Slashdot Mirror

Revotron writes "Readers of Entertainment Weekly might be shocked to find their magazine is a good bit heavier than normal this week. US-based broadcaster CW placed an ad in Entertainment Weekly which uses a fully-functional 3G Android device, a T-Mobile SIM card, and a specialized app to display short video advertisements along with the CW Twitter feed. Writers at Mashable were willing to geek out with a Swiss Army knife and a video camera to give us all the gory details as they tore it down piece-by-piece to discover the inner workings of CW's new ad."

Today Microsoft held their E3 press conference, announcing a number of major new games and services for the Xbox 360 platform. Halo 4 was briefly revealed, and is currently planned for a holiday 2012 launch. In addition, the original Halo is getting an HD remake. Smash indie hit Minecraft will be coming to the 360 this winter, with support for Kinect. In fact, there is a huge push from many game-makers to bring Kinect integration to the next level — from a new Fable game where you can use your hands to cast spells, to EA Sports titles, to Kinect Star Wars. Topping it off is an update to Xbox Live which will bring live TV to the console (including DVR functions), controllable by voice through Kinect. YouTube and voice search through Bing are coming as well. The update is planned for this fall. Those interested can catch a video of the press conference, which includes all the relevant game trailers, at G4TV.

eldavojohn writes "Activision has announced new Call of Duty titles while fired Infinity Ward Developer leads Jason West and Vince Zampella sue them for the rights to the name. According to Activision, 'The company intends to expand the Call of Duty brand with the same focus seen in its Blizzard Entertainment business unit. This will include a focus on high-margin digital online content and further[ing] the brand as the leading action entertainment franchise in new geographies, new genres and with new digital business models.' Ars opines that Activision is set to over-saturate the market with tons of CoD titles similar to how it expertly brought down Guitar Hero."

Scoop Snookems writes "Will there be a day where we earn achievement points simply by brushing our teeth or high-fiving a friend? There could be, according to Carnegie Mellon professor Jesse Schell. In this video from the annual DICE summit, Schell comments on recent evolutions in gaming before fixating on a concept where our futures evolve into one big RPG. Fascinating stuff, and I hope writing this post nets me 10 points."

digitalfever writes "There are more than 50 million Wii systems worldwide. Logically, the audience for a wide range of games and interactive experiences should be rather big, but based on the evidence so far, either that's not true — or publishers have been hedging the wrong bets. No one has conclusively proved the case for (or against) the viability of mature games on Wii, but 2009 was a litmus test on a number of fronts, including the DS. The results aren't encouraging. "

David Cage, writer and director of Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain, has released a lengthy video of an entire level from the game, along with detailed commentary about how the game works. He demonstrates how to operate the UI, showing how contextual menus let you control actions, dialog, and even your character's thoughts, while also showcasing how the game's investigatory system works and even a few fighting-related quick-time events. 1Up recently spoke with Cage about his time in the games industry, including his previous work on Indigo Prophecy. They also did a Heavy Rain preview of their own, and spoke briefly about post-launch plans. The game is due out next year for the PS3.

G4 had a chance to try out the upcoming Bionic Commando title due out in May. The game is a sequel to the NES version from 1988. Their impression is mostly positive: "The gameplay is fast and exciting, but a little light on combat, at least during the first level. There are also challenges that unlock upgrades for Nathan. These could be as simple as doing five zip kicks or as complex as killing a specific enemy with a specific move. It's a great way to add depth to the game and encourage the player to use all of the moves available to them." However, they do criticize the game's linearity, where movement is often restricted by arbitrarily placed radiation clouds. Capcom recently announced that a demo for the game will be available in the coming weeks.

We recently discussed news that Konami will be releasing a video game based on a 2004 battle in Fallujah. Many people have now had a chance to react to the game, and there has been a great deal of criticism voiced over the game's choice of setting. A group of families of soldiers who lost their lives in the war questioned "how anyone can trivialize a war that continues to kill and maim members of the military and Iraqi civilians to this day." Others criticized the game's glorification of the "massacre." Conversely, some soldiers and veterans have responded with optimism, hoping the game can raise awareness of the realities of war. Dan Rosenthal, Iraq veteran and long-time gamer, worries whether Konami will be able to do justice to the experience. Eurogamer posted a related story about the controversy over increasingly realistic war games.

Valve's Gabe Newell gave the keynote address at this year's Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain (DICE) Summit about the cost of games, the effect of piracy, and how to reach new players. Valve undertook an experiment recently to test how price affected the sales of their popular survival-horror FPS, Left 4 Dead. They Reduced the price by 50% on Steam, which "resulted in a 3000% increase in sales of the game, posting overall sales that beat the title's original launch performance." They also tested various other price drops over the holidays, seeing spikes in sales that corresponded well to the size of the discount. This will undoubtedly add to the speculation that game prices have risen too high for the current economic climate. G4TV ran a live blog of Newell's presentation, providing a few more details.

theodp writes "Last June, Google rolled out a new favicon, the small branding icon that graces your URL bar when you visit Google. Which, as it turned out, bore a striking similarity to Garth Brooks' Circle-G logo. Well, Google went back to the drawing board and has come back with a new favicon, which it says was inspired by — not copied from, mind you — its users' submitted ideas. Some are also seeing inspiration elsewhere for the new favicon, which consists of white 'g' on a background of four color swatches. Take the AVG antivirus icon, for instance. Or everybody's favorite memory toy, Simon. Or — in perhaps the unkindest cut of all — the four-color Microsoft Windows logo, shown here with a superimposed white '7'. Anything else come to mind?" What comes to mind for me is just how obsessed many people are with the Google favicon.

Newsweek reports that next year's E3 will be expanding its attendance cap to 40,000 in an attempt to return as the premiere large-scale gaming expo. E3 scaled back its operations over the last few years, leading some to speculate that it was outliving its usefulness. This year, according to E3's organizers, we can "expect a boat load of press conferences on Monday during the day and on Tuesday morning." Newsweek also claims E3 will be opening to the public for the first time, allowing fans inside for the last two days of the event. However, G4's coverage says that while the vetting process for attendees will be eased, the event still won't be open to the public. An official announcement will be made tomorrow by the Entertainment Software Association.

MTV's Multiplayer blog is working, all this week, on a series of interviews called Women Working in Games. They've already had great discussions with Ubisoft's Elspeth Tory on the Ubisoft/SomethingAwful thing, and X-Play's Morgan Webb about her work on cable television. They've also spoken with GameGirlAdvance's Jane Pinckard about the differences between men and women and the games they play. "I also think that women have traditionally been at the forefront of this, because they're burdened with more than their fair share of house work and childcare, usually. That's just statistical. And so they're going to have less leisure time for games. Now men are sort of catching up. But I think women have always been less free to play games the way that men have. So maybe that's why women play casual games or they play more casually. And they just don't want the same kind of game that requires 20, 40 hours of play. I think that's totally right." Tomorrow they're speaking with Brenda Brathwaite, a designer and author of the book Sex in Games.

G4 has apparently canceled two more of their holdover shows from the TechTV days. G4TV.com and Filter have been been put under the axe. While I wasn't a big fan of either of these shows, this seems to be indicative of the market-driven decision-making over at that network. They've got their product, stamped it, and now they're pumping out whatever lifestyle some exec has decided is the flavour of the moment. "Geek is out, but we'll keep X-Play, Icons, and Cinematech for our old market, Whip Set, Anime Unleashed, and Fast Lane for the new market, and reruns of the Man Show for everyone to look at hot girls." Mmmmmeh.

comforteagle writes "Scott Moschella, from Attack of the Show!, set out to make The Gimp a little friendlier with a simple UI make-over, creating GimpShop. Despite an outcry from some developers, users have picked it up with passion. Howard Wen has interviewed Scott about why he did this. From the interview: 'I've always thought that GIMP was just as powerful as Photoshop. My way of proving it was to make GIMP work as close to Photoshop as I possibly could, given my limited programming experience.' As more Windows/Mac users discover powerful open source applications are they bound (slashdot disc.) to make more discoveries of this kind?" Update: 09/16 18:48 GMT by Z : Some users have pointed out this is basically an update to a previous discussion we've had. Link added for the sake of completeness.

TimeForGuinness writes "Leo Laporte returns to G4TV along with the show Call For Help. It premieres Monday the 29th of August at 11am ET/8am PT. As a long time ZDTV and TechTV fan, I am happy to see him return." Agreed. Good to see him back on a cable show. The first few episode topics include: "Waterproof Your Gadgets, Find a Wi-Fi Hotspot, Tweak Your TV Tones, Network Enabled DVD Players"

An Anonymous Reader writes "G4's Attack of the show has a writeup and video of a demonstration of the Phantom Gaming Service." From the article: "I certainly wouldn't be at this company doing what I'm doing if I wasn't absolutely sure that we're going to launch a product. It's natural for people to be skeptical. I think a lot of the skepticism is building on itself at this point: people are skeptical so therefore they become more skeptical and therefore they become more skeptical."

An Anonymous Reader writes "G4's Attack of the show has a writeup and video of a demonstration of the Phantom Gaming Service." From the article: "I certainly wouldn't be at this company doing what I'm doing if I wasn't absolutely sure that we're going to launch a product. It's natural for people to be skeptical. I think a lot of the skepticism is building on itself at this point: people are skeptical so therefore they become more skeptical and therefore they become more skeptical."

Quantum Jim writes "Kevin Rose, one of the famous contributors and co-hosts of The Screen Savers, is leaving this week to concentrate on a new technology howto show called Systm. The Systm will be an internet-only show distributed free (as in beer AND speech) in a number of formats: Theora, Xvid, WMV, H.264, and PSP (what's that?). There will be bittorrent trackers available too! If only I had broadband..."

Voodoo Extreme has word that new technology for the Steam engine, as well as a HL2 expansion entitled 'The Lost Coast', will be shown off on G4TV's Attack of the Show (formerly The ScreenSavers). From the article: "On Wednesday's show, Valve's Doug Lombardi will give an exclusive demonstration of the previously unseen 'The Lost Coast,' an upcoming expansion that utilizes a brand-new technology that Valve is implementing into the Source engine. Called 'high-dynamic range lighting,' this new technology enables a leap in lighting realism from even the current high benchmark set by Half-Life 2 and the existing Source engine."

With the looming launch of Sony's handheld console, X-Play has a series of articles comparing and contrasting the new and shiny portable gaming consoles. The articles are broken into three parts, The PSP vs. the DS, The DS vs. the PSP, and The Final Verdict. From the final article: "Are two screens better than one? Are graphics all that matter? In this third and final edition of my Sony PSP vs. Nintendo DS editorial, I'll compare each handheld bit-by-bit and determine which of the two is worth your hard-earned cash."

With the looming launch of Sony's handheld console, X-Play has a series of articles comparing and contrasting the new and shiny portable gaming consoles. The articles are broken into three parts, The PSP vs. the DS, The DS vs. the PSP, and The Final Verdict. From the final article: "Are two screens better than one? Are graphics all that matter? In this third and final edition of my Sony PSP vs. Nintendo DS editorial, I'll compare each handheld bit-by-bit and determine which of the two is worth your hard-earned cash."

With the looming launch of Sony's handheld console, X-Play has a series of articles comparing and contrasting the new and shiny portable gaming consoles. The articles are broken into three parts, The PSP vs. the DS, The DS vs. the PSP, and The Final Verdict. From the final article: "Are two screens better than one? Are graphics all that matter? In this third and final edition of my Sony PSP vs. Nintendo DS editorial, I'll compare each handheld bit-by-bit and determine which of the two is worth your hard-earned cash."

ILL Clinton writes "A few notable events in the world of real-time moviemaking within 3D game environments, otherwise known as Machinima-- The Hamburg, Germany digital film festival, bitfilm, has added Machinima as a submission category. Also a new online magazine, MachiniMag recently launched. G4TV is airing, Ours Again by Nathan Moller. Plus, the ILL Clan has announced that their new Machinima series will launch this month, you can see a funny outtake clip from the production involving killer elevator doors. (as my name suggests, I work with the ILL Clan.)"

FPCat writes "Comcast has purchased TechTV. They plan to merge the station with G4. Maybe they'll stop showing Robot Wars and put some decent shows on instead. In either case, with Leo Laporte no longer hosting The Screen Savers, I expect big changes on the station..." (Of course, at this point they've only agreed to buy.)

Thanks to Wired News for their article exploring the influx of videogame-related programming on cable TV networks. The writer suggests the channels are "focusing on original programming that revolves around video games in an effort to regain the loyalty of an audience segment coveted by advertisers", and points to expansion by Spike TV, whose awards show was not well-received by gamers, but who've "licensed television programming rights to a game that ships next Christmas... [and are planning] to base a half-hour adventure show [on it]." It's also noted that "If a [still rumored] purchase is finalized, Comcast is expected to combine San Francisco-based TechTV... with its Los Angeles-based video game channel, G4", potentially giving videogame programming a larger presence. Finally, UPN has announced Game Over, a CG animated show which "takes place within a video game universe in which race car drivers and archeologists come home after a long day's work and deal with life in the suburbs and raising kids."

Thanks to GameSpy for their 'Sole Food' editorial discussing the vitriol directed against videogame-themed television programs, or, more specifically, the game-themed digital cable/satellite channel G4. The writer laments: "You'd think that people that enjoy the gaming lifestyle would be all over the only channel dedicated to their passion. Sadly, that's not the case", and goes on to suggest "there's been an enormous amount of improvement" in the channel, and comment: "my favorite thing about [G4] is that it will bring new people into the [videogaming] fold." Are there any game-related TV shows, either on G4 or elsewhere, that you think are being done just right?

Thanks to submitter Brad1138, who points out an article at MSNBC.com about a new list of the top 100 games ever. This time it was staffers at Entertainment Weekly and the games TV station G4 who decided the list, and the article only mentions the 5 highest-rated titles, which include Legend Of Zelda, Doom and Tetris. Which games would you have included in your list?