RandomNPC – Video Game RPG Reviews, Editorials, and Features

Nothing like a week of updates to make a guy feel like he’s treading old ground, but hey, anything worth talking about is worth talking about again.  Tonight’s discussion topics are as follows:

• The Bethesda-Interplay legal mess comes to a close, with Zenimax paying $2mil for Interplay to stop harassing Fallout and claiming the MMO’s going to make it.
• GSC Game World announces on Facebook that development of STALKER 2 is somehow still underway.  Why do all the beautiful things in life have to be undead?
• Zynga acquires another executive from EA.  Poor Zynga… their stock’s lackluster performance has caused them to mentally regress to last year.
• BioWare reveals that Mass Effect 3 will require Origin and will not be available on steam.  Also, they broke their arm in a boking accident.
• Workers at a Foxconn plant in China threaten mass suicide over low pay and poor conditions.  Industry leaders feign shock that they’re still doing business with Foxconn.
• Ars Technica gets a closer look at the Wii U, and learns surprisingly little.
• Diablo III gets a console version, a Gaikai rep makes a silly assumption about the Big Three, and more!

Continue reading ‘What Happened This Week – Is This the 50’s or 1999?’ »

The news never stops, which in that respect is very much like Skyrim. But I digress. The Spike VGAs have given us plenty of material, and thus tonight’s topics include:

• The nominees, broken down: Skyrim wins GOTY, Dragon Age 2 somehow got on a ‘best of’ list for RPGs, Witcher 2 is looking mighty snubbed…
• …although the train of unneeded celebrities, lackluster announcements, and literal on-stage teabagging did a fine job distracting from the awards themselves.  And we wonder why gaming is still seen as immature.
• Meanwhile, with the VGAs posing as E3 Lite, speculation abounds that the actual E3 could come to an end (as we know it).
• A team of students at George Washington University use Kinect for other than its intended purpose, netting a $100,000 scholarship.  And they complain about the kids today!
• Shiggy scares everybody with a Wired interview, saying he’s stepping down, prompting a panic until he can finish the sentence with “to smaller projects.”
• GSC Game World closes its doors, signalling an end to the eccentric yet beloved S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series.  Let’s drink to them once more.
• Namco-Bandai wins their suit re: Witcher 2 distribution in Europe, the 3DS sells 3 million units in Japan, Square Enix moves FFXIV to a paid subscription, and more!

Continue reading ‘What Happened This Week – Such is Life in the Industry’ »

Howdy-ho, all! Managed a bit of a breakthrough, if only via workarounds I only half understand. Looking for a longer-term solution until the Comcast router decides to un-kink itself, since there doesn’t seem to be much else I can do on my end. Alas!

Anyway, got plenty to talk about, including the following:

• Steve Jobs passed away after battling cancer for the last several years. Say what you will about the man, but he knew how to develop and market shiny new gizmos people didn’t know they wanted.
• Apple revealed the iPhone 4, hyping up the processor as on par with handhelds and consoles. And yet everybody gets quiet when you ask how you’re supposed to move.
• GSC Game World gives us a brief S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2-related scare, showing just how potent the fear of DRM can really be.
• The Game of Thrones RPG was announced, prompting questions of how well a game can reproduce a complex, morally gray universe based on popular literature. My advice: ask CD Projekt for help studying.
• EA tries to reassure everybody that no, really, they’re not competing with Valve and Steam. They’re only setting up a separate distribution site and restricting certain games to it. NOT COMPETITION
• The Financial Times reveals scary new plans for European Debt, I ramble a bit about the Occupy Wall Street protests, and more!

Continue reading ‘What Happened This Week – Strategic Signal Loss’ »