Around the Twitters - prepare for a lot of news this week!

Love it or hate it (and you'd be perfectly justified with either feeling!), Twitter is a great source of news. This morning is starting off slow without much info coming from over the pond, but we do have some Twitter accounts of people who might be bringing us new media or new...well...news, later in the week! Let's take a look.

@NZGamerdotcom - We got some hands on time with Scribblenauts (one of the most anticipated titles of '09), check it out - http://tinyurl.com/njhaaa ;-)

And check it out I did! You can find the preview in the tinyurl they provided. The preview itself doesn't tell us much new, though it is very colorfully written (I assume in the "written dialect" of their native country) and entertaining to read. They did drop a few interesting tidbits, one good and one bad.

The bad:

So, the handwriting recognition software is average at best (I suppose this is where they put the Scribble in Scribblenauts - but Tapnauts just doesn't have the same ring to it) and I found the odd time where clearing the screen of stacked up, useless objects got frustrating, as the controls for Maxwell, the objects, and interacting with the environment are all the same, causing confusion if you get the stylus-tap even slightly wrong. But forgivable? Forget it. In a game this good, they don't even feature.

I think we might have figured out why we haven't seen anyone making use of the writing ability. Most of the recent videos and such show people using the keyboard, and I'm thinking this is due to the fact the writing recognition might not be the best.

I was also worried about the "context sensitive" controls might wig out if you try to do too much at once. The difference between dragging an object, moving to the object, and picking up the object might all be in how you tap it, and that could get confusing or troublesome if things get hectic.


The Good:

Well, basically EVERYTHING else in the article. However, this I especially thought was interesting:

When I arrived at the RVB event, there was no one playing Scribblenauts, and four very lonesome DS consoles, so I took the opportunity to have a second sit-down with it. Word got around and just like at the big E3, by the end of the night you couldn't get near it.

Now, a quick Google search didn't really help me. I couldn't get any results that weren't some Red vs. Blue website. So though I'm not sure what event he speaks of, apparently Scribblenauts is/was there, and it is getting a LOT of love. Could we be seeing even more previews/screenshots in the coming week from real gamers?

Next up, we have a rather unique impression from editor and chief of Eurogamer.de

@Tanja_Menne - Games played over the weekend: Scribblenauts, 22 Levels/1 World (not my game, was boring). Blue Dragon (not a bad one, but not half as ...

I'm sure a lot of people will get into "burn the heretic!" mode, but honestly, I'm more confused than anything. She is literally the only reporter in the entire world who has something bad to say about the game. That's impressive, but one might also question the state of her imagination if she finds it boring.

Last we have yet another tidbit that suggests we'll be getting some new news later in the week.

@eurogamer_net - Shadow Complex a no go, again, as debug's brief Friday comeback returns to RROD shame. Scribblenauts it is!

So we have another website with their greedy mits on the game. Hopefully this week will be full of interesting news, what with all these people getting a chance to play around.



Finally, we have a couple of websites who've made some claims over Twitter last week that never really panned out. Edge Online claims they'll (eventually) put up a video of their contest winner, and NGamer Mag claims they'll (eventually) put up the rest of the pictures of objects people suggested they try out.

Though today might be a slow day so far it is quickly ramping up to be quite the week. Stay tuned here, and I'll make sure you guys are well informed.