Video Game News

A series of Nintendo Direct events are set to take place tomorrow, as creatively announced today through Swapnote messages sent out to 3DS owners. This is the third time Nintendo Direct is taking place and as Nintendo of America and Europe will each be hosting their own videos, as opposed to a broadcast only in Japanese, we should be getting much more information that is of interest to those outside of Japan.

The trend seems to be for Nintendo to showcase content through Nintendo Direct every two months. The first one took place in October, and although it did not bring with it any earth-shattering revelations, there were some newsworthy announcements. We received details on the 3DS system update adding 3D movie recordings and new StreetPass content, specifics on Mario Kart 7's online functionality, and new games were announced for Japan.

MechWarrior fans find themselves a bit overwhelmed these days. With three separate MW-inspired games announced within months of each other -- not bad for a series that most assumed died nearly a decade ago. -- even hardcore fans might find the distinctions confusing. Presented below is our quick guide to the recent announcements.

MechWarrior Online
Platform: PC
Developer: Piranha Games
Genre: Free-to-play sim
Release date: TBA 2012
Retro inspiration: MechWarrior's two through four

In what can only be described as a remarkable turnaround, the 3DS has gone from struggling badly enough that it necessitated a steep price drop to breaking a record by reaching 5 million units sold in Japan faster than any other platform. It took 52 weeks to reach that milestone, compared with 56 weeks for the original DS and 58 weeks for the Game Boy Advance before it.

It wasn't all that long ago that much of the talk about 3DS centered about how it was a doomed platform, one destined for failure because it was designed for a market that no longer exists in the size it once did. There were legitimate concerns to be voiced, as platforms like the iPhone and iPad have arguably taken a bite out of the handheld gaming market, but pronouncements of the platform's death before it could even reach the holiday shopping season or see the release of its first big games (Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, and Monster Hunter 3G) were clearly premature. Reaching 5 million units sold in Japan is no guarantee the system will continue to sell this well moving forward; it is, however, an encouraging sign for Nintendo, Sony, and third-party developers to see there is demand for portable gaming systems provided the price is right and desirable software is available.

Look up the word "workmanlike" in the dictionary and you might see a boxshot of Treyarch's Call of Duty: World at War. The game earned good, if not astounding, ratings from critics and sold amazingly well -- just not enough to match Call of Duty 4. Treyarch has spent the better part of the past decade in the shadow of that game's creators, Infinity Ward, listening to fans and media refer to them as the "B-team" in charge of the "off-year" Call of Duty games, but this year's game, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, marks the first chance the studio has ever had to truly own the Call of Duty series.

Getting their start with the series in 2005 with Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, Treyarch truly stepped into the spotlight with Call of Duty 3 in 2006. Receiving merely average reviews, the team couldn't quite capture the magic of Call of Duty 2. When Infinity Ward reinvented the series in 2007 with CoD 4, fans expected Treyarch's follow-up to continue on in the same vein as the early games in the series, and World at War's WWII setting enhanced that perception. WaW certainly trumped CoD 3, but couldn't quite hit the heights that IW turned out every two years.

I can't help but wonder if the folks at Telltale Games felt a bit slighted by the fanfare and jubilation surrounding last week's announcement of the Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter, which, as of this moment, has more than quadrupled its goal -- and with more than three weeks to go. As champagne bottles pop worldwide in celebration of Tim Schafer's return to the genre that made him famous, gamers seem to be ignoring the fact that Telltale successfully brought back the PC adventure game seven years ago; though you wouldn't know it by looking at their most recent release.

In recent years, Telltale has moved away from the classic adventure format by making more approachable games branded with licenses like Back to the Future and Jurassic Park. As they transition to properties demanding far more spectacle than the Sam and Max and Monkey Island episodes of the past, Telltale has struggled with giving these productions the high-budget polish expected by fans of the source material. But do they need to be so ambitious when adventure enthusiasts obviously have a strong desire for the tried and true?

As the man in charge of Sony's Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida (above) oversees the teams behind Uncharted, Gran Turismo, Little Big Planet, and many others. And for the past few years he's also played a key role on Vita, serving as a sort of middleman between the company's software teams and its hardware division. At last week's DICE conference, I asked him a handful of questions about Vita's development history to date.

1UP: Do you remember the first meeting you ever had talking about Vita?

The PlayStation Vita introduces support for a second analog stick to a catalogue of great PSP games. But how exactly do you use it? After scratching out heads for a few minutes to figure it out, Bob and I got together and recorded this guerrilla-style video to show you how. In it, we play Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker -- a brilliant portable entry in the tactical espionage action series and one that benefits nicely from Vita's added stick support.

Check out the video for more impressions and how tos, or head over to our Vita hub for everything you need to read on Sony's new system.

A new Call of Duty game release is expected every year, making last week's news that, yes, 2012 will see a new game in the series come out no real surprise. With Infinity Ward and Treyarch continuing to alternate releases, this year is Treyarch's turn to bring out a game. At this point we don't know any of the specifics, but it's looking increasingly likely that it will be a direct sequel to Black Ops, at least in terms of naming.

After previously acquiring Black Ops-related domain names (from BlackOps3.com up through BlackOps6.com), Activision reportedly got its hands on BlackOps2.com not long ago. The domain acquisition on its own didn't seem like a confirmation that Black Ops would receive a follow-up; many companies purchase domains in order to simply have their hands on them so others cannot profit on their intellectual property. Other times it's done to avoid embarrassing situations where a URL based on a game's name cannot be used to promote the competition -- a situation Activision found itself in last year when ModernWarfare3.com was home to a site knocking Call of Duty and encouraging visitors to pick up Battlefield 3. Activision decided to take action against the domain owner in an effort to acquire it, which it managed to do successfully. The entire situation could have been avoided had it simply registered the domain sooner, so BlackOps2.com falling into the hands of Activision seemed insignificant on its own.

Retronauts Lunch Break: an ambitious project, but sadly, not popular enough to continue in its current state. Over the past six weeks you've laughed, learned, lived, and loved with our humble little livestream, so there's no way we could snuff out this video series without any fanfare. To thank all of you devoted viewers who've been watching since the early days of January, we're going to take on the rest of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past in one go. How long will we stream our efforts? AS LONG AS IT TAKES.

Join us this Wednesday, February 22 at 10:00am PST at The Retronauts Lunch Break page for our final stab at A Link to the Past. We'll be cycling through editors from both 1UP and IGN in our final efforts to storm the dark world's dungeons and restore peace to Hyrule. And if you need to catch up with our backlog of Zelda videos, steer yourself to this page and scroll down to the archives. Patience will be tested, skills will be displayed, and you will be entertained. See you then!

For Valentine's Day we examined 35 reasons why we love games, but we're not done expressing our affection yet. Prose alone couldn't handle out boundless adoration; we had to make a video. Watch as we discuss our personal favorite reason to love.

Responding via Twitter to a question from another developer, Prey 2 lead graphics programmer revealed that publisher Zenimax forced developer Human Head to cancel all talks relating to the game at this year's Game Developers Conference. "Yes, Zenimax forced us to pull all Prey2 related talks from GDC. I'm pretty devastated by the news. This was to be my first conf talk." He explained over a series of tweets. "We are trying our hardest to get the decision reversed but for now all 3 are canceled." The tweets caught the eye of fans who pressed for more information, "Thanks all for the kind words. Needless to say this not a good day for me." explained Karis before stating that he couldn't answer many of questions coming from inquisitive followers.

Anyone who has ever invested themselves in a project can empathize with Karis. GDC presents a unique opportunity to really show off everything a developer or team accomplished over the year. As rewarding as giving a demo to fans or press can be, only the audience at GDC can truly grasp many of the complex technical accomplishments found in games and the effort that went into them.

A worrying quote emerged in Japanese publication Nikkei this week suggesting developers in Japan were dropping plans for Vita development in favor of 3DS. With Vita already in the hands of many gamers thanks to the First Edition bundle and others preparing to pick up the system at its proper launch next week, this isn't the sort of news you like to hear just before or after spending $250 or more on an unproven piece of hardware. Sony is, as expected, trying to downplay the report and as it was only a single anonymous quote, there's no reason to become overly concerned just yet.

"Major Japanese companies are canceling all projects intended for the Vita and are changing development to the 3DS," the anonymous source said, per a translation by Gamasutra. There isn't much ambiguity in the statement, which is said to be from a member of the Japanese development community. The article itself was authored by Kiyoshi Shin, the former head of the International Game Developers Association's Japan branch.

If you're buying a PlayStation Vita, backwards compatibility support gives you an alternative avenue to enjoy a catalog of great games. But how well does Vita handle emulating PSP games, and what can the OLED do to help?

Jeremy and I decided to put Vita's emulation prowess to the test and do a side-by-side comparison. The system on top is a PSP 2000 (sorry, our 3000 was in the shop at the time), and the one below it needs little introduction at this point. Both are running the game off of internal storage. Check out the video above to see the results and feel free to ask questions or comment below.

Everyone loves movies and free stuff. 1UP has partnered up with Relativity Media for the release of the upcoming Navy SEAL thriller, Act of Valor. Relativity Media has provided us with an impressive prize pack including:

• Official Act of Valor book, t-shirt, backpack, and water bottle
• Xbox 360 Console
• Battlefield 3 Game for Xbox 360

Most games take years to develop, but Minecraft developer Mojang plans to make one over a single weekend. Announced on Wednesday, Mojang intends to livestream a new game's creation over 60 hours and is partnering with the Humble Bundle team to raise money for charity. This latest announcement follows in the footsteps of other innovative Mojang projects which could only take root in a field as open to creativity as the game industry.

Starting Friday, February 17 at 10 A.M. Central European Time (1 A.M. US Pacific Time) Mojang will begin work on a brand new title. The company will answer questions via Twitter and promises "silly incentives" for reaching donation goals. Eager fans can even get involved now and vote for the genre and theme of the prospective game on Mojang's website. "Of course, you?ve always wanted to play a Shoot Em?Up Dating Simulator with a Candy Land World War II theme. Choose wisely!" warns the company.

Between DICE taking place last week and Tim Schafer successfully turning to Kickstarter to fund a Double Fine-developed graphic adventure, there has been a lot of talk recently about the role publishers serve in the videogame industry. There is the belief among many people that publishers do little more than stifle innovation, a suggestion Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg takes issue with.

During a panel at DICE, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter made the case that today's publishing model isn't good for for the industry. Publishers are opposed to risks and many shy away from bringing out games unlikely to sell millions of units, he said, also adding, "We are getting fewer choices as consumers because financial guys are taking over. Financial guys are making the decisions."

When I first downloaded God of War creator David Jaffe's PSN game, Calling All Cars, I didn't quit playing until my thumbs literally grew too sore to continue. The game borrowed heavily from NBA Jam despite its cops & robbers aesthetic, and like that arcade classic, my friends and I fought down to the wire in every round. Though Jaffe has in the past referred to the game as a "mistake," I would place it above the original God of War as my favorite game of his. I know it seems strange to value a forgotten PSN downloadable title above one of the best PS2 games of all time, but I've come to a point where I prefer experiences that don't aspire to tell a grand story, and I'm thankful that game creators like Jaffe feel the same way.

Jaffe explained his feelings to other game makers in a presentation recorded by Gamespot at last week's DICE summit, "My talk is actually a warning about why we shouldn't tell stories with our video games. I think it's a bad idea. I think it's a waste of resources and time and money and more importantly I think it actually stunts, and has stunted over the last ten years or so, the medium of video games."

With the PlayStation Vita launching in just over a week, one might have expected the amount of advertising for it to have been greater than what we've seen in recent weeks, but that will soon chance. With Sony in a pretty rough situation financially, we know the handheld getting off to a strong start would be a major boon for the company. That's likely part of the reason why Sony is making the marketing campaign for Vita its largest ever for a videogame system. And although Sony does not face all of the same problems as Nintendo did in marketing the 3DS at launch, it does undeniably have a challenge ahead.

You may have noticed the flood of Vita-related content both here at 1UP and elsewhere today. With the embargo lifted we've got a detailed breakdown of the system itself, a review of Uncharted: Golden Abyss, and a look at many of Vita's other launch day games, with more to come as the week continues. While Sony can be sure all of this will get Vita on the minds of many gamers (for better or worse), it will not necessarily reach as broad of an audience as Sony would like. That's where ad dollars come into play.

Pretty much all anyone is going to talk about for the next few weeks is Sony's fancy new PlayStation Vita. Whether you're waiting for the traditional February 22 launch date, or picking up your First Edition Bundle pre-order this week, we've got you covered for news and opinions about the Vita. We'll collect every Vita-related story -- whether it's a new feature or a review or a news tidbit -- and file it right here for your convenience. Keep checking this page throughout the week as we add Vita stories of all stripes.

Features:

Many gamers who take the hobby seriously scoff at each year's Spike TV Video Game Awards. There are numerous reasons for this, the most prominent being that the show is often filled with gags, skits, and seemingly anything that does not consist of awards being handed out and accepted. You need only look at the show this past December where certain awards were given out beforehand and others were announced so rapidly they were gone in the blink of an eye. But about what the awards themselves -- are the selections, too, put to shame by other award shows?

Last night, in the midst of the 2012 DICE Summit in Las Vegas, the 15th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards (the IAAs) took place and were hosted by who else but comedian and BlizzCon frequent Jay Mohr. DICE (which stands for Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) is an event geared towards those within the industry and thus has a much different focus than a trade show like E3. Whereas the nominees and winners of the VGAs are chosen by a select group of those in the videogame press, the IAAs are "decided by a peer-based voting system," as the organizers, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, put it. One might therefore expect the awards to end up in the hands of different nominees than the VGAs.