Developer Strange Panther Games' Rock Simulator
initially began as a parody of parody of the successes of simulation
titles for farms, trains and trucks, but it steamrolled into a fully
realized game as positive community reaction built up.
Its description on Steam
gushes that the simulator is a rock enthusiasts dream where players
"can watch beautiful rocks in any location in the world. From grass
plains to salt flats, there are dozens of hand designed BEAUTIFUL
environments."
"I saw that other simulation games, such as Goat Simulator,
can be successful, so I thought that if a goat can be a good game, then
a rock can be too!" Strange Panther developer Ryan told Polygon,
jokingly. "I didn't expect anything near the reaction
its getting. It originally started as a joke, and now that we've seen
the reaction, its a completely real game."
Coffee Stain's Garry's Mod-like Goat Simulator, where players can do "stupid shit"
and complete missions, also initially started off as a joke and wasn't
intended for a full release. The extreme ragdoll physics, goat-heavy
game was only announced for release on Steam after it was met with a
positive reaction from the gaming community.
Rock Simulator is currently gathering votes on Steam
Greenlight, Valve's community vetting program, for release on the
distribution platform. Ryan said that support and feedback from the
community has largely been positive and, at the time of writing, Rock Simulator's Greenlight page sits at 85 percent for yes and 15 percent for no.
The simulator will launch for free on PC and Strange Panther Games launched an IndieGoGo campaign to raise funds for the project's ongoing development. Looking forward, the developer said that Rock Simulator will receive an expansion sometime in the future, joking hats are a possibility.
Ten new verified jobs have been added to Grand Theft Auto Online, Rockstar Games announced, including races, deathmatches and captures fit for the game's recent "I'm Not a Hipster" update.
The jobs are "Holy Drift Mountain," "Far Out LOOP," "Maze Bank
Fight," "Hipster Happy Hour," "Shopping Spree," "Mario's Race,"
"Quarantine," (pictured above) "Obstacle What?" "Rattlesnake Run" and
"Sonuva Beach." All of these missions have been created by members of
the Grand Theft Auto Online community.
When Rockstar verifies a job, it becomes available for the game on both platforms, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Peter Dinklage's infamous dialogue from Destiny's alpha — which turned "That wizard came from the moon" into an instant meme — will get two tune-ups before the game launches in September, Bungie said yesterday in the studio's regular update to gamers.
Responding to the rhetorical question, "Hey, the Ghost dialogue in
the Alpha was totally final, right?" — meaning Dinklage as the game's AI
character — Bungie said the voice-over "has already been updated for
Beta," and "It will be updated again for launch on Sept. 9, as well.
"Funny thing about Alpha builds ... they're not done. Please pardon our Moon dust!" Bungie added, directly referencing the meme.
Dinklage's seemingly deadpan, disinterested acting jolted many Destiny players during the game's alpha, raising concerns the game may have wasted the talent of an A-list actor (he portrays Tyrion Lannister on Game of Thrones).
In response, Bungie whipped up a T-shirt bearing the lunar wizard
catchphrase and it sold quite well. "We love that you can lean in and
laugh with us, and even better, we love that you continue to blow us
away with your generosity," Bungie says.
In other news in the update, Bungie reiterated that the $500 million figure tossed out by Bobby Kotick, the head of Destiny
publisher Activision, is not a development budget for this game alone.
"I think that speaks a lot more to the long-term investment that we're
making in the future of the product," said Pete Parsons, the Bungie
chief operating officer. In 2010, Bungie signed a 10-year agreement with
Activision to deliver four games.
Bungie also divulged the full set of trophies/achievements, bearing some hints about future content in the game.
Want to watch Daisy drop from first to last place in just 17 seconds?
Have we got the video for you. It's a microcosm of the
Lord-of-the-Flies brutality of any Mario Kart race approaching the
finish line.
This video has been making the rounds lately via Reddit, but let's state up front that it is not Mario Kart 8 — this is Mario Kart Wii.
The standard-definition graphics and presence of Dry Bones and Birdo
give that away. Still, it features most of the characters, and all of
the methods, available in the latest game.
Let us recap the onslaught upon Daisy:
0:03 Hit by a blue shell and a gratuitous red shell simultaneously.
0:05 Passed by Toad.
0:06 Hit by a red shell.
0:07 Bumped and passed by Dry Bones.
0:09 Hit by another red shell.
0:10 Passed by Wario.
0:11 — 0:15: Passed by Baby Peach, Donkey Kong, Birdo and Mario
38 Studios founder Curt Schilling, plus a board member of
the defunct studio and and two others have been ordered to appear
before a hearing in Rhode Island to determine if they violated that
state's laws by lobbying for a $75 million state loan without
registering with the state as lobbyists.
The development is the latest in the ongoing cleanup of 38 Studios' 2012 collapse.
Schilling's studio set up shop in Rhode Island to get a $75 million
loan guaranteed by the state, and with the money developed Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and started work on an MMO based on the Amalur canon.
But when Reckoning came nowhere near selling enough to keep
the operation afloat, it folded, and the involvement of state funds in
38 Studios' activities has led to numerous legislative inquiries since.
Schilling, an all-star pitcher in a 19-year Major League Baseball
career, has gone through personal bankruptcy in the aftermath. He, along
with attorney Michael Corso, 38 Studios board member Thomas Zaccagnino,
and Keith Stokes, the former executive director of the Rhode Island
Economic Development Corporation, have been ordered to retroactively
register themselves as lobbyists with the state and appear at a Tuesday
hearing.
The four had not registered as lobbyists with the Rhode Island
secretary of state in 2010, when the loan was secured. "It is our goal
to uncover any lobbying violations, which may have occurred without our
knowledge, which is why our office has sent letters of inquiry to all
parties who we feel may have been involved in lobbying activity, and may
be in violation of lobbying laws," wrote Rhode Island Secretary of
State Ralph Mollis.
Rhode Island has recently debated willfully defaulting
on the $89 million debt it guaranteed on 38 Studios' behalf, but the
state ultimately approved paying $12.3 million for the next installment
on the loan.
The world record for fastest completion of Super Mario Bros.
has been beaten by nearly half a second, an eternity in the
speedrunning community, particularly for a 27-year-old game that's seen
millions of attempts to run it the fastest.
Blubbler is the new world record holder
(under the "any percentage" designation, meaning warps may be used.)
The secret to his success is in world 8-2 (around 3:27 of the video
above). After lingering for what appears to be a devastating 1.5 seconds
while the winged Koopa passes overhead, Blubbler recovers all of that
time, and more, racing Bullet Bill to the flagpole and using a glitch
that allows him to skip the post-level walk to the castle.
Blubbler snips the wire at 4:57.69, taking the record from andrewg, who had held it at 4:59.09
Stephen Toulouse, the former director of enforcement for
Xbox Live — the person who wielded the banhammer, in other words — will
return Microsoft as the director of community engagement with Gears of
War. The news was announced on Major Nelson's most recent podcast.
Toulouse (pictured) left Microsoft in 2012. Since then, he has held
positions with Gaems, a maker of portable gaming entertainment cases,
and with HBO. He rejoins Microsoft six months after it purchased the Gears of War franchise from Epic Games.
As Microsoft's Xbox Live top cop, Toulouse was involved in many of
the policies shaping the service today. His public stature made him the target of abuse, death threats and even "SWATting" by those sanctioned for their conduct.
Toulouse later said
he left Microsoft because the company didn't know how to handle those
kind of threats at a corporate level. Since Toulouse's departure from
the enforcement division, no one has publicly assumed his former role.
Toulouse will join Vancouver, B.C.-based (and Microsoft-owned) Black Tusk, which is working on the next Gears of War game.
Teddy Bridgewater, drafted at the end of the first round
by the NFL's Minnesota Vikings, has until July 25 before training camp
officially begins. He's getting ready, ESPN reports, by importing the
Vikings' playbook into Madden NFL 25 and using the video game to prepare for opposing defenses.
"It helps because you get one more rep than you had in practice,
actual practice," he told ESPN, calling the plays "virtual reps."
"Any chance you get to take an extra rep or go the extra step, extra
mile, it's going to be very beneficial transferring it to the field," he
said.
At the University of Louisville, Bridgewater did the same thing with NCAA Football 14 —
presumably with "himself" on the roster. (He could get a check
somewhere north of $1,000 for his three appearances, as "QB#05" in that
game, thanks to settlements EA Sports and the NCAA reached with current and former college players.)
Bridgewater is neither the first nor the only NFL figure to use
Madden to prepare or credit it with his development. Margus Hunt, an
Estonian and currently a second-year defensive end for the Cincinnati
Bengals, said he taught himself how to play American football with Madden. And Raheem
Morris, the former head coach of Tampa Bay (and currently an assistant
with Washington) said he "majored in Madden" in college, saying it
helped him develop his coaching philosophy today.
Madden NFL 15, with a renewed focus on defensive playability,
arrives Aug. 26 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
For more, see Polygon's E3 preview.
Six years after its release, Super Smash Bros. Brawl is kept alive by hardcore fans that mod the game. In particular, fan-made Project M continues to add stuff that keeps the aging game feeling fresh.
Here's a
trailer for Project M's new upcoming "All Star" mode, which allows you
to switch characters every time you lose a stock. Kind of gives the game
a Marvel-like feel to it. Neat!
And yes, these characters are totally wearing different skins not included in the game. Again: the power of modding:
If you'd like to enjoy these wonders in the future (this stuff isn't actually in the game yet, we'll update you on when that changes), make sure to read our guide on how to play Project M here.
There's
really no getting around it: many, many games are about violence, and
sometimes it can be a bit much. Kill this, kill that, kill this until it
all feels the same, like mowing a lawn or stomping an anthill. We've written a ton about it. But violence can also be incredibly powerful and interesting. Let's talk about that.
I
don't think violence in games is inherently bad—or even played out—by
any means. Bigger budget games tend to rely on it a little too much,
obscuring potentially more interesting parts of vibrant worlds with
thick, sickening splashes of red, but that doesn't make it a dead end.
Could we use more variety in games, a few more neat ideas without guns? Absolutely. I hope to see the day when we have it, too.
Taken on
their own merits, however, violent games and violent mechanics can
produce some incredibly meaningful, provocative, or just downright
entertaining moments. Here are some of the best. First, my favorite (SPOILERS AHEAD).
Snake Eeeeeater
The game? Metal Gear Solid 3. It's the final battle against main character Naked Snake's arch-rival and beloved mentor (1960s Facebook status: it's really, really, really complicated),
The Boss. The whole thing takes place in this field of flowers that
swirl in the wind like tiny, raging tornadoes. They change from
feather-white to blood-red underfoot, punctuating each and every impact
with the brutality of bones breaking, the mournfulness of blood running
in snow.
I've
just realized I could spend a whole lot of time talking about video
game flowers here, and for everybody else's sake I'm going to stop.
What
makes this moment so incredible isn't the fight itself (though the way
the close-quarters fisticuffs tie back into both the game's core
mechanics and Snake/The Boss' relationship is a huuuuuuge thing) but
rather what happens after. When it's all said and done, The Boss lies
beaten and broken on the ground, and she asks Snake—her pupil, the
closest thing she has to a son—to kill her.
She tells him he's wonderful and hands him a gun.
And then it
stops being a cut-scene. When it happened to me, I understood what was
going on immediately. I had only one option: pull the trigger or just
stand there. In my own mind, I was really shaken. Metal Gear Solid 3 did a great job of making The Boss a complicated, empathetic figure and—without spoiling everything—this whole situation was unfair and terrible for her. It felt wrong. It felt gross.
But
in that moment, after being Snake for so many hours and witnessing so
many things, I felt an almost complete one-ness with his mindset. In
that moment I knew his inner conflict, fear, sadness, and anger, but
also his sense of duty—one instilled by The Boss, no less. A lot was
changing in him, and this was a huge last straw for his belief in who he
was working for, why he did the things he did, but right then and there
he had to end it.
I
didn't hesitate. The moment control returned to me, I pulled the
trigger. At the time I had never played the game. I didn't know if maybe
there was some kind of moral-choice-type thing going on, if maybe
waiting would yield an alternate ending in which Snake didn't kill The
Boss. It didn't matter to me. That wouldn't have been true to Snake or
The Boss or other characters or the events that had transpired or what
I'd seen or done or any of it. I was Snake. Nothing else mattered. So I
pulled the trigger, the gunshot rang in the otherwise perfect silence of
the scene, and my heart snapped in two.
That is, in my opinion, the single best trigger pull in all of video games. Because god damn.
That,
however, is just one example of violence as an incredibly meaningful
thing. Here's a selection of gaming's best violent moments according to
developers who, themselves, have used violence in really interesting
ways—or avoided it in their own games entirely.
Guns Don't Kill People Except When They Do
Walt Williams, writer of Spec Ops: The Line which famously put military game violence under the microscope to very powerful effect, cited a moment from Fallout 3's early goings in which acting like A Video Game Character produced some shocking results:
"My
favorite violent moment comes near the beginning of Fallout 3. You've
just acquired a gun and are sneaking out of the vault, when you come
across the Overseer scolding his daughter. He has his back to you,
giving you a perfect opening to shoot him in the head. Which I did,
expecting nothing to happen. This being a video game, and the Overseer
being an important character, I expected him to turn around and attack
me. Or, at the very least, fall to the ground unconscious, until his
health regenerated. But nope, I pulled the trigger and blew a hole in
the Overseer's head. He died instantly. His daughter, covered in his
brains, ran away in terror. Unsurprisingly, our friendship wasn't quite
the same after that."
"Why
is this my favorite violent moment? Because 1) It's a perfect moral
choice. You have a gun and you have a target. What do you do? Most
players didn't even realize it was a moral choice, myself included.
Which is crazy when you think about it, because what else did we think
was going to happen when we shot a man in the back of the head? Which
brings us to the second reason I love this violent moment. 2) It defied
player expectations simply by having the world react in a realistic way.
I shot a man in the back of the head because I wanted to see what would
happen. The outcome I got was also the one I least expected: he died."
"That
is a brilliantly designed moment of violence. It reminds you how fake
most game violence actually is and how dangerous it can be to
thoughtlessly wield a gun."
Nothing Says Karma Like A Knife To The Face
Luftrausers and Nuclear Throne (among many others) developer Rami Ismail, meanwhile, pointed out that Call of Duty—now frequently picked on for being a meaninglessly gratuitous explosion-fest, video gaming's Transformers—has used violence quite creatively in certain moments.
"I
think my favourite violent moment is in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2,
which is interesting as it is literally 'a violent moment' amongst a
sea of stabbings, shootings and explosions. It's not the airport
shooting, though, which I felt was extremely contrived. I think in many
ways, the resolution to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 always stood out
to me."
"While
most 'kills' in games are simply points to score or obstacles to
progression, General Shepherd had made things much more personal in a
way only games can: by betraying your trust, leading to the demise of
someone you were playing."
"So
the whole sequence of pulling a knife out of your ribcage to throw it
into his face meant a little bit more than just a point scored. I think
it's one of the few times where I jumped out of my chair, threw down the
controller and shouted at my screen for a non-multiplayer kill in a
video game."
"Violence
can be human, it can be personal, it can be emotional, it can be
important. It can be used for good or for bad. It can be used for
radical notions, or to stop those notions."
"Killing Shepherd was all of those, and that's what makes it a remarkable moment."
It's A Dwarf Eat Dwarf World
JP LeBreton, lead on Double Fine's Spacebase DF-9 and former lead level designer on BioShock 2,
argued that some of gaming's best violent moments are the unexpected,
non-scripted ones nobody else gets. In games like monstrously detailed
simulation Dwarf Fortress there are no storytelling tricks or tropes. Just experiences. Just tiny lives playing out—and sometimes also tiny deaths.
"I really like Tim Denee's illustrated recounting of two epic Dwarf Fortress sessions, Bronzemurder and Oilfurnace, which both end in horrible violence.
"I
love these stories specifically because the violence hasn't been
crafted by an author to shock me, to wring sympathy from me, to spice up
a dull stretch. We have zero assurance any of these poor dwarves will
survive, and this is exactly what allows their lives to take on
meaning—meaning we must discover ourselves, undirected, through the act
of playing and story-making, mining for meaning in the vast
mountainsides of possibility."
"The
real genius of Dwarf Fortress is less in its simulation of individual
drops of water than in its choice of specific dynamics to model, which
mesh like gears to capture aspects of human experience, however humble
or strange. This is rich territory for games to explore and I'm always
happy to see more work being done in this direction."
Maybe I'm Just A Monster
Robin Arnott, creator of one of the most soothing, non-violent games I've ever played in SoundSelf, offered an especially surprising example: The Sims. Yes, you can be violent in that game. Extremely, perhaps even frighteningly violent if you know what you're doing.
"I played the original The Sims a lot.
My grandpa was dying, and I think I used that game as a sort of a
coping mechanism. I spent a lot of time modding it and creating new
items for my sim-people to buy."
"But
one of my favorite things to do was torment them like ants under a
microscope. I built a swimming-pool moat around one of my sim
playthings, leaving him just enough room to look in the four cardinal
directions. I was punishing him for some minor domestic failure, like
leaving his dishes out too long. He would piss himself and wave at me
for my attention—'I'm hungry!' 'I'm tired!' But I left him to starve
while his lovers, friends and children acted like nothing was wrong.
They had garden parties while he slowly decayed into a tombstone."
"I don't know why such cruelty gave me such joy. Maybe I'm just a monster."
Ganon Would Like Some Aspirin
Alex Preston, whose Hyper Light Drifter
is a hack 'n' slash action game that also wrestles with notions of
disease and sickness, closed things out with another moment of violence
used to drive home a point. One from a Nintendo game, of all things,
because violence doesn't have to be "realistic" to be great.
"The
head stab from the final battle of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
remains one of my favorite moments, violent or otherwise. It was brutal,
surprising (though still inline with the narrative) and impactful. It
read as an incredible punctuation point to an already incredible
adventure."
One of the best iOS games ever made is finally out for Android. The 1.1 update of Eliss Infinity—the evolution of beautiful/tough/artsy rapid-fire movement puzzle Eliss—debuts on the Google Play storefront today. The 1.1 is up on the Apple App Store, too. A rundown of the changes can be found here andGamasutra's got an insightful dev-on-dev interview where Canabalt maker Adam Saltsman talks to Eliss creator Steph Thirion.
This, folks, is the very essence of "get wrecked."
Watch as Daisy is completely unable to catch a break in this video by HowBoutGaming:
I think my favorite part is at the end, when she clearly just stops trying to move forward. I don't blame you, Daisy.
Confession: I have an absolutely irrational and intense hatred for Daisy, so this video makes me feel happy despite claims that Daisy deserves better. Still, we've all been there, right? The title of this video says it all. This is Mario Kart, this is the Mario Kart experience. It's bullshit. And that's why we love it.
Today's gaming highlights: New world record speedruns, defusing bombs right under terrorist noses, and more!
Speedruns
Yesterday we posted about this Super Mario Bros speedrun.
It tops the old world record time by about a second with help from a
Bullet Bill glitch to avoid having Mario walk to the castle at the end
of the level.
You've gotta watch this impressive Super Mario Bros. playthrough by speedrunner…
Battlefield 4
Geefy (via Atlas)
posted this video of a perfect flanking maneuver, where he sneaks
around behind the enemy team and wipes every soldier in sight.
Are you tired of getting your armored vehicles stuck on level geometry? Well just dislodge them with this one weird trick:
Counter Strike: GO
PurpleEnzo
uploaded a couple of "ninja defuses" he did, sneaking around enemy
players. The best is the second one, where he's the last remaining
player on the Counter-Terrorist team runs right through the group of
enemies. They're so confused that they don't even realize he's an enemy
until after he's defused the bomb.
Mario Kart 8
It sucks when you get hit with two shells at the same time. This, however, is much worse:
Daisy's
been in almost 50 games with 85% playable appearances. That's way more
appearances than the majority of playable characters in the Smash Bros.
series, and 20% more playable appearances than even Peach. Contrary to
the idea she's actually enough like Peach to have a clone move-set,
Daisy has her own personality, statistics, and special-abilities;
more-so even, than Luigi does from Mario.
Daisy's
fans wish she'd appear in the "main" games, but she's at least doing
more in most of her appearances than she would merely furthering someone
else in a role like the damsel-in-distress. In reality, it's not often
most other characters get equal treatment in these games, but it still
serves as better exposure for mostly arbitrary reasons.
Despite
a long history of appearances slowly showing what makes Daisy her own
character, it's a shame she hasn't been featured in a more important
role in the platformers at this point. Specifically: a leading, main,
playable-character role with her own drive or story.
Below I've
written out almost anything you'd need to know about Daisy to actually
know her for her true character. I think there's more than enough there
to show she's got what it takes to be playable in a Smash Bros. game,
too.
Presented in character of Daisy herself, here's info you should know about her if you're gonna share your opinion on her: In
golf, I have one of the longest shot distances with the greatest shot
heights of any character in both of my appearances. My first playable
golf appearance is also where I got my long-time voice-actor, Deanna
Mustard. She's filled in the personality for my original description as
an energetic tomboy! That's right, they had an idea who I was in my
one-time damsel-in-distress debut yeeeears before I proved I had the
swings to keep up with the big boys.
In
my first tennis appearance I have the most power of my class, and in my
second I have the best serve of my class. My defensive move is the
"Flowerbed Return," where I leap towards the ball over a bed of flowers
that grow beneath my path; making improbable returns easy returns. My
offensive move is called "Wonder Flower," where my racket grows huge
petals, and I mask the power of my shot, knocking my opponents back,
using-up their stored power, and disorienting them upon any attempts to
return it. You don't wanna be around when this maid comes a-courtin'.
In
my karting debut, I showed off my own personal race-course, the "Daisy
Cruiser." This place not only showed up later as a retro-course, but I
even used it as my own baseball stadium! Who else can say they've got
their own cruise-ship baseball-stadium combo? The "Daisy Cruiser" also
proves I'm royalty, and it makes sense I have my own cruiser, being the
ruler of four constituent-kingdoms of Sarasaland. Yeah, I'm not just the
princess of a desert kingdom, I'm the princess of a water kingdom, an
island kingdom, and even an oriental kingdom. That's right, I'm
multicultural out my rear. Which goes in-line with my many uses of
contemporary vernacular; that means accents and slang. I got my
Dixie-accent: Yay-haw! Yeah-hoo! Valleyspeak: Seriously? Whatever! And
mhm, even Ebonics: S'up, yo?
Not
good enough examples for ya? Well it's not what you say, it's how you
say it. Deanna Mustard has been quoted as saying she feels my
personality is shown best in my football (soccer for Americans)
appearances.
They
even put me in my football uniform for my latest trophy in Smash to
show props. If you don't think what I say shows off my personality
enough, think again. I'm a total show-off! I'm always arms-akimbo
(that's hands-on-hips), and I'm the sassiest princess around;
comin'-through, Luigi! I'm always handing out air-kisses to my adoring
fans, "Mmmm-wah!" And I'll admit, I tried to use my good-looks to obtain
victory at one of Mario's parties; this ordeal ended in me sending
Bowser flying with one swipe. And I can't help it if I'm competeteive! I
just HATE losing, and winning feels so awesome!
Still, I'd
much rather prefer a bouquet of flowers to a bushel of cash! The
developers actually named me after my flower-motif, which was drawn up
in conjunction with the name of my kingdom, Sarasaland! It takes its
name from the calico textiles imported by Portuguese traders from India
to Japan during the Edo Period. Calico became widely popular in Japan to
the point the Portuguese word for it, sarasa, was adapted into the
Japanese language. Calico (or sarasa) textiles are most commonly flower
patterns made up of multiple, contrasting colors. This is why it's ruled
by me! And just like how animal patterns are named after the fabric
(i.e., calico cats, calico goldfish, etc.) its name alludes to the fact
it's comprised of multiple, diverse kingdoms. The reason it's written as
"Sarasaland," is because of the poor localization for the English
release of Super Mario Land. In Japanese, it is: サラサ・ランド. Properly
translated to English, it would be: Calico Land. Sarasaland just stuck,
though, so that's how you'll see it appropriately!
As
far as other things go: I have appeared consecutively for more than a
decade. I have a baby counterpart, Baby Daisy, who appears in more games
than Baby Rosalina, Baby Wario, AND Baby DK. I have other personal
racing-courses like the "Daisy Circuit" and "Daisy Hills." I've had
plenty of my own vehicles, and as of the latest karting event, the other
ladies use MY bike as standard. In baseball, I'm the captain of my own
team, the "Daisy Flowers," and my special is the "Flower Ball." When
pitching, my ball is concealed by flower petals, and while batting, the
ball's landing spot is blocked-off by a flower-garden; fence included!
In basketball, my special is the "Flower Shot," which is an invincible
shot aided by my flower-powers; and yes I can dunk. My basketball court
is the "Daisy Garden," which has a Petey Piranha instead of a basket! My
flower-powers are used in plenty of other appearances, too.
It
ain't just flowers, though. At individual times: I've donned my own
roller-blades, I've used my powers wielding a pair of pompoms, I've
summoned a crystal gauntlet to punch a football, and I've summoned giant
crystals from the earth to impale my opponents from the ground up.
These along with my flower-powers are things unique to me. And I've done
it, so trust, it happened. With all the stuff I have done, you could
probably come up with two move-sets; Samus Aran style!
Phew!
Anyhow, I just wanted to let you know all that. It seems like a lot of
people seem to have opinions on me that don't quite add-up to who I
really am. When a lot of you have the misconception of thinking of me as
a pallet-swap for Peach, or thinking I always say that one line that
happened literally over a decade ago now. (seriously, how often did
Mario say, "It's-a-me,Mario!" or how often does Yoshi say his own name,
or how often does Waluigi go, "WAAAH!") You probably didn't know enough
about me to be sharing your opinion anyway... But seeing as I just
dropped some diamonds on you guys, maybe now you can share a
more-informed opinion on me.
Welcome to the Summer of Old JRPGs, where we're playing classic role-playing games and talking about them every week. Check out the full schedule here.
Earlier this month I spent a whole bunch of time playing Soul Blazer, a video game about mermaids and talking plants. Hopefully you did too.
Soul Blazer
is the first game in what is affectionately referred to as the "Quintet
trilogy," named after the long-defunct Japanese studio known for making
some pretty great action-role-playing games. The next two games in the
series, Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma, are far more interesting. Soul Blazer is the worst of the three.
That's not to say this is a bad
game—it's just kind of... routine. You, playing the servant of a god
(referred to as "the Master," probably because of old-school Nintendo
censoring), are tasked with going out and saving the world by defeating
monsters and rescuing people. In other words, it's a video game.
There are interesting dungeons and weird sound effects and lots of enemies with old-school behavior patterns straight outta Zelda.
You get to equip a sword and use items and fight through some
surprisingly creative dungeons, like the inside of a painting, and a toy
chest. The sound effects are hilariously awful—there's this weird voice
echo when you get damaged that makes it sound like you're being sucked
into a hell vortex—and there's a lot of backtracking, but in general,
this is a Fun, Quirky Game. Nothing special. Just fun.
But there's one particularly interesting hook that has always made Soul Blazer stand out.
See,
when we play video games, we're always looking for some sort of tug to
keep going—a motivation, if you will. Sometimes that's the story, or the
joy of discovery. For some of us it's about challenging our brains to
accomplish things we don't normally accomplish, or just racking up
achievements so we can brag online about our GamerScores.
Soul Blazer's "tug" is unlike any other game's.
The
basic concept is that a big ol' monster named Deathtoll has sealed away
all of the world's population—which includes people, animals, and
talking inanimate objects—in "monster lairs" that populate every dungeon
you visit in Soul Blazer. Every time you take out a monster
lair, there's a chance you'll rescue one of those people, animals, or
objects, some of whom will reward you with items or funny bits of
dialogue.
So
as you power through the game, you're also rescuing people, and there's
something really enigmatic and alluring about the act of stepping on
one of those monster lairs and not knowing what you're gonna get. Since
each of the game's six main areas starts off as a big ol' blank canvas,
rescuing each territory's population feels kinda like solving a puzzle.
What sort of people are you going to discover? What kind of buildings
are you going to reconstruct? What are you gonna get out of it?
It's a neat little gimmick that we haven't seen in any games since Soul Blazer,
and I'd recommend checking the game out just for that. Playing god is
fun, but playing god's servant has some nice benefits too.
What about you guys? Did you revisit Soul Blazer this week? What did you think?
Metal Gear Solid 5director Hideo Kojima is a
self-professed cinephile — "70% of my body is made of movies," his
Twitter profile says. For the latest Kojima-directed trailer for The Phantom Pain, he turned to famous film directors for feedback.
The trailer in question features scenes from the upcoming game set to Mike Oldfield's "Nuclear." Filmmakers
like Guillermo del Toro, Nicolas Winding Refn and Park Chan-wook were
not shy about heaping praise on Kojima's latest creation.
In a testimonial section on the Metal Gear Solid 5
website, Del Toro credits creator Hideo Kojima as a massive
inspiration. Avi Arad, founder of Marvel Studios, credits the trailer as
being full of "symbolism and philosophy that we come to expect from Mr.
Kojima."
"For me, the sight of the Diamond Dogs and Snake putting the ashes on
his face with multiple urns make me believe that a lot of history is
going to be dealt with," he continued.
Refn compared Kojima's work to "the spirits of Dostoyevsky, Stanley Kubrick and Caravaggio."
"Using the art of gaming as his canvas, he boldly goes where no one has gone before," Refn said. "The
trailers for Metal Gear Solid V, prove once again that Hideo Kojima is a
master at portraying a wider and more complex view of human nature
combined with breathtaking action sequences."
Oldboy director Park Chan-wook added that Kojima's work has attained the level of film quality.
"I have always been thinking that I want to see a film directed by Mr. Kojima, but after seeing the latest trailers for Metal Gear Solid 5,
I realised I was wrong," Chan-wook said. "He has actually been making
films in his own way already. Metal Gear Solid games are already films,
the films of the future."
You can watch the trailer below. For more on Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, check out our in-depth preview from E3.
The first ever Disney Infinity Toy Box Summit, a
"super-powered Toy Box competition," will be held Aug. 15 - 17 in Salt
Lake City, Utah, Disney Interactive announced today.
"This fan appreciation event will pit top Toy Box creative artists
from around the world to partake in a super-powered Toy Box
competition," the announcement reads. "The best creations will then be
leveraged during the game's fall launch."
Artists will be selected from Disney-held competitions held since the
game's launch, such as "The Disney Infinity Toy Box TV: The Official
Weekly Web Show." Three summit attendees will also have the chance to
join Disney Infinity's video contest, in which participants pay homage to their favorite Disney movie using the game's Toy Box.
Five associate community level designers will act as mentors at the
Summit. The event will include panels, roundtable discussion with
developers, a tour of the studio, keynotes from Disney Infinity executives and a hands-on preview with Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes, which introduces members of the Avengers.
Disney Infinity 2.0 is expected to launch this September.
Tom Clancy's EndWar Online alpha launched today, according to an announcement made to the Ubisoft Blog.
There are two ways players can get into the alpha: by invitation and
by lucky draw. Those selected to be part of the alpha should receive an
official email from Ubisoft notifying them of their status as alpha
testers. Those who have not received an invitation can sign up for the lucky draw and participate once per day. If chosen, players may be granted immediate access to the game.
EndWar Online is the free-to-play spin-off of Tom Clancy's EndWar and can be played through web browsers. A three-day test period for the game, which was called Tech Assault, was held from Feb. 27-30. Those who took part in Tech Assault will be given queueing priority for the alpha.
Only a limited number of players will be given access to the alpha.
Valve explained its decision to have a professional Dota 2
player compete in the upcoming The International tournament, despite
concerns from his team, London-headquartered Fnatic, that mental health
issues could impact his play and well-being.
In a series of emails between Valve and team Fnatic's
management, the two parties expressed their concerns about balancing pro
player Adrian "Era" Kryeziu's mental health while keeping competition
for the upcoming The International Dota 2 tournament fair.
Yesterday, Fnatic posted
to its website an account of their observations of Kryeziu's condition
since January, in which they describe him having several anxiety attacks
related to travel and being unable to practice with the team. They
stated that they are currently undecided on whether or not Kryeziu will
play in The International.
Fnatic is one of 11 teams invited by Valve to compete in this year's The International tournament.
"As we approach [The International], we are at a crossroads — to play
with Era without knowing if we are damaging his health, or to be
disqualified," Fnatic's post says. "To play with Era would also mean
extreme lack of preparation. We have not been practicing as the original
five for some time now because of everything recounted in this post. As
such, even if we were once able to perform on that level fans love and
crave, we cannot reproduce this performance without practice and
preparation."
Today, following comments that suggested Valve was
forcing Kryeziu to play despite being unwell, Valve's Erik Johnson
published the email correspondence between him, developer Icefrog and
Fnatic manager Patrik Sättermon on the Dota 2 blog.
"When we invite a team of five players, we are in fact inviting those five players."
In a series of emails, Sättermon describes what he had observed of
Kryeziu's condition, asserting that Fnatic did not know if he was yet
well enough to play as of mid-June.
"Several of our players have raised concerns about what implications
our situation can result in when it comes to our participation at TI4,"
Sättermon wrote to Johnson. "As you can imagine it's still quite up in
the air whether Adrian will be able to return to our team during the
summer season. For the sake of us being able to prepare for the future,
and guaranteeing success for our team, we must turn around every stone
in order to be as ready as possible for the biggest eSports competition
till date."
In early June, after Fnatic had played a handful of tournaments with amateur Dota 2 player
Steve "Excalibur" Ye filling in for Kryeziu, Kryeziu emailed Valve
stating his team was actively preventing him from participating in The
International, even after assuring his team his doctor said he was well
enough to play.
"With all this said, I had a Skype conference with the team two days ago when they returned from LA," he wrote to Johnson and Dota 2
lead designer Icefrog. "They said that they don't trust my health state
and think it would be a risky and bold move to take me to [The
International] as I can't go back to the bootcamp with them, therefore,
they pretty much had me fired [from] the team (still contract signed)
for the rest of the summer, as they think they can do 'better' with a
stand in."
Johnson responded to Kryeziu, stating that the only one who could
determine if a player was fit to participate in a tournament was the
player itself.
"When we invite a team of five players, we are in fact inviting those
five players," Johnson wrote. "Each of those players is allowed to
control their participation in our tournament solely. To be clear, no,
no one else can make the decision about participating in our event other
than the player. If there is a real documented medical issue with a
player, we review those on a case by case basis."
Six days after Johnson and Kryeziu made contact, Sättermon emailed
Valve stating that "with blessing" from Kryeziu, Ye would be filling in
for him at The International. Sattermon also said that "the team wants
to reward [Kryeziu] in the event of financial success," which
"specifically means that him and the replacement player will share any
prize money winnings." Should Fnatic win anything, they want Kryeziu to
still receive part of the winnings.
"we're not happy with the stress this is placing on their organization, players, and fans"
Johnson said that after Sättermon's mentioning of compensation, Valve
had enough information to make a decision. Johnson contacted Fnatic to
say that Valve had decided to uphold this philosophy, insisting that
Kryeziu and the other four players original invited to participate in
the The International be the ones to play for Fnactic.
Johnson reiterated Valve's stance on the Dota 2 blog, noting that they are standing by their decision to only accept Kryeziu's participation.
"As we've said to the players and management of Fnatic, we're not
happy with the stress this is placing on their organization, players,
and fans," Johnson wrote. "We don't minimize medical problems of any
kind, whether physical or otherwise. That said, we believe we have a
responsibility to make sure that all professional players are being
treated fairly, both by their management, and by the decisions that we
make that affect all of them. We take this very seriously."
Valve posted the full email exchange between the parties involved to its website in the interest of full disclosure, it said.
The International Dota 2 Championships will take place July 18-21 at KeyArena in Seattle, Wash. Teams from around the globe will compete for more than $10 million in prize winnings.
