Valve has told CVG that it didn't put its "best foot forward" on PS3 with The Orange Box - and that it is working to "get better" on the system.

The PS3 version of The Orange Box - a huge commercial and critical success on Xbox 360 - was criticised by some quarters after Valve outsourced its development to EA.

The game was marked down by reviewers - with frame rate issues becoming a common bugbear.

Valve writer Chet Faliszek told CVG:

"We thought that the Orange Box didn't put our best foot forward with the PS3 community. We don't want to do something like that again on the PS3. We want to give PS3 owners the best possible experience.

"Some of that will come from us learning and getting better. Before we can go onto the PS3 again, we want to make sure we're better at developing for it."

The comments come after Faliszek said that Valve would develop on PS3 "down the road".

He also told CVG that Valve wouldn't be making 'sh*tty party games' for Natal.

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

God Of War creator David Jaffe has revealed that he no longer "connects" with specialist press review scores - and prefers reading fan feedback online.

Speaking to The Official PlayStation Magazine (UK), Jaffe said that games journalists are "going out of their way to praise the artistic for its own sake at the expense of video games".

He added: "Don't get me wrong - a good review makes my night, but I no longer find myself connecting with what a lot of reviewers go for and so it doesn't matter as much to me any more."

Jaffe's rumoured to be hard at work on a new Twisted Metal game, but he's yet to confirm the whispers.

UPDATE:We've clarified the original headline of this article - 'David Jaffe: I don't care about reviews' - after the man himself had a bit of a pop at it on his blog. It's okay: We can take it on the chin.

We felt that the previous headline was a fair short-form interpretation of his comments to OPM - but we're not in the business of misrepresenting people. So to be clear: Mr Jaffe does care about reviews of his games - especially when they're good ones. Just not as much as he used to.

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

Mario Kart is one of the most popular games on the DS, but imagine using a virtual steering wheel to control your car. A patent has turned up showing just that, taking the DSi's touchscreen control to the next level.

In typical patent jargon, the document says:

In one exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation, a video game or other application displays an image of a steering wheel. Such display may be on the same screen as one that displays other information such as a race course or other environment through which the vehicle may be maneuvered in a simulated fashion, or it may be on a different screen. The steering wheel display is, in one exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation, displayed on a screen that is touch sensitive. The touch-sensitive functionality of the screen is used in at least some exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementations to allow the video game player to control the position of the steering wheel displayed on the screen. The displayed vehicle steering wheel position, in turn, is used to control the travel motion or direction of the vehicle being simulated. The resulting simulation provides a realistic input control interface obtainable using relatively inexpensive and compact input devices such as those available on conventional portable or other video game play and/or simulation platforms.
It'd do what the Wii did to racing games with the steering wheel peripheral. It's instantly more accessible to non-gamers, which is what Nintendo's all about these days. Sigh. ..

http://gizmodo.com/5480919/nintendo-...n-racing-games ...

Mario Kart is one of the most popular games on the DS, but imagine using a virtual steering wheel to control your car. A patent has turned up showing just that, taking the DSi's touchscreen control to the next level.

In typical patent jargon, the document says:

In one exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation, a video game or other application displays an image of a steering wheel. Such display may be on the same screen as one that displays other information such as a race course or other environment through which the vehicle may be maneuvered in a simulated fashion, or it may be on a different screen. The steering wheel display is, in one exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation, displayed on a screen that is touch sensitive. The touch-sensitive functionality of the screen is used in at least some exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementations to allow the video game player to control the position of the steering wheel displayed on the screen. The displayed vehicle steering wheel position, in turn, is used to control the travel motion or direction of the vehicle being simulated. The resulting simulation provides a realistic input control interface obtainable using relatively inexpensive and compact input devices such as those available on conventional portable or other video game play and/or simulation platforms.
It'd do what the Wii did to racing games with the steering wheel peripheral. It's instantly more accessible to non-gamers, which is what Nintendo's all about these days. Sigh. ..

http://gizmodo.com/5480919/nintendo-...n-racing-games ...

Three-dee displays make me dizzy. I want to see real 3D without eyeglasses, which is exactly what this new Nintendo DSi game does. It opens a world to a new dimension by tracking your face with the DSi camera.

http://gizmodo.com/5481451/nintendo-...ate-3d-mirages ...

Three-dee displays make me dizzy. I want to see real 3D without eyeglasses, which is exactly what this new Nintendo DSi game does. It opens a world to a new dimension by tracking your face with the DSi camera.

http://gizmodo.com/5481451/nintendo-...ate-3d-mirages ...

Dead or Alive: Paradise director Yoshinori Ueda has told Eurogamer that his PSP game is not supposed to be softcore pornography nor degrading towards women, despite titillating promotional videos and a marketing slogan that reads, "Paradise in the palm of your hand."

"That's certainly not something we're intentionally going for," he said. "From our perspective, we're trying to make beautiful women, that has been the focus - we want our characters to be beautiful. The DOA characters are strong and that they look the way they do is based on trying to bring out the beauty of women."

"We're certainly not trying to degrade women. They have beautiful bodies. We're trying to show off the beauty of their bodies but we're not trying to be degrading about it - we're trying to show that they are beautiful characters."

"It's not that we were trying to make softcore porn. That's definitely not the goal."

In Dead or Alive: Paradise, bikini-clad girls take part in various paradise beach games like volleyball and going to the casino. Players can also have the girls pose for the camera and take photographs of them.

That element of the game irked America's ESRB age-ratings board, which claimed DOA: Paradise was filled with "creepy voyeurism" and "bizarre, misguided notions of what women really want". The ESRB later apologised and offered a more level-headed explanation for the mature rating.

"We know that everyone is going to have a different experience with the game - everyone has their own opinion," shrugged Ueda. "For us, the goal was really to offer a little bit of paradise to the users, and we hope that people playing the game will be able to come away with the feeling that they've visited paradise."

Ueda understands that DOA: Paradise isn't a game in "the traditional sense". "What we offer is a selection of things to play and activities to have fun with. The players have the freedom to play Paradise however they want," he said.

Dead or Alive: Paradise will be released here on 2nd April.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/do...-not-soft-porn ...

Dead or Alive: Paradise director Yoshinori Ueda has told Eurogamer that his PSP game is not supposed to be softcore pornography nor degrading towards women, despite titillating promotional videos and a marketing slogan that reads, "Paradise in the palm of your hand."

"That's certainly not something we're intentionally going for," he said. "From our perspective, we're trying to make beautiful women, that has been the focus - we want our characters to be beautiful. The DOA characters are strong and that they look the way they do is based on trying to bring out the beauty of women."

"We're certainly not trying to degrade women. They have beautiful bodies. We're trying to show off the beauty of their bodies but we're not trying to be degrading about it - we're trying to show that they are beautiful characters."

"It's not that we were trying to make softcore porn. That's definitely not the goal."

In Dead or Alive: Paradise, bikini-clad girls take part in various paradise beach games like volleyball and going to the casino. Players can also have the girls pose for the camera and take photographs of them.

That element of the game irked America's ESRB age-ratings board, which claimed DOA: Paradise was filled with "creepy voyeurism" and "bizarre, misguided notions of what women really want". The ESRB later apologised and offered a more level-headed explanation for the mature rating.

"We know that everyone is going to have a different experience with the game - everyone has their own opinion," shrugged Ueda. "For us, the goal was really to offer a little bit of paradise to the users, and we hope that people playing the game will be able to come away with the feeling that they've visited paradise."

Ueda understands that DOA: Paradise isn't a game in "the traditional sense". "What we offer is a selection of things to play and activities to have fun with. The players have the freedom to play Paradise however they want," he said.

Dead or Alive: Paradise will be released here on 2nd April.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/do...-not-soft-porn ...

Apple is doing its best to make ladies' parts difficult for adolescent males to find. It's like the 70s all over again

Even though I'm frightfully middle class (and I have the Ian McEwan novels to prove it), I did actually go to a fairly crappy comprehensive in Birmingham. It wasn't all bad because I got to meet people like Dill, who was in the football team with me.
Dill was very good at holding the ball up, but what I remember best about him was his dry Brummie wit. I recall asking him once if he was coming out to the local disco: "Nah, there's something on the telly I want to watch," came the reply.
What was that, I asked.
"Hungarian film. About lesbians."
I've no doubt it was true. If you were 15 in 1980 the options for accessing any kind of female nudity were extremely limited – and all the most delicious when they arrived. You'd do anything for a glimpse of bum, even if it meant risking three hours in the company of Bela Tarr.

I thought of Dill this week when I read about Apple's ban on saucy apps for the iPhone. It was, of course, a ridiculous token gesture that only hurt the indy developers of what is already very tame material. Big name publishers appear unaffected, and all manner of depraved filth is available from the Safari browser anyway.
But hats off to Apple for trying to return us to those happy days when seeing real ladies' nipples was bloody difficult. Kids today, with their Snoop Dogg videos and their phone box calling cards, have no idea what it was like for us fighting the buttock wars of the 70s.
I believe Apple, Android, Ovi and the others have an opportunity. How about apps that recreate the hardship – and sheer joy – of those depressing days?
Here are some ideas:
* Porn In The Park – this RPG challenges players to walk their dog across the local 'rec'. Hidden somewhere is a treasure trove of 'Reader's Wives – Nuneaton Special" magazines. But where can it be? The bin? The ditch? Inside the children's sandpit?
* Your Friend's Dirty Dad's House – a variation on the above. Ian's dad looks like the type to have a horde of breathtaking Dutch stuff in his house somewhere. He is a lorry driver after all. Your challenge is to solve the logic puzzles that get you inside his magic shed.
* Grattan's iCatalogue – 876 pages of fully scrollable appalling 70s fashions. Somewhere buried deep inside it are ladies in girdles.
* DH Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover eBook – the original and still the best. What could be more horny than dialogue like this: "Tha's got such a nice tail on thee... Tha's got the nicest arse of anybody. It's the nicest, nicest woman's arse as is!"
In every case, there should be an 'older brother' option that unlocks every 'gentleman's pamphlet' automatically.
And there should also be a severe ticking off from a teacher, who promises to dispose of the evidence himself.

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/36190...rn-opportunity ...