Do you love classic games? Join PCWorld Editors Patrick Miller, Nate Ralph, Jason Cross and Alex Wawro as they gather to gab about the technology that allows us to play classic games on our smartphones, consoles and tablets, what makes a great game remake and which classic games they'd love to play again on the PCWorld Game On Podcast!
Download the podcast (50:56).
Sony’s gearing up to launch the PlayStation Vita in North America later this month and we’ve got all the details you need including specs, price, and a look at the Vita games that will be available at launch.
The Vita is Sony’s newest handheld gaming system, and in many ways it represents Sony's answer to the Nintendo 3DS. Following on the heels of Sony’s earlier PSP and PSP Go mobile gaming systems, the Vita was announced last year and actually came out in Japan last December.
Well that didn’t take long. Not content to wait for funding help from Minecraft creator “Notch” Persson, game studio Double Fine has launched a campaign on crowd-funding site Kickstarter to finance a new adventure game. The campaign, dubbed the Double Fine Adventure, was published late Wednesday night with an ambitious $400,000 goal. Even though that was one of the highest goals in the history of Kickstarter, Double Fine met it within 8 hours. Less than 24 hours later the project had earned over $1,000,000 in pledges.
[Read: Minecraft Creator Offers Money for a Psychonauts Sequel]
All this for a game project with surprisingly few details revealed thus far. All Double Fine has said about the new game is that it will be “a classic point and click adventure game for the modern age” and the company hopes to release the game through Steam by October of this year.
Of course, many classic PC gamers would happily fund any project linking “Double Fine” and “Adventure Game” with no questions asked. The company has a fantastic history of critically lauded games from the zany platformer Pyschonauts to their recent Kinect game Happy Action Theater. Double Fine’s founder Tim Schafer has an even more prestigious past with adventure gaming, co-creating the classic Monkey Island PC games that practically defined the genre during his time with LucasArts.
[Check Out: How to Use ScummVM to Play Classic Games]
In many ways Double Fine’s new project can be seen as a return to Schafer’s roots, but the project does have a new twist: thanks to a partnership with gaming documentarians 2 Player Productions contributors to the Kickstarter won’t just receive a copy of the finished game they’ll also get access to an exclusive documentary series that will follow Double Fine through every step of the production process. “With this project, we're taking that door off its hinges and inviting you into the world of Double Fine Productions,” The company’s Kickstarter says.
If you want to help contribute to the project there’s still plenty of time to donate. There's a tiered reward system in place that allows you to win different prizes depending on how much you donate: you can get access to the game and documentary series for just $15, but if you’ve got extra cash burning a hole in your pocket you could chip in $20,000 for a night of bowling with Tim Schafer and the game’s dev team. Head on over to Double Fine’s site to see the other high-end donation rewards on offer.
We’ll keep you updated on all the development’s with Double Fine’s new project, including an interview next week with 2 Player Productions on how they plan to help average gamers peek behind the curtain of game development to see how their favorite games are made.
The PlayStation Vita, Sony’s newest entry into the portable gaming world, launches soon ( Febuary 22nd in North America) and we’ve gone hands-on with the device to tell you what you need to know. The Vita hardware has a lot of potential, a few problems, and a bunch of games that don’t take full advantage of the Vita's unique design.
The first thing you notice holding the Vita is that the hardware is solid and relatively large for a handheld. I have relatively large hands (for reference, I refused to upgrade from the original Nintendo DS to the DSi since the larger body of the original was more comfortable for me to hold) and while using the Vita I needed to stretch my index fingers to tap the shoulder buttons. That isn’t to say the Vita was uncomfortable to hold; in fact, it’s surprisingly light and relatively ergonomic. However, some design allowances clearly had to be made to make room for the handheld’s 5-inch screen, and the device probably won't fit comfortably in your pocket.
One look at the screen will tell you why Sony was willing to build a whole console around it. It’s crisp and clear and if the Vita feels a little big for a handheld, then the screen seems positively huge. I’ve never been a big believer in having more screen real estate on handheld devices, but the Vita certainly makes a strong argument for it.
On Tuesday Minecraft developer Markus “Notch” Persson took to Twitter with an unprecedented offer: he wants celebrated game developer Tim Schafer to release a sequel to Schafer's cult classic 2005 game Psychonauts, and he's willing to help pay for it.
Kat is joined by Stiv Tramer as they delve into Final Fantasy V and the question of story versus mechanics. Is there really such a thing as a good story in an RPG? Find out in this edition of RolePlayer's Realm!
Download the podcast (1:02:33).
Sony has officially announced that North America will not take part in the UMD Passport program, which allows PlayStation Vita owners to buy digital copies of physical PSP games they already own in order to play them on their Vita.
PC gamers looking forward to the release of Skyrim's long-awaited Creation Kit yesterday got a special surprise in the form of a downloadable high-resolution pack for Bethesda’s open world fantasy game, along with a special cameo from one of last year’s most popular PC games.
[Read: The 10 Best Video Games of 2011]
Skyrim owners have been excited for the Creation Kit since Bethesda confirmed the official modding tool was coming to PC (for free) soon after the game was released. The Creation Kit promises to make Skyrim's huge world even larger by allowing players to add their own characters, quests, and even geography. While the tools will require a bit of practice to use effectively, the debut of publicly-available modding tools ensures that passionate Skyrim players will be adding even more content to a game that Bethesda advertised as being playable effectively forever.
[Read: Skyrim Creation Kit Coming to PC]
Of course the Skyrim community is going to need some time to create all this new content, so Bethesda has also released a few extra surprises for the average user. Valve and Bethesda have teamed up to release a special mod to celebrate the launch of the Steam Workshop portal for Skyrim. Fall of the Space Core, Vol. 1 adds the Space Core character from the 2011 hit Portal 2 to Skyrim, permitting you to continue your adventures in Skyrim while the little guy follows you around. Finally, there’s a character in Skyrim that’s excited when a giant knocks them into the stratosphere.
Of course if you’re too much of a Skyrim purist to add a high-tech AI space sphere into your game, the new texture pack is still a great bonus and a guaranteed crowd-pleaser for almost everyone. Unofficial high-resolution texture packs have been some of the most popular mods since Skyrim’s release; the most popular, Skyrim HD, racked up over 800,000 downloads at Skyrim Nexus (a popular site for downloading Skyrim mods).
If you want to try out the creation kit and texture pack they’re both currently available for download on Steam, though the high level of demand was causing some problems on Tuesday afternoon. Get downloading now if you can, since the creation kit and texture pack together clock in at 1.3 gigs of data. If you don’t have Skyrim yet, Bethesda has also dropped the price of the game itself by 33 percent and is offering Skyrim bundled with the third and fourth Elder Scrolls games, Morrowind and Oblivion, for $49.99.
The PlayStation Vita hasn’t even been released in North America yet and Sony is already sweetening the pot with a new firmware update that adds new features, including video recording and a new Maps app, to the device. The update, announced Monday, will go live for Japanese PS Vita owners on February 8th. Presumably the new features will be available on North American Vita units at launch.
[Read: Sony Not Fazed by PlayStation Vita Japanese Sales Drop]
After raking in numerous Game of the Year awards and exceptional holiday sales last year, developer and publisher Bethesda is releasing new content for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in the form of organized user mods. On the off chance you missed it last year, Skyrim is an immersive RPG in which you assume the role of the Dragonborn and must save the realm while traveling the world and completing countless quests. Bethesda announced their creation kit for Skyrim months as a way for players to create their own game mods store and distribute them freely through the Steam digital distribution service. Since we’re as excited about this as you are, here’s a breakdown of the upcoming Skyrim goodies.
The celebrated Humble Indie Bundle has returned with a mobile twist: For the first time, the included games are available on not only Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms, but also Android devices. Anomaly: Warzone Earth, EDGE, and Osmos are available for whatever price you choose to pay, but you’ll have to beat the average ($5.99 at the time of writing) to also receive World of Goo, as well as whatever bonus games, if any, are added later during the sale. As always, you determine how much of your payment goes directly to the game developers, the Humble Bundle website fund, and charity.
We’ve pointed out the many merits of the Humble Bundle before: With its pay-what-you-want offer for a pack of top-tier indie games, it represents terrific value, and a portion of your payment helps to fund Internet freedom fighters and the happiness of sick children. A decision to buy the Bundle even if you already own all of its contents represents a wise investment as you’ll gain access to multi-platform and DRM-free copies for safekeeping.
Apollo Justice (center) was the protagonist of Ace Attorney 4.Phoenix Wright and his famous finger are returning at long last! Nearly five years have passed since the last mainline Ace Attorney game was released in Japan, but Capcom has finally announced that Ace Attorney 5 is in development, Andriasang reports.
No gameplay or story details are yet available, but we speculate that it will star Apollo Justice again; despite his role as Ace Attorney 4's protagonist, that game was more about Phoenix Wright and his adopted daughter Trucy, leaving plenty of room for stories about Apollo himself. Information regarding platform and release date is also forthcoming.
Visit other IDG sites:
© 1998-2012, PCWorld Communications, Inc.
Ad Choices