Arkham City voice actor Kevin Conroy speaks at San Diego Comic Con in 2009. Photo: Candice Dunlap/Flickr
NEW YORK — It’s hard for most people to emulate Batman’s trademark gruff vocals for even a few minutes without hurting their throats. Actor Kevin Conroy has been doing it for twenty years.
Conroy, who has voiced the Caped Crusader in animated shows like Batman Beyond and Justice League, says one of his biggest challenges has been working in videogames. Speaking to a group of media at New York Comic Con last weekend including Wired.com, he said it can be “very intense” to play Batman in the 2009 action-adventure game Arkham Asylum and its sequel Arkham City, which was released Tuesday for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
“The recording process of doing games is very difficult,” he said. “It’s just you in a booth for four-hour sessions doing every possible variation on lines.”
An excerpt from a new report by Electronic Entertainment Design and Research breaks down the reasons why 49 percent of gamers don't buy downloadable add-ons. EEDAR expects DLC revenue to surpass $1 billion in 2012. Image courtesy EEDAR
Concerns over the security of their personal data are the overwhelming factor that keeps console gamers from purchasing downloadable content on their Xbox 360s and PlayStation 3s, according to a report released today.
In the company’s annual “Deconstructing Downloadable Content” report released on Wednesday, Electronic Entertainment Design and Research released the results of an extensive survey of high-definition console owners’ behavior when it comes to purchasing downloadable add-on content like extra characters and levels for their games.
EEDAR estimates that 20 million North American gamers, roughly half the Xbox and PlayStation market, have purchased DLC in the last year. The segment is growing rapidly; in 2009, EEDAR estimated that only 34 percent of gamers bought downloadable content. It expects that DLC will generate $1 billion in revenue in the U.S. alone during 2012.
Every year that I go to Tokyo Game Show, I assign myself a challenge that I made up: Scrounge in the bargain bins of the country's videogame stores and buy 10 videogames for a total of 1000 yen, which is roughly equivalent to $10.
Or, rather, it used to be $10. This year, the yen-to-dollar ratio was the lowest I'd ever experienced in 10 years of living in and traveling to Japan. A thousand yen wasn't $10 anymore, it was more like $13.
Could I still get 10 games and only spend 10 bucks? Yes — but this time I was going to have to cheat.
Cocoron
I'd never heard of this Famicom side-scrolling action game, but apparently it's got something of a cult following even in the U.S. The gimmick here is that you can actually create your own character when it begins, by picking a comical head and body. I put the face of a ninja on a tank.
What then transpires is a boring, rather difficult romp through a few repetitive levels. While it's fun to build new creations and see what they feel like when you play as them, Cocoron didn't really hold my interest. Next!
Gamers looking forward to the PlayStation 3 action-adventure game Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception can now spend $25 to gain instant access to the game’s first seven bits of downloadable content, publisher Sony said on Tuesday.
This subscription plan, which Sony is calling the Fortune Hunters’ Club, includes four map packs for the game’s multiplayer mode as well as three packs of costumes in which players can dress their online avatars.
Sony is valuing these DLC packs at $45 altogether, meaning club members save 45 percent compared to those who purchase the content separately. But you’ve got to pay that money up front, without a clear idea of what you’re getting.
While perhaps not as controversial as single-player content being locked behind $10 paywalls for used-game buyers, it’s likely that these “season passes” will also start popping up more and more frequently.
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception will be released on November 1.
Actors Christina Hendricks and Sean Faris star as the main characters 'Sam Harper' and 'Jack Rourke' of Electronic Arts' upcoming Need For Speed: The Run videogame. Image courtesy EA
Familiar voices and sort-of-familiar faces will bring a human touch to Need For Speed: The Run, Electronic Arts said on Tuesday.
Christina Hendricks (Mad Men) and Sean Faris (The King of Fighters) will play the main characters of the new racing game, to be released on November 15. Faris will play Jack Rourke, a race car driver who’s being hunted by the mob. Helping him out is savvy racing manager Sam Harper (Hendricks), who bankrolls Jack in his illegal street races.
“I got a kick out of seeing myself in the game, it’s totally me,” said Faris in a statement that was probably written by a public relations representative and emailed to Faris’ manager for approval.
Need For Speed: The Run will be released on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo 3DS and PC.
Minecraft creator Markus Persson has been entangled in a controversy with publisher Bethesda for several months. Screengrab: evilhayama/Flickr
After several months of public bickering, the legal battle between Skyrim publisher Bethesda and Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson may be coming to a close.
In August, Persson wrote on his blog that Bethesda had pursued legal action against him and his company, Mojang, for trademarking the title Scrolls for use in his company’s next game. Bethesda said the title conflicted with its The Elder Scrolls series.
Mojang has won a key battle in the dispute and can continue to use the Scrolls name, Persson said Tuesday.
NEW YORK — Reviewers have raved about Batman: Arkham City, the action-packed superhero game that publisher Warner Bros. released on Tuesday for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
One aspect of the Dark Knight’s latest adventure that has found itself the subject of controversy is the way it handles the Catwoman segments of the game. These are unlocked with a “VIP Pass,” a redemption code printed on a sheet of paper inside new copies of the game. Gamers who rent, borrow or buy a used copy of Arkham City will have to pay an extra $10 for the code. And those who can’t connect their consoles to the Internet will be unable to experience the story of Batman’s feline rival.
Wired.com spoke with Arkham City director Sefton Hill at the New York Comic Con in Manhattan last weekend, where he defended this decision, calling Catwoman a “guest star” and emphasizing that her segments make up less than 10% of the game’s total content.
“I certainly understand and appreciate the concerns of the DLC issue, but that was the decision that was made,” Hill said, noting that developer Rocksteady Studios had specifically created the Catwoman content with an eye towards distributing it in this manner.
Capcom will release a $40 high-definition collection of all three PlayStation 2 Devil May Cry games for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in early 2012, it said on Monday.
Devil May Cry is a hack-and-slash series known for its frenetic and stylish combat, in which players are encouraged to chain together massive combos in a flurry of sword slashes and gun shots. The first three games, which are included in the collection, are praised as some of the best in the genre.
Devil May Cry HD Collection will support high-definition video output for the three games as well as PlayStation Network trophies and Xbox Live achievements. Otherwise, there’s nothing new for series veterans. But opening these titles to an audience who may have missed them the first time around is always a good thing.
NEW YORK — Undead warriors and one nasty dragon highlighted my first adventures through the role-playing game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which will be out November 11 for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
The game’s publisher Bethesda showed it off at a press event in Manhattan last week, where the media in attendance were given three hours to explore, quest and indiscriminately slaughter civilians in the world of Skyrim. Naturally, I did all of the above.
Here’s a journal of my three-hour tour.
1:15 PM – It begins. I’m in a cave, naked and alone. The Bethesda rep tells me that we’re about 30 minutes into the game; they skipped past the intro because they don’t want to spoil any plot points. They don’t realize that the only plot point I care about is murdering townspeople.
1:16 PM – I choose to play as a Nord, mostly because I am terrified of creatures that don’t look like me. There are no classes or other specializations to pick, so I can only identify as a Nord. A naked Nord.
