png daily 5/29/09: Outtie 4ever

Well, pull out your hankies, becasue the “PNG Daily” is dead.  Well… kinda.  In our constant consideration of you, the loving public, we have decided to take a slightly different approach with this website.  While we claim to “rep” both pixel and grid, the staggering amount of daily video game news, and the equally lacking non-video game news, makes it difficult to keep the scales level.  With this in mind, we decided to scrap news all together, but not skimp on the content.  So here’s the new plan:  instead of just giving you the day’s news, we’re going to put up a new article, editorial, review, or just something off the wall on a daily basis.  It might actually be news related, but we’re not going to limit ourselves to that any longer.  We’re hoping to have a regular schedule among the five main authors with some cameo appearences by our other authors sprinkled throughout.  Let us know what you guys think of the change and feel free to shoot us any ideas or suggestions of things you’d like to see from PNG.  Oh, I should mention that this whole thing is kicking off on Monday with a post by James.  What will be in store for you, loyal reader?  …I have no friggen clue.  Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Juuuuust to keep up on one tradition that I enjoy, here’s some free stuff to entertain yourself with over the weekend (because let’s face it, these are tough economic times).  Steam is once again giving you a chance to play Unreal Tournament 3 for zero dollars.  So give yourself 10 minutes and try it out (that should be enough time to die 4832797 times and maybe kill a dude).  Also, as James posted earlier this week, EA has made its PC, card-based RPG, Battle Forge free for all.  There is a limited number of cards you can use, of course, but don’t let that stop you from checking it out.  Also, know what else is free?  Friggen hide-and-go-seek, tag, spot, dodgeball (someone’s gotta have a ball right?), etc, etc.  Basically, what I’m getting at is that if it’s as nice out where you are as it is in Cleveland, why don’t you call some friends, get outside, and play some games out in the sun.  I mean, it’s not like we update on the weekends anyway.  That being said, I better see you back here on Monday.  Yeah you.

png daily 5/21/09:it’s news to me

As I will inevitably be handling some of the daily posts in the future, it might be helpful to establish some definitions.  Actually, only one defintion really needs to be defined: news.   I believe that “news” is not what is current/interesting, but what I find entertaining.  Bearing that in mind, shall we continue?

png daily 5/18/09: I hope you like marketing

Well kids, it’s Monday, and that means that all the weekend freebies are over and  its back to business as usual.  Its not all bad though, as I’ve decided to come out of my cave and grace your corneas with my thoughts.  Let’s get down to it.

png daily 4/7/09: the new hotness

So we all know about that hot new DSi selling out all over the world.  But what if I told you that Sony is striking back with a hot new PSP due out by Christmas?  Looking at the screens above, your reaction should range somewhere between “I payed $170 for the redesigned same old crap,” and “thank God Nintendo failed to dupe me for the eleventeenthed time.”  You see, allegedly Pocket Gamer totally knows a PSP developer working on the above masterpiece.  The new hotness comes complete with a sliding touch screen and the standard button layout of the current PSP’s including D-Pad, face buttons, start and select buttons, and analog…. sticks?  Wait, is that another analog stick?  Holy crap on a pita, it is!  Thank the maker!  No word yet on if this is a yet-another redisign (PSP 4000) or a completely new system with it’s own offering of upcoming titles (PSP 2?).  With the addition of a second analog stick, conventional wisdom would assume that this would be a system that would need to have it’s own games going forward as any PSP game designed with two sticks in mind would automatically exclude every other PSP that has come out since launch.  However, nothing (except additional development costs) would stop a potential new PSP from being backwards compatible. 

What has potentially been the most controversial bit of DLC to have ever been released has seen the light of day today in the form of Resident Evil 5 versus mode.  Did you buy a copy of RE5?  Do you have 5 bucks to waste?  Do you have bad taste?  Well race on over to XBOX Live or PSN and grab an update that could have been available from day one.  Just know that you could have had a Subway footlong.  Just sayin’.

Apparently our resident PNG cult hero Tim Schafer doesn’t care if you buy his game(s).  Much like I have in the past, Tim feels we focus too heavily on sales.  Well, while we will always respect the opinions of he who commands respect, let it be said and let it be written that we, Pixels and Grids Staff, overseers of all that is fair and just in the world, do indeed care that you help us keep this woefully underrated genius employed and afloat.  Tim, we love you.  I personally would love to raise your baby.  However, your assumption that “as long as you make a cool game, publishers want to talk to you” is as naive as it is false.  Publishers want money.  In related news, the sky is blue.  We will choose not to argue with our local demi-god of choice and instead try to become more solutions oriented.  Please join the staff of PNG as we kick off our year of the Schafer tribute.  Participate, or feel shame .

PNG Daily 4/6/09: We Got the Jams, The Jams That Make You Go To Work

Welcome back PNG’ers for another week of news, gaming, and brotherhood.  We’re buckling down for what is already looking to be another slow news week that might ultimately end with another hilarious and entertaining Audiophile.

As reported in Logan’s brilliant Warstation 2 Daily, Privateer Press was making a downloadable version of the new Warmachine ruleset available for download to beta test.  TabletopGamingNews.com has a post up letting everybody know it’s up and ready to be downloaded complete with a link.  Be aware that you will have to register to nab the PDF file.  We might grab some generic mini’s and take this ruleset for a spin, and assuming it doesn’t violate any NDA’s or license agreements, let you know what the deal is.

All major blogs are reporting that an Assassin’s Creed 2 teaser site went live.  I grabbed the link from 1up here.  I couldn’t get the full effect of it due to my lack of a webcam and printer, but if you have these things Logan tells me you’re in for a nifty little treat.  Maybe he’ll be kind enough to post some screen captures for us later.

I’ll close out by letting you know that we should have a few more reviews up on the site this week.  Hopefully one for
Assault on Dark Athena by either Logan or Jeff and one or two board/card game reviews by myself.   We’ll of course keep pounding out the Daily’s in addition to hopefully one PNG Editorial.

Outtie 5k.

PNG Daily 3/26/2009: Let Me Take You Back

Direct your attention over yonder at this Joystiq post.  Apparently the original Call of Duty has been rated by the ESRB for Xbox 360 and PS3.  I am ashamed that I never got to give this little gem a try back when it first came out on PC.  If you’ve been enjoying all of the recent Call of Duties on consoles, please consider picking this up when it drops.  This also is making it fairly obvious that Microsoft is starting to become incredibly lenient with their Xbox Live file size limit.

Josh may have stole my thunder by making a post about Modern Warfare 2‘s 11/10/2009 release date, but the day is still mine.  Clink the link above to see the teaser trailer on the official site.  Notice that there is an analyze button to the right of the time bar.  Clicking it will allow you to analyze the trailer in hundredths of a second and even zoom in fairly close.  So go ahead and tear that trailer apart, just let us know if you find something meaty!

The Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) announced the winners of their most prestigious awards.  Kotaku has the list here.  These winners were all picked by their peers and are all well deserved.  Compare if you so desire to the list of winners from the Spike Video Game Awards that are voted on by I believe the enthusiast and regular press.

Joystiq has a post up about a crazy trade in deal that Amazon has going on until April 12th.  Apparently when you trade in 4 games with their new service, not only do you get a gift card for the trade in value but you can also get $20 off of select titles.  You can find that list here.  There are some heavy hitters in that list that you can most likely get for pretty much zero dollars after your trade.  Of course, those gift cards are not just limited to video games…

This is for you Jim.

PNG Daily 3/19/09: In Diesel We Trust

Yo girl, let me get dat gamertag...

Here at PNG, we just don’t know how to let our obsession with celebrity created or backed video games go.  We ranted and raved about 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, and we have yet to fully begin our massive marketing push for Chronicles of Riddick:  Assault on Dark Athena.  Much like Mr. Cent, Vin’s got your back when it comes to punching and stabbing your friends online.  Check out 1up’s article here about how he let Starbreeze know what’s up.

As my “internet sifter” has been most unkind with grids news, you’ll have to settle for some digital grids information.  1Up has a post up giving the low down on Hasbro Family Game Night that hit Xbox Live on Wednesday with a ballsy catch.  The shell can be downloaded for free, but each of the four games it launched with cost $10 a piece (800 MS points).  It seems to have struck a nerve with our fellow bloggers out there as there as it seems a bit much to be charging for Yahtzee.  However, if these games support online play, it’s way better than spending the $5 – $8 on their board or card counter parts just to have it sit in a closet most of the time.

Kotaku has some numbers out for Resident Evil 5’s sales numbers out in Europe over the weekend.  Apparently Bono is going to be pissed.

Speaking of numbers and on a completely unrelated note, I think Duke Nukem Forever is coming out this year.

Outtie 5k

png daily 3/16/09: I’ll give you something to cry about

Once again, James has left me at the helm and I have promised to deliver us safely through the night.   So all hands on deck, batten down the hatches, and tighten the mizzenmast, because its going to be a ride.

PNG Daily 3/11/09: It’s a Celebration!

Catalyst Game Labs has just announced that Shadowrun turned 20 years old.  Some of you will recognize Shadowrun as an average online multiplayer first person shooter that I believe was the first game to allow PC and console owners to duke it out.  The majority of the staff here know it as one of the big players in the tabletop RPG arena that is an amazing blend of cyberpunk and fantasy in a future dystopian setting.  Click the link above to see the goodies that Catalyst has planned to celebrate that includes a very special edition of the core rulebook.  Josh will be all over this.

Lots of news sites and blogs are reporting that Warhammer Online will be consolidating it’s servers but Giant Bomb goes a bit further by pulling an interesting quote from Mythic’s General Manager, Mark Jacobs.  I’ll agree with Giant Bomb in that the game probably needs it if the population is so spread out.  The game really does thrive when there are a decent amount of people running around to kill each other and do public quests.  I hope that Mr. Jacobs’ quote is wrong and that the game keeps going strong.  Let it be known though that they have opened up the free trial to people that are not fileplanet members while still leaving it capped a bit.  You only have access to the Tier 1 areas and capitol cities.  Give it a shot, you might like it!

So let me try this again.  In my PNG Daily post on monday, I made a complete mess of a sentence that was supposed to mention Resident Evil 5’s Mercenaries mode was confirmed to have online capability for the Xbox 360.  The intertubes are now reporting that trophies for the PS3 online modes have been leaked and Kotaku has the list here.  Capcom appears to be going all out with the online multiplayer for this game and I’m excited to see how it goes.  We also have word that some stores in the Cleveland area have been breaking street date on the title.  Calls to these rumored stores have not turned up any treasure as of yet.

Outtie 5k.

PNG Daily 3/10/09: Do You Have the List?

Take Two laid out their list of titles coming out in 2009 and Kotaku has said list over here.  As they point out, you’ll notice a lack of definite platforms listed for Bioshock 2.  This might cause one to engage in speculation.  If I were one to partake in said speculation, I would say that it might just be a timed console exclusive for the Xbox 360 like the original.  What do I know though, right?

Tabletop Gaming has a couple articles about Privateer Press’ minature game gems, Hordes and Warmachine.  This one details their release schedule for July 2009 (it’s actually for June if you go to Privateer’s website look it up).  This other post should be a bit more of an interest to the Warmachine and Hordes iPhone users out there.  It’s about a free army builder application available through iTunes.  I got a chance to demo Hordes a couple years back and it was a lot of fun.  If I had to compare it to something , I would say it’s a step between WizKids clicks games and Warhammer.  It was easy enough for a beginner to pick up on the basic rules and have fun playing while still having a bit more rules and strategy for a seasoned minis veteran.

Lastly, Joystiq and 1up have posts up about The Behemoth (developers of Castle Crashers and Alien Hominid) announcing a new game next week.  Let’s hope it doesn’t come out 2 years from now with broken online multiplayer like their last release.  I kid because I care Castle Crashers, you know I love you baby.

Outtie 5k