Microsoft plans to upgrade its disc technology in its next console to Blu-Ray discs, according to industry sources.

Sony, its competitors, utilizes the disc technology in its PlayStation 3, which contains 25 or 50GB of data compared to only 9GB on DVD discs. However, the disc integration could be far less impactful to the next generation of game consoles.

“I’ve heard from one reliable industry source that Microsoft intends to incorporate some sort of anti-used game system as part of their so-called Xbox 720,” reports Kotaku editor Stephen Totilo. “My source wasn’t sure how Microsoft intended to implement any anti-used game system in the new machine.”

Totilo also reports that Microsoft is interested in making a smaller controller for its new console.

LG has announced a partnership with Gaikai to integrate the cloud gaming application into its televisions, filling the gap between console and television.

At the International Consumer Electronics Show, there’s an active demo of the program, and it showcased a solid input rate — although there are some issues because of artifacts.

But, a Gaikai spokesperson did inform us that the programs still in the early stages of development. With that said, LG hasn’t solidify a release date and price for the service. The service will permeate LG Cinema 3D televisions.

Sony said that it doesn’t expect to announce a new console at this years Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Sony division head Kaz Hirai said that they’ve always expected the PlayStation 3 to have a decade long life cycle, and he doesn’t see any reason to rush and replace it with a new system.

During an investors roundtable at the trade show, a reporter questioned the possibility of new console announcement. The head of Sony’s video game division, Andrew House, said that there would be no announcement at the show.

“Andy [House] is absolutely right in that we are not making any announcements at E3,” Hirai added, reports The Wall Street Journal. “I’ve always said a 10-year life cycle for PS3, and there is no reason to go away from that.”

Intel has moved beyond the era of the personal computer — to the era of “personal computing.”

At the International Consumer Electronics Show, Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini said that, as the devices themselves become “less relevant,” the question becomes who can craft the better experiences.

Otellini emphasized the importance smartphones — an area where the company has been trying to gain traction. He then introduced the Lenovo’s new K800 smartphone, which will be coming first to China.

Liu Jun, senior vice president of Lenovo, then appeared on stage with the device in hand. “This is only the first step — I firmly believe Intel and Lenovo will achieve great success is the mobile market,” Jun said.

After detailing the device, Sanjay Jha, chief executive of Motorola Mobility, came on stage to show its support for Intel’s mobile hardware. “We’re thrilled” to build high-performance mobile products based on the mobile Atom hardware,” Jha said — announcing a multi-year partnership with Intel.

“Intel coming into the mobile business is a good thing,” Jha said. “It brings in a new perspective.”

The complicated relationship between HBO and the video rental service Netflix just got alittle more complicated.

According to The New York Times, HBO is no-longer selling its DVDs at a discount price to Netflix as of the beginning of this year, continuing the battle between the two entertainment giants.

Though this isn’t a huge financial hit for Netflix, a Netflix spokesman said, “Netflix will continue to provide HBO titles on DVD and Blu-ray to our members.” Proving that Netflix will continue to push its DVD service, besides an increased emphasis on online streaming.

“I am truly sorry this happened, and I apologize for the inconvenience,”Newell said.

Valve Corporation co-founder and managing director Gabe Newell has sent a public message revealing that credit card numbers and other personal information have been compromised during an attack on its Steam service.

Valve advises that all of its customers monitor their credit card activity, as those numbers were inside a database that the hackers penetrated. The Steam Forums are currently closed, however the service remains online.

“We do not have evidence that encrypted credit card numbers or personally identifying information were taken by the intruders, or that the protection on credit card numbers or passwords was cracked. We are still investigating,” informed Newell. “We don’t have evidence of credit card misuse at this time. Nonetheless you should watch your credit card activity and statements closely.”

The database exposed during the attack “contained information including user names, hashed and salted passwords, game purchases, email addresses, billing addresses and encrypted credit card information.”

“If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.”

Apple, Inc. has announced the passing of its visionary co-founder Steve Job, as he lost his battle with cancer at the early age of 56.

Jobs had previously denounced his position in August, but this wasn’t before he changed billions of lives. “Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being,” the company said in a statement.

“Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.”

In a shunting turn of events, Silicon Valley legend Steve Jobs resigned his position as chief executive of Apple, Inc. — ending his 14-year reign at the technology giant.

The company had suspended from trade before the announcement, insuring the company’s gain in the market today. The industry icon, who has been on medical leave for an undisclosed condition, will be replaced by Apple, Inc. COO Tim Cook.

“I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come,” he said in a brief letter announcing his resignation.

Update: Apple has announced that COO Tim Cook has been named the company’s new CEO, and that Steve Jobs has been elected Chairman of the Board.

According to a WinRumors source, Microsoft engineers have been hard at work “for some months” developing a Silverlight application which will allow Windows Phone developers to bring their applications to its home console.

Developers have already been coding Windows Phone applications using Silverlight tools. The software programmer had originally planned to bring the service to consoles, however it failed to attach a specific timescale to an update.

According to another source, Microsoft maybe planning to launch its own application Marketplace adding the potential for writing apps for both phones and consoles. In addition, Microsoft is expected to make an announcement at its MIX 11 developer conference.

There’s been alot of speculation surrounding the developers “mysterious” upcoming project. During a development panel at GDC, Bungie’s lead network engineer David Aldridge described the upcoming project as a “massively multiplayer action game.”

He noted that the new project is “not WoW in space” — this comment came in response to an earlier report. The project is still untitled. But, on another note, this isn’t the first time a Bungie representative mention an online title.

Update: Bungie has now unconfirmed it, stating that it was intended to be “big joke.” Hahaha! Hilarious!

Have you heard? It’s one of the more unexpected expansions, and it’s awesome!

Microsoft, computer software manufacture, have announced Avatar Kinect, social networking application for its console. The application uses facial recognition software to track users emotions, allowing for a more “connected” experience.

The service will be available via a software update in the spring — along with more navigation for Kinect users. In addition, the service will be available exclusively for Gold Members at no extra charge.

Razer, computer products manufacture, have debuted a handheld personal computing console. The device, codenamed Switchblade, features a multitouch screen and a dynamic, programmable keyboard.

The handheld console is still in the concept phases, but Razer has confirmed that it runs on an unreleased Intel Atom precessing unit and Razer user interface. However, the graphical processing unit is still unknown.

Microsoft, the industries leading software manufacture, have announced a spring software upgrade allowing for the use of Kinect, the control-free motion device, to navigate application menus.

Ron Forbes, who works for the companies entertainment division, demoed the motion controlled versions of the applications, including Netflix, Hulu Plus and Zune Marketplace. “There you have it — all of your entertainment. Movies, Music, TV, and Sports. It’s all happening right now,” added Forbes. The navigation will include both motion and vocal control.

Samsung, the multinational hardware manufacture, has unveiled a new line of third-dimensional LED monitors. Using “smart design”, the SA950 and SA750 are the first computer monitors to take advantage of the companies proprietary third-dimensional tech.

Both the monitors include a unique aesthetic design, especially the SA950 which features a wide foot-stand that attaches the panel on the far right side. But, on the other hand, the SA750 retains a transitional monitor design. According to Samsung, both include a WLED-backlit, which is a special illumination tech, and magic angle support, allowing for a larger three-dimensional viewing range.

Update: Glasses will be needed for both the LED monitors.

Toshiba, the Japanese hardware manufacture, have made good on its word. According to the companies executives, Toshiba will be “kicking” things into “high gear” going into the upcoming fiscal year.

That said, the company will be to showcasing its 56-inch and 65-inch prototype televisions, which will feature its three-dimensional tech, at CES. Reuters reports that Toshiba expects launch two models, one over 40-inches and another over 50-inches.

“These will not only be for the Japanese market, but also America, Europe and China,” said Toshiba’s Atsushi Murasawa, clearing up the question of the televisions distribution.

No other details where given about the televisions, however Toshiba did state that its “view point overlay technology”, featured in the televisions, will allow viewers to move their heads without compromising the three-dimensional effect.

The Gingerbread, the latest Google Android operating system, has been at the center of the PlayStation Phone speculation for sometime. Now, reports have revealed that the Gingerbread operating system has been integrated to support the PlayStation control set.

Gingerbread is said to be a graphical powerhouse and the operation system is also said to be supportive of games. However, Sony Ericsson hasn’t given confirmation of the phone, but images and videos continue to leak of a rumored prototype device.

“There’s a lot of smoke, and I tell you there must be a fire somewhere. Sony has an extremely strong offering in the gaming market, and that’s very interesting,” added Chief Executive Bert Nordberg. He then pointed to a product announcement at the Mobile Word Congress.

Though its influences weren’t revealed, Shadow Guardian, a new title being develop for the iOS, seems to lend heavily from Naughty Dog’s Uncharted franchise, which explains our serious case of deja vu.

The game follows the adventures of Jason Cole, who embarks on a globe-trotting adventure in search of powerful ancient artifacts. It’s expected to hit the market before the joyful holiday weekend and it’s underdevelopment at acclaimed phone developer, Gameloft, known for many hit App Store iterations.

Shadow Guardian seems to be a technical push for the device, pushing the iPhone to its “limits”. However, it will be interesting to see what becomes of this title, seeing that its the Uncharted of the iOS.

The promising cops and robbers title, All Points Bulletin, which shut down after a mere two months in operation, could be turned around, providing that someone has “nine months of hard work” to spare; said Codemasters’ general manager David Solari.

Solari is convinced that if someone brought the title, whether it is to resurrect the game or to re-purpose its in-game technologies, it could still be successful. Then, he mentions that the titles customization system will “definitely” be preserved and end up in future titles.

“That game could have been successful but the cost of development and everything else was a huge thing. The money it had to make to support that was very high risk. If you could take a smaller team and make all the fixes and operate at a lower cost then it’s fairly unique: there’s not really anything else in the market out there,” Solari stated.

In response to a dominating marketing campaign, Kinect, the “controller-free” motion control device, has sold out at many traditional retailers. However, consumers can still grab the device bundled with a console, but they’re “thinning at this time.”

WalMart, apparently, has a some of the devices remaining, but a spokesperson warned, “there is going to be very high demand for these products. We will continue to restock throughout the season.”

“We’ve seen a tremendous amount of excitement and demand for (Kinect) and saw lines at our midnight openings around the country,” said Best Buy’s Chris Homeister. “We are currently sold out online, but we continue to work with Microsoft to obtain product shipments now and throughout the holiday season.”

Besides an outstanding reception, critics where united in one complaint; New Vegas has alot of bugs, including corrupt save files and a humorous introduction glitch. Bethesda has since announced that they’re developing patches addressing these bugs and glitches.

“We are currently working on releasing patches/updates as quickly as possible for Fallout: New Vegas, for all platforms. Announcements regarding the patches are forthcoming,” said Bethesda’s Pete Hines.

Blizzard has been relentless towards cheaters, suspending the accounts of thousands of players caught using hack programs or other forms of cheating. Now, the company’s pointing the finger towards the creators of those programs; accusing three parties of “multiple counts of copyright infringement”.

The parties — “Permaphrost”, “Cranix” and “Linuxawesome” — stand accused of encouraging others to infringe upon the company’s copyright clause, because when users install cheat programs “they copy copyrighted content into their computer’s RAM in excess of the scope of their limited license, as set forth in the EULA and ToU, and create derivative works of [the title].”

It’s unclear what jurisdiction the court has over the accused but, as stated in the companies end user agreement, all disputes will be heard in a Los Angeles court. The plaintiffs are also seeking, not just damages, but a portion of the money the three received.

Remember the Good Old Games? Well, we do.  We recently sat down with representative Lukasz Kukawski to talk about some of the ideas behind the extremely promising web store — also, gaming in general.  The main idea behind the site being; make available classic hit titles at affordable prices.

I bet that you’ve been asked this questions multiple times, but what was the teams main inspiration behind Good Old Games?

That’s easy, the main inspiration was to offer gamers the classic PC games again. The idea behind GOG came to life after a discussion by CD Projekt’s (GOG Ltd. mother company) management guys about old games. They came to a conclusion they would really love to play such gems from the past like Fallout, Duke Nukem 3D, X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter or System Shock, but it’s almost impossible to buy them in retail or on on-line auctions. Even if you have a stash of old games in your basement, still you can’t be sure if they run on your modern, lightning fast Windows 7 system. So they decided to offer gamers around the world a chance to legally buy games which ruled back in the day, optimized to run on modern operating systems and filled with extras like soundtracks, artworks, guides and more. And the best way to reach a worldwide community is by using the internet. By combining these two ideas, GOG has been born – a digital distribution platform with classic PC games.

For people who aren’t fortunate enough to own high-end PCs, how have you guys adapted to them and, if not, how do you plan too?

Well, actually we didn’t have to adapt to them as most of the games are 5, 10, 15 or even 20 years old. You don’t have to have a powerful PC to play the classics which millions of gamers enjoyed back in the days. Actually we’ve launched GOG in a very favorable circumstances as netbooks started to become very popular, which is still the case. Most of the games offered on GOG will run flawlessly on netbooks and thanks to the DRM-free nature of GOG, you can enjoy those titles without having access to internet like during a flight, on vacation etc.

Do you guys believe social interaction, such as Twitter, Facebook, as the stepping stone behind your recent success?

I believe the main factor is our offering which is unique for us, but I’m also sure social media like Twitter and Facebook sure helped us. We’re using word of mouth as one of the main strategies to promote the service and it works for us pretty well. Our approach to digital distribution – DRM-free games in reasonable prices with bonus materials – gained a huge group of fans and it’s still growing. These satisfied customers use Twitter, Facebook, forums, blogs, etc. to recommend GOG as the place to get classic PC games and as we know personal recommendations are the most effective. We’ve made a service which we’d like to use ourselves as gamers and the growing success of GOG shows that it was a good way to do it. We respect our users and they feel like recommending us to other gamers and that’s great!

Technically speaking. Have you guys compressed any of your titles, or have you guys left them as is for downloading.

The games are packed in a custom GOG installer, so the file you download from our server after purchasing is the installer. It helps us to provide users a hassle-free experience. You don’t have to know how to tweak a game to run under DOSBox or how to make a Win98 game run on your Windows Vista, you just download the file, instal the game and play it. Of course the game itself isn’t deprived of anything, it’s the exact same game that you have played when it was originally released.

With the recent release of StarCraft II, have you guys tried to obtain the rights to publish the original installment?

Blizzard has it’s own store where you can buy the original StarCraft in both digital and retail version, so they’re not actually very interested in selling it via GOG.

Do you guys believe that Steam is your most impactful competitor, seeing that they also home many good old school titles?

Steam is the biggest and most successful digital download platform out there, no discussion. But still they are focused on new games and that’s where they are the most popular. If you want to check for some classic PC games you’re going to check GOG or some abandonware sites.

At first, when we launched the biggest competitor wasn’t Steam, but actually the abandonware sites. But when we started to contact the owners of those sites and telling them about GOG they were happy that someone has finally took care of classic games. After all most of the guys behind abandonware are huge fans of old games and they offer the titles as abandonware downloads to save them from oblivion. We’ve managed to turn many abandonware sites into our affiliates and they turned from our biggest competition into our biggest partners.

So yeah, we’re not competing with Steam as we found our own niche and we’re trying to get as much as possible from it and I can tell that there’s still a lot of potential in old games and old brands. After all, we call those games classics.

How do you feels about HD remakes, like Deux Ex: Human Revolution?

As far as I know, Deus Ex: Human Revolution won’t be a classic HD remake, but a continuation of the renown series, but I understand what you mean. ;D I think it’s a good thing. Dusting off the old, great brands by making remakes or continuations or by making them available again (for example via GOG) is good as thanks to this older gamers can revive their memories and new audiences can get to know titles which they heard of but never had a chance to actually play. Music and movies industries cherish their past, save it from oblivion, while gaming industry seems to rush into the future and don’t care about the past, while there are lots of gems in the PC gaming history that are worth remembering.

Can you please describe Good Old Games to us?

Good Old Games, or GOG.com, is a digital distribution platform with cheap and DRM-free classic PC games. We’ve got such great classics like Fallout, Duke Nukem 3D, Freespace 2, Outcast, Arcanum, Heroes of Might and Magic, Beyond Good & Evil (and 200+ titles more) for either $5.99 or $9.99, no matter where you live. DRM-free means we don’t have any copy protection in our games – when you buy a game on GOG you can download it anytime you want as many times as you need, you can burn it on a CD, install on any PC you own and you don’t have to be online to play. What’s even better every game is guaranteed to work on modern operating systems and comes with additional materials like soundtracks, guides, artworks, wallpapers and more.

But GOG isn’t just an ordinary digital outlet. Our goal is to make it the ultimate destination for all classic games fans, that’s why every game has it’s own forum where you can meet people who share the same passion for old games as you. We publish retrospective articles and interviews with developers which bring you the idea how the game was made and what decisions developers had to make during the development.

But you don’t have to listen to me, just visit GOG.com, create a free account and download one (or all) of three free games to check the GOG experience. See you on the forums!

BioWare’s latest update on The Old Republic confirms the Advanced Classes for the Jedi Knight character class; the Guardian and the Sentinel classes. The Guardian class is more defensive and leadership-based. However, the Sentinel class serves more as an attack-based class.

Guardian: A wall between the good people of the Republic and their enemies, the Guardian stands firm in the face of overwhelming odds and dares opponents to attack. Perfect concentration and use of the Force allows smooth movement even in heavy armor—making the Guardian a hard target to take down. Leaders on and off the battlefield, Guardians are known for inspiring allies to amazing feats, making them invaluable for conflicts of any size.

Sentinel: Control and focus are the hallmarks of the Sentinel. Through years of training the Sentinel learns the art of using two Lightsabers simultaneously to create an intricate web of damage that is almost impossible to evade. Manipulating the Force, the Sentinel can see holes in the enemy defense, potential flaws in their own technique and how best to plan for both.

[Screenshots available here]

Throughout this console generation, Nintendo has been criticized for its focus on the casual market — something that has distance the console manufacture form its hardcore market. However, at its recent E3 press conference, the console manufacture proved to everyone that it can deliver to both its hardcore and casual markets.

That said, in an interview with Japanese business magazine Nikkei, president Satoru Iwata said that the company is working closely with developers to “expand into elaborate games targeting serious gamers” for the Nintendo 3DS.

Iwata then went on to state that most of the software of the current DS caters more for non-game players, and he believes that advances in graphics and gameplay on the new handheld will help rectify this. “These partnerships are good for both Nintendo and the software developers,” Iwata added.

[Nintendo to make 'serious' 3DS titles via GameSpot]

Heavy Rain has achieved both critical and commercial success — its, undoubtedly, one of the industries most “unexpected” breakout hits. Though we’re still awaiting the next downloadable expansion, the development team at Quantic Dream have announced an update giving Heavy Rain “PlayStation Move” support.

As previously stated, Heavy Rain was initially designed for use with the PlayStation Move, but the game ended up being ready for market long before the motion control device was released. However, there hasn’t been any word on the exact release date for the updated, but Move will go on sale this coming September.

Released in February, Heavy Rain is a dark and utterly absorbing thriller where you set the rules and where the buck stops with you. With a killer on the loose and time running out, you must decide how far you’ll go to track him down. Since its launch, Heavy Rain has sold over a million copies.

There’s no doubt that the 3DS is a capable piece of hardware. It’s a device jam-packed with many impressive current-gen technologies, including a high-resolution top screen, a motion sensor and a gyroscope. However, Nintendo didn’t stop there: they also included software installs.

According to Nikkei, a Japanese business magazine — because of the inclusions of software installs — gamers will be able to install multiple full games onto the handheld’s internal memory unit. Installed games can then be selected from a menu screen.

Nikkei notes that due to this feature, there’ll be no need to swap cartridges; when outside of the home, you won’t need to carry game cartridges with you. However, Nikkei didn’t detail the number of games that could be installed, or the process of installing these games.

[3DS Features Software Install via Andriasang]

As speculated, Microsoft has unveiled a smaller, sleeker version of the Xbox 360, packing a 250GB hard drive and built-in wi-fi. And, according to Microsoft’s Don Mattrick, it will be hitting retail by the end of this week — priced at $299. Below are the specs:

Xbox 360 250GB

Xbox 360 is fully loaded with new features and still comes with everything you know and love. Here’s a feature list to make sure you don’t miss any of the newest Xbox 360 250GB parts.

Form Factor: Sleek, lean and gloss black finish with chrome accents. Place vertically or horizontally in any living room entertainment center.

Touch Sensitive Buttons: Turn the Xbox 360 video game system on/off and eject a disc with the swipe of a finger.

Whisper Quiet: Whether you’re playing a DVD disc or from the hard drive, or navigating the dashboard, with the all-new and much quieter Xbox 360, the only noise you’ll hear is your own laughing, cheering and playing.

Wi-Fi: Built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi for fast, easy connection to your friends and entertainment on Xbox LIVE.

Hard Drive: 250GB internal, swappable hard drive for even more storage. To access, remove the bottom panel by pushing the small tab toward the front of the console.

Kinect-Ready: Custom Kinect port on the back of the console that directly hooks up to the Kinect sensor for controller-free fun.

USB Slots: Five USB ports; three in the back of the console and two in the front for easy plug and play.

AV Connections:

AV Cable included for standard definition TV connnection.
HDMI port for high definition TV connection.
Optical Audio out port integrated on back of console for AV system connection.

Power Supply: Smaller and more efficient. Xbox 360 250GB and Xbox 360 Original power supplies are not interchangeable.

Wireless Controller: The award-winning Xbox 360 Wireless Controller matches the console in all black with color-matched thumsticks and directional pad with a touch of gloss and chrome to complete the look.

Backwards Compatible. Your favorite accessories and games will work with Xbox 360 250GB. (Xbox 360 External Hard Drives and Memory Units are not compatible.)

Accessories. Customize your Xbox 360 250GB with matching black accessories, including favorites such as Controllers, Wireless Headset, Chatpad, Quick Charge and Play & Charge Kits and more. Get a look at a few of these today.

Key Internal Components Changes:

Fan: Moved from two small fans to one larger fan for improved acoustics.
Chipset: 45 nanometer and integrated CPU and GPU.
Wi-Fi: Integrated wireless capability.

We’re back again! This time it’s a contest brought to you by the fine people that gave us TBS’s new animated series, Neighbors From Hell. And, lucky, there isn’t much needed for you enter.

Just comment and you’ll be enter into a drawing to win an container of 200 Neighbors from Hell Atomic Fireballs and Devil Rubber Ducky toy. However, there’s only one rule; you must be a resident of the United States.

Please leave your real e-mail — that way you’ll be able to get your prizes.

Microsoft rocked the internet with the announcement of Netflix streaming into their console. That said, according to “a very reliable source“, Microsoft plans to do this again with the announced of Hulu streaming onto their console.

Requiring a separate subscription fee — much like Netflix — the subscription service allows users the able to watch their favorite television shows whenever they want via their console. However, instead of opting it on a monitor, they can watch it on their television sets.

The subscription service is said to require Microsoft points, instead of an separate online account. Expect more information during Microsoft’s press conference at E3.

Throughout the progression of digital related media, programmers and consumers have had the ideal passion of reaching “limits”. That in mind, the Blu-ray Disc Association have announced a new “BDXL” format, providing a write-once option on both 100GB and 128GB discs with rewritable 100GB discs.

But, before you get too excited, it’s a completely new software specification; you’ll need an updated player — with a more powerful laser — in-order to access these discs. In other words, due to added disc layers, it could cause a serious problem for existing media players.

The Association also pointed at consumer versions release “in regions where BD recorders have achieved broad consumer acceptance.” However, that’s not all. They’ve also announced an IH-BD format, providing the flexibility to include both relevant personal data and critical data on the same physical disc. “IH-BD” is basically a 50GB disc split into two 25GB segments.

“Because both BDXL and IH-BD are specially designed formats with specific market segments in mind, newly-designed hardware is required to play back or record BDXL or IH-BD media. However, because the new media specifications are extensions of current Blu-ray Disc technology, future BDXL and IH-BD devices can be designed to support existing 25GB and 50GB Blu-ray Discs.”

It seems that video game developers and publishers, after a bit of an hiatus, are beginning to “re-open support” to Apple’s operating system, Blizzard reveals that a beta for StarCraft II is in the advance stages of development and that they do plan to release the beta next month on Mac operating systems.

A Q&A panel on the Battle.net gives Apple owners hope: “We are currently working on a Mac version of the beta and hope to release it sometime in April,” the post states. “Hang in there.”

Though it’s currently planned for release on both PC and Mac platforms, only PC owners have been able to take part in the game’s beta, which began about a month ago. The beta is expected to end in late spring, making the two month gap for a Mac release a pretty substantial chunk of available time.

Intended to compete with the popular Star Trek massive multiplayer online title, Bigpoint, a browser games portal, revealed its plans release a tactical space combat MMO based on the Battlestar Galactica series, Battlestar Galactica Online. The game, which will be introduced at the Game Developers Conference this week, is set to be released worldwide in August or September.

The Unity co-developed MMO will be the first title inspired by a blockbuster franchise to be developed on Unity technology, offering a game with state of the art graphics that can be played directly on an Internet browser; this independent engine makes it possible to produce real-time 3D applications without having to download a client.

“Battlestar Galactica has a huge and passionate fan base. We are proud to be able to publish such an internationally famous title as one of our online games. For the first time ever, we’re relying completely on Unity in order to offer our users fantastic game graphics right in their browsers,” explains Heiko Hubertz, founder of Bigpoint.

Madden NFL is virtually everywhere, it’s even on the iPhone; and, now it’s coming to Facebook. Peter Moore, president of EA Sports, revealed that they’re planning a Facebook installment of the Madden NFL franchise. “We have to make ‘Madden’ more accessible,” Moore said. “You’ll see us on Facebook going forward.”

A Facebook version of Madden would deliver a “simpler experience” as its the console counterparts, relayed Moore. That said, when asking about a release date, David Tinson, a spokesman for EA Sports, told Bloomberg that an official announcement, or release date hasn’t been decided, yet.

Prepare your HDD because, just like many other games on the system, Heavy Rain requires an install; respectively to help eliminate in-game hiccups. According to JustPushPlay, Heavy Rain’s installation will set you back exactly 4.5 gigabytes of space, however exactly how long the install will take, is still a mystery.

I’m sure that there were some frustrating moments throughout the development of the iPad, but at least we can all agree on one thing; there’s alot of potential in the device. That said, the vice president of Epic Games, Mark Rein weighed in on Apple’s newest device and… apparently, he’s “really impressed”.

“The quality of the materials is outstanding. The screen is amazing and the super-sized apps were fantastic,” he told Kotaku. “Everything seems to perform really well on the iPad and I was blown away by the iWork apps – I thought bringing those to iPad was a brilliant move by Apple!”

However, just like most of us, Rein is still on the fence — on rather he should invest in an iPad 1.0. “Apple has done a great job at constantly improving the user experience on Mac and iPhone so I can only imagine where this platform can go in the future,” Rein added, practically guaranteeing at least one iPad 2.0 in his future.

Have you ever sucked at a game? And whatever you did, or do, you continued to suck? (Yeah, me too.) But, there’s a theory behind the madness. In a study published in The Journal of the Cerebral Cortex, it revealed that the size of your brain can actually have an affect on your gaming skills.

Scientists at the University of Illinois have studied specific parts of the Striatum, a collection of tissues deep inside your cerebral cortex, and it revealed that brain size can influence a gamers ability to “refine his or her motor skills, learn new procedures, develop useful strategies and adapt to a quickly changing environments,” or in other words, playing games.

“This is the first time that we’ve been able to take a real world task like a video game and show that the size of specific brain regions is predictive of performance and learning rates on this video game,” said Kirk Erickson, professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh and the author on the study.

“Playing a game which requires very fast deployment of visual attention and motor movement could prime a strategy of speed over accuracy,” explained Nelson, “while playing a game which emphasizes a slower, more thoughtful pace could prime the opposite pattern. The main point is that different kinds of video games engage different cognitive and perceptual skills, and there are measurable differences in their effects, even in the short term.”

However, it does not work in reverse; you can’t play a bunch of video games and grow those structures in your brain — you’re stuck with the equipment you’re given from birth.

Though many wouldn’t have thought that, after completing Dead Space, a sequel wouldn’t be on the horizon. A cryptic inkblot has appeared on the Dead Space Twitter account, created recently, pushing the possibility of a sequel – which has been in speculation for awhile now.

The image contains representations of many of the first game’s creatures, and the symbols are actually Unitology, a fictional religion in the Dead Space universe, and it reads “the nightmare is over but it will not end”. That said, whether or not the inkblot means anything is anyone’s guest. However, it’s just good to see some signs of hope.

A month after rumors pointed at its development, Ubisoft has made it official. The French publisher announced today that in May, the same exact month that the Prince of Persia movie will be hitting theaters, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands will be releasing on both consoles and handhelds.

Also, in the Press Release, the publisher revealed that The Forgotten Sands storyline will return to the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time storyline, which means it follows the original storyline. The Forgotten Sands will also feature “many of the fan-favorite elements from the original series as well as new gameplay innovations”.

That said, the release date wasn’t chosen at random. Like I stated before, the release time-frame is in directly conjunction with the upcoming movie, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time – based on the game with the same name. Can anyone smell a movie tie-in? Be that as it may, Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is expected to hit both consoles and handhelds in May 2010.

The very first chapter of Dragon Age Journeys, a free to play browser based game set in the Dragon Age world, entitled “The Deep Roads” is now available for download, EA announced today. In “The Deep Roads“, players will uncover a “dastardly plot that threatens to unleash a great evil that won’t stop until it destroys all living things”.

You can play Journeys here:  www.dragonagejourneys.com (we’ve been informed that it will be up and running at noon PST [3:00PM EST], sorry).

“Dragon Age Journeys sets the stage for Dragon Age: Origins,” said Mark Darrah, Executive Producer, Dragon Age: Origins. “The team has shown the Dragon Age Franchise in a bold new light and the release of this game allows a broad audience of players to discover our dark fantasy universe for the first time.”

Dragon Age Journeys is produced by a new browser-based production team at EA and an all-star team of independent development talent, with the goal of creating premium quality browser games. Dragon Age Journeys will features intense tactical combat, a compelling story and deep customization.

With a series of them releasing in the UK, Sony today revealed a 250GB PlayStation 3 Slim bundle for North America – basically, toping the PlayStation 3′s holiday competition in terms of hard dive space.

Going on sales on November 3rd, the 250GB model will feature the same “slim look” and feel as the recently released 120GB slim system, which is currently going on sale for $249.99. However, the new 250GB model will come packing at the total price of $349.99 - actually $100 more then the regular Slim.

With this new space, players can now store more of their favorite games, movies/TV shows, music, photos and PlayStation Network downloads.

It’s no secret that Epic Games has established a very avid relationship with Microsoft, producing such exclusives as Gears of War and Shadow Complex – both very high sellers for Microsoft’s system, the Xbox 360. However, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that Epic would proclaim themselves as the “unofficial engine” of Project Natal, Microsoft’s upcoming motion-sensing device.

When speaking to Official Xbox Magazine UK in an interview, Mark Rein Vice President of Epic Games talked about the many ways that Unreal technology could be implanted with Project Natal, even going as far as to call it the “unofficial engine” of Project Natal.

“We are going to work with Microsoft to make that available to Unreal Engine licensees who want to make Natal games,” Rein said. “So, if you want to make a game on Natal, you want to get a big head start and use the same tech as Microsoft, come talk to me. We are the unofficial engine of Natal, or maybe the official, I don’t know. In other words, we consider ourselves the ‘economic engine of Natal.’ You want to make money with Natal, come talk to us, we’ll help you.”

Let’s do the math. Natal + ideas = Unreal Engine usage. Sounds good to me.

Although its predecessor, Street Fighter IV, has a very successful arcade version, it seems that the newest expansion Super Street Fighter IV won’t be getting an arcade release, after all – its producer Yoshinoro Ono told GamesReactor in a reveal interview about Super Street Fighter IV.

“So, unfortunately, I’m sorry to say to arcade fans out there: there won’t be an arcade version of this. I think a lot of people were kind of requesting an arcade update .I know that, in some parts of the world, it doesn’t really matter if there’s an arcade version or not,” he told GamesReactor.

“But certainly in Japan and the rest of Asia and some parts of the Oceania, there’s still a lot of people playing in arcades. So, I’m sorry to disappoint them but this time its going to be Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 only affair.” Super Street Fighter IV is slated to ship in spring of 2010 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

[Thanks to the Examiner]

During Microsoft‘s E3 ’09 keynote, they revealed the long awaited and rumored sequel, Crackdown 2. However, it isn’t until now – the Tokyo Game Show – that we’re getting to see the first pair of screenshots, and, well, they’re freaking amazing.

[nggallery id=31]

Created & Written by: Jerry Bonner; Animation & Design by: Matt Garafalo; Technical Wizardry by: Joel Young; Narration by: George Filip; Music by: Blitz

This animated short was originally created back in March to be part of our “family” gaming show, GAME TIME! The basic idea behind the “‘Great Moments in Video Gaming” segment was to take a fun and/or historical glance back at the people, technology and ideas that shaped the interactive entertainment industry into what it is today. Important lessons are proffered during the course of these segment(s) but nothing is forced – everything is presented in an entertaining manner, much like “Sesame Street” or “The Electric Company,” so the viewers are learning without really knowing it…and (hopefully) having a good time doing it! The last thing we want to do is to be heavy handed or hit people over the head with what we are doing.

Initially, the Dreamcast wasn’t going to be the topic of our “pilot” piece. Since this was our debut show I, naturally, wanted to start at the beginning, so the 1961, MIT developed SPACEWAR! (considered by many to be the first, “true” video game) was my original choice of topic. But, after knocking it about for a bit, SPACEWAR! seemed somewhat obscure and not “sexy” enough of a subject for the pilot episode. So, after some additional thought on the matter, Sega’s Dreamcast was ultimately chosen as the topic for the big, GAME TIME! kickoff. And, with the help of my talented co-conspirators, I think the final result turned out to be a more than fitting “Swan Song” for Sega’s last hurrah in the console hardware market.

Looking back, it’s hard to believe that 10 years have passed since 9/9/99. So much has happened to us as a nation, and to me personally, since that day. I won’t get into a laundry list of everything here, as it isn’t really pertinent, but I do vividly recall all the hype and hubbub surrounding the DC’s numerically savvy launch date. I wasn’t silly (or brave…) enough to get my Dreamcast on that first day, as I’m not a huge fan of sleeping outside on cold concrete or waiting in deathly looooong lines. I did, however, manage to score one about month later at a KB Toy store of all places. And I fell in love with that little, white machine as soon as I unboxed it and fired up my first gridiron battles of NFL 2K, then handed out several, chop-sockey beatdowns in Soul Calibur and topped my evening off by collecting an overabundance of gold rings in Sonic Adventure. Good, good times.

Since I was the defacto gamer in my family AND just dropped a pretty substantial amount of cash on the system (plus the games), my initial opinion of the Dreamcast was somewhat biased. I mean, I HAD to love it, right? I couldn’t justify the purchase otherwise. So, I took my alabaster baby (with that adorable, red curly-Q) over to my brother’s house that weekend to gauge his reaction and (tried) to get an unprejudiced estimation of the system as a whole. It was at this moment when I fully understood the power of the Dreamcast and the true “generational leap” that this system was.

As the intro/demo of Soul Calibur played on my brother’s TV, his eyes widened to almost comical proportions and his jaw grew slack. The only awestruck words he could manage were, “Holy shit, this is better than the arcades…”

True dat, my brother. True dat.

Please enjoy the video. I can truthfully say that it was a labor of love and a blast to make. Hopefully, we’ll get to do more at some point…

VIVA LA DREAMCAST!

~ Jerry Bonner

Jerry Bonner is a writer and journalist whose work has appeared in GQ, EGM, 1UP, What They Play, Yahoo!, Ars Technica, Game Focus Canada, Geeks of Doom and Game Stooge. He also worked for the ESRB (Entertainment Software Ratings Board) for a time as the Senior Game Content Rater. He currently lives in Southern New Jersey with his wife and four children.

Sony has announced that stereoscopic 3D technology will be headed the PlayStation 3 in 2010. The technology will be placed in a future firmware update for the system – which Sony is planning to release sometime next year – and you won’t need a special 3D television to utilize it. Instead, you’ll only need the stereoscopic glasses with a normal, or High Definition television.

Along with that, they’ve also revealed that the improvements will be capable with “all” of their existing titles. “3D is clearly on its way to the mass market through technology, distribution and content,” Sir Howard Stringer, Sony chief executive, at the IFA Consumer Electronics show. “As with high definition a few years back, there are a variety of issues yet to be addressed. But the 3D train is on the track, and we at Sony are ready to drive it home.”

[Thanks to Kotaku]

Sony’s Sixaxis motion controller technology hasn’t been gaining much limelight as of lately. But, Team Ninja has announced something that’s about to change that. And that’s, that Ninja Gaiden Σ (Sigma) 2 will feature the Sixaxis tech for boob jiggling.

Not only will players have the chance to refined neck breaking ninja combat, but Team Ninja has implanted (sorry, I could resist) a feature that allows you to control over the overflowings of the ladies of Ninja Gaiden Σ 2. ”We can, proudly announce that Ninja Gaiden Σ 2 will have Sixaxis compatibility,” a spokesperson told the TheSixthaxis. “You waggle the pad, the girl’s tits bounce.”

Prepare to take an explosive look at the NVIDIA PhysX technology behind Eidos Inc. and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment’s critically acclaimed action-adventure video game Batman: Arkham Asylum. Journey deep within the walls of Arkham Asylum and enjoy the hyper-realistic physical and environmental real-time gaming effects in the new “PhysX Trailer” as Batman battles against some of Gotham’s most notorious enemies.

Microsoft has confirmed that they’ll be getting rid of the Xbox 360 Pro by stopping production of the product all together, which we all ready knew. However, the main attraction here is that they have revealed that the Elite – originally sold at $399 – will get a price drop and will sell for $299.99, and what’s remaining of the Pros will be cut to $249.99. While the hard drive-less Arcade units will remain at $199.

Responding to the news, Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg had this to say to CNET. “I’m sure some will think this is a response to competitor pricing,” he said. “But we had planned this reduction months in advance. Retail circular ads and store merchandising were all lined up. We wanted to be ready for the holiday season.” However, Microsoft’s decision to reduce the price of the Xbox 360 isn’t a surprise because numerous rumors have been swirling around the internet of a price drop. Expect to see the price drop in effect this Friday.

I know that we’re a little slow on the outtake of this information, but it’s news none the less. Anyway, during Sony‘s GamesCom press conference, Sony announced the 3.0 firmware update for PlayStation 3.

The update will change the way you navigate the system such as adding animated themes, a redesigned friends list, premium avatars, new Trophy features, and a new status indicator at the top-right hand corner of the screen – that will now show how many friends you have online, and how unread many manages you have.

Firmware 3.0 will also include a “What’s New” section, and TV services such as BBC iPlayer. These features will release on September 1.

If you live in the United States and you have to an Xbox Live account, boy! do I have some news for you. In an information update posted by Major Nelson, he revealed that Xbox Live members can now access PayPal as a method of payment for Xbox Live Marketplace – that’s if they live in the United States.

Anyway, with this system, you can use PayPal to buy Microsoft Points without having to associate your credit card information to your account.

A couple of things to point out:

PayPal is currently supported for Xbox LIVE users in the U.S. only.
PayPal can only be used to purchase Microsoft Points on Xbox.com.
PayPal accounts are not available for purchasing Microsoft Points on the Xbox 360 console.
You can associate multiple Pay Pal accounts with your Xbox LIVE account.

Last week, the United States Patent and Trademark Office assigned Microsoft, the publisher of such games as Gears of War, the ability to offer seamless switching from solo to co-op campaigns within squad-based shooter video games. You really have to patent such a thing?

Anyway, the patent, #7,559,834, was originally owned, and invented, by James York of Texas – Austin, Texas to be more exact. And was filed back in December of 2002. However, nearly a decade later, this is what Microsoft gains access to:

A squad-based shooter video game allows players to dynamically join and leave the game, while that game is in progress, without the players having to save and restart the game. When a new player joins an in-progress game, a new squad member is allocated to the new player and the screen is split to present a viewing panel for the new player that depicts scenes from the perspective of the new squad member. When an existing player leaves the game, the screen is unsplit to remove the viewing panel for the exiting player and that player’s squad member becomes part of the squad being controlled by the remaining player(s).

The patent came filled with co-op game sketches (one shown above). Anyway, the one shown above resembles a screenshot from the original Xbox co-op shooter Brute Force, developed by the now non-existent Digital Anvil. So for what reason would Microsoft patent this? With Natal’s release coming upon us, who knows what they are planning.

[Microsoft Patents Drop-In Co-Op In Shooters via Kotaku]

Tim Schafer, once again, walks us through the realm that is Brütal Legend, but this time he’s joined by Lee Petty, Art Director on Brütal Legend, and Erik Robson, Lead Designer on Brütal Legend, to give us 22 minutes of Heavy Metal.

“Holy crap!” exclaimed Schafer when announcing the title, “I have been dreaming about this day for fifteen years. And now it is finally here. We’ve gathered small clues over the years about the Age of Metal, in songs, t-shirts, and album covers. But now we have uncovered the metal mother lode, the full legend of what actually happened in that loud and heavy era, and we are the lucky ones who get to tell the tale.”

Update: No matter what people thought they heard Steve Ballmer say in Chicago, Microsoft is not planning to introduce a successor to the Xbox 360 next year – stated by cnet.

Original: Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer spoke about “the role of innovation in changing economic times” at The Executive’s Club of Chicago earlier on today. However, what took the show, the announcement that a new Xbox 360 will be hitting shelves in 2010.

Ballmer stated openly, during a speech on the recession to those in attendance at the Executives Club in Chicago, that a new Xbox 360 will hit the store shelves in 2010.

The device will come fully packed with technology that’s “really, really, close” to actuality. The console, which was described as having a “natural interface,” will have a built in camera with the ability to recognize movement and voice.

Sounds alot like Natal.

[Ballmer announces 2010 Xbox 360 at The Executive Club Chicago via TG Daily]

Max Payne developer Remedy Entertainment has licensed Umbra Software’s rendering optimization middleware for its upcoming title Alan Wake, which was announced all the way back at E3 ’05 and was recently shown at E3 ’09.

Umbra Software is the expert in 3D rendering optimization middleware for PC, Xbox360 and PS3. Umbra Software’s flagship product, Umbra, increases rendering performance in 3D games and allows game developers to create rich, complex and highly dynamic game worlds previously impossible.

“Umbra gave a significant boost in rendering performance on the Xbox360, and at the same time made our content creation faster. With Umbra’s culling technology, Remedy’s team can add more details to Alan Wake’s world and concentrate on the cool visuals while minimizing tedious work such as adding portals,” said Remedy Entertainment’s Development Director Markus Mäki.

“It’s been a pleasure working with Remedy on Alan Wake,” said Marko Nurro, Umbra Software’s CEO. “Remedy is one of the most innovative and technically competent studios in the world. Their games just rock, simple as that.”

During their annual World Wide Developers Conference, Apple announced their newest most powerful iPhone yet, iPhone 3GS.

The S, said the company, stands for Speed, meaning the new phone will load a web page three times faster than its predecessors. Apple calls it “the most powerful, fastest iPhone we’ve ever made.” Also, viewing Excel is faster and loading SimCity is 2.4 faster. And it can also capture video at 30FPS VGA.

It will have hardware support for the OpenGL ES 2.0 standard, and this should make graphics-intensive applications run smoother.

The 3GS can take voice commands, has a more powerful battery, and a starting price of $199 for a version with 16 gigabytes of memory. There’s also an 32 gigabyte version for $299. The phones will begin to go on sale on June 19th, but the 16 gigabytes phone will release on the 17th. However, the existing model iPhone 3G will remain on the market with a reduced price of $99.

Don’t you just hate Digital Rights Management software? Well, lucky, EA is aware of your problem so they have announced that Dragon Age: Origins will feature the simplest DRM, no SecuROM whatsoever.

EA has announced that the retail PC version of Dragon Age: Origins will use only a basic disk check and it will not require online authentication. In other words, the retail PC version of the game won’t require you to go online to authenticate the game for offline play.

They go on to state that they have chosen not to use SecuROM in any version of Dragon Age that is distributed by EA or BioWare.

Dragon Age: Origins is releasing this fall on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, so keep an eye out for more news.

Terminal Reality used their self-made Infernal Engine to power the upcoming Ghostbusters title, but now it seems that the developers are planning on sharing their engine to profit other developers.

Earleir on today, it was announced that the developers at Piranha Games are planning on using the Infernal Engine on two of their upcoming titles: bass fishing title The Strike, and hunting simulation The Hunt.

“The world of videogames is a varied one. Everyone knows about Ghostbusters, but we at Terminal Reality believe in the extreme versatility of the Infernal Engine,” said Joe Kreiner, VP Sales and Marketing at Terminal Reality.”The inclusion of The Strike fishing pole and The Hunt rifle by Griffin International shows how well the Infernal Engine works with gaming peripherals.”

“We used the Infernal Engine to develop Bass Pro Shops The Strike. The engine was very versatile, allowing us the freedom to create immense environments with a high level of realistic detail,” said Russ Bullock, President of Piranha Games.

Time is an aspect that passes throughout our minds even when we aren’t supposed to watch it. Speaking of time, I can’t remember how many video games I have played featuring ‘time travelling’, though I can tell you that seven times out of ten they seem to disappoint. But when we sat down with Aaron Schurman – CEO of Phantom EFX, the publishers of Darkest of Days, set for release on the PC and 360 – he gave us a new reason to believe.

GCO: Your game has recently gained some hype within the industry. Can you tell us about the setting for Darkest of Days and how it was originally conceived?

Aaron Schurman: Darkest of Days has been a dream in my head for about ten years now. Being such a huge gamer, I dreamt of a game that would allow me to visit different battles all within the same title. The game really started that simple. I wanted to visit various fantastic places, such as WWI, WWII, Little Big Horn etc. all in the same experience. Not only did I want to go to various places, I wanted to be in impossible situations: some of humanity’s darkest days in history. The places that immediately entered my mind were events like Little Big Horn, where no U.S. Cavalrymen survived the battle; places like Tannenburg where 80,000 Russians were lost; places like Antietam, the bloodiest day in American History. As I began to think of events like this, I realized there are hundreds of them from all over the world, in every culture, time, and place. Time travel was the evident way to make it happen, but knew it had to be pulled off 100% accurately. It had to make sense, it had to be engrossing, and it had to be realistic.

The exciting notion of Darkest of Days and the type of game it could become made it impossible to accomplish at that time. First of all, there was a severe lack of capital. The next biggest problem was that I envisioned a game where the events were incredibly realistic. If you are going to go back in time, I want the American Civil War to be chaotic, bloody, and terrible – not some vision where there were ten guys on the screen at once. For realism’s sake, there had to be hundreds and hundreds. This, again, made it impossible to even attempt at that time from a tech standpoint. Most importantly, I wanted to make the game myself and not sell the idea.

Years later, after we had established a working game company with great titles and a working knowledge of the development process, we set out to make our own engine, one that could support the lush, varying, detailed environments as well as the hundreds of soldiers. The engine also had to support both long-distance terrains as well as narrow cityscapes (to accurately pull off environments like Pompeii). After the amazingly talented folks at 8monkey Labs created the Marmoset engine, it was finally time to work on the most difficult era, the U.S. Civil War. We picked this area first since it was going to be the most complex to pull off; we wanted it as realistic as possible with so many men doing so many different things at the same time. Once we built it and pulled and pruned it to perfection, it was so harrowing that every time we played it everyone got goose bumps. There was no problem raising capital at that point.

GCO: With a story this interesting, who is the “bad” guy or guys within your title? Or is that a slowly uncovering fact of the game?

Schurman: You have picked up on one of the things readers of the story have been amazed by – the story itself! I have never played a game that has this engrossing or detailed a story. So many folks tout stories in their games, but in reality there is little there. This game will really get you thinking, and that’s what we set out to do.

Time travel is such an amazing thing, with so many possibilities. It’s really a fantasy place our minds like to go to. It’s been so poorly done so many times – it seemed that folks just begged for a story that was believable and “could come true,” as a lot of testers say.

The player gets a chance to “choose where they want to go” as they begin to save folks from history that were never meant to die. As they save these people, and begin to save history, the folks who screwed it up in the first place begin to take notice, and the fight is really on. Not only will people have to deal with being dropped into a fierce environment with death all around them, they will have to deal with other time travellers trying to fit in. It’s pretty wild! It’s awesome to watch how folks have to play that next level to see what happens. I honestly have not seen testers respond like this to a game, where they literally /had/ to get that next part done, or travel to that new time frame to see what happens. It really brings back the fantasy in games. It has been incredible to watch people’s reactions as the perceived “good” and “evil” forces battle.

GCO: I have played many games that have dealt with the time aspect. Can you tell me, since you play as a time traveller, if there are any powers within the game?

Schurman: One of the biggest “powers” a player can have is to possess a weapon in a time frame that does not belong there. You are quite powerful in 1865 with a fully automatic weapon. The tricky thing in developing the game was to give the player a roller-coaster ride of situations, and face them with different weapons. You fight with all the period weapons in all of the six times you travel to – however, in each era, you get your hands on things you shouldn’t.

There is also a matter of “clean up.” As you progress through the game and you begin to accomplish your objectives, there are always repercussions of your actions. As hard as you may try, you may accidentally kill someone that was supposed to have survived the battle, triggering some events. Or, you may be too accurate with your shoulder-mounted rocket launcher in an ancient battle, single-handedly changing the entire tide of the battle. You will need to correct some mistakes, and that always calls for heavy equipment.

GCO: How long have you guys been working Darkest of Days?

Schurman: We have been on the project for just about three years. The first half of that time was spent on building the Marmoset Engine while we wrote story, invented characters, and produced concepts of locations.

GCO: At what stage of development is the game now?

Schurman: The game is in the final stages of testing and is all but complete. NVIDIA has taken great appreciation of the PC version and has been working hard with us to add some pretty incredible special effects that will benefit users. The console version is in the final stages as well.

With games such as Need of Speed slowly reaching its breaking point. Developer Black Rock Studios, the developers behind over the top ATV racer PURE, feels that its upcoming racer Split/Second will help mark a turnaround for the genre.

When speaking to Develop in an in-depth feature looking at the creation, production, and technology of Split/Second, studio head Tony Beckwith and the game’s director Nick Baynes both asserted their view that the racing genre is in an unhealthy state.

“If you look at the sales figures, the racing genre is in many respects dying out – take Mario Kart out of the equation and the category is in a dire way. I think this genre is ripe for something new and inventive to give it a kick start,” said Beckwith.

“We’re all fans of street racing here, but as a genre it is relatively stale – the evolution is only coming from how you customise cars, which can only serve to remove you from the action – I think Split/Second will do the opposite,” added Baynes.

The new 360, PS3 and PC game, Split/Second, pits players as a race car driver starring in a TV show in were you trigger explosive special effects to eliminate racing competitors. If that’s not innovation I don’t know what is.

Yet another bits the dust at EA. In reports today, it was revealed that Will Wright, the creator of Spore, has left Electronic Arts to pursue new projects at Stupid Fun Club, a side project Wright actually started in 2001.

Stupid Fun Club is now evolved in a full fledged entertainment ‘think tank’ focused on developing new IP to deploy across not just video games, but also movies, television, the Internet and even toys. However, EA also invested in Stupid Fun Club and it owns an equal share of the company. The publisher will also have first refusal rights on all video game projects.

“The entertainment industry is moving rapidly into an era of revolutionary change,” said Will Wright. “Stupid Fun Club will explore new possibilities that are emerging from this sublime chaos and create new forms of entertainment on a variety of platforms. In my twelve years at EA, I’ve had the pleasure to work alongside some of the brightest and most talented game developers in the industry and I look forward to working with them again in the near future.”

You’ll never have to purchase another video card again, because it now seems that PC gaming has changed for the better with OnLive. I know, it sounds kind of corny, but don’t let that fool you it really is something unique.

This device this the brainchild of Rearden Studios’ founder Steve Perlman, and Mike McGarve, who worked at Eidos. It is a device that gives players the ability to play there favorite PC games on their televisions, and it is also is self proclaimed “micro console” with a price lower then the Nintendo Wii.

Here’s how it works; you control the game where every you are, as long as you have a strong internet connection near by that you can access, but instead of the game being read from a disc, it reads it via “cloud gaming” technology – which is basically the device reading something sent by signals in the atmosphere, right to your OnLive console.

Here’s the good part, it delivers video at up to 720p resolution at frame rates up to 60 frames per second, and of course the quality depends on you connection – because the servers. These servers will be located in Santa Clara, Texas, Virginia and elsewhere, in which they are hoping to deliver a seemingly lag-free experience to OnLive subscribers within 1,000 miles.

There are even talks of there being a monthly subscription at about the same price as Xbox Live. The device it said to hit this winter.

“OnLive is games on demand. What we do is make available the top, high-end titles at the same window they’re released at retail – so the same time they’re on the store shelves you have access to them – and you can play all these high-end titles on any entry level PC or Mac just through a plug-in that’s just one megabyte in size in your browser, or using this OnLive micro-console,” said Steve Perelman told GTTV.

Back when the DVD and Blu-ray versions of Wanted was released, Universal Studios implanted on to the discs 10 secret codes, which are hidden among the menu screen and/or bonus features, that unlock new portions of the game.

The codes will give you the ability to open up a new character, access enhanced weaponry and exclusive game modes, etc.. But, it also back into the DVD/Blu-ray movies. When an embedded code in the game is entered into the movie disc’s menu screen, a special featurette starring Wanted lead James McAvoy will be revealed.

Universal did not aggressively promote this game-movie cross-over when Wanted bowed on DVD and Blu-ray last year because the game, initially planned to release at the same time as the DVD, was delayed until March.

“Universal saw an exclusive opportunity to creatively intensify Wanted fans’ entertainment experience by crafting a code program that essentially is designed to drive film and game enthusiasts from the Blu-ray and DVD releases to the game and back,” said Hilary Hoffman, the studio’s senior VP of brand and digital marketing.“By bridging these two platforms, we effectively extend the marketing window for the film’s DVD and Blu-ray releases, substantially enhance game play and enable fans to unlock even more bonus content for one of their favorite films.”

[Wanted: Weapons of Fate in DVD, Blu-ray crossover via Video Business]

When releasing a new Tony Hawk title nine years in a row, Activision took 2008 off to institute calling it a part of their ‘innovation plan’ for there Tony Hawk series. But, ever since then they have been very ‘no talk’ on the title, but, boy, does time pass and now it seems that we finally get new – rumored – details on the next Tony Hawk title.

When speaking to Variety’s The Cut Scene blog, two anonymous sources, who have reportedly have seen the game first-hand, said that the next Tony Hawk title will abandon controllers altogether, but instead it will be using ‘board-like’ peripheral, which sounds alot like what the Wii’s Balance Board did in Skate it for the Wii.

These sources say that the game will not be so much about requiring precise balancing, but the focus will be more on “grabbing and manipulating the board” to perform tricks. They also say that the Wii version will be getting a Board also, instead of the the Wii’s Balance Board.

These sources also corroborated the rumor that Robomodo – a new development studio primarily formed by ex-members of EA Chicago – are developing both the game and making the new peripheral.

After the long-struggle about trying to get the recently released Mortal Kombat title to sell well, its publisher has filed for bankruptcy this morning, calling it a ‘difficult but necessary decision.’

“We have been focused on realigning our operations and improving our execution, and this filing will relieve the immediate pressure from our creditors and provide us time for an orderly exploration of our strategic alternatives. This Chapter 11 filing is the next logical step in an ongoing process to address our capital structure,” said Midway Chairman, President and CEO Matt Booty.

“Midway enters this process with strong underlying fundamentals, as evidenced by solid fourth quarter sales that exceeded expectations in spite of a challenging retail and general economic environment,” Booty added. “Overall, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe sales are approaching two million units shipped, TNA iMPACT! has shipped approximately one million units, and our Game Party franchise has sold close to three million units in total.”

Midway expects that Chapter 11 protection will enable the company to conduct its business operations as usual. To that end, Midway is seeking approval from the court for a variety of First Day Motions enabling the company to continue managing its operations in the ordinary course. These motions are typical of the restructuring process, and approval is regularly granted.

In 2007, the Games Convention became the biggest European trade and consumer games show, but this year even it couldn’t handle the heat, which can be a number of things.

Today, according to many inside sources (GI.Biz being one), this isn’t a rumor, it looks like the Leipzig Game Convention has officially been cancelled.

“In view of the new situation in terms of competition on the German trade fair market, Leipziger Messe would be dropping the GC – Games Convention from the 2009 calendar,” said Leipziger Messe in a statement.

Also commenting on the matter was the Games Convention CEO, Wolfgang Marzin, saying, “if the industry is again in search of a platform for console and PC games and hardware with the know-how of the GC – Games Convention, we will immediately be available.”

Update: G4 has posted the extended trailer from the game. Looks better than the original.

Original: Lead Animator, Tomas Hrebicek, has confirmed that the recently released Mafia II trailer was all created in real-time.

“It really was,” said Hrebicek. “All the scenes were completely created in our editor the same way we create cutscenes for the game. Our cutscene editor is a very powerful tool. Besides, we can see it all real-time which makes our work a lot easier. There was absolutely no need to modify the resulting video in the post production.

“Because everything was created solely in our editor, only our in-game scenes and models were used. So what you see here is great representation of the quality of work that you will see throughout Mafia II. Of course, this is not the end yet, and frame rate and other technical issues are still being tweaked in order to have the game working smoothly on all the platforms we create it for.”

As of lately one thing that has been pushing down the number of new friends I make on Xbox Live is the current 100-friends limit that has been pushed by Microsoft since the release of Xbox Live. But, it looks like Microsoft may have plans to increase the limit of friends you can have on Xbox Live.

When speaking to Joystiq at CES, Xbox director Aaron Greenberg told them that, “I can’t commit to when that will happen, but that is something we want to do. It’s definitely something we’re looking at expanding and, as this social network grows, we’ve absolutely heard the pleas for that. It’s on the list.”

Then he went onto say that how they had thousands of potential friends turn away daily on Xbox Live. And, as he said, it’s on the list so lets see what future plans they have for Xbox Live.

Sony has revealed some very impressive things at CES this year, but when you head over to the Sony boot, on the show floor, you will see one of the most impressive displays of 3D this generation, which just happen to be on the PlayStation 3.

“Don’t get caught up with specs,” the Sony representative told Arstechnica. “We’re not going to talk about specifications. This is just a look at what 3D could look like if Sony decided to move in this direction.”

Anyway, Arstechnica were shown Wipeout HD in 3D and they say that, “[they were] ready to whip out [their] credit card right there” and buy the system. But, sadly, the showing was just to see if people would want that kind of technology in their home.

I think it’s time to stop jumping around. According to a live blogging thing over at IGN , Square Enix exec Shinji Hashimoto said that “they will complete the PS3 version in Japan, then start a localization for the US and Europe while they start development on the 360 version.”

Many people many not understand that this means, it means a longer wait time in the U.S., not even a so called delay, it more feels like a super delay if you ask me. So why did they announce the game this early in it’s development? Because they think it’s a good idea for you to wait until the game comes out so that they can build the hype up.

It’s time to unleashed your inner chimp with today’s newly released box art revealed by Warner Bros. The game is based off the upcoming movie, which will release this July, Space Chimps. In the game you play as HAM and LUNA, who are both passengers on a harrowing mission through a dangerous inter-universal wormhole.

Features

• Alternate between playing Ham and Luna exchanging humorous banter between the two acrobatic chimps.
• Unleash your animal abilities as you tumble, jump, climb and swing your way through environments straight out of the movie.
• Switch from fighting mode to sneaking more to puzzle solving mode as you travel from level to level.
• Fly on the back of alien fluvians, or get yourself your own pair of flutter eye wings.
• 11 levels including 3 bosses.
• Battle 2-player coop style.
• 13 entirely new enemies, not found in the film, to challenge your combat skills!
• Entirely exclusive NDS experience, with 3D side-scrolling action and 2 player multiplayer.

We got some new details on games that you may not have heard from in a while, the details include new Guitar Hero: World Tour details an details on the unannounced Rock Band game. Take a look at all the  great new details thanks to a member of NeoGAF.

• Guitar Hero: World Tour will cost $179.99 with all instruments and the game.

• Guitar Hero: World Tour’s guitar features a touch sensitive guitar neck slidethat opens up the entire guitar neck for unbound solos.

•Gutar Hero: World Tour artists include Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Foo Fighters, Smashing Pumpkins, Korn, System of a Down, Ozzy Osbourne, Interpol, Muse "and dozens more".

• Tony Hawk’s Adrenaline is a game coming to the PLAYSTATION 3 and Xbox 360 that uses a sensing board controller.

• A game called Ultimate Band is coming to the PLAYSTATION 3, Xbox 360, and Wii.

• Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 features over 20 Marvel Legends such as the Hulk, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Venom, and the Human Torch.

• Spider-Man vs. Marvel Zombies is coming to the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii and well feature Spider-Man saving the worlds from a zombie menace threatening to destroy the world. The game takes place in 2149.

• Transformers 2: The Ultimate Battle is another game coming to every system imaginable. It brings you beyond the movie into pressure-packed missions where seconds can make a difference between survival and destruction. You can switch between robot, weapon, and vehicle modes at any time.

[NeoGAF]

Activision was planing to release Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 this fall but, thanks to some problem they ran into the game was delayed and set back till 09. The news was revealed on the weekend at the NYC Comic Con when talking to a Activison rep about the game, no other information was giving about the delay.

Also in the interview the rep stated that Luke Cage would be stated in to the plot of the new spider-man, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows.

According to GameStop Too Human will be releasing March 6, 2008.

I called my local gamestop and it happens to be true

GameStop-

“Too Human is a next-generation third-person epic action game you play as a cybernetic god Baldur, you are thrust into the midst of an ongoing battle that threatens the existence of mankind. The game will be coming to the Xbox 360 this year.”

Update 6/25/2008 8:45PM:While this post was made a long time ago I felt the need to update it with the new info the official release date for Too Human which as been dated as August 19, 2008.

Preview coming soon!!!

 Atari Classics Evolved-PSP

Bratz: Super Badyz-DS

The Club-PS3, 360, PC

Culdcept Sega-360

Dark Messiah of Might & Magic-360

Devil May Cry 4-PS3, 360,PC           

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames-PS3, 360, PS2

Need for Speed: Pro Street-PSP

Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword- DS

FIFA Street 3-DS, PS3

Frontlines: Fuels of War-PS3, 360, PC

Insecticide-DS, PC

Let’s Ride: Friends Forever-DS

Lost Oddyssey-360

Space Station Tycoon-Wii

Sizuki Superbike-DS

Wild Petz: Tigerz-DS

XIII Centry: Death of Glory-PC Yamaha Supercross-PS2

Conflict: Denied Ops-PS3, 360

Dynasty Warriors 6- PS3, 360

Professor Layton & the Curious Village-DS

Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer-DS

Supreme Commanders-360

Zoo Tycoon-DS

Condemmend 2: Bloodshot-PS3, 360

Lost-360

N+-PSP, DS

Universe at War: Earth Assault-360

Nodunage’s Ambition: Rise to Power- PS2

No More Heroes-Wii

Sea Monsters-PS2

SingStar-PS3

The Spiderwick Chronicles-360, PS2, DS, PC

Turok- 360, PS3                                                                                                                      

Two Worlds: The Temptation-PS3

World Championship Cards-PSp

World in Conflict- 360

Lines means the game is cancel or delayed