HDCGAMER Podcast Episode 6

We do Newsstand this week and keep it under an hour. That isn't all but you are going to have to listen to find out that much.

Click here to subscribe

Viva Pinata for PC, opens the party on November 4!

When Viva Pinata for the PC was announced during the Microsoft Press Conference at E3, I was pretty happy. What I didn't know at the time was why was this happening? I still don't. No details on the game have been announced. Is there going to be a garden editor allowing the player to make bigger gardens or gardens with strange structures? Can the player use some mod tools to make new Pinatas? Will there be new pinatas from the developers? Hello, Rare and Microsoft; this game comes out in November!
Will the game be different in any way from the game on XBOX 360? There was also a Nintendo DS version announced recently. Which they are saying will be exactly the same as the XBOX 360 version and will even support trading pinatas over WiFi.
Considering this game is less than a month away, I think it would be good if Rare and Microsoft show the game off. New Features? Better graphics? Construction tools? If there isn't anything different on the PC version, why does it exist?

FASA Studios is NO MORE!

1UP.com reports,"

FASA Studio Officially Shuts Down

Long-standing rumors finally confirmed.
By Philip Kollar, 09/12/2007
Some people may remember way back near the start of the year, rumors began raging that FASA Studio would be shut down some time after the release of Shadowrun. That has since come true, as FASA studio manager (and 1UP Yours guest alum) Mitch Gitelman confirmed the news on the official Shadowrun forums:

"It is my sad duty to announce that FASA Studio has officially closed its doors. Today was the official last day of employment for those of us who had not moved on to other positions within Microsoft Game Studios. While the rumors have been circulating forever, we chose to wait on an official announcement because we didn't want people's attention distracted from our last product, Shadowrun, a game we love.

"As a testament to the team's commitment to Shadowrun, we released three title updates to improve the product even after the team learned we were losing our studio. We have kept our Community Manager and Technical Support Manager on the job to aid and support you and will continue to do so while people continue to play our game. I am pleased that about half of us have found great positions elsewhere in MGS and Microsoft where they can share their experience and passion with the great people there.

"But now, as the last of us say our goodbyes to each other, I'm saying goodbye to you on behalf of a group of talented and dedicated professionals who busted their humps for the love of the game. I am proud to have worked with and represented them to you and know that wherever they go, they will continue to kick ass."

In possibly related news, gamers on those same official forums are alleging PC and Xbox 360 players can no longer play the game against each other, a feature that was one of the original major selling points of Shadowrun. It remains unclear if this is an unintentional glitch that will be fixed or the first step towards scaling down Shadowrun's servers. "

OK, these are the same developers who said that they were changing projects and that the massive layoffs were just a part of normal business. This is the same company that promised more maps for their Shadowrun title. This is the same company that was SO SURE that a Shadowrun FPS was such a good idea that they criticized reviewers who didn't agree with them.

I liked FASA, at least pre-Shadowrun. The game was like a death null. The title was ill conceived, ill advertised, and finally ill delivered. On the PC the advertising was buy Shadowrun and get Halo free. This certainly doesn't bode well. I think the developers should have listened to fans and made an RPG of Shadowrun or at the very least an Action title. Anything but ANOTHER FPS!

Hellgate London PC Specs Revealed?

" The minimum PC specs for North America and Europe are as follows:

* OS: Windows XP with SP2 or Windows Vista
* Processor: 1 .8GHz or faster (2.4GHz for Vista)
* RAM: 1GB or more (2GB for Vista)
* Video: DirectX 9.0c/10 compatible device w/ 128MB RAM or better and Pixel Shader 2.0 support; requires NVIDIA GeForce 6200/ATI Radeon 9000 chipset or greater
* Audio: DirectX 9.0c compatible device
* Disc drive: 8x DVD or faster
* Hard drive: 6 GB or more free space
* Input: Keyboard and mouse
* Internet: Connection required for multiplayer"Hellgate Guru

It is interesting that these are the Alpha specs and originally Flagship stated that the Alpha specs would be higher than the final game. They said that they would be supporting a broad range of computers. 1GB of RAM doesn't really constitute a broad range of computers. Considering so many developers are going towards having 1+ GB of RAM it is definitely a better investment than all most any upgrade.

Hellgate London Main Man Interviewed by N'Gai Croal Part 2

N'Gai Croal's Hellgate Interview part 2, click here.