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Ever been in a room with a group of so-called gamers and find yourself judging each one based on gamer stereotypes? No? Well that’s fine, because I’ve taken the time out to categorize them all for you. Here are the most basic of gamer types, stripped down to their bare essentials. Know of, or belong to, a gamer type not listed here? Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments!
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The newest feature revealed by NetherRealm Studios for the upcoming Mortal Kombat is the Challenge Tower. We could make a news post detailing all the insane scenarios shown and described in the trailer above (Test Your Might, Test Your Sight, etc), but you really should just see it for yourself. My favorite is when Mileena offers Scorpion a Teddy Bear, which he refuses. Frustrated at how long she spent making it, the two have no choice but to battle it out.
Mortal Kombat will be available for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on April 19, with a PlayStation Plus-exclusive demo planned for March 8.
Insomniac made waves at GDC today when they shed some light on the multiplayer for the latest installment of their alternate history, sci-fi shooter series, Resistance 3. Probably the biggest change is the reduced scale. Resistance: Fall of Man wowed players at the time with up to forty players per game at a constant frame rate, and Resistance 2 upped that to 60. Things are being considerably toned down and focused now, as the third game will have intimate, 16-player battles. Insomniac made this decision from fan feedback and seeing just how fun the gameplay was on the smaller maps.
Another big feature will be loadout customization, where players can spend unlock points to develop their repertoire. The defining aspect of the progression system seems to be the abilities, and they come in four flavors. The first two are Abilities (Support and Tactical), which allow you to distribute ammo, enhance your team’s radar, or dash really quick to get out of a tight spot. The second set are Attributes, which come in Personal and Combat flavors. These appear to be your standard perks like faster reloading, but also really interesting options like having the series’ trademark leapers burst from your corpse upon death.
I got a lot out of Resistance 2, it was worth much more than the $60 price tag if you ask me, but it hasn’t aged considerably well in this age of shooters, and I’m glad the match sizes will be more personable. I’m worried they may be missing the point on the progression system, though. Call of Duty popularized the mechanic, but they always made the abilities you earn at high levels a lot harder to effectively utilize than the all-purpose abilities you start out with. Having players augment them as they gain experience may be a little hard to balance. In any case, we’ll be looking out for Resistance 3 when it launches on PlayStation 3 on September 6 later this year.
Sony’s been trying really hard to get you to jump in on their subscription-based service PlayStation Plus, and today they deliver another enticing offer in that effort. Mortal Kombat will arrive on the PlayStation Store next Tuesday, March 8 for Plus subscribers only. Regular PSN users will get a chance to download it a week later. The game will be compatible with Automatic Download, so make sure you turn the feature on so your PS3 can achieve sentience and download it on its own.
The demo features Sub-Zero, Johnny Cage, Mileena, and Sub-Zero as they battle it out on two ultra-vintage stages: The Pit and The Living Forest. You can get in on these fights with both single player and one-on-one Versus modes. And, of course, Fatalities and the new X-Ray Mode are included. Finally, for all you affluent technophiles, yes, the demo will support 3D.
The PlayStation Blog invites players to experience the joy of over-gory Fatalities, which it calls “once-controversial.” I’m not so sure about that. Seeing Kung Lao pull his victims legs-first towards his spinning razor hat to be dissected like some horrible biology experiment is an image I simply can’t get out of my head. Maybe listening to the iconic theatrical theme song of the series will help me stay sane until Mortal Kombat releases for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on April 19. I hope.
WB Games has said that the Mortal Kombat demo will be released on the Xbox Live Marketplace at a later date.
The International Coalition of Trendy Gamers have taken to the streets of pretension as Minecraft has won the 13th Annual Independent Games Festival’s Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game (wow that was long), in addition to the Audience Award, voted by the community. The winners were announed at the IGF Pavillion at the Game Developers Conference today, and you’ll be able to play the winners at their expo booths until the conference ends tomorrow.
Other notable winners include Amnesia: The Dark Descent, winning the award for Technical Excellence and Excellence in Audio. Gaijin Games’ BIT.TRIP.RUNNER took home the Excellence in Visual Art and Desktop Dungeons locked up the award for Excellence in Design. Nidhogg‘s developer Messhof received the $5,000 Nuovo Award, “which honors abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development which ‘advances the medium and the way we think about games.'”
GDC’s producers created the IGF to encourage innovation in the medium and recognize the best independent minds in gaming.
The Game Developers Conference continues to roll on in San Francisco, and the game industry honored their own last night with the 11th annual Game Developers Choice Awards.
Red Dead Redemption was the most honored game of the night, winning the Game of the Year award as well as Best Game Design, Best Technology and Best Audio. The developers at Rockstar San Diego had to share the spotlight with Mojang’s Minecraft, which won three awards: Best Debut Game, Innovation Award and Best Downloadable Game.
Three other games were winners at last night’s GDC Awards: BioWare’s Mass Effect 2 for Best Writing, ZeptoLab’s Cut the Rope for Best Handheld Game, and Playdead’s Limbo for Best Visual Arts.
Three special awards were also handed out. The man behind the Fable franchise , Peter Molyneux, won the Lifetime Achievement Award. Another big name among RPG producers, Yu Suzuki, won the Pioneer Award. Maybe this’ll give him the clout he needs to create the long-rumored Shenmue III.
Finally, the Ambassador Award was given to Tim Brengle and Ian MacKenzie, two early organizers of the Game Developers Conference.
The next game from Double Fine was announced at GDC with the reveal trailer you see above. Trenched will be a hybrid tower defense and third person action game (sound familiar?), taking place in an alternate World War I. Players take the controls of mechs to fight off aliens known as the Monovision. There’s no release date, but you’ll be able to start the fight on Xbox Live Arcade sometime this year.
…the need for speed, as the saying goes. And that’s what today’s Amazon Deal of the Day is all about, in EA’s Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. It’s $39.99 down from $59.95, for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions. This is the game that brings the franchise “back to its racing/chasing roots” and touts itself as a “revolutionary addition,” so if you’re into this series, it sounds like this is a must-have game. If you’re feeling that need, you might want to grab this one up.
Also on sale today at Buy.com are Xbox Live 12-Month Gold Subscription Cards for $39.99 from $59.99. Jump on this quick, as these are known to sell out fast!
No video game-related shirts today, sadly. Fortunately (or unfortunately, if you’re my wallet), there are plenty of other good ones around. And, as always, I’m a total sucker for any and all Star Wars t-shirts, and today’s Tee Fury is tempting me in a bad way:
Someone please call me when they make this into a bumper sticker.
Video Game Canon
Video Game Research Library