Kill Screen Magazine's Blog, page 441
February 14, 2014
Watch 10,000 people play Pokemon at the same time on Twitch
Twitch.tv is utilizing the pull of nostalgia to comment on the futile optimism of an absolute democracy. Or at least that’s the sense we're getting from the live stream, crowd-sourced playthrough of Pokémon Red/Blue. Just us? Well a Gameboy emulator converts an endless scroll of text-based commands from their chat box into a slew of button inputs. Meaning that, at the time of this post, over 10,000 viewer/players are working hard to try and get much of anywhere together.
And sometimes the emulator’s hackneyed attempt to incorporate every single input bears an uncanny resemblance to the leaderless committees from good old Occupy Wall Street. Watching a pixilated trainer run circles around the same shrub for five minutes straight, it inspires a similar mixture of doubtful hope. A beautiful thought, Twitch.tv. Here’s to hoping for a more triumphant end result.
Snarkiness aside, what a constructive distraction for 10,000 dateless, Valentines-less Pokémon lovers out there (ourselves included).
Bayonetta trailer shows off Bayonetta doing Bayonetta stuff
There is a new Bayonetta trailer which features everything you loved and/or hated about Bayonetta. Convoluted mythology? Enormous golden animals? Skittering loungey J-pop? Gross oversexualization? All here. The first game was surprisingly lengthy, particularly if you explored its higher difficulty settings, and so most of this looks like "more Bayonetta." Which is a good thing, maybe!
The most encouraging portion of the trailer to me, though, was the lengthy shot of what looked like some sort of surfing sequence on an enormous plume of water. For all its mechanical perfection, the original game endures in my memory at least as a sort of crystallized, perfected synthesis of everything game-y and absurd and also totally sincere about classic Capcom and Sega games. A surfing interlude proves they've still got that touch. Here's hoping you can do, like, tricks in it or something.
Sorry, museum security guards, now we can touch the paintings (sort of)
"Into the Frame" is a project by researchers at Middlesex University on display at the Red Gallery in London’s Shoreditch neighborhood. The futuristic installation allows viewers (or rather, experiencers) of a painting to immerse themselves in the work through touch and sound, extending past the typical purely visual experience.
Creative Directors in Residence at the University, Florian Dussopt and Nick Phillips, collaborated with the School of Science and Technology as well as sound specialist Dave Hunt and artist Paul West to create the unique installation. As visitors hold onto and move the pen-shaped device, the textures in the painting are mimicked through the amount of resistance given. A 3D sound installation surrounding the visitor simultaneously relays the sounds present in the painting, such as splashing when the user "touches" theYou w water.
The technology could potentially be used for neuro-rehabilitation in the future, specifically with spatial processing. The exhibit is on display at Red Gallery until February 5th. See it in action in the clip below:
Source, Images: Digital Arts
This post was originally written by Kristen Nozell for PSFK.
CCP's next game is like DayZ with vampires, which sounds amazing
Up till now, CCP Games has been all about EVE Online. Their other projects have been spinoffs: an EVE FPS, an EVE boardgame, an FPS set in the world of EVE. That’s fine, really, as EVE is the preeminent work of sci-fi of this young century. But their interests go beyond null-secs and space frigates.
Their upcoming MMO World of Darkness is going in an entirely different direction: vampires. And also the current computer gaming trend of merciless survival games, apparently. CEO Hilmar Pétursson told Rock, Paper, Shotgun the following:
“The core dynamics of being human or vampire haven’t changed, but we’ve certainly been taking inspiration from a lot of recent things. For example, DayZ and Rust,” he says, which makes sense, as these are two of the biggest games in the PC universe right now, aside from, well, EVE.
It turns out what he loves about them is the same thing everyone does. Namely, that you can just run around and make of the game what you will, which, eh, also sounds like EVE. “[We’re inspired by] how the absence of all these structured game mechanics—by just allowing these natural interactions to happen—that is something we’re definitely incorporating into how we think,” he says.
I get goosebumps just thinking about the implications of a vampirish DayZ. You could be rising from the crypt to drink the blood of virgins by moonlight, or playing as the modern day Van Helsing who is trying to hunt these fiends and burn them in their sleep. It sounds like we’ll see what CCP is up to at the EVE Fanfest in May, where the game will “probably” be making its first public appearance.
New PBS Game/Show asks if unruly fans are ruining games (spoiler: pretty much)
Games generate an active community of enthusiastic fans, which is great. Except when it’s not so great. In recent times, we’ve seen the ill effects of disgruntled gamers take a toll on creators, from online mobs picketing over the ending to Mass Effect 3 because they didn’t agree with the BioWare’s vision to some guy calling Phil Fish a “f*ing hipster” on YouTube, leading to the cancelation of Fez 2.
Fans may think they’re getting what they want, but in the long run, stunts like these only stifle creativity. In essence they hold developers hostage unless they don’t make the games that fans want them to make. This works fine for a coup d’état, but not a creative medium. So how can we be better fans?
Watch the episode to find out, and be sure to tell us what you think in the comments.
Happy Valentine's Day, here's a game where you make out with a bear
We've yearned so long for this game in quiet.
Hold on to your hat, sonny. Here's footage of Monolith Soft's X
There are many reasons Monolith’s X looks great, epic dinosaur battles against majestic backdrops being the least of them. One, it borrows and expands on the battle system of its predecessor Xenoblade, and anyone who has wielded that beast knows it’s like trying to walk a large and excitable dog on a leash. Two, numbers. Beautiful numbers bleeding out of everything. And three: yes, they do hop into mechas mid-battle and blast off to deliver the assault Robotech-style, which means no “rodeoing.”
As you recall, Xenoblade was only brought to America after fan backlash on IGN message boards, two things we’re normally not fans of. But this beaut was probably only given the green light because of the strong fan interest it generated. It’s the rare pearl that materializes from gamers being cranky on the net. So, uh, thanks?
Look forward to X being released later in 2014.
The beguiling, sketch-like beauty of NaissanceE
Welcome to Art 101, kids.
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