Hackers setup “free” World of Warcraft servers

The most-likely-soon-to-be-sued-into-nonexistance wowstatus.net keeps track of these hacker-setup, non-legal WoW servers in which you can do any kind of things you can do in an official battle.net WoW server. Just don’t expect them to be around much longer. [i don't condone this, I am mearly the messenger, please don't hunt me down]

 

from gaming steve

John Carpenter, spokesman for F.E.A.R.

John Carpenter dug VU Game’s F.E.A.R. so much that he had to be thier spokesman.

 

The first thing that got me was the graphics. I always approach a game, mainly because of my background as a director, in terms of its graphic look. How does it look? Does it look real? Does it feel real to play? And I thought when I played F.E.A.R. and watched F.E.A.R., "This game has taken a giant step forward in terms of gaming." This is awesome. The freedom of movement, the character movement, the character development onscreen, the graphics, it’s just a whole lot of fun.

I got excited about a game years ago called Metal Gear Solid. I thought that was terrific. The director of that game [Hideo Kojima] wrote me a letter and I praised it. Now this is the first game that’s come along that I thought was better than that. This game is exceptional.

 

That’s a pretty big name and that says a lot about the game itself. It would say a lot more about the game if when knew what king of gamer Carpenter is. More casual or does he have his own high-end laptop/pc that he uses to play bleeding edge pc games in addition to owning all current consoles. Still, reading the interview, you can tell the guy is passionate about this game and the craft in general. It’s cool to see such a big "name" get behind a game they like.
 

Reactions to the Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s video game bill siging

Gamepolitics has a number of reactions to the recently passed California legislation which makes it illegal to sell or rent crazy violent games to innocent, young (and yet manipulative enough to get their parents to buy these games for them) kids. The ESA intends to file suit asap and they seem confident in getting this bill struck down.

Halo babies?

There was a Halo Babies cartoon? With this kind of voice talent (Bobcat Goldthwait and Joe Pantoliano to name a few), what happened? From the production notes:

 

It could be said that the seeds of Halo Babies were first planted when Bungie was shopping for animators to do cutscenes for the Myth series. According to sources inside Bungie, the story goes like this: while Bungie was delighted with the work Canuck Creations did for Myth: The Fallen Lords, they were very expensive. The animation for Myth II: Soulblighter by the Anime International Company was reasonably priced, unfortunately, it was also drab. Bungie was at an impasse as to who they should choose to do the cutscenes for Myth: The Fallen and They Can’t Get Up Lords when Alexander Serpoian accidentally tripped over Tsing-Tao Kirin throwing up behind a seedy bar in Chicago. When Alex found out that Tsing-Tao was a fledgling animator and master sock puppeteer, he invited him to submit a sample of his work for the new Myth title. Tsing-Tao sent Bungie a 5 minute movie that was hilarious in its awfulness – Tsing-Tao had managed to make the Myth characters look like blind epileptic babies. Thus the idea was firmly planted in Bungie’s collective mind.

 

 

I wonder if these stories were cannon?

 

City of Villians screenshots

IGN has some new screenshots up for City of Villains, most of them showcase villain models and a glimpse of the costume creation screen. City of Hero fans gotta love the fact that they’ll be able to pick this game up and give it a whirl without having to plunk down a monthly fee since if you buy a subscription for one of them, you’re able to play both. Nice.

Show how “street” you are with Fifa Street 2

Even though it’s nigh impossible to get "street" cred in the US if you have anything to do with soccer, EA SPORTS BIG  is going to do their best to lend you a hand. That’s right, Fifa Street 2 is in developement in a small, enclose cgi sweatshop near you. Look for it next Spring. Man, they can churn these game out. From the Press Release:

 

Prove you have what it takes in four on four gameplay action which captures the passion and flair of real street soccer in this fresh arcade experience. Humiliate your opponents with the new trick stick beat system, over the top juggling moves and all-new gamebreakers that allow you to win a game like never before. Beat the best in the world by traveling to new International locations ranging from the famous Westway Leisure Centre in London to the beautiful beachside of Brazil. Featuring all new authentic tricks, FIFA Street 2 provides new gameplay experiences by making over the top moves and skills even bigger in this fast paced sequel. Take to the streets, unleash your tricks, and humble your rivals with or without the ball.

PSP 30 day comding competition

PSP News and Lik Sang are running a Sony PSP 30 day coding competition. Basically you have 30 days to create some freeware application that will shock and awe all who behold it. The grand prize winner gets all kinds of PSP schwag.

Hypocritical language of Assembly Bill No. 1179

Assembly Bill No. 1179 is the bill The Governator recently signed in to law in California that fines anyone who sells “violent” video games to minors. Wired.com’s Clive Thompson looks at the language of the bill and finds the section on “torture”. The bill basically doesn’t like users being able to “torture” (in the “to intentionally cause someone else suffering sense of the word”) characters in the video game world. Interestingly enough, the government saw fit to carefully craft documents and legal memos about torture and how they could perform it. This moral ambiguity is best sumed up in the article’s final sentence,

Consider that your final irony: Politicians work hard to ban virtual torture — while working just as hard to allow it in real life.

Why these politicians believe they can craft laws on something they obviously know nothing about is beyond me. I think that if a politician wanted to play this the right way, they would get some industry people together and work with them to craft something resonable. What if parents actually parented thier children instead of depending on the goverment to do it for them (I am a parent so I can say that)? I’m not saying that parenting is easy but if a game has a Mature rating, why would you buy it for your 12 year old?

Hands on with Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Teamxbox gets thier grubby hands on Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and (surprise! surprise!) they like it. The title does look good though. I also remember reading or hearing somewhere that the voice and audio files took up over half of the game’s DVD. Doesn’t look like it’s done much to degrade the rest of the game though.

 

 The Xbox 360 platform is in dire need of a breakthrough RPG for its launch lineup and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion definitely fits the bill. We are told that the game will hit the “launch window”, but whether that will be day one or a before Christmas remains to be seen. Some final tweaking is needed to sure up the framerate and AI, but it’s hard to imagine that this one won’t be anything less than stellar. We just can’t wait to finally get this baby in-house for some extended playtime.

J Allard expecting some launch day hardships

Looks like he (and maybe the rest of Microsoft?) isn’t too sure that they’ll be able to meet demand in every territory they plan on launching in. It’s all pretty much a crap shoot I’d say. Not matter how many angles you analyze, how can you predict the size of the public’s need ffor your product? I’m glad I don’t have that job.

 

We’re not discussing numbers yet. I think no matter how big the number becomes, it still won’t satisfy the demand. We’re going to sell every one we can make. The allocation issue is a discussion; it’s a dialogue with the retailers, and it’s not just by territory, it’s also by country, and so at an event like this we can actually get some feedback from the retailers in terms of ‘my country’s going to be more ready when FIFA: Road to the World Cup comes out, and that’s going to be the killer app for my country’, for example, so we can adjust our allocations.

We decided we’re going to take a little bit of heat on allocations, frankly, in all the territories rather than take a lot of heat in one or two territories. So, we’re not saying Europe comes four months later, we’re saying Europe comes now, but with that combining it with the physics properties of the silicon means we’re going to have some disappointment in terms of what we can provide to retail and ultimately to the consumers this year, but that’s okay, because we want to get the market started. We want to get started on a worldwide basis, we want to do the right thing for gamers, for our publishers and for consumers.