Slashdot Mirror

An anonymous reader writes with news of a proposal in the recent Digital Britain report to set up tax breaks for developing video games that are "culturally British." Quoting the report (PDF): "In film a system of cultural tax credits has long helped to sustain a wide range of films that speak to a British narrative, rather than the cultural perspectives of Hollywood or multinational collaborations. Other countries such as Canada, for similar reasons, extend the model of cultural tax relief beyond the film industry to the interactive and online worlds. CGI, electronic games and simulation also have a significant role in Britain's digital content ecology and in our international competitiveness. Each of these has the same capability as the more traditional sectors, such as film, to engage us and reflect our cultural particularism. They may in future have a cultural relevance to rival that of film." Conservative Shadow Arts and Culture Minister Ed Vaizey said the government has ignored the games industry, and he seeks to set up a government council to promote it. The report also outlined a number of changes to how games are rated.

An anonymous reader writes "Sony is reportedly in talks to introduce a new £150 per PS3 deposit scheme across retailers in the UK. The proposed scheme aims to help improve resource allocation as well as reduce the 'eBay phenomenon' which was evident with the 360's launch, deposits were secured from as little as £5 and crafty sellers would sell the console way above its retail price."

Grym writes "The recently released Battlefield 2 was met with various levels of acclaim by reviewers. Besides the insane hardware requirements, the chief complaint was the amount of bugs in the game. Hoping to address the situation quickly, EA hastily released a patch to address the concerns cited in reviews. Big mistake. The patch turned out to be littered with bugs. One of the biggest was a huge memory leak. Another actually turned teammates' names red--just like enemies. The game became unplayable because of the patch. Tycho at Penny-Arcade discussed the issue in his latest news update. EA has owned up to the buggy patch and has said that there will be a hotfix released soon. In the meantime, gamers have been offically told to uninstall Battlefield 2 and play without the patch; advice that many fans are not happy to hear. Meanwhile, some sites are still offering the 1.01 patch for download on their front pages, only adding to the confusion. When are game companies going to learn? Quality assurance and play-testing should not be an afterthought!"

Jakob Paulsen writes "According to research group Nielsen Entertainment, men now spend more money on buying games than on buying music. This adds further credit to the general belief that video games are displacing other forms of media for the attention of young men. Nielsen base their findings on interviews with 1,500 people in January and February."

Jakob Paulsen writes "According to research group Nielsen Entertainment, men now spend more money on buying games than on buying music. This adds further credit to the general belief that video games are displacing other forms of media for the attention of young men. Nielsen base their findings on interviews with 1,500 people in January and February."

Anonymous Coward writes "UK paper The Sun published an article about a father who purchased a recent Gameboy title from Disney for his daughter. They were horrified that the credits of the game contained the F-Word and he immediately contacted the paper. The Sun published the article without researching the fact that this was a pirate cartridge based off of the cracked version of this game released. Oops!"

Thanks to GameSpot for its updated preview of Rockstar's ravenously awaited Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The article first gets down to basics, explaining: "The state of San Andreas will feature three main cities, each inspired by real-life locales. The city of Los Santos is based on Los Angeles, San Fierro is derived from San Francisco, and Las Venturas will mirror the glitz of Las Vegas", before delving into new mechanics like character strength ("You'll be able to visit one of several gyms spread throughout San Andreas so that you work out to stay in peak physical health"), and comments on audio that lend credence to a rumored partial tracklisting of recent ("Despite San Andreas' superficially hip-hop trappings, the game's soundtrack will feature a full range of early '90s music".) IGN PS2 also has a new hands-on preview, including fresh info on customizable in-game tattoos ("[designed by] Mister Cartoon... [featuring] gang names, guns, and women.")

Thanks to Boomtown for its article discussing an insight into the failure of a game developer, in this case developer Escape Factory. The post-mortem styled interview touches on problems with engine licensing ("We had no PS2 experience whatsoever, which is why we chose to use the Unreal engine, lured by its promise of PS2 compatibility. Unfortunately, that compatibility ended later in the process"), as well as how developers present themselves to publishers ("We thought it was all about making the best game in the world, but in reality it's all about making your publisher think you're making the best game in the world") - there's more information in a post-mortem Powerpoint presentation at Escape Factory's official site.

Thanks to GameSpot for its article revealing publisher Davilex will be releasing a game based on '80s TV show Miami Vice for PC, PS2, and Xbox. The game, in development at UK-based Atomic Planet Entertainment, offers "a third-person action game in which players engage in dangerous raids and gunfights in Miami nightclubs and warehouses", and means an official adaptation for an already videogame-influencing TV series. Davilex are also producing a sequel to their Knight Rider game, hopefully a little better-received than the original PC version. Elsewhere, Boomtown has a complete Vivendi release list for 2004, mentioning a number of previously unknown games, including two new Tolkien-licensed games for PC, new titles in the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro series, games based on film properties such as Predator, Chronicles Of Riddick, and Van Helsing, as well as Krusty Demons (either a motorcross game or a title involving everyone's favorite Simpsons clown?)

Thanks to Boomtown for completing their earlier article on the history of portable gaming with a second and third, final part, in which they check out the Sega Game Gear ("...one of the finest handhelds ever crafted, but also one of the most problematic") and Neo Geo Pocket Color ("caught by the same thing that killed the Lynx - lack of third-party support"), before moving on to the all-conquering, frontlit Game Boy Advance SP ("so much better, it's uncanny"), the GP32 ("...an amazing idea"), and into the future with Sony's "bulkier, multifunctional" PSP.

Thanks to Boomtown for completing their earlier article on the history of portable gaming with a second and third, final part, in which they check out the Sega Game Gear ("...one of the finest handhelds ever crafted, but also one of the most problematic") and Neo Geo Pocket Color ("caught by the same thing that killed the Lynx - lack of third-party support"), before moving on to the all-conquering, frontlit Game Boy Advance SP ("so much better, it's uncanny"), the GP32 ("...an amazing idea"), and into the future with Sony's "bulkier, multifunctional" PSP.

Thanks to Boomtown for the first part of their ongoing series, discussing the early history of handheld videogames. They start off with the Milton Bradley Microvision, which "actually arrived ten years prior to the release of the Game Boy", in 1979, and then discuss "Nintendo's famous line of simple portable LCD video games", the Game & Watch series, before covering the classic original Nintendo Game Boy, and "the world's first color handheld", the attractive but ultimately doomed Atari Lynx.

Thanks to GameSpot for their hands-on impressions of Deus Ex: Invisible War, the long-awaited PC/Xbox FPS from Warren Spector and cohorts at Ion Storm Austin. As well as confirming the game will ship in time for Xmas, the article illuminates: "Invisible War will give you more freedom of choice than the original Deus Ex", claiming that, similarly to the prequel, even non-violent conduct will work: "...one tester has made it about two-thirds of the way through the game without having acquired so much as a pistol." Boomtown also has a new preview of this "pivotal title" for Eidos.

Jakob writes: "Boomtown.net has posted an interview with Andre LaMothe, the creator of the forthcoming XGameStation DIY-styled console. We discuss subjects like the number of consoles he expects to sell, why he created the console, his thoughts about hardware add-ons, and much more." We mentioned the intriguing-looking XGameStation a few days back.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a Boomtown.net article discussing a Danish hospital's use of Counter-Strike in tests regarding long-term depression. According to the article, experts "..will develop a special version of Counter-Strike for the [Aarhus psychiatric] hospital, which is ripped of all violent content, but still retains its unique 3D design.. Senior doctor Poul Videbech wants to use the maps for testing the navigational skills of patients, who have suffered from severe depression over a long time." Fraggin' awesome.

Thanks to Boomtown.net for their article discussing the importance of higher-quality graphics in making good games. While the article comes to fairly mundane conclusions: ("..it's not just the graphics that are important... if there isn't good game design present, there isn't a good game"), it makes some good points about better graphical technology affecting gameplay ("With Alone in the Dark, 3D was used for an entirely different purpose. A fully polygon rendered environment allowed the developers to move the point of view around, to view the same scene from many different angles, resulting in some memorably shocking moments.") There's also links back to the first article in this series, discussing how bad level design affects gameplay.

Thanks to Boomtown.net for their article discussing the importance of higher-quality graphics in making good games. While the article comes to fairly mundane conclusions: ("..it's not just the graphics that are important... if there isn't good game design present, there isn't a good game"), it makes some good points about better graphical technology affecting gameplay ("With Alone in the Dark, 3D was used for an entirely different purpose. A fully polygon rendered environment allowed the developers to move the point of view around, to view the same scene from many different angles, resulting in some memorably shocking moments.") There's also links back to the first article in this series, discussing how bad level design affects gameplay.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to Boomtown's hands-on preview of Sony's Eye Toy, the forthcoming USB camera add-on for the Playstation 2 which comes with a suite of mini-games. As the preview explains, "The Eye Toy has motion detection capability, so you basically play all the games by moving your hands, your head, or even your legs." Interestingly, future plans for the Eye Toy, which was one of the E3 Game Critics Award winners, are also discussed, showing Sony are committed to using the hardware for more than just the one title: "The next instalment of Eye Toy: Play is already in development, and is due for release this Christmas. It will be a far more music-oriented product, featuring many tracks by popular artists. It will also feature full online video messaging capabilities."

Thanks to Jakob for pointing to a Boomtown.net article discussing independent developers keeping point and click adventures alive on the PC. The article is headed "..most of us remember with fondness the Monkey Island era of point and clicks, but now fans of the genre are making their own", and has links to a number of fan/indie-developed games such as Pleurghburg: Dark Ages or the in-development Project Joe, plus free adventure game engines such as Adventure Game Studio and AGAST.

Thanks to EvilAvatar for pointing to a Boomtown.net article discussing whether the new Xbox Live-exclusive Return To Castle Wolfenstein maps released a couple of days ago were actually downloaded. It seems the size of the files downloaded from Xbox Live were way too small to have been an actual level, despite the official press release indicating it was a "downloadable map", so it's possible the maps were on the game disc all along, and all that was downloaded was an 'unlock levels' message. The Boomtown article puts its own spin on this: "Providing these levels as a sweetener for Live Subscribers would be all very well, if extra development - over and above that of the game itself - is involved. But if the levels are already developed and present on the disk, then the publishers are inviting flak from the many Xbox gamers who don't have broadband."

Several online sources have rumored the development of an as-yet unannounced Terminator 3 FPS title for the PC, Terminator 3: War Of The Machines, to be published by Atari for Xmas 2003. Apparently, the title is currently in development at European Steel Of Haste developers Clever's, who have a teaser splash screen on their site seeming to back up the rumor. The game allegedly has heavy online components, and is completely different from the console Terminator 3 title from Black Ops, which is also scheduled to ship later this year. Update: 06/03 14:26 GMT by S : Thanks to boomtown.net for pointing out they sneaked a look at this low-profile title at E3.