Today marks the launch of Amazon's Android app store, which is great news for indie game developers and gamers alike. This new store front will allow games that might get lost in the shuffle another chance to shine. Also as another added bonus the site's banner claims that a a paid app will be given away for free each day, starting today with Angry Birds Rio. The games are cheap enough as is, but you would have to be crazy to turn down free!
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Will Beenox's next attempt at the Spider-Man franchise center around the upcoming movie, or something else entirely? The game is set to be revealed at Wondercon, where a panel of the first game's developers will talk about fan's reactions to the first game and how that will shape the sequel. Also participating in the panel are Peter David, a co-creator of Spider-man 2099 comic book and Josh Keaton, one of the many voices of Spider-Man from Shattered Dimensions. Expect to see new screens and videos of Spidey's latest during the panel scheduled on Saturday April 2nd.
While many Japanese developer's American offices are dedicated to localization, Level 5's Santa Monica office is actually going to be working on games focused on the western market. The staff currently consists of 5 Japanese developers, but the studio intends to collaborate with local industry vets to produce something more in line with American tastes. Does this mean guns and bald space marines? I hope not. The low number of staff suggests social gaming, digital download or even mobile development to me. Five people probably aren't going to cut it for retail 3DS or NGP games. I will be interested to see what they announce at the Level 5 Vision event said to be taking place this August.
Rare was working on a "core" follow up to Perfect Dark Zero that featured a gritty, more flirtatious take on Joanna Dark's character and...mechs? On second thought maybe it was a good idea that Microsoft cancelled this. I know one thing for sure, this concept art definitely meant that they were headed in the wrong direction. Maybe games like Kinect Sports is all modern day Rare can handle, most of their decent first person shooter developers left to form Free Radical long ago anyway. Some may be disappointed by this cancellation, but to me it only leaves Rare one less opportunity to ruin a franchise I once loved. Perfect Dark on the N64 was well ahead of its time in delivering unique weapons, a strong campaign and incredibly robust multiplayer. I'd rather remember it the way it was than have to relive Zero again. Watch an animation clip from the cancelled title after the break Source: Unseen64 The Wii has been a very successful console, selling nearly 85 million units in its four years on the market. But as the system heads into its fifth year of life things seem to be slowing down a bit, with few quality releases forecast for the rest of 2011. Nintendo probably has some secrets up its sleeve but all we know of right now is The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Nintendo has a lot of momentum going in to the next console generation, but can they capitalize on that and make the Wii's successor an even bigger hit than the original? Here are a few things I feel Nintendo needs to incorporate into their next generation console to reach these goals.
Read more here NeoGaf internet sleuth FishSquared has posted a thread in which he discovered that a Bioware employee artificially boosted Dragon Age II's Metacritic user review score by giving the game a 10. The only three games this particular Bioware employee reviewed were the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Dragon Age II. For shame. Despite this tampering the game still sits at a 4.1 out of 10 average user score, meaning there are more than a few gamers disappointed with this mediocre sequel.
Lilt Line developer Different Cloth has revealed that the game has only reached half of the sales required on WiiWare to be paid for the game by Nintendo. The iOS version sold 3,815 units, whereas US WiiWare sales of just 3,756 copies. The game only costs $2.99 on iPhone and $5 on Wiiware, leaving me surprised that the numbers are as close as they are. I chalk it up to the game's publisher, Gaijin Games, having a small but extremely devoted fan base on the service. If you are interested in retro rhythm action definitely give Lilt Line a shot- I like to give my support to developers who try to provide quality experiences in the mobile space.
The developer best known for games like Ratchet and Clank and Resistance Fall of Man has now decided to tackle an entirely different beast, Facebook games. Insomniac Click! is a new division of the famed developer working exclusively on social games for the Facebook platform. They intend to bring the same level of depth they are known for on consoles to the social gaming arena. I will be interested to see what Insomniac brings to the table, this is potentially exciting news for those who long for something a bit more complex than Farmville to waste time with on Facebook.
If you can stomach playing Street Fighter IV with a touchscreen Capcom's got a deal for you- for the next week the game will be on sale for $.99 in the app store. All proceeds will be going to the Japanese earthquake relief efforts, so hopefully this deal will make your decision to help out those in need even easier.
Software: 1.) Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, WII, NDS, PC) 2.) Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (360, PS3) 3.) Just Dance 2 (Wii) 4.) NBA 2K11 (360, PS3, PSP, Wii, PS2, PC) 5.) Dead Space 2 (360, PS3, PC) 6.) Zumba Fitness: Join the Party (Wii, 360, PS3) 7.) Bulletstorm (360, PS3, PC) 8.) Killzone 3 (PS3) 9.) Michael Jackson The Experience (Wii, DS, PSP) 10.) Mario Sports Mix (Wii) Hardware: Xbox 360: 535,000 Wii: 454,000 PS3: 403,000 Things to note: Call of Duty: Black Ops is now the best selling game of all time in the United States, edging out Wii Play which had previously held the record. Microsoft did really well this month, recording the highest non-holiday month sales in the Xbox 360's lifespan. |