The relationship between developers and publishers in the video game industry has always been awkward. Many great game developers such as Bizzare Creations, Clover Studio, and Bullfrog Productions have been disbanded due to corporate shenanigans involving their publishers and owners. The indie game movement has risen largely as a response to this.
Most of the oddest games in the world are free web games. They may not always be well made, but low budgets (and consequently low risk) allow them to be as weird as they fancy. That's a big part of why they are so interesting. Prime examples such as Don't Take It Personally, Babe, It Just Ain't Your Story and Lesbian Spider Queens of Mars have graced these pages previously, and both are great games. But the quality of the games hasn't stopped mysterious Glorious Trainwrecks user snapman (else...
For a long time, video games manuals were serious business. Especially for strategy games and RPGs on the PC, the manuals would often run to a hundred or more full-color pages in length. They explained in vivid and well-written detail the history of the game world and every facet of the gameplay system. There were pages upon pages of appendices explaining the statistics of every unit, faction, and terrain type. They were majestic, and I would spend an hour or more poring over each one before ...
Video games and movies have a history of interaction dogged by failure. Video game movies and movie video games both tend to be terrible. There has never been a good feature film based on a video game franchise. Even documentaries about games, which should be rife given the rapid rise of games on the cultural stage over the last thirty years, have been few and far between. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is by far the best, and for several years now has been the only really stirring f...
Without Japan, video games would not be very fun. Atari's early work was important, but Japanese developers, publishers, and hardware makers were responsible for almost every major advance in video games for the first 25 years of their mainstream existence. In recent years, it has often been said that they have become less relevant than Western developers. In the indie games movement— (our area of greatest interest here at Indie Games Ichiban)—Japan does not have anywhere near the presence th...
Xe Systems, the Private-Defense-Contractor-Formerly-Known-As-Blackwater, has been busy attempting to re-brand themselves. They have a new name, several new sub-names, and have at least titularly shifted their focus to training rather than mercenary work. Controversial founder Erik Prince is no longer with the company, which is now owned by a large investment consortium.
Every Friday here at Indie Games Ichiban, I will feature a sampling of reviews from the mountains of indie and vintage games that have crossed my internet connection in the past week. Each week will have some sort of theme, this week being old school turn-based strategy games available on Steam.
Most employed in the game industry have two-word job titles that start with “game”—game designer, game producer, game critic, game tester, etc. Usually, they’re one or the other, even though some can be both a game designer and a game tester or game critic and game tester. And rarely does one person get to call themselves a “game everything”. Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw is the exception.
One of the biggest advantages iOS has over Android as a mobile platform is how readily and fully it has embraced mobile gaming. There are over 200,000 games available in the Apple store, compared to approximately 100,000 in the Android Marketplace. As an Android-using gamer, this has always bothered me.
Wow. I'm not much of an MW or BF player but the first 12 minutes of the game are visually impressive, probably the best graphics and animations I've ever seen. Lots of game has great graphics but if the animations are not up to par (The Witcher 2), the game suffers considerably.
Do you love video games? Would you devote your free time to creating your own game—one superior to the games you already have? Or at least one that has more Neil Patrick Harris jokes?
Like the press covering film and many other specialized fields, video game journalists use all sorts of jargon to convey to their knowledgable readers as much information about a game as quickly as possible. For non or newbie gamers, this can be extremely confusing.
Angry Birds might be the most visible video game franchise in the world today. It has sold 100 million units, as many as all the Sims games put together. It has been incorporated into board games, birthday cakes, and Israeli sketch comedy shows. And yet, this piece of seeming mass-media whoredom is an indie game. Wha?
In the mid '90s, there was no such thing as a widely available indie video game. Brick-and-mortar stores were the only places for consumers to buy games, and magazines were the only outlets to hear about them. For video game creators, the need for a publisher to market and distribute was logistically essential to attract players.
Shoot-em-up games, or shmups, consist of lone or small groups of players shooting at and being shot at by hordes of colorful enemies. The genre is thought to have peaked in the mid-'90s, but recent games in the indie world may be saying otherwise. Geometry Wars and other twin-stick games kicked off the trend, but newbies Trouble Witches NEO, Outland and just-released Gatling Gears have brought some much needed originality into the modern shmup scene—making it something worth exploring again. ...
Following in the footsteps of great historical figures is a great way to learn about them. Michael Wood famously did so in the 1980's for his PBS documentary and book In The Footsteps of Alexander The Great. This March, UK-based marketing director Chris Worth completed a similar endeavor—not by tracing the path of a real-life emperor or explorer, but a humble video game character. One known simply as "The Courier".
In case you haven't noticed, I absolutely adore video games. Most of my friends don't, so to get my fix of knowledgable video game conversation I have turned to podcasts. They're free, they feature the smartest people in games journalism, and can be enjoyed while doing just about anything. Working. Walking the dog. Crying yourself to sleep. Whatever you're into.
Dual nurses? Random transformer shirt guy? White collar fighter? Fatso macho man? Super Mario? Ah, you must be playing Dong Dong Never Die!
The days of having to pay for video games are over. Generally, retail games are better because they're made with more effort and care than their free counterparts. But free browser-based game sites are insanely popular, specifically Kongregate, Armor Games, and the grandaddy of them all—NewGrounds. Despite not receiving funds directly from the players, they’ve become a profitable niche in the games industry. And that popularity has attracted more talent and money to the production of web game...
I am the sort of man whom game companies fall all over themselves to seduce. I'm sweaty, pale, awkward, and spend too much money on video games. There are many of us, especially among XBox 360 owners. We are the most stereotypically "gamer" group of console owners. The XBox 360 doesn't have motion control like the Wii or a blu-ray player like the Playstation 3. It just plays games really well. That's why hardcore gamers like me prefer it amongst all the consoles, and probably why Silver Dolla...
Today we pay homage to a phenomenon. One as diffuse and amusing as the internet itself, and as pointless as dog Halloween costumes. I'm speaking, of course, of giant games.
Games that your girlfriend loves to play and games that she would hate.
Alex Lewis imagines what the world would look like infiltrated by video game characters in his digital montage series “Video Games vs. Real Life”. (P.S. If you like what you see, check out Lewis' t-shirt designs at Threadless).
At the Quakecon 2010 Keynote, John Carmark game a demonstration of their upcoming game Rage running on an iPhone 4 at a smooth 60 frames per second. The textures, lighting, and other features were left intact and looked amazing. Hmm.. if it can run on an iPhone, then does that mean the game could also run on a Wii?For comparisons, there how the game runs on the PC/360/PS3 from an E3 2010 demonstration:
I will be adding the weekly mystery game/box/chest contents here with the newest on top for quick reference.
Not being much of a video game buff, I haven't been in the loop when it comes to the enormously popular game Red Dead Redemption. Apparently the game is completely dominant in video game sales. Since it's May 18 release, over 5 million units have sold, making it the most popular game since Modern Warfare.
Ni no Kuni is a gorgeous hand drawn and animated game coming to the PS3 and Nintendo DS. The story is about Oliver, a 13 year old who has lost his mother. Wishing for her to come back, a magical toy tells him that this might be possible and they set off on a journey in a parallel magical world. In the trailer above, the PS3 is able to almost match the visual quality of the cartoon animations originally made for cut scenes in the DS game.
Red Dead Redemption is hard to pin down in game play and story. The game offers this massive multi-layered world in which the player can roam freely, offering plenty of challenges, beautiful graphics and atmosphere for the player to experience. Yet after some point the whole world feels barren and unchangeable, and your achievements are nothing more than a trophy that does not matter in the sandbox world the player resides in. The story, told in three arcs, offers an inconsistent narrative of...
From the makers of Bayonetta (Platinum Games) comes Vanquish, their Japanese version of Halo. Not quite sure if this is good or bad, but since they made Bayonetta, this might turn out to be a really good game game play wise. The story already looks juvenile from the video. I like the dash and cover system in the video, something I wish Halo, MW, and BF2 had in their games.
Looking back on Alan Wake, more than a year and a half after its release, it's still one of my favorite games. The graphics and ambience have held up well in comparison to any other story driven game, and it's still the best third-person horror game out there, in terms of gameplay. Given how few horror games are actually out there this generation, I would definitely recommend giving this game a try since it's dirt cheap to rent or buy.
Good commentary can make anything interesting.
How play Playstation (PSone) games on your PSP by installing custom fireware and an emulator. Play PSX games on your PSP - Part 1 of 2.
Play 'What's The Time Mr Wolf'. The children of St Cuthbert's School take you through the rules of the playground game 'What's the time Mr Wolf'. A classic game for younger children. Play the children's game 'What's The Time Mr Wolf'.
Mass Effect 2 may have been around for a whole year... but not on the PlayStation 3. And last Tuesday, January 18th, PS3 gamers finally got their hands on a copy of the critically acclaimed RPG. Actually, this is the first time any Mass Effect game has been available on the PS3, making this a historical event for BioWare.
Have you ever noticed that whenever you setup your voicemail account after getting a new cell phone number, it asks you to create a security pin to access your voicemail from other phone lines?
Dominoes are a simple game to play with any number of players. This instructional video shows the steps of setting up and playing a game of dominoes. Watch this gaming how to video and learn how to play dominoes. Play dominoes wtih multiple players.
This film shows you how to play dominoes. This leisure activity is popular throughout the world, and you can learn how to play the simple game of dominoes with help from this tutorial. Play dominoes game.
Tennis expert Fabián Nunez Seixa explains the secrets to tennis success with top tips for an aggressive game. Play an aggressive tennis game.
Buddy Mason demonstrates how to throw a ball for the game cricket. You have to stand sideways to the target, pull the non-throwing arm through, release the ball with both feet on the ground, and swing through. Throw a ball in the game of cricket.
No longer do you need special glasses to experience 3D. At least, that's what Nintendo claims when it comes to their upcoming Nintendo 3DS, which uses a process called autostereoscopy.
