But also hanging out in here - indie games times two, Infinity Ward's LED controller of coolness, law firms in the game industry, the Play Auditorium surrealism, an off-topic Killers video, and other things that must not be named.

Nibbler power:

press the ACTION BUTTON!!'s review of 'Dead Space'
I presume this is Tim Rogers - tremendously entertaining, in any case: 'Dead Space is an interactive cinematic experience about depressed, frustrated kleptomaniacs stomping corpses in zero gravity.'

Ragdoll Metaphysics: 2008 And The Indie Renaissance - Offworld
Awesome Jim Rossignol paean to something I obviously love - independent games: '2008 was the year that, for me at least, indie gaming was confirmed as a vital, valid movement within the world of gaming.'

The Work of Play: law firms cater to the video game industry | Technology | Los Angeles Times
Another v.interesting Alex Pham piece on the game biz for the LA Times.

YouTube - The Killers Human EMA 08
Yes, it's off-topic for games technically, but visually feels like some kind of Mizuguchi vs. Klax insanity to me, so hey.

Cowboy Programming » Custom responsiveness measuring device
Wow, following on from Mick West's recent Gamasutra article on responsiveness in games and a potential issue with it, plus a stylish solution: 'The guys at Infinity Ward saw this problem [of 'you have to set up the controller so you can see the button being pressed, which means your finger or thums starts off not touching the button'], and their solution was to commission modder Benjamin Heckendorn to build a custom joystick that had a seperate display with an individual LED for each button.'

IndieCade Roundup Article // PC /// Eurogamer
Rounding up the indie games shown at GameCity in Nottingham with Indiecade this year - a good slice of the art-game crossover crowd.

enemy6 - Jason Nelson's latest outside art Flash game oddness
As he explained to me in email: 'It's a sequel of sorts to game, game, game and again game, based on screen shots from odd and popular sites and is another artwork/platform game/digital poem.' Bravo.

chewing pixels » Best Thing I Saw Today #37: Play Auditorium
Oop, I got sent info on this really neat Flash music-abstract weirdness, and I forgot to mention - luckily, Simon Parkin picks up the slack.

• each character gets his/her own chessboard field
  
• your goal: get to the other end and fight the boss
• Destiny Points (DPs) are your standard mode of travel around the board (just like AP or LP in FFX and FFXII)
• enemies and items are found randomly on the grid - accessing these need only that you're adjacent to their square
• the big red X mark on the grid means you have a requirement to fulfill (say, clear all enemies or something) before it gets unblocked
  

• Sphere Grids and License Boards? Dissidia's chessboard explained
• Dissidia scans: FF12 representation confirmed, Cloud's Advent Children outfit, Sephiroth topless, Ultros summoned, more Update
• Dissidia: Final Fantasy guidebook to be released alongside game
• More Dissidia pwnage: Cloud vs Sephiroth gameplay video
• Pwnage 101: new Dissidia: Final Fantasy tutorial vid on EX-Burst, more
• Learn how to properly pwn your enemy in Dissidia: Final Fantasy
  

Zero Punctuation has returned yet again this week with a review for EA’s free-running video game experiment, Mirror’s Edge. The game has so far received mixed reviews from gaming enthusiasts who don’t relay their opinions through simple images synced to a voice over, so you can imagine how Yahtzee feels about it. There are plenty of flaws to be prodded in this game, from the disorienting first-person perspective to the unnecessary combat to the uninspiring story. As he points out though, the game was partly produced in the name of experimentation, which drives developers to create more engrossing experiences, so it’s not all bad. I just hope EA’s next experiment feels a little more satisfying.

UPDATE: The embed code for the video still doesn’t seem to be working so you’ll have to go here to watch the video.

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Related Articles at Gaming Today:

• New "Story" Trailer Mirror's Edge Shows Faith's Motivation
• Yahtzee Croshaw Travels Through Silent Hill Origins
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• Mirror's Edge 2D Now in Beta for Flash
• New Mirror's Edge Trailer Looks Awesome

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lJa__pn0sk

Regular readers of this blog will know just how enamoured I am with Wii Music. But that’s not to say that Miyamoto’s latest is without its flaws. On the contrary, there are some glaring issues which will almost certainly prevent it lasting as long on my current playlist as I’d like. What’s interesting is that most of these problems could be quite easily rectified, as you’ll see if you read on. So here are the five things I’d change about Wii Music, to not only make it a better game, but to substantially increase its longevity.

5. Overdub Omission

A bizarre one, this. Let’s say, for example, you’ve just finished the final part of a tune, but you want to listen to the song again before deciding whether it’s how you want it, or you’d like to remove one instrument which sounds out of place. Returning to the instrument selection screen, you finally get things sounding perfect and then you want to save your tune. Only problem is: you can’t. You’ll have to go through and overdub one of the instrument parts you’ve already recorded - either that or choose an instrument and then remain silent for the whole song before saving your music video once it’s over. Surely there should be an option to save without having to complete the final part of a song and then save. A patch to fix this wouldn’t be too much effort, I’m certain.

4. Handbell Hell

The Handbell ringing and orchestra-conducting minigames are hugely enjoyable - if lightweight - diversions that undoubtedly add to the fun of Wii Music. So why do we only get a choice of five songs in each? Opening these games up to cover a wider selection of music - if not the entire tracklist - would certainly make them more worth revisiting. But no - once you’re done there’s only high scores to aim for. Handbell remains entertaining every now and again if you’ve got friends round, but there’s little to keep the solo player returning once he or she has mastered each tune.

3. WiiTube

As you can see from the video above (and indeed the many similar ones featured on the site) YouTube is full of Wii Music owners videoing their performances to share with the world. It’s one thing to be able to swap tunes with Wii pals, quite another to be able to demonstrate to a potential audience of millions what Wii Music is capable of. It’s a tremendous advert for the game, so why can’t we just save YouTube-compatible vids for easy uploading rather than having to set up our video cameras for shaky and/or poor-quality footage of our best work? Games like Skate have proved it’s possible to do, and Nintendo would be wise to add a similar feature.

2. Battle of the bands

Mario Kart Wii has undoubtedly benefitted from regular online challenges and even the Check Mii Out channel offers competitions to inspire Wii owners to get creative. An excellent way to extend Wii Music’s lifespan would be to set regular monthly tasks - like performing the Animal Crossing theme in a jazz style, or tackling Material Girl only using wind instruments. There could be prizes on offer for the best examples, and the songs would be available for Wii Music owners to download and watch as further inspiration. Makes sense, no?

1. D.L.C.

Above all, Wii Music would be a much better and longer-lasting game if it offered regular downloadable content. I’m not asking for much - a new song or two every now and again to spark players’ imaginations into gear, the odd new instrument to master, perhaps even a new set of Jam Mastery lessons teaching you a whole new style, or the option to use the balance board for percussion instruments outside the special drumming mode. While fifty songs and sixty instruments sounds like a lot, there are bound to be tunes which people don’t want to bother with, and some of the novelty music-makers won’t be touched by those who take their Wii Music a little too seriously to bother with dog and cat noises. Given that Guitar Hero World Tour offers the opportunity to download tracks to an SD card, it’s not as if the lack of memory space would be a serious issue. At least think about it, eh, Nintendo?  

Bookmark to:

Despite not being able to spell correctly, I must confess that Megadeth is capable of banging out a decent tune. The metal band is also pretty "happening" and "with it" in terms of embracing new forms of social entertainment, be it Youtube, MySpace and videogames.

In fact, frontman Dave Mustaine looks down on any band that isn't following these trends, labeling them "dinosaurs" and suggesting that they're all stupid. I am sure he'll be Twittering about that later.

"In fact, I think the advent of these new games and YouTube and MySpace and being able to upload your music — it's the way of the future," exclaims Mustaine. "These old fucking dinosaur bands that don't want to put their music up on iTunes or have anything to do with you guys doing games with Rock Band and stuff like that. It's just stupid. You know, just have mercy on them and feel sorry for them and buy our stuff instead."

He has a point, of course. It's rather blinkered to ignore the current trends and how they can be used to promote your work. The various online social networks and videogames out there are excellent promotional platforms. To not use them is -- as Mustaine so eloquently puts it -- stupid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81f0JDkf714

I promised myself I wouldn’t get too excited about Jungle Beat’s impending Wii return on the Wii de Asobu (Let’s Play On Wii) label, but the above trailer has got my heart aflutter once more. There’s definitely some new stuff in there (around the seven or eight second mark I spotted a couple of sequences which I didn’t recognise) and it seems the controls will be pretty sensible, if still not quite as effectively primal and physical as the bongo controls in the GameCube original.

The end of the ad confirms which games we’re set to see soon - Pikmin 1 AND 2 will be making their way onto Wii, while Mario Tennis, Chibi-Robo and the two previous Metroid games are also appearing in the range. At 3800 they’re priced a fair bit lower than your average Wii title (which tend to range between 5800 and 6800 yen in Japan). Let’s hope they retail for around £19.99 or less when us Europeans get our hands on these new old titles.

Bookmark to:

• Bitter much? Former Resident Evil series director frowns on RE5
• Japan's Resident Evil 5 Limited Edition revealed: pre-orders start soon
  

• Bitter much? Former Resident Evil series director frowns on RE5
• Japan's Resident Evil 5 Limited Edition revealed: pre-orders start soon