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Playfeed Review: Half-Life 2: Episode One Impressions
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: First Person Shooters, PC, Reviews,
Half-Life 2: Episode One takes place directly after the events of the original Half-Life 2. The original game shipped in November, 2004, and was a huge success. Now, in 2006, the episodic sequels have started shipping. Overall, Episode One is a great introduction to the new trilogy of content, and maintains the original Half-Life 2 feel, while introducing just enough new to the world to help keep things fresh. The drawback is the length: there are roughly four to six hours of gameplay in the new “episode” and the hours are so entertaining that they seem to go by even quicker than that. We put the game through the paces, and you can check out our full review - after the jump.
Click to continue reading Playfeed Review: Half-Life 2: Episode One Impressions
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In celebration of England’s first game in this summer’s World Cup tournament there will be a big party in London. The event, sponsored by Microsoft to promote the Xbox’s role as official console of the 2006 World Cup, centers on a huge projector screen that will broadcast the England/Paraguay match live. Visitors to the event can jam to a state-of-the-art sound system, or yell along with cheerleader performances. Microsoft plans similar events for each England (and Australia) game, and expects over 1500 fans to attend the first event this Saturday.
Read More 
| Virgin.net
Apple computers, people either love ‘em or hate ‘em – there doesn’t seem to be much middle ground. Converts preach the gospel, while the rest just shake their heads. Regardless of what one feels personally, given the fervor of gamers in general and of Apple computer users specifically, one would expect that gaming on a Mac would be a match made in heaven. But Apple has yet to emerge as a dominant gaming platform, much to the dismay of the dedicated gamers who also happen to use Macs.
Apparently the reason is because “Apple has no real corporate interest in the gaming community and does not see computer games as a path to success or a better image for Apple.” This is the opinion of John Martellaro, a writer at The Mac Observer, and he feels that games will never be pushed as an enticement to buying a Mac, because Apple works very hard to insure that people don’t just think of Macs as toys. The official focus of Apple, the company, has been to emphasize serious pursuits, and gaming just doesn’t cut it.
Read More | Mac Observer
Game manufacturers, like Namco, have created products with a supposed health benefit. Reports claim these “mind games” will delay the onset of dementia. Millions of copies have been sold in Japan, as older people are looking to stave off the effects aging by keeping mentally active. The games are set to launch next in Europe.
Some of the games include mental exercises that test Math skills. There is no hard evidence the games actually work, but with people’s livelihood on the line, what’s the harm in playing? Diminished capacity due to ageing is something we all have to face, eventually (unless, of course, you plan to “live fast and die young”). Developing games for the aged market set is an up-and-coming area of gaming industry expansion.
Read More | BBC News
At the Computex show in Taiwan, ATI announced their physics acceleration solution based around their Crossfire technology. Rather than utilize existing shaders (as nVidia will implement for their Havok solution) and instead of implementing a PCI card (like Ageia does with their PhysX solution,) ATI will allow gamers to add either a second or third ATI X1000 series card to their system and dedicate one video card to physics rendering through asymmetric processing. Gamers who already have two video cards implemented in a Crossfire rendering configuration could add another X1000 series card to their system to dedicate to physics rendering.
One interesting thing is that gamers who are looking to upgrade their Crossfire capable systems, but only have one video card, can add a second card, and use the more powerful for graphics rendering, while the older card could be used for physics rendering.
This gives a cost advantage over the Ageia solution, since the PhysX card is dedicated to physics processing and is a fixed price, but given the speed at which GPUs drop in price, the ATI cards will become more economical, faster. The only thing left out of ATI’s announcement are benchmarks, but given the state of gaming and existing support for physics processing, it isn’t surprising that there wasn’t a specific game demo shown.
Read More | HardOCP
New Smash Bros.: Brawl Details
Posted by Binh Tran Categories: Action, Fighting, Nintendo, Wii,
Masahiro Sakurai, the Director of the upcoming Super Smash Brothers Brawl, has just revealed new tidbits of information regarding the game on his blog. According to the entry, game play will be less complex this time around, in an effort to make the game easier for new players to enjoy. In addition, a greater focus on aerial battles and “moderated” speed will be among the other changes to the game’s fighting system. Online play will feature only basic functionality, eschewing popular features in other games, such as player rankings.
The character roster for the game remains unfinished, but there does seem to be a chance that non-Nintendo characters may still appear. The only apparent requirements for consideration, are that the character(s) must have appeared already in a game on a Nintendo platform earlier. Sakurai goes on to mention that the roster has only room for one or two more characters.
Read More | Smash Boards
Even though Susan Michelle Pruett hit a $1 million jackpot at an exclusive video poker tournament, she might lose the big game in the end. Pruett is accused of embezzling at least $750,000 from her employer and then using the money to feed her gaming habit, spending the loot on gambling at Lake Tahoe casinos. She is now facing numerous charges along with her husband.
The $1 million prize that Pruett won at the video poker tournament prompted an investigation by the IRS, during which time unaccounted for earnings traced to checks paid by Pruett’s employer came to light. The checks, whose signatures were allegedly forged by Pruett, were sent to her own business.
Read More | KCRA 3 (AP)
Violent video games were seized from the home of a teenage suspect as possible evidence in an investigation into the slaying of a 55-year-old Florida man. Several “M” rated video games were seized from the home of Edward Neher, a 16-year-old suspect. The investigating officer stated that he was “not drawing any conclusions from the findings.” The other suspect in the case is 17-year-old Hunter Everette. Both suspects have been booked with first-degree murder and armed robbery charges.
Neher will be tried as an adult in juvenile court. The deceased was the owner of a lot where the 16-year-old’s mother has a trailer parked. In statements to police, the youth apparently said that he and Everette killed Gore because the man would not let them borrow his car. A similar scenario can be played out in the game Grand Theft Auto.
Read More | The Advocate
Thrillville, an amusement park-themed simulation game from Frontier Developments and Lucas Arts has been announced. The game will allow players to build their own completely outfitted amusements parks, and interact with guests. The game’s roller coaster building interface has been specifically designed for console gaming platforms. Thrillville includes dozens of midway minigames (which visitors can play at the amusement park), over 100 attractions (a full day’s worth of virtual fun), and the ability to build roller coasters just as in “RollerCoaster Tycoon” – a well-known Frontier title.
Read More | Thrillville Product Page via XboxSpace
Motion Controller In Development For Over 2 Years - According To Sony
Posted by John Goulden Categories: E3, Editorial, Nintendo, PlayStation 3, Rumors, Wii,
When Sony unveiled their motion controller at E3 the response of the audience was underwhelming to say the least. From all appearances, it seemed as though Sony was trying to capitalize on Nintendo’s Wii controller, and lessen the impact Nintendo’s new console was going to have on the PS3. A form of “me too” permeated their keynote and questions began to fly.
After a few weeks of the rumors floating around, Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide president Phil Harrison was quoted as saying, “In a way I understand why people say [we stole Nintendo’s idea], but it is a little stupid, if you forgive the remark.” Phil elaborated by describing how Sony brought 3D graphics to the console market with the advent of the original PlayStation, yet did not cry “foul” when Nintendo released their 3D capable console, the N64. To help further squash the rumors, David Reeves, SCE Worldwide president and CEO, had the following to say: “We’ve had a positive reaction to the controller and obviously some people have asked if it’s a last minute thing. It’s not - it’s been planned for around two and a half years.”
It’s entirely feasible that Sony has worked on and developed the controller in absolute secrecy for over two years. However, it is difficult to imagine that there wasn’t a leak somewhere along the way giving even a hint of the controller’s motion capabilities. Even harder to believe is that Sony would remain totally silent on their “in development” motion controller, especially once Nintendo started to provide hints about the Wii’s controller.
To further cloud the issue, we spoke with a developer from Electronic Arts when we were at E3. It was the day of Sony’s announcement, and the question we asked was in regards to Madden 2007. We were curious to know how EA planned on implementing the PS3’s motion controller, as we had just seen Nintendo’s adaptation of Madden 2007 on the Wii. The developer looked at us for a moment, and then, in a wry tone of voice, said that they had only learned of the motion controller that very morning during Sony’s keynote, the same as everyone else. Secrecy is all well and good, but you would think the game developers would need a bit of beforehand knowledge so they could perform proper game development.
In the end, did Sony have their motion controller in development for over two years, long before Nintendo provided information as to the Wii’s abilities? It’s hard to say at this point, and we may never know, but it’s not inconceivable to think that Sony was scrambling for something that would help them “save face”.
Read More | GameDaily BIZ
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