Detailed information on the PSP launch titles is available at GameTab on our PSP page. Here you can see all titles which have been announced and you can see how each title has fared with reviewers thus far.
One of the most popular PSP titles with critics and gamers has been Lumines. It has also been one of the games flying off the shelves the fastest. It's being hailed as the best puzzle game since Tetris. Only time will tell if Lumines performs as a system seller in the same way that Tetris did for the original GameBoy. From the list of PSP titles at the site you can see that driving games in particular are performing well at launch.
GameTab - The Game News & Reviews Compilation Site
So far only one source has reviewed Doom3. PC Gamer gave the game an 94%, but how trustworthy can that be when they had the exclusive and have a quote on the box?
Over on GameTab you can see the large version of the game box and information on the PC Gamer review. Only time will tell whether the other reviews and gamers fall in line with PC Gamer's opinion.
Although the number of reviews for Underdark is still quite small the initial reactions of critics seem to be positive. Underdark really lets you experience some Drow action and it seems as if its a great match with the NWN engine.
The last expansion pack for NWN was a bit of a let-down (it averaged a 79%) but this pack seems to have much better chances.
Does anyone have any statistics on how the intitial release and first expansion pack fared at retail? I am looking forward to a full-blown sequel, but the publisher seems here more willing to issue a "Gold Edition" than to invest in a new full game.
Google News and the UK version of MSN News (forthcoming in the US I'm sure) are very useful sites, no doubt. However, because they are generic news outlets they lack the ability to truly specialize in any given area of news.
If Google or Microsoft wished to truly compete in one segment (sports, politics, videogames, etc.) they would have to hire editors to manage those sections and provide a personal touch as well as specialized features for those sections.
I am an Editor at GameTab which is in essence an aggregate site for videogame news and reviews. We are a portal site (much like the Google/MSN news sites) which means that we're trying to be a jumping point for gamers to venture out into other sites. We don't create news ourselves, we merely report what news other sites are presenting and do useful manipulation on the data. In addition we present relevant information such as price deals, developer and fan created box art, torrent files, etc.
For generic news these sites run by corporations are great. They are a strong challenge to outlets such as CNN or MSN.com itself. However, for the many areas of news people will always want that custom feel that they only receive when information is tailored specifically to their tastes.
The success of the Treo and Blackberry have shown that mobile devices which join together a number of useful gadgets are what the market is demanding. The price will drop as it always does and these will no longer just be toys used by business executives.
The camera-phone was the biggest telecom hit of the past year. Although entry level phones do not yet have cameras standard we may be nearing that feature-set in the next year or so.
Video games and phones are still a mixed bad. The N-Gage was released but sales reports and reviews have been mostly negative. A lot of this can be attributed to Nokia's inexperience in the gaming industry. If Nintendo had developed a mobile phone with the potential to load the vast catalog of GB games then mobile phone gaming could take off like a rocket.
In a few years we might be living in an age where you sign a contract for a year and get a phone which includes the voice unit itself, PDA functionality, MP3 functionality, game functionality, camera functionality and whatever else that is dreamed up in the meantime. I can't wait!
Vince Desi might have some sound opinions concerning the state of video game violence. However, adding violence to a mediocre game does not mean that the game is any better.
Postal 2 is only interesting due to its violent nature. The general consensus is that the game is offensive but the design underneath the offenses is not solid enough to be worth a purchase.
Just a simple question, really. Why do we care that NewsForge and Slashdot are both run by OSDN? The editors are appending this statement to the submission like they feel ethically required to make the comment.
Usually you see comments like this on CNN.com or in Time Magazine. Where you see them bashing or praising a part of AOL Time Warner and they have an ethical obligation to report that Time/CNN is owned by AOL TW.
My personal opinion of There (from what I read in Business2.0 and have seen mentioned online) is that it is simply a bunch of business/marketing people that sat down to decide how to put marketing inside a MMORPG. However, they forgot that they need a MMORPG to actually attract people.
Right now it's just a glorified chat room. Apparently they are wanting to license the technology to real MMORPG developers but we'll see how that goes. It's really just a big ploy to get advertisers like Nike, Starbucks, etc. to spend real money to put their logos in the virtual worlds.
GameTab - "game news & reviews. compiled"
The article mentions that the youths were obsessed with Warriors of Freedom. I've never heard of the game so I did some googling and this is what I've come up with so far. Warriors of Freedom is apparently a browser-based RPG which involved the leveling up of fantasy themed characters who are either evil or good. So in essence its like any other RPG out there.
It appears that the official website for the game is either at this clan server or at this game company. Google returns the fact that Warriors of Freedom RPG is now... "The Guardians of Har". So maybe the Alternative Games company changed the name of their moderately popular browser-based RPG.
It's interesting that these youths would be corrupted by a simplistic browser RPG. Most previous stories of this type involve games such as Doom or Counter-Strike or sniping in Halo. I guess we might be able to assume that these youths didn't need the first person perspective to corrupt their perspective of reality.
This Columbine article quotes Jack Thompson (the attorney who brought up the video game connection) as saying "We intend to hurt Hollywood. We intend to hurt the video game industry. We intend to hurt porn sites". Mr. Thompson has tried suing the video game companies, tried pressuring Best Buy and Wal-Mart to not carry certain titles and tried to get a bill introduced to outlaw mature video games being sold to minors.
I don't believe that video games caused these youths to go beserk. So I will continue playing games and wondering what exactly is wrong with Jack Thompson.
Who knows when MGS3 will be out, but the number of news articles about it has been quite stunning lately. Take a look at all of them over at GameTab. This list includes the latest MGS3 headlines from a number of gaming websites across the Internet.
Over at GameTab.com we compile reviews for all platforms from all over the web. Just the other day we finished our "Game Charts" script which lets you search for games based on average reviewer rating on websites, price, platform and release date.
What is interesting is analyzing all of the data concerning quality titles the individual console makers have produced. Here is the page listing the top GC games (those with greater than 85% average reviews). As you can see Nintendo has released (including third party titles) 16 titles which have been very well received by the reviewing wing of the games industry. In contrast the PC industry released 27 games with similar press fanfare, the PS2 released 28 games, and the XBox 18.
The GameCube has the smallest number of quality titles but if you factor in GameboyAdvance games the total rises to 29. And indeed if you are buying a GC soon it will come with the GameBoy TV adapter so you can play all your Nintendo games for $150 for the unit. The GameCube has always been cheaper than the other systems and that is a major selling point for it.
If you look at the top rated games you'll see 3 GameCube games in the top 10. The GameCube is producing very high quality games but it is getting hurt because third party developers are not supporting it as well (they create and optimize the game for the PS2 and then release that game for the XBox/GC hardware which is much more powerful). Also, the PS2/PC controls the highly acclaimed GTA series which has a solid hold on the Top 10 games.
I'm not saying that Nintendo is not to blame for many of the woes felt by GC owners. I'm just saying it is possibly the best console to own (it's cheap and has a number of stellar 1st party titles not available elsewhere). Nintendo and Microsoft might have lost to Sony in this battle, but Nintendo is still very aggressive in their future plans and they have a stranglehold on the portable gaming market. The next round of consoles will be very interesting and with exclusivity contracts from the likes of RockStar Games (GTA) and Square (Final Fantasy) being expired soon or renegotiated frequently it is possible that Nintendo's next console will be able to compete on the same level as the PS3 and XBOX2.
In the meantime I will be playing Animal Crossing, Metroid Prime and Wind Waker. And (unfortunately) waiting for Mario Kart, F-zero, etc. for the GameCube.
My biggest beef with Nintendo is that it took nearly 2 or more years to get many of their 1st party sequels made. There's no real excuse for any of that. They should have been launch titles or at least released in 2002.
If you buy an XBox and do not buy XBox games Microsoft is not getting one cent from you either. In fact they are losing money. The Xbox itself is still a loss for Microsoft and will likely be even more of a loss once they start shipping the "slim" XBoxes.
Lots of DoA news has been hitting the Internet recently. The next week should see even more information on the online version. Over at GameTab news you can see a listing of all related news postings from around the net.
There doesn't seem to be much out there in terms of unique descriptions about Advent Rising or media presenting the game itself. It's an Unreal game but what I'd really be interested in would be seeing some of the Doom3 engine games.
If you're interested in other articles about Advent Rising there is a collection here.
There is definitely room for improvement in the world of gaming news. It takes far too much time to find quality news for titles you are interested in.
As far as gaming news sites go, I just go to GameTab news as they have feeds updated every 10 minutes from the top news sites.
I'm excited about the expansion of the series onto multiple platforms. I never bought a PS2 because when I was looking into next-gen systems it just seemed too "old" compared with the Xbox and Cube. So I ended up with a GameCube. But unfortunately the PS2 has the largest library of games, too.
I first heard the news about multiple platforms at GameTab News. Here are all the related GTA stories.
Microsoft has done an excellent job of appealing to undergraduates through the use of scholarships and internships. It only makes sense for them to start working directly with computer science departments around the globe.
For the most part genres aren't dying out. The best parts of old games are being implemented into new games from new genres. The game design of most modern games boils down to game designs from years ago. As mentioned previously, Pikmin is essentially a simplistic puzzle game mixed with a few strategy elements.
Games continue to change form and adopt newer forms of graphics. But the best games have a solid foundation and rely on the graphics to tell the story and not to sell the game. Take a look at the list of top games at GameTab. Two Zelda's are in the Top 10 (at least right now). The new gameboy version is hanging onto a top spot while the seemingly controversial Wind Waker has snagged the supreme ranking. Wind Waker is in essence a new tale about Link built upon the foundations of the very first Zelda game for the NES. Nothing has really changed at the fundemental levels.
Notice the lack of PC games on the top 10. A few titles might be missing from the database but it might generally be assumed that a wider variety of titles exists for the consoles that are able to be appreciated by the broader audience. All of the games in the Top 10 are refinements upon a simple formula and many of them are sequels in name if not in spirit of old games.
The videogame industry has not quite run out of ideas like holiday has. It's a pretty darn good idea to be a gamer. If you're burnt out, buy a GameCube which is considered to be for the kiddies. And go make Kimiko happy!
--- Two Justice Department attorneys said Internet users would eventually be steered to the government's address as name servers across the Internet are updated over the next several hours.
"There is going to be some lag time between the domain-name switch-over," one attorney said. "But the domain name isonews.com now belongs to the federal government."
Apparently a decent amount of people actually play Nascar games. I am surprised these aren't the 10$ Deer Hunter type games at Wal-mart. But apparently they actually have decent graphics and gameplay. The reviews are decent as well.
Still, doesn't mean I am ever going to pick one up.
If you're looking for a broad range of information concerning patents--what they cost, trade secrets, legal matters, USPTO information, etc.-- a good place to start is Patents.com. Or you can always go to CrazyPatents to see some of the more ridiculous patents out there.
Slashdot Mirror
One of the most popular PSP titles with critics and gamers has been Lumines. It has also been one of the games flying off the shelves the fastest. It's being hailed as the best puzzle game since Tetris. Only time will tell if Lumines performs as a system seller in the same way that Tetris did for the original GameBoy. From the list of PSP titles at the site you can see that driving games in particular are performing well at launch.
GameTab - The Game News & Reviews Compilation Site
Over on GameTab you can see the large version of the game box and information on the PC Gamer review. Only time will tell whether the other reviews and gamers fall in line with PC Gamer's opinion.
In case anyone is interested, here is the fireworks page from How Stuff Works.
GameTab has a torrent and seed for the Science and Industry mod. Enjoy!
The last expansion pack for NWN was a bit of a let-down (it averaged a 79%) but this pack seems to have much better chances.
Does anyone have any statistics on how the intitial release and first expansion pack fared at retail? I am looking forward to a full-blown sequel, but the publisher seems here more willing to issue a "Gold Edition" than to invest in a new full game.
If Google or Microsoft wished to truly compete in one segment (sports, politics, videogames, etc.) they would have to hire editors to manage those sections and provide a personal touch as well as specialized features for those sections.
I am an Editor at GameTab which is in essence an aggregate site for videogame news and reviews. We are a portal site (much like the Google/MSN news sites) which means that we're trying to be a jumping point for gamers to venture out into other sites. We don't create news ourselves, we merely report what news other sites are presenting and do useful manipulation on the data. In addition we present relevant information such as price deals, developer and fan created box art, torrent files, etc.
For generic news these sites run by corporations are great. They are a strong challenge to outlets such as CNN or MSN.com itself. However, for the many areas of news people will always want that custom feel that they only receive when information is tailored specifically to their tastes.
The camera-phone was the biggest telecom hit of the past year. Although entry level phones do not yet have cameras standard we may be nearing that feature-set in the next year or so.
Video games and phones are still a mixed bad. The N-Gage was released but sales reports and reviews have been mostly negative. A lot of this can be attributed to Nokia's inexperience in the gaming industry. If Nintendo had developed a mobile phone with the potential to load the vast catalog of GB games then mobile phone gaming could take off like a rocket.
In a few years we might be living in an age where you sign a contract for a year and get a phone which includes the voice unit itself, PDA functionality, MP3 functionality, game functionality, camera functionality and whatever else that is dreamed up in the meantime. I can't wait!
Postal 2 is only interesting due to its violent nature. The general consensus is that the game is offensive but the design underneath the offenses is not solid enough to be worth a purchase.
Usually you see comments like this on CNN.com or in Time Magazine. Where you see them bashing or praising a part of AOL Time Warner and they have an ethical obligation to report that Time/CNN is owned by AOL TW.
GameTab - game news & reviews. compiled.
My personal opinion of There (from what I read in Business2.0 and have seen mentioned online) is that it is simply a bunch of business/marketing people that sat down to decide how to put marketing inside a MMORPG. However, they forgot that they need a MMORPG to actually attract people. Right now it's just a glorified chat room. Apparently they are wanting to license the technology to real MMORPG developers but we'll see how that goes. It's really just a big ploy to get advertisers like Nike, Starbucks, etc. to spend real money to put their logos in the virtual worlds. GameTab - "game news & reviews. compiled"
It appears that the official website for the game is either at this clan server or at this game company. Google returns the fact that Warriors of Freedom RPG is now ... "The Guardians of Har". So maybe the Alternative Games company changed the name of their moderately popular browser-based RPG.
It's interesting that these youths would be corrupted by a simplistic browser RPG. Most previous stories of this type involve games such as Doom or Counter-Strike or sniping in Halo. I guess we might be able to assume that these youths didn't need the first person perspective to corrupt their perspective of reality.
This Columbine article quotes Jack Thompson (the attorney who brought up the video game connection) as saying "We intend to hurt Hollywood. We intend to hurt the video game industry. We intend to hurt porn sites". Mr. Thompson has tried suing the video game companies, tried pressuring Best Buy and Wal-Mart to not carry certain titles and tried to get a bill introduced to outlaw mature video games being sold to minors.
I don't believe that video games caused these youths to go beserk. So I will continue playing games and wondering what exactly is wrong with Jack Thompson.
Who knows when MGS3 will be out, but the number of news articles about it has been quite stunning lately. Take a look at all of them over at GameTab. This list includes the latest MGS3 headlines from a number of gaming websites across the Internet.
What is interesting is analyzing all of the data concerning quality titles the individual console makers have produced. Here is the page listing the top GC games (those with greater than 85% average reviews). As you can see Nintendo has released (including third party titles) 16 titles which have been very well received by the reviewing wing of the games industry. In contrast the PC industry released 27 games with similar press fanfare, the PS2 released 28 games, and the XBox 18.
The GameCube has the smallest number of quality titles but if you factor in GameboyAdvance games the total rises to 29. And indeed if you are buying a GC soon it will come with the GameBoy TV adapter so you can play all your Nintendo games for $150 for the unit. The GameCube has always been cheaper than the other systems and that is a major selling point for it.
If you look at the top rated games you'll see 3 GameCube games in the top 10. The GameCube is producing very high quality games but it is getting hurt because third party developers are not supporting it as well (they create and optimize the game for the PS2 and then release that game for the XBox/GC hardware which is much more powerful). Also, the PS2/PC controls the highly acclaimed GTA series which has a solid hold on the Top 10 games.
I'm not saying that Nintendo is not to blame for many of the woes felt by GC owners. I'm just saying it is possibly the best console to own (it's cheap and has a number of stellar 1st party titles not available elsewhere). Nintendo and Microsoft might have lost to Sony in this battle, but Nintendo is still very aggressive in their future plans and they have a stranglehold on the portable gaming market. The next round of consoles will be very interesting and with exclusivity contracts from the likes of RockStar Games (GTA) and Square (Final Fantasy) being expired soon or renegotiated frequently it is possible that Nintendo's next console will be able to compete on the same level as the PS3 and XBOX2.
In the meantime I will be playing Animal Crossing, Metroid Prime and Wind Waker. And (unfortunately) waiting for Mario Kart, F-zero, etc. for the GameCube.
My biggest beef with Nintendo is that it took nearly 2 or more years to get many of their 1st party sequels made. There's no real excuse for any of that. They should have been launch titles or at least released in 2002.
GameTab - Game Reviews Compilation Site
Lots of DoA news has been hitting the Internet recently. The next week should see even more information on the online version. Over at GameTab news you can see a listing of all related news postings from around the net.
If you're interested in other articles about Advent Rising there is a collection here.
There is definitely room for improvement in the world of gaming news. It takes far too much time to find quality news for titles you are interested in.
As far as gaming news sites go, I just go to GameTab news as they have feeds updated every 10 minutes from the top news sites.
I'm excited about the expansion of the series onto multiple platforms. I never bought a PS2 because when I was looking into next-gen systems it just seemed too "old" compared with the Xbox and Cube. So I ended up with a GameCube. But unfortunately the PS2 has the largest library of games, too.
I first heard the news about multiple platforms at GameTab News. Here are all the related GTA stories.
GameTab - Game Reviews Database
Games continue to change form and adopt newer forms of graphics. But the best games have a solid foundation and rely on the graphics to tell the story and not to sell the game. Take a look at the list of top games at GameTab. Two Zelda's are in the Top 10 (at least right now). The new gameboy version is hanging onto a top spot while the seemingly controversial Wind Waker has snagged the supreme ranking. Wind Waker is in essence a new tale about Link built upon the foundations of the very first Zelda game for the NES. Nothing has really changed at the fundemental levels.
Notice the lack of PC games on the top 10. A few titles might be missing from the database but it might generally be assumed that a wider variety of titles exists for the consoles that are able to be appreciated by the broader audience. All of the games in the Top 10 are refinements upon a simple formula and many of them are sequels in name if not in spirit of old games.
The videogame industry has not quite run out of ideas like holiday has. It's a pretty darn good idea to be a gamer. If you're burnt out, buy a GameCube which is considered to be for the kiddies. And go make Kimiko happy!
Post article
TheRegister story
Quote:
---
Two Justice Department attorneys said Internet users would eventually be steered to the government's address as name servers across the Internet are updated over the next several hours.
"There is going to be some lag time between the domain-name switch-over," one attorney said. "But the domain name isonews.com now belongs to the federal government."
---
Enjoy...
GameTab
Still, doesn't mean I am ever going to pick one up.
GameTab - Game Reviews Database
GameTab - Game Reviews Database
GameTab - Game Reviews Database
Gametab - Game Reviews Database