Darwinia+ is finally available on Xbox Live Arcade after an extended development cycle of over four years. Darwinia+ was created by Introversion, one of the best independent game developers on the planet with several classic (and award-winning) PC games under their belt, including Darwinia, Multiwinia, Defcon and Uplink.
Darwinia+ gets nearly everything right on the Xbox, albeit with a few caveats. First off, the price is simply too high. I personally think 1200 points is a great value considering how much gameplay is on offer, but I’m in the position of being a self-professed Darwinia-freak and as such, have a complete understanding of the game and its concepts. This places me in the minority. Most Xbox 360 players will have never heard of Darwinia and will be quick to disregard it based on nothing more than its retro-graphics. Too bad, their loss.
A lower price-point of 800 would have made impulsive and/or exploratory purchases far more likely. At 1200, Darwinia is pricing itself away from experimentation and distancing itself from gamers who may not be able to perceive the game’s value based on the trial version. Additionally, Microsoft has been discounting a considerable number of games lately and players are well aware that a discount will hit Darwinia at some future date, so fence-sitters are prone to remain on their asses until the price comes down.
My second problem with Darwinia is the camera-scheme that kicks in when controlling a Squad. It does its best to position itself correctly, based on the elevation of nearby terrain, but it’s not what I would call perfect or some semblance of perfection. Fortunately, you can work with it and bend it towards your will by releasing control of your squad and repositioning the camera at a better angle, though it doesn’t completely resolve the problem.
True resolution of the Squad Tracking Camera issue will only be found in a patch and I see it working as such: Darwinia currently has two ways of selecting available squads/engineers, via bumper-buttons or directional-pad (left-right). You only need one scheme, so drop the bumpers for squad selection and use it for rotating the camera while the directional pad cycles through units. Problem solved. I waive my consultation fee.
While the camera is a minor problem at best and one that can be dealt with, the price is less surmountable. What you need are valid reason to buy Darwinia+, reasons that may not be entirely obvious in the limited trial version. Without further ado…
If you’re a fan of Doctor Who and have a soft spot in your heart for the writing of Neil Gaiman, then today is your lucky day as Mr. Gaiman has confirmed that he has indeed written a script for the popular British TV series.
The script is titled The House of Nothing and is slated to air in 2011.
During his acceptance speech for best comic at the SFX Awards, Gaiman said: “As anyone who’s read my blog knows, I’m a big fan of a certain long-running British TV series. One that I started watching – from behind the sofa – when I was three.
“And while I know it’s cruel to make you wait for things, in about 14 months from now – which is to say, not in the upcoming season but early in the one after that – it’s quite possible that I might have written an episode.
“And if I had, it would originally have been called ‘The House of Nothing’. But it definitely isn’t called that any more.”
A spokesman for Doctor Who would not confirm Gaiman’s announcement.
The next series of the show, starring Matt Smith as the 11th Time Lord, is due to air in the spring.
Now that Avatar has shattered every record in the book and has become a global phenomena, the time has come for research and studies! Why is it people are feeling depressed and/or suicidal when leaving the theater? Actually, according to research about “Awe”, a movie like Avatar should find the majority of viewers feeling creatively juiced, socially connected and perhaps even a little spiritual.
Elicitors of awe include mountain ranges, cathedrals, powerful leaders, music, scientific theories, encounters with God, natural disasters, and James Cameron films. For me, Avatar induced awe in response to both the exhilarating fictional world but also the artistic and technical achievements I knew were required to create that world.
In a 2007 paper, Michelle Shiota, along with Keltner and Amanda Mossman, reported experimental findings on the effects of awe. In one study, people described recent experiences of either awe or happiness. Reliving an awe-inspiring event was more likely to make people to go outside for a hike after the experiment, or to do something creative like play an instrument or write. Further, subjects instructed to recall a recent encounter with beauty in nature said they felt the presence of something greater than themselves and felt connected with the world around them. Another group of subjects, after staring at a 25-foot Tyrannosaurus skeleton for one minute were more likely than people who stared at an empty hallway to use universal terms such as “a person” or “an inhabitant of the Earth” to describe themselves; they saw themselves as members of a larger group.
In regards to the sadness subjects reported in that study, the authors write, “It is not impossible that the discovery of the limits of the self during a self-transcendent emotional experience may produce some negative emotions.” Hence post-Avatar suicide-watch? If watching acrobatic cat people uplink their ponytails and fight giant exoskeletons in 3-D for two and a half hours doesn’t make you want to run outside and play or at least write some erotic Na’vi fan fic, I think you have bigger problems back here on Earth than just not having a tree house and a hot blue girlfriend.
One of our writers posted a critique of the latest wildly-popular BioWare RPG, Mass Effect 2, on our sister site, InfoAddict, and it’s seriously stirred up the emotions of quite a few fanboys so we thought we’d reprint part of it here in case it was of interest to you too.
With an average score of 96 on Metacritic, one would be justified in believing Mass Effect 2 has little room for improvement. An overwhelming majority of so-called game critics have weighed-in, predictably showering Bioware’s latest RPG with roses and garlands.
Bioware is one of a select number of game companies that receives a +3 modifier in review scores. So take an average game that would normally receive a 7, add Bioware’s name to the box, and oila! Instant 10. While this may be great for Bioware’s bottom-line, it’s actually a grave disservice to the company and gamers, not to mention a glowing example of everything that is wrong in game journalism; criticism specifically.
Having played and finished Mass Effect 2, I can safely say, without reservation or hesitation, that Bioware’s latest RPG is a complete mess, from top-to-bottom and not a product worthy of Bioware’s heritage.
Before I launch my critiques, allow me to post a comment from Bioware’s very own Ray Muzyka that appeared in a recent interview given to Computer & Video Games:
Early feedback and reviews for Mass Effect 2 have been hugely positive. You must be delighted?
We look at it really practically. We’ve had a lot of 90-rated games right? Pretty much every game we’ve ever released has been 90-plus. So we take it in our stride. We kind of look at it that sometimes our teams are our worst critics in terms of the way they look at our past work.
While we’re really ecstatic about the feedback we also look at it and say ‘Where are the opportunities for improvement? How do we make the next installment in this trilogy better? How do we make the next installment of Dragon Age better? How do we make Star Wars: The Old Republic better?’ I look more to the future than to the past.
It’s interesting being at the EA meetings and receiving the launch congratulations. I appreciate it and it’s nice to receive nice words and congratulations, but I’m more interested in how we drive success in the future, how we make our next games even better than Mass Effect.
Well Ray, if you want to know how to improve your franchise then I highly recommend you don’t read any actual reviews, because my brethren in the journalism community are rabid fanboys who unfortunately have bylines. You also won’t find much at Metacritic because they de-list any site that has review scores that are not within some arbitrary average, which defeats the entire purpose of aggregate reviews when you remove low scores.
So Ray, that leaves you and me…and few lonely stragglers shouted down in forum posts. Besides, the public has spoken with their wallets: they love Mass Effect 2. Then again, people love the Transformers movies. There is no accounting for taste, but there is bookkeeping when it comes to quality.
That’s just author Jack DeVore getting started, and he doesn’t hold anything back. Follow this link to read the rest of it – or even just to browse through some of the surprising responses made in the comments below!
As MMOs increase in popularity, an alarming number of people are having their accounts hacked on a daily basis. The problem has become so epidemic that its overall weight is dragging down respective customer support centers as they attempt to placate irate and confused customers. In some cases, it can take weeks to retrieve your character and if you’re lucky, you may get your items back.
Now, the vast majority of these problems could be avoided if gamers used their heads, but with the increased casual appeal of your typical MMO, we’re finding more players who simply don’t know better until it’s too late. It’s a hell of a way to learn. How are hackers getting account information? A variety of ways:
Over at our sister site, GameAlmighty, they’re having a giveaway featuring calendars filled with gun-toting pin-up girls sent to them by 2K Games to promote their upcoming game, MAFIA II. If you are interested you can find out more here.
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