Hijinks Inc.

If you were waiting for the next big name publisher to make a game for the iPhone, wait no longer. Kojima Productions, developers of the much acclaimed Metal Gear series are bringing their stealth action shooter to the iPhone and iPod Touch. 1UP is reporting that the game will be based on characters from MGS4, that it will ship with 8 initial levels, and that there is precious little information available besides that.

And if doesn’t do it for you, Konami is also bringing Dance Dance Revolution, Silent Hill, and Frogger to the iPhone.

DDR? Really?At least the Tap Tap Revolution people were honest with their name.

Kojima Productions

1UP

This isn’t what I’d call a definitive list, but if you want to try to defend your choice to buy a iPhone instead of buying your significant other bling here’s a couple games to buy.

Wurdle
Word games are good for relationships. They develop your vocabulary, which in turns allows you to communicate more easily with your significant other. Let’s face it, you need all the help you can get.

Wurdle mixes smart touch screen controls with engaging gameplay, providing hours of challenging word creating excitement. You’re given a small, medium, or large field of letter tiles to play with, and your choice of time limits in which to create as many words as possible.

Lexitron

Lexitron is another word game, only this one turns up the heat a little bit. No more 6×6 or 8×8 letter tile boards, instead you get 6 letters in a line, and two minutes to make at least one 6 letter word and as many other words as you can.

You can think of this game as that rocky phase in your relationship when you and your girlfriend realize you are two very different people with very different interests and priorities. Communicate or die (relationally speaking).

Hangman

Speaking of death, there’s nothing quite like a friendly game of Hangman to liven up an evening. The Hangman app on the iPhone/iPod Touch is actually pretty slick, despite the annoying ad bar on top. Along with classic two player gameplay, it offers the classic dictionaries to pit yourself against on your own.

Sudoku

I threw this in on the foundation of watching my roommate and his girlfriend curled up on the couch staring at a Sudoku book for hours on end. My girlfriend downloaded MMGG’s (Mighty Mighty Good Games) Sudoku from the app store just last week and we had a lot of fun with it, so that’s the version I’ll recommend out of the many different Sudoku apps available.

Remember guys, you’re not just cooperatively solving puzzles to exercise your brain; you’re learning to work together toward a common goal. That’s what good relationships are built on.

I recently (four days ago) sold my Nintendo DS and all my games on eBay. I did this with the thought that Nintendo would have to release a new DS pretty soon, so I might as well get rid of it while it still has some market value.

Lo and behold.

During their Fall Press Conference today, Nintendo have – as expected – announced a new version of the Nintendo DS. Called the Nintendo DSi, it eschews the GBA slot (boo!) in favour of a range of improvements. The handheld’s screens have been enlarged, and will now be 17% bigger (at 3.25 inches) than those found on the DS Lite. As for the rumoured additions, both have proven to be correct, with “audio enhancements” made to the handheld, while it will also now include a 3 megapixel camera.

The DSi seems to have a lot of new features that would assume Wii integration. Virtual Console on the DS? Yes please!

The Nintendo DSi can adjust pitch and playback, making it ideal for language study and listening to music.
What’s more, the DSi features an SD memory card slot, making it possible to take pictures with the DSi and then view them on the Nintendo Wii. The DSi features a built-in browers, and its possible to download games and keep them on the DSi.

Via Kotaku

The secretly best free game on the App store just came out with another patch.

1.0.1.1 fixes the “memory full” error message that plagued 1.0.0.1, and introduces a few minor graphical effects to the mining game. It also tweaks the resource requirements for the smithing patterns. And the peasants rejoiced!

Unfortunately along with the improvements 1.0.1.1 brought along a few nasty bugs, not the least of which is a server side error that corrupts your save file and forces you start over, losing your precious resources and advancement. In addition there’s been a handful of reports of a graphical error involving a brick stuck in the falling animation.

The devs have promised a fix to all the problems will come in the quickly upcoming 1.0.1.2.

Last week I said I might post the transcript to the discussion I started on 1UP Yours concerning iPhone gaming. Eight days later, here it is.

The Cast

Andrew Pfister: Podcast Producer at 1UP.com
Garnett Lee: Senior Editor of Previews at 1UP and EGM
Shane Bettenhausen: Executive Editor of Video Games at 1UP.com
John Davison: Former Editorial Director of 1UP, co-founder and executive editor of WhatTheyPlay.com
Mark MacDonald: Former Executive Editor at EGM, former director at Gamevideos.com, currently traveling the world.

Andrew Pfister: Free At Last asks, “Why do I keep hearing the iPhone mentioned in the same sentence with the DS and PSP? Do people know something I don’t? It’s a great conversation piece, and yes, people can do some pretty cool things with multi-touch and the accelerometer (i.e. Aurora Feint), but its still just a novelty item, not a true gaming platform. You can’t have a handheld gaming device without buttons.” Read More…

Between reading liveblogs from Kotaku and listening to coverage from 1up I’ve gotten the distinct impression that E3 was…lacking this year. Between Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony the only huge announcements were FFXII for 360 and…that’s about it. Harmonix hosted a concert at the historic Orphium Theatre featuring the elderly classic rock band, The Who. Evidently it was amazing, even though the band wasn’t sure what video game they were supposed to be promoting.

There was a few things that interested me personally, namely in the handheld market. The big surprise announcement for the DS was Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. I’m not sure how that’ll work unless its 2D, although they are working on a new engine for it. I don’t I think the DS has the power to handle a full 3D GTA, but maybe they will surprise me. Beyond that, Nintendo announced nothing exciting. No New Super Mario Bros 2, nothing we didn’t know about before. Chrono Trigger is coming though, so I can’t get upset.

The PSP has a couple of new titles that look cool. Insomniac Studio’s Resistance franchise is coming to the PSP Spring 2009. Dubbed ‘Resistance: Retribution’, it departs from the footsteps of Nathen Hale and play as James Grayson, a quiet hero in search of a cure for the alien virus that’s turned most of the world into Chimera (think ‘I Am Legend’ style monsters). I never played the first Resistance, but I’ve heard great things.

Also, Patapon 2.

Pata pata pata PON … PON pon pata pon.

In a sudden and somewhat surprising move, indie developer Adikus has taken their aptly titled Pool sim for the iPhone and iPod Touch to the consumer market. With the upgrade to version 2.1 they have added a $9.00 price tag.

Adikus has recently partnered with RiP Dev, a software dev and distribution house. From their website:

Since the game continues to evolve and be improved, it is now being distributed by RiP Dev (www.ripdev.com), one of the largest software houses for the iPhone.
Adikus.com will continue developing the game while RiP Dev will provide the customer support for it.

Adikus’ only other project is a Backgammon port for the iPhone, which is currently still a freeware release.

With the dozens of games already available for the iPhone and iPod Touch, you would think that all the obvious ideas would have been taken already. I mean, we have Tetris, Pool, Chess, Snake..pretty much every cell phone staple you could think of right? Wrong. Here’s five games that no one has ported that are just begging for their time to shine. Read More…

I don’t know if anyone still plays this game, I just downloaded it because I was bored last week. And since I really suck at video games I occasionally (read: all the time) turn to cheat codes.

There are tons of cheats available for the Windows version of Hitman: Contracts, but no where could I find any for the OS X version. Well, as it turns out it’s a Cider port, so it technically includes all the Windows files and by association the cheats. The problem is you can’t directly edit HitmanContracts.ini to enable the cheats like in the Windows version… or can you?

Answer is after the jump. Read More…

[Insert screams here.]

I’ve never been much of a console gamer. The last console I owned was a Playstation, and I bought that a good three years after the PS2 came out. Before that I had owned an original NES, a Super NES, and an Nintendo 64 (all bought at least five years after they came out of course). Amazingly enough I’ve never considered myself a Nintendo fan until I just typed that out. My, the things we discover about ourselves.
Self-discovery aside, last weekend I decided to cash in my PSP and library of PSP games (farewell Crisis Core!) to get a Wii. Suffice to say I’ve been late to the video game party all my life, but after this latest purchase I feel like I’m up to date (only two years late! Yes!). I finally own a current system. The joy! The glee! The expensive games! Admittedly I bought it mostly for Smash Bros and Wii Sports, but the fact that Guitar Hero 3 and Mario Galaxy were bundled with the system I bought was not..unpleasurable.
The Wii isn’t a console for the hardcore gamer. Granted, it doesn’t need to be. After selling out for almost two years straight, the idea that the Wii is just a “fad” or a “trend” is less a theory and now more of a fanciful dream. Now that Nintendo has ironed out most of the kinks, the Wii is ensconced as the quintessential party system.

Did I mention I bought it so I could bring it to parties and play with my girlfriend? Whoops, I think I just fell into a large demographic.