game - hawg

2017-08-24T08:50:00.001-07:00

forget that other site, this is still the hotness.

new game news site up

2008-07-21T00:42:00.000-07:00

So I love the video game industry and all that but it is a drag trying to blog 40 posts a day (or whatever is considered frequent these days). So I built a little service that goes out and sicks bots on the top game blogs from around the net and intelligently gathers up relevant news in one spot. I changed up the collective a bit to reflect this new change in direction. Anywhoo, if you want the latest and greatest video game news, the gamer collective is your source :)

what's left of younewb

2008-07-10T19:53:00.000-07:00

just lol'd my arse off at how younewb is now an ad squatter site. funny and sad at the same time.

the gamer collective gets news!

2008-07-10T19:44:00.000-07:00

So during my off-time, I was able to put some decent effort into the making the news section of the gamer collective, the best video game news site it could be.

I'm not doing any kind of editorial placement of any of the stories due to the news engine being ran by a pack of rabid robots. I let them loose on the web a few days ago and they've been pretty decent at fetching relevant news. So if you're keen on staying up to date with the latest video game news, the gamer collective is where you want to be.

Also note that if you see anything amiss, or have something you'd like to see me add to the site, feel free to let me know at curtis@thegamercollective.com

So I'm doing up some Myspace Layouts

2007-09-18T15:35:00.000-07:00

So I wasn't really satisfied with the quality of video game related Myspace layouts out there, so I decided to "roll my own" and start doing a few up that I would want to use. You can catch all of the video game myspace layouts I'm doing here. I hope someone out there finds one of them useful :)

oh, and if you're in need of friends, feel free to add me on Myspace!

youNEWB is DEAD

2007-08-25T10:59:00.000-07:00

Despite my efforts to keep it alive, I had to let it go. It's was a bad experience, I got left to run the whole site by myself, and then I was never able to get the hosting fully in my name. When it comes down to it. I'm a little sad and a little glad to see it go. I had fun most of the time I was there and I met a ton of awesome people in writing for the site but I think we tried to push too hard.

In the end, I personally forgot what it was all about. The fucking games man. So when youNEWB tanked, I walked and decided to start up my own site from the ground up, the Gamer Collective. I thought of what I would want from a game site and I went from there.

So that's where I'll be for now.

Cheers!

youNEWB is not dead

2007-04-19T08:22:00.000-07:00

At least not yet anyway. Problem is, the hosting company BLOWS and for some reason they don't know why the site has been down. Neither do I. If they can't get it sorted out, I'll open up shop under another name somewhere else. I'll keep things up to date here if anyone's watching ;)

Life at YouNewb so far

2006-11-08T23:01:00.000-08:00

So I've been at YouNewb for going on two months now, how has it been blogging for a blog that wants to make it to the top of the game blog stack? Freaking fantastic, hectic and tiring in the best ways possible. There a good group of gents over there and we have have the singular vision of leaving our mark on the video games industry, one way or the other. I'll try to post back here every so often, as a memoirs of the journey of sorts. It's going to be a wild ride.

I'm moving to YouNEWB!

2006-09-22T15:29:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be doing some posting over at YouNEWB.com for a while (hopefully a long while)so my posting here may be pretty light for a while. I'll still put up an occasional post over here because I can never let go of the hawg ;) I just figured I would let you, my faithful reader (yes, you), know since...well...it makes me feel important. Enjoy, my posts on YouNEWB!

Rag Doll Kung Fu makers working on a PS3 title

2006-09-22T08:43:00.000-07:00

Mark Healy and some other ex-Lionhead studio employees released Rag Doll Kung a few moons ago to some critical praise, if for nothing else, for being different and innovative. Now, they have officially opened up their own indie studio, calling it Media Molecule, and are working on their first title which they'll be releasing on the PS3. Why go for the PS3 right off the at? Because they can of course,

"The ambition for Media Molecule is to take that a step further and prove that a small (20 plus) and passionate team can deliver a world class, triple A, next generation product," Healy said in a statement.

Well, that and the fact that they've entered into an agreement with Sony to stay Sony exclusive for now.

According to Media Molecule, the studio has entered into an "exclusive relationship" with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, and has been charged with creating an "original and innovative game" for the PS3. While details are scant, the company's official Web site mentions a "Yellow Head" prototype, calling it "damned addictive." It also mentions that the PS3 game will be multiplayer.

Is this game really "Damned addictive" or is this some boilerplate Sony hype?

[via gamespot]

MTV buys maker of Guitar Hero for $175 million

2006-09-22T08:18:00.000-07:00

I know MTV and Guitars? Who'd a thunkit? MTV snaps up Harmonix, the makers of awesome rock game Guitar Hero for $175 million dollars. Why does MTV want Harmonix? They say they want to be able to give their MTV site visitors and MTV virtual world users the ability to play and remix their favorite songs. I'm sure that this may be limited to the tracks covered in Guitar Hero and Harmonix's karaoke games for now but would probably open up to more songs due to their being MTV. Hey MTV, I have an idea for a music-related game too. I'm calling it "Saxy Back" and I'm planning on bringing the saxophone back ("we're bringing saxy back" is the games intro song) into pop music with my easy listening but hard rocking original Saxophone tunes. I've got a Saxophone controller and everything, it'll be huge. Have your people call my people and we'll do lunch. All I need is $100 million, some red bull and a few crates of chocolate pudding.

[spotted on the nytimes site]

[p.s.: ummmm...pudding.....]

Straight Outta TGS: PS3's Ninja Gaiden Sigma trailer

2006-09-22T08:14:00.000-07:00

Holiee cow, I didn't know there was a trailer for the upcoming PS3 Ninja Gaiden game. For the four of you out there who plan on picking up a PS3, this title might be worth looking into. Especially if, like me, you used to be a Ninja. Us Ninja's gotta stick together, Ninjas don't fight Richard, Ninja's gotta hug!

[hooray for gamevideos.com]

Straight outta TGS: Devil May Cry 4 trailer

2006-09-22T08:04:00.000-07:00

"Straight outta TGS, crazy muther f__ker named Dante..." I have no idea how this trailer looks since THE MAN won't let me install Flash on my PC at work (no, this is not my day job...yet) but if I were to guess how it looked using only my knowledge of how previous Devil May Cry games performed, I'm guessing the trailer will show bits of stylized brilliance and breathtaking coolness, intermixed with moments of dull, oddly familiar and uninspired gameplay. Here's to hoping!

[outright stolen from gamevideo, p.s.: why does it take like eleventy-billion lines of code to embed this video into my site?]

Programming for the PS3's Cell is hard

2006-09-22T07:37:00.000-07:00

Apparently, it takes a lot more than just a bright programmer with a sunny disposition to fully exploit multi-core CPUs. Epic's Time Sweeney chatted a bit at the CEDEC Premium event at TGS about how hard it's been for them to take full advantage of the PS3s Cell CPU.

But he did comment specifically on how difficult it is to program for multi-core processors and the even more complex Cell chip used in the PlayStation 3. He noted that it "takes about twice the effort and development cost to develop for a multi-threaded CPU", compared to a single-core CPU. Even more than that, according to Epic's analysis, fully exploiting the PS3 Cell chip "required about 5 times as much cost and development time than single-core."

What will possibly make this easier is the fact that middleware that takes specific advantage of multi-core CPUs will be more readily available in the future. Sweeney specifically mentions the Ageia's PhysX licenses they bought which have helped but still, that's a lot of money for developers who want to develop for the PS3.

Sweeney does go on to give Sony kudos for giving them the functionality that would allow PS3 gamers to create Unreal Tournament mods on their PC that they could turn around and download to and distribute from their PS3 console. That you cannot do current through the tightlipped Xbox Live service.

He notes that the mod community was "an essential part of [Epic's] success", and commented: "We would love to transfer this mod community over to the console platforms." Of course you'll need a PC to create levels for the upcoming UT2007 for PS3/PC, but Sweeney believes that everything will be in place so that modders can make new levels on the PC, "download them to the PlayStation 3, and distribute them online."

In fact, he was very positive on Sony's open attitude to networked content compared to the Xbox 360 - he commented of Microsoft's platform: "Unfortunately it's more of a closed platform", and even noted that Microsoft seems to be "quite negative toward user-created content" under certain circumstances Epic has encountered.

[more of the interview here]

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Q&A

2006-09-22T07:01:00.000-07:00

Senior VP of product development at Blizzard sat down and chatted with CvG about the upcoming (November/December-ish) Frank Pearce expansion to World of Warcraft, The Burning Crusade. Everytime I try to play any current PC games on my PC, it spits in my face and insults my mother but I'm sure fans of the WoW franchise would appreciate the info. Nothing too earth shattering was relvealed but Pearce does give a look into what you can do once the new areas open up and why they aren't including Hero classes with this expansion. One thing he doesn't go into is the world event that causes this Dark Portal to open up. For that goodness, you'll need cold, hard cash.

A tidbit:

Blizzard said recently that the plan is to release WoW expansions on a yearly basis...

Frank Pearce: That's our goal.

How set in stone is that plan, and how far into the future are you looking in terms of overall WoW development?

Frank Pearce: Well, the goal is concrete. That's our goal, and we've publicly stated that. Whether or not we'll be able to achieve that goal remains to be seen. An expansion set of the scope of The Burning Crusade is a lot of content to deliver on, on an annual basis. We're working to improve our production methods, to try and be more efficient on delivering and creating quality content. But at the end of the day, the quality of the experience is more important than the timeline it's delivered in. It's our goal to do it in that timeline but, if it's not ready, then... [sounds, on our dictaphone, like someone was eating a big bag of crisps at this point so we couldn't quite hear what was said. No one was actually eating a big bag of crisps, but that's what it sounds like].

And as far as how long we'd do that, that depends on the community, right? Because if players are playing WoW, we certainly want to continue to support it.

[pic from WoW site]

Only Japan gets a PS3 price cut

2006-09-22T05:37:00.000-07:00

Sony has confirmed that despite the recent price droppage announced in Japan, Sony will stick to the $499 and $599 prices for the US Playstation models. So Japan gets the price drop and no one else does. I'd bet they would drop that price pretty fast if the PS3 launch turns out worse than expected. And by "bet" I mean "I hope" and "pretty pretty please Sony".

Mutherlovin Snake in a mutherlovin can!

2006-09-22T05:30:00.000-07:00

Hungry for some screenshots? Me neither but here are a ton, 24 to be exact, of screenies from the Metal Gear Solid 4 gameplay demo that both underwhelmed at TGS and gave me a way to throw in a totally unnecessary (and PG) "snakes on a plane" pun.

Straight outta TGS: Ridge Racer 7 trailer

2006-09-22T05:24:00.000-07:00

Sorry, gamevideos.com but I have robbed you again to bring my faithful reader the Ridge Racer 7 trailer from TGS. Is this the best game Sony has at TGS? From what I've been seeing and reading, it would seem so. Bask in it's black market glory!

[thanks again gamevideos]

The Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer...no really!

2006-09-22T05:18:00.000-07:00

Have a hard time finding the actual Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer yesterday? Me too. Everyone was talking about it but cnet yanked the bootlegged vid from youtube without putting it up on their own site....I think, I looked for like 10 seconds and couldn't find it through the sludge of cell phone reviews and tech gadgeteers. So what was an aspiring game blogger with no connections supposed to do? Wait. Which is what I did and now my force patience has been rewarded by the game trailer bootleg gods. We can now all view the MGS trailer in it's full, somewhat disappointing glory!

[video from gamevideos]
[seen mentioned on joystiq]

What a Playstation 3 game really looks like

2006-09-22T05:11:00.000-07:00

Joystiq got some shots of a couple of PS3 games in the wild at TGS and they look similar to what I posted a few days ago, the link escapes me for the moment because I'm lazy. I'm sorry, but all I see when I see that font is Spider-Man so i'm thinking, "what do all these PS3 games have 'Spider-Man 3' on them? Where am I?" . The game cases still look alright despite the overuse of the spider man font (what's that font's official name?) but I doubt that these clear plastic covers will be what the final PS3 games are shipped in. I'm thinking same labels but different casing.

How the Playstation 3 looks all boxed up

2006-09-22T05:06:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder what a Playstation 3 looks like all boxed up amongst it's peers? Me too! It looks just like this:

This guy seems to have the fortunate job of either taking each PS3 out of it's box or stealing each PS3 one by one which, in that case, would almost be the best job in the world. Why are his pants rolled up? Where is he taking this PS3? Out to the beach?

[seen on evil avatar]
[more pics here]

Shining Force coming to the Playstation 2

2006-09-22T04:52:00.000-07:00

The series that introduced me to the strategy RPG genere and taught me how to love again will have a sequel released on the Playstation 2. For now, it's been dubbed Shining Force EXA (exa?). This won't be your "typical gather the troops and head out to battle" strategy game, you'll also have to leave some troops behind to defend what's called the "Geo Fortress" while you're out either saving the world from some evil force or trying to resuce a kidnapped princess. Either way, I'm definitely picking this one up if for nothing other than the history I have with the series.

Circuit City takes gamers for fools

2006-09-21T21:07:00.000-07:00

Seriously Circuit City, did you really think that we would fall for this coupon?

All the kewl gamers know that Gears of War doesn't come out until November, yet this coupon expires on October 31st? Wha? I am going to wait until next week, AT LEAST, to use this coupon. Good try Mr. City, maybe you'll get us next time.

[noticed on destructoid]

The price of gamemaking for the Xbox Live Marketplace

2006-09-21T20:58:00.000-07:00

Seems like producing games for the Xbox Live Marketplace might be a good way to make a pretty penny. GarageGames co-founder Jeff Tunnell gives it to us straight on what it could costs and how much you could profit from making a game and releasing it on the Xbox Live Market place. From what he says, it looks like actually making the game will run you around $100,000 to $300,000 and if you game gets popular, you could end up making close to a million. What I would be interested is in how long would money continue to roll in for these top games. Would the whole long tail theory of content being viable over the long term apply here? Time would tell for sure.

Japanese Sony press release

2006-09-21T20:54:00.000-07:00

Sony just posted the Japanese press release announcing HDMI ports for the lower priced models and how much cheaper the lower end PS3s will be. My japanese is a bit rusty so I'll spare you the efforts of my poor translating.