More news!

This time it comes from Joystiq’s Alexander Sliwinski, who was kept busy updating his article throughout the day.

38 Studios has been unable to pay back its loan from the State of Rhode Island; taxpayers may well end up with their own game development company.

As someone that covers indie games frequently, I am regularly annoyed by the information presented on indie developers’ sites. Game journos are inundated with requests for coverage, and sometimes it’s easy for us to ignore messages with a lack of information. And sometimes we stumble upon really cool stuff…and have nothing to work with.

But fear not! Vlambeer’s little tool is easy to use and basically makes a great press kit with (seemingly) relative ease. I’ve seen it used a couple times now and recommend its use.

Or, y’know, don’t be lazy and tailor make messages for us. Y’know.

Rare we feature news reporting, but Klepek’s addition of actual reporting nets him a slot here: The topic is one many gamers are keenly observing, after all.

There’s James Bond-esque stuff going on there, at least according to West and Zampella, in which “dirt” would be acquired on the two to get rid of them. It should be stressed, again, that this is just the story coming from one side. Activision’s Bobby Kotick may well be a Bond-like villain in some respects, but nothing’s proven yet.

via @baneau

Here’s an interesting article about playing Scrabble with modified rules: Cheating is encouraged, but you have to be a big spender to utilize the cheats. If those don’t work, you can always start stripping and flexing, report Gameological.

 The game was a tense affair, a war of cheat attrition reminiscent of the steroid-era home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. Dinklage complained of a rotator cuff injury that may have been inhibiting his word deployments, and the champs eventually dethroned Overall Wash by playing the all-powerful create-a-word cheat. The gibberish they put on the board is apparently pronounced “snow.” 

Toal, Drew. “Scrabble For Cheaters” (The Gameological Society: May 16, 2012) <http://gameological.com/2012/05/scrabble-for-cheaters/>.

Ross, in talking about his own game, analyzes the async play of Hero Academy. He gets down to the essentials, then notes discrepancies between it and his own release. Devs considering creating an async game would do well to read this one. Nothing groundbreaking, but interesting all the same.

Here’s an interesting review of indie darling Fez, that, really, isn’t a review in the sense most gamers are used to. Golding isn’t, in fact, reviewing the game; indeed, he’s analyzing what it means to be a “smart” game…an extension of the debate on what “dumb” games are. Here’s just a taste.

“Smart” is only a useful description for a videogame if you are also trying to set up a hierarchy of quality. If Braid is smart, Call of Duty is dumb. If ballet is smart, videogames are dumb, and then we can return to the kinds of categoric and elitist understandings of art and entertainment—and class—that dominated taste for several centuries.

It is a relief, then, that Fez’s quality is not smartness. It is, despite the magic box-like hieroglyphic code puzzles that frame the game, mainly interested in tactile responses, spatial exploration, and aesthetics. It is a very beautiful game.

Golding, Daniel. “Review: Fez, and the backwards glance” (Crikey.com: May 16, 2012) <http://blogs.crikey.com.au/game-on/2012/05/16/review-fez-and-the-backwards-glance/>.

Stephen Totilo assesses allegations levied against MLB 2K12 players vying for a million dollars: One player seems to think he’s been cheated out of contention. There’s a lot of great research and reporting going on here.

Brawl players have known Meta Knight is a little too strong since shortly after the game dropped. Three years later, though, and he’s only recently been banned from tournament play. If you’re interested in the politics of banning a character from tournament play, this is a must read.