In BFGs at Dawn, two GameCyte writers who find themselves at odds on a particular topic will duel over the merits of their own argument while attempting to tear gaping holes in that of their colleague. On today’s feature, Sean and Jesse explore the highly-anticipated iPhone games library, and the varying opinions as to whether it will overtake existing handheld gaming markets. Continue Reading

Your daily smörgåsbord of the very best gaming has to offer.

Gaming:

• Kojima Productions’ Ryan Payton debunks MGS4’s rumored 90-minute cutscenes, retroactively clarifies reviewer-unfriendly NDA (Kotaku; Kotaku)

• Despite Crytek CEO’s promise of no more PC exclusives, Crysis: Warhead turns out to be PC-exclusive parallel story starring secondary squadmate (BusinessWire)

• Metal Gear Solid 4 receives coveted 40/40 from Famitsu, joins such as Ocarina of Time, Soulcalibur, Nintendogs in perfect score pantheon (Kotaku)

• Famitsu reveals Tenchu 4 in development for Wii (1UP)

• Tomy and D3 Publisher confirm Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 for Wii, claim improvement over Japanese version (VerticalWire)

• Former Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor helping to create free online debate game based on real law (Huffington Post via GamePolitics)

• PS3 Red Alert 3 put on hold (Playstation Universe)

Industry:

• Without head ninja Itagaki, decapitated Tecmo’s shares slump 10% (GameSpot)

• Take-Two doubles take in Q2 (New York Times)

• Ubisoft calls Sony PSP ‘directionless,’ holding back on development accordingly… (GamesIndustry.biz)

• …but happy to work with iPhone/iPod Touch (CasualGaming.biz via Pocket Gamer)

• Develop Awards finalists announced (Develop Mag)

Play: Devil May Cry 4 PC demo — see if Capcom has finally learned how to port a game (FileFront, GameSpot)

Watch: Resident Evil 5 trailer dissected, plot and gameplay details extracted (GameTrailers)

Research: So-called game addicts neither anti-social nor shy, according to study (News.com.au via GameSpot)

Download: Guitar Hero III gets whopping five new master track song packs in June (Press release via MCVUK)

Perspective: Forbes says Apple iPhone/iPod Touch could kill the Nintendo DS (Forbes)

Mad Skills: YouTube gamer nails GH3 Through The Fire and Flames on Expert, 100% (YouTube)

Trials and Tribulations: Jack Thompson walks out of Florida Bar hearing, files 4500 word objection; Bar recommends “enhanced disbarment” (Kotaku, GamePolitics)

We’d known since early February that BioShock was slated for mobile adaptation, but considering that the term “mobile adaptation” typically inspires visions of forcing the proverbial gigantic square peg in a tiny round hole, we’d pretty much crossed the game off our watch list. But now, Pocket Gamer (via Gizmodo) is reporting that BioShock Mobile is one of two new first-person shooters in development for the Apple iPhone. Continue Reading

Shortly after another Japanese luminary spoke of the , Hideo Kojima, during a press conference announcing [via Kotaku] the completion of development of Metal Gear Solid, discussed the state of the game industry and how the Japanese domination of the industry is evaporating.

Continue Reading

On Thursday, former Apple executive Clent Richardson became Immersion’s new CEO, and now, rumors abound that the company’s haptic technology will become a fixture of the next iPhone. Many smartphone enthusiasts are speculating the tech will primarily address the woes of typing on a virtual keyboard — but you and I know the iPhone is capable of so much more. Continue Reading

Here at GameCyte we had the opportunity to sit down with Ethan Einhorn of SEGA. Ethan recently presented the tech demo for Super Monkey Ball on the iPhone during the announcement of the iPhone’s SDK, and he took the time to share his thoughts on Super Monkey Ball, the iPhone, and casual gaming with us.
Ethan Einhorn: My role currently at Sega is Associate Producer; and if you don’t know what an associate producer does – that’s a role that’s basically a creative auditor. So we’re working with development teams, and ensuring that they deliver a high-quality product. We have milestones that come in, which are just updates on how the game’s coming along, and we determine whether or not it is in line with getting the product to market.

So it’s valuable to really have a strong handle on what makes a game great, so that you can ensure that the product being made for you is hitting that level of quality.

One of the things that’s great about casual games is that in a really good casual experience, you understand almost immediately what you’re supposed to do in the game.

There’s no ramp-up of 20 minutes, detailed tutorials; it’s just pick-up-and-play. That’s what’s valuable in terms of trying to bring new gamers into the fold.

If you look at a traditional gamepad, that’s a really complex device. Learning how to use it is like learning how to type. Now, if you have typed for years, it’s second-nature if someone puts a keypad in front of you, but remember what it was like before you knew how to do that. It’s the same thing for people who do not understand how to use a traditional game controller. So what Nintendo has done with the Wii; what they’ve done with the DS; what Apple is doing with the iPhone, creating interfaces that are just innately easier to understand is terrific, and I’m really excited about that.

When it comes to the mobile phone space, I think that the iPhone is going to be a really significant step forward. One of the biggest challenges working on mobile phone games is that you have a lot of compatibility issues to worry about, and beyond the software concerns it’s also the hardware concerns of, “What is the button configuration like?” on all of these different devices. It’s uniform on the iPhone and the iPod Touch – it’s one device that you know that you’re programming for, that you know will work, no software compatibility concerns, and that’s very exciting. You combine that with the level of power that is definitely competitive with dedicated handheld gaming machines, and you have potentially a revolution on your hands in handheld gaming.

Super Monkey Ball really was an actual choice for the iPhone in terms of what types of properties we’d like to experiment with on that device. When we started talking to Apple about it, there was just a collective excitement, because talk about a great way to capitalize on that accelerometer. It just – it’s an actual fit. When people hear about it, it’s something that excites them, gives them a reason to really check out the iPhone as a unique gaming experience.

The proof of the power of the iPhone is in the demonstration that we were able to provide. Look at that and tell me if that would surprise you from a performance standpoint running on a dedicated, handheld game console. It’s right up there. It absolutely matches the experience that you’d get with that kind of device. Many people are going to buy an iPhone or an iPod Touch simply to take calls or listen to their music; this is a great opportunity to grab those consumers and say, “Hey, games are great; games are fun; try it on something you already have,” and for hardcore gamers, it’s terrific to be in a position where finally you can actually just carry one device that will do everything you need.

When we started on that two-week trek to get Super Monkey Ball up and running on the iPhone in demo form, it was incredibly easy to work with the SDK. We were working with the development team that had not worked with Cocoa and OpenGL, and it’s pretty astonishing that they were able to make that level of performance happen that quickly. That bodes really well for what we can do in the future on a device like that.

Sega and Apple have a terrific relationship; we’ve had a lot of fun working on the Super Monkey Ball demo, and it would make sense to take the next natural step – but we haven’t announced anything at this time – We also are really excited to see what other Sega properties would make sense on that platform. So, there’s a lot of discussion, and I think fans are going to be very happy.

Following our exclusive interview, HermitWorks wanted to show off a little more of their Quake III Arena iPod Touch port. Last night, their blogspot page became host to a brand-new YouTube video showing off the game’s menus and built-in demo function. Continue Reading

When news surfaced late Saturday afternoon that a YouTube user made a pair of iPod Touch units play Quake 3, many probably thought “Wow, that’s cool. Some YouTube user made a pair of iPod Touch units play Quake 3.”

Not GameCyte. Continue Reading