The Sunday Report: Arkham Penguins, Fox News, and Bad Reviews

The Sunday Report: Arkham Penguins, Fox News, and Bad Reviews

It’s been a great weekend.  I didn’t see any Big Daddies walking about, so that must mean that we survived Rapture. The weather held up as well, so grilling was in full effect.  The only thing left is for the Miami Heat to get beat by Chicago, and we’ll all be 3-for-3.

Nevertheless, there was other big news this weekend. Fox News has the wrong idea about, well, everything. Software developers can’t take criticism well. And, the Penguin is still holding a grudge against Batman.

Crap, maybe things aren’t looking so rosy after all.

First Image of Penguin Surfaces from Arkham City

Image courtesy ArkhamCity.co.uk

The first image of the Penguin has popped up on the web. ArkhamCity posted the above pic of the dastardly villain this morning after an interview with Rocksteady’s Dax Ginn appeared in the Australian Sunday Herald. I never thought that a balding man would be so terrifying, but there you go. The interview mentions details about the character:

“So we’ve made him a really horrible, nasty piece of work – but still with the delusion of grandeur. He dresses well, but in a poor taste, and we’ve made him this brutish, brutal guy but also key into collection fascination that hes had through out the years.”

We’re hyped on this darker, more sadistic take on the Penguin.  How about you?

Source: ArkhamCity

FOX News Has No Idea What the NEA Is About

Whether you’re Republican or Democrat doesn’t make a difference to FOX News, which continues to misunderstand what videogames actually are. In the clip above from Fox & Friends, SideQuesting’s friend Brian Ambrozy, EIC of Icrontic, appeared o the station during a segment about the recent NEA decision to include videogames development. Apparently, all games are Call of Duty and GTA, obviously. The misunderstanding on FOX’s part is that the funding will only go towards developing blockbuster games, instead of the reality that it will be used by independent developers, schools, and more to help nurture those interested in games development.

Oh FOX., just stick to Family Guy, won’t you?

Source: Live Leak

Concuit 2 Developer High Voltage Software Opts to Amazonbomb Reviewer

Image Credit: Robert Laberge/Getty Images

In hockey, the first person who throws a punch usually gets away with it. The punchee, upon retaliation, almost always gets called with a penalty and sent to the box. Taking criticism is a tough thing to master, and sort of follows along the same path. On one hand, it can be extremely beneficial to a developer to have another set of eyes take a look at a project. On the other, it can be a knee-jerk reaction to trolling that leads to far worse consequences.

High Voltage Software found out the hard way when Art Director Matt Corso reacted to a negative review by writer T. Michael Murdock, who was freelancing for Joystiq. While we may not necessarily agree with Murdock’s review — it WAS a bit on the overly-negative-for-entertainment side — that’s just how the process works. Developers will never be happy with a review, unless it gets a 90 or above on Metacritic. But, they need to muster up and take it.

When the Detroit Red Wing’s Kris Draper was knocked cold by the Colorado Avalanche’s Claude Lemieux in Game 6 of the 2006 NHL Western Conference Finals, the team didn’t resort to negative Amazon reviews. Rather, in March of the following year the Wings fought back, spurring a massive brawl that resulted in the Wings beating the pulp out of the Avalanache on their way to winning the Stanley Cup. You hear that, High Voltage?  Instead of worrying about getting trolled, make Conduit 3 an awesome game.

Source: Marooners’ Rock