Nukezilla

Portal 2’s Space Core in Skyrim Courtesy of Valve Developed Mod

Gavin Moore — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:00:07 +0000

Have you ever found yourself playing Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim only to think ‘this game is a little lacking in the space references department’?

Well think no more. Valve has just released Fall of the Space Core, Vol. 1, a mod in celebration of the opening of the Steam Workshop for Skyrim.

The PC only mod allows players to take Portal 2’s Space Core, the space-centric robot voiced by Nolan North, along for the journey. In Valve’s own words:

Since Skyrim was the only major release of 2011 without Nolan North in it, you should consider this mod a patch to fix that problem. You can now feel free to include Skyrim in the ‘Nolan North’ section of your video game library, which is to say, your video game library.

Combining 2011’s best raises tantalising possibilities for gaming crossovers. How about Nathan Drake in Arkham City? Link with a Portal gun? Or Mario and Sonic in some sort of Olympic themed mini game collection? Oh….

Via: CVG

Tim Schafer Turns to Kickstarter to Fund New Adventure Game

Jenny Rouse — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:00:39 +0000

It’s been a good week for adventure gamers. First was the surprising revelation that Psychonauts 2 may actually happen sometime in the not-too-distant future. Now Double Fine head Tim Schafer has released a charming video announcing his intent to produce a fully fan-funded adventure game.

While I’m certain most adventure game veterans see a new Schafer-led point-and-click adventure game as reason enough to donate, Schafer ups the ante by announcing a documentary to be filmed alongside the game’s development, giving gamers – adventure fans or otherwise – real insight on the process of game development. Furthermore, donors will gain access to a private community to give feedback to the game’s developers, and will be able to help shape the game into what it will become.

For now, the untitled game has been announced for PC only, but Schafer has expressed interest in porting to Mac and iOS should the funds become available. Speaking of…

Less than 24 hours after posting the donation page, Double Fine has passed its fund-raising goal – as of this writing, Double Fine has raised $454,052 of the project’s $400,000 asking price, with 33 days left for donation. While Schafer has pledged any extra money will go right back into the game’s development, it is currently unknown if part of the extra funds will be spent purchasing more Marmite for the development team.

Anyone interested can donate HERE for the next month.

In the spirit of full disclosure, it should be noted that I personally donated money to the project. This should come as no surprise, however, as it’s been well-established that I’m an adventure game junkie. Still, full transparency, etc. etc.

Help Nukezilla Destroy Annoying Adverts

John Kershaw — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:22:47 +0000

A long time ago Nukezilla made the decision to refuse money for advertising which takes over the page, or auto-plays audio. Sadly, because we are in the vast minority of sites which do this, our ad company doesn’t provide a water-tight shit-ad-prevention mechanism. Recently we’ve been getting auto-playing ads with audio. This will not do.

As soon as we were notified these ads were popping up I got in contact with our ad supplier. They say they don’t allow these auto-playing ads on their network, and so need our help tracking down the source of this crap.

As NZ doesn’t serve regular readers very many ads, and as the video ones we want to stop are quite rare, it’s difficult for just us to get the data needed. So, if you could help us out that would be appreciated. Below is a copy of the email instructions we got from Technorati on how to report these ads.

We absolutely don’t allow automatic audio, so this is something we will definitely want to remove asap if you can help verify the creative. If you see the creative again, we ask that you take the following steps:
1) If the creative is not flash, please right click on the ad and copy the link address.
2) If the creative is flash based, we recommend using the TamperData FireFox plugin. Once this has been installed, you can open up TamperData (under ‘tools’) and place it another window. Please then visit the page where you’re visiting the problematic creative. If it doesn’t pull up, go ahead and hit ‘clear data’ within the tamper data window. Please repeat until the process until the creative shows up.
Then, on the tamper data window, please first filter by the ad size (’300×250′ for example). Copy all the click data into an email. Next you will want to remove the current ad size filter, and input ‘adnxs”. Please copy all the click data into the same email and send.
On our end, we will be looking for one of two basic ad call string formats:
http://ad.technoratimedia.com/iframe3?iT8AAK
KzKABAt6wAAAAAAIXTIAAAAAAAAgAMAAYAAAAAAP8AAA
AGD8mXOAAAAAAAp6YJAAAAAADuMysAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
BbuxMAAAAAAAIAAwAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKVHQS6Pw
AAAAAAAAAAAAAClR0Euj8AAAAAAAAAAAAAApUdBMo.AA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAC31S
NbicliCyX4gSMCZUn6iJsgYHhvIceb1.C2AAAAAA==,,
http%3A%2F%2Ftechnorati.com%2F,B%3D10%26Z%3D
728×90%26_salt%3D1558451654%26r%3D0%26
referrer%3Dhttp%253a%252f%252ftechnorati.com
%252f%26s%3D266426,ca57b4c8-43b2-11e1-a071-
78e7d15f5ca6,1327097097580=
or
http://ib.adnxs.com/if?enc=AAAAAACAI0AAAAAAAIAjQAA
AACDbeSxAAAAAAACAI0AAAAAAAIAjQDpE0vl93CYKD8xUKa2IU
AAZ5hlPAAAAAErWBgA2AQAANgEAAAIAAAASyxMAltQAAAEAAAB
VU0QAVVNEACwBWAIpbQAAMBUAAgMCAQUAAAAAuxTg7wAAAAA.&
amp;udj=uf%28%27a%27%2C+36748%2C+1327097369%29%3B
uf%28%27r%27%2C+1297170%2C+1327097369%29%3Bppv%28
26774%2C+%27731514423114613818%27%2C+1327097369%2
C+1337465369%2C+176544%2C+54422%2C+0%29%3B&cn
d=!RsaBQig4woQkpZPGAAglqkDMAA4qdoBQARItgJQyqwbWA
Bg1wJoAHA4eACAAUCIAQCQAQGYAQGgAQGoAQCwAQC5AQAAAAA
AgCNAwQEAAAAAAIAjQMkBOq8WfbeYxj_ZAQAAAAAAAPA_4AEA
&ccd=!mwS6Jgig4woQkpZPGJapAyAE&vpid=47
&referrer=http://www.technorati.com/&
media_subtypes=1
Let me know if you have any questions and thanks in advance for all of your help.

Please email us (John@nukezilla.com) with the ad call strings, as well as a description of what the video is.

I hate ads.

Ace Attorney 5 Announced, Original Trilogy Being Ported to iOS and Android

Max Cornell — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:16:30 +0000

If, like me, you’re a fan of the wonderful Ace Attorney series, then you’d be pleased to know that Capcom have announced the series is set to get a fifth entry. Unfortuantely, details are currently sketchy, so it could mean that the latest edition to the Ace Attorney series could be released in Japan only, just like Ace Attorney Investigations 2 (the second Miles Edgeworth spin-off game).

However, there is even more Ace Attorney news that is also quite exciting.

The first three games in the series, being Phoenix Wright, Justice for All and Trials and Tribulations, will be coming to iOS and Android platforms under the banner Phoenix Wright 123 HD. The re-releases, redone in HD, will be available individually for $7.80, all three together in a bundle for $15.60, and with trial versions offering the first two chapters.

Adding to the Phoenix Wright news (or, rather, Professor Layton X Ace Attorney), the puzzle world of Professor Layton and the crime/logic investigating finesse of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney are set to clash spectacularly in Labyrinth City, where the two will have to prove that a young girl is not a witch and deal with the evil Story Teller, whose pen creates things in the real world.

It’s safe to say I am rather excited to get back in the courtroom.

Via: Siliconera and Beefjack

What’s New and What’s Cheap in the UK: Dead Island, Shank 2 and Skyrim

Simon Julian — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:00:23 +0000

Welcome to this week’s edition of “What’s New and What’s Cheap in the UK”, the weekly post telling you exactly what it says on the tin: what’s cheap in Old Blighty. But fear not, international readers: where applicable, prices will also be listed in Euros and USD.

This week’s Releases include another solid collection of titles, with Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and The Darkness II hitting PC, 360 and PS3 and Catherine finally hitting EU shores on the 360 and PS3.

On the cheap side this week, Play.com has Dead Island for £16.99 on 360 and PS3, HMV has the World Of Warcraft Cataclysm Collectors Edition for £24.99, Origin has the freshly released Shank 2 for £5.99, Steam has a sale on the modern Elder Scroll games with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition on sale for £7.49 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for £23.29, and the Humble Bundle is still ongoing with the Humble Indie Bundle for Android which includes Edge, Osmos and Anomaly along with World of Goo if you pay over the average.

What catches your eye on either side this week ?

What’s New

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
The Darkness II

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
The Darkness II
Catherine

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
The Darkness II
Catherine

What’s Cheap

Play.com

Dead Island | 360 | £16.99
Dead Island | PS3 | £16.99
House Of The Dead: Overkill – Extended Cut | PS3 | £9.99
Need For Speed: The Run | PS3 | £17.99
Need For Speed: The Run | 360 | £17.99

Simply Games

Final Fantasy XIII-2 | 360 | £31.85
Final Fantasy XIII-2 | PS3 | £31.85

HMV

World Of Warcraft Cataclysm Collectors Edition | PC | £24.99

Origin

Shank 2 | PC | £5.99

Zavvi

Rayman Origins | 360 | £14.95
Rayman Origins | PS3 | £14.95
King of Fighters XIII | 360 | £19.95

Steam

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Game of the Year Edition | PC | £6.49/$9.99/€9.99
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition | PC | £7.49/$9.99/€9.99
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | PC | £23.29/$39.99/€33.49

Humble Indie Bundle for Android

Edge, Osmos, Anomaly | PC | £/$/€ whatever you like – Also includes World of Goo if you pay over the average

If I’ve missed either a new release or a great cheap deal, please comment and make that information known.

Haiku Impressions: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)

Meagan Bickell — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:20:31 +0000

All a hero needs:
Master Sword, Silver Arrows,
Catchy-ass bit-tunes.

Notch Wants to Fund a Psychonauts Sequel

Wesley Gaddis — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:32:51 +0000

In the “things I always wanted to happen but I’m almost positive they never will and I have accepted that” department of Videogames there are a couple of things. A Beyond Good & Evil sequel is one of them. Another Jet Grind/Set Radio game is another. Psychonauts is another of those that I didn’t think would happen either.

In a recent interview with Digital Spy, Schafer said (with regards to a Psychonauts sequel) “I’d love to do that game, but I’d have to convince someone to just give me a few million dollars, that’s all.” I kind of just wish people would stop asking him this question unless they’re actually going to tell him something along the lines of “Well, here’s the money, get to it son!” with game show host charisma. It just feels kind of rude to me, because who doesn’t want a Psychonauts 2?

The interview got bounced around the blogocube, and Notch (of Minecraft fame) saw a post about the interview by RockPaperShotgun on twitter, and replied “How many millions exactly?”. Soon after that, Notch confirmed his genuine intention of making this happen, sending Schafer a message on twitter saying “Let’s make Psychonauts 2 happen”.

Earlier this morning Schafer got back to Notch via email to discuss the project in private. They’re both going to GDC and will discuss the matter further at the conference.

I really hope I’m not the only one that’s thinking this, but can we declare a holiday the day this actually gets released? I’m thinking something like “Notch-mas”.

via The Escapist

Nukezilla Review: Professor Layton and the Last Specter (DS)

Jenny Rouse — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:20:44 +0000

Puzzling has been in my blood since a very young age. Growing up, watching syndicated reruns of the old Adam West Batman show, one of my favorite villains was the Riddler – being the precocious little child I was, I would often attempt to beat Batman to the punch and solve the riddle myself. Playtime often consisted of large jigsaw puzzles set up on a table in the corner – though I sometimes would take a break to play my brother’s new Nintendo Entertainment System (nice graphics!). As I grew older, I gamed more, but I still had a penchant for puzzles. It was therefore no surprise that I took to the Professor Layton series of games as I did, and I am happy to report that the fourth installment, Professor Layton and the Last Specter, is just as engrossing.

In Last Specter, Professor Layton receives a letter from an old friend, begging him to travel to the town of Misthallery, where a giant specter often appears at night to wreak havoc on the town and its inhabitants. Joined by his new assistant, Emmy, Professor Layton travels to the town to speak to Clark, only to find that he’s become the newly-appointed mayor of the troubled town, and that Clark’s son Luke – who actually wrote the letter – appears to have some sort of connection to the destructive specter, including the ability to predict when and where it will strike next. It is up to Layton, Emmy, and Luke to untangle the mystery of the specter, as well as unmask the many secrets also hidden throughout the town.

Last Specter, despite being the fourth game in the series, is actually a prequel, taking place three years before the events of Professor Layton and the Curious Village, and serves to tell the story of how Professor Layton came to take young Luke Triton as his apprentice, helping him solve puzzles and mysteries across the land. Last Specter is the first of a brand-new prequel trilogy, to be followed by Mask of Miracle (releasing internationally in 2012) and an untitled (but confirmed) third entry.

The gameplay of Last Specter is unchanged from the original trilogy; it stands to reason that fans of the previous three games will enjoy the fourth installment just as much. The game’s formula is unchanged, and for the most part, the formula works, and doesn’t need to be changed. However, this decision brings with it a few disappointments with the game. In my review of Unwound Future last year, I pointed out that the story’s mysteries were getting more and more ridiculous as each game released. Each game’s overarching mystery had implausible explanations that were at least based in some sort of reality, but Last Specter pushes the series straight into pure fantasy – a direction from which I am afraid the series cannot return. It is certainly alarming, considering our dear Professor’s love of reason and logic.

However, the game’s strengths are as present as they have been since the series began. Every game has crafted a vibrant world of NPCs with distinct and unique personalities and quirks to humanize them, and Last Specter is no different. The game’s cut scenes are well-animated, and may be the best of the series to date, with fluid animation and a sense of cinematic flair. The music may also be the best the series has ever had, and much like with Unwound Future, still inspires me to sip coffee at a small European cafe and people watch.

Last Specter does bring with it a few minor changes. The most notable change is a series of side stories that have no impact on the plot, but simply serve to flesh out the lives of the various NPCs Layton encounters throughout the game. The side story system is reminiscent of Final Fantasy IX‘s Active Time Event system, with brief cut scenes guiding characters through a moments of development. I found it fun and refreshing to get to know the game’s minor characters outside of their obsession with puzzles, though at the end of the day it amounts to little more than a throwaway feature; as I noted before, these scenes have no impact on the plot, nor do they garner the player any valuable hint coins or extra riddles. While the extra bit of story was fine for me, some players may be frustrated with the side stories’ seeming lack of purpose.

Though I close the DS chapter of Professor Layton on a questionable note as to the series’ future direction, I can still highly recommend the series to any puzzle or adventure fan – and that includes this installment. Despite my hesitations with the direction of the storytelling, Last Specter is still a fun, solid play, and well worth the price of admission – especially if you bought the American version, which includes the London Life bonus RPG (sorry, Europe). For me, the Layton series has yet to wear out its welcome, and I welcome the 3DS installments with open arms.

Nightmare Customer Service Experience with Microsoft after Xbox Live Account Hacking

Meagan Bickell — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:19:16 +0000

Are you a hacker? Do you steal Xbox Live accounts? Do you live in Russia? If you answered “no” to all of these questions, Microsoft probably still won’t care when you call them to report that your own account has been hacked. They’ll just assume you’re making it up to get out of…something.

Or at least that’s what might happen, according to one Microsoft customer who goes by the gamertag dmaul1114. The customer posted on the Cheap Ass Gamer forums on February 1st about a horrible experience with Microsoft’s already lackluster customer service.

An automated email in Russian was dmaul1114′s first clue that something was amiss. Apparently, dmaul1114′s account had been hacked by someone in Russia who then spent MS points already on the account to purchase Rift. Then the hacker used dmaul1114′s account to hack into other accounts, and the nefarious activity was traced back to dmaul1114 because, according to Microsoft’s records, the account hacking happened “while [dmaul1114] was in control of the account,” or at least before dmaul1114 was aware of what was going on and reported the account as compromised.

So, long story short, dmaul1114 gets the missing MS points refunded, but in the meantime the account was permanently banned from Xbox Live for “attempting to steal other accounts,” as dmaul1114 somehow simultaneously lived in Russia and the US, even though evidence shows this is obviously false.

All I know is that if dmaul1114 showed up at Microsoft headquarters with a chainsaw and attempted to chop up every single member of the Xbox Live Policy Enforcement Team (who conducted the “investigation” of the hacked account), part of me would have a hard time finding sympathy for those individuals. Not that I’m condoning violence, but Microsoft has acted appallingly and should be ashamed of their treatment of this loyal paying customer.

What’s more, I can say from personal experience that this is not an isolated case of Microsoft being less than helpful when it comes to compromised accounts. Microsoft apparently thinks that once you give them money, they’re allowed to treat you like shit with no repercussions at all.

However…

dmaul1114 posted an update to the story the next day affirming that because of random internet strangers spreading the word about their plight, Microsoft has seen the light and done a more thorough investigation, leading them to find dmaul1114 innocent of all accusations and lift the ban from the account. And while they’re happy about this personal triumph, they will “be even more pleased if this awful experience never happens to anyone else”.

I can agree with that sentiment, dmaul1114 — but I won’t hold my breath.

About

John Kershaw — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:01:42 +0000

What’s All This Nukezilla About?

Nukezilla is a videogame blog.

That doesn’t sound right at all. Nukezilla is a collective… a website … just a name … a community … an ethos? Well shit, I don’t seem to know what my own website is. Sorry.

Nukezilla is a space, owned by the people who use it, for talking about videogames.

The tag line of the site is “Because the games we love could be better and corporate bullshit still exists. Rawr.” which pretty much gets the point across. We’re interested in talking about games. Indie games, popular games, bad games, we want to talk about them all. We want to have these discussions away from the wider gaming world’s PR, sexism, greed and general unpleasantness.

This website began life in May 2008 as Negative Gamer (Why so Negative?). It was a place for me to vent and complain and rant. It was nice to be able to channel my inner angry-baby and not be met with a molasses of disagreeing comments. The few years that followed saw Negative Gamer gain a small audience of like minded people, and a gathering of writers who all shared the same general principals. I was an angry person back then, and whilst I’ve calmed down a bit and become hopefully more constructive, the ideas from Negative Gamer have continued on to Nukezilla.

The site was renamed Nukezilla in May 2010 (Negative Gamer is Changing Its Name to Nukezilla) because “Negative Gamer” is a crap name, and it limited the scope of what we could do. It’s difficult to move from under a well labelled trope out into the real world, but we’ve managed it.

We like to stand for quality, fairness, liberation and smart talking. We have a team of editors to make sure our words are good. We have a council to run the place and make sure everything is fair. We’re a welcoming, growing, safe community and we’d like you to join us. If you want.

No related posts.

Giving Gamers: Iron Man Mode

Meagan Bickell — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:20:44 +0000

So, one day these three gamers are talking to each other. One turns to the other two and says, “Hey, let’s play some games!”

The second says, “That’s a really cool idea, except let’s play them with only one life!”

Then the third says, “That sounds awesome, except we should also blog about the games like they’re real adventures and when we’ve expended the one life then the blog is over!”

The first one says, “That’s a great idea, but we need to come up with a catchy title. How about ‘Iron Man Mode: The Blog’?”

The other two agreed, and that’s how Iron Man Mode: The Blog was born.

…or something like that. I think.

Anyway, after doing this for a few months and gathering readers, they’ve decided to give their blog a purpose beyond entertainment and have begun asking for donations — not to cover the costs of the site, but to give to charity. Why? Because they’re cool guys.

The charity the site is contributing to changes periodically. A monetary goal is set for each period and once the goal is reached, a new goal is set for a new charity. Much like a Kickstarter campaign, they offer special prizes for each donation tier. For example, donating $20-30 gets your name mentioned on their news page, while a donation of $150 allows you to choose the next game they blog about. In addition, making the largest donation during a given cycle gives you the opportunity to pick the charity for the next cycle.

The guys at Iron Man Mode: The Blog never see any of the money as it all goes straight to the charity for that cycle. They pride themselves on not being like “a lot of creatives who constantly beg/guilt trip for personal donations”.

But if you’ve got a few dollars to spare, they recommend some (supposedly) sound financial advice and also recommend, if you please, donating to their currently sponsored charity using the widget on their site. As of this post, they’re donating to Child’s Play, a charity that helps make the lives better for sick kids in hospitals by providing them with video games and toys.

And after helping some sick kids, I recommend hanging out on Iron Man Mode for a bit and checking out their blogs. Those guys are hilarious.

Music Monday: Press X to Jason

Jenny Rouse — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:04:01 +0000

When Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain came out back in 2010, i was hooked on the game’s story – not much of a surprise, considering my background in story-heavy adventure games. It certainly has its flaws, but two years later, I still find myself more of a fan of the game than not, and always recommend it as a top PS3-exclusive game to be tried.

While Heavy Rain was met with admiration by some and criticism by others (or a combination of the two), it is unarguable that the game knew when and how to use music to evoke a response in the players. Composer Normand Corbeil excelled at creating a dark and somber orchestral score that also knows when to be sad, yet uplifting.

Sidebar: The game also gave us that “Press X to Jason” pseudo-meme [bonus video! - early story spoilers] due in part to its sometimes awkward voice acting.

Ethan Mars’ Theme

Last Breath

~~Nahmen~~ Norman Jayden’s Theme

Trailer Theme (I think this plays during the ending credits, too)

Fluff Friends Rescue is All “Fluffed Up”

Meagan Bickell — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:00:13 +0000

After writing this article about the release of a game called Fluff Friends Rescue on iOS as a means to help the Humane Society of the United States, I was excited to get started reviewing it. It’s right up my alley — free-to-play, lots of micromanagement, rescuing cute dogs and cats — and I expected to have a lot of fun while helping the HSUS at the same time.

So now I suppose you’re saying to yourself, “But Meagan, what do you mean by ‘expected’? Did you not ‘have a lot of fun while helping the HSUS at the same time’?”

Well, yes. Technically I did “have a lot of fun while helping the HSUS at the same time.” But there were some…complications. I’ll get to those in a minute, but for right now I’ll just say that I was unable to write a review for this game and so had to write this impressions piece instead.

The game begins kind of slowly, but is actually really fun once you have a good foothold. You start off with a small plot of land to put a hospital room and a playpen on. When you have that ready, you can begin to rescue stray animals outside your shelter. As you rescue more animals you can expand your shelter by adding more hospital rooms, kitchens, play rooms, bathtubs, and playpens, and more people will come to your shelter and adopt a pet. You also receive XP to level up for building things and rescuing animals, and as you level more items become available for you to buy.

The game has a typical monetary system. You gain Coins for adopting out pets and keeping your shelter tidy and clean, which you then use to take in animals and also to buy new buildings and decor items. You can also spend real money to buy Mini Bucks, which are required to rescue certain breeds and buy some of the items.

A few of the items — surprisingly few, actually — are labeled with the Humane Society of the United States’ name, and the purchase of those with Coins or Mini Bucks translate into a donation to the HSUS. It isn’t really clear, though, how that works. I haven’t yet been able to figure out how much money is donated per item bought because the items aren’t bought with real money directly. However, some amount of money is still going to a good cause, so I don’t have much of a complaint there. I’d just like a little more transparency on that aspect of the game.

All-in-all, it’s a pretty typical simulation game, and if that genre appeals to you, you’ll have a blast with it.

BUT…

…and this is a big “but,” too…

(Oh my God, Becky! Look at that “but!” It’s so big!)

While the game runs fairly smoothly most of the time, it does crash occasionally. Sometimes the animals will scoot across the ground, stuck in the sitting animation, instead of walking and that sort of thing.

The bigger problem, though, is that once you reach level 30-something — for me it was level 31, while others online claim anywhere between level 30 and level 36–the game stops working. And that’s not an exaggeration. Mine stopped saving my progress, leaving me stuck in an infinite Groundhog Day-type loop each time I opened the game. For some, the game apparently stops loading at that point. For others, the game crashes so much it might as well just not load at all.

To make matters worse, there is little to no support for the game, aside from a forum which is frequented by angry customers and apparently never checked by any MindJolt staff. And as of this post, there have been no statements made about updates or fixes planned — a troubling situation considering some people spend lots of real money on games like this, not to mention the bad publicity the HSUS is getting from a game that doesn’t work produced by a company that doesn’t seem to care.

I think it’s worth mentioning, too, that last year, (fluff)Friends on Facebook, the predecessor to Fluff Friends Rescue on iOS, ended abruptly with a lot of paying customers upset. The reason given for pulling the game from Facebook was that it would have required “an entire rebuild from the ground up,” but with the game as popular as it was, the fact that a LOT of real money was spent on the game by many people, and the lack of support and compensation to those who felt cheated, many find that excuse less than satisfactory. There is speculation (and granted, it’s only speculation) that there is a similar future for Fluff Friends Rescue, but there’s only circumstantial evidence to support that thus far.

Nukezilla has requested a statement from MindJolt, but we have yet to receive an answer.

I really hate to say it, but I can’t recommend this game unless you only plan on playing to level 29, which won’t take long. If you want to help the HSUS, I would recommend instead that you make a donation to them directly on their website or go to your local Humane Society to make a donation or volunteer.

Rayman Origins to be Released on PC Without DRM

Gavin Moore — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:59:53 +0000

Ubisoft has announced the release of Rayman Origins for PC. The highly praised 2D platformer will appear online and in stores on 30th March after its late 2011 release on Playstation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360.

A further boost to PC gamers came via Nate Fury, Ubisoft’s UK Community Manager, who announced on Twitter that retail versions of Rayman Origins would be DRM free:

We’re announcing Rayman Origins for PC right the hell now! Also, retail versions will have NO DRM. None, zero, zip. Ohemgee!

‘Ohemgee’ indeed. PC users will also receive a free download of Rayman 2 if they pre-order a digital copy of the game from UBIshop online.

Via: CVG

Leo! The Shitty Gamer: Episode – 005 Super Dodge Ball (NES)

Leo Artajo — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:13:44 +0000

Ethics Policy

John Kershaw — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:06:24 +0000

To be written

Posting Guide V3.0

How The Council Operates

John Kershaw — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:05:06 +0000

How The Nukezilla Council Operates

[This document is almost always a work in progress.]

What “Council”?

In late 2011 John started working for Nukezilla full time. One of the first things he did was to create the idea of the Nukezilla Council (NZC), a group of people who would replace him as the entity which runs the site. The NZC is a subsection of staff, each with a given role within the site’s management, working together to diffuse authority fairly amongst the collective to keep the site fair for all.

The members of the council change over time (no role is permanent) and the way decisions are made attempts to be as fair for all as possible. As of 6th Feb 2011, the following roles had been discussed. Where applicable the name of the current person serving under each title is given.

Council Chair (Editor-in-Chief) – John Kershaw
The Council Chair is in charge of making sure the council operates. They have no added decision-making power. They are there to organise and facilitate meetings, as well as making sure everyone is happy in their roles. They can be thought of as the Council Project manager.

News Project Manager (News Editor) – Hans Wuerflein
The News PM makes sure Nukezilla covers news as best it can. This role leads our quality development and policy debate, as well as providing editorial oversight to the news.

Reviews Project Manager (Reviews Editor) – Brett Parsons
Similar to the News PM the Reviews PM’s main task is making sure Nukezilla produces reviews that are interesting and of high quality.

Industry Liaison Project Manager – Dan Rosenthal
The ILPM is Nukezilla’s version of the PR manager. They are the main contact with the industry. It’s their job to make sure we don’t burn bridges that don’t need burning, but also that we don’t compromise our ethics for industry pressure. They keep us on the ethical side of life.

Community Project Manager
The CPM is a very unique role in that the person who is the CPM is not a staff member, instead they are a member of the wider Nukezilla community. They are the voice at the council meetings which represents non-staff Nukezilla people. They are also in charge of community based events, site features and conflict resolution.

Features Project Manager (Features Editor)
Managing columns and one off features, making sure Nukezilla continues to output a solid quantity of original articles.

Video Project Manager
A role for the person in charge of Nukezilla’s video content.

New Person Project Manager
Somebody who’s role is based around staff recruitment, and making sure new memebers of staff are settling in and happy.

Merch Project Manager
The Merch PM is in charge of coming up with viable merchandise opportunities for the site. Everyone likes mugs.

Meetings

When?

The NZC aims to have meetings every two weeks. Availability of current council members is first considered when deciding on a time to have the meeting, however meeting times should be chosen to be as accessible as possible. Having a regular meeting time is problematic as it may exclude some people for long periods of time. The Council Chair is in charge of arranging meetings.

Who?

Meetings are open to, and should be attended by, anyone who is a current NZC member. Staff members curious to listen in are welcome to do so, and staff members who may want to take on a council role are encouraged to come along.

Community members are not currently invited to meetings, unless invited by the CPM for a specific reason which requires them to be there.

How?

Before the meeting, a document listing discussion points is created. Anyone can submit a discussion point.

Meetings happen via a Skype conference call. The call is recorded. Each discussion point is gone though.

After the meeting a link to the audio recording, the pre-meeting discussion points and resulting minutes/notes are emailed to all staff.

What if I want to say something?

If you’re a council member, add what you want to say to the discussion points list and it’ll be brought up at the meeting.

If you’re a staff member, but not on the council, you can have your comment/issue put on the discussion points list. It’s recommended to chat to the most suitable council member before the meeting so they can speak on your behalf.

If you’re not on staff, you should talk to the Community Project Manager who can talk on your behalf.

Action Points and Proposals

During the meeting there’s two progressive things that can happen.

Action points

The first is that somebody is Action Pointed to do something. A record that person A said they would do thing B is noted and at the next applicable meeting their progress is discussed.

Proposals

The second thing that can happen is that a Proposal is made. This is usually for larger or more important things which need doing or deciding. Proposals follow this process:

At the meeting the council works out roughly what the Proposal needs to be.
An email is sent to all staff with the Proposal details in for consultation. The default consultation period is a week, unless otherwise stated.
If nobody objects, the proposal is put into action.
If concerns are raised, a discussion is had about the proposal.
If needed, the Proposal is discussed again, as well as all feedback, at the next Council meeting.
A conclusion on what to do with the Proposal is made. The Proposal may be dropped, changed, or voted on in some form.

Decision Making

If it seems like there’s some disagreement, a form of voting is used to decide an outcome. The council decides on which form of voting is best.

Ideally a “normal” majority vote should be avoided unless consensus is not suitable. If 49% of people are unhappy, this is not a wanted outcome. Instead, consensus should be used; people can Agree (voting in favour of the Proposal), Stand Aside (choosing not to vote) or Block (very strongly disagree). If there is one Block, the Proposal does not pass.

No related posts.

Posting Guide V3.0

John Kershaw — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:39:35 +0000

Posting Guide V3.0

Being written.

Ethics Policy

What’s New and What’s Cheap in the UK: Double Fine Double Pack, Bastion and the Humble Indie Bundle for Android

Simon Julian — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:00:17 +0000

This week’s Releases are back, with a small but solid collection of titles for both the PS3 and 360, including Final Fantasy XIII-2, Metal Gear Solid HD Collection and Soul Calibur V.

On the cheap side this week, Play.com has Assassin’s Creed: Revelations on 360 and PS3, Bastion is available on XBLA for 600MSP, Steam has a Double Fine Pack for £7.99 which includes Costume Quest and Psychonauts, and the Humble Bundle is back with the Humble Indie Bundle for Android which includes Edge, Osmos and Anomaly along with World of Goo if you pay over the average, for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android.

What catches your eye on either side this week ?

What’s New

Final Fantasy XIII-2
Soul Calibur V
Metal Gear Solid HD Collection
Neverdead

Final Fantasy XIII-2
Soul Calibur V
Metal Gear Solid HD Collection
Neverdead

What’s Cheap

Play.com

Need For Speed: The Run | PC | £12.99
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations | 360 | £22.99
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations | PS3 | £22.99

Choices UK

Assassins Creed Brotherhood | PS3 | £8.99

XBLA

Bastion | XBLA | 600MSP

Origin

Mirror’s Edge | PC | £4.99
Dragon Age II | PC | £7.49
Dead Space | PS3 | £3.00
Dead Space 2 | PS3 | £4.99

Shopto

Alpha Protocol | PC | £1.85

Steam

Double Fine Pack | PC | £7.99/$11.49/€11.49 – Includes Costume Quest and Psychonauts

Humble Indie Bundle for Android

Edge, Osmos, Anomaly | PC | £/$/€ whatever you like – Also includes World of Goo if you pay over the average

If I’ve missed either a new release or a great cheap deal, please comment and make that information known.

IndieCade 2012 Submissions are Open for Business

Brett Parsons — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:40:31 +0000

Here ye, Here ye, all aspiring and some already proven, successful independent developers! IndieCade, the International Festival of Independent Games is now accepting submissions for their 2012 competition.

Nukezilla missed our appointment to check out the 2011 collection of fabulous competitors at last year’s E3 – blame it on Mass Effect 3 and Telltale Games, if you must. We’re sure to check them all out this year in Los Angeles if we can survive the swarm of PS Vita toting part-time models for hire and League of Legends fanboys.

We’re helping to spread the news on account of our love for independent development and that hefty guilt-rock in Jenny and my stomach. We’re sorry and hopefully this makes all things better. Now get to subbin’ so we can all enjoy playing your undercover passion project. I’m looking at you, Surprised Man!

GameStop: Only Straight, Male, Patronising Gamers Play Twisted Metal

John Kershaw — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:09:08 +0000

GameStop have a special offer on at the moment; if you pre-order Twisted Metal you get a discount on buying flowers, because the game comes out on Valentine’s Day, get it?

The title of the promo email is “Send her flowers so you can game”, and the body of the text reminds you this is “a simple solution to that age-old question: game or girlfriend?”. The implication is pretty clear; shut her up with cheap pretty things as you play your videogame.

This is very, very sexist.

I won’t repeat the sensible thoughts you just had in your head about the woman-hating company. Instead I will head off on a tangent and suggest that if you have a hobby in your life which is so important you would choose it over one who you say you love, and if you are put in a situation where you must choose between them, I think you should stop and re-evaluate your situation.

GameStop, it’s 2012, you don’t need to be misogynistic to attract the “gamer” demographic any more.

(If you don’t have a girlfriend who needs patronising, you can pre-order Twisted Metal on Amazon for the same price as GameStop here)

[Update 1: This article has been updated to mention the game comes out on Valentine's Day.]

Update 2: Tumblr user TopHatt Designs has written GameStop a letter about this. You should read it as it’s quite good.

New Humble Bundle Brings Indie to Android

Jon Ruggiero — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:39:44 +0000

By now, if you haven’t bought one of the many wonderful Humble Bundles that have been offered, you’ve at least heard of them. They’re great ways to cheaply try out games you normally wouldn’t hear about and contribute to charity. Usually these bundles are released for PC, Linux, and Mac support. Today’s newly-released bundle, however, focuses on a new market: Android devices.

The Humble Bundle (for Android) brings some indie flavor to your mobile device with Anomaly: Warzone Earth, Osmos, EDGE, and World of Goo (the latter being available when you pay at or above the average price for the bundle). A few of these games have been offered in previous bundles, but this is the first time you can get them on your Android device of choice. If you don’t have said device, the bundle is cross-platform, giving you access to a DRM-free Mac, PC, and Linux version as well with purchase.

If this is your first bundle purchase, you can learn all about how to name your own price, the games and charities involved, and who ultimately gets your money on the Humble Bundle website. Even though I’ve acquired two of these games before (in previous bundles), I picked up the bundle this afternoon. I (humbly) request you all take a look at these, as EDGE alone is worth picking up, but the other games included are pretty fantastic.

Music Monday: I’ll See You In My Dreams

Jenny Rouse — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:03:25 +0000

Oh, you’d best believe I’m going back to my childhood for this one.

In the late 80′s and early 90′s, Capcom and Disney had a special partnership. Disney would make a cartoon, and Capcom would make the videogame adaptation. Most of you may scoff at me, for we all know that licensed videogames suck. Except for the ones that came out of this partnership; they were golden, the lot of them (well, Tale Spin wasn’t great). Capcom and Disney have generally continued this partnership to this day with mixed results, but I doubt anything can recapture their NES glory days.

Music from this week’s selection comes from the NES title Little Nemo: The Dream Master, a (good!) licensed game meant to tie in with 1989′s animated release of Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, based on Winsor McCay’s famed comic. And composer Junko Tamiya (credited as “Gonzou”), has perfectly produced whimsical tunes that – at least to me – reach Mario levels of catchy. It’s been a good fifteen years since I last played this game, and I can still hum every song in its entirety.

Sidebar: I mentioned this in last week’s Music Monday, but what is with Japan having better titles for games? This time around it’s Pajama Hero Nemo. AWESOME.

“Dream 1: The Mushroom Forest”

“Dream 5: Nemo’s House”

“Dream 7: “Topsy Turvy”

“Dream 8: Nightmare Land” – this could be straight out of Mega Man.

MindJolt Teams with Humane Society for iOS Game

Meagan Bickell — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 12:11:01 +0000

If you’re a gamer who loves animals, you’ll probably be interested to know that there’s a new game on iOS called Fluff Friends Rescue. It’s an animal rescue simulation game developed by MindJolt SGN (Social Gaming Network) in which players start an animal rescue, nurse stray animals back to health, and find them loving homes.

It’s similar to Fluff Friends, the once-popular Facebook social game. In 2008, the Facebook game traded hands a few times before finally ending up at MindJolt SGN. It would have required “an entire rebuild from the ground up” after some changes were made to Facebook that rendered the game incompatible, so the company decided to remake the game and repurpose it for a good cause–to help the Humane Society of the United States make the lives better of homeless pets across the country.

“Profit hungry puppy mills and the pet stores that sell these animals have caused animal welfare to become a major international issue,” said Chris DeWolfe, CEO of Mindjolt SGN. “…By creating a positive game where each user runs their own pet rescue we are increasing awareness of animals at risk and combining empathy with entertainment.”

Betsy McFarland, Vice President of Companion Animals for the Humane Society of the United States, also commented that, “[Fluff Friends Rescue] makes the point that in addition to a loving home, pets need proper nourishment, regular grooming, play time and quality medical care.”

The game is free, but there are in-game items you can purchase — branded with the Humane Society name — which translate to real-life donations to the Humane Society of the United States, specifically to their Animal Rescue Team which provides assistance to communities during natural disasters and also helps to battle dog- and cock- fighting rings and puppy- and kitten-mills.

Being an animal-lover, I’ll be spending some time on this game myself. So look for an upcoming review!

Via: GamePolitics and GamesNews

Haiku Impressions: Dungeons & Dragons, 4th Edition

Meagan Bickell — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:00:15 +0000

Spent a couple k,
But now I have all the books!
…What “5th edition”?