Game FAQ Writers: Unsung Heroes of the Internet

When checking the web for a clue or strategy in a game, it's easy to forget that those FAQs were written by dedicated gamers just like you.

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Rumor: USB Storage Coming To Xbox 360

According to a report based on a document written by a senior software development engineer at Microsoft, it suggests that USB Mass Storage Device Support is coming to the Xbox 360 via a 2010 system update.

The new update will allow Xbox 360 users to save and load game data from USB devices.  The feature will include downloading [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://site.video-game-central.com/blog/2010/03/19/rumor-usb-storage-coming-to-xb
ox-360/

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Samurai Shodown Sen hitting March 30th

It's been five years since America got a new Samurai Shodown game (not counting the anthology), but the wait is almost over. Samurai Shodown Sen has finally made its way over to the States from Japan, and will be releasing on March 30th for Xbox 360.

I don't know much about SNK games (mostly because I am much worse at them than I am at Street Fighter), so I asked CronosBlade and Hitorogoshi, the biggest SNK fanboys I know, what they thought of the game. While the official PR says we're supposed to be excited about "impressive 3D visuals" and a "huge roster of returning fighters", Cronos and Hito were excited about other things.

Cronos: "Gutting cute anime girls!"
Hito: "I get to murder the Ruru sisters? Count me in. I can't wait to stick my sword in them."

Perverts.

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Steals & Deals - March 19, 2010

It's March Radness over at WildTangent! Until the end of March you can save 50% off 10 of the site's most popular casual games (including Virtual Villagers: The Secret City, Three Cards to Midnight, Farm Frenzy 3: American Pie and Murder She Wrote by using the coupon code NIFTY50 at checkout. Sandlot Games is selling the first three Westward games bundled for just $9.99 - an incredible value. Sandlot's free game of the week is Tradewinds 2. PopCap is still offering its Bejeweled, Zuma and 21 Games bundles. The indie puzzle platformer Saira is $1 off on Steam. This weekend only, the adventure games Sanitorium and The Longest Journey are just $4.99 (50% off) at GOG.com - the discount is taken at checkout.

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Pandas Bigger Adventure

Panda?s Bigger Adventure is second part of Panda?s Big Adventure point and click adventure game created by RobotJam and sponsored by BubbleBox. "Help Panda break Elvis (the portaloo's rightful owner) out of future prison in this point and click adventure game. Talk to various characters in the game to discover what they need to to do in order to solve the puzzles. Use the mouse to walk panda around and store your items in the inventory at the bottom of the screen." Good luck and have fun!Play...

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

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Stickbound Preview

Gamenauts, the casual games studio that brought us Spacebound, Burger Rush and Cate West is working on its first iPhone game! Stickbound is a platformer with a twist: instead of having players simply run and jump over platforms, the game will use a unique pole-vaulting mechanic that as far as we know has never been seen before on the iPhone.

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3/19/2010 Mochi Game Development Fund Num. 3:
Extrinsic Awards: Are They What Social Games Are About

New Flash Game Development Blog Entry : (This is part Num. 3 in our continuing series on topics related to the Mochi Game Development Fund).

Almost every game portal, MMO, online console platform, and viral game service offers some kind of 'award/reward' systems for game players. The idea is to give players a reason to play the game beyond the intrinsic value of the game-play itself. These rewards/awards are usually referred to as extrinsic rewards, because they are not necessarily related to the game, but how player plays the game.

Here are some examples.

An intrinsic reward for a space shooter, would be to give the player a bolt-on extra weapon for maneuvering successfully around some asteroids to pick-up the floating bonus icon. This is still an 'award', but it is used in game-play to help the player get further in the game. The value on the award in inclusive to the game itself.

An extrinsic award for the same game would be to award the player a 'badge' that they display on their portal profile for reaching level 5 of the game. The 'badge' has no intrinsic value in the game, it is simply an achievement for bragging rights to other players. Furthermore, this extrinsic reward might have it's own value (such as Microsoft Gamer Points) that transcends the single game, and turn a system of games into a meta-game.
(more after the jump)

Read The Full Article:
http://www.8bitrocket.com/newsdisplay.aspx?newspage=38370

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What Final Fantasy Does the FF13 Director Want to
Remake

If Final Fantasy XIII director Motomu Toriyama had his choice, guess what game in the Final Fantasy series he'd like to remake? Go on, guess.

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The hidden truth behind game reviews

_{[Editor's Note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware that it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.]}

You know what's awesome? How everyone on the Internet is always right about everything, especially when it comes to uncovering the hidden motivations, personalities, ethics, and food preferences of videogame reviewers.

It's way more awesome, though, to have your opinions validated with factual evidence -- Evidence which I have compiled. Using my Scott-Shelby-style investigative skills, I've picked apart videogame reviews and the people who write them.

Yes, I know game reviews are always going to be controversial, as will the people who write them. No amount of truthery or "walking a mile in his shoes" is going to change that fact, and I am not here to change it. As Eric Clapton said, "If I could change the world, I would be the sunlight in your universe." Problem is that no amount of sunlight can make the cold depths of space anything other than black. And Eric Clapton is old, and old people can't change anything. So there's that too.

No, I simply wish to give a new perspective -- a super fantastically 100% true perspective -- on game reviews and the people who write them. 

Game reviewers don't care about their audience.



Come on, do you think James Cameron wrote Titanic for an audience? Do you think The Beatles gave a damn about their fans?

So many consumers of gaming sites feel that writers actually want people to read their work, which is patently ridiculous. Writing something so people will read it? How very quaint.

Every game review is written for one simple purpose: pleasure. Like mental masturbation, game reviews give the writer a high that cannot be achieved elsewhere, essentially keeping the writer alive by acting as a bizarre form of sustenance. Of course it isn't about truth, opinion, fact, readership, or any other illusion created by the mind of the reader. It's a pure, uninhibited wank fest involving three of the reviewer's closest friends: the id, the ego, and the superego.

The audience is simply a distraction, like a cold bucket of water poured suddenly by Sarah Jessica Parker down the pants of the reviewer.

What other reason is there for writing?

Game reviewers value nothing above controversy.



You know what too few people do? Build shrines to themselves in their bedroom closets. It seems like it's becoming a lost art, at least outside of the tight circle of game reviewers. But within that circle, the tradition is alive and well, and the decorations continue to become more lavish: Rococo, even, if I knew what that meant.

Those decorations are made of the beautiful, hate-filled comments that the game reviewer prays for at the side of his bed each night. They come flowing from the comments like unicorns riding a rainbow before finally finding their resting place surrounding the nude photo of the reviewer that said reviewer bathes himself in for each nightly love-making session.

We all know that differing opinions is just as unnatural as homosexuality, and any reasonable person would avoid them. Controversy isn't just a natural bi-product of differing opinions: of course not! Controversy is the fuel that keeps pleasure in constant supply for the reviewer, which we've established is the only thing that keeps the writer from finding himself hanged from a ceiling fan.

Game reviewers don't actually like videogames.



Is it really such a surprise? A couple of sub-seven reviews is all it should have taken for you to all realize that we who write about games hate every pathetic minute spent banging away at the keys. Game reviewers don't want to play these awful excuses for entertainment. Half the time, they don't anyway (and readers are always right when they suspect this), instead relying on a super-secret cheat sheet that all reviewers pass around to each other. Scores only vary to hide this shocking secret.

So, why do we write about games? Just as the septic tank technician is to the industry of home plumbing, so is the game writer to the world of written entertainment. He writes about games not because he enjoys them, but because he has failed at all other forms of writing. There is no creativity, heart, or intelligence in the body of a videogame writer, and now you can see why. It has been hollowed out and filled only with contempt and vacuity.

No friends are made here, as you can see in the above photo. No enjoyment is had. As so many writers will tell you, it is the very worst job in the world. I think that was the word they used...

Game reviewers desperately want every good developer to fail, and every bad developer to succeed.



This fact is, of course, tied directly to the one above. With such contempt for their jobs, game reviewers look for a way out day after day. Whether they know it or not, all game reviewers want the same thing: the total and catastrophic collapse of the industry. That makes total sense, right?

Think about it: every time you disagree with a review, what does that really mean? It's not a simple matter of people having differing opinions; that would be far too simplistic, and I don't see that asshole Occam anywhere in the videogame industry. Instead, it's a systematic attempt by the reviewer to steer gamers away from high-quality titles and toward those of low quality, leading to poor sales for those games that required the hard work of good people. Soon, such developers are shuttered. Giving good reviews to bad games sows the seeds of mistrust among gamers, and before long, they are so confused by games coverage that they cease to purchase games at all, not wanting to be burned again by the same fire.

Deception becomes the modus operandi and, thus, the industry collapses. The reviewer shrugs and sets off for a new Utopian land. In theory, at least. It was thought up by game reviewers, so it must be destined for failure.

All videogame reviewers are expert fishermen.



Now here's one that I never would have guessed if it weren't for the investigative genius of internet users. I owe it all to you, oh random just-registered angry comment leaver person.

I was introduced by internet comments to the wonderful sport of trolling, of which reviewers are well-practiced. It is the very best way to catch fish that live above the sea floor, such as delicious salmon, tuna, and marlin. And, as Wikipedia says, "There is plenty of science and drama involved." Science and drama, indeed.

What a strange world that allows videogames and fishing to combine in such a magical and unexpected manner!

But fishing expertise is beside the point. You can preach all you want about the professionalism of games reviewers, filling your favorite website with empty thoughts such as "I find your opinion interesting and well-developed," and "I actually found the game far more enjoyable than you did," but what you have to realize is that game reviewers don't want your contrived support. They want your money, but lacking the intelligence to devise a way to take it, they settle for sustaining themselves in any way that they can. So they follow this code, and they pray for it all to end.

But these are all things you've known all along, deep down in your soul, right? And internet users are always right.

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The End of RTS A Command & Conquer 4
Interview

EALA lead designer Sam Bass discusses the ideas that his team has injected into Command & Conquer 4, the last game in the series, to help make the RTS genre more approachable to newcomers and more satisfying to all.

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