Jeff Green Leaving 1up For The Sims

By Levi Thornton | September 5, 2008

There is sad news today for people who keep up with GFW and 1up. Our favorite Jewish video game journalist is leaving 1up & GFW. Today 1up announced:

Jeff Green is making the move to game development. After 17 (!) years with Ziff Davis Media, Jeff is finally jumping to the dark side to work on The Sims brand at EA.

Why Jeff? WHY!?! I feel so empty inside! There seems to be a growing trend with journalist leaving the media business and joining game developers. Who will be the first one to leave Aeropause to work with Atari?

Source: 1up

Why Do I hate Madden?

By George Walker | August 7, 2008

WARNING! Rant incoming!

The Kranz, one of our long-time podcast listeners called me out on my wish for the Madden series to just die. In our forums, he wrote:

Millions of people love Madden, yet you want to kill it and without solid reasoning George. Don’t cop out and say “competition” because you didn’t come to that til you were prodded by other podcast member. Do you just hate sports in general?

Oh, Madden, how I hate thee… let me count the ways… Read the rest of this entry »

Orange Box on PS3, it seems, suffers from GHIII Wii syndrome

By Stephen Munn | July 31, 2008

The importance difference being that Activision has fixed Guitar Hero III for Wii. Our new friend Mike Seedon emailed today to let me know that a designer at Valve has acknowledged that among The Orange Box for PS3’s other issues is a lack of full surround sound, unless you’re playing it over an HDMI connection. It’s not mono, but rather Pro Logic II, so most people wouldn’t notice the problem without really looking for it. Still, the discrepancy is yet another solid illustration at just how lazy this port was. Add this audio issue, and the fact that Valve appears to be in some way involved with resolving the issue, to that long and embarrassing list of issues the game is facing and things are looking pretty bleak.

We’re working on getting the optical cable support into an update. I’ll post when I have details.

Why bleak? Well, the acknowledgment came last December, and while Valve’s Jay Stelly’s quote implied it was being worked on, that seems an awful long time to wait on such a simple issue.

Thanks, Mike.

Mike Seedon’s open letter on the EA Orange Box PS3 thing

By Stephen Munn | July 28, 2008

We received an open letter from Mike Seedon today regarding my recent mention of his Orange Box PS3 petition. I thought I’d share it with our readers, because unsurprisingly, he can explain everything much better than I can. Thanks to Mike Seedon for sending this along so I could share it.

Team Fortress 2..my all time favorite online game.

As many, when i saw that big fat VALVE logo on the box, i did not think twice before pulling out those 70 euros. The EA logo is displayed on the box too, but as a PUBLISHER. Well, at least that’s what the back of my artbox states. As an ex-PC gamer +being part of that generation that grew up with HL and all its mods+ and Valve supporter, not only do i know about Gabe’s experience at Microsoft, but i also did hear all Gabe had stated regarding systems he did not feel comfortable working with. And as you know. the PS3 is on that list.

Read the rest of this entry »

Skate 2 Details

By Shane | July 27, 2008

The upcoming September issue of EGM has the first details on EA’s smash hit skateboarding game Skate, which evidently did an ollie over Tony Hawk last year:

• Takes place five years after the original game, after the city’s been hit by an unknown disaster and had to be rebuilt.
• Includes an option to play as a female character.
• This time around with a character editor, inspired by the one featured in the Tiger Woods series.

On these few points, I say huh? To the first one: An unknown disaster? I’m thinking Skate: Post Apocalyptic Ice Age or something there, this could get interesting.

Adding female characters to the game is a smart move – especially for the “Bettys” who also like gaming.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems as if EA is adding their character editor to every game now. Still, it will add a nice dynamic to the sequel.

Check out the rest of the details on Tiscali Games

Orange Box PS3 petition hits the 2500 mark

By Stephen Munn | July 26, 2008

As you probably already know, the rushed PS3 port of Valve’s The Orange Box has become something of a point of contention between those who wish to play this on PS3 and those who brought it to PS3, particularly those who wish to play more than just Portal. We brought you word of an online petition, and while you can make your own judgment on whether petitions are worth it, this one has now surpassed a count of 2500 names with more than 27000 visits to the site it’s housed on.

Taking a step back, 2500 names is not a lot when compared to the number of copies EA has sold of The Orange Box on PS3. I’ve never heard of a study that extrapolated consumer discontent based on petition signatures, but over time I would expect this number to increase, particularly as the PS3 continues to outsell the 360 and this is likely to be a game new PS3 owners would pick up when migrating from last generation.

Thanks to Toni T for the tip on this milestone, and congratulations to Mike Seedon on the attention this has drawn.

Do Developers Affect Game Sales?

By George Walker | July 25, 2008

A twitter contact of mine recently stated, “does the customer care about the game, the publisher, or the developer? I think the MAJORITY care about the game and nothing else.”

While I think he may be MOSTLY right, there is enough evidence to at least have a lively discussion on the matter. Firstly, I’ll agree that the gibbering masses (those that don’t know or care what video game bloggers have to say… not that they should) probably don’t even KNOW what the major publishers or developers are. They seem to be in a constant mode of title parsing, searching for keywords such as “Halo”, “Call of Duty”, or “[whatever]craft”.

That being said, I’ve run into more than a few people who have bought a console JUST because it’s the latest machine from Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo. Blizzard has been a well known name in gaming, as well. Just look at the buzz surrounding Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3. Granted, these are sequels, but people have come to expect a certain level of polish from Blizzard titles. It should also be noted that EA had made a name for itself by locking up the NFL license.

On the more hardcore side of the market, there can really be no argument that people pay attention to the developer or publisher. Before Gears of War became an Xbox 360 staple, I was hyped mainly because of Epic’s past work on UT and UT2k4. I was also previously familiar with CliffyB as a level designer for the some of the best UT maps.

I am most interested, however, in what YOU the Aeropause reader think? Does the publisher or developer affect your game-buying decisions?

Burnout Paradise: Cagney Update Delayed Again For Xbox 360

By Paul Munn | July 24, 2008

burnout paradise road rage online A couple of weeks ago on July 10th gamers who have enjoyed going way too fast and slamming into tings online and offline on their PS3 with Burnout Paradise got treated to the Cagney update. Xbox 360 gamers with Burnout Paradise got hold music instead. Criterion reports that the approval process for Cagney has further delayed the new content for Xbox 360 owners to at least August 4th, nearly a month after it successfully debuted on the PS3.

I’m hopeful that this certification of the Xbox 360 version of the update hasn’t held up Criterion from working on trophy support for this fine arcade racer on the PS3. There’s no word on when the next update for Paradise is coming, but with luck the certification process on this next one will go equally smoothly on both consoles.

Seen on Joystiq.

Dead Space: Lullaby

By Shane | July 15, 2008

Check out the new, extremely graphic trailer for Dead Space titled: ‘Lullaby’ which was not approved by the ESRB for obvious reasons, but EU was allowed to have it, so Gametrailers did the same:

How playing Guitar Hero 2 makes me want to try Rock Band

By Stephen Munn | July 11, 2008

This evening I popped over my brother-in-law’s new home for a visit. It was a visit, like so many such visits are, that ended up having something of a gaming subtext. As a man who’s been on Guitar Hero since its origin, Adam has every Guitar Hero game on PS2 (he hasn’t yet picked up Aerosmith, but he will), along with a couple of RedOctane’s wireless controllers for the system. He also owns a Wii and plans on a 360 in the future, but as he’s invested so much already in the PS2 guitars, there’s no desire to dump more money until Activision stops publishing on PS2. He’s thinking practically here.

Adam’s in a good position to make the transition to Rock Band when Activision abandons his platform. The peripheral quandary tends to trouble us all, I think. What do you do when you change franchises? What about systems? A lack of standards in all this makes sense, but it doesn’t make things easier for Joe Consumer. Hi, I’m Joe Consumer. Yes, that’s my real name. No, my mom was not cruel, why do you ask?

The recent podcast and some other comments I’ve made might make it appear that I favor Guitar Hero over Rock Band, but I’ve never played Rock Band. While I insist that MTV’s brand is not showing the initiative in functionality that Activision’s is, I can certainly appreciate that when it comes down to gameplay, Rock Band is more fun just based on the experiences of others. That makes sense, as Harmonix is there. It’s too bad they aren’t working with RedOctane anymore, who are the other real stars of the show.

One thing I noticed while playing Guitar Hero II tonight on Adam’s PS2 was how much better the game looks than the Wii version of Guitar Hero III. It’s irritating to me that Neversoft’s Tony Hawk-style deformed characters (note singer Trapjaw on loan from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe) have infiltrated Guitar Hero and the game’s feel is just not quite as tight as its prequels were.

Of course, the Wii version of Rock Band is a wash, so I’d need to pick it up on PS3. But then, there’s that peripheral issue again. Do I sell Guitar Hero III and dive head-first into Rock Band, inferior instruments and all?

End rant.

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