Gamers can now mutate Fallout 3 in any way they want as Bethesda has released the official modding toolkit.
The Garden of Eden Creation Kit, released yesterday, allows users to “create, modify and edit any data” for the PC version of the game, according to its official description. Bethesda has also set up a G.E.C.K. wiki to provide help and tutorials, which users can edit, update and expand.
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Leading game industry analysts are voicing displeasure with Electronic Arts’ underperforming holiday sales, blaming the company’s future-focused plans and criticizing its new direction.
“We are beginning to question management’s commitment to achieving [its] goals, and we think that prudent investors will take anything EA says or does with a grain of salt,” said Michael Pachter, an analyst at investment firm Wedbush Morgan Securities.
Pachter discouraged investors from buying EA stock by lowering his rating for the company from “Strong Buy” to “Buy.” In less than a year, EA’s stock price has fallen from a high of 60 on December 26, 2007 to today’s 16. Most of the decline has occurred since September when the stock price was still near 50.
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There will be 30 percent more games competing in the 2009 Independent Games Festival than in 2008.
Organizers revealed the names of 226 entries in the main competition on the festival’s Web site, up from 173 last year. Entries include games where players fight mutant ponies, fly via flatulence and simulate sex in the dark.
The festival’s student showcase will also contain more entries, up 15 percent to 145 from last year’s 125.
Lists of all competitors are available on the IGF website, many of which have free demos or are completely free to download and play. The festival awards almost $50,000 in prizes including the $20,000 Seumas McNally grand prize. Judges were announced in October and include developers and journalists like Braid designer Jonathan Blow and Kotaku.com’s Brian Crecente.
The festival runs from March 23 to 27, 2009 in San Francisco.
Winners from last year’s festival included Crayon Physics Deluxe, World of Goo and Audiosurf.
The National Institute on Media and the Family has given “A” grades to videogame organizations in their annual report card this year. Parents were given a grade of “incomplete.”
In its 13th report card, the institute awarded two “A” grades to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board for adding content summaries to its Web site that explain why a game earned a certain rating. A mobile-friendly site makes the summaries available to cell phone users. The ESRB received another “A” for its work promoting game ratings to parents.
The game industry also earned an “A” for family-friendly features like parental controls and play timers.
Parents received a grade of “incomplete” with an explanation stating that with all of the information and tools available, “parents need to pay more attention to the amount of time and the types of games their kids play.”
In 2007, the ESRB received a “B-“ grade, the game industry got a “C,” and parents also earned a “C.”
The institute also provides a buying guide for parents, which lists games like LittleBigPlanet, Rock Band 2 and High School Musical 3: Senior Year DANCE!. A “Games to Avoid” list includes Dead Space, Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead among others.
