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Famous Gamer: Melissa Joan Hart

2010-03-11T13:46:14+00:00

Section: Exclusives, Originals, Features, Interviews, Handhelds, iPhone & iPod Touch, Genres, Arcade, Puzzle

I interviewed Melissa Joan Hart a few month ago for Geek Monthly magazine (which, of course, was not published because the mag was shut down).

At the time she was still getting ready for Dancing with the Stars (she was eventually given the fancy dance boot late October 2009). Hart is an actress, producer and occasional director but is best remembered as spunky Clarissa on Clarissa Explains It All and Sabrina on Sabrina the Teenage Witch (the latter of which has inspired a few video games). At the time of the interview she was hinting at returning to TV but now it’s known that she’ll be starring with Joey Lawrence in an ABC show called Melissa & Joey.

In our talking about things that she geeks out about, she mentioned two iPhone (and iPod Touch) games: Flight Controller and Uni Sudoku.

Here’s what she said about Flight Controller:

I’m so obsessed. I was playing on an airplane the other day, playing it walking on the plane and the pilot was behind me and he was like, “Are you trying to bomb an aircraft carrier?”

I was like, “No, nono, I was trying to land planes,” and he was like, “Well, you need to try and land it from the other direction,” and I as like, “Well tell the game that because it’s not letting me.”

It was funny

...It’s got three different airfields you can land on, either in Hawaii, the double runways or the really hard one is the aircraft carrier.

And concerning Uni Sudoku she said:

Sudoku is my new obsession.

On the iPhone. I’d play it anywhere but I prefer it on the iPhone because it tells you if you are wrong.

I use on called Uni Sodoku. I like that one. My brother has a different one, I’ve used that one two. They’re all a little different but I guess I’ve just gotten used to the way this one works.

She also said she wanted more Twitter followers so go ahead and help her out with that.

Read [Gamertell]

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In Seven Days, Something Will Happen [Mystery]

2010-03-11T13:27:36+00:00

Maybe you'll eat a turkey sandwich. Perhaps, you'll drink a glass of carrot juice. You may even read watch television. The future is endless. The reveal for this countdown teaser is not. More »

Interview: Alex Alvarez of The Gnomon Workshop

2010-03-11T13:14:55+00:00

Alex Alvarez is one of those people who obsessively played games and constantly doodled in a sketchbook as a kid. He studied art, but with no one career-oriented channel for that creativity, he didn't find himself making a living as an artist until he stumbled into a job working on comic books. A few years later, he was explaining software to movie studios and eventually opened The Gnomon Workshop, which provides training to artists who are interested in the entertainment industry.

Alvarez recently finished a six-month stint working on James Cameron's Avatar, and Gnomon just hosted the "Unleashed: The Art of Naughty Dog" art exhibit showing off works by many of the artists from Naughty Dog, several of whom went through classes at Gnomon. In our interview after thee break, Alvarez talks about the expanding reach of video games, looks back at his youth spent playing Ultima and Wizardry, and doles out plenty of advice for budding young artists.

Continue reading Interview: Alex Alvarez of The Gnomon Workshop

Interview: Alex Alvarez of The Gnomon Workshop originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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News: M&M Clash of Heroes for PSN, XBLA

2010-03-11T13:46:14+00:00

Capybara revamping DS delight.

DS delicacy Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes is to be revamped for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade.

Developer Capybara is aiming for a late summer release, which should provide enough time to replace 16-bit sprites with hand-drawn art, add animations and tweak presentation across the board.

Multiplayer is being expanded to cater for four people either competitively or co-operatively, and you'll earn special multiplayer artefacts for taking part.

News: PlayStation Home update 1.35 live

2010-03-11T13:46:14+00:00

New Navigator interface arrives.

PlayStation Home has been updated to version 1.35.

The download is a brief 49MB, although the Home live servers are currently down.

The most noticeable change, a new Navigator interface, adopts an XMB layout to organise and speed up the Home space.

Move 101, With Sony's Friendly Introduction To Motion-Sensing Gaming [Clips]

2010-03-11T13:27:36+00:00

This is Sony Europe's handy instructional trailer for the newly-christened PlayStation Move. Isn't it chipper? More »

News: Resi 5 Gold content available as DLC

2010-03-11T13:46:14+00:00

Sandwiched together for discount price.

Capcom's sandwiched the Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition content together online in the Untold Stories Bundle.

The excellent Lost in Nightmares and Desperate Escape add-ons, as well as the costume packs, can be downloaded for one money-saving price of 960 Microsoft Points (£8.20/

Five Westerns You Must See Before Dying... [Survival Guide]

2010-03-11T13:27:36+00:00

Western game Red Dead Redemption has been delayed from April to May. Those looking to bid their time productively with cowboys, read on. More »

GDC: Surviving High School creator talks clever, profitable microtransactions

2010-03-11T13:14:55+00:00

In early 2009, Centerscore co-founder Oliver Miao was assigned an extremely daunting task. His studio had recently been acquired by EA Mobile, and his higher-ups had requested an iPhone version of the studio's successful teen-dating sim series, Surviving High School. The difficulty didn't come in developing the title, but rather, in monetizing it.

During his GDC panel titled "Surviving the iPhone: EA's Original Game Bet," Miao recounted the different business models Centerscore proposed to EA Mobile for SHS. The initial idea was to sell the game for 99 cents, and then hand out additional weekly "episodes" for free. While this would help build the brand, EA Mobile didn't anticipate enough return on the investment. It was denied, and Centerscore was sent back to the drawing board.

The second idea was to offer the current episode of the game for free, but charge 99 cents for bundled episodes from previous weeks. This idea was also shot down, and Centerscore's project was threatened with cancellation. Finally, the two parties came up with a solution that's proven to be fairly lucrative: give the current episode for free, charge for previous episodes, and offer the next episode in advance for an additional 99 cents -- quite an innovative business model.

Of course, Centerscore could have easily raked in the cash by simply charging $500 for one of its first mobile titles, Garfield Bowling. We can't think of a price we wouldn't pay for that gem.

GDC: Surviving High School creator talks clever, profitable microtransactions originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gallery: Limbo

2010-03-11T13:46:14+00:00

News: BioWare "think of games as franchises"

2010-03-11T13:46:14+00:00

Sequels are fun to make, says Muzyka.

BioWare once steered clear of sequels, but today the EA-owned company has a very different mindset.

"‬We think of our games now in our group as franchises,‭" BioWare co-leader Ray Muzyka said yesterday at GDC. "‬We really do."

He went on to tell an audience (thanks Gamasutra) that "franchises include a lot more than just games" and may span books, comics and films. As such, BioWare has to think as far as a decade in advance of each game's launch.

Office Chair Kung-Fu Meets PlayStation Move [Gdc10]

2010-03-11T13:27:36+00:00

Slider may well be one of the more interesting launch titles for the PlayStation Move, in that it involves the player performing kung-fu. While belting through city streets on an office chair. More »

An Early Look At Civilization V

2010-03-11T13:46:18+00:00

c0mpliant writes "IGN and Gamespot have each released a preview of the recently announced and eagerly awaited Civilization V. Apart from the obvious new hexagon shape of tiles and improved graphics, the articles go on to outline some of the major changes in the game, such as updated AI, new 'flavors' to world leaders and a potentially game-changing, one unit per tile system. No more will the stack of doom come to your city's doorsteps. Some features which will not be returning are religion and espionage. The removal of these two have sparked a frenzy of discussion on fan-related forums."

How Japan's Push For Babies Helps Gambling [Gambling]

2010-03-11T13:27:36+00:00

The Japanese population is shrinking. Birthrates have been dropping for the past two decades, and the country needs more babies. The Japanese government is attempting to push through a national child subsidy program. Enter pachinko. More »

Prison Break escaping March 30; new screens released

2010-03-11T13:14:55+00:00

We have no doubt you've been counting the days (likely via tick marks on the wall), waiting for more information on Zootfly/SouthPeak Games' Prison Break, so you'll be glad to hear that the game finally got a solid release date (March 30) and a price ($49.99 on 360/PS3, $39.99 on PC) today from its publisher.

Along with the mess of new screens we've dropped below into a gallery, this is just about the most flush we've been with Prison Break info in the entire history of the game's development cycle -- and it's coming out in just under three weeks! As the game's coming from the developer of Mr. T: The Game, we're willing to give this one a shot just so we can support the company's upcoming adventure into madness.

Gallery: Prison Break (GDC 2010)

Prison Break escaping March 30; new screens released originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gallery: PlayStation Move event photos

2010-03-11T13:46:14+00:00

Snaps from last night's kiosk love-in.

Video: Infinite Space battle tutorial

2010-03-11T13:46:14+00:00

View this video on EGTV

EA Shows How Medal Of Honor Is Not Just Another WWII FPS

2010-03-11T13:46:13+00:00

My memories of Medal of Honor traditionally involve the Saving Private Ryan-esque level depicting D-Day, or highly scripted (and action-filled) gunfights-as-rollercoaster moments. So it's pretty darn weird to see the new Medal of Honor take place in a period other than World War II, and on top of that, to see a pretty low-key (and downright stealthy) mission as opposed to a blazing shootout.

Executive producer Greg Goodrich recently stopped by to show off a mission, and briefly talk about the new direction for Medal of Honor. Sure, this install maintains MOH's core ethos of being a serious and realistic depiction of military combat -- it just happens to also be the MOH that takes place in the modern day, carries an M-rating, and has two development teams working on different aspects, to boot.

Tinseltown Dreams

2010-03-11T13:46:07+00:00

First trailer for the match-three movie creation app, Tinseltown Dreams

News: Old Republic EA's "largest ever" game

2010-03-11T13:46:05+00:00

EA chief financial officer Eric Brown has claimed that BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic is the publisher's most expensive game in the company's nearly 30 year history.

Speaking to a Wedbush Morgan Securities audience in New York, as reported by sister site Eurogamer, Brown commented that the massively multiplayer online game was the "largest ever development project, period, in the history of the company".

Although he did not put a specific figure on the development costs Brown indicated that a standard packaged title cost around $30 million but "any MMO costs significantly more than that".

First Look At Last Story Art [Gallery]

2010-03-11T13:27:36+00:00

The Last Story, the upcoming Wii role-playing game, is the newest title from Final Fantasy designer Hironobu Sakaguchi. Previously, all that had been shown of the game is a logo. Until now. More »

Study: America spent $3.8 billion on MMOs in 2009

2010-03-11T13:14:55+00:00

Massively multiplayer online game players in the States allegedly spent $3.8 billion last year, according to the Today's Gamers MMO Focus Report by Gamesindustry.com and TNS. The report claims that the MMO market in the US has reached 46 million users, with 21 million paying for online games. The rest play without spending a dime (think "freemium").

In a shocking upset victory dripping in sarcasm, World of Warcraft was the most popular MMO with the US, besting NeoPets, Club Penguin, Disney ToonTown and Runescape. Ah freemium, where even the traditional MMO companies can make money.

[Via Massively, Gamasutra]

Study: America spent $3.8 billion on MMOs in 2009 originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Medal of Honor Preview

2010-03-11T13:46:31+00:00

Mud, Sweat and Tiers

News: Lara Croft returns this summer for $15

2010-03-11T10:05:41+00:00

In Guardian of Light for PC, PSN, XBLA.

Crystal Dynamics plans to release newly announced Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light this summer on PC, PSN and XBLA.

This downloadable action adventure costs $15, which translates to 1200 Microsoft Points.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light represents a new take on the Tomb Raider licence and, for once, there are no high-kicking Lara Croft clones in sight.

Lt. Fly Gameplay

2010-03-11T13:46:07+00:00

Check out Namco's nifty little mashup of shooters and match-three puzzle games known as Lt. Fly