Tag Archives | Gaming

Sega Gets Hacked; Game Companies Aren’t Getting the Hint

Posted by Jared Newman on June 20, 2011 at 5:10 pm

Sega’s best customers — the ones who’ve signed up to receive information about the company’s products  — are now the victims of yet another attack on a game publisher.

The hack affects nearly 1.3 million people, whose names, e-mails, dates of birth and encrypted passwords were stolen, Sega says, but no payment information was compromised. Sega has taken its Sega Pass system offline for now, has reset all passwords and is warning users to change their login information at any site where they use the same username and password — in other words, the usual precautions.

Unfortunately, Sega is not the first company to succumb to hackers, and I’m not just referring to the attacks on Sony that collapsed the Playstation Network and Sony Online Entertainment in April. So far this month, at least a half dozen game publishers have been attacked, and five of those incidents resulted in stolen user information.

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Maybe We Need New Game Consoles After All

Posted by Jared Newman on June 20, 2011 at 5:55 am

Microsoft and Sony — but not Nintendo — would have you believe that we’re in for a long game console cycle, with no rush to replace current-generation hardware.

But after seeing the PC version of Electronic Arts’ Battlefield 3 at E3, and hearing how the console version will compare, I beg to differ.

Johan Andersson, a rendering architect for EA developer DICE, confirmed over Twitter that the console version of Battlefield 3 will be choked back to 30 frames per second and 720p resolution. On PC, Battlefield 3 runs at a silky smooth 60 frames per second, and it looked wonderful during a brief hands-on demo at E3 earlier this month. DICE is making compromises to the console version to allow for bigger levels, lots of vehicles and certain visual effects.

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Redbox Game Rentals Go Nationwide, Filling a Void Left by Blockbuster

Posted by Jared Newman on June 17, 2011 at 8:51 am

Redbox is coming to the rescue of video game rentals, adding games to every one of its ubiquitous DVD kiosks.

Starting today, all 21,000 Redbox kiosks in the United States will rent video games for $2 per night. That’s more expensive than Redbox’s $1 per night movie rentals, but it’s on par with Blockbuster’s game rental rate of $9 per five nights, and is more flexible.

And besides, Redbox kiosks are easier to find nowadays. After Blockbuster declared bankruptcy in September, the number of U.S. stores in operation dropped from 3,300 to 1,700. Redbox is hoping its grocery and convenience store presence will lead to more game rentals. “We make it very convenient by having our kiosks in front of the places people are at every day,” Joel Resnik, Redbox’s vice president of games, said in April when the company announced its game rental plans.

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No Blu-ray or DVD Playback for Wii U

Posted by Jared Newman on June 15, 2011 at 9:12 am

Last week, I wrote a list of unanswered questions about Nintendo’s Wii U, the upcoming home game console revealed at E3. But I neglected to ask one biggie: Will the Wii U be a game console or a multimedia device?

The answer is still unknown, but if you’ve got a big collection of DVDs or Blu-ray discs, you won’t be enjoying them on the Wii U. Speaking to investors, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata confirmed that the new console won’t support movie playback in either format, Kotaku reports. The Wii U will only accept discs in a 25 GB proprietary format.

Nintendo figures that enough people already have DVD or Blu-ray players, so including the capability — and licensing the associated patents — wasn’t worth the extra cost.

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Duke Nukem Forever Arrives, and Apparently It’s Awful

Posted by Jared Newman on June 14, 2011 at 1:07 pm

I haven’t played Duke Nukem Forever, which hits stores today, but after reading a bunch of reviews from other game critics, I’m not sure it’s even worth the effort to put it in my GameFly queue or find a Redbox game rental kiosk. The opinions — at least from writers whose work I admire — are unanimous: this game is not just poorly designed, it’s offensive and unfunny.

I’ll paste some highlights from my favorite reviews below, but first, a little background: Duke Nukem Forever was in development for 12 years by 3D Realms, becoming a legendary tale of video game vaporware. In 2009, publisher Take-Two finally pulled the plug on funding, and 3D Realms disbanded. You can read that whole story at Wired.

Last September, Take-Two subsidiary 2K Games announced that developer Gearbox Software would pick up where 3D Realms left off, developing a first-person shooter that preserves the series’ tradition of foul-mouthed humor.

Gearbox has a good track record, having previously developed the hit shooter Borderlands. What could go wrong? Apparently, everything.

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Nintendo’s Wii U: Gimmicky, Practical, Fascinating

Posted by Jared Newman on June 13, 2011 at 7:50 am

There are two sides to Nintendo’s Wii U, as I discovered after spending nearly an hour with the upcoming home gaming system at E3 last week. On one hand, it’s another platform for gimmicky, silly fun, just like the original Wii. On the other, it’s a practical hardware upgrade that wants to be more capable than its console competitors.

My time with the Wii U included five “experiences” — that is, short tech demos that won’t necessarily become actual games — all of which showcased the Wii U’s controller, with its 6.2-inch touch screen. You can see each one on Nintendo’s website.

Picking up a Wii U controller was a lot like handling a Wii remote for the first time — a bit of bewilderment and a bit of excitement, followed by a quick dose of simple entertainment. I was playing a virtual game of tag with three pals from PCWorld, them using Wii remotes to chase my avatar, me using the Wii U controller to escape. The trick was that only I could see where everyone was positioned, thanks to a map on my controller’s screen. We yelled. We laughed. We cheered. It was Wii Sports Tennis all over again — a cheap thrill without much substance.

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Classic Gaming Expo Makes E3 Old Again

Posted by Jared Newman on June 10, 2011 at 5:57 pm

Tucked into a corner of the Los Angeles Convention Center was a retro gamer’s paradise.

Arcade cabinets lined the back wall of the booth, flanking row after row of classic game consoles. Literally everything was there, from the Magnavox Odyssey to the TurboGrafx-16 to the Nintendo 64, many of them playable. An old TV cabinet played Space Invaders, right behind a glass display case with some of the rarest video game hardware in the world.

And at the center of it all was Joe Santulli, dressed in a crisp white suit and turquoise shirt, as if he’d stepped out of the 80s. After a three-year absence, Santulli and his fellow collectors have brought the Classic Gaming Expo back to E3, this time with a new purpose: They want to build a museum for video game history.

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Nyko Solves Kinect’s Small Apartment Problem

Posted by Jared Newman on June 10, 2011 at 3:49 pm

When Microsoft launched Kinect for Xbox 360 last November, it came with one big gotcha: You need at least six feet of open space between you and the motion-sensing camera, and preferably more. If you had a small apartment, Kinect was not for you.

Finally, third-party peripheral maker Nyko is trying to solve that problem with Zoom for Kinect, a $30 clip-on accessory that’s supposed to decrease the amount of open space required. Whereas Kinect’s ideal range is 8 feet to 10 feet, Zoom for Kinect reduces the ideal range to between 6 feet and 8 feet.

When trying out the Zoom for Kinect at Nyko’s E3 booth, I didn’t notice any issues with sensitivity. Actually, I was able to get within one arm’s length of the Kinect and still have my movements detected, although players have to stand farther back when more than one person is involved. The Xbox 360 only warned me to back off when I got within a foot of the device.

Zoom for Kinect is nothing more than a set of wide-angle lenses that sit in front of the Kinect camera. The attachment slides over the Kinect unit and locks into place when the lenses match up. The idea is so simple that I’m surprised Microsoft isn’t selling its own version, but I’m glad someone has given consideration to folks who don’t live in luxurious open spaces (read: college students, New York residents).

The Zoom for Kinect peripheral goes on sale August 16.

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Playstation Vita: Hands-On With Gaming Handhelds’ Last Stand

Posted by Jared Newman on June 10, 2011 at 1:02 pm

Sony’s Playstation Vita is a gesture of defiance toward smartphones and iPod Touches. It has a bigger touch screen and more raw power than nearly any phone on the market. It includes dual analog thumb sticks and a full rack of buttons and triggers. And just to make things interesting, the rear panel is touch-sensitive.

Sony’s throwing everything it can into the Playstation Vita, which launches this holiday season starting at $250. It even has front- and rear-facing cameras and, for $50 extra, 3G connectivity. All of this leads me to one conclusion: If the PSVita can’t compete as a gaming device with smartphones, then all gaming handhelds face a perilous future.

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Bad 3D Invades E3

Posted by Jared Newman on June 9, 2011 at 9:21 am

So there I was, playing a demo of Silent Hill: Downpour in Konami’s E3 booth, and all I could think about was how I’d rather be at a different kiosk.

You see, I was playing Silent Hill’s Playstation 3 version, with a pair of stereoscopic 3D glasses affixed to my head. The guy next to me was playing the Xbox 360 version in 2D. The difference in smoothness and visual fidelity was all too obvious.

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