable by making a custom config, but just suck it up EA and make your alternate scheme *exactly* mirror Pro Evolution's already. The only enduring beef we could see us having would be shaky refereeing - that would really be a pain. The other "big thing" - the shooting mechanism - is one of those balancing compromises footy players currently have to make. Pro Evolution's one is superior in our opinion, but then whether it's superior enough to warrant disregarding the stack of licensed teams and players in the EA offering...debatable. Check out the PC demo (linked below) or the freshly released Xbox Live one and let us know your thoughts. PS3 punters - it's apparently gone up on the PlayStation Network now as well. Hit it up and give us the lowdown. Download the FIFA 10 demo from BigPond Games
Forza 3 gone gold
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The time has almost come. Forza Motorsport 3 has been announced by Microsoft and Turn 10 as officially gold.
The release date for Australia is expected to be October 23rd - the same as Europe. Despite "Asia" apparently getting theirs October 22nd. Who knows, maybe Forza punters in Australia will get a early present. Either way, you'll be well ahead of the US, which will be able to pick up the game on October 27th.  Six weeks until you can show the world If you're on the fence about the game still, the good news is a demo will be out before the game - September 24. In it you'll be able to race five cars on the Camino Viejo track and check out times on an online leaderboard. MS and Turn 10 are promising the rewind feature will be available. The game's in-car and damage systems will also be on display. The cars available in the demo: �2007 Porsche #80 Flying Lizard 911 GT3-RSR �2010 Audi R8 5.2 FSI quattro �2009 Ferrari California �2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X GSR �2009 Mini John Cooper Works Woohoo - now you too can be a dropkick Mini Cooper driver on the internet.
The latest on Cobain/Guitar Hero 5
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It looks like this one could be running for some time yet.
Activision's official response to Courtney Love's rant, palmed off to Kotaku:
Which seems reasonably cut and dried. "Fully playable". "Signed by Courtney Love". However Courtney Love's lawyer with the delightful name Keith Fink has countered with this:
So: it's going to boil down to whether Cobain's avatar singing crappy Bon Jovi songs constitutes "denigration" of his image. And if it was found out it did denigrate Cobain's image - then the court would have to measure the extent of damage gamers seeing his avatar jiggle around stage to different music actually is. You could also argue the lawyer representing Love was negligent - it's not like Activision are setting a precedent in allowing a avatar the ability to be unlocked and playable for all the songs in-game. It's a standard part of the game which anyone who spends more than ten minutes researching the title would know. Isn't that what "fully playable" means? All this is of course all immaterial to Cobain, as he blew his brains out with a shotgun some time ago. So really - the person who stands to benefit from legal action is (duh) Courtney Love, who has every reason to take the high ground. It's not like she flogged off his personal diaries or anything now is it? Oh wait... The delectable Sarah braves a crowd of rabid Nintendofans for Street Talk 48 - asking them what their favourite Mario game is.
 Wolverine here is a classicist in his Mario tastes Of course there's only one real answer - Mario 64. All other answers are wrong.* To see plenty of people getting it wrong - hit up the link. Street Talk 48: Your favourite Mario game *Although you'll get a pass for Super Mario Galaxy or Great Giana Sisters. Shameful (or not) as it is to admit, the first time I paid attention to a Zygna game was sitting in a real estate agent's office eavesdropping on a couple of people talking about it.
P1: "So what's that?" P2: "Oh it's Mafia Wars - it's a game you play on Facebook" P3: "What do you do?" P4: "Oh you go around robbing people...doing jobs...killing people" P5: "Send me a link" What made this conversation interesting for me is it was (a) it was the receptionist - as opposed to maybe your more stereotypical IT guy - talking about the game and (b) the other person was happy to accept the broad description as enough to get them playing. For those not in the know, Mafia Wars and its siblings are big business. They plays like a BBS game of old, except a game like Mafia Wars is plugged into five or so million people playing it - split across Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo, iPhone and a couple of other boutique outlets. The different platforms don't "talk" to each other but on the bigger ones - Facebook and MySpace - you're talking millions of users. Thirty million daily users across all Zygna games, if they are to be believed. To clarify: millions of casual users. Many of whom will lay down real cash to get enhancements, special items or purchase extra points - which in turn allow you to undertake more actions. Whereas a game like World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings Online would die overnight if you directly linked cash outlay to a player's strength, Mafia Wars and co thrive by encouraging it. It's safe to assume it's maker, Zygna is pulling in a lot of money from their games. And now TechCrunch reports Zygna is suing rival Playdom for stealing trade secrets, breach of contract, unfair competition and more. This type of suit is pretty serious business. Zygna's claim centres around what it cames its "playbook" - a design and concept document which sums up both specifics and techniques the company uses to hook in players. It's obviously commercially valuable and confidential company property. Zygna equates it to their "secret sauce" - their big competitive advantage. Part of the lawsuit focuses on Zygna employees - the director of design and a senior system designer - allegedly copying the playbook, along with confidential algorithms, a Zygna game's system design, and details of failed trial games and the lessons learned from them. The other part of the lawsuit focuses on the interview process for Playdom, which if Zygna's claim is to be believed, isn't exactly subtle. The method as described seems pretty blatant: - Zygna employee approached/applies for a role at Playdom - Playdom HR gives a "assignment" to the applicant. The claim notes this 'assignment' has been passed from Playdom management to HR, an important distinction for reasons that will become clear - The assignment is to compare and contrast directly competing Zygna and Playdom games in detail. Fair enough. But bonus points were to go to applicants who could propose improvements to Playdom's games which - wait for it - "can be a straight up ripoff from our competitor's app" <- quote lifted from a claimed email from the HR person. The onus remained on the applicant to explain in detail how they would implement such ripoffs into Playdom's games. - one applicant was asked to play games from Playdom that were direct competitor's to Zygna's and propose new missions, gear or mini games - to the level of providing specifics - loot values and the like: granular information which you could argue goes beyond demonstrating talent and into encouragement to lift material from their current job. If the claim is to be believed, you have management of one company systematically poaching staff of another in such a manner that a key part of the recruitment process is strong encouragement to undermine their existing employer. It sounds quite cuthroat - however text-based web games are less reliant on technology to sell them as opposed to design so this may make an interesting precedent for bigger budget games made by developers who are constantly jumping ship. It gets better though: In other claims, Zygna states Playdom - operating under a previous name, YouPlus - used a backdoor in the "social networking platform" (we're assuming it's Facebook) to try and re-route punters playing Zygna's Texas Hold'em Poker. The implications of this are significant - Zygna is stating individual customer's data can be queried via a url "not generally known to the public" - effectively a back door. Zygna's claim is Playdom in late January used its knowledge of this back door to launch an automated "attack" - 300 queries per second - over several hours. The net result was allegedly 1.6 million customers had their data stolen (including their chip amounts). Zygna claims Playdom then contacted these customers, offering them 125% of their chip value to play at their poker game - giving the impression it was a related service. Playdom's rebuttal should make for interesting reading. It's hard to imagine this case getting a rapid settlement if one company is claiming the key commercial advantage it enjoys has been given to the opposition. Zygna haven't put an asking figure on their damages claim, but doubtless if they win it's going to be massive. The 9/11 edition of Andy's weekly update is here. And is there anything more terrifying than an old man doing a Mario voiceover? Andy got to find out when he interviews man with a thousand (or at least ten) voices Charles Martinet - the voice of Mario.
Andy also gets Phil Day on the line, who has to be one of the cooler teachers in the country having just cracked the world record for Galaga. If you're an optometrist with reasonable rates, remember that name as we predict Phil's eyeballs will be toast within the decade.  Nintendo's Heather Murphy channeling her best Princess Peach Two towering colossi from the fringe of the games industry in the one episode - choice. Note: Andy is also heading to Tokyo Games Show - so don't be afraid to give him leads on what stuff you're still hanging to see. Andy Wells Weekly Update - September 11
US anti-piracy ad laughs at old ad, is just as bad
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Software piracy is no laughing matter, but it's hard not to smirk when the Software & Information Industry Association (previously SPA - Software Publishers Association) starts trying to talk with "the kids" about piracy.
The then-SPA released an (in)famously bad anti-piracy ad in the 90s - a "rap" "song" titled "Don't Copy That Floppy". The new ad pokes fun at the cheesy 90s effort - but you tell us if you think it succeeds or makes the cardinal sin of being just as unintentionally cheesy. Just goes to show - pirates apparently transfer illegal material via disc still and visit websites that look like loading screens from Amiga games. Who knew? Also - the anti-piracy rapper's name is "DP". Which stands for "Digital Protector" to the SIIA, not an implied threat of what awaits you if you're sent to the slammer. The video does take a serious tack around the four minute mark - with an prisoner in jail (for piracy) talking about why it's a bad idea. Apparently he's real, but it looks faker than Pamela Anderson's ... furs. The part where the camera fades out but then fades in again to show him, head bowed against the weight of the world - very dramatic.  I gave it three stars, Margaret.
Who's crazy? Courtney Love or Activision?
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Either this is a convincing fraud job or someone is about to get a pretty all-time humiliation - and their name is either Activision or Courtney Love.
Someone claiming to be Courtney Love is disavowing all involvement with the appearance of Kurt Cobain from Guitar Hero 5 - or at least the fact he has a "moving avatar". She is talking about getting the law onto Activision. It's all gone down on Twitter, and let's just say the lady seems a trifle disturbed. I've tried piecing together in reverse chronological order Love's rant, but be warned it's NSFWOET: Not Suitable For Work Or English Teachers. The full confusing version is at what is allegedly Courtney Love's twitter:
About this time you may be thinking "this is almost unreadable" - you should try checking out the twitter account. From what I can gather Love is mega angry at Activision Blizzard and the legal team who have been wheeling and dealing with Kurt's estate. Or more specifically - allowing Kurt's avatar to move. Given the way Guitar Hero works, it seems a trifle disingenuous to expect Cobain to be treated differently. It'd be interesting to see what she expected it to look like: a statue of Cobain? A photo? You takes the money, you takes your chances. If you're the betting type - bet on Love not realising she'd sold away more rights than she thought. If you're the cynical type, you may think Love signed away said rights without much thought, but when faced with the backlash from the Cobain faithful has freaked out and played the betrayal card. In any case, it's clear there's three winners here: Twitter, madness and Rock Band. Spare a thought for Neversoft though - the development team (note: dev team - not Activision executive) are ultra passionate music fanatics who must be cringing at the thought of even being falsely accused of exploiting Cobain's estate. These guys truly live and breathe music. Whether you agree or disagree with its motives, there's no denying the Left 4 Dead 2 boycott group on Steam was one of the larger groups of gamers about. It's also true that expecting gamers to show solidarity on any one issue over a prolonged period of time is an expectation doomed to failure.
So the fact the L4D2 boycott group is still around is peculiar. Valve, having tried the "ignore them and they'll vanish" route has now adopted a different tack which may just seal the deal: they flew the admins of the boycott group out to Valve HQ and gave them the grand tour. From the L4D2 boycott page:
So there you have it: problem solved for the price of a couple of plane tickets (and doubtless a couple of pizzas).  Last count: 41,835 members, now in the process of being magically converted into L4D2 fans.
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 9.0
Reviewed By limimi
10 Sep 2009 It has started to get to the point where indie games are relying on minimalism not out of necessity, bu... Full Review 9.5 9.0 4.0 8.5 6.0 9.0 Latest Videos
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