Echochrome

This game looks like a blast. Very MC Escheresque (or Portalesque). Echochrome is coming out for the PS3 and PSP from Sony and involves manipulating the camera/viewpoint in order to control the flow of the avatar through 3D space.

• Videosift.
• YouTube.
• JoyStiq.

Tuesday Titillations

Eve Online gets TV show? This post (albeit referring to events two years old) suggests there needs to be a movie made (Eve TV - seems to require micropayments?).

Ubisoft Assassin's Creed film contest. Grand prize winner gets $10 K.

RvB Episode 100 coming tomorrow. When is the movie getting made?

ESRB will rate game trailers?

An entire issue of The Escapist devoted MMOGs. Julian Dibbel wrote an article in NYT on gold farming in WoW.

All I know is I am addicted to Desktop Tower Defense like everyone else.

Casual Games And Machinima

Update*

Line Rider will be coming to the Nintendo DS.

The Escapist has an entire issue devoted to casual games (from a quick skim through, some of the articles appear to come out of the Game Developers Conference - covered extensively in other blogs). Casual games are a burgeoning field and it is nice to see some of the grassroots game-making coming back (garage gamemakers unite).

So where's my 'casual game machinima'? Are these LineRider videos machinima? Check out the ones by techdawg, they are very well done (and certainly getting more views than most other machinima films). The One Eyed Giant has a bit of story to it. Line Rider is a simple game (or toy?) in which the player draws lines on the screen, then sets the game in motion so the Rider (and gravity) follows the lines and drives the game/toy (official Line Rider site - big money contest coming soon). Similar to some of the bridge building games I suppose.

Are there other 'casual game machinima'? Should I continue calling it this mouthful (let's call it CGM for short)?

A Fine Selection of Games

1up.com has a selection of 101 free games (found in the recently renamed Games for Windows magazine- formerly Computer Gaming World).

Meanwhile, Gamespot has what looks like a selection of every single game coming out in the next year, although they state it is only a list of 'promising' games, or those they they expect will have a significant score when released (I would hate to see the full list of games coming out in 2007). BTW, far too many of these games look exactly the same. Where's the unique art and style? The 1UP selection of games seems far more individualistic and interesting. Is the cutting edge 'art' of games only to be found in the casual game sector?