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Balance the Federal Budget with Budget Hero

Saturday, August 30th, 2008

Budget Hero puts you in charge of the federal budget, letting you prove just how bad (or not) the U.S. government is handling things.

The flash-based game is produced by American Public Media, and tries to give players a better understanding of how the federal budget works and what is required to keep it running smoothly.

“[Budget Hero] lets people explore the major issues of the election by changing the federal budget to match their stands on issues and their values,” American Public Media’s Brad Robideau wrote to Boing Boing.

Just how realistic is it? According to Robideau, “American Public Media worked closely with the Congressional Budget Office, GAO and others on the data and devoted months of reporter and researcher time to creating the game.” Let the fun begin!

Maybe Nintendo could adapt it for the Nintendo DS and turn into one of its training games.

Image: American Public Media

Budget Hero [American Public Media, via Boing Boing]

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Breaking: Metal Gear Solid 4 to have really long cutscenes

Saturday, August 30th, 2008

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Action

If you haven’t been getting along with Metal Gear Solid’s blend of neck-snapping stealth and expository blabbering, the fourth (and sort of final) game in the series is unlikely to sway your opinion. CVG reports that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots features 90 minutes of cutscenes and… wait, hang on. It doesn’t contain 90 minutes of cutscenes, but rather, alleged 90-minute cutscenes. If your interest or your attention span doesn’t stretch that far, you’ll probably have a better time watching a Slinky make its way down a short flight of stairs.

Removing the element of sensationalism, however, it should be noted that the article fails to mention where said lengthy cutscenes (which can now be paused) fall within the game. For all we know, they’re at the end — you know, when you’re done playing. Even so, this revelation is unlikely to turn away longtime series fans. If anything, we suspect it’ll have them even more interested. We certainly are!

In other “Why am I waiting so long?” news, alleged images of a Metal Gear Solid 4 store display box have surfaced online, showing a required 4.5GB installation. We’ve requested comment from Konami.

[Thanks, Hashbrown Hunter]

Read — Loooong cutscenes
Read — Biiiig installation

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Visit the Patent Arcade in Second Life

Saturday, August 30th, 2008

I now have a presence in Second Life, on the PG (i.e., ok for all ages) region of Pumori. My XboxLIVE gamertage is Aviator, so naturally keeping with the theme my SL avatar is Aviator Kidd. Our Second Life Outpost is lakeside in Pumori. Stop by and say hello.

Second Life URL (SLURL) (if you have Second Life installed, you can click the link to teleport to our outpost)

Here is the SLURL if you want the details: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Pumori/144/111/31

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Film-focused game dev Brash loses president, hope

Saturday, August 30th, 2008

Filed under: Business

Nicholas Longano, co-founder and former president at film-centric game developer Brash Entertainment, has parted ways with the company according to a Daily Variety report, as well as scooped up by Newsweek’s own N’Gai Croal. While the executive will keep an interest in the company as an investor, he’ll no longer steer the ship and its focus on creating “high quality theatrical based games.” Instead, that duty for the time being will fall to CEO Mitch Davis, who founded the company along with Longano just one year ago.

Brash, which currently has movie-to-game deals in place with Lair dev Factor 5 and Yoshiki Okamoto’s studio Game Republic, as well as a game based on gore-porn film franchise Saw, hasn’t come forward with an official reason for the executive’s quick exit. However, we remain unconvinced that the road to prosperity is paved in movie licenses, as the company’s two existing releases, namely Alvin & the Chipmunks and Jumper: Griffin’s Story, were both panned by critics. Additionally, while the former achieved decent sales, the report notes that the Jumper tie-in managed to sell just a measly 16,000 copies since it was released.

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New Oddworld game in the works, may be ‘years’ off

Saturday, August 30th, 2008

Filed under: Adventure, Business

It’s been more than three years since we last frolicked about in Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath, but according to Maxis co-founder Jeff Braun a new game set in Lorne Lanning’s Oddworld universe is currently in the works. According to Wilfrid Laurier University student newspaper The Cord Weekly, Braun confirmed his involvement with developers Oddworld Inhabitants on the project during a presentation at the school earlier this week.

Few details were revealed about the upcoming game, though Braun noted that the title will feature a “revolutionary new 3-D animation system” and “cinematic quality on a ‘1 to 1 scale’ to that of computer-generated motion pictures,” adding that the same assets could be used to create both a video game and film version in parallel.

This isn’t the first time talk of CG features and Oddworld have been mentioned in the same breath, with Lorne Lanning himself refocusing his company in 2005 to create both games and accompanying CG movies, the first of which was announced a year later as Citizen Siege. However, as that title has yet to see the light of day, it doesn’t exactly surprise us that Braun admits that the next Oddworld release could be “years” away from seeing retail shelves, and may even be released in an episodic format when it’s all said and done.

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Saboteur

Saturday, August 30th, 2008

FatSegal, it seems, went to the same games shop as I did, They stocked 4 games in there, you know, The Wild Bunch, Chuckie Egg 2, Saboteur and Wriggler. I played these 4 games to death on my Speccy and I’ve been playing the first 2 again on my (insert Java based device of choice here) since the portly one ported them and stuck ‘em on the forum.

A remake of Saboteur, however, is a massive undertaking and, the fool that he is, FS has created a thread announcing his intentions to give it a blast. Guess what, it’s getting a lot of interest too.

Details are sketchy but as FatSegal’s remakes are generally very faithful to the originals, this is one that I am waiting on with baited breath…

I’m off to don my shinobi shozoku to get me in the mood, it’s in my cosplay box somewhere……

Links

Track the progress on the forum thread

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Larva Mortus

Saturday, August 30th, 2008

Larva Mortus is a new top-down action game from Rake in Grass, the creators of the well-loved indie shmup Jets n’ Guns. In the game you play an agent in an occult crime-fighting organization of sorts… in other words, you’re going to be slicing, shooting, and blowing up every manner of foul Goosebumps reject in your efforts to protect humanity from the supernatural.

The fighting takes place across various missions that you select from a map. Some are “key” to the storyline and and some aren’t. The structure of each type is the same, however – make your way through a series of randomly generated rooms until you achieve your goal, whether its clearing the area of monsters, destroying profane altars, rescuing civilians, or what have you.

Larva Mortus is fun, and it looks good, but it doesn’t quite live up to Crimsonland or Smash TV, which are the two games it most reminded me of (and both classics of the genre). The action isn’t quite frantic enough, the RPG elements are a bit too diluted, the maps are too simple… and the game’s never quite sure whether it’s supposed to be scary or campy. Or maybe it’s the simple fact that it’s not as fun as it should be to blow a zombie’s head off with a shotgun!

But try it for yourself if it sounds interesting. The demo caps the amount of experience you can get, which bars you from attempting the later story missions. The full game is $19.95.

(Source: John Walker, via Rock, Paper, Shotgun)

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“Lupin Gear Solid” on MSPaint

Saturday, August 30th, 2008

Mischievous young crime fighter Lakupo has once again pointed out a fandom movie worth watching. Thankfully, it’s less unsettling than other fandom videos I’ve posted on this blog.

In fact, it’s a combination of Metal Gear Solid and the intro for Lupin III. Fitting combination, really.

I have a bad habit of pronouncing Lupin III’s name like his grandfathers’; that’s what comes of watching Les Exploits d’Arsene Lupin long before Lupin III.

Then again, US anime dubs have a charming habit of ignoring French accents altogether. Hence why we had to put up with “Chawd Blaze” instead of “Chaud” in the Mega Man: Battle Network anime.

Who’s right and who’s wrong in this topsy-turvy world?

Tags: Hideo Kojima, just for fun, lol, Lupin III, media, Mega Man: Battle Network, Metal Gear Solid

Ossos do ofício

Saturday, August 30th, 2008

É, meu povo, a gente paga mico pelos games. E que mico!

O Ricardo Farah, editor da revista EGM Brasil, e eu, tentando manter a forma com o “Wii Fit”.

[leia mais]

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Capcom releases Franchise sales figures

Saturday, August 30th, 2008

As part of Capcom’s recent financial results, the company has unveiled its current sales numbers for all of its beloved franchises and individual titles, dating back over the past 22 years. The popular Resident Evil series seems to be the top choice with more than 34 million units sold, trumping both classic series’ Mega Man and Street Fighter (second and third on the list, respectively).

The numbers essentially speak for themselves, so take a look.

Franchise Sales
Series Units Sold
Resident Evil 34.5 million
Mega Man 28 million
Street Fighter 25 million
Disney Titles 13.2 million
Devil May Cry 9.5 million
Onimusha 7.8 million
Monster Hunter 6.3 million
Dino Crisis 4.4 million
Ghosts ‘n Goblins 4.3 million
Final Fight 3.2 million
Breath of Fire 3 million
Ace Attorney 2.8 million
Commando 1.2 million
1942 1.2 million