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Red Vs. Blue is at the Shows End!

Wired.com discusses the last episode of the Red vs. Blue web series, which ends tonight 06/27/07 with its 100th episode. The long-running show has been one of the best and a ground breaker in the world of machinima. If you enjoyed RvB, their current project is set in the Shadowrun FPS entitled 1-800-MAGIC. Its will be a sad day when RvB ends for me. I have watched every episode at lest 5 times and loved it just as much the first day as the last.

Red vs. Blue, the cult hit, web-video series created from in-game Halo footage, concludes its genre-defining run as it airs its 100th and final episode Wednesday evening.

The comedy series, featuring two squads of hapless Halo heroes locked in an endless civil war prolonged mostly by their own ineptitude, took the emerging machinima medium — movies made with real-time video-game footage — mainstream.

What Can’t a iPhone do …. Alot!

1. Songs as Ringtones
2. Games
3. Any flash support
4. Instant Messaging
5. Picture messages (MMS)
6. Video recording
7. Voice recognition or voice dialing
8. Wireless Bluetooth Stereo Streaming (A2DP)
9. One-size-fits-all headset jack (May have to buy an adapter for certain headphones)
10. 3G (EV-DO/HSDPA)
11. GPS
12. A real keyboard
13. Removable battery
14. Expandable Storage
15. Direct iTunes Music Store Access (Over Wi-Fi or EDGE)

NYT Review USAToday Newsweek

Want to make a Game for the Wii?

Officials from Nintendo have confirmed plans to release original downloadable content on the Wii, with an announcement today at a private Nintendo developer conference.

The company describes WiiWare as a “game-creation service” that will allow developers of all sizes to create downloadable games content for sale by Nintendo through the Wii Shop Channel.

Currently over one hundred retro tiles are available for download via the Wii’s virtual console, with games paid for via redeemable Wii Points. Other content has so far been restricted to new interactive channels, all of which have been free (although the Internet Channel – featuring a re-purposed Opera Web browser - will incur a charge of 500 Wii Points ($5) from the beginning of July).

In a press statement Nintendo suggests that WiiWare will pave the way for “smaller, more creative games” at lower prices and without any inventory risk to developer. Despite the announcement today, though, the first WiiWare content will not be launched until early 2008.

“Independent developers armed with small budgets and big ideas will be able to get their original games into the marketplace to see if we can find the next smash hit,” said Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime. “WiiWare brings new levels of creativity and value to the ever-growing population of Wii owners.”

Apple and AT&T Announce iPhone Service Plans

Apple and AT&T today announced service plans for iPhone, 4 days before its release in the US at 6pm local time on Friday, June 29. The plans are $59.99/mo for 450 minutes, $79.99 for 900 minutes, and $99.99 for 1350 minutes, and all include unlimited data, 200 SMS messages, rollover minutes, and unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling. Any other standard AT&T service plan may also be used. A two year service plan is required, with a $175 cancellation fee if terminated early. In addition, activations are done via iTunes, so only the hardware is purchased in the store. Interestingly, activation of a contract via iTunes is required to enable the iPod/syncing functionality of the phone as well.

ESRB Now Enforcing Game Trailer Ratings

Gamasutra has the news that the ESRB is beginning to enforce rating-related audience restrictions on game trailers. D3 Publisher’s trailer for Dark Sector was judged AO by the ESRB, and demanded in correspondence to the company that it be removed from the internet. Take-Two, meanwhile, has been handed a letter saying their trailer for The Darkness needs to be ‘age-gated’ if it is to be seen online.

Game publishers that do not comply with the age gate requirement are subject to enforcement actions by the ESRB,’ the statement warns, though it makes no mention of precisely what penalties exist for non-compliant sites. Curiously, there seems to be some mixed messages regarding age gating, as the Dark Sector notice specifically mentions that the videos are to be pulled regardless of age gating. A Take-Two representative told Gamasutra that The Darkness footage has been rated separately to the game by the ESRB, implying that official game trailers are now being rated by the organization.

Video Games Console ‘Chipping’ Criminals BUSTED

Yesterday saw the successful launch of a new multifaceted crime-fighting initiative in which three people from the North East of England were put under investigation for producing and selling modified games chips and ‘chipped’ Nintendo® Wii™ and DS™, Microsoft® 360™ and Xbox®, and Sony® PlayStation®2 and PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) consoles.

In a radical new departure for the way anti-piracy operations are handled, Police officers from the Cleveland Police Economic Crime Unit in conjunction with Stockton Police, two Trading Standards authorities and members of ELSPA (the Entertainment & Leisure Software Publishers Association) Anti-Piracy Unit, joined forces to hit three premises simultaneously.

The raids: two at separate addresses in the Billingham area and another in Lingdale were carried out at 7:30 yesterday morning, where an Aladdin’s Cave of illegal ‘chipping’ equipment, counterfeit and pirated games plus other infringing items were seized.

I do not have a problem with Mod ‘Chipping’ I like Mod Chips. I have one on my Xbox not for using pirated games, but for using EvolutionX menu system and functions. At the Time my son was 8 when I did this and well, he was not the best for taking care of his game CDs. With the help of the mod chip I was able to make back ups of his games and place them on the hard drive. I can play Homebrew games along with using it as a media player (Scheduled recording, fast forward, rewind, pause Live TV, almost like a TiVo).

It appears that at least two of the three suspects questioned were offering pirated games for sale over the Internet and a significant quantity of advanced electronic devices and chips that allow counterfeit gaming to be played on almost every current console; they were also selling illegal copies of the games themselves.

Prevention and disruption of illegal Internet trading is now the number one priority for all UK economic crime authorities, where traders of counterfeit goods and pirates have been operating with relative anonymity and virtually unchallenged. Criminals operating on the Internet or in the marketplace now face tough and effective counter-measures to deny them opportunities to profit from the sale of counterfeit goods and the theft of Intellectual Property.

Mod ‘Chipping’ should not ever be considered a crime. Its your game system you can drop it off the roof if you want and no one should care. Its only a crime when you use it to pirate games. I know the downfall of all the people busted in the raids, is that they also sold pirated games and that’s a NO NO. The mind set of people is that “Well if it can be used to pirate games then, Oh my that must be what you are doing with it”. That would be like saying “You own a gun you must be robbing people with it”. IT does not work that way folks. A DVR with a DVD recorder in it can be used to copy a movie off HBO. Should they be outlawed as well since you could sell them? IT is the game corps using the “I will Burn the town down to get the 1 person I really want” approach.

France Bans BlackBerry’s in the Government

I just have to ask why the hell would we spy on France? Since when did the U.S. Gov really care what the french was doing? Oh wait could it have been the ties to Iroq and Syria…. hmmm

BlackBerry handhelds have been called addictive, invasive, wonderful — and now, a threat to French state secrets.

That, at least, is the fear of French government defense experts, who have advised against their use by officials in France’s corridors of power, reportedly to avoid snooping by U.S. intelligence agencies.

“It’s not a question of trust,” French lawmaker Pierre Lasbordes told The Associated Press. “We are friends with the Americans, the Anglo-Saxons, but it’s economic war.”

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.

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.

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.