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1Up did an interview with two of the developers for Guitar Hero: World Tour about the process of creating the game. One of the interesting things they mention is that they won't be putting up with people who use the song creation tools to make covers of existing songs. "We'll be actively monitoring the site. And, obviously, if the copyright holder complains, Activision will pull it down immediately. We can't condone people putting up covers of music. It's really there for original content." We discussed the creation tools themselves recently. Since then, Activision has announced that they'll be including a MIDI sequencer to assist with making your own tunes.

Today Capcom released Mega Man 9, the franchise's return to the 8-bit styles of the '90s. It's currently available for the Wii, and will be coming to the Playstation Network and Xbox Live soon. Capcom also announced some upcoming downloadable content, which will include extra difficulty modes and a stage that never ends, in which you are endlessly attacked. It will also give you the option of playing as Proto Man. Unfortunately, since the game is available through downloads only, the awesome box art will not be available to the public. Gamesradar has some screenshots and boss pictures.

EA has released the first patch for Spore, the purpose of which is to fix a number of bugs and tweak some gameplay settings to be more entertaining. Some of the visual effects were upgraded as well. They've also officially responded to the complaints about Spore's DRM, stating their intention to increase the number of allowed installations to five and to set up a system to "de-authorize" systems in order to reclaim the installation credit. They plan to allow multiple screen names per account, which was an issue for many families trying to play the game. This comes not long after EA made similar changes to the DRM of upcoming RTS Red Alert 3, and after Spore's DRM protest spread to in-game creature designs. Reader SoopahMan notes that users in EA's Spore tech support forum are reporting a number of new issues caused by the patch.

Tom Willits of id Software took some time recently to speak about storytelling as it relates to id's previous games, and how it will be a part of their upcoming shooter, Rage. He also dispelled rumors that Rage would suffer content cuts due to Xbox hardware limitations. Unfortunately, he called into question whether mods will be a possibility for the game, saying that the issue is still under consideration.

Shacknews reports that Ensemble Studios, developer of the Age of Empires series, will be shut down by Microsoft Game Studios (MGS) as soon as the upcoming Halo Wars title is complete. Microsoft execs said parts the team would continue to work with MGS. Halo Wars is scheduled for early 2009, and Eurogamer took a look at the Halo-styled RTS game last month.

A few weeks ago, we discussed Stardock CEO Brad Wardell's "Gamer's Bill of Rights," a proposal for removing some of the PC gaming industry's more obnoxious characteristics, such as annoying DRM and no-return policies. Shacknews sat down with Wardell for a lengthy interview in which he discussed his reasons for starting the project, how it's being received by game companies, and how he wants the gaming community to help. Quoting: "I've already gotten calls from Microsoft, from Take 2, and other publishers who are interested in moving forward on this. Obviously the first step is we have to really define these items. And I've had other developers and publishers who have come back and said, 'No, because it's not flexible enough.' For example, what happens if someone wants to do a policy where there's CD copy protection, but after the first month [consumers] can download a patch that gets rid of it. So obviously that's a perfectly good solution too, but our thing eliminates the ability to do that."

Today Bethesda released walkthrough videos for their upcoming action RPG, Fallout 3. Joystiq has posted the trailers, which contain gameplay footage from the starting area and the city "Megaton," as well as combat scenarios and other features. One fight showcases the targeting system, which they demonstrate by targeting and then shooting off an enemy's arm. Another shows off the ability to create and use improvised weapons. Also shown are the lock picking and computer hacking mini-games, pickpocketing (or depositing something nasty in somebody's pocket), and general nuclear mayhem. Further detail is available at Shacknews.

After the first announcement on 1997-04-27 and over eleven years of fresh start after fresh start, Duke Nukem Forever finally comes to your system. At least if your system is an Xbox 360. Jon Siegler, the webmaster of 3D Realms, confirms this on their site: "As has been reported around the net today, we can confirm that the game has indeed passed final certification with Microsoft on Friday the 15th of August (on our first try, no less). That means the game is done — it is now in the hands of Microsoft." Update: 08/19 10:47 GMT by T : Several readers have written with a correction: this announcement is actually about Duke Nukem 3D, rather than Duke Nukem Forever.

im_thatoneguy sends in an account up at Shacknews about Atari's actions to get early reviews of its upcoming game Alone In the Dark pulled from Web sites in Europe. Atari sued the German site 4Players, alleging piracy, and also cancelled an advertising deal on the site, after a pre-release review gave the game only 68%. 4Players posted a commentary (translation) alleging that Atari is doing this bcause the review is unfavorable. Shacknews reports that Atari has also demanded that both Gamer.no and GameReactor remove early reviews — both reviews gave the game a score of 3/10. Kotaku editorializes: "[Does Atari] fear that, because these outlets may have received copies of the game 'early' (i.e. from pirated copies), that they're somehow reviewing incomplete code, which could affect their opinion of the game? Maybe. Pessimists could, however, be forgiven for thinking it's a convenient excuse for Atari to attack negative reviews of the only game they're releasing in 2008 that has any chance of making them some money."

An anonymous reader passed us a link to Shack News, which is reporting on official commentary from Doug Lombardi of Valve about the international Orange Box code problem we talked about yesterday. According to Lombardi, the folks who bought copies of the game from a Thai gaming store are pretty much out of luck. They'll need to buy a local copy to have a working version. That said, they should be able to replace the old code with a new one. "'Some of these users have subsequently purchased a legal copy after realizing the issue and were having difficulty removing the illegitimate keys from their Steam accounts,' added Lombardi. 'Anyone having this problem should contact Steam Support to have the Thai key removed from their Steam account.'"

Rock, Paper, Shotgun notes that the Double Fine studios website now has a familiar outline gracing their upcoming projects page. The possibility exists that, at some point after the in-development Brutal Legend is released, we may yet see a Psychonauts 2. "While this is indeed glad tidings for any fan of games possessing character, humour, grand variety and adept storytelling (let's not mention the irksome platforming emphasis during this time of celebration), we don't have any idea what this is. It could be a sequel, it could be a DS or PSP remake, it could just be a graphically-tweaked rerelease to cash in on the original game's ever-swelling cred. But it is more Psychonauts." Update: 10/23 22:17 GMT by Z : As the original post now notes, "it's since been revealed that the pic's just a teaser for an eventual About page on Psychonauts. The image on the site has been fully-colourised to reflect this. "

Shacknews reports that Half-Life 2 Episode 2 is finally, finally, due out on the 9th of October. The game will release for the PC, 360, and PS3, and will be joined by Team Fortress 2 and the FPS/Puzzler Portal. "Today's news follows rumors originating last month that the PlayStation 3 versions of the games would be delayed into 2008. Valve's Doug Lombardi noted to Shacknews that development has been progressing well on all three platforms. Electronic Arts is distributing the games at retail as a package entitled Half-Life 2: The Orange Box, which also includes the original Half-Life 2 and last year's Half-Life 2: Episode One. It will sell for $49.99 on PC and $59.99 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Previously, the company intended to sell a slimmer package, The Black Box, which would not include Half-Life 2 or Half-Life 2: Episode One, but those plans were cancelled last month. It is expected that Steam customers will retain the option to purchase only the newly-released games."

Late yesterday, Sparter Inc. announced the Gamer2Gamer virtual currency trading platform. The goal: to provide a secure currency trading environment for players of Massively Multiplayer Online Games. Rather than purchasing currency outright, the goal of the project is to cut out the middleman and (implicitly) the gold-farming consortiums that supply larger for-pay sites. We were contacted by a representative from the company before the release went out, looking to speak with the Slashdot community about the service. In his words, the folks at Gamer2Gamer "are devoted gamers themselves and are well aware that not everyone will like the idea -- but we think plenty of folks will like a world where Real Money Transfer is workable and unintrusive." And so, you get the chance today to put the hard questions to them. One question per comment, please, and we'll pass on the best of the lot to be answered as soon as possible. Update: 06/14 17:58 GMT by Z : Howzer points out that there is an extensive FAQ on the service, that you can use as a springboard for questions.

With the fall release of Episode 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal growing ever closer (check out the new trailer), Valve is finally beginning to release some information about what actually happens in Episode 2 and some information about Episode 3's progress. From the Episode 2 preview: "Looking down the mountainside reveals a scene that immediately demonstrates one of the key elements of Episode Two: expansiveness. Far off in the distance is the semi-destroyed Combine headquarters, with mighty plumes of smoke rising into the sky amidst a shattered cityscape. Arcing up towards the sky from the imposing edifice is brilliant white stream of energy, meeting the cloud layer in a turbulent maelstrom--a 'portal storm,' Alyx notes."

Shack News and the Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo are reporting that sourcecode for the MMOG Lineage III may have been stolen. As the third Massively Multiplayer game in a huge-selling South Korean series released by publisher NCSoft, over a billion dollars may be lost as a result of this theft. "The Seoul Metropolitan Police said Wednesday that seven former NCsoft employees are suspected of having sold the technology to a major Japanese game company. The seven left the Korean firm in February and allowed the Japanese company to review the software during a job interview. Police believe that the technology might have been copied during the demonstration."

segafreak writes "ShackNews reports that S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:Shadow of Chernobyl may contain unlicensed assets from other commercial games such as Doom 3 and Half Life 2. Though this has yet to be confirmed by any of the developers involved, if true this would be somewhat worrying. 'Responding to inquiries made by Shacknews, id Software CEO Todd Hollshead stated: I've seen a post on a web forum that claims DOOM3 assets are used in another game, but we've been working hard on Enemy Territory: Quake Wars as well as our own internal project and have not had the time to fully investigate or otherwise verify that the claim is true. Only from what I've seen on the Web, it's concerning. However, it may turn out to be nothing.'"

Miguel de Icaza writes "There's a great interview from Shacknews with Alex St. John, one of the earlier DirectX / gaming guys. He talks about almost losing his job going against Bill Gates, and talks a bit about the MS development & political process. 'You know why the X on the Xbox is a glowing green X? The original codename for Direct X was the Manhattan Project, because strategically it was an effort to displace Japanese game consoles with PCs and ultimately the Xbox. We called it the Manhattan Project because that was the codename for the program developing the nuclear bomb. We had a glowing radiation logo for the prototype for Direct X, and of course as soon as that got out and the press covered it, it caused a scandal.'"

The long-in-development HellGate: London, which finally has a release date, has been announced as a for-pay MMOG-style game. From the article: "Drawing similarities to ArenaNet's Guild Wars, Hellgate's online is heavily instanced. Group and solo PvE is the game's main focus; PvP will exist in a small scale form, but is not a major element of the initial launch. It will also feature a Hardcore mode similar to that found in Blizzard's Diablo II, a game on which many members of the Hellgate team worked. Hellgate's multiplayer will contain all of the missions and story from the single-player aspect of the game, as well as exclusive gameplay modes and content. Like the single-player game, it will be comprised of dynamically generated areas and items. Further content will be continually added over time by a dedicated Flagship team."

Ant writes "This MSNBC story reports that snails hitched ride on birds to cross ocean separated by 5,500 miles of water (Europe to an island in the South Atlantic) are same genus. This was according to a new research. Snails of the genus Balea are found throughout Europe and the Azores, the group of islands in the middle of the North Atlantic, and similar snails can be found on a tiny island chain in the South Atlantic. Because of the enormous distance between these two groups, scientists have long believed they belonged to a different genus, Tristania. Now, genetic and anatomical analyses show that the Tristania snails are actually members of the Balea genus. The study, published in the journal Nature, indicates that Balea snails somehow traveled from Europe to the Azores and evolved into two different species. Then, some packed up and headed 5,500 miles south to Tristan da Cunha, where they further differentiated into eight more species... Seen on Shacknews."

inotocracy writes "At John Carmack's Quakecon 2005 keynote he promised that the Quake 3 Arena source code would soon be released-- turns out he wasn't just pulling our leg! Today it was released, weighing in at 5.45mb, it makes for a quick download and a whole lotta fun. Developers, start your compilers!"

Alex Blonski writes "In a stunning move, the ESRB has advised retailers to stop selling Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. This report follows public pressure over the Hot Coffee debacle. Rockstar, the publishers of the game have given retailers the option of restickering the game with an 18+ rating or exchanging it for a new version with the controversial content removed. ESRB head Patricia Vance says 'After a thorough investigation, we have concluded that sexually explicit material exists in a fully rendered, unmodified form on the final discs of all three platform versions of the game (i.e., PC CD-ROM, Xbox and PS2). However, the material was programmed by Rockstar to be inaccessible to the player and they have stated that it was never intended to be made accessible. The material can only be accessed by downloading a software patch, created by an independent third party without Rockstar's permission, which is now freely available on the internet and through console accessories. Considering the existence of the undisclosed and highly pertinent content on the final discs, compounded by the broad distribution of the third party modification, the credibility and utility of the initial ESRB rating has been seriously undermined.'"

Shacknews has images from a small product information piece about Gears of War. The scans show off a booklet full of beautiful imagery and some interesting insights into the game. From the booklet: "Since Emergence Day, the residents of Sera have been paying the price. Crumbled buildings and ruined monuments loom over the battlefield as somber reminders of what the Gears fight for. The glory of Sera and everything that mankind has struggled to achieve collapses in upon itself, yielding to an unstoppable force. A brutal and protracted war has dashed this planet's veneer to pieces, and left the shattered bits to be picked up by the most unlikely few. The Gears of War continue to turn."

Thought it wasn't really covered by any of the news sites, there were apparently several protests by voice actors at this year's E3. ShackNews has a piece on the under-reported event. From the article: "To deny working-class performers their fair share of the tremendous profits their labor helps to generate is illogical, unreasonable and unjust...It is simply shortsighted to believe that consumers don't care about the artistic quality of the characters."

Ant writes "According to this Discovery Channel article, people are smarter and more creative lying down than standing up. Darren Lipnicki, a researcher from the school of psychology at the Australian National University (ANU) believes this helps to explain Archimedes' eureka moment. He found that people solve anagrams more quickly when they are on their backs than on their feet. His finding relates to the difference in brain chemistry, specifically the release of the neurotransmitter noradrenaline, when lying down or standing up. While noradrenaline is normally associated with cognitive ability and attention, it is also believed to impair creative thinking. And less is released while lying down. (Seen on Shacknews)."

Ant writes "Shacknews reports that ECTS has undergone a decline and was even considered surpassed by a new event last year, the European Games Network. Earlier last week, ECTS finally bit the dust, along with the European Game Developers Conference, as media firm CMP revealed they were leaving the market. Days before this news, the show Game Zone Live was announced as canceled, due to a lack of support from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo."

Ant writes "Shacknews posted BusinessWeek's Pinball's Last Remaining Wizard article that is a portrait piece on Gary Stern, president and owner of Stern Pinball, which is the last remaining pinball manufacturer in the world. Yearly, his company produces 10,000 hand-built machines and designs about 3-4 different models. A few of their most recent releases used licensed rights of the Sopranos and The Simpsons."

JonLatane writes "It seems that nVidia is going to allow Infinium to demonstrate their Phantom "game service" at their CES booth. Since its inception, Infinium has proven to be rather belligerent about its product and will probably stay in court for a long time."

Ant writes "According to ShackNews and Hollywood Reporter, American McGee's "Oz" is back on track in several ways. Infogrames dropped the Wizard of Oz based videogame a while ago, but it's being revived now that McGee will be writing an Oz movie script for producer Jerry Bruckheimer. McGee said: "The hero of the story, a teenage boy named Arthur, is whisked away from Earth to an Oz in turmoil. Like Neo in 'The Matrix' films, the boy makes a hero's journey and comes to grips with his powers," he said. "What Jerry Bruckheimer was able to do with 'Pirates of the Caribbean' was simply brilliant, and since 'Oz' is similar in tone to that film franchise, I'd like to follow that model.""

IvyMike writes "Gamespot just published a 25-page article titled The Final Hours of Half-Life 2. It has inside details of the missed September 30th, 2003 ship date, the source-code leak, and hints at future projects from Valve." Relatedly, kraemer writes "Valve has said publicly they would unlock Half Life2 before the November 16th street date if stores start selling it early. Well, Stores are selling it early. In an attempt to show Valve whats going on Shacknews is having a contest to come up with verifiable proof."

sanderb writes "The Doom 3 demo is out (on Windows). It does not seem to be linked on the Doom 3 site yet, but is available from e.g. 3D Gamers (includes torrent). Time to see what my FX5200 can do..." Other readers point to Fileaholic.Com and Shacknews.com.

Cryect writes "Appears that Doom 3 is making use of Ogg Vorbis to reduce memory usage for sounds. This comes from id programmer Robert Duffy's latest plan update where he says: 'When we started on memory optimization, most levels used between 80 and 100 megabytes of sound data. We made the choice to move to .OGG for quite a few sounds which effectively removed the problem for us.'" Duffy also comments on texture usage in 'Ultra' mode ("In Ultra quality, we load each texture; diffuse, specular, normal map at full resolution with no compression. In a typical DOOM 3 level, this can hover around a whopping 500MB of texture data") and framerate ("The game is capped at 60fps for normal game play. For render demos, like what was used for the HardOCP stuff, we run those at full tilt which is why you will see 60fps.")

Rogerpq3 writes "Yes, this is the official word that [long-awaited PC FPS] DOOM 3 has been code released and has been approved for manufacturing! According to the .plan file of id CEO Todd Hollenshead: 'We literally just hung up with Activision and have confirmed that our latest release candidate has been mutually approved and is finally GOLD. So, the next question is release dates. Retailers in the States will be allowed to pick up games starting at 12:01 AM on August 3rd. The official street date is actually August 5th in the U.S.A., but some of your favorite stores will probably have it early for those of you who have to have it first. Check with your local retailer for that information... [Internationally] the UK will probably get it first, on or about August 6th. Everywhere else will probably be Friday, August 13th (cue Twilight Zone Theme) or close to that date, with just a few exceptions (e.g. Russia and Poland)'."

madhatter256 writes "According to Shacknews, around 20-25 more employees, allegedly including noted designer Warren Spector, have left the Eidos-owned Ion Storm studio in Austin." There's an official Eidos response at GameSpot, where a spokesperson "denied Spector had exited the organization", but IGN has further official Eidos reports confirming "Both Ion games have been completed and those who were hires specifically for those titles are now finished", and noting that Spector himself, though he could theoretically be exiting by other means, "certainly has not been laid off." This news comes in the context of earlier personnel turmoil, Thief III's fairly well-received release (there's now a playable PC demo available), and a mixed reception for Deus Ex: Invisible War.

Thanks to ShackNews for its report indicating Half-Life 2's multiplayer mode includes Counter-Strike running on the Source Engine, and "will be available at the same time as when Half-Life 2 ships", which is said to be "this summer, although no specific date was given." It's also noted that "Half-Life 1 is also ported over to the Source engine and will be available at the same time as when Half-Life 2 ships." Elsewhere, Steampowered.com has announced that Codename Gordon is being released 'soon' for PC via Steam, Valve Software's "broadband platform for direct software delivery and content management." Codename Gordon, as previously covered on Slashdot, is an initially fan-created, Metal Slug-inspired game that "...takes players through dozens of levels inspired by Half-Life and Half-Life 2, challenges players to a slew of puzzles, and showcases many of the familiar creatures in an all new, 2 dimensional playing field." But is the previous assertion that "the game gets out 100% before HL2" still true? The race is on. Update: 05/12 22:31 GMT by S : Slightly more important Half-Life 2 news added.

Thanks to ShackNews for pointing out the Game Boy Advance Adventure Game Interpreter (GBAGI) webpage, which features an "interpreter/emulator/software that runs... Sierra's original animated adventure games on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance." The software's maker flew down to meet with Sierra owner Vivendi regarding official GBA releases, but mentions: "VUG(Vivendi Universal Games), who are affiliated with Blizzard Entertainment, had just released two classic ports to the Game Boy Advance, The Lost Vikings and Blackthorne, which both did not do too well. This is why they were now a bit standoff-ish about [official GBA carts]." Therefore, the downloads page includes "GBAGI ROMs packed in with demos that are freely available", as well as instructions on how to "to build GBA ROMs with AGI games [that you own]."

MachDelta writes "Yet another talented PC game studio has closed their doors today. Shacknews is reporting that Legend Entertainment, most commonly known for their work on Wheel of Time, Unreal 2, and Unreal 2: XMP, has been shut down by Atari. Though nothing official has been announced by either Legend or Atari, insider reports have confirmed that the sad news is indeed true. Losing Black Isle was hard enough, but now Legend? It raises the question: Who's next?" Update: 01/18 04:34 GMT by S : ShackNews has a messageboard post by Legend designer Glen Dahlgren seeming to confirm the closure.

MachDelta writes "Yet another talented PC game studio has closed their doors today. Shacknews is reporting that Legend Entertainment, most commonly known for their work on Wheel of Time, Unreal 2, and Unreal 2: XMP, has been shut down by Atari. Though nothing official has been announced by either Legend or Atari, insider reports have confirmed that the sad news is indeed true. Losing Black Isle was hard enough, but now Legend? It raises the question: Who's next?" Update: 01/18 04:34 GMT by S : ShackNews has a messageboard post by Legend designer Glen Dahlgren seeming to confirm the closure.

MachDelta writes "Yet another talented PC game studio has closed their doors today. Shacknews is reporting that Legend Entertainment, most commonly known for their work on Wheel of Time, Unreal 2, and Unreal 2: XMP, has been shut down by Atari. Though nothing official has been announced by either Legend or Atari, insider reports have confirmed that the sad news is indeed true. Losing Black Isle was hard enough, but now Legend? It raises the question: Who's next?" Update: 01/18 04:34 GMT by S : ShackNews has a messageboard post by Legend designer Glen Dahlgren seeming to confirm the closure.

Torill writes "Gonzalo Frasca has some thoughts on Grand Theft Auto in the new issue of Game Studies. He particularly notes: 'When designers create a simulation that encourages experimentation, they are taking a huge authorial risk: trusting their players'. He also weighs in on the controversy over GTA's content, arguing, devil's advocate style, that the Bible, Mein Kampf and Das Kapital have caused millions of deaths, while it is still hard to prove that computer games really have caused deaths at all: 'Do the math. There is actually proof that books are extremely dangerous. They should be considered weapons of mass destruction. If you are really concerned about media effects, forget videogames: you should start burning libraries right now'." Coincidentally, the name of the article ties in with the alleged name of the GTA sequel, again claimed to be 'Grand Theft Auto IV: Sin City', even after (coincidental?) April Fool's jokes and other confusion.

Thanks to Shacknews for their feature revealing The Warshaw Awards for 2003, celebrating "some of the worst missteps of the year" in videogaming. The awards are named after Howard Scott Warshaw, creator of the famously poor E.T. for the Atari 2600, and victors include Namco for R: Racing Evolution, which "eschews virtually everything that Ridge Racer fans had come to expect", David Duchovny for "quite possibly the worst [voice acting] I've ever heard from a mainstream actor" in Ubisoft's XIII, and the IGN gaming website for their "obscene McDonald's advertising campaign."

Thanks to Shacknews for their feature revealing The Warshaw Awards for 2003, celebrating "some of the worst missteps of the year" in videogaming. The awards are named after Howard Scott Warshaw, creator of the famously poor E.T. for the Atari 2600, and victors include Namco for R: Racing Evolution, which "eschews virtually everything that Ridge Racer fans had come to expect", David Duchovny for "quite possibly the worst [voice acting] I've ever heard from a mainstream actor" in Ubisoft's XIII, and the IGN gaming website for their "obscene McDonald's advertising campaign."

daitengu writes "ShackNews is reporting that PC FPS Counter-Strike: Condition Zero will be going gold this Friday. The targeted release date is then November 18 [possibly to match the Xbox Counter-Strike's street date?] The game is a single-player focused version of the insanely popular First Person Shooter, Counter-Strike. CS:CZ includes in-game bots and many updated models, textures and skins. Love it or hate it, Valve is milking the original Half-Life engine for all it's worth, and this one should sell quite nicely." If you're confused about what this title is, CS-Nation has a good webpage on CS:CZ, including information about the checkered history of the title, which has been through at least 4 developers, including Valve themselves.

Thanks to ShackNews for their updated report from Valve boss Gabe Newell regarding Thursday's leak of the Half-Life 2 source code. He says: "We're still finding machines internally that have been compromised" in relation to the "infiltration of our network" that led to the code leak, and warns that other developers may also be in danger: "There's anecdotal evidence that other game developers have been targeted by whoever attacked us." But he ends with a hopeful appeal to those who've been helping Valve hunt down the culprits online: "I've been fielding calls from the mainstream non-games, non-technical press all day. Hopefully they will get to report shortly what a mistake it is to piss off a whole bunch of gamers and get them hunting you around the Internet."

Pyroman[FO] writes "Gamers with Jobs is reporting that the Half Life 2 source code is floating around the net right now. It looks to be about a month old. There's no official word from Valve on the source code leak yet. Unfortunately those who want to use it to cheat already have it, we need to get the word to legitimate customers to educate them about the situation." Update: 10/02 21:51 GMT by S : Valve's Gabe Newell has an official statement, via ShackNews/HalfLife2.net, indicating "infiltration of our network" and appealing for information on the culprits.

sm4k[X-D] writes "According to Shacknews, the PC first-person shooter Half-Life 2 has officially been delayed. They quote Valve's Doug Lombardi as saying: 'The previously announced September 30th release date for Half-Life 2 is being pushed back. We are currently targeting a holiday release, but do not have a specific 'in-store' date to share at this time. We will release that information as soon as we have confirmed a new date.'"

Thanks to ShackNews for pointing out Capcom's announcement of Hyper Street Fighter II X for PlayStation 2, which is due out this December in Japan, and will be properly showcased at the Tokyo Game Show later this month. Since Capcom are celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Street Fighter series, it's likely the game will sport a best-of character roster - although, as ShackNews notes, "...you gotta admire Capcom's ability to create ever-more-ridiculous Street Fighter names (although personally, my favorite is still Street Fighter EX 2 + Alpha)." While awaiting the official unveiling, you can check out the original series via classic RePlay arcade magazine scans from SNK-Capcom.com.

Latent IT writes "If you're into games, and unless you've been living under a rock for the past few days, you've heard a bit of a rumble from Valve on the relative quality of ATI vs. NVIDIA cards. Starting with articles like this one (previously reported), Valve told the world that the ATI 9800 Pro was nearly three times faster in some cases than the formerly competitive NVIDIA offering, the 5900 Ultra. Curiously, this happened at an ATI sponsored event, "Shader Day". But the story hasn't stopped there. NVidia released this response, essentially claiming that their new drivers, that were available to Valve at the time of their press conference, would make for vast, legitimate performance improvements. An interview with Massive, the creators of the Aquamark 3d benchmark, seems to confirm this opinion - that the NV3x chipset wasn't designed around any certain API very well, and the drivers are critical in achieving good performance. Anandtech writes here about the restrictions Valve placed on what benchmarks could be run. However, the key to this whole story may be this: an article, which I haven't seen get much coverage in all this, seems to make everything a little clearer - Valve stated that their OEM bundling deal with ATI came from the fact that ATI's cards were so superior, and that they were "performance enthusiasts". However, if the Inquirer is to be believed, the bundling deal was a result of an outright auction, on what will probably be the most popular game of the year. Which year that might be, is another issue altogether. Whatever happened to just making hardware, and making games?"

Thanks to ShackNews for their post explaining the multiple ways consumers can buy Half-Life 2, summing up a confirmed email/forum post by Valve's Gabe Newell following much false information. The options are summed up as: "...a single-player only mass market version ('sold mainly at the Costcos and Walmarts of the world'), a traditional single/multiplayer version for places like EB Games, and a collector edition's version ('with lots of cool bonus stuff for people who like cool bonus stuff')... [and] Steam pricing plans", which will include one-time download fees, or "...pay a monthly fee and have access to all Valve titles", including Half-Life 2.

Thanks to MCO Stratics for pointing to EA's official Motor City Online site, which has a message announcing the closure of this MMO PC racing title: "We at Electronic Arts and MCO Staff both past and present would like to say thank you for being a part of a great online racing game experience. Motor City Online service ends today, but it will live on forever in the hearts of the racers who loved the game." The closing announcement was originally made in February, citing popularity problems after "the game was quickly dominated by skilled players", but the servers finally shut down on August 29th.

Thanks to Shacknews for their open letter regarding Activision's Call Of Duty demo for PC, which will apparently be initially exclusive (with some file-based protection?) to GameSpy's FilePlanet subscribers. The letter announces that "...the following websites will not be carrying the Call of Duty playable demo, even after its exclusivity is over", and includes notable signatories such as Blue's News and Shacknews themselves. The appeal continues: "The above-listed websites hope to show Activision that the enthusiast industry is strongly opposed to the idea of exclusive demo releases. Feedback from our users shows that gamers hate to be forced through a single point of congestion if they want a demo right away... Deals like this hurt the industry much more than they could possibly enhance a single relationship." Update: 08/29 06:25 GMT by S : Activision have bowed to pressure, and will make the demo available everywhere, non-exclusively, from Friday night.