Let’s begin with a little bit of recap, shall we? I’m sure you all remember this idiot, claiming he was going to lock himself in a room for 3 months to garner the attention of Mr.Fils-Aime (Reggie to you and me) in the hopes that he would be eligble to purchase a Nintendo Wii devkit afterward. Because we all know how popular poorly made generic RPGMaker games are these days.

After he gave up prematurely after only one month his mind clearly got to work on figuring out his next publicity stunt. And publicity stunt we have, as pictured, we have a grown man whom has covered his room in tin foil and claims to be broadcasting from space. That’s right children,

‘he apparently been abducted by aliens.
“Bob” will be continuing his campaign/solitary confinement/protest/party/challenge/workaholism from an unidentified craft somewhere in OUTER SPACE.
Not even “Bob” is exactly sure what is going on here anymore, but he assures Yuu- he is VERY SERIOUS- as usual, of course.’

Yeah. I know.

The soundtrack to a video game is the liver in the body of gaming. And by that I mean when it’s screwed, so is everything else. Perhaps it’s my +10 nostalgia goggles doing their thing, but I remember a day when combat themes didn’t sound exactly like one another, and accomplishment wasn’t signified by the reward, it was the little jingle you heard at the end of battle that let you breathe the long sigh of relief.

Perhaps times have changed, for better or for worse. Audio no longer seems to have a significant place in the majority of games, EA Trax is more hip and appropriate for todays generation. Who needs soft, recognisable melodies when you have hard hitting rock riffs from whatever underground rock music those hipsters appear to be listening to nowadays..

Allow me to jog your memory with something everyone will remember.
(continue reading…)

During the previous months of this year, the PS3 finally appeared to be picking up that much-needed steam Sony promised. However the early results from the NPD seem to be showing quite the opposite. Sales in the US of the PS3 are down by 19% compared to last year, compared to Wii sales having doubled, and the 360’s sales rising by 8%. Analysts are in agreement with these figures stating they expect PS3 sales to be equal to or lower than last years and Sony might not meet it’s target of 10 million PS3’s being sold by March 2009.

Que fanboys pleading claims such as Market Saturation.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Yeah, you may or may not have heard that Richard Garriot’s lovechild costs no money now. And despite the small fact that the servers are going down February 28th, I’m sure you all know a month is more than enough time to become bored with an MMORPG.

‘So!’ again, I hear you cry. ‘Stop chirping and tell me how to work this thingymajig!’

As you wish.

1. Go to http://www.plaync.com/us/support/login.html, and either log onto your PlayNC support account or create a new one.
2. Create a new ticket using Ask A Question, the text can be freeform, just ask for a TR serial.
3. Start downloading the client at ftp://ftp.playtr.com/setup_data_files/install_tabula_rasa_1.11.6.0.exe
4. Once you’ve got your key (Within 24 hours, most likely) and finished the download, log onto your PlayNC master account at https://secure.plaync.com/cgi-bin/plaync_login.pl, or create a new one, and enter your TR serial as a new game.
5. Install the game, launch PlayNC launcher, update, and you’re good to go.

Enjoy.

As with everything you don’t want anyone else to know about, it will eventually end up on the internet whether you like it or not. From those few corny nude pictures you took for your beloved Sandy to the truth about your poor hedgehog mascot who just kept on truckin’ till he could truck no more.

Allow me to fill you in. Around 2006 a blogger came along with the name jpeg appeared, making wild claims about the inner workings of SEGA and the turblant relationship they had with Sonic Team. But as with anything on the internet, jpeg was largely ignored and passed off as a fraud who just wanted some attention.

In 2007 however, shit got real and he talked about NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (You know, that piss awful sequel to the game we all loved.) stating he had little-to-no faith in the game although he knew Sonic Team were giving it their darndest. He even claimed to know and work with Sonic Team on a personal/professional level. He even said that NIGHTS 2 was planned to be released on the Xbox 360 and the PS3 as they were the only consoles that could realise Iizuka-san’s vision. A month later however, jpeg decided it was for the best to delete all of his blog posts and never return. Unfortunately for him, the internet has a memory larger than every elephant ever concieved. A forum user by the name of FlashTHD recovered an archived entry by jpeg, telling the harrowed journey Sonic Team have had to take, and how they became trapped within their own brand. It is a truly interesting tale that sheds a little bit more light on the real inner workings of the game industry, and shows us that things don’t actually run on fairy-dust and rainbows. (I at least thought they did.) (continue reading…)

Yeah, you read right. The Xbox 360 relied upon the Sony and IBM lovechild, the Cell processor. The Race for a New Game Machine, written by David Shippy and Mickie Phipps tells the story of how Microsoft managed to use the IBM & Sony partnership against them, even going as far as to use Sony’s R&D money against them by having the engineers use techniques they may have only discovered hours beforehand. All culminating in Microsoft’s ability (with a touch of foresight) to be able to release their console a full year ahead of Sony.

The Wall Street Journal has a more complete synopsis of the book, but naturally, if you want to learn the drama fueled tales of IBM’s treachery, then you’ll have to buy the book yourself. Now if only Microsoft had stolen the PS3’s heatsink designs, we wouldn’t have that ongoing RROD debacle over our heads now would we..

Worlds.com. Ever heard of them? Me either. But apparently back in the day, they filed a certain patent that is so broad, it appears to be able to cover every MMORPG and most MMO’s to date. For those who don’t want to read the wall of text, the patent covers every and any “System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space”. Worlds.com decided it was time to act on this on Decemeber 24th, (come on, where’s your christmas spirit guys..?) and threw the proverbial gauntlet at the feet of NCSoft. And they didn’t just go for one of their games either, oh no. Worlds.com claims it infringes on every MMO NCSoft has released to date. And if you look over the patent, it would appear they can actually do this.

This one is going to turn into a hurricane, first NCSoft, then SOE, Blizzard, the sky is the limit. I wonder if Sony are regretting having released HOME about now…

I borrowed a friends Xbox 360 for a weekend, because he suggested I play Fable II. Fair enough, it had interested me. But this isn’t a Fable II review. This is what I discovered on my short journey through the world of the Xbox Live community.

All I had attempted to do, was play some Fable II co-op. I just wanted to go and slay some guards with my fellow heroes of Albion, simple I presumed. Not quite the case. Every time I managed to find a slaying partner, all they were concerned about doing was banging out some more achievements, and they come from the most trivial tasks. I wasn’t interested in killing 5 enemies at once with one magic spell, I wasn’t interested at farting at the same time as him, and I definitely wasn’t interested in the 101 meaningless other bollocks tasks he and the next 6 people I played with proposed that we do for that stupid little popup at the bottom of the screen. (continue reading…)

The guys at Nintendo sure are a mystery. On one hand you have them consistently stating they aren’t trying to be copycats, and pioneer where the video game industry will turn. On the other hand, you have them doing exactly the opposite, and moving into territory well-tread by the other two consoles. Rather than improving certain features that still seem rashly implimented.(Friendcodes. FRIENDCODES NINTENDO!?)

Despite my short rant, Nintendo still seem to want to release this in Japan around Q1 2009 with other territories coming ‘later‘* as usual. And don’t expect them to be in 1080p glorious high-definition either, because that’s a pipedream and you and I both know that. Standard 480p and don’t forget that little 512mb memory limit the Wii has going on at the minute. Or perhaps we should just put them all on SD cards like they previously suggested we do with VC titles.

Source: Yahoo Tech

*later means 2012

Blizzard Entertainment has announced that World of Warcraft, its incredibly popular MMO, is now played by more than 11.5 million subscribers worldwide. The landmark was aided by the November 13 release of WoW’s second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King.

Apparently, WoTLK sold over 2.8 million copies within 24 hours of launch, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time. And it has gone from strength to strength, having sold 4 million copies total in its first month.

“We’re pleased to welcome the new and returning players who have helped World of Warcraft reach these new milestones, and we appreciate the enthusiasm and support that the game’s global community has continued to show,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We look forward to providing all of them with an excellent entertainment experience for a long time to come.”