Minecraft coming to iPad, iPhone and Android

post from CountGameula on 21 February 2011 11:53:39 PM. © CountGameula

Markus ?Notch? Persson?s sandbox building game Minecraft, better known to some of...[...]

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Minecraft is iOs- / Android-bound

post from Gaming Nexus on 21 February 2011 11:25:00 PM. © Gaming Nexus

by: Jeremy Duff
NEWS - Mojang Studios, creators of Minecraft, have announced that the smash-hit game is in fact headed to the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices later this year. Unofficial version have been published on a variety of platforms, but this marks the first that the game’s developer will release an official version.

The portable version(s) of the game are being handled inhouse by the studio and will be closely based on the full version available on the PC. Unfortunately, it is being said that the portable versions will not receive all of the same updates that the PC versions has, only those that are key to the touch screen version.

I think that it will be interesting to see if the portable versions take off as fast as the PC version of the game has. The PC version hasn’t even been officially released yet, as it is still labeled as being in beta form, yet has sold well over a million copies. This could be the next game to top the mobile sales listings for month on end…

Source: Kotaku

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Warriors: Legends of Troy brings the bosses &
cutscenes

post from Destructoid on 21 February 2011 11:05:38 PM. © Destructoid

Warriors: Legends of Troy brings the bosses & cutscenes screenshot

Tecmo Koei has unleashed a brand new set of Warriors: Legends of Troy screenshots. This week, we get a look at some of the boss fights and cutscenes that will litter the game.

Unlike the average Warriors game, Legends of Troy will feature large-scale boss battles against a variety of mythical monsters. From what I recall of the E3 demo, these fights contain a bit more strategy than your typical button-mashing scenario, so hopefully the fights will be quite involved.

Legends of Troy hits North America on March 8 and Europe on March 25.

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Killzone 3 career progress, let me show you it

post from Gaming Nexus on 21 February 2011 10:17:00 PM. © Gaming Nexus

by: Jeremy Duff
NEWS - Sony has released the first video in what will be a five-video series demonstrating the career progression options in Killzone 3. The first video released highlights the Engineer class of characters.

The Engineer is meant to be a support class on the battlefield. Players using this career will have the ability to assist their teammates by repairing the various mounted weapons and destroyed ammo crates found in the battlefield. Although support is meant to be the focus, the Engineer can still put on quite an offensive showing with a variety of strong weapons which can be unlocked as you progress.

Check it out:

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New Elements of War Screen Shots Available

post from Gaming Nexus on 21 February 2011 10:13:00 PM. © Gaming Nexus

by: Russell Archey
NEWS - Earlier today Kalypso Media released close to a dozen screen shots for their upcoming RTS Elements of War. The screen shots feature some of the units that will be featured in the game where players wield weapons that can control the very elements of nature. I'm not much of an RTS player (the only one I was ever somewhat good at was Command & Conquer: Red Alert) but I might have to check this game out. Check out the screen shots below.

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em21605.aspx

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Will the Uncharted film turn its back on the
games

post from Destructoid on 21 February 2011 10:05:25 PM. © Destructoid

Will the Uncharted film turn its back on the games? screenshot

David O. Russel's had a lot of plans for the Uncharted movie, and those plans have already raised some eyebrows amongst fans of the series. Mr. Russel told Ain't it Cool News that he does not want to make "a film that was a knockoff of a game that's not going to be around," but that he does want to make Uncharted "into a world that has a family dynamic in it akin to The Sopranos or akin to other worlds."

He also adds that "See, people will take that, and they will misinterpret it, so I shouldn’t say that. There are all kinds of gamers out there..."

If you think that I'm misinterpreting your words, Mr. Russel, feel free to clarify them at any time, but from the sound of it, you don't really respect Uncharted's source material, and as a result, you don't really want to make an Uncharted movie.

Oh wait, you already did clarify your statements!

According to this interview with Slashfilm, Mr. Russel stated that he has "played the game a bunch of times" and "also read as much as I could about the game and I met the game’s creator, Amy Hennig, who's really cool."

But he's still going for the "family dynamics" angle because "To grow a game into a movie is an interesting proposition because a game is a very different experience than a movie. You guys are playing the game, and it's about playing the game. It's not about a narrative embracing you emotionally." He also adds "there’s not a bunch of movies you can point to that are made from games that are amazing movies, that stand up to time as a franchise or as [individual films]."

Yeah, I'm still not getting that this guy really wants to make an Uncharted movie.

The biggest (of many) red flags here is that Mr. Russel clearly doesn't really respect the Uncharted games as stories, or videogames as potentially moving narrative experiences. Saying that videogames are "not about a narrative embracing you emotionally" really speaks to how little he knows or cares about the medium. And who can blame him? He's a film director. I don't expect him to know about videogames. In fact, I'd more expect him to dislike, or even fear videogames, as videogames are slowly eclipsing film as the most popular form of entertainment in the Western world.

That said, if Mr. Russel were adapting a book, or even a television show, for the big screen, you can bet he'd have a very different attitude. Can you imagine if the team behind the Harry Potter movies publicly announced that they were planning on making the films more like The Sopranos? They'd never dream of doing that, for fear of turning off the source material's fan base. I guess Mr. Russel isn't as concerned about turning off Uncharted's millions of fans, or worse, maybe he doesn't understand that Uncharted's fans truly love the characters and the world on Uncharted, just as much as any Harry Potter fan loves the Potter-verse.

I also find it really interesting that he makes a point to bash other movies based on videogames. He's not entirely off base for saying that, but what I think he's missing is that most game-to-movie adaptations are bad because they are not true to the source material. For instance, the Silent Hill movie did fairly well, with a sequel pending, and though die-hard fans were a little put off by it (particularly the depiction of Pyramid Head), it was more or less true to the source material. Compare that to something like Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, Double Dragon, or Alone in the Dark, and you see that the most embarrassing, clearly misguided game-to-movie adaptations are filled with "new ideas that stay true to the core content and spirit of the source material."

Underlying all these surface level details is one question: do we even need an Uncharted movie? Isn't the whole idea sort of redundant? The Uncharted games, particularly Uncharted 2, are basically movies, except with the player placed in the starring role. How could any "real" movie, especially one that's coming from a director who isn't much of a fan of the games, possibly live up to that?

When you have a director like David O. Russel, you can't expect him to even try to live up to that, or any expectation for that matter. The director has made some amazing films, films that don't quite fit into any one genre, or any conventional vision of what a film should be. The man is an auteur. That's why I feel he isn't the right choice for the Uncharted film.

He could go through the motions and create a faithful adaptation of the Uncharted games for the big screen. That would be sure to make him and the film's studio a lot of money. If he did that, though, the Uncharted movie would be a "David O. Russel film in name only." Likewise, if Mr. Russel does his thing and creates a movie that's wholly original, then we've got an "Uncharted film in name only." That would annoy Uncharted fans for sure, but if the film is great enough, it could still make Mr. Russel and the studio a lot of money. More importantly, it could be something that Mr. Russel could be proud of.

I think where things get dangerous is the zone in-between, where the movie feels kind of like Uncharted, but not enough to please Uncharted fans, and sometimes feels like a David O. Russel movie, but not enough to please his fans either. If we can just forget that the movie is called Uncharted after the open titles role, and enjoy the film for what it is, that will be fine.

If the Uncharted film isn't fully committed to either the ideas of David O. Russel, or the ideas of the Uncharted games, then we're going to have problems.

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Neat built-in 3DS StreetPass games and options
detailed

post from Destructoid on 21 February 2011 10:05:25 PM. © Destructoid

Neat built-in 3DS StreetPass games and options detailed screenshot

There's some built-in games that use the 3DS' StreetPass pass-by communication functionality. One is called Street Pass Quest, and it's a turn-based battle game where you'll work to rescue your Mii. You'll actually use Miis you've acquired via StreetPass to battle baddies to get to deeper stages to get to where your Mii is at. And this is great: If you don't have any Miis, you can use 2 Game Coins to buy a cat in armor to represent you. A guy who got to spend a bit of time with the 3DS says that the first few level's battles were up against ghosts. This all sounds pretty fun for a built-in game.

There's also a puzzle game called Street Pass Puzzle. This same tipster didn't have any StreetPass data to use, so he wasn't able to test it. We do know that the game is a 3D puzzle that is played with pieces collected via StreetPass -- you'll pick up pieces from others that have their StreetPass functionality turned on. The more you interact, the more pieces you get.

Finally, GoNintendo has a few details on the 3DS' power options. There's three "off" modes: Power off turns the system completely off, Sleep keeps StreetPass active, and Suspend is activated when the system is closed or the Home button is pressed.

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Happy 25th Birthday, Link!

Nintendo’s other big franchise, The Legend of Zelda, turns 25 this year, and what better way to celebrate that with the epic theme song? Enjoy: The famed theme remixed

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Minecraft documentary hits the airwaves

by: Jeremy Duff
NEWS - A little while back, we mentioned that 2-Player Productions was in the process of producing a short documentary on Minecraft and the studio behind it. The short version of that project is now up and available for viewing at Gametrailers.com.

The version that is currently available is just that start of what 2-Player hopes turns into a much bigger project. The documentary runs about 20 minutes right now but assuming that the proper funding comes into the production studios, the project will be converted into a full length feature. Even in its current form, this is a very interesting clip to watch as I always enjoy seeing the creative process behind today's game.

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Want to party with Destructoid at PAX East

Want to party with Destructoid at PAX East? screenshot

PAX East takes place in just under a month! ~~Nerds~~ Handsome intelligent people with alternative interests such as gaming from around the world are descending upon Boston, Massachusetts. The expo is open from March 11-13 and gives both the press and general gaming audience a chance to check out new titles long before they're released, partake in panels, attend epic concerts, and have an otherwise amazing nerdy weekend. By the way, three-day passes are sold out, but we are going to be giving some passes away this Friday! Details to come later this week.

This will be the fifth year in a row that Destructoid has attended the Penny Arcade Expo, and each year the show just gets better and better. Our PAX East Google Group has 60 members already and we plan on having meetups every night like usual. Join up if you want to know everything that will be happening! Our turnouts for these meetups are always pretty epic, and this year we're looking to make these events even more special.

[ Sponsor a Destructoid Meetup! We're at every gaming event, so host your next party with us! Reach over 2 million humans and get memorably sauced with our amazing community. Get in touch: hamza [at] destructoid.com ]

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