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Iconic game designer Will Wright has described the Wii as more of a toy than a gaming console, and believes the system should be considered as such. Before you get your torches and pitchforks though, bear in mind that he doesn’t mean that as a bad thing.

“I think the Wii is a very unique platform, and that’s kind of its core value,” he explains. ”That’s why it’s been so successful — because it’s pretty clearly different than the Xbox or the PlayStation. I think the Wii provides very fun experiences for the most part, but it’s kind of a different level of experience; it’s not like these 40-hour involved RPG games as much as it is like these fun toys to pick up and start playing in five minutes.

“And it’s really fun with a group of people sitting around… It really is more into what I would call the toy market, because most of the Wii games I’ve enjoyed felt more like toys than like games.”

Funnily enough, the Wii is starting to get quite a few involved RPGs and there are plenty of traditional games if you know where to look. I totally see what he’s saying though. The Wii is a gimmick and a toy, but that’s not a bad thing at all. It is, after all, why Nintendo is so effing rich right now.

Wii Belongs In Toy Market, Says Will Wright [Industry Gamers]

If you like obscure Japanese strategy RPGs, then you best dust off your PSP. Atlus is publishing a new SRPG that acts as a prequel to Yggdra Union called Blaze Union: Story to Reach the Future. Yes, that sounds like the kind of name a Japanese SRPG would have. 

Blaze Union will have players step into the boots of female warrior Garlot, a red-haired lady who leads the Blaze Knights against the evil forces of the Bronquian Empire. The game works in pretty much the same way as Yggdra Union, with tactics cards returning, along with classes and “unions” with allied characters. 

Blaze Union will have brand new tactics cards, as well as a tutorial so people can, for once, penetrate one of these games without feeling like their brain got molested. 

Atlus and Sting Bring Yggdra Union Prequel to PSP [Andria Sang]

Okay, this is a game I have not seen before. It’s a game many people have not seen before. This makes no sense whatsoever, as it looks exactly like the kind of game that should be slapping Wii owners in the face and demanding their attention.

Flip’s Twisted World has an open platforming design and visual style that draws out memories of Super Mario Galaxy, but adds in an awesome gravity-flipping mechanic just to keep things spicy. This is the kind of classic cute platformer that appeals to all ages and demographics, so why is nobody talking about it? 

Fortunately, it’s now caught my eye. Flip’s Twisted World is on my famous “things other blogs won’t talk about that I will cover incessantly and to the point of nausea” list. I will do this, even though one member of the game’s developer, Frozen North, seems to hate my guts and regularly Tweets about what a scumbag I am. He seriously does that!

EA Sports announced yesterday that a full sequel to the tremendously successful, critically acclaimed workout program EA Sports Active is currently in development, set for release this fall. The sequel, tentatively named EA Sports Active 2.0, is reaching out to more customers — it’s coming to the PS3, iPhone, and iPod Touch as well as the Wii. The product will come with leg and arm straps, both of which will include their own motion sensors, and a heart rate monitor to, uh, monitor your workout.

People who bought EA Sports Active and its expansion pack (More Workouts) on the Wii may be disappointed: it looks like the PS3 version is going to be the most attractive option, if only because it will offer downloadable workouts and exercises. Curious indeed is the omission of a Project Natal version — it seems like Microsoft’s new control scheme would be ideally suited to an exercise program. Perhaps Microsoft is working on its own workout software, or maybe EA will announce a 360 version of EA Sports Active 2.0 at a later date.

Another impressive-sounding feature is the ability to upload exercise data to an online hub that will allow you to track your workout progress and share it with users around the world. I can see it now: “Sally, you lost 30 pounds in two months? Oh, hell no. I’m coming for you, woman! Ain’t nobody going to seduce my man!” This time around, you’ll be able to work out wirelessly, and Active 2.0 will include a nine-week “total body conditioning” program. It’s not clear at this point if the PS3 version will support the PlayStation Motion Controller, or if the iPhone/iPod Touch version will let you, say, track your daily run.

Folks, here’s some free advice: your significant others or spouses probably won’t be too happy to see EA Sports Active 2.0 under the Christmas tree, even if you mean well, so don’t go out and get it for them as a helpful nudge — unless they’ve explicitly asked for it. Seriously.

If Ryan Kesler’s name sounds familiar to you, then you’re either a fan of hockey (perhaps specifically, of the Vancouver Canucks), or you watched the USA hockey team make their way to a silver medal in the 2010 Winter Olympics last month. (Or both!) Well, if you plan on picking up 2K Sports’ NHL 2K11 when it launches exclusively for the Wii this fall, then you’ll become very familiar with Kesler’s face as well as his name — he’s the cover athlete for the game.

Kesler is the alternate captain for the Canucks, and last year, the team’s fans voted him as the Canucks’ MVP. He’s a great two-way (i.e., defensive as well as offensive) forward; he was one of the finalists for the Selke Trophy in 2009. You can see a photo of him in the gallery that was taken during a motion capture session at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

[image via Canucks.com]

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Sex is a prevalent part of videogames, like it or not. Developers seem to have a firm grip (like … ah, too obvious) on the concept of “Sex sells” and have been packing it into every line of code or polygon they can. Every new batch of screenshots that comes out usually has a shot or two of a big-breasted woman or two or seven. Jiggle physics exist for the sole purpose of videogame Web sites mentioning that they exist when talking about the game. It’s like viral marketing, except this virus gives you a boner.

Let me tell ya, sexiness in videogames could not get any better, I’m sure (I personally wouldn’t know because, quite frankly, I prefer my woman to actually exist). You’ve got large breasts, a female lead, as well as secondary characters, who are pretty much bound by destiny to get it on with you. What’s not for a lonely nerd with no self-esteem to like?

Oh, there is the fact that the characters are wearing clothes. Isn’t that a shame.

WELL, WE CAN’T HAVE THAT NOW, CAN WE? 

There’s a simple mathematical explanation for why Nude Mod’s exist for videogames. The formula is:
Woman + Clothes = No Thanks

Developers gauge the success of their game on whether or not a nude mod has been made for it. For instance, Valve can rest assured knowing that they have made a very, very good game, as there are about as many nude mods for Alyx Vance as there are regular mods for the game.

Now, it may occur to someone “Why do I want to see a nude girl with bad hair talk about theoretical physics and how much she really likes that robot she made?” Well that’s another, completely different topic covered in my other Monthly Musing, 33 Reasons Why Gordon Freeman Should Have Sex With Alyx Vance. However, the real reason nude mods are made for Alyx Vance as well as pretty much every other character in Half-Life 2 rests on the existence of another mod: Garry’s Mod.

In case you haven’t heard of it, which I won’t make a sarcastic remark about because it’s actually somewhat possible, Garry’s Mod is a mod by a guy named Garry that lets you pose the characters of Half-Life 2. It also lets you pose props in the game, and even goes as far as to let you manipulate their faces and hands. If you haven’t figured out why people would want Alyx Vance naked for this, then I wish I had your naivety. I really do.

But, really, nude mods have never really affected the games they’ve been made for in any real way, they can’t be all that bad, right? Well, first, you should stop jumping to conclusions, dammit. You know nothing.

On May 3rd, 2006, Bethesda Softworks’ Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was given a fresh new rating of “Mature”, from their previous rating of “Teen” after someone released a third-party mod for the game that apparently unlocked certain game files that let you see women in the game topless. Since this was after the infamous “Hot Coffee” scandal with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (this time I’m not telling you what it is, you’re on the Internet, go Google it), ESRB wanted to give things a look.

When ESRB did give Oblivion a second look, things went tits up (har har). Not only did they find boobs, they also apparently found more violent content in the game than was disclosed in the video originally sent to ESRB for rating. Apparently the hanging bodies they originally saw were really dark and far away or something like that.

Nowadays, we don’t even need to download anything to see female characters nude. In the short three months of 2010 alone, glitches in No More Heroes 2 and Heavy Rain have been discovered. Now, I’m no conspiracy theorist, but I’m pretty sure these were unintended. The conspiracy is that people still got boners.

A half a decade ago I would have never predicted that we would have nude mods for games. I also would have never been able to predict that nude mods would be made outdated by their own games. Probably because half-decade-ago me wasn’t even able to predict the existence of nude mods. Also because it’s surprising.

In the end, even if sex is not used to sell a game, just in the act of putting a woman in a game developers are using sex to sell by proxy, because someone who bought that game bought that game to make a nude mod for that character. So, whether the developers intended it or not, that plucky female lead is showing some skin. Isn’t technology grand?

_{This promoted blog was written for our March Monthly Musing assignment, “Write something about sex.” You too could get promoted if you write something about sex in videogames over on the Community Blogs.}

The first real look at Tron Legacy finally invaded the Internet this week. I still haven’t watched the original Tron so I don’t really know what’s going on here aside from the obvious. The obvious being that a kid is looking for his lost father and enters Tron.

Also, Olivia Wilde is wearing a skin tight outfit. So hot.

Shattered Horizon developer Futuremark Games Studio has stuck its oar into the recent Ubisoft DRM controversy, criticizing the publisher for its oppressive punishment of paying customers. Producer Jaakko Haapasalo believes DRM should be convenient and hassle-free at all times. We like the cut of his gib.

“The question I ask myself with all DRM approaches is will it be more or less convenient for me, as a paying customer?” he explains. “If it stays out of my face, I’m cool with it. But if it gets in the way of being entertained, inconveniences me or seems unnecessarily restrictive then … well, it’s not like there is a shortage of other games demanding my attention.”

CEO Jukka Mäkinen adds: “Exactly. Whatever the DRM used, games need to be hassle free for those who have bought their copy the proper way. Taking good care of the customer is always better than chasing the thieves.”

It amazes me how publishers think that overbearing and restrictive DRM is a good idea, still. When will they get it through their stupid brains that pirates will find a way around it, leaving only those who legally purchased the game with a series of hoops to jump through that they don’t deserve? Idiots.

PC DRM should be ‘hassle-free’ – dev [CVG]

Did you know that Criterion was working on a sequel to its respected PS2 FPS Black? So says Stuart Black, the creative director to spiritual successor Bodycount. Apparently, Black 2 was in development shortly after the original game had been finished, but the game “bit the dust.”

“I certainly did some preliminary pre-production work on Black 2 once we finished Black, the first three or four months,” reveals Black. “I moved on quite quickly after that. A lot of the guys on the team I’m working with here now carried on with that and did a lot of pre-production for about a year or so on Black, before that kind of bit the dust.

“So, I don’t really have personal knowledge about how that all played out. But there seemed to be overall a kind of general lack of direction. I’d be surprised if they managed that again.”

Stuart Black was Black’s senior designer, and is now the brain behind Bodycount. This new game appears to be an unofficial sequel to Black in many ways, with a focus on pure bullet-riddling gameplay and environmental destruction. Gun porn, essentially. You can check out Bodycount’s first screens here.

Black creator talks up Bodycount on PS3, 360 [GameSpot]