Though primarily afantasy game, with many gameplay elements and Western medieval and fantasy fictiontropes inspired byDungeons & Dragons and previousrole-playing games,Morrowind also features somesteampunk elements, and drew much inspiration fromMiddle Eastern andSouth Asian cultures.Morrowind was designed with an open-ended, freeform style of gameplay in mind, with less of an emphasis on the main plot than its predecessors. This choice received mixed reactions, though such feelings were tempered by reviewers' appreciation ofMorrowind's expansive, detailed game world.
Morrowind achieved critical and commercial success, winning various awards includingGame of the Year and selling over four million copies worldwide by 2005. It has since been considered one of thebest video games ever made. The game spawned twoexpansion packs:Tribunal andBloodmoon. Both were repackaged into a full set and titledMorrowind: Game of the Year Edition, which was released in October 2003.Morrowind was followed byThe Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in 2006. (Full article...)
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Guitar Hero is a 2005rhythm game developed byHarmonix and published byRedOctane for thePlayStation 2. It is the first installment in theGuitar Hero series.Guitar Hero was released in November 2005 in North America, April 2006 in Europe and June 2006 inAustralia. The game's development was a result of collaboration between RedOctane and Harmonix to bring aGuitar Freaks-like game to United States.
The game features aguitar-shapedcontroller (resembling a miniatureGibson SG) that the player uses to simulate playingrock music. The gameplay is similar toGuitarFreaks, in that the player presses buttons on the guitar controller in time withmusical notes that scroll on the game screen. The game features covers of 30 popular rock songs spanning five decades of rock, from the 1960s up through 2005, in addition to bonus tracks.Guitar Hero became asurprise hit, earning critical acclaim and winning many awards from major video game publications, and is consideredone of the most influential games of its decade. The game's success launched theGuitar Hero franchise, which has earned more than $2 billion in sales, spawning several sequels, expansions, and other game-related products. (Full article...)
Golden Sun's story follows a band of magic-attuned teenagers called Adepts on a mission to protect the world of Weyard fromalchemy, a potentially destructive power that was sealed away long ago. During their quest, the Adepts develop new magic abilities called Psynergy, assist others, and learn more about why alchemy was sealed away.Golden Sun is followed by a sequel,The Lost Age, which together form a complete story.
Golden Sun began as a single planned game for the Nintendo 64, but production shifted to the Game Boy Advance over the course of development. After facing hardware constraints, the developers decided to split the game into two. (Full article...)
The nameAlleyway references the in-game gateway that the player's spaceship (represented as a paddle) must pass through. WhileAlleyway is a portable clone ofBreakout, it adds several features, including alternating stages, bonus rounds, and hazards for the player at later levels. While the game's original box art featured an unidentifiable protagonist, later international releases of the game replaced the character withMario.Alleyway was released with limited advertising, receiving moderate to low scores from reviewers who compared it to games likeArkanoid. (Full article...)
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Mario Party: The Top 100 is a 2017party video game developed byNDcube and published byNintendo for theNintendo 3DS. It is the fifthhandheld game in theMario Party series, as well as the third and finalMario Party game for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. The game was first released in North America in November 2017, and was released in PAL regions and in Japan in December 2017.
Mario Party: The Top 100 is primarily a compilation of 100minigames from across the series, specifically ones from thehome console installments. The game offers severalgame modes centered around playing the minigames, including a mode that sees traditionalMario Partygameplay with up to fourcharacters from theMario franchise, controlled by humans orartificial intelligence, competing in an interactiveboard game.
The game received mixed reviews, with much of the criticism being directed toward its lack of content aside from the minigames. A similar entry,Mario Party Superstars, which also features 100 minigames from the home console games, was released for theNintendo Switch in 2021. (Full article...)
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Gravity Bone is a 2008freewareadventure game developed and published byBlendo Games. The game employs a modified version ofid Software'sQuake II engine and incorporates music from films bydirectorWong Kar-wai, which were originally performed byXavier Cugat. Four incarnations of the game were produced during its one-year development; the first featured more commonfirst-person shooter elements than the released version. Subsequent versions shifted in a new direction, with the inclusion of more spy-oriented gameplay. The game was released forMicrosoft Windows in August 2008.
Gravity Bone received critical acclaim fromvideo game journalists. It was called "a pleasure to experience" by Charles Onyett fromIGN, and received comparisons to games such asTeam Fortress 2 andPortal. The game was praised for its cohesive story, atmosphere and its ability to catch the player's interest over a very short time span without feeling rushed or incomplete. It received the "Best Arthouse Game" award in Game Tunnel's Special Awards of 2008. A sequel,Thirty Flights of Loving, was released in 2012. (Full article...)
Theopen world setting, modelled onLos Angeles and other areas ofSouthern California, constituted much of the development effort. Key team members conducted field trips around Southern California to gather research and footage, andGoogle Maps projections of Los Angeles were used to help design the city's road networks. The proprietaryRockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE) was overhauled to increase itsdraw distance rendering capabilities. For the first time in the series,players control three protagonists throughout thesingle-player mode. The team found the multiple-protagonist design a fundamental change to the story and gameplay devices. They refined the shooting and driving mechanics and tightened the narrative's pacing and scope.
The actors selected to portray the protagonists invested much time and research into character development.Motion capture was used to record the characters' facial and body movements. Like its predecessors, the game features an in-game radio that plays a selection of licensed music tracks. Anoriginal score was composed over several years by a team of five music producers. They worked in close collaboration,sampling and incorporating different influences into each other's ideas. The game's 2014 re-release added afirst-person view option along with the traditionalthird-person view. To accommodate first-person, the game received a major visual and technical upgrade, as well as new gameplay features like a replay editor that lets players create gameplay videos. (Full article...)
Grim Fandango is set in the Land of the Dead and theretro-futuristic version of the 1950s, through which recently departed souls, represented ascalaca-like figures, travel before they reach their final destination. The story follows travel agent Manuel "Manny"Calavera as he attempts to save new arrival Mercedes "Meche" Colomar, a virtuous soul, on her journey. The game combines elements of theAztec afterlife withfilm noir style, with influences includingThe Maltese Falcon,On the Waterfront andCasablanca.
Grim Fandango received praise for its art design and direction. It was selected for several awards and is often listed asone of the greatest video games of all time. However, it was acommercial failure and contributed towards LucasArts' decision to end adventure game development and the decline of the adventure game genre. (Full article...)
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Ethan Winters is a character inResident Evil (Biohazard in Japan), asurvival horror video game series created by the Japanese companyCapcom. Ethan was introduced as one of theplayable characters in the 2017 video gameResident Evil 7: Biohazard, in which he is depicted as an ordinary civilian searching for his missing wife within a ruined estate inLouisiana. He returned in the 2021 sequelResident Evil Village, where he searches for his kidnapped daughter in a mysterious European village.
Originally designed as an unseen "everyman" protagonist to represent the player's viewpoint, the character's story was expanded for his return inVillage. He is voiced byHidenobu Kiuchi in Japanese and Todd Soley in English. Ethan has received a mixed reception fromvideo game publications. Several journalists have praised his relatability, while others have criticized him for a lack of emotional range andcharacter development. (Full article...)
F-Zero GX is the successor toF-Zero X and continues the series' difficult, high-speed racing style, retaining the basic gameplay and control system from theNintendo 64 game. A heavy emphasis is placed on track memorization and reflexes.GX introduces a "story mode" element, where the player assumes the role ofF-Zero pilotCaptain Falcon through nine chapters while completing various missions.
TheGX andAX project was the first significant video game collaboration between Nintendo and Sega.GX was well received by critics for its visuals, intense action, high sense of speed, and track design while its high difficulty has been criticized. (Full article...)
... that the 2014 text adventureThe Uncle Who Works for Nintendo is inspired by a source cited by children for spreading video game rumors?
... thatElena from the video game seriesStreet Fighter uses acapoeira fighting style, for which the development team used travel videos as reference material as they had no experience with the style?
... that whenKaz Ayabe pitched his video gameBoku no Natsuyasumi to Sony, he said that illustratorMineko Ueda was interested in the project even though they had never actually met?
... thatKamibox's video gameA Joke That's Worth $0.99 is permanently on special offer becauseItch.io does not allow $0.99 as a regular price?
... thatTerra Invicta's development company is a group of former volunteervideo game modders that decided to release their own game after the success of their mod?
... thatRockstar Vienna was the largest video game developer in Austria when it closed in 2006?
After working at Capcom for thirteen years, he left the company to form his own studio, Whoopee Camp. His latest game wasGhosts 'n Goblins Resurrection for former employerCapcom. He is notorious for making his titles difficult for the average video game player and strict personality among peers.IGN listed Fujiwara at number 13 in its "Top 100 Game Creators of All Time" list. (Full article...)
Persson began developing video games at an early age. His commercial success began after he published an early version ofMinecraft in 2009. Prior to the game's official retail release in 2011, it had sold over ten million copies. After this point Persson stood down as the lead designer and transferred his creative authority toJens Bergensten. In September 2014 Persson announced on his personal website that he had concluded he "[didn't have the connection to his fans he thought he had]", that he had "become a symbol", and that he did not wish to be responsible for Mojang's increasingly large operation. He left Mojang in November of that year, selling his company toMicrosoft reportedly for US$2.5 billion. The acquisition made Persson abillionaire. (Full article...)
Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg (/ˈʃɛlbɜːrɡ/SHEL-burg,Swedish:[ˈfěːlɪksˈǎrːvɪdɵlfˈɕɛ̂lːbærj]ⓘ; born 24 October 1989), better known asPewDiePie (/ˈpjuːdiːpaɪ/PEW-dee-py), is a SwedishYouTuber, best known for his gaming videos. Kjellberg's popularity on YouTube and extensive media coverage have made him one of the most noted online personalities and content creators. Media coverage of him has cited him as a figurehead for YouTube, especially in the gaming genre.
Born and raised inGothenburg, Kjellberg registered his YouTube channel "PewDiePie" in 2010, primarily postingLet's Play videos of horror and action video games. His channel gained a substantial following and was one of the fastest growing channels in 2012 and 2013, before becoming themost-subscribed on YouTube on 15 August 2013. From 29 December 2014 to 14 February 2017, Kjellberg's channel was also themost-viewed on the platform. During this period, his content shifted focus from Let's Plays and diversified to includevlogs, comedy shorts, formatted shows, and music videos. (Full article...)
Toriyama first achieved mainstream recognition for creating themanga seriesDr. Slump, for which he earned the 1981Shogakukan Manga Award for bestshōnen/shōjo. Dr. Slump went on to sell over 35 million copies in Japan. It was adapted into ananime, with a second series created in 1997, 13 years after the manga ended. (Full article...)
James D. Rolfe (born July 10, 1980) is an AmericanYouTuber, filmmaker, and actor. He is best known for creating and starring in the comedicretrogaming web seriesAngry Video Game Nerd (2004–present). His spin-off projects include reviews of retro films, television series, and board games. He is considered a pioneer of internet gaming videos, and is noted for his widespread influence onYouTube content after the series premiered on the site in 2006.
Rolfe began creating homemade video productions in the late 1980s, having filmed more than 270 video productions by 2004. Among these were the firstAngry Video Game Nerd episodes (originally known asBad NES Games, and laterAngry Nintendo Nerd), which were released on his Cinemassacre website in 2004. Two years later, he gained mainstream attention when the series went viral after being published to YouTube. Following its success, Rolfe released afeature-length film based on the series in 2014, which received mixed critical reception. (Full article...)
Nobuo Uematsu (植松 伸夫,Uematsu Nobuo, born March 21, 1959) is a Japanese composer and keyboardist best known for his contributions to theFinal Fantasy video game series bySquare Enix. A self-taught musician, he began playing the piano at the age of twelve, with English singer-songwriterElton John as one of his biggest influences in pursuing a musical career.
Uematsu joinedSquare in 1986, where he first metFinal Fantasy creatorHironobu Sakaguchi. The two later worked together on many games at the company, most notably in theFinal Fantasy series. After nearly two decades with Square, Uematsu left in 2004 to create his own production company and music label,Dog Ear Records. He has since composed music as afreelancer for other games, including ones developed by Square Enix and Sakaguchi's studioMistwalker. (Full article...)
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Daigo Umehara in 2018
Daigo Umehara (Japanese:梅原 大吾,Hepburn:Umehara Daigo, born 19 May 1981) is a Japaneseesports player and author who competes competitively atfightingvideo games. He specializes in 2Darcade fighting games, mainly those released byCapcom. Known as "Daigo" or "The Beast" in the West and "Umehara" (ウメハラ, written inkatakana instead ofkanji) or "Ume" in Japan, Daigo is one of the world's most famousStreet Fighter players and is often considered its greatest. His longevity is seen as an incredibly rare thing in the world of competitive video games. He currently holds a world record of "the most successful player in major tournaments of Street Fighter" in theGuinness World Records and is a six time Evo Championship Series winner.
Before properly being called a pro gamer from signing a sponsorship deal withMad Catz, Japanese media usually referred to Daigo as "the god of 2D fighting games" (2D格闘ゲームの神,2D Kakutō Gēmu no Kami). (Full article...)
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Lim Yo-hwan in 2021
Lim Yo-hwan (Korean: 임요환;Hanja: 林遙煥, born September 4, 1980), known online asSlayerS_'BoxeR' (usually shortened toBoxeR), is a former professional player of thereal-time strategy computer gameStarCraft. He is often referred to as "The Terran Emperor", or simply "The Emperor", and is widely considered to be one of the most successful players of the genre as well as apop culture icon.
Lim won his firstStarCraft: Brood War tournament in 1999. From 2001 to 2002, he won multiple major championships, including twoOnGameNet Starleague titles and twoWorld Cyber Games gold medals. In 2002, he also created the team Team Orion, which later becameSK Telecom T1 (SKT T1) in 2004. He began hiscompulsory military service in 2006, where he played on South Korea's newly formed Air Force esports team Airforce Challenge E-sports. In late 2010, he retired fromStarCraft: Brood War and founded theStarCraft II team SlayerS. He then briefly returned to SKT T1 as a coach in 2012 before retiring due to health related issues. Lim finished his playing career with a record of 603 wins and 430 losses (58.4%). (Full article...)
He became an employee ofSquare in 1994 after several years of private composition studies. After finishing the soundtrack toSecret of Evermore in 1995, he left to joinHumongous Entertainment, where he composed for several children's games as well asTotal Annihilation, his first award-winning score. In 2000, he left to form his own music production company, Soule Media, later called Artistry Entertainment. In 2005, he founded DirectSong, a record label that published digital versions of his soundtracks as well as those of classical composers. DirectSong remained active until 2019. (Full article...)
Following disputes with Carmack, Romero was fired from id in 1996. He co-founded a new studio,Ion Storm, and directed the FPSDaikatana (2000), which was a critical and commercial failure. Romero departed Ion Storm in 2001. In July 2001, he and another former id employee,Tom Hall, foundedMonkeystone Games to develop games formobile devices. (Full article...)
Tōru Iwatani (岩谷 徹,Iwatani Tōru, born January 25, 1955) is a Japanesevideo game designer who spent much of his career working forNamco. He is best known as the creator of thearcade gamePac-Man (1980). In 2009, he was chosen byIGN as one of the top 100 game creators of all time. (Full article...)
Sierra was acquired byCUC International in 1996, leading to layoffs and management changes. Williams took a briefsabbatical, and returned to the company in a game design role, but grew increasingly frustrated with CUC's creative and business decisions. After the release ofKing's Quest: Mask of Eternity in 1998, she left thegame industry in 1999 and focused her retirement on traveling and writing historical fiction. In 2021 she released her historical novel,Farewell to Tara. Soon after, she returned to game development with the 3D remake of the classic adventure gameColossal Cave Adventure, released in January 2023 asColossal Cave. (Full article...)
In 2012, Sarkeesian was targeted by an online harassment campaign following her launch of aKickstarter project to fund theTropes vs. Women in Video Games series. The threats and harassment generated widespread media attention, and resulted in the project far exceeding its funding goal. The media coverage placed Sarkeesian at the center of discussions aboutmisogyny invideo game culture and online harassment. She has spoken toTEDxWomen,XOXO Festival, and theUnited Nations' Broadband Working Group on Gender, and appeared onThe Colbert Report discussing her experiences of harassment and the challenge of attempting to improve gender inclusivity in gaming culture and the media. (Full article...)
Hironobu Sakaguchi (坂口 博信,Sakaguchi Hironobu, born November 25, 1962) is a Japanesegame designer, director, producer, and writer. Originally working forSquare (laterSquare Enix) from 1983 to 2003, he departed the company and founded independent studioMistwalker in 2004. He is known as the creator of theFinal Fantasy franchise, in addition to other titles during his time at Square. At Mistwalker, he is known for creating theBlue Dragon andTerra Battle series among several standalone titles, moving away from home consoles and creating titles for mobile platforms.
Originally intending to become a musician, he briefly studied electronics and programming, joining Square as a part-time employee, then later a full-time employee when Square became an independent company in 1986. He led the development of several titles before helping to create the originalFinal Fantasy, which proved highly successful and cemented his status within the company. Following the financial failure ofFinal Fantasy: The Spirits Within, his debut as a film director, Sakaguchi withdrew from Square's management and eventually resigned in 2003. He continued his game career through Mistwalker, first co-developing projects through external partners and then smaller in-studio mobile projects. (Full article...)
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Hiroshi Yamauchi (山内溥,Yamauchi Hiroshi, 7 November 1927 – 19 September 2013) was a Japanese businessman and the third president ofNintendo, joining the company on 25 April 1949 until stepping down on 24 May 2002, being succeeded bySatoru Iwata. During his 53-year tenure, Yamauchi transformed Nintendo from ahanafuda card-making company that had been active solely in Japan into a multibillion-dollarvideo game publisher and global conglomerate. He was the great-grandson ofFusajiro Yamauchi, Nintendo's first president and founder. Hiroshi Yamauchi owned theSeattle Mariners baseball team from 1992 until his death.
In April 2013,Forbes estimated Yamauchi's net worth at $2.1 billion; he was the 13th richest person in Japan and the 491strichest in the world. In 2008, Yamauchi wasJapan's wealthiest person with a fortune at that time estimated at $7.8 billion. At the time of his death, Yamauchi was the largest shareholder at Nintendo. (Full article...)
Featured articles represent some of the best content on the English Wikipedia.
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