Independently developed rhythm surfing game ‘Audiosurf’ is now up for pre-order on Valve’s ‘Steam’ digital delivery service. Becoming a finalist in the 10th Annual Independent Games festival awards is clearly a sort of recognition which is not easily given to the many indie game devs out there and thankfully, thanks to Valve, this game will reach the hands of many rhythm gamers (and most likely console download services in time).
Previously the game was only available to a specific group of beta testers but from this Friday will be available through Steam for $10. Much like Harmonix’s early work before Guitar Hero, Audiosurf has you in control of a aircraft which zooms through constantly changing highways. Traffic metaphors aside, with many different rules and an unlimited soundtrack (the game has a unique music processing engine, perhaps it’s biggest USP) Audiosurf very rarely gets dull. The game allows you to experience your personal music collection in ways never before expected. With the many ways to play, everyone will have their own personal favorite and thankfully all play modes are scored through the global scoreboard which brings the ’score attack’ aspect to a whole new, online level.
If you have access to the Steam platform this game is highly recommended, and with such a low price tag it would be a shame for you to miss out on! The game also comes bundled with the Orange Box Soundtrack which will most likely please the masses of Portal fans out there. Definitely check it out and let me know what you think.
Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Gamewave Podcast Episode 39 is now available, and it’s a good ‘un, featuring music from Spamtron, Pixelh8, NES1, The Depreciation Guild, cheap dinosaurs, Jay Tholen and Sintecoraz. There’s also a track from Disasterpeace’s awesome new full-length, Level. Make sure to listen on some nice headphones.
Back when ‘Osu Tatakae Ouendan’ was a purely Japanese love affair, the game obtained notoriety from western gamers who were attracted to the ‘wackiness’ of Japanese media forms. Many imported the game through the internet and it enjoyed much larger sales than originally predicted by developer iNiS.
Keiichi Yano, the designer and co-founder of the development team behind Ouendan shared his thoughts on the subject of bringing over the game to a western audience in the form of ‘Elite Beat Agents’ and what became the basis for the second Ouendan game.
“As we started doing Elite Beat Agents and Ouendan 2, it was interesting. We sat down with Nintendo and knew that we had to create another universe for [Elite Beat Agents], otherwise we have no chance. But yeah, we did that, and that was just the natural progression of wanting to bring the series and that game system over [to the west].”
Magically exported by SEGA earlier last year, the game focuses on two ‘fashion witches’; Love, and Berry. ‘Oshare Majo: Love and Berry’ is originally from Japan where the game became an instant success with young girls, spawning a successful fashion line as well as a portable version of the game for the Nintendo DS. Created as a female oriented successor to the arcade/trading card game ‘Mushiking: King of Beetles’, Love and Berry has clearly surpassed its spiritual younger-brother by being magically whisked to other countries throughout the world on its own diamond powered private jet.
Taking place in the highly competitive (read: bitchy) world of Tokyo fashion, ‘Oshare Majo’ follows the lives of two close friends as they battle it out to be the best dancers with the cutest styles in the land. The game play itself occurs during three separate ’stages’, all located in and around the most fashionable districts of Tokyo. Across the three stages you’ll be required to ‘dance off’ against an opponent (either computer controlled or a real life fashionista friend/rival) by bashing your palm to the beat of the music. As a hugely simplified version of the Bemani games, obviously the game seems focused on allowing everyone to join in rather than limiting game play to those who play a lot of the time. The machine amplifies it’s soundtrack at such a low volume though, sometimes it becomes incredibly difficult to tap along to the beat of gunfire and roadside crashes coming from the other games in the arcade, either that or the game isn’t really designed for a journalist that’s almost twice the size of the unit and nowhere near as feminine as the intended audience.
It became clear pretty quickly that this isn’t only just about tapping a tambourine to the beat of what can only be described as ‘porn music’. It suddenly clicked, that bright pink cutesy card covered in glitter that fell out of the machine and into my large grubby hands, did that have something to do with this? As I was instructed to swipe the card on the machine I suddenly came over with the giddy excitement of a younger me being given a set of keys to the chocolate factory. I was playing dress up with a human shaped mass of polygons. From then on it became a race, an obsession to obtain more and more clothes to dress up my little dancer and together, we would be the best dressed in Harajuku, Roppongi and then, the world! The urge to collect more had overcome me, some times I even obtained duplicates of things I already had but that didn’t stop us, me and Berry, we were taking over Tokyo and that was all that mattered. The cool knit, active parka and miracle foundation were all we needed for success and it was great.
Shortly after my brief period of awe though we hit a terrible block in the road - an extensive summer ball had been announced and everyone was going to be there (especially that bitch, Love) and we didn’t have any new dresses to wear, this simply wouldn’t do. Gold kept leaping out of my wallet and into the machine, soon enough I had run out of funds. No money, no fancy new dress and certainly nothing to wear to the party. For at least an hour or so I was living the dream I had always had, people were respecting my groove and showing love for my style.
As I swiftly vacated the arcade following many strange looks from my crowd, it dawned on me that all I was holding onto from my experience were my tainted memories of my time at the top and several, very expensive pink sparkly pieces of card. My time in the public eye was something that I will always remember. With my tattered persona and negative image sprawled across newspapers, magazines and TV, maybe it’s for the best I bring out those clippers, eradicate my hair and spend some time in rehab - the comedown from stardom can be harsh.
When it was first announced, many people believed that Wii Music was simply a technical demo designed to show off the capabilities of the Wii prior to launch. As time has gone on however it turns out that the game is still being worked on and looks to be slightly more in depth than that.
The game will allow up to four players to join a 6 piece ‘band’ which will perform music along with a set piece of music. With a huge array of instruments each with their own different play style, it’s no wonder Nintendo are quiet on the details as this could take a while to see store shelves. According to the source though, Wii Music will be in stores sometime in 2008. We’ll report on Wii Music more as we hear it.
Going with the recent spurt of ‘casual’ games under the marketing umbrella, 505 Games will be bringing Japanese game ‘Pinky Street Kira Kira Music Hour’ to European DS’s very soon.
Originally based on the highly collectible toy range in Japan (Pinky Street), the game has you play the role of young madam ‘Gaby’ on her search for notoriety, fame and a pair of new shoes, all around the city. I actually had a chance to play this game last year, and past all of the speaking that goes on, is a pretty solid rhythm game. You hold the DS vertically with the touch screen on your right and with an onscreen guitar, you strum away and somehow manage to dance the night away.
With collectable clothes, shoes and accessories, this is sure to go down nicely with the ‘Imagine’ and ‘Petz’ crowd and will most probably head straight into GAME’s Buy One Get One Free offer. However, if you still can’t stop spinning your way through Ouendan’s dance moves and aren’t afraid of your more feminine side, you should probably think about giving this one a try when it hits store shelfs on the 7th of March.
Fans of the latest iteration of the ‘SingStar’ brand, recently released on the PLAYSTATION 3, have been kicking up quite a fuss in the past few weeks, and rightly so. With over 500 fans of the game signing a petition to increase online activity from within the game.
When it was first announced, SingStar for the PS3 was said to launch with around 30 songs included on the disc, and with over 350 tracks available through the online ‘SingStore’ service. Upon purchase of the game, many players found that the store did not even provide the 100 purchasable extras which were heavily advertised in the manual, in online advertising and in the game itself.
With players in some countries still receiving a ‘coming soon’ message from the service and paying customers still unhappy with Sony’s lack of communication on the issue, it’s up to Sony to respond to the petition and give some form of official word on why this has happened.
Right here is where I would usually give you a description of a game, why it’s worthy of your geek dollars and what rocks about it. Sadly though, the long anticipated video game covering the first eighty episodes of the Naruto anime series comes complete with many bugs which prevent you from actually finishing the game. Taking on the mission structure of Grand Theft Auto, if a mission variable messes up and never loads your stuck in a situation where whatever you do won’t allow you to progress any further. So imagine my disappointment then when after five hours of playing through the game (I’ll forgive Ubi for the mass amount of texture glitches and bad voice acting) I am unable to progress!
It really is a shame, I would definitely recommend this game to all if it wasn’t for the nasty glitches which can prevent you from fully enjoying what is actually quite a fun anime to game affair. Hopefully Ubisoft will issue some sort of update and recognize that this sort of bad beta testing really shouldn’t be allowed - especially after paying a reasonable price.
Video gaming is now one of the largest sectors in the entertainment industry, a successful pastime is one that can be enjoyed by many people from many different backgrounds. There are many reasons why people enjoy video games but I would say that my strongest attraction to the medium is through storytelling.
Nothing gets me more interested in something than an amazing and involving story which actually keeps you attached and interested and your mind thinking.
Many would say that recently released masterpiece ‘Bioshock’ takes story telling in video games up a notch whereas I believe it actually brings it to the same standards as the film industry. If you take both forms of entertainment down to their very core, films and moving image were created and pioneered for their ability to convey emotions and to tell a story. Video games on the other hand were created to take peoples minds off of real life - a form of escapism if you will. 2k’s Bioshock takes what makes film such a powerful medium and converts it into an interactive form.
Following the life of an unnamed hero, we enter into his life a few seconds before a chance plane crash over an underwater metropolis and surprisingly - our hero survives and enters into the utopia. As always, a problem is at hand as we are introduced to a seemingly impossible haven for science and art and the inhabitants have all turned against each other ruled over by the evil creations they put so much effort into creating.
As we venture through the underwater city, you begin to feel like a resident of it yourself, taking a look at the almost forced renaissance and wondering how it could have all gone wrong?
My only complaint about Bioshock is that the whole ride is over incredibly quickly, just like a movie, it’s all done and dusted before we even get a chance to fully contemplate the madness of the situation. Perhaps this is all for the best though, the best movies leave most of the action to your powerful and imaginative brain.
If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend playing through Bioshock, sure, it takes a little more effort to play than your brain dead frag-fest match of Call of Duty 4 but if you enjoy putting a little bit of effort into a decent story, Bioshock is definitely for you.
Upon leaving my house this morning I found this white plastic cube (click the thumbnail for a bigger picture) sitting next to the door on the window ledge. Anyone have ANY idea what it is? Clearly I’m overreacting but I’ve always wanted to be a part of a viral marketing thing.
It has two circular batteries inside and an on and off switch at the bottom - I haven’t found any mention of this from a google search and have no idea what it does.
Anyone seen this before? or even read anything about it? I sure hope it’s not a bomb of some kind!
I was thinking at the time it was some sort of GPS device which would be pretty cool but after finding nothing online I now think it actually doesn’t do anything.
Back when ‘Osu Tatakae Ouendan’ was a purely Japanese love affair, the game obtained notoriety from western gamers who were attracted to the ‘wackiness’ of Japanese media forms. Many imported the game through the internet and it enjoyed much larger sales than originally predicted by developer iNiS.
Magically exported by SEGA earlier last year, the game focuses on two ‘fashion witches’; Love, and Berry. ‘Oshare Majo: Love and Berry’ is originally from Japan where the game became an instant success with young girls, spawning a successful fashion line as well as a portable version of the game for the Nintendo DS. Created as a female oriented successor to the arcade/trading card game ‘Mushiking: King of Beetles’, Love and Berry has clearly surpassed its spiritual younger-brother by being magically whisked to other countries throughout the world on its own diamond powered private jet.
Going with the recent spurt of ‘casual’ games under the marketing umbrella, 505 Games will be bringing Japanese game ‘Pinky Street Kira Kira Music Hour’ to European DS’s very soon.
