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Game over as Game Rover signs off — for now

September 2nd, 2008, 12:53 pm by

Thanks for playing at Game Rover!It’s been a short three months and a great experiment. The part-time staff here at Game Rover have decided to end the blog as is. We now have a good sense of what people want and don’t want in our gaming blog.

Want = Blizzard, Blizzard, Blizzard!

Don’t want =  Everything else.

We’re in transition as we refocus coverage and decide how we can best use our links to Orange County game companies to get the news and information out there that people want to read. If you’ve got any suggestions, please send them our way or comment below.

Thanks for playing folks.

We leave you with some of the most wanted posts:

Posted in: Latest game news • | Comments Off

Nexon’s new first-person shooter game is a gutsy move

August 31st, 2008, 9:18 am by

JoeWhich one doesn’t fit:

a) A game of super-cute fantasy characters whacking snails and mushrooms for gold coins
b) A superstar pop-culture dance game
c) A gritty deathmatch between mercenaries.

Sorry, that was a trick question. South Korean game company Nexon produces all three – “MapleStory,” “Audition” and “Combat Arms,” among other titles. Unlike the offerings from more traditional gaming companies like EA, each of these games follows the company’s trademark free-to-download and free-to-play formula. Nexon first came stateside with flagship “MapleStory,” a massively multiplayer online game that’s one part “Super Mario Brothers” and one part “World of Warcraft.”

We had a chance to sit down and talk with Nexon America’s vice president of marketing, Min Kim; “Combat Arms” producer Herb Yang; and associate Bob Holtzman.

The company’s newest game, “Combat Arms,” is a first-person shooter and currently up and running. The 3D first-person shooter’s realistic style is a significant departure from the super-cute, super-deformed style in its other games. But competition has been a fairly core component of many of the company’s games. “Audition” features head-to-head dance competition, while “KartRider” is a cart-racing game in which players, well, race against each other. In karts, I guess.

Nexon’s games generate revenue through “micro transactions,” in which players use real money to buy new facial expressions, haircuts and clothing for their characters. They’re micro because the items – which are often rented or one-time use items – aren’t very expensive. A “MapleStory” player could purchase an angry expression for his or her rogue for a dollar or three.

While its shop — called the black market — isn’t up yet, the same will be true of “Combat Arms.” The market will let players buy new clothing, body types, faces, gun textures and other customizable elements. Yang was emphatic that items that help a player by providing statistics, like new or improved guns, won’t be available for purchase. Better and more specialized weapons would only be available to players who played enough games to use the in-game points system to purchase them. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Latest game news • Other MMOs • The Business • • • • • • • • • • • • • | Comments Off

Play with Spore before (most) everyone else

August 29th, 2008, 10:59 am by

Spore, coming Sept. 7Get ready for “Spore!”

The game launches next week but if you preorder it today, says publisher Electronic Arts, you can preload the game so you’ll be among the first to play the game when it goes on sale Sept. 7 in the United States.

The game, from the geniuses behind “The Sims,” is an other-worldly adventure. Similar to “The Sims,” Spore requires players to build and create. But instead of a house or city, Spore is all about creating a universe, starting in the primordial ooze with a single-cell organism.

The preorder deal is for gamers who buy the PC version of Spore from the EA store, at eastore.ea.com. Mac users will be able to start their download at gametreeonline.com. But the special “Galactic edition” will only be available as a box in stores.

After pre-ordering the game, Spore will appear in the EA Download Manager and players will be able to download 99 percent of the game to the computer, with the remainder of the game available for download on Sept. 7. At that point, it will take 30 to 60 minutes to install the rest of the game.

Also on Sept. 7, the make-your-own Spore comic-book launches, as previously mentioned here on Game Rover. The comic book software will be available online at Mashon.com, a site from Aliso Viejo’s Planetwide Media.

Users will be able to send video and images directly to the tool from the game. At Mashon, users pick comic-book templates and drag-and-drop art onto those templates. All images, including video, can be resized and rearranged to create a story line. When completed, users can click the ‘share’ button and send links to personal blogs and social-networking accounts.

Beside the personalized Spore comic books, EA is also integrating links to YouTube and T-shirt site Zazzle.com within the game so fans can upload videos and create Spore T-shirts without leaving the game.

“We really look at all of our partnerships as ways players can take the game outside of the game,” said Lucy Bradshaw, Spore’s executive producer.

Spore will also be available on the Nintendo DS and mobile phones.

More Spore on GAME ROVER:

Posted in: Latest game news • • • • • • | 1 Comment »

Pro gamer makes it to ‘Survivor’

August 28th, 2008, 1:28 pm by

Ken “SephirothKen” HoangSo, Ken “SephirothKen” Hoang, a 22-year-old professional gamer from Orange County, has made it to the new season of “Survivor.” The Register TV blog goes into more details about the show’s contestants at “Westminster man heads new ‘Survivor’ cast.”

The Westminster resident is apparently a fiend on Super Smash Bros, and had been on a nearly three-year winning streak since 2003, according to SmashWiki, the wiki for Super Smash trivia.

At 22, he still has years to go as a pro gamer and I would think that a time-out to do “Survivor” would conflict with training and hurt any chances to dominate the cybersport. But, at the end of his Wikipedia entry, it mentions that Ken “is currently inactive.” Ahh… Good luck in “CBS’s “Survivor: Gabon.”

Posted in: Latest game news • • • • • • | Comments Off

Win your way into a GameFly TV commercial

August 27th, 2008, 9:12 am by

GameFly’s fan contestCalling all publicity hounds: GameFly, the video-game rental service, is making a TV commercial and it wants some wacky fan to star in it.

Of course there is a contest. Send a video of yourself portraying a favorite game character. You can submit the video online or show up at one of three casting call events, including one in Los Angeles.  Don’t yak longer than 45 seconds and make sure you “show and tell” why you love GameFly and why you like the character you dressed up as.

The company is taking submissions through Sept. 30 and the public voting begins Oct. 1 for one month. Submit entries at www.gamefly.com/superfan

Winner gets  a free trip to Hollywood (big whoop for us in OC) and you’ll also get to be in the commercial.

Contest try outs:

Sept. 9, Los Angeles – Hollywood and Highland Center/12-6 p.m. PST
Sept. 16, Chicago – ESPN Zone/12-6 p.m. CST
Sept. 23, New York – Hawaiian Tropic Zone/12-6 p.m. EST

Good luck!

Posted in: Events • Latest game news • • • • • | Comments Off

Ezra update: WoW fan with cancer suffers stroke

August 21st, 2008, 11:02 am by

**Update** Ezra Chatterton passed away on Oct. 20, 2008. Read his father’s tribute HERE.

For World of Warcraft fans who have been following the plight of young Ezra Chatterton, I just heard from his father Micah and his son’s condition continues to worsen.

[For those tuning in: Ezra was diagnosed with brain cancer in Spring 2007. The Make-A-Wish Foundation granted his wish to spend a day with Blizzard Entertainment to develop his own character for the game (like Ahab Wheathoof pictured below, his quest and his fiery weapon, pictured below). I've been posting updates every few months (see below) because of the interest from thousands of WoW fans everywhere.]WoW’s new fiery crossbow, built to Ezra’s specs.

Last Thursday, Ezra suffered a stroke that for a time left him unable to wake fully or communicate, Micah writes. The tumor that had been shrinking is regrowing quickly. He’s on a high-dose of medication and still has pain, vision problems, lethargy and right-side weakness. It’s looking grave but Ezra remains optimistic. Says Micah:

“Up until last week, Ezra was doing as well as he’d ever been, and one of his favorite pastimes was to try to work out every conceivable talent combination for our Ephoenix and a few of our other characters once Wrath of the Lich King comes out.  As soon as he’d settled on one build, and weighed all the arguments for and against it, a new beta would come out, and the process would begin again.  WOW has been a consistent comfort to him through his cancer, something that he can devote himself to mentally, whether his body agrees or not.”

Micah’s personal note to fans everywhere:

Wishing on Warcraft story in OCRegister

To all of you WoW players and others who have kept Ezra in your thoughts and prayers through this last year and a half, please believe that your support has helped us immensely. Ezra has already outstretched the doctors’ expectations for his health by a mile. Your kindness has been a big part of that, along with the generosity  of Blizzard, the steadfastness of family, and the astonishing optimism of Ezra himself.  We hope that he continues to prove the doctors wrong.  Please keep him in your thoughts always.  Thank you all.

Micah and Ezra are still optimistic that the new treatments will work. I still hope to interview Ezra someday when he’s developing a game for Blizzard.

If you want to send Ezra a personal note, e-mail him at ephoenix@earthlink.net

Past Ezra coverage:

Posted in: Blizzard • Latest game news • • • • • • | 20 Comments »

Atlus contest: win Persona t-shirts and art books

August 21st, 2008, 9:50 am by

Atlus Persona t-shirt contestIrvine game company Atlus and Joystiq.com has some Persona 4 swag to give away to random fans of Atlus’ role playing Persona series.

Win Persona 4 t-shirts plus Persona 3 art books signed by character designer Shigenori Soejima. To enter the contest just visit this website and leave a comment stating who your summoned persona is. On August 22, three winners will be chosen.

Posted in: Latest game news • • • • • | Comments Off

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