Bring that issue alongside Nintendo’s current handheld competition and you have a major problem. Apple is starting to dominate in that category. Wait a second, the iPhone/iPod Touch isn’t a handheld system! It’s not? It fits in your hand and you play any game that you can play on other systems. I should say it is.
Nintendo DS requires wi-fi to get into the shop or to download. The iPhone requires a cell phone signal and that’s all. Nintendo DS games cost between $10 and $40. iPhone games cost between $0.99 and $7.00. Even popular games like Command and Conquer and Civilization cost around $6.00.
Apple has a big advantage over Nintendo in the ease of getting your games, organizing your games and they are much more cost effective. Plus, the accessories needed and the price of the games are in Apple’s favor as well.
Nintendo long ago lost a good part of their core audience. They didn’t seem to care since the core audience stuck around for the DS. They moved to a new market with the Nintendo Wii, bringing in the family gaming system and allowed Microsoft and Sony to take their core console gamers.
Apple has moved in on their handheld market in a big way. Not only have they taken a large chunk of the core handheld audience, but they are also taking the casual audience as well. This isn’t the end for Nintendo. It isn’t time to scream doom and gloom or get ready to plan the funeral of Mario. It is time for Nintendo to start looking closer at their audience, the behavior of their audience and who is holding the market shares.

There are probably hundreds of thousands of Nintendo tattoos out there. We scoured the web to find our 5 favorite Nintendo character tattoos.

#5. Hey. Hey Listen!

Why Navi? Of all things, why Navi?! Because you said that as soon as you saw this tattoo. She’s embedded into your brain, the constant screaming of “Hey, hey hey listen!” and this brave man has made sure everyone will remember it. The tattoo is really well done, but we all hate him just a little bit.

Original

#4. Stars and Ghosts, oh my!

This tattoo comes complete with invincible stars and a Boo. It’s quite obvious this girl loves her Nintendo. We love her half-sleeve and her stars. The original photo by Kotaku stated this woman’s husband was the tattoo artist. We love both of them just a little.

#3. 8 Bit Mario

Memories of throwing your controller when Mario died, moving the controller with Mario to make him jump and wanting to kill Toad when your Princess was in another castle come to mind when looking at this tattoo. The original tattoo is credited to artist Jon Poulson on Flickr.

Number 2 and number 1 are after the break

#2. Mega Man 8 Bit

8 bit art is win. Well done 8 bit art of Mega Man on your arm? A lot of win. Orginal source unknown (if someone knows it, please catch us on Twitter so we can credit it!)

#1. Samus Aran

Samus Aran will kick your butt.

Nothing else needs to be said about that. Unreality showed off this piece along with some other great Metroid themed ink.

I wonder if Duke Nukem will finally come out? Sure. Right.

For E3 this year, I have a couple of predictions of my own. I am hoping that Nintendo redeems themselves and announces a new Legend of Zelda game. I see the game releasing during the 4th quarter of 2010. Gears of War 3 is another prediction. I don’t see it releasing in the 4th quarter of 2010. I see an announcement at E3 with the possibility of release in 2nd or 3rd quarter of 2011.

I asked on Twitter what your predictions for E3 are from The Geek Media’s Twitter and my personal Twitter. The answers after the jump.

@MemBirdman : “I predict a combined 137 minutes of stage time for Natal & Touch during the press conferences. That might be conservative. :/”

@Mifio: “APB launch date announcement, Uncharted 3… And thats all I really care about.”

@DCSilverwing: “ok, my official prediction (based on nothing) Elder Scrolls, and SOME kind of TRON game…”

@Leto: “I don’t have a lot of expectations, after a few flops in March. Hoping that more of The Old Republic is shown off though.”

@MemBirdman: “I predict that Shigeru Miyamoto will do something during the Nintendo press conference totally awesome and mildly pedophilic.” (Wait…what?)

What are your predictions for E3?

Yesterday, Twitter showed us they had the right idea. Though some people don’t like the format for ads Twitter is rolling out, I can’t be mad at them for it. They have made their internal search engine just that much more social. Nothing new, nothing invasive and nothing that will make me fume.

Sponsored search results are a good idea. Let’s say you are searching for iPad on Twitter. The top result will be sponsored. It might be Apple’s own Twitter account or Steve Jobs (now you know this is an example). You have the option to “favorite” that sponsored result or re-tweet it as usual.

“But I want to see REAL search results! Not something someone paid for!” You will see them. Just overlook the first result and scroll down. There you go, all real search results. This isn’t something invasive or something that is going to effect how you use Twitter.

Ads are most likely going to start showing up on Twitter’s timeline. Again, this is something I can’t be mad about if it happens. On my BlackBerry I use Uber Twitter, on the iPhone it’s Twitterific and the Droid has Twidroid. Each of these apps have ads that show in between tweets. On Uber Twitter, they show as part of the timeline with a “Sponsored” tag on them. It looks like Twitter is going to do something similar with their ads and place them in your timeline between tweets.

Which leads other people to ask questions about the ad format. Will people have the option to pay a small monthly fee and get rid of ads? I doubt it. Sure, Twitter may offer it but the idea is not the smartest. Twitterific offers a paid version that gets rid of the ads. I don’t know anyone who uses the paid version. It’s not that difficult to overlook the ads on your app (or web client) and move into your timeline.

I’ve been a Twitter user since 2007. I remember saying “This will never amount to anything.” Yet, I found myself using it. Not only did I become an avid user early on, but I opened more than one account to separate my work. Twitter has proved to have a lot of staying power. The problem was, they didn’t seem to catch up with everyone else. Where was their business model? They finally have the beginnings of one.

Things may need tweaking as time goes on with the new ads, but I’m quite proud of Twitter.I want to sniffle and grab a hanky while I see my little blue bird off to his first day at the office carrying his fail whale in a briefcase. He’s finally grown up!

Source

Extraction’s gameplay is set apart from the original in a number of respects. Dead Space was a third person shooter where the main character, Isaac Clarke, was nearly always in view and rarely talked except to say “ouch” if you were playing badly. Extraction is a First-Person “On-Rails” shooter where you play the role of a number of different characters through the course of the storyline. On-Rails shooters, much like House of the Dead Overkill, seem to be right at home on the Wii. With the advent of HDTVs and the mass exodus from CRT televisions, light-gun games have nearly become of thing of the past due to technological limitations. The Wii, however, facilitates this genre of game perfectly due to the combination of the Wiimote’s built in IR-camera and the Sensor bar.

The best parts of Dead Space make their return. Each weapon has an alternate fire mode, activated by tilting the Wiimote 90 degrees, aka “Gangsta Style”. Some of these alternate modes have been changed to better serve the new interface, such as the Pulse Rifles Alt-Fire, and new weapons have been added as well, such as the Arc Welder and Rivet Gun. Equipment Upgrades also made the transition as pick-up items and not requiring the use of the Bench like in the original.

Going into the game, I knew that I would revisit locations from Dead Space, such as the “Planet Cracker” ship the Ishimura, though I did not realize that I would actually be setting the scene for when you return to the ship as Isaac. From deactivating the filtration systems, blocking off access to sectors of the ship all the way to the shut down of the ADS (Automatic Defense Systems), forcing Isaac to play thru the worst part of Dead Space, in my opinion.

One of the nice additions to Extraction is the “Hacking” mini-game. Rather than take a cue from Bioshock’s Pipe-Dreams style of hacking, we are instead presented with an altered version of the Metroid Prime “Welding” mechanic, that being Connect-The-Dots (la la la la). Early hacks are quite easy. Further into the game, however, hacks become much more difficult, requiring both steady and timed connections as to not touch or get caught between “bad segments” of the circuit that glow red and losing health. To increase the difficulty more, some hacks take place in the middle of gun fights, with the shooting happening to the left and the hacking on the right. During these specific hacks, the actual gunfight does not end until the hack is complete, so there will be an endless spawning of monsters until you finish the job. In a single player game, this can prove to be quite the challenge from a multitasking perspective. In a Co-Op game, however, this becomes very much like an “Aliens” moment, where one player fights off the baddies while his partner works on the hack.

The character development was very well handled. You play the game through the eyes of four different characters throughout the course of the game, yet there is enough down-time to flesh out each one. The first character you play as was perhaps the least developed overall since you only get to experience his story for the first chapter before SPOILERS happen, however, the way SPOILERS happen was a very nice plot point that brought a smile to my face and set the mood for the game as a whole.  For the remaining three characters, two of them are with you from Chapter 2 until the final chapter, and the third character adds that much needed amount of “Survival Horror” and “playing as a non-soldier/badass” feel that was lacking in even the original game.  Also, much like the first characters story, HER story and eventual SPOILERS was quite poetic, if not complete BS.   The fun BS, not the “I hate this game” BS.

Overall I was highly impressed with Dead Space Extraction.   “For a Wii Game”, the graphics were far beyond what I was expecting and then some.  There were some frame-rate drops, but these were expected, brief, few and far between and never ruin my experience.  This game simply raises the bar for any future Wii games in this style, even those made by Nintendo and it’s First-Party developers.  In this reviewers opinion, Dead Space Extraction is the best thing the Wii has ever had.

]]> http://www.thegeekmedia.com/gaming-entertainment/most-impressive-dead-space-extraction-for-wii/feed 0 http://www.thegeekmedia.com/gaming-entertainment/world-of-warcraft-cataclysm http://www.thegeekmedia.com/gaming-entertainment/world-of-warcraft-cataclysm#comments Fri, 21 Aug 2009 22:09:38 +0000 Leto http://www.thegeekmedia.com/?p=2591

Well this looks interesting!

For more from the Anime Olympics, check out their official website OR The New Geek Order.

Here is a little taste, and remember, watch out for the Spoiler Snake (and Philosopher Stones are made from peeps, er, people).

Click here to view the embedded video.

…

…

EEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW….

[ The 'Gamer' Website ]

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Sniper Class has been revealed to be what will receive the next upgrade. And the first weapon has been revealed to be…. uh…. bow and arrow?

What could the simple, majestic bow do for a class that already has a high-powered rifle? Well it’s quite simple, stick stuff to walls! Also, any headshot is guaranteed to be a critical hit.

Joe Siegler, 3D Realms webmaster, has been quoted as saying “it is not a marketing thing”, so we at least know that it isn’t some weird release event for DNF.

Sadly, Duke Nukem Forever is STILL in development. *sigh*

What You Mean More Attachments? Am I Going To Vacuum The Place With It?

Get ready folks, WiiSports Resort and Wii Motion Plus are coming.  Nintendo has announced both the release dates and prices of WiiSports Resort and the Motion Plus attachment.

WiiSports Resort – The sequel to the hit “pack-in” game WiiSports.  The game will include the Motion Plus attachment and will retail for $49.99.  Release date is set at July 26th.

Motion Plus attachments, on their own, will be retailing for $19.99 and are scheduled to go on sale June 8th, six weeks earlier.

Some speculation about the spaced out release dates suggests that Nintendo will be selling Wii Motion Plus devices early to help cut down on shortages.  Only a handful of games will support Motion Plus when it initially comes out, including Tiget Woods PGA Tour 10 and EA’s Grand Slam Tennis both set to release on June 16th; however, as summer continues and WiiSports Resort hits the market things will definetly change.

“It’s about Damned time!” Are the words on many World of Warcraft players lips today as Blizzard has released the long-awaited 3.1 Patch, and with it many improvements and additions to the game. Besides the obvious answer of Ulduar, the brand new raid instance that has a lot of people talking, you also have access to dual-specializations, the Argent Tournament, and a host of new specialization changes that are being implemented. You can find the patch notes, as well as a nifty video introducing Ulduar right here.

Today, EA has been reported to be contacting all of those who received the weapons and asked for their return so they could be “disposed of safely”.  According to an update on the Kotaku article, it may be illegal to even SHIP items within California.

Now, I know EA must have had a “fun” idea in their heads with this, but honestly, did no one realize that metal molded to be wrapped around a hand that is then to be used to break someones face COULD be considered illegal.  What are these gaming press groups supposed to do now, illegally ship a weapon BACK to California?  What a mess.

[Source: Kotaku.com]

I’ve been pushing the sheer joy that appears to be oozing out of screens and videos of Jumpgate: Evolution for a good six months now, and I still believe I’m right. I recently posted up a boss fight walkthrough video up on www.newgeekorder.com that had been put out, and just today I stumbled upon a video hosted by Kotaku.com that’s more or less a short promotional video for Jumpgate: Evolution. The only reason it’s worth mentioning is that it promotes the beta at the end, quite distinctly.

The Beta for this game is close, I can feel it in the force young padawans. Multiple promotional videos released in the same week, displaying different themes for the same game across the internet that’s been widely touted as the spiritual successor to Earth and Beyond? That’s proof something’s brewing I think. Keep your eyes peeled for Jumpgate: Evolution beta invitations in your email boxes soon, and if you’re not signed up for it yet then get on the internet and get that done, because being left out of this is something any good MMO gamer is going to regret.

Here’s the video that was posted recently on Kotaku.com…

New Geek Order, much like The Geek Media before it, will be the home of all podcast, music and video related affiliates and will have more of a focus on both visual and aural media.  The Geek Media, on the other hand, will be retaining the textual-based affiliates, those being web comics and blogs.  This is not to say that the affiliates will be segregated to one site or another.  Promotion of our affiliates is one of the main reasons for the creation of NGO, to allow us to put all of our affiliates on display yet not overload a single website with clashing content.

As you can see the Music section (on NGO) and the Comic Section (on TGM) is not yet active due to technical issues that we are working the knots out of.  Worry not, however, as we hope to have these sections fully operational within the next month.

It’s a long letter, probably two or three standard pages worth, so be ready to sit down for ten or fifteen minutes and digest this instead of just skimming over, just click the read more tab to see the letter in it’s entirety. Credit to Kotaku.com and their network for posting this.

An Open Letter to Utah’s Parents and Leaders
March 6, 2009

As you read this, Utah legislators are preparing to pass legislation that risks, perhaps unintentionally, putting an end to hugely successful efforts to prevent children’s access to video games intended for older audiences. I write today in the hopes of averting this grave mistake, and to propose a more responsible course of action instead.

Legislation expanding Utah’s existing Truth in Advertising law (H.B. 353) would require that if a video game retailer promotes its adherence to a policy restricting the sale of video games rated M for Mature – which, like the R rating for movies, indicates it is recommended for those ages 17 and older – and then sells an M-rated game to anyone under the recommended age, they could be subject to a lawsuit, fines and/or the payment of additional costs and legal fees. In fact, all major retailers of video games currently have such policies, which they have put in place voluntarily and with which they are in compliance the vast majority of the time. According to a recent audit, Utah video game retailers enforce their store policies regarding the sale of M-rated games an impressive 94% of the time – without any laws or requirements that they do so. That level of compliance took many years to achieve, and speaks to the strong commitment of video game retailers to do the right thing.

So why is this bill likely to put an end to those very efforts it seeks to support? On its face such an amendment makes good sense; after all, if a retailer says they’re going to do something, they should do it, right? While the intent of this legislation would be to hold retailers accountable for compliance with their stated policies – presumably in that negligible 6% of instances where they fail to comply – the unfortunate reality is that it would introduce a liability that will likely force many retailers to seriously consider abandoning their voluntary policies and ratings education programs, undoing years of progress made on behalf of parents and their children.

It’s worth noting that when the Federal Trade Commission first began measuring retailer compliance with video game sales policies nationwide in 2000, a scant 15% of underage customers were turned away. However, the most recent such study reported in May 2008 found that national retailers refused to sell M-rated games to customers under 17 a remarkable 80% of the time, far surpassing the comparable rates of compliance for movies, DVDs, or music CDs rated for a mature audience. The unraveling of this substantial progress would be a tragic consequence, depriving parents of the assurance and control they currently have with respect to deciding which games their children can purchase and play.

Utah State Representative Michael Morley, the chief sponsor of this new amendment, was recently quoted in the Deseret News stating that, “if they’re one of those places that thinks, ‘Well, as long as they have a heartbeat and some money we’ll sell to them,’ then this won’t have any impact on them.” That statement reveals exactly why this law would
be so destructive. It would effectively penalize responsible retailers that have policies, and provide safe harbor for retailers that refuse to adopt a responsible policy in the first place. That is downright senseless. If the goal is to make sure our children are playing age-appropriate games, there is a better way.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), of which I am president, is a non-profit organization created in 1994 to help parents determine which computer and video games are appropriate for their children. Most retailers only carry games that have been rated by the ESRB, and game consoles and handheld devices include settings that parents can activate to block games by ESRB rating. Elected officials across the country, including Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, and groups like PTA have joined ESRB in helping educate the public about the rating system to great effect. The FTC recently reported that 73% of parents regularly use ESRB ratings when buying games for their children; 59% “never” allow their child to play an M-rated game, and 34% only do so “sometimes.”

The bottom line is that parents are more than capable of utilizing tools like the ratings to make the right choices for their families. And there is broad support of ESRB ratings from major retailers and the game industry alike. The proposed legislation is looking to fix a system that is not broken. Instead, we should all be focused on figuring out ways to encourage parents to use the excellent tools already available to them to make informed choices about the media their children consume. Punishing retailers for promoting responsible sales policies is irrational and counter-productive. I write in the sincere hope that Utah chooses to empower its parents with information rather than undo the substantial progress made by retailers to date to serve the best interests of Utah’s children.

With warm regards,
Patricia E. Vance
President

The new Mac Mini now includes the NVidia GeForce 9400M (128MB to 256MB shared memory) integrated graphics while supporting up to 4GB of internal memory itself.  Not really a “power-house” for gaming in the graphics chip side of things, but definetly a Mac system with some staying power.  This update also sports 802.11-N wireless networking, five USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire 800 port, Mini-DVI and DisplayPort video outputs.

The new Mac Pro tower system now comes with either a 2.66GHz, 4-core or two 2.26GHz 4-core (called 8-core) Intel Xeon “Nehalem” processors, 18x dual-layer SuperDrive, 640GB hard disk, 3GB or 6GB internal memory and an NVidia GeForce GT 120 with 512MB of memory.  This is the great grand-daddy of the Mac Mini, sparing no expense with the power it delievers.

Before now, the Airport and Time Capsule line of devices have all been single-band, broadcasting either a B/G, G, or N based wireless network.  With the new Airport and Time Capsule will have the ability to broadcast two seperate wireless network, allowing for better placement of your wireless devices that currently fight for wireless bandwidth.  Currently, I use an Airport N for my main computer and an Airport Express B/G for my iPhone/Wii/360/DS.

See more at the Apple Store…

The Kindle 2 started shipping last week despite a possible problem with the Author’s Guild.? The guild wasn’t very happy when the Kindle 2 was announced with a text-to-speech feature, and wanted it removed.? To some, if not most, of us, the idea that text-to-speech could replace the experience of an audiobook is ridiculous, but not to the Author’s Guild.? Now they won’t have to worry as Amazon has listened.

For those of you who like the generated voice in the Kindle 2, the feature isn’t being entirely removed.? Actually, Amazon is just giving the option to allow text-to-speech to the publishers and authors.? That way, those who want Kindle 2 users to have the feature will be able to activate it, and those who think it’s a copyright issue can choose to block it.?

It’s a bit unfortunate for anybody who was thinking they’d use the text-to-speech feature a lot.? I’m not sure if there are all that many who were, though.? The voice just isn’t all that great.? There’s no inflection, and its possible it would have an issue pronouncing words made up to fit in the world of the book.? It just really can’t compare to audiobooks with its monotone, somewhat grating voice.? Just imagine trying to listen to any significant portion of Neal Stephenson’s newest, “Anathem” with the Kindle 2 as opposed to the Audible four-person dramatic reading.

Read [Reuters]

Full Story ? | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gamertell. | Comment on this Article ?

Valve Software, makers of the Half Life series as well as the online gaming service Steam, are no exception to this.  Valve discovered a number of players that have been cheating in the game Team Fortress 2, and as such has enacted a punishment upon them.  Some have lost their unlockable TF2 gear for a few weeks, others suspended from Steam, and some potentially banned from Steam all-together.  This is all well and good, as Valve not only have a community to manage (the Steam community) but a number of online games as well (TeamFortress 2, Left4Dead, etc).  However, statements made on the official Team Fortress 2 blog makes one wonder: was Valve’s head screwed on when they wrote this, or do they really think of us as their “pets”.

On February 25th, 2009, a post made to the TF2 blog by the poster “TF Announcer”, a similarity was made regarding players that cheated.

I feel like a dog owner who’s rubbed her pet’s nose in a mess on the carpet, only to turn around and discover it setting fire to the drapes.

Now, one could say that this statement is just a joke statement, a little off the cuff joke under the guise of “The TF2 Announcer” (which I am assuming is supposed to be a joke on the female announcer in game who always tells me that my intelligence has been captured).  Lets look at this statment a bit.

“I feel like a dog owner” – okay, a person who owns something else, that being a dog

“who rubbed her pets nose in a mess on the carpet” – DON”T CHEAT!!!!  NOOOO, BAD DOG!!!

“only to turn around and sicover it setting fire to the drapes” – this would be in reference to the people who still cheated even after Valve made the first post saying not to do it.

I understand what the statement is “trying” to do.  It is an attempt to make the cheating players look like lame dogs yet at the same time it seems that the statement is calling all players “dogs”, and that the bad ones (cheaters) are the issue.    I could see something like this coming out of a fan forum or even the steam forums from some fanboy doing what all fanboys do, that being name calling.  For an official post from a company, especially a company like Valve that has large investments into Steam as a platform, throwing around statements where you are calling your users dogs, regardless of if they cheat or not, seems to me to be dangerous.

My final word on the matter is this: Attention Valve Software and Gabe Newell, I AM NOT YOUR PET!  I do NOT bring in your slippers.  I am a paying customer who enjoys your products.  Poorly written statements such as this will, if it continues, make me no longer buy your games.  Its not a gameplay/balance or anything those fanboy kiddies like to complain about like there’s no tomarrow.  No, it is about respecting your customers.

And yes, the statement could be “role played” from the perspective of the TF2 female announcer who could quite possiably be having a bad day (the character, not the voice actress), however if that is the case, statements regarding the management of Steam as well as the banning/suspending of players should be made in a more official and proper manner and not some comedy club act.

Why can't we just hold hands and sing "We are the world"?

Welcome back to the article series that has no business being written from a lowly internet user like myself, Rob [Citation Needed] Shepard.

WKOWTV in Madison, WI reported on a woman named Abbie Schubert who bought a laptop from Dell.  The laptop was going to be used with the online classes she enrolled in for the Madison Area Technical College (MATC).

She didn’t realize, however, that the laptop’s default OS was the Ubuntu distribution of Linux…

Schubert says she never heard of Ubuntu until learning that she accidentally bought it.  She called Dell the very next day and says the representative told her there was still time to change back to Windows.

But she says Dell discouraged her.

“The person I was talking to said Ubuntu was great, college students loved it, it was compatible with everything I needed,” said Schubert.

Since the story was posted, many Ubuntu users (over 100,000 as stated in the linked article) began to send  emails to both the station as well as Schubert via her FaceBook account.  Many of the messages are said to to calling her “lazy”, “dumb” and “not worthy of a college degree”.

I asked TGM Strategist, Dan (Leto) Hahn to get in contact with the news station and the woman, but they simply want all of this to go away now due to the can of worms that was opened up.  Would we like to get Schubert’s full and more detailed description of the events in question?  Yes.  The original article was rather sparce and has been added more to the whole debate.

Unfortunately, the fact is that the game hasn’t performed as expected. The development team has worked hard to improve the game since launch, but the game never achieved the player population we hoped for.

So it is with regret that we must announce that Tabula Rasa will end live service on February 28, 2009.

It isn’t an entirely bad story for Tabula Rasa, those with active accounts as of November 21st at 10:00 AM will receive some fine buffs from NCSoft, as well as the entire gaming community receiving this prize:

Before we end the service, we’ll make Tabula Rasa servers free to play starting on January 10, 2009.

We can assure you that through the next couple of months we’ll be doing some really fun things in Tabula Rasa, and we plan to make staying on a little longer worth your while.

You can read the full press release right Here.

I had a chance to speak with Michael Graham from Activision about “Dawn of the Dragon”. Michael has been credited with work on Heavenly Sword, Twisted Metal, and all three of “The Legend of Spyro” games.

Candace:What is the first thing a player will notice when they start to play “Dawn of the Dragon”?
Michael:I think that the first thing players will notice when they start playing “Dawn of the Dragon” is that it has a more epic tone to it than any other Spyro game. Today’s platform adventure genre is filled to the brim with games based off of cartoons and animated films, nearly all of which have a very young tone. We wanted to make a game that was challenging and moody without being overly pandering or childish. Younger players are a lot smarter and more patient than they are often given credit for and we aimed to give them an experience that was similar to games and movies that have inspired our generation. The majority of games in the youth space seem to avoid themes of “good versus evil” or put players in intense situations. We wanted to change that and provide younger players with an experience that is unlike anything available in their demographic. This is evident right from the start of the game when Spyro and Cynder are attacked by a massive golem.

Continue full interview here

Greetings!

The Public Test Server is coming soon, so in the meantime we wanted to provide you with instructions on how you can get onto the server as well as how to copy your characters and jump right into testing.

The purpose of the Public Test Server (PTS) is for the players to help us refine and test the latest version of the game by experiencing the changes firsthand and providing feedback and bug reports to Mythic. As such, we want to remind you that the content introduced to this server is still considered “in development,” and that bugs and issues not found on the LIVE server may occur on the PTS.  All features and fixes listed below are subject to change until we release Game Update 1.0.5 to all live servers.

When leaving Feedback or Bug Reports we encourage you to provide details on why you feel the way you do or why you think something needs to be fixed. It’s also important to note that when you submit a Bug Report, it automatically records your location in game so be sure to submit them at the location where you experienced them when you can!

To access the Public Test Server, locate the new patcher: testpatch.exe in your main Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning directory. This file will be automatically downloaded when the Public Test Server is opened.

Simply run the testpatch.exe file to start the patcher. Just like the live game, it will download everything automatically, just click play and you’re good to go!

Creating a copy of your Live character to play on the Public Test Server is easy, too. Visit your Mythic Account Center, login, and click on the Character Transfer Button above your Game Account profiles. Then, follow the instructions to the Character Transfer Center. Once you are in the Character Transfer Center you will see three options at the bottom. Select “character copy” and then fill in the information on the next page to choose the character you wish to copy.

Once you have confirmed the copy you can view the status of the transfer as it is processed. Please note that you may be required to change the name of your character to avoid naming conflicts. If for any reason there is an error with your transfer, you can click on the “More Details” option to find out why the Character Copy was unsuccessful.

That’s all it takes to jump into the action and test the latest bleeding edge updates before they come to a server near you!

And now, without further ado, we present to you the Public Test Server notes for Game Update 1.0.5…WAAAGH!!!

No doubt that all fans of good music (and music games) rejoiced upon hearing that The Beatles would be the star of a new Harmonix (Guitar Hero 1 and 2, Rock Band 1 and 2). Surely, the developer who invented the modern rhythm game, and later evolved the formula will do a great job with one of the world’s most beloved musical acts. One bit of news we’ve received today comes via Variety which states

“Game developers will be able to select 45 songs from the Beatles catalog recorded during their 1962-69 tenure within EMI for inclusion in the game.”

So, it’s looking like the game will have 45 songs, and not the usual Harmonix/Rock Band standard (which is closer to 80 songs on disc and a ton of dlc songs). I doubt that the game will be any cheaper (since I’m sure royalties on Beatles’ songs aren’t exactly cheap), though no specific pricing details have been released just yet. Stay tuned for the next bit of Beatles game news – we’re going to keep our ears to the ground with this one.

Read [Variety]

Full Story » | Written by Danielle Riendeau for Gamertell. | Comment on this Article »

The Great Space Race is the story of a rally competition in space! Captain Kaz Collins and his crew, consisting of a hot android navigator and a mole-like engineer, must win the race or face certain doom! Well, not exactly, but then Kaz won’t get his inheritance! What a bummer! They face aliens, hackers, alien-hackers, hot android alien-hackers, and an over amorous Step-mother! Don’t miss it!

DS For The Download Generation

Nintendo has announced the DSi, the next rev of the Nintendo DS.  Sporting dual 0.3 MegaPixel cameras (one one the front and one on the back), and SD memory card slot (digital downloads anyone?), 17% larger screens, enhanced audio and MP3 playback.  The device is also thinner than the current, slim DS due to no longer having the GameBoy Advance slot.

The DSi will also include a built in browser for the DSi-Store with downloadable prices ranging from free, 200, 500 and 800 points.  New DSi owners will automatically get 1000 points to spend at the shop before Match 2010.

Release in the US is expected for sometime early 2009.

Get Your Head Out Of The Clouds And Back To Reality

Welcome back, one and all, to TGM’s official article series by a guy that has no business talking about the topic, “Baseless Opinion”.

Over the past few months tech companies have been trying to get this whole idea of “The Cloud” and “Cloud Computing” into our heads.  The idea behind The Cloud is simple, taking your work from the offline world of a desktop or laptop and putting it online.  This is a great idea and has many uses in todays highly mobile society, but does it really need a whole new name?  The more I listen to many people in the tech community who speak of “The Cloud”, they bring up examples of things that have been around for over a decade.

GMail

Google’s online email service is referenced time and time again as an example of “Cloud Computing”.  While it is true that all of your mail data is stored on Google’s service, how is this any different than the email services of old?  Yahoo Mail has been doing this for much longer than Google.  The IMAP protocals for reading and viewing your mail without having to download all of the messages has also been around for far longer.

Online Storage

Last time I checked, the whole of the internet is based around online storage.  After all, how is one supposed to view a web page if the files are not on a remote computer?  I have been using FTP for as far back as I can remember having internet access.  Apple’s MobileMe, formerly (dot)Mac, uses a form of file transfer known as WebDAV for it’s online storage service.  This is nothing new.

Thin Client – Rich Server

This is where things get a bit fuzzy.  We are seeing programs that used to live on the desktop being turned into online services.  Google Docs being a prime example.  While the service is not as powerful and has many limits that a desktop application would have, it does what it does and does it well enough for the average user.

The problem with the whole idea of the “Thin Client – Rich Server” is that all of your data is stored on the server as opposed to the client, making offline access impossible in those times when you don’t have internet access, or worse, when you have highly insecure access.  Google Gears attempts to solve that by syncing up your data to your web browser whenever you access the service.  Google Gears has one flaw and that is that the developer of the online service has to implement Gears support, and as well all know, most companies tend to use their own secret sauce before using other peoples code.

The more I hear about “The Cloud” the more I wonder if this is not just the latest in buzz words in the tech industry.  Web 2.0 was the big catchphrase for sometime.  What was Web2.0?  Some said it was the whole social media design, but wasn’t Geocities doing personal websites long before MySpace and FaceBook?  Others said it is the interactive nature of websites using AJAX programming styles, but the internet is still a point-and-click experience no matter how many page-loads you save on with inline loading.  Even others said that it was the clean, rounded and smooth website designs that made Web2.0 what it is, although those art styles have been around in modern culture and art.

What we need right now is not another buzzword or catchphrase, but an acknowledgement of what we have known all along, that the internet is far more than what we perceive.

• Reviews on short films added to our web page and advice from both D.L. Watson and Nick Blacketer.
• Random thoughts on whats new with the world, including exclusive news about Hollywood & Independent films.
• Also Q&A session where inspiring filmmakers or writers can write in questions about film making to be answered online.

Those are just some locked idea’s for the new podcast, and many more are being discussed. If this podcast proves to be at least mildly successful, it will encourage us to move forward with a already planned weekly Vlog series called “In front of the Greenscreen with Nick Blacketer.”

If you have an idea and want to get involved with this podcast, do so by emailing us at newpodcast@moonlightpictures.org.

In a side note, we at Moonlight Pictures would like to give our thanks to this incredible community! We are currently editing our brand new site and would like to offer anyone some ad space for free on our site. If you are interested, please contact D.L. Watson at dlwatson@moonlightpictures.org for more details.

NEW PROJECTS: STREET FIGHTER IV, MORIBITO, INFINITE UNDISCOVERY
Aug. 29, 2008 by Kyle HebertI landed a prime role as Ryu in the new “Street Fighter IV”, coming to Xbox 360 and PS3 early next year. Super psyched to have landed such an iconic character.

Go check out The Big Bald Broadcast to get all of the latest news from the anime, gaming and movie industries, as well as find out all of the projects Kyle has worked on in the past as well as what he will be working on in the future.