At the beginning of this month, a posting on the forums of Banjo-Kazooie developer Rare lead us to believe that we'd be seeing more content for the game a lot sooner than today. Whether we were mislead or simply employing the jumping to conclusions mat too liberally remains to be seen, but today the list of achievements for Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts on Xbox.com has been amended with 250 extra points, hinting pretty heavily at directly confirming the upcoming DLC and laying out details for some of it.
One such achievement, titled "L.O.G. Master" tasks the player with winning "all of the new multiplayer games" (emphasis on "new") while another, titled "Halfway Home," confirms the inclusion of "L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges" in the as-yet-unannounced content. While this achievement list certainly solidifies the future release of more Banjo-Kazooie content, we would certainly appreciate some more detail. So we reached out to Microsoft for comment and got this in return:
"Yes, these Achievements are connected to my upcoming add-on pack for Nuts & Bolts, but don't go thinking that this is all I have in store for you. Oh no, I have a few other tricks up my sleeve ... but looks like you eager gamers will just have to wait until the Day of Fools to learn more."
Looks like we're waiting 'til April 1st for all the hard facts. While this is a better response than "No Comment," is a straight answer too much to ask?
We thought that the DS puzzle/platforming hybrid Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure seemed a little bit weird for EA. The developers seem to have noticed the incongruity -- two of the project leads have just announced their departure from EA to found a new studio called DreamRift.
Peter Ong, Lead Designer on the title, and Lead Programmer Ryan Pijai have yet to announce what kind of games they will work on as DreamRift, but they will reveal their first project to publishers at GDC this week. It would be pretty ironic if they left EA and switched gears from clever, original DS titles to games about dudes in the future shooting each other.
Jamie Durrant has been working for Lionhead Studios, stomping ground of Peter Molyneux and developer of the Fable franchise, for 11 years. In his time, he's worked on the Black & White series as well as both of the Fable games. As of last August though, Mr. Durrant has been out of work "sick" on half-pay, claiming sexual discrimination on the part of Microsoft. "I have been signed off sick since August with anxiety and depression," Durrant told us this morning.
The Surrey, UK resident is suing his employer, Microsoft (owner of Lionhead Studios), for £45,000/$66,000, money which will make up for "lost earnings and injury to feelings," according to the report on Telegraph.co.uk. A variety of names, laden with derogatory terms, were purportedly circulated in Durrant's tenure with the company as of late, referencing his sexual orientation: "'I'm Jim and I'm Gay," "Me and My Favourite Men," and "Ladies Are Bad," among others.
According to Durrant, when these abuses were reported to the Microsoft human resources department, the company did little to help him, apparently telling him they would circulate an email reminding employees of the company policy -- but they never followed through. When he inquired as to why it hadn't been sent a few weeks later, he was supposedly told that Microsoft would have to draft policy on the matter first. He told the Telegraph, "I was very surprised that Microsoft did not have any policies relating to this sexual orientation harassment." Less than a month ago we found out that the Microsoft Xbox Live team also have little-to-no policy written regarding sexual orientation discrimination.
When asked for more information, both Microsoft and Mr. Durrant have said they cannot comment on the still pending litigation. We'll have to wait until the London South Employment Tribunal hears his case "later this year" for more info.
Spore publisher EA has dropped a new trailer and a handful of new screens for the game's upcoming expansion, titled "Galactic Adventures," and with them, a release date finally. According to the EA press site (and confirmed by EA Maxis rep. Amanda Taggart), the gameplay-heavy DLC hits the cyber autobahn as well as brick-and-mortar stores on June 23rd, though the pricing is still "TBA."
The trailer above shows off a variety of new end-game content that, to be perfectly honest, looks to be a lot of fun. Commanding fleets of space-faring creatures across the galaxy, subjugating everyone along the way? Where do we sign up?! And remember, Spore Galactic Adventures is just the first of four Spore titles coming to various platforms (Wii/DS/PC/Mac) this year, so keep those pocketbooks open.
Eagle-eyed resume watchers, superannuation, spotted two former Treyarch artists list Ultimate Spider-Man 2 on their work history profiles. Interestingly, Activision has yet to announce a sequel to the 2005 game, based on a comic series of the same name.
3D environment artist, Andrew Swihart (employed at Treyarch from 2006-2007) lists his title as motion graphic artist on the game while effects artist, Johnny P. van Zelm (Treyarch employee from 2000-2007), lists the spider-sequel as one of the many games he worked on, including the 2005 original. According to the listing the game, if real -- and if it didn't eventually become Spider-Man: Web of Shadows -- has been in development since 2006, at least.
A sequel from Activision?! That isn't a crazy thought -- especiallyconsideringtheyareActivision. When contacted for a comment, Activision's PR company told us that they weren't aware of any Ultimate Spider-Man sequel in development and reminded us no such game has been announced.
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete will be out in Japan later next month, and a North American release could be following closely. According to Blu-ray.com, the completed HD version of the film, with 30 minutes added to the running time, will be out June 7 and will contain dual English/Japanese audio (like the original release). It is said to feature six extra content features, including the new short, animated film called "On the way to a Smile - Episode: Denzel" and an exclusive Final Fantasy XIIIsneak peek.
Upon contacting Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, a company representative told us that Sony Pictures could not confirm the details yet and had not "properly announced details." Blu-ray.com's report could be leaked info that's come out a bit too early, but if it proves to be true, we're sure that everyone is wondering exactly what that FFXIII "sneak peek" entails. Is it the demo or just a trailer? The latter seems most likely.
It's been a little while since we've seen or heard anything new regarding Titan Studios' upcoming PSN online CTP (Capture The Princess) game, Fat Princess. This new batch of seventeen screenshots, showing some new levels and bases from the game, should keep you busy until the game launches. Whenever that may be ...
The game is playable at the PlayStation Blog Lounge at GDC this week. We'll return to you with some hands-on impressions as soon as possible.
While we're scampering around GDC in the hunt for gaming goodness, we thought we'd drop a bootleg tune from last week's Datapop concert party at SXSW, which went exceedingly well. The venue was packed with sweaty chiptune lovers, and it actually rocked a lot more than we thought it would. Check out the gallery below from the event, and bounce along to the song from Sievert -- embedded at the bottom of the post.
If you're itching for more tunes, hit up the 8bitpeoples site for a ton of free music from most of the artists at the show. Warning: listening is addictive.
Finally, almost two years after the game was unveiled at GDC 2007, Sony has revealed details about inFamous' Karma system -- a key part of the game which we've often intimated could either make or break it. Thankfully, it's looking pretty decent, as you can see from the two videos we have showcasing the feature. The first, which can be found above, gives a few examples of the moral choices you have to make throughout the game.
These choices will affect "the way pedestrians react to Cole, the powers he can use and upgrade, Cole's appearance, and even the story." As in Fable, any decision you make will award you either good or bad karma. There are six karmic levels: three bad (Thug, Outlaw and Infamous) and three good (Guardian, Champion and Hero). Each of these levels will contain different skills which can be bought with experience points. Placing points in a Champion skill and then lowering your karma level to Guardian means you will no longer have access to that skill.
Cole will change his appearance according to his karma level (again, much like Fable) and depending on whether he's a goody or baddy, his electricity will appear either red or blue. Upgrading your powers in either a good or evil direction will directly affect how they work. Good powers use electrons and are more likely to stun or restrain enemies while bad powers utilize positrons and will kill, maim and destroy. The second video, seen after the break, shows examples of this.
Seeing this system in action raises our hopes for inFamous. The game was starting to look very samey, but this added ingredient may be just the spice we've been looking for.
Yesterday, Sumner Redstone was due in a Manhattan court to speak in regards to the sale of Midway to Mark Thomas. That never happened, but Sumner and business partner Robert Steele's attornies did appear in a Bankruptcy court in Delaware on Friday in an attempt to get out of the scheduled deposition, Game Politics reports. As a result, Sumner will now be required to appear this upcoming Friday.
Curious is the lack of his daughter, Shari, in any of the proceedings on Friday. She was due to appear in Manhattan last Thursday, March 19th, for her deposition.
Curt Schilling may not have revealed any new information about Copernicus -- really, nothing new there -- but he's had reservations about choosing the MMO genre for the premiere title of his 38 Studios. Speaking with Adam Sessler on stage during the inaugural GamesBeat conference, he admitted, "There have been times in the past 24 months where I've thought to myself 'What the hell was I thinking?!' I should have made a first-person shooter."
When Famitsu sent word of Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2's existence, we thought it would be a simple port of the Xbox 360 sequel with a few additional bells and whistles. Team Ninja slashed (see what we did there?) those thoughts and have revealed that Sigma 2 will include a large chunk of content, including two new playable characters and online cooperative play.
Team Ninja fans will immediately recognize the two playable additions noted in a Gamespot preview: Dead or Alive's purple-haired ninja, Ayane, and Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword's female warrior, Momiji. Each character's tale will be woven into the existing Ninja Gaiden 2 story and branch off at certain points. That's all well and good but the freshly announced online co-op is what has our interest piqued. Unfortunately, the co-op skips the main campaign and offers 30 challenge areas that are playable on four difficulty settings (presumably, Ninja Dog to ZOMGWTHBBQ!). Still, it's a surprising (and welcome) addition to what could have ostensibly been considered a simple re-release.
And for those who prefer the simpler additions, Tecmo says they're in there too. New enemies, weapons, and tweaks to the camera and gameplay are all included. Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 is set to land on the PlayStation 3 this fall -- the trailer is embedded after the break.
Marvelous Entertainment, whose game division develops and publishes the Harvest Moon series, in addition to publishing games like No More Heroes, Muramasa, andHero for 30Sec, is seeking "voluntary retirement" from around 20 staff members as a cost-cutting measure.
Employees are incentivized to take the company up on its "offer" between now and April 3 with a special severance package. The retirements will take effect April 30 -- right around when Muramasa comes out in Japan. That's kind of unfortunate, because it'll make playing this awesome-looking game in a bit more bittersweet for all those former employees. [Via Edge]
Before the Independent Games Festival organizers handed out today's awards for best mobile titles, they welcomed several indie devs on stage to pitch their ideas for the "next great mobile game." It was an interactive affair; after the presentations, the audience got to "vote" for the best of the bunch via the most scientific of methods: how loud we clapped.
We honestly wanted everything we saw to win; there are clearly some very bright designers working on some very cool "games" that can only be done on mobile platforms. The first we saw, Depict, is an iPhone title from VillaVanilla -- although we could easily see it on DSi -- that challenges a group of online players to take photos that match a "target image" as closely as possible. In the demo we saw, everyday household items and even people were used to compose the shots, which were then scored by the app. The closest to the target won.
Depict was just the first of several intriguing concepts which we'll tell you more about after the break.
Speaking at the inaugural GamesBeat conference in San Francisco, Ira Rubenstein, head of the global digital media group at Marvel, stated that the comic book company plans to stand behind Gazillion's future Marvel-based MMO, lending its writers and artists to the project.
Rubenstein didn't want to speak for Gazillion, but said that Marvel offers an IP that isn't very common -- a full universe of superheroes that has yet to successfully manifest in an MMO. Considering the 10-year deal Marvel has inked with the "new" company, there should be enough time to get some MMO based on the popular characters out the door.
Several games took home honors at this morning's Independent Games Festival's Mobile awards ceremony, but the event's true winner was apparent: the iPhone. While the awards were geared towards -- and open to -- titles for all wireless / mobile devices, every game that won is available exclusively on Apple's telephonic wunderkind (and, of course, the iPod touch).
Subatomic Studios' tower defense favorite, Fieldrunners, won for Best Art and Best Mobile Game (overall). Sergei Gourski and Jamie Gotch (above), the two developers responsible for the game, have been viewed as rising stars in the indie mobile gaming scene since Fieldrunners' release; today's wins cemented their star status. We spoke with the duo about their award-winning creation -- look for the full interview soon on the 'Stiq.
Two awards also went to Secret Exit for its sublime Zen Bound. The part game, part relaxation exercise was named Best iPhone Game and earned a Mobile Audio Achievement award. The Best Innovation award went to the simplistic, yet infinitely replayable 4x4 space strategy title, Galcon. The only unreleased game to win was Firemint's Real Racing, which earned Best Technical honors. We'll have a hands-on with the impressive looking (hey, it won the tech award for a reason) racer soon.
We caught up with Benjamin Hoyt, senior producer at Paramount Digital Entertainment, David Baronoff, associate producer on the new Trek film and Bad Robot workerbee, and Joshua Glazer, CEO from developer Naked Sky Entertainment to talk about all things Star Trek DAC. We didn't get any juicy screenshots or video, nor did we find out what the heck "DAC" stands for (although Baronoff did say that a lot of the fan guesses are "in the right realm"), but we did come away with a lot of information about the upcoming title that's tied to Paramount's May release of the new Star Trek movie. Beam down beyond the break where you can read all about it.
Hosting the annual Game Developer Choice Awards is no joke -- but one does require plenty of amusing witticisms to make it off the stage alive. Double Fine's Tim Schafer has foolishly agreed to host the show again this year, prompting a mad quest to find the lolz necessary to combat the lulls. If you want to pretend to help him out, you can play the amazing adventure game, Host Master and the Conquest of Humor.
Us? We're going to rescue the man from catastrophic embarrassment by offering the following jokes, free of charge:
"Grand Theft Auto IV's a big contender tonight. Is anybody surprised? I know I'm not the only one who had a great time cruising around in stolen vehicles, running over prostitutes, doing stylish, drive-by shootings -- and then thought, 'Man, somebody should make a game out of this!'"
In the middle of an interview with Paul Baldwin, VP of marketing at Gazillion Entertainment (and former Eidos exec during the good years), at GamesBeat 2009 (a side conference taking place during GDC), there was a fire drill. Just when we finally got some good answers to what the company is up to. So, while running exiting the building in an organized fashion, we kept on trucking and asking questions about the company's plans with its Marvel MMOs, Lego Universe and its other projects. We'll try to get that interview up as soon as we find a good internet connection.
This is getting ridiculous. After confirming that the Sea of Dreams subtitle had been dropped from BioShock 2 and then confirming that it hadn't been dropped, it seems like 2K is taking too many of its own plasmids. Following a serious back and forth regarding the game's name at GDC, 2K eventually settled on "no comment." The company says that there should be an official answer by the end of the week.
Kind-hearted folk that we are, we've decided to help out 2K marketing by putting the question to a key demographic: Joystiq readers!
During the "Spore's Wake: What Seriously Happened?" panel at GDC, we learned a fantastic new meme that we have to share with you. "Time To Penis" (or just "TTP" in the streetz) is defined as the amount of time it will take children to make something rude out of a set of tools they've been given -- typically, that object is a penis. Apparently, TTP can be measured down to the near-second. In Spore's case, TTP was actually a negative factor since "children" were making penis monsters before the Creature Creator was even officially released!
Did you know? That little guy on the right is generally considered to be Spore's first penis creature. Don't stare, though -- he's shy.
The public hasn't seen much of The Agency since it was first revealed in 2007. When questioned about the lack of updates on the ambitious PC/PS3 online espionage game, SOE's Hal Milton told us: "We don't want to keep having hype sessions just showing movies and crap. We need to make the game and not just keep promoting it."
GDC continues that idea, with Sony Online Entertainment revealing nothing more than a distant release window for both The Agency and DC Universe Online. John Smedley, president of SOE, revealed that both titles will arrive in 2010 in his keynote, "An industry perspective on how new online games will reach the masses."
We understand that it takes time to craft a solid game, especially a massive online one. However, we'd like to remind Smedley that the first step for a game to "reach the masses" involves, y'know, releasing it.
Publishers looking for a quick buck don't need to focus their efforts solely on the iPhone. Sony's Susan Panico touted the values of PSN development by providing a case study on PixelJunk Eden, Q-Games' third PSN-exclusive title. Panico told the GamesBeat audience that "PixelJunk Eden made its return on investment within 24 hours." Sales after that period become pure profit.
Of course, the success of Eden is a little unsurprising, considering the popularity of PixelJunk Monsters. Regardless, it's impressive that a small independent studio was able to create a trusted franchise exclusively through the PlayStation Network. With so much green made off of Eden, it's no wonder Q-Games is working on an expansion for the game. Eden Encore will be available in April.
Microsoft today announced an update to XNA Game Studio, its free Xbox 360 development tools. The update will allow Xbox Live Arcade or Community Game developers to include Avatar support in their games. The update will also include support for the Xbox 360's Party system. Additionally, the update gives professional XBLA developers the ability to release downloadable content.
Along with the new XNA Game Studio update, Microsoft announced this year's Dream-Build-Play competition. The contest charges developers with creating an XNA game and offers cash prizes to the winners as well as a chance to publish their games on Xbox Live Arcade. Joystiq readers may recognize CarneyVale: Showtime and The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai (pictured), both of which won previous Dream-Build-Play competitions. Dream-Build-Play 2009 will begin accepting submissions on April 9.
Finally, and much less interesting, Microsoft is previewing its latest development kit. The kit has "additional debugging memory" which should help developers "push the console to its maximum capabilities." Just don't push it too hard, mkay?
Oil up that Lancer, Gears of War 2 fans, because we've got a juicy rumor you'll want to dig your chainsaw into. One very thorough user over at the Gears of War forum deduced via Geoff Keighley's Twitter and an alleged Asian product page (pictured) that the Gears 2 DLC train won't make its final stop at Snowblind. It appears the train will keep chugging along to its next stop, "Dark Corners," which may be announced during GDC09 this week.
The above image says that 'Dark Corners' will be arriving in April some time, after Snowblind, but that's really all we have to go on right now. We'll be sure to update as soon as we have more information.
Ubisoft has announced a new real-time strategy title for PC and consoles to be released during fiscal year 2009/2010. R.U.S.E (and we thought we were done typing names like that, now that both F.E.A.R. 2 and H.A.W.X are out) is being developed by Eugen Systems and shown off at the Intel booth at GDC this week.
The press release promises that RUSE (as we'll now call it) will shake up the genre and be an "RTS with a twist," thanks to the IRISZOOM engine. Looking at the screenshot above, we're loving the table-top aesthetics of the game. Check out the video after the break!
I love my iPhone. Unfortunately, things have conspired against us being out early on the platform. I had a plan for an aggressive, iPhone specific project that we actually started putting some internal resources on, but the programmer tasked with it didn't work out and was let go. In an odd coincidence, an outside development team came to us with a proposal, and we decided to have them work on the iPhone project. We should be announcing this project soon, and it is cool.
After a little looking around, I found Wolf3D Redux at http://wolf3dredux.sourceforge.net/. The game was still fun to play after all these years, and I began to think that it might be worthwhile to actually make a product out of Wolfenstein on the iPhone. The simple episodic nature of the game would make it easy to split up into a $0.99 version with just the first episode. I was getting a little ahead of myself without a fun-to-play demonstration of feasibility on the iPhone, but the idea of moving the entire line of classic Id titles over -- Wolf, Doom, Quake, Quake 2, and Quake Arena, was starting to sound like a real good idea.
Day Two of GDC is nigh upon us, and we're snapping shots whenever and wherever we can. Bookmark the gallery below and check back for updated images from around the show. We'll do a separate gallery of the show floor, but you can find pictures here to delight and amuse you; like the Escalators of Doom, the hanging banners, and -- when night falls -- devs performing (drunk) tricks!
Resistance 2's first batch of DLC is coming soon, with details already spilling out of GDC. Insomniac has revealed the lineup in a video with Gamespot, which you can see after the break. The new content is split into two pieces: a patch (v1.50); and paid content from the PSN Store. Both will arrive on Thursday, March 26.
The patch will add a new multiplayer mode -- Meltdown -- as well as a new difficulty setting for co-op play. This will give higher EXP rewards, but will be much more challenging. Finally, the patch will also allow a local co-op player to sign in with his PSN profile, saving his accumulated scores.
As for the paid content, there are a number of maps being released which have been designed to allow more intimate, small scale battles. The Aftermath map pack will cost you $5.99. There are also a number of skins which will be purchasable for $0.99 each. For more details and footage of the maps, check the video after the break.
We've all known about a busted Xbox 360's ability to not only self-destruct, but to also trashany games you place into the console. Bumps, vibrations, or any kind of movement while a game is being played can bring about a quick death to that particular disc, and now the problem has reached the doorstep of BBC Watchdog, who decided to conduct some tests of their own.
Taking a new Xbox 360 and one that had been known to cause the circular disc scratch, BBC Watchdog placed each console on a level surface with a vase of water next to it to help monitor movement. Then, the tests began, starting with small vibrations to simulate walking around the house. Both consoles passed, but when the strength of the vibrations was increased to the level of a book dropping on a table, the older Xbox 360 put a big ring on the disc inside of it, whereas the new unit performed swimmingly.
As always, the emphasis is on keeping the Xbox 360 on a level, safe place when playing. We understand that hardware malfunctions can be a touchy subject, but throwing a tantrum with a disc in the tray might be a bad idea.
Hey, guess what's available at the Rock Band store? Oh, you can read headlines. Well then, yeah, tons of The Who available to you this week, along with a handful of non-The Who tracks. There are 12 new tracks total, so let's get to it!
Tracks from The Who (200 Wii Points each)
"Amazing Journey" - The Who
"Behind Blue Eyes" - The Who
"Eminence Front" - The Who
"Going Mobile" - The Who
"Leaving Here" - The Who
"Real Good Looking Boy" - The Who
"Sea and Sand" - The Who
"Who Are You" - The Who
Individual tracks (200 Wii Points each)
"All I Want" - The Offspring
"The Kids Aren't Alright" - The Offspring
"Losing My Religion" - REM
"The Way That It Shows" - Richard Thompson
As usual, you can skip past the break to preview each track.
Former Charmed star Alyssa Milano will be in the new Ghostbusters video game and she's here (in video) to talk about her new role as Ilyssa Selwyn. Her character is the love interest for Dr. Peter Venkman (voiced by Bill Murray), and is likely to play a bigger role than one would expect.
"Paranormal activities take a liking to [Ilyssa]," said Milano. "So crazy things sort of happen ... she can't figure out why, but we'll eventually, at the end, figure out why." It sounds like the leading lady is at the heart of the mystery for this new Ghostbusters outing. And apparently, there's lots of "flirty, flirty sexual tension" happening between Venkman and Selwyn, too. At least, that's what Milano says ... We can't imagine how much sexual tension there could possibly be starring opposite Bill Murray.
It's been roughly five months since the Nintendo DSi launch in Japan (144 days, actually) and the updated handheld has been selling like gangbusters. Famitsu (via VG247) is reporting the landmark number of 2 million units, a figure that amounts to roughly 14,000 units being sold per day in the country since its launch.
To put that in some perspective, the DSi has been outselling the now totally boring DS Lite at roughly 7:1 on a daily basis in the country since its launch last November. 100k every week in Japan -- on average, no less! Our hats are off to you Nintendo, patiently awaiting some soup. You see there's this recession thing you might've heard of. We're not doing so hot ...
Fallout 3 players have made the lives of uncreative and unnecessarily snarky writers into a living hell this morning, prompting internet blabbermouths to try their hardest not to describe the RPG's latest round of DLC as "the pits." Because it's called "The Pitt" and some people are quite unhappy about it, you see.
Lodging complaints via emails to Joystiq and developer Bethesda's official forums, users who have downloaded the latest $10 add-on from Xbox Live are apparently experiencing numerous glitches in the game's environment, including freezes and texture errors. Another issue seems to be represented by ominous, floating exclamation marks invading the post-apocalyptic wasteland. Bethesda has told Joystiq that it is currently gathering information on the issue -- we'll update as soon as we know how widespread the problems are and what measures can be taken to avoid them.
In the meantime, we suggest you adopt a stealthy approach and avoid being spotted by the malfunctioning landscape.
Update: Bethesda is "continuing to look into the issues people are experiencing with The Pitt for Xbox 360." The company believes that the English version of the file on Xbox Live has become corrupted, and is working with Microsoft to remove and replace the file as soon as possible.
NeoGAFfer CubeRevolution reported that EA was planning to release a version of Grand Slam Tennis for the Wii bundled with one of Nintendo's MotionPlus peripherals, for 59.99 Euros, just 10 Euros more than the standalone release.
A listing on Amazon.de for "EA SPORTS Grand Slam Tennis + Wii Motion Plus" bears out CubeRevolution's claim. It appears that Nintendo really is allowing EA to bundle its first-party accessory with a third-party game in Europe this July. Amazon even took a few Euros off the price!
While it's great news that people might be able to buy a MotionPlus in July, and with more bundle options, we can't help but entertain the theory that this option frees Nintendo up to delay Wii Sports Resort past the summer.
Peter Moore has unveiled a screenshot of Madden '10 on his blog, calling the game "the most detailed and comprehensive edition of Madden in the history of the franchise." He says that the development team will detail the improvements and additions made to this year's game in the weeks leading up to the NFL Draft, but that many changes are evident in this screenshot.
The specific changes on display will be revealed later this week, but Moore asks, "How many improvements can you pick out?" More obtrusive referees? Helmet sheen? Improved rendering of distant Gatorade jugs?
Havok is exploding like a red barrel into the world of artificial intelligence. With ragdoll grace, the middleware company announced its new Havok AI SDK during GDC 2009, promising "unique solutions" to various AI pathfinding issues faced by today's game developers.
Like the folks at 1UP, we're not exactly sure what this means for gamers, though the new software is supposed to be fully compatible with Havok's other products and tools, such as Havok Physics. Perhaps now enemy patrols will get the good sense not to seek shelter behind things that go kablooey when bullets begin to fly.
After departing the rather subdued first day of GDC 2009, we were reminded that gaming is everywhere -- even your friendly neighborhood BART station agent booth. Either the employee who was so proudly displaying their purchase in the middle of San Francisco's Powell Street station absolutely, positively had to pick up Rock Band 2 while on the clock, or they couldn't pass up the 50% off, going-out-of-business sale at the Virgin Megastore across the street.
If it wasn't for our sheer exhaustion -- we said it was subdued, we didn't say it wasn't exhausting -- we would have gone bargain shopping ourselves at the store. Who knows, maybe we could have scored a few copies of 50 Cent: Blood on the Sandfor ... wait for it ... 50-percent off. Witness the sad sign of our crumbling economy after the break.
Rearden Studios introduced a gaming service and "microconsole," called OnLive, at GDC today, and we're still trying to wrap our heads around everything. If we had to describe it in one sentence, we'd call it a new way of playing games online without having to buy titles, but that sounds a bit too much like the vaporware Phantom console. Plus, there's another new "console" called Zeebo making a debut at GDC, which adds more confusion to the issue. Luckily, we have more than a sentence to work with here, so bear with us.
OnLive, as a company, a service, and a console, is being spun off from Rearden, and is run by Steve Perlman (founder & CEO) and Mike McGarvey (COO). The entire company is structured around a new way to stream video that the company has created -- "interactive video compression" -- which, according to the official line, has extremely low latency, and brings video lag down to "about a millisecond." Using that technology, the complany plans to have five servers across the country that will host your games completely, and it'll be streaming the video from the game to your Mac, PC, or television. Sound ambitious? It is.
Read on to find out more. If you're at GDC, you can check out the press conference on Tuesday evening at 7:15 p.m. PST, or give the system a spin at Booth #5128. We'd been working on this story after getting a sneak peek earlier along with a scant few other journos, but Variety broke a major embargo. Translation: you get it early.
With another GCD already underway, a new contender has announced plans to jump into the console market... well, sort of. Enter Tectoy and it's 3D network-based console, the Zeebo -- relying purely on downloadable games (from the grave, the Phantom says, "Sup?"). The Zeebo will reportedly launch in Brazil this July and then to other similar markets in the following months.
At launch the console will reportedly come preloaded with the mobile games Quake, Evil Prey and Action Hero 3D. Before any of us could cry foul, the manufacturers have said the Zeebo isn't meant to compete with the Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3. The console will have a constant, free-of-charge connection to a 3G network courtesy of Tectoy's partner Claro -- one of the largest cellular providers in the Americas. According to the console's specs revealed at Engadget, the system will focus less on power and more on providing content to developing and emerging regions -- specifically through downloadable channels to combat rampant piracy.
Capcom, EA Mobile, Namco Networks, PopCap Games and THQ have already confirmed support for the emerging console. Games for Tectoy's Zeebo will range in price from 7 to 30BRL (about $7 to $13) with the console priced at 599BRL (about $264) -- a bargain compared to prices of current generation consoles in the target markets.
During the "Spore's Wake: What Seriously Happened?" panel at 
