[In a Gamasutra opinion piece, Connor Cleary examines approached in creating sequels to well loved franchises -- weighing their respective strengths and pitfalls.] Your shiny game mag of choice shows up in your mailbox, you flip through and find a preview for, let’s say, Zelda: The Skyward Sword. Your brain quickly skims through the hours and hours that you’ve spent in your lifetime playing various other Zelda games. Understandably, you become giddy with anticipation. What …

Gamasutra News

Are you one of those people who like Mass Effect but you don’t like enough to obsess over it or buy DLC? Then next week is the week for you. First, and least important, is discounts on the Blood Dragon armor and a couple other items of clothing. The Dragon Age-branded armor is half off.
Second, and very important, is that bother the Overlord and Kasumi’s Stolen Memory packs will run only 400 MS points, off from 560 points. Yeah, that’s only a difference of $ 2 each, but come on. You should have had these packs already, because Kasumi amuses with her gossip and Overlord might make you throw up. Overlord is really quite gross.
Anyway, I just wanted to point out this deal because I fear that if you haven’t bought these packs yet, you aren’t going to ever. But come Monday these will be cheaper, so you should strike while the metal of some sort is hot. And then, while you’re buying Mass Effect 2 DLC, you might as well grab the Shadow Broker pack, because it’s even better than those two packs.
via Major Nelson



Gaming Today

Dead Space Ignition, a comic book move/minigame prequel to Dead Space 2, will hit Xbox Live and, perhaps, the Playstation Network on October 13. Only the Xbox Live version is confirmed for next week because Major Nelson only blogs about Xbox stuff , derp. If you’re not familiar with Ignition, just know that it “blends an interactive comic presentation of the story with three unique hacking games.” All righty.
Aside from the whole “here is some more Dead Space story” appeal of this thing, completing it will also net you a special suit for Isaac, among other things, in Dead Space 2. An it’s only 400 MS points, so we all know we’ll take the rather shallow plunge at some point in the next four months before the game is out on January 25.



Gaming Today

A new UI? Meh. ESPN? No thanks. Zune Music? Not interested.
Wait, you say our Avatars have longer legs now? Is this… is this what the future feels like?
If you signed up and were accepted into Microsoft’s preview program, your Xbox is now ready to download the brand new dashboard. Just turn on your machine, sign in to Xbox Live, and – presto! – your Avatar will magically grow six inches taller. Also, you’ll get a bunch of other stuff or whatever, like ESPN, Netflix search functions, and Zune Music.
Enjoy!
VG247
Unity Technologies has made the latest version of its game development engine Unity available, with the basic version of the software available for commercial use for free.
UnityPro, which is the company’s premier version of the tool, will cost $ 1500 (£948) per ‘developer seat’, whilst owners of the current UnityPro version can upgrade for $ 750 (£475).
Unity 3 is a 3D development tool designed to allow cross-platform development between iPhone, iPad, PC, Mac, Android, Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Read more…
GamesIndustry.biz – News
In this week’s installment of Xbox Live Indie Clips we take a look at Radiangames Inferno. The developer calls it a “twin-stick action RPG.” What the hell is that? More »

Kotaku

- Dynamic DNA – powered by a premier analytics provider using NBA data for over 20 NBA teams
- NBA Rewind – Rewrite history and replay last night’s game with the updated statistical data
- Player DNA breaks down how a player scores
- Player DNA is taken for every individual player and used to calculate the Team DNA for each team as a whole
- NBA LIVE 365 – a whole new level of connectivity
NBA Live 09 X360
Rating:
(out of 19 reviews)

If you’re in North America or Great Britain, pay attention. When you log onto Xbox Live today, you’ll find something intriguing in the Spotlight channel. There, if you’re a Gold member, you’ll be able to vote on what you want to see in an upcoming Deal of the Week. As you can see above, your choices are Death Spank for a third off, Perfect Dark for half off, discounted Dragon Age DLC (including Leliana’s Song), Trials HD at a third off and discounted DLC and discounted Bad Company 2 DLC. Decide!
The correct answer, I think, is Death Spank, but if you haven’t played Trials HD, then you should defs vote on that. I know I know votes are supposed to be private, but I went Death Spank. Voting will be going until October 18, so you have plenty of time to choose, but you can only vote one time, so choose wisely.
via Major Nelson



Gaming Today