Loading ...
Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 did it first and now Just Cause 2 has done the same; rack up over 2 million downloads of its demo. Nowadays it is very rare to have a demo for a game as most of the developers / publishers do not feel the need to expend any energy in making a demo for their games. Maybe they will give this strategy a re-think considering how well received some of the demos have been in recent times, boosting up the interest in the game as well as converting fence-sitters to day-1 buyers.
Besides chocking the bandwidth, Just Cause 2’s 35 square miles of the Panauan playground featured in the demo for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 has given us some interesting figures. Hit the jump to head to the trivia section and find out what gamers have been up to in the Just Cause 2 world since the demo hit the web on 4th March 2010.
Controversies are anything but new to the entertainment business; irrespective of any field, be it gaming, movies or music. Whether its Richard Gere planting one on Shilpa Shetty, “exploitation” of the Slumdog kids, Lindsay Lohan snorting another line, or closer to home; the “Sex-Scene” in Mass Effect which was much campaigned by FOX News… and poorly might I add.
And just before it’s official release, there was this one particular leaked gameplay footage of the highly anticipated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 developed by Infinity Ward. The game is due for release today on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Microsoft Windows PC. Modern Warfare 2 (MW2) is the sixth installment of the Call of Duty series and is the direct sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare developed by the same and gained a huge fan-base post its release early November 2007.
(Caution: Campaign spoilers after the jump.)
All I can say here is just – “WOW!!. Just when you thought Chris Kline had created his masterpiece with the Contra Jungle Jam, he goes and pulls a new one out of the hat!
Check out the latest in video game music wizardry on his newest video. This one’s him performing the Castlevania Rock live at Games Live in Loveland Colorado.
The performance is an arrangement of Beginning – Castlevania 3 Dracula’s Curse, Wicked Child – Castlevania, Vampire Killer – Castlevania, Moonlight Nocturne – Symphony of the Night. And boy does it rock your socks off!
In today’s Hindustan Times’ City section, while Amitabh Bachchan bashes Slumdog Millionaire, another story, craftily titled “Ghajini Shocker” grabs your attention. You’d think it was about the Ghajini video game and how the Army was called in to nuke every last copy of this game, but no – sadly, no dice here. The article talks about how violence in the film has traumatically affected people – kids and their parents included. The article goes on to say that several parents were shocked and upset that Aamir Khan “disappointed” them, after his nice, kids-friendly role in Taare Zameen Par, set such high standards!
Well, we’re not a gossip rag or Bollywood blog, but the parallels to gaming are drawn yet again. Parents need to respect and understand the concept of ratings on film, music and games and restrict what comes to their kids. The same stands true for retailers and stronger enforcement is needed to make this happen. Blaming video games for violence isn’t the issue here – publishers appropriately rate a product for the age group it is intended for and this needs to be understood and implemented by parents, lawyers and retailers.
It absolutely annoys me to read how everyone takes the moral high-ground as soon as something like this happens or a whiney kid gets upset when they see a movie or play a video game, their parents knew wasn’t meant for them. How to deal with this menace of violent video games you ask? Here’s a TAP-TIP: RTFR. Yes, that’s “Read The Fucking Rating”. Can’t possibly get easier than that now, can it? So the next time your child knows that kids at school are not intended to be meat-shields.
When SONY and Microsoft announced their next generation of consoles, both tried to out-did each other with their features. While some of them took off, others fell flat in the face. In the midst of all the hullaboo, one feature slipped past unnoticed, only to rear it’s head couple of months down the lane. The Downloadable Content or DLC, which was once viewed as something quite minor is now quite the buzzword of the industry. It’s quite common now for DLC’s to be announced even before the game has hit the shelves. Multiplatform game developers have the console makers trying to woo them to churn out exclusive DLC’s for their platforms. Throw in the money generated with the micro-transactions and the developer have discovered a virtual gold mine that not only assures them a continuous revenue stream long after a game has been released, but also delays the game being sold off after one is done with it.
Clearly, DLC’s are here to stay. So The ANGRY Pixel takes a look at what the coming months have to offer in terms of DLCs. Please note that the sequence in which the game appears is not indicative of it’s importance in the scheme of things.
Before you start shedding tears of joy, let us tell you that the game has reached India but is, as of now, stuck at the Mumbai customs. Our friends over at Gaming Indians have been in constant touch with the people concerned, both at Take2 and e-Xpress Interactive and the news doing the rounds right now is that the game has finally made it to the Indian shores. Considering the general apathy of the customs as far as the Indian gaming community is concerned, it can take anywhere between 7-10 working days before the games clear customs and are ready to hit the shelves across the country.
Salutations, to all you folk. Say, did you know we recently turned a year old? No, no – not ourselves. Although having a bunch a young, thumb-socking misfits writing an Indian Gaming blog would suffice for more of a relevant plot device than anything the Super Babies movies were ever about. And god, you have no idea how long I’ve been wanting to take a crack at the Super Babies. Imagine if your feces sprouted it’s own civilizations and… wait, where am I going with this?
Anyway, theANGRYpixel blog is now one year old (and then some). How did we get this far?
As if pointing out the obvious didn’t already become obvious, the last two posts you see before this are in the spirit of a certain occasion. What occasion, you ask? Why, the day when everyone gets to lie to each other and bloody get away with it. That’s right! Arson, murder, animal cruelty – name your poison, pick your prey, and launch an offense. Your parents will frown, your closest partner will cry, and most dreadful of all, the internet will friggin’ el-oh-el in complete unison. This is the truth that is the first day of every April. It’s a complex beast, indeed.
And while our first April Fools for TAP didn’t turn out to be the grand paparazzi we all had originally planned for, it goes to show how much we care about making use of whatever time is available to us, and making it completely useless in the process either way (seriously). Because you see, no matter how much websites try to woo with their fancy Photoshop jobs or too-good-to-be-true (but still pretty corny) video trailers, you’ll always get the one dude in the back row mumbling to himself, “I can’t believe these morons actually spent money and effort into this.” Some of these people will be labeled without a sense of humor. Me, I think they’re just robots waiting to enslave the human race.
A round of applause to Rishi Alwani for his entertaining editorials! So, what was your favorite April Fools joke? Personally, its a triple-tie between IGN’s Legend of Zelda Live-Action trailer, Blizzard bringing WoW to consoles, and Assassin’s Solid. Somebody call a shrink!
For all those who have been following the Indian gaming scene, Mohit Anand’s departure from Microsoft India came as quite a shocker. The news of him stepping down from his post of Country Manager for Microsoft India’s Entertainment and Devices Division was completely out of the blue and caught everyone by surprise. In the ensuing confusion, quite a lot of news sites came out with their take on the circumstances that led to the event, which frankly, seemed to be quite a study in contrast with what we have known about the relationship of Mohit Anand and Microsoft India. So, to set the record set, we decided to talk with the man himself and clear out some of the rumors that have been swirling around on the World Wide Web.
Seems like the PlayStation loyalist are getting some love sent their way, what with eagerly anticipated titles such as Metal Gear Solid 4 getting a launch date and exclusive console bundles too! Adding more cheer to the parade here, is Gaming Indians, who have come with mega triple offer for both, the PSP and PS3 fans, in form of God of War: Chains of Olympus and Patapon for the PSP and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue for the PlayStation 3.Under this offer, you get to save INR 225 on each of the Patapon and GoW:Chains of Olympus and INR 270 on GT5 Prologue.
Interested?