Tag Archives: May 2005

Turok Heading to Next-Gen Consoles

Turok The video-gaming arm of Walt. Disney Studios, Buena-Vista Games has announced the acquisition of the rights to make further games based on Turok.

According to Spong.com, we should expect “quite a change” in the gameplay when the new games are released for multiple consoles and handhelds, including next-generation consoles.

Turok games were previously licensed by Acclaim, whose last release with the name was 2002′s Turok: Evolution. That company went into liquidation last year, and the Turok license was taken over by Classic Media, whose properties include Frosty the Snowman, Mr Magoo, Casper, the Lone Ranger and Lassie.
After acquiring the license from Classic Media, Buena-Vista handed the development of the as-yet-untitled Turok games to Propaganda Games, a recently established BVG studio:

“Through compelling new technology, game design and graphics, it is our goal to take the Turok franchise to new heights,” said Josh Holmes, vice president and studio general manager for Propaganda Games. “The brand’s rich, prehistoric setting and ferocious monsters provide us an extensive palette of content to create the most intense, action-packed game play for next generation console systems.”

Pimp my Xbox, 24crt Gold style

Ebay plays host to a lot strange and sometimes unbelievable items. Take this golden Xbox for one. Someone has taken a regular Xbox and turned it into a 24crt gold-plated console, with controllers to boot. If you wanted your Xbox pimped but just couldn’t find that guy from MTV, then this might just be up your street.

Xbox – 24crt – gold plated Xbox

Indiana Jones script approved by Lucas and Spielberg

Earlier we reported on an article that suggested Indiana Jones was heading for an adventure on next-gen consoles, this was expected to coincide with the release of Indiana Jones IV in 2007.

More news coming in that Jeff Nathanson’s scripts for Indiana Jones 4 have met with the approval of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Before the film can move forward one step into production though, the aging Dr. Jones must first give his John Hancock to the script, which Ford has reportedly not yet even read.

Scheduling Indiana Jones 4 for a 2006 start will be tricky for Spielberg, who next heads to Europe to shoot his untitled drama about the aftermath of the 1972 Munich Olympics for Universal and DreamWorks, and is expected to follow in January with a DreamWorks film about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, to star Liam Neeson.
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Battlefield 2 Q&A with EA’s Ben Smith

BF2 PlanetBattlefield SinglePlayer’s Korben Dallas has scored an interview with EA’s Ben Smith regarding the upcoming Battlefield 2. In the Q&A Smith discusses the single-player aspect of the next-gen shooter, what maps will be available in the demo, bot/AI abilities and more.

1. Will the BF2 Demo include Single Player?

“Yes, we are currently planning to include both multiplayer and singleplayer (Training) versions of one map in the Battlefield Demo release.”

2. How many SP maps will ship with the full version game? Can you comment on which ones?

“The 16-player version of all Battlefield 2 maps except Kubra Dam and Mashtuur City will be available in the singleplayer Training game mode when the game ships. In total, there will be ten different maps to play against the AI on. There are also three different difficulty settings for Training that users can choose from.”
Battlefield 2 is due for release to PC next month, with a demo expected to follow shortly after.

Check out the full Q&A

Video Game Bans for Illinois

After the release of the JFK: Reloaded game in November of last year, a law was proposed in Illinois to ban the sale of violent or sexually explicit video games to minors.

On Saturday, lawmakers in the state voted to implement the law by a huge majority of 106-6, and it now goes to the desk of Governor Rod Blagojevich, who proposed the law in the first place:

“In today’s world, parents face unprecedented challenges in monitoring and protecting their children from harmful influences. This bill will make their job easier,” Blagojevich said, praising the House’s 106-6 vote. The state Senate approved the bill earlier this month.

Under the legislation, clerks who knowingly sell adult video games to minors could be fined $1,000. They could defend themselves by showing they did not know the buyer was a minor or that they followed the industry ratings on the games.

The legislation leaves it to stores to determine which games are too violent or sexually explicit for minors, and retailers have argued it turns them into violence and sensitivity police.

Ill. Lawmakers Seek Video Game Sales Ban – via Kotaku

Hitman: Blood Money Trailer

Gamespot have a new gameplay trailer for Hitman: Blood Money, showing the various stealthy ways he can whack people (cheese wire strangulation, sniper rifle, the old poison needle trick and even with a barbell).

Download the trailer, and also check out the recently-updated official site.

Battlefield 2, 6 new sreenshots available

More screenshots, this time in the form of Battlefield 2. The much anticipated sequel to the futuristic war shooter developed at Digital Illusions uses a new sophisticated graphics engine to create realistic environments, and comes with advanced AI.

In development at Digital Illusions CE, Battlefield 2 has players battling in modern times as one of three military superpowers: the United States, the Chinese, or a newly formed Middle East Coalition. The game will include over 30 vehicles to use, and multiplayer modes supporting over 64 players. Battlefield 2 will also include persistent character growth, allowing players to rise through ranks, shooting for the rank of General; as well as an all-new game engine, and soldier classes including: Assault, Sniper, Special Ops, Combat Engineer, Medic, Heavy Weapons and Anti-Tank.

Check out the 6 latest screens of Battlefield 2 here

Jackson’s King Kong, screenshots posted

A healthy batch of screenshots from the upcoming King Kong have been released. Gamershell are hosting 19 screens and a product overview of the game based around Peter Jackson’s latest film, King Kong.

The game itself will be released at the beginning of the holiday season on every platform. This will coincide with the theatrical release of Peter Jackson’s King Kong in cinemas worldwide. The game is developed by Ubisoft and the team responsible for bringing us Beyond Good & Evil.

Check out the screens here
Discussion >>

A Magazine for Your PSP

PSPMag

We’re unable to get our hands on a PSP here in Europe until September, but this looks like it would be useful for those in the U.S. or Japan where they’re already available – a new magazine has been launched that’s optimized specially for the handheld, with each issue containing articles, reviews, hacks, coming titles and more.

The PSPMag can be viewed online here with the built-in WipeOut Pure browser (or any other browser), though to get the most out of each issue download the Media Content Packages, which also include music and/or video specifically formatted for the PSP.

PSPMag

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Winter Assault Trailer

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Winter Assault

Relic have released an official trailer for Winter Assault, the expansion pack for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War.

Due out this Autumn, Winter Assault will include a fifth race for the game and an enhanced single-player experience.

Download the trailer

Seven Sins of Gaming

7 Sins The results of a new poll attempting to find out the top seven “sins of gaming” have been released. The poll is part of a promotion for the release of the over-18′s only PS2/PC game 7 Sins, and has found the top sin admitted to by gamers is using cheats, with playing pirated games coming second:

The Seven Gaming Sins admitted by respondents are as follows:

Cheating: Using cheats to progress in games (26.1 per cent)
Stealing: Playing pirated games (18.68)
Ignorance: Leaving partner’s phone call to continue playing (11 per cent)
Sabotage: Deliberately hindering or altering someone else’s game (6.7 per cent)
Lying: Feigning illness from work in order to play computer games (4.3 per cent)
Coveting: Only borrowing games from a friend’s library rather than buying your own copy (3.2 per cent)
Spitefulness: Giving away game endings deliberately. (2.7 per cent)

Related:
Digital Jesters – 7 Sins developers
Digital Jesters Signs 7 Sins – A New Concept In Risqué Gaming (24 March)
Discussion >>

Quake 4 teaser website launched, with trailer

Quake 4 Activision has launched a teaser website for Quake 4. The official site launch is set for Summer, but in the mean time they have left up a trailer on the main page plus email updates if you so choose.

Visit the official Quake 4 website (flash req.)

Call of Duty 3 Planned

Though Call of Duty 2 will not be released until this Autumn, Infinity Ward have plans for a third installment in the franchise already.

Gamershell noticed a recruitment page on the Infinity Ward site is advertising for a senior next-gen programmer to work on a new intellectual property and Call of Duty 3:

Infinity Ward, winner of over 80 Game of the Year and 47 Editors’ Choice Awards Worldwide for “Call of Duty,” is currently developing the highly anticipated Call of Duty 2 for the PC and Xbox 360. In addition, we are ramping up teams for upcoming Call of Duty titles as well as new IP. To meet the challenge and expectations for these high-end development platforms, Infinity Ward is looking for seasoned console engineers to join its ranks.

Infinity Ward – Jobs – Gamershell.com

Godfather game, 6 screenshots posted

6 new screenshots have been made available of the upcoming Godfather game. Based on the novel and movie of the same name, in which players must rise through the ranks of the Corleone crime family.

The game itself is scheduled for release to Xbox 360, Xbox, PS2, PSP and PC later this year.

Check out the 6 screens here

Todd Holmdahl gets grilling on Xbox 360

Todd Holmdahl has been interviewed over at Extreme Tech on the Xbox 360. Holmdahl is responsible for the hardware development and manufacturing of the Xbox 360 (among other duties). Extreme Tech question Todd on things like 1080p support, what he thinks of the PS3 specs but more so on other hardware aspects aside from the usual CPU and GPU.

ET: A lot has been said about the CPU and the GPU so far, but there really hasn’t been much said about the rest of the system. Can you go into any detail about what the rest of the system is like?

TH: The I/O processor, developed with SiS, is responsible for enabling all of our input/output connectivity. It’s responsible for the wireless controllers, the USB ports we have on the front of the box, the Ethernet port, the hard drive access.

ET: What sort of wireless technology do you use in the controllers? Is it Bluetooth, or something proprietary?

TH: It’s a proprietary technology that we developed. In order to do great games in a wireless fashion, you want to make sure you address some latency issues and some bandwidth issues. So we developed a proprietary technique in order to do that.

Visit Extreme Tech for the full interview

W00t Among Favourite Non-Dictionary Words

w00t No longer just a word for gamers, w00t has made its way into Merriam-Webster’s list of top-ten favourite words that don’t appear in the dictionary.

Thousands of people submitted their favourite word, with w00t taking third place behind ginormous and confuzzled. The accepted meaning of w00t is an “exclamation of joy or excitement”, though there is confusion about its exact origin:

The definite origin of the term “w00t” is unknown. One theory claims that usage of this term dates back to the mid-1990s, when it was probably derived from the alternative spellings of whoomp and whoot. These spellings are variously used in the phrases, “Whoomp, there it is,” or “Whoot, there it is” from two songs in 1993 from rap groups Tag Team and 95 South, respectively.

Another possibility is that it came from the vocalization made by the character in games of the Quake series when a jump is performed, usually done on an opposing player’s body after being shot. However, as Quake was only first released in 1996, this etymology probably only furthered the popularity of the existing term.

Others have theorized the term is an acronym for “We Owned the Other Team”, or that “w00t” finds its origin in the sounds of a jubilant Daffy Duck, though there is little evidence to support these theories.

It has also been alleged that “w00t” is a contraction of the phrase “wonderous loot!” or “wow, loot!”, used in Ultima Online and Everquest whenever a player found large quantities of treasure, although it is uncertain if this is really the case.

Merriam-Webster Asks: What’s Your Favorite Word (That’s Not in the Dictionary)?
Wikipedia definition of w00t

Insane gaming with a 4 graphics card capable motherboard

4 GPUs Just when you thought Nvidia’s SLI setup was for nobody else but the extreme/rich gamer, Tom’s Hardware Guide are reporting on a motherboard in development by Gigabyte that will house 4, that’s right 4 graphics cards.

About half a year ago, we learned that Gigabyte was working on a graphics card that integrates two GeForce 6600GT graphics chips. While we were impressed with the out-of-the-box approach from Gigabyte, there was of course the question, whether two of those cards could be combined for a total of four graphics chips.

At the time, we were told that the firm was working on such a solution. It appears that the company has made significant progress, as the first picture of such a solution has reached our offices. The board, currently named “GA-8N-SLI Quad”, shows four PCI Express slots that can be occupied by SLI-compatible graphics cards. According to sources, Gigabyte found a way to combine two nForce4 SLI chipsets on one platform. Interestingly, the board integrates two different versions of the chipset – the nForce4 SLI Intel Edition (Crush 19) represents the Northbridge, the version for AMD processors is used as Southbridge.

Read the full article

Via Slashdot
Discussion >>

Duke Nukem Forever, George Broussard speaks out

If you are looking for some answers to questions regarding Duke Nukem Forever, then why not check out this thread on the 3D Realms forum. George Broussard of 3D Realms joins in on a thread discussion with fans and answers some questions regarding DNF which is purportedly heading to an E3 booth next year.

1) Can you tell us what Video Card you guys are currently running it on? If not can you tell us if it is a new video card?

9800 Pro’s, some 6800GT’s and some 6800 Ultra’s.
Read on

Christian Video Games Aim at Mainstream

A conflicted reverend who loved games, but didn’t feel right about coming home from church and playing the likes of Doom or Quake, started his own games company and founded the Christian Game Developers Foundation in an effort to bring Christian gaming into the mainstream:

Rev Bagley began his mission back in 1996, when investors turned down his first-person Christian shooter, Catechumen.

Only after the Columbine school massacre in April 1999, when there was a backlash against violent video games, did the money start coming in.

To date his company N’Lightning Software has sold some 80,000 copies of Catechumen for the PC in the US, UK, Australia, Holland, Germany, Sweden and Denmark.

But for Rev Bagley, and other Christian developers, the benchmark for success is breaking the console market.

Where PC games can be brought out on a shoestring, several million dollars are needed to develop a console title, more to market it – plus the console makers’ approval to run it.

Christians purge video game demons via Sploid

Japanese Gamers Back Nintendo Revolution

Japanese Next-Generation Console Interest Famitsu, considered the most respected video game magazine in Japan has run a post-E3 poll asking which next-generation console interests its readers the most.

Surprisingly, the Nintendo Revolution has garnered most of the interest, taking 42.2% of the votes. The Playstation 3 comes second at 39.8%, with the Xbox 360 trailing well behind at 18%.

Listed below are the Famitsu readers opinions on each console:

Nintendo Revolution

* The console is very small and the design is atypical for Nintendo
* The possibility to download old Famicom (NES) and Super Famicom (SNES) games
* The console could possibly cause a Revolution, as the name says
* Much is still a mystery and unclear unlike the competition, although it shows hope

Playstation 3

* Outstanding technical specs, stands out against the competition
* Backwards compatibility with PlayStation and Playstation 2 games
* Has things such as Cell and Blu-ray, which are missing to the other consoles.
* The design of the console and the controller is great

Xbox 360

* The developers are a splendor, and it’s a surprise that people like Akira Toriyama is on board
* Square Enix supports the console
* Name, housing color, dimensions, vertical setting of the console, technology and software lineup are more positive
Next Generation Classic: Famitsu asked its readers about Next-Gen Consoles via Aussie-Nintendo.com

EA: “Brutal Transition” to Next-Gen for Smaller Companies

Electronic Arts GameDaily have an interesting interview with EA VP of marketing Frank Gibeau in which he predicts a lot of industry consolidation as mid-sized and small games companies get hit hard by a “brutal transition” to next-generation consoles.

He also remarks on Nintendo’s continuing success in the face of heavyweights Microsoft and Sony, and we’re given an insight into how EA studio’s are set up to keep development costs down:

We have a single studio backbone, which we build off, which is our library systems. So when a team at Tiburon builds the physics for ball movement we can use that in other sports games or games that have balls… When somebody writes a physics engine for driving games, we can take it and adapt it from Burnout to Need for Speed or on to NASCAR. Now you customize it to each of the current games so they don’t feel or play the same, but the base engineering and programming and physics work … the fact that you do it once and you have a single library system means you do it once instead of three times or four times and that’s vital. I’ve seen other companies where each team has its own physics engine and they end up wasting cycles.

EA Weighs In on Next-Gen, Transitions, Rising Costs and More via Slashdot

Money Making in MMORPG’s

The NY Times has an article covering the real money that’s being made through massively multiplayer online games, mainly focusing on the “virtual world” Second Life.

One man they interviewed plays Second Life for four hours every day, using his expertise as a developer and contractor to run a virtual real-estate business.
Renting out land in the game to other virtual retailers earns enough to cover his mortgage every month, while another lady playing Second Life was on track to make $100,000 in one year from a similar business.

The article also gives an insight into why people spend their hard-earned cash in these virtual world’s:

Who buys this stuff? One Second Life resident, who asked to be identified only by her screen name, Diamond Hope, said she spent $10 to $15 a month on clothing and other accessories in Second Life, but would spend more if she could afford it. “With all the things you can buy in Second Life,” she said, “it’s hard not to want them, just like real-life stuff.”

The Game Is Virtual. The Profit Is Real. via Slashdot

Xbox 360 and PS3 dominates mindshare?

According to GamerMetrics, a stat tracking site, the Xbox 360 and PS3 had 60% of the mindshare at E3 this year. Sony’s next-gen console took 34% leaving Microsoft’s Xbox 360 with 26%, trailing close behind Bill’s Xbox was Nintendo’s Gamecube with 17% and 10% of the mindshare for PS2. Coming in last, the PC with just 5% of E3′s mindshare.

Despite coming out of the gate after the significant excitement about the Xbox 360, Sony’s PlayStation3 surprised some by garnering the lion’s share of interest in the console war. IGN Entertainment’s GamerMetrics, a leading videogame business intelligence tool analyzing awareness, engagement, and purchase intent of more than 20 million gamers, showed that the PlayStation3 and Xbox 360 were the buzz of the show, enjoying a more than 60% mindshare among the network’s 2.1 million daily unique visitors.

Read the full article

Psychonauts, updated demo fixes bugs

A new updated demo has been released for the popular Psychonauts game. The new demo features a patch that fixes some problems with the previous release bringing the game demo to version 1.02. If you experienced problems with the last demo, you are urged to download this new one right away.

Download the updated Psychonauts demo here (400 Mb)

Mew Pink Nintendo DS for Japan

A new skin for the Nintendo DS has been unveiled at the Pokemon Centre in Japan. Coloured mew pink and featuring silhouettes of rare Pokemon, the Japan-exclusive skin will be available to pre-order in June for around 15,000 yen:

The system is exclusive to Japan, being only available from the Pokemon Centre or their official Website.

The mew DS is not planned for release outside of Japan, and it is not known at this point if Importers will be able to access any quantities of the new color.

DSRevolution.com: New Mew Pink DS For Japan via Joystiq.com

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Preview

Gamepro have a preview up of Funcom’s new online-action RPG, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. The graphics impressed the reviewer, who goes so far as to say they rival the much lauded graphics of Guild Wars, and the advanced AI of the non player characters also gets high points; the NPC’s have needs such as food, sleep and socializing.

The combat system is obviously going to be a focus in a Conan game, and Gamepro say Hyborian Adventures lives up to its name as an Action-RPG, with sophisticated attack techniques used:

There are six directions you can swing a weapon, and players will need to determine what swing sequences are most natural to connect combos. For example, when swinging from the upper-left toward center, players can then chain it with another swing that goes from lower right toward center. It’s not going to be the simple click fest of past RPGs, having decidedly more twitch-based elements. Those swings can be done without any enemy targeted, so you can probably expect strafing and swinging to enter into the equation.

Groups have an added layer of complexity as well. Parties in Age of Conan will be far more sophisticated than the rag-tag following as seen in past MMOs–players will be able to set formations to protect more vulnerable classes, such as a wizard.

Courtroom Drama Sim Heading to DS

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Via Gamesblog’s list of interesting stuff at E3 comes this curious form of game that’s been hugely popular in Japan – the courtroom drama sim.

Having initially been released as Gyakuten Saiban on the GBA in Japan, the Americanized Nintendo DS version will be called Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, and sees players take the role of a defense lawyer, scrutinizing testimonies of NPC’s for discrepancies and trying to catch out people in their own lies.

Nintendo DS: Gyakuten Saiban DS “I object!” “Overruled! And stop touching me.” – Gamesblog – E3: the interesting stuff, part two

Discussion >>

What TV will I need for my Xbox 360?

A question that has been asked again and again. Major Nelson, in emailing Xbox 360 engineers has gotten a reply that should satisfy most of you out there who don’t have a widescreen or high-resolution TV to compliment your Xbox 360.

Q: What type of television do I need to use an Xbox 360?

A: Xbox 360 will work great on all TVs

Just like the original Xbox, Xbox 360 will output to all major resolution standards found in TVs today – 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i. The key difference is that with Xbox 360 if someone has a 720p or 1080i capable TV and they choose that resolution in the dashboard, all Xbox 360 games will support it. Today, only a handful of Xbox titles support the higher resolutions.

The same thing goes for widescreen. You do not need a widescreen TV to run Xbox 360 but if you have one and you select the setting in the dashboard, all games will support it.
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GTA3 – Sales Restriction in Japan

Since the dawn of computer games, violence has always been an issue. After we’ve seen several recent initiatives to ban violent games in the US, Gamespot reports that even liberal-minded Japan is now going to crack down on allegedly harmful games for the first time. Although 350,000 units of Grand Theft Auto III have been sold in Japan since its release in September 2003, the Kanagawa region south of Tokyo will ban the game’s sale to minors effective June 7.

Last week, Kanagawa governor Shigefumi Matsuzawa told the press that his prefecture was planning to halt sales of the game to minors because “its setting is very similar to real society, and its level of violence and cruelty is extremely high.”

Matsuzaka also said that “unlike videos and movies, games allow users to participate as the main character, and it creates an illusion of reality.”

According to Mainichi Shinbun, GTAIII will have to be displayed apart from other software in Kanagawa stores, and those who sell it to minors under the age of 18 will be forced to pay a fine of up to 300,000 yen ($2,776).

Read the complete article on Gamespot.com

80 year old Qbert champion gamer

Qbert Just when you thought you might be getting a little old for gaming, along comes 80 year old Doris Self of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A self-professed fan of the classic video game Qbert since the 1980′s.

Doris was the Qbert champion in 1984 with a score of 1,112,300 points.

At that time, I was the oldest video game champ in the world at 58 years old, a fact verified by Twin Galaxies’ scorekeeper Walter Day.

Over the years, however, her grip on these titles has slipped, mostly recently losing claim of oldest gamer to 72-year-old John Lawton of New Hampshire. If anything, these events have only fueled Self’s desire to reclaim what was once hers. Nowadays, she’s refining her Q*bert skill, with the hopes of eventually taking back her titles.

Read the full article