GDC 2009: Hideo Kojima: Solid Game Design: Making the Impossible Possible

Posted by Alex Lifschitz Categories: Culture, Features

If you at any point in your life have enjoyed a stealth game, you might know Hideo Kojima as the man to whom you owe your firstborn. He’s the father of the beloved Metal Gear game/interactive movie series, and he delivered the final keynote of the GDC today. And, as expected, it was worthy of a man who had just received a lifetime achievement award the night before. I took some pictures of the presentation, and tried to elucidate as best I can, but I seriously cannot stress how much you should try and find the video of the presentation as filmed by the GDC – Kojima is a genuinely funny guy with a lot to say, and if you like the cut of his jib (which is a very good cut, I hear), you deserve to see and hear the whole thing. In the meantime, have some on the house.

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GDC 2009: Zeemote JS1 impressions

Posted by Alex Lifschitz Categories:

So you may be asking yourself, ‘What’s a Zeemote?’ Firstly, you need to stop talking to yourself in public. It’s creepy, and it doesn’t work with your trenchcoat. Secondly, the Zeemote is a little whiz-bang doodad for doing analog gaming on your mobile device. Come with me into the land where some of us actually carry one around for a mobile gaming fix while our PSP/DSes are lodged firmly in a crocodile gullet.

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GDC 2009: Hands-On with America’s Army 3

Posted by Alex Lifschitz Categories: Features, First Person Shooters, PC

Anyone familiar with military gaming (or anyone as cheap as I am) already knows about America’s Army, the PC FPS developed by the United States military as an outreach program for the young’uns. It’s paid for by the guv’mint and completely free of charge to anybody who wants to play it (as any good PR campaign would be), and the folks behind the game let me get some hands-on time with the newest incarnation, America’s Army 3, at GDC 2009 in San Francisco. Hit the jump for some of the things you can expect from the world’s most realistic military shooter.

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GDC 2009: Too Little, Too Late, Mr. Nukem

Posted by Alex Lifschitz Categories: First Person Shooters

You know those stories when a guy is presumed dead for a while, so his wife remarries and has kids and now loves another, and then the guy comes back and expects everything to be just like it was before?

Just asking.

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Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing Coming to Rock Band

Posted by Alex Lifschitz Categories: Downloadable Content, Electronic Arts, Music, Rumors

So here’s the drink list from the event Harmonix threw the other day at the Rockit Room in San Fran. Nice, eh? I didn’t get the opportunity to indulge, but one fellow told me that the overdrive will “take you to flavor country” before gliding away on roller skates.

Oh, and at the end of the night, they announced and played a song called “Don’t Stop Believing” or something by some flash in the pan band named Journey, claiming that it would be hitting Rock Band. Should be available next Tuesday, but the date is subject to change and the pricing has not yet been announced, if you care about that kind of stuff.

(It’s very hard for me to break sarcasm, but I’ve always held the position that the first music and rhythm game to get this song wins the war. Good job, HMX! You’ve doomed me to more DLC as my children starve. Or, at least, they’re LIKE my children. But they’re older, and female. And hookers.)

STREEEETLIGHT PEEOPLLLEEEEEE

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GDC ’09: Nintendo Keynote: Wii 4.0, New Zelda DS game, more

Posted by Alex Lifschitz Categories: Adventure, Corporate News, Music, Nintendo, Wii

At the ass-crack of dawn, I got out of bed and hoofed it to Moscone South in San Francisco for the start of the GDC proper, kicked off by a keynote with one half of the Nintendo fanboy’s wet dream, Satoru Iwata, president of the Big N. The line, as expected, was around the block, and I ended up passing the time by measuring my growing distaste for humanity before finally getting in and being seated. The talk, though, “Discovering New Development Opportunities,” was worth the wait. We laughed, we cried, we hemmed and hawed, and I’m not saying there were some tits, but I am certainly making the implication. Hit the jump for what you need to know about Iwata-san’s keynote, recorded moment by moment.

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Gears of War 2 drops in November 2008, check out the trailer

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Action, Corporate News, Survival Horror, Trailers, Xbox 360

It was just announced this morning by Microsoft during their GDC keynote - Gears of War 2 will be hitting Xbox 360 consoles this November. That’s right kids - November 2008. You ready for this? Here is the word from Microsoft:

Providing a dramatic close to Microsoft’s GDC keynote address, Epic Games Inc.’s lead designer Cliff Bleszinski announced that the epic saga of Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad continues exclusively on the Xbox 360 this fall with “Gears of War 2.” This highly anticipated sequel to the 4.5 million-selling blockbuster “Gears of War” delves deeper into humanity’s struggle for survival against the nightmarish Locust Horde, and promises to take high-definition visuals to a whole new level.

Check out the trailer, at the top of this post.

Read More | Gears of War product page

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Miyamoto GDC Keynote Roundup

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Wii

Shigeru Miyamoto’s GDC Keynote got a lot of coverage around the web; as expected there was little in the way of real announcements due to an information blackout enforced by Nintendo’s upcoming stock sale, but there were a few tidbits to be had, like a new Mii Channel that will allow users to compare Miis and have contests. Miyamoto also led attendees know that Super Mario Galaxy will be coming this year as he showed off a little of the game in development.

The rest of the keynote really seemed to focus on the development process at Nintendo. Miyamoto touched on expanding their gaming audience using his “Wife-O-Meter” to gauge casual gamer interest in what the company is working on. He also discussed Nintendo’s entertainment focus, and how their hardware and software teams collaborated to bring the Wii remote about. The last two ideas he focused on were risk, Nintendo’s willingness to experiment and fail, and tenacity, the way that Miyamoto focuses on ideas that may take years to come to fruition. Overall, the keynote offered more insight into the mind of Miyamoto than into anything Nintendo has in the works for the future. It wasn’t as product focused as Phil Harrison’s keynote but it was still worthwhile to understand how Nintendo’s game master works. In terms of GDC coverage, 1up and Eurogamer seemed to be the most detailed, but Gizmodo has a great gallery up of pictures from the event.

Update: The Super Mario Galaxy trailer is now linked above; this game looks insane…

Read More | 1up

Read More | Eurogamer

Read More | Gizmodo

Read More | Joystiq

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Stock Sale Gags Nintendo At GDC

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Wii

Chris Kohler at Game|Life is reporting that a major stock trade in Japan is restricting what Nintendo will be able to say and announce at the Game Developer’s Conference next week. Because of this trade, Nintendo executives and developers will not be able to give any new information to the press due to stock trade laws controlling forward-looking statements. This may cause problems with Shigeru Miyamoto’s scheduled keynote, and any other new product announcements Nintendo might wish to make during the conference. The odd part this revelation is that Nintendo itself requested that the Japanese government initiate the trade, which makes the timing of the request very strange. With Sony already looking to possibly show off their new community features and upcoming game releases like Killzone, and Microsoft also showing off their latest content and hardware offerings, this may push Nintendo into the background.

Read More | Game|Life

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