Activision’s Dance Hero?

Konami’s working on Rock Revolution in a battle of the band… games, against Rock Band and the Guitar Hero franchise. Activision, now, may be attacking Konami’s current dancing title Dance Dance Revolution with a new dancing franchise known as Dance Hero.

The US Patent and Trademark Office now has on file, an application by Activision to trademark “Dance Hero.” This news doesn’t solidify any real title but tell us their design teams are kicking around some new ideas to attack their competitors turf.

In January 2007, Activision trademarked “Guitar Villain” and “Drum Villain”, with no sign of a game bearing either handle having yet surfaced. This past February, it locked down rights to the title “DJ Hero” without announcing a new product, although rumors of a turntable-based mash-up game bearing the name are beginning to bubble up. (gamespot)

Does another dancing game sound interesting?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post

Rumor: Wii Motion Plus DelaysRumor: Wii Motion Plus Delays

Wii Motion Plus is Nintendo’s next big hardware up sell, an add-on that should make the Wii controller more realistic and flexible when playing highly sensitive “real movement” games. The hardware has been looked at by many in the industry as fixing imperfections in the current hardware, a patch of sorts.

wiimotionplusThe Wii Motion Plus is going to be bundled with Wii Sports Resort, a title that’s obviously playing off the biggest Wii hit Wii Sports. Latest reports are showing the game title missing from the upcoming release lists, so, it’s not too far fetched to assume the hardware will be delayed along with the game, considering this was the first game to rely on the Wii Motion Plus hardware.

The delay is rumored to be due to a few problems with the Wii Motion Plus, more than likely during the final stages of testing the prototype products. In Nintendo’s defense, they’re usually very good about due diligence when it comes to producing hardware and software, taking the time that is needed to get something into the customers hands that’s acceptable quality. All eyes are on Nintendo with the Wii Motion Plus because people see this as the final “fix” to make the Wii controller do everything it was promised to do.

While Nintendo doesn’t see the original controller as broken (nor do the millions of customers buying them everyday), this new hardware should make it more sensitive for games that require perfect movement… games like Wii Sports Resort?

At this point we’d expect to hear news of a slight delay by Nintendo soon. We’d rather see it arrive late than utterly broken and useless.

(Thanks, Kotaku)

Episode 476: A Man ChoosesEpisode 476: A Man Chooses

The Gaming Podcast is back after a week off, and it celebrates the 10th year anniversary of BioShock with its own Gaming Flashback. They also touch on its sequels, BioShock 2 and BioShock Infinite.

It’s not all BioShock, however, as the following news items are discussed:

  • Bethesda Game Of Thrones project potentially leaked
  • PUBG becomes the biggest game on Steam
  • $200 price cut brings HTC Vive down to $599
  • Thimbleweed Park’s arcade is now open

Let us know if you enjoyed any of the BioShock games.

Diablo 3 Doesn’t Look Right, Dev Says Yes Sir!Diablo 3 Doesn’t Look Right, Dev Says Yes Sir!

There has been many debates on the graphic level of Diablo 3 and how it should be different. Finally a developer comes out and says “um, no.” Their reasoning is fairly simple, it’s one thing to photoshop up a screenshot with some filters but it’s another to get the texture and lighting to run at that detail on a standard computer.

How do you argue with that? Personally, I think the graphics look wonderful, brilliant, vibrant and professional. Diablo 3 game designer Jay Willson said:

“The key thing to remember here is that this has been Photoshopped. This isn’t created by the engine. Though it looks really cool, it’s almost impossible to do in a 3D engine because you can’t have lighting that smart and run on systems that are reasonable. If we could do that, we probably would in a few of the dungeons.” (slashdot)

Non-developers seem to forget that the colors, cameras and lighting don’t come free on a video game. Everything has limitations and, although the limitations change over time, today’s graphics for a standard machine are capable of running Diablo 3. Blizzard isn’t making a game that only hardcore PC gamers can play, this game is for everyone.

Building a video game is a lot of smoke and mirrors to make a virtual object look “real” to normal gamers. Immersion and definition is important, grainy dark graphics do set a mood, but they also frustrate many players. Remember DOOM 3? Some people could barely see the “epic graphics” of the last DOOM sequel, it’s time to mature and show off true colors.

Darkness usually is used to hide imperfections, Diablo 3 has nothing to hide.

(For a high resolution photo, checkout MTV Multiplayer Blog)