As I type this, dry arid countryside rolls past my bus window as we roar down Route 66 towards Las Vegas, aka Sin City, Lost Wages, and 100 other lurid tags. Overfed livestock stare absently at the traffic, but my fellow passengers paid for their tickets too, so no complaints.
Why? Because CES 2009 is happening, from tomorrow through to Sunday. We'll be providing updates from the show floor daily, trying to highlight upcoming tech that's useful, interesting and downright stupid. Games has a healthy presence at CES as well, and we'll be trying to get our greasy hands on the latest fun stuff.
If you've got something you know will be on show or even suspect will be worth looking out for, let us know in the comments and we'll get on it.
CES official siteIt'd be hard to say a mean word about 1UP.com. The people who worked on the site knew their games, they knew the industry, and conveyed it with passion.
Yesterday's news that Ziff Davis had sold EGM (the magazine, which will now be closed), 1UP and related sites to UGO, who promptly sacked 30 or so staff was therefore a bit of a shock. Almost as shocking was the bizarre press release-slash-"update" that featured 1UP founder and editorial director Sam Kennedy talking in glowing terms about the acquisition...then followed up by posting on NeoGAF that it was the "worst day of his life".
The reasons for the closure of EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly), a magazine that first hit shelves in the eighties - was summed up by ZD CEO Jason Young in a mail to staff...
The Dawn of War 2 System requirements were posted just a little earlier and the recommended specs are absolutely amazing. I'm using a PC better than the recommended specs as a media server.
| Minimum Requirements –
* Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista SP1
* P4 3.2 GHz (single core) or any Dual Core processor
* 1 GB RAM (XP), 1.5 GB RAM (Vista)
* A 128MB Video Card (Shader Model 3) - Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT / ATI X1600, or equivalent
* 5.5 GB of Hard Drive space
Recommended –
* Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista SP1
* AMD Athlon 64x2 4400+ or any Intel Core 2 Duo
* 2 GB RAM (XP and Vista)
* A 256MB Video Card (Shader Model 3) - Nvidia GeForce 7800 GT / ATI X1900, or equivalent
* 5.5 GB of Hard Drive space | |
That's some seriously lightweight specs - and we've seen this game in action as well. It's tasty. Very, very tasty. The game is due out next month and we can't wait to get hands on with it - it's good to see that while some dev teams look to the future other's are still catering to those living in the past.
Dawn of War 2 System RequirementsAnyone who played skate., EA's awesome answer to the Tony Hawk's series, is probably looking forward to Skate 2. It seems like they're taking the already fantastic formula from skate. and simply reworking it to eliminate the complaints people had previously.
Basically this equates to getting off your skateboard to walk up stairs, a points tally for when you hurt yourself and more polish on the online front. The latest dev diary shows off what they've done with the online section of the game, and it's looking sweet. We have no idea what's going on at the end of the video, though we get annoyed when "Cuz" talks as well.
Watch it now.
Skate 2 "Online Features" Dev Diary Trailer
Posted: 07 Jan 09
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Mark Rein, god bless him. The industry legend is pounding away at the keys to let us know that a major title update for Gears 2 is almost done (sometime in January):
| This update will address bugs and exploits as well as add some new achievements related to downloadable content. We don’t have an exact date for it but all indicators are it will go live within January. If that changes we’ll let you know.
We’re fixing a whole bunch of online exploits. For example we’ve fixed the ability to wield an invisible shield, melee through some walls, gain infinite Lancer ammo and equip a shield and a two-handed weapon simultaneously plus many more.
We’re also making several small changes to improve the overall online gameplay experience. A few of the ones that might interest you are; increased penalties for quitting matches early, adding additional spawn protection against planted grenades and chainsaw attacks, and adding the ability to see the Submission flag carrier destination by using Tac/Com... | |
We're beginning to like Microsoft's product management director (i.e a big deal) Aaron Greenberg. Unlike the rest of his peers, who seem to be playing the humble game, Greenberg - seemingly Microsoft's designated hitter - appears to love nothing more than sinking the slipper into the competition.
Fresh of saying that PlayStation Home is old news, AG is back for another bite - Greenberg has told Edge that PS3 price cuts are imminent:
| Analysts have been calling for a PS3 price drop so that Sony can move more consoles and stay competitive with Xbox 360. While Sony has denied it will be dropping the price of the PS3 any time soon, Greenberg offered, "We absolutely expect the PS3 price drop to happen in the next couple of months. We're frankly surprised it's taken this long. ... I would expect they'd have to move on price, sooner than later, for sure." | |
Admittedly Edge probably prompted his response, but still, a bit of a no-lose thing for the opposition to say, no? If they do cut the price, AG can say "toldja so suckas!". If they don't, everyone can be "errrr what's up Sony?"
Even more twisted logic: if Sony did chop the price quickly, people would nod and say "forced into it, eh Sony?". If they don't, then less people by PS3s, and presumably somewhere in Seattle Aaron Greenberg polishes up his case for a payrise to Don "the fringe" Mattrick.
Come on Sony, show a little bite. Get out there and start trashing Xbox 360...
please? Make a fight of it. And AG - try taking on Nintendo if you're feeling feisty. FIGHT FIGHT.
Silverchair, Wolfmother and The Vines are all heading to Guitar Hero World Tour - in time for Australia Day on the Xbox 360, and shortly after on the PS3.
The Aussie song triple pack will hit the Xbox 360 on January 22 for 440 MS Points (or 160 MS Points as singles) and the pack includes "Tomorrow" by Silverchair, "Dimension" by Wolfmother and "Outtathaway!" by The Vines.
The PlayStation 3 and Wii versions of packs will be available on February 5 - $9.95 on the PSN (or $3.45 as singles) and 160 Wii Points per single. What would be your ideal Australia day track pack for Guitar Hero World Tour?
Sven Co-op has finally gone to version 4.0 - in beta form at least. It's available in our downloads library, and naturally if you want to play it you're going to need a retail copy of Half-Life (which any self-respecting PC Gamer should have).
The version 4.0 update brings They Hunger support - from my recollection a zombie horror survival game where the zombies ran around moaning "we hunger..." which was always a source of great humour. There's a bunch of other new features and additions -
detailed in the manual here.
If you're not familiar with Sven Co-op it's a co-operative mod for Half-Life - team up with friends to kill things. It's also nearly 10 years old and it's still very much in development, so you can tell this one's a grand labour of love. If you've never seen it before, grab the
file from our downloads library, get your hands on Half-Life again and get playing.
Eve Online, the space simulator/spreadsheet emulator MMO by Icelandic developers CCP, attained a new mammoth number yesterday with 45,186 users online on its single shard server at once.
The team is thanking the leaps and bounds they've made serverside over the last year for this huge new number,
| While we've made tremendous serverside changes in the EVE Online infrastructure with the EVE64 and StacklessIO initiatives, it is truly a testament to our loyal fans that 5 years into EVE's existence we are still breaking records and more people are flying in New Eden than ever before. | |
45000 online at once is killer effort. Eve Online puts players in a world with a fully player driven economy as they attempt to control sectors of a universe for strategic or economic gain. With only one server it's easier for players to forge a lasting name for their characters - though the game is very complicated to understand. Are you an Eve player?
Microsoft's friendly and cuddly mouthpiece for Live, Larry "Major Nelson" Hyrb recent dropped on us the list of the most popular games played and purchased on Xbox Live. It's pretty comprehensive, although it doesn't do much to shake the notion Xbox 360 is hardcore gamerville - check out the top played titles on Live...
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