Archive for April, 2008

For those not in the known: watch as I turn back the tables of time with this funky, scratchy mix (supply your own beats). About a week ago, Fragcast’s Genki Rocket posted an image of the recently released Okami box-art for the Nintendo Wii, and pointed out one particularly interesting observation: the bloody thing’s got an IGN watermark! Capcom acknowledged the mishap, and has already started offering free replacements to those folks who were perhaps emotionally scarred from this depreciable error or just couldn’t stop laughing.

But it’s not quite over yet! Split-Screen’s Gopal Sathe decided to do some box-art sleuthing of his own, “out of random curiosity” he says. What he found was a Gamespot watermark inside the instruction booklet of Capcom’s Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. Gasp! What stunning revelation, that be! So now the question begs itself to be asked: what bored internet lollygagger is gonna sift through his entire collection of Capcom games to check and see what other enlightening mysteries have been left unnoticed for all this time? Only time (and Imageshack) will tell for sure.

Looks like Sony’s partnership with Pyramid Saimira and Aurona Technologies was only just the beginning. Turns out, Sony’s got themselves hooked up with a total of 13 Indian-based development studios… And they’re all going to produce exclusive and budget-priced titles for the Playstation 2, aimed for both the local and international market. Some of which might even have Eye Toy support!

According to Zeno Colaco, vice president (publisher and developer relations), ‘PS2 users will get the best out of their machines with games based on our motion-sensing technology.’

Globally, Sony is expected to launch 150 titles for PS2 alone. The 2008 FICCI report on Indian Media and Entertainment Industry reveals that the local gaming industry garnered Rs 270 crore (Rs 2.7 billion) at the end of 2007 - up 32 per cent from Rs 205 crore (Rs 2.05 billion) in 2006.

With an already estimated userbase of 325,000 units in India (and still growing), Sony’s initiative becomes a bit more clearer. What remains to be seen is if these locally-developed games can rise to the call and meet with international expectations. Doubt it! But hot dog, now I’m curious to see what companies like Indiagames have in store for us. Sitar Hero, anyone? Bring it on.

Thanks to Sam Turismo 5: Prologue for the heads-up. He knows how to get my hood poppin’, if you know what I mean.

(Source: Business Standard)

I heard it from a colleague at the office… “there is gaming competition at Rajpura”. I didn’t pay any attention. There couldn’t be anything big in this part of the world. They only play CS. But my colleague, knowing about my connection with gaming from my regular rants about TAP, was intent on showing me the website. Is this really big enough that it has its own website? I saw the site here and it looked good. Damn they have big sponsors, and I knew… this is big. And so began… the rush to cover the event.

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Five minutes.

That’s all it took for me to realize how much I sucked at Ninja Gaiden II. It doesn’t matter how many excuses I could think of to justify dying so quickly and so embarrassingly. “Well, it has been a while since I last played the Xbox original,” I muttered to myself. Right, that was soothing. I should also go on and mention how the sun was in my eye, the check was in the mail, and how the ninja dogs ate my homework. Whatever. Bottom line was, Team Ninja’s grand follow-up to one of the best Action games of 2004 was standing in front of my face, every bit as punishing as it’s predecessor ever was to newcomers and softies. And really, no self-respecting fan would have it any other way.

When Microsoft India’s Sanjoy John gave us the OK to come on over to his office in Gurgaon to give us our Ninja Re-Education Classes, two things became quickly apparent to myself and Reggie. Firstly, nothing was going to get in our way of experiencing Mr. Itagaki’s latest hacker-slasher. Not over-priced shady parking lot “services”, not the blazing heat beating our foreheads like an engineered oven-bazooka, nadda. We had to get our hands dirty, no matter the cost and humiliation. The second thing that became quickly apparent was the fact that we needed someone who was more than experienced in the ways of the Hayabusa clan. Fortunately, we had just the right person: Ren Miranda, Reggie’s younger brother. The pieces were in place and it was go-time.

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2007 was a good year for racing games. Fans weren’t exactly spoilt for choice, but it was more a case of quality over quantity. There was something for everyone; Forza Motorsport 2 for the purists and car enthusiasts, DiRT for some off-road escapades and the best car damage ever, and the highly underrated and overlooked PGR4 with its addictive pick-up-and-play approach.

Like in most other genres in 2007, the Xbox 360 came out on top here was well. Forza 2 and PGR4 were exclusive to Microsoft’s console, while DiRT came to the PlayStation 3 months after it did on the Xbox 360.

But 2008 is a new year, and it’s already off to a smashing start – literally. Here’s a look at what racing fans can look forward to in 2008. Once again, there’s something for everyone – simulation, arcade and even some combat racing. And Sony fanboys can finally stop sulking now, because from the looks like it, the PS3 has got some heavy-hitters lining up on the grid.

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FXLabs is busy with Dhoom 2.5 and Ghajini, while Trine Studios’ got Streets of Mumbai. So where, oh where, will we be seeing an Indian developed game based on Indian mythology, quality not withstanding (at this point, sucking is only half the problem)? Pyramid Saimira and Aurona Technologies (in collaboration with Sony Entertainment) are up for the task, and they’ll be summoning the Monkey God himself, Lord Hanuman. According to AnimationXpress’ Money Sharma:

Pyramid Saimira with its gaming arm Aurona, will develop game on Lord Hanuman, titled as ‘Hanuman’. Currently in the development stage, the game will portray some part of epic Ramayana and is slated for late 2008 release. The action adventure game is a role playing game and is being worked at Aurona’s Hyderabad studio with close to 60 artists working on it.

… Aurona Technologies Business Development Director Hetal Bhuva shared, ‘Our objective behind having collaboration with Sony is to explore the Indian gaming market and Indian content. The Hanuman game will be targeted at kids of age group of 6 – 16 worldwide, who are familiar with the Indian culture and mythology and can easily relate to it.’

Shucks, would’ve been nice to see Aurona take the source material and go all blitzkrieg like David Jaffe and co. with God of You-Know-What. Although their site doesn’t specifically mention what projects they’ve worked on, Aurona did have a hand in the development with Colin McRae DiRT and… uh, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties? Well, it still beats the pants off Agni. I guess.

(The picture inserted above was taken from here)

Trackmania Nations Forever is the newly released edition to the popular free-downloadable racer from Nadeo Studios, known greatly for it’s immense customization and gravity-defying driving sensation, with more than enough sickening loops to make F-Zero turn awkwardly and blush. If you’ve got 500 megs of bandwidth to spare, you should go right ahead and download this. Efforts to not do so will encourage irrationally, unexplained exchanges between your house pet and self. And we wouldn’t want that, now would we?

LINKS:
- Filefront
- GamersHell
- Worthplaying
- ComputerGames.ro
- Internode

Incidentally, those with Trackmania United should check out for the equally free Forever add-on here. FYI, that’ll cut you about 900 megs.