MMO Clerks

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Guilds, Forums, Forum Post of the Day

I was under the impression that the purpose of a guild is to have a group of folks that you enjoy playing with and have common goals. It’s a good way to share the game with friends and family, in addition to experiencing new adventures and progressing together. Triamala of Blackwater Raiders fears that such actions are seen as cliquish, causing drama amongst the ranks.

In a post in the Guild Relations forum she said that a previous guild of hers feel apart because of cliques and her current guild is facing the same fate. Members of her guild apparently get up in arms if she runs instances together with her husband or other friends. In a later post she admits that she is closer to the officers than other guild members because they’ve been playing together for quite some time.

Continue reading Forum post of the day: Cliques aren’t just for high school anymore

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Original post by Amanda Dean

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Action

Source: ‘Too Human‘ Xbox 360 Preview, In The Shadow of ‘Metal Gear‘ - MTV
Source: Too Human in 10 hours - Wired

Continue reading Behold: New Too Human previews hit

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Original post by Randy Nelson

Rock Band’s guitar - when it worked - was great. Bigger unit, better fret placement, a more “grown-up” appearance…really good stuff, and a real improvement on the early Guitar Hero controllers. Still, that doesn’t mean the design can’t be improved upon for the game’s sequel. Above, Rock Band 2’s guitar controller. The licensing agreement with Fender obviously continues, except this time the guitar’s finished in a lovely faux-wood finish. Some might baulk at the tackiness, but we’re not talking kitchen floors here, people, we’re talking plastic guitars for a videogame. Faux wood will do just fine. Bigger pic’s after the jump.

[via IGN]

Original post by Luke Plunkett

Don’t let the name and the cute graphics fool you, Dokapon Kindom, the upcoming party RPG from Sting and Atlus, more than lives up to its subtitle “The Friendship Destroying Game.” I had the pleasure of checking it out last week and testing my already somewhat tenuous relationship with my arch-enemy, GamePro’s Travis Moses. It was a lot of fun and quite surpassed my expectations.

The best way to start describing Dokapon Kingdom would be to compare it to Mario Party in that they are both multiplayer games that use a board game mechanic, but the similarities stop there. Dokapon Kingdom goes a step further by adding in RPG elements, a huge map and a healthy dose of vicious competition to create something truly unique and a hell of a lot of fun. Up to four players can play locally (there is no online play) and no worries if you only have one controller as the game can be played with the “pass the controller” method.

Dokapon Kingdom has been overrun with monsters much to the chagrin of its King and his daughter, Princess Penny. Your job is to help rid the land of it’s monstrous inhabitants and any other requests the King might have for you along the way. You begin the game by creating your own customizable character and choosing your class: Thief, Warrior, Magician, etc. Then, once the game begins it’s every man/woman for him/herself.

In classic board game style, moves are determined via a “spinner” that will allow you to move anywhere from 1-6 spaces at a time. You make your way around the board, racing the other players to whatever the current goal is. In my case it was rescuing Princess Penny’s piggy bank which had been stolen by a nefarious evil doer. Along the way you can land on various spaces that will let you do things like shop for items, experience random events, battle monsters and liberate towns from their evil clutches. As in an RPG, your character will gain items, gold and experience points from various deeds and eventually your character will grow stronger with advanced levels, better weapons and the like all the way up to level 99. You can also change your class throughout the game, allowing your character to develop skills across the board.

Where Dokapon Kingdom really shines is in its ability to pit players against each other. For instance, if you land on a space where another player is residing, you immediately go into battle mode with them. Once the battle is completed, the winner is allowed to do one of three things to the loser: rob them, prank them or force a bad item on them. The pranks are the most fun and will allow you to change the loser’s hairstyle, draw graffiti on them or best of all, change their name. And since the game isn’t online, there is no profanity filter so feel free to go nuts with the naughty naming! Additionally, passing a space that contains another character will allow certain characters to steal a random item from them. There are a myriad of ways to screw your fellow players over and the game lets you take full advantage of them.

Dokapon Kingdom is being released on the Wii and PS2 on October 14. If you are the type of person that likes super competitive games, Dokapon Kingdom is definitely the game for you. Just be careful what you rename the other person’s virtual character or you could end up with a very real fist in your face.

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Original post by Flynn De Marco

American McGee’s Grimm has been somewhat of a mystery to me since it was announced. The concept sounded good, I mean anything based on Grimm’s fairy tales always catches my interest. I had been anxious to see exactly what it was going to be like and today I got my chance. It was certainly different than what I expected it might be and way more as well.

As you may have heard, Grimm is going to be an episodic game, with new episodes appearing every week. Episodes will be free for the first 24 hours and from there you can either purchase them individually from GameTap.com/grimm or get them free via a gold GameTap subscription. Each episode will take on a different fairy tale (some well know and some not so well known) with the first being “The Boy Learns What Fear Is,” and others to follow including “Red Riding Hood” and “The Girl Without Hands.”

In the game, you take on the character of Grimm, an evil little troll who is sick of the happy endings that most fairy tales seem to have. So he takes it upon himself (and you) to wreak as much havoc as possible on the rainbow colored fairy tale worlds. Each episode starts out with a “puppet show,” with Grimm telling you the good version of the tale. Once the show is over, you are set loose in the land of the story to see exactly how much of it you can turn dark.

As you run about the darkness spreads around you, turning everything into an outlandish Tim Burton-esque kooky, spooky world. What makes this extra fun is that everything in the world has a light and dark form. The shiny hatchet in the corner turns into a bloody headsman’s axe, the bucket of water turns into a bucket of blood, the pretty princess turns into an ashen zombie and all it takes is a little running and jumping on Grimm’s part. As things turn uglier, your dark meter goes up, allowing you to reach a wider area and turn larger and larger object into their darker selves. But beware, do-gooder NPC’s are on hand to try and clean up the mess you’ve made! Give a good butt stomp near them to send them into a daze and gain enough darkness to eventually turn them over to the evil side. Once you are all finished you are presented with another puppet show, this time showing you the darker version of the tale.

Grimm has a great, simple graphical style but don’t let that make you think it’s a game for kids. This is a very twisted world and the game will have an M rating. The humor is quite black and may have some players scratching their heads but those of you with a sick sense of humor will absolutely love it. The keyboard and mouse controls are simple and easy to use but if you tend towards the controller, you can use any USB controller at your disposal (including the 360’s). Each episode is short and can be completed straight through in about 30 minutes, but there are plenty of reasons to go back and replay the levels including secret items, power-ups, beating your time and the simple pleasure of seeing everything turn scary. Since it is being powered by the Unreal Engine and the graphic style is very simple, it allows for a lot to be crammed in to a very small space and they take full advantage of it.

The first episode of Grimm, “The Boy Learns What Fear Is,” launches absolutely free for the PC on July 31 with the remaining seven episodes of Volume One appearing each week thereafter. Two more volumes of eight episodes each will also be available at a later date. No price for the individual episodes has been announced yet. If you like your games with a sickly humorous edge, be sure to give Grimm a try. It’s clever, fun, looks great and most importantly, twisted as all hell.

Original post by Flynn De Marco

Filed under: Culture, PC

Back in April, a website used by Valve to manage its Steam-related Cyber Cafe business was hacked. As we reported then, the hacker, known as “MaddoxX,” claimed to have gained access to a variety of sensitive data, including credit card numbers. Well, the jig is finally up.

A special Dutch police unit, “Team High Tech Crime” (certainly somehow related to G.I. Joe), nabbed the culprit in the town of Maastricht on June 24. Dutch authorities report that he hacked an Activision server prior to the Valve job, obtaining a pre-release version of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. He is also charged with stealing nearly 50,000 credit card numbers from a UK-based ticket sales service, using some of them to buy electronics and play online poker.

In lieu of a prison sentence, we suggest that “MaddoxX” be assigned to a work release program at Aperture Science.

[Via ITExaminer]

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Original post by Randy Nelson

That right there is the box art for upcoming tri-Ace developed, Square Enix published Xbox 360 game Infinite Undiscovery. While Square Enix never said that the single player game would have online play (hence the no “Xbox LIVE” box decal), the game’s box art does have a “LIVE” logo on it (no “Xbox” though). Hrm, does that mean this offline game could very well feature online DLC? The Japanese Infinite Undiscovery site states “Xbox Live: DLC” under the “Spec” tab. So, sure seems like it.

INFINITE UNDISCOVERY Box Art [Square Enix Members via Siliconera]

Original post by Brian Ashcraft

A mantra that should cause the clucking of tongues and the rolling of eyes! But no. This isn’t some skateboarding series. It’s no annually-updated football franchise. It’s Cooking Mama! So it’s with delight that we learn Majesco will be releasing a new Cooking Mama title this year, and an all-new one to boot. Called Cooking Mama World Kitchen, it’s for the Wii, and aside from an entirely appropriate (and welcome) graphical upgrade, we’re promised new minigame opportunities (”if you flip a burger too high, you can control Mama as she rushes in to save the day by catching it in her apron”) and better motion control implementation. It should be out this holidays. Presser and NSFW screen after the jump.

EDISON, N.J., June 30, 2008 - Preheat the oven, grease the baking pan and get out the spatula as Majesco Entertainment Company (NASDAQ: COOL), an innovative provider of video games for the mass market, today announced additional details of Cooking Mama World Kitchen for Wii. Developed by Cooking Mama Limited, the latest installment in the celebrated franchise includes an all new 3D graphic presentation along with new recipes, modes and comedic mini-game surprises.

“The Cooking Mama franchise continues to be a best seller at more than two million units sold to date,” said Jesse Sutton, Chief Executive Officer, Majesco. “An original idea, inherently fun execution and Mama’s appeal have clearly resonated with both Wii and Nintendo DS audiences. Mama’s newest iteration, Cooking Mama World Kitchen, builds on this success with a host of feature enhancements that improve the cooking experience and deliver more of the unique personality that has made Mama such an endearing video game character.”

In Cooking Mama World Kitchen, Mama and friends have a whole new look given the game’s upgrade to full 3D graphics. By utilizing the Wii Remote as a universal kitchen utensil, players can simulate actual cooking by chopping, grating, slicing, stirring and rolling their way through all new recipes that range from parfait to shrimp au gratin. Best of all, kitchen mistakes during meal preparation result in comedic mini-game surprises; for example, if you flip a burger too high, you can control Mama as she rushes in to save the day by catching it in her apron. Finally, a new game play mechanic integrates traditional Wii Remote utensil play with additional rhythm and motion that makes cooking easier and more enjoyable.

Original post by Luke Plunkett

Filed under: Nintendo Wii, Casual

While we wait (and wait, and wait … ) for an official Iron Chef game (maybe if we clap our hands and click our heels it’ll happen?) there’s a new entree on the cooking game menu from Majesco.

Cooking Mama World Kitchen is not, as its title might have you think, an online competitive cook-off. It is a follow-up to Cooking Mama: Cook Off, calling upon players to perfect their virtual cooking skills using the Wii remote to simulate a number of kitchen utensils. World Kitchen, due for holiday release, has gone all polygonal on us, and promises new mini-games, recipes, and a more thoroughly rhythm-based gameplay system to (ahem) spice things up.

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Original post by Randy Nelson

After its recent location test, details about SEGA’s new arcade racer R-Tuned: Ultimate Street Racing have hit. Before the race starts, players select their car and its neon lights. There are unlimited super boosts — be careful as using it causes the steering wheel to shake and possibly lose control. Players can win money that’s used to buy new cars. Racing locales include New York, Shinjuku, Shibuya and Hong Kong. All this wrapped in the same cabinet AMPlus is using for SEGA Race TV. Kind wish the cabinet’s bottom was neon lit!

Hummer Game Looks Cool, Too [Sega Nerds Forums via Sega Nerds]

Original post by Brian Ashcraft