What is there to say about curling? Seriously, I have no idea. All I know about the game I’ve gathered from people making fun of it. It involves sliding stones on ice and small push brooms. Canadians go crazy for it. I don’t know. Needless to say curling isn’t a much-talked-about sport in America. In an attempt to get people interested in this somewhat inane sport (I assume), dadoo Games created Curling 2010, an Xbox Live Indie Games title.

Wanting to expose myself to something I knew little about, I decided to give this game a try. I wish I hadn’t. If this game is indicative of the actual sport, I have no idea how it became popular. According to Curling 2010, the game is played by chucking stones down an iced shuffleboard lane. Utilizing people with brooms to increase the speed of the stones, you attempt to get the stones within circles at the other end of the lane, all the while knocking the opponent’s stones away. The closer to the center you are, the more points you get.

I wouldn’t have known any of this had I not gone through the tutorial. It starts with an overview of the game, then the controls themselves. The controls just involve a simple select-power-than-select-spin-type shot familiar to players of any sports games. As I’m not one of those people, I found myself going through the tutorial a few times to get a hang of everything. From there, you move on to Match Play, the simple single-player mode.

Match Play pits you against up to three opponents, real or A.I.-controlled, in one match of the game. That’s it. On top of the sparse single player I was disappointed by the controls. Stones I throw never seem do what I want them to, whether that’s curving or staying in a straight path. In a game where strategically placing stones to stop your opponents from scoring is key, this is a big problem.

If the main game doesn’t grab you, neither will the other mode of play: Target Competition. In this mode you face off against an opponent (or opponents) to get your stones closer to an indicated mark on the lane. Rather than aiming at the big target at the end of the lane, you aim for a pink star randomly generated on the play field. Yeah, it’s not much different from Match Play.

Unfortunately, that’s all there is to do in the game. There’s Match Play, Target Competition, Practice, and the tutorial. Each mode of play can be set to multiplayer over system link, local, or Xbox Live connections. It’s nice to have this much choice in who to suck against, but I can’t think of many people who’d want to play curling with me.

What we have here is basically a minigame from any Winter Olympics game from the past few years (and you know how good those titles are). Everything about this is bland and middling. The one piece of scenery and single tune that make up the aesthetics of the game are all you need to know about the title; it’s boring, repetitive, and makes you wish you’d never heard of this lame sport.

(What does this score mean?)

Disclaimer: The review code for this game was provided by dadoo Games.

In what can only be described as devastating for the legions of European Nascar 09 fans and ardent competitors of the genre rocking Facebreaker, EA has announced that it is dropping online support for a swathe of decrepid sports titles come February 2nd. Utilising their own dedicated servers for all online play, EA retain the right to cease network support for all internet enabled titles in their burgeoning canon.

Here, in what seems, at least personally, a perfectly reasonable business decision given that they’ve fulfilled all contractual obligation to the consumer for well over a year, support for critically acclaimed classics like the PSP edition of NBA 07 and the PC’s Madden 08 have been savagely shot down. Even the company’s harshest detractors are desperately torn between feeling follow-suit upset and sporting bemused, largely incredulous expressions tinged with an unspoken verbal motif of “what, people still play these games?”.

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Congratulations to Activision; they’ve officially become my second most hated video game company. Who’s taken top honors? EA with their new ridiculous stunt: stores dedicated to selling one single game. Say hello to the EA Sports Active stores.

The two stores in San Francisco and Boston offer demo stations of EA Sports Active: More Workouts, various copies of EA Sports Active, and “Active Trainers”. These trainers show folks how to play the “game”, and will rent out the product to customers. Not to mention you can also set up workout sessions with said trainers. Yipee. If you’re brain-dead enough to want to visit these locations, act fast: both stores will be closing December 14th.

Side note: My condolences to those fired in the recent closing of Pandemic Studios. Take solace in the fact that EA would rather open these stores than help you out.

Via: Joystiq

Game Politics has pointed out that President Obama has mentioned videogames three times in the past ten days. He hasn’t exactly had anything positive to say on the matter; claiming that they have a negative effect on children’s health and education.

Peter Moore, President of EA Sports, has written a response of sorts on his official blog:

It may be time for the President and his family to put their Wii to good use and fire up the 30-Day Challenge with EA SPORTS Active. This is a ‘œgame’ even the President may not want to ‘œstep away’ from.

I was hopeful when I first saw that Peter Moore had responded to Obama’s comments, until I read what he had to say. I hoped that someone in the industry was actually going to defend videogames in some manner as Obama has been talking about them quite a bit lately. Instead, Peter is just using this as an opportunity to promote another generic exercise game for the Wii. Thanks a bunch, Pete.

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As a resident of the British Isles I have been wistfully glancing across the pond ever since Microsoft announced their partnership with Netflix last year. Xbox 360 owners over in the US can enjoy a wide range of streamed film and TV, all for the low cost of $8.99. Perhaps, I hoped, Microsoft would partner with Lovefilm over in the UK to offer a similar service?

Well, with the announcement that Sky are bringing their services to the 360, I can’t see a Lovefilm partnership happening any time soon.

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