by Bryan Sharp on March 10, 2010
Dice, the developer of Bad Company 2, wants you to know that you’ve been spoiled. They want you to know that your fancy friends list and reliable server browsers have made you soft. Real PC gamers don’t need sophisticated multiplayer options that function properly. REAL PC gamers are happy with a keyboard, mouse, and something on the screen to strafe around.
At least that’s what it feels like Dice is trying to say with the frequently broken, sorely lacking multiplayer interface for Bad Company 2. [click to continue…]
by Bryan Sharp on March 9, 2010
The intraweb is blazing over the recent dispute between money-sucking-soul-crematorium Activision and the previous heads of Infinity Ward, Jason West and Vince Zampella. Basically, Activision, after probably spending an obscene amount of time investigating a legal way to bury West and Zampella up to their chins next to a fire ant mound, decided to just fire them under a cloud of vague accusations.
Luckily, the dispute gives the public a glimpse of how a big developer like Activision, who some have accused of acting like a giant asshole that extrudes video games after leeching away everything awesome and fun about their development, handles internal personnel problems.
I’ve been following the situation closely, and I’ve compiled a list of tips for other organizations aspiring to be seen as huge dicks. [click to continue…]
by Bryan Sharp on March 3, 2010
Valve software, the company comprised of renowned tricksters, jesters, and gypsies who are pretty good at making video games, hit the emails of a few blogs today with teaser images for an upcoming announcement. Shacknews, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Mac Rumors, Mac NN, Eurogamer, and Macworld have each received one of six images. I feel a little left out that Gamebane didn’t get an image, but it’s probably for the best. Given my luck, my Valve image would still be stuck in my spam folder or mistakenly deleted with all incoming mail in a scorched earth tactic adopted in desperation to remove large quantities of pornography.
I even use Gmail filters. It’s become a real problem. [click to continue…]
by Bryan Sharp on March 1, 2010
Most game developers know that it is hard to move retail units in America without instilling a sense of selfish-badassness in the average American consumer. But how do you accomplish this if your game is called The Settlers 7? “Settle” is right there in the game’s title. Americans don’t settle for anything because doing so probably means that someone else is getting something better and more awesome.
Since The Settlers is already an established franchise, it’s a little late for Ubisoft to change the name to something more American like The Pilgrims: LAND, TAKE, EAT, FUCK. But the marketing team came through with the box art. [click to continue…]
by Bryan Sharp on February 26, 2010
Steam may be the best thing to happen to PC gaming since Ethernet, but the platform could use an upgrade. Hearing my thoughts, Valve recently started a beta for Steam that lets users test a new interface and new features for the platform. I, in the interest of science and in the hope that my friends list would stop crashing, joined the beta.
The next Steam definitely looks shinier and is more user friendly, but Valve decided to give me information that I was trying hard not to know. [click to continue…]
