DCEmu Featured News Articles

Motion control is intended to enhance player interaction, but when done badly or inaccurately motion control actually "reduces interactivity" and "can be harmful".


That's according to Sean Murray, boss of XBLA game 'Joe Danger' developer, Hello Games. Murray spoke positively of motion control as a method of adding "more interactivity" to games, along with touch screens, more advanced processors, voice control, cameras and augmented reality.

But he added: "inaccurate motion control actually reduces interactivity and that's harmful," demonstrating his point by playing the now seemingly infamous video of a player coming third in Kinect Joy Ride without moving.

"It's such as shame, it's such a lost opportunity," Murray went on. "It is actually a good game, but there's a danger of making games too casual and removing interactivity, and you see that sometimes. I think even the casual gamer doesn't want to just have reward."

Nail on the head, we reckon.

Murray also said developers who don't play and enjoy their own games are "in trouble".

"Some game developers, they don't play their own games, they don't feel it's an expression of themselves," he said.

"If you're having no fun making your game then you're in trouble," he added, showing a video of the Hello Games team laughing while playing Joe Danger.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS ...

Sony will next February release another gun-replicating attachment for the PS Move controller that looks better than that bulky gun it first revealed.

At $39.99, the 'sharp shooter' attachment launch coincides with the release of Killzone 3, with which Sony hopes you'll use it.


"The PlayStation Move sharp shooter provides the most intuitive and immersive control experience for shooter games," says Sony. "The streamlined design features easily accessible buttons, responsive digital trigger, realistic pump-action, firing mode selector, adjustable shoulder stock and convenient access to the navigation controller, allowing gamers to take aim and move into the firefight for hours of comfortable and engaging gameplay."

Of course the attachment will also play nice with other shooters including Time Crisis: Razing Storm, Socom 4 and Dead Space Extraction.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS ...

Monster Hunter Portable 3 has unsurprisingly topped the Japanese software chart on its week of release, hitting nearly two million sales and boosting PSP sales to 323,000.

The franchise is a hugely popular phenomenon in Japan - with last week's release seeing thousands queuing outside Japanese retailers. However - that popularity cannot entirely account for the sudden drop of Gran Turismo 5 down the chart, which slips to fifth after just one week at first.

Polyphony Digital's sim racer falls below the new entries of Tales of Graces F on PS3 and Mario vs Donkey Kong Totsugeki! Mini Land on Wii at second and fourth, with Mario Sports Mix holding onto to third for the DS. The Wii took second in the Japanese hardware chart, followed by PS3 and the DSiLL.

Full software top twenty is below, courtesy of Andriasang. Figures in brackets are lifetime sales. Sales data originates from Media Create.

1. Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (Capcom, PSP): 1,950,717
2. Tales of Graces F (Namco Bandai, PS3): 215,187
3. Mario Sports Mix (Nintendo, Wii): 59,007 (143,991)
4. Mario vs Donkey Kong Totsugeki! Mini Land (Nintendo, DS): 57,474
5. Gran Turismo 5 (Sony, PS3): 55,682 (486,389)
6. Pokemon Black & White (Pokemon, DS): 54,848 (4,548,954)
7. Super Mario Collection Special Pack (Nintendo, Wii): 45,904 (659,319)
8. Momotaro Dentetsu World (Hudson, DS): 45,126
9. Kamen Rider Climax Heroes Os (Namco Bandai, PSP): 36,856
10. Kamen Rider Climax Heroes Os (Namco Bandai, Wii): 35,132
11. Wii Party (Nintendo, Wii): 30,900 (1,263,462)
12. Taiko Drum Master Wii Minna de Party 3 (Namco Bandai, Wii): 29,328
13. Super Fossil Fighters (Nintendo, DS): 22,511 (91,534)
14. Tongari Boushi to Mahou no Omise (Konami, DS): 22,091 (109,613)
15. Super Robot Taisen L (Namco Bandai, DS): 19,556 (148,610)
16. Kirby's Epic Yarn (Nintendo, Wii): 18,278 (231,773)
17. Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo, Wii): 18,146 (61,655)
18. Dangan-Ronpa (Spike PSP): 14,340 (39,904)
19. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo, Wii): 14,207 (3,001,325)
20. Penguin no Mondai The World (Konami, DS): 14,046
A complete Japanese hardware chart is below, also courtesy of Andriasang and Media Create. Figures in brackets here are last week's sales.

1. PSP: 323,653 (75,689)
2. Wii: 56,095 (41,267)
3. PS3: 41,760 (68,840)
4. DSi LL: 40,465 (28,370)
5. DSi: 36,481 (26,548)
6. X360: 3,497 (4,329)
8. PSP go: 1,875 (1,675)
7. DS Lite: 1,580 (1,539)
9. PS2: 1,440 (1,332)

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...llion-in-japan ...

Microsoft Games Studios' Kieron Connell told the Evolve In London Conference yesterday that Microsoft is "very serious" about Windows Phone 7 and will not sit back and allow others to dominate the mobile handset market.

Answering a question from panel chair Will Freeman, Connell made clear that although Microsoft is fighting an uphill battle, it has no intention of rolling over and giving up.

"How much momentum does the iPhone have? Is it dominance a reality, is it going to stay that way for a long time," asked Freeman of the guests.

"I think there are too many people with too much money invested to let Apple win in terms of flooding the entire market," Connell told listeners.

"You'd better believe Microsoft is very serious about Windows Phone 7, and protecting their part of the business. It's going to be an interesting time - that's for sure."

In an earlier response to the question, Ngmoco's Neil Young had observed that Google's Android platform was gaining ground on Apple, but failed to mention Microsoft as a player in the market.

"Yes, it is dominant in the west," he said of iPhone. "In the East it's probably Android then some of Europe is probably up for grabs. Android has lots and lots of momentum right now but an inferior publishing model."

The feelings of the panel reflect recent findings from a study in the US which show that the gap in market share between iOS devices and Android platforms is closing fast, but Microsoft remains a peripheral player in the area.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...n-phone-market ...

via Eurogamer


Microsoft has abolished plans to wipe away the Halo Wars online statistics after a passionate response from gamers.
The loss of online statistics was going to be collateral for Halo Wars moving under the Halo Waypoint umbrella. Forums will still be merged, MS clarified, "But other than that, nothing changes."
Halo Wars, made by Age of Empire developer Ensemble, was released at the start of 2009. It was supposed to do for RTS games what Halo did for the FPS - bring the genre natively to console. That didn't work out, and Ensemble was shut down soon after, the staff force eventually reforming into three entities: Robot Entertainment to oversee Halo Wars, Bonfire Studios and Windstorm Studios. ...

via IGN


Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror, the classic point-and-click adventure sequel to equally classic point-and-click adventure Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars, is coming to iOS devices, just in time for the holidays.

Following the success of the original game - in Director's Cut guise - on Apple's mobile devices, Revolution Software is poised to unleash Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror - Remastered, continuing the adventures of George Stobbart and Nico Collard as they investigate a mysterious ancient Mayan artefact.

The Smoking Mirror - Remastered is set to get a similar makeover to its updated predecessor with new animated facial expressions, improved background and animation graphics, plus audio and visual enhancements to cut-scenes. The game also features Game Center support, a new context-sensitive hint system, an interactive digital comic, courtesy of Dave Gibbons, and Cloud saving by Dropbox. That last one means you can load and save your game across multiple devices - a feature we hope more developers introduce to their titles.

According to Revolution's official site, we can expect iPhone, iPad and iPod versions of the game "very shortly" with the remastered edition heading to PC and Mac early next year. ...

via IGN


Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror, the classic point-and-click adventure sequel to equally classic point-and-click adventure Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars, is coming to iOS devices, just in time for the holidays.

Following the success of the original game - in Director's Cut guise - on Apple's mobile devices, Revolution Software is poised to unleash Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror - Remastered, continuing the adventures of George Stobbart and Nico Collard as they investigate a mysterious ancient Mayan artefact.

The Smoking Mirror - Remastered is set to get a similar makeover to its updated predecessor with new animated facial expressions, improved background and animation graphics, plus audio and visual enhancements to cut-scenes. The game also features Game Center support, a new context-sensitive hint system, an interactive digital comic, courtesy of Dave Gibbons, and Cloud saving by Dropbox. That last one means you can load and save your game across multiple devices - a feature we hope more developers introduce to their titles.

According to Revolution's official site, we can expect iPhone, iPad and iPod versions of the game "very shortly" with the remastered edition heading to PC and Mac early next year. ...

Past sunday on German television show "neues" RSG CEO Max Scharl revealed a new project scheduled for release in early 2011: STURMWIND - a 2,5D shmup by German developer "Duranik" that's been in development for 6 years:


Screenshots:
(provided by DarkSynbios)


Official Website: http://sturmwind.duranik.com/

Preorder: Preordering starts today, so go here: http://www.redspotgames.com/shop/

Features:

• Hybrid 2d/3d game engine
• Resolution: 640x480
• 16 Levels
• 3 selectable difficulty levels
• configurable controls
• adjustable screen position
• different weapons selectable
• More than 20 large bossenemies
• Hundreds of different enemies
• FMV intro sequence
• PAL-50, PAL-60, NTSC and VGA compatible
• Region Free
• Works with any MIL-CD compatible Dreamcast
• CDDA Sound
• Supports: Joypad, Arcade Stick (Analog/Digital), VMU, Rumble Pack (configurable)
• Internet WEBcode Hiscore Tables
• Award Trophy System with unlockable content

Thanks to Captain Dreamcast at DCEmulation.org for the news. ...

News via http://ps3.gx-mod.com/modules/news/a...p?storyid=2354

The PSGrade is now available for iPhone 2G/3G - iPod Touch 1G.

Use :

Your devices must already have OpeniBoot / iDroid PSGrade to work with.

- Copy files and android.img.gz zImage in / var / idroid
- Connect your device to your PS3 as normal for use jailbreak.
- The console should go out and then go into service mode once rekindled.

To perform the downgrade itself to the console, you can follow the tutorial of Shakin .

PSGrade 2G/3G iPhone - iPod Touch 1G

Official site: http://wiki.psfreedom.com/wiki/IPhoneLinux ...