My Game Universe

Dota Allstars Guides Library

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 21 May 2008 21:28:00 +0000

There is numerous amount of people who likes to play in the world's most popular Warcraft III Map - Dota Allstars. And there's much of reasons to do it. If you one of them, then you'll like website with collection of guides, tips, treacks etc. Enjoy it - Dota Allstar Best Guides

Dota Allstars 6.50 have been released

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 23:39:00 +0000

Popular Warcraft 3 UMS Dota Allstars update to version 6.50. It has some major changes and a lot of minor changes.

[via Dota Allstars Journal]

Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance goes gold

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 14:14:00 +0000

THQ sent Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance to gold. Chris Taylor and Gas Powered Games continue to improve its best game. Forged Alliance is stand-alone expansion bringing new fraction to the game. This new fraction is Seraphim - "a long forgotten alien race that has returned to destroy all of humanity".

In Forged Alliance you can also find 110 new units, 10 for each of old fractions an 80 for the new Seraphim fraction.

You can buy Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance after November 6 2007.

Battlefield 3 on the way to gamers

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 22:26:00 +0000

Although Battlefield 3 wasn't announced yet nobody doubts it will be released someday. Contributors of "Digital Battle" managed to get file which describes in detail coming sequel. This file designed for investors says that release planned in second half of 2008.

In Battlefield 3 we'll see present days actions mostly in middle east area. Up to 40 players on one server. 24 kinds of battle vehicles and 17 kinds of arming. There will be 8 maps. We can expect first beta-testing summer 2008.

Technorati Tags: Battlefield 3 , Battlefield

GTA IV will easily overcome Halo 3

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 23:26:00 +0000

When Microsoft announced that Halo 3 got $300 million in the first week it was claimed the fastest selling game in history. It is really amazing results, but Mike Hickey from Janco Partners thinks that record will fall under pressure of GTA IV. Newcoming game is cross-platform(Xbox 360 and Playstation 3) and that automatically means bigger auditory for sale. Mike says 5,3 million copies will be sold in the first week. If it happens then new product of Rockstar will become faster selling then fresh Bungie game.

And it's one more argument for developers to think about making their games cross-platform. Expensive projects are now not so profitable if they are released for only one console platform.

Technorati Tags: GTA IV , Halo 3 , Rockstar , Bungie , Xbox 360 , Sony Playstation 3 , Janco Partners , Mike Hickey , Microsoft , Cross-platform

Do You Want To Have Your Own Universe?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 10:28:00 +0000

If you want to broadcast your messages to the whole world you can be builder of My Game Universe(or any another blog of MyUniverseRing). We are waiting for your contribution.

Technorati Tags: Blogging , Blogger , Contribution

Halo 3 makes record

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 17:33:00 +0000

Microsoft did the biggest launch in entertainment history. This title came from Halo 3's first day of selling. $170 million of 24 hours of selling were enough to overcome Spider-Man 3's opening weekend.

Hopefully such an excellent launch will help Microsoft's Xbox 360 division to start making profit at last.

There's also problem with scratches over the Halo 3 Limited Edition discs. There's Microsoft's replacement program, if you got scratched disc, but shipping takes two weeks . So it would be clever to open your copy right after purchasing in the store and exchange it if you find scratches on the disc.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft , Halo 3 , Xbox 360 , Scratches

Blizzard Officially Reveals StarCraft II

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 23 May 2007 18:23:00 +0000

by Marcus Yam
Classic RTS gameplay to be revitalized with StarCraft II, coming to PC and Mac

After months of speculation on what Blizzard’s next big title will be, it was revealed today at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in South Korea that StarCraft would indeed be getting a sequel. StarCraft II was announced in front of thousands of attendees at the special event, who received a presentation that included a StarCraft II cinematic trailer and a gameplay demonstration by the development team.

Rather than go down the massively multiplayer route that Blizzard’s fantasy world has gone, StarCraft II is designed to follow in the footsteps of the original – to be the ultimate competitive real-time strategy game. In addition to the requisite online play through Battle.net, StarCraft II will include a single-player campaign. In addition, the game will come with the same map editing tools used by Blizzard’s designers so users can create new maps.

StarCraft II will feature the return of the Protoss, Terran, and Zerg races, overhauled and re-imagined with several new units and new game play mechanics. The single-player campaign is to pick up where StarCraft: Brood War left off, though Blizzard was tight-lipped on revealing any part of the new story.

While Blizzard has created a 3D engine system for Warcraft III, and to an even greater extent for World of Warcraft, the developer says that StarCraft II will feature a custom 3D graphics and physics engine with the ability to handle “several large, highly detailed units and massive armies on-screen simultaneously.”

“With StarCraft II, we’ll be able to do everything we wanted to do with the original StarCraft and more,” stated Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We recognize that expectations are high following the long-running popularity of the original game, but we plan to meet those expectations and deliver an engaging, action-packed, competitive experience that StarCraft players and strategy gamers worldwide will enjoy.”

No release date came with the announcement, but Blizzard did confirm StarCraft II will simultaneously release on Windows and Macintosh PC platforms. Despite recent successful efforts by other RTS franchises to move to home consoles, Blizzard says it has “no current plans to bring the game to any console platform.” Further information about the game, including details on the single-player, multiplayer, map-editor features and system requirements will be announced in the months ahead. Screenshots, trailers and other media can be found on the official StarCraft II website.

Although Blizzard is a U.S.-based game developer, the StarCraft franchise is unquestionably the most popular amongst gamers in South Korea – a likely reason for the location of the announcement. According to the Korea Times, nearly 4 million copies of the original StarCraft have been sold in Korea alone since its debut in 1998, making up about 42 percent of its global sales of 9.5 million copies.

Halo Comic Series to Feature Hit Creative Team

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 22:44:00 +0000

by Philip Kollar

Comic books seem to be making the leap into video games with an ever-increasing frequency, but, for some reason, it rarely seems to go the other way. Even in the rare cases we do see comics based on videogames -- such as Metal Gear Solid or Tomb Raider) -- they tend to be from smaller publishers like IDW or Top Cow rather than Marvel or DC.

Thus, why last year's Halo graphic novel came as such a shocker. Less surprisingly, the Halo graphic novel hardcover, released last July, sold very well, remaining in the top ten for several months and nestling in as Marvel's best-selling graphic novel of the year. Less surprising yet, soon after the graphic novel's release and success, Marvel and Bungie revealed their intention to print more money with a Halo ongoing series. Little talk of the ongoing has slipped out since its announcement, but Newsarama had this tantalizing tidbit hidden in their coverage of last weekend's New York Comic-Con:

"Quesada also announced a Halo ongoing, naming Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev as the surprise creative team on the new series."

Given the not-terribly-popular group of creators that worked on the graphic novel, Marvel easily could have given this new ongoing to a similarly obscure writer and artist. Instead they've bizarrely decided to go with Bendis and Maleev, who are easily two of the most well-known guys working at Marvel right now. For the non-comics-literate, let me explain why the choice is significant:

Brian Michael Bendis is often lovingly (and occasionally scornfully) referred to as Marvel's "golden boy." He's always writing a ridiculous number of books, many of which are at the top in terms of importance to Marvel's universes and sales. At the moment, these include Ultimate Spider-Man, New Avengers, and Mighty Avengers. Past important works for the company have included launching Ultimate Fantastic Four and writing 2005's big summer event, House of M. One of Bendis's most prolific works at Marvel was a four-year run with Alex Maleev on Daredevil. Kicking off on issue #26 and going all the way to #81, the two crafted a wildly popular and well-done epic featuring Daredevil's identity being outed to the press. Sales soared, and this soon became one of the most popular runs on Daredevil in the title's history.

These two on the new Halo ongoing series should be big. And it should mean very good things for comic fans and video game fans alike. No firm news yet on when we should expect the comic to start hitting stores, but 1UP will keep you updated as more news drops.

(c) www.gametab.com

WoW Gamer Gets Busted for Using Library Wi-Fi After Hours

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 22:39:00 +0000

21-year old Brian Tanner got busted by the cops up in Palmer, Alaska for using the local library's free Wi-Fi to play World of Warcraft after the library had closed. Patrolling cops seized the poor guy's laptop and claimed that although the library provides free Wi-Fi, there are rules governing its use. Rules which apparently Tanner wasn't following. Only one room in NY's Public Library offers free Wi-Fi (and you're not allowed to plug into an outlet) so I feel Tanner's pain, but if the library (which you'd think would want to provide free Wi-Fi for everyone) doesn't want people using their "service" after hours, then don't broadcast your signal. – Louis Ramirez

(c) www.gizmodo.com

Supreme Commander Goes Gold

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 18:57:00 +0000

The announcement that Total Annihilation fans have been waiting to hear for years hit the tubes today - Supreme Commander has completed development. Supreme Commander is a real-time strategy game that promotes mechanical battles on an unprecedented scale in the genre. Gas Powered Games CEO and creator of Total Annihilation, Chris Taylor states "Supreme Commander delivers the first-ever full Theatre of War zoom function, adding tremendous depth to the three story-driven campaigns and highly addictive multiplayer." Look out for this one in stores on the 20th of February

(c) www.gamearena.com.au

Gerritsen Leaves Human Head Software

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 01:53:00 +0000

by Jason McMaster

Human Head Software, developer of Prey (a successful multi-platform title, with over a million sales, that was released mid-2006), has lost its leader. Timoth Gerritsen, CEO of Human Head since 1998, left the company shortly before Thanksgiving. Gerritsen, who started with the company shortly after its inception, lead Human Head through several successful gaming projects including Dead Man’s Hand and Rune.

Firing Squad spoke with Gerritsen who said that he decided to sell his share in the company because the other owners wanted to take the company in a different direction than what he had in mind. In the meantime, Paul MacArthur, co-founder and company president, will act as the CEO. Gerritsen, who was not only CEO but the producer for Prey, has said that he left on friendly terms and plans to stay in the game business.

(c) www.gigagamez.com

Microsoft Sued by Developer Over Mobile "Halo" Game

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 23:25:00 +0000

In-Fusio sues Microsoft over mobile "Halo"
In-Fusio is suing Microsoft over an alleged breach of contract involving Microsoft's popular Halo video game. The French game developer has not been able to release a mobile version of Halo since Microsoft has yet to approve any of the company's game designs. Although Microsoft has not officially approved a game design, In-Fusio continued to spend development money on the Halo properties.
The original agreement between the two companies had In-Fusio paying Microsoft minimum guaranteed royalties of $2 million, divided in $500,000 payments from January 1, 2006, to June 1, 2008, according to the lawsuit. After Microsoft initially rejected In-Fusio's designs, Microsoft agreed to temporarily delay the payment system until the Halo design concepts were fixed.

In November, 2006, however, things began to turn south for everyone involved. In-Fusio claimed that Microsoft sent out a notice that would effectively eliminate the contract if In-Fusio did not make a $500,000 payment within 30 days. On December 27, 2006, Microsoft issued a termination notice to In-Fusio.
In-Fusio believes that Microsoft is not able to terminate the contract, since Microsoft was in breach of agreement for rejecting In-Fusio's game designs with no official explanation.

In-Fusio has only released Halo Portal, a service which allows gamers to download wallpapers and ringtones to mobile phones.

There is no official word from Microsoft over the lawsuit.

(c) www.dailytech.com

Sims Wii

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 23:17:00 +0000

Blimey. This came from nowhere this month, and watching the stubby-limbed Chibi-faced characters of the Japanese trailer (Chibi being the form of highly stylised drawing in which the body is about the same size as the head. Chibi is used to describe a small person or child; but often in a derogatory way), you'd be hard pushed to recognise this as an actual Sims game, so alien does it seem from what came before. A radical Japan-ification has taken place - The Sims now sporting a distinct Animal Crossing/Harvest Moon vibe.
Greater construction control is promised to be on the way. You'll be constructing your own home, houses for other residents, businesses - going against the pre-designed communal area approach of previous Sims titles - as well as general eye-pleasing greenery. While we're promised the ability to design our own town, the game will decide how to populate the world - much like Animal Crossing.

With house construction, EA Japan are really going all out to accommodate The Sims, both literally and figuratively, on the Wii. The remote pointer can replicate the PC's mouse cursor control infinitely better than a clumsy analogue stick. It's a case of pointing, picking up, dragging and dropping. No opportunity for cowboy builders here.
A detailed character creator has also been revealed. Like the Mii creation, it focuses on facial details over clothes and body shape. It would've been good to have used our Miis instead - no matter how hard you try, you're not going to be able to make a likeness of yourself in-game. Unless you happpen to have a rectangular Bomberman-style head, that is.
But, though simplified, the faces are capable of wearing numerous goofy expressions - from angry frowns to googly eyes - which are used to indicate what's going on in their little Sim minds much more effectively than a thought bubble or meter-bar ever could. Online functions - visiting other towns perhaps? - and DS connectivity have also been mentioned in development plans; hopefully The Sims will fill the house-developing, townvisiting gap until the inevitable Animal Crossing game rears its own oddlyshaped head.

(c) www.computerandvideogames.com

New Wii, PS3, & 360 Games

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 21:28:00 +0000

January will be another slow month for new game releases for ALL the next generation gaming consoles. There will only be one game available for the PS3 and two games for each the Wii and 360. If you are waiting for new games to purchase, you might as well go pickup a currently available one unless you find something on the list below interesting. From our perspective, the only games worth purchasing this month are Sonic The Hedgehog for the PS3 and Fuzion Frenzy for the Xbox 360.

PlayStation 3:
Sonic The Hedgehog - Sega

Wii:
Baseball - Nintendo
Urban Champions - Nintendo

Xbox 360:
Fuzion Frenzy 2 - Microsoft
Dance Dance Revolution Universe - Konami

Note: The items mentioned above are games for the PlayStation 3 and Wii that are planned to be launched in December 2006. The list is accurate as of 11/30/06, however game may be added or removed. Therefore check Nintendo’s and/or Sony’s webpage for any changes.

(c) www.skattertech.com

2006 Top 10 Games of the Year

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 06:39:00 +0000

2006 marks the fifth year of the Game Tunnel Independent Game of the Year awards. It's been 5 great years for Indie Games capped by an excellent 2006.

While a few Independent games have gained increased mainstream exposure over the last couple of years through Xbox Live Arcade and Steam, the majority remain undetected, awaiting discovery by the gaming world. Creating off-beat, original, and carefully crafted games is the heritage of Independent Game developers, and the Top 10 Independent Games of 2006 does its ancestry proud.

Each of the games is a winner in its own right, an undiscovered gem just waiting to be found. So dim the lights and warm up your modem, as Game Tunnel presents: The Top 10 Independent Games of 2006.

Number 10 - Kingdom Elemental

Developer: Scott Thunelius/Chronic Logic		Players: 1
Website
System Requirements: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, 1 gz, 64 mb video card, 128 MB Ram, Directx 7.0+

Somewhere between tactical and real time strategy there exists a perfect blend. Kingdom Elemental may very well be it.

Played out in the fantasy realm of Eteran, players take on the role of the 'good guys' as they try to chase the beasties back into the realm of the shadow by following them straight down to the underworld (not to say that the 'good guys' are all the friendly sort, Necromancers teamed with Elfish-looking female archers make for a very original pair).

The mixture of play in the game is really what sets Kingdom Elemental apart. Players pick out a small army and place units on the board like a tactical game, and then like a real-time strategy title, the army will engage the enemy.

Most of the intrigue in the play comes from the ability to pause the game and issue commands to each unit. In games like Starcraft and Warcraft the special abilities of the units are often difficult to use in the heat of the battle. The ability to pause Kingdom Elemental at any time and issue commands to each soldier makes using the special abilities of each unit much simpler and adds greatly to the strategic nature of their well-timed use.

Of course special-ability usage is just a part of the commands that can be issued while the game is paused. Players commonly spend a lot of time targeting different enemies and plotting their own strategy to keep the goblin archers from having clear shots at their army.

Between rounds players can use unlock points gained in the previous round to unlock new characters or new special abilities for existing characters. This allows for a lot of customizability in the army chosen and it's abilities. More decisions must be made as the army is placed on the board because there is a limited budget and a different cost to deploy each unit. These factors allow for many interesting choices to be made when deciding what units to use. Picking the right units and picking the right targets while deciding how to best utilize special abilities makes for a very interesting mix that plays quite differently from other strategy titles on the market and is wholly addicting. Once we got the hang of the game, playing through all the levels become a quest of undeniable desire that was satisfying through the very last battle.

Number 9 - Fizzball

Developer: Grubby Games		Players: 1
Website	Downloadd		Purchasee
System Requirements: Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP, Mac OS X or Linux, 400MHz CPU, 128MB RAM

You know what most people get really tired of in brick-breaking games? Bricks.

Seriously! How many bricks do you need to break before they are all broken for good? BreakQuest, from a couple of years ago, really did a good job of creating so much variety in the levels that they didn't feel like the same brick-breaking monotony that we've played 42 million times before. Now Fizzball has come along and done away with brick breaking altogether. Really! You don't have to break a single one...and you even get achievements if you don't!

Fizzball pays obvious homage to Katamari Damacy in the way it is played. Professor Fizzwizzle, fresh off a Top 10 Game of the Year appearance in last year's awards, takes to the tracks in this game with a rocket-powered contraption that has a rounded barrier that will bounce a bubble (aka your ball). The thing that really makes the game different is that instead of trying to break things, you try to save them in your bubble. Players must start with the smaller animals on the board, and as more of them are collected, the bubble becomes larger and can then pick up the larger animals. By the time you have completed the level, your bubble is huge and full of all the animals on the board. The graphics of each of the animals twisting and twirling inside the ball is something to see in and of itself.

Players progress through the levels by collecting all the animals. You don't have to break a single box (aka 'the bricks') on the board to pass (though in most cases you will, you just don't have to). Achievements can be won by succeeding in different ways, such as simply passing multiple levels or collecting the chicken before you collect its egg.

Like last years Professor Fizzwizzle, the game has an up-beat sense of humor that makes it fun to play even when things aren't exactly going your way. Hitting the animals, for example, when they are too large to be collected into your ball will always cause a reaction, from the hopping of a frog to the um 'spraying' of a skunk.

In the end, it's not just another breakout; you don't trade hitting that last stupid brick for catching that last stupid animal. Fizzball is a much more engrossing game than any other breakout we've played. The progression of the game feels very much like the quest it is designed to be, moving players from island to island looking to collect all of the many different animals in the game. Each animal you collect is kept in your sanctuary, which is maintained by the money you earn while playing. Adding to the fun is the challenge of getting combos by carefully using the 'fan', and there are bonus levels to top it all off.

Good games can typically be identified by the quality of the content. Sure you've probably played games that were long or had quests or bonus levels before. It is that rare game where you enjoy each of these aspects without reserve that really stands out of the pack, and Fizzball certainly stands out! It was an easy pick as one of the best games of the year after winning our 2006 Arkanoid Game of the Year award as well as the Kid's Game of the Year award for fun that all ages can enjoy!

Number 8 - Kudos

Developer: Positech Games		Players: 1
Website	Download		Purchase
System Requirements: Windows 98/2000/XP, 500MHz processor, 256 MB RAM

Kudos is an ambitious project from the creator of the engaging political sim, Democracy. In Democracy, the goal of the gamer was to constantly adjust different societal factors in order to best please the voters at large. Each decision involved a different level of push and pull across a multitude of special interest groups and the game really gave a good feeling of how difficult it can be as a politician to make everyone happy.

Kudos aims to take a similar principle (how different actions will affect stats) and apply them to the life of a human being. For that reason many players have looked at the game and dismissed it, comparing it to the Sims. While the focus on improving your character's employment and well-being while maintaining their relationships does seem Sims-like, the games really aren't all that similar.

The fundamental difference between them is the focus of each game. The Sims is focused on the player working with a group of people, controlling multiple people at the same time. Kudos is really about one person. Everything from what book the person is reading to which television shows they are watching is within your control.

The ultimate goal is really to experience another life. What would it take to become a lawyer or a scientist or a journalist. Schooling and working your way up the career ladder are definitely places to start, but without balance in life it can be hard to really feel successful and 'happy.'

A good piece of that balance comes in hanging out with friends, but of course that must be managed as well. You won't always have the money to go out and even when you do, you need to make conscientious decisions about what you will be doing and who should be invited. Honestly, if everyone put as much thought into their day-to-day relationships with each other as they do into their virtual relationships in this game, the world would be a better place.

Ultimately, what makes both Kudos and Democracy really fantastic games is the amount of variety to be found in the game. There are many options available that create a near limitless number of paths to explore. Kudos is everything a sim game should be. It creates a situation that sucks you in and puts you in the position of really simulating what isn't real, but feels entirely real at the same time.

Number 7 - The Odyssey: Winds of Athena

Developer: Liquid Dragon Studios		Players: 1
Websitee	Downloadd		Purchasee
System Requirements: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, 500 MHz, 64MB RAM, DirectX 7.0+

Winds of Athena is based, as one might expect, on Homer's classic Greek epic (The Odyssey) detailing the journey of Odysseus who is attempting to return home after the legendary Trojan War (which his crafty mind brought an end to). Gone at war for a decade, Odysseus' only wish is to return home to his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus. Poseidon, however, is less than pleased with Odysseus and engineers one hell of a road-trip for our beleaguered hero. If you're going to borrow a story, there is possibly no richer tale in history to take from than the Odyssey. The tale is filled with nearly endless adventure and imagination.

But what kind of a game is Winds of Athena? It's an arcade-puzzler, essentially. Each level consists of attempting to get a requisite number of Odysseus' ships and men from Point A to Point B. Along the way are many obstacles and enemies that attempt to stop the men from returning home. Sounds pretty normal, right? Well, so far, it is. The real magic of Winds of Athena comes in the way the game is controlled.

You, the gamer, are a God with a top-down omniscient view of the seas that the men sail upon. You also have the power of a God to influence the world below... but you can only influence. By clicking and dragging through the water you can create swirling ocean currents that force the ship in particular directions. By clicking the mouse inside your wind circle on the screen and rotating in a clockwise motion you can call forth great winds that push boats directly towards their goal. Each of these central movement mechanics have their dangers, though. Currents react in a surprisingly realistic and capricious manner. They don't merely form a straight line as the gamer draws it. They start straight, but begin to fade out in swirling vortexes that might send your ships whipping back in the complete opposite direction. Much care must be taken in forming currents. Winds, too, fade over time and must be maintained to be of any use at all.

The mesh of game and game-world in Winds of Athena is nearly flawless. There's no clunky clicking of arrows or drop-down magic menu to select. There's the wind, the sea and the hands of the Gods. It's simple and wickedly challenging at the same time. Gamers frequently take movement for granted. Press left, move left. Press jump, then jump. Winds of Athena forces the gamer to take care and plan not just their movements, but the way in which they make those movements. Too much wind and you might beach your boats on a shoreline. Carelessness with currents could swirl your ships directly into a deadly reef. And this is to say nothing of the enemies. The need to continually abandon navigation efforts to do battle with the forces that face the ships leads to some truly manic and awesome gameplay.

The mechanic is very original, giving players a rare game where they don't directly control the characters, but instead interact with the game's environment and enemies through a variety of actions that each require skill, timing, and a solid strategy. From creating currents through the water to guide the ships, to whipping up the wind to blow them forward, Winds of Athena provides a unique experience that we awarded with the 2006 Game of the Year Award for Innovation, and we are happy to include it as one of the top games of the year as well.

Number 6 - Dawnspire: Prelude

Developer: Silent Grove Studios		Players: 16
Websitee
System Requirements: Windows 2000/XP, 2 GHz CPU, 512MB RAM, DirectX 9.0c+, 128MB Video Card with Pixel Shader 2.0

Dawnspire: Prelude is unfortunately often mis-categorized as a MMORPG. Clearly the people who label the game as such need to start playing games before they try to categorize them.

If they did they would find that not only is Dawnspire NOT a MMORPG, it's not even an RPG. What is Dawnspire? Well it is fun, really fun, and maybe that should just be the rating as well as the category.

Dawnspire plays a bit like Counter-strike. It is a team-based game of capture and keep the relics set in a fantasy world. Each player creates a character, from one of the five character classes, and then divides skill points out giving their character special abilities. The abilities vary based on the character class and include offensive and defensive abilities similar to those you'd find in an RPG, with abilities such as healing and resurrection thrown in for good measure.

Ah, you say. Sounds like an RPG. However, in this game you never level up. Your character never gains more points or becomes more powerful. You can reassign your skill points to try different combinations of skills, but you can't ever create a character more powerful than the one you first started with. In essence, Dawnspire is an multiplayer PvP action game with very customizable character selection.

Once players have the slightly quirky player movement down they'll be amazed at how intense and fun team combat is. Players can infinitely respawn which puts the focus of the confrontations on more strategic play.

Team play is absolutely crucial to winning. Small groups of 3 or more can be quite effective, but players who try to go it alone will quickly find that they don't live long. The required team interplay makes the game rather social in a frantic "can't stop and chat for a minute or you'll lose the game" sort of way. It's a mix that works extremely well and makes for fun short games that are exciting and eventful.

Dawnspire is an interesting mix of its own ideas about character creation in a fantasy world and intense moments of battle that are similar to those that so many people look forward to in MMORPGs, without the character leveling that creates a barrier between veterans and newbies. The intensely fun multiplayer battles already won it our 2006 Multiplayer Game of the Year, and now have placed it in the top games of the year.

Number 5 - Virtual Villagers

Developer: Last Day of Work		Players: 1
Website	Download		Purchase
System Requirements: Windows 98/2000/XP/Me, 96 MB RAM, DirectX 7+, 300 mhz processor

Living on an undiscovered island with a small group of people who are trying desperately to survive is an adventure that most everyone dreams about at one time or another. Virtual Villagers lets players live that dream as they control a small struggling group of survivors on a nearly deserted island.

In a lot of ways Virtual Villagers shouldn't work. It isn't a game in the way you normally think of a game. Much like its predecessor Fish Tycoon, you don't really play Virtual Villagers. The game is built to run in real-time, which means that your little sim islanders are carrying out their business while you are watching TV, at work and even when you are sleeping. All you have to do is give them a nudge in the right direction. Don't get too comfortable though, leaving them alone too long without direction is a good way to find the village covered with bleached bones when you return.

Virtual Villagers is designed to be a sim game with puzzles. There are 16 puzzles that need to be solved by your villagers. To unlock the puzzles you will need to raise your villagers up to specific ability levels, complete the prerequisite puzzles, build up to specific tech levels and keep a watchful eye on your villagers and observe how they react to objects in their environment.

You give the villagers their instructions by grabbing them and moving them around the world map and dropping them on or near objects. For example, dropping them on the berry bush will encourage them to forage for berries, dropping them on the wreckage on the shore will encourage them to clean it up, and dropping them on each other will encourage them to ... um ... increase the number of babies in the village.

A major piece of the game is research. Assigning villagers to do research will increase the player's tech points, which allows for the unlocking of new abilities such as farming and ancestor burial. However, players have to be judicious about where their villagers are 'dropped.' Assigning out too many villagers to tasks such as research and healing may leave not enough people to gather the food, and when the food is gone the villagers will soon perish.

Virtual Villagers tops it all off with a bit of randomness to keep the game fun and variable. Each of the villagers has their own personality with likes and dislikes that can be viewed from the villager detail screen. They may like running, which will be apparent on screen as, with a watchful eye, players will notice the villager pick up and run across the screen for no apparent reason. The inclusion of this detail adds a lot to the variety of the game and makes each little villager feel more real.

The game also has random events, such as crates washing up on the beach. How players respond to these events will completely alter how the game progresses. For example, choosing to eat the whale will certainly give a lot of food, but returning it to the ocean so that it can live may increase your tribe's spirituality tech level. Between the real-time play of the game and the soothing music that so well captures the feel of relaxing in a beautiful place, Virtual Villagers is a wonderfully crafted game that has won over many people and captured our 2006 Sim Game of the Year award as well as finishing in the top 5 games for the year.

(c) www.gametunnel.com

Top 50 Mobile Games of 2006

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 21:05:00 +0000

After Gaming Consoles, Mobiles are the next biggest gaming platform. Each year hundreds of games are released for Smartphones, some of them have to be good. PocketGamers benchmarked all these games and compiled a long list of top 50 games for 2006. Here’s a list of top 10 games:

Tornado Mania
Stranded
Turbo Camels: Circus Extreme
Tower Bloxx
Project Gotham Racing
Splinter Cell Double Agent
Need For Speed Carbon
Super KO Boxing
Rollercoaster Rush
FIFA 07 Mobile

(c) www.tech-buzz.net

Blizzard Looking To Change WoW Maintenance

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:51:00 +0000

Since the game’s release, one of our most important service goals has been to reduce the amount of time realms are down for weekly realm maintenance. The various hardware upgrades and retrofits we’ve done over the past year have put us in a position to begin testing the ability to go longer than a week between maintenance periods.

In the upcoming weeks, we will be testing the effect of a live maintenance, where regular maintenance tasks are run during off-peak with realms live. On Tuesday, December 26 there will be no scheduled downtime for weekly maintenance. We will perform all necessary maintenance tasks while the realms are live. We are anticipating the possibility that we may need to perform rolling restarts off-peak if we find that a realm restart is necessary; however the downtime for each realm would be less than 10 minutes if it was required.

(c) www.driverheaven.net

A Reason Why Video Games Are Hard to Give Up

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:43:00 +0000

Kids and adults will stay glued to video games this holiday season because the fun of playing actually is rooted in fulfilling their basic psychological needs.

Psychologists at the University of Rochester, in collaboration with Immersyve, Inc., a virtual environment think tank, asked 1,000 gamers what motivates them to keep playing. The results published in the journal Motivation and Emotion this month suggest that people enjoy video games because they find them intrinsically satisfying.

"We think there's a deeper theory than the fun of playing," says Richard M. Ryan, a motivational psychologist at the University and lead investigator in the four new studies about gaming. Players reported feeling best when the games produced positive experiences and challenges that connected to what they know in the real world.

The research found that games can provide opportunities for achievement, freedom, and even a connection to other players. Those benefits trumped a shallow sense of fun, which doesn't keep players as interested.

"It's our contention that the psychological 'pull' of games is largely due to their capacity to engender feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness," says Ryan. The researchers believe that some video games not only motivate further play but "also can be experienced as enhancing psychological wellness, at least short-term," he says.

Ryan and coauthors Andrew Przybylski, a graduate student at the University of Rochester, and Scott Rigby, the president of Immersyve who earned a doctorate in psychology at Rochester, aimed to evaluate players' motivation in virtual environments. Study volunteers answered pre- and post-game questionnaires that were applied from a psychological measure based on Self-Determination Theory, a widely researched theory of motivation developed at the University of Rochester.

Rather than dissect the actual games, which other researchers have done, the Rochester team looked at the underlying motives and satisfactions that can spark players' interests and sustain them during play.

Revenues from video games - even before the latest Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox systems emerged - surpass the money made from Hollywood films annually. A range of demographic groups plays video games, and key to understanding their enjoyment is the motivational pull of the games.

Four groups of people were asked to play different games, including one group tackling "massively multiplayer online" games - MMO for short, which are considered the fastest growing segment of the computer gaming industry. MMOs are capable of supporting hundreds of thousands of players simultaneously. For those playing MMOs, the need for relatedness emerged "as an important satisfaction that promotes a sense of presence, game enjoyment, and an intention for future play," the researchers found.

Though different types of games and game environments were studied, Ryan points out that "not all video games are created equal" in their ability to satisfy basic psychological needs. "But those that do may be the best at keeping players coming back."

(c) www.emaxhealth.com

Rumor: Mario Party 8 box art?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:36:00 +0000

It looks nice, but there's still no official confirmation that this is the real deal, so we're tagging this one as a rumor for now. Behold, the supposed box art for Mario Party 8:

Just where did we find this image? Well, the image has been floating around on GoNintendo, Nintendopedia, and Gamefly.com. Stay tuned folks, we'll update you when more info is available.

Well, what do you guys think? Real or fake?

(c) www.qj.net

Warner Bros. Buys Into SCi

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:31:00 +0000

by Jason McMaster

SCi Entertainment Group has received an investment to the tune of 87 million dollars (estimated) from Warner Bros. Entertainment. This investment would gain Warner Bros. a 10.3% share in SCi, who is the owner of the publisher Eidos. Eidos is the publisher for the successful Hitman and Tomb Raider franchises. Included in the deal is the rights to several Warner Bros. properties including the comic book version of Batman, the Looney Tunes, and certain Hanna-Barbera titles and T.V. properties.

In related news, along with the buy in, Warner Bros. and Eidos have recently entered into a distribution agreement. Under this contract, Warner Bros. would handle warehousing, purchasing and logistics in the United States. Eidos would still handle all marketing, sales and PR out of their U.S. office. Finally, we can look forward to a game based on the O.C.! Not only that, though, it’s going to have some serious purchasing and marketing power behind it!

(c) www.gigagamez.com

PS3 or Wii: A Developer’s Conundrum

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 19:52:00 +0000

by Jason McMaster

Ernest Adams, Freelance Writer, Game Designer and contributor, has written another entry for his series, “The Designer’s Notebook,” about the PS3 and Wii. The question he poses in this column is “which will developers want to work on?” I believe that’s something we’d all like to know. Adams, in his column, says:

“For a long time, I’ve had a theory that there’s always room for two-and-a-half game consoles in the market – that is, two main contenders battling for first place and an also-ran that survives but never stands a chance of doing better than third. Being either first or second is normally good enough to guarantee healthy sales and long-term survival. The more critical question is, who will be the also-ran?”

He then goes on to discuss the merits of the Wii and PS3 from a developer’s standpoint. The PS3, he says, has computing power, and there’s no doubt that it’s the most powerful console ever made, whereas the Wii has interactivity on its side, with the Wii remote. He then puts forth a theory on the final outcome:

“So who, at the end of the day, will be the also-ran in this generation of consoles? On the global scale, I’d say it could well be neither the PS3 or the Wii, but the Xbox 360. The PS3 will win over the hardcore gamers who have to have the fastest, most amazing machine available. The Wii will skim off the younger players and those who don’t have as much money to spend.
Both have the advantage of being made in Japan, so they’ll crowd the Xbox right out of that market. In the US and Europe, it’s harder to say, but I see the Xbox’s early start as more of a liability than a benefit. They’ve racked up several million sales, but they can no longer claim to be the latest, greatest thing – especially as the PS3 plays Blu-Ray disks out of the box, but HD-DVD is only available for the Xbox as an add-on. The Dreamcast got an early start too, and look how that ended.”

It definitely could turn out that way, but who can really say at this point? What about the hardcore gamers who don’t want to spend $600 dollars to play Madden or FIFA? Surely that demographic isn’t completely covered by the Wii. Who knows if the Wii will even still be going strong this time next year? Maybe the “wow” factor will have worn off in regard to the controller. Each system has individual strengths.

The biggest advantage Microsoft has isn’t claiming to be “the latest and greatest”, but having a second generation of games that look great and play even better. One reason being that they’ve had their dev-kits (early versions of consoles for use by development houses for testing games) out longer, and another is their development tools are of higher quality. That’s what coming out first gets for you.

Sony has its name and the fact that it really has developed a powerful machine. I was skeptical of the PS3 at first, especially after spending so much time following it up to release and listening to the Sony Corporation say one bizarre thing after another, but they’ve really produced a high quality console. The fact that you can display movies and games at 1080p is pretty great as well as being able to swap out the hard drive. The weak launch titles may not do much for initial sales, but when the PS3 starts seeing some quality titles, it’s going to be something else.

Finally, Nintendo. What else can you say about them? Zelda, Mario Brothers, Metroid and Pokemon are all ridiculously popular and will always sell a system. They are currently making a profit on every Wii sold and have been in the black for years. Nintendo may not razzle-dazzle, but they’re not going anywhere.

“Who’s going to win this generation?”, seems to be the question that everyone is asking. The real answer, as of right now at least, is “who cares?” What we need to do, as consumers and enthusiasts, is buy your favorite console, get the games you want to play and enjoy it. We’re in the golden age right now, people, and we should be savoring every moment of it.

(c) www.gigagamez.com

Board game tests PC graphics to limit

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 19:47:00 +0000

Unable to display Scrabble

Just how difficult can it be to write a version of the board game, Scrabble, that could be viewed on a regular, XP based PC? Too difficult for Ubisoft, it seems.

It seems fairly reasonable to assume that if you're a keen games player, you do a bit of research and get yourself a decent graphics card allied to a pretty reasonable display.

That surely applies to a contemporary shoot-em-up game but to Scrabble for Heaven's sake? All it needs to do is display a board and a few tiles (chips).

Yet this INQ hack wasted a couple of hours trying to get Ubisoft's Scrabble 2005 to work and to no avail.

The irony is that the game was bought purely because an ancient version – also by Ubisoft – refused to load under XP, having run happily under Windows 95 and 98.

Does everybody have to possess the graphics industry knowledge of a Fudo to get a PC game to work, the INQ wonders?

Another irony is that a close friend of the INQ, Dr Peter Turcan, made his name by creating a version of Scrabble that could run on a Sinclair ZX80!

Just for the record this is what the PC has: a SiS Mirage 3000+ display adaptor, married to a Video Seven (V7) L17GM LCD display.

The game requires DirectX – for which the drivers have very definitely been loaded.

At this rate, going back to playing the game with a physical board and tiles seems to be the most sensible option.

(c) www.theinquirer.net

EA to publish new id Software title in Europe

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 14:12:00 +0000

RPG from Doom creators due February for mobile

Electronic Arts will be bringing the award-winning mobile game Orcs and Elves to Europe in February next year.

Created by developers id Software and Fountainhead Entertainment, the game is an original title built using the acclaimed Doom RPG graphics engine.

"The pace of development in mobile gaming allows us to evolve by leaps and bounds each year, rather than stretched out over four years like a high end PC or console game," said John Carmack, technical director of id Software.

"With Orcs and Elves we were able to take what was great about Doom RPG, and bring tons of new features to the experience in a brand new world," he added.

Orcs and Elves won best Wireless RPG at E3 2006 and Best Mobile Game at the 2006 Leipzig Games Convention.

"We are committed to evolving the mobile platform by working with the industry's finest developers and introducing fun and immersive game experiences to mobile gamers," commented Javier Ferreira, VP of Euro publishing at EA Mobile.

"Our collaboration with id Software and Fountainhead Entertainment to bring Orcs and Elves exclusively to mobiles is a testament to this and we're excited to share the experience with our European customers in February 2007."

(c) www.gamesindustry.biz

Video Games: Looking Back at 2006 and Ahead to 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 21:03:00 +0000

Video games have been everywhere this year, especially in the last couple months. You haven't been able to pick up a newspaper or news magazine without reading something about video games—whether it's long lines camping out for the PlayStation 3 or Wii, violence over these scarce systems, or sensational stories about anti-game-violence crusaders like Jack Thompson. Gaming is everywhere, it's more mainstream than ever, and 2006 was a huge year for everyone involved.

Three major corporations are fighting for your home console video game dollars. Two of them launched their big next-generation systems just last month, while the third's new system has enjoyed a year on the market. "Next-generation" is now the "current generation" and we can stop looking forward to that amazing system on the horizon, at least for a couple of years until we read about the impressive leaked specs of the PlayStation 4, Xbox 720, or whatever.

Of course, gaming on the PC rolled on as it always has, with respectable sales and a few critical successes. It's never as popular as console gaming, but that's comparing a single platform against multiple others; compared with any other single platform, the PC game sales stack up very well. Let's take a look at the gaming market trends over the past year, and predict what will happen in 2007.

A Good Year for Microsoft and Nintendo

Nintendo had a great year in 2006. Though it endured the snickering of a million hardcore gamers when it announced its next system would be named the "Wii," Nintendo looks like it's getting the last laugh. A system only somewhat more powerful than the previous generation GameCube, the Wii instead focuses on an impressive new way to control games—with motion. The mainstream press just ate it up, with talk-show hosts and celebrities flailing their arms about playing casual games and laughing like little kids. The Wii became a "must have" item, and they're flying off shelves as fast as Nintendo can make them. It doesn't hurt that the price is significantly lower than competing consoles, either. Hardcore gamers are snapping up Wii's for the latest Zelda game, one of the best in a series known for outstanding quality.

The real star of 2006 for Nintendo is the DS handheld, though. The system was released two years ago, but the new, slimmer, sleeker DS Lite flooded the market this Spring/Summer and took off like a rocket. Combined with a stellar game library full of titles for both hardcore gamers and non-gamers (like your parents), sales of the Nintendo DS are absolutely crushing its major competition, the PlayStation Portable, especially in its home country of Japan. So successful is the DS that Square/Enix just announced that the ninth in their long-running and ridiculously popular Dragon Quest series would debut on the handheld system. This is big news: The main Dragon Quest games (there are spin-offs, too) have always been made for major home consoles rather than handhelds, and they're responsible for tons of system sales, especially in Japan.

Microsoft had a pretty good year as well. The Xbox 360 suffered some pretty dire shortages when it launched worldwide last holiday season, but at least the company managed to stick to its plan to launch in all three major territories (North America, Europe, Japan) nearly simultaneously. Since then, production has gone up, Microsoft's costs have gone down, and plenty of great games have been released. The system's first major blockbuster, Gears of War, seems to live up to the hype: Review scores are excellent, and the game has sold over 2 million units in its first month. Microsoft is a little behind on its very bullish prediction from early in the year that it would sell 10 million Xbox 360 consoles before Sony launched the PlayStation 3, but it's close, and it looks on track to reach that goal by year's end. Recently, the release of Blue Dragon has actually picked up sales in Japan, where the Xbox 360 has thus far failed miserably.

Xbox Live is the real star for Microsoft. The service has seen several upgrades and improvements over the year, from UI changes and digital media enhancements to a flood of games on the Xbox Live Arcade. Gamers flocked to hot downloadable game demos like Fight Night Round 3 and Dead Rising, and publishers noticed a measurable boost in sales. So, while Microsoft didn't quite do as well as their aggressive plans from a year ago, it still managed to close out 2006 with some very impressive numbers, plenty of buzz, and very positive critical reception.

A Tough Year for Sony

In stark contrast to Microsoft and Nintendo, Sony has had a very rough year. The PSP, such a hot product when it was released, has still been selling pretty well. The software lineup is decent and improving. Yet it can't seem to come anywhere close to the sales of Nintendo's DS Lite, and it doesn't have a blockbuster, gotta-have-it game that everyone is talking about. The quirky Loco Roco wasn't the breakout hit Sony hoped it would be, despite being a thoroughly charming and excellent game.

Sony's real problems are PlayStation 3 related, though. The PSP's second-fiddle sales are downright inspiring by comparison. As late as February, Sony assured the public and investors that "There is no change in our original plan to release the console in Spring 2006," the date it has promised since the E3 Expo in May of 2005. Then, three weeks later when Spring had sprung, Sony finally officially admitted that the system wouldn't release until November. At the E3 Expo this year, Sony unveiled pricing that was far higher than anyone anticipated, but promised that the worldwide launch was on track. In fact, the company said production was going to be so good that it would have 2 million systems for launch, ship 4 million by the end of 2006, and 6 million by the end of Sony's fiscal year in March 2007. There was a PowerPoint slide and everything. But Sony's E3 press conference was a disaster. Sony fans and gaming press were bored stiff, and genuinely unimpressed by the quality of most of the games on display. The price was higher than expected. Blu-ray supporters worried that the delayed launch would help HD-DVD secure a foothold in the market and create stiffer competition in high-def movie formats.

The bad news didn't stop there. Sony hit Europe with another delay, pushing their launch out a second time to Spring 2007. Launch quantities dropped, and Sony's promise changed from 2 million at launch to maybe 500,000 at launch, with 2 million shipped by the end of the year instead of 4 million. Analysts now say the company managed even less than that, and consider the company lucky to get 1 million units in stores by the end of the year.

Customers lined up to buy PlayStation 3 consoles for days before it went on sale, and it looked like demand for the system would keep Sony on top. It then appeared that much of that demand was from customers who only wished to quickly "flip" the console on eBay or other online auction sites for a huge profit, taking advantage of the very small shipment numbers Sony had been able to muster. Critical reception to the PS3 games has been lukewarm at best, with only one or two standout titles like Resistance: Fall of Man. Titles available on both the PS3 and Xbox 360 don't look or play any better on the PS3, and in fact many gaming press outlets have been running side-by-side comparisons that favor Microsoft's less expensive console. Customers wishing to actually play the PS3 instead of sell it were frustrated to find that the system doesn't come with the necessary cables for high definition—neither component nor HDMI.

Despite the half-year delay, Sony's hot new console is plagued with technical problems. There are issues with scaling on TVs that don't support 720p, issues with the backward compatibility making PS2 games look worse than they do on an actual PS2, problems with some of the system software functions, problems with the wireless controllers losing their synchronization with the console, and so on. The PS3 has already had several firmware updates in the few weeks since its release, to fix minor problems and add features, but it still feels as though, despite considerable delays, the PS3's software is only half-finished.

Consoles in 2007

2007 is going to be a very interesting year for the console wars. Nintendo is off to a fantastic start with the Wii, and it appears the system built specifically to appeal to non-gamers and broaden the market has done just that—everyone who plays one says it's fun and wants one. That initial enthusiasm doesn't always translate into sales, though, much less extended sales. Once the talk shows and morning shows and news updates about the "hot holiday items" wear off, will those non-gaming masses still care? Will the idea of possibly purchasing or trying out this thing even cross their minds? Will Nintendo be able to keep the hot titles flowing fast enough to keep the core gaming demographic interested? After all, Zelda was a huge hit at launch, but nothing else has done very well, and the critical reception for other Wii titles is fairly poor. Nintendo's job throughout 2007 will be to keep the Wii fresh, keep it in the mainstream press as much as possible, and target it toward an expanding market that reaches beyond core gamers. It also has to prove that the sad reputation of the GameCube—only 2 or 3 Nintendo franchise games a year really worth getting for it—won't hold true. Nintendo needs to crank out the Wii hits, and bring forth plenty of great exclusive games from third-party publishers. That's not an easy task.

Sony has its work cut out for it. Despite the company's protests, everybody knows (and sales records have confirmed) that shipments have been below expectation and Sony has to make desperate improvements to increase supply. With a major region launch coming in the Spring (that usually requires stockpiling hundreds of thousands of units), that's going to be tough. The PS3 is at a price disadvantage, and Sony is already taking a big loss on each unit sold. It will be hard for them to reduce the price, but that needs to happen quickly. Many of the hot PS3 exclusives, like Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII, are only maybe going to be done in time for a 2007 release. In short, Sony has precious little time to lower the PS3's price, fix all the little software flaws and glitches, add competitive online features to better stack up against Xbox Live, and release totally awesome exclusive games. Sony will be very busy in 2007.

Oddly enough, Microsoft seems to be in the best position moving into 2007. Its approach is less risky than Nintendo's and less reliant on shaking up the buying habits of millions of non-gamers. Thanks in part to some software delays (like Forza Motorsport 2, the lineup of exclusive titles for 2007 looks very good. Even the first six months of the year has several potential blockbusters in store. Thanks in part to Blue Dragon and some other imminent releases, Japan is starting to take notice of the Xbox 360. Sales are still not stellar and it is doubtful that we'll see a huge explosion in Japanese Xbox 360 sales in 2007, but the numbers should climb from "insignificant" to "a meaningful part of the business." And then there's Halo 3, part of a franchise so big that it will probably be responsible for millions of 360 purchases alone. Grand Theft Auto 4 will ship simultaneously on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, taking a very important feather out of Sony's cap. What was once an exclusive to Sony's platform and a big system-seller will now be available on both platforms, and the 360 will be the less expensive of the two ways to jump into the game.

Microsoft is entering the second year of production for the Xbox 360. Costs are already under control, with analysts claiming that Microsoft is already breaking even (or better) on each unit sold. With a move to smaller, cooler, more energy efficient 65 nanometer processors assumed to happen in the first half of 2007, the time is ripe for an Xbox 360 price cut. This is going to be hard for Sony to match with the PlayStation 3. Exciting things are afoot with Xbox Live. Microsoft added a video marketplace this year: Will that expand to music in 2007? Will there be a subscription model? The XNA Game Studio Express program that lets common programmers make Xbox 360 games without buying expensive development kits was just released. In 2007, we should see some sort of method for all Xbox 360 users to sample these homebrew projects. If this takes off, it could be a major point of differentiation between platforms.

Microsoft's main challenge is going to be making sure that launching early doesn't turn around to bite them. It has to remind consumers that the Xbox 360 is every bit as "next-generation" as the PlayStation 3 and convince them that the lower price does not mean inferior graphics or gameplay. The Xbox 360 has to continue to be seen as the "hot new thing" or risk being increasingly pushed aside along with the previous generation PS2, GameCube, and Xbox. It also has to make good on many of its release dates, and avoid pushing big franchises back to 2008.

The big unknowns? What will Microsoft do with the hardware? Will the next iteration of the Xbox 360 be more than just less expensive? Will it be quieter? Will it include built-in Wi-Fi, a bigger hard drive, or an HDMI port?

PC Gaming in 2007

Consoles aren't going to get all the love in 2007. You could definitely state that PC Gaming was in a lull in 2006. There was the usual hardware upgrade cycle and some very good games, sure, but nothing that really shook the earth. 2007 is shaping up to be a little different.

First, there's Microsoft's Games for Windows program. Already a few titles have the GFW branding, but we'll see a lot more in 2007. Games with GFW branding will have unified packaging and more prominent placement in stores, sort of like console games do. It also guarantees a certain level of compatibility and support: GFW games have to work in widescreen modes, have to work with Vista's Games Explorer—stuff like that. Technical issues aside, GFW is a big push from Microsoft to get PC games off the back shelf at your local games store and put them up front and center with the console games. The program is off to a slow start, mostly because Vista hasn't shipped yet, and it'll be a bigger priority in 2007.

Vista brings more than just a focus on Games for Windows branding for PC games. It brings some much-needed parental controls and easier, more logical access to games with the Games Explorer. Most importantly, Vista is the only place you'll find DirectX 10. Nvidia's DX10 graphics cards have already shipped, and ATI's are due out early in 2007. DX10 adds nifty new capabilities and performance to PC graphics, and the first DX10 games should be pretty stunning.

Then there's Live Anywhere, Microsoft's promise to bring the Live platform off the Xbox and connect both Vista PCs and cell phones. We have no idea how well the cell phone thing is going (we should see some sort of release in 2007), but Live will launch on the PC early in 2007 with the releases of Shadowrun and Halo 2. We hope to learn a lot more about this at the CES show in January, but don't expect every feature of Xbox Live in the very first release. Some stuff will be in there, the rest will come in future updates. By the end of 2007, PCs with Windows Vista should be fully Live-ified. And if you don't think that's a big deal for PC gaming, you clearly don't own an Xbox 360.

If Vista does anything for PC games, it raises the bar on system requirements. Vista will simply require more RAM and CPU power than old-and-busted Windows XP, and the Aero interface demands a certain level of DirectX 9–capable graphics that the average el-cheapo computer of today simply doesn't have. It is forcing PC manufacturers to ship low-end systems with a bit more power, especially in the areas currently holding back game developers the most (graphics and RAM). With Microsoft selling 80 million or more copies of Vista next year, game developers will be given a new platform, and a new (better!) set of minimum requirements to hit. Game development is a lengthy process, and it takes time for new platforms to gain market share, so the real effects of this transition might not be felt until 2008. In two years, we will hopefully look back at the launch of Vista as the time when PC games took a significant leap forward.

My Game Universe

Dota Allstars Guides Library

Dota Allstars 6.50 have been released

Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance goes gold

Battlefield 3 on the way to gamers

GTA IV will easily overcome Halo 3

Do You Want To Have Your Own Universe?

Halo 3 makes record

Blizzard Officially Reveals StarCraft II

Halo Comic Series to Feature Hit Creative Team

(c) www.gametab.com

WoW Gamer Gets Busted for Using Library Wi-Fi After Hours

(c) www.gizmodo.com

Supreme Commander Goes Gold

(c) www.gamearena.com.au

Gerritsen Leaves Human Head Software

(c) www.gigagamez.com

Microsoft Sued by Developer Over Mobile "Halo" Game

(c) www.dailytech.com

Sims Wii

(c) www.computerandvideogames.com

New Wii, PS3, & 360 Games

(c) www.skattertech.com

2006 Top 10 Games of the Year

Number 10 - Kingdom Elemental

Number 9 - Fizzball

Number 8 - Kudos

Number 7 - The Odyssey: Winds of Athena

Number 6 - Dawnspire: Prelude

Number 5 - Virtual Villagers

(c) www.gametunnel.com

Top 50 Mobile Games of 2006

(c) www.tech-buzz.net

Blizzard Looking To Change WoW Maintenance

(c) www.driverheaven.net

A Reason Why Video Games Are Hard to Give Up

(c) www.emaxhealth.com

Rumor: Mario Party 8 box art?

(c) www.qj.net

Warner Bros. Buys Into SCi

(c) www.gigagamez.com

PS3 or Wii: A Developer’s Conundrum

(c) www.gigagamez.com

Board game tests PC graphics to limit

(c) www.theinquirer.net

EA to publish new id Software title in Europe

(c) www.gamesindustry.biz

Video Games: Looking Back at 2006 and Ahead to 2007

A Good Year for Microsoft and Nintendo

A Tough Year for Sony

Consoles in 2007

PC Gaming in 2007

(c) www.extremetech.com