If you own a DSi or DSiXL, you may have toyed around with Flipnote Studio before. If not, the program is a miniature animation studio where players can unleash their creative side by making small cartoons or animations and then share them with the world via Wi-Fi. Nintendo may not have included the free downloadable service on the 3DS, but they are still very aware of it’s existence and will be holding a competition for users based on the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda.
As you would expect, this contest of sorts will have owners of Flipnote Studio create a Legend of Zelda flipnote using one of three different templates. To make things interesting, some of the biggest names that have worked on the series will be judging all the entries. Those names include the likes of Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka, Eiji Aonuma and Yoshiaki Koizumi. Winning Flipnotes will be published on the 25th Anniversary website for The Legend of Zelda, the Nintendo Channel on the Wii, and the Flipnote Hatena on Nintendo DSi and Nintendo DSi XL systems for the entire world to view.
Those interested in getting their artist on for this competition can check out the official rule list at http://www.zelda.com/25th/flipnote.
Has anyone told you when you’re sitting playing your favourite game, to go do something useful? Maybe learn a skill or work or something they believe is more suitable. It has happened to me on several occasions. Although I have to say, respect is slowly coming to the video game industry for which I am glad. Yet there are some who still cannot see the purpose of the media.
So for the people who would say to do something useful, I give them the list of things I have learnt from playing video games.
Here are a few examples of the games I played, and what I learnt from them.
King’s Quest 3
This was one of the first game series I ever played, so it only makes sense I should mention this first. Through this game I learnt how to spell and to touch type. King’s Quest was the Text based Adventure game series (they moved to point and click in later titles). Every command had to be typed out from “Look at knife” to “Climb tree” and other types of commands. Especially when the evil wizard (yes… there really is an evil wizard) is giving you death stares, so quick typing was essential to defeat him.
Where have used touch typing and spelling? You’re reading it! My articles and reviews couldn’t be done at all if I didn’t learn how to spell and touch type. Well they might still get done, but that would send the spell checker into overdrive and would take a month for me to finish.
The Curse of Monkey Island
If you haven’t heard of this series, look into it. Monkey Island is a must buy for all PC Gamers. I learnt many different things from this game (and the others in the series). The use of ipecac to help people vomit (although that’s not a nice fact to learn). I still want to try and make my own compass, which can be done through the game. Magnetise a needle and place through a piece of cork and placed in a cup of liquid. I really want to see if it works, but I haven’t had the chance to check.
Although I haven’t had a chance to use some of things I have learnt from the series, extending general knowledge is always a good thing in my book.
Dead Rising & Dead Rising 2
Who doesn’t love hitting zombies in the head with an electric guitar or other household items? It is just plain fun. Yet what I learnt from this game reminded me of the times when I studied psychology in high school. The boss fights that occurred at random actually come from humans turned psychos that was pushed into madness by the extreme circumstances. Especially the female police officer… *shudders*.
Although this may not seem like a very important lesson, I believe it always important to learn about the human condition and the ability to slip from sanity.
So, those are a few things I have learnt from playing video games. Please comment and let us know some of the things you have learnt, doesn’t matter how important you think it is, learning is always a positive thing.
RPG giant Bethesda is allegedly suing Minecraft developer Mojang over the use of just one word – “Scrolls”. You can probably guess where this is heading, given that The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, is currently enjoying its fifth anniversary release, and it’s follow up, Skyrim, is gathering hype at near light speed.
The title of Mojang’s next project, the developer had filed an application to trademark “Scrolls” after doing the same for the already established Minecraft. A few days ago, one of Minecraft’s creators, Markus ‘Notch’ Persson, tweeted this to the world:
“Just got a letter from Bethesta’s lawyers. They claim “Scrolls” infringes on their trademark and everyone will confuse it with Skyrim.”
Later in the day a more detailed post appeared on Persson’s blog, revealing more of what was contained in that 15 page letter. In addition to ordering that Mojang stop using the “Scrolls” name, Bethesda has also demanded a “pile of money” from the company, even before legal action begins. This at the moment is coming from Notch alone, with no word from Bethesda.
However, a picture of the first page of the letter has surfaced, with the words “Elder Scrolls” and “Scrolls” clearly visible amongst the Swedish. Some resourceful soul has even managed to provide a rough translation of the document, which you can see here.
One interesting line (in very crumbly English) goes – “There is thus an obvious risk of an average consumer to get the idea that the goods and / or services provided under the sign SCROLL and The Elder Scrolls are from the same commercial origin or at least from economically-linked undertaking.”
In his blog Notch takes an optimistic view that the letter is something of an ‘automated response’ from Bethesda’s legal team, and hopefully not coming from the mouths of the developers themselves. He even interviewed Bethesda’s game Director, Todd Howard, at E3 this year, so surely there is hope for the Minecraft team.
So are you an ‘average consumer’ just waiting to be confused by a game called “Scrolls” not being the same thing as the Elder Scrolls? Have a look at the logos below, does Bethesda have a point? Does Minecraft have to watch out for Minesweeper?
Coming from Cyanide, the studio that brought us the Game of Thrones video game and Blood Bowl, is the latest Real-Time Strategy/RPG Confrontation. As anyone who is familiar with tabletop minature games is aware, Confrontation is an adaptation of the tabletop game with the same name.
The game has you commanding a group of Griffin warriors to infiltrate and take out the Scorpion menace. But, they are not the only danger on your quest as there are other creatures, such as orcs, alchemists and wolfen peoples. Confrontation will also allow players to take each other on in multiplayer modes as one of the previously mentioned factions.
For more information on the title, be sure to check out theOfficial Website. The title is due out in Q1 2012 for Australian Customers.
Tokyo Game Show 2011 is only a little over a month away. Today media registerations went live and before you could say in your best Duke Nukem voice “DAMN THOSE ALIEN SCUM ARE GONNA PAY FOR MESSING UP MY RIDE” – The Capsule Computers crew were already registered and are now locked in for the event. So make sure you check out our coverage right her at Capsule Computers.
Tokyo Game Show will be held at Makuhari Messe, Chiba, Japan, and will be open on the following days :
Business Day: Thursday, September 15 and Friday, September 16, 2011 Public: Saturday, September 17 and Sunday, September 18, 2011
Check out the huge list of Exibitors that will be making their precense known at this years TGS :
General Exhibition Area •ACQUIRE Corp. •ARC SYSTEM WORKS Co., Ltd. •ASCII MEDIA WORKS Inc. •Bushiroad Inc. •Capcom Co., Ltd. •Comi-Po! •CREATIVE INTELLIGENCE ARTS, INC. •Czyonoft Studios •DENGEKI ONLINE •DENGEKI PlayStation •DIGITAL WORKS ENTERTAINMENT •ENTERBRAIN, INC. •GAMES FROM SPAIN Bitoon Games Delirium Studios Digital Legends Entertainment FX Gigigo Pyro Studios Pyxel Arts Digital Entertainment Sepomo Worldlab Translation & Localisation Services Virtual Toys •GDC China •GREE, Inc. •Japan Media Arts Festival Domestic Tour •KGS Inc. •KONAMI •KOREA CREATIVE CONTENT AGENCY •Microsoft Japan Co., Ltd. •MORI GAMES CO., LTD. •NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. •NHK ENTERPRISES, INC. •SEGA CORPORATION •SIGGRAPH Asia 2011 •Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. •SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. •Taiwan Game Pavilion Chinese Gamer International Corp. Fun Yours Technology Co., Ltd. Injoy Motion Corp. International Games System Co., Ltd. Lager Network Technologies Inc. X-LEGEND Entertainment Co., Ltd. XPEC Entertainment Inc. Zeroplus Technology Co., Ltd. Game Industry Promotion Alliance Taiwan External Trade Development Council •TECMO KOEI GAMES CO., LTD. •TERA LOGIC LTD. •The Behemoth •VUZIX Corporation •Wizards of the Coast LLC Business Solution Area •Architect Co.,Ltd. •Arriba Entertainment, Inc. •Being Co., Ltd. •Carnegie Mellon University Entertainment Technology Center •CRI Middleware Co., Ltd. •DAGMUSIC LTD. •DeNA Co., Ltd. •Enzyme Labs •Fontworks Inc. •FORUM8 Co., Ltd. •GMO Internet, Inc. •JSC Communications •KBMJ,INC. •KEYWORDS INTERNATIONAL Limited •MOTION TECHNOLOGIES, Inc •NAKABAYASHI •NETDIMENSION CORPORATION •NIPPON SYSTEMWARE CO., LTD. •OZHILL Studio •Scanavo Manufacturing Hong Kong Ltd. •Ubiquitous Entertainment Inc. •VASCO DATA SECURITY •WORLDPAY •Yokosuka Telecom Research Park, inc.
Merchandise Sales Area •5pb. •Alchemist, Ltd. •Bushiroad Inc. •Capcom Co., Ltd. •COSPA inc. •Game Center CX •GAMETECH CO., LTD. •Internet Radio Station •KONAMI •NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. •Nikkei Business Publications, Inc. •SAN-EI CO., LTD. •SANWA DENSHI Co., Ltd. •SEGA CORPORATION •SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. •SQUARE ENIX MUSIC •TOYPLA Family Area •Alchemist, Ltd. •Capcom Co., Ltd. •KONAMI •Microsoft Japan Co., Ltd. •NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. •SEGA CORPORATION •SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. Gaming PC & Network Game Area •Active Gaming Media Co.Ltd. •CyAC •CYBERFRONT Corporation •HPCTECH Corporation •Kunlun Japan Corp •MGAME Japan Corporation •NHN Japan Corporation Gaming Device Area •Answer Co., Ltd •B-Bridge International Inc. •CALIBUR11 •Data Mate Co., Ltd. •excellence Co., Ltd. •GAMETECH CO., LTD. •MAGREX Co., Ltd. •MyndPlay Ltd. •RAZER USA LTD •TANOSeY Kenkyusho •Thket Inc. •Turtle Beach Cloud/Data Center Pavilion •CLARA ONLINE, Inc. •Computer Engineering & Consulting, Ltd. •IDC Frontier Inc. •Internet Initiative Japan Inc. •KVH Co., Ltd. •LINK, INC. •NEC BIGLOBE, Ltd. •NTT Communications Corporation •RightScale Japan K.K. •Xseed Co., Ltd.
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Mobile & Social Game Area •1UPGAMES Inc. •Alchemist, Ltd. •Bayer MaterialScience •BENEFIT JAPAN CO., LTD. •Cie Games Japan K.K. •City of Sapporo •DENGEKI JAPAN COMICS •Dice Station K.K. •Digicraft Corporation •Edia Co., Ltd. •ForceGen Information Technology Co., Ltd. •French Embassy, French Trade Commission-UBIFRANCE DONTNOD Entertainment DOTEMU FEERIK Neko Entertainment TAKEOFF WIZARBOX •Geisha Tokyo Entertainment Inc. •GMS Co., Ltd. •Hokkaido Information and Communication Technology Association AGENDA Co.,Ltd. DataHouse Beagle,a division of Tokugawa system Inc. G-STYLE Co.,Ltd h.a.n.d. Inc. HEART BIT Inc. MediaMagic Co.,Ltd. Mediarium Corporation SmileBoom Co.Ltd. •IDEA FACTORY Co., Ltd. •iFun4all Sp.z o.o. •InComm Japan KK •Dept. of Multimedia and Game Science, Lunghwa University of Science and Technology •MOONGA TRADING CARD GAME •NEGGI STUDIO •OKADA BOEKI CO.LTD. •PARROT S.A. •QueryEye Inc. •redream Inc. •R-FORCE ENTERTAINMENT INC. •ViviTouch (Artificial Muscle, Inc.) •We Are Engineering, Inc. •Winlight Co., Ltd.Business Meeting Area •Capcom Co., Ltd. •Czyonoft Studios •LEVEL-5 Inc. •METAFORIC •QUALCOMM INC •Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Japan, Inc. •TECMO KOEI GAMES CO., LTD. •VIRTUOS Game School Area •Anabuki College Group •Arts college YOKOHAMA •ASO BUSINESS COMPUTER COLLEGE •ECC COLLEGE OF COMPUTER AND MULTIMEDIA •Higashi-Nihon Design & Computer College •Hokkaido Information University •JAPAN ELECTRONICS COLLEGE •Kanagawa Institute of Technology •Kobe Institute of Computing – College of Computing •Kyushu Designers Gakuin College •NIHON KOGAKUIN COLLEGE / TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY •Niigata Computer College •Niigata High Technology College •Numazu Professional Training College of Business and Information Technology •Osaka Electro-Communication Univ. Department of Digital Games •OTA INFORMATION & BUSINESS COLLEGE •Professional Training College Tokyo Net Wave •SHOBI UNIVERSITY •SOGOGAKUEN HUMAN ACADEMY •Tohoku Computer College •TOKYO COMMUNICATION ARTS •TOKYO DESIGN TECHNOLOGY CENTER •TOKYO DESIGNER GAKUIN COLLEGE •Tokyo Jitsugyo High School •TRIDENT COLLEGE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY •World Institute of Zeal artists for digital and technology •Yokohama Digital Arts College
Part One and Two of the webseries, Behind the Bullets, by the developers of Bodycount is now avaiable for viewing on the official Bodycount youtube channel. Bodycount is being pegged as an arcade styled shooter by it’s creators and it really does look like they’re going for a dynamic experience with the game.
The developers are saying that they will want FPS fans to feel as though they’re actually handling a weapon and are doing their best to synchronise things like vibration, weapon recoil, field of view changes and the like.
Quoth the devs –
“Firing a weapon in real life is a visceral, dynamic experience,” adds Chris Healy, Weapons Designer. “We try to emulate that as best we can through synchronisation of things like rumble, pumping the field of view, rising the camera during the recoil. Really trying to get that sense of that punch in the weapon coming through the TV, through the pad.”
Be sure to check out the titles Facebook and Youtube channels.
See Part One embedded below and see part two by visiting this link.
Bodycount will blast into retail on 1st September for the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system from Microsoft® and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system.
Folks, as many people may know, the folks over at Arenanet have been having themed weeks based around the variosu races within the game Guild Wars 2. This week is no different with the blog will be focused on the Sylvari race within the game.
This focus on the plant-like race will be taken in the development blog of the game and will talk about things such as their origin and the like. This also included lore, artwork and maybe even gameplay videos of the race in action. So make sure you check out the blog when you get time.
Here’s the scheduled rundown –
Here’s what we’ve got planned next week:
Monday – Artist extraordinaire Kristen Perry
explains how the look of the sylvari has grown and evolved in a blog
post full of cool art and character designs.
Tuesday – Writer Angel McCoy describes how the writing team brings the sylvari to life through dialogue in a blog post that features a load of audio clips from Guild Wars 2.
Wednesday – Lore & Continuity Designer Ree
Soesbee and Kristen Perry discuss the roots and growth of this unique
race in a video overview of the sylvari right here on the blog.
Thursday – We’re updating the sylvari page on GuildWars2.com with new lore, screenshots, wallpapers, and an atmospheric new sylvari video!
Friday – Ree Soesbee returns with a lore-filled narrative blog post that explores the mysterious sylvari even further.
An updated version of the 1983 cave explorer game Spelunker is heading to the Playstation Network on August 10 2011.
Boasting brand new 3D graphics and 100 levels, Spelunker HD will see players exploring huge cave systems in search of treasure. There are bats to be dodged, boulders to run away from (cue music!) and mechanisms of all sorts to fiddle with along the way. Ghosts of unlucky past spelunkers also haunt the caverns – maybe left behind from the original release which was somewhat notorious for killing off it’s hero with even the tiniest of falls.
The game is already a hit in Japan, picking up a top sales award and also spawning a bit of a cult following, with toys, comic books, and even a karaoke mix of the music all inspired by the game’s famously useless hero.
Multiplayer looks set to provide an ideal oppurtunity for some cave exploration chaos, with offline supporting up to four players and online up to six. Throw in a retro mode featuring the old 2D graphics and original music, and Spelunker HD looks set to provide plenty of chances for players to test out the ‘weakest action hero in the history of video games’.
Another day, another console game slimmed down for the iOS. EA interactive released Need for Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed on August 4, adding it to their growing repertoire of mobile gaming. The popularity of iOS gaming is undeniable at this point and EAi seem to agree with the E3 announcement of Origin mobile.
Origin mobile is the gamer’s version of Facebook. It allows Origin users to connect with others easier, see what they’re playing, their wins and losses, and of course gives you the chance to whoop them personally. This provides a great social community for gamers which will only get better as EAi’s product line increases.
NFS:S2U is the newest app to come to Origin, adding Leaderboard challenges, more racing events and newsfeed posts to the game. It also happens to send you a notification when one of your friends beats you, which is sure to make you jump back onto the app to teach them who is king.
Apart from these Origin features, NFS:S2U has a pretty sweet range of rides, tracks and some updated graphics.
Shift Unleashed 2 is $2.99 from the iTunes app store for the iPhone and $5.49 for the iPad. (BUY NOW)
Deep Silver, publisher of the upcoming blockbuster Dead Island have taken a huge liking to the popularity of facebook, choosing to use the social networking site as a platform to interact with its huge legion of fans and create hype about the title. A series of 3 apps have been outsourced to Social CRM agency Neoco to build a relationship between the game and its users.
Dead Island enthusiasts will have the chance to get close to the action by uploading pics of themselves wearing holiday beachwear and a zombie mask. The “Become a Zombie” app will then enter them into the Zombie hall of fame, and the fan with the most votes will receive a rare and valuable Dead Island themed prize. The “Zombify your profile” app allows users to add zombie themes to their facebook accounts based around new content for the game. “Dead Good” is the final app and will probably be the most popular, allowing fans across 5 territories to win branded and rare prizes by simply answering Dead Island related trivia.
George Larch, Deep Silver’s International Marketing Director says “Learning about our fans is hugely important”, when choosing the delivery of games and download content. Of their choice of Neoco as a partner, Larch is quick to note their video games experience and more essentially their ability to quickly plug in facebook apps and build strategies around them.
With so many Zombie games, movies and tv shows one would be excused for being a bit hesitant on any new offerings. “Dead Island offers something new and exciting in the saturated zombie genre marketplace. Its going to be a blockbuster and the start of a franchise for sure. We’re massive gamers and zombie fans at Neoco so we had to be part of the global campaign for this brilliant new piece of IP,” said Bern Achilleas, director of Neoco. He believes his company are the right partner for Deep Silver, due to their experience with big players like THQ and Sega as well as their mastery at segmenting and targeting specific demographics groups.
Dead Island will be available in stores in Australia and New Zealand on 9th September 2011 so get your gear out and start snapping some pics to pick up rare fan prizes and merchandise.
