Alternet the uninformed and crazy seems to extend beyond Jack Thompson

The article on Alternet can be found here.
The article talks about how Resident Evil Extinction is a racist movie based on a racist video game series.
Well, this is an interesting statement because up until Resident Evil 4 there were only white people in Resident Evil. So I guess the Japanese developers are racist against white people. As a white person, I don't mind...
Resident Evil 4 took place in a Spanish village and area which pretty much makes it impossible not to have Spanish speaking zombies. Just like if it took place in a German village; the villagers would be speaking German. Not really racist right?
Finally, in Resident Evil Extinction there are African Americans among the zombies but very few are really seen on screen at once, if much at all. Perhaps I'm too racial ignorant because I didn't notice it at all. I do remember seeing a large number of white people as zombies, as I expected.
At the very least Roberto Lovato was being ignorant and inflammatory in this article. Personally, it just seems like a reaction to the allegations that Resident Evil 5's trailer was racist. Which hasn't gotten much traction. Therefore, we need to move on to the next thing that seems like the same thing. Which many alarmists and people like the infamous Jack Thompson like to do. These people usually have a loud voice and a good place to use that voice.
I hope Mr. Lovato will do more research on his stories before he writes them. As journalists it is our responsibility to get all the FACTS before we write a story. It strikes me that Mr. Lovato hasn't ever played Resident Evil, any of them. And probably didn't even bother to watch any of the Resident Evil movies, where African Americans and Hispanic Americans have been supporting cast members. These are token roles, but then video games movies usually equal a token role for minorities. That might be an issue to address, but I doubt it would have the same inflammatory impact that the current article has on his readers.
In the end, I just want to say that these are Japanese made games and they have no concept of racism. The movies ARE made by Americans but I do think that much care is taken in Hollywood to try and make everything politically correct. But all of the criticism would be fine with me; if they were valid. Or if the comments were coming along with proof from the games and films. But that seems to be too much work. I just hope Mr. Lovato never tries to write that kind of fluff for a major news outlet because his editor would be all over him. When a journalist writes a story on the internet it should be taken just as seriously as if it was in a newspaper or magazine. These kinds of stories give a black eye to all the people struggling to be taken seriously in the world of mass media. Thanks Roberto Lovato for making my job harder...

Heavenly Sword the best Game on the PS3! Chapter 1 impressions!

I've only just today been able to get myself a copy of Heavenly Sword. This afternoon I crank up my PS3 and dropped it in. I was blown away. The game has amazing graphics and some absolutely amazing gameplay. Most of the really impressive gameplay in Heavenly Sword takes place during combat. You are taught through some instructional tips how to fit as well as how to use Aftertouch which is the ability to be able to use either the SIXAXIS or the right analog stick to steer the arrow, cannon ball, shield, etc... All I cam say about this game is that this is the closest to a movie that you can get. Basically the way it works is that you have a story sequence, then combat, then maybe a puzzle. This to me, is the only way that a convergence could take place between film and games.
I will say that Aftertouch is really annoying and should have just been left out. Even after you get used to it; you still never really want to do it.
I will be coming back soon with Chapter 2. Unfortunately, I'm also trying to beat Halo 3, so give me some slack.

PS3's Dual Shock 3 not coming in US/Europe til 2008, Japan in November 2007!

This one of those stories that makes me wonder about Sony's overall intelligence. The market for the PS3 in Japan isn't much better than the market for the XBOX 360. But in both Europe and the US Sony is doing pretty well. Europe especially... So how is our healthy gaming markets status repaid? In ambivalence by Sony. Sony says that the current production schedule doesn't allow for an earlier release but considering the Japanese, North American, and European controllers are the same hardware it is hard to understand how it could be only releasing in one market.

In theory anxious players could import Japanese versions of the controllers. That leads to the real reason perhaps, for the delay in shipping. The games that have all ready been released that are supposed to have rumble support will not support it due to the American patches won't be out. Which seems to point to this being a software issue rather than a production issue.

Last but not least I would like to say that this feature should have been included from the beginning and the fact that the motion controls and sheer discomfort of PS3's weightless controller are probably the reactionaries for the return of rumble rather than Sony realizing in a midnight revelation that people want rumble in their games. Which people do, as do developers. Sony has pointed to the lawsuit that was ongoing during the PS3's development as the reason why they didn't have rumble but this is more than a year after that lawsuit was settled and it will be more than a year from the American release that people outside of Japan will be able to feel the rumble again; even though the rumble technology is the same as that used in PS2's dual shock controller.

Sony really needs to get clear of all of these growing pains. It's hard to understand how a company that was the leader in the last generation could be so disorganized and make so many mistakes in the beginning of this generation.

Comments on sources come from 1UP News....

C&C Primetime Episode 2!

WCG Starcraft Interview from Gametrailers!

World Cyber Games Orlando Montage from Gametrailers!

Hellgate London Preview from Gamesradar.

Here is the preview...

Let me just warn you that this one of the worst previews I've read on Hellgate London. It all most seems like the person playing wasn't the person writing the preview. But that would be dishonest....

Jericho demo now on XBLM: It's all most perfect...

Clive Barker's Jericho is a great demo. The game allows you to switch from one character to the other each with special abilities, powers, and weapons. Each character plays a little different and all three are satisfying.
I had one and only one problem with the demo. About 2/3 of the way through the demo you get into a situation where you have to do this context sensitive gameplay where you have to press a series of buttons in a certain order. This type of thing has been SO OVERDONE in just about EVERY TITLE that has come out in the past two years. I don't EVER want to see it again. It's annoying and very unsatisfying. Other than that, the demo is awesome and I can't wait to play the full game. One more small note, the demo is too short....

Gamecritics is critical of the Reviewers Reviews!

"When Bioshock was released to universal acclaim from the popular gaming press, I fully expected to be amazed by the game. My reaction to it was less enthusiastic than what I expected, and reading around the 'Net as well as the responses to my own review, there seemed to be a similar reaction among many others. I found it possibly more than coincidental that sites like IGN were loaded with hands-on previews and detailed articles about the game, then it was released to an exceptionally praise-filled review. Now the long-awaited Halo 3 reviews are in, and—just like Bioshock—there were tons of hands-on impressions, detailed previews, and fever-pitch hype. So it didn't surprise me that it received ubiquitously raving reviews, with 9s and 10s littering the field.

I haven't played Halo 3, and I probably won't play it until it comes out on the PC three years from now. But I read the reviews and I have yet to read one that I thought really justified the high (often perfect) scores the game is receiving. A 10/10 is, to me, a game that is truly a landmark in game design. It breaks boundaries, drives the medium forward, and executes brilliantly across the board. A few years back I gave The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay a 10. It was a beautiful and brilliant game that melded numerous genres into a fluid, exciting, and wholly unique experience. From what I can see, no one is claiming that Halo 3 does anything like that. The consensus seems to be that the gameplay is mainly just a minor refinement of Halo 2; that there are some level design issues later in the game; and that the experience lacks the "newness" of Halo. 1UP.com even went so far as to say, "...in Halo 3, the big 'oh wow!' gameplay moments just aren't there"—but they gave the game a 10/10 anyway. Now, having not played Halo 3, I can't say personally whether it's as great as it's being made out to be—I'm only saying that the press has, in my view, done a poor job of substantiating their ratings.

All this leads me to wonder some things about the gaming press. Most commercial sites are hands-on participants in the pre-release hype. Developers give them exclusive stories; they write detailed, often spoiler-filled previews that draw lots of readers and fuels the hype; developers often invite them in-house for multiple demonstrations and hands-on sessions with early builds of the game. I find it hard to believe that these kinds of sneak-peeks do not entice and excite the people in the gaming press and cause them to fuel the hype among eager gamers. And I find it even more difficult to believe that these kinds of teasers, along with the self-perpetuating hype, do not eventually sway the biases of the writers when the game hits.

Well, I did not get hands-on time with Bioshock at E3, or visit Bungie's studios to get a sneak peek at an early build of Halo 3. The gamers' reaction to the former was most telling—while most seemed to enjoy it, it seemed that few viewed it as the masterstroke of game design that the press portrayed it to be. I suspect that the reaction to Halo 3 will be similar; I somehow doubt that gamers—at least experienced ones—will be quite as awed as the press.

What concerns me most about the hype slant, though, is that better, more creative games are often overlooked. My favorite game this year has been S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. While certainly not a "perfect" game, it was a brilliant and gripping game that broke new ground in a number of important ways (I'm very much looking forward to the upcoming prequel, which looks to expand on some of the key innovations in the game). I remember Riddick, which was released with little pre-release hype, being largely underrated by the press but being highly praised by gamers everywhere. I'm also looking forward to Crysis, which I'm sure will get terrific reviews and be subject to a hype slant itself. But it's clear to me from the previews that the developers are really pushing technology and interactivity in some really groundbreaking ways, so when a game is released that is "merely" a refinement of well-played ideas, it seems to be a bit of a disservice to developers who are really pushing boundaries."Gamecritics...

Normally this type of story really does my heart good. But having said that, this person hasn't even played the game. Journalists should never make statements about people being unduly influenced and something smelling wrong when they haven't even had the experience of playing the game. Also, the fact that he was critical of Bioshock, one of the best games of the year(which I did play). The fact that this journalist quotes an XBOX game and a pretty irrelevant PC game that came out to wide appeal among only PC reviewers bothers me. If your going to start complaining about console reviews perhaps you should buy an XBOX 360 and at least rent some recent games. All of this raises the red flag right off. My copy of Halo 3 is in the mail so I might be able to say better once I can spend a few hours with it.

I certainly think IGN had the best review of Halo 3; but I trust the opinions of the reporters over at 1UP and when they give it a 10/10, I can't really argue. Also, the fact that Dan Hsu reviewed the game who is probably the most trustworthy person in game journalism reviewed it. Basically makes it really hard to argue until I get my hands on it.

As much as I love the idea of independent, non-commercial, and frank reviewing this isn't the way to do it. If you want to make such inflammatory comments about some of the best titles out there, you need to have played the game. To simply review the game reviews themselves pretty much just says that the journalists themselves are doing a poor job of writing game reviews. Wait until the magazine reviews come out and then decide. Because the magazines have much longer, more thoughtful reviews than websites do. So good effort Mike, but get all the facts before you start seeing conspiracy theories.

Hey, Mass Media, Halo has been around since 2001. Where were you?

Since the launch of Halo 3 the mass media is acting as though this thing came out of no where. The reason it did $150 million is that it is a well established franchise liked Madden, you know guys, the football game. And a lot of people know about it. So having actors, random gaming press, and rock stars give interviews about it, like it is some kind of new story opening on Rodeo Drive is really ridiculous.
The worst part is when they start calling it the Next Generation of games where the movies and games blur the line. I'm sorry, in a media where the main character never takes off his helmet and you can't see their face; cannot be evenly compared with a dramatic medium. Besides the fact that Halo as a whole is a relatively simplistic story built around gameplay elements. This isn't a novel or movie people and if you think it is, perhaps you should review what makes up each.
Finally, if you want a ground breaking, mind blowing, first person shooter that blurs the line between movies and games: play Bioshock. It came out about a month ago. It has a story so deep it references novels and dead philosophers. Just don't start saying that this stuff like:

"Timeless all most... For the generation that's out there right now.."Sundance Digiovanni...

Because first off, if something is timeless it can't be just for the current generation . Sundance, stick to gaming leagues. Not doing interviews about video games that your only expertise in is that you play them. This came from the Sci-Fi Channel show. "Sci Fi versus Halo 3." I found it to be the pinnacle of all things redundant about Halo and that they just needed to fill a half hour.
I guess nothing is important to the mainstream media until it sells well. But when they start making sweeping statements they should do some research first; because it just makes them look really stupid.

Dan Shoe's Halo 3 Review! Better Late than Never!

"Xbox 360 Exclusive “Halo 3” Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History with $170 Million in Sales

Microsoft today announced that the Xbox 360 exclusive game “Halo 3” has officially become the biggest entertainment launch in history, garnering an estimated $170 million in sales in the United States alone in the first 24 hours. The Xbox 360 title beat previous records set by blockbuster theatrical releases like “Spider-man 3” and novels such as “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”

“Halo 3” is the conclusion to the epic trilogy and picks up where “Halo 2” left off, answering questions around the fates of the beloved protagonist Master Chief and his artificial intelligence sidekick Cortana as they struggle to save humankind from destruction at the hands of the alien coalition known as the Covenant. In addition to the rich storyline, “Halo 3” continues the franchise’s grand tradition of delivering innovative online multiplayer experiences via Xbox LIVE, the world’s largest social network on TV.

“Halo 3 has become a pop-culture phenomenon,” said Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios. “Not only is “Halo 3” setting sales records, it’s also redefining entertainment.

Within the first 20 hours alone, we’ve seen more than a million Xbox LIVE members come online to play Halo 3 – that makes September 25 the most active Xbox LIVE gaming day in history.”

Retailers have also expressed their excitement about the launch of “Halo 3.”

Bob McKenzie, Senior Vice President of Merchandising for GameStop Corp commented that, “With consumer demand for Halo 3 and related products, we expect it to be the biggest video game title generator in GameStop's history."

“The initial demand we’ve seen for ‘Halo 3’ has been astounding, and the game is on track to become the number one gaming title of all time. ‘Halo 3’ is a genuine entertainment phenomenon and our customers have responded very enthusiastically to the release,” said Jill Hamburger, vice president of movies and games at Best Buy.

Developed by Bungie Studios, the “Halo” franchise is exclusive to the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system and optimized for the Xbox LIVE^® online entertainment network. The more than 7 million Xbox LIVE users will get a continually evolving gaming experience with “Halo 3.” Its online multiplayer and cooperative gameplay for Xbox LIVE Gold users, the much-talked-about Saved Films feature that enables players to capture and save their favorite moments on their hard drives, and Forge, an innovative map editor that enables infinite customization options are just some of the new features to experience.

More than 10,000 retailers hosted Midnight Madness events to celebrate the launch of this third installment in the billion-dollar franchise. In New York, Seattle, Miami and Los Angeles, Microsoft and retail partners hosted marquee launch events that featured contests and appearances by local celebrities and professional athletes who are fanatical about the “Halo” franchise, including Ludacris and Zac Efron and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.

More than 1.7 million copies of “Halo 3” were preordered in the United States before a single store opened its doors at midnight, Sept. 25, making this the fasting pre-selling game in history, surpassing the previous record-setting pre-sales of “Halo 2.” Well beyond just a U.S. phenomenon, the launch of “Halo 3” was a worldwide celebration that released in 37 countries and available in 17 languages." Microsoft Press Release reprinted Major Nelson...

Considering how crazy this kind of sales returns are compared to such a broad stream of media and how they compare. Halo's sales may be the new benchmark for all video game sales going forward. Problem is that this could also create a flurry of new FPSs which is the last thing this generation all ready overflowing with FPS titles needs.

Let's hope this is a step forward for the industry and not just another isolated case of hot sales. Microsoft may soon have stranglehold on #2 and be shooting for #1 if they can get descent sales from Mass Effect and PGR 4 in the next couple of months.

Halo 3 is Hard on XBOX LIVE!

I guess the fight is finished on the XBOX LIVE servers. Between the occasional XBOX LIVE MARKETPLACE outages today and then the denial of the www.xbox.com service for players due to high traffic.
This is all kind of understandable; except that Microsoft and Bungie had to have known that this would happen. I don't blame Microsoft or Bungie for all this, because hey, we all knew that this would happen didn't we?
Most important thing for all you folks to remember is that Microsoft knows about all this and they are working to correct the issues. So bear with them people, after all; it's really all you Halo players fault.

Stolen Meme...

Stolen Meme, thanks Jeff Green...

Four jobs I have had in my life (not including your current job):

1. Sales Clerk Wal-mart
2. Usher at Movie Theater
3. Freelance Writer
4. Data Entry

Four Movies I have watched over and over:

1. Resident Evil 1&2
2. Kill Bill 1&2
3. Sin City
4. Lord of the Rings: Two Towers

Four places I have lived:

1. Chicago, IL
2.
3.
4.
I don't get around much.

Four Shows I love to watch:

1. CSI (Original one)
2. Battlestar Galactica (the new one)
3. Mythbusters
4. MLG Pro Circuit (when it's on)

Four Places I have been on vacation:

1. Washington D.C.
2. New Mexico
3. The South, just about all of it.
4. Canada, Ontario

Four of my favorite foods:

1. Ice cream
2. Pizza
3. Veggie Lasagna
4. BBQ Chicken
I am a simple man.

Four favorite drinks:

1. Pepsi
2. Mountain Dew Code Red
3. Iced Coffee
4. Juice(pretty much all of them)

Four places I would rather be right now:

1. New Mexico
2. San Fransisco
3. Buying a new PC
4. Reading my stockpile of books

Did I mention? I know I did. I LOVE PENNY ARCADE!!

GO to the Source!

Command and Conquer TV website Launched!

For all of you who were like me and thought that EA's one off Command and Conquer Primetime Episode was all there was going to be. Well, now the Command and Conquer Website has launched. The first episode of Command and Conquer Primetime is on the site and two other show areas have appeared. Can't wait for all of this stuff to hit the air. Hopefully this will be the first step in all big game companies coming out with competitive channels for players and spectators to watch the best play. Maybe they will do this with the upcoming EA Game, Hellgate London. Anything's possible, WoW Arena battles? I'm looking at you Blizzard...

My Undead Heart is about to burst: Resident Evil Extinction leads weekend box office!

"Resident Evil: Extinction Leads Box Office

Sony estimates a $24 million gross for the weekend.
By Andrew Hayward, 09/24/2007

Resident Evil: Extinction, the third film in the game-based film trilogy, opened atop the North American box office this weekend with $24 million across 2,828 theaters, according to studio estimates released yesterday. As reported on Friday, analysts projected a $20-21 million opening weekend for the film, which was budgeted at about $45 million.

Should the estimates hold true, Extinction will have earned just slightly more in its opening weekend than its immediate predecessor, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, which also opened at #1 with $23 million in 2004. According to Box Office Mojo, Extinction sold fewer tickets than Apocalypse, though the rising costs of film tickets made up the difference (and then some). Apocalypse lost steam after its opening weekend, drawing $51 million in total over its domestic theatrical run. We'll be keeping tabs on Extinction to see if it has more staying power than its predecessors.

Dane Cook vehicle Good Luck Chuck met projections with an estimated $14 million over the weekend, landing squarely in the second slot (ahead of last week's top flick, The Brave One, which brought in an additional $7.4 million). Actual numbers are expected to be available later this afternoon -- we'll update if the final numbers diverge significantly from the estimates."1UP....

I also dropped my money on this movie and I have to say that it is the weakest of the trilogy but certainly not a bad movie. I love these movies but I have some problems with this one.

First and foremost in Resident Evil Apocalypse Alice had these incredible mind blowing mental powers. But in this movie she hardly uses them even when Umbrella all ready knows where she is.

Second, the ending was horrible and could easily lead to another movie and this was supposed to be the last one. I'm not even sure I want to see a fourth movie; they completely accelerated a story line that could have been told over at least 6 movies but they decided to make this a trilogy and do a horrible job of telling what happened between 2 and 3. Besides that, never fleshing out Alice's character even though she is basically the main character of the trilogy.

Third, this movie was FAR TOO SHORT! An hour and a half is just not enough for a movie anymore. Most movies with descent stories are at least 2 hours now a days and they could have used this time to prevent the movie from looking like a sequel could be forthcoming.

I would just like to say that as much as I really love Mila and the whole cast of these movies, especially Valentine(Sienna Guillory). But what would have been wrong with doing the actual Resident Evil video game story? I mean it would have taken some editing and probably some modernizing but it could have been a landmark series for movies based on video games.

As much as I'd love to see another Resident Evil movie, I think it probably would be best not to have one. Because after Extinction there really isn't anything left...

Halo 3 the Good News Has Arrived! Part 3

Halo 3 the Good News has Arrived! Part 2

Halo 3 Reviews, the Good News has Arrived! Part 1

Page through the HALO 3 Manual Online!

Halo 3 Manual clicky here. You will need to get Microsoft's Silverlight reader but it only takes a minute.

Tokyo Game Show 2007, Not feeling it...

In a recent podcast the 1UP folks talked about how the Wii has made a major difference in the way that games are shown at Press shows and how they have changed the way games are seen in the eyes of all consumers. Strangely this was very evident at a show where Nintendo as a company didn't show, Tokyo Game Show.
The carnival atmosphere around Wii games is just insane. The PR people should probably just start hawking, "Step right up, step right up, try your hand at the Wiimote and win a prize!"
The problem, of course, is not the Wii. It might be Japan at the heart of all this. The Japanese seem to be a little unhappy with the next generation. Their sales are pretty bad across both Sony and Microsoft's consoles.
The love seems wholly directed at Nintendo's franchises and hardware. These same franchises are holding to the last generation graphics and in many cases last generation gameplay. Nothing to see here folks, move along...
There are, of course, exceptions to every rule. But these folks are not representative of the masses. Folks like Tecmo, Koei, Capcom, and Sony Worldwide Studios are trying to play both sides and doing a pretty good job. But they are the people bucking the trend it seems, not creating it.
The Mistwalkers and Square Enix's of the world are happy to just keep making what they have been making for years. All most all games shown at the show except for a few stand out games like: Ninja Gaiden 2, Devil May Cry 4, Metal Gear Solid 4, Gran Turismo, and Eye of Judgement. The majority of the games at the show are all too happy to just continue what they have been doing all along.
As much as I enjoyed both last year's and the year before that's Tokyo Game Show this year's show just doesn't seem to be that big of a deal. I'm truly and uttering tired of turn based RPGs. White Knight Story, Lost Odyssey, and from the looks of it Last Remnant can all dry up and disappear. These games all most all ways have nothing going for them at the core. If their stories were compelling all the mindless battles could be forgiven but this is usually not the case. I will wait for Persona 4, because it seems like they are the only folks capable of telling a descent RPG story nowadays.
I'm not terribly excited about the 100 FPS games coming out in the next year either though. But I don't think that the way to fix that blight on the video game industry is create as many lame RPGs as possible or heaven forbid as many mini game compilations as possible.
Maybe this is just a cultural or generational difference; but all I can say is that once upon a time I thought that Japanese developers were the saviors of this industry and maybe they would have been if it wasn't for Nintendo who stole all their souls in the name of the mass market and money. Now we only have Sony to look to for our salvation and I think everyone can agree that, that isn't a good thing.

MGS 4 Online Full Match Part 3

MGS 4 Online Full Match Part 2

MGS 4 Online Full Match Part1

Devil Mat Cry 4 TGS Show Floor Trailer

Most expemsive Preview EVER!

IGN, "GT5 Prologue Price Rumors "Categorically Incorrect"

Internet rumours fail again as Sony UK says demo won't cost 45 Euros.

by Rob Burman, IGN

UK, September 12, 2007 - SCEE has quashed internet rumours suggesting that the Blu-ray version of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue will cost 45 Euros when it launches in Europe later this year. According to Sony, these reports are "categorically incorrect", with no decisions regarding price currently made.

Originally, various internet sources had claimed that price news had been announced by Sony Computer Entertainment Benelux (covering Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) during a press event.

However, while a Sony UK spokesperson did reiterate that Prologue won't be be free - unlike the previous demo - they confirmed that a price point for both Blu-ray and PlayStation Network versions of the game are "still all to be agreed"."

45 Euros is around $60 American. This is insane. Another instance of Sony acting like they have god's gift to gaming. I SERIOUSLY doubt anyone will be buying this game. From what I've seen of the title it just doesn't seem to be complete enough to warrant the price of a full game. I truly hope that this is truly a rumor. But considering this story keeps rearing it's head; it's hard to believe it to be untrue. At the very least I'm hoping the PSN version will be MUCH cheaper.

[UPDATE]

PS3fanboy says," Hidden away in Sony's TGS catalog was a shocking revelation: Gran Turismo 5 Prologue's Japanese release date and price. Scheduled for December 13th, the game sample (demo, as we used to call) will retail for a whopping ¥4,980 ($43.10) on Blu-ray and ¥4,500 ($38.95) when downloaded through the PlayStation Store. Although the game will feature stunning graphics and many features of the final game, this seems as much too high for a game that has a limited track and vehicle selection. We hope that this kind of sticker shock doesn't come across the Pacific into other territories."

This was first reported by me and IGN back on the 12th.. It is truly hard to believe that Sony could be serious about this non-sense.

The End Drawth Nih: COD4 Beta Ends 9/30

"Call of Duty 4 Beta Ends Sept. 30
Level cap to be raised two days before it closes.
By Kris Pigna, 09/21/2007
If you were one of the lucky few to get into the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare multiplayer beta, you know by now it's on track to be one of the best Xbox Live experiences yet. But that sweet, succulent taste of tactical military action will soon be coming to an end -- on the blog of Infinity Ward Community Relations Manager Robert Bowling (aka fourzerotwo), he announced the beta will close on September 30.

It's not all bad news, though, as Bowling also announced the level cap (currently at 16) will be raised to 25 on September 28. That only leaves two days to reach it, but at least it'll unlock all the weapons, perks and challenges available in the beta, including the G3 assault rifle and Dragunov sniper rifle.

Bowling also addressed some of the tweaks they've made to the final game thanks to the beta, including adding a sensitivity slider, cracking down on map exploits, and improving matchmaking optimization to reduce lag (which he says will also help with some of the questionable hit-detection players have complained about). As for how close the game is to being finished, Bowling hints, "Are We Gold Yet? I'll leave the final official word to any press releases Activision would like to send out, but let's just say, I've received a few congratulatory emails from both Sony of America for PS3 and Microsoft certification for the Xbox 360."

Now, if you're not one of the lucky few to get in the beta, be sure to watch our recent impressions to see what you've been missing. Then be content in knowing you can't fully appreciate how hard the month-long wait until Call of Duty 4's release on November 5th will be. At least there's some sort of Halo 3 something or other to tide us all over, right?"1UP...

Since Halo 3 comes out on September 25th and according to numbers over 1 million people have pre-ordered the game; it stands to reason that this won't be too bad. But two days to go up 5 levels; obviously a focus on the BIG FANS is in full effect.

Eye of Judgement Overview

Lost Odyssey Developer walkthrough part 1

Bioshock story in-depth.. From Gamespot

"GameSpot: Andrew Ryan is a tremendous hypocrite. He's a complete free market capitalist, but the first thing he does is dictate that citizens of Rapture cannot bring their religion to his world. Then he closes the theater "because there's a war on" and assumes control of Fontaine's business. He's all about individual determination but eventually embraces mind control. What is it about his character that makes him seem so idealistic and adamant on the surface, but allows him to embrace such brazen hypocrisy?

Ken Levine: It's less interesting whether he's a parasite, or whether he's a hypocrite or not. In a general sense, the more affirmative we are with our statements, and the more unyielding we are with our philosophy, the more hypocritical we're all bound to become. In any ideological argument, the closer it gets to your back yard, the tougher it gets to stay in the argument. My discomfort with extreme ideology tends to focus around [the fact] that often when the ideology means reality, people don't turn out as well as they might hope. And that tells you a lot about ideologies. I'm certainly not defending any of those actions that he took because I think they're all pretty reprehensible from an objective standard. But I think a lot of actions all of us take aren't up to what we ideally might want to do. And it's interesting to have a character who is so clear in the abstract about what he believes. Then when it's tested, it becomes a lot trickier.

GS: For a utopia free from religion, there are a lot of Christian religious overtones to the game (Adam, Eve, Rapture, smuggled crucifixes and bibles), but only one non-Christian thing I spotted: the Epstein the Swami machines. Were you intending to make any commentary specific to Christianity, or was that just what you thought would be most recognizable to your audience?

KL: The game is full of examples of people who have strong ideologies, whether it's Ryan or Cohen or Steinman. They all have their own religions in a way, right? Steinman's got his church of the beautiful and he said he talks to a goddess. Cohen's got his church of the aesthetic. And Ryan's got his own set of precepts that are pretty unyielding. I think that the first thing any strong ideology does, by necessity, is to crush all other ideologies and remove them because they tend to be incompatible. That is one of the reasons that religion was pushed out of Rapture.

But I think conversely, if you look at the history of a lot of religion, you see a similar approach taken there. One religion tends to take hold in a non-pluralistic society. They tend to try to push out other religions. You see that the different belief systems having incompatibilities, and if you really adhere 100 percent to any belief system without question, it's very difficult for you to accept incompatibilities of that belief system.

GS: Are people inevitably drawn to strong ideologies? Is there something about having a black and a white, a right and wrong, and one way to do things, that is just naturally comforting?

KL: I think it's pretty clear from any viewing of history or current events that people find truisms very comforting. And especially in times of strife, I think that people are drawn to things that they can hold onto. When you looked at our country after 9/11, you saw the dialogue. There was a real interest in having the dialog becoming a little simpler and a little more straight forward. And that was really comforting to a lot of people. That's why you have things. Religion is a form of that, ideologies are a form of that, nationalism is a form of that. Anything that answers a bunch of questions for you, that removes the gray area, especially in times of strife, is very comforting for people.

GS: Rapture was founded on November 5, 1946. Was there any particular significance to the date of its founding?

KL: I think there is a significance to the period of the founding, that Andrew Ryan, built the city as a response to the Depression and the New Deal, and World War II, and very recently before that, the detonation of the nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

GS: Between early audio files, dated decorations in Rapture and the fact that so many splicers walk around wearing festive masks, it appears the disintegration of Rapture's utopian society hit a tipping point on New Year's Eve of 1959. Why draw the line at the turn of that decade in particular? Are you suggesting the repressive 50s were preferable to the amoral 60s?

KL: Oh, man. No, I think it was strictly a matter of narrative and back story. Rapture needed time to come into its own before it fell apart. I wanted to give the society a reasonable amount of time to start spreading its wings a little bit before the cracks appeared. And knowing where I wanted to start, knowing where I wanted Ryan to come from, post-WWII was the right time for him to build the city. And I wanted to give it 10 or 15 years to work. It gives it some time for that experiment to sort of percolate.

GS: Rapture is supposed to be populated with the best and the brightest, but even that selected subset is apparently highly susceptible to the ham-handed advertising that saturates Rapture. Is that a comment on the power of advertising, or the shortcomings of people regardless of intelligence or achievement?

KL: I have a friend of a friend who's a media critic named Doug Rushkoff. And he had written something about The Simpsons 15 years ago, saying that the show was a signal that we have all moved beyond the ability to be affected by media because of this post-modern thing that constantly made fun of media, constantly made fun of how people were duped by advertising and duped by the news and everything.

And Doug's a really smart guy, but I had a bit of a different take on it, that The Simpsons were just the next brilliant evolution of that [influence]. Because look, you're still watching the TV. You're still viewing the advertisements. It's just that now they're telling you, "It's okay. You know you're smart. You 'get it.' Now drink that Coke." And I think that's a natural evolution. We look back on advertisements in the '50s of cigarettes hitting your T-zone and [think] people must have been stupid, or people must have been naïve. But it was just a new medium and the medium has had to be wily and very smart to stay ahead of us.

When I was a kid and I watched Logan's Run in the theater, and I was blown away by the special effects. Now those same special effects [don't cut it]. I've become more sophisticated as a viewer. But that doesn't mean when I see great effects now I think they exist anymore than they actually do. I've just become more sophisticated so it takes more to sort of fool me and then lull me into my suspension of disbelief.

And I think the same with advertising. It was just sort of a crude time. I'm sure you bought something today and I bought something today, some partially based on advertisements we saw for it. And those advertisements are just more sophisticated. Hopefully we're some of the best and the brightest, but we get taken in by it. And it's the same way those people were taken in by the advertising of their time.

GS: BioShock has antagonists, but the horror that Rapture became seems to lack a clear villainous architect. Ryan enables Rapture to happen, but he would have been perfectly happy without the mind control, plasmid research, and Little Sisters. Fontaine was evil, but he just took advantage of the worst aspects of Rapture that were already underway. Suchong is irredeemably evil, but he was entirely dependent on other people to approve and fund his research. With the bad ending, the player is potentially the biggest villain of all. Ryan himself even says that it's not his hands alone pulling the chain of endeavor. So who's to blame for what happens in Rapture?

KL: I don't know that's a question I can answer. It's a collection of all the above. Look at Tenenbaum. What is she? Is she a hero or a villain? She creates the Little Sisters then she has a change of heart. Where does that put her on the map, morally? She obviously did some pretty atrocious things. So I don't know if there is a singular villain of the piece or a singular hero of the piece. Like life, there are a lot of people, some of whom try to do their best, some of them not trying to do their best.

There are some people who sort of stand out as a little above the others, like McDonagh who is Ryan's conscience in a way, who at least is very true to what his beliefs are. But on the other hand, staying true to your beliefs may not necessarily be a good thing. So I don't know. I don't have the answer to that question.

GS: About the chain tattoo on the main character's wrist… Other than cluing the player in that the protagonist is already related to Rapture somehow, given Ryan's recurring rhetoric about the "chain of endeavor," is there any special significance to it?

KL: In general, I don't like to talk about things that we don't address in the story, because I think the right place to answer questions like that is within the game world. If we don't answer them, that means we didn't intend to answer it. That's one of those things that I want to leave blank for now, because I just want people to put their own meaning on it. We haven't expressed any meaning on that and I don't think I'm going to right now.

GS: For a game built on a moral choice about harvesting or rescuing the Little Sisters, there's very little consequence to the player's actions. The moral decision about harvesting or saving Little Sisters winds up being relatively inconsequential since if you save them all, then in the end you do wind up with enough ADAM to purchase all the plasmids and upgrades you could need, and you get some free ones on top of that from their gifts. Do you think it's important that all moral choices have clear rewards? Aren't there things that we should do simply because it's right?

KL: I guess the question is sort of along two lines: How consequential is it from a gameplay standpoint, and how consequential is it from a story standpoint? A third level is how consequential it is from the actual gamer's experience standpoint.

My favorite story about people saving and harvesting is when a journalist that told me he started harvesting and his fiancé saw him do it, and he slept on the couch for two days. She found it awful. Certainly I think that people who encounter the game think about it not just a [minimum and maximum benefit], Diablo-skill-tree kind of way, but they think about it in terms of what am I as a character or a person, a saver or a harvester. And I think you see a fair amount of consistency.

I heard a lot on threads about this, and I think that there are definitely some legitimate complaints that this story doesn't reflect those choices enough. And I think it's something that was pretty experimental for us in this game, and something we definitely want to explore further, and take to a deeper level. But my favorite notion--the thing I'm most happy about--is that people think about it generally outside of [minimum and maximum benefit], and from the actual moral choice aspect of it.

GS: How many Little Sisters can the player kill and still get the good ending?

KL: We went back and forth on that a lot, but we want to leave that up for people to do themselves. I'm sure it's out there somewhere, but we're sort of uncomfortable about revealing that number because we don't want people to game the system that way.

GS: Considering that the plot inhabits the gray areas of morality and you've included general condemnation of taking things to extremes, why give the player two endings that are on ridiculously opposite ends of the spectrum?

KL: I think that's a fair question and honestly, it was never my intention to do two endings for the game. It sort of came very late and it was something that was requested by somebody up the food chain from me. It was a reasonable request because I think people want to just have a sense of the different consequences from doing that path.

But you notice, whenever I do my interviews about the game, I never want to talk about the good and the evil choice. When we were developing the game, originally the icons about harvest and save had a neat little angel and a little devil, and I cut that out because I didn't want that to be clear to the player when he did it in the sequence where Atlas and Tenenbaum are telling the player very different but equally compelling things. And it wasn't clear what the morally right thing to do was.

I wanted to leave it more ambiguous. But I'm not sure if that would have been the right thing. At the end of the day, there are [aspects of games] that you collaborate on and agree upon.

One of the reasons I was opposed to multiple endings is I never want to do things that have multiple digital outcomes, versus analog outcomes. I want to do it like the weapons system in the combat in BioShock. There are a million different things you can do in every combat; you can play it a million different ways. Looking into the future for the franchise, that's something I want to [figure out], that by the time you get to the ending of that choice path, you have a sense of your impact on the world through lots of little permutations rather than like a giant ending piece, if you follow my meaning.

And I think we did a reasonably good job with [the endings], but there are just two of them. And this is not a game about A and B. This is a game about one through 1 million, and all those permutations of choice. And as I think about the future of the franchise, that's where I want to take that.

GS: BioShock creates a wonderful atmosphere for Rapture, but it seems to unravel when one stops to wonder why an underwater utopia would need ammunition vending machines and resurrection chambers every few yards apart, weapon upgrading stations forever inoperable after one free use, a handful of toilets for an entire society, no apparent place to sleep. It seems like there were a lot of choices made for the sake of a better game, rather than like a more convincing, fully realized and fleshed out world. Can a cohesive universe in a good game be made right now, or are the two things mutually exclusive?

KL: So, we clearly make a lot of concessions to actually being a game. Now I'll put some defense into some of those things, like the ammo machines. Of course there would be a lot of other vending machines around the world but in a society like Rapture, they might very well sell weapon ammunition, especially if there's a civil war going on. It is a completely deregulated society, so why wouldn't you be able to buy ammunition from vending machines? Now certainly you'd have vending machines that sell other items, but that would be a hot commodity in the same way that we see people come out selling umbrellas in New York when the rain comes down. When the war is on, people would be making a killing selling ammunition.

But yeah, there's certainly concessions, like with how many toilets there are. We had this discussion when we did System Shock 2 because we were making the whole starship. Should there be a bed for everybody? How many bathrooms should there be? And frankly, I don't give a ****. Because even in the most realistic television show you've ever seen… You see Battlestar Galactica taking sci-fi to a much more realistic place, but you never see characters take a dump. And frankly, do you want to see them take a dump? I don't, because it's not about dragging over the coals of realism in every aspect. It's enough to make you feel that I buy into this, that suspension of disbelief I talked about.

And our goal with Rapture is not to recreate a city in its reality, but to recreate a city in the expectation where you can suspend your disbelief. Now clearly you hit some speed bumps along the way with those elements. And maybe we didn't calibrate 100 percent for the audience, or for you obviously in this case. But I think that's a fine line to walk.

GS: Is it possible for a game completely addressing all these issues to get made in the current market, or do we first need more titles like BioShock to take steps toward that in order to show publishers that more thoughtful game experiences can still sell millions of copies?

KL: If the sales success of BioShock means anything, it means that we can trust our audience a little more. With the themes--both from a gameplay standpoint and especially from a theme standpoint, a story standpoint--if you told anybody including myself that BioShock was going to be the kind of commercial success it's been, they would have done a double take. I knew there'd be an audience that got into it, and fortunately, it wasn't my money going into making it. So, I didn't really have to care; I got to make what I wanted to make. But the fact that such a large audience responded to it the way it has, especially on the 360 [indiscernible] when people say console gamers are mouth breathers who don't care about story, deep gameplay, and stuff like that, I think that puts a lie to that. And I think it's told the publishers to some degree, I hope, that maybe the audience is ready for a little more. Maybe you should trust them a little more."Gamepot...

Holy S*** Motorstorm 2 announced!

" TGS 2007: MotorStorm 2 Official

Kicking up dirt a second time.

by Ryan Clements

September 20, 2007 - A recent press release has confirmed what many racing fans have been looking forward to: Evolution Studios is currently working on a sequel to the PS3 hit, MotorStorm. Although the details on MotorStorm 2 are quite slim at the moment, we know it will ship on Blu-ray disc, and Evolution is also working on additional content for the original MotorStorm, to distribute over the PlayStation Network.

We'll have more on MotorStorm 2 as information becomes available."IGN...

Soul Calibur Legends Dragon Slaying gameplay

Bring me the Head of Mickey Mouse! Kingdom Hearts gets new games!

"GS '07: Three new Kingdom Hearts games coming

Square Enix and Disney team up again to bring their crossover role-playing franchise to portable platforms.

By Emma Boyes, GameSpot UK

Posted Sep 20, 2007 12:34 am PT

TOKYO--With the Tokyo Game Show kicking off, Square Enix has revealed it is working on three more installments of the popular role-playing game series Kingdom Hearts, bringing the franchise to the DS, PlayStation Portable, and mobile phones. Although the three titles are so far only confirmed for release in Japan, the company assures its western fans of the series that "release in other territories will be determined at a later date."

The first game, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days brings the Disney and Square Enix worlds to the Nintendo DS, and will feature characters Roxas and Axel in both single-player and multiplayer missions. The role-playing game will be directed by Tetsuya Nomura and Tomohiro Hasegawa. A date has not yet been set for the game's release in any region.

The second game is called Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, and will be coming to the PlayStation Portable. Birth by Sleep will tell the story of three new characters, all of whom are keyblade apprentices in search of a missing keyblade master. Tetsuya Nomura and Tai Yasue are co-directing the title.

The third title is a mobile game called Kingdom Hearts Coded, and is set after the events of the first Kingdom Hearts game. Jiminy Cricket returns to Disney Castle to write in his journal, where he finds a mysterious message that he cannot trace. This marks the beginning of a new quest for a virtual Sora. The mobile phone models and carriers which will support the game have not yet been announced.

The first Kingdom Hearts game was released in 2002 in a collaboration between Square Enix and Disney Interactive Studios, and installments of the series have since shifted 11 million copies on the PlayStation 2 and Game Boy Advance."Gamespot...

What bothers me about all this is that it seems that the people making Kingdom Hearts should be focusing all their efforts on making Kingdom Hearts 3 instead of these portable titles. The fact that KH 3, doesn't sound like it's coming out until the end of the world; and this news doesn't exactly change that encouraging idea. Square seems so concerned about their Final Fantasy franchise that they seem to be allowing both their Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts franchises to lounge in the world of the portable. Which is fine except that as long as they are stuck on the Wii, DS, and PSP their revenue streams are guaranteed but it is also guaranteed that we won't be seeing next generation versions of these games.

Because you can NEVER have enough Star Wars Force Unleashed!

PSN store Updates!

• Loco Roco Cocoreccho full game ($6.99)
• Skate demo (free)
• Stuntman: Ignition demo (free)
• Sega Rally Revolution demo (free)
• NBA 08 demo (free)
• Devil May Cry 4 summer 2007 trailer (free)
• GT5 Prologue Leipzig video (free)
• Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction video (free)
• Folklore trailer (free)
• Lair promo video (free)
• Lair "Going for the kill" video (free)
• Heavenly Sword demo (free)
• NBA 08 Free 6 tutorial (free)
• Loco Roco Cocoreccho trailer (free)

Dualshock 3 Compatability list US and Japan!

From Kotaku,"

LIST OF PLAYSTATION®3 TITLES COMPATIBLE WITH DUALSHOCK®3 IN NORTH AMERICA AND EUROPE

As of September 20th, 2007

The Darkness 2K Games
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Activision
Soldier of Fortune Activision
BIOHAZARD® 5 CAPCOM
Devil May Cry® 4 CAPCOM
N-Cube Creat Studios
Warbit Creat Studios
Dark Sector D3 PUBLISHER
Turok Disney Interactive
Highlander Eidos
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men Eidos
Burnout Paradise ELECTRONIC ARTS
FIFA franchise (title name TBD) ELECTRONIC ARTS
Legendary: The Box Gamecock
To End All Wars Ghostlight
RAGE id Software
WarDevil - Unleash the Beast Within Ignition Entertainment
Dynasty Warriors 6 KOEI
Fatal Inertia KOEI
METAL GEAR SOLID 4 GUNS OF THE PATRIOTS Konami
Blacksite: Area 51 Midway
TNA Wrestling Midway
Unreal Tournament 3 Midway
Wheelman Midway
Cops (codename, title name TBD) Pyro
Planet One (codename, title name TBD) Pyro
Heroes over Europe Red Mile Entertainment
Condemned 2 SEGA
Iron Man SEGA
The Club SEGA
The Crucible SEGA
The Incredible Hulk SEGA
Blast Factor (*1) Sony Computer Entertainment
echochrome Sony Computer Entertainment
Elefunk Sony Computer Entertainment
Folklore (*1) Sony Computer Entertainment
FORMULA ONE CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION (*1) Sony Computer Entertainment
Go! Sports Ski (*1) Sony Computer Entertainment
Heavenly Sword (*1) Sony Computer Entertainment
High Velocity Bowling Sony Computer Entertainment
MLB 08: The Show Sony Computer Entertainment
MotorStorm (*1) Sony Computer Entertainment
NBA 08 (*1) Sony Computer Entertainment
PAIN Sony Computer Entertainment
Rat Race Sony Computer Entertainment
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction Sony Computer Entertainment
Resistance: Fall of Man (*1) Sony Computer Entertainment
Snakeball Sony Computer Entertainment
SOCOM: Confrontation Sony Computer Entertainment
Super Stardust HD (*1) Sony Computer Entertainment
TOY HOME Sony Computer Entertainment
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Sony Computer Entertainment
Warhawk (*1) Sony Computer Entertainment
WipEout HD Sony Computer Entertainment
GirpShift® Sony Online Entertainment
NBA 2K8 Take Two Sports
Destroy All Humans 3 THQ
Stuntman Ignition THQ
Assassin's Creed UbiSoft
BEOWULF UbiSoft
HAZE UbiSoft
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (*1) UbiSoft
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas (*1) UbiSoft
Prototype Vivendi Games
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena Vivendi Games

*1　 Users will be able to enjoy the rumble feature through software update.

LIST OF PLAYSTATION®3 TITLES COMPATIBLE WITH DUALSHOCK®3 IN JAPAN

As of September 20th, 2007

Vampire Rain -Altered Species AQ INTERACTIVE Inc.
BIOHAZARD® 5 CAPCOM CO.,LTD.
Devil May Cry® 4 CAPCOM CO.,LTD.
Dark Sector D3 PUBLISHER Inc.
Burnout Paradise ELECTRONIC ARTS K.K.
FIFA franchise (title name TBD) ELECTRONIC ARTS K.K.
BUMPY TROT2 IREM SOFTWARE ENGINEERING INC.
Dynasty Warriors 6 KOEI Co., Ltd.
Fatal Inertia KOEI Co., Ltd.
GI JOCKEY 4 2007 KOEI Co., Ltd.
METAL GEAR ONLINE Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd.
METAL GEAR SOLID 4 GUNS OF THE PATRIOTS Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd.
IMABIKISOU SEGA CORPORATION
Blast Factor (*1) Sony Computer Entertainment
echochrome Sony Computer Entertainment
Folklore (*1) Sony Computer Entertainment
FORMULA ONE CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION (*1) Sony Computer Entertainment
Go! Sports Ski (*1) Sony Computer Entertainment
Heavenly Sword (*1) Sony Computer Entertainment
MotorStorm (*1) Sony Computer Entertainment
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction Sony Computer Entertainment
Resistance: Fall of Men (*1) Sony Computer Entertainment
Super Stardust HD (*1) Sony Computer Entertainment
TOY HOME Sony Computer Entertainment
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Sony Computer Entertainment
Warhawk (*1) Sony Computer Entertainment"

Sony confirms DualShock 3 and delays Home!

Gamespot live blogging the Sony TGS Press Conference reported that the new Dualshock 3 which will feature rumble will be out in the US by February and will hit Japan in November. Why the delay for the US is unclear even to Phil Harrison who admitted to Gamespot that he didn't understand the delay for the US and Europe either.
Home will be delayed until Spring 2008 which comes as no surprise to anyone who has been following the the service's progress. Hopefully they will use this time to drastically improve the service and make it more focused on games rather than on selling their customers things.

White Knight Story TGS gameplay video!

Q&ATurn 10 on Forza 2's 11 new rides - from GameSpot

"One of Forza's strengths is its diversity. This pack really highlights that diversity. We've got a race-ready turbo diesel (the Audi R10) right next to a low-performance class inline 4 (the Honda Civic Si Coupe) with tons of upgrade potential. This pack contains cars with classic tires and race compounds. It's got front-weighted front-wheel drive (Honda Civic Type-R) and rear-weighted rear-wheel drive (Porsche 911 GT3 RS). It's got America muscle (Dodge Challenger) and rally-inspired European hot hatches (SEAT Leon Cupra). If I had to pick a favorite, it would be the Porsche GT3 RS--what an amazing car. With 415 horsepower, an 8,400rpm redline, and a performance-tuned exhaust, the GT3 RS provides a driving experience (street or circuit) that is truly extraordinary."Gamespot

Just in case you are wondering what we are all wondering.. Where are the new tracks? Here is your answer:

"GS: After this release, we'll have two DLC car packs. When can we expect new tracks or other goodies in Forza 2? Care to drop any hints on what you have planned next?

DG: We have a lot more in store for the rabid Forza community. It's much easier to "quickly" turn around a cars pack than a track pack. Of course, "quickly" being a relative term in next-gen game production. Tracks take upwards of 3 to 5 months to build, plus testing and iteration time--not to mention the reference collection and coordination trips. That said, DLC tracks are on the way. We started working on DLC tracks at the same time we started the Nissan pack."Gamespot

Certainly some good news for anyone still playing Forza 2, too bad this comes with the knowledge that in about two weeks we will be playing PGR 4. Somehow it seems like this was a missed opportunity by the Turn 10 folks...

Super Smash Bros Brawl confirmed online but there is a catch!

"The news EVERYONE has been waiting for has finally been revealed today. Smash Bros Brawl will have online multiplayer. There will be two online modes which are With Friends and With Anyone. With the With Friends mode, you can play with the people you've registered to be your friend. In this mode, you can check each other's stats, see if your friend is online and change your icons up. You can also send your friends quick messages using the D-pad as taunts during battles. You just have to create the message before the battle though.

Now here is where Nintendo shows how stupid they still are with their online stance. In With Anyone mode, you can battle with anyone in the world. But you won't be able to see their name, any stats, can't send taunt messages and the most ridiculous part of all this, your battle records will not be recorded at all.

I shouldn't really complain though, the anonymity of With Anyone mode really pales in comparison to how epic this news is. So who else is as giddy as a little school girl now? "Destructoid

This is just another example of Nintendo not giving a wit about the hardcore gamers out there that love the Wii; at least if there are any left. I hope Nintendo is happy with their fly by night casual gamers. Considering once the newness and novelty of the Wii wears off and everyone has one. Nintendo will discover that the casual market is good for about one game a year. I hope they are planning on making all their money through console sales. I hope they enjoy their $10 a console.