"We won't be making any more Resistances", Insomniac CEO confirms

In an interview with VG247, Ted Price, CEO of developer Insomniac Games, has stated in no uncertain terms that their tenure with the PlayStation 3 Resistance franchise has come to a close.

Sunday Sidebar: MMO Fatigue: Is it affecting you?

If I had to choose one particular genre that made leaps and bounds in recent years, it would be that of Massively Multiplayer Online games. If the ’80s were the epoch of the arcade, the ’90s a realm of first-person shooters, I would argue that in the here and now, the post-broadband era of the games industry has been defined by the rise of multiplayer online gaming, and no genre better unifies this concept than that of the MMO. For many players, the excitement and social buzz of playing a game simultaneously alongside hundreds, if not thousands, of other people is irresistibly engaging. For every scare story of babies dying due to parental MMO addiction, there is another of those who meet in-game, fall in love, and live (at least so far) happily ever after.

Sunday Sidebar: Meet John Drake of Harmonix

In my continuing mission to expose the great and good of the videogames industry, this week I called in on John Drake of Harmonix Music, the developers of acclaimed franchise Dance Central, party favorite Rock Band, and recently, on iOS, the total nonsense-fun app, VidRhythm. John is responsible for heading up everything public about Harmonix, as well as being a generally easy-going, yet always enthusiastic, guy.

Sunday Sidebar: Easycore? – How lifestyle changes affect gaming approaches

There is a maxim that refers to the three stages of life, and how these three stages govern the management of free time. To relate it to gaming is not hard. As children, we have no money, but a veritable abundance of free time. For many of us, this is how our gaming habit takes root. Long nights (mis)spent exploring cavernous dungeons or aboard extraplanetary vessels, our imaginations caught like ships amidst digital storms. As school or college students, we have more money, but less free time. Where previously we could consume infinite amounts of experience, we must begin to better focus our gaming habits. It is at this stage that we will normally commence honing our skills in a particular area.

Sunday Sidebar: How not to do Gaming PR

In the weeks following Christmas, the gaming industry, like many others, falls into a slump. The big releases of the winter period have been thoroughly hyped, pre-ordered, purchased and played, and we wait, satisfied, for the new-born of spring to provide us with future gaming excellence.

For the press, this dearth of new games and significant news is usually overcome with End-Of-Year lists of best-ofs, worst-ofs, underrateds and also-rans. You might see a few retrospectives, or a well-constructed thought-piece concerning where the industry is at with regards to too many sequels, or big sellers, or failed releases and why they failed. In short, it’s a relaxing time where you can plod through old content from throughout the year, and re-arrange it into something people can enjoy. It is basically recycling, and we must always encourage a sustainable model of journalism. Well this week has been a little different.

Sunday Sidebar: Meet Ska Studios

Since posting last week’s invitation for content, I have learned two things: 1) Some people would actually enjoy hearing me talk about Magic The Gathering, and 2) People did not like the 2011 Video Game Awards on Spike TV. I wish I could be saying that I found some novel way to unite these two into a powerful, Voltron-esque article, but rather, I took inspiration from the latter issue foremost. It pertains to an issue that has bothered me for some time, with regards to the video game industry. Disclaimer: I am not about to lament everything in the VGAs.

What was most apparent to me about the VGAs is that the music and movie industries have one powerful thing that the gaming industry does not. Something so lacking, and of which it is in such need, that the VGAs endeavored to transplant this missing organ from movies and music. It is a simple thing, but rather awkwardly also something for which most games players probably do not care much, but if our industry is ever to be taken as seriously as its two bigger brothers, we’re going to need it. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you: The Mainstream Celebrity.

Sunday Sidebar: Welcome

Silent Hill 2's James Sunderland stares into the depths of a Sunday, and it stares right back.

Sundays, and weekends in particular, have always been an Internet bête noire of mine. For anyone as accustomed as I am to surfing the web for nigh-on 16 hours per day, the weekend tends to recoil into a chasm of content, a crevasse of creativity, an absence of articles. On weekends, sometimes it can be hard to find something good to read is what I’m trying to say. What’s worse is that this negative space occurs right on the few days that I have more than enough time on my hands to indulge any and all of my interests.

All quiet on the blog front, but why?

If I had Post-It notes, and a fishing rod, and VGW was a boat, this would make more sense.

Sincerest apologies, hallowed fan who has been wondering where all the cool news, thoughts and updates about my gaming life have gone to. I have some 'splaining to do, I suppose. So I shall begin. It's always best to begin at the beginning, they say.

This Week I Have Mostly Been Playing: Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers

The handy little beams of light help to show you what's going on throughout each phase.

In case you hadn't already noticed, Xbox Live have started advertising low-price XBLA items on the Spotlight section of the Dashboard. I'm not sure if this phenomenon is UK-only, but I failed to pick up on it whilst I was in the US, and just happened to notice it last Saturday evening, whilst casually perusing the Xbox with little to do. I missed out on an incredible deal as part of their Friday-only offer, which was Torchlight at 400pts, but settled with a 33% reduction on MtG:DotP and was happy, although much to my chagrin they further reduced this from 800 to this week's 400 banana bucks. That's a price at which you'd be mad to miss it.

Review: Crimson Alliance (XBLA)

Releasing poison gas is almost always a bad idea.

Crimson Alliance is a co-operative dungeon crawler for XBLA. Offered for free if you bought all four of this year's Summer of Arcade titles, is it worth purchasing individually?

Star Wars: The Old Republic Gets A Release Date

Lightsaber duels: sure to be unsatisfying when button-bashed.

If you were hoping to be able to get through your Christmas exams before finding your life wholly devoured by Bioware's new MMO, well, there's no easy way to say this: I have some really bad news for you. 

You beta believe it: Diablo III

And then the Witchdoctor, he told me what to do, he said "Summon arcane death!"

I took some time today to watch footage of the beta test for Blizzard's highly anticipated sequel, Diablo III. The most interesting part of the video, unless you happen to be mad-keen on watching lots of running and gold collecting, was examining how each of the five different character classes play, and of course, as an aside to that, how quickly you can find yourself drawn to one in particular.

Suffering Through Final Fantasy XIII: Part III

This scene looks blooming marvellous. Pity I never made it that far.

My occasion to further experiment with Final Fantasy XIII has come to a close, and to be honest, I'm more than ready to draw the curtain on it. As much as I would have loved to have made it through the requisite 25-hour-long tutorial that opens up the game, in the end I found myself lacking the time and, perhaps most importantly, the willpower to make it through to the slightly less linear second half.

Leedmees (XBLA)

Leed on mee, when you're not strong, etc.

One of few XBLA titles to feature Kinect controls, Leedmees had me immediately interested for that reason, being as it is that Microsoft's motion-capture hardware has suffered and been criticised for a lack of quality software with which to use it. Konami's new puzzle game features impressively accurate Kinect control wrapped in an enjoyable puzzle game.

Quick Review: Techno Kitten Adventure (XBLA/iOS)

Techno Kitten Adventures will surprise your senses.

I heard about this game from the folks over at Super Happy Funtime Show podcast. Available through the Xbox Live Indie Games community, and also the App Store, Techno Kitten Adventure is a veritable epileptic fit of good fun.