People 1 The RIAA 0

A federal judge in New Mexico has put the brakes on the RIAA’s lawsuit train, at least in the US District Court for New Mexico. The case in question is part of the RIAA’s campaign against file-sharing on college campuses and names “Does 1-16,” who allegedly engaged in copyright infringement using the University of New Mexico’s network. In a ruling issued last month but disclosed today by file-sharing attorney Ray Beckerman, Judge Lorenzo F. Garcia denied the RIAA’s motion to engage in discovery. This means that the RIAA will not be able to easily get subpoenas to obtain identifying information from the University. Read here for the Full story.

Army Of Two game Trailer for the PS3 and Xbox360

New MMO Phylon screenshots and game info

Rapid Reality’s stated, “We are excited to release Phylon as it represents a lot of work from our team and from gamers who provided tremendous feedback during the beta testing phase. We hope that players will enjoy the game, in particular, the battle arenas.” He also stated, “Through focused surveys and general feedback in our forums, we will continue to tap into the creativity of the gaming community to help shape the game and its future expansions.”

Phylon combines the fast-paced action of a traditional shooter with the persistence and depth of an MMO. Join players from around the world as part of the Bloblic Imperium, the Amphibian resistance, or the Terran colonists in their struggle for control of the planet Anura. Crush your enemies in instanced battle arenas, including Deathmatch and Domination. Advance in skill and unlock access to hundreds of unique items, including jet packs, energy shields, power-ups, and weapons.

[youtube TsJZJld8VDQ nolink]

• Phylon is a Sci-Fi themed, MMORPG 3rd person shooter.
• Avatar customization with hundreds of options, to create a unique look.
• Comic style graphics and game-play in an MMO environment.
• Fast-paced, 3rd person shooter style combat, where the skill of the player determines success or failure in a fight.
• A unique, third person camera and targeting system allows players to fight in an FPS style but with the expanded field of view of a third person perspective.
• Persistent world allows players to improve their character’s skills, equipment, and standing over time.
• 8 damage channels, 57 types of armor, and 175 weapons.
• More than 2000 quests.
• The 3-D graphical lobby allows players to find team mates and launch battle instances from inside the game, rather than using the web-based game lists that other games employ.
• Players can create their own dynamic competitions in instanced battle zones.
• Ability to support up to 200 simultaneous users in a single instanced, team-based battle arena without noticeable performance hits.
• Web-based leader boards rank top players and factions.

What is Phylon about?
Isn’t Phylon just the same old sci-fi shoot’em up with frogs, gluttonous aliens, and clueless humans? No, my targeted friend, Phylon stands alone in a sea of games. It dares not thousands, not millions, but billions to come adventure its scenic zones. Phylon, sometimes called “The Last Game,” takes the 3rd person shooter to new heights.

Leveling
A character’s level is a rough measure of their power. The higher the level, the greater amount of damage a character can deal. Generally, the damage bonus a character deals is twice the character’s level. The damage is added on top of the character’s weapon damage. A character’s level also determines their PvP status. Characters below level 10 are protected from losing their gear. A character’s level may also keep them from wandering into areas too difficult for them – though we could let nature take its course.

Stinkin’ Badges
Badges, in addition to levels, determine a character’s overall power and ability. Those who bear them are the game’s elite, the guys nobody bothers. A badge can only be obtained by completing each of Phylon’s 27 master quests. Each badge increases the player’s health, reduces the damage they absorb, or increases their protection against all channels of damage.

Quests
To earn badges and equipment, players must complete quests. Quests challenge players to perform tasks for NPCs. Some quests reward players with powerful weapons or armor, some of which can only be equipped if the player has been victorious in the battle arena. All quests are multi-directional and branching, allowing players to formulate the best approach to completing each step. Surviving them is also a plus.

Arenas
Arenas are smaller, fast-paced zones where players can battle each other in single player or team based tournaments. Here a player’s skill, rather than their level and equipment, determines the victor. If you’re one with the mouse and have an ace pilot’s sixth sense, then welcome home.

Galactic Vermin
The creatures of Anura come in a variety of forms and deal different types of damage, such as plasma, thermal, or electric. Choose your weapons with care, for many of Anura’s creatures are resistant to one or more of these damage channels. Strategizing the best combination of attacks and defenses against a particular creature will improve your chances of survival. Once you determine a creature’s weakness, stomp on it like grandma’s spring flowers!!

 

More In Game Ads anybody?

Splash Damage’s upcoming multiplayer shooter Enemy Territory: Quake Wars will contain in-game advertising, producer Neil Postlethwaite confirmed today on the game’s development blog. According to the producer, the ad program will help finance Splash Damage’s plans for ongoing maintenance and content updates to the game. Paying 50.00 - 60.00 for a game is just not good enuff for them now days they choose to keep milking us for more and more. They talk about content updates?! hmm what a map pack or two, oh wait they will add a new class or gun?! Why not make a GREAT game and allow game Mods to keep the public buying the game to play the mods that make the game great. Half-life was a good game, but counter-strike was the MOD that made valve what it is today. Almost 10 years later they are still selling it for 20.00 - 50.00 depending on what box set you go and get. Here is the post made by Splash Damage about the in game ad system.

Hi, I’m Neil Postlethwaite, Splash Damage’s Managing Director and one of the Producers on Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars. I’d like to talk to you today about the in-game advertising we have in ETQW.

For the last four years, we’ve put all of our effort into making Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars. So, we’re not planning to ship this game and walk away. We want to keep supporting ETQW in as many ways as possible. We’ll be maintaining the persistent stats servers and the community site, and continuing to support ETQW with updates and improvements.

To help cover this level of on-going support without passing the costs on to the gamer, ETQW will feature appropriate advertisements in select locations of our levels. The ads aren’t intrusive and you won’t have to interact with them; they’ll just be part of the normal environment. In fact, there are some places it’s quite odd not to have an advertisement - the sides of container trucks, for example. Great care is being taken to ensure that all our ads are appropriate for the game world and we have absolute approval rights in this area. If it’s not appropriate or it’s distracting, it won’t go in.

The company providing the ad system does not and will not store any personal information or data that otherwise can be used to identify you. All they track is if and how long you look at the advertisements.

For those of you participating in the upcoming beta, you will get a chance to see them for yourself very soon. And of course we will be releasing a demo prior to the retail launch of the game so everyone can check them out first.

Choosing to place ads in Enemy Territory was not a decision we made lightly. However, in doing so we hope to be able to provide a higher level of on-going support to the Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars community than would have been possible otherwise.

Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars Beta Video and Info

Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition

Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition has shipped to retail stores across North America. RE 4 Wii Edition is a new version of the award-winning game that incorporates the control functionality of the Wii Remote™. The incredibly successful Resident Evil® series has sold more than 30 million games worldwide. The game carries an “M” rating for mature audiences by the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) at a suggested retail price of $29.99.Resident Evil® 4 is one of the highest rated games on Game Rankings.com and Metacritic.com, garnering dozens of awards and nominations for its amazing game play and incredible re-invention of the “survival-horror” genre. This celebrated game now comes to the Wii with added Wii Remote and Nunchuck™ support, allowing players to immerse themselves in the game as never before. With RE4 Wii Edition, Capcom is offering new and more immersive sense of control to players, while keeping all of the game’s incredible game systems intact. As Leon Kennedy, players will explore a town overrun by cultists, mutants and mind-controlled villagers, using the Wii Remote to aim, fire, slash and avoid oncoming adversaries with intuitive motions and movements. RE4 Wii Edition also contains the additional content included in the PlayStation® 2 computer entertainment system version of the game.

Chair Entertainment to use Unreal Engine 3

Chair Entertainment Group, an independent video game production company, today announced that it has signed an exclusive deal with Epic Games to license the award-winning Unreal® Engine 3 for all its present and upcoming game development projects.

The deal covers all games developed for Xbox® 360, PlayStation® 3 and PC and the first game that will be released under the new agreement will be Undertow® for Xbox LIVE® Arcade, which is due to go live worldwide this summer. The game, which reveals some of the most stunning graphics seen on Xbox LIVE® Arcade, features a 15 level campaign for single-player or co-op, and two robust multiplayer modes for up to 16 players which has been delivered in just 50mb – something that has not been achieved in any other Xbox LIVE® Arcade to date.

Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command for the Sony PSP

Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command marks the first time that the brutal, war-ravaged world of Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 universe will be playable on the PSP. Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command features fast, action-packed combat through turn-based strategy and an engaging, authentic single-player storyline.

Gamers play as the elite Space Marines of the Ultramarines chapter and strive to combat the encroaching evil of the ruthless and daemonic influenced Chaos Space Marines through 13 cinematically-tied missions. With a robust multiplayer mode featuring 9 unique missions, gamers will team up and go head-to-head with other gamers worldwide as either the Imperium of Man or Chaos Space Marines, ensuring hours of unique replayability.

Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command will also fully utilize all the portable functionality of the PSP, bringing the Warhammer 40,000 universe to life on handheld.

Features:

• Compelling single player game consisting of 13 unique missions
• 9 unique multiplayer maps for Local or Global games, with small, medium and large map variants to cater for games from 2 to 8 players
• Fully destructible, real time 3D battlefields mean that no two games will be the same
• Pick from two Space Marine chapters or two Chaos Space Marine Legions to play as in Multiplayer games, in battles between Imperium vs. Imperium, Forces of Chaos vs. Forces of Chaos, or Imperium vs. Forces of Chaos
• Over 20 ranged and close combat weapons taken directly from the Warhammer 40,000 universe, including the Bolter, Plasma Gun, Chainsword and Power Fist

No Manhunt 2 for the UK

The BBFC ( British Board of Film Classification ) has rejected the video game Manhunt 2. This means that it cannot be legally supplied anywhere in the UK. The game was submitted in both a PS2 and a Nintendo Wii version. This is the first video game to be refused a classification since Carmageddon in 1997, when that decision was overturned on appeal by the Video Appeals Committee. The decision was taken by the Director and the Presidential Team of Sir Quentin Thomas, Lord Taylor of Warwick and Janet Lewis-Jones. Full Story »

AMD hmmm Ok? WTF?

AMD is preparing to replace its current processor numbering scheme for desktop processors with a new naming scheme which combines two letters and a four-digit number. AMD’s new naming scheme will start with a letter to indicate the product level; G represents premium product, B represents intermediate product and L represents value product. A second letter will indicate the product’s power consumption, with P representing over 65W, S around 65W and E less than 65W.

The first digit of the proceeding four-digit number will indicate the product family; 1000 represents Sempron/Athlon single-core, 2000 represents Athlon dual-core, 6000 represents Phenom dual-core and 7000 represents Phenom quad-core. The second digit indicates relative core frequencies within the product family while the two remaining digits will be used for the future upgrade functions.