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12 finalists announced for World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2019
The World Video Game Hall of Fame, which is overseen by The Strong Museum of Play, has announced the finalists for this year’s crop of inductees. We’ll have to wait until May to find out which games make the final cut, but we now know that a dozen classic titles will be in the running for the Class of 2019.
This year’s finalists include several games that are taking one more shot at immortality, including Midway’s Mortal Kombat, Cyan Worlds’s Myst, Microsoft’s Windows Solitaire, and Valve’s Half-Life. All four have a strong claim to “Hall of Fame” status, as Myst helped popularize CD-ROMs, Half-Life pushed narrative games to new heights, Mortal Kombat’s controversial violence is still discussed today, and Windows Solitaire may just be the most-played game ever.
But they’ll have to compete against a slate of other titles that includes King’s Candy Crush, Atari’s Centipede, William Crowther’s Colossal Cave Adventure, Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution, Sega’s NBA 2K, Sid Meier’s Civilization, and Nintendo’s Super Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. Melee.
Gaming fans from around the globe will be able to influence which games will be eligible for induction this year through the Player’s Choice Ballot, which will be open from March 21st through the 28th. The remaining ballots will come from the Hall of Fame’s International Selection Advisory Committee, which is comprised of journalists and scholars who are “familiar with the history of video games.”
The World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2019 will announced on May 2, but you can learn more about this year’s finalists after the break. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS2, Retro
Tagged Centipede, Half-Life, Super Mario Kart, World Video Game Hall of Fame
BRACE YOURSELF… This is what Sonic will look like in Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie
The teaser poster for the live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movie was WEIRD. Sega’s long-running mascot was only shown in silhouette, but Sonic’s gargantuan size and ridiculously muscular thighs were a far cry from the portly cartoon character we all grew up with.
Well strap in, because things are about to get EVEN WEIRDER.
Hamagami/Carroll, one of the marketing agencies working with Sega and Paramount on Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie, recently uploaded the first image of the character’s cinematic counterpart to their official website. This version of Sonic doesn’t seem as nightmarish as the shadow figure from the original poster, and it looks like the film’s producers even listened to fans and toned down his bulging muscles. But that said, something still seems really off about this image… even if I can’t quite put my finger on what that something is.
Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie will star Ben Schwartz as the voice of Sonic, James Marsden as a sheriff who introduces him to the real world, and Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik. The movie will open in theaters on November 8, and Paramount is likely getting ready to release the first trailer soon.
Posted in Etcetera, News, Retro
Tagged Sonic the Hedgehog
The Video Game Canon: Tetris Remains the Best Game of All Time in Version 3.0 Update
The Video Game Canon is a statistical meta-ranking of dozens of “Best Video Games of All Time” lists that began in 2017 with Version 1.0, and the ranking has been updated several times since then. Which game is #1? There’s only one way to find out…
Once again, Alexey Pajitnov’s puzzle masterpiece, Tetris, stands atop the Video Game Canon.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Video Game Canon, it’s a statistical meta-analysis of 53 “Best Video Games of All Time” lists that were published between 1995 and 2018. To qualify for inclusion, each list had to include at least 50 games, as well as some form of editorial oversight in the process (lists made up solely of reader polls or fan voting were excluded), and no restrictions on release dates or platforms.
After feeding each “Best Games” list into the Video Game Canon machine, the games were ranked against each other using the C-Score, a formula that adds together a game’s “Average Ranking” across all lists with the complementary percentage of its “Appearance Frequency.” Combining these two factors allows us to create a list of games that have universal appeal across a long period of time without punishing any game for being too old or too new.
Five new lists were added to the Video Game Canon in the Version 3.0 update, bringing the total number of games to be selected by at least one list up to 1,182. The most expansive new list came from Game Informer, which published The Top 300 Games of All Time in April of last year. Hyper (The 200 Games You Must Play), IGN (Top 100 Video Games of All Time), and Slant Magazine (The 100 Greatest Video Games of All Time) also published new lists in 2018.
I was also able to reach back into the history books a little bit after stumbling upon a list from 2009 by Benchmark.pl, one of Poland’s largest technology blogs. Aside from a handful of titles (most notably, 2015’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt), most of the games created in Eastern Europe or played by Eastern European players aren’t on the radar of your average gamer, so digging through The Top 100 Best Games of the Twentieth Century gave me an interesting window into a population of gamers that I probably don’t think about as often as I should.
Even with these new additions to the dataset, Version 3.0 didn’t signal any huge changes to the Video Game Canon over last year’s Version 2.0 update, but the movement amongst the games in the top ten does bring to mind a round of musical chairs. And after the music stopped, nearly all the titles scrambled to find a new place to sit.
Visit VideoGameCanon.com for all future updates to this project and to explore the complete Top 1000.
New Retail Releases: Devil May Cry 5, Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn, Left Alive, More
After veering away from the franchise’s established continuity in DMC: Devil May Cry, Capcom has promised fans they’ll get reacquainted with “The Devil You Know” in Devil May Cry 5, which will be available this week for the PS4 and Xbox One (and as a digital download for the PC). Dante and Nero will both return for the “most insane” and “technically advanced” entry in the series, and they’ll be joined by a “weapons artist” named Nico.
If you’d prefer not to spend your days battling demons, Nintendo will launch a family-friendly alternative, Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn, for the 3DS. Originally released for the Wii, this expanded re-release includes new new Ravel Abilities that mimic the pink puffball’s famous copy power and a harder Devilish Mode (wait a minute…). It’s also the last Nintendo-published 3DS game on the 2019 calendar, so we might be looking at the end of an era here.
Also set to launch this week is Left Alive, a new “survival-action shooter” from Square Enix that’ set in the Front Mission universe. The futuristic game will be available for the PS4 and as a digital download for the PC.
Finally this week, gamers will be able to scoop up MLB Advanced Media’s RBI Baseball 19 (PS4 and Xbox One), White Paper Games’s The Occupation (PS4 and Xbox One), and Bigben’s My Little Riding Champion (Switch) from their local retail establishment. And Switch owners looking to purchase a copy of The Lego Movie 2 will finally get their chance.
Posted in 3DS, News, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged Devil May Cry 5, Kirby's Epic Yarn, The Lego Movie 2
20th Century Fox used Alien: Isolation’s cutscenes and “new animations” to create a brand new Alien movie
Sega and The Creative Assembly have teamed up with 20th Century Fox to give Alien: Isolation a second lease on life. The 2014 game, which took place between Alien and Aliens, has been reedited into a feature-length digital series that gives fans another chance to experience the story of Amanda Ripley’s search for her missing mother:
Fifteen years after her mother disappeared on the deep space towing ship Nostromo, Amanda Ripley travels to a remote space station that may hold clues to her mother’s fate. But disaster strikes as she arrives at her destination.
The series will be available exclusively through IGN and will feature “a combination of new animations and original cinematic cutscenes from the game.” As part of this partnership, the website spoke to the animators about the extensive lengths they went to to create these new animations:
“[We knew] that we would need to change the POV from first person, where the player is the character, to one where you are now watching Amanda Ripley navigate within the world,” [Fabien DuBois, a Director at animation studio DVgroup] said. “We then made storytelling choices based on the idea that we would be going deeper into Amanda Ripley’s psychology – to discover her demons, her fears, her motivations. The final series is comprised of three types of scenes: brand-new scenes that are rendered from scratch, cinematics taken directly from the game, and first-person scenes from the game we re-shot, edited and inserted a CG model of Amanda Ripley. Viewers will get to enjoy an exciting narrative that doesn’t repeat the Alien: Isolation story, but completes it.”
All seven episodes of the Alien: Isolation digital series are now available, and the first episode has been embedded above.
Kingdom Hearts III, Resident Evil 2, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe unsurprisingly lead NPD’s list of best-selling games from January 2019
Kingdom Hearts fans were kept waiting more than a decade for the third game in the franchise, but Square Enix finally rewarded their patience with the launch of Kingdom Hearts III last month. As you might have guessed, fans purchased the game in droves, pushing it all the way to the top of The NPD Group’s list of best-selling games from January 2019.
Two highly-anticipated re-releases, Resident Evil 2 (#2) and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (#3) were close behind, and Bandai Namco’s Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (#7) and Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition (#12) also cracked the top 20.
However, while several games had strong starts on the sales chart, the industry overall suffered a decline last month versus January 2018. All together, GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that total sales (hardware, software, and accessories) were down 19% to $893 million.
You can find a full list of best-selling games from January 2019 after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, Battlefield V, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, FIFA 19, Grand Theft Auto V, Kingdom Hearts III, Madden NFL 19, Mario Kart 8, Minecraft, NBA 2K19, NPD, Red Dead Redemption 2, Resident Evil 2, Spider-Man, Super Mario Odyssey, Super Mario Party, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Tales of Vesperia, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Yacht Club delays Shovel Knight: King of Cards and Shovel Knight Showdown
Yacht Club Games originally planned to close the book on the Shovel Knight saga on April 9 with the release of Shovel Knight: King of Cards and Shovel Knight Showdown. But plans change, and late last night the developer confirmed (via their official website) that both titles would be delayed by “several months… at most!”
Naturally, this delay will also apply to the upcoming retail release of Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove (a compilation containing all five Shovel Knight games), as well as the Amiibo 3-Pack featuring Specter Knight, Plague Knight, and King Knight.
This is not a major delay so much as more space to bring everything together for a polished and complete finale. As always, these last steps require coordination with many teams beyond our own.
We realize the delay is disappointing. To communicate better with everyone moving forward, we will not be announcing a new date until we know one for sure, from all partners involved. All builds shipped out, updates ready to launch, for everybody and everyone. We will announce it for good once it is 100% all across the board!
The final two games in the Shovel Knight saga are currently in development for the PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, but other platforms will also get in on the fun. King of Cards will be available as a free expansion on the 3DS, PS3, Vita, and Wii U for owners of the original Shovel Knight, while Showdown will receive a similar release on the PS3 and Wii U.
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Vita, Wii U, Xbox One
Tagged Shovel Knight, Shovel Knight Showdown, Shovel Knight: King of Cards, Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows, Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment
New Retail Releases: Crackdown 3, Far Cry: New Dawn, Metro Exodus, More
It’s time once again for some big new sequels as a few of gaming’s biggest franchises will receive new installments this week.
After several very long years in development, Microsoft will bring Crackdown 3 to the Xbox One this week (and it’ll also be available to download for Windows 10 PCs). Players will take control of Commander Jaxon, a superpowered Agent played by Terry Crews, and blast their way through a futuristic city to stop a ruthless criminal empire. There’s also the option to compete in Wrecking Zone, a multiplayer mode that asks teams of Agents to tear down the opposing team’s stronghold as fast as they can.
PS4 and Xbox One owners will also find a strange new future in Ubisoft’s Far Cry: New Dawn. Set within a post-apocalyptic world based on Far Cry 5’s Hoep County, New Dawn will pit players against highwaymen and their ruthless leaders, The Twins. Far Cry: New Dawn will also be available to download for the PC.
Yet another dystopian future is on display in 4A Games’s Metro Exodus for the PS4 and Xbox One this week. The third entry in the series based on Dmitry Glukhovsky’s novels will further explore the Russian Federation during the aftermath of a nuclear war. An Xbox One X 1TB + Metro Exodus Bundle will also be available on store shelves, and the game can also be purchased for the PC exclusively through the Epic Games Store.
Finally this week, Bandai Namco will release Jump Force, an anime-inspired crossover fighting game for the PS4 and Xbox One (and downloadable for the PC), and NIS America will release the adventure platformer The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince for the PS4 and Switch.
The full list of this week’s new retail releases can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PS4, Switch, Vita, Xbox One
Tagged Crackdown 3, Metro Exodus, The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince