Valve has released stats for Episode One, like average completion time, number of total sessions, and average number of deaths per map. I'm not exactly sure how the average total playtime is half the average completion time.

• Sonic the Hedgehog turns 15 years old today. In celebration, Sega milks him a little more by releasing Sonic 1 to the GBA.
• EA officially announces Need For Speed Carbon.
• For $25, you will soon be able to transfer your WoW character to a different server.
• Johnny Depp will be lending his voice to the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean game.
• The 50 worst game names in gaming history.
• Soccer fan attempts to apply for a manager position using Football Manager 2005 as his work experience.
• New screenshots for Mechassault DS.
• Photos compare the size of the Wii to.. just about everything else in the world.
• Final Fantasy III will be wifi enabled in some way. We just don't yet know what way.
• The PS3 will be the first device to use the HDMI 1.3 standard.
• In my day, we didn't have your fancy-pants "batteries." We had to hand crank our Nintendo DSes. And we liked it that way!
• Chronic Logic is offering a free contest version of their Bridge Builder game.
• Is Bill Gates learning from the mod community?
• A new Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter content pack is available on Live, for a hefty $15.
• The strange, sad story of a man pretending to be a woman playing a man in MMORPG Lineage.

Posted by Ermac at 03:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

MegaGames.com has an article up about supposed "secret hardware" being developed for the PS3. This information comes, of course, from an undisclosed, "very reliable" source.

In conclusion, we have a very reliable source that claims Sony will have a PS3 peripheral which will recognize a user and his entire environment as well as his movements and will incorporate them into useful, in-console actions. The applications of this tech to gaming are obvious and if this story is proved right, Sony may yet manage to steal Nintendo's thunder in this generation of the console wars.

The source referenced Minority Report, specifically the scenes in which Tom Cruise hopped on Colin Farrell's couch manipulated a computer screen in the air, except this would be without the need for special gloves. They go on to say the add-on will be available during the PS3's launch in November, and that Logitech will be selling a PC version a few months later.

For now, I don't buy it. Not only because the only current source is "some dude said so," but because Sony was stupid enough to drop the price at E3, but not this? If this thing was actually launching with the system, wouldn't they want to make sure people actually know about it? Even super-secretive Nintendo has laid (almost) all of its cards on the table by now.

The company making the technology has a website here, but I can't get in right now. It may be getting swamped due to this news travelling around.

Posted by Ermac at 03:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Konami's Koji Igarashi, better known as Iga, has been responsible for all the recent Castlevania titles, from Symphony of the Night on. In a recent interview with Game Informer, he discusses how he feels a little confused about the next gen console war, and doesn't quite know who to side with.

Iga admitted that working on the PlayStation 3 would be his first inclination but that ultimately the price may be a major barrier. "... I'm confused with all of this next-generation news. I don't know what to do. I was really leaning toward PS3 in the beginning," he said. "But then at the Sony conference they announced the price and I was like, 'Mmm, maybe it's too expensive.'"

As for the Nintendo console, he confessed that he's had a hard time thinking of something that would take advantage of the Wii's unique controls. "When it comes to Wii, obviously the controller has a unique feature, but I just can't come up with a good idea that utilizes it. I mean, clearly you can with a lot of time," he said.

Interestingly, Iga said that he doesn't really view the Xbox 360 in a negative way, but he still feels that Microsoft is a bit averse to titles that are very Japanese.

"I'm not really negative over Microsoft, but for some reason they tend to back off a little when it comes to something really foreign. But if Japanese developers would say they're working on Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest or Metal Gear maybe, then I guess Japanese consumers would take it seriously and consider purchasing it. There has to be some killer titles to move the consumers into the 360 market," he explained.

Japanese developers are in a weird position in the upcoming generation. Sony may be pricing themselves out of the market, Wii is too odd to make traditional games, and the 360 is still having trouble penetrating the group. I'd be willing to bet Iga isn't the only one feeling a little unsure of who to side with. This uncertainty may mean that we won't see a really solid list of killer apps coming out of Japan until it shakes out exactly which system consumers are backing.

Source: GameDaily

Posted by Ermac at 01:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Because you're bound to see it somewhere: No, this is not a screenshot of GTA4.

• New Super Mario Bros. sells 500,000 copies in its first month. Nintendo claims this amounts to 20 copies every minute since release.
• The Clock Tower movie gets a director.
• The Sega Master System turns 20.
• The Prey demo is available for the PC now, but the Xbox 360 version is held up for some reason.
• Sony's first Blu-ray player is pushed back again, to October 25. Any later and the PS3 will end up being Sony's first Blu-ray player on the market.
• Sony claims GTA on the 360 "won't hurt us."
• Do not click this if you enjoy your eyesight.
• A long dossier on the making of Goldeneye.

Posted by Ermac at 04:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Business 2.0 Magazine recently put together a list of The 50 People Who Matter Now, and in doing so, also came across 10 people they decided don't matter at all. This list of 10 includes some very high ranking executives, but they are people "whose power had peaked, whose influence had waned, or whose true importance we felt was overstated," according to the magazine.

One of them is Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft and "lame duck," and another is resident crackpot Ken Kutaragi of Sony, father of the Playstation. This is what they had to say about him:

Remember the Betamax debacle? Sony seems to have forgotten all about it. Under Kutaragi, who is the power behind Sony's PlayStation videogame consoles, the company is launching another format war with its Blu-Ray high-definition videodisc, the successor to the venerable DVD. Unfortunately, the PlayStation 3, which was supposed to put Blu-Ray into millions of living rooms, is months late and hundreds of dollars more expensive than competing consoles from Microsoft and Nintendo - largely because it includes one-of-a-kind technologies like Blu-Ray. The delays and cost overruns are likely to make both the PS3 and Blu-Ray nonstarters.

Even "real" business people don't listen to Ken. You can check out the rest of the list at CNN, though you probably won't recognize half the entries.

Posted by Ermac at 01:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Okay, so I realize this guy is just talking out of his ass and this doesn't necessarily mean anything. But just the fact that they could suggest something like this is bad enough. 1up talked to Sony Worldwide Studios president Phil Harrison, who made this remark about how the PS3 hard drive might be used.

"Well, I'll give you an example; Kazunori [Yamauchi, producer of the Gran Turismo series] would kill me for this: Imagine Gran Turismo shipping on a disc with one car and one track. And then you can browse, online, a dynamic circuit of vehicles that's growing every day because either the car manufacturers are adding new vehicles or we're adding new vehicles. And you can see a specific-type car that's being called up and say, "I think I'll play with that one. Let me download and play it." Maybe the business model allows you to play it for a day; maybe the business model allows you to own it forever. But that content is now yours on your hard drive. Or [maybe you could download] new tracks, new music, whole games."

Even if you don't take what he says seriously (which it's kind of hard to do at this point; ditto for Ken Kutaragi), these people should at least have the common sense not to talk like this in public. It's like saying "Hey, y'know what we could do, have a little minigun that pops out of the back of the PS3, kills your dog, kills your whole family. That's an option." They may never actually do it, but it still doesn't exactly sound good in an interview, does it?

Posted by Ermac at 04:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Edge Online has a feature about the thankless and sometimes hellacious job of video game tester. What's worse is, while it was once considered one of the main ways to get your foot in the door at a game studio (thereby justifying the awful job and crap pay, I suppose), it seems like it may not even be worth that anymore.

• Yakuza's celebrity voice cast revealed.
• Comparing the power usage of the last couple generations of consoles. That 360 power brick isn't just there for show.
• UK online retailer offers PS3 bundle (system + 3 games) for $1015.
• New footage of Super Paper Mario.
• There's a new 14 minute video of in-game footage from Crysis, the latest game to make your video card cry. There's a 114 meg WMV version kicking around, but all links I've found so far are getting hammered to death.
• How to fix the 360 red ring of death, if you're willing to take apart your system.

Posted by Ermac at 04:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Next Generation has an opinion piece on backwards compatibility. They make some good points, namely that everyone says they want BC and then few ever actually use it. But they completely neglect to mention that some people want BC because they like to buy older games they never got around to. It isn't just for your existing library.

• Okay, so the Tomb Raider PSP remake isn't cancelled. But it seems Core's version of it was.
• GTA4 may run on the Table Tennis engine.
• Despite what this month's issue of PC Gamer says, Half Life 2: Episode Two is still on track for a holiday 2006 release.
• Nintendo still isn't sure how many buttons the Wii remote will have.
• Time to play what's wrong with this picture.
• A Nacho Libre game is coming to the DS. Is there really a game in this? Will anyone care enough to play it?
• Comparing the Wii remote to the original Revolution remote.
• What to expect from Street Fighter 2 on Xbox Live Arcade.
• The anti-game law Jack Thompson helped write has been passed in Louisiana.

Posted by Ermac at 03:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Game Trailers has gameplay footage of Bomberman: Act Zero for the 360. The gameplay is the same, but I can't get over how hideous it is. Also, the guy playing sucks.

• Artistic types can enter a contest to design a tattoo worn by character Mattias in Mercenaries 2.
• Uwe Boll is looking for critics to beat the crap out of him in his upcoming Postal movie.
• Do DS games respond differently in a DS Lite?
• The PS3 controller shown at E3 had a slight spelling error. You can understand how they would mess up something that's only been on controllers for the last 20 years.
• Retailers may be preparing for an even worse PS3 shortage than the 360 had.

Posted by Ermac at 03:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Gamasutra has an interview about the most controversial game you may not have heard of yet: Rule of Rose. Any game that inspires the question "What was the inspiration for using the sexuality of prepubescent girls as a theme in the game?" is worth examining more closely. Here's a trailer to further weird you out.

• A new patch for Oblivion is out.
• The Halo 3 making of the trailer documentary is up at Bungie's site now.
• Sony Computer Entertainment Ireland director didn't get the "baseless bravado" memo, says "We would never say we cannot fail."
• Sony CEO Howard Stringer admits his Xbox obsession.
• Look on in horror at the recently uncovered original Acclaim intro to the racing game Juiced. FMV with blue screened actors? 1994 has come to visit!
• Eurogamer interviews Gabe Newell about Half Life 2: Episode One.
• Comparing real life photos to Crysis screenshots.
• Animal Crossing on Wii may allow you to send letters to friends through e-mail or cell phones.
• Point Blank DS unexpectedly ships next week.

Posted by Ermac at 03:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Ever since Sony let us know that the PS3 was a computer, that now opens the door for them to treat it like a computer. In the same way that two PCs with different configurations are still both Dells, Ken Kutaragi says the PS3 isn't bound by a single configuration and thus could recieve upgrades in future versions.

HG: In an old interview you said there's no hardware called PS3 but only a meta-format. Is it possible for PS3 to do hardware configuation as long as it has the spec enough to run softwares of a certain profile?

KK: That's right. So every configuration is PS3.

HG: Is it planned that it extends its spec every year like PC?

KK: I think it's okay to release a (extended) configuration every year (laugh). Though I say it like a joke, Dell will do it and Apple will do it too. In PC, if you fix (the spec) for 2 years you'll be catched up. Computers should be changing, right? It's inevitable that 60GB (HDD) will become short, memory may become short too. There are many possibilities.

HG: Is it possible that a PS3 configuration with augmented computing power that exceeds the spec to run the PS3 game meta-format appears?

KK: Yes. If what you want to do increases, it's natural. Of course, it depends on how far what you want to do goes though.

So not only can you spend $500 on a console, you can then spend another hundred bucks down the line to buy more memory. One can only hope that Kutaragi is having one of his crazy episodes again (to be fair, he has them a lot these days), and this isn't the main thrust of Sony's plan for the future. One could say he's just speaking hypothetically, but the fact that he seems open to the idea at all is a concern in itself. PCs can have different configurations because games can run at different settings on multiple systems. One of console gaming's strengths has always been that what you see on the box is exactly what you get, no matter when you bought your console. I don't want my console to be a computer, I want it to be a dedicated game machine so I can enjoy the benefits that come with that.

I'm sure that even if Sony attempted to bring in hardware upgrades, the majority of consumers wouldn't buy them and game developers would continue to program for the base PS3 stats anyway. But this kind of talk just makes Ken and his posse seem all the more removed from reality. It's one more example of them seeming to plan a future for the PS3 that can't and won't exist, just like people getting extra jobs to pay for their system.

You can read a translation of the whole interview here.

Posted by Ermac at 02:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This makes me glad I wasn't at the Nintendo World store to watch the E3 briefing. LOOK AT THOSE GRAPHIX

• There will be no version of DirectX 10 for Windows XP. It will be exclusive to Vista.
• Nintendo brings over the Touch Generations brand to America, marking games like Big Brain Academy and Magnetica.
• Xbox Live Vision Camera set for a September release in America.
• Alex Navarro from Gamespot gets gut punched on video for saying that the PS3 wouldn't be $500 or else you can "feel free to punch me in the stomach."
• Luigi hates Myspace too.
• GameVideos has a video tour of the new 360 dashboard update.
• Comparing the size of all next and current generation consoles, side by side.
• Summer isn't completely worthless.. FiringSquad has a list of the games coming out to fill in the summer gap.
• Will your games work in Windows Vista? ..Maybe?
• How to write an article on women in gaming.

Posted by Ermac at 05:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Did these guys have a stroke in the last year or two? What the hell happened here?

Sony has launched a new line of merchandise called Playstation Signature, a collection of higher-end items for more "sophisticated" Playstation users. After all, what classy wine connoisseur wouldn't want this 2,100 yen ($19) wine glass with barely visible Playstation face buttons etched onto it?

But of course, you're so classy, that's far too little money to spend for you. Then how about a 15,000 yen ($133) crew neck knit shirt? Or a 73,000 yen ($650) wrist watch with leather strap? Or how about some brain damage, the kind you'd need to buy this crap? That's free. I'd like to see the Venn diagram that illustrates the microscopic intersection of the "people who buy video game merchandise" and "style-minded sophisticates who spend $650 on a watch" sets. Spending that much on inflated collector prices on Ebay for some gaudy piece of plastic with your favorite anime character on it doesn't count.

I guess Sony is trying to butter up the only people who can afford their console. Pictures from the rest of the line can be found here.

Posted by Ermac at 01:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

News is thin on the ground today due to the Memorial Day holiday, so go grill some burgers or something.

• Infinium to change their name to Phantom Entertainment, better fitting their main export of things that aren't there.
• If you really have a Halo jones, you can now buy an official Halo 3 shirt.
• The tragic tale of waiting for David Hasselhoff to record voice over for the hot new game Cthulhu Karts. If you have a hard time determining if this is a joke, perhaps you should look at the developer's main page.
• Dork makes Mario World ROM hack to give to his girlfriend which contains a secret message that he's going to take her by limo to.. the Da Vinci Code movie. No, dude. Dude. No.
• Ever wonder what a Chinese cosplay contest looks like?
• Someone at Digg makes an interesting point: Why do most of the members of the famous PMS clan have such pathetic gamerscores? And if their scores are that low, why are they being featured on Xbox.com?
• Atari ceases production of all premium modules and future patches for Neverwinter Nights.
• New screenshots for the upcoming Guitar Hero sequel.
• Not entirely game related, but worth reading all the same: PC World's top 25 worst tech products of all time. Apple's game console Pippen is #22.
• New Super Mario Bros. becomes fastest single day seller ever in Japan, with 480,000 units sold in the first day of retail.

Posted by Ermac at 03:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'd like to give a big shout out to the Weather Channel, who proved themselves incapable last night of being a channel reporting the weather by airing some stupid show about the coast guard when all I needed was the damn radar. When it finally came up (once in a half hour), two seconds later my power went out. Thanks guys!

• Katamari's creator says the series will probably continue, just without him. But how will that affect the games?
• Gates not sold on motion controllers.
• Ken Kutaragi: PS3 is not a toy. So that means it's okay to spend $600 on it! Whew. Load off my mind.
• Man, the cast of FFVII have fallen on hard times.
• 73% of Japanese Famitsu readers believe Wii will win the console war.
• You know that Link, he's big with the gays.
• It's about time somebody finally offered up in-game Assassin's Creed screens.
• Star Fox DS renamed Star Fox Command; release date set for August.

Posted by Ermac at 04:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)