No, really.

Playboy model Jo Garcia is probably going to incur the affections of many gamers once they hear this bit of news: she plays games. And okay, I know what you might be thinking 'yeah yeah, everyone plays games now.' Indeed, many people do, even the people we wouldn't expect we hear about playing games, so much so we've gotten kinda used to it. But the difference here is she actually knows what she's talking about. She laid out her thoughts on the matter in an interview with Kotaku:

"People don't understand that that the whole gaming world is not just for geeks, and assume that every person who plays video games is a geek that wears glasses. It's a misnomer that needs to be put to rest."

Get this too: she's a console gamer and a PC gamer. A PC gamer! Can you imagine this woman sitting down at her HP Blackbird (random guess), blowing the crap out of stuff in Bioshock, or mana burning in WoW? (You think she plays WoW? I wonder what other celebrity-types play it..) "Ms. Garcia, it's time for your million dollar photoshoot." "Not now, Pierre, I'm mana burning the crap out of this Death Knight." Glorious.

Garcia says if she could get a job as a game tester, she would "do that all day long." I'm guessing she actually couldn't get the job anyway - too much of a distraction to the other employees. I don't think she's exactly aware of what goes into game testing either, but I'll let her off, this time.

The girl's into RPGs, and not just casually. Xenosaga is one of her favourite series' (omigod, me 2). She also digs Radiata Stories and Final Fantasy:

"I like those games because they have a lot of sidequests," Garcia said. "You can build up your character doing small things. I'm 100 hours into FFXII and I'm not even done with the game yet. I'm doing all the hunts and the sidequests - I'm probably a third into the game and my guys are at level 60. I hold my characters high so when I go through the game it's a lot easier."

And I thought I was one of the few who had no trouble putting in over 100 hours into a Final Fantasy title. Good to know I'm not alone.

Kotaku say that's all well and good, but did she get the Zodiac Spear in FFXII?

"I actually got the Zodiac Spear the first time I played it... you have to go through hell to get that spear, but I happened to get it the first time because someone told me about it. You can't open certain boxes, but then you have to go through and fight that nasty esper at the end... I died three times before I actually beat it."

Folks, there ain't much more satisfying in this world than hearing a hot Playboy model talking about espers.

On Garcia's first tour through the Playboy Mansion, one of Hugh Hefner's favourite rooms, the "arcade room", became one of her favourites as well:

"I was in there probably the whole time I was at the house, because I wanted something to do. I almost finished the whole Donkey Kong while I was there."

If you haven't seen a pro StarCraft match before, watch this video!

When Blizzard announced StarCraft 2 in South Korea, a stadium full of fans went absolutely nuts. It was like being at a rock concert or something.

A big part of why StarCraft got so huge over there was all the televised matches -- that's right, StarCraft on TV. They literally have channels devoted to the game in Korea.

Razer Gaming Hardware -- probably best known for making high-quality "gaming mats" (mouse pads) -- has decided to sponsor a North American league that just kicked things into high-gear recently. The new league is called Team Liquid StarLeague. The Team Liquid website has been around for a while, following pro-gamer StarCraft news, but this league they started only had their first match the other week.  The league is dominated by StarCraft gurus -- but if you think you know your stuff, its membership is open to anyone that is up for the challenge. The prize for their first  tournament? $10,000 bucks. Not bad at all.

Razer has setup a spin-off site devoted to the StarLeague, and from that website, tourney ladders and weekly podcasts of TSL matches are aired. The matches air on the weekend.

I watched my first match last Sunday and I was hooked. I ended up watching two hours of matches. And no, it's not because I'm a StarCraft freak -- the matches just were really interesting and fun to watch. What really makes them worth watching is not only the skills of the players, but of the commentators as well. The two commentators for this match below are two dudes named Chill and Artosis. They did a great job -- when one of  them start talking about arcane Zerg rushing builds, or something unexpected happens and one of the announcers goes nuts, it makes watching an entire match worthwhile.

This match below was pretty entertaining. It was between Mondragon (Zerg) and Dreiven (Protoss). Dreiven was definitely the underdog in this match up -- Mondragon has a very strong win/loss ratio. When playing as Zerg against Protoss, Mondragon's record is 57-18. But it turned out to be a good match, check it out:

A interview came out today with Dreiven about this match. When asked how prepared for the match, Dreiven said he "didn't play much, watched replays of mondragon and played a few games with ret on wuthering hights. I actually came back from BBQ + beers an hour before the game! Maybe that's my strenght?" Whatever it was, something worked out for him in the match.

Update: And now an interview with Mondragon popped up over here. You can also check out the second Mondragon vs. Dreiven match in our videos section.

If you haven't seen a pro StarCraft match before, watch this video!

When Blizzard announced StarCraft 2 in South Korea, a stadium full of fans went absolutely nuts. It was like being at a rock concert or something.

A big part of why StarCraft got so huge over there was all the televised matches -- that's right, StarCraft on TV. They literally have channels devoted to the game in Korea.

Razer Gaming Hardware -- probably best known for making high-quality "gaming mats" (mouse pads) -- has decided to sponsor a North American league that just kicked things into high-gear recently. The new league is called Team Liquid StarLeague. The Team Liquid website has been around for a while, following pro-gamer StarCraft news, but this league they started only had their first match the other week.  The league is dominated by StarCraft gurus -- but if you think you know your stuff, its membership is open to anyone that is up for the challenge. The prize for this tournament? $10,000 bucks. Not bad at all.

Razer has setup a spin-off site devoted to the StarLeague, and from that website, tourney ladders and weekly podcasts of TSL matches are aired. The matches air on the weekend.

I watched my first match last Sunday and I was hooked. I ended up watching two hours of matches. And no, it's not because I'm a freak -- the matches were really interesting and fun to watch. What really makes them worth watching are skills of the players, and the commentators. The two commentators for this match below are two dudes named Chill and Artosis. They did a great job -- when one of  them start talking about arcane Zerg rushing builds, or something unexpected happens and one of the announcers goes nuts, it makes watching an entire match worthwhile.

This match below was pretty entertaining. It was between Mondragon (Zerg) and Dreiven (Protoss). Dreiven was definitely the underdog in this match up -- Mondragon has a very strong win/loss ratio. When playing as Zerg against Protoss, Mondragon's record is 57-18. But it turned out to be a good match, check it out:

A interview came out today with Dreiven about this match. When asked how prepared for the match, Dreiven said he "didn't play much, watched replays of mondragon and played a few games with ret on wuthering hights. I actually came back from BBQ + beers an hour before the game! Maybe that's my strenght?" Whatever it was, something worked out for him in the match.

Blizzard-centric gaming convention still a go for this year, and it'll be bigger than ever

Not that we needed any reassurance that there would be one this year, but Blizzard officially confirms BlizzCon 2008 anyways. It's the third such convention since its inception, and will be held in Anaheim, California at the Anaheim Convention Center on October 10 and 11. As with previous years, the event promises to be a feast for the global fanbase of Blizzard's key franchises: Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo.

Attendance for this year's BlizzCon is expected to grow such that the developer will need to expand this year's event to cover three halls, from the two it filled during previous years. Thus far attendees can look forward to the following events and attractions:

• Hands-on play time with upcoming Blizzard Entertainment releases
• Discussion panels with Blizzard Entertainment developers
• Competitive and casual tournaments for players to showcase their talents
• Areas and activities devoted to licensed products such as the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game
• Costume, machinima, and character sound-alike contests with great prizes
• Commemorative merchandise based on the Blizzard Entertainment franchises
• A silent auction
• More exciting activities to be announced

Might these upcoming Blizzard releases include the strongly-rumored newest Diablo entry?

No more 10-day online activations required

Showing respect for the gaming community, Bioware has taken feedback to heart and has decided to scale back their DRM somewhat.

A few days ago it was announced that Bioware would be requiring users to re-activate PC copies of Mass Effect, every 10 days. In that situation, if you lost your internet connection, you'd be stuck with a nice shiny DVD to play frisbee with, instead of being able to play the game.

Here is an excerpt from a lengthy post on the Bioware forums, where community manager Jay Watamaniuk related the following:

"There has been a lot of discussion in the past few days on how the security requirements for Mass Effect for PC will work. BioWare, a division of EA, wants to let fans know that Mass Effect will not require 10- day periodic re-authentication.

BioWare has always listened very closely to its fans and we made this decision to ensure we are delivering the best possible experience to them. To all the fans including our many friends in the armed services and internationally who expressed concerns that they would not be able re-authenticate as often as required, EA and BioWare want you to know that your feedback is important to us.

The solution being implemented for Mass Effect for the PC changes copy protection from being key disc based, which requires authentication every time you play the game by requiring a disc in the drive, to a one time online authentication.

This system has an added benefit of allowing players to seamlessly play the game without needing the DVD in the drive.

Key points---

•This solution allows gamers to authenticate their game on three different computers with the purchase of one disc. EA Customer Service is on hand to supply any additional authorizations that are warranted. This will be done on a case-by-case basis by contacting customer support.

• Games are authorized to the machine when the player installs and launches the software for the first time.

• We’ve all had those times when the discs get lost or scratched and you can’t play a game you’ve bought because you need a working disc in the drive. With the new system players will no longer need the disc to play the game, but can instead simply retain the disc as back up for re-installation.

FAQ---

Q: What is the difference between the old PC disc authentication solution and the new online model?

A: Two things have changed:

• First, authentication of discs has now gone from the physical format to the online format, freeing the need for consumers to have a disc in the drive at all times.

• Second, with online authentication consumers now connect to the Internet the first time the game is launched and are required only to reconnect if they are downloading new game content.

Q: What happens when I’ve reached the maximum # of computers for my game and I need more, say due to theft of computer, computer crashes, etc?

A: EA customer service is on hand to supply any additional authorizations that are warranted. This will be done on a case-by-case basis by contacting customer support.

Q: Did BioWare and EA change their mind on requiring that the game be re-authorized every 10 days?

A: BioWare has always listened very closely to its fans and we made this decision to ensure we are delivering the best possible experience to them. To all the fans including our many friends in the armed services and internationally who expressed concerns that they would not be able re-authenticate as often as required, EA and BioWare want you to know that your feedback is important to us.

Q: If the game isn’t going to require an authentication every 10 days, will it ever require re-authentication?

A: Only if the player chooses to download new game content."

While some of the more rabid anti-DRM folks are still upset with SecuROM's presence in Mass Effect, many more people applauded Bioware for at least removing the 10-day required activation system.

Update: Looks like the heavy-handed 10-day activation DRM was supposed to find its way into Spore, but now these plans have changed as well. But because there is a such a large online component to Spore, the game will no doubt be authorizing itself using some other methods.

It'll support at least five years of content, anyways

Electronic Arts Mythic wants to come out swinging if it hopes to even dent World of Warcraft's mega-armor with Warhammer: Age of Reckoning. Speaking in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Josh Drescher provides reassurance that the Warhammer Online team will planning for the long haul in order to attract and keep subscribers.

...you need to spec the game out in such a way that you actually have those progressions in mind for later - so you don't wind up trampling all over the earlier experiences every time you expand the game. We have actually five years' worth of numerology out in front of us in terms of all that.

Content will definitely be important, if we're to keep the MMORPG war in perspective. Consider that the runner up online RPG in terms of sheer number of subscribers is in fact the free-to-play Runescape, at least according to the NPD Group's newest Online Subscription Tracker report. Their current MMORPG ranking is as follows:

1. World of Warcraft
2. RuneScape
3. Lord of the Rings Online
4. Final Fantasy XI
5. City of Heroes

With Funcom's Age of Conan also on the horizon, this list stands to be shaken up in the near future. Will these new titles last against the current old guard of MMORPGs?

Seems like its going to be available on -6- gaming systems

Call of Duty 4 was one of the biggest games of the year, so hardly anyone should be surprised that the work for Call of Duty 5 is already underway.

Some scant details were revealed in a conference call with some Activision investor-types yesterday. One noteworthy detail that emerged was the franchise is coming back to the PS2 and the Wii, in addition to the 360,PS3, PC and DS versions.

Call of Duty 5 will also take place in a brand new military theater -- rumors hint that the game might go back to the days of World War II.

Update: Word on the street is that Call of Duty 5 is actually already playable, and is going through quality assurance as I type this.

Do you like maps, and making stuff? You could be a map-maker!

A new contest was announced by Sierra recently. The contest is called "The Official Map Making Contest." A stretch of intense research into the "Official Map Making Contest" has lead me to the discovery that the map making contest is for the game World In Conflict.

If you are a fan of the popular W.W 3 game, into making maps, or want to enter the contest just for no reason at all, you can do so over here, at the official Official Map Making Contest's Website website.

NVIDIA has thrown some prizes into the mix: the grand prize is 1000 clams, a fancy new video card (a 8800 GT I believe), and a good chance of seeing your map in a future World In Conflict game, or expansion pack. There are also some prizes for the chumps who win in the following categories: Best use of DX10, Best Assault Map, Best, Domination Map, Best Tug of War Map.

I believe the comma after "best" is a typo -- it's not really its own category. Furthermore, as for the "Best use of DX10" category, for those of you that have been following the contest, it was previously called the "Best Map That Slows Down Your Framerates, Yet Does Not Add Any Better Visual Effects" category (evidence.)

If you want to get into the wacky world of game design, you could do worse than win a contest like this. So hop to it.

(Oh yeah: and the map editor is free. So you don't even need the game to make the map. Though this may make the whole 'design' phase somewhat tricker.)

VP of Content Relations says solution is more copy protection

Roy Taylor, NVIDIA's Vice President of Content Relations, says, in a Eurogamer interview, the future of PC gaming will see "more digital authentication, and we're going to see more of an approach that says that PC games aren't products - they're a service."

By this he means additional content, expansions and all that stuff for sale, because "pirates are just killing the developers - and I think it's really unfair, what they're doing."

It's certainly a divisive issue. Taylor is pretty hard in his stance though, expressing his disheartenment at the situation:

"One of the things that I find frustrating is that PC gamers tend to be very passionate, and they love the people that make great PC games. If you ask any PC gamer what they think of John Carmack, they'll say he's a hero. What do they think of Tim Sweeney? He's a hero. Ken Levine is a hero. And yet many of them, sadly, will go and steal from them. I just don't get that, I really don't."

Well, it's easy to blame the overall low PC sales on piracy, but there are examples that contradict this theory (inside and outside the gaming industry, take the music industry for example). A couple of months ago a developer from Sins of a Solar Empire posted an article about this on his game's forums. Empire, by the way, contained no copy protection, was under an independent development house, and topped the PC sales charts a few weeks after being released. Read on:

"Our games sell well for three reasons. First, they're good games which is a pre-requisite. But there's lots of great games that don't sell well.

The other two reasons are:

* Our games work on a very wide variety of hardware configurations.
* Our games target genres with the largest customer bases per cost to produce for.

It's irrelevant how many people will play your game (if you're in the business of selling games that is). It's only relevant how many people are likely to buy your game."

Obviously, there are a lot of PC gamers here. Why do you pirate or purchase PC games?

You'll have to re-activate Mass Effect every 10 days at the latest

On the heels of Crytek cry-babies saying that PC piracy ruined Crysis,  Bioware has announced some krogan and draconian copyright enforcement measures for the upcoming PC version of Mass Effect.

The first line of defense will be SecuROM. Used in many games over the last few years -- notably including last year's Bioshock -- SecuROM endeavors to make copying the DVD very difficult. Additionally however, Mass Effect will require a internet connection to validate its install not just  when the game is installed -- but every 10 days! 

Here's Derek French, Bioware's Technical Producer explaining their DRM choice in Bioware's forum:

"Mass Effect uses SecuROM and requires an online activation for the first time that you play it. Each copy of Mass Effect comes with a CD Key which is used for this activation and for registration here at the BioWare Community. Mass Effect does not require the DVD to be in the drive in order to play, it is only for installation.

After the first activation, SecuROM requires that it re-check with the server within ten days (in case the CD Key has become public/warez'd and gets banned). Just so that the 10 day thing doesn't become abrupt, SecuROM tries its first re-check with 5 days remaining in the 10 day window. If it can't contact the server before the 10 days are up, nothing bad happens and the game still runs. After 10 days a re-check is required before the game can run."

Needless to say, community members of the Bioware forums are going nuts. Some are in favor of the system; many are not so cheery about it.

Personally, I'm very much looking forward to Mass Effect, and I'll buy it if it requires a retinal scan and a 60-character alpha-numeric code to be manually typed in every time I play -- but nonetheless, I do have some troubles with the system. Previously, with Bioshock, that DRM was annoying enough -- as a video card testing guy, I had to re-install that game many times, on different benchmarking systems. Even though the game would only be installed on one system at a time, my legitimate serial code would de-validate itself, and eventually, it would not install at all. But this Mass Effect system is even more extreme. What if, say, you move to a new apartment and no longer have internet access? You should be able to play a single-player game somehow, without requiring access to check some serial on the Internet. At least in my perfect world anyways.

While I can understand Bioware's position, I do not think it'll be effective. There has never been a single single-player game that was not cracked -- (and quickly cracked) -- by the all the dark-side programmers out there, cracking away. Multi-player games are a different story, but single-player games invariably have their anti-piracy methods bypassed.

Piracy is not as big of a problem on the consoles because of how much of a hassle it is. Really: it is not so much about the money. It's the hassle. In North America, chipping your console and getting pirated games is probably a pain. Downloading a problem-free, pirated game on the PC from your home the day it is released is easy, and here is my point: once it becomes far less of a hassle to play a pirated game than a legitimate one, then we have a problem. I point to the success of Steam to backup my claims. Game-buyers appreciate convenience. And people who don't have enough money to buy games, well, you don't have to worry about them pirating all that much, because they aren't the people buying games.

What's a better solution for Bioware? I can think of one in about five seconds -- okay, done: you put a in-game anti-piracy droid in the game. Make it a full in-game character. In order to get Commander Shepard into certain randomized solar systems in the game, you have to meet this droid in-game, where he authorizes you to travel further. In each game you start, say the droid can appear in 40 different randomized locations in the galaxy. For each of the 40 different positions, have a different DRM-key that needs to be checked online. All 40 of the DRM-keys are derived through algorithms from the one serial code that you enter when you first install the game. That way, people would be able to play if they did not have internet access at the moment. And with 40 different keys at randomized positions, it would be far more difficult to crack. And then, on top of this, you release bi-weekly updates to the game, which only tweak the game in very small ways, or squash the small inevitable bugs that pop up, but additionally, you study the anti-cracking methods out there, and shut down whatever methods they use with these updates. For the money that Bioware pays to SecuROM for their DRM, Bioware could instead pay some comp. sci. intern to develop these updates for them.

The thing with game piracy is that the crackers and warez groups do it for props. Releases older than a couple of days mean nothing to them. If games were updated often, the skilled crackers would lose motivation fairly quickly to work on the game. 

A well-executed, semi-original game idea? Bring it on! Parkour madness...

A video of some gameplay from the upcoming Mirror's Edge game from Digital Illusions CE (DICE) was released today at a Sony press conference in London. 

The game looks very impressive, in this humble gamer's opinion.

The best thing about this game is that it features a semi-original concept. Which is very good. If this was another horror FPS surivial game, or a fantasy MMO, I'd probably be tempted to staple my feet to the ground out of boredom. Kudos to DICE for trying something different with this game, as well as with their upcoming Battlefield Heroes. From this video, it looks like a large portion of the game is running across the top of roof tops... which is simple idea, but a terrific one, for a game.

Mirror's Edge is coming in late 2008 for the three pillars of next-gen gaming: the Xbox 360, the PS3, and yes, the PC.

Just imagining running Mirror's Edge on my home PC with either VR920 glasses, or a DLP projector projecting a eight foot screen, is making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Good times to be had.

Breaking them all: a list of demands

Reading the 'Design 101' column over on GameSetWatch got me thinking about The Rules of Gaming.

In the latest edition, Raven game designer Manveer Heir plays Crysis on the PC and lays out what he thinks the game does right, and what it does wrong. The main point he comes away with is this: consistency is key. And this applies to anything: usefulness of abilities, style of level design, whatever. Consistency is definitely key, in all types of games, perhaps most importantly RPGs. Ever play a good RPG for a solid 50+ hours, and then all of a sudden the plot starts to get really...stupid? That can ruin a good game.

With all the rules though, I wonder if a game out there couldn't break about all of them and be more successful as a game for it. So, here's my list of demands for all you game developers - meet me at midnight behind the docks to complete the transaction.

1) I want an FPS that takes place in 4th century BC, when crossbows and little else were invented as shooting-based weapons. Or eliminate the confinements of the FPS genre and just give the player all kinds of weapons: stones, spears, whatever. Make him have to hunt to stay alive, too. Maybe the character lives in exile - this could serve as a solid backstory.

2) I want an RPG that has nothing to do with rescuing anyone or saving the planet from imminent destruction, or some loner hero's troubled past. Or hell, have it be about the bad guys trying to take over the world in some way, but split the game between their perspective and the "good guys," illustrating the point that good and evil isn't so black and white.

3) I want a racer with a compelling story (no, this is not impossible).

4) I want a shooter (vertical scrolling, sidescrolling, 3D sidescrolling, etc.) that involves exploration, and not constant shooting.

5) I want a platform/adventure title in a modern day setting that's truly adult. Prince of Persia is probably the closest thing as of yet, but not quite what I'm thinking (and the setting isn't modern). Edit: Kevin's Mirror's Edge article has answered my prayers and then some with suspicious timing.

6) I want some kind of ninja/assassin game that uses the Wiimote. Nintendo, you'd have to be insane not to do this.

7) Someone release a new Shadowgate or something like it for the Wii and/or DS as well. Sorry, Myst ain't my thing, and it's kind of outdated isn't it?

8) Perhaps most of all though, I'd like to see something truly unique and terrifying: a horror-ish game based on the concepts of nightmares and lucid dreaming. Maybe Silicon Knights and/or Team Silent could develop it, but I think a fresh developer might do the best job for something like this. Imagine playing a character that serves as some kind of conduit for people's nightmares, and you spend the game traveling unwillingly between them, aware you're in a nightmare, yet it seems as real as anything. Think Waking Life meets the last quarter of Silent Hill 3 as a sort of loose idea. Horror + metaphysics = game of the century.

Of course, I don't know everything, and maybe some of this has been covered already, at least to some extent. Feel free to chime in with any examples, elaboration, or ideas of your own!

Cool free game features robots fighting, with online multi-player

You may remember the Capcom arcade game called Gundam Versus Gundam (or Armored Core). The game had a really simple premise: two robots square off in a arena, and try to decimate each other. You had swords. You had laser beams. Missiles. All the useful armaments that you'd expect a giant, 30 foot robot would be carrying.  It was a pretty fun game. 

Well now somebody has made a game just like that, but thankfully, it runs on Windows, so you won't have to lug a giant arcade cabinet around anymore. The game is called Bootfighter Windom XP SP2, and it was a made earlier this year in Japanese, but now some dedicated gamers have translated it into English.

Some of the game's features: first off, its completely free. It has online multiplayer. You can customize your robots to some extent (even adding your own voices and such). Like all good Japanese robots, you can turn yourself into a plane. You can also play in team versus team mode, challenging multi-mechs to battles, including AI-controlled warships and stuff.

If you feel up to it, make your own server, and post the IP down here. From what I've read there are not too many servers active.

The man behind this game is a Japanese gamer-hero named Y. Kamada. He also goes by the initials YSK, when he is keeping a low profile. The original Japanese page for the game is over here, and the translated version is found over here at mirror moon, which is a great site that has more translated games worth checking out.

Here's some bits of the README below:

===============================================================================
% Game Description
===============================================================================
  Choose various mechs, defeat your enemies, and aim for the highest score.
  Enjoy fighting others online as well.

===============================================================================
% System Requirements
===============================================================================
  CPU                Over Pentium III 1GHz
  RAM                Over 256MB
  Graphics Card      VRAM64M DirectX9.0
  Sound Card         DirectX9.0

===============================================================================
% About Net Play
===============================================================================
  If you wish to set up a server at home, please open TCP ports 2123~2128 and
  3123~3128.*

  If one person lags, everyone lags.

  Please adjust settings during game startup so the game functions smoothly.

  *Note: Run Server.EXE to set up the game server itself.   

..pretty much

We reported earlier on the likely imminent announcement for a third game in the Diablo series, and we're here again to offer another little nugget of goodness on that front.

According to fansite Diablo3.com, the domain has just now been purchased by Blizzard, with the site now redirecting to DiabloFans.com (which really, is a much better suited name).

The site's administrator 'mockery' commented on the site regarding the matter, here's an excerpt of what (s)he had to say:

"..while Blizzard is indeed acquiring the diablo3.com domain name, they told me that this shouldn't be considered an announcement for the Diablo 3 game we've been waiting for all these years. They acquire new domains all the time. While this is true, I personally can't help but think that this is a confirmation of sorts that they're working on the next Diablo game. Sure, they can claim it's because they want to protect their intellectual properties 'n what have you, but I can't imagine they would all of a sudden be so interested in the diablo3.com domain if they weren't working on a new Diablo 3 game behind the scenes."

"One of the nice things about this whole name-change ordeal is that Blizzard really appreciates the fact that we're a dedicated fan site and we'll be working with them much more closely in the future to bring you the latest Diablo game news."

Quite a heartwarming little tale, and an exciting piece of news, too. I agree with the admin; acquiring domains is standard, sure, but Diablo3.com? That's awfully specific. And Blizzard are known for their secrecy. Ah, the fun.

Webgame site offers chance to help for Mother's Day

PopCap Games (developers of Bejewled) offers free, incomplete webgames on their website, or $30 complete versions (sidenote: they leave their programming framework open to the public, so any inde developers out there can get in on the action, too).

In light of Mother's Day this year (May 11), starting today and until then, those who purchase one of the games on the site will see 30% of their proceeds going to "Komen for the Cure," a network dedicated to fighting the disease.

The story behind it is that a woman named Nancy G. Brinker promised her dying sister, Susan G. Komen she would "do everything in her power to end breast cancer forever." She certainly kept to it, as the organization has raised over $1 billion to date. You might also recognize the name through Microsoft's i'm initiative, of which Komen for the Cure is tied to.

With this current venture, the cause has raised $6,000 on its first day alone. Pretty impressive! They're hoping to raise $100,000 by the time its over, so maybe purchase a game or two, for your kids or yourself. There are all kinds, from mystery-style titles to puzzle games to shoot-em-ups.

Atari's majority shareholder to purchase outstanding common stock

French publisher Infogrames further cements its partnership with Atari by agreeing to merge with the US company.  The two entities were already quite tightly knit; Infogrames has been using the Atari brand name for its global operations since 2003.  Today's announcement makes Infogrames' ownership of Atari complete through the purchase of the subsidiary's remaining outstanding shares to the tune of $11 million USD.

This agreement is an essential and positive development for Infogrames and its shareholders. It brings Atari fully under the control of Infogrames, delivering a platform for future growth in the US. This step closely follows a series of recent major restructuring actions implemented in an effort to reposition Atari, streamline its corporate structure and reduce its annualized costs, including costs related to being a US public company.

The merger is expected to be completed during the third quarter of this calender year, at which point Atari will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Infogrames.  Interestingly, sources cite that the French company may instead choose adopt Atari's name for itself.  Currently a majority shareholder of Atari, Infogrames has been working towards getting the US publisher to stop losing money.  The French company is agreeing to lend Atari a cool $20 million USD for the time being, to better fund its operations until the merger is finally sealed.

Team Fortress 2 goes to hell for two days

We were pretty excited when we learned about Valve's big update for Team Fortress 2 that would add new Medic achievements and weapons.  Fine, maybe only I was excited about it.

And how many of you guessed that Valve would somehow screw this up big time?  Very good, because you guys were correct.

This is the story of how Valve destroyed the TF2 natural order in merely two days.

April 29, Day 1 - Valve releases update, adding new Medic achievements to TF2.  The update killed my bandwidth, interrupting my GTA IV fun.  So maybe it was a bad idea for my roommate and I to try updating at the same time, but anyway...  The game is now flooded with Medics as players scramble to unlock the new achievements, not realizing that a team with no other classes can't efficiently deal out damage and win against a team that does appreciate balance.

This is quite annoying because I found myself forced to play as something else when I'm the one with 9 hours on a Medic (and less than an hour on the other classes).  Maybe I don't play TF2 like a gaming addict, but I play a Medic religiously; now suddenly, every joker decides they want to be a healing class?  Medic mayhem!

The best part of all this is that at some point, someone figured out that he did not need to actually earn any achievements.  The new update had somehow added an exploit in which players could simply type in commands to unlock the achievements and the three new weapons.  By the end of the day, many gamers were using these commands, whether to cheat or just out of curiosity.

April 30, Day 2 - Valve caught on and churned out a new update to fix the exploits.  Here is the update news directly from the Steam website:

Team Fortress 2 Client

• Removed TF2 achievement console commands

Team Fortress 2 Server

• Fixed clients being able to trigger sv_soundscape_printdebuginfo on the server
• Fixed potential "nuke" exploit in rcon subsystem

Valve has made an attempt to further resolve this problem by rolling back, removing achievements from those who used the commands.  On the Steam forums, some have complained about losing all their achievements from the roll back, even the ones earned legitmately.  Others have yet to feel the wrath of Valve and are still running around with their Milestone weapons.

If you want to update to actually take effect, it's suggested that you restart Steam.  However, many of the community discussions suggest that Valve's problems are far from over - there will be much work ahead.

I'll be holding my breath for more updates, hoping that Valve will effectively address these issues.

Sign up for your chance to jump into a stargate

The upcoming MMORPG Stargate Worlds has opened up their closed beta sign up page. Stargate Worlds will be arriving sometime in late 2008.

The game will feature stargates (!) and the following possible archetypes (classes) to choose from: Archaeologist, Asgard, Goa'uld, Jaffa, Scientist, Soldier, and Commando. The scientist and archaeologist classes specialize in non-combat roles, while the other classes are better able to handle FPS-like engagements with alien forces.

Fourth annual conference coming up

Didn't think the video game and medical fields had anything to do with each other? Think again - plans have been announced today regarding the Games For Health Project's fourth annual conference. Beginning May 8 to 9, 2008 (May 7 for pre-conference events), the event will take place at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland. If you're keen on going though, be warned, tickets are pricey - $295.00.

The project is produced by The Serious Games Initiative (you can tell it's serious when even the 'the' is capitalized), a Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars effort, which "applies cutting edge games and game technologies to a range of public and private policy, leadership, and management issues." So you see, it's all quite connected. In fact, Games for Change and a Japan chapter of Serious Games is also run under this umbrella.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Pioneer Portfolio is the lead conference sponsor and is behind the project fully. Chinwe Onyekere, RWJF program officer, explained in an interview with Games Press why it's important:

“This conference provides a forum for collaborations to emerge between the video game industry and the health and health care industry. Through these exchanges, we hope attendees will continue to explore how the power of video games can help to solve complex health challenges.”

In its history, the project has brought researchers, medical professionals, and game developers together to share their knowledge on how games and game technology can impact health care and policy. The initiative's main interests are detailed on the website:

• Can games improve the provision, and quality, of healthcare?
• What existing and emerging game technologies (such as multi-user, virtual environments) might be particularly useful when applied to healthcare issues?
• How can we expand the application of computer-based game technologies to face key challenges in the healthcare sector?
• How do we identify and proactively deal with any social, ethical, and/or legal issues that might arise through the application of game-based tools to healthcare issues?

If you're still having trouble picturing what will happen at the conference, some of the panels will include and cover "Pos or Not : Destroying a stigma about AIDS with a game", "Vyro Games (mobile biofeedback  sensor games)", game addiction, how to "Maximise Energy Expenditure" through games, and let's not forget gaming as therapy, which will be touched on. Detailed descriptions of the events can be found through the website.

Buuut... Crysis still not coming to consoles

Crytek Studios president Cevat Yerli confirms in an interview with Croatian gaming wire PC Play that the German developer will no longer exclusively support the PC when it comes to development of future IP. Instead, Crytek intends to make greater strides in console game development, though it appears the Crysis shooter series will remain on the PC platform.

Perhaps of greater concern to PC gamers is Yerli's outlook on PC game development; when quizzed over the waning of PC as a gaming platform compared to recent consoles, Yerli bemoaned widespread piracy which is essentially killing business. From a practical standpoint, console game development is simply proving to be more lucrative. Looking strictly at North American industry sales data from the NPD Group, it would appear that Crysis did indeed fail to move mountains despite launching to great critical acclaim; the title sold around 86,633 units during its first month, not even breaking 100,000 copies.  However, North American publisher Electronic Arts insists the title has beaten sales expectations by selling over one million copies as of February 2008.

I believe that’s the core problem of PC Gaming, piracy. To the degree PC Gamers that pirate games inherently destroy the platform. Similar games on consoles sell factors of 4-5 more. It was a big lesson for us and I believe we wont have PC exclusives as we did with Crysis in future. We are going to support PC, but not exclusive anymore.

Despite the cooling love affair with PC gaming, Yerli does recognize that Microsoft remains committed to making things at least a little rosier with its Games For Windows initiative. He wouldn't confirm whether or not future titles in the Crysis series would support the Games for Windows Live! online gaming tools, however.

Nifty new trailer for EA's Battlefield Heroes pops up

A new trailer has been released for EA DICE's upcoming micro-transcation based game, Battlefield Heroes. The trailer shows some of the possibilities in making up your own WW2 alter-ego. You can be a pirate if you want. You don't even have to wear pants in this game. The possibilities are amazingly vast.

Battlefield Heroes is going to be a free download for your PC, and is coming this summer. A few days ago, the DICE guys announced that the first phase of a limited beta starts next week. An open beta will period will follow some time after that.

Free flash game sequel kicks zombie ass

A sequel to an excellent flash game came out this week. The game is called Last Stand 2, and its a lot of fun. It's all about shooting massive zombie armies with guns, and occasionally, chainsawing zombie dogs into little pieces. It was made by Con Artists Productions, which, as far as I can tell, is one guy.

The game came out last week and has been played over 250,000 times already on the flash games site, Armor Games.

Here's the games premise: You stand behind a barricade on the right of the screen. The unstoppable zombie hordes come from the left. You shoot the zombies before they eat you. That's the basic premise, anyways. There is also a bit of strategy in the mix as you try to make your way to Union City, before a rescue evacuation boat leaves. You have to search towns for weapons (shotguns, AK's, rifles etcetera) and for anyone who survived the zombie menace. 

Why should you check this game out? Well, it'll take about 30 seconds to download, and its a lot of fun. If you aren't convinced, maybe some of these semi-literate endorsements left on the game's feedback page will convince you: "increadable, even beter than the first one.  if anyone is reading this and hasn't played yet then make sure to stop off at the fort at the end, you can get high power weapons of war to play around with until you need to head to the goal," says tyranoseanus; and "you've crafted the ultima thule of zombie survival games" says ninjasuperspy.

Flash games are like a whole art-form in themselves. The best flash games are usually the ones that are really easy to start playing, yet have a depth that goes beyond a simple premise. This is one of those games.

If you played Last Stand 1, expect a far greater challenge in the sequel. I was playing this game for a couple hours last night, and here are some tips I can pass on:

• Protect the survivors as well as you can. You can't take the zombie hordes on alone. Any zombie that is carrying a weapon is able to waste a survivor, so try your best to shoot the zombies with weapons first.
• In regards to guns, the new guns you get aren't going to be necessarily better than your old ones.
• Your best bet is to aim for the head -- but when things get really hairy and you don't have time to aim, the next best thing to go for are the legs.
• The chainsaw is a good stand-by backup weapon. This time around though, the chainsaw requires refuelling every once in a while, so keep that in mind.
• If your going to try to finish the game, don't leave the towns as soon as you can. Your better off making sure you check the entire town for supplies before you take off.

Well, that's all the advice I can give. Reload often and go kill some zombies!

More layers, maybe?

Gamasutra thinks games need more subtext, that is, more underlying and/or implicit meaning in video games. Do you agree? I for one do. And what with all them studios closing all the time, maybe some more story and layers to the stories and less emphasis (money) placed on graphics would be better for developers (and their wallets). As gamers, would you support an industry model like this less?

Begins Editor-At-Large Chris Remo:

"[Whether or not a game is "good"] usually has a lot to do with playability, polish, and appropriate depth of gameplay.

To be well-received, a character-driven game is expected to provide a thrilling experience, one that takes a player to another world or puts a player in an exciting role. Why shouldn't they have more than that, though? Perhaps great games could be expected not only to deliver a compelling experience, but to deliver a compelling subtext--a meaning underneath the surface.

I'm certainly not claiming myself as an exception here. Except in the most obvious cases, we don't generally delve into whether our games say anything. But maybe we should - and there are numerous examples of games that do."

I guess this leads to a more specific question: should games get more political? RPGs can be pretty political at times, no doubt, alternate time period or not (history repeats, y'know), and in their own way, titles like Grand Theft Auto are political, and politically challenging. But could developers be more direct or innovative, and succeed? Think Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis' narrative fused with RPG-type gameplay, for one example. Now that's a thrilling thought. The film was chock full of subtext, one of those experiences you can go after time and time again, and keep finding more each time. There are a few musicians like this too, but we don't see it in games too much, do we? The only example I can think of off the top of my head is Final Fantasy VIII, something which is undoubtedly a rarity in the gaming world. This is one title I still love playing, and actually thinking about it while I play it, many years later. And obviously, the graphics don't compare to today's, but the point is it's irrelevant, because so much effort is put into the story and the underlying meanings, how could you hold the graphical quality against it? I guess what I'm asking is, what percentage of games today will hold up in this regard in a decade? Two?

But all this is sort of a tangent in itself, as Remo doesn't necessarily mean to point only to the stories. His list of games that accomplish the notion of subtext include GTA 3 ("light modern-day social commentary, poking at American consumer culture and attraction to violence - while reveling in it"), Bioshock ("exaggerates realistic human traits and schools of thought in its larger-than-life antagonists in order to speculate and comment), Full Throttle ("a melancholy reflection on the American frontier and the inevitability of invasive industrialization), Ico ("no deep literary premise, but rather a profound character connection") and Half-Life ("[delivers] a contextual thesis on what traditional elements of a strongly-defined [medium] are required to communicate a narrative, and which should be discarded"). Great examples, to be sure.

I agree with him in that all games don't have to fit this standard, not at all. I mean, it's funny to listen to some good club music now and then isn't it (yeah, I said it)? Not everything has to be terribly thoughtful, sometimes it's good to just blow the crap out of stuff after a long day's work, but I think more titles should offer that immersive experience, because within arguably the most potentially immersive medium, it just seems like a wasted opportunity otherwise.

Free flash game sequel kicks zombie ass

A sequel to an excellent flash game came out this week. The game is called Last Stand 2. It's all about shooting massive zombie armies with guns, and occasionally, chainsawing zombie dogs into little pieces. It was made

Flash games are like a whole art-form in themselves. The best flash games are usually the ones that are really easy to start playing, yet have a depth that goes beyond a simple premise.

DON'T PUBLISH

Fans gives the classic game an update

You know that Super Street Fighter II HD Turbo Remix coming out this season on XBLA? Looks pretty nice, hey? Well, turns out Sonic is slapping on the blush and mascara himself for a whole new look. It won't be professional developers doing the work though, like a couple other cases, this one will be fuelled purely on fan love (and programming).

Six dudes will be performing the overhaul, and their intention is as follows:

“The purpose of the S2HD project is to remaster Sega’s classic Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in high definition graphics, whilst at the same time precisely preserving the original gameplay. New features that were not present in the original will also be made available. The S2HD project is always searching for new talent to aid us in our endeavour to resurrect and improve a timeless gaming classic. All of those significantly involved with the S2HD project readily understand that the birth of this venture was entirely due to enthusiastic individuals showcasing their artistic talents in the Sonic community. Collaboration rather than competition and encouragement as opposed to derision are therefore our most central philosophies."

Specifically, they're gunning for new graphical effects, physics, sound effects (new and old will be included), 256 colors, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles as playable characters, some 3D, possibly a level designer, and lots more.

Graphically speaking, I find it looks a little too flash animation-y or something. Is that just me?

Anyway, they're still looking for talent, so if you're passionate and have programming, art or music skills, contact them. The project summary can be found here.

And finally, another outlet (Racketboy in this case) is in agreement with me on this sort of thing: Sega should probably pick this up shouldn't they? While he (Racketboy I mean) says you'd expect not, perhaps what with the company being in something of a funk at the moment, they'd be wise to go for it. Thoughts?