Kathunter's Personal Space

Set in a futuristic world teeming with sentient robots who aren't too fond of humans, Scrapland is being billed as a quirky action game. Players will assume the role of D-Tritus, a cybernetic wanderer who gets mixed up in a series of murders on a planet whose inhabitants had, until recently, been thought of as immortal. Using his abilities to transform into 15 types of characters, D-Tritus scours the city of Chimera to solve the murders.

[via GameSpot]

It is great to see a McGee title slated for 2004 release, but I am still holding out hope that Oz will find a publisher. GameSpot asked McGee in January why the publishers were not biting (Atari and McGee had a brief fling that involved a few expensive dates, but eventually McGee got the "it's not you" speech), despite the fact Jerry Bruckheimer had optioned the film rights for a possible trilogy based on the game title.

AM: Truth is that game publishers aren't buying original game ideas these days. They want either a sequel to an existing successful game or a piece of Hollywood IP (intellectual property) with someone else's marketing dollars behind it. "Presold awareness" as they call it. Personally, I think that's a nice euphemism for "We're publicly traded and only go after the safe bets." Our goal has been to skirt around that issue by getting our ideas made into films, toys, books, and other products and then going back to game publishers to get the game made. From what I can tell, it's the only way to get them to do an original idea these days.

[via GameSpot]

IGN Entertainment has entered into an agreement to purchase the movie website Rotten Tomatoes. A price was not disclosed, but the deal is expected to close within the next couple weeks. Rotten Tomatoes, according to Media Metrix scores, boasted an audience of 5.2 million in May, 2004.

very interesting... [via GameDaily Biz Newsletter]

I have a "game test" for a job on Friday. The test is playing two game titles, one of which is Rainbow Six 3. The other candidates playing along side or against me, have logged hundreds of hours, and I am just now downloading the maps. And if you have been reading this site for long, you have read the stories about the programming department at GameDaily getting a huge laugh out of watching me shoot. I am not a shooter. Not a hater. I am a lover. But, in order to save face in a selection process that has strung out for months, I am in a self-created shooting boot camp. Things are not going as well as I had hoped.

That being said, now that I am no longer in the nanny business, the needs in my life have become very simple...

I just want someone to let me live on LIVE long enough to check out the damn RS3 maps. I would like a TV screen that is larger than 14". I want my review copy of Spiderman 2 to finally get here. I want someone to throw my GameCube out the window because it's voice is keeping me up at night, but most importantly I just want my freaking money trees in AC to grow a few bags. What is the trick here? John things I need to leave the house and unplug for a while. But I simply smile, and respond understandingly,
"Not while there is a breath in my body."

I had put down the WoW beta for other games on my list, until the news of the PvP server came out recently.

I had grown tired of my "goody two shoes" Alliance Night Elf Priestess, so tonight I started from scratch with the new Beta build (including the Player vs. Player patch) and decided to be a Horde warrior female troll instead (thanks to a new friend Morgan who claims she needed a few). According to the emails, if the PvP testing goes well, they will open up the next round of beta testers, so keep your eye on that ball if you are interested.

Instantly, I was sucked into the story line of the troll's revenge. The landscape of our banished home was one of red cracked earth, and barren horizons. The male trolls are voluminously imposing but best of all the stong females warriors pack a mean punch.

As I soaked in my new surroundings, I headed into the "Den", all the while feeling the past voices of my race, and the weight of our future riding on the broad shoulders I had recently acquired.

I walk up to the Level 11 troll as he was purchasing a new weapon, in an effort to reach out and show my respect. I was joining our tribe.

I type a greeting --

[/say] "So I am TOTALLY into this troll shit. How cool is this? We are pretty much fucking bad asses huh?"

I still need to work on the voice, but I am ready to take on the prissy elves I once stood beside.

Come and get a piece of me, Alliance Trash.
Lylas, Jieshal

omg - I know I played at least 9 hours today before I fried out on the game (the night is still not over). That is a part of my life I will never get back. No matter how many insects I catch, or letters I write that one one understands. Damn their simple minded lives. I see a new game - one where more interaction is possible, one where people can really connect. --- Wait. Totally blanked on Sims 2. I may never leave my bed again.

I am on a complete night owl schedule.
I stay awake until 6am when I help out with my roommates baby, then I sleep until 2pm when she comes back home. We spend 2-6pm together, then 6pm until dark is nap time, or social time, then as soon as the sun goes down, I begin my work.

Today I bought a copy of Rainbow Six 3 for XBox for a competition this weekend. I have never touched the RS series before, and FPSers are the last thing I want to play these days, so I am pretty sure I will end up making a nice impression there.

After 4 people in one week mentioned Animal Crossing, I went out and bought a copy, and am addicted. I am so pissed I can't sell my stuff until 9am! What a crock. Does anyone here in SF have a town on memory card they would like to swap?

In another announcement released today,"Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games) today announced another step in its turnaround plan to improve operating effectiveness, reduce costs and position for growth. The changes include a significant staff reduction in its North American based operations resulting in the elimination of 350 staff positions. The Company's Blizzard Entertainment studio was not part of the staff reduction."

So if Blizzard is not getting the cut, where did the ax fall? Iup.com is reporting that Sierra was gutted, and is remains nothing more than a name.

The remnants of Sierra were evidently the hardest-hit. Reports from inside the Seattle-based operation indicate that nearly all personnel from that branch of Vivendi lost their jobs this morning. Vivendi may continue to use the Sierra label and brand, but the venerable gaming company -- with roots dating back to the earliest days of PC action and adventure gaming in the early '80s -- has now ceased to exist in all but name.

I would give anything or a bag of Funyuns right now.

Every message board, and rumor mill I was on this week seemed to have something about the Halo GBA title. So much so, that Bungie came out and officially denied the rumor. This did not stop the talk; "people" with "insiders" said Bungie was not the developer at all, and it was underworks in another studio.

I have no idea really, but many statements against porting the cult FPS to handheld argued "no way it could translate!". Well, this is true of most console titles with the GBA, but we still do it -- time and again.
At the GDC Game Awards, I sat behind this guy who was making a Halo look-a-like under development for the N-Gage. Granted, I was on my 5th drink, and was holding a (very vocal) wager on who could pick the most winners, but after I the motion sickness set in, it didn't look that bad. Fun even.
So, maybe it is just another "Dreamcast 2" rumor, but for the record, I think it could be done.

(of course I also went on the record with a Wired reporter before E3 as saying the DS must not have developer support - so take this as you will.)

Is another delay in store for Blizzard's Ghost? You got it.

Today, Blizzard made it official: "StarCraft: Ghost", will not see store shelves this year. In an announcement released late this afternoon, the publisher stated "plans to expand and evolve the design of its upcoming tactical-action console game" while "further details regarding specific gameplay enhancements and worldwide-release information will be announced at a later date."

"We are very committed to StarCraft: Ghost as a major part of our lineup," stated Mike Morhaime, Blizzard Entertainment president and co-founder. "As a result, we plan to build additional time into the schedule to polish the game until it meets the high standards that our customers have come to expect from Blizzard products. We are sorry to disappoint players with a delayed launch but are confident that we will deliver a great game with the additional development time."

This has nothing to do with games, but... This is for girl bloggers everywhere.

"A new realm has opened for beta-testers in World of Warcraft specifically designed for player vs. player combat. 'This new Player vs. Player realm is an all-out Horde vs. Alliance server, where the factions can finally battle! If this rollout is completed successfully, we will then officially begin the next phase of the World of Warcraft beta test and add the next round betatesters.' stated Blizzard in its patch notes."

[via GamerFeed]

"With this next title the Oddworld team has taken a combination of traditional genres and added their own unique twists to deliver a refreshingly new interactive experience. Players step into the role of the Stranger, a western-style bounty hunter, who chases outlaws throughout the enthralling new frontier of the Oddworld universe. ...as the Stranger comes to grips with his true nature in the hunt for the ultimate bounty. "

[via GamerFeed]
So I admit it, I love the Oddworld Series, and this game is like Christmas for me.

"Users of online game sites spent more time in May in that category than others spent on sport or news sites during the month. Over 46.0 million people, or one in three online Americans, visited an online game site in May.
A demographic breakdown of those who visited online game websites in May showed women ages 35-49 as the single highest user group, edging out men ages 35-49, who made up 14.4 percent of users. The overall gender split was almost even, with males making up 50.8 percent and females 49.2 percent of online game site visitors in the month of May. "

[via GameDaily Biz Newsletter]

Now let's back up the Neilsen data with a couple other articles that came out last week:

Wired's David Kushner wrote a piece on the growing "casual gamer market" as the industry likes to call them. That is nice talk for women who play hearts online. But as Erick Hachenburg, senior vice president of global publishing for EA, was quoted in the article, "What's casual about someone spending eight hours a day playing Word Whomp?" EA/Pogo, Yahoo!, MSN Zone -- all these kids are grappling to be the king of the hill, and capture this enormous, dedicated gaming audience. Pogo alone has 8.6 million subscribers who play monthly, and according to Kushner's research, there are 82.5 million players in the casual gaming sector.

OK, now we are going to skip over to AdAge:

Not only is this group indulging more hours gaming than the young male players advertisers typically go gaga over, 43% of the average gamers are women, according to an Entertainment Software Association study.
"The reality is that gaming has always been a very female activity," said Julie Shumaker, director-of ad sales at Pogo.com, the giant gaming site operated by video-game maker Electronic Arts. Pogo.com has 15 million unique users every month. Since 1999, over 60% of them are women.

It is nice to see such a the gaming population presented in the media recently as the complete picture it is. While it is still a smaller part of the revenue pie than console gaming, at least the "casual" market is finally getting advertisers all hot and bothered. We all need some action.

"Former Vivendi Universal Games CEO Kenneth Cron is the new chairman of video game maker Midway Games, with the board also having elected Shari Redstone as vice chairman, the company said Monday. Redstone is the daughter of Viacom Inc. chairman and CEO Sumner Redstone, who recently took a majority stake in Chicago-based Midway"

[via Hollywoodreporter]:

Tonight was the Zeitgiest International Film Festival -- not exactly Cannes. It is the back patio of a motorcycle bar down the street where you watch films while drinking beer, a lot of smoking, and the screen is a white painted brick wall. Brian "madcow" went tonight and sent me this link.

It is a short called ""The Question"" by Ramsel Ruiz: An amazingly powerful spoken word film about guns performed by the Suicide Kings. Brian's first google for the short came up with the link to the Rockstar servers. More research showed they won third place (though this film is not actually linked from their site) in the Rockstar Games Upload III film contest. Little bit of irony here.

"Because the question is not
whether or not
you ever thought
about guns,
the question is 'do you think about them when it is too late.' "

Smart Girl Robin posted her photos from E3 finally. She breaks down the show into five categories: diversity, general, booths, eyetoy and handheld, including her take on each scene. Check them out.
As a side note, if you are a game design geek at all, troll her site. You will lose at least a night of your life. Make sure you find the links to Mark LeBlanc's site.

[via gamegirladvance]

While this news is quite old by now, a random visit to my.yahoo's movie review aggregation service prompted me to blog about Paul Hyman's May 21st article in the Hollywood Reporter.

"Warner Brothers has begun charging video game publishers that license its brands a fee that fluctuates according to what reviewers think of their games. The result, insists Jason Hall, senior vp of Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment, will be better games."

"The game industry has had its time to exploit movie studios all day long and to get away with producing inferior products," says Hall. "But, with Warner Brothers, no more. Those days are over. And we mean it. This isn't just lip service. Honestly, the bad games are over."

Hall's strategy now is to turn to game review Web sites -- such as GameRankings.com, Metacritic.com, and GameStats.com -- that aggregate scores given to games by critics at game sites and magazines. Games based on Warner Bros. Licenses must achieve at least a 70% rating, or incur an increase in royalty rates.

"An escalating royalty rate kicks in to help compensate us for the brand damage that's taking place," says Hall. "The further away from 70% it gets, the more expensive the royalty rate becomes."

[Enter the Matrix] "sold four million copies. That's $250 million worldwide," declares Bruno Bonnell, Atari's chairman and CEO. "That's what a big major motion picture makes. And Warner Bros. would penalize us because we didn't achieve 70%? Are they joking?"

But Hall would only comment that "sales don't equal quality."

So tonight I am trying to decide what movie to watch this week, and check out the reviews for "The Chronicles of Riddick". I heard Blizzard took their staff to see the movie, and thought I would see what everyone else thought.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: F
Chicago Sun-Times: C+
Chicago Tribune: C
Cincinnati Enquirer: B
New York Times: C
USA Today: C

For a total average score of a C as of tonight. Now depending on what you consider a C, this film distributed by Universal may or may not have received the 70%. By the way, as of tonight, the video game for Xbox is the highest ranked game on Gamerankings with an average score of 89%.

I know this hardly ever happens, we were all shocked, and I understand Hall is trying to avoid Matrix and T3 repeats, but this scenario does beg the question: had Riddick been a Warner Title, would Warner be obliged to pay VU Games for the "brand damage that's taking place"? I am going to be interested to watch upcoming Warner licenses -- EA's "Catwoman" and THQ's "The Polar Express" in the next few months. Actually haven't played Catwoman yet.

In the movie/game license business it is all about time to market, and as long as that is the first item on the agenda, we will continue to have problems.

From an article on eToychest posted today by John Picini:

"In my dictionary - and thus the one we will be referencing in this article - a Strategy RPG is (generally) a console game in which battles take place over a grid. Each player has his turn and each character can move a certain number of spaces, based on skill level, character type, and perhaps equipment."

1. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness / La Pucelle: Tactics (PS2)
"If you don't know why these two titles are sharing number 1, go play them. I don't know if you will be able to put your finger on it either, but there is some new level, some unheard of achievement, reached with these games. They are SRPG perfection. If you don't squeal with delight after the first battle, you just don't understand the genre". Utter Perfection.

6. Vandal Hearts (PlayStation)
"In my opinion, this is where everyone interested in the genre should start. the classes are given to you from the start, and can only "evolve" in a maximum of two directions. This means that by the end you can easily sample every class the game has to offer, which is great because these offer all of the staples of SRPG games."

7. Fire Emblem (GBA)
"a story that forces the gameplay to take a back seat...Also of note, this game has been called "boot camp for SRPGers" because it walks you through battles in the beginning if you so desire, and also gives you characters of certain classes, so you don't have to make such decisions for yourself...at least not early on. "

[via Slashdot]

Slashdot | Huge Console Auction: "In quite possibly the largest console auction ever, someone is selling just about every development kit and production game console ever made in Japan. They also have listed tons (almost literally) of software to go along with the systems. Anybody ever seen the original Super Famicon development system? The pictures alone are worth taking a gander. :)' "

"Defeat autocreated huge battleships. Shootem up game, 'rRootage'. " (thanks Justin)

05/21/2004 - : "Just two days after selling off 350,000 shares of his company's common stock, Midway Games Inc. President and chief executive officer David Zucker issued a statement 'expressing confidence in Midway's future.'

06/04/2004 - "Midway Games Inc.'s chairman of the board Neil Nicastro will resign his position immediately after the company's June 10 annual stockholders meeting. Nicastro cited personal and professional reasons as the basis for his decision

06/07/2004 - "Media Mogul Sumner Redstone is upping his stake in Midway Games Inc. by purchasing shares from the company's chairman of the board, Neil Nicastro."

06/07/2004 - "Redstone Mulling Taking MWY Private:
In a filing with the SEC today, Sumner Redstone, Midway Games Inc. largest shareholder, let it be known that he has "engaged a financial advisor to provide services in connection with the evaluation of a possible 'going private' or other transaction in which the Reporting Person acquires more than 80% of the issued and outstanding equity of the Issuer."

According to their job site, they are hiring a PR Manager in San Diego, Marketing Director in Chicago, and the new Chairman is to be named at today's annual meeting. I am very interested to see what happens in Q4. I know they have been in trouble for as long as anyone can remember, but come on. This is good drama no?

So the personal anthology of Kat Hunter is gone (or hidden, you know I had to keep the story going...), but I think this is a great place to add links to game news I come across that I found interesting. There are a ton of great game bloggers out there, and I hope to get you reading all of them!
The design will change later, but for now I thought I would show off the fancy-smancy new Blogger templates!

"The Half-Life 2 code theft saga entered a new chapter today when Valve Software announced that a series of arrests had been made in the case. According to Valve, suspects in several countries had been taken into custody in relation to charges stemming from the theft of the Half-Life 2 code, the distribution of the code, and the break-in into Valve's network. "

There should be an action movie about the video game kids that helped the FBI's Northwest Cyber Crime Task Force crack the case. It will be like a "Hackers 2". Summer 2006's blockbuster to coincide with the again game's delayed release.

"A couple of days ago, Sega signed a deal with the folks at Take Two Interactive for help with distributing their ESPN games, and some questioned why. Well, a big reason has surfaced."

ESPN NFL 2005 to be released this August, is listing on EBGames at $19.99, $30 less than Madden. Will other ESPN titles follow suit now that Take Two is in the picture? Will this be what keeps ESPN in the picture?

"Ubi has announced that two new maps for Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow will be available for download via Xbox Live starting this afternoon. The two new maps are entitled River Mall and Federal Bank, but we know little to nothing about the maps at this time. That should change this afternoon as Ubi is expected to have the premium content available by 4 p.m. EST today."

By the way, you have to pay for the new maps. $4.99 according to this article. Who cares; I am addicted to this game right now. It is the first stealth game I have ever played. It took me a while to slow the freak down the first day I played, but now I dream about Sam Fisher. Something about the dark and the quiet and the slowness. I have very dirty dreams about Sam Fisher....

If you were at E3, you saw the long line at the 1up booth to get your picture taken. This was the first infusion of users into the new 1up.com, currently called Ogamo.

What is Ogamo? It is friendsters for gamers. You can add your game collection and see what games you have in common with your friends, basic groups are available, they have a built in blogger application, and customizable news feeds for your home page.

Let me preface everything by saying I think this is a great idea. I tried to talk my boss into doing this last year, and we were shot down. For good reason. At the time, including myself, we had 3 programmers, and already working 60 hour weeks. In fact, there is only one site I can think of who actually has the staff to really pull something like this off.

The new Ogamo, while full of cool ideas, still has a long way to go before it is usable. As it stands in beta, the flash navigation is hard to use, the people search does not seem to work, discussion boards in groups are not working, someone needs to send a CSS book over to the blogger crew, and the personalized URL gives a 403 error. This is all the typical beta stuff that will be worked through. This idea has a lot of potential, and 1up has a great shot, but my biggest concern is that they will replace 1up.com (a user friendly site) with Ogamo. It is very obvious that the design resources on the two sites were not the same.

I'll ask around and see what the deal is. By the way, you can (try) to find me at "DeadKat". Look for the red hat.

I have to admit, I like the "I love Joysticks" t-shirt.

"An article in the Orange County Register details the unfortunate developments occurring at California-based Interplay Studios. The publisher has been closed down by the state after several employees complained about not receiving payment, but several other components of the company's sore financial state are surfacing. "

If you have not seen the Mega64 videos, you should check them out. Metal Gear Solid and Tetris were my favorite. (via Hammah)