Mass Effect 2's 'Firewalker' DLC rolling out on
Tuesday

For some weird reason, I was one of the few people who enjoyed exploring planets with the MAKO in Mass Effect. The insanely jagged terrain? Not so much. If Mass Effect 2 taught us anything, it's that BioWare knows how to tidy up its sequels and squash the not-so-good parts.

That's why I'm pumped for the free "Firewalker" add-on, which was confirmed for a March 23 release earlier today. The five-mission pack introduces us to the Hammerhead, a new flying vehicle. Take that, all you mountain-filled planets that make up the Mass Effect universe!

@masseffect2 [Twitter -- Thanks, Nick]

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New Naughty Bear video game trailer

Naughty Bear is an action video game featuring a unique blend of comic mischief and shamefully bad...

Read the full post at www.gamezplay.org use the search option if there is no link above...

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Civet's Odyssey

Civet's Oddysey - Hat is another new point and click type adventure game by Belugerin Games. "A gust of wind has taken the belongings of your two best friends. Choose which of your friends to help recover the missing item. Point-and-click to solve the quests and riddles." Good luck and have fun!Update: There are three different endings now!Play This GameCivet's Odyssey Video Walkthrough

[[ This is a summary only. Visit EscapeGames24.com for game links, walkthroughs, comments, and more! ]]

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War for Cybertron Interview: Screw you Michael
Bay

Instead of spending hours trying to figure out exactly how to turn my little Optimus Prime toy back into a truck, I'd much rather just push a button to make it happen, which is why I'm excited whenever a developer decides to make a Transformers game. Activision has done just that in their new title Transformers: War for Cybertron. 

The game isn't just about turning your giant robot into a car of equal or lesser value, there's actually some solid gameplay to be had, so take a look at the video if you want to hear more about the game, or if you just want to hear hear Rey Gutierrez give Michael Bay a special message of admiration.

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Video game legend - David Jones wins double
honours at Directors of the Year Awards

Institute of Directors, Scotland, Present Realtime Worlds? Founder and Creative Director with two...

Read the full post at www.gamezplay.org use the search option if there is no link above...

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You won't see a Mario game on Facebook anytime
soon

Social gaming, and Facebook in particular, were hot topics at Game Developers Conference last week. As Ashley Davis said after attending a social gaming presentation, there were a lot of people getting involved in Facebook gaming that you wouldn't expect to see in that arena.

Given Nintendo's own admittance that they make "great content for more casual players", you'd think that they WOULD be a company considering expanding to Facebook. In an interview with Industry Gamers, Reggie does, in fact, admit that he's intrigued by the social gaming space, and that he finds micro-transactions to be 'very interesting', but he says Nintendo has no interest in putting their franchises on Facebook. The problem Nintendo has with putting games on Facebook is that Nintendo doesn't own Facebook.

It's an interesting problem for a first party developer -- Nintendo would almost assuredly do extremely well on Facebook, but as the maker of both a console and a handheld device, they also have to give people incentives to buy their hardware. If people can access their games on another 'platform', they might not bother to buy the next Wii or DS.

What do you think? Would it be more profitable overall for Nintendo to expand out to Facebook, or are they doing the right thing (businesswise, at least) by sticking with their own hardware. What about the concept of Facebook as a gaming platform? I have to admit I'd never thought of it that way before, but given how popular casual gaming has become there, I may have to rethink my definition of platform.

Nintendo Has 'Absolutely No Interest' in Facebook Gaming [Industry Gamers via The Escapist]

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Stolen Pixels #178: After Curfew, Episode 7

Dr. Breen takes the hot coals to gamers' least favorite CEO in the business.

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Question of the Day, March 19, 2010

Do you want more Kratos?

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LT Prints, the sticker and poster hybrid

I had the pleasure of meeting the people behind LT Prints when I went to check out the Into the Pixel art exhibit recently. I've never heard of the company before and I was a little blown away when they showed me just what the company does.

We as gamers like putting sh*t all over our walls. Movie, music and gaming posters have all made their way onto our walls at some point over the course of our numerous phases in life. With that process comes all the holes left behind in order to hang up whatever we're into at the time. An easy solution to avoid the holes would to be just putting up stickers, but that also presents a problem. You tend to only have one chance at placing a sticker on a surface and removing it will all but destroy the sticker.

LT Prints solves both of those issues by introducing a hybrid of stickers and posters. The prints can be placed on any surface you have like a sticker and you're able to take the LT Print down and put it back up somewhere else without the graphic losing it's stickyness or it leaving behind a sticky residue on the wall. You're able to do this up to at least 100 times before the graphic loses it's stickyness in fact. The quality of the graphics are very nice and don't feel cheap like a regular poster.

A number of LT Graphics images are on display at the Into the Pixel art exhibit in San Francisco right now and the official Web site has started selling videogame themed graphics for Super Meat Boy, Jet Set Radio and more. You can also create your own graphic with any image you have on your harddrive.

Overall, this is a great solution to what's usually an annoying process.

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Post-GDC Mega Catch-Up, Yeah!

Well, I've been home for a few days from GDC -- every year it's an amazing, inspiring and invigorating time. I got to see Jason Rohrer discuss his new DS game, Diamond Trust of London (but Brandon Boyer's writeup of Rohrer's Sleep is Death is far more interesting than my article); he was talking alongside Molleindustria's Paolo Pedercini, whom you know I adore.
I saw some truly impressive Unreal Engine tech demos and received reassurance on the future of AAA gaming from Epic's Mark Rein (despite the concerted attempts of social gaming venture capitalists to discourage me) ; I heard wonderfully wacky Metroid and Wario Ware visionary Yoshio Sakamoto discussing his creative strategy, and I was refreshed to learn that at ThatGameCompany, development process actually comprehends that game developers are human beings and not design robots that produce when crunched upon.
It's amazing what happy people who work well together can create, isn't it? One of the highlights of my GDC was meeting many of the members of the team at Naughty Dog, who swept the Game Developers' Choice awards (which I also attended, enjoying the hosting talents of Kyle Gabler and Erin Robinson). Friend and awesome person Andy Schatz won the IGF with Monaco!
To be quite honest, I have never been a big fan of the Uncharted games; when people ask me what I think of Uncharted 2, I use words like "impressive" "an achievement" "a beautiful game" and "very well done." I mean all those words, of course, but when I'm writing criticism I tend to prize other traits. And I always like to root for underdogs; while I knew there was no chance whatsoever that Demon's Souls would beat Uncharted 2 as Game of the Year at the Choice awards, I selfishly wanted to see it happen! I also would have preferred to see Brutal Legend recognized for writing, but hey.
However, having met a handful of the team's senior members during GDC, I've gotta say I've never met a nicer or more humble group of game developers, and can't help but feel that nobody deserves the recognition more. They are the kind of people who, when you ask them what they do while chatting at the bar, are humble to the max --you have to push to even get them to admit they made the Game of the Year, and they all seem thrilled and bewildered by the recognition.
(Leaders on a certain couple of 2009's other major game successes often do not deign to socialize with us commonfolk, and if they did they would come in all popped collars, snakeskin boots and chest pounding over what they developed.)
The Dogs told me they feel like a family and love working together. I think that makes a difference. I would love it if more publishers got the idea that the way to get developers to make excellent games is to allow them to work according to their own internal culture (provided it's a positive one).
These are the kinds of people and ideas that inspire me most when I am at GDC, although the indies tend to be my very most favorite. The Los Angeles Times has just run an article by me on the constituency of the Experimental Gameplay Project, many of whom I got to say hello to at the event this year. While at GDC I also heard 2DBoy's Ron Carmel explain how a group of indie "angels" hopes to support independent designers in self-publishing.
I spoke on a panel, too. Mia Consalvo, Manveer Heir, Jamin Brophy-Warren and I discussed issues of diversity and race both within video games and on the development side. My friend Michael Abbott of Brainy Gamer fame (who is so warm and nice I cannot quite believe he is From The Internet, and who as usual I did not get to see enough of!) did an excellent write-up of our discussion. There seemed to be a great response to the discussion in general, and Cliff Bleszinski said it gave him ideas and "white man's guilt"!!
Friend and fellow Kotaku columnist Tim Rogers completed a speaker evaluation of my panel that indicates he would not recommend it to others out of the desire to "keep it as a secret weapon," that all speakers received zeroes except for I who received a rare "heart" ranking, and that "Bikini" is required to improve the panel. This was my favorite GDC Souvenir:



The combination of hard work and hard drinking killed many of my brain cells, I'm sure -- it was a whirlwind time and I'm glad to be back bumming around in Brooklyn with my snobby cat and not-snobby friends, but there's nothing like GDC. I had a wonderful time, and to those of you who did come up and say hello to me, it was nice to meet you!
Don't forget, you can find all of my GDC coverage, as well as the fine and excellent work of my colleagues, at Gamasutra's designated GDC 2010 landing page.

Read The Full Article:
http://sexyvideogameland.blogspot.com/2010/03/post-gdc-mega-catch-up-yeah.html

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