Code Retard

There has been a lot of talk lately about the lack of PSP homebrew in recent months.  So we thought we would showcase a few cool new releases from PSP homebrew developers just to let you all know that is still some great work being done in the arena of PSP homebrew.

Epic Sathe PSP

Many people have noticed a drop off in the amount of homebrew being released for the PSP.  Well PSP homebrew developer V@ughn aka bloodles is doing something about that. He has released a homebrew game called Epic Sathe, a stick fighting game for the PSP.

The controls for the game are Square to punch. Triangle to guard. Cross to jump and Start to pause the game.  There are a few minor bugs known with this release but V@ughn is working to correct those.  You can view the bugs and full changelog at the source page.

All Install

 
Another PSP homebrew release is delivered this week from homebrew developer OuterHeaven.  OuterHeaven has released an updated version of All Install.  All Install allows you to download and install a number of things for the PSP including homebrew, plugins, themes, gameboots and version.txt’s.  This promising in the fact that it will allow even more development for the PSP.

Changelog for All Install New Version

“New version changelog:

1) File browser now lists files in alphabetical order
2) You can copy or delete whole directories
3) Both zip and rar files can be extracted
4) Improved the plugin installer, and also created a new way to install plugins (clicking X on a prx file gives you the option of adding it to your vsh.txt, game.txt, and/or pops.txt)
5) Created a new mode for the file browser that allows you to select an almost unlimited amount of files, and then copy or delete them. In a test, I actually selected 230 individual files (which came from 20 different directories), and then copied them all to a new directory.
6) Created a color config file that allows you to change the text colors of the program. (Useful when making a custom skin)
7) MANY bug fixes and other improvements”

RenPKG v1.0 beta 3

PS3 developer romhunter has released an updated beta version for the PS3 app RenPKG bringing this release to version 1 beta 3.  RenPKG will give you the ability to restore the names of your PS3 PKG and EDAT files.  The included help files are in Spanish and need translating.  Also of note is that THIS IS NOT FOR BEGINNERS and only highly experienced users should attempt to use this.

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“When you ask someone to save the world, you really want to give them a world worth saving.” That’s what R.A. Salvatore (we call him ‘Bob’), the narrative consultant for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, has to say about the game world he helped create. Salvatore is a NY Times best-selling author and though I gave up on his Drizzt books long ago, the guy knows how to world-build.

We don’t see Salvatore in this video, however. This video focuses on the Big Huge Games’ art team working on Reckoning and how they brought the world that Salvatore created to life. We see a lot of concept art and how it is translated into the game world. There are a lot of monsters and settings to explore. It particularly focused on the trolls and bogan, which looks like a good ol’ ogre to me. It’s interesting that they took pains to bring the trolls’ heads down to a human level so you don’t feel like you’re just swatting at their legs in combat. That shows some deeper thinking, which is a good thing.

It’s unclear, however, if that will translate into success for Amalur. So far, it looks like pretty standard fantasy. EA has put a demo out, but I’ve yet to play it.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is out on February 7th.

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Capcom will release Resident Evil 6 later this year for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on November 20, it said on Thursday.

The latest game in the venerable action-horror franchise will feature Chris Redfield and Leon Kennedy, two of the most popular heroes of past Resident Evil games, as playable characters. They will both be joined by new characters, possibly to be controlled by the computer or a second player much like in Resident Evil 5.

A report by IGN also indicates that Resident Evil 6 will take place in a variety of real-world locations, including China.

The same report hints that the game will aim for a happy medium between horror and action. This, more than anything else, gets me excited for the game: Past Resident Evil games always offered an excellent mix of survival horror atmosphere and heart-pumping action. I felt this blend was missing from Resident Evil 5, which was heavily focused on action. If Capcom can get the formula right once again, then Resident Evil 6 will be worth getting excited for.

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It seems like every week we get a report on how poorly the PS Vita is doing in Japan. The story is consistent enough that I’ve considered not even reporting on it for the time being, since we’re basically making the same post once a week when the sales numbers roll in. But despite the device’s sales troubles, Sony believes there’s still strong demand for portable gaming devices.

Speaking to Edge, SCEI President Andy House noted that while the PS Vita doesn’t have its own strong numbers yet, the company feels comfortable using the success of the 3DS as evidence of a robust “gaming-primary” device market. It may seem strange to see Sony using Nintendo as a benchmark, but with sales like the Vita’s, the company is essentially grasping at straws.

Of course, this is Sony we’re talking about, so House couldn’t resist taking a shot at the 3DS as a casual device:

“What I think we’ve done is point to a market that really has started out with potentially casual games on other devices but now wants a deeper, or better, or more premier gaming experience.”

It’s amazing to me that Sony still manages to dismiss Nintendo devices, despite the fact that those devices continually outperform Sony’s products. Regardless, House is right about one thing – there’s still definitely a market for handheld games.

Handheld Nintendo games, anyway. Awww snap!

But seriously, what do you think of Sony using Nintendo’s success as an indication of the Vita’s future?

[Destructoid]

Hudson is one of the most recognizable developers in the gaming world, responsible for popular games like Bomberman, Mario Party and Bonk. Sadly, Hudson’s reign over fun comes to an end March 1, just over a year after the studio was acquired by Konami Digital Entertainment.

While Konami had originally signaled its intent to keep the studio open and harness its experience in the mobile and social gaming markets, it appears that someone in the company must have had a change of heart. As of March 1, Hudson and all of its properties will be absorbed into the Konami machine – there’s no word on whether the company intends to continue with Hudson’s franchises.

It’s a dark day for fans of simple, fun and cute games – a genre of which Hudson was one of the masters. So pour a drink out for Hudson in March, and fire up some Bomberman to wish them a fond farewell.

Do you think Konami will revive any of Hudson’s franchises?

[Edge]

Mass Effect 3 will be the first game in the sci-fi trilogy to feature multiplayer.
Image courtesy Electronic Arts

NEW YORK — The team behind Mass Effect and Dragon Age says that multiplayer and online interactivity will play integral roles in many of its upcoming games.

Speaking to Wired.com at a Manhattan event last month, BioWare CEO and co-founder Dr. Ray Muzyka said the developer is exploring new ways to add online features to its role-playing games.

“The way we look at multiplayer online features is that they shouldn’t be dilutive or weakening the experience,” Muzyka said. “They should be additive, they should strengthen it, they should enhance it.”

“Multiplayer … can’t be tacked on,” BioWare co-founder and vice president Greg Zeschuk said at the same event. “That’s one of the pitfalls that some of the people who have done multiplayer have made. ‘Oh, what’s on our marketing checklist? Gotta have multiplayer, check the box.’”

Muzyka said that multiplayer could mean a wide variety of different things: competitive or cooperative gameplay, but also such features as a leaderboard that compares players’ statistics and progress.

BioWare has also been looking into ways to link their games to social networks like Facebook and Twitter, letting players share news and information with their Internet circles.

“It’s a way to bring your friends into the experience and share it with them,” Muzyka said.

Multiplayer takes center stage in BioWare’s latest game, Star Wars: The Old Republic, which it released last month for PC. As a massively multiplayer online RPG, The Old Republic has no single-player components; you cooperate with and compete against other people in a virtual, persistently online recreation of the Star Wars universe.

The developer’s next game, Mass Effect 3, will also feature the franchise’s first multiplayer experience. Rumors suggest that the next Dragon Age will follow a similar course.

So is BioWare trending away from single-player-only experiences like previous games Dragon Age: Origins or Mass Effect 2? According to Muzyka, that just depends on your definition of “single-player.”

“I view it as a broad definition,” he said, pointing to post-release downloadable content and leaderboards as examples of online features that the developer is pursuing in its games. Extra game content that players download can be single-player, but Muzyka still groups it together with social experiences as a general idea of “online connectivity.”

BioWare VP Zeschuk added that multiplayer “makes the whole experience better” for a game like Mass Effect 3. The upcoming RPG will feature an optional cooperative mode called Galaxy at War, in which you can team up with other players to fight off marauding Reapers, earning bonuses and unlocking areas that you’ll be able to access in your single-player campaign.

“There’s actually a compelling, rational gameplay narrative that explains why it’s there,” Zeschuk said. “That’s one of the differences in how we want to approach [multiplayer]. We don’t want to tack it on. We want to make sure it’s thoughtful and integrated really well.”

Future BioWare games could feature integration with social games on Facebook and mobile phones, Muzyka said. With new studios in Sacramento and San Francisco dedicated to social gaming, the developer is dead set on expanding its popular franchises into new realms.

“We’ve seen a lot of overlap between players of traditional console and PC games and players of social games,” Muzyka said. “They play it maybe in a different way, with different time constraints — but there are a lot of core gamers who really enjoy that.”

“Our approach to that is going to be building deep, rich experiences that are going to appeal to core social gamers,” he said. “If we extend some of our existing IPs, by definition that’d make some of our IPs multiplayer.”

A 4-player co-op demo is coming to the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live at the end of the month, and it will only be “for a limited time at the end of January.”

EA says this demo will consist of the Western Europe co-op mission from the full game and you’ll have to infiltrate the corporation Cayman Global, assassinate Colonel Enrico Gabron, and nab his technology blueprints. You’ll be able to play as Akuma, Aiden Fall, Emma Thalos, or Tihomir Darius so you can test run all their abilities – which you’ll have to use via teamwork to actually succeed.

EA has also released a trailer for the demo:

So far, it does have a kind of Brink feel to it in appearance and in that you have different classes that have to cooperate to succeed, but here’s hoping that it is a much better, more complete game than Brink.

The full game will be released February 21st in North America and three days later in Europe.

What if Skyrim were set in 2012?

A new comedy video (above) answers that question, doing its best modern impression of the popular role-playing game, which publisher Bethesda released last year for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

Fortunately for everybody involved, the makers wisely decided not to include any “arrow in the knee” jokes.

Alex Horton is a former animator for gaming juggernaut Rockstar Games, with titles like Red Dead Revolver and Grand Theft Auto 3 under his belt. And now, he’s just been made the Chief Creative Director of Jagex. If the name doesn’t sound familiar, Jagex is the company behind one of the most successful F2P MMOs of all time, RuneScape.

According to a press release issued by Jagex, Horton’s role will primarily be “working across the studios with our game design, development and creative teams to ensure all of our games achieve their true mass market potential.”

Jagex has been in the biz for years, and has just released into beta a “casual” strategy game titled 8Realms. Horton will no doubt be a strong presence in the company, with more than a few high profile AAA titles under his belt. 

There’s no word on whether Horton will be involved with the newly created mobile wing of Jagex, but all indications are that he will be taking a prominent role within the company and overseeing several titles at once.

[MMO Junkie]

Semi Essessi is a name you may not entirely be familiar with but after this week, we hope you are. Essessi worked on the unfortunately crap, Bodycount. Probably one of the most forgettable and average FPS titles from last year. Essessi talked with Eurogamer last week about the fact that Codemasters had put him and several of his coworkers under unlawful working conditions

Essessi claims that he was not paid for or compensated for over 400 hours of overtime he worked leading up to crunch time for the game. He goes on to add that Codemasters promised him time off as compensation for over time but the only time he was given was when he was let go from Codemasters Guildford studios once they shut down in 2011.

He then talked to Codemasters HR department who told him that he was not entitled to any overtime. This was due to the fact that Essessi and his co-workers recieved an extra month of pay on their final paychecks…which Codemasters then asked for back, claiming it was an accounting error. They then wanted him and his coworkers to pay it all back immediately.  Unfortunately for Codemasters, Essessi had spent it on a lovely amount of debt he’d acquired from moving to Guildford.

Essessi says that he is “sick and tired of big business being incompetent and getting away with it because of fear and naivete. I don’t like bullies, I never have, I never will.” And now it was Codemasters time to say what needed to be said, possibly an apology?

Codemasters responded to Eurogamer saying (in full): 

The company has been, and continues to be, in open dialogue with Semi regarding the reimbursement of funds paid into his account following an administrative error, as it is entitled to. As the conversation regarding his personal situation is ongoing, the company has not, as alleged, pursued it as a legal matter with him. The company adviser’s are now aware of the additional comments that Semi has published and these will be addressed with him directly through the appropriate channels as necessary.

Right…but about the money you owe everyone and the lack of compensation and care and…wow. Just wow. I mean, it’s no Ocean Strategy but it’s just so vanilla and doesn’t explain a goddamn thing about their practices and how they cocked up the situation. 

Via [Kotaku]