Feature

By: Bob Mackey and Marty Sliva May 18, 2012

Community creator Dan Harmon isn't a stranger to video games; he's been public about his love for the medium, so it wasn't surprising to see the first episode of last night's season finale hat trick devote itself completely to old-school gaming references. What would have been a throwaway gag in any other sitcom took over most of "Digital Estate Planning's" 22 minutes, as Jeff, Britta, Pierce, Shirley, Abed, Annie, and Troy found themselves participating in a multiplayer platformer in an attempt to wrest the Hawthorne Wipes fortune from the grasp of a bastard child. This episode overflowed with visual gags devoted to the blocky roots of gaming culture, most of which flew by at a blink-and-you'll-miss-it pace; but, thankfully, your friends at 1UP are here to comb over this chunk of comedy gold to dig out the purest pieces of retro gaming nostalgia. Read on, and be sure to let us know if any references slipped past our intricate knowledge of gaming's past.

"Digital Estate Planning's" title sequence doesn't seem to point to any specific title; it's more of a pastiche of retro games that gave the player a brief preview of all the playable characters and their awesome abilities. Though Gilbert's fake game offers a resolution and color depth the NES could only dream of, the opening credits feel a lot like the intro to the NES version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

As Electronic Arts continues to work toward having Origin reach feature parity with Steam -- and hopefully finding something unique it can offer in the process -- it also is focused on getting the software installed on as many computers as possible. Bundling it with EA's own computer games has proven to be one effective way of doing this, whether it be with Battlefield 3 or Mass Effect 3, as has exclusively offering the digital version of its big MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic, through the service. Now it's extending a helping hand to independent developers who have turned to crowd-funding to get their games made in a move that will further help to increase the size of Origin's userbase.

The publisher today announced it will waive Origin's distribution fees for 90 days for any developer wanting to bring its crowd-funded, downloadable PC game to the service, just so long as the game is ready to publish. Develop notes the only costs developers will be subjected to are those pertaining to transactions, such as the fee charged by credit card companies. Even with that small caveat, this is still a potentially great deal for independent developers who will be able to receive a significantly larger portion of revenue on each game it sells in the three months following release. Particularly when you consider many of the games that have been funded by Kickstarter are unlikely to ever be multi-million unit sellers, that extra money could prove to be a major boon.

Feature

By: 1UP Staff May 18, 2012

Before the advent of electricity, mankind rightly feared the darkness and the thousands of hungry wolves lurking within. Now that we live in a world where eternal daytime can be summoned with the flick of a light switch, the lessons taught by every fairy tale put to print -- stay out of dark, spooky places -- can safely be ignored, since our smartphones alone can easily cut a swath through the blackness of night. Still, crushing the anxieties of our lizard brains often proves impossible, as a simple evening power outage can quickly turn us from rational human beings into quivering masses who refuse to take candlelit trips to the bathroom alone for fear of wandering House Draculas. And we're not even safe in retreating to the escapist fantasies of video games; over the years, savvy developers have learned to exploit these primal phobias by designing worlds that turn from bad to ugly with the setting of the sun. The following games serve as fitting proof that -- as the popular Nickelodeon show once posited-- yes, we are afraid of the dark. Or if we're not, maybe we should be?

While it could have gone worse, Diablo III's first few days of availability have been plagued with a variety of issues. There were problem logging in including the dreaded Error 37, and similar sorts of issues have continued to crop up since then, leading to several instances of the servers being taken offline. This has all been widespread enough that Blizzard apologized for the situation, but really, these sorts of problems are to be expected following the release of an enormously popular online game. But not everyone wants Diablo III to be an online game, and those players have suffered right alongside those who do.

Aside from the times that the servers have been brought down for emergency maintenance, which invariably affect everyone, not everyone has been subjected to a less-than-ideal experience. Having skipped the launch rush on Tuesday, I've yet to run into any problems myself, save for one where I'm occasionally told someone I'm chatting with is not online, which requires me to re-send my message. Annoying, sure, but hardly a big deal, especially in light of people who are losing their Achievements or having trouble playing at all for one reason or another.

With Lost Planet's roots firmly planted on consoles, it comes as a surprise that the series will soon be making a trip to portables in the form of E.X. Troopers for the Nintendo 3DS. Taking an anime-inspired look and featuring gameplay similar to its console brethren, it appears that the franchise will be bringing some familiar elements to Nintendo's smaller screens. As sudden as the announcement is, Capcom seems to be taking an unexpected approach for the franchise on portables.

More than two years after Infinity Ward founders Jason West and Vince Zampella first sued Activision, their case is finally set to head to trial on May 29. But before the case can be heard, documents have been released which shed light on some unsavory moves Activision made prior to firing West and Zampella in March 2010.

Prior to the start of the case, there have been some developments of note. Electronic Arts, the publisher of the game being produced by West and Zampella's new studio, Respawn Entertainment, was added in late 2010 as a defendant in Activision's counter-suit; Activision alleged EA conspired with the former IW heads to derail the Call of Duty franchise, among other things. Bloomberg reported yesterday the two publishers have reached a settlement, details of which were not made available.

Feature

By: Dennis Farrell May 17, 2012

Some people approach games with a checklist of required features. "No multiplayer? Not even a half-hearted mode thrown in for the heck of it? No thanks!" "Where are my arbitrary achievements?" If internet forums are to be trusted -- and in my experience they always should be -- voice acting is increasingly becoming one such expectation.

When a game fails to check off enough boxes, it runs the risk of coming under scrutiny. Sometimes, though, the pressure to be all-inclusive is directly at odds with the experience a game is attempting to create. Sometimes, voice acting can be a detriment.

You may think of Gears of War when you hear the name "Epic Megagames." Or maybe Jazz Jackrabbit, if you live a lifestyle of old-school cred. Or perhaps what comes to mind is Unreal Engine 3, the behind-the-scenes game technology that's proven to be the current generation's Renderware. And these things are well and good! But over the past few years, Epic's made something of a name for itself with chair's Infinity Blade games.

Infinity Blade and its recent sequel boast what may well be the most spectacular graphics yet seen on iOS (running, not surprisingly, on a modified version of Epic's own Unreal Engine 3), but they impress less in the gameplay department. Certainly they're entertaining enough, but they amount to high-fantasy Punch-Out!! -- simple and limited. Now that the series is a bonafide money-maker for Epic, they're taking a much more direct approach to the property... and a more ambitious one, too. Infinity Blade Dungeons doesn't simply represent a new genre for the series; it's also the first Blade developed internally by Epic.

Everyone's favorite purveyor of exceedingly niche shoot-em-ups, Cave, is back again with Akai Katana, a welcome -- and rare -- appearance of one of their console games localized for the West. Not only that, it's a boxed retail game, and crazier yet, it's another horizontal bullet-hell shooter, just like their last Western retail release, Deathsmiles. And if Deathsmiles' gothic lolita stylings sent you running in the opposite direction, Akai Katana is a much more palatable action game, set in a world where young rebels use their warplanes and the power of the mystical Blood Swords to combat the endless hordes of imperial forces. Yeah, no one really plays these for the plots.

As in every shooter, you fly around the screen destroying enemies that appear from the other side of the screen, using regular speedy fire or more powerful, focused fire that slows your movement. The wrinkle in Akai Katana is that killing enemies earns energy orbs that will let you summon your "phantom." With enough energy you can switch to phantom form, where you become your humanoid spirit partner, who is invincible as long as you don't use the stronger fire. As enemy bullets bounce off the phantom, you can move left and right to bat the bullets around and turn them into point value tokens, though they don't last forever and neither does the phantom energy meter, so you'll have to know when to switch forms and collect them for your big scores.

Consider the following scenario from the Game of Thrones RPG: you get tasked with infiltrating a secure location, and beforehand you assemble a proper uniform -- gauntlets, boots, cape, and helmet -- to gain access. This sequence conjures up the same sort of tension as watching Tywin Lannister and Littlefinger's conversation at Harrenhal in the current season of the show, or reading the duel between The Red Viper and The Mountain That Rides from A Storm of Swords. There's a lot at stake, and one mistake could turn the whole affair catastrophic; but this time, you're in control of this tense situation. You walk up to a guard at a checkpoint, and he asks if he knows you because you seem familiar to him; to this, you reply that you have a very common face that elicits such a question often. Except, as noted earlier, not only are you in disguise, but as part of that disguise, you had put on a full helmet that completely envelops and obscures your face.

That kind of moment embodies playing Game of Thrones, where the occasional moments of intrigue and interest get stymied by bizarre little gaffes, mistakes, and janks. Why is there a conversation about the look of my face when I have a helmet on? It's not an instance of randomized NPC chatter that delightfully skips over the detail of whether the player is wearing a helmet or not -- it's a specific and scripted moment in a mandatory story quest that somehow got past the game's writers and testing.