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Star Wars Galaxies Shutdown BacklashStar Wars Galaxies Shutdown Backlash

June 30, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 6:41 pm

Despite the announced shutdown of Star Wars: Galaxies and the approaching new Star Wars-based MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, loyal subscribers don’t want Galaxies to end. They’ve begun a petition to try to convince Sony to let the MMO live on as a free-to-play MMO.

The petition asks Sony to convert the game to a ‘freemium’, microtransaction-based MMO, and that Sony consolidate players onto a smaller number of servers and facilitate character transfer to reduce operational costs in order to keep the game running. The petition has already gotten thousands signatures in a few days.

One of the petition leaders posted:

We are not your typical gamers.

We are not a commodity.

But if you look at the recent decision by Lucasarts to shut down Star Wars Galaxies, you might be inclined to think we are both of those things. Lucasarts thinks that we are a non-perishable commodity that can be shoved into a shipping crate and moved down the road to their next project. That is not the case. Not even close.

We are a vibrant community. We have seen our ups and downs, but we are only stronger because of it. We have endured all manner of broken promises and misleading “improvements” to this game, and throughout all of it, we have continued to build our community, and show support and loyalty to this great game. But we didn’t do it because of a game. We did it because of our community here.

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E3 2011 Preview SummariesE3 2011 Preview Summaries

June 19, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 4:45 pm

You might notice that I’ve been pretty silent on E3 2011 previews, despite hustling around the entire time. That is because I’ve been writing almost all of them for Strategy Informer.

So, those of you who are regulars at Gaming Podcast – and judging by hits, there are tons of you – here are excerpts of the previews I’ve written for Strategy Informer for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 titles, plus a link to the full article.

UbiSoft’s Pre-E3 Briefing:

At the briefing, they showed off the following games: Rayman Origins, Driver: San Francisco, Far Cry 3, Brothers In Arms: The Furious Four, The Adventures of Tintin, Ghost Recon: Future Warrior, Trackmania 2, Raving Rabbids: Alive & Kicking, Just Dance 3, Rocksmith, Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. (Read more…)

Dead Island (PC, PS3, 360):

Getting back to the mood of the game, missions are similarly realistic and grim. Nothing in the game seems artificially tacked on; the flow and the suspension of disbelief are extremely well done. During a mission, sometimes you’ll rescue another survivor and they will have a mission for you to do right there in the middle of your current quest. You can opt to help them, ignore them, or even screw them by driving them off in their vehicle. This is survival, and sometimes, jjust sometimes, you may give in to temptations to make choices that will make you normally wince. It’s a zombie dog eats zombie dog world and in the middle of an apocalypse, sometimes you have to fortify your own safety at the expense of another. (Read more…)

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2M Users Sign Up for COD: Elite Beta2M Users Sign Up for COD: Elite Beta

June 14, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 1:12 am

Activision’s Dan Amrich posted in his One of Swords blog that two million users have signed up Call of Duty: Elite‘s beta, who said the number “blew his mind” when “they hit that number in less than two weeks. That should give the dev team at Beachhead plenty to work with to kick off the beta, which officially starts July 14.”

“The official start of the beta is a month away, so there’s still plenty of time for you to sign up. When the studio head at Beachhead said this would be a live beta, he was not kidding — your participation really can make a difference in how Elite evolves,” added Amrich, “And don’t be discouraged by the big number, thinking you shouldn’t bother because they already have enough people — two million volunteers among 30 million Call of Duty players is a small amount. More would be even better. Once you’ve signed up, just watch your email inbox for an invite.”

The 2M beta applications aren’t necessarily an endorsement for Elite. Rather, users are probably curious to see the beta and if it pleases them. The paid subscription portion reportedly only represents 10% of Elite, anyway, and is aimed at more “professional” and “hardcore” gamers, aka clans.

Users can apply for the beta here.

Gaming Podcast 212: Watermelon JuiceGaming Podcast 212: Watermelon Juice

March 2, 2011| schommer| 0 Comment| 12:19 am

The gaming podcast is back for the full edition, this week we’ve got a preview look at the title Orcs Must Die! developed by Robot Entertainment. Besides our awesome community comments we’ve got some news coverage including:

LG Lawsuit Stops PS3 Shipments In Europe
Mortal Kombat Banned in Australia
Rift Claims More End-Game Content Than Any MMO Launch, Ever
Browser Based PC Games The Future?
Research Analyst: PC Gaming Is Indeed Dying

This week, we’ve got a question for you: What is your favorite gaming food? And, if you want to see the Orcs Must Die! youtube trailer, check it out after the break.

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Seven Games That Need to Be RemadeSeven Games That Need to Be Remade

February 7, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 8:11 pm

With the strong rumor that Halo: Combat Evolved is going to be remade graphically from the ground up, it brings us to the question of why aren’t more games being remade? We’re not talking about reboots like the new emo Devil May Cry, or re-imaginings like the first person shooter XCOM. We’re talking about a true remake like you see endlessly from Square-Enix with its Final Fantasy games on the handhelds – they’re completely faithful to the original, save a new engine, graphics and occasionally an additional mission or two; the upcoming localization of Dragon Quest VI is a great example.

So, we’ve picked out seven games that desperately need a modern remake, sometimes due to their primitive graphics, sometimes due to their incompatibility with the current OS, or the fact you need to do some major tweaking to get them to run (unless GOG.com does it for you, bless their souls.)

These games aren’t old or have already been remade, so you won’t see M.U.L.E., Sid Meier’s Pirates or Seven Cities of Gold – in fact, the oldest of the games is from 1994. You also won’t see games that require little work to be remade, which is why you won’t see Grim Fandango here, either. These games would require serious undertaking. The games also have to remain the same genre and style, so no Elder Scrolls version of Ultima IV, either.

Without further ado, here are five older games that desperately need a remake – in alphabetical order.

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Contest: Win a Free Season of Wallace & Gromit’s Grand AdventuresContest: Win a Free Season of Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures

March 18, 2009| schommer| 0 Comment| 1:20 pm

wallace GameStooge, 2Old2Play and Gaming Podcast have joined forces with Telltale Games and are offering three chances to win the PC version of Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures – the entire four episode season!

That’s right – you can win the entire season, a $34.95 value, which includes:

Fright of the Bumblebees, which comes out March 24
The Last Resort (May)
Muzzled (June)
The Bogey Man (July)

Winners get the order code to get each chapter as it comes out for free!

For Gaming Podcast, you merely need to post a comment stating your favorite brand of cheese. Just let us know which cheese makes you drool – whether it’s the tanginess of cheddar or the mildness of Gouda. The majesty of Roquefort or the commonness of American. You don’t even need to restrict it to cow’s milk cheese, too – if you love goat cheese, let us know! Only one entry per user, and you have to impress us with your love of that fine dairy product. The contest ends March 24, 12 noon EST.

You have two other chances at GameStooge and 2Old2Play – please head over there and checkout their contests!

February 2009: Dexter Game For iPhone and PCFebruary 2009: Dexter Game For iPhone and PC

October 18, 2008| schommer| 0 Comment| 9:06 am

As a huge fan of Showtime’s Dexter, we’re excited (afraid?) to hear they’re making a game in its image. We actually pay for an Amazon Unbox because we’re too cheap to buy Showtime for all their other shows. A Dexter game could be killer on the PC and iPhone.

Obviously the first problem to concern ourselves with is the franchise name, all too often we end up with ‘branded’ named games that produce awful results. It’s easy to get lost in the idea of making money on the name Dexter than putting in the time to a quality game release.

There is a high probability a Dexter game is going to suck, but we can hold up our hopes they do the franchise justice and create something scary but entertaining with a good storyline. How else can you represent a TV series in which the main character is a serial killer and he justifies his killings?

(Thanks, Joystiq)

Gears of War 2 For PC: No – Piracy is BadGears of War 2 For PC: No – Piracy is Bad

October 2, 2008| schommer| 0 Comment| 10:20 am

The last few weeks we’ve often brought up, on the gaming podcast, our reasons behind why Gears of War 2 wouldn’t be a PC title and only an Xbox 360. Our theory was more of a marketing tactic, assuming there would be no PC version because Microsoft wants to focus the attention of their big titles to the Xbox 360 as it’s a real gaming platform and they want more attention on it. We might have been wrong.

In a recent interview, IGN asked Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski some pointed questions about the PC release. Like us, everyone has been questioning the move to NOT release Gears of War 2 on the PC especially considering the first game made a PC debut and Epic has always been a big PC developer. Turns out, Epic is utilizing the Xbox 360 as a nice big can of DRM.

“Here’s the problem right now; the person who is savvy enough to want to have a good PC to upgrade their video card, is a person who is savvy enough to know bit torrent to know all the elements so they can pirate software.” (ign)

Following this answer he confirmed with a definitive no that we won’t see GoW2 on the PC. Of course, they also underscore the fact that the PC can have a wild array of hardware chipsets for video cards and catering to the masses with compatibility is pretty much a nightmare. A system with great DRM and a closed hardware platform is hard to pass up.

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Google is Not Looking to Buy ValveGoogle is Not Looking to Buy Valve

September 18, 2008| schommer| 0 Comment| 9:05 am

Yesterday a rumor started which said Google was looking to purchase Valve Software, the makers of Half-Life, Team Fortress and, of course, Portal. While Valve Software boasts a 20-million unit sales on their archive of awesome games, what interest would google have in gaming?

From google’s own corporate mission statement: “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” How would gaming fit into the dynamic of organizing the worlds information?

Some have said they’d be interested in Valve’s Steam system for distributing games and products. That seems far fetched considering all the CDN solutions on the Net, especially those focused towards media related projects like Liberated Syndication (Wizzard Media), which we use to host our gaming podcast, or other video solutions which would fit more into the Google playing field (considering the large purchase of youtube.com)

Today, Doug Lombardi of Valve, pubically said that Valve Software is willing to be purchased but stated the Google rumor was “a bit of fiction.” (kotaku) While Valve Software has shown they can make awesome titles with stability and dedication, knowing their open to being purchased is slightly disturbing.

I’m always happy for those “little guys” that make it in the big world of cut throat game development, there is some satisfaction knowing the smaller developers are making big waves against publishers like EA and Activision. Valve has changed the way we download games electronically and continues to expand their dominion; if Valve Software was purchased by a bigger company, would we still get the same quality and innovation from the developers?

Ubisoft Sues After Assassin’s Creed LeaksUbisoft Sues After Assassin’s Creed Leaks

August 7, 2008| schommer| 0 Comment| 7:04 pm

It was April of 2008 when we saw Assassin’s Creed show up on the PC, however in early February the game appeared on Internet pirate sites causing an estimated 700,000 downloads of the pirated copy of the game. The disc-copy manufacturer has assumed responsibility of the issue after finding an employee in possession of one of their copies of Assassin’s Creed at their home.

First, the disc-copy firm has said they haven’t enforced their high level of security needed to keep copies of the game in their possession. The earliest leaks of the pirated Assassin’s Creed was traced to an employees house, leading Ubisoft to assume “gross negligence” on the part of the manufacturer, inspiring the lawsuit.

To top off matters, pre-release copies of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed contained a hidden bug to crash the game mid-way through, which makes their title look bad when sent to the mass market pirating audience (do they really need to impress pirates?)

This isn’t the first time copies of a game, music or movies have made their pre-release debut on torrents and pirate sites. As for us, we find it odd that someone who managed to sneak out the game early wouldn’t have simply enjoyed it in the comfort of their own home choosing to pirate it and hurt the industry instead. Hopefully they’ve been given their pink slip for being irrisponsible and hurting everyones reputation. Hope they really feel like a liberated hero now.

(Thanks, gamespot)