Alcifer • Comments

• Men's Room Mayhem due next week

• Alcifer 17/05/2013

  The completely different perspective on the background and characters makes the screen shot look really odd, the guys at the bottom of the screen appear to be horizontal.
  
  Then again it's set in a pub toilet so that might not be entirely inaccurate. Reply +2

• Despicable Me animation director's Indiegogo game Ghost of a Tale looks enchanting

• Alcifer 16/05/2013

  Anyone else suddenly think of mouse peelers?
  
  If he can capture the qualities of even half of the inspirations he cites this will be amazing. Reply 0

• Ubisoft forecasts lower Assassin's Creed 4 sales than AC3 managed this past financial year

• Alcifer 16/05/2013

  Beyond the fact that I thought AC3 was easily the worst AC game so far, I actually quite liked the story aspects and closure in AC:R. A big reason either of these titles might not sell as well, at least initially, is that they straddle the console generation divide.
  Do I buy a copy of the inferior version for a current gen console or wait until I get a PS4 or Xbox? Which may not be for another year until there are more games and price drop. Chances are I'll wait and continue playing through my backlog of games. Reply 0

• Frostbite engine in the works for mobile

• Alcifer 15/05/2013

  @StooMonster, I was under the impression that Frostbite 3 will be used on both PS3 and 360 (BF4, Dragon Age 3 etc.). So it seems unlikely that the PowerPC architecture is going to cause them a problem.
  
  Having maintained an engine on both PC (Windows) and PS3 I can't say that the 3 reasons are much of a problem (especially compared to making use of the Cell's SPUs). 1 and 3 are handled by the compiler for your respective platform and 2 can be dealt with using a simple endian swap when exporting for each platform. Reply +1

• Alcifer 15/05/2013

  Ignoring the fact that this is an article about an engine for mobile devices and not Frostbite 3, and thus only mentions the Wii U to attract clicks, I'll comment on the existing discussion rather than the article.
  
  Supporting the Wii U may well have been an option if it was closer to either of the other two current gen platforms in architecture. As things stand by the time they ported Frostbite 3 to the Wii U, the install bases for both next gen consoles would be large enough that EA will likely have dropped support for both the PS3 and 360 on most releases.
  The Wii showed that maintaining separate cut down versions of most games for a single console doesn't make much sense, so why would EA want to continue doing so with the Wii U? So in effect the decision is a business one driven by technical reasons, in the end they need to weigh cost against reward. Reply 0

• Chinese World of Tanks clone so similar it allegedly copies even historical inaccuracies and fictional tanks

• Alcifer 10/05/2013

  China do this with almost every product to the point where they have fake Apple Stores and Nike shops. By copying any foreign products that have a potential market, they can prevent any of profits made on exports from leaving the country.
  
  Though I can't help thinking that millions could be made manufacturing fake rhino horn, shark fins and tiger nobs... Reply +12

• EA refuses to licence guns and war paraphernalia in its action games this year

• Alcifer 08/05/2013

  I suppose they had to do something controversial to sell their next big war game.
  
  Considering the only way they were going to top Warfighter was to include a 3D printer design for your own EA branded firearm, this sounds like a better direction.
  
  Edit: I suspect they have every intention to settle this one out of court. That way the gun manufacturers get their usual cut and EA can say their hands are clean. Reply +9

• Developers can disable PlayStation 4's Share button at certain parts of a game

• Alcifer 07/05/2013

  Be prepared for this to be disabled for the entirety of plot relevant DLC.
  
  I can't be the only one who watched the AC:R Lost Archive on Youtube. Not simply to save money but to avoid the frustration of actually having to play it. Reply +13

• Professional translator offers to localise Mother 3 for Nintendo pro bono

• Alcifer 22/04/2013

  If this works out I wonder if there is any chance that Squeenix might use Niell Corlett's translation and release Secret of Mana 2... no, probably not. Reply 0

• Bethesda reveals video teaser, possibly Wolfenstein, possibly Project Zwei

• Alcifer 16/04/2013

  It's clearly a survival horror called "Barbed Wire G String" and details horrific Nazi experiments in underwear. Reply +8

• The video game industry's gender wage gap is worse than you think

• Alcifer 04/04/2013

  Post deleted Reply +7

• PlayStation Network-exclusive Rain designed to make players feel uncertain

• Alcifer 26/03/2013

  Director Ikeda, who won one of these contests, first conceived of an action adventure with an invisible character, which he believed hasn't been done before.

  I've never played it, but doesn't A Shadow's Tale have a similar premise?
  
  Regardless this does look like an awesome game. Reply +1

• Hideo Kojima suggests video game pilots to combat rising next-gen dev costs

• Alcifer 12/03/2013

  I assume he means releasing what would normally be an internal prototype usually shown to publishers. In that case it might take a fair amount of imagination on the part of the public considering it would be pre-alpha quality. Reply +5

• Sega Mega Drive, Saturn, Dreamcast-themed netbooks!

• Alcifer 15/02/2013

  @Architect_z, that reminds me of the Amstrad Mega PC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad_Mega_PC) Reply 0

• Alcifer 15/02/2013

  I'm probably the only one that thinks it would be ironic to have "16-bit" stamped on a computer running 64-bit Windows... Reply -2

• Fumito Ueda issues The Last Guardian statement ahead of Sony's PlayStation 4 event

• Alcifer 13/02/2013

  Shadow of the Colossus was an excellent title at the end of the PS2's life, I'm still hoping The Last Guardian will appear on the PS3 (been waiting a while though). Reply +34

• Creator of original Xbox slams Microsoft's current Xbox strategy

• Alcifer 13/02/2013

  I'm not sure about Apple TV but it sounds a lot like he's describing Valve's Steambox initiative (provided that has a reasonable entry price). Reply +14

• EA: "We should've done better" with Medal of Honor: Warfighter

• Alcifer 13/02/2013

  We didn't have the quality of leadership we needed

  Leadership starts at the top. Reply +4

• Will The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt look better on PC than next-gen consoles?

• Alcifer 11/02/2013

  Given that PC performance is open ended that is always going to be the case where developers have not intentionally limited the game (the only limiting factors are available hardware and the funds to purchase it).
  Many console exclusive games on PS2 and Wii/GC look better on a PC (via emulator) than they do on the console. Reply +10

• KOTOR2 dev wants to pitch Disney a new Star Wars game

• Alcifer 08/02/2013

  @SpaceMonkey77 I may have just played too much Dishonored, but I don't see any problem having a stealth based game starring a Jedi protagonist. Using the force as a subtle tool for stealth and sabotage would make a really neat contrast to the Force Unleashed. Reply +4

• Alcifer 08/02/2013

  I think the timeframe could be really interesting. The tone of the republic era episodes was really different to the galactic empire. It would have plenty of scope for conflict and upheaval, not to mention the purging of the Jedi.
  
  A story taking place in that transition period could be amazing. The Force Unleashed made pretty poor use of the subject matter. Reply +3

• Dead Space 3 item exploit negates use of micro-transactions

• Alcifer 06/02/2013

  It'll be interesting to see how quickly EA scramble to patch this. Reply +50

• Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King retrospective

• Alcifer 03/02/2013

  Sounds like someone's been reading Christopher Vogler (or Joseph Campbell).
  
  I picked this up at the end of the PS2 era but didn't get around to playing it. Hopefully they'll give it the HD treatment, until then I can't wait to play Ni No Kuni and I might just fire it up on PCSX2 or unearth my PS2 at some point. Reply +2

• It's time to ignore Dead Space 3's micro-transactions

• Alcifer 02/02/2013

  I think it's too soon to make a call either way. Not having played the game or read a review by someone who has played through the completed product I can't say how the crafting system has been weighted, so I'm not going to say whether I think the inclusion of a "pay to cheat" option has ruined the game.
  
  What it has done is added a level of uncertainty such that I won't consider buying the game until I know for certain one way or the other. I wonder how this strategy, and the inclusion of coop (Dude Space?) will impact their preorders. Reply +6

• Shooters: How Video Games Fund Arms Manufacturers

• Alcifer 31/01/2013

  Excellent article, very well written and quite enlightening.
  
  While I was aware of firearms brands in games I thought, as a responsible adult, I was able to look beyond this and view it as any other work of fiction. Not living in the US I tend to treat the idea of gun ownership as fantasy, I'm as likely to purchase any one of these weapons as I am to buy a tank, fighter jet or nuclear submarine (only slightly more realistic than owning a light sabre or Deathstar).
  
  I had, perhaps naively, never considered that a portion of the money I spent on these games in my country would be given to foreign arms manufacturers in licensing fees. This article has given me cause to think more carefully about purchasing games that feature branded weapons, while I am for developers and publishers receiving profits for their work (and thus against the second hand market) I am less so if those profits should be passed on to gun manufacturers.
  
  I suspect however that this kind of relationship goes beyond video games and is implicit in much of the media we consume where conflict is depicted. Reply +2