After being initially announced nearly a week ago, and then mysteriously vanishing three days ago, today PlayStation 3 Firmware Update 2.53 is officially available!
It's no secret that iPhone has turned the mobile phone industry on its head, sliding past its smartphone rivals with its sexy design. We know Apple has opened a new chapter in mobile technology, but the real story behind this is how the iPhone is quietly taking over pocket gaming.
Business Week has already pointed out what is clearly becoming a new player in the handheld market. Apple has set iPhone on the right track to contend with Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable as the definitive portable gaming platform new figures show. Sales of iPhone continue to increase with each passing month, not to mention downloads from the App Store.
Momentum behind iPhone can't be discredited either as developers both large and small are flocking to the system. It all points to the strong possibility that iPhone could become the leading device for handheld gaming in the coming years.
The argument isn't a new one, as we were one of the first to identify the pote... More »
Empire: Total War, is the new installment in The Creative Assembly’s Total War RTS franchise and will maintain the series 3D battles, grand turn based campaign map and rich historical flavor; while for the first time introducing 3D naval combat into the series.
Below is an interview with one of the game's developers:
WP: Who has the honor to speak with us? State your name, rank, and occupation!
Kieran Brigden, studio communications manager for Creative Assembly.
WP: Empire Total War marks the first time that the Total War series has had really intricate naval battles. Why have them now?
KB: Well, it's a combination of factors. One, we've wanted to do it for a while but the technology was ready now. Two, it's the period that's right for it. When you add naval battles to the game, you have to do it when it's interesting, enjoyable, and fun. The 18th century was the absolute height of cool naval warfare. You had thi... More »
Ever Since Sonic Adventure 2 on the Sega Dreamcast, the hedgehog has suffered some pretty piss poor releases. Sonic fans have been hurting for a long time now with titles like "Sonic Riders" and more recently "Sonic The Hedgehog".
What little good will gamers had left for the blue blur is quickly evaporating thanks to Sonic Unleashed, an otherwise decent Sonic game ruined by brawling levels that turn Sonic into a werehog combatant.
So why exactly do the development team keep screwing things up exactly? Turns out it's an entirely conscious decision.
In the latest IGN Three Red Lights podcast at the 19:40 mark David Clayman recalls a time when he talked to a member of the Sonic Unleashed team about this very issue...
"I asked one of the developers at TGS, you know I was like, come on everybody just wants Sonic running, li... More »
Update: to clarify, Michael Rudder did NOT play Sam Fisher in Splinter Cell - that was Michael Ironside, who to our knowledge has never been shot by terrorists of any kind. Rudder provided other voice work for the game.
Canadian actor and videogame voice specialist Michael Rudder was among the casualties in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai yesterday.
The actor was dining at the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai when militants opened fire. Rudder was hit by three bullets and rushed to hospital where he successfully underwent surgery and is expected to make a full recovery.
You may recognise Rudder's voice from such games as Far Cry Instincts, Prince Of Persia: The Warrior Within (he played the Dark Prince), Jagged Alliance and - somewhat ironically - terrorist-slaying black ops game Splinter Cell.
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe launched a competition today where development studios are invited to submit prototypes for a chance to win 10,000 GBP awarded to the five selected, totaling £50,000.
To quote: Sony is to launch the Get in the Game project tonight, offering five developers the chance to receive GBP 10,000 to prototype new content for the PlayStation Network.
The company will be holding a free workshop in December to provide better insight into working with the format holder, with attendees invited to pitch ideas to a panel of Sony execs and producers.
The panel will then select five companies to receive the GBP 10,000 to prototype their ideas over the first three months of 2009. Prototypes will then be shown to Sony Europe with the possibility of going into full production.
The competition is in conjunction with Northwest Vision and Media and is designed to support the games industry in the Northwest region.
We love hard drives. When your home console is strapping a big arsed HDD you don't have to leave Alex Kidd on overnight, you don't have to remember sixty-two digit save passwords, and you no longer have to mourn the death of an 8 MB memory card as if it was a family member.
Make no mistake fellow gamers, hard drives rock. Even still, if you had have told us in 2005 that three years later we'd be complaining about 'only having’ 20 gigs of space for our Xbox 360, we would have built a time machine to travel forwards in time to knee ourselves in the groin.
But times they do a-change, especially when you're talking storage. HDD sizes always increase at a frantic rate, and their prices can change just as quick. Just ask one of your PC gaming buddies - you know, the bloke you stay friends with because he has sixteen terabytes of porn - he'll set you straight on the virtues of having HDD space to spare.
Now that the DLC era is fully upon us, it’s be... More »
Paste Magazine has created a 'Top 10 NES Games of All Time' list today.
To quote: The video games on this list kept me company through many an elementary-school sleepover at friends' houses, provided endless fodder for recess playground conversation and even inspired a few short stories from yours truly (each plot revolving around the fantasy of getting sucked inside a video game).
In honor of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, I dedicate this list and to Shigeru Miyamoto and all the other folks at Nintendo who made all that fun possible... oh, and of course my beloved aunt Jean who sent me and my siblings our first NES console.
10. Gradius [Konami] - 1986 Collecting the power-up pellets and pimping out your little spaceship provided the irresistible hook. Once you got three rows of lasers firing, your robotic foes stood little chance.
9. Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse [Konami] - 1990 The Belmont... More »