Gaming News Archives

Today, at their 2007 Technology Analyst Day, AMD presented the new Phenom high-end CPU that they hope will be the aspiration of many a hardcore gamer out there. And why exactly?

Well, how's this: "Current AMD desktop platforms can only support up to two video cards in CrossFire configuration, but the upcoming RD790 chipset will be able to support up to four cards in CrossFire as demonstrated by Bergman's three-GPU Phenom FX system."

Naturally, this nifty chipset will only work with Phenom CPUs, so instead of just having to upgrade your CPU, you'll be forced into buying a new motherboard as well. The usual in the hardware business really.

Anyway, when it comes to my choice of graphics boards, HD 2900 XT just doesn't do it for me in the same way that GeForce 8800s do. Sorry. I'm a dirty whore.

I'm fast turning into a full-on Capcom slut, but I can't help it with some of their stuff. For example these new Devil May Cry 4 screenshots. I've always had a soft spot for the gracefully choreographed action of that series. And, of course, the cleavage.

click to view full gallery

Ubisoft is going mad with these cross-media deals, announcing two new such projects at the ongoing Comic-Con in San Diego (shows how much they cared about E3, don't it?).

First up is Beowulf, "an action combat video game based on Paramount Pictures' and Shangri-La Entertainment's Beowulf, the upcoming feature film from Academy Award-winning director Robert Zemeckis." The game is in development for the 360, PS3, PC and PSP and scheduled to hit retail at the same time the movie hits the theaters -- November 2007.

Check out the first trailer from Beowulf here.

The second game is not exactly based on a silver screen Hollywood feature, but the television drama series "Heroes."

The first season of Tim Kring's hit TV series has attracted over 14 million viewers each week and is one of the most popular shows among 18-49 year-olds. Time magazine named "Heroes” one of the Top 10 TV shows for 2006, and the phenomenon is now broadcast in more than 30 countries across the globe.

"Heroes” is an epic drama that chronicles the lives of ordinary people across the world who discover they possess extraordinary abilities, such as telepathy, time travel and flight. They will soon come to realize that the fate of the world depends on them, and be forced to team up against someone seeking to eliminate them.

"With a gripping storyline and rich characters, Heroes lends itself naturally to a video game format,” said Christian Salomon, vice president of worldwide licensing at Ubisoft. "By offering people the chance to interact directly with the show's captivating universe, there is no doubt that the game will appeal to both fans of the series and avid gamers.”

The media assets that came with the press release contain like a high-res photo of the series' cast and a logo. As much as I was tempted to blow you away with this top quality content, I decided to pass up on that opportunity.

I've been using these for a while now and they appear to be nice and stable. NVIDIA's 162 series drivers have been upgraded from Beta to WHQL certified status. You can grab the 162.18 version for Win XP here, and the 162.22 version for Vista can be found in 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Capcom unleashes a new batch of screenshots from their highly anticipated survival horror game, Resident Evil 5. These are snaps from the trailer I watched at the MS press briefing. Good stuff.

click to view full gallery

It's highly unlikely for a game maker working on a high profile multi-platform title to take sides in the console wars, but we are talking about Rockstar here. Apparently, they prefer the 360 version of GTA IV to the PS3 version, if only for the added episodic content.

"They're identical games. We're not hardware makers, and we're not like a pawn between these companies, we try not to be as much as we can. We make great games for people to enjoy on whichever system they want," spokesperson Hosi Simon told Games Radar.

"But I guess if you want the complete experience with the episodes, then yeah, you should buy the 360, I suppose."

OK then. Bear in mind that MS paid a reported $50M to have those GTA IV episodes exclusive for the 360. It's money well spent it seems, on multiple levels.

Thanks, Eurogamer.net.

I just couldn't help but make fun of the hilarious situation in which Corporate VP of Microsoft Game Studios, Shane Kim, found himself recently.

Apparently, Mr. Kim thought it was big news that Resident Evil 5 is coming to the 360 -- something that's actually two-year-old news to everyone else in the industry.

AT COMIC: Under A Rock

MinArk announces that they'll be upgrading their Entropia Universe (I guess you could call it an MMOG, though the devs describe it as, "the safest virtual world utilizing a real cash economy"), with Crytek's CryENGINE 2.

Creator MindArk's CEO Jan Welter Timkrans explains, "The upgrade of Entropia Universe will be built around the spectacular features supplied by CryENGINE 2, offering a complete and immersive experience to Entropia participants. It will create synergies between the proven and safe Real Cash Economy backbone, the Entropia storyline with colonists fighting to establish a new world, and the very life-like visuals supplied from CryENGINE 2." He continues, "When we saw what the engine was capable of, we immediately understood that it would be perfect for Entropia, as both MindArk and Crytek are pioneers in their respective fields."

Good for you, MindArk.

Telltale has obviously had success with Season 1 of the oldie adventure series remake, Sam & Max. Steve Purcell's little gem is back for Season 2.

Once again, episodes of Sam & Max Season Two will premiere on GameTap, and then gamers will be able to purchase and download individual episodes from Telltale's site, a day after their premiere on 'Tap.'

OK, here's something mildly interesting, courtesy of Nielsen Company and their GamePlay Metrics gaming industry data-tracking service.

Peering into the homes of roughly 33,000 people to report on monthly usage of the major gaming consoles and PC games, GP Metrics discovered that Wii households tend to be "upscale," or more likely to boast an annual income of more than $100,000.

As for the king of the current crop of consoles, usage-wise, Playstation 2 still reigns supreme -- for the month of June, Nielsen says the PlayStation 2 accounted for 42.3 percent of play time on consoles, beating all other systems by a rather huge margin (Xbox 360 is played in some 8 percent of households, while PS3 stands at a measly 1.5 percent).

After some extensive and intense thinking on the subject, I have concluded that there are only two things that every fantasy epic story needs. There is in fact a universal formula for making such stories work -- it's giants and very small people.

You simply cannot have an epic fantasy tale without one of the two. I'll give you an example:

A brave knight went forth into the dark and ominous cave. As he stepped in, he felt the cold chill of the ancient air blow forbiddingly in his face. He smelled the rot of a thousand corpses dwelling within the depths of the dragon's lair.

As he encroached on this, the most hallowed of places for the fire-breathing monster, a billowing roar slashed through the walls of the cave, literally lifting his heavy suit of armor off the ground. "Who dares trespass in my home," thundered the dragon.

OK, I'll stop here. You see, we have a knight, a dragon and his lair. This is a very good foundation for a fantasy story. Problem is, it's simply not epic enough. It's missing giants or very small people.

Getting his bearings back, the brave knight lifted his chain mail shirt only to reveal a humongous cock, the size of a fully grown oak tree. With the tip of his penis the size of a battering ram, he crushed the ceiling of the cave, and with deafening rumble, brought down an avalanche of rock on the fire-etched hallway leading down to where the dragon lay.

But the dragon would not be defeated so easily. From his undying breath, an army of small flames with blazing speed made their way through the cracks in the rock wall, attacking the giant battering ram penis with tremendous viciousness.

The brave knight screamed in mind-numbing agony as a thousand tiny dragon flames ate through his gigantic tool.

"Behold, the dragon claps!" yelled the dragon victoriously as the knight ran tumbling and screaming out of the cave, his giant cock but a charred shadow of its former self.

Now that's pretty epic.