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Journey rockets up the PSN charts as key staff leaves Thatgamecompany

Posted on by Anthony Swinnich in News, PSN, PSN News | Leave a comment

Most game developers would kill to leave the kind of footprint Thatgamecompany has left on Sony’s Playstation Network. flOw was decent first effort, Flower is one of the best games available digitally and Journey, having been out for under a month, has already become the fastest selling PSN title yet. For some, however, this type of success breeds the desire to do even more. Such is the case with the developer’s co-founder and former president Kellee Santiago, who has left the company.

“After doing these three games, I think it was a really great opportunity for all of us to look at what we’ve learned and what I’ve taken from that experience, and go forth and take it into new arenas,” Santiago said (via Gamasutra). “My hope is that I can take what I’ve learned and use it to support more teams, more projects… and really, hopefully, help in accelerating the growth of video games as a medium.”

Santiago’s departure does not appear to be due to negative circumstances, and there is no apparent ill-will between the two parties. “While we want to continue the path of Thatgamecompany, Kellee has found a new direction in her career,” reads a statement from Thatgamecompany.

Another member of the staff, producer Robin Hunicke has joined upstart developer Tiny Speck. These departures follow on the heels of Bryan Singh‘s move to The Behemoth and Chris Bell‘s founding of a new studio called The Willderness.

Sony Targeting Indie Developers with PubFund

Posted on by Dave Voyles in News, PSN, PSN News | Leave a comment

Acquiring funding to back an independent project can be a difficult task for many, if not most developers. Fortunately, the recent addition of services such as Kickstarter and 8bitfunding have made it slightly easier to earn said funds. Sony threw their hat in the ring back in 2009 with the PubFund, which is their outreach program to seek out talented indies and attain their titles for PSN.

On Wednesday at GDC, Sony’s Manager of Developer Relations, Ted Regulski, hosted a panel titled “Self-publishing, PubFund and Getting Your Game on the Playstation Network” to inform audiences of the benefits to self-publishing titles on PSN. One huge positive is the fact that you do not need a publisher to release game for the Playstation Network on PS3 or for the Vita. Mutant Blobs Attack is one such title to take advantage of this on the Vita, as is the recent remake of Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath on PSN.

What does Sony take for this privilege? The “standard split comparable to most other digital services” is in place, although Regulski wouldn’t go into precise details. Unlike disc-based publishing, you do not need an office in the particular region that you are publishing in either; you simply need to be a licensed e-publisher in Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) territory.

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Snapshot Coming to Steam Shortly, PS3 This Summer

Posted on by Mike Wall in News, PC News, PSN News, XBLA News | Leave a comment

Retro Affect’s long-in-development Snapshot will be released on Steam “very soon,” according to lead programmer David Carrigg. In a video interview with Pixabyte, Carrigg said that the photo-themeed puzzle-platformer will be released before summer on PC, and most likely Linux and Mac. It will also be released on PS3 later this summer, and “future consoles in addition to that.”

Snapshot lets you play as PIC, a robot that has the ability to remove objects from the environment with its camera and store them for use in other areas. You can check out our full impressions from last year’s PAX East.

Source: Pixabyte

Warp Review: E.T. Warp Home

Posted on by Mike Wall in PC Reviews, PSN Reviews, Reviews, XBLA Reviews | 2 Comments

With his adorable peanut-shaped body and wacky tube-man appendages, it’s easy to imagine a plushy of Warp’s alien protagonist sitting atop your desk at work or on a small child’s bookshelf. The only question is whether you’d go for the clean plushy or the one that is drenched in the dried blood of whomever recently got in its way. Just like the movies constantly remind us, aliens are deadly, so it’s best not to provoke them by strapping them to operating slabs and performing  experiments on them. Oops. Silly humans.

Warp flips the typical alien story around and has you playing as an alien who must escape from an underwater research facility. That’s easier said than done because the station is the size of the Mall of America and employs more generic henchmen than Cobra. It rests on a lot of the clichés of the stealth genre such as guards that walk in predictable patterns and turrets with laser siting. You do have a bit of help thanks to a fellow imprisoned alien who is psychically linked to you and an increasing set of powers that allow you to work through the game’s increasingly complex puzzles. Although the initial premise of hopping through walls and into objects is novel, developer Trapdoor doesn’t rest on this one trick and continually introduces new abilities and puzzles that prevent Warp from stagnating.  Read more

Trine 2 Review: Trine Harder

Posted on by Dave Schectman in PC Reviews, PSN Reviews, Reviews, XBLA Reviews | 5 Comments

These days, it seems like there’s been a concerted push by the video game industry towards the fantasy genre. From big names such as Skyrim to indie releases like Orcs Must Die! and Dungeon Defenders, you can hardly turn around without being overwhelmed by options to get your fill of goblin and dragon slaying. But with so many titles to choose from and a limited budget, you may be wondering where to start. To that, I say look no further than Trine 2.

A little history, first and foremost: Two years ago, Frozenbyte Software tried their hand at a fairytale storybook plot in a puzzle game with platforming elements, layering stunning graphics and a brilliantly arranged soundtrack on top of it all. Throw in more than a few word-of-mouth reviews praising it as a return to the design of games from over a decade ago like The Lost Vikings, and they effectively captured my attention. Considering the budget-conscious price, it wasn’t as though I was breaking the bank by taking the plunge.

Several hours later – maybe days, really – I found myself scratching my head, wondering what the hell I had been thinking. The environments were appropriately themed and extremely lush, with such well-designed levels, clever puzzles, and the music was an excellent mood-setter. But even with all of this, the game felt so damn flawed. The plot was thrown together from a fantasy word generator, and the characters were extremely cliched and managed to feel less than two dimensional, which is an impressive feat to achieve in a side scroller. The enemies were also boring and unimaginative: limited to skeletons and skeletal archers, while the combat system’s controls also felt sluggish (and I imagine are also a skeleton). There was also a multiplayer mode, provided you don’t mind a half-assed local co-op system.

And that brings us back to the present. Yes, the characters still feel bland and lacking. And yes, the plot (“Hark! The Trine is back! We must adventure!”) is still as banal as the last time around. However, seemingly everything else has received a laser-like focus in attempt to refine and polish the game, shedding it of the weaknesses present in the original.

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The War of the Worlds Video Review: War Better Change

Posted on by Daniel Campbell in PSN, PSN Reviews, Reviews, XBLA, XBLA Reviews | 1 Comment

War never changes…except I guess it kind of does when it involves aliens with tentacled spaceships instead of boring old tanks and planes. Anyway, can Other Ocean Interactive’s new The War of the Worlds game capture the splendor of H.G. Wells’ classic story, or is it about as exciting as watching Tom Cruise duke it out with CG vampire-alien spaceships? (Hmm.. that sounds much better on a computer screen than the big screen) You’ll have to watch our video review to find out the truth (is out there).

Space Channel 5: Part 2 review – Shake your groove thang

Posted on by Dave Voyles in PSN, PSN Reviews, Reviews, XBLA, XBLA Reviews | Leave a comment

If Dance Dance Revolution and PaRapper the Rapper had a lovechild,  Space Channel 5: Part 2 would be the end result. It bears semblance to beloved Playstation title PaRappa the Rapper, with its funky rhythms, entrancing beats, and follow-the-leader style gameplay. Throughout my time with this gem I was waiting for the moment when Austin Powers would pop out with a “Yeah baby!” comment, but alas,  it never came. Instead, I was greeted by Michael Jackson’s digital avatar dancing the day away after I saved him from a group of intergalactic hipster space pirates.

Space Channel 5: Part 2 is a port of the 2002 Dreamcast / PS2 title, which was a sequel to 2000’s hit Space Channel 5. It’s the same title, albeit at a higher resolution, and while it hasn’t received any other updates, the game as a whole holds up just as well today as it did then. SC5: Part 2 is heavily inspired by the 1960’s music and dance culture, and will take you back to a time where you can’t help but want to move to the rhythm.
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Sega Bass Fishing Review: Check Out That Bass!

Posted on by Daniel Campbell in PSN, PSN Reviews, Reviews, XBLA, XBLA Reviews | 1 Comment

yup, he's fishin

Listen to the audio discussion:


In 1997, a lot of things happened in the game industry. Video game legend, Gunpei Yokoi, passed away in a car accident, Final Fantasy VII redefined the RPG genre, and Sega Bass Fishing was released in Japanese arcades. Shortly after the launch of the Dreamcast in 1999, the fishing simulation title found its way to Sega’s ill-fated console. Here in 2011, Sega Bass Fishing has been released once again on XBLA and PSN for $10.

Sega Bass Fishing features an Arcade Mode and an Original Mode, both having online leaderboards. In case you’ve got fish bait for brains, the game is about catching bass. The player has a limited window of time to catch as many bass as possible, but the number of fish is not important since the collective weight of all the caught fish is what will win you competitions. The game sports tournaments, unlockable lures, and a number of different locations to put your fishing prowess to the test.

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