Amazon Blogs

Korean Game I Would love to Play, but Not Pay for: "Husky Express"

There is something about the South Korean video gaming industry that has the unique ability to make PC gamers in the west squeal and squirm at the same time, while also bringing western game publishers to the point of salivation over their revenue generating potential. On the one hand there are the high profile games that are popular and profitable all over the world like NCSoft's City of Heroes, City of Villains and the Guild Wars Franchise. But then there are games seem so off the wall from a western perspective that you just have to laugh. The thing is that they seem to do REALLY well in Asia. A good past example of this is Freestyle Street Basketball. This online sports game utilizes a free-to-play model with micro transactions for in-game gear and the like that cost. Sounds like it would be huge flop, and it almost certainly would in the US, but in the pan Asian market since it went online in 2005 it has gained more than 32 million registered users. Uh wow. Again, good thing it is free because I'd never pay to play that online. A similar example, and the point of this post is a game that I came across today via a post on Kotaku, Husky Express.

This time we are talking a MMORPG. Yup, raising dogsled puppies and racing them online within a massive community, with levelable RPG elements. Again, wow. How does that even make it out of the idea pitch section of the project cycle? Who knows, but considering we are talking gadget happy South Korea, the most heavily wired society in the world, it may just be a hit. If it is, and I can get a copy for free or cheap and it is free to play online, this time I am in.

Am I off-base here? Take a look at the trailer for yourself and let me know. At the least you'll get a good laugh out of it.

--Hobson's Choice

"EA Sports Active" May Be a Mother's Day Gift That Keeps on Giving

Generally speaking it is fairly bad form to give an exercise oriented gift to a woman, even in a case like with your Mom where your relationship probably won't be hurt by a misunderstanding of the intent of the gift. But if there's a Mom on your list who you've been trying to introduce to gaming and who doesn't mind, or even better, likes breaking a sweat, then EA Sports Active may be a good option.

First off, the main caveat and possibly a deal breaker with regards to Mother's Day and Sports Active is that the title doesn't actually release until May 19th, meaning that it misses the Mother's Day buying rush. I've no idea what Electronic Arts (EA) was thinking on this, since Sports Active is a prime gift option for active mothers who own or have access to a Wii. But if you can hold off on the gifting for a week or so, it might be worth it. You might ask, why hold off? There are other exercise/fitness titles available for the Wii, for example Wii Fit, Gold's Gym Cardio Workout, Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2009 and a few others. This is very true, but reports today of comments by Peter Moore in which he was intent on making it known that EA, the publishers of the exercise title, consider Sports Active a "platform" would indicate that Sports Active might include additional future downloadable content, in addition to a heart rate and other biometric data. The 800-lb gorilla of the fitness/exercise genre, Wii Fit, includes some light biometrics, but not a heart rate meter. Also Wii Fit is not really an exercise title, where as Sports Active aims a little more towards this; not totally, but definitely more so.

The main point take away from this "platform" comment is that if there is additional content this means that the life of Sports Active would certainly be extended, which tends to keep users engaged longer. Add to this the fact that novice users, i.e. your Mom, would be getting exposure to more advanced uses of the Wii by updating their software via downloads, and you have both a health building and gamer building endeavor. This sounds like both a good move for EA and your Mom, if she is so inclined. Make it so EA and they will come.

To learn more about EA Sports Active, click here.

--Hobson's Choice

New "Fable II" DLC Slated for May 12 + a Dev Diary Video

Fable II fans hungry to extend their gameplay experience in Albion will be happy to know that the latest DLC for Fable II is only a few weeks away. Titled "See the Future," in it players will take on new challenges including ghosts, necromancers and combat in an advanced play area called "the Coliseum." You will also be able to equip your dog with one of three alter egos, snatch up more achievement points and  take in scenery inspired by the original Fable game. "See the Future" will be available through Xbox LIVE Marketplace beginning May 12 for 560 MS Points. 

In addition to this all Xbox LIVE members with a game copy, including Silver members, are invited to join in on free Fable II co-op festivities during the Multiplayer Unlocked Weekend starting May 8 at 12:01 p.m. EST, and concluding on May 11 at 11:59 a.m. EST. It should be a good time. You can read more about the DLC here. And also take a peek below at the latest developer diary from Lionhead Studios embedded below. In it you will see some nice detail on just what exactly you can expect from "See the Future."

--Hobson's Choice

PC Gamers: Download and Play "Left 4 Dead" for Free on Friday

This is just a heads up to PC gamers looking for some free fun this Friday. The latest edition of Steam's 'Freaky Free Friday' is coming up and features Valve's Left 4 Dead. The game is normally $40, but for 24-hours, beginning Friday at 00:01am GMT you can download the game and play it for free. But 24-hours isn't a long time. At the stroke of 00:01 Saturday 5/2 the game will be frozen and you'll have to pay to play if you want to continue. So, you'll have to be quick about it.

As you can imagine there will be something of a rush of cheapskates players hitting the Steam site come Friday morning, so if you are interested in maximizing your free time with the game do yourself a favor and get yourself over to Steam now and pre-load the game. Then when the time comes just visit the site again to start playing. Also, for those not living in the UK, remember to do the calculation of GMT to your local time. That's +6 hours EST, +8 hours PST, etc.  

--Hobson's Choice

What Does a 256-Player Video Game Look Like? - See the Trailer

Okay, I lied. The trailer below for Zipper Interactive's MAG (Massive Action Game) doesn't show 256 in-game players, but the PlayStation 3 exclusive shooter that was announced last year at E3 is reportedly on track to deliver those numbers all the same. The folks over at Zipper are the driving force behind the SOCUM franchise, which explains the exclusivity of the game to the PS3 and its acronym oriented name. Anyway, what I'm getting at here is that the game should have some chops. Not too many details have been released as of yet, other than the fact that the game will support battles of up to 256 players via PSN, and according to Kotaku, individual squads will be able to be broken down into eight person teams, and players will be rewarded for sticking with their squadron. Regardless of the rewards though, with that many combatants on the battlefield I'm sure there will be plenty of deserters. Hopefully that will lend itself to a fair possibility of intrigue, backstabbing and trickery.

Anyway, if you are so inclined, be sure to check out the trailer below. You can also see some recent screens here. Kotaku calls these out as possible examples of the lessened graphic quality of a game that supports so many players. None of the screens have too much action or players in them, so I don't see this, but I don't doubt that there will be compromises down the road.

--Hobson's Choice

Lucky Shops Amazon for: stud accents

Whether adorning a flirty jumper or a more edgy accessory, these chic, rockerish details strike just the right balance of tender and tough.

Clockwise from top left: Linea Pelle double wrap bracelet, $55, Obey “Double Dutch” dress, $86, Jeffrey Campbell “Athena” sandal, $60

Click here to subscribe to Lucky!

Vying to be a Green City

Seems like there is a constant public relations race ongoing for all cities, particularly in the "Green" sector. But this is a double edged, sword, no?

The Slippery Slope:

1. City takes steps to reduce carbon/recycle/buy a grip of electric cars
2. "Come live and work in our Green City marketing campaign" kicks off
3. People move to Green City and start living and working because it is a "nice place to raise a family"
4. More density creates more traffic (as not all folks moving to Green City are there to keep the Green vibe going--as in they bring their Land Yacht SUVs vs. their bicycles)
5. Greenness level, in aggregate drops
6. Angst rises amongst the City's Dark Greens
7. People get injured during Critical Mass rides
8. City has to start back at step one with trees, bikes and a new pedestrian-only downtown corridor

Yes, I'm tongue-in-cheeking this one--sorta.

Nods to Seattle and Philadelphia for doing some more step one work (found via the Environmental Leader Daily.)

~ Jeremy G for Amazon Green Scene

University Sheds light on Toddler Learning Processes

Pretty much every parent has experienced--or in the case of new or soon to be parents, will experience--the frustration resulting from what appears to be their child not listening to them. Of course, while true that children sometimes do not listen to their parents, research recently released from University of Colorado at Boulder claims that there may be something else going on inside your child. In a nutshell that she/he may be "storing information away for later."

This sounds like an overly intentional action on the part of a toddler, and literally taken probably is, but the crux of the argument sounds right on. Basically, this hinges on moving aside two prevalent views of how young children interact with the world: as living entirely in the present, or like little adults, planning their actions just on a smaller scale. The research seems to indicate in many cases that neither of these may be the case. Lacking the context of an adult, it supposes that when a young child does something that you told them not to or seems to not have listened, it may not be because they are disobeying you, but more likely that they do not have the context yet to connect the present, to a possible future. That is,

"Heather. Put that extra sweater in your backpack. It will be cold on the drive home tonight"...followed eventually by, "Oh Honey! Where is your extra sweater? I told you to bring it with you. Can't you feel how cold it is?"

Was Heather not listening, or does she not have enough understanding yet of the concept of the future to plan for it in the present? Research indicates that toddlers in situations like these may call back the past only when they need it, and so instead of struggling to get them to think ahead to where they have no experience, maybe a better approach is to get them to think back to that long cold ride in the car. Interesting stuff. Check out the video below featuring a member of the CU research team:

--Tom Milnes

New Characters to Be Announced Soon for Punch-Out!! for Wii

Both old-school gamers, excited by the prospect of a classic reborn, and the millions of newbies out there who are just happy to see that Nintendo is finally beginning to make good on its promise of developing core first party titles for the Wii are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Punch-Out!! in about three weeks. For those not in the know, we are talking a comic arcade fighter here that was originally developed in the 80s for arcades and the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Anyway, Nintendo's Punch-Out!! site is up, where you can see some initial content and what looks like a ramp up to the announcement of characters specific to the game. To date the characters shown have all been from previous game versions. The screen capture below is from the site. I could very well be mistaken here, but that silhouetted image looks a little like a young Mike Tyson, who was the final boss of the original port of the arcade game in the US and Japan, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!

Like I said, I could be wrong on this , but how cool would that be if Iron Mike got a spot in the supporting cast. Very. Punch-Out!! for Wii releases May 18th. Keep an eye on the Punch-Out!! site for more details in the weeks to come. 

--Hobson's Choice

"Uncharted 2: Among Thieves" Co-op and Multiplayer Trailer

I can't recall exactly when the rumor that Uncharted 2 would have some sort of multiplayer option became reality, but it certainly is a reality now. You can get a pretty thorough overview of the details here, and/or take a look at the Gametrailers.com Co-op and Multiplayer video below. As fun as the original Uncharted was, this looks that much better. Looks like it will be a much needed win for Sony. Check it out.

--Hobson's Choice