The Evening Report: Friday, October 5, 2012 – Notch’s New Game, Zynga Stock, 3DS News

The Evening Report: Friday, October 5, 2012 – Notch’s New Game, Zynga Stock, 3DS News

Notch Releases 0x10c Test Video

Despite hitting some development snags and some concern about whether or not the game was fun enough, development of Notch’s (the creator of Minecraft) next game seems to be moving along. At the very least, it’s starting to look like a video game. Sure, this isn’t exactly what you’d call a trailer — it’s really just Notch making sure that things bump into other things properly — but it’s a start.

[Source: Youtube, via Eurogamer.]

Zynga Stock Takes a Plunge

Facebook game giant Zynga took a bit of a stiff one today at the stock market, as its “stock traded near its lowest level ever.” This seems mostly thanks to the company predicting a loss in the third quarter as a result of their purchase of the Draw Something developer OMGPop earlier this year. Even the video game industry’s favorite Wedbush analyst and professional guesser Michael Pachter lowered his target price of the company’s stock from $7 to $4, while allowing it to retain an “outperform” rating. Whether or not anyone in said video game industry will be sad to see the company taken down a peg is yet to be determined.

[Source: Yahoo! News]

3DS Announcements Galore

Nintendo dropped about as much news as you could possibly want about the 3DS today. These are some of the highlights.

  • New 3DS eShop games were announced included Crashmo (the sequel to Pushmo), Nightsky, Fluidity: Spin Cycle and three games from Grasshopper Manufacture: Liberation Maiden, Aero Porter and Crimson Shroud.
  • You can download retail 3DS games like New Super Mario Bros. 2 right now. Later, you’ll be able to purchase Starfox 64 3D, Ocarina of Time 3D, Mario Kart 7 and more right from the handheld.
  • Animal Crossing on 3DS will apparently allow you to visit your friends towns, play mini-games with said friends and finally customize town roads, as well as the exterior and interior of your own house more than ever.
Honestly, I don’t really understand what people see in these games, especially considering how similar each new game in the series is to the previous one. Unfortunately for those that do care, the game still doesn’t have a North American release date.
[Source: IGN]

Steve’s Favorite Hot Video Game Jam of the Right Now

LittleBigPlanet Vita has really been engrossing me to no end lately. It’s quickly become my go-to game when I need to relax, or when I just feel like seeing something new and different. This is without question the best game in the franchise thus far, which seems odd considering it wasn’t even primarily developed by Media Molecule.

The touch controls feel absolutely spot on and make creation a snap compared to previous titles. The level of creativity that can go into each level, thanks to the number of options provided by the Vita hardware. Touch controls, gryoscopic tilt, a microphone for voice acting, cameras for uploading pictures — they all provide a wonderful breadth of options, and the community has already put them to great use.

Even with so many Vita games coming out this fall, I have a feeling I’ll wind up putting at least a few dozen minutes into LittleBigPlanet every night for a while to come.