305 - Spoof on 300 ROFL

World In Conflict Video and Screenshots, Trailer and Info

Sierra Entertainment, a division of Vivendi Games, today announced that World in Conflict - the upcoming action-strategy game that blurs the line between traditional strategy gameplay and fast-paced shooters - will be available for the Xbox 360™ videogame and entertainment system from Microsoft this fall. The game is being developed for Xbox 360 by Sierra’s own Swordfish Studios, in conjunction with Massive Entertainment, also a Sierra-owned studio, to optimise gameplay for the Xbox 360 controller and implement a new heads-up-display (HUD) that is more functional and appealing for console gamers.

World in Conflict represents the next-generation of strategy games, pitting Cold War-era superpowers against one another with completely destructible 3D battlefields, blistering visuals, and a narrowed gameplay focus that removes traditional resource-gathering and base-building in favor of non-stop combat, tactical decisions and an FPS-like addiction to intense action.

“World in Conflict is the natural fit for Xbox 360, as it effectively blurs the lines between strategy, action and first-person shooter, making controlling units and issuing orders quick and easy on the console controller,” said Al Simone, Senior Vice President of Global Marketing, Sierra Entertainment. “With the game coming to Xbox 360, next-generation console gamers will be able to enjoy the next-generation of strategy games. Fans of action games and strategy fanatics alike will find that World in Conflict’s unique gameplay and advanced multiplayer combat will provide a fresh game experience not yet available on consoles.”

World in Conflict presents a chillingly authentic Cold War scenario where the Berlin Wall never fell. Created by Cold War authority and best-selling author Larry Bond, the story begins in 1989 as the Soviets, fearing certain collapse, boldly advance into Europe. NATO responds in force only to be met on a second front - a full-fledged invasion of the American homeland. Players take on the role of field commander, leading the era’s most powerful military machines in the campaign to retake America’s cities and suburbs.

• Super-Powered Warfare: Unleash the arsenals of the great military superpowers in the gripping single-player story created by Larry Bond
• Bleeding-Edge Graphics – The latest version of Massive’s proprietary Masstech engine allows for a full 360° range of camera control and features advanced lighting and physics effects
• Complete Destructibility – As the battle rages, the world environment pays the price -every object in the game will crumble under the force of war, including cars, buildings and forests
• Deep Multiplayer Modes: World in Conflict will support up to 16 players for head-to-head and team-based battles in Domination, Assault and Tug-of-War gameplay styles
• Real World Units: Players will take control of the most devastating arsenal of military weaponry ever created, including Soviet, American and NATO tanks, planes, trucks, troops and helicopters as well as nuclear weapons
• Player Roles – Players will choose to play as Infantry, Armor, Support Forces, or Aerial specialists; multiplayer teams will need to master each role for maximum effectiveness

World in Conflict is expected to be available at retail stores worldwide this fall for the Xbox 360. The game will also be available on personal computer in September.

From the World in Conflict web site.

The World in Conflict closed beta [PC] was a huge success as thousands of gamers got their first play experience with the game and provided tons of invaluable feedback to the development team. With the end of the closed beta we are pleased to announce that a 2nd beta test will be coming in July - with the chance for even more gamers to participate. Further details and sign up information for the July Beta Event will be posted soon at worldinconfliict.com/beta. You can be automatically alerted by signing up for our official newsletter. Pre-order customers with beta access and bonus beta content will be contacted via email with further details by their retailer before the beta begins.

Celebrity Judges For Guitar Hero II Competitions

The World Series of Video Games (WSVG), Presented by Intel, announced today that Mötley Crüe’s Vince Neil leads the pack of special guest judges that will evaluate “Guitar Hero II” competitors. Attendees can look forward to seeing the legendary heavy metal icon at the finals of the upcoming Dallas event July 5-8 at the Gaylord Texan Resort.

Video game industry experts at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville this weekend will be MTV Style VJ Coltrane Curtis, legendary video game composer Tommy Tallarico, and Becky “Aktrez” Young, Leading Lady of the Girl Gaming Network. In Dallas, video game journalist and host Geoff Keighley and PC GameSpy.com’s editor-in-chief Sal “Sluggo” Accardo will assist Vince Neil with the judging. Additional judges for later events will be announced at a later date.

“It was clear from the beginning that we would need to call in the experts to separate the rookies from the rock stars,” said Matthew Ringel, president and commissioner of the World Series of Video Games. “We are committed to creating a video game tournament that is as fun for spectators as it is for participants. Our new judging format will help deliver the same immediacy and fun to Guitar Hero II competition as some of the most highly-watched music shows on television.”

At each event, the judges will score competitors based on accuracy, difficulty and in an interesting twist, showmanship! All areas of performances will be evaluated; from the ability to work the crowd, put together a unique and thought-out set and the precision of strumming and ripping.

More than $60,000 in cash prizing will be up for grabs in “Guitar Hero II” competition and a total of $750,000 will be awarded in cash and travel at this year’s World Series of Video Games, Presented by Intel circuit. Highlights from the competitions will air nationally on CBS Sports as part of four hour-long WSVG specials. Each episode will include segments on the competitors, as well as extensive competition footage for the featured titles, which include Activision’s “Guitar Hero IIT,” Blizzard Entertainment®’s “World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade®”, and “EA SPORTST Fight Night Round 3.”

Valve Announces Major Update for Steam

Looks like Valve will be adding some new things to Steam. I sure wish they would fix the old problems first.

This summer Valve will ship a major update to its online gaming platform Steam, introducing an advanced set of community features to more than 13 million gamers around the world.

Beginning in July, Steam users can set up their own personal Steam pages and profiles, create and join groups, schedule games with friends, review who they’ve played with, see how well everyone played, chat with groups, chat via voice, and more. These new community services and features can be used with all Steam games, which include new releases and classic titles from leading publishers and independent developers.

Free of charge, the new community features will be accessible via the Steam desktop client and via the web.

“Our community has given us great direction on the ways they want to see Steam evolve,” said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. “Adding these new community features to make it easier to connect with other gamers is something we’ve wanted to see on Steam for a long time and this latest update is just the start. We’ve got a long list of items that we’re working on to make it easier for gamers to connect and play games on Steam.”

This upgrade marks the largest extension to the Steam platform since its first commercial release in March 2004. In its three year history, Steam has defined the next generation online gaming platform delivering hundreds of games to millions of users with services such as Guest Passes, Automatic Updates, Free Weekends, and allowing gamers to access their games from any PC.

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.

Christ On A Bike: HRH Elizabeth II Burns

So, Pakistan has started burning effigies of the Queen, in protest of Salmon Rushdie’s knighthood.

Can I just say….
Do they have to protest and burn EVERYTHING?

Normally i have a great understanding of Muslims and their attitudes and beliefs, but they are all being hysterical, i have kinda run out of patience.

I mean for Christs sake… do they have nothing better to do?

and this is the official governments of these countries also being hysterical and calling for all kinds of things. they are just idiots. do you ever see successful countries like India having a hysterical response to anything like this? No.

Thou Doest Not.

The Queen could wage war against them all, you have to remember. She is still the head of all the armed force. The Pakistan government even passed a resolution condemning it. Can you ever imagine The House Of Commons passing a resolution condemning a Iranian award? Nah. Much better things to do.

And in case there are any more questions, I am an Agnostic. Yet Christened.

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.

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 »

Congress, what a joke….

The illegal immigration debate rages on. Is congress listening? Well that will be the day. Is President Bush listening? Unfortunately not. Just for the record I did vote for this president twice for President and twice for the Governorship of Texas. The first 3 times I don’t regret. The fourth time I am regretting. Not because of the war on terror. Not for what he has done for the economy. What I am regretting is his views on our borders. President Bush and Congress have totally shut out the American people. In all polls that I have read it is over 70% that does not support the bill in congress right now. Hey what do they care. It is not what they want.

Now I am left scratching my head wondering what can be done to let them know that keeping our border open is not acceptable to the American people. We have heard a few Republican congressmen that have stated that they have never seen such a negative reaction to one bill in all of their days in the congress. Then how is this bill still even being considered? That is a big question. What is the answer. Well there is only one word that can answer it. Power. They believe they have the power to just ignore you and me. Last time I checked they worked for us. They are supposed to represent us. I think it is high time that we remind them of this. I think maybe there should be a huge change in the congress come 2008. Send them a little message that they work for us and not us for them. Call them, email them, or write them. Any of the above would work great, but getting them out of office would be hand upside the forehead to remind them that this is a representative republic. Not a socialist country. The time has come that we need to take the Government back.

Now with all that said I only have one question for the President and Congress. How come we cannot just enforce the laws already on the book?

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.