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Review: Minecraft (Xbox LIVE Arcade)

Minecraft is entirely what you make of it. Quite literally, I mean. Me, I made a lot of holes. Then I had a friend come over and join me, and together, we made more holes. It’s not that there was really any good reason to make the holes, but that’s what I wanted to do. This is probably the most important thing anybody should know about Minecraft – it’s not what it is, but what you do with it – whether it’s making holes or a big heap of rocks that’s supposed to look like balls or the words “TECHNICALLY, I GOT PAID TO BUILD THIS” in 100-metre letters of solid gold.

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Posted by Tarryn van der Byl May 10, 2012
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Know your famous developers: Peter Molyneux

The ‘Neux is easily one of gaming’s most celebrated visionaries. At the same time, he’s also one of the most frequently mocked personalities in the industry, mostly because he has spent the past five or so years discussing “revolutionary” ideas and then releasing games that don’t live up to the promises.

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Posted by Nic Simmonds Apr 13, 2012
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New American Nightmare details dragged from the shadows

Remedy’s upcoming Xbox Live Arcade outing for the Alan Wake series started life as a competitive test area for the dev team. Some of the criticisms that their first game received included a lack of enemy variety and far too many confined, wooded environments (wait, people complained about the woods in Alan Wake?). As a result, Remedy created wide-open “killing fields” that they then used to test the new enemy types.

The testing rapidly turned into an in-house competition among the developers. A few days later they realised they’d actually created a game. And so Alan Wake’s American Nightmare was born from the pile of criticism levelled at Remedy.

American Nightmare will be more action and exploration oriented than before. Whereas the first Alan Wake game focused more on narrative than on action, American Nightmare will focus more on the action. That’s not to say that there’s no story to be found; developer Remedy has confirmed that there’s at least five hours of story binding the new survival mode together.

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Posted by Miklós Szecsei Dec 20, 2011
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Star Wars Kinect adds dancing, fans die a little inside

Well, fans of the original films probably die inside; anybody else is probably eleven. The addition of a dancing mini game to Star Wars Kinect is unfortunately totally true. If you’re a child of the eighties and you feel the urge to cry a little, then that’s understandable; I’ve gone through a box of tissues already.

This god-awful news comes via the official ESRB rating report for the game. The report says the following: “In the dancing mini-game, some female characters perform suggestive moves (e.g., gyrating their hips/buttocks) and wear revealing outfits (partially exposed cleavage/buttocks). The words ‘damn’ and ‘hell’ can be heard in the dialogue.”

It’s not clear whether or not this is a compulsory part of the game, but at some point between jumping around a flailing your arms in front of Kinect, you’re going to be expected to get your inter-galactic Saturday Night Fever on.

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Posted by Miklós Szecsei Dec 19, 2011
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Yep, Alan Wake is heading to PC

I think it was what, yesterday or something that we mentioned rumours circulating about Remedy’s Alan Wake finally heading to PC? Well turns out said rumours were totally correct, which makes sense seeing as they were based on an unearthing of Alan Wake mentions on the Steam Content System Record Viewer… thing. I still have no idea what that system does, but man it sounds cool.

So yes, good news then! After two years of waiting, the glorious master race will finally get to play Alan Wake. If you were one of the many understandably irate and scorned PC gamers who shunned all coverage of Alan Wake back when it first released, you might have missed NAG’s review. It’s here if you’re interested.

The best part about all of this news is that both lots of DLC will be included for free in the PC version. Consider it a “sorry we kept you waiting for two years” consolation prize. Each lot of DLC adds a good two hours to the already twelve to fifteen hour game. No actual release date or final price has been confirmed, but we’re guessing the PC version will hit Steam more or less around the same time as Alan Wake: American Nightmare hits Xbox Live.

Source: Joystiq

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Dec 15, 2011
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Kinectimals vomits cute all over your iOS device

Oh hey look, Microsoft and Frontier Developments’ Kinect title Kinectimals has invaded Apple’s iOS devices. This comes after Microsoft recently released an official Xbox 360 App (My Xbox Live) and Halo: Waypoint on iTunes. Is Microsoft warming to their biggest rival’s platforms? Is it a case of “if you can’t beat ‘em, utilise their hardware”? Or has Microsoft realised that there are just way too many iOS devices out there to continue ignoring them? Whatever the case may be, hopefully this is the start of many more iOS Xbox titles to come.

Kinectimals for iOS is a port of the version that’s already available on Windows Phone 7. You’ll get to muck about with cutesy little cubs on an island, and if you’re already into the whole Kinectimals thing on Xbox 360, then purchasing this App ($2.99) will net you five exclusive new cubs for your console version.

Alright, let’s be honest here: we really don’t give a crap about Kinectimals. What we’re really interested in is Microsoft’s seemingly chummy approach to Apple’s portable devices. Hopefully we’ll get more Windows Phone 7 titles making the platform hop. What would be the absolute cherry on top would be earning Achievements for your Xbox 360 Gamerscore on your iPhone or iPad, but we’re totally not holding our breath on that one.

Source: Joystiq

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Dec 14, 2011
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Creative director for Halo 4 quits the “crazy endeavour”

Nothing instils faith in your product like having your creative director up and leave your project, proclaiming his vision a “crazy endeavour” as he storms from the development office, slamming doors, punching holes in drywalls and kicking over wastepaper bins before laughing maniacally and hurling himself out the eighteenth story window while wearing a Spartan helmet. That last bit may have been slightly exaggerated. In fact, everything after “crazy endeavour” never happened, but I like to think it did because how amusing is that scene playing out in your head? I know right, it’s awesome!

Ryan Payton was the creative director working on developing the story and universe for the new Halo trilogy that kicks off with Halo 4. He had some ambitious plans for the second trilogy, but admitted: “the Halo I wanted to build was fundamentally different and I don’t think I had built enough credibility to see such a crazy endeavour through”.

This doesn’t mean that Payton thinks upcoming Halo 4 will suck though; it just means that he’s pretty much out-Haloed himself and feels a change in direction is due: “I think time is the most valuable thing we have and I’ve decided that I’m not going to waste one more day working on something that doesn’t speak to my values”.

Source: Eurogamer

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Sep 06, 2011
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Let Jeremy Clarkson tell you about the UNSC Warthog

Forza 4 has a car ogling mode called Autovista; it utilises Kinect (or a controller for those without Kinect) to allow you to interact with a selection of rare cars. Each car is given an introduction by Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson, a man who has become synonymous with cars and all manner of things that make petrol heads giddy.

Because Forza 4 is an Xbox 360 exclusive, Microsoft has chosen to add the UNSC M12 FAV Warthog to the game. You can’t drive the Halo vehicle (which is a bummer, because getting to shoot at expensive sports cars while flying around exotic race tracks would be oodles of fun) but you can explore its ins and outs in the Autovista mode.

Here’s a clip of Clarkson introducing the vehicle with his trademark enthusiastic sarcasm. It’s pretty funny, if not minutely disparaging towards Xbox 360 and Halo fans… who we’re sure can take it on the chin.

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Aug 31, 2011
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Gamescom 2011: Forza 4 preview

Let’s just get this out of the way shall we: Forza 4 is looking absolutely fantastic and in the graphics fidelity department, it’s going to give Gran Turismo 5 a serious run for its money. I got to sit down with the game’s Creative Director, Dan Greenwalt to see how the game was shaping up.

I’ll admit, I went into this private presentation wanting to know more about how Kinect was going to play a part. When I saw the game in action, however, I was more blown away by just how gorgeous everything looked.

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Posted by Miklós Szecsei Aug 22, 2011
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No shooty shooty hack slash in Fable: The Journey

At this year’s E3, Lionhead and Peter Molyneux unveiled Fable: The Journey, a standalone but fully fledged Kinect game set in the Fable universe. The live demonstration during Microsoft’s press conference resulted in more questions than answers, and Molyneux spent the rest of E3 doing damage control by reiterating that the game was “not on rails”.

There will be no guns and no swords in Fable: The Journey, something Molyneux attributes to the lack of tactile feedback Kinect is able to give the player. You’re going to have to rely on magic alone to dispatch your enemies.

“We could have done melee weapons, but the one thing I hate about melee weapons, and guns as well, is that the human brain is encoded to expect recoil from those things.”

Why, then, should magic attacks be any different?

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Posted by Miklós Szecsei Aug 12, 2011
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