Roll Out

Hey, so Activision just launched the Transformers game website. It certainly looks badass. Just like the movie, of course, which promises to bite your nuts (and bolts) off!

Activision does really good "epic" stuff with these licenses...I just started playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance on the Wii and the production value is certainly there. Whether the game has much substance is up for debate...I assume the same will be true for Mr. Prime and friends.

We Are 8-Bit

Joystiq has very kindly posted images from the gallery opening of this year's "I Am 8-Bit" installation. Some great stuff in there. Love Karnov!

Guild Wars Expansion and Sequel

NCSoft announces a new Guild Wars expansion for later this year, and a full-on sequel soon after. Wowzers, I had no idea a free MMO could do so well and get so much content in the pipeline. Then again, Guild Wars is really the only MMO I ever truly enjoyed. And I guess they are selling copies! Nice work.

Player Haters

So I just saw a post on GameSetWatch about the Acclaim MMO import, Dance Online. As I previously posted, these Acclaim MMO titles have clearly gone the "cheapie" route when it comes to localization and, more specifically, culturalization. See below:

Black is an EXTRA feature. It makes your person look unique, so that is an EXTRA feature. Therefore, you having to PAY for it. (Or ask a friend to pay for it).

Typos aside, this goes a long way toward proving my point: culturalization is the sleeping dragon when it comes to importing games from Asia. Culturalizing, in terms of a definition, is the process of making content changes above-and-beyond the basic relanguaging of a game for other territories. For example, some Asian countries are -- shall we say -- a little more "liberal" with reagrd to low camera angles and teenage undergarments. Therefore, a little sensitivity (and work) is required when bringing an Asian game to a more "prudish" land such as the United States.

Sure, it seems so easy! Grab some games from Korea! They make so much money! They are so awesome! Until you realize..uh-oh! There are not a lot of black people living in Korea, and therefore, black skin is considered an "extra feature" in their games. Whoops!

In all fairness, the story goes on to say that Acclaim is offering the "African-American upgrade" for next-to-nothing in the item shop. C'mon, guys. If you're gonna import these titles without understanding their content, and then try to prop them up with limited changes in order to make a quick buck, you're gonna have to deal with the raminfications of your laziness. Boo on Acclaim!

ATHF on XBL

To celebrate the launch of their movie, the Aqua Teens will be on Xbox Live playing Uno with fans. Uh...okay!

Who: Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Date: Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Time: 7-8:30 P.M. ET/ 4-5:30 P.M. PT
Game: UNO
Gamertag: ATHFGWF

Be warned: the milkshake cheats.

My Mii

Speaking of Miis, here's a handy web device that repurposes the Mii character creator!

Many Miis

Miis of all different shapes and sizes (Howard Diin, anyone?) can be found here. Thanks to R2 for link!

God of Bore?

I might as well jump on the bandwagon and post a link to actionbutton.net's no-star God of War II review. Take it for what you will...attention-grabbing negativity or a fanboy call-to-arms. At least it is intelligently written and has no spelling errors. Make sure to read the comments.

(I haven't played the game, yet, so I choose to remain neutral.)

Zombies On The Brain

I can't stop thinking about zombies...I'm reading World War Z, I've just subscribed to Image's Walking Dead, zombies haunt my dreams...and I cant get 28 Days Later out of my head.


Well, 28 Weeks Later is coming out soon, and there's a Resident Evil sequel on the way as well. (Let's hope it is better than the above.) And I just heard about a new version of "The Plague" starring James Van Der Beek! Whee! Brains!

2 Moons

Open the bloodgates...Acclaim's Korean import 2Moons promises to be spilling lots of the red stuff.


I tried Bots and I thought it was a big snoozefest. Maybe 2Moons or their martial arts MMO 9Dragons will fare better. As soon as I have some free time (yeah, right) I'll try them both.

I think Acclaim has done quickie localization and virtually no culturalization, so it will be interesting to see if these products can compete in the fast-paced, dog-eat-dog world of MMOGs. Check out the Gods & Heroes trailer Kotaku posted here if you don't believe me.

Don't Meet the Robinsons

Despite Toonzone's positive review of Disney's Meet the Robinsons, I found the movie to be pretty hard to stomach. Yes, the animation was nice and YES, the production design and general visual direction were both quite amazing. However, the whole is not equal to the sum of its parts. Wait, you mean SEVEN writers couldn't get this thing off the ground? Nope...I guess they needed to hire a few more -- seriously, if Disney aimed to suck out all that which was cool and beautiful and quirky about William Joyce's book and replace it with a whole lot of noise, well, they did a bang-up job. (Not sure if Mr. Joyce was involved in the film, but I'd be pretty PO'd if I were him.) The unusual characters and retro designs are sidelined by a mundane plot and a stupid "twisteroo" ending, not to mention the ADD-theater aspect to the proceedings once the movie (finally) arrives at the Robinson abode. Poop!

So much good here, but so much wasted...just further proof of my theory that a film's quality is indirectly proportional to the number of its writers.

Lord of the Puffs?

The Internet reports that Peter Jackson is making the live-action PPG movie. Riiiiight...thanks to Mario for the tip!

Cultural Currency

This recent Gamasutra feature discusses the use of brands as "cultural currency" as they relate to the issue of in-game advertising. The author suggests that designers can in fact think of brands as tools in their toolkit. As he writes in his conclusion:

You can use advertising to exploit cultural preconceptions about known items that then serve as a kind of shorthand for aspects of your game world. And that sort of attitude turns the tables on in-game advertisers, making advertising a tool in the hands of the designer, rather than one in the hands of the brand, agency, or network.

While this sounds great in theory, in practice I am relatively confident that players will still view in-game advertising as exactly what it is: something to enhance the bottom line, not something to enhance gameplay.

However, I do think there are creative ways to bring advertisers to your game, and this is a point of discussion for our team as you read this!

Penguins FTW!

Per my earlier post about Club Penguin and Webkinz, see the latest edition of MMOG Nation on Game Set Watch for a more gamer-centric perspective on massive games for kids.

Pong 2.0

A great Flash game called Curveball makes 3D Pong fun again. Check it!

What What?