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(which, predictably, has already been hacked)

Plenty of people will be putting in covers of copyrighted music, but I'm think small local bands will use Guitar Hero to promote their music in grassroots type of way.

The director of Guitar Hero World Tour said they will remove songs that have a copyright. Here is the link quoting the guy. http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/29/guitar-hero-world-tour-wont-condone-your-awful-cover-songs/

That argument would hold a lot more water if Sony had shown the same respect "not to be intentionally offensive" when Christians complained.

Three words for you (and people in the States, as well): "Making terrorist threats".

It's been used on people of all ages and colors. Yes, even kids:

* Middle School Kids have been threatened with being put on the Terrorist Watch List.
* A student was arrested for "Zombie Fiction" because the story was set at a high school. Not *his* high school, mind you, *a* high school.
* A Chinese student was arrested because he made a map of his school for a video game (probably Counter Strike or a similar FPS)
* Two boys were arrested for talking about shooting up their school, probably jokingly.

I miss the days when there were these petty requirements for things like evidence and probable cause.

Rock Band 1 for Wii was a joke and a mistake, I agree. However, it has been strongly implied (if not confirmed) that Rock Band 2 will have both online play and DLC. See for example http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/08/harmonix-rock-b.html or http://www.joystiq.com/2008/08/06/rock-band-2-for-wii-wont-skimp-on-features/. Since you should really be comparing GH:WT to RB2, not RB1, it's no longer an obvious choice.

Of course, I'll still be getting GH:WT for my Wii for a lot of other reasons, including a more complex drumset and these gems from the setlist announcement:
* At The Drive-In - One Armed Scissor
* Mars Volta - L'Via L'Viaquez
* Tool - Parabola
* Tool - Schism
* Tool - Vicarious

I knew Tool would have to show up in one of the games eventually, but I have to say I was very surprised to see both ATDI and The Mars Volta, two of my other favorites.

Apparently nobody seems to care that the majority of the development team was laid off before release, in what was likely a cost-cutting move.

I mean, hey - you don't have to pay bonuses to people you fired. Maybe Lucas should provide some input on that.

I am not sure if you know, but consoles also need to install things in the harddisk. In this case, waiting 25 minutes might be just TOO long for me. Considering that this is a 10 hour game, half an hour is around 5% of play time. So it is time now to review that concept of consoles better than PCs: they need an install as of now.

• Google Image Search: Captain Lou Albano
• Albano as Mario

At least Albano made a better Mario than, say, Bob Hoskins.

Microsoft already ensures that the controllers are compatible across games.

Tell that to my Rock Band guitar and my Guitar Hero II and III games.

Not to mention Manhunt, one of the most violent games ever made.

What a stupid article.

Repeat after me, XBox 360 uses a modified DX9 implementation, not DX10.

If you want to make a game that runs on Xbox, you will be using an advanced version of DirectX 9. Most companies would probably stick to normal DirectX 9 so that they could just be recompiled for Windows XP and Vista. Especially since most gamers are still running XP. Gaming rigs are one of the exceptions to the major computer companies being able to still sell XP.

As for where do I get the information for DX10 not running on the Xbox, read below.

1up reports that ATI has debunked a rumor that Xbox 360 could be upgraded to support DirectX 10 via a patch. "Xbox360 cannot run DX10," an ATI spokesperson told 1up. Currently, Microsoft's console runs an advanced version of DirectX 9, which, according to ATI, features "memory export that can enable DX10-class functionality such as stream-out."
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/08/24/xbox-360-cant-run-directx-10-confirms-ati/

Obviously nintendo is pretty mad at them for doing this. Nintendo no longer has a monopoly on the Wii remote...

They haven't for a while.

• Video game consoles have multiple controllers and a large monitor. But the consoles sold in English-speaking countries have a lockout chip and historically anti-indie policies.

Check out the newly announced Xbox Live Community Arcade.

Joystiq has posted an excellent refutation of this tempest in a tea-pot.

if the wiis graphics didnt look so simalar to the gamecubes, the wii is nothing more than two gamecubes duct taped together. and apparently im not the only one as stated here by joystiq to think this. sure bowling is cool but why the hell wouldnt I go out and...you know bowl for real. [end rant]

Crystal Tools, originally White Engine, has been a multiplatform development tool. They announced last fall that it was multiplatorm. GDC '08 At the SE presser yesterday it was said that FF13 was being developed on PC, then ported over to both systems. This is SE, I seriously doubt it will be worse on either system. Though, I'm guessing the 360 version will be 3 or 4 discs.

In order:

Yahoo! News: Top Stories
Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things http://www.boingboing.net/ - Links of cool stuff / interesting political stuff on the web
Slashdot.org (some nerd website)
Penny Arcade http://www.penny-arcade.com/ - Best webcomic evar
Joystiq http://www.joystiq.com/ - Gaming news
BensBargains.net http://www.bensbargains.net/ - Website that lists awesome deals on all sorts of stuff
FOUND Magazine http://www.foundmagazine.com/ - Website where people submit random interesting/hilarious/beautiful/sad/etc things that they find (letters, pictures, notes, signs, etc.)
SlickDeals.net http://www.slickdeals.net/ - Same as above
Techbargains.com http://www.techbargains.com/ - Ditto.

I did just that, and it turns out that you're full of shit.

It's pretty obvious to anyone with a Playstation 3 what games need:

More Cutscenes.

I know a few Wii owners.

You know another one now :)

Most all of them have GH3
I don't. Even if I wanted the game (which I don't) I'd get it on a platform which supports online/song downloads. I think if you look at the numbers you'll see that the 360 version of GH3 has sold many more copies than the Wii version.

Most of them have Mario Galaxy
Nintendo.

A lot of them have Mariokart
Nintendo

And a BIG winner is Wii fit
Nintendo

See the pattern? With a few exceptions third party games aren't selling well, and there are so many titles out there that the signal to noise is very bad - inexperienced/non-savvy gamers are very likely to buy crap, probably making it even less likely they'll buy again in the future.

Look here (latest figures I could find) - the attach rate for the Wii is 30% less that that of the 360. Add in the fact that 360 titles can generally sell for more ($60 vs $50) and the fact that most of the 5.3 games sold to each Wii owner are probably published by Nintendo, and you can see why a third party might think about avoiding it. Particularly as if you write a game for 360/PS3 doing a Wii port is hardly straightforward/cheap - as we've seen you often have to pretty much redesign the whole game due to hardware limitations.

Top 10 sales for April 4/10 (1.958m) are Wii, 2/10(1.991m) are 360, 2/10(1.224m) are PS3

1. GTA IV - Xbox 360 - 1.85 million*
2. Mario Kart Wii - Wii - 1.12 million
3. GTA IV - PS3 - 1.00 million*
4. Wii Play w/ remote - Wii - 360K
5. Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Wii - 326K
6. Gran Turismo 5: Prologue - PS3 - 224K
7. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness - DS - 202K
8. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time - DS - 202K
9. Guitar Hero III - Wii - 152K
10. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Xbox 360 - 141K*


Joystiq Source
The differences in game sales are just not as vast as people seem to imply.

I read this article on Joystiq about 6 months ago.

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/12/12/greenpeace-targets-game-industry/

Nobody gave a crap 6 months ago and no one gives a crap now. It won't matter how many press releases they issue or how often they issue them.

"Even God himself couldn't wreck this car!" Tesla CEO

I bet if you give it to Eddie Griffin or Stefan Eriksson that they'd bring it back in a million pieces.

More than that, he's a shareholder! http://www.joystiq.com/2005/12/22/take-two-gets-a-new-shareholder-jack-thompson/

Use an emulator and some old controllers from http://www.joystiq.com/2007/04/12/nes-usb-controller-dont-make-it-buy-it/ You won't ever have to blow on the cartridges or work special magic to make it stay down.

One day soon the stockholders will ask why Microsoft is sinking so much money into XBox 360 or any of those other loss-making projects that Microsoft enjoys so much.

I saw an article a couple weeks ago that indicated the Entertainment Division, (includes the XBox), was finally in the black. Sure, you have to include all the profits from the games and XBox Live to eliminate all the red ink, but they are out of the hole. Of course, 6 years to make that first $1 is a long time, but they aren't hemorrhaging cash like they used to. At least, not until they have to develop the XBox 1080 - designed for Hi-Def!

Wow, this reminds me of 2006.

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/20/blizzard-sued-by-wow-glider-creator/

Except in 2006, he was suing them.

I know I shouldn't respond to an anonymous coward but...

Clearly this coward has not used a nintendo.

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/10/28/how-did-you-blow-your-nes-cartridge/

>So you agree that there is no evidence whatsoever to justify your belief that a realistic depiction of
>what is known to be a fictional event can cause harm.

>Any reports of PTSD from players of those games?

I've been doing some Googling, and it seems that there is evidence that supports the claim that exposure to fictional violence can have adverse consequences:

This is just one supporting article I found:
http://www.apa.org/science/psa/sb-anderson.html

Nonetheless, I still believe all the video games I have seen are reasonably cartoonish to not be a serious problem. I believe this is going to change, however, as they become more and more realistic.

>And if you think that video games aren't realistic enough, what about movies that are literally photorealistic?

My 2-year old daughter was sufficiently traumatized from watching Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" that it gave her nightmares, and the toy monster we got at McDonald's yesterday looks enough like "The Beast" that it upset her. Now bad dreams are a long way from acting out violent behavior, but the point here is that audio/visual stimuli /can/ have deep, lasting mental impacts. The extent of those impacts is debatable and is likely different for different people. I know I can't watch movies like "Hostel" or "Saw" - they disturb me. I suspect authentic simulations (or real depictions) of audio/video stimuli of violence can have adverse effects, and I bet I can go Google and find something to support this suspicion. But I suspect that /participatory/ stimuli have an even stronger effect. To use your phobia example, I suppose viewing realistic footage of heights could help someone become acclimated to such environments. But actual exposure to the real environment would go even further. Thus it is logical to assume the more realistic the simulation, the greater the acclimation effect.

>Gears of War comes pretty close, and I gather that some of the newer PC games go even further when played on a top end gaming PC.

I just Googled Gears of War - it does look pretty good. I've got a pretty high-end machine - I'll have to give it a go. I tend to prefer 1st-person games over 3rd person, though. I just played the latest Half Life game a couple of months ago and it was pretty realistic, too. Enough so that the crab-headed zombies grossed me out. :)

>Any reports of PTSD from players of those games?

I found a link of a soldier who had a PTSD episode possibly triggered by CoD:
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/02/10/ex-marine-goes-missing-after-call-of-duty-triggered-flashbacks/

>I've never heard of anybody experiencing PTSD from training scenarios in which the
>people participating know that they are not real--not even real life scenarios. Have you?

This is one I turned up with Google:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3912/is_200602/ai_n16087458

"Depression and anxiety in particular have been associated with attrition during initial military training"

"It has been estimated that most recruits who demonstrate problems with adaptation are referred for mental health evaluation within the first 14 days of training.10 Although most of those referred are diagnosed with adjustment disorder,10,11 more serious levels of depression and suicide are likely to occur within the first 20 to 60 days of basic training.12 This report of referral for depression and suicide during the beginning of basic training coincides with reports of stress levels over the course of basic training. Fluctuating levels of stress have been noted in some groups of basic trainees, with peaks in stress levels after the first 1 week of training.2 However, most

Perhaps not completely scratchproof, but it'll stand up to things far, far, far more than other discs: Video.

Just take this link and see where the joystick is...

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/19/xbox-360-arcade-stick/

In all it's Xbox 360 glory.

No, stop laughing, I'm serious! --well at least stop rolling on the floor. :(

It could get about three more people playing in the arcades, if Namco really wants that and not just more IP tightening. For one, the Cutie has tits and a weapon, which seems to be the baseline for girl inclusion in a Soul game. (I mean, her nude transformations would fit quite nicely with such wholesome liberally-covered characters as Ivy and Sophitia "I'm sorry!" Alexandra.) Secondly, Namco can spin it to attract the female crowd by calling the 70s anime character who can turn into pretty much anyone an example of the feminist ideal.

Lastly, if they're really feeling cash-strapped with the whole arcade thing, they can get Michiko Neya to do both Sophie and Honey. (She's already done both, so it's not entirely crazy...)

It's not like Namco--or, at least, Namco Bandai--hasn't heard of her. Bandai distributed the 2004 movie in the States.

I'm not (necessarily) saying this as a fan of Honey, I'm saying this as something that would make some sense--at least as much sense as Link...or Yoda...or Vader. While they'd certainly have to hobble her abilities to put her against the main fighters, and I'm not sure about any associated Honey royalties, how exclusive Aruze's rights to use Honey are, or even if she's popular enough to make a difference for Namco's wallet, it would still be fun to see her bouncing around in an arcade fighting game for once. It'd certainly make more sense than any anti-console whining.

Way to completely rip this from Joystiq. Could have at least changed a few words.

He needs to get hit over the head with the internet Clue stick.

Now consumers are getting their wish, and the music industry will continue to crumble.
The sales/downloads of Guitar Hero tracks is making Activision rich. http://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/21/guitar-hero-franchise-passes-the-1b-mark/
Notice that the top downloads do not include todays Pop or Urban Crap (oops) Rap artists.

The RIAA/Studio over priced music model will decline. CD sales suck, not because of the DRM (that sucks too), but because the product (Music) stinks. I want to buy Lordi's CD but can't find a US seller anywhere. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6VzdtmrP6Y

When can Lordi sell me their tracks though Nintendo/Microsoft/Sony? The future will be Music tracks from Band to Fan (Me).

Not the current model of Band, Expensive Studio, Distribution Conglomerate, Store to Fan tracks.

Enjoy,

The new, stereo-enabled discs will be free of charge through Activision, though they haven't announced exactly when they'd be available, or how they would be shipped out. Also, we're not exactly certain how DLC will work on the system (our Wii's system memory is already bogged down by VC gems like Donkey Kong Jr. Math and Urban Champion), but RedOctane is reportedly working feverishly with Nintendo to figure out a method of getting new songs on the Wii. Apparently, trying to wish them onto the system hasn't been working out very well.

I'm not really that sure that gamespot fired him solely because he gave the game a bad review. I mean how can you watch his review of the game where he used the F-word three or four times. That and his comment that no one should ever buy this game was probably not the best. Its one thing to honestly point out flaws in a product, which he did and I'm not saying it wasn't a bad game. Its quite another to tell people that something is terrible and they shouldn't buy it. Especially odd is that this story is on 1up which had themselves a little trouble after a terrible review of Neverwinter Nights 2. http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/03/1up-pulls-neverwinter-nights-2-review/ if you want to read some of the more eye raising excerpts. What these people need to realize that if they want to be treated like journalist and have there editors go up to bat for them if they give a product a bad review, then they need to hold themselves to some journalistic standards.

2. Data per square inch doesn't matter. I believe by all accounts, the DVD in the 360 is faster simply because DVD-ROMs have been around for ages and are well understood.

The Orange Box on PS3/XBox360 makes for a damning view, given how the 360 loads faster and isn't as jerky (watch for the boat scene).

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/12/14/todays-most-comparative-video-orange-box-ps3-vs-xbox-360/

I just got off the phone with him.
He's suing the US Army for undermining his position. And he's including gay soldier porn with the filing.*
-nB

*because it's Jack: The aforementioned statement was not meant to represent that I know or spoke with Jack Thompson (who is known to file gay porn for some weird reason), nor is anything other than the statement that Jack sees some (weird) reason to file gay porn meant to be a statement of fact. It is this posters opinion that Jack is deranged enough to actually sue the US Army, and in his style would file gay porn, in addition I am positing that Jack would try to stay with the theme and make it gay soldier porn in his posting. If Jack is willing to go with Lesbian soldier porn I will consider reading his filing for spelling errors. Also this disclaimer and all of this post is this posters opinion and makes no assertions of fact or prior knowledge. This is because even though I believe my opinions are true, Jack may not. Then he would sue me. Then I would have to go make a violent video game of me dying via Gay Soldier Porn, to prove some weird point to Jack so he would donate to the charity of my choice (Shriners hospital in Sac CA please), then he would renege on it and PennyArcade would have to step up on it again.

I just got off the phone with him.
He's suing the US Army for undermining his position. And he's including gay soldier porn with the filing.*
-nB

*because it's Jack: The aforementioned statement was not meant to represent that I know or spoke with Jack Thompson (who is known to file gay porn for some weird reason), nor is anything other than the statement that Jack sees some (weird) reason to file gay porn meant to be a statement of fact. It is this posters opinion that Jack is deranged enough to actually sue the US Army, and in his style would file gay porn, in addition I am positing that Jack would try to stay with the theme and make it gay soldier porn in his posting. If Jack is willing to go with Lesbian soldier porn I will consider reading his filing for spelling errors. Also this disclaimer and all of this post is this posters opinion and makes no assertions of fact or prior knowledge. This is because even though I believe my opinions are true, Jack may not. Then he would sue me. Then I would have to go make a violent video game of me dying via Gay Soldier Porn, to prove some weird point to Jack so he would donate to the charity of my choice (Shriners hospital in Sac CA please), then he would renege on it and PennyArcade would have to step up on it again.

iD software has announced that their next game "Rage" will be available for OSX. I'm waiting to see how that runs before I'm willing to buy the Transgaming story/excuse. If it really just can't be done, then Carmack and Co will be in the same boat.

Additionally, there have been rumors that UT3 and Gears of War are going Mac native as well.

Maybe John Carmack and "Icculus" know something that the Transgaming people don't??? I dunno.

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/07/17/gears-of-war-ut3-coming-to-macs/
http://www.insidemacgames.com/news/story.php?ID=15468

Because they wanted to include Darth Vadar and Yoda into the mix....

• Blu-ray player sales dominate HD DVD, 3 to 1
• Latest Japanese data shows Blu-ray outsells HD-DVD 9:1
• Blu-ray outselling HD DVD 2 to 1 this year
• Blu-ray Winning Europe 4-to-1
• Sony claims Blu-ray had 95% Australian HD market in October
• Blu-ray Dominates HD- DVD in Holiday shopping
• Disc Sales: 'Pirates' Leads Blu-ray to Decisive Weekly Win Over HD DVD
• PS3 to Go Blu-ray Profile 1.1 With New Firmware Update
• Blu-Ray Wins a Battle in the High-Def War

1995 called...and wanted to remind Apple what happened the last time they got away from their core business of making computers and operating system software.

It's a common downfall. Corporation X makes money doing something well, but either gets greedy, or starts to saturate the market...and looks elsewhere for revenue. Corporation X starts to spread to thin, outside its 'comfort zone', and abuses the trust consumers placed in the brand name. The brand name devalues. Company X finds itself competing against an upstart that is focused, and because its brand name has devalued, its high-margin items aren't selling.

If you want to see a great example of this, look at Nintendo: despite the might of Microsoft, the Xbox 360 isn't what people are desperate to get their hands on, and the Wii isn't having problems with its online service. Nintendo is making money hand over fist on the Wii, and Microsoft just lost almost TWO BILLION DOLLARS on the Xbox division. Meanwhile, Vista is an absolute disaster, and the world is gunning for Office.

I look at Apple and see warning signs too. Leopard's release *stunk*. There were the simplest bugs; they still haven't fixed an issue that causes the hard drive controller to lock up, and it took weeks for the fix to the "everything gets deleted if a file move to another volume fails" bug. The finder navigation related to file server volumes absolutely SUCKS, and frankly- the rest of the hundred-plus features are nothing but glitz, or grossly overdue (like workgroup calendaring.) About the only thing that was improved was Spotlight...

If Jack Thompson actually cared about the children he would have gotten this asshole a fucking Playstation.

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/09/18/u-r-mr-gay-message-discovered-in-super-mario-galaxy-box-art/

wrong...