LucasArts fee for Star Wars MMO put at 35%

December 1st, 2011, 23:38 Posted By: wraggster

LucasArts will take a 35 per cent revenue cut from Star Wars The Old Republic due to its license agreement with EA, a high-profile games analyst has said.
Michael Pachter, of Wedbush Morgan, said LucasArts will begin taking its cut the moment EA fully recoups its development expenses for the MMO.

“That means EA keeps most of the revenue from disc sales,” Pachter (pictured) toldEurogamer.
His comments after Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick downplayed the commercial potential of The Old Republic.
"LucasArts is going to be the principal beneficiary of the success of Star Wars," Koticksaid this week.

He continued: "We've been in business with LucasArts for a long time and the economics will always accrue to the benefit of LucasArts, so I don't really understand how the economics work for Electronic Arts."

http://www.develop-online.net/news/3...-cut-put-at-35

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RIM PlayBook Tablet Jailbroken

December 1st, 2011, 23:42 Posted By: wraggster

A group of researchers is claiming that they've found a root exploit that enables them to jailbreak the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet made by Research In Motion. In a video demonstration of the jailbreak, one of the researchers shows off the ability to change the settings on a PlayBook and says that he also has the ability to install the Android Market app on the tablet.

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/1...let-jailbroken

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Aleph One 1.0 Released

December 1st, 2011, 23:51 Posted By: wraggster

Nearly 12 year since Bungie released the source code for Marathon 2, the Aleph One team is thrilled to releaseversion 1.0 of the Aleph One game engine. Aleph One is a Free software, cross platform game engine that supports all three original Marathon games with enhancements such as OpenGL and Internet play; as well as numerous third party mods known as 'scenarios.' Easy to install full versions of Marathon, Marathon 2, and Marathon Infinity, now featuring high resolution graphics and modern widescreen HUD support, can be downloaded for free from the project website!

http://games.slashdot.org/story/11/1...ne-10-released

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Battlefield 3's 'Back to Karkand' expansion arrives on PS3 Dec. 6, 360 and PC on Dec.

December 2nd, 2011, 00:18 Posted By: wraggster

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F2P Summit announced for 2012

December 2nd, 2011, 02:08 Posted By: wraggster

Tandem Events has announced that it is launching F2P Summit, a new London-based free-to-play conference.
The one-day networking event will take place in London on March 28, 2012, and will explore free-to-play strategies such as user acquisition, customer retention, community management and monetisation.
“Freemium is a hot topic at the moment sparking a lot of debate and it’s a business model that experts are touting as the way forward for the games industry, " says Tandem Events managing director Andy Lane."F2P Summit is a unique event that will look at all aspects of F2P from the developers point of view, offer practical advice and offer an opportunity to hear from studios who have built successful businesses on this model."
Further details, including the speakers who will be attending the event, will be announced early next year.

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/f2p-summit-announced-2012

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How a Computer Game Is Reinventing the Science of Expertise

December 3rd, 2011, 00:00 Posted By: wraggster

Cognitive scientists at Simon Fraser University and UCSD are beginning to use StarCraft 2 replays to study the development of expertise and the cognitive mechanisms of multitasking. Unlike similar expertise studies in chess that consider roughly a dozen players, these studies include thousands of players of all skill levels — providing an unprecedented amount of data on how players move from 'chumps to champions

http://games.slashdot.org/story/11/1...e-of-expertise

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Chrome Becoming World's Second Most Popular Web Browser

December 3rd, 2011, 00:14 Posted By: wraggster

redletterdave writes with news that Google Chrome is in the process of surpassing Firefox to become the second most popular web browser. Pinpointing the exact time of the change is difficult, of course, since different analytics firms collect slightly different data. The current crop of media reports were triggered by data from StatCounter, which shows Chrome at 25.69% and Firefox at 25.23% for November. Data from Net Applications shows Firefox still holding a 4% lead, but the trends suggest it will evaporate within a few months.

http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/12...ar-web-browser

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Super Mario Land remade in Minecraft

December 3rd, 2011, 23:16 Posted By: wraggster

A trio of Minecraft players have painstakingly recreated the first level of Game Boy platformer Super Mario Land.
Engadget reports that James Wright, Joe Ciappa and a third player known only as Tempusmori spent six to seven hours a day for four straight weeks recreating Super Mario Land's opening level, using more than 18 million Minecraft blocks in the process.

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/super-m...made-minecraft

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Star Trek Online Season 5: Call to Arms release notes

December 4th, 2011, 00:13 Posted By: wraggster

After months of testing, beefy Star Trek Online update Season 5: Call to Arms has been released.In a nutshell, Season 5 brings a Duty Officer System, the story of The Borg Advancement, Klingon gameplay updates, a skills revamp, a mission revamp, lore missions and economy restructuring.STO executive producer Stephen D'Angelo offered an overview of the changes in a dev blog.Star Trek Online turns free-to-play on 17th January 2012.New and Improved Content

• Borg Invasion of Defera - An all new action ground combat map that features multiple play areas, boxes, and a variety of game play.
• Re-envisioned Borg Strategic Task Force (STF) maps - These were cleaned up and streamlined to improve play. Then they were given a "Normal" version so everyone can experience the content, as well as an "Elite" version for some seriously challenging play. And finally, we threw in some great new rewards and elite gear that you can earn.
• Federation and Klingon Academy - All new academy maps to explore and do non-combat game play.
• Lore Missions - A whole new type of non-combat play. Learn about the Star Trek universe while playing these fun little missions.
• Patrol Mission Revamp - The patrol missions got a new feel, now requiring some exploration to discover them. They also got better Skill Point rewards.
• Event Calendar - A new event calendar that features nearly a dozen new events that happen around the clock.
• Threaded Storyline - The whole storyline for STO has been put together in a cohesive way by threading the Episode content. Now it's easy to know what to do next, and to play through the core storyline.
• Tighter Klingon Storyline - The Klingon game play was tightened up to play starting at level 21, so that the whole experience for Klingon play is improved.

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Battlefield 3 PC update coming December 6

December 4th, 2011, 00:23 Posted By: wraggster

DICE will release a massive update for the PC version of Battlefield 3 on December 6.
This, the developer explains, will coincide with a separate update it will undertake with the game's servers, which will bring down the service "for some hours" from around 8AM UK Time.It'll be a whopping 2GB (because it includes data for the Back to Karkand DLC Pack) and will be mandatory due to its incompatibility with older clients.
Here's the full change log:
Bugfixes
Fixed a problem with spawn timer now showing blue border on startup and lost spawn point
Fixed a problem where player who joined queuing on End of round got spawn screen stuck on screen, but unable to do anything with it untill next round loaded
Fixed a problem where camera would change to 3rd person on killcam when killcam was turned off in server settings
Fixed stat references on several dogtags
Fixed for surveillance ribbon not counting TUGS
Fixed a missing combat area lines on the minimap for Grand Bazaar conquest small
Moved a tank spawn in US base on Caspian Border so it would not be destroyed by a falling tree
Fixed a problem where placing C4 with the russians soldier was playing US faction VO
Fixed a problem where TV guided missiles could be shot into its own helicopter and destroy it
Fixed a problem when attempting to fire lock on weapons without a target
Tweaked the chat, it should now be a bit easier to read
Fixed several vehicles that did not properly shoot rockets and guns towards their predictive sights
Fixed the G17 Supressed Laser not working properly
Added alternate HUD colors to help colorblinds
Added a network interpolation setting. This allows users with good bandwidth reduce latency, but might increase some stuttering. The user can find what works best for his connection by tweaking the slider.
Increased the Spawn protection radius on TDM
Fixed a problem with smoke on land vehicles, Missiles should now miss more often
Fixed a problem where users could end up with IRNV scope in any vehicle
Fixed a problem where player dies if vaulting over a ledge and into water while sprinting
Fixed several crashes and increased general stability
Fixed a problem where the user was unable to revive two players that have the bodies one over the other
Fixed so you can assign an axis and use as a digital input. This makes it possible for the player (on pc) to assign one of the sticks on a gameped to be used for throttle/brake.
Fixed a problem with the Kill camera acting up when suiciding from parachute
Fixed air radar was showing to much. now lasertagged, heatsignature above threshold, enemy missiles and capture points are only visible on air radar
Fixed a problem where the game would enter a technical hang if the user pressed pause menu and tilde at the same time
Fixed a problem where you could get green flashes on screen
You can now reassign cycle weapons
Fixed so the weapon zooms automatically after bipod deploy is gone when using zoom toggle
Fixed a problem where the parachute would stay stuck in air if the owner was killed
Balance Tweaks
Fixed several weapons so they are properly suppressed and hide the player on the minimap when fired.
Tweaked Tactical Light so it is not as blinding over longer ranges.
Tweaked the IRNV scope so it is limited to usage only at close range.
Reduced heat masking effectiveness of Spec Ops Camo.
Fixed a bug where Ammo spec would give additional 40mm grenades instead of Frag spec.
Increased the number of additional 40mm grenades from Frag spec.
Fixed so AT mines only live for 20 seconds after a player dies to prevent infinite mines. (We want to make a different fix in the future, it's in JIRA).
Increased the Time to Live on sniper caliber rounds to allow extreme distance shots.
Fixed several weapon descriptions, calibers, and fire rates. The weapons themselves have not changed.
Fixed so the M9 and MP443 pistol can be equipped by the opposing faction when it is unlocked at 100 kills.
Fixed Laser Guided Missiles missing their targets if the target is moving too fast.
Reduced the effectiveness of Stealth on Air Vehicles.
Reduced the effectiveness of Beam Scanning for Jets.
Reduced the damage done to Armored Vehicles and Infantry from AA guns.
Increased the damage RPGs and Tank shells do to AA vehicles.
Slightly decreased the accuracy for all weapons on fully automatic, burst fire is now preferable at mid to long range.
Increased the effective accuracy of long bursts for LMGs when using a bipod.
Slightly increased the range of the 44magnum bullets.
Increased the close range damage of 4.6x30mm and 5.7x28mm bullets.
Increased the reload time of the Mortar from 3.5sec to 4.8sec and increased the time it takes before a shell hits the ground.
Reduced the aimed accuracy bonus given by a Suppressor for the MP7, P90, PP2000, PP-19, and UMP45.
Increased the range and FOV for designating targets with the SOFLAM and vehicle Laser Designators.
Decreased the effectiveness of 12g FRAG ammo when equipped on semi-automatic and automatic shotguns.
Slightly Increased the power of Fighter Jet Cannons against all vehicle targets, especially Helicopters.
Decreased the power of Miniguns against Jets and Helicopters.
Increased the power of Stingers against Jets.
Flares reload times for Jets and Helicopter Gunners have been increased.
Tweaked the AN94 so its burst fire better conveys the real world advantage offered by this weapon.
Added Single Shot to the AN94 as an available fire mode.
Slightly increased the recoil on the M416 and removed the Burst Fire mode (this weapon incorrectly had burst fire, which was not authentic).
Tweaked the spawns for TDM on Kharg Island, Grand Bazaar, Caspian Border, Seine Crossing, Operation Firestorm, Damavand Peak and Noshahar Canals
Moved a tank spawn in US base on Caspian Border so it would not be destroyed by a falling tree
Tweaked the Gas station Capture area on Conquest on Caspian Border
Tweaked the max vehicle height on Noshahar Canals
Min player requirements
Also, it will once again be possible to reduce the number of players required to start a round to 1 both in ranked and unranked mode. We changed it back after getting a lot of negative feedback from both individuals and the RSP companies.
Our plan is to introduce a warm-up mode, where players can move about and play the game, but with scoring disabled; then, when the number of players goes above the threshold -- that's when the real round starts.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...ng-december-6/

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EA registers a battalion of domains for Command and Conquer Alliances

December 4th, 2011, 20:57 Posted By: wraggster

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VCMI Project - Heroes 3: WoG recreated v0.87

December 5th, 2011, 00:41 Posted By: wraggster

via http://www.aep-emu.de/

VCMI Project is a free implementation of the Heroes of Might and Magic 3 WoG engine.

Quote:
CHANGELOG
0.86->0.87
GENERAL:
* Pathfinder can find way using ships and subterranean gates
* Hero reminder & sleep button

PREGAME:
* Credits are implemented

BATTLES
* All attacked hexes will be highlighted
* New combat abilities supported:
- Spell Resistance aura
- Random spellcaster (Genies)
- Mana channeling
- Daemon summoning
- Spellcaster (Archangel, Ogre Mage, Elementals, Faerie Dragon)
- Fear
- Fearless
- No wall penalty
- Enchanter
- Bind
- Dispell helpful spells

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PrBoom-plus v2.5.1.3.test

December 5th, 2011, 00:41 Posted By: wraggster

via http://www.aep-emu.de/

PrBoom-plus is a Doom source port based on PrBoom.

Quote:
2.5.1.3.test @ 2011-Nov-30 00:07 - win32 build, sources
[+]Added process_priority config variable. 0 - NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS; 1 - HIGH_PRIORITY_CLASS; 2 - REALTIME_PRIORITY_CLASS.

2.5.1.2 @ 2011-Nov-25
[+]Added device selection to portmidi player. Controlled by the snd_mididev config variable. See stdout.txt for list of available devices.
[+]Added a progress bar for demo skipping during re-recording.
[+]Added key binding options for start/stop and fast-forward when watching demos.
[+]Added a key binding option to restart the current map.
[+]Added a "Default compatibility level" GUI entry.
[+]Support for 16 sprite rotations. http://zdoom.org/wiki/Sprite#Angles
[+]New HUDs. HUDs definitions are moved to the "prboom-plus.wad/-prbhud-" lump. [*]Fluidsynth player now resumes notes seamlessly after a pause. [*]Speed improvement on maps like sunder.wad map10 and nuts.wad. [*]Force GL_LINEAR for MAG filter for textures with detail.
[-]Fixed buggy music that forgets to terminate notes held over a loop point. SDL_mixer does this as well. Fix tested against Doom2 map14 and FreeDoom2 map01, for fluidsynth, portmidi, and OPL players.
[-]Fixed buffer overrun in OPL2 player.
[-]Fixed crash in video capture code when "Use GL surface for software mode" is enabled.
[-]The screen wipe after pressing the exit switch on a level was noticably jerkier.
[-]MBF-added codepointers worked with any complevel.
[-]Fixed HOMs on skies with transparent pixels. Sky2 @ doom2.wad, for example.
[-]Alpha channel did not work for 8-bit PNGs with alpha.
[-]Transferred standard sky was drawn badly when FOV > 90 (Voodoo Guns - map02).

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Ultrabooks to revive the PC market says Acer

December 5th, 2011, 21:46 Posted By: wraggster

Acer Chairman JT Wang said that Ultrabooks will revive the stalled Wintel platform and that the difference between laptops and tablets would become more blurred.
Speaking at a press conference in Taipei, Wang also said that the Intel branded super thin notebook category needed to be priced at less than $700, according to the Taipei Times. Somewhat less than even the lowest priced devices on the market which start at around $800.
The company expects to ship between 250 and 300,000 ultrabooks in the fourth quarter but Wang also added that the global IT industry was shifting focus towards emerging markets due to slow growth in the developed world.
Wang said that he believed the Intel ultrabook form factor would become the mainstream tablet and notebook specification within the next five years.

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...ys-acer/027608

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Will Firefox Lose Google Funding?

December 5th, 2011, 21:56 Posted By: wraggster

Mozilla's future looks uncertain. Last week Chrome overtook Firefox's position as the second most popular browser, the new versioning scheme is alienating some Firefox users, and now the advertising deal between Mozilla and Google, the one that almost fully funds Mozilla's operations, is coming to an end. One of Firefox's key managers, Mike Shaver, also left the company in September. 'In 2010, 84% of Mozilla's $123 million in revenue came directly from Google. That's roughly $100 million in funds that will vanish or be drastically cut if the deal is either not renewed or is renegotiated on terms that are less favorable to Mozilla. When the original three-year partnership deal was signed in 2008, Chrome was still on the drawing boards. Today, it is Google's most prominent software product, and it is rapidly replacing Firefox as the alternative browser on every platform.' Recently Mozilla has been trying to get closer with Microsoft by making a Firefox version that defaults to Bing. If Google is indeed cutting funding from Mozilla or tries to negotiate less favorable terms, it could mean Mozilla's future funding coming from Microsoft and Bing."

http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/12...google-funding

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GAME nabs £130 Old Republic exclusive

December 6th, 2011, 00:30 Posted By: wraggster

Retailer GAME will exclusively sell the Star Wars: The Old Republic Collector’s Edition.
The PC?MMO’s £129.99?special SKU includes a statue, map, metal case, journal, soundtrack CD and extra in-game content.
Although EA previously listed GAME, Gamestation, Amazon, Play.com, Zavvi and ShopTo online as retailers stocking the Collector’s Edition, the listings were in error and GAME and Gamestation will be the exclusive stockists.
GAME’s head of UK communications and PR Neil Ashurst said: “Star Wars is one of the biggest entertainment franchises ever, and with so much buzz around the release of The Old Republic, we know the Star Wars community will be wanting to get their hands on the game as soon as it’s out of beta this month.
"It’s great to see so much enthusiasm and anticipation around Old Republic and we’re happy to be able to offer GAME and Gamestation’s Star Wars fans this special edition.”
The game will also be available to download via EA Origin when it hits shelves on Tuesday, December 20th.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/game-...clusive/088124

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Trine 2 puts on its rogue and wizard hats starting December 7

December 6th, 2011, 01:47 Posted By: wraggster

Your favorite physics puzzle solving triumvirate of fantasy archetypes is reconvening December 7. Developer Frozenbyte has announced the impending availability of Trine 2. The wizard, rogue, and knight will launch a three-pronged assault on PC and Mac on December 7, available both on Steam and at European retailers.

It's only appropriate for Trine to have three separate release dates working together, and Frozenbyte acknowledges the game's tripartite nature. Following the December 7 PC release date, the game will arrive on the North American PSN December 20, and on XBLA worldwide the next day. A European PSN release date is still pending, "but we hope it won't be far behind if delayed at all," noted Frozenbyte CEO Lauri Hyvärinen.
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/12/05/tr...ng-december-7/

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Star Wars: The Old Republic beta test attracts 2 million players

December 6th, 2011, 01:52 Posted By: wraggster

It's no secret that Star Wars: The Old Republicis one of the most highly anticipated MMORPGs in recent memory, and the game's recently concluded public testing phase confirms the hype. The game's publisher, EA, announced that the SWTOR test phase drew in over 2 million players, and of those 2 million, 750,000 unique players jumped into the game over the Thanksgiving weekend alone.

EA also shared some interesting statistics about the game's test players. Over the holiday weekend, players averaged about 12 hours of game time each for a grand total of over 9 million hours of playtime across the playerbase. If you didn't get a chance to try the beta, or if you simply couldn't get enough, you don't have much longer to wait. The game launches in about two weeks on December 20th, with pre-order head start beginning on the 15th.
http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/12...llion-players/

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Tactical light, other fixes in Dec. 6 Battlefield 3 PC patch

December 6th, 2011, 01:55 Posted By: wraggster

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Microsoft demos Windows Store, coming to Windows 8 beta in February

December 7th, 2011, 03:11 Posted By: wraggster

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PlayBook Jailbreak Tool Released

December 7th, 2011, 03:26 Posted By: wraggster

Trailrunner7 notes that some dedicated hackers who've been working on jailbreaking RIM's PlayBook tablet have now"posted a detailed walkthrough of how users can accomplish the same task on their own. The technique requires the use of a custom tool, but otherwise is fairly straightforward. One of the researchers, known as Neuralic, posted the walkthrough to Pastie.org Tuesday morning. In order to begin the process, a PlayBook user need to first install the beta 2.0 version of the PlayBook software and then install the Dingleberry tool, which exploits a weakness in the PlayBook architecture which stems from the fact that the backups the device takes aren't signed."

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/1...-tool-released

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Opera 11.60 'Tunny' Released With Ragnarök HT

December 7th, 2011, 03:29 Posted By: wraggster

Version 11.60 of Opera Browser for Desktop was released today. Significant changes: the inclusion of their new HTML5 rendering engine "Ragnarök", a revamped address bar, full ECMAScript 5.1 support, support for CSS3 Radial Gradients (finally), and a very revamped Mail panel. Originally, these features were set to be released with their next major version, 12.00. However, due to more work needed for the hardware acceleration feature also to be included in Opera 12, the 11.60 intermediary release came to be, as they didn't want to hold back the other new features for that long a time.

http://slashdot.org/story/11/12/06/1...ith-ragnark-ht

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Piracy block 'sparked upsurge in FM12 sales'

December 7th, 2011, 22:48 Posted By: wraggster

Sports Interactive creating new jobs from the extra money

London studio Sports Interactive has enjoyed an upwards surge in digital sales for the latest Football Manager title, having employed various anti-piracy technologies.
Studio head Miles Jacobson said each annual Football Manager game is typically cracked five days before commercial release.

But this year, having employed a package of antipiracy technologies, including one-time Steam authentication, hackers were unable to crack the game for about ten days after launch.
“I don’t believe that one pirated copy equals one lost sale, but we definitely converted some people,” Jacobson told Develop.
“We were reading comments on piracy sites where people were saying ‘I can’t wait any longer I’m going out and buying it’, which was great.”

http://www.develop-online.net/news/3...-in-FM12-sales

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New indie PC platform 'ends discoverability woes'

December 7th, 2011, 22:52 Posted By: wraggster

Amazon-like recommendation engine 'gives all devs a fair chance'; Royalty rate at 15-25%

A new PC games platform has launched with the promise that high profile games won’t muscle out smaller titles on the store’s front page.
IndieCity, a digital games destination for independent developers only, incorporates an Amazon.com-like recommendations system that customises the storefront for each individual user.

The platform’s creator, Blitz Games Studios, believes the sophistication of the recommendations engine is an elegant solution to discoverability issues within the oceanic indie games market.
“What we’re trying to do is allow developers to make the most noise about their work,” said IndieCity project lead Chris Swan.
“We’re really proud of the recommendation engine, where we give customers an individual endorsements based on what they’ve played before,” he said in a newly published interview with Develop.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/3...erability-woes

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Will Windows 8 Be Ready For Release In 2012?

December 7th, 2011, 22:56 Posted By: wraggster

MrSeb writes with an excerpt from an Extreme Tech article on the Windows 8 release timeline:"...A Microsoft vice president announced that the Windows 8 beta would begin in late February 2012. The beta will be feature-complete and will allow developers to begin listing their apps in the Store. The timing of the beta is curious, and ultimately quite telling. ... The first public build of Windows 8 ... emerged in mid-September 2011; by the time the beta rolls around, it will have been ruminating for more than five months. If we follow the timeline forward — it took 10 months for Windows 7 to go from beta to public release — then it's possible that Windows 8 might arrive just in time for Black Friday 2012, or perhaps not in 2012 at all. Will its late arrival affect its chances of cutting out a swath of the tablet market from Apple and Android? Or will Windows 8 be different enough that it will do well, no matter when it arrives?"In related news, an anonymous reader notes that IDC predicts Windows 8 will be irrelevant to the traditional PC market.
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/12...elease-in-2012

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OnLive microconsole in UK shops before Christmas

December 7th, 2011, 23:30 Posted By: wraggster

MCV reports that the UK retailer Game has done a deal with OnLive to sell its microconsole in its stores in time for Christmas. The hardware allows the service to be displayed through TVs and includes a joypad and costs £69.99 through OnLive's online store. We've asked how much it will retail for at Game.
In an interview, CEO Steve Perlman said the deal also means that Game's website will feature game demos powered by his company's service. The shop will also sell OnLive subscription cards.
Other retailers will be free to sell the microconsole in 2012. OnLive launched in the UK on September 21, but the company has not yet disclosed any user numbers other than to tell MCV last month that its audience numbers "millions".

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/onlive-...hops-christmas

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PopCap relaunches Bejeweled on iPhone

December 7th, 2011, 23:33 Posted By: wraggster

PopCap has 'retired' its existing Bejeweled 2 + Blitz release for iPhone and iPod Touch in order to relaunch the game it says is the second highest selling mobile game ever, after Tetris.
The free version is the popular one-minute score attack gameBejeweled Blitz, while the 69p/€.79 Bejeweled features two modes from Bejeweled 3 - Zen and Diamond Mine in addition to Classic. Both act as platforms for ongoing development, so expect them to be updated with new modes and features over time.
"As we strive to reach virtually everyone with a mobile communications device, PopCap will continue to make games that are even more accessible to that ever-expanding global audience. We’re taking a critical step toward this goal with the introduction of these new Bejeweled titles that will enhance our offerings on the iPhone for years to come," says Giordano Bruno Contestabile, recently made Bejeweled franchise business director at PopCap and a columnist for Edge.

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/popcap-...jeweled-iphone

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Windows 8 app store to offer devs 80% cut

December 9th, 2011, 00:09 Posted By: wraggster

Microsoft has said it will take 30 per cent cut of sales through the forthcoming Windows 8 app marketplace, reducing that to 20 per cent once software makes over $25,000.
The move is more generous than Apple and Facebook's current policies, where both companies take a 30 per cent cut, but it's not as competitive as Google's Chrome Web Store, which only takes 5 per cent.
"We're going to give you a bigger bite of the apple," said Windows Web Services vice president Antoine LeBlond, as reported by All Things Digital.
A beta for the store will go live in February, offering games, ebooks, apps, and other software, and will featuring the Metro interface, most recently used for Xbox Live and the Windows Phone OS.
Free apps and trials, in-app purchasing and in-app advertising, will all be supported. Apps will be priced from $1.49 to $999.99.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...80-percent-cut

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HP to launch another Touchpad fire sale this weekend, because it's cold outside

December 9th, 2011, 00:43 Posted By: wraggster

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Two thirds of Brits use social media in front of the telly

December 9th, 2011, 22:49 Posted By: wraggster

And 29 per cent watch TV on mobile.
A global study of 9,000 viewers by Motorola has detailed the stealthy rise of the 'social TV' habit wherein people watch a programme and bitch about it at the same time on social networks.
It found that, with a combined weekly average of 14 hours of viewing, Brits are watching more than any of their European neighbours. They are joint second with Japan, behind the US, where the average viewer watches 15 hours a week.
Meanwhile, 63 per cent of them say they have used the Internet or a social network to discuss a TV programme while they are watching it.
In China 92 pe rcent of the population have discussed a TV show online.
29 percent of British viewers are watching streamed or downloaded video/TV on a mobile device or laptop.

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/read/...e-telly/016441

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Microsoft Can Remotely Kill Purchased Apps

December 9th, 2011, 23:55 Posted By: wraggster

The terms of service for Microsoft's newly launched Windows Store allows the seller to remotely kill or remove access to a user's apps for security or legal reasons. The story also notes that MS states purchasers are responsible for backing up the data that you store in apps that you acquire via the Windows Store, including content you upload using those apps. If the Windows Store, an app, or any content is changed or discontinued, your data could be deleted or you may not be able to retrieve data you have stored."

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/12/...purchased-apps

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Google launches tablet-specific ad formats

December 10th, 2011, 22:52 Posted By: wraggster

Google said in a blog that it has looked at how consumers engage with ads on tablets, and concludes that "they have higher expectations of ads on tablets, believing they should be more interactive and touch screen friendly."
So it's come up with Rich Media Designs for Mobile, which lets advertisers create rich media banner ads using existing assets.
And in search it has put Media Ads in beta this week. Media Ads bring video content directly into an ad on the search results page. In addition to watching video game, TV or movie trailers, US consumers will also be able to view locally relevant movie showtimes within the ad.
These new tablet-specific ad formats build on earlier launches including tablet-specific ad formats on AdMob and tablet-targeting in Adwords.

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/read/...formats/016443

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Apple may launch TV-enabled iMac

December 10th, 2011, 22:54 Posted By: wraggster

A new iMac with TV capabilities could arrive before the firm's expected own-brand smart TV according to an analyst.
BGR reported that Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair took a break from commenting on the triangular fried potato snack market to claim than the new iMacs could launch in the first half of 2012.
The new iMac will essentially bundle the features that are found in the firm's current generation Apple TV device.
The idea of a slim all-in-one PC with a TV tuner and PVR app is hardly groundbreaking although doubtless Apple will claim it is if they should launch such a device.
The development of Apple's own brand TV prompted Steve Jobs to say "I finally cracked it" according to his autobiography. One might expect something pretty special in that case and the New York Times revealed just how that might be.
The paper said Apple's new TV would use voice commands rather like the iPhone 4S's Siri digital assistant. The Wedge Partners analyst didn't have anything specific to say about Siri-like voice capabilities of the mooted TV-iMac but he did reckon sweet chilli sauce is the way to go.
We may have made up that last bit.

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...ed-imac/027633

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Angry Birds turns two this weekend

December 10th, 2011, 22:58 Posted By: wraggster

Rovio's mobile smash Angry Birds is two years old on December 11, and the Finnish developer is marking the occasion in several ways.
First, a new update for Angry Birds, dubbed Happy Birdday, unlocks all episodes and adds 15 levels, plus new menus, graphics and achievements. In the US, retail chain Barnes & Noble will host special events and giveaways on Sunday between 11am and 3pm. Toys 'R' Us will offer 25 per cent off Angry Birds merchandise, and a code that unlocks a special level in Angry Birds Chrome.
In London, Forbidden Planet will also be marking the occasion. It will even be celebrated in Japan, where CMO Peter Vesterbacka will give a presentation at the Apple Store in Ginza, with a special event taking place in Tokyo's Harajuku.
It's hard to believe Angry Birds is only two years old: it's beendownloaded 500 million times, is the most copied brand in Chinaand has turned Rovio from a small Finnish developer into a studiovalued at more than a billion dollars and comparing itself to Disney.

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/angry-b...ns-two-weekend

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Square Enix develops for Google Chrome

December 10th, 2011, 23:00 Posted By: wraggster

Square Enix is among a number of developers Google has signed up to develop console-quality games playable in its Chrome browser.
VentureBeat reports that CEO Yoichi Wada was at the GooglePlex headquarters in California yesterday, and revealed that the publisher has remade its 2009 action-adventure Mini Ninjas as a Native Client game. The client is Google's open-source technology that allows for web applications that execute native code in a browser.
"Let us begin this new era together," he said. "Google's native client will be welcomed worldwide as a truly innovative technology for the IT industry and game industry as well. It is an excellent solution for browser gaming."
A dozen other game companies were on hand, including Supergiant Games, developer of Bastion, which is also being ported to Chrome. Google emphasised the ease of porting current console and PC games to the native client because of its support for familiar development tools. Chief among those is Unity - devs can export from Unity to Chrome by checking a single box.
The news is further evidence of Google's growing committment to, and Chrome's increasing suitability for, games. Last month we reported that the browser was soon to support gamepads, microphones and cameras without the need for plug-ins.

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/square-...-google-chrome

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Ultima creator reveals Facebook game

December 10th, 2011, 23:01 Posted By: wraggster

Social developer and publisher Portalarium has announcedUltimate Collector: Garage Sale, a self-explanatory Facebook game designed by Ultima creator, and Portalarium co-founder, Richard Garriott.
"The collectible craze is growing leaps and bounds," Garriott said in a press release. "It's been fuelled by cable television programmes such as American Pickers, Pawn Stars and Storage Wars. By the broadest definition, this is an unregulated multibillion dollar industry in the real world.
"Ultimate Collector spans the gamut of that entire activity and is a way for treasure and bargain searching people to transfer that enthusiasm - that passion for the ultimate hunt - into the social network space."
Garriott, it appears, is quite the collector himself, with a press release claiming his Austin mansion contains "shrunken heads, vampire-killing kits, quack medical devices, centuries-old armour, automata mechanical toys, space artifacts, swords and scientific instruments," some of which will be available in the game itself.
Executive producer Dallas Snell added: "There are literally thousands of collectible items in the game. They are all real-world items and we've scoured the internet looking at auction and collectors' sites to determine authenticity. We've provided links in the game so players can go back to these websites to learn more about the items they've collected and, in some cases, even buy them for real."
Ultimate Collector: Garage Sale will launch on Facebook early next year, and players can sign up for the upcoming closed beta at the source link below.

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/ultima-...-facebook-game

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Apple names Tiny Wings iPhone game of the year

December 10th, 2011, 23:10 Posted By: wraggster

Apple has named Andreas Illiger's one-button iOS game Tiny Wings as the iPhone game of the year.
Runners-up were NimbleBit's life-stealing time management simTiny Tower, and physics puzzler To-Fu 2. The Chillingo-publishedContre Jour was named best iPad game, ahead of Shadowgun andGesundheit HD.
Angry Birds was the top-selling iPhone app of the year, with Angry Birds Rio and Seasons, Cut The Rope, Fruit Ninja, Doodle Jumpand Tiny Wings all making the top ten.
In the US, Tiny Tower was best iPhone game, with Dead Spacenamed best iPad game.

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/apple-n...hone-game-year

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PAYDAY: The Heist gets huge 'Xmas update' on Steam

December 10th, 2011, 23:32 Posted By: wraggster

A huge update for the PC version of PAYDAY: The Heist has been released via Steam.
The update adds, among a long list of things (below), the new ability to join a game that's already in progress. It also has a new Christmas Achievement which is unlocked by finding a Christmas present hidden in any of the levels.
Here's the full change log:
PAYDAY Xmas achievement!
Find a Christmas present on any of the levels in multiplayer - take it and you will be given a Santa mask! Plus you will get the chance to be surprised later on...
Big features:
Player drop-in ability in load-out and in-game!
You can now join an ongoing game! You will no longer be locked out of games just because they have already started or because you dropped out during play. Just rejoin and continue collecting those precious dollars and gems!
These are the rules: Players who are downed or in custody and drop out only to rejoin the same game will respawn in custody. Drop-in is disabled during the "point of no return" phase of the heist, as well as on the end screen.
Heavily improved fighting and acting by team AI and enemies
New features and fixes include:
- New events and enemy tactics on all levels
- Team and enemies now pick better cover and firing positions, and use more intelligent firing lanes for suppression and sniping
- Enemies now master additional acrobatic moves (such as dashes and slides) and they can fire at you while doing them!
- More cover moves for team AI and enemies
- Enemy AI move in tighter formations and coordinate better
- Team AI now keeps up with human players much better
- Smoother turn and aim on team AI, and reduced animation glitches on movements
- Better looking weapon recoils on team and enemies
- AI teammates now pick weapons that better suit the current combat situation
- Combat will now be more mid ranged and not run-in gun battles
- Team AI no longer has "ants in the pants" (they don't move around so much) when there are no enemies around
Advanced GFX settings menu (AG menu)
Custom visual settings and optimizations, including:
- Texture resolution setting "low" to "high"
- Texture filtering "off" and up to x16
- V-synch on/off
- AA on/off
- Light streaks on/off
- Animation level-of-detail setting for better performance
- More suitable default resolutions to fit laptops etc.
- AlienwareFX on/off (for Alienware computers)
- Added eight color grade filters (inspired by a range of heist and action movies)
"Payday +"
"Dinero"
"In Traffic"
"Bastard"
"BHD"
"Xgen Brown"
"Future of Gaming"
"The Matrices"
New masks:
To celebrate that yet another bunch of military shooters was released recently, we've added four new masks to Payday!
Improved network code"
Disclaimer: We did not fix the Internet. Please talk to Al Gore about that.
We've added a red toothbrush to Panic Room, and we've made sure this one's worth the hullabaloo!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT1HS...ature=youtu.be
Additional features and fixes:
Slaughterhouse and Diamond Heist are now available in the Normal difficulty setting
Single Player has improved scenario and difficulty balancing
Added more money bundles to First World Bank
The legendary über killer sniper removed from Heat Street
Teammate "mugshot" icons (lower left corner of the screen) now flash to indicate who is talking over VOIP
You can now see the cash value of the "near completion challenges" in the TAB menu
Fix to better hear team AI voices
Fixes for random crashes
Fixed the drill that kept resetting to full time for some people
Fixes for fake lobby appearing
Changed [Enter] to $Continue; to fix binding of enter to block the final stats screen.
More camera impacts on explosions
All weapons now have alert ranges, unique for each weapon
Chains is no longer replaced by Wolf on rare trade occasions
Bain will now correctly call the equipment "saws" (not "drills") in Panic Room

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...date-on-steam/

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Rayman Origins sells 50,000 in debut US month

December 11th, 2011, 00:56 Posted By: wraggster

The fate of two of the big name titles missing from yesterday's US November top 10 has been revealed.NPD analyst Anita Frazier told Eurogamer that Michel Ancel's well-reviewed platformer Rayman Origins sold just over 50,000 copies during its first four weeks on sale.She didn't reveal where it placed on the chart, though, for some context, Super Mario 3D Land managed 625,000 and didn't make the top 10.Sales of Origins were similarly underwhelming on this side of the Atlantic too, where the game failed to make the UK top 40 in its debut week.Frazier also revealed that Sonic Generations was the 26th best-selling title of the month. No sales figure was quoted.While Rayman's showing will no doubt disappoint Ubisoft, it can take some solace in Assassin's Creed: Revelations' performance. The publisher announced sales of the latest game in the franchise were up 10 per cent year-on-year on 2010's Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. That puts its first month total at around 1.26 million.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...debut-us-month

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New Duke Nukem Forever DLC out next week

December 11th, 2011, 01:06 Posted By: wraggster

A new Duke Nukem Forever DLC expansion goes live on 13th December, developer Gearbox has announced.Titled The Doctor Who Cloned Me, it adds a new single player campaign that sees Duke taking on Dr Proton in Area 51. Take a look at the screens below for more.The expansion features brand new weapons, new enemy types and bosses, additional Achievements and various new interactive items.You'll also get four new multiplayer maps:

• Sky High: The alien-infested corporate offices of Pooty, Inc. near the center of Las Vegas. This map includes three indoor floors taken over by the aliens and two rooftops, jump pads, stairwells and building-to-building combat.
• COMMAND: EDF command center with an imprisoned BattleLord at its core! A two-level map featuring winding stairs, straightaway corridors, and jump pads.
• DROP ZONE: Rooftop of Duke's Lady Killer Casino featuring indoor and outdoor combat, stairwells for platforming, an EDF dropship on a landing pad and a bottomless pit.
• BIOHAZARD: Fight in the Breston Plant Nuclear Power facilities and compete across multiple floors in locker rooms, restrooms with showers, control rooms, and the nuclear waste storage room.

The pack will set you back your regional equivalent of $9.99 on PC and PlayStation 3, or 800 Microsoft Points on Xbox 360.The series' long-in-the-offing comeback limped to a dismal 4/10 in Eurogamer's Duke Nukem Forever review following its June launch earlier this year.

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PC racing sim promises top player real-life apprenticeship

December 11th, 2011, 01:07 Posted By: wraggster

New PC racing simulator V1 Championship is promising one top player a year-long £100,000 apprenticeship competing in the 2012 Renault Clio Cup.Developed over the last four years, the sim subjects aspiring racers to a host of different measurements designed to assess driving ability, including physiological and psychometric tests to gauge style and attitude.All those who shell out £39.50 for the sim gain automatic entry into the competition, with the 10 best performers given the opportunity to take place in on-track qualifiers to assess their offline skills.One winner will then be selected for the main prize which will see them entered into next year's Renault Clio Cup where they'll be mentored by British Touring Car Championship veteran Jason Plato.Runners-up get two tickets for a weekend at the British Touring Car Championship."This is the perfect opportunity for anyone who thinks they have the makings of a racing driver," commented V1 co-founder Jay Marshall."For years I have watched the gulf between the haves and the have-nots widen. Time and time again I have seen really talented drivers being passed over for those with the right connections or financial backing."I now look forward to developing and promoting genuine talent no matter what their social or financial background."http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...apprenticeship

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Crytek's Ryse now a next-gen release - report

December 11th, 2011, 01:10 Posted By: wraggster

UPDATE: Crytek: "We don't comment on rumours and speculation."ORIGINAL STORY: Crytek's Kinect-exclusive action title Ryse, announced at E3 this year, is now a next-gen project, judging by the LinkedIn profile of a former developer.According to the CV of one of the game's senior level designers, who has now left the company, it's an "X-Box Next Gen" project."Pushing boundaries of next generation gaming, RYSE is an original AAA IP from Crytek slated to deliver an Epic first-person melee experience in the Roman Empire."A NeoGAF poster added further colour, explaining that a Crytek representative speaking at a recent CryEngine 3 student lecture had mentioned there was a "big chance of Ryse going next gen because of all the work they had to do and all the people they are hiring for the Ryse team."We've approached both Crytek and publisher Microsoft Game Studios for comment and will update if any clarification is offered.Sources recently told Eurogamer that Microsoft is working on a next-generation version of Kinect which packs considerably more power, potentially allowing the device to lip read players.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...release-report

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Command & Conquer: Generals 2 confirmed from BioWare

December 11th, 2011, 21:12 Posted By: wraggster

BioWare's much-teased new game is, as rumours have suggested, a new Command & Conquer instalment, Generals 2.
In development at new studio BioWare Victory and due on PC in 2013, the Frostbite 2-powered RTS puts players in charge of three unique factions in a near-future conflict that sees military leaders running the world."World leaders are mere seconds away from signing a peace treaty and bringing an end to a global war when a devastating terrorist attack rips through the conference, killing everyone in attendance, leaving only the world's military superpowers in control," the official EA blurb reads.
"It's up to you to assume their roles, take command of their forces and conquer global terrorism once and for all. Players will take control of three unique factions in a thrilling single-player campaign, and with friends online in cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes."

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...-from-bioware/

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Sonic Generations Casino Nights Pinball DLC on Steam Dec. 26

December 11th, 2011, 21:19 Posted By: wraggster

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Jump on a Hot Air Balloon and meet Darby the Dragon!

December 11th, 2011, 21:39 Posted By: wraggster

via http://www.scummvm.org/news/20111210/

Take a little break and compose yourself. After tireless weeks of work, the ScummVM team is proud to announce support for two children's adventure games — Gregory and the Hot Air Balloon and Darby the Dragon — And on top of that, you can also play some interactive books from the Magic Tales series. So, if you can find your childhood spirit, dig out your copies and enjoy those adorable games.
To play these, you'll need a daily build of ScummVM. Any lurking bugs you find should be reported using our bug tracker, and along the way, please consider making few screenshots, following our guidelines.
We are also looking for additional information on localised versions and Magic Tales books. If you have one which is not recognized by the latest ScummVM daily build, please follow the guidelines here and report this to the team or as a bug.
Have fun!

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Windows 8 Store Will Allow Open Source Apps

December 12th, 2011, 23:12 Posted By: wraggster

Some interesting legalese found in the recent publication of the Windows Store Application Developer Agreement could signify a very big win for the open source community. The section in question states that apps released under a license from the Open Source Initiative (GPL, Apache, etc.) can be distributed in the Windows Store. Further, it says that the OSI license will trump the Microsoft Standard Application License Terms, namely the the restriction on sharing applications. As for the reasoning behind this big about-turn, it could be down to Microsoft trying to soften the blow of its Android patent litigation — or maybe Redmond is just trying to differentiate itself from Apple, which famously restricts open source-licensed apps from being sold in its iOS and Mac App Stores.

http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/12...en-source-apps

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Epic confirms Minecraft inspired Fortnite

December 12th, 2011, 23:27 Posted By: wraggster

Epic Games has admitted that Mojang's indie virtual world Minecraftin part inspired Fortnite, the game the company unveiled at the Spike VGA on Saturday.
Little was revealed at the award ceremony. The game has two phases - exploring and fort-building during the day, and fending off an advancing horde of undead by night - with Epic's design director Cliff Bleszinski saying the studio had "decided to switch things up a bit and do something different and fun." In a series of tweets since the announcement, lead designer Lee Perry has revealed a few more details.
Perry admits that "Minecraft was an inspiration for sure," but stresses that Fortnite is no straight lift from Mojang's game. "I see lots of questions asking if Fortnite is freeform construction," he writes. "It is. It's not scripted or just boarding up existing structures.
"Minecraft lets you build anything, we are focusing on constructing buildings specifically."
Perry won't be drawn on target platforms or release plans, and is vague when asked who is heading up development of the game. "Fortnite has been a crazy organic old-school war room of passionate devs," he writes. "It's like an indie group set up shop in the corner of the building."
Fortnite was just one of several new games to be announced at Spike VGA; see our round-up story for more.

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/epic-co...pired-fortnite

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Command & Conquer Generals 2 unveiled

December 12th, 2011, 23:55 Posted By: wraggster

EA has revealed a new Command & Conquer PC strategy game is in the works at BioWare Victory.
Command & Conquer Generals 2, which hits shelves on PC in 2013, was unveiled at the Spike Video Game Awards in the US this week. It will be developed at BioWare Victory, the studio formerly known as Victory Games.
“We’re bringing BioWare’s vision for emotionally engaging gameplay and great attention to quality to the strategy genre and the Command & Conquer franchise,” said EA’s GM of BioWare Dr Ray Muzyka. “I am excited to welcome BioWare Victory to our label. They are a great addition and the team is working hard to make sure Generals 2 truly immerses and engages players into this intense, gritty, modern war experience.”
The game’s executive producer Jon Van Caneghem added: “For the last eight years, Command & Conquer fans have been begging for a return to the Generals universe.
“With Generals 2, we are bringing the Command & Conquer franchise back to its roots, blending strategic gameplay with fast-paced action – all set in visually stunning theatres of war powered by Frostbite 2.”
The Command & Conquer series has sold over 30m units worldwide to date since it debuted in 1995.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/comma...nveiled/088498

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Groundbreaking photonic chip could spark Quantum Computing revolution

December 12th, 2011, 23:57 Posted By: wraggster

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Namco's Tales series going on a browser-based 'Dice Adventure'

December 13th, 2011, 00:10 Posted By: wraggster

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Google Street View turned into an FPS

December 13th, 2011, 00:16 Posted By: wraggster

Google Street View has been transformed into a distinctly ghoulish first person shooter by a Dutch ad firm.As reported by VentureBeat, Google Shoot View, the brainchild of Pool Worldwide, lets you roam the streets of your hometown blasting away at passers-by with an M4A1 assault rifle.Pool hasn't figured out a way to make people actually keel over on-screen when shot at, but it's the thought that counts, right?Pool's website currently seems to be out of action, so you'll have to make do with the Battlefield 3-aping trailer below for the time being.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ed-into-an-fps

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Internet Explorer Users Have Low Risk Intelligence

December 13th, 2011, 23:41 Posted By: wraggster

"A hoax report earlier this year claimed that people who used Internet Explorer had a lower IQ than those using other browsers. Inspired by this bit of fun, Projection Point decided to carry out a real study comparing the risk intelligence (RQ) of people using different browsers. We found that Internet Explorer users performed worse than everyone else; they had lower RQ scores and were grossly overconfident."

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/12...k-intelligence

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GAME invites fans to Old Republic launch event

December 14th, 2011, 00:05 Posted By: wraggster

Star Wars enthusiasts have been invited to GAME's flagship Oxford Street branch for a special launch event.
The retailer will celebrate the release of EA and BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic tomorrow evening. While the game doesn't officially go live until December 20th, GAME has told MCV it will be selling boxed copies of the game from Thursday, December 15th.
The Old Republic is already live for those who pre-ordered the game.
Crucially, this five-day headstart for retail puts the MMORPG in the running for Christmas No.1 in the GfK Chart-Track All Formats Charts. Under the original release date, the game would have been three days too late.
Special guests will be in attendance at tomorrow night's event, including one of the game's senior writer Alex Freed and Star Wars actor Warwick Davis. Fans will even be given the chance to win prizes and, of course, pick up a copy of the game.
The launch event is an invite-only affair, although GAME has been running competitions to give away more tickets to its loyal customers.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/game-...h-event/088569

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Star Wars: The Old Republic goes live

December 14th, 2011, 00:06 Posted By: wraggster

EA has switched on its servers for PC MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic two days ahead of its retail release.
Customers who pre-ordered the game through the publisher’s online Origin download service have been able to access it from 12pm midday today.
The Old Republic arrives in UK stores later this week on Thursday, December 15th. It was previously scheduled to arrive on December 20th.
BioWare co-founder and GM of its MMO business unit Dr. Greg Zeschuk said: “We are extremely humbled by the surge of players who have joined us on this journey and participated in the Beta Weekend. Their participation has given us the opportunity to stress test the game and allowed us to tune the experience, ensuring that we deliver the smoothest possible MMO launch later this month.”
Each copy of the MMO comes with 30 days of game access. Players will have to pay to access it thereafter, for either £8.99 each month, £25.17 for three months or £46.14 for six months.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/star-...es-live/088565

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EA announces Command & Conquer MMOG

December 15th, 2011, 00:05 Posted By: wraggster

Electronic Arts has announced Command & Conquer Tiberium Alliances, a free-to-play game for PC and mobiles that the publisher says is "the first truly portable MMOG."
Developed by Phenomic, the EA-owned German developer whose most recent release was 2010 RTS Lords Of Ultima, Tiberium Alliances will enter beta tomorrow, December 15. Those interested can sign up at the source link below.
Senior producer Martin Löhlein said: "We are thrilled to have the opportunity to forge new ground with this acclaimed franchise. We're hoping to deliver an experience that will allow our loyal fans to play their favourite franchise anywhere they go, while introducing the exciting world of Tiberium to new players."
This is the second new Command & Conquer game EA has announced in the space of a week; it unveiled Generals 2, a PC exclusive in development at BioWare Victory, at the Spike VGA last weekend.

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/ea-anno...d-conquer-mmog

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Aion to go free-to-play in Europe

December 15th, 2011, 00:16 Posted By: wraggster

Aion, the graphically striking fantasy MMOG from Korean developerNCsoft powered by Crytek's CryEngine, will "raise the bar" for free-to-play gaming when it switches to the increasingly popular model in Europe in February.
NCsoft has partnered with Gameforge, a German developer and publisher of browser and client-based online games, which will handle Aion's free-to-play launch and all future updates.
In an interview, executive product director Volker Boenigk told us: "NCsoft and Gameforge started talks in early 2011 to discuss opportunities to collaborate in the free-to-play market. This is a great step to take for both companies and we certainly hope that it is only the first project in a long and successful relationship."
Boenigk assures us that, following the switch to free-to-play, Aion's core gameplay will remain intact, though tweaks have been made to its interface. "Most of the changes that had to happen were on the technical side," he said. "Switching a game to the free-to-play model is a significant effort, as is transitioning an already live game to a new publisher.
"Aion will raise the bar of what players can expect from a free-to-play title, not only in terms of game content and quality, but in terms of graphical fidelity and visual beauty," he continued. "The developers at NCsoft have put a great amount of effort into maintaining the engine and updating it with improved visuals while also maintaining moderate hardware requirements."
In a press release, NCsoft's chief strategy officer Songyee Yoon said: "By introducing the free-to-play model, we hope more gamers in Europe will be able to experience the epic story of Aion.
"NCsoft welcomes the partnership with Gameforge, with its long MMOG experience in the free-to-play sector and its excellent knowledge of the free-to-play market."
Aion is merely the latest in a long line of online games to switch to free-to-play. Sony Online Entertainment's DC Universe Onlinereaped immediate rewards from the switch, with revenue rising 700 per cent.
Star Trek Online, Age Of Conan, Heroes Of Newerth and Team Fortress 2 have also made the move, but success is by no means guaranteed. NetDevil is to close down Lego Universe on January 31 due to a lack of subscribers, despite moving to free-to-play in August.

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/aion-go-free-play-europe

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Wi-fi dominates tablet connectivity

December 16th, 2011, 00:42 Posted By: wraggster

The NPD Group's Connected Intelligence report revealed that in April 2011, 60 per cent of tablet users only connected via wireless in the home, and that just five per cent said they planned to get a 3G connection within the next six months.
But six months on, wi-fi has cemented its dominance, and grown to 65 per cent of tablet users.
NPD reckons a combination of cost, public wi-fi and tablets that don't do 3G are conspiring to bring about the dominance of wi-fi.
Eddie Hold, vice president of Connected Intelligence, said: "Concern over the high cost of cellular data plans is certainly an issue, but more consumers are finding that wi-fi is available in the majority of locations where they use their tablets, providing them 'good enough' connectivity.
"In addition, the vast majority of tablet users already own a smartphone, which fulfills the 'must have' connectivity need."

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/read/...ctivity/016496

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Microsoft Upgrading Windows Users To Latest Version of MSIE

December 16th, 2011, 00:51 Posted By: wraggster

Microsoft will be upgrading all Windows XP, Vista and 7 users to the latest IE silently. They are doing this because they have found a large number of non-patched systems. Microsoft pointed out that Chrome and Firefox do this regularly. They will start with Australia and Brazil in January, then go world-wide after they have assured there are no issues.

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/12...ersion-of-msie

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Star Wars: The Old Republic roll-out avoids digital gridlock

December 16th, 2011, 01:04 Posted By: wraggster

Servers for EA and BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic are beginning to reach capacity as the company manages a steady digital roll-out ahead of the official launch on December 20.
BioWare begun early access to the highly-anticipated game this week for those who had pre-ordered the game, with EA putting 106 servers in operation - 64 in the US and 42 in Europe. Blizzard's World of Warcraft has 491 operational servers across those regions.
As of last night, three servers in the US were at 'full' capacity, five were classified as 'very heavy', 27 as 'heavy', 29 at 'standard' capacity, with none classified as 'light', according to analyst firm Cowen & Company. Some users have reported short queuing to access the game.
All eyes are on the massively multiplayer online game as Electronic Arts takes on the giants already established in the market, most notably Activision's World of Warcraft but also upstarts like Trion's Rift.
Subscription sign up for the game is expected to be strong - over two million participated in the beta.
Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello has suggested that the game can be profitable with as few as half a million subscribers. But that business model is in question with so many high profile MMOs adopting a freemium model this year.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...gital-gridlock

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HP TouchPad returns in TigerDirect bundle, if only for a moment

December 16th, 2011, 02:16 Posted By: wraggster

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Skyrim ships 10 million copies already, outsells other PC titles three to one

December 16th, 2011, 02:20 Posted By: wraggster

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How HP and Open Source Can Save WebOS

December 16th, 2011, 23:49 Posted By: wraggster

If HP wants a future for struggling WebOS, it must invest in the platform, not abandon it, writes Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister. 'It seems HP may only be truly committed to the platform if it can offload the cost of developing and maintaining it. Yet if that's what HP hopes to achieve by opening the WebOS source, it's bound to be disappointed.' Instead, HP should dedicate its own developer resources and 'release as much code as possible under an Apache, BSD, or similarly permissive license. Dual licensing under the GPL might leave HP with more opportunities to monetize the platform, but it won't garner as much interest from hardware makers, who are what WebOS needs most.

http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/12...can-save-webos

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Relaunched APB attracts 3m users in first week

December 16th, 2011, 23:53 Posted By: wraggster

In the first week since it officially relaunched, GamersFirst MMO title APB Reloaded has attracted 3m users.
It’s a great start for a game that suffered the most brutal of failures when it was initially released last year.
The game was seemingly left for dead in September 2010 when, after just 79 days on the market, servers were closed and its developer Realtime Worlds went into administration.
The big difference between then and now is that the game has shunned the subscription model implemented by EA the first time round in favour of a free-to-play design.
The game was released on Steam on December 7^th.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/relau...st-week/088824

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Star Wars Galaxies says goodbye as Star Wars: The Old Republic launches

December 17th, 2011, 00:37 Posted By: wraggster

Star Wars Galaxies came to a close last night. There can be only one Star WarsMMO on the block, and that's now Star Wars: The Old Republic. That doesn't mean Galaxies didn't go out in style -- we tracked down a pair of end-game videos on YouTube for your viewing pleasure.

Finally, there's also a sappy letter from Star Wars Galaxies' last remaining producer. It's been a crazy eight years, hasn't it? Here's to hoping The Old Republic has as long a run.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/12/16/st...ld-republic-l/

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Skyrim Online mod aims to take the game, er, online

December 17th, 2011, 01:02 Posted By: wraggster

OK, stop me if you've heard this one before. "The Elder Scrolls is awesome, but I wish it was an MMO." Apparently some enterprising modders have similar designs, and if a full-blown massively multiplayer conversion seems unlikely, a small-scale online version of Skyrimlooks very possible.

GameFront is reporting on a new mod for the PC version of the game (you did buy the PC version, didn't you?) that takes the celebrated series into the online realm. According to the mod's author, it will allow you to "play with your friends, chat with people worldwide, [and] trade with other players." No word yet on lootstealing or ganking noobs.

FPSWin has some early video footage of the Skyrim Online experiment which we've embedded for you after the cut. It's definitely not polished (the animations are poor and the player characters are glitchy), but there is a functioning chatbox. If nothing else, it's a start, amirite?

http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/12...ame-er-online/

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Chrome 15 Overtakes IE 8 For Top Browser Spot

December 18th, 2011, 22:19 Posted By: wraggster

"If you're reading this on Chrome, you're part of a wave that has ditched Internet Explorer or Firefox and helped vault Google's browser to the top Web browser spot worldwide."Are you reading this on Chrome? (I'm using Chromium right now, but that's pretty close.)

http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/12...p-browser-spot

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Windows 8 to offer 'picture password' log in

December 19th, 2011, 21:51 Posted By: wraggster

Windows 8 will offer a new way to log in via a 'picture password' system that will combine images from the user's own collection with a unique touchscreen gesture.
In another mammoth post on the Buildings Windows 8 Blog, Zach Pace wrote that the picture password is designed to highlight the parts of images which are important. The software giant arrived at the selected gestures by conducting a study which showed how people preferred to indicate relationships on images.
"What we found were people doing three basic things: indicating location, connecting areas or highlighting paths, and enclosing areas," said Pace.
"We mapped these ideas to tap, line, and circle, respectively. It’s the minimal set of gestures we found that allowed people to signify the parts of the image most important to them."
Strangely the company didn't mention whether anyone chose to indicate relationships by, say, drawing a crude set of male genitals. Obviously Microsoft is far too serious for that sort of thing.
Instead Microsoft went into excruciating detail as to how difficult it is to crack one of these visual gesture passwords, concluding that they were "very happy with the robustness" of the system.
"Through our research and refinement of both the experience and the concept, we believe we’ve hit on a method of signing in that’s secure but also a lot of fun to use," said Pace.
"We love picture password and the additional personal flavor it brings to Windows 8, and we hope you do too!"
Microsoft also posted a video showing off the feature although naturally they refused to upload it to YouTube so it would actually be useful. You can find it at the bottom of the blog post.

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...-log-in/027675

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Minecraft creator develops new game in 48 hours

December 19th, 2011, 21:56 Posted By: wraggster

Markus Persson makes 'Minicraft' as part of the 22nd Ludum Dare competition

Minecraft creator Markus ‘Notch’ Persson has developed a new browser-based game in just 48 hours.
The game, Minicraft, was created as part of the 22nd Ludum Dare competition, challenging developers to make a game in two days.

It is a top-down action game in which users can mine rocks, chop down trees, fight zombies and create items.
The game’s description reads: “The goal of the game is to kill the only other sentient being in the world, making sure you'll be alone forever.”
Minicraft can be accessed online for free here.
http://www.develop-online.net/news/3...me-in-48-hours

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NFS World gets $100 downloadable car

December 19th, 2011, 22:15 Posted By: wraggster

EA is charging users of Need for Speed World $100 to download the free-to-play PC racer’s first ‘premium elite’ car.
The publisher has listed the Koenigsegg CCX Elite Edition motor at $100, although it’s currently on offer at $75 until December 21st, reports GameSpot.
Although Need for Speed World is technically a free-to-play MMO game, EA has always charged users for extras such as new cars and upgrades in the form of paid-for SpeedBoost points.
Need for Speed World has racked up over 5m users since it went live last year. The title was co-developed by EA Black Box and EA Singapore, and is part of EA’s Play4Free label.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/nfs-w...ble-car/088909

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Steam's Holiday Sale discounts everything ever, gives gifts, games and coal

December 19th, 2011, 22:24 Posted By: wraggster

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Analyst claims SWTOR could already have 1.5 million players

December 19th, 2011, 22:30 Posted By: wraggster

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Google to produce own-brand tablet?

December 20th, 2011, 22:35 Posted By: wraggster

Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that the internet giant is planning an entry into the tablet market with a Google-branded iPad rival.
Schmidt was in Italy for the launch of Google's new Italy headquarters and during an interview with Italian newspaper Italian Corriere della Sera, the Google chief revealed plans for a 'media tablet of the highest quality'.
What he actually said was that Google plans to market the tablet within the next six months. Since there's a number of existing Android-based tablets already it seems reasonable to assume that Schmidt meant that Google will produce their own device rather like the Nexus series of smartphones.
Android tablets have so far failed to make the same sort of splash as Android-powered smartphones but a large part of that is down to the flirting with large screen formats and their unique demands on UI which briefly resulted in the Honeycomb fork of Android.
It's possible Google might now believe, with the consolidating Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, that the time is right to have a shot at the tablet market themselves where the firm can push a range of Google online services.
Hopefully Google's tablet wont go the way of the firm's Chromebook initiative...

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...-tablet/027688

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Star Wars: the Old Republic Launches

December 20th, 2011, 22:41 Posted By: wraggster

Today marks the official launch of Star Wars: the Old Republic, a new MMOG from BioWare, EA, and LucasArts. The game's population has been building throughout the week as players who pre-ordered were granted early access, but now the gates have been thrown open to everyone. By using the Star Warsuniverse and a 'story-driven' approach to MMO gameplay, BioWare hopes to draw in a new group of players who don't typically consider themselves MMO gamers. Since the game is still largely unexplored, comprehensive reviews have yet to be written, but Shack News has a write-up about the early game. An article at Eurogamer discusses whether this sort of game launch marks the end of an era for the MMOG industry — the game's budget is estimated to be as high as $100 million, and it relies on a traditional subscription model when many games are making the switch to free-to-play.

http://games.slashdot.org/story/11/1...ublic-launches

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Firefox 9 Released, JavaScript Performance Greatly Improved

December 20th, 2011, 22:43 Posted By: wraggster

Firefox 9 is now available — but unlike its previous rapid release forebears where not a lot changed, a huge feature has landed with the new version: the JavaScript engine now has type inference enabled. This simple switch has resulted in a 20-30% JS execution speed increase (PDF), putting JaegerMonkeyback in line with Chrome's V8 engine, and even pulling ahead in some cases. If you switched away from Firefox to IE or Chrome for improved JS performance, now is probably the time to give Firefox another shot.

http://developers.slashdot.org/story...eatly-improved

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Eurogamer launches Gaikai game streaming

December 20th, 2011, 23:06 Posted By: wraggster

Eurogamer and Gaikai have partnered to provide free game streaming of AAA titles like Crysis 2 and FIFA 12.
"Gaikai's goal is to put the best games in the world at the fingertips of the best gamers in the world," says David Perry, Gaikai CEO.
"Eurogamer has an incredibly passionate audience and we expect they will make great use of our instant gaming technology."
Titles like Magicka and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings are also available now, with more games becoming available in the near future.
"Being able to stream AAA games through a browser would have been unimaginable just a few years ago and we're thrilled to be able to offer this to our readers," added Eurogamer operations director Tom Bramwell.
The service is also planned to extend to Eurogamer's sites in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Czech Republic.
Game streaming service Gaikai is currently aiming for 100 million users by 2012. In an interviewwithGamesIndustry.biz in September, Perry spoke about the potential of the service.
"The ability to pull a lever and have a million people play your game is something that's crazy to even think about today. That's a very difficult problem, yet with cloud gaming that will be really quite straight forward. A normal way of thinking will be, 'I want another million and another million.'"

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...game-streaming

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Crytek concentrating on free-to-play and mobile technology

December 20th, 2011, 23:15 Posted By: wraggster

Crytek's Carl Jones has told us that he believes "the whole business of technology providing will change" as a result of new business models such as free-to-play.
The director of global business development for CryEngine made his comments during an interview which forms part of an in-depth feature in the latest issue of Edge on the current state of 3D engines.
“At the lower end of the development scale where you maybe aren’t creating such complex games, you’re generally delivering more content throughout the lifecycle of the game," he explains.
"If you’re trying to create content on a weekly basis, which is quite often necessary in a free-to-play, mobile or casual game, your pipeline to get it out there has to be super-fast and very robust. And that’s something we’re concentrating on a great deal.”
Crytek is well positioned to make such observations in its capacity both as a technology provider to other companies making free-to-play games - such as MindArk's Entropia Universe - and the developer of upcoming free-to-play shooter WarFace. Jones stresses that a shift in focus is essential if making high-end games is going to continue to be profitable.
"Obviously we continue to build on our realtime tools," he says. "We don’t want to end up with massive teams having to work on games in future.
"There are some very, very big name studios that have made games that you would think are a success, but actually they’re closing down because the sheer cost of making that game was too high. Obviously that’s untenable, except for a very small number of games per year."

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/crytek-...ile-technology

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Syndicate refused classification in Australia

December 20th, 2011, 23:19 Posted By: wraggster

Starbreeze's upcoming shooter reboot of Bullfrog's classicSyndicate has been refused classification in Australia due to the game's violent content.
The Australian classification board's report states that the game contains content “unsuitable for a minor to see or play” and “violence that is high in impact”. The ability to harm civilians is also cited.
“Combatants take locational damage and can be explicitly dismembered, decapitated or bisected by the force of the gunfire," the report reads. "The depictions are accompanied by copious bloodspray and injuries are shown realistically and with detail. Flesh and bone are often exposed while arterial sprays of blood continue to spirt from wounds at regular intervals.”
As Australia's highest available rating is a MA15+, the report's conclusion that the game isn't suitable for minors means that it can't be sold in the country.
Electronic Arts is able to appeal the decision, or resubmit a censored version of the game for Australian audiences.
In August this year, New South Wales Attorney General Greg Smith agreed to support an R18+ rating for Australian games - having abstained from a previous vote - though it's not clear how long this new classification will take to implement.

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/syndica...tion-australia

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Sniper: Ghost Warrior tops 2m sales

December 20th, 2011, 23:25 Posted By: wraggster

City Interactive has announced more than 2m copies of Sniper: Ghost Warrior have been sold worldwide to date.
The FPS was a surprise hit when it landed in the UK last year, quickly gunning for a position in the UK All Formats Top Ten.
Sniper passed the 1m sales mark earlier this year. Back in January, City Interactive announced a sequel was on the way.
"We are all very happy that we have reached the two million units milestone," said City Interactive CEO Marek Tyminski. "This builds a strong belief we can do even better with the sequel and other upcoming releases."
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 is due for release in 2012.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/snipe...m-sales/088976

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New Remote Flaw In 64-Bit Windows 7

December 21st, 2011, 23:29 Posted By: wraggster

Researchers are warning about a new remotely exploitable vulnerability in 64-bit Windows 7 that can be used by an attacker to run arbitrary code on a vulnerable machine. The bug was first reported a couple of days ago by an independent researcher and confirmed by Secunia. In a message on Twitter, a researcher named w3bd3vil said that he had found a method for exploiting the vulnerability by simply feeding an iframe with an overly large height to Safari. The exploit gives the attacker the ability to run arbitrary code on the victim's machine

http://it.slashdot.org/story/11/12/2...-bit-windows-7

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CrowdStar: HTML5 still too immature for game devs

December 21st, 2011, 23:44 Posted By: wraggster

Crowdstar CEO Peter Relan believes that HTML5 is still too "immature" to be tempting for game developers.
Speaking to TechCrunch, Relan expressed doubt over the validity of Facebook's HTML5 development platform for game developers.
"We haven't heard or seen that much traction in terms of gaming, which I attribute to the fact that HTML5 games, which they're supporting, are relatively immature as a technology," he said.
"You can't suddenly take people who have learned to build native client games on Objective C and Java and have them go build with fewer options. It just lacks the supply of high-quality games."
"Changing to focus on HTML5 requires massive tech and workflow adjustments. Facebook is taking a long-term strategic directional initiative, which developers have to compare to the here-and-now money initiative."
CrowdStar was once entirely focused on social development, but made a move to break of Facebook with the announcement of 'Project Trident' - a company-wide strategy where every new product is developed to work on Facebook, mobile, and other social networks in Asian markets.
"That's been a change over the past year from our default-Facebook position in 2010. Zynga is the main other company that has been making this type of move to focus on multiple platforms."
According to data sourced by VentureBeat, the strategy is working; CrowdStar's latest iOS game, Social Girl, reached 1 million downloads in its first week, and Relan estimates that around half of the company's revenue now comes from mobile products.
Relan believes that mobile-social gaming has generated $500 million in revenue this year, but only $100 million of that is being spent through Android devices. In order to catch Apple, Google needs to "accelerate direct carrier billing" to make payment easier for its customers.
"The thing about Android is obviously monetization," Relan told TechCrunch. "For example, on the Kindle Fire we're already seeing much better numbers - average revenue per user, and the rest - even if it's small."
"Google checkout and wallet - that's a very long term strategic initiative, but not likely to take off on a mobile device because they're just behind."
"Amazon already has 150 million credit cards on file, Apple has hundreds of millions. Android needs to leverage carrier billing very, very aggressively."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-for-game-devs

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Users facing long queues in The Old Republic

December 21st, 2011, 23:46 Posted By: wraggster

Players of The Old Republic, which launched yesterday, are being forced to queue for hours at a time before getting to play BioWare's Star Wars MMOG.
In a lengthy post on the game's official forums, senior online community manager Stephen Reid warns that the situation will continue "for the foreseeable future," and asks for users' patience.
"We're experiencing high load and corresponding queues on some servers," he writes. "This is to be expected during launch, as a high number of people want to play the game, and for long stretches at a time."
Reid explains that, while server population caps are being raised, BioWare does not want to do so too quickly. "Raising them too fast will create an influx of new players and perpetuate the problem," he says. "We do not expect the queues to alleviate on these servers for the foreseeable future.
"If you do not want to queue, you should consider playing on another server, many of which have very low or no queues."
Which is fine, but characters are locked to a specific server; joining a new server means creating an entirely new character. With no World Of Warcraft-style character transfer tool - Reid says it is "being worked on, but there is no ETA" - players are left with a choice: roll new characters on different servers, or sit and wait.
Neither solution appears acceptable for a game whose launch was so carefully managed in a bid to ensure it went smoothly; EA wasunable to guarantee pre-orders for the game, saying it was limiting launch supply "in order to ensure a great user experience." That appears to still be some way off.

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/users-f...s-old-republic

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Star Wars: The Old Republic a big risk for EA, say analysts, everyone else on Earth

December 22nd, 2011, 00:15 Posted By: wraggster

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AMD Radeon HD 7970 Launched, Fastest GPU Tested

December 22nd, 2011, 22:26 Posted By: wraggster

Rumors of AMD's Southern Island family of graphics processors have circulated for some time, though today AMD is officially announcing their latest flagship single-GPU graphics card, the Radeon HD 7970. AMD's new Tahiti GPU is outfitted with 2,048 stream processors with a 925MHz engine clock, featuring AMD's Graphics Core Next architecture, paired to 3GB of GDDR5 memory connected over a 384-bit wide memory bus. And yes, it's crazy fast as you'd expect and supports DX11.1 rendering. In the benchmarks, the new Radeon HD 7970 bests NVIDIA's fastest single GPU GeForce GTX 580 card by a comfortable margin of 15 — 20 percent and can even approach some dual GPU configurations in certain tests."PC Perspective has a similarly positive writeup. There are people who will pay $549 for a video card, and others who are just glad that the technology drags along the low-end offerings, too.

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/1...est-gpu-tested

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Gardens Of Time 2011's most popular Facebook game

December 22nd, 2011, 22:33 Posted By: wraggster

Facebook has named Gardens Of Time by Playdom as its most popular game for 2011.
Sims Social by EA's Playfish took second place, with Cityville from Zynga taking third.
Rather than revenue or user numbers, the chart was based on user reccomendations for titles with more than 100,000 monthly active users, and high user satisfaction ratings.
"The average game player on Facebook played more than three different gaming titles each month and played more than half the days they visited the site," said the site's official blog.
As well as also listing top games by genre, Facebook also revealed the up-and-comers, for new games with the highest engagement and between 100,000 and 500,000 users. Battle Pirates by Kixeye had the top spot, followed by Dragons Of Atlantis (Kabam) and Rock You!'s Gourmet Ranch.
The most engaging games with 50,000 to 100,000 users were Super Slot Machines, WestWars and MouseHunt.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-facebook-game

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Open source, open issues for webOS

December 22nd, 2011, 23:33 Posted By: wraggster

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Google forks out $300m to stay with Firefox

December 24th, 2011, 23:15 Posted By: wraggster

Google is set to pay around US$300 million a year for the right to remain the default search engine in the Mozilla Firefox browser, a huge increase compared to the previous deal.
Heightened interest from internet giants such as Microsoft and Yahoo was responsible for the better deal for browser developer Mozilla. The exact terms of the previous deal aren't known but Google contributed over $120 million to Mozilla's coffers last year and that was over 80 per cent of the firm's revenue.
"Under this multi-year agreement, Google Search will continue to be the default search provider for hundreds of millions of Firefox users around the world," said Mozilla chief Gary Kovacs.
With the Firefox deal in place, Google will remain the default search engine on something like 60 per cent of web browser market covered by Chrome, Firefox and Safari.

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...firefox/027703

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Star Wars: The Old Republic hits a million players, 28 million hours played

December 24th, 2011, 23:57 Posted By: wraggster

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2011 round-up: PC

December 27th, 2011, 23:18 Posted By: wraggster

From Dust was just one of many games delayed in a year that sorely tested PC gamers' patience.


Short Shrift

PC players are gaming's great investors. They outspend their console brethren on regular, iterative hardware upgrades, and put in the hours tweaking settings and downloading large files rather than popping to the shops and returning with a disc. In 2011, PC gamers' patience was stretched to limit with delay after delay to some of the year's biggest games.

Ubisoft was perhaps the worst culprit. Even putting to one side the publisher's regrettable DRM policy - which we'll be looking at in detail later this week - it delayed three PC releases in the space of a month. Along with Call Of Juarez, there was a month-long wait after the console release for Driver: San Francisco, and a three-week wait for From Dust. When Eric Chahi's god sim eventually launched, users found not only always-on DRM but a terrible, unoptimised port. Facing down a fan backlash, Ubisoft took the highly unusual step of offering refunds to the disgruntled, something EA would also offer to buyers of the dreadful Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12, which shipped without a host of promised features and was essentially a reskinned version of the free-to-play Tiger Woods Online.

Warner Bros delayed Batman: Arkham City - twice. The sickness spread to some of PC gaming's most revered developers, with Blizzard pushing Diablo III back to 2012 and Valve delaying the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive beta following feedback from pro players. Call Of Duty: Elite, the social, stat-tracking service that launched alongside Modern Warfare 3 on November 8, is still to launch on PC, despite Activision insisting that one of its employees "misspoke" in a tweet saying Elite might never reach PC at all.

It wasn't all bad, though. Sega made up for its silence on the protracted delay to Avalanche's top-down shooter Renegade Ops by adding Half-Life's Gordon Freeman as a playable character. Id Software eventually made the Doom 3 source code open-source as promised after John Carmack rewrote parts of the code that might have violated a patent. Earlier this month, Finnish developer Remedy Entertainment confirmed that its 2010 Xbox 360 game Alan Wake will be released for PC early next year - seven years after it was originally announced as a PC exclusive.

EA Origin

PC gamers have also had to put up with EA's jostle for increased market share following the launch of its Steam rival, EA Origin. In theory, competition benefits the consumer - and with one report claiming Valve controls 70 per cent of the PC gaming market, EA's intervention appears justified - but the launch of Origin didn't give players another choice: it gave them no choice at all.

First, the EA-published shooter Crysis 2 was removed from Steam, the company later blaming the removal on an exclusive DLC agreement developer Crytek had in place with Direct2Drive. Alice: Madness Returns was an Origin exclusive; so was The Old Republic. Gamers feared the worst when EA omitted Steam from the list of distributors of arguably the biggest PC game of the year, Battlefield 3, and those fears were later confirmed, with EA blaming Valve's "restrictive terms of service which limit how developers interact with customers to deliver patches and other downloadable content."

EA has a point - Markus "Notch" Persson, head of Minecraft developer Mojang, admitted his game probably couldn't be released on Steam because the platform "limits a lot of what we're allowed to do with the game, and how we're allowed to talk to our users" - but it went about it in the wrong way, ramming the service down people's throats rather than making it an appealing proposition. By contrast, 2011 saw Valve release Portal 2 early on Steam after an expansive ARG, The Potato Sack, was completed. It made one of its most popular games, Team Fortress 2, free-to-play, and gave the Source engine SDK away for free as well. Gabe Newell took the high ground about the EA dispute, insisting Valve wanted the publisher's games on Steam, saying: "I think at the end of the day we're going to prove to Electronic Arts [that] they have happier customers, a higher-quality service, and will make more money if they have their titles on Steam. It's our duty to demonstrate that to them; we don't have a natural right to publish their games."

EA could learn much from Newell, and Valve. More than any other sector, success on PC is dependent on being engaged with your community, by listening and delivering what players want, rather than what you want them to have. Despite this, EA is ahead of the curve in its adaptation from traditional publishing to digital, something we'll be looking at in detail later this week.

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/2011-round-pc

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Minicraft 2 in the works and needs a better name, Notch reveals

December 28th, 2011, 00:25 Posted By: wraggster

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Skyrim PC mod claims to improve performance

December 28th, 2011, 00:27 Posted By: wraggster

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Yamagi Quake II 4.0

December 28th, 2011, 01:32 Posted By: wraggster

via http://www.aep-emu.de/

Yamagi Quake II is an enhanced client for Quake II.

Quote:
On 12/21/2011 Yamagi Quake II 4.0 was released to celebrate the tenth anniveray of the release of the Quake II source under the terms of the GPLv2. Changes since 3.00 include:

- A major rewrite of the savegame system.
- Add a crash handler, printing a backtrace on Linux platforms.
- Add support for system wide installations.
- ctf was moved into a separate download.
- All open bugs were fixed.
- Fix spawnpoint selection if single player maps are loaded via console.
- Rename ~/.quake2 to ~/.yq2 to ease parallel installation with other Quake II clients.
- The client does no longer crash if the menu is opened while connecting to remote server.
- The game code received a code audit and major rework.

The rewrite of the save game system results in much more reliable savegame handling. Savegames shouldn´t break any longer if the game.so is rebuild or even altered. Since the savegame code is part of the game.so this only affects the "baseq2" game. New versions of the addons will be released in the future

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QuakeForge 0.6.0

December 28th, 2011, 01:33 Posted By: wraggster

via http://www.aep-emu.de/

QuakeForge is a game based on the Quake and QuakeWorld Engine. It is available for Windows and Linux.

Quote:
Posted on 21 Dec 2011 by Taniwha
On the 12th anniversary of the release of Quake´s source code comes the release of QuakeForge 0.6.0.

The only update from 0.5.99 Beta 4.1 is to add support for many more keys in the X11 clients (-glx and -x11).

There are some issues with the windows clients, and certain configurations of Linux and other UNIX based systems, but these will be fixed as soon as possible (sooner if patches come .

Happy birthday, GPL Quake. Merry Christmas, Quake fans.

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VirtualBox v4.1.8

December 28th, 2011, 01:34 Posted By: wraggster

via http://www.aep-emu.de/

A new version of the open source VM VirtualBox has been released. VirtualBox is available for different operating systems like Windows, Linux, Solaris and Mac OS X.

Quote:
VirtualBox 4.1.8 (released 2011-12-19)


This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• VMM: fixed VERR_MAP_FAILED during savestate under certain circumstances (bug #7929)
• GUI: stop updating the VM status icons when the VM is paused (bug #8368)
• VBoxManage: fixed wrong return code after startvm (bug #9642)
• BIOS: fixed hang at launch of DOS applications generated by Clipper 5.3 (note that hardware virtualization may be required)
• USB: fixed OS/2 boot hang when using recent USB drivers
• NAT: increase maximum number of parallel connections making connections with port forwarding more robust (#8471)
• Metrics: fixed potential problem with invalid access in guest metrics collection upon VM destruction
• Main: don´t crash if a medium is ejected twice (bug #9922)
• VBoxSVC: fixed crash under rare circumstances (e.g. client crash)
• VRDP: fixed screen freeze (bug #9620)
• OVF/OVA: fixed broken disk images on import under rare circumstances
• OVF/OVA: better error message when importing corrupted appliances
• VMDK/VHD: fixed a possible corruption with host cache disabled when using snapshots under rare circumstances (bug #9749)
• 3D Support: Fixed fullscreen mode issues for ATI graphics (bug #9775), Windows Media Player rendering for XPDM-based Direct3D support (bug #8341). Multiple fixes to XPDM and WDDM - based 3D support for Windows Guests and for 3D support in general
• Linux hosts: fixes for Fedoras Linux 2.6.41 (bug #9948)
• Linux hosts/guests: fixes for Linux 3.2 (bug #9743)
• Solaris Additions: various shared folder fixes (bugs #9856, #9862, #9917)
• Windows Additions: various fixes for Direct3D support (un)installation, added detection of missing or wrong Direct3D system files

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Today's Steam holiday sale discounts Dead Space 2, Tomb Raider, more

December 29th, 2011, 00:21 Posted By: wraggster

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HP TouchPad Go: $99?

December 29th, 2011, 23:35 Posted By: wraggster

The HP TouchPad Go, which is a smaller version of the company's signature TouchPad, may go on sale for $99 like its predecessor. The tablet features a 1023 x 768 resolution display, runs on webOS, and also has a removable cover with soft-touch coating to minimize fingerprints on the 7-inch screen. HP's new tablet also comes with a removable battery, 32GB of storage, a 3G radio, a five-megapixel camera and LED flash. HP designed the TouchPad Go around the same time as the larger model, but it failed to reach production stages when the company decided to kill off all devices running on the doomed webOS. If the tablet indeed sells for $99, it would be the cheapest tablet in the world besides the Aakash tablet, which was released by the Indian government for $35

http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/12...touchpad-go-99

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60beat creates a full gamepad for iOS devices

December 30th, 2011, 00:27 Posted By: wraggster

The idea of a gamepad sticking out of your iPhone may be hilarious, but it's still not as funny as attempting to play Mega Man 2 with a virtual d-pad. The 60beat Gamepad connects to an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad through the headphone jack, providing the complete set of console controls to any supported iOS app -- shoulder buttons, analog sticks, and all.

At the moment, that list of supported iOS apps is pretty small (just Bugdom 2and Aftermath), making the controller perfect for someone who either lovesthose games or is banking on more support in the future.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/12/29/60...r-ios-devices/

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