Relic’s real time strategy game Dawn of War 2, or rather, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2, once again tops the PC sales charts in the US, in addition to already being at the top of the charts all over Europe. NPD’s sales chart for the week of February 22-28 in the US:
1. Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II
2. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
3. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
4. The Sims 2 Deluxe
5. World Of Warcraft
6. World Of Warcraft Battle Chest
7. Spore
8. The Sims Carnival: SnapCity
9. The Sims 2 Apartment Life
10. World Of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
It’s surprising that out of the ten best selling games, 4 are World of Warcraft titles and 4 are The Sims titles.
Godfather, part 2, released in 1974 is widely considered one of the best movies ever made. The game, Godfather 2, set for release next month, is a sequel to EA’s lukewarm 2006 action game. Although it doesn’t look like it’ll be the video game counterpart of the movie (at least in terms of success), EA is still giving its Godfather movie license another go.
EA has announced that the game has gone gold and will be released on April 7 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. A major addition to the sequel includes “The Don’s View”; an overview of the city and its activities, soon to be your activities if you’re good. Players will start off as “soldiers”, and gradually move up the ladder, eventually becoming the head of the family.
To help enhance the gaming experience via great audio, AX Pro Gaming will introduce its 3D directional gaming headset. Twelve gamers from across the country will live and compete together as they face off in virtual and real world challenges to determine who is the “Ultimate Gamer.”
The cross platform compatible AX Pro precision gaming headset features true Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound via eight speakers, providing pin point accuracy, heart thumping bass and a personalized audio experience. Featuring an ergonomic design that emphasizes style and ease of wear, the critically acclaimed gaming headset provides enthusiasts the added comfort needed for marathon gaming sessions. Fully equipped with a detachable microphone and independent chat volume control, the AX Pro is compatible for online PC, Mac, Xbox Live® and PlayStation Network® gamers. The AX Pro gaming headset will support the WCG “Ultimate Gamer” contestants as they dare to square off against each other.
With a suggested price of $169.00, the AX Pro is currently available at Newegg.com and other major resellers across the nation.
(Source) Press
Financial outfit Forbes reports that the Entertainment Software Association, the trade group of video game companies, and the organizer of E3, spent almost $1 million in Q4 2008 on lobbying in Washington.
The ESA lobbied on issues such as intellectual property protection, H1-B visas for skilled workers and it opposed the plans to regulate video games with government sanctioned ratings systems.
The ESA lobbied several government agencies, including the Congress, the Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission.
One of the chiefest concerns of anti-video game advocates is how to effectively keep titles intended for adults out of the hands of children. Many are proponents of legislating penalties for selling adult games to minors, which allows parents some degree of control over what their children buy, but there’s always loopholes like eBay or simply getting an older brother/cousin to buy the game for you. In many places it’s left up to the parents to control what their children consume.
New Zealand has taken a much harsher stand in this debate. They have declared it illegal for a parent to provide their children with access to adult-rated games. Unfortunately this is the sort of legislation that is notoriously hard to enforce, especially since most police forces are probably less concerned about little Timmy beating up prostitutes and stealing cars in GTA than they are about people committing such crimes in real life.
The country’s chief government censor is advocating for an actual penalty for the crime however, with a punishment of up to three months in prison or a $10,000 fine that is intended to shock parents into following the law, no matter how ridiculous they might think it is.
Video games are a pretty popular scapegoat these days and the UK Government has taken its own crack at them. The USA isn’t the only country with an obesity problem: the people of Great Britain are equally fond of deep-fried foods and high calorie diets. The campaign is trying to encourage children to be more active, but it doesn’t pull any punches in doing so. The controversial ad depicts a young boy sitting holding a Playstation controller with the text “Risk an early death: do nothing”.
The ad is part of the ‘Change4Life’ campaign and it has sparked a furor amongst the video games industry, who feel that their economic contributions to the British government should garner them some respect. Formal complaints have been filed and legal action may be taken against the UK government by Sony, who say they were not consulted regarding the use of the Playstation controller in the advertisement.
Despite how inflammatory this particular advertisement is, the overall scope of the campaign doesn’t seek to villify gaming; its overall emphasis is on more active lifestyles and eating better.
The potential for video games to surpass film as a medium for storytelling is still a long ways from being assured, but it seems that the two are beginning to come together in many ways. John Woo’s iconic action film Hard Boiled was given a sequel years later called Stranglehold. The game’s success has prompted more action from the man himself.
Currently two writers are penning an adaptation of John Woo Presents: Stranglehold. John Woo’s production company Lion Rock Entertainment are on board for the sequel that reunites fans with inspector Tequila, played by the eternally badass Chow Yun-fat. The two writers on board are both American and with the general success of shooters in the American it could be that the sequel is going to be in English.
All right you young whippersnappers, with your fancy first person shooters and high-definition whosits and your surround sound whatchamajiggies–listen up. I’m about to give you a lesson in the old-school gaming style, back when we could count the number of bits involved in a game on both hands–ONCE. Back when music was tinny, and the gameplay was measured by how many enemies you could throw onto a single screen without getting crawl effect going.
Geriatric rambling aside, for a lesson in the kinds of games we had to play back in the eighties–and kudos to you if you remember the eighties–all you have to do is cruise on over to XGen Games and cut you off a sweet slice of Raiden X.
Designed as a tribute to Raiden and its sequel, Raiden 2, you play as a small jet fighter with one of three different kinds of upgradeable weaponry. You’ll fly in the classic top-down shooter mode, in an action-packed old-school environment.
This is what gaming used to be–if there was a story to games like Raiden X, you scarcely noticed because you were entirely too busy shooting whatever wandered into view. This is one of those great games where five minutes time invested into it allows you to get a full gaming experience, despite the fact that you really didn’t do much but move left to right and shoot things. It’s lots of fun, and though it might wear out its welcome quickly, you’ll always be ready for another go-round later on.
Being of Scandinavian descent myself–specifically Danish–I’m always caught by surprise when I see Norse mythology hit the pop culture circuit. Throw out a Loki or an Odin or a badly overused Thor or even a Yggdrasil or some such and you’ve got my attention.
Which is one of the biggest reasons that I was interested in finally getting my hands on a copy of Too Human, the game that shows you that it’s true–any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Here, “Norse gods” are just cybernetically enhanced humans getting a kind of carefully regulated technology from the Aesir Corporation. One such “god”, Baldur, has received the mission of protecting the human race from the encroaching machine armies of fellow “god” Loki.
There’s an interesting dichotomy at work here–the “gods” use machine parts to give them new abilities and thus become more machinelike with each new enhancement, but Loki’s machine armies harvest human blood and limbs and graft them onto their own superstructures, in an effort to become more human. It’s as though the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, and neither man nor machine wants to stay that way for long.
The part that’ll really kill you about Too Human is that it spent fully TEN YEARS in development hell, starting life as a four-disc adventure game for the original Playstation. Yes, I mean Playstation ONE. So what you’re seeing here is the result of ten years’ worth of work and refinement.
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If you are an avid follower of Street Fighter, here is your chance to come up with a great art work that can be entered into this competition hosted by Don’t Panic in preparation for the upcoming Street Fighter IV game.
All those artsy-fartsy types might look down on gamers when they can’t tell the difference between cubism and symmetrical art designs, but those artsy-fartsy folk couldn’t tell a Whirlwind Kick from a Hurricane Kick. That’s right, gamers get the chance to play connoisseur for some new SFIV art.
The design competition features artists from all over and actually lets gamers vote and comment on the artist’s work. There are prizes to be won and artwork to be bought. The interpretive pieces will also be accompanied by fan-work, which also happen to be available on the site. This means that gamers get to see how Ryu would look if he were actually drawn/painted to look Japanese, or get a full up-skirt view of Sakura’s rear-end.
(Source) Blend Games
