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At last night’s Indie Game Maker Rant, Tommy Refenes, one half of Team Meat, appropriately let off some steam about Apple’s App Store, saying, “The majority of people who do anything for the App Store work on it and then kind of get screwed over.” Refenes suggested that what the App Store specializes in are cheap ports of established brands, sold on their established names alone, as he compared it to the Tiger LCD handheld games of the late ’80s and early ’90s.

“It’s just a way to sell a brand,” Refenes said. “That’s what the Tiger handheld games were, and that’s what I think the App Store is.”

Super Meat Boy dude: ‘App Store is Tiger handheld of this generation’ originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Meeting with Gaikai’s founding fathers — ( from left to right) Rui Pereira, Andrew Gault and David Perry — this morning, we chatted about the company’s unique take on “cloud gaming,” particularly how, unlike competitor OnLive, there will be no fee to play streaming games using its servers and in-browser app, and what it’s doing to “reduce friction” in trying (and eventually buying) games online.

Saying that Gaikai “isn’t trying to be PlayStation 4 or take out the next Wii,” Perry described (and demoed) the concept of embedding instantly playable games on any website. A publisher can, for instance, have a clickable pop-up appear when people are looking at one of its games on Amazon, which quickly launches an overlay window running the full game, with whatever time limit the publisher chooses. After this period, players can opt to buy the game for unlimited streaming, download it, or have a physical copy shipped to them.

What intrigued us more is the ability to Tweet from within these demos, and, if you’re playing a multiplayer title, anyone who clicks the link sent to your Twitter feed will be launched into your game. We also got a look at a widget that places a small video of any game you’re currently playing via Gaikai on your personal blog, which friends can click to either try the game or actually join the session you’re in, if applicable. This demo used Mario Kart 64, in which it was possible for Gaikai staff to drop in as player two, three or four fairly easily.

Perry also revealed to us that Gaikai has secured servers at 300 data centers across the US (as opposed to OnLive’s five), in addition to inking deals with local broadband providers to install servers at another 900 peering locations — all with the goal of keeping latency as low as possible. The ideas we saw in action have the potential to shake up the traditional game demo model, for sure. What do you think of what Gaikai’s cooking up?

Gaikai will be fee-free, utilize 300 data centers in the US originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While Mass Effect 2’s in-game DLC pipeline, The Cerberus Network, continues to transport new weapons (and soon, a new vehicle) to players for free, BioWare has announced the game’s first pack of paid downloadable content. “Kasumi’s Stolen Memory” finally completes Commander Shepard’s dirty dozen, adding a confident female thief to your anti-Reaper repertoire. It’s currently scheduled to launch for Xbox 360 and PC on April 6th.

After downloading the DLC, players can get in touch with Kasumi on the Citadel, either in the middle of an ongoing Mass Effect 2 game or after the completion of the main story (lesson learned from Mass Effect 1 DLC!). Once recruited, Shepard aids Kasumi on a secretive mission of recovery, which requires a suave disguise and a run-in with an influential and predictably corrupt art collector. The content, which also provides the “Locust” SMG, a flash-bang grenade loyalty power and a new Achievement, should take about an hour and a half to complete.

BioWare is currently in the midst of “internal discussion” to determine the price of the DLC, but we’ll keep you updated as soon as it’s finalized. Look for some impressions of “Kasumi’s Stolen Memory” on Joystiq later today. Spoiler: It looks great.

Mass Effect 2 DLC ‘Kasumi’s Stolen Memory’ lands on Apr. 6 (don’t forget!) originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Carrying on in the longstanding Epic Games tradition of offering up free upgrades to existing products, the developer, publisher and game engine creator announced this morning that it will be adding Steamworks support to Unreal Engine 3. “With Valve offering these services free of charge, the idea of providing the Steamworks SDK [software development kit] to all Unreal Engine licensees was a no-brainer,” Epic VP Mark Rein notes in the announcement.

As it turns out, Valve offered up the development tools to UE3 developers (via Epic) without charging a single penny. That said, this isn’t just a philanthropic gesture on Epic’s part, but rather a strategy aimed at targeting the large stable of games powered by Unreal Engine. “Epic’s technology is one of the most widely used engines in the industry and has powered many of the best games created in the past 10 years, on multiple platforms,” Valve prez Gabe Newell proclaims.

That’s really the crux of it — bring in the Unreal Engine 3 users and they might stick around to purchase some other games on Steam. It’s a bit of a sneaky trap (and a smart business move to boot), but it’s one we wouldn’t exactly be upset about falling for.

Epic giving Unreal Engine 3 devs free Steam SDK update originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wanna watch 9 minutes of a guy sneaking around, tying people to balloons? What if we told you it was Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker footage? Kojima Productions has uploaded a lengthy gameplay video of the former “Metal Gear Solid 5,” in which our hero Big Boss does a bit of recruiting for his cause — in this case, that means knocking dudes out and floating them back to his base on a balloon.

We also get to see the “Sonic Eye” and “Analyzer” tools in action (a radar device and an item used to determine the stats of potential recruits), as well as the ninja-inspired “Stealth Mat,” which allows Naked Snake to hide in plain sight while he’s holding it up. Check it out after the break!

Continue reading Lengthy MGS: Peace Walker gameplay video floats in

Lengthy MGS: Peace Walker gameplay video floats in originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Forced to surrender, Sam’s put on a plane and “brought home” for questioning about a plot to bring down Washington, DC with an EMP attack. Handling the transport is Black Arrow, a private military contractor, and it’s this outfit’s private airbase that serves as the setting for the game’s second level. It presented me with new challenges, specifically staying out of site in some really wide-open spaces. I was reminded of Metal Gear Solid more than once, what with patrolling guards, stacked crates and roaming flood lights to negotiate.

Continue reading Hands-on: Splinter Cell: Conviction

Hands-on: Splinter Cell: Conviction originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh man, EA’s pursuit of Modern Warfare 2 just got hot, as DICE has announced via the Battlefield Blog that on March 30 — the same day the Stimulus Package DLC will boost Modern Warfare 2’s map count — Battlefield: Bad Company 2’s VIP members will receive the free “VIP Map Pack 2,” which adds a Conquest mode scenario to the Arica Harbor map and Rush mode to Laguna Presa.

Both maps aren’t new to the game, however neither has been available for play in the “unlocked” game modes noted above. So, that kinda qualifies as a “map pack,” right? Regardless, it’s free, as DICE boldly proclaims in its jab at Activision and Infinity Ward: “How to avoid ‘mapathy‘ without paying!”

[Thanks, Qwaint]

Bad Company 2 to offer free March 30 ‘mapathy’ cure originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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“Very aggressive” is the phrase THQ executive VP of Core Games Danny Bilson used to describe his company’s plans for downloadable titles across the Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and PC platforms during a GDC 2010 interview with Joystiq. With two studios dedicated to the downloadable space — THQ Digital Studios Phoenix (formerly Rainbow Studios) and THQ Digital Studios UK (formerly Juice Games) — Bilson told us THQ plans to release “up to six” downloadable titles within the next year, some based on the company’s biggest brands.

“We’re going to be building stuff on some of our core brands,” Bilson said, noting the plan is to create downloadable titles within the same universe as THQ’s major franchises in order to improve brand awareness. Surprisingly, Bilson’s plans include “giving away” some of the upcoming downloadable games, although he did not specify how this idea would be executed.

Bilson’s theory is that by getting players “involved” in its franchises via downloadable titles, THQ can help drive pre-orders and awareness for their big-budget (in relation) retail counterparts. While he would not specify which THQ franchises would get downloadable titles, we were told the plan is to roll out this strategy on “two or three” of THQ’s biggest franchises (à la Square Enix’s upcoming Lara Croft game from developer Crystal Dynamics).

But the plan doesn’t end there: Similar to the approach taken by Microsoft’s Fable II: Pub Games experiment, downloadable releases based on THQ’s major brands will unlock content within the retail releases, teasing players with potential advantages to purchasing related retail titles; retail games will also unlock content in downloadable titles, to help drive players to explore more content within that franchise’s universe. “You’re going to see some of our core brands built out in different kinds of gameplay to get people involved in the brands and drive awareness towards a launch.”

THQ developing downloadable games based on ‘core’ brands originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading PlayStation Move: the everything you need to know post

PlayStation Move: the everything you need to know post originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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