Gadgets and Video Games

Video Games Live continues touring with a few special shows during the month of July. On July 10, the National Symphony Orchestra (which did two sold-out shows at the Kennedy Center in DC ) will perform at the WolfTrap Feline Center in Virginia. Sid Meier, Civilization IV vocalist Ron Ragin and game composer Grant Kirkhope ( Donkey Kong Country, GoldenEye, Banjo-Kazooie, Viva Pinata ) will all be in attendance. For Texans, Halo composer Mike Salvatori will make a “special guest appearance” at the Ft. Worth show on July 14.

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Video Games Live to have several special shows in July

Steam is offering an incredible deal on 20 of 2K Games’ hottest titles in the 2K Huge Games Pack . Featuring well-known titles such as Bioshock and Civilization IV , the package is a steal at $53.99. In fact, that’s only a few dollars more than that bunk Bioshock bundle , so if you’ve got the extra dough laying around and want some new games to play, we suggest you check this deal out. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!] 20 2K Games titles available in one convenient Steam pack originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds

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20 2K Games titles available in one convenient Steam pack

No, it’s okay. You can read that again. According to a report released by Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter , the company was given a demo of streaming game service OnLive this past March. Pachter states that latency between the user and OnLive’s servers is supposed to be no more than 80 milliseconds, while the games he demoed were running at 25 milliseconds. While Pachter isn’t certain if OnLive will “dominate any time soon” he believes that the micro console’s video conferencing feature “will likely attract widespread demand.” (Wait, it plays Crysis like a gaming PC and it’s video conferencing that will sell this thing?) Pachter states that OnLive should appeal to families that have yet to buy into the current generation of consoles, especially if the service is priced right

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Pachter: Crysis via OnLive like ‘playing on a fully-optimized gaming PC’

Epic Games has opened a new subsidiary in Seoul, Korea, with plans to provide licensing services and support resources to development teams using its Unreal Engine. Epic Games Korea will be led by Ray Park, formerly the business and strategy development manager for Microsoft’s in-game advertising company, Massive, Inc . While Epic Games has provided its Unreal Engine to teams in the territory for over five years, Park states the opening of a Korean subsidiary signifies Epic’s “desire to collaborate more closely with the [local] game development community.” Jay Wilbur, Epic Games’ vice president of business development, noted Epic Games Korea would serve as “a hub for Unreal Engine access, knowledge and support in the Korean marketplace.” Rumors of developer Silicon Knights moving to Korea in search of the support it claims to have never received from Epic Games could not be confirmed … because we made it up for the sake of a bad joke. [Image Credit: Nanopaprika ] Epic Games Korea opens to work closely with local devs originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:30:00 EST.

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Epic Games Korea opens to work closely with local devs

Danny Bilson, who is now the executive VP of Core Games at THQ following last week’s shuffle , says that shutting down several studios and dismissing 550 employees was necessary to create the “new THQ.” He explains to GI.biz that the surviving studios were given more money to enhance the “quality” (another buzzword around THQ lately ) of the titles in development. Bilson notes Red Faction: Guerrilla was given four extra months and millions in cash, which he believes was “worth every penny” — reviewers apparently agree .

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THQ: Quality of current titles enhanced by recent mass layoffs

Joystiq tipsters — and Xbox.com regulars — have noticed a strange Beta 2009 icon appearing on some Xbox 360 ‘Played Games’ profiles. While speculation (or hopes and dreams ) was that the icon was related to something important , sources tell Joystiq that Microsoft is internally testing Avatar awards. Sorry, no megatons here

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Microsoft beta testing Avatar awards

Being El Presidente of a South American country is an exclusive club. With that in mind, Kalypso Media is currently taking applications for players interested in Tropico 3 ’s closed beta. Despite what you’ve been led to believe in recent years, a beta is not a demo , and your job is to actually help test the game and report bugs. Those interested in helping make the banana republic simulator the best it can be, can head on over to the Haemimont Games website and fill out an application

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Sign up for Tropico 3’s closed beta revolution

European game service Metaboli — partner to GameTap — has announced its plans to launch the Chill-Out Pack, a service dedicated to downloadable, family-friendly casual games. The service is set to include over 200 casual games, including recognizable movie licenses like The Chronicles of Narnia and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider , according to Casualgaming.biz . The service will update with new titles every week as well. The Chill-Out Pack also offers new parental controls, including the ability to create sub-accounts for children, which allow parents to set parameters for their little ones, such as limiting playtime and deciding which games the kids can play

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Metaboli’s Chill-Out Pack brings casual games, parental controls

Mark Jacobs’ unforeseen exit from Warhammer Online developer Mythic, a departure made known during the revelation of the BioWare/Mythic merger , left many fans and colleagues stunned and confused . In a lengthy post on his personal blog, Jacobs explained the reasoning for his evacuation — he actually left the company early in May, when EA informed him that “they wanted to make some changes within the Games Label.” Since that day, he’s been out of contact from the rest of the Mythic team. However, he’s not ready to talk smack about the gaming industry juggernaut that forced the changes upon his studio — Jacobs explained, “Over my 23 years of making games professionally I have refrained from attacking the competition, former and/or current partners, other game developers,” and so on.

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Mark Jacobs explains departure from Mythic and EA

Speaking to the adorably named Press Pause to Reflect , Jonathan Blow — creator of Braid — had a few things to say about independent games, as well as the game industry in general. The remarks that most will probably focus on concern the debate over games as art. When asked what it will take for games to be considered works of art, Blow said, “All that needs to happen is for game developers to do more-serious work.” He elaborated that currently “the work isn’t there,” adding that the industry, by and large, is about “pandering and infantilism.” Assuming game designers can overcome that, said Blow, “We will find that there is an audience out there that takes us seriously.” Blow also discussed the methods of game storytelling — taking a moment to defend the dated and often maligned use of text instead of cut-scenes — and how services like XBLA and PSN are affecting the independent games business

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Jonathan Blow on indies, games as art, storytelling