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Hello Hank. DVD players and batteries can be purchased more cheaply and discretely in volume from China. Please direct your questions there. You will also find that China's energy policies make it easier to pay in dinar if you wish. You will also find that America is about to put DVDs on the restricted export list along with PS2s and common encryption.

If you are caught taking a portable DVD player across a national border you will be arrested and tried as a terrorist. It is unclear whether this will apply to CD players as well, but better throw that out too, just to be on the safe side. BlueRay players have been classified as WMDs, so if you're a foreign government, you better stay friendly with the US if you want to watch The Matrix in high definition without being declared a rogue state and invaded.

Yours truly,
John.

According to CVG the reason that the Assassin's Creed demo was a bit buggy and underwhelming in the press conference demonstration was that they were asked to show it off at last minute because Bungie were unable to get a single player demo of Halo 3 ready in time.

but computer gaming has been largely deemphasized over the years.

Exactly, how can you claim to be a success with just 8.5 million subscribers on a single game. If $15 a month times 8.5 million users is a success, give me the profits from all of those new consoles any day.

CVG: Is Nintendo considering releasing a hard drive to bolster the Wii's memory for all this new content?
Nintendo: No

Read the rest here.

I think it makes more sense for them to allow loading games from the SD card, but they shot that down too. I'd rather not have a bulky drive hanging off the back of my Wii. Kinda ruins the small form factor idea. And the fact that there is a nearly useless SD card slot in the Wii, that just annoys me. There's no reason it couldn't load a tiny ROM from the SD card, even copying it to RAM first, if it needed to... But if the GBA can play ROMs off of SD cards (which it can, if you buy the appropriate adapter), then so too can the Wii.

First of all: do you have any source links about how the game has been "gimped" claims are useless pile of mush without backbone.

Here you go: Xbox 360 is limiting GTA IV, says Rockstar

Not covered here are their plans to create an XBox Live Gold type of service later this year - without the fee. Oh, and don't forgoet about EP2, TF2, and Portal.

Add all that to how successful and powerful Steam has become, and I'd say times are pretty damn good at Valve right now...

It's already out for the PC and it's appalling. No mouse support, mangled controls and horribly broken lighting.
Review here: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?i d=159473&skip=yes

How exactly do you have 17GB free when the HD only has about 13GB available to the user?

Wii: Hello, I'm a Wii.

PS3: And I'm a PS3.

PS3: What are you reading?

Wii: Just The Wall Street Journal, it's not --

PS3: Lemme see that link. Oh, it's a review of us.

Wii: Oh, no no no, PS3, you know what --

PS3: Oh, it's by Walt Mossberg, one of the most respected technology experts on the planet. Apparently the Wii is "the more exciting, fun and satisfying" of the consoles and "won their heart". Very nice.

Wii: Just one man's opinion.

PS3: I actually read a different review this morning. They said Wii's exciting launch was just "a temporary phase". So, we're the same.

Wii: Yeah -- what was that in?

PS3: The, uh, Computer And Video Games ... Review ... Journal. :/

apologies

And IIRC, the GBA also had a pretty good Christmas. It sold 850,000 in December. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?i d=155061

I just found a new article on Bioshock. It is great to see much progress on the project.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?i d=150030

I cant speak for anyone else but I have a hard time believing that Gears managed to move that many consoles. I was out shopping quite a bit last week and saw lots of wii's being sold but didnt more than a handful of 360's though all the stores I shopped had plenty. Of course the way that Sony and Microsoft count sales is how many ship to retail (including the ones sitting on the shelves) where Nintendo actually counts units sold.

In relation to Unreal Engine 3, how important is Gears' arrival to the market?

Mike Capps: It is quite important. Having been an engine licensee myself (with America's Army), I can attest that a major part of the licensing decision is trusting that the engine will get to a shippable state. All our licensees have known that Gears of War, for Xbox360, and Unreal Tournament 2007, for PS3 and PC, were on the way, and while we have an excellent reputation for shipping games, I'm sure they were all happy to hear Gears had gone gold. Now that our first 360 title is out of the way we can turn resources toward achieving the same sort of "finished state", that we've achieved on Xbox 360, toward UT2007 on PlayStation 3 and PC.

Movies off of games suck because they don't have cheats. For instance, if the "Prince of Persia" movie sucks, can I press spacebar and skip it? No, I must suffer through!

Too bad there's a strong rumour going around that no Rare games will be released for the wii http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?i d=136289

brand loyalty is a pretty strong thing. i am not necessarily speaking about the playstation brand, but with the majority of games that are synonymous with the playstation name. there are alot of games that are cross platform, but the major games that defined the ps2 are still exclusive up until this point. [metal gear, tekken, devil may cry, final fantasy, gran turismo, ratchet and clank, etc] You are right that most gamers aren't loyal to any particular system, but gamers are definitely loyal to the games they like. with statements coming directly from hideo kojima stating that "metal gear solid is made for playstation", that carries alot of weight with gamers that follow series like that. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?i d=139826

a simultaneous release of GTA IV could be a major blow, since that is a huge franchise that they are losing exclusivity with.

im just using this example from the reception of the gamecube. non-gamers prefer their consoles to blend in with the rest of their electronics, thats true. demographics and what people want from consoles are vastly different from what people want from handhelds.

i dont think the ps3 will do as well as the ps2, but i dont foresee imminent death for sony either.

the problem particularly with console game news, is that there is alot of misinformation across the net. tekken6 is only going to be released on ps3, haven't even heard a rumor to the contrary. so if you can provide a reputable link, i'd like to check it out.

UT2007 is only going to be on ps3 and the pc [with linux and mac ports down the line], although there is alot of wishful thinking for a x360 port as well. a port of UT to x360 is as likely as a port of GoW to ps3. the engines have already been created, so porting the game back and forth shouldnt be too major a deal.

metal gear will NOT be ported to x360, straight from the mouth of kojima himself.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?i d=139826&skip=yes
as a matter of fact, he went on record saying that certain effects used in the game are only available on the ps3.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?i d=140990&skip=yes

final fantasy xiii was confirmed to only be released on ps3. final fantasy versus has not been confirmed or denied having a x360 port. so maybe there is hope...

i dont think the ps3 will do as well as the ps2, but i dont foresee imminent death for sony either.

the problem particularly with console game news, is that there is alot of misinformation across the net. tekken6 is only going to be released on ps3, haven't even heard a rumor to the contrary. so if you can provide a reputable link, i'd like to check it out.

UT2007 is only going to be on ps3 and the pc [with linux and mac ports down the line], although there is alot of wishful thinking for a x360 port as well. a port of UT to x360 is as likely as a port of GoW to ps3. the engines have already been created, so porting the game back and forth shouldnt be too major a deal.

metal gear will NOT be ported to x360, straight from the mouth of kojima himself.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?i d=139826&skip=yes
as a matter of fact, he went on record saying that certain effects used in the game are only available on the ps3.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?i d=140990&skip=yes

final fantasy xiii was confirmed to only be released on ps3. final fantasy versus has not been confirmed or denied having a x360 port. so maybe there is hope...

Judging from how the XB/PS2/GameCube games progressed, getting more optimised and looking even better as developers figured out how to optimise the console, I'm inclined to agree with the developer's final conclusion - multi-DVD XB360 games are coming, and sooner than you think.

But the sequel would be huge.

I love it! That is the best laugh I have had all day. Have them buy 3D Realms and it will be the joke of the year.

March 2006: Scott Miller, CEO of 3D Realms, announced that the company intends on developing a sequel to Duke Nukem Forever.

Here are two "real" reasons for you.

1. $599 price tag. Unless you want the crippled, 20gb HDD version for $500 which isn't a whole lot easier on the wallet.

2. Sony's smarmy, arrogant "you'll buy it just because it's a Sony" attitude. I'd purposely not buy a PS3 out of spite.

Speaking of smarmy and arrogant, when Kaz Hirai stands up there at E3 and denounces "gimmicks" as a jab at Nintendo, then proceeds to show off a new EyeToy game, the ability to use the PSP as a rear-view mirror in racing games and a dualshock controller with a gyroscope, it smacks of hypocrisy and turns off everyone but the most die-hard of Sony fanboys.

There are plenty of "real" reasons to not buy a PS3. Heck, I didn't even mention the fact that I have no use for a Blu-Ray player; therefore, why should I pay extra for one? But really, the outrageous price tag is the only reason most people need to say "Uh, no thanks" to the PS3.

CVG nearly exists. The paper magazine died finally in October 2004 after turning into a kiddie biased pile of toilet paper. The online version still exists at http://www.computerandvideogames.com./ I'm involved in a project to archive the entire run so we'll get back to you on that.

The article does it a dissevice. While it was close on its purchase by Future that was because Dennis (who themselves bought it from EMAP) wanted shot of it. It's circulation was half of Gamesmasters' and to call Gamesmaster kiddie compared to the CVG of the last couple of years is like calling Windows svelte compared to DOS 1.

As for "Coasted all the way to 2004", that ignores the Jaz Rignall and Paul Davies eras of the early 1990s and 1996ish which produced some of the last great games journalism before magazines were beaten to a bloody press-release filled pulp by the internet. They also had Retro coverage before any other mainstream magazine, which got countless of us into it and no doubt accounts for the success of the superb Retro Gamer magazine published by Imagine these days.

...the funniest news I've read about in 2006?

They're planning a sequel.

Seemed to work at E3.

It's difficult to say which is doing better without up to date sales figures. However it has been shown that the DS has been consistently outperforming the PSP in Japan and generally in the U.K. and France.

I'm not sure about figures in the U.S. but PSP may have a lead. It would be great if we could have total sales figures instead of units shipped from Nintendo and Sony.

Don't forget that this is on their wish list.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/news/news_sto ry.php(que)id=125925%22

Mark Rein, Vice President of Epic Games
"If you walk into EB in the US, they try and sell you a second hand version of a game before a new one. I think that's bad. It would be fine if they share that revenue with us. They can also be marketing partners with us as well. We can have an official refurbished games policy. That's the problem. Those resold games use server resources, tech support. The majority of guys calling up saying "I don't have my serial number", I'm sure a lot of those are resold. It costs us money. Those customers think they paid for it, and they're entitled to support. The reality is, we didn't get paid. They didn't pay us."

I'm not a huge console guy, but the Xbox360 (like the PS3) are huge leaps from their previous generation. The xbox is upgrading from a 700mhz processor to three 3ghz cores. There's also a big bump in memory and a fairly wicked video card. One early example of what is now possible with this hardware -- the devs for Project Gotham Racing tried to test the limits of the Xbox360, and were able to get 35,000 spectators on the sidelines of the race, each performing activities from a range of motion capture audience behaviors, with no slow down in frame rate. Game developers will be able to do a whole lot more with the hardware. Hopefully that translates into good games... That remains to be seen.

Personally, I'm interested in its expanded support for Xbox Live, and its built in media center extender capabilities. Once you've done online gaming on the Xbox, it's hard to go back to the PS2 (even though some of their games do support online... badly). The PS3 may have better online support than the PS2. As of now, the Xbox360 will be providing v2 of a well tested online-gaming platform for developers, while the PS3 may just have good network hardware but each game will still have to implement a custom online gaming platform.

Actually, they have about a 45% share of the non-japan market. That's not particularly bad for a first gen console, especially for one that's as large, loud and ugly as the xbox

As usual an AC is talking bollocks.

In a C&VG artical there is a section that tells us how many units (of each current console) have been sold.

Here is a snippet Sony's PS2 is the undisputed leader of the current gen console pack, having sold over 90 million units worldwide since it launched in 2000. As of December 2004 the Xbox had moved 20 million units, and the GameCube had shifted 18 million.

Now even with my rudimentary math skills I make them figures:

PS2: 70.3125%
Xbox:15.625%
Cube:14.0625%

For your figures of 45% that would mean that the PS2 has sold 45.6m units in Japan alone and the other 44.4m units in the rest of the world and that Xbox to have sold none at all in Japan.

Now forgive me for being a bit sceptical but somehow these figures don't seem to add up, why?

BECAUSE YOU'RE A MICRO$OFT FANBOY WHO'S TALKING BOLLOCKS LIKE ALWAYS.

Two more...
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/news/news_sto ry.php?id=120805 http://www.pro-g.co.uk/news/nid/153/966/

But just recently at E3, Sony was talking about the Playstation 3 being able to rip DVDs to the harddrive to improve the quality.

(If anyone can find a better link or direct quote to what the Sony drone actually said, please post).

As a result of their heavy-handed actions against DVDDecrypter (which I had no desire to obtain until I read this article and I now have copies of from two different sources), Sony should expect to be sued into oblivion if they have ANY sort of ripping ability in the Playstation 3. Hell, it makes ME want to sue them.

Not only that, but a lot of game developers want to keep the PC going strong, believe it or not. For example, here's an interview with Mark Rein of Epic Games talking about licensing of the Unreal Engine 3. The interesting part here is:

You know, it used to be id, and Epic, and a few others aimed at all those high-level games, but now because everybody's doing PS3 and Xbox 360, they're all gonna be doing high-level games. So when they do bring them to the PC, they're gonna be great.

And we actually adjusted our pricing structure on Unreal Engine 3 basically to say "you're paying for all three whether you're using it or not, so you may as well do PC!"

We're evangelising to all our customers, we want them to do PC, because we make royalties, so the more they do...[laughs]

So no, PC gaming is not going to die. At least, that's my opinion.

..."we actually adjusted our pricing structure on Unreal Engine 3 basically to say "you're paying for all three [PC, PS3, and XBOX2] whether you're using it or not, so you may as well do PC!" - Mark Rein, Epic Games

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A European release for the sequel has been mentioned here and there. No details, but some scant info here and here. Also, Namco sent Katamari 2 press packs to the Euro press, which would be pointless if there were no Euro release planned. Failing that, there is a Nintendo DS version coming out.

Fingers crossed, eh?

PS3 controllers will probably be wireless, hence no controller ports.

It does look like a fake though, since putting a UMD drive in the PS3 would push the price up rather drastically, and you'd have to provide emulation for the PSP.

It looks very fake to me. (and ugly to boot)

I hope they'll be able to get all of the buttons working on the new revision of the hardware.

Anyone else realise that today is the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Playstation?

Computer and video games have a small article here . It'll be interesting to see how they compete with the DS as the last ten years have shown they are rather good at this. Personally speaking i wouldn't touch the PSP, the screen is begging for a good scratching and i seem to recall battery life (and size) where what killed the sega game gear. I still love Sonic 2 though.

C&WG article

I haven't tried it myself, but it sounds like A Tale In the Desert 2 is what you might be looking for.

It doesn't have combat, it relies on cooperation to get things done. Basically it is about improving yourself and society. Low level "tests" might be learning how to make bricks, straw, constructing simple artworks and so on. Higher level tests often include coordinating lower level players in helping you do something (say, have a dancing cermony celebrating the rising sun and all 20 dancers have to act in character, or have a couple of hundred people help you build a pyramid).

This is a game where you can go and open the door without risking the death of your character. The first one was NOT a never ending story. It had a clear beginning, middle and end, and a few players who were "winners".

Also, players could vote to change an amazing number of things.

The reviews for the first game were very positive, and the second one looks even better.

And guess what, there are even Linux clients!

This is a game I wish more people had heard of, you can download the demo for Linux or Windows today.

Computer and Videogames reports that, "As far as Vivendi is concerned, the game is finished."

Valve hangs a pinata in their office to be broken when the game goes gold (Here's a picture of it in pre-broken state). Gamespot has learned from an "informed source" that the pinata has been broken.

When the game is submitted to the BBFC as this is reporting, it means it is a final build and we can expect a gold announcement on Monday.

Purhaps they should do what real journalists do and actually search out for the truth by contacting Valve or Vivendi Universal, rather than trying to connect the dots or use sources like "An Industry Insider". That way they don't sound like trashy womens magazines that get their sources from "Close Friends" and the like.

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• It will have first- and third-person combat in addition to the usual space exploration.
  
• It was originally conceived as an MMOG but Braben decided against it because of what he felt were "weaknesses in the Internet infrastructure" (paraphrased). There will still be LAN-style MP in addition to the single-player, though.
  
• A major part of the game will be the lifelike, interactive characters that exhibit group dynamics and realistic animation.

I'm reminded of a comic

To be honest, I don't know that much about Acclaim's games. The only thing I remember about them are some rather dubious advertising campaigns, which I don't think they actually ever meant to follow through on. I think they were just proposed for the shock value, the whole "any publicity is good publicity" idea.

I decided that I didn't want to buy any of their games because I didn't want to encourage that behavior, but I don't recall the issue actually coming up. They didn't make any games I was interested in.

One thing Atari does do well, which obviously does not include making great epic games, is teasing the press. Quite frankly, the press has no balls, and Atari's Enter the Matrix proved it once. EGM, for example, dedicated half of its magazine and cover to the game the month before it came out, with cautious but glowing language. Driver 3 proves the balllessness of the press once again. Driv3r isn't nearly the comedown that ETM was, but for a massively marketed game that's getting 5/10s and 60%s, it's as if these people had played an entirely different game before it came out.

EGM's, for example, doesn't say specifically, "this is a great game," but it comes as close as it can. Driver 3, EGM claims, is "high-revving hardly-a-GTA-clone that's peeling rubber to the PlayStation 2 and Xbox." The language used is as excited as it woul be in a 8 or 9/10 review. Yet, they're not even looking at the full game. I wouldn't doubt if a majority of the preview came from a designer just talking about great the game is, and the previewer transcribing it.

1up, the online media conglomerate for several print magazines, goes further. "Judging by the time we've spent so far with the near-final . . . it avoids the pitfalls that all the other GTA wannabes fell into. From a technical standpoint, DRIV3R is already something special."

CVG is as generous and used as many exclamation points as the editor probably allowed. "We haven't even had a chance to talk about how the top-notch storyline is shaping up, the amazing Hollywood voice cast, how cool the first-person viewpoint is and the way you can complete missions by going in with your guns blazin' or your wheels squealin'."

Gamepro, in a hands on preview, said the game "was looking very nice," "collision detection is already solid," and the "variety is sure to please anyone." Likewise, Gampro promises that "Driv3r is already shaping up into what looks like an incredibly fun title."

Of the quick survey I did of DRIV3R's previews, IGN's was sadly the most realistic. They list a few of its problems, but then reassure, "We know it'll be fixed." The rest of the preview sounds like a giddy school girl. Likewise, Gamespot admits that the graphics are rough, but "Driver 3 definitely looks promising." Then, like IGN, they seem to apologize for that nugget of truth with an entire paragraph on how great Driver 3 will be. It's as if they just insulted the game designers' mothers.

What's happening here is a symbiotic relationship between the press and the publishers. Like movies, music, or comic books, in most cases a game makes a majority of its sales during the first 2-4 weeks of its shelflife. There are exceptions, including GTA3, but the largest portion of games aren't GTA3s, but DRIV3Rs. With regards to print magazines, that renders the reviews almost useless. The people that buy after the first month probably don't read game magazines and sites nearly as much as those who do buy in the first month. Secondly, first day buyers often don't even have online reviews, let alone the print reviews which come out a full month or two after the game's release. That means that buyers are relying on previews almost exclusively.

And I think the publishers know it. What's going on here is simple, as demonstrated by the extremely apologetic and defensive Gamespot and IGN reviewers, is that if the previewers were honest, they'd lose their "exclusives" and

Sadly, if you go to the images page, it is apparent that gladiator is not actually all that bloody. It's not a member of the elite class of games where you can hack your opponent's limbs off, for example. There are no explosions, so bits of grizzle don't spray everywhere like in FPS games. No internally bits are ever on the outside. It's not even funny. Where is the violence? The nastiness? Where is the dark foreboding nature of of the world laid bare like scraped flesh covered in dirt and pebbles?

No, what we get is a series of repetitive blood textures added to the grounds around where a traditional penetration damage model is taking place. Nothing new here.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some Happy Tree Friends to watch.

Unlike the US magazines (Compute!, Ahoy! etc.) it didn't have any checksums in the magazine, so you had to be very careful when typing in stuff.

Linux users sad about no HL? How about Mac users? The Mac version of HL was essentially finished, but then axed by Sierra. Mention of it can be found here. How's that for getting stiffed?

Magazines such as "computer and video games" were available in little bookshops in the villages where I grew up and had full type-in listings of games. The populist books were available from shops that sold home computers, and some were around in general bookshops also.

Yeah, I suppose they've only produced half of the 4 games to attain perfect scores from Famitsu. Shame on them, they should be doing much better </sarcasm>

Nintendo is doing alright. They're making plenty of cash, and considering the whole Sony group only made $9 million last quater, they shouldn't really be that displeased. Market share only goes so far, at the end of the day, despite what idiot share holders may think, profit is king.

Per capita, Estonians are currently spending more time (67 hours/year/capita) playing first person shooters online than Canadians (57 hours/year/capita). They're almost matching South Korea (70 hours/year/capita). By the way, the US comes in with 109 hours/year/capita.
This is quite a feat for a former Soviet republic.

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