Slashdot Mirror

This week both Nintendo and Microsoft's downloadable game services have some great titles to offer. The Wii will soon be playing host to Super Mario Bros. 2, Ecco: Tides of Time, and Dragon Spirit . Xbox Live Arcade, meanwhile, has up an update of Missile Command . This latest follows on the heels of Pac-Man: CE , a worthy and well-received updating of the arcade classic. Ars' comment about Ecco is dead on: "I used to love this game, just swimming around and doing those flips out of the water as Ecco was pretty calming. Then you tried to actually play the game and found out just how excruciatingly difficult it could be. While the Dreamcast update lost some of the magic, the original Ecco is still a neat twist on 2D games. Who knew that taking a platformer and setting it underwater would be so much fun?"

GameDaily is reporting that Sony Online Entertainment has licensed the Unreal Engine 3 for use in creating next-gen videogames. One title that is confirmed will be using the technology is their upcoming Massively Multiplayer game set in the DC comic universe. SOE has also announced a new complete version of Star Wars Galaxies, which will include Empire Divided and all of the expansions.

bbzzdd writes "Looks like FPS geeks aren't leaving the house this weekend. EA games has released a demo for the long awaited Battlefield 2 . The 547 MB demo is available at: Filerush (Torrent), GameSpot, Filefront, Gamer's Hell, Worthplaying, Download.com, Computer Games Romania .

Entertainment company Bandai announced today that they've purchased game creator Namco and as of September of this year will be merging into a single company. From the article: "Bandai shares fell 2.5 percent to 2,335 yen as of 2:27 p.m. in Tokyo, after dropping as much as 3.8 percent. Namco shares rose 8.8 percent to 1,530 yen, headed for their biggest gain since November 2003. The companies' shares were suspended for the first one and a half hours of trading, following an earlier report of the merger plan by the Nihon Keizai newspaper."

jujubees writes "Games to movies, movies to games -- it's not an unfamiliar trend anymore, and today the most popular online shooter is next in line. Counter-Strike has been picked up by German director Uwe Boll (known, or hated, for game-to-movie adaptations like the recent Alone in the Dark, upcoming Bloodrayne, etc.). Boll is currently working on the script, which will remain true to the spirit of the game. While the studio is debating whether to use real actors or not, there has been interest from Hollywood actors Ben Affleck and Colin Farrell. "

jujubees writes "Games to movies, movies to games -- it's not an unfamiliar trend anymore, and today the most popular online shooter is next in line. Counter-Strike has been picked up by German director Uwe Boll (known, or hated, for game-to-movie adaptations like the recent Alone in the Dark, upcoming Bloodrayne, etc.). Boll is currently working on the script, which will remain true to the spirit of the game. While the studio is debating whether to use real actors or not, there has been interest from Hollywood actors Ben Affleck and Colin Farrell. "

The deal reported last week on Slashdot has come to fruition: Take Two interactive and MLB have signed an exclusivity deal. Worthplaying has the news. "The innovative seven-year arrangement will dramatically limit the number of baseball video game manufacturers and ensure aggressive marketing and promotion of baseball video games, while promoting competition in the marketplace to drive innovation in baseball product development. Beginning in 2006, Take2 will have exclusive rights among third-party publishers to develop and market simulation, arcade and manager-style baseball video games..."

Worthplaying has a note that Ubisoft (SOE's EU distributor) and SOE have made available an offline character creator on the UK EQ2 site. It's somewhat large, but the EQ2 character creation process is somewhat in-depth. Should make for a fun toy.

jujubees writes "What is going on with Electronic Arts these days? This morning it was revealed that EA is trying to acquire 19.9% of the Ubisoft shares owned by Dutch investment company Talpa Beheer B.V. If approved by the US Antitrust department, the buyout would instantly make EA the biggest shareholder, ahead of the Guillemot brothers. Whether this is a hostile takeover attempt is not clear at this point, no financial terms were disclosed." An anonymous reader also wrote in to mention a GamePro Editorial about the company, regarding its past as an honorable games-maker and its current reputation.

jujubees writes "Worthplaying is reporting that EA's Mark Skaggs has sent out a newsletter to long time Command & Conquer fans quietly announcing that the team behind C&C: Red Alert 2, Yuri's Revenge and C&C Generals is working on an all-new Command & Conquer product." From the article: "You will also see a major enhancement to the Sage graphics engine we originally created for Command & Conquer Generals. Expect us to leverage and continue to evolve this powerful engine as we start work on our new Command & Conquer game."

jujubees writes "Worthplaying is reporting that EA's Mark Skaggs has sent out a newsletter to long time Command & Conquer fans quietly announcing that the team behind C&C: Red Alert 2, Yuri's Revenge and C&C Generals is working on an all-new Command & Conquer product." From the article: "You will also see a major enhancement to the Sage graphics engine we originally created for Command & Conquer Generals. Expect us to leverage and continue to evolve this powerful engine as we start work on our new Command & Conquer game."

Anonymous Coward writes "Worthplaying is reporting in with the rather sad news that Lionhead has stopped further development of B.C. , its highly anticipated Xbox title. Not giving any specific reason as to why, Lionhead's Peter Molyneux said he hopes to "revive the project at a later date." This news is especially odd since a few days ago Lionhead announced to have secured millions of pounds on venture capital."

Anonymous Coward writes "Worthplaying is reporting in with the rather sad news that Lionhead has stopped further development of B.C. , its highly anticipated Xbox title. Not giving any specific reason as to why, Lionhead's Peter Molyneux said he hopes to "revive the project at a later date." This news is especially odd since a few days ago Lionhead announced to have secured millions of pounds on venture capital."

An anonymous reader writes "Worthplaying has the scoop on the official going gold of Half-life 2. According to their information it has a confirmed ship/store date of November 16!" Gamespot has details on the ship date as well.

Rogerpq3 writes "The first non-beta patch for DOOM 3 has been released. The patch addresses many issues found in multiplayer and single player portions of the game. It also adds a Win32 dedicated server executable. You can download the patch at: FileFront, Doom3HQ, FileShack, Worthplaying, and GamersHell."

Thanks to Video-fenky for his weblog entry discussing Encore's PS2 military FPS, Fugitive Hunter. He explains: "By itself, Fugitive Hunter is a very simple military first-person shooter... you go through a level filled with bad guys before reaching your target fugitive. Once you do, the game shifts to a 2D fistfighting sequence (did I mention that [developer] Black Ops also did Knockout Kings for EA once upon a time?)" Since the game was dropped by former publisher Atari, and picked up by budget publishers Encore, the developers have switched things around, adding a final level with "...a network of caves where [Osama] bin Laden is hiding out." Video-fenky emphasizes: "I cannot overstate the impact of this. You are in a low-budget fighting-game fistfight with Osama bin Laden." Over at Worthplaying, they have more info and screenshots, including several pictures of the in-game bin Laden, though Video-fenky points out that "...even casual folks will likely be able to tell right off that bin Laden's inclusion is mostly a last-ditch gimmick."

Thanks to Video-fenky for his weblog entry discussing Encore's PS2 military FPS, Fugitive Hunter. He explains: "By itself, Fugitive Hunter is a very simple military first-person shooter... you go through a level filled with bad guys before reaching your target fugitive. Once you do, the game shifts to a 2D fistfighting sequence (did I mention that [developer] Black Ops also did Knockout Kings for EA once upon a time?)" Since the game was dropped by former publisher Atari, and picked up by budget publishers Encore, the developers have switched things around, adding a final level with "...a network of caves where [Osama] bin Laden is hiding out." Video-fenky emphasizes: "I cannot overstate the impact of this. You are in a low-budget fighting-game fistfight with Osama bin Laden." Over at Worthplaying, they have more info and screenshots, including several pictures of the in-game bin Laden, though Video-fenky points out that "...even casual folks will likely be able to tell right off that bin Laden's inclusion is mostly a last-ditch gimmick."

Thanks to Video-fenky for his weblog entry discussing Encore's PS2 military FPS, Fugitive Hunter. He explains: "By itself, Fugitive Hunter is a very simple military first-person shooter... you go through a level filled with bad guys before reaching your target fugitive. Once you do, the game shifts to a 2D fistfighting sequence (did I mention that [developer] Black Ops also did Knockout Kings for EA once upon a time?)" Since the game was dropped by former publisher Atari, and picked up by budget publishers Encore, the developers have switched things around, adding a final level with "...a network of caves where [Osama] bin Laden is hiding out." Video-fenky emphasizes: "I cannot overstate the impact of this. You are in a low-budget fighting-game fistfight with Osama bin Laden." Over at Worthplaying, they have more info and screenshots, including several pictures of the in-game bin Laden, though Video-fenky points out that "...even casual folks will likely be able to tell right off that bin Laden's inclusion is mostly a last-ditch gimmick."

Thanks to Blue's News for pointing out that Valve has released the Counter-Strike 1.6 installer for Steam, the broadband delivery platform for which "over 200,000 new accounts have been created" since its official launch on Friday. The 379mb install, helpful for those who can't get swift downloads from Steam itself, is available from Gamer's Hell, Worthplaying, and FilePlanet (reg. required).

Thanks to Blue's News for the info that a PC demo of Homeworld 2 is now available, offering "a sample of Relic's now-gold space-based RTS sequel... [including] a tutorial, two solo missions and a pair of multiplayer maps." Mirrors of the 141mb demo include Gamer's Hell, IGN Downloads, Worthplaying, and a BitTorrent links via FileRush and GameTab.

Thanks to HomeLanFed for their initial report on the official unveiling of EA/Origin's new PC MMORPG, Ultima X: Odyssey. They say that the previously rumored title is "...a massively multiplayer game that was described as a 'sister' game to Ultima Online. The dev team promised that players will not have to worry about using macros in the game or beating up on tiny rats just to level up at the beginning." It's also confirmed that the game is "powered by Epic's Unreal engine", and "very action oriented", and much new information is expected as the EA-X Event continues on Friday. Update: 08/22 15:26 GMT by S : There's now an official press release, screenshots courtesy GameSpyDaily, and a 21mb trailer downloadable from Gamershell, Worthplaying, and via BitTorrent courtesy GameTab.

As part of our continuing E3 round-up, ahead of its May 14th start in Los Angeles, the biggest new announcement has been from Activision, which released info on its product line-up (press release via Yahoo) this morning. Highlights include the inevitable Doom 3, Peter Molyneux's latest public speaking project, The Movies, and licenses from Spiderman and X-Men to Shrek, plus Disney Skateboarding (which may actually be good, thanks to cult developers Toys For Bob, of Star Control fame.) Otherwise, it seems Tecmo may be showing a new Dead Or Alive at E3, alongside a DoA fashion show, and Ubisoft will show a more promising new 3D Prince Of Persia and the ever-mysterious Uru: Ages Beyond Myst MMOG from Cyan. Here's links to previous E3 coverage at Slashdot Games.