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Developer CDV Abandons Starforce
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Hardware, PC,
In a recent news release, game developer CDV, announced that they are transitioning from using the controversial Starforce copy protection to the Tages system. CDV is most known for publishing strategy games for the PC, and will be publishing a turn-based strategy game for the Nintendo DS. Other companies that have moved away from Starforce copy protection include publisher JoWood, and Ubisoft, the largest publisher to date to ditch the infamous copy protection scheme. Starforce has been tagged with controversy for a while, mainly due to the allegations that the device driver installed will damage or slow the performance of its host machine, but also because of the aggressive way that the Starforce company defends itself against detractors. In any case, the bad publicity and public boycotts of Starforce games appears to be working, particularly against the smaller game development shops that can not afford to alienate their user base.
Read More 
| CDV Software Entertainment
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DS Lite Pre-Orders: Bundles Galore
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Nintendo DS,
According to 4 color rebellion, a majority of online and brick-and-mortar stores have gone bundle only for DS Lite pre-orders. Checking Wal-Mart shows a bundle with a primarily useless set of third-party accessories, which seems okay, if a little slimey. Gamestop and Ebgames, though, are offering bundles only with New Super Mario Bros. or Brain Age. Which is okay, if you don’t already have a DS, but people looking at upgrading are stuck with bundles including games that they probably already own. Target.com offers a ton of bundles, some with horrible pack-in games. For online sales, apparently Best Buy is still allowing bundle-free DS Lite packages. The practice of console bundling is somewhat offensive for a couple of reasons: one, you usually get stuck with items that you normally wouldn’t purchase, but also two, you almost never save any money. Gamers that want to continue a bundle-free existence should skip past EB and Gamestop, and look for stores that allow individual purchases of items they actually want.
Read More | 4 color rebellion
Official Wii Pricing Announced
Posted by John Goulden Categories: Corporate News, Nintendo, Wii,
After all the speculation and rumors, Nintendo has finally announced pricing for the Wii and its expected shipment volume. The pricing is right in line with what everyone was expecting/hoping for, but there’s no mention of what you get for the money. Apparently we’ll have to wait a little longer for bundle information and exact details. However, it’s safe to say that Nintendo has a sure thing on its hands and with the Wii’s low price, there will undoubtedly be a lot more of them under the tree this holiday season in comparison to the Xbox 360 or PS3.
From the press release:
Following its overwhelming debut at E3 2006, Nintendo today announced the current fiscal year unit shipment forecast for its new home game system, Wii™. Nintendo also confirmed that the price of the Wii system, which incorporates unique freehand control, will not exceed $250 in America, or ¥25,000 in Japan. The company plans to ship 6 million systems to retailers around the world between its launch in the fourth quarter of 2006 and the end of its fiscal year on March 31, 2007.
The projections are part of a full-year financial forecast that sees growth of 18 percent in sales globally, based on anticipated continuing strong demand for the Nintendo DS™ portable game system, as well as a successful launch for Wii.
The company also said it expects to sell 17 million Wii games in the period. Exact launch dates, identification of the launch library of titles and details on the unique Virtual Console aspect of Wii will be announced soon.
Read More | Nintendo
Half-Life 2: Episode One Available June 1
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, First Person Shooters, Internet, PC,
Valve announced today that Half-Life 2: Episode One has gone gold and will be available for download via Steam and the retail channel on June 1. The episode will be the first in a trilogy of follow-up content to the hugely popular Half-Life 2. Episode Two should be available by year-end, and the trilogy will conclude in 2007. Each episode promises roughly 5 hours of gameplay; given that the original game held about 15 - 20 hours of gameplay, and sold for between $50 to $60, the split into episodic content may not be the best value for the money, but is still pretty competitively priced at $19.95.
Full Press Release after the jump…
Click to continue reading Half-Life 2: Episode One Available June 1
Gear Live Game Design Contest: Winner Gets An Xbox 360
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Announcements, Features, Xbox 360,
Alright peeps, we have yet another opportunity for anyone out there to walk away with an Xbox 360, courtesy of Gear Live. We are looking to see what our readers can come up with in terms of creating a simple video game. We just made one ourselves, and despite not having any previous coding knowledge, we are pretty happy with the way Tennis Challenge turned out. Yeah, it may appear to be a Pong rip, but we made it our own. Now it’s your turn. Here is how it’s gonna go down:
- Download the game we created in Visual Studio Express, Gear Live’s Tennis Challenge
- Download Visual Studio Express. This also enters you in the Upgrade Your Game Sweepstakes.
- Create a game from scratch, or edit one of the game templates that Visual Studio Express gives you.
- Let us know about your game. Blog about it and link us to it. Let us know on our forums. All games will be made available for public download.
- The contest ends on June 23, 2006, but seriously, it took us all of ten minutes to create Tennis Challenge. Of course, we want you to do better than we did.
- We will choose a winner, and that person walks away with a brand new Xbox 360.
Now, this contest is open only to Gear Live members. Of course, signing up is completely free, and takes all of ten seconds. If you have a forum account, you are already a member. Now, go ahead and get to work on creating a game - we want to see just how creative you guys can be. Oh, and we have this extra Xbox 360 that needs a home.
Kenji Eno, creator of the D series of games, and Enemy Zero on the Sega Saturn, recently told Gamasutra that he planned to return to game development, with a release on a console “...with a new control device.” The implication, or at least the inferrence made by Gamasutra, was that this meant a new game for Nintendo’s Wii. Eno’s new company will be called Fyto, or “From Yellow to Orange.”
Eno has had mixed successes in the games industry; the original D was published for the ill-fated 3DO, but would eventually see releases on multiple platforms. Similarly, the sequel, Enemy Zero would be developed for the Sega Saturn, after a row between Eno and Sony. D2 was originally intended for the M2, the follow-up console to the 3DO, but with that hardware’s death, the game moved to the Dreamcast, another console that disappeared ahead of its time. Thus, having a Kenji Eno game on a console may not be the best thing in the world. Eno’s games have been inventive, but infamous at the same time for some of their content. If there is a game in the future for the Wii, though, with Eno at the helm, it will surely be unique.
Read More | Gamasutra
Wii: Still No Digital Sound Output
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Nintendo, Rumors, Wii,
According to Infendo, there are reports that with the Wii will not be supporting digital optical audio on the console. This would match with Nintendo’s decision to not pursue HD gaming in this generation’s console offering. Instead, Nintendo will continue to focus on utilizing Dolby Pro Logic II, which encodes 5.1 channel audio support into a stereo output through a matrixing technique. A number of Gamecube games used this technique, including the US launch title, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, and a few Playstation 2 titles had Pro Logic encoded output. While DPLII can be effective, it is not as clean of a solution as true Dolby Digital. Still, even if the Wii doesn’t support real-time Dolby Digital encoding of its output, it would have been nice to have a true digital audio solution, even if it meant simple PCM encoding of the sound.
Read More | Infendo
Dean Takahashi, author of The Xbox 360 Uncloaked is looking for information on a project within Microsoft that was codenamed “Helium.” He has an internal e-mail dated from 2003, that describes a project that would have Windows running on the Xbox 360, which would supposedly have been a third SKU for the console. A commenter notes that the author of the e-mail, Jon Thomason worked on the Xbox software team, and supposedly moved to Windows development in 2004 before leaving Microsoft entirely.
The element Helium is in the same family on the periodic table as Xenon; both are noble gasses. Xenon, of course, was the code name for the Xbox 360 CPU. Helium, in the periodic table, is “above” Xenon, and is the lightest of the noble gasses; could this have been a lightweight or smaller footprint version of Vista to run on the Xbox 360? Since little information has surfaced between the original e-mail and today, and the Xbox 360 launch has come and gone, it seems unlikely that such a project is still a going concern. Still, one can speculate on how this might have changed things in the console arena, had the project seen the light of day.
Read More | blogs.mercurynews.com
Insane Japanese DS Case Mods
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Mods/Hacks, Nintendo DS,
Insert Credit reports on a contest that Japanese case manufacturer Keysfactory sponsored just a little while back, where staff members were asked to submit their wildest case mods for the Nintendo DS. These “mods” aren’t actually transforming the DS shell, but instead are armor-like kits that snap around the DS, so the user’s console isn’t permanently modified, which is important, given some of the crazy designs they came up with. Many are clearly Gundam-inspired, and others capture that weird mecha-Japan aesthetic. The winning design was actually made available for purchase.
Read More | InsertCredit.com
Xbox 360 Faceplate Roundup
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Internet, Mods/Hacks, Xbox 360,
HardOCP is currently featuring a round-up of some of the various Xbox 360 face plates on the market today. They look at face plates from Microsoft, as well as those from third-party accessory vendor Pelican, and also a couple of XCM face plates and a skin from online vendor Decalgirl.com. Microsoft’s face plates, naturally, set the standard. No one knows the console size like MS, and their replacement face plates fit well, but the XCM faceplate won overall honors for its fit and polish. The Decalgirl skins also got praise, but HardOCP recommended the full system skins over the faceplate skins, just because the looks match up better. Unfortunately, the Pelican face plates got low marks for quality of build. HardOCP seemed surprised that Pelican would release such a poor product, but apparently, they’ve never tried using their Dreamcast light gun. At any rate, those gamers who are ashamed of their core system, or just want a change would do well to look at Decalgirl for their Xbox 360 skinning needs, and the XCM face plates also appear to be a great deal.
Read More | HardOCP
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