So…Multiplayer Morrowind?
Imagine this: You’re traversing the barrens of the West Gash when you get swarmed by a mob of cliff racers. Your mana and health are both low, and after using all the skills at your disposal, you’re still in a hopeless situation. Enter your non AI friend. With a few enchants here and there, he buffs you, heals you, and helps you take down this mob better than any AI buddy could. Mere fantasy? Apparently not. (more…)
Listen to Your Supreme Court Justices Make This Guy Sweat About Videogames
The Supreme Court recently ruled that the California violent videogames law was indeed unconstitutional. A step in the right direction for videogames to be treated in the eyes of the law as an equal to film and televison, yes. But how exactly did the proceedings go?
For the uninitiated, Supreme Court hearings are the hottest of the hotseats, where the Justices will relentlessly grill your stance on the constitutionality of the issue you’re representing. In this case, Zachary Morazzini was asked to state his case why the California videogames ban was NOT unconstitutional. If you listen carefully at around the one minute mark, you can hear Attorney General Morazzini’s Law degree crying.
“Greed is Good” – The Phrase That Spurred the EVE Online Riots
When it comes to MMOs, the word Microtransaction has been sacrilege to the average gamer; it’s definitely been the cause of angry gamers since Bethesda and the horse armor debacle. Couple this with the fact that MMOs have been a pretty good cash crop for the last few years, and you have a recipe for success, right? (more…)
Control your orgasms, boys…Duke Nukem and His Place In Today’s Industry
by Kyle Sondergaard
Duke Nukem has been a hot topic among gamers these past couple weeks, so I thought I’d take write up a brief piece giving my two cents on the subject. As you probably know, a lot of people don’t like this game for some reason. Well, I do like it. A lot, actually. Now don’t confuse my intentions here — I’m not trying to change anyone’s mind about the game. I’m merely going to state my personal opinions about the game and Duke’s relevance in today’s industry landscape. (more…)
Microsoft Bringing Interactive Ads to Xbox 360 With Kinect
by Kyle Sondergaard
Microsoft has announced that they are launching an interactive ad campaign on Xbox 360. (more…)
Indie Game: The Movie – You’ve Probably Never Heard Of It
Yeah, you read that right. In yet another brave attempt at cross-medium exposure, a film is being made to highlight the tale of the average indie game developer. The documentary is meant to be a dramatic expose (ala the awesome King of Kong) that chronicles the struggles, successes, failures, and even the mundane moments of an indie developer’s development cycle, as well as offering an insight into their mindset. Hit the jump for the trailer proper. (more…)
My Little Pony Fighting Game? My Little Pony Fighting Game…
Love it or hate it, you have to admit: The My Little Pony craze has spread like wildfire. Whether or not the craze is irony-driven or entirely legitimate is up for debate. Regardless, this rabid “fandom” seems to have spawned a cross-cultural hellspawn: a Friendship is Magic fan-made fighting game.
Hold on to your hooves…
LulzSec finishes Titanic Takeover Tuesday in style
After taking down the login severs and websites for huge online games Eve Online and Minecraft, then attacking the gaming news/entertainment site The Escapist, Lulzsec finished out their reign of terror on gamers by taking down the login sever for popular Free-to-Play game League of Legends.
LoL is notorious for being a favorite of 4chan’s /v/ board so it’ll be fun to see how they react when something near and dear to their hearts is taken down. It seems this hacker group grows stronger by the week.
[Updated] Hackers Strike Again: EVE online, Minecraft, and Escapist Magazine Down
UPDATE: In a recent tweet Lulzsec has announced that they are stopping the attack on Minecraft and preparing an attack on a as of yet unconfirmed target.
After laying claim to taking out the Playstation Network for over a month, the group of anonamous hackers that call themselves “lulzsec” have been merely a thorn in the side of gamers since then, taking down or hacking minor porn or gaming-related websites that not a whole lot of people expected to be hack-proof such as Sony’s Belgium site.
But today… they have dubbed today Titanic Takeover Tuesday…
(more…)
Video Games: The Last Bastion of Masculinity
With the recent release and pretend controversy of Duke Nukem Forever, several authors at Lo-Ping have banded together to discuss the topic of masculinity in gaming. These articles will likely range from offending to benign depending on your stance on this topic, the individual opinions of these authors does not reflect the stance of Lo-Ping as a whole. Feel free to discuss them in the forums!
So I’m unwinding after work, looking at my feed on Facebook when I see that one of my lady friends LIKE’d a group. The name caught my attention, as well as one of the first posts on the group’s wall.
"Don't hit on me all at once, silly boys~"
Star Wars: The Old Republic Beta- Character Creation Screenshots
All of us here are currently still basking in the glow of the blissful presentations from the Big 3 at E3. So when our resident Star Wars geeks stumbled upon this gem, they understandably went into a nerdgasm-induced coma. So I’m here to deliver unto you folks screenshots of the character creation screens from the SWTOR beta.
All images in this post can be embiggened simply by clicking on them.
Enjoy.
Where Are All the Good Star Wars Games?
by Kyle Sondergaard
If you’re anything like me, your biggest disappointment this generation is the lack of Star Wars games we’ve seen. Sure, The Old Republic is in development, but what about everything else? Compared to the masses of Star Wars titles released last generation, The Force Unleashed I and II and The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes don’t amount to much of anything. We’ve all been hoping for another Knights of The Old Republic, Jedi Knight, or Battlefront, but they’re nowhere to be seen. What gives, LucasArts?
Sic Burn! Notch and Minecraft Get Mad Dissed, Yo!
Beloved indie-gaming darling Notch seems to have spawn a Bizarro-world adversary. A tumblr has recently popped up entitled THE WORD OF KROTCH. Some things to notice about the parody blog: The gigantic donation button, the references to the vacation, and…a download link? Yep, that’s right. LineCraft is real and available to download!
Enjoy your satire.
Sony Conference Round-up
Alright, so our minds are thoroughly blown by Sony’s dubstep-heavy presentation. So collect your brains off the wall, and cast your eyes this way. Here’s your Sony Conference E3 breakdown. (more…)
Second Wave of Kinect Titles Announced
by Kyle Sondergaard
After a long absence of new software for Kinect, Microsoft’s E3 conference gave us a whole list of new games with support for the peripheral. As expected, there were many titles geared toward a more casual audience, but this year, Microsoft is putting more effort into making Kinect appeal to the hardcore crowd who have had their reservations about the device thus far. (more…)
When the Hackers Get Hacked: The Members of Lulzsec, Revealed!
Apparently, the folks responsible for the recent hooplah of Sony and Nintendo’s servers have been infiltrated. A social engineer known only as jux managed to join their chat channel and gather some information about the guys involved. The full pastebin of their information can be found here.
So what’s your verdict? Do you think the hackers deserve to get hacked and have their information leaked in an ultimate act of irony? Or do you believe that everyone has a right to privacy, even these fine folks?
Top 5 Forum-Breaking E3 Announcements
5. New consoles
We all know this one is coming up eventually, but it’ll be interesting to see if there’s any announcements made about the new consoles for the next generation. We’ve already heard rumors regarding Nintendo’s project cafe and the mysterious ‘Beem‘, but there’s also been talk about developer kits being released based on current PC hardware, similar to what was done in the past before the console were officially announced. Although denied it could be one of those surprises at E3. (more…)
Our Head Is In The Cloud: Cloud Gaming
First off what is cloud gaming? Cloud gaming is basically when all the processing and number crunching is done off site, and a video stream is returned to you which you can interact with. The only work your computer or device does is process the video and send and receive the data to and from the servers. It means that provided you have a stable internet connection, even the weakest of hardware can play top tier games. It opens up a whole new world of possibilities for the gaming world.
Duke Nukem Forever Demo Impressions
by Kyle Sondergaard
After nearly 14 years, Duke is back and he’s got balls of steel. Duke Nukem Forever is finally releasing on June 14th for PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3, and those faithful fans who pre-ordered the game or picked up a copy of Gearbox Software’s Borderlands Game of the Year Edition were given access to the demo yesterday. We played it. Spoiler: it’s awesome. (more…)
Duke Nukem Forever Config Data Reveals MP Perks and…Hats?
Prepare your bodies. Industrious folks have cracked yet another game source to find the hidden goodies within. These include multiplayer perks, achievements, skins, and hats aplenty.
Enjoy! (more…)
Word Bubble of Passwords from Sony’s Servers
The hackers who tapdanced on Sony’s servers last month released the passwords people have used and placed the top entries in word-bubble form.
And apparently…they’re Seinfeld fans.
Click image to embiggen.
Whoops…Accidentally Post Something to the Online Store There, EA?
Supposedly posted to the EA online Store, then promptly removed. Cast your peepers on this:
“Better With Kinect!” Also notice the possible Omni-tool melee weapon? Whatever you may think, one standard remains true: Orange and Blue reigns supreme.
So what do you folks think? Legit? Or painfully fake?
Lo-Ping 