95.52 MB

• Beautify failing neighborhoods
• Tons of eye-catching upgrades
• Corner the housing market!
• Get back to basics with Build-a-lot

• Videogamer (80/100): "It's the only game of its type on the 360, it's got brilliant microphones and it at least tries to allow you to expand the potential track-list to infinity. If you like karaoke, and you have friends or family that like karaoke, it's a damn sight better in-law entertainment option than charades this Christmas, and for that we should be eternally grateful"
• Kikizo (80/100): "While the ability to sing to your own music collection has its problems, overall Lips is absolutely brilliant fun, as well suited to a Saturday morning with the kids as it is a late return from the pub. In the end, that's what this kind of game should be about, and as a rival to SingStar, Lips can happily call itself equal. "
• Gamespot (65/100): "The wireless microphones are convenient and innovative, and they make it difficult to go back to corded models afterwards. The song selection is also excellent, with 40 songs that are varied in style but united in anthemic quality. That said, the game's lack of camera support, vocal playback, and simple online functionality disappoint, especially given their proven success in Sony's SingStar series. Even worse, the nonexistent difficulty level means this is a game with practically no appeal for single players, aside from those who want to collect the easy achievement points."
• Eurogamer (50/100): "But the saddest thing about Lips is that it suffers in comparison to SingStar's gameplay. We've long moaned about legacy issues with SingStar - that it can't cope with vibrato, punishes you for tailing off at the right time, and has a bit of lag in audio playback - but despite Lips' fancy mics and superficial improvements, it's too easy, too isolated from other players, and too buggy. The irony is that SingStar has glitches as well, now and then, and casual gamers seem to put up with this, whereas Microsoft - architect of the Red Rings - has little goodwill left to cash in on that front. Casual or not, though, you should only buy this if you can't get SingStar."

Metareview -- Lips (Xbox 360) originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Majesco responds to PETA's Cooking Mama parody originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Our beloved culinary cutie wants her critics to know she just wants to make the world a happier place through the magic of a tasty meal! This comes straight from Mama’s mouth, courtesy of the press release issued on her behalf by Majesco Entertainment in response to PETA’s recently released flash game, Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals.

“I would never put rat in my Ratatouille,” said a feisty Mama while beating some eggs. “Like any accomplished cook, I create my recipes to appeal to a broad range of tastes and preferences. My only goal is to ensure you leave the table well fed.”

The press release highlights the more than 25 vegetarian-friendly recipes available in the new game, in addition to an international selection of decidedly carnivorous creations like ginger pork and octopus dumplings. And though Mama herself is not a vegetarian, she fully supports the humane treatment of animals, particularly for her canine protege Max, who will be making his doggie debut in Cooking Mama: World Kitchen, which releases this week for the Nintendo Wii.

Damn you PETA, don’t you know it’s we who should be grovelling for the tiniest morsel of Mama’s approval, not vice versa!

Adults will probably grow bored within an hour, and paying $59.99 for the bundle (with no option to purchase the game by itself) feels expensive, but N-Strike will appeal to kiddies as well as parents who don’t want their children firing real darts in their homes.

PETA is deranged, scary and weird. Knowing all this, I still had to facepalm when we were told that PETA released its own Cooking Mama spoof. Personally, I had expected (and wanted) publisher Taito to sue PETA's parrot f*cking asses off, but it seems they've brought out the big guns instead.

That's right. Mama herself has entered the fray.

Developer Majesco approached gaming's most eligible MILF to ask for a response to PETA's clumsy attempt at proving a point. Her statement was dignified and classy, as we'd expect from Mama. "I would never put rat in my Ratatouille," said a feisty Mama while beating some eggs. "Like any accomplished cook, I create my recipes to appeal to a broad range of tastes and preferences. My only goal is to ensure you leave the table well fed."

Once again, leave it to Mama to show us the way. If only PETA could be as refined as Mama or have the same sense of humor about things as Majesco, maybe the rest of the sane world wouldn't hate them so much. 

In other news, between the Mama spoof and the Sega monkey situation, is anyone else as uncomfortable as I am with this organization taking an interest in videogames? It's strange, in any case. Still, you can hit the jump for the full response from Taito.

PETA is deranged, scary and weird. Knowing all this, I still had to facepalm when we were told that PETA released its own Cooking Mama spoof. Personally, I had expected (and wanted) publisher Taito to sue PETA's parrot f*cking asses off, but it seems they've brought out the big guns instead.

That's right. Mama herself has entered the fray.

Developer Majesco approached gaming's most eligible MILF to ask for a response to PETA's clumsy attempt at proving a point. Her statement was dignified and classy, as we'd expect from Mama. "I would never put rat in my Ratatouille," said a feisty Mama while beating some eggs. "Like any accomplished cook, I create my recipes to appeal to a broad range of tastes and preferences. My only goal is to ensure you leave the table well fed."

Once again, leave it to Mama to show us the way. If only PETA could be as refined as Mama or have the same sense of humor about things as Majesco, maybe the rest of the sane world wouldn't hate them so much. 

In other news, between the Mama spoof and the Sega monkey situation, is anyone else as uncomfortable as I am with this organization taking an interest in videogames? It's strange, in any case. Still, you can hit the jump for the full response from Taito.

In the most recent SUWT podcast (always good stuff btw), the crew got off on a tangent when talking about the cultural differences between players of EVE Online and WoW. EVE players embrace scams, trickery, underhandedness, and generally resent any changes that would ‘dumb down’ EVE. In WoW that gets you quickly banned, and before that rivers swell from all the tears shed while players scream mommy.

The ‘why’ of the issue is of course multi-faceted. One major factor would be the game rules. EVE is harsh on day one, and stays that way. WoW holds your hand from 1-80, and makes sure you get a cookie regardless if you win or lose. EVE not only takes your cookie, but laughs at you for bringing one in the first place. Another factor is overall complexity. To really succeed in EVE, you have to know what you are doing and pay attention. You can’t just run a mod and become a market genius, watching the money flow in endlessly. You can read all the guides you can find, but more often than not you actually have to make a few costly mistakes before you learn something in EVE. The rewards are often more meaningful, but the path is also far more difficult.

The rules of any given MMO are, in many ways, a modified version of natural selection. EVE quickly breeds out the ‘weak’ MMO players, and only those who can survive in the ’sandbox with mines’ stay around and thrive. On the other hand, with its super low barrier of entry, WoW is accessible to anyone with enough brain cells to double click an icon. When Blizzard marketed WotLK stating “Your definition of epic will be shattered”, they might be referring to the fact that even brain-dead monkeys will shortly be decked out in ‘epic’ gear. The definition has indeed been shattered, to an all-time low. The argument that “11 million gamers can’t be wrong” holds about as much water as stating that McDonalds is as good as it gets for food, since 1 billion customers can’t be wrong…

In most games, who else is playing is generally a non-factor. I’ll enjoy Fallout 3 regardless of who else picks it up, but this same rule does not apply in an MMO. We log on and interact with the world around us, and if everyone around us is an ignorant 13 year old who still thinks its cool to be an e-thug, that seriously impacts my enjoyment. PUG groups in WoW are a perfect example of this. Outside of WoW, pickup groups are an excepted and encouraged part of an MMO, yet in WoW they are avoided like the plague. To further complicate the matter, Blizzard’s solution was to remove almost any need for a PUG until the very end, brushing the problem under the rug rather than addressing it directly.

While listening to the discussion, it got me thinking about the direction Mythic can take with Warhammer. While it’s no EVE, WAR has yet to reach even 2004 WoW, let alone the 2008 version, in terms of challenge and player accountability. It will be interesting to see whether Mythic has the patience of CCP (the makers of EVE) to grow their vision and let their game mature naturally, or if they try to go for the quick sellout and dumb everything down, trying to appeal to the zombie masses. While making money is certainly the goal of any company, it’s not always the one and only goal. At some point pride in what you do factors in, and sometimes providing a higher level of service supersedes cutting every corner to chase every last penny. Hopefully Mythic caters to the fans they have, rather then excluding them for ones they don’t.

Gallery: Cooking Mama World Kitchen

Mama responds to PETA originally appeared on Nintendo Wii Fanboy on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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