Electronic Gaming Monthly articles from May 2007

Electronic Gaming Monthly archives from May 2007

Brain Watch.(video games and their psychological effects)
May 1, 2007... You probably already KNOW THE effect VIDEOGAMES HAVE ON YOUR LIFE. But do you know what they're doing to your mind? A new Florida-based think tank aims to find out--and it's offering up its research to developers with the hopes of enabling...

THAT'S COOL.(Nintendo Company Ltd. developing video game)(Clover Studio closed its doors)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Mushy mushrooms Frustrating games usually result in an avalanche of expletives, broken controllers, and fist-induced holes in walls. To combat this, Nintendo product whore Banpresto is releasing squishy stress relievers in the shape of...

Fist of the North Star.(computer war game)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Japan Platform: PS2 Likelihood it'll come here: Though we'd get a kick out of this flashy fighter, don't expect it to duke its way here. So, what's the future like for Japan? Bleak, my friends. Earth destroyed in a nuclear...

Ninja Gaiden Sigma.(computer adventure game)(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2007... Platform: PS3 Publisher: Tecmo Developer: Team Ninja Release Date: June 2007 If there's a male game developer in touch with his feminine side, it's definitely Yosuke Hayashi. "When I visit shopping malls, I see so many...

Afterthoughts: MotorStorm.(Simon Benson talks about the racing game)(Interview)
May 1, 2007... MotorStorm Producer Simon Benson frolicked in the muddy mosh pits of U.K. music festival Glastonbury to research his filthy rock 'n' roll racer. ARRIVING fashionably late to the ps3's "launch window," Evolution Studios' MotorStorm was...

Team Fortress 2.(computer war game)(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2007... Platforms: PS3/XB360 Publisher: EA Games Developer: Valve Release Date: Fall 2007 Here's the understatement of the year: Team Fortress 2 has been in development for a long time. "We first showed the military-themed...

Take This Job: Director of Platform Strategy.(Scott Henson)
May 1, 2007... This month: Scott Henson, director of platform strategy for Microsoft Experience: Six years working with the Xbox, with about 12 years total in Microsoft's games division. Games he worked on most directly include the first Xbox Live...

THAT SUCKS.(BioShock yet to be released)(Nintendo Company Ltd. is not providing online capabilities)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Not a shocker Underwater first-person adventure BioShock can't seem to catch a real release date. Originally, it was going to emerge this June, but publisher 2K Games confirmed it's pushing the game back to an August 21 release date....

ACTUAL PRODUCT.(Eidos Entertainment's Girls Gone Wild Pocket Pool game)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Sorry guys, this isn't the world's first masturbation simulation--instead, publisher Eidos is actually attempting to sink a sucky idea: Girls Gone Wild Pocket Pool, a billiards game for the PSP, pits your pool prowess against that of a...

THE GAME OF LIVES.(Kudo Tsunoda questioned about Def Jam: Icon game)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... The remixed Def Jam: Icon is getting a bit of a bad rap--we dug the boppy backgrounds, but weren't into the plodding, slow-paced fisticuffs. But we can all agree on one thing: The game looks good. Not surprising, considering Executive...

WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008.(computer sports game)(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2007... EXCLUSIVE FIRST LOOK Platforms:PS3/XB360 Publisher:THQ Developer:Yuke's Release Date:Fall 2007 If the spandex fits, Don't stretch IT. That's the current philosophy ever since last year's WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007 got...

GAME LAW UPDATE.(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... At state capitals across the country, elected officials are finalizing their legislative agendas and planning their summer vacations. When the votes are tallied in state houses, will we endure another year like 2006, which saw restrictive...

Underachievers.(computer games)
May 1, 2007... Don't think Achievements are popular? Think again--over 300 million of 'em have been unlocked. It all began in kindergarten when you earned your very first gold star for not drooling during naptime. Your sense of accomplishment was...

OVERHEARD.(Space Channel 5 computer game)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... "We were in the middle of production of Space Channel 5, in 1998 or 1999. I got a call from the U.S. from my partner--the executive producer of Space Channel 5--and he said, 'Oh, Michael wants to act in Space Channel 5.' I said, 'Who's...

Forza Motorsport 2.(computer sports game)(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2007... EXCLUSIVE HANDS-ON Platform: XB360 Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios Developer: Turn 10 Release Date:May 2007 Gunnar Jeannette is a real-life racE Car driver. In 2000, at the age of 18, he was the youngest driver ever...

Afterthoughts: God of War II.(computer war game)(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2007... Aside from having a last name that sounds like a famous Street Fighter II character, Cory Barlog worked on several wonky X-Men games and even a movie (Mighty Joe Young). Defying gods is usually blasphemous, but for the deity-destroying...

Rumor Mill.(video games)(Column)
May 1, 2007... Last month was a good one for yours truly. My rumor about the PS3 flight-shooter Warhawk getting stripped down to a multiplayer-only title came true. And I was also right about a new Every Extend Extra game for the 360. Thank god--winter...

THE BIG ONES.(Final Fantasy XIII)(Halo 3)(Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots)(Resident Evil 5)(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2007... Final Fantasy XIII PS3 * Square Enix * 2008 After months of Square trickling out info on both FFXIII console projects, the publisher is finally talkin'. FFXIII's encounters will feature a more pronounced action element. And those...

COMING SOON.(computer games)
May 1, 2007... Spider-Man 3 Wii/PS3/XB360/PS2/PSP/DS * Activision Peter Parker's latest movie-based videogame adaptation doesn't stray too far from the previous two: Once again you'll be swinging all over Manhattan to rid the city of villains from...

The Future of Videogames.(Cliff Bleszinski opinion about the trends in video games design)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... The guy who designed one of last year's biggest blockbusters hits the hay each night dreaming about the ultimate game. He just can't make it happen yet. "It's a world that can flip upside down in a second and change from an empowering fantasy...

The Future of Control.(sensing capability is being induced in video games)
May 1, 2007... It's the kind of from-the-future contraption you'd expect to see in an article about tomorrow's tech. Bristling with electroencephalograph sensors cinched to a guinea-pig gamer's noggin, the Project Epoc brain-reading headgear, due next year...

The Future of Games.(Column)
May 1, 2007... videoGames have changed in profound ways in 20 years, from 2D to 3D, lo-fi to high-def, Super Mario to Grand Theft Auto. Yesterday's supercomputers are today's game consoles. Considering the pace of change over the last 20 years, what could...

Crosstradamus!(trends in video games)(Column)
May 1, 2007... He's portrayed everything from never-nude unambiguously gay dude Tobias on TV's Arrested Development to hyperwedgied hobby-shop nerd Zero in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. But even his most hardcore fans don't suspect that David Cross is a...

The Future of Online.(online gaming)(Column)
May 1, 2007... That John Edwards is campaigning for the presidency of the U.S. should come as no surprise. What is surprising is where he's doing it: in Second Life, the massively multiplayer PC nongame that you've been hearing so much about in your...

The Future of Displays.(in video games)(Column)
May 1, 2007... You have two of them, they're round, and they're incredibly potent. No, not your 'nards--your eyeballs! They're miracle organs capable of seeing 10,000 pixels and shifting "lenses" from a near-field perspective to far away in a millisecond....

The Future of Genres.(computer games)(Column)
May 1, 2007... First-person shooters As envisioned by Halo 3 Design Lead Jaime Griesemer"At some point in the next 20 years, people are going to get tired of fighting aliens, Nazis, zombies, and terrorists.A It's a problem that is going to be difficult...

The Future of the Biz.
May 1, 2007... Over the next TWO decades, the game industry will evolve in just about every way you can--and can't--imagine. The mission? To blast what's still viewed by outsiders as a bastard medium into something ubiquitous and mainstream. "There need to...

The Future of Players.(trends in playing video games)(Column)
May 1, 2007... In the future no one will be a "gamer." But how's this for a head trip: Everyone--from your grandma to your kid sister--will play games. As electronic devices merge, connectivity becomes pervasive, and everything goes mobile, gamers will find...

Time Out.(game consoles)
May 1, 2007... Near-term: In five years... "I think [the Nintendo] DS is going to achieve PlayStation 2-status in Japan as the best-selling game machine ever," says Hiroshi Kamide, an analyst looking at the Japanese market. Casual gaming will drive DS...

Super Paper Mario.(computer role playing game)(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2007... Wii Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Intelligent Systems Players: 1 ESRB: Everyone wSHANE: The Paper Mario games (for N64 and GameCube) successfully married the plumber's Mushroom Kingdom trappings with classic role-playing game...

EARTH DEFENSE FORCE 2017.(computer war game)(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2007... Xbox 360 Publisher: D3Publisher Developer: Sandlot Players: 1-2 ESRB: Teen wSHARKEY: Pick a pair of guns and run around shooting the hell out of waves of giant ants, giant spiders, giant robots, giant UFOs, and so on. Or do it with a...

FINAL FANTASY FABLES: CHOCOBO TALES.(computer adventure game)(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2007... DS n Publisher: Square Enix Developer: H.A.N.D. Players: 1-4 ESRB: Everyone wRAY: In what should come as a surprise to nobody, Square Enix's big, cute yellow wonders get another top billing in Chocobo Tales. This simple RPG-ish...

WARIO: MASTER OF DISGUISE.(adventure game)(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2007... DS Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Suzak Players: 1 ESRB: Everyone wJEREMY: I love--love--Nintendo's Wario Land games, so just thinking about Master of Disguise is enough to make me sigh sadly. It's a decent enough action-platforming...

CUSTOM ROBO ARENA.(computer role playing game)(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2007... DS Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Noise (Marigul) Players: 1-2 ESRB: Everyone 10+ wMILKMAN: Hopefully, the DS' runaway success means that more people will discover the charms of this actioncentric robot-battling RPG series (the...

REVIEWS WRAP-UP.(computer games and game consoles)
May 1, 2007... XB360 Guitar Hero II Publisher: Activision ESRB: Teen If you don't know about this rockin' rhythm game by now, your lame meter must be cranked to 11. Don't worry--now is the best time to strap on the stringless gee-tar. The...

Devices of Future Past.(Jean-Claude Van Damme )(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... In our state-of-the-art videogame industry, our socks are in a constant state of exploded. Since the first days of electronic entertainment, impossible new devices have promised us impossible new futures. Unfortunately, when Jean-Claude Van...

Utopia or Dystopia?(future vision of video games)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Is your vision of the future a shiny world of organic cities and fabulous flying cars? Or is it a dank hell of fallout and concrete? Videogames have their share of both, doled out in plentiful quantities. But which is more common--the happy,...

World-Exclusive Intel.(computer war games)(Column)
May 1, 2007... A war unlike anything you've ever played In our next issue, we'll have the world-exclusive first look at the next game in Ubisoft's renowned Tom Clancy military franchise. But this isn't just another Ghost Recon or Rainbow Six-style...