DC Reboot Sells Like Super-Powered Hotcakes

The reboot may have offended purists, but DC's laughing all the way to the bank.

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Ni no Kuni PS3 to digitally include that
impressive book

video details and more

 

Perhaps the saddest part about the lack of news on Ni no Kuni getting a DS release outside of Japan is that we're missing out on the absurdly cool -- and equally lengthy -- included "Magic Master" book.

It's not a complete loss, however: Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch will give PlayStation 3 players in-game access to a digital version of the book. Not quite as fun to flip through or flashy as the real deal, but it's a compromise nonetheless. What would John Waters say?

Ni No Kuni’s Magic Book Is An In Game Item On PlayStation 3 [Siliconera]

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Literally, there would be no 8bitrocket without
Steve Jobs

8bitSteve ,  Eric Barth, and I   literally created our first “8bitrockets” by programming long basic programs on Eric’s Apple IIe. The programs used the Print statement and ASCII character set to slowly scroll our Star Wars inspired creations on the Apple  green screen monitor.   Sitting around in our OP shorts and two-toned Vans [...]

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http://www.8bitrocket.com/2011/10/06/literally-there-would-be-no-8bitrocket-witho
ut-steve-jobs/

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When eroges get motion controls

According to Maniac, the Japanese developer Tech Arts is working on a title called 3D Custom Girl, which will be released at the end of October. The women present in the game cover pretty much every single Anime cliché in the book. The eroge will come with a USB-peripheral, shaped like a vulva, called the “USB-Onacon” that allows you to control your more intimate interactions with the virtual characters of the game.

Are you done re-reading that last sentence over and over again? Good! As you may have guessed by now, that controller has the form of a vulva. The game together with the peripheral costs around 90€. You can check out the slightly not safe for work website and give the game's demo a try -- minus the motion controls of course.

Wenn Zubehör-Schweinkram zu weit geht... [Maniac]

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RAWR! Beasts collide in Square Enix's MONSTER x
DRAGON

With a title that reminds me of those awful yet glorious B-movies, Square Enix has collaborated with Yahoo! Japan on a new active-time strategy MMORPG called MONSTER x DRAGON. It's actually their second collaboration -- the first being the free-to-play, browser-based warring states simulation game, Sengoku IXA -- and this game is being made to keep the 600,000 players they've acquired since that release.

MONSTER x DRAGON is also to be a browser-based title with real-time strategy, trading card games, and the ability to fight with up to one hundred people at any one time, all included without a necessity to install. You, the player, will leads monsters and challenge people for battle over Square Enix's most favorite thing in the world: crystals.

Like in any RPG, they'll be plenty of monsters in design and in the skills they acquire. There will also be gigantic monsters you can manipulate, and use them to fight alongside other comrades as a team to collect even more crystals. Square Enix is saying that the interface is simple enough for a simulation RPG that anyone can join in.

Beta testing starts from October 13th, and if you want to join in, open a Yahoo! Japan account and register on the game's official site. The game itself is due to come out in Japan sometime this winter.

Square Enix's/Yahoo's New Browser Game - MONSTER X DRAGON [Game Watch] [JP]

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Microgravity Makes Interstellar Travel
Impossible, Say Experts

Tiny feet can't pitter-patter in zero-g.

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Apple Co-founder Steve Jobs Has Died

“If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” Apple, Inc. has announced the passing of its visionary co-founder Steve Job, as he lost his battle with cancer at the early age of 56. Jobs had previously denounced his position in August, but this wasn?t before he [...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gamercenter/~3/mme7Gwhr3YI/

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Streaming NieR concert announced for later this
month

Maybe you had trouble waking up at 4:00 AM to catch Square Enix's streaming SQ Party LEVEL1 concert that took place last week.  I managed to tune in along with 3,000 others to hear remixes from across Square Enix's classic game franchises, and even though I was tired for the rest of the day, I think it was worth catching the performance.  The event was apparently popular enough to warrant a follow-up, and Square Enix has announced SQ Party LEVEL2 -NieR NighT- for Friday, October 28, returning to the Studio 2.5D venue.

I know a lot of people picked up the recent NieR Tribute Album -echo-, and it looks as though two of the artists involved with the album are confirmed to be at this event.  Go-qualia, world's end girlfriend, and 'more' will be taking to the stage to presumably perform their arrangements from the album.  As with last time, the event will be streamed live on the venue's Ustream channel, and note that this concert is getting a new day and time, taking place on a Friday (10/28) at 20:30.  That's 4:30 AM PST and 7:30 AM EST.

Did you tune into the LEVEL1 concert last week, or does the NieR-flavored LEVEL2 sound like it's more your jam? 

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Obscurity: A Lost and hidden world

_{[For your Bloggers Wanted assignment last week, you were asked to write about a game you thought was relatively obscure; one that a lot of your peers likely hadn't played or even heard of. Today, Kyle MacGregor (the artist formerly known as Cadtalfryn) would like to tell you something about a browser-based online game called Hiddenworld, which you can even play for yourself since it's still online. Kind of reminds me of Legend of the Red Dragon from my BBS days! Want to see your own blog on the front page? Write a blog on the current topic: Villains. -- JRo]}

Online gaming has changed a lot over the past fifteen years. Before Steam, the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, hell even SegaNet, I was plugging telephone wires into my computer and getting my game on. It didn’t seem odd at the time, but I was playing a free to play MMORPG on a 56k modem – years before genre juggernaut World of Warcraft was even a thing.

I’ve played this game on and off for years. While it has certainly undergone numerous changes, it retains a classic feel. The game is very much the same today as it was in 1997 – despite the arrival of technically superior competitors with widespread appeal. It’s become one of the oldest persistent browser-based games in existence – a text-based roleplayer by the name of Hiddenworld.

While I can largely attribute my deep hatred for grinding to this game, I look back on it with fond memories. Sure, it might’ve taken me a half an hour a day for nearly a year to reach level one hundred. There was a lot of work involved, but the competition and community made it all worth it. Much like Destructoid, my love for Hiddenworld came from the dedication of its users.

Instead of multiple servers filled with faceless thousands Hiddenworld is a single game populated by a few dozen familiar faces. Some are loved and respected by the masses, others feared, some even hated. It’s strange to think a somewhat basic turn-based RPG with such clear limitations could have such a devout following.

New players will spend their first few days in the game beating up rats with sticks and staves in the forest outside of town, where they’ll earn experience and the gold necessary to buy new armor and weapons. They’ll bribe innkeepers to attack sleeping players where they lie. Then they’ll head off to the dorms to murder individuals too cheap to buy a room at the inn. Eventually they’ll head to player-owned banks to deposit their daily earnings and decide where they themselves wish to spend their night.

Before long they’ll be roaming the world in search of new equipment and monsters to kill. They’ll form teams with other players, hunt down rivals, and slaying their hated enemies. Soon enough they’ll run for public office, control town finances, achieve nobility, claim lordship over provinces, exile players to the wastelands, and perhaps even reach the game’s highest honor – Knighthood.

There are only five Knights in Hiddenworld, each a respected player that has been voted in by a majority of experienced players. They act as the game’s caretakers, moderators, second only to the game’s revered, godlike, creator and his appointed council of Guardians. In recent times these have become highly sought after seats of power. Factions have formed with the sole purpose of uprooting those in office, and replacing them with one of their own.

About six years ago an organization called the Alliance formed on one of the game’s many fan sites. We met in secret, plotting to overthrow those in power. A small number of players with a large number of alternate characters that effectively ran the game. They had formed teams, organized, taken control of nearly every province, elected themselves Knights, and were so numerous that no single person could challenge them.

The Alliance had a leader that was a master orator. A man who didn’t need power himself, because he could twist, control, manipulate others to his will. Any person that would cross him would be met with the organization’s attack dogs. They’d find you, grasp control of your home province by whatever means necessary and exile you.

I eventually left the Alliance, finding their tactics rather repugnant, only to be branded a traitor. Leveling a character can prove difficult when whatever move you make leaves you in the wastes, a place where you seldom can progress. By this time the Alliance had become so powerful, so organized that no-one could truly challenge them. Myself and a team of other dedicated players that found themselves caught in a war between these two great forces formed a third faction, The Deviants. We had no clear goal outside of self preservation and revenge against all those that would cross us.

It was an interesting time. At one point or another each faction would be the dominant force, politics being the only real difference – that and how dirty they’d be willing to play to survive. I held Knighthood for a short time, what a political scandal that was, and eventually became one of the game’s most powerful players with my trio of level one hundreds, ranked killers, members of some of the finest teams in a larger association of rogue players, discontent with both the ruling class and those that had risen up against it.

I’d eventually fall away from the game. The game had become so interesting, so compelling that when the politics died down anything less than what had become the new normal was almost boring. Players started gravitating to high definition game consoles and World of Warcraft. It was technically the same game. In fact, it was better. Incremental additions and the increased interest of the players for so many years led to some definite improvements, but people were slipping away.

I’ve recently returned to Hiddenworld, finding a shadow of its former self. It never had many players, a few hundred dedicated members at most, but never have I seen it so sparsely populated as now. I sometimes think about going back and playing. It is still the same game after all. And free to boot. But you can’t ever go home. I caught lightning in a bottle. It’ll never happen again and I’ll never do it justice recounting those legendary days, but I can cherish those memories and occasionally check back in and reminisce with the few that are left.

If anyone's interested give it a try. I'd even be willing to help you through the basics if you drop me a line.

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Apple co-founder Steve Jobs dies at age 56

Steve Jobs, a man who changed the digital world forever, died today at age 56. 

Jobs had been fighting pancreatic cancer for several years, which had made it hard for him to continue on as Apple's CEO. He resigned from that post on August 24, 2011.

Goodbye, Steve. You will be missed.

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