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And that's only Vice City. San Andreas didn't even make it into the top 100 which is bullshit (in January 05 GTA:SA had sold 5.1 million copies on the PS2 alone--it was later released on PC and Xbox). In reality, GTA:SA probably sold more than Vice City. The entire methodology sucks. But what do you expect from game magazines--it isn't as if they are statisticians.

Surely the UK advert for Legend of Zelda: the Ocarina of Time has to be the worst ever: A game that women enjoyed playing at a time when almost all gamers were men, and they advertise it with the slogan "Willst though get the girl? Or play like one?"

http://uk.gamespot.com/pages/profile/video_player. php?id=cSE2xDes5b4KuT8

"US retailers sold $10.5 billion of gaming hardware, software, and accessories"

"2005 saw PC-game revenue slide from 1.1 billion in 2004 to just $953 million"

source: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6142571.html

so it's under %10 in north america including console but not PC hardware, i'd say it's a bit more than .05%, no matter where you shop.

You are right that the linux gaming market is not worthwhile however, who uses linux for games? The most intelligent thing these companies could do is drop a bundle of cash on the cedega crew to get some better support via cedega, then include a 3 month subscription to cedega with the game itself. This would make the whole thing cost them bugger all and they could look like good guys in the process.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6154897.html

Well, there goes that.

Hello again.
Yes it did, according to this article. What is interesting to note is the fact of neither GameSpy nor IGN having any mention of a release date. Further, scouring XS Games' official site turns up no mention whatsoever of this game.

Like maybe this one?

I would like to congratulate the Japanese government for solving all of its countries other problems. I mean, they must have solved everthing else if this is somehow now a priority to them, right?

I'll assume you're just relatively ignorant and haven't spent much time living in Japan. As it is, they keep a very tight grip on the economic reins in a number of areas, and money laundering and taxation are two of the big ones. These are serious issues for anyone doing business in / with Japan, as banking and wiring service websites will show anti-laundering / anti-fraud messages from time to time, and the government's efforts to prevent money laundering and tax dodging are partly why it's so difficult now to get a bank account in Japan. If dodgy types have found out that gold farming is a quick and dirty way to skirt the laws, it makes perfect sense to me that the government would be interested in finding out about it -- hence the investigation.

As another poster noted on the linked GameSpot page,

Right just think what would happen if bill gates got rid of a **** of his cash in vertual gold before filling out taxes, then was able to sell it off and spend it slowly.

For crime, as with anything, follow the money. That's what Japanese law enforcement does, they follow the money as one of their many tools in trying to run a tight ship. And as virtual money starts to look more and more like the real thing, you can expect all sorts of government attention in other countries as well.

The news with FFXI is that the Japanese government is looking into gold farming. (That's the link from the Slashdot summary, you might want to read the entire thing.)

Plus, if you actually read the articles, they mention that the banning activity has greatly increased this month.

So, yes, it's news: MMORPG companies are banning more accounts over gold selling activies than they have been.

I beg to differ. Look at the latest numbers for the top 10 console games sold in Japan

http://www.the-magicbox.com/topten.htm

The top 3 spots are DS games and 7/10 spots are DS games.

And on the US charts for July 2-8

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6153855.html

DS games are right up there, but only pushed down a bit due to the World Cup frenzy that pushed all the soccer games up the charts.

That's better than what I thought -- I thought they were making a Washington, DC based MMO.

I mean, they have to set the Grand Theft Auto MMOG somewhere, right? Where better than our own little slice of Baghdad?

PS - I say this as a resident of the area. Personally I'd love to see a GTA-style shooter set here, because anything that brings more attention to the problem is good at this point.

I read your entire comment and I explained why it couldn't be done. Now die thank

1. Only an idiot states that something is impossible, especially when there is solid evidence that it is possible. QED, you are an idiot.
2. There are numerous examples of deformable terrain in the wild. In fact, you could find them by googling for "deformable terrain" which is exactly what I did. Most of them are not ready for prime time, but if they almost work today, we'll have enough processing power tomorrow. Thus again, you are an idiot.
3. Wishing death on someone for correcting your idiot ass makes you a little bitch, in the bargain.

The AC was pointing out that Europe - which MS does need, and indeed was expecting to win with the XBox - probably prefers Japanese games over American games, and THAT'S why MS needs Japanese developers.

He also suggests that 'the PS3 would be more than 35% of the monthly household income' of average families in some world territories.

One that has been floated around is that you would be able to have a little avatar of yourself that you could put into various games.

http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/images/2006/news/ 07/13/tf2_screen001.jpg and mirrored on http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/6384/tf2screen0 018el.jpg

love the new pixar-ish designs. it'll be sure to cause controversy ala wind waker did for zelda.

I always thought Carmeggedon 2 should have been disturbing, but i found it funny instead. I did find Quarantine disturbing though.

Actually, it's kind of an original concept. Most of the stalk-and-kill games involve creeping up and slashing guards' throats, sneaking further into a fortress, and doing it all over again. Thief, Metal Gear, Commandos, Desperados, they're all the same. Stalking people, then killing them, then worrying about the evidence, add some shootouts and narrow escapes from the cops... that'd be great! You could have a voice in your head telling you which victims to find ("Balding man between the ages of 30 and 45", "Young boy with dog") to act out repressed tresspasses on you. The police could follow your actions (for example, if you always kill in a 3 block radius, they'll step up patrols there), you could go on killing sprees, where you'd have to kill X people within X minutes, you could have slasher sections where you'd have to kill groups of cliche, dumb teenagers while dressed in a scary mask... A minigame where you have to invade a high school and take out as many people as possible. Killing with interesting weapons and devices ("Kill this guy by dragging him behind your car." "Kill this lady by setting her on fire.").

What you just described already exists, but for the last few bits. It's called Hitman. No, it's not a serial murder simulator, but it's pretty much exactly what you described: Stalk your victim to learn their patterns, stay hidden, kill your victim (and others, if you like, though no Silent Assassin rating for you if you do), leave no trace. The "voice in your head" is the agency that sends you on the hits rather than schizophrenia, but is it really that different?

Hard to be arrogant when you just shelved your main media distribution...

Both suck for info ... head over to gamespot ... they got a whole article on it with some good details

They also seem to be embracing Nintendo for this generation, but not just the Wii, but the DS as well. They're letting Rare develop games for the system, which would be unheard of if they were planning their own system.

Still, I don't see how they plan on offering a "better iPod." The iPod succeeds due to simplicity, and having a system that "will always work" with iTunes. Not supporting dozens of different configurations and media organization tools. I wish the iPod would support more formats both for video and audio, but at least the target formats are relatively simple and straightforward for most people to understand -- not "set VBR off and max resolution to less than 480x352 with trellis quantization turned on for best results" or other lingo-riddled instructions. Quicktime has an option "Save for iPod" that works, and even I'm pleased with the results.

Or, you could have just bought this game over a year ago...

For some reason, as I was reading this, I kept thinking that they were talking about Heart of Darkness

Sorry about that. I accidentally closed the tag wrong. Here's the link again in case it doesn't work right: American McGee's Alice

The cool part: the "insanity" concept. Nothing new but it worked rather well.
You need to try American McGee's Alice (sorry, IBM PC & Mac only.) That game has imagination and insanity up the wazoo. (Actually, kind of literally. The whole game is a trip through a nightmarish version of wonderland is essentially some sort of exploration of Alice's psyche after she had a serious mental breakdown.)

Ya know, it helps if people are familiar with whatever the heck you're talking about, when you compare a game to some sort of other game.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/aloneinthedar ktrilogy/review.html

"The Alone in the Dark games cast you as private eye Edward Carnby (in the first game you can also play as a woman named Emily Hartwood), investigating a series of deaths and disappearances, all of which are
linked to the occult or the supernatural."

It's apprently some sort of nothing-like-eternal-darnkness survival myster thing, on PC.

Let me translate what you don't even realize you are saying between the lines:

It's because the branding and marketing works, especially on kids, and people have been brainwashed into desiring strong brand identification. Go stand in the video game section of WalMart or Target for a half hour. Really, the experience will be worth a half hour of your time. You will witness a child consider which game to purchase. The kid will probably have one where they think it looks cool, or one of their friends has told them it is good, or they have seen a good review in a magazine. The other will be a licensed sports, movie, comic book, or cartoon title... It will be a struggle for the kid to decide, and then almost every time they'll pick the crappy licensed title over the good game play/review.

I've seen this several times. One was just the other day when a kid was trying to decide between New Super Mario Brothers and X-Men 3 for the DS. He litterally had a conversation with himself and the sales guy about it... He couldn't have been more than 8 years old, but he said he saw good reviews of the Mario game online. He had just played it a bit on the DS lite and told his mom 'I want this. It's fun.', and that's the reason they got the guy to open the case in the first place... But he saw the X-Men game box when he got over there, and "X-Men are awesome". The truely excelent New SMB went back in the case, and Activision got his cash for their crap fest with good branding.

That is why nobody bothers writing Football games without an NFL license.

Let me translate what you don't even realize you are saying between the lines:

It's because the branding and marketing works, especially on kids, and people have been brainwashed into desiring strong brand identification. Go stand in the video game section of WalMart or Target for a half hour. Really, the experience will be worth a half hour of your time. You will witness a child consider which game to purchase. The kid will probably have one where they think it looks cool, or one of their friends has told them it is good, or they have seen a good review in a magazine. The other will be a licensed sports, movie, comic book, or cartoon title... It will be a struggle for the kid to decide, and then almost every time they'll pick the crappy licensed title over the good game play/review.

I've seen this several times. One was just the other day when a kid was trying to decide between New Super Mario Brothers and X-Men 3 for the DS. He litterally had a conversation with himself and the sales guy about it... He couldn't have been more than 8 years old, but he said he saw good reviews of the Mario game online. He had just played it a bit on the DS lite and told his mom 'I want this. It's fun.', and that's the reason they got the guy to open the case in the first place... But he saw the X-Men game box when he got over there, and "X-Men are awesome". The truely excelent New SMB went back in the case, and Activision got his cash for their crap fest with good branding.

That is why nobody bothers writing Football games without an NFL license.

#21 Divine Divinity
You can say that again.

Platform : PC
Publisher : CDV
Year : 2002

Bringing the term "God complex " to retarded new heights, this recent RPG's titular redundancy is truly unholy.

This list of 50 badly named games doesn't even have XPlay's "worst named game" Tube Slider or even my perennial favorite Spawn In The Demon's Hand. Not even a mention of Capcom's "Street Fighter" sequelitis with "Super Street Fighter II Turbo" or "Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha".

Speaking of sequels, there are games like "Mega Man X" (right after MM6) and "Wizards and Warriors X" (sequel to W&W2, I believe) that just confuse people as to what game they are playing. Hey, what's all this "Super Castlevania IV" about? Is it better than regular old "Castlevania IV"?

Gah, now I need to make my own list.

This list of 50 badly named games doesn't even have XPlay's "worst named game" Tube Slider or even my perennial favorite Spawn In The Demon's Hand. Not even a mention of Capcom's "Street Fighter" sequelitis with "Super Street Fighter II Turbo" or "Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha".

Speaking of sequels, there are games like "Mega Man X" (right after MM6) and "Wizards and Warriors X" (sequel to W&W2, I believe) that just confuse people as to what game they are playing. Hey, what's all this "Super Castlevania IV" about? Is it better than regular old "Castlevania IV"?

Gah, now I need to make my own list.

Sony showed a movie of Killzone over a year ago at E3 2005.

Jeezus Aich Christ.. you'd think this is rocket science. If people don't want to pay for the software or agree to their EULA then don't use the software...[rest of rant removed]

Name me one damned piece of software that doesn't come with a EULA 30 pages long these days, and that doesn't include onerous conditions. Even the free licenses have clauses you may not like or agree with. In the real world you're "just don't use it" rhetoric is nonsense. Forget games. Do you get to pick the software you use at work? If you said you had a moral objection to using it and refused how long do you think your job would last? Better yet name me a practical operating system without a EULA. Your choice on a modern personal computer is limited to MacOS, WIndows and Unix/Linux. ...and another damned thing. I don't get to take the damned software back if I don't agree to the EULA, because shock horror I might have made a copy. Worse, until people have their systems screwed up - when it's too late to do anything about it - they don't learn about the problems with certain anti-piracy schemes.

Horseshit. Either back it up with a cite or STFU.

Oh that's good. You can google for a dozen phrases such as "CD keys increase piracy". Go and google for "starforce copy protection" while you're at it.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060313-6365 .html
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6145864.html

I refuse to do any more research for you. You haven't countered one damn thing I said or provided one bit of evidence for anything you've said yet you want me to. Instead of countering my arguments you just tell me not to use software if I don't like it. Too damn late if I bought it!

Ahhh go bury your head in the sand. Obviously you see your living threatened so you choose to only see one side of the argument. Yeah lets continue with a system that doesn't work, and makes even the most well intentioned companies and peoples criminal. Have fun. It's obvious to any cretin that if the software copy protection is going to do damage to a system there are going to be more people willing to break it. If it's cheap and it doesn't waste your time or stuff your system, why would people want a cracked/pirated copy?

Looking Glass Studios dissolved, but the programmers and the team responsible for SS2 are at work on a sequel, whose working title is "BioShock," I think. You can check Gamespot's coverage.

Do you mean that Ballmer with actually buy a Wii to play Elebits?

The mouse and keyboard is perfection but it would be cool if there was an alternative even for a more emmersive factor.

I posted this awhile back on digg on the topic:

What I'd like to hear is just exactly how the wii controller works with a fps.

We all know the venerable mouse/keyboard combo is the superior method for most, with consoles lacking in the precision using a dual analog method.

I'm trying to picture exactly how a fps would work with I assume would be the nunchuck mode.

So the addon part of the controller would replace the wasd, but how would the actual aiming work.

Because what's perfect with the mouse is, you can position it slowly for accurate aiming, or whip it around to do a quick 180'. Now the thing is when one does this quick movement of the mouse, you have to lift the mouse to recenter it, how would that work when translated to the wii?

In one scenario I can picture the motion sensing tracking where your aiming and the onscreen gun actually remains center like a traditional fps and just your view changes.

This works fine when facing one direction, but say you want to quickly turn around? Wouldn't one end up not facing the screen if they simulate a turning around motion? Because the problem is, how do you simulate the lifting of the mouse to recenter?

Or they could make it that the onscreen gun is 'free floating' and can aim at the edge of the screen, and you could use the analog stick to actually change orientation or by aiming at the far edge of the screen, your view rotates. But I could see that being a fixed speed, kind of like rotating in descent.

So even though this controller looks really cool, and might add some truely new styles of gameplay, I'm curious how the nunchuk fairs with a fps. I think it's obvious that it's going to be superior to console's dual analog history of controlling fps's, but can it match a mouse? Or maybe the added 'submersion' by just playing with the controller would make up for any shortcomings?

And someone directed me to this article:

http://www.gamespot.com/e3/e3story.html?sid=615026 3&pid=928517

A relevant bit:


"Before getting too much further into describing the demo level, we'll talk about how the control scheme is handled in Corruption. The game uses the remote-plus-nunchuk configuration, where you'll want to use the remote in your dominant hand, as that is what handles aiming. Simply point the remote at the screen to aim Samus' arm cannon. The cursor actually moves within the screen, instead of being fixed to the center of the screen as with most first-person shooters. This makes it possible to aim and fire at something you see without moving Samus, but the tradeoff is that your ability to turn quickly is compromised. To turn, you'll need to move the cursor all the way to the edge of the screen, at which point Samus will begin turning. There's definitely a learning curve involved with getting used to how the Wii controller works for aiming, but thankfully you can press on the Z trigger on the nunchuk to lock on to a target, which keeps the interface feeling somewhat consistent with previous Prime games. The lock-on only works if you have an enemy somewhat close to the center of the screen, so it's not exactly a crutch--and lock-on won't work on very fast-moving targets, plus enemies can often break out of target lock by dodging back and forth."

"We did have some trouble here and there when the sensors seemed to have trouble reacquiring the signal whenever we put our hands down--finding that invisible plane where the sensor wants your hands to be can be a little tricky or frustrating if you put your hands down for any reason."

That certainly doesn't sound like a revolutionary way to play a fps, esp if it has a need to give the player a button to lock on to enemies. Sounds like it getting around the same old limitations that console controllers have when playing a fps.

And I haven't seen the vids yet, I'll check them out now, but I don't think the wii will revolutionize the fps.

Sega Sammy's arcade and home consumer products were actually boosting a disapointing pachinko buisness.

Nah. Jack Thompson worries me and makes me sorta laugh. It worrys me when people with federal power start deciding to impose federal laws.

I hate to be the one to inform you of this, but Blizzard has never been one to be accused of milking anything.

Thats exactly what i meant. They havent been milking anything yet. But now they are starting to do so (if the rumours are to be believed)
http://f13.net/?itemid=167
Blizzard says everything is a mmog
"All Blizzard franchises will become MMOGs." All.

anyway we can lay these rumours to rest. Blizzard has denied everything
http://www.gamespot.com/news/2006/06/13/news_61527 18.html?part=rss&tag=gs_&subj=6152718

Actually the parent is right.

On April 1st there was a big announcement on Blizzard's site about World of Starcraft. It's no longer on the site or the archives however. They did this complete with screenshots too...

The last April Fools joke that I remember comming from them was the new Warcraft 3 playable race, the Pandarian Army

Why /. is running April Fools jokes as news escapes me...

Actually the parent is right.

On April 1st there was a big announcement on Blizzard's site about World of Starcraft. It's no longer on the site or the archives however. They did this complete with screenshots too...

The last April Fools joke that I remember comming from them was the new Warcraft 3 playable race, the Pandarian Army

Why /. is running April Fools jokes as news escapes me...

There was a console Diablo as well.

If you look at the last slide of their presentation you'll see the presenter didn't even know Blizzards products. While the Vivendi presentation claims there was no console version of any of the Blizzard series, there was in fact a console version of starcraft. It was awful (N64 controls were not suited for starcraft at all), but it was made.

The fact that Vivendi didn't even know this doesn't lend a lot of credence to the rumor.

The greatest one of all however is Filmspotting (formerly Cinecast), a movie podcast which frankly is the best reviewers in all of media. A normal review contains what, 3-4 minutes of discussion, maybe 6-7 if it's an article. The Filmspotting guys routinely talk for seventeen (17!) minutes about a movie, incredibly smart and intellectual discussion that really dives deep into actors, scripts, direction, theme, etc. of every movie it reviews. That is what makes podcasting great, by not being contrained by a corporation, people are free to create their own formats, and have complete creative control. Most often that means it's gonna suck, but when it doesn't you get something like Filmspotting which is frankly unparalelled in quality.

....get gamespots The Hotspot. It's a little silly, but they do have the by far best insights and discussions of any gaming podcast I've listened to. That, and it's really fun :P

Production scaled back, sorry. It matters not, however, because this is pretty much the death sentence for the format.

but Nintendo has gone to the "Mario" well a bit too much lately and the poor sales of the cube shows it.

Check the Japanese sales charts. In the last two weeks, New Mario Brothers for the DS has sold ~1,000,000, one of the (if not THE) fastest selling games ever. The demand for (good) games with Nintendo characters is there. Look at the Best Buy and Amazon.com US sales ranks for some more evidence... (NMB is currently the top selling console game on Amazon.com, and #2 at Best Buy).

Mario's (and other Nintendo properties) over- or under- exposure isn't what hurt the gamecube. The console is neck and neck with the Xbox 1 for global sales (it vastly outsells it in Japan), and that is primarily based on Nintendo 1st party games (Mario, Zelda, etc). What hurt the cube was a lack of any games BUT the Nintendo games (with a few exceptions like RE4. People that love Nintendo games bought the cube. But to compete with the PS2, they needed people who like GTA, Tekken, Elder Scrolls, etc... That's where they failed with the cube.

As far as them exiting the hardware business, they have already stated they will not do that. And why would they? They came out of the last generation with tons of profits - both on the cube and the GBA. Again, the Cube is worldwide neck and neck with the Xbox - and they made a profit on every console sold, unlike MS. If they only do just as well this time, they will still be making profit (and it looks like they might do a lot better than last time).

Right now, they consistantly dominate Japanese sales charts with the DS and DS games - DS games regularly occupy 50% or more of the games charts, and the DS outsells every other console or handheld handily. This is giving them a massive war chest, not to mention a lot of fans of the DS who may be easy to sway over to the Wii... On the flip side, if the weird controller scheme is bad, it will hurt them. And if they don't get 3rd party games, that will hurt them too.

Either way, though, Nintendo isn't going anywhere.

What about the PS2 version, where it was shipped AND turned on? link

I certainly hope that Apple doesn't buy nintendo (even if they could )

Yeah, there's a real question. Apple's apparently worth around 72 billion, Nintendo I had a bit harder time finding a figure (and wildly disparate "guesses" online - from 6 to 30 billion). I use the data in this article to guesstimate around 14 billion. Notable from that article is that as of a year ago Nintendo was the opposite of courting takeover. Suffice to say, Apple could probably afford it. It would not be a trivial expenditure. Nintendo would likely resist it. Whether Apple could actually manage a hostile takeover is questionable. It sounds like blue sky bunkum to me. (But guaranteed to generate just this sort of chatter, hmm...)

"Reuters is reporting, "Nintendo Co Ltd said on Friday it was considering executing a planned buyback of up to 14 million of its own shares, or about 10 percent of its total outstanding stock, after October 1." The move will help to prop up Nintendo shares. The buyback also serves as a defensive measure to prevent another company from launching a hostile takeover."

TOKYO--Nintendo today said it would acquire 2.2 million shares of its own stock. The figure represents 1.55 percent of the 130.08 million shares currently outstanding. The company will purchase the shares next week and will pay 11,650 yen ($106) a share, the same as today's closing price.

The purchase is expected to cost the company a total of 25.63 billion yen ($233.5 million), assuming the company can acquire all 2.2 million shares.

Nintendo has been cautious about corporate takeovers for about the past year, analysts say. Today's move is seen as another step toward heading off any uninvited takeover bids. The Nintendo announcement comes only four days after Square Enix announced a friendly $600 million takeover bid for Taito.

I just read an article regarding the same topic at Gamestop. The article states:

He further emphasized the PS3's PC-like abilities, stating there would be no problems running popular flavors of OS, including Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X: "to the PS3, an OS is like any other application."

Unless Sony whips up some amazing virtualization software, this is just a flat-out lie or extreme ignorance. Article URL: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6152519.html