Gadgets and Video Games

The Last Remnant represented a major experiment for Square Enix. Not only was it one of the company’s first Xbox 360 games, it utilized the Unreal Engine, a first for the Japanese publisher. Unfortunately, the experiment wasn’t quite successful, with critics calling it “a technical mess.” Thankfully, the company isn’t simply ignoring its mistakes, with Square Enix’s new chief technology officer explaining how the misuse of the Unreal Engine led to such disappointing results. “One of the traps with middleware (like Unreal) is that some game teams believe that, because they got this middleware, maybe they need less programmers on their team, or maybe they don’t need that many skilled programmers,” Julien Merceron told Gamasutra . By relying too much on middleware, teams face precarious situations when issues arise that can’t be solved internally.

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Square Enix explains The Last Remnant’s technical shortcomings

There’s no question: retail has a serious lack of Wiis, once again. Yes, this is 2010, but you wouldn’t be wrong in thinking it feels more like 2008 . Following up on several tips over the past month about online and retail Wii “shortages,” the best we can discover is that supply is still coming in to retailers, but that demand is exceeding it — it’s that same old Wii song we’ve heard for years .

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Retailers still receiving Wiis, demand outpacing slowed supply

Boston’s Berklee College of Music continues to expand its curriculum for video game music. The Boston Globe has a feature on the program, which this semester includes five classes in game audio and scoring (in a musical sense). The piece covers the basics of the program, from the first class started four years ago to the compositions being put together for local indie games. Berklee isn’t the only school with video game audio classes, as Yale, New York University and local rival New England Conservatory also feature programs

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Boston Globe features Berklee’s growing video game music composition program

Recent Famitsu magazine scans have surfaced, revealing new Ultra Combos for Super Street Fighter IV’s world warriors and friends. As an added bonus, Eventhubs has actually translated the descriptions of the attacks, so you can get a better idea of what you’re squinting at. Chun-Li’s Kikosho fireball returns, and now Ryu has a “Metsu-shoryuken” — a super-powerful Dragon Punch, duh. Most interesting, however, is Cammy’s new Ultra Combo: the “Cammy Quick Combo” — or “CQC” — a counter move. The Famitsu issue also features images of new alternate costumes for the upgraded fighting game — Chun Li’s, above, is the most visible from the scan

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New Super Street Fighter IV Ultra Combos, alternate costumes revealed

This is one of those situations where we wish we could just call up Mr. Sega (that’s who runs Sega, right?) and ask him what he was thinking. How could he have possibly claimed this latest Aliens vs. Predator trailer has something to do with “story?” Here’s the entire plot: There are humans, there are also Aliens, as well as a Predator. That’s it! What else do you need, folks?

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New Aliens vs. Predator trailer says it’s about story, actually about gutting

Much like the Joystiq staff when the DJ plays our jam , prices on Konami iPhone games have once more gotten low, this time to mark the release of utterly bizarre platformer Tomena Sanner . All Konami’s games are value priced at 99 cents until January 4, 2010, when all the games will return to their usual prices. That included Tomena Sanner , which will run you $1.99.

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Konami cuts iPhone game prices for Tomena Sanner release

Click to read the inFamous comic. Sucker Punch’s superpower game has sold 1.2 million copies, according to a recent update by the PlayStation.Blog . According to Sony’s rules , that’s enough to make the game a certifiable “Greatest Hits” title. However, a game can’t don the ugly budget box art until ten months after the game’s original ship date.

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inFamous becomes almost-Greatest Hits game, drops to $40

It appears that Games Convention Online has justified its existence for a second year, as the show will take place July 8-11, 2010, at the Leipziger Messe in Germany. The inaugural show last year drew in 43,000 attendees and organizers have added an extra day for more breathing room in the schedule to accommodate “business talks.” Games Convention Online was Leipzig’s way of staying on the map after it lost the mega European games convention, which became GamesCom in Cologne. That show brought in an astounding 245,000 attendees its first year. Next ‘Games Convention Online’ set for July 8-11 in Leipzig originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .

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Next ‘Games Convention Online’ set for July 8-11 in Leipzig

Though the PC version of Wolfenstein has been out for nearly two months now, the game’s been persistently affected by a number of minor bugs. Nothing really huge, mind you — just a handful of game-crashing, save file-corrupting, SecuROM-breaking errors which are capable of completely crippling your enjoyment of the title. Like we said, no biggie.

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PC version of Wolfenstein gets crash-fixing patch

Ever since Andrew Ryan decided to go out for that pack of smokes (our mom says he’s coming back; just you wait!), there’s been nobody to tend to the leaky pipes and roving packs of splicers in Rapture. Well, according to GameTrailers TV’s Geoff Keighley , someone’s finally decided to step in and assume the leadership role for BioShock 2 , and we’ll find out who on Thursday’s episode. In another tweet, Keighley promised plenty of ” new single player info and footage” and even teased that the episode will also reveal new characters — something we already knew was planned for the sequel.

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GTTV features BioShock 2 this week; reveals who’s running Rapture