to be this good takes ages

New Humble Bundle, now with androidiness!

2012-02-01T08:00:00.000Z

Four awesome games for your Android device. Jump start your mobile game collection with Anomaly: Warzone Earth, Osmos, and EDGE. If you pay more than the average price, you also get the indie classicWorld of Goo!

Playing at your desktop? No problem. Buying the Humble Bundle for Android also gets you Mac, Windows, and Linux versions of the games.

Soundtracks included. When you buy the bundle, you'll also get the soundtracks to all the games!

Pay what you want. If you bought these games separately, it would cost around $60, but we are letting you set the price!

The games work great on Mac, Windows, Linux, and Android.

It's back! World of Goo is worth the money on it's on, playing it on your phone is like Christmas came early.

humblebundle.com

Mac Classic back to life! iPad has a house.

2012-01-28T11:27:00.000Z

Well, as much as I am kinda against people slashing these things to pieces, this is a lot better than a fishtank!
It's awesome how neatly the screen fits. Almost as if it was the plan all along. I know Apple are forward thinkers, but not this much.

I implore everyone to do this. It makes my Mac Classic more valuable.

http://bit.ly/ipad-classic

Weebly website maker 1 month free

2012-01-28T10:02:00.000Z

Weebly is a pretty bad-ass tool for making a website. It has a drag and drop interface, you just drop boxes of 'text' or 'image' or 'video' onto the page like building blocks. The output is actually quite pretty html (shockingly) and it's pretty SEO friendly too, particularly the file structure. Basically it's great to the point that I can't be bothered with fiddling around in notepad++ anymore.

More to the point, you can have a month free (and me too) if you sign up through tbtgta (yes that's us, to be this good takes ages... I'd like to pretend it's an homage to TMWRNJ but it's not).

Click to sign up. Making sites is totally free, you can even point your owned domains at it via a records (easy to do), the only 'con' is the little 'made with weebly' tag at the bottom. If you upgrade to a paid subscription you can lose that, and it's only $70 for 2 years with 10 (count 'em) sites included so it's a pretty good deal.

Check it out. 2 million people use it, they can't all be idiots. Ok they can, but they're not. Because it's good.

weebly : stupidly easy site maker

For nice tips once you've signed up, try http://weeblyforums.com/

[edit]
HEY READ THIS:
weebly discount voucher, 33% hosting discount!
Patience really pays of with these guys. If you open a free account and create your site (really, do try it, it's super super easy and pretty fun), after about a week you are very likely to receive a 33% off voucher for upgrading to 'pro' (host 10 sites, no 'weebly' link on the pages, custom video player, other nice stuff). I just bought 2 years of hosting (for 10 sites, remember, no size or traffic limits) for just over £30 (about 50 bucks). That's a great deal even without the awesome page builder tools.

'neXtBox' (see what I did there?) 6 times as powerful

2012-01-25T21:48:00.001Z

“More power!” You can imagine Steve Ballmer yelling it through Microsoft’s halls but that’s exactly what is happening with the Xbox 720, according to reports from IGN.

The next Xbox — rumored to be the “Xbox 720″ — will ship to retailers in late October or early November 2013 and have six times the processing power of its predecessor, the Xbox 360, sources close to the project toldIGN.

The next console will use the AMD 6000 series, which should run similar to the Radeon HD 6670. That all sounds a bit jargon-y but essentially it’s a super-fast processor that supports DirectX11, multi-display output, 3D and 1080p HD. Production of the GPU should start by the end of this year.

All that anticipated extra power on the fabled Xbox 720 isn’t just about graphic fidelity. It allows games to have more detailed environments, longer draw distances (think open world games such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim), better enemy artificial intelligence, faster multiplayer experiences and the ability to cram more stuff on the screen.

Please forgive me for sending you to Mashable. I know how shit and whiney and Apple-horny they are, but occasionally there's something of interest over there.

mashable.com/2012/01/25/xbox-720-rumor/

Kodak trying to sue itself out of bankruptcy

2012-01-21T12:01:00.001Z

Eastman Kodak is suing Samsung over claims its patents have been infringed. The US camera and printer maker said the complaint relates to five of its digital imaging technologies. It is the latest in a series of patent lawsuits filed by the firm since the start of the year.

Kodak said on Wednesday that it was seeking bankruptcy protection. That followed an announcement in July that it was looking to sell or license about 1,100 digital imaging patents. Kodak has also filed lawsuits against Apple and HTC involving the same five patents. In addition it is suing Fujifilm over a separate, but overlapping, set of claimed infringements. Kodak alleged that the Japanese company had made use of its technologies including the "quick review of last captured image" and "user selectable image record size".

What I can gather from all this is that the best way to make money these days is to go back in time and make a really loose patent application for, say 'a portable box from which video and audio eminate', then come back to the present and just watch the money roll in through your solicitor's office.

Also Kodak is going out of business because they never managed to make a single half decent digital camera, and all their products since 35mm film have sucked. As far as I can tell, companies that make stuff that sucks go out of business. It's a crazy world out there.

bbc.co.uk/news

Best Xbox Live Gold price

2012-01-20T18:10:00.003Z

Ok I seem to remember I posted about amazon being cheap for xbox live membership. Well mine came up and this place is cheaper:

http://electronicfirst.com/cheap-xbox-live-codes/12-2-xbox-live-gold-mw3-avatar-download-code/

Obviously I'm only posting about it because it came through and is entirely trustworthy. If you don't trust me (WHAT!), simply google them. I got the 'MW3' one, which gets me some kind of avatar thing (...). There's also a GOW3 version which gives you a special gun or something. I dunno, I'm only in it for the 14 months of gold. Enjoy, folks.

'Free' phone dock from two bulldog clips

2012-01-15T19:02:00.000Z

This is pretty nifty

The endlessly versatile binder clip is one of our favorite tools for MacGyver-like inventions, and reader David writes in one of his favorite creations: a 5-second smartphone dock.

flickr.com via lifehacker.com

Create an iTunes account without entering a credit / debit card

2012-01-15T13:01:00.004Z

I just had to open an iTunes account to use the App Store on an iPhone I inherited. I didn't want to enter my credit card just to open an account I don't plan to buy things from. The Apple website has these cunning tips to open an account without adding payment details, which is nice of them! I've copied them here:

If you already have an account, open iTunes. From the menu bar choose Store > Sign Out.

Click iTunes Store (on the left side of the iTunes window) and pick your country by clicking the appropriate country flag located in the bottom-right corner of the main iTunes Store page.

Navigate to the App Store by clicking on App Store from the top navigation bar.

Important: Before proceeding to the next step, you must download and install a free app. To find a free app, navigate to the Top Charts column on the right hand side of the App Store window. Scroll down until you can see the list of Free Apps. Select any app by clicking on it, then click Free App underneath the app icon.

In the pop-up window, click Create New Account.

You are directed to the "Welcome to the iTunes Store" screen. Click Continue.

You'll need to read and agree to the iTunes Store Terms & Conditions. Make sure you check the box next to where it says "I have read and agree to the iTunes Terms and Conditions."

Click Continue.

Enter your email address, create your password, continue to create and answer your security question, then enter your birthday. Click Continue.

Select None as the payment option.

Continue to fill out the required name and address fields.

You'll then see a screen that says 'Verify your Account'. Click Done and then check your email for a verification email from iTunes Store.

Open the email and click the link enclosed in the email to activate your account.

Once you click on the link, iTunes should then prompt you to sign in with your account name and password.

You'll then see the below "Congratulations" screen. Click Done to be taken to the App Store home page.

support.apple.com

Xbox live cheaper at amazon than on the xbox...

2012-01-11T14:51:00.002Z

Odd.

£30 on amazon, http://amzn.to/weNSdf
Yes it's my renewal day... shopped around and amazon is the best combination of cheap and trustworthy.

There are a few 14 months for £32/33 but the websites look too shady for my liking *shifty eyes*

TIP: Log into xbox.com and TURN OFF auto-renew, otherwise they'll just charge you whatever they chose to charge at the time your subscription comes up for renewal. Bastards.

Great BBC documentary about Steve Jobs

2012-01-10T20:33:00.001Z

As a British ex-pat (kinda) I regularly get recommendations to watch things that don't appear on my tele. This was one and, luckily, it's available here:

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/steve-jobs-billion-dollar-hippy/

It's on youtube but it seems to have lasted quite well so hopefully it will remain. Very interesting, especially to see that whilst he may have been a very impressive man he wasn't the angel many claim he was. He was even mean to our beloved (hmm..) Mr Gates!

Anyway, a good documentary and well worth a watch. Of course I hope he is resting in peace.

Xbox live hacking going on? EA/FIFA to blame?

2012-01-05T14:37:00.000Z

Another compelling reason to support PES over FIFA.

On December 20, my Xbox Live account was hacked. The breach was sophisticated, more so than Microsoft wants to acknowledge, but at the heart of it is EA's popular sports franchise FIFA. This breach isn't a new, hip hack that is sweeping the net, it has been happening for quite some time. My Xbox Live account housed over 3,000 MS Points and in one fell swoop, my balance was wiped clean.

Utilizing FIFA 12, players can purchase and trade digital cards with other Live members. Though this feature is also available in games like Madden NFL 12, the worldwide popularity of FIFA 12 has made it a breeding ground for criminal scum. Players get into Xbox Live accounts, purchase card packs, trade them to other accounts, and later sell the content for real money. Xbox Live breaches are not new, but the FIFA 12 hack is putting everyone on Xbox Live at risk in a new way.

Many of us will have a credit/debit card associated with our live accounts. This raises quite an issue if people are out hitting live/hotmail accounts hard trying to break into them. Unfortunately, Microsoft have decided that if we have used our card to purchase Xbox Live (i.e. it is 'associated' with our membership), we are not allowed to remove the payment details from our accounts.

However, you can CHANGE the details. You can even change them to something wrong. So if you want to remove your credit card details, simply edit it and put in a completely made up number and expiry. Of course, when it's renewal time you will need to correct it again. Might give a bit of piece of mind though, that if you are hacked they can only steal the mspoints you already have (in my case, 80... moneybags me eh?)

shacknews.com

Find the best wireless channel for your network

2012-01-04T15:20:00.002Z

Got myself a new 'n' router as a late Christmas present / new year sales treat, and decided I should try to get the best reception around the house possible. There are many other wireless networks in range, since I live in a small apartment block right next to another small apartment block.

Net Stumbler was the old preferred program but it's starting to creak with age now. inSSIDer is a nicer looking and feeling program with just as much usefulness.

I only wish I had checked before, and I would have put special attention to buying a 'dual mode' router that could operate in the 5GHz spectrum. No-one else seems to be using it at all, which would have been great (although the range is lower when using 5GHz).

Anyway, channel 11 seems a favourite around here. So I switched to channel 1.

If I said the difference was in any way noticeable I would be lying. But it can't be a bad thing, can it?

inSSIDer - worth a download if only to give credit to the clever name.

Happy New Year 2011/2012

2011-12-31T22:00:00.000Z

Happy New Year everybody.

If it's new years, it must be DJ Earworm mashup time.

Have a great party, wherever you are.

Supertools: Image Resizer for Windows 7

2011-12-28T19:17:00.002Z

Image Resizer was super useful back in XP times... if I remember correctly it was part of 'powertools'.
An official version doesn't exist for Windows 7 / Vista, but luckily an awesome chap has taken it upon himself to replicate it.

This is truly a 'supertool', definitely a keeper. Super useful, saves loading up an image program or, God forbid, Abobe Bridge.

imageresizer.codeplex.com/

UPDATE: I have found this newer version (Image Resizer 3 preview 2) to be a bit slow... not sure if it's just me, but I recommend using the previous version (Image Resizer 2.1) - version 2.1 download

Early sales, any bargains out there?

2011-12-26T15:50:00.001Z

I hoped to scour the net and find some great bargains on games / hardware.

Unfortunately I can't seem to find any. Our plucky chums in the US of A can grab a kinect sensor for ~~$99~~ $106.74 (?!) which is a nice deal (from amazon.com), my British chums can grab one for £79.99 (from amazon.co.uk) which, depending on whether the economy has made another wild swing recently, is fairly similar but a bit more. Which we are used to.

Total War: Shogun II is a tenner at play.com which is a pretty decent price. Not sure why this game has been so hugely discounted so quickly, but let's not complain.

I'll try to add more as I find them.

Amazon UK was discounting Battlefield 3 (BF3) at £16 but they ran out in 10 minutes. And I didn't get one. Frowny face.

Merry Christmas everyone, and here's looking forward to a good new years party.

Last minute Christmas cards 50% off

2011-12-20T12:43:00.002Z

If you forgot to get a clever card for your gran, grab 50% off at funkypigeon.com (they are a bit like moonpig, with a possibly more ridiculous name).

Enter the code 67648015 in the funkypigeon.com promo code box and you'll get your card ~~hard price~~. Errr, half price. Freudian slip?

Anywah, cash bonus!

67648015 @ funkypigeon.com

Use Live Mesh to synchronise desktops

2011-12-19T23:53:00.000Z

Windows Live Mesh is awesome. People usually prefer to bad mouth Microsoft products but it's just a ridiculous and pointless thing to do, especially when they are undeniably useful (and pretty darn neat).

I recently acquired a second laptop. It's more powerful and better in almost every way than my old one but it has taken me ages to migrate, just because my old laptop feels like 'home'. I just discovered the synchronise function within Google Chrome, which copies all your favourites (but not themes..?) using your google account, which is great. But I didn't find that early enough to stop me discovering Windows Live Mesh.

You see, I didn't know Chrome could do it. So I had used Mesh to keep the Chrome user data folder synchronised instead (which worked perfectly). Actually it works better than Chrome's own function, because it syncs your theme and your cookies too, meaning everything was already logged in etc etc etc. Anyhoo, I thought maybe it would be nice to synchronise the contents of my desktop. All my messy icons that I can't live without. And now that I've done it, I am glad I did because I suddenly feel at home here on the new machine. I could have just copied everything, but where's the geeky sense of discovery in that?

Also, I now use both machines (with Synergy - don't use the beta it's shite!). The only thing missing from Synergy is drag-dropping files. Now I just copy to my desktop, and in a few seconds the file is on the desktop on both machines! An excessive method, but it works.

I used the Windows 7 'Problem Steps Recorder' to take screenshots of the necessary steps. In case you don't know of this, it's another clever MS tool that they kept quiet about. Tap in 'psr' to the 'finder' bar (ahem..) and it will pop up at the top of the list. Every time you click it takes a screeny, then compiles them together in an (annoying) mhtml file. Great for troubleshooting someone elses machine!

Step 1 - load up the Mesh window. I guess step 0 would be to download and install it... it's part of the 'Windows Live Essentials' suite, so google that. You can choose whether to take the whole lot (which includes Live Mail, which is pretty decent, and Live Messenger etc) or just pick Mesh out of the selection.

Be sure to install on both your machines (duh) and log in to both of them with your same windows live account (or 'hotmail account' as us old folks call them).

Click on 'sync a folder'.

Choose your folder. In this case we are going to use 'desktop'.

At this point it will ask you where to share with. I had already swivelled over to the other computer at this point, so I clicked it afterwards (which works just the same).

Jump on your other machine. Enjoy my censored desktop. Just a couple of personal pictures I didn't really want to share. No, not those kind of pictures.

You should see that your folder has appeared here, waiting longingly to be synced! So to oblige its desires, click on 'sync this folder'.

You'll be asked where you want the files to go. For our desired effect of synchronising the contents of our desktops, we obviously want to put the items onto this computers 'desktop'.

Mesh starts doing its thang. At this point, it will combine the contents of the two folders. My 'new' desktop was totally empty, so it just copied from the old one.

Swivelling back to 'cartman' we see the window that I neglected to click on earlier. However we also see that Mesh has already worked its magic! Our icons have appeared on the desktop! Click on the machine you wish to sync with (I only have two connected to my live account but it could be more) and dismiss the window.

And we're done! You'll see I am also syncing a folder called 'Chrome' which contains three different user directories (for logging into three accounts... it's complicated, but Mesh makes it nice and simple to have my ridiculous setup on two machines at once!).

Remember now... if you delete something from one of these desktops, it will go from both! Recycle bins still work, of course, but just don't forget this important point.

So there we have it. Syncing your desktops across machines is very very easy thanks to this nifty tool.
Hating MS isn't fashionable any more anyway; we're supposed to be cynical of Google now. Or Apple. Or both...

Live Mesh is available for Windows (duh) and (what!!) Mac OS X. I believe you can also get at it on fancy mobile devices. The service uses your live-account-tied SkyDrive and has 5GB of storage set aside for syncing stuff. For most people that would probably allow for all your documents I would have thought.

It can also sync your IE and Office settings. Actually, I tried IE9 the other day and it's nice... nooo I can't become that much of an MS fanboy!

Windows Live Essentials @ live.com (download)

Windows Live Mesh @ wikipedia.org (background info)

Does anyone else remember 'briefcase' in Windows 95?

Synergy on daft double network setups

2011-12-19T16:19:00.000Z

I thought networking was super duper easy these days. Guess not. This is a bit of a long rant so settle in.

I had a very over subscribed wireless network in my flat, mainly down to me downloading lots of torrents which I then move to my NAS, from which I'm almost constantly watching aforementioned downloads. The NAS was previously attached to the wireless router, and my two laptops and mac mini all connected to the router using these magic wireless rays.

I decided I'd have a little local wired network for my computers and hard disk (no-one else uses it). It was a bad idea.

This seemed simple. It was the only solution given the equipment I had at hand, so it was the one I went for. In fact, it works! However I have more annoying demands than this. I use 'Synergy' to use all three of my machines from a single keyboard and mouse. This was another compelling reason for a wired network as the wireless wasn't really good enough for it. This is also what caused most problems.

Getting Windows machines to talk to each other without a router (the DHCP portion of it, in particular) seems actually harder than it was with previous versions (XP / even 98). Windows insists that a network as such be given the 'public network' rules, which make some things harder. For some reason the machines can't ping each other while in this 'public network', and Synergy can't connect by ip either.

The way I got around it, in the bizarre event that anyone has the same problem, is to set the following options.
Machine 1: IP 10.1.1.1 subnet 255.0.0.0 gateway 10.1.1.3 (doesn't exist)
Machine 2: IP 10.1.1.2 subnet 255.0.0.0 gateway 10.1.1.3 (still doesn't exist)
Machine 3: IP 10.1.1.5 subnet 255.0.0.0 gateway 10.1.1.3 (...)
hard disk on auto (seems to work)

The weird trick seems to be that Windows 7 only lets you define a 'home' or 'work' network if you specify a gateway. Even if the gateway doesn't exist. Once I got this set up (finally), Synergy agreed to talk. Another point, don't use the Synergy 1.4.5 beta. It's shit. 1.3.8 is harder to set up but it works much better. The beta gave me very intermittent success.

Of course, the sensible solution would have been not to attempt any of this.

For the price of a 5 metre ethernet cable, everything could be on one simple automagically managed network. No hassles here, plus the hard disk becomes accessible to the whole network through the wireless, while [in theory] still maintaining a speed advantage for locally (wired) connected machines.

I felt like an idiot doing this, and it took many hours. But it works. And Synergy works much better wired than wireless. Plus with the static IPs, Synergy can start automatically and have no bother finding it's mate.

I will be buying a cable though...

BBC declares war on 3G bandwidth

2011-12-12T20:55:00.002Z

iOS users (you flash gits) can now stream iPlayer content to their iPhones or iPads over 3G. iSay...

Ok that wasn't funny. Here's what the BBC had to say, although this is the BBC news report on the BBC released information, which is something slightly hard to get ones head around but means, in theory, it's an outsiders opinion of it.

The BBC said it had worked closely with network operators, but analysts fear it could put their systems under strain.
"One potential danger is that people are going to run up unexpectedly high data bills, and the other is the strain that this is going to put on the system if a lot of people start streaming in this way," said Neil McCartney, a telecoms analyst at McCartney media.
"The system would default to prioritise voice calls, so it wouldn't affect voice calls, but it would mean that people would be unable to use their data services."

The service comes to appleTV devices too, but no-one has those do they?

news.bbc.co.uk

Christmas / Holiday sale at gog.com

2011-12-10T17:36:00.001Z

Finally, we’re starting our winter sale with a huge bang--we’re giving anyone a free copy of Empire Earth Gold Edition for 48 hours. Starting on Monday 12 December at 11.00 GMT and running until Wednesday 14 December at 10.59 GMT, anyone can add Empire Earth: Gold Edition to his or her shopping cart for free as a holiday gift from us to you!
Also, starting on Monday at 11.00 GMT, GOG.com is adding virtually every single game in our catalog for 50% off from now until 2 January 2012. Pick up games from fantastic publishers and developers like EA,Interplay, Atari, Activision, Sierra, and many more for half off this holiday season!

With an incredible 50% off Holiday Promo, we hope that we’ve solved all your holiday shopping needs, whether its an action-packed shooter like Painkiller for your cousin Timmy, a great thinking-man’s chess game like Chessmaster 9000 for your Uncle Bob, or even a restaurant-management simulation likeRestaurant Empire to try and encourage your crazy roommate to learn how to cook, you will be able to pick it all up from GOG.com at incredible holiday savings!

Not bad. Everyone loves a bargain, free stuff is even better.

New to Xbox 360 - roaming profiles! Finally!

2011-12-08T22:40:00.001Z

No more 'recover profile' bullshit. This is good news, much easier to go round a mates house and thrash out some MW3 without giving the xp to one of your chump buddies or using their shite classes.

Using the new Xbox 360 cloud storage

2011-12-08T22:34:00.001Z

Thanks major!

Christmas gifts from Apple for your iDevice

2011-12-07T23:24:00.001Z

You and your friends can download a fantastic selection of songs, music videos, apps and books for free. Each download will only be available for 24 hours. Get our special 12 Days of Christmas app to make it even easier to access your gifts while you’re on the go.

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later.

Apparently it was alright last year. It's free, what can be bad?

itunes.apple.com

The future of xbox is now! (and in a bit)

2011-12-06T12:33:00.001Z

From Major Nelson:

On Tuesday, December 6th the latest update to the Xbox 360 dashboard will be available to consoles around the world. In addition to new and updated features, if you have Kinect you’ll be able to say it and Xbox will find it with Bing Search.

Today we also announced the following partners and apps are coming soon to Xbox 360:
Dec. 6:
• EPIX. United States
• ESPN on Xbox LIVE (ESPN). United States
• Hulu. Japan
• Hulu Plus. United States
• LOVEFiLM. United Kingdom
• Netflix. Canada, United States
• Premium Play by (MediaSet). Italy
• Sky Go (SkyDE). Germany
• Telefónica España – Movistar Imagenio. Spain
• TODAY (MSNBC). United States

Later in December:
• 4 on Demand (C4). United Kingdom
• ABC iView (Australian Broadcasting Corp.). Australia
• AlloCiné. France (AlloCiné), Germany (Filmstarts), Spain (Sensacine), United Kingdom (Screenrush)
• Astral Media’s Disney XD (Astral Media). Canada
• blinkbox (Blinkbox). United Kingdom
• Crackle (Sony Pictures). Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, United States
• Dailymotion. Available in 32 countries globally
• Demand 5 (Five). United Kingdom
• DIGI+ (CANAL+). Spain
• GolTV (Mediapro). Spain
• iHeartRadio (Clear Channel). United States
• Mediathek/ZDF (ZDF). Germany
• MSN. Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, United Kingdom
• MSNBC.com. United States
• MUZU.TV. Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom
• ninemsn. Australia
• Real Sports (Maple Leaf Sports). Canada
• Rogers On Demand Online (Rogers Media). Canada
• SBS ON DEMAND. Australia
• TMZ (Warner Bros.). Canada, United States
• TVE (RTVE.es). Spain
• UFC on Xbox LIVE (UFC). Canada, United States
• Verizon FiOS TV. United States
• VEVO. Canada, Ireland, United Kingdom, United States
• Vudu (Wal-Mart). United States
• YouTube. Available in 24 countries globally
Early 2012:
• Antena 3 (Antena 3 de Televisión). Spain
• BBC (BBC). United Kingdom
• CinemaNow (Best Buy). United States
• HBO GO (HBO). United States
• MLB.TV (MLB Advanced Media). Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States
• Telenovelas/Sports (Televisa). Brazil, Chile, Colombia, France, Italy, Mexico, Spain, United Kingdom
• Xfinity On Demand (Comcast). United States

BBC! Finally! Can it be true? I notice it doesn't say 'iPlayer', but I don't think I should read too much into that... should I? The problem with iPlayer, as I understand, was always that Microsoft wanted to charge for it (i.e. gold members only) but that's very much against the BBC's code of conduct. Either it will be free (silver), or it will be some kind of two tier premium service, or the BBC will sell out...

It's a pretty long list of stuff, but most of it (unfortunately) is just playing catch-up with set-top boxes, blu-ray players and that big lump of Sony merchandise they call the 'ps3'.

The kinect stuff is pretty nice but I'm still not totally sold on the idea of talking to my television. Despite my reservations I do expect it will take off... it could be a nice technology to have built into televisions and computer monitors some time soonish (replacing traditional webcams). This update might also help push a few more kinects into homes (ooh and look, it's Christmas, how bloody convenient!)

majornelson.com

South Park: RPG (2012)

2011-12-03T17:43:00.001Z

So, err, this sounds weird...

You'll play the silent protagonist; a new kid in town attempting to fit in. You'll be able to customise your character fully, with five classes to choose from - wizard, paladin, adventurer, rogue and an undisclosed class made up by Cartman at the beginning of the game. The combat system is likened to that of Paper Mario. Melee attacks will need to be performed with well-timed succession for multiple hits.
There will be melee and ranged weapons, all of which you'll be able to upgrade with various abilities; fire, electricity, posion, that sort of thing.
The game will run on the Dungeon Siege III engine and will remain in the same 2D style as the TV show - apparently a screenshot from the game looks like it could be from an episode.

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/63172/South-Park-The-Game-Details-Emerge

Parker and Stone really enjoy rpgs and they do think that rpgs are the best fit for southpark.
-They were asked of how making a rpg story differs for an episode, they say that the learning curve was be bigger than anything they have done other then their Broadway musical.
-Visual and Visual style seen in episodes like “Good Times With Weapons”, or the live action hamsters in “Pandemic” will not be in the game they want to keep a simple 2D style.
-Parker has been a lifelong gamers, he really likes rpgs because he like the singleplayer nature of them so he doesn’t like or get MMO’s. His favorite game is Oblivion.
-Matt when he was young used to play the old Infocom game and Wizardry and likes open world games like Arkham City, Infamous, Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, and also hockey and soccer games. He mention that he is more of a button masher and remember Serious Sam because he likes to shoot shit and blow shit up but he is now more interested in games like Arkham City and he hasn’t play a RPG in year because he got tired of walking everywhere. His favorite game is FIFA and he mentions getting his ass kick online by kids with English Accents.
-Lastly they joke how this Southpark game will be a cross between Obilivion and FIFA were “you gotta go kill a bunch of monsters and shit but you can only use your feet.”
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=454179

So uh yeah... sounds mighty odd.

I don't know if much more information is available in the 'exclusive' magazine article; besides I'm sure it will all be on blogs/forums within seconds of people getting it anyway. Let's hope it's good!

Thanks to a collaboration with THQ and Obsidian, Parker and Stone are writing the script, performing the dialogue, and overseeing the development of South Park: The Game. Unlike the cash-in Acclaim titles from over a decade ago, this ambitious project is a full-scale RPG for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC. As the new kid in South Park, it'll be up to you to make friends and defend the town from a wide range of threats. Be sure to check out our January issue for all the details, as well as an interview with Parker and Stone themselves.

gameinformer.com

New Xbox dashboard coming on the 6th

2011-12-03T15:08:00.001Z

While many of you have been involved in the Xbox LIVE Preview Program and have been busy getting an early look at the next Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE features, I wanted to let you know that the official release for the update for all Xbox LIVE members will be Tuesday, December 6th. In this update, free to all console owners, you will see:
New personal and social features including Cloud Storage for Game Saves and LIVE Profile
Beacons and Facebook Sharing
Enhanced Family Settings
Integrated voice and gesture controls across the dashboard and in apps
Bing voice search (Available this year in the US, UK and CA)
In addition to all these great dashboard features, starting on December 6th and continuing on an ongoing basis through the holiday months, a wealth of new content will be coming to Xbox 360. New, customized applications for television, movies, internet videos, sports and music will begin rolling out from world-leading providers in more than 20 countries.
http://majornelson.com/2011/11/22/xbox-360-dashboard-update-coming-december-6th/

The 'cloud storage' sounds like a pretty nice idea. As long as it's free (hotmail / spaces storage is free so I suppose it probably will be). No more using up your hard disk / internal storage for save games. Actually I get a bit annoyed on the new xbox that there are two places to save, and I always forget where my games are. It's only two tries to get it right, but one storage location would be nice. Plus loading games on another console will be a benefit (only to a select few people, granted, but I am one of those).

Voice / gesture, blah blah, I don't have a kinect yet like (I think) most people, but I can't deny it looks a bit fun.

Unsurprisingly it looks a bit Windows 8-esque. Which I think works here (and absolutely not on a Windows desktop, but let's not get into that...)

youtube 560x340

New Jagged Alliance game! "Back in Action"

2011-11-30T00:28:00.001Z

I knew nothing of this! There's a new "Jagged Alliance 3" scheduled for Feb 2012. Saying 'the latest installment' seems stupid, since the last one was 6 billion years ago, but apparently the developers never lost the love (or couldn't come up with any new ideas) and so here we are again. Nice timing for me since I just started playing Commandos again (downloaded from gog.com for a measly six bucks!) and it stirred up my fond memories of JA2.

The graphics certainly seem to have improved somewhat. Lets hope they haven't.. umm.... de-improved... (?!) the gameplay. Not often a modern game has as much playability as these golden oldies.

Looking forward to this one!

gamershell.com (few more screenshots here)

i'm a bit of a design ripoff

2011-11-29T14:20:00.001Z

So lots of the websites I look at seem to be carrying adverts for something called an i'm watch. Ignoring how much I hate it when products have irritating and difficult-to-search-for names like this (yes I'm looking at you, "be" internet), I can't help think it's a rather massive ripoff of the iPod shuffle (6g) or, more specifically, the many third party iPod shuffle watch straps on the market. I don't know which was first, but most famous to my mind is the 'lunatik tik tok':

Still, I suppose the i'm is quite attractive and it has some functions an iPod nano doesn't (although conversely the iPod nano is, well, an iPod).

i'm a pretentiously named product
tik tok (actually also a bit hard to find, thanks to 'ke$ha' (sigh..)
many alternatives

Asus Transformer Prime is gorgeous

2011-11-28T14:19:00.001Z

Come in, iPad, your time is up.

Thanks, engadget.com

Cyber Monday xbla deals

2011-11-28T13:23:00.001Z

What the hell is this 'cyber monday' all about anyway?

Well, whatever, there are a few (very few) good deals on xbla. These four are on majornelsons page, and I would buy three out of the four. 'Dungeons & Dragons Anything' doesn't interest me. These are today only, although probably today only by US time, so don't dally.

Mortal Kombat Arcade Collection was 800 now 400.
Dungeons & Dragons Daggerdale was 1200 now 600
Beyond Good & Evil was 800 now 240 to be this good takes ages must buy!
Risk Factions was 800 now 200

I already own Risk Factions (pretty decent, 4 players on one console or on live, a good Risk incarnation and the 'factions' mode and goal games are interesting). I just bought Beyond Good & Evil (thanks for making it so easy for me to spend money, xbox.com!) because it's the most talked up game I've never played. Mortal Kombat is enticing, depends on my ms points balance.

Which probably means I won't get it. I'm mighty pissed that I missed Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for 320 points on Friday. But then I probably wouldn't have bought BGAE which I'm sure will be more fulfilling.

Enjoy, xboxers. I don't know about any offers for the psn network, I don't really care. Sorry x

Ben Whishaw to play Q in new Bond

2011-11-28T11:18:00.001Z

Normally I wouldn't really consider this sort of thing blogworthy, but Ben Whishaw is Pingu from Nathan Barley! That's great! I can see it now, James Bond skulks into the lab with a camcorder and sneaks up behind him, then shocks his testicles with his Omega Seamaster and uploads it straight to trashbat.co.ck

Perhaps not, in which case just congratulations to the lad I suppose.

news.bbc.co.uk // nathan barley (you must watch this!)

No time to explain

2011-11-27T21:57:00.001Z

This game is mental. And awesome. Actually I have plenty of time to explain (huhu) but I just don't know how to. You jump about whilst firing off a ridiculous jetpack stroke raygun thingy, and fly around the screen like a loon whilst trying to dispatch baddies and impale on the ceiling or wall.

Watch some clips on youtube to get a feel for the game since there's no demo before you splash out the 10 bucks, but I'd say it's worth it. Plus you get the sequel for free when it comes out, which I have to imagine being a more polished and yet more insane version of this one which can only be a good thing.

(ten)

It's fun. Review here @ gamingdaily.co.uk
Buy it with this link and I get some baked beans money. I wouldn't steer you wrong, you know it.

Gamesalad adds Android publishing

2011-11-27T21:44:00.001Z

Gamesalad, the quickly-create-mostly-naff-but-occasionally-quite-good-games tool, has expanded it's reach from just fruity devices to android based ones too. If you've never heard of it, it's a mac only affair and uses drag and drop graphics combined with simple (although capable of reasonably complex) if/and/or type statements to create games. Previously these could be exported to flash or published to iOS devices, and now Android users can 'benefit' from the output too.

If you have a mac, it's certainly a bit of fun. Don't think it'll be easy though, once you get settled in you will soon realise that to make anything half decent is going to be a lot of work.

I must recommend you give SPACE PANDA a try. It's so amazingly shit, it's amazing. And I mean that in a good way, in case you're the person who wrote it. Strawb'riiiiiiiiiiiies!

space panda @ gamesalad.com

Good Old Games, most deserved name ever?

2011-11-27T11:08:00.001Z

So I may be years behind, but I finally signed up to Good Old Games and what can I say. The name is no misnomer, the site is jam packed with good, mostly old, games. Better yet, as soon as you sign up you get five titles for nowt...
Lure of the Temptress - good.
Tyrian 2000 - amazing.
Beneath a Steel Sky - awesome (but I never finished it!)
Teen Agent - um no idea sorry.
Ultima IV - never played any of these (for shame!)
Dragonsphere - *shrug*.

So anyway I signed up in order to purchase Commandos, a game I remember spending many an hour struggling with. For $6 (about £4, give or take) I couldn't justify pirating it. Not that I ever would. I'm lying.

So yeah. Thought I'd share that nugget of useless information in the hope it might not be useless and might entice you to check out their catalogue. There's some gold in there, such as Beyond Good and Evil, a game which almost perpetually topped the chart of 'games you must play' in the sadly defunct PCZone magazine, a suggestion I have always meant to follow. I think it's $10, so I might have to save up my pocket money...

Oh PS they just signed up EA, so hopefully some epic games to come. Bioforge anyone?

(lol at their Polish-ness)

Gigabyte MA785GMT - UD2h vs. OCZ obsidian RAM

2011-03-24T12:06:00.001Z

Geeky post today. Today? As if the posts are usually about my sophisticated exploits at celebrity parties.

I stole this from the internet, hope the owner doesn't mind.

This is the tale of my annoying experience with a Gigabyte MA785GMT-UD2H motherboard (rev 3.3) and some 'cheap' OCZ ddr3 memory. The machine would repeatedly crash to BSOD (blue screen of death) with various reasons suggested by the system. Having spent many an hour checking for software conflicts, memory leaks, virii, spyware etc my research indicated that many motherboards default to a ddr3 voltage of 1.5V. A brief look at the OCZ ram showed a running voltage of 1.65V (greedy little sods).

Changing the voltage in the BIOS is a pretty easy affair (in the M.I.T. menu under memory voltage) and the results seem conclusive - it hasn't crashed after several 3dmark run throughs (to stress the system).

Happy days. Hope this might help someone out.

Newsflash: gaming in the future takes effort

2011-01-14T00:56:00.001Z

This chap may have foreseen the future with his jury-rigged wiimote/kinect setup. Yes it's pretty impressive but it's not too far from the realms of possibility so I suspect it's on the level.

Very nice. It's just such a shame that games are becoming so bloody tiring to play - the next thing to add is clearly running on the spot like a lemon to make your in game character run (ever see the weird treadmill - world of warcraft experiment? Look it up...) The whole joy of gaming is sinking into the sofa while you deftly shoot the faces off hundreds of enemies with nothing more than the push of a few buttons.

demize2010 @ youtube.com

Total War: Shogun II minimum specs announced!

2011-01-14T00:30:00.003Z

Yes Total War: Shogun II, the sequel to Shogun: Total War (what happened there?), is coming soon!

Is that frakking gorgeous or what?
This is the computer you need to play it:

Minimum Specs (Required for playing Total War: Shogun 2):
- 2 GHz Intel Dual Core processor / 2.6 GHz Intel Single Core processor , or AMD equivalent (with SSE2)
- 1GB RAM (XP), 2GB RAM (Vista / Windows7)
- 256 MB DirectX 9.0c compatible graphics card (shader model 3)
- 1024x768 minimum screen resolution
- 20GB free hard disk space

Recommended Specs (Recommended for optimum game play of Total War: Shogun 2):
- 2nd Generation Intel® Core™i5 processor (or greater), or AMD equivalent
- 2GB RAM (XP), 4GB RAM (Vista / Windows7)
- AMD Radeon HD 5000 and 6000 series graphics cards or equivalent DirectX 11 compatible graphics card
- 1280x1024 minimum screen resolution
- 20GB free hard disk space

Ouch.

Total War: SHOGUN 2 pushes forward the hugely successful Total War series by perfecting the features from previous games such as full 3D land and naval battles and a detailed campaign map, whilst adding an exciting new multiplayer experience. Total War: SHOGUN 2 releases in March 2011.

Hm. As we all know, minimum specs don't work and recommended specs get you a just about playable experience, so I'm thinking save up for an i7 peeps.

Interestingly these are the specs you needed (or indeed need) to play Total War: Shogun. The first one.

MINIMUM PC REQUIREMENTS
Pentium MMX or AMD K6-2 233MHz Processor
64MB RAM
4X CD-ROM Drive
650MB Hard Disk Space
8MB Video Card
Sound Card
DirectX 8.0

RECOMMENDED
Pentium II 300MHz Processor
128MB RAM
8X CD-ROM Drive
1.65 GB Hard Disk Space
32MB Direct3D compatible 3D Accelerated Video Card
3D ACCELERATED MODE
16MB 3D Accelerated Video Card
Compatible Cards: nVidia GeForce 2, nVidia GeForce 256, nVidia Riva TNT2, nVidia Riva TNT, ATI Radeon, 3Dfx Voodoo5, Voodoo3, Voodoo Banshee, Matrox MGA-G450, Matrox MGA-G400

MULTIPLAYER SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
33.6Kbps Modem
TCP/IP compliant Network

I doubt I'm the only person who has thrown away computers five times as good as that. What a waste. You can buy the game for about £3, it's still an AMAZING game and it might even work under Windows 7 if you're very lucky.

Ah Voodoo Banshee's, TNT2s... those were the days!

sega.co.uk
allgame.com

Big upcoming games of 2011

2011-01-04T11:04:00.000Z

This happy fun time looking site has amassed what it believes to be a list of the 20 most anticipated games of 2011 and presented them on a convenient single page for your perusal. Thank's guys!

For example:
1. BRINK
6. DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION
11. TDU 2
16. MAX PAYNE 3

Certainly some big games in the list.

Mortal Kombat 9 should provide some much needed ridiculous violence.

Can't help but notice the lack of a little independent title from a small games developer called Epic; I believe it's the third in their largely overlooked but cult classic 'Gears of War' series...

gamesreviews2010.com

Console showdown 2010... and the winner is...

2011-01-04T10:56:00.001Z

Wow on that first page I thought they had declared the Wii the winner...

Err, not that they might not do that on the last page!
(Yeah... they don't).

Welcome to IGN's Console Showdown for 2010. What's it all about? Well, each year we pit the games available for each system in a battle royale to determine which system had the best line-up for the year. It's not about hardware or services, it's about games and games alone. And guess what? On that basis, the PlayStation 3 has won the last two years. Can it pick up three Console Showdown titles in a row?

uk.xbox360.ign.com

Humble Indie Bundle 2

2010-12-25T11:23:00.001Z

Lots of really great indie games for as much as you want to pay.

Hint, pay at least $7.80 and get indie bundle 1 as well as the 2nd pack.

Nice Christmas present from these guys, thanks you awesome lovely people!

humblebundle.com

And a very Merry Christmas from me too!

Stream movies with a Sony BDP-S370 Blu-ray

2010-11-30T14:37:00.008Z

This is a Sony BDP-S370. It's a blu-ray player. It also plays DVDs, and SACDs (and normal ones) and perhaps even VCDs if anyone still has any of those. It costs around £120 and I just bought one.

I didn't buy it for any of those functions (although playing DVDs is nice since my old DVD player is dead naff), I bought it because it is a DLNA certified 'network media streamer' or whichever phrase you prefer to use to describe it. This means that if I share my folders full of videos on my home PC, then attach the blu-ray player to the network via it's RJ45 socket, I can watch all of those aforementioned videos on my big living room TV. Happy days!

Actually this isn't something new and exciting for me, I had an xbox 360 in the living room which can perform the same function. But this is a £100 box that also doubles as a super duper new fangled blu-ray player and a DVD player too. Plus it's much smaller. Plus it's much prettier. And it doesn't make any noise (well... a teeny weeny amount of noise, inaudible as far as I'm concerned). Anyone using a 360 to stream media can attest to the ridiculous volume levels you need to set to drown out the console's noisy fans.

Anyway the point of posting this is that, whilst all these sexy functions are obviously great, getting it working isn't always incredibly easy. If you are running Windows 7 on your 'server' PC, you are set. Good to go. No problems, Windows Media Player 12 will act as a DLNA server and your PC will appear in the 'network' tab on the S370's main menu (as long, of course, as you have enabled media sharing in the Network and Sharing Centre). If, however, your media server is using XP or (dare I say it..) Vista, you need a separate server application. It took a lot of goes to find one that worked (I had TVersity running when I had a 360, no go with the BR player) but I finally did and it seems entirely perfect. It is...

TVMOBiLi - tvmobili.com

Installation is simple, and setup is all via a web interface. Once you've installed it, and assuming your BR player is turned on, it should appear in the 'discovered devices' section of the status page like so.

On your S370 your computer should appear in the list of network services. Now you can navigate through all the folders you should choose to share through TVMOBiLi - simply go onto the 'settings' page in the web interface (I'd strongly recommend a bookmark / favourite for this page!) and tap in the details under 'New Directory' at the bottom. You might want to remove the default shares - the usual crap like 'my videos' etc.

After that it's time to enjoy your vast library of intellectual programming from the comfort of your sofa!

The S370 can also, should you be interested in buying one, access the BBC iPlayer service and Demand Five. Oddly enough the Demand Five service is the faster and more easy to use of the two, but regardless of that just having them directly on the TV rather than using a computer is an excellent feature. It also supports several other 'on demand' services dependant on geography, I'm obviously using mine in the UK. It's well worth a hundred quid (£120 at time of going to press, sorry looks like I got a bargain!) of anyone's money.

The steps above will also apply to users of the BDP-S570 (flash gits) and any Bravia television sets with DLNA capabilities.

Indie devs not fans of the new new xbox experience

2010-11-04T15:11:00.001Z

I like the look of the new xbox dashboard, it's pretty clean. But it's also kinda sparse, as if they cleaned up a bit too much. I can't find any of the stuff anymore! Which is precisely what indie game developers are worried about...

The Xbox 360's newly launched dashboard has been met with criticism from developers of Xbox LIVE Indie Games as the console's bake your own service is demoted to its darkest corner.

Once a prominent part of the Game Marketplace, Xbox LIVE Indie Games are now bundled together with the Avatar Marketplace and Game Room as part of a new section titled Speciality Shops – a move that has attracted derision from developers.

"I'd like to know the rationale behind it - at least then the community could try and come up with constructive alternatives, rather than being pushed further into obscurity," said App Hub forum user and developer of Indie title Clover Deej in comments picked up by Gamastura.

uk.xboxlive.ign.com

Fable III seems to be taking names

2010-11-01T23:01:00.000Z

Hooray, killing dogs!

These kind of games are not for me. This has been a very popular example of 'these types of games' and I guess all those millions of people can't be wrong.
Well... they can actually. But I'm sure they're not.

uk.gamespot.com

Red Undead Redemption

2010-10-27T23:45:00.003+01:00

Rockstar want another tenner. Looks reasonably fun though.

Now for some really important gaming news from IGN

2010-10-27T23:43:00.001+01:00

Look, Atari pants.

Don't get me wrong, this is a fantastic use of time and resources. But why is IGN producing it?

THQ just don't give a damn

2010-10-27T23:39:00.000+01:00

"Frankly, the last thing I think the industry needs now is new hardware. You look at the games coming out on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 now and they look stunning,"

"Better graphics? They're pretty darn good now. Better sound? No. Gameplay? Probably not. So I think the ways games are evolving now is really a direction we're going. Where it's going to be is in the play experience; richer stories, better characters, production values that are much more like movies."

"I think that's the direction, rather than technology and graphics. I think those days are over."

Interesting thing for a games publisher to say. I wonder if THQ will produce some seminal games after spouting that. Let's have a look at their schedule. Oh look, Smackdown vs Raw 2011.

uk.xbox360.ign.com

Stunning digital city art, tourists and travel

2010-10-21T16:21:00.000+01:00

These are really beautiful

Some people interpreted the Geotaggers' World Atlas maps to be maps of tourism. This set is an attempt to figure out if that is really true. Some cities (for example Las Vegas and Venice) do seem to be photographed almost entirely by tourists. Others seem to have many pictures taken in piaces that tourists don't visit.

flickr.com via bbc.co.uk

iPads will kill us all

2010-10-21T16:08:00.000+01:00

A study from the July Journal of Applied Microbiology found a high risk of transmitting pathogens from glass surfaces like the iPad's to human skin. "If you're sharing the device, then you're sharing your influenza with someone else who touches it," coauthor and Stanford doctoral student Timothy Julian told the Sacramento Bee. "If you put virus on a surface, like an iPhone, about 30 percent of it will get on your fingertips." From there a virus can travel to your nose or eyes and infect you.

This was Steve's plan all along...

gawker.com

Windows Phone 7 hits

2010-10-12T13:56:00.000+01:00

Microsoft today unveiled a new range of smartphones it hopes will rival the phenomenal success of Apple's iPhone.

The company wants its new operating system, Windows Phone 7 (WP7), to put its mobile business back in the running against not just Apple, but also Google, which makes the Android phone software, among others.

Speaking at a launch event in New York this afternoon, Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer said: 'Everybody should be able to take a look at a Windows Phone and say it can represent me.'

Pretty snazzy... and if Stephen Fry, obviously the most intelligent man in the world, likes it... it must be good!

dailymail.co.uk

I want one of these

2010-09-15T12:58:00.000+01:00

Boxee is a pretty swish media-computer type front end, spun off of the excellent XMBC project.

Now Boxee comes in a box, and it looks hella cool. Apple TV can get to.. well, it can go away.

How cool is that? It plays just about everything through HDMI in full 1080p (assuming the content is hi-def, obviously) including, alledgedly, BBC iPlayer and assorted other on demand services. It also does an arse load of other clever stuff, which I'll let you read about on their own site.

It's coming pretty soon, and price looks like being about £200. That's twice as much as the apple TV, but it does more than twice as much stuff.

I can't wait.

boxee.tv and blog.boxee.tv

Free Prince of Persia loving, even on Windows 7

2010-09-13T14:21:00.007+01:00

*slam* dulununu nuuuuuuu

Hot on the heels (ish) of the free Syndicate love, another absolute classic that you 100% need to rediscover or, if you are under the age of 20 something, play for the first time and realise how much more care went into games design before everything was just a slightly different version of Gears of War.

The original Prince of Persia (POP) is a beautiful game. For it's day, and even now, the simple graphics are really very attractive and serve the game perfectly. The game story and mechanics are equally simple and yet frustratingly challenging and addictive. You are there to save the princess. Yup that's it. Kinda like Mario. There is just one 'button' which if you weren't a veteran or didn't have a manual could take a while to find (I remember when I first got the game I must have pressed every key to find it).

It's shift. There. You owe me.

Pretty much everything is done with the shift key. Movement is, shockingly, controlled with the arrow cursors - left and right should be obvious, jumping is up and ducking is down. Running jumps and funny little crouch hops can be achieved with combinations thereof. Shift is used for clinging onto ledges, taking single steps (very useful for hazards, you'll work it out) and for the marvellously basic sword fights. Pressing up in a swordfight will block, pressing down will usually make you die (try it). Up also enters the end of stage doors. You should figure out quite early that the pushplates on the floor open gates and doors; each end of stage door has one of these plates, but not always on the same screen.

Links to files:

abandonia.com/en/games/10/Prince+of+Persia

dosbox.com

This game works 'out of the box' in combination with DOSBOX. Follow all the directions in the Syndicate tutorial to install and set up your DOSBOX options first (minus the specific parts about 'synd.bat'). Extract the game files to PRINCE under your dos games folder. Run by changing directory to PRINCE and the command to start the game is, yes, PRINCE.

cd prince [enter]
prince [enter]

The game is fairly unique in that it's designed to be played straight through in one go! You have one hour (real time) to save your beloved princess. If you don't make it, you fail. Start again. Unforgiving, yes, but brilliant as well. You have unlimited 'lives' but die and you will start at the beginning of the stage (the big blue ornate door).

Enjoy, and be sure to support the awesome people over at abandonia.com!

PS whilst this game is basically an hour long see-if-you-can-complete-it affair, it does apparently have a save/load option within it's key set.

CTRL+Q - Quit Game
CTRL+A - Restart Level
CTRL+R - Restart Game
CTRL+S - Sound On/Off
CTRL+G – Save Game
~~CTRL+L~~ SHIFT+L – Load Game
ESC - Pause Game

edit: except saving doesn't seem to work in DOSBOX. Will find out how!
Ah-ha! Fixed. Told you shift did everything.

Hack your PS3 for 18 bucks

2010-09-03T16:42:00.002+01:00

Not that I am condoning this in any way, I hasten to say, some clever (and perhaps a bit naughty) people have released instructions for an $18 ps3 hack.

Hot on the heels of the announcement that Sony had won an injunction against a number of companies selling pre-programmed USB dongles containing the hack code, the programmers behind the exploit have released the code into the wild, allowing anyone with the wherewithal to fillet the gaming hardware's legendarily uncooperative OS.

In fact, anyone with around $18 to spend on a USB reference board such as the one offered by Teensy (it's currently sold out... we wonder why?) and the ability to follow the instructions offered by Github will soon be playing homebrew games and using unsigned apps to their heart's content.

Requires a little bit of geekiness. But if you didn't have any of that you probably wouldn't even be reading this.

thinq.co.uk

New iPod nano

2010-09-03T12:37:00.001+01:00

There comes a time when things really don't need to get any smaller, and I think that time has been reached. Any smaller and this is going to be impossible to use, hell most Americans thumbs are going to be too fat to touch less than 3 buttons at once already.

Decent holding, but a clear amateur. One for the future, maybe.

The size of this thing seems to have been constrained only by the size of the dock connector, so it's fortunate that the connector is reasonably wide. Suggested prices are $149 for 8GB or $179 for 16GB models.

The nano is now almost the same size as the screen-less shuffle, meaning persuading the person you bought the gift for that the shuffle is better 'because it's so much smaller' is no longer a valid excuse for saving all that precious extra money.

Shrewd move, Apple.

engadget.com

New apple TV is 'king small

2010-09-02T18:34:00.000+01:00

Excellent thing holding.

Apple, employers of the world's finest hand models, have released their new ridicu-bloody-small Apple TV. Apparently about the size of a couple of fag packets, it has lost a few features (composite out is gone, but I'm sure an HDMI adapter could solve that) but is a pretty tempting streamer at it's new price of 99 quid.

The only annoying thing (other than having to admit that an Apple product is tempting, which always hurts) is that our American cousins are paying $99 for it.

If it can stream from programs OTHER than iTunes, this is looking close to being an essential product. It's entirely noiseless, which makes it infinitely quieter than my 360. Actually it makes it infinitely quieter than everything, but you fellow 360 streamers get what I mean.

See more at apple.com

itproportal.com

Microsoft xbox controller redesign

2010-09-02T18:26:00.000+01:00

Apparently these guys can make a revolutionary (really?) twisting d-pad, but stereo sound in their videos is too much to ask for.

Anyway MS has 'updated' it's controller by removing the kinda useful colour coding on the buttons, and making the d-pad optionally more playstation-like.

All for the bargain price of $65 (with a play&charge kit, which you should all have already unless you're a bit special or just particularly enjoy buying batteries. Maybe the girl in the shop is cute. Maybe you're just strange.)

Thanks itproportal

itproportal.com

Telltale making Back To The Future adventure game

2010-09-02T18:18:00.003+01:00

Telltale, makers of the modern episodic Sam & Max games, are making a BTTF adventure game and have confirmed the real voice of Doc 'one point twenty one jiggawatts' Brown (Christopher Lloyd).

I didn't really feel the new S&M games were up to the awesomeness of the original, but they certainly had charm. Regardless, it's nice to see that adventure games are even still being made. The fact that this one is centered around the almost-too-good BTTF universe is just a bonus.

Let's hope they don't end up with a load of manure. I hate manure.

AWESOME RELATED NEWS:
The original movie is being re-released into UK cinemas in October in super-duper mega-high-def amazing-o-vision. If it's not on at the BFI IMAX I'll be screwing. See you there!

computerandvideogames.com

RDR movie in the works?

2010-08-27T10:23:00.000+01:00

Sorry to those movie execs who had this fantastic 'idea' but... well, it's stupid isn't it. It's like doing a movie adaptation of the Mafia games, which are clearly games taking their inspiration from movies. They seem to think they'll have Brad Pitt in it, which should guarantee a few ticket sales no matter how bad it is I suppose.

Red Dead Redemption is no doubt wonderful (that's right, I still haven't played it) but from excerpts I've watched and the opinion of others (which, granted, I usually try to ignore) it seems it's very much influenced by the old great westerns. To make a movie adaptation of a game adaptation of a movie is just plain daft.

Besides, it's been done (ish)

showbizspy.com

Gearbox announcing new game at PAX

2010-08-25T20:58:00.002+01:00

Speculation is 'rife', as rife as speculation can be between the 2 or 3 people that probably really care about this, that it could be the hilariously delayed Duke Nukem Forever.

This time around does seem ever so slightly more like being truthful than the many previous suggestions of this game actually being made. Still seems pretty unlikely though.

It's always bemused me how PAX came to even exist, why Valve would be announcing their 'big new game' there is even more confusing. Not long to wait to find out what it actually is.

paxsite.com

Microsoft shows those 'optimus' guys how it's done.

2010-08-20T17:58:00.001+01:00

Ever seen those 'art lebedev' keyboards with a tiny little screen in each key? Pretty cool, yes, ridiculous effing expensive, oh yes. I can only imagine they're designed for twats with expensive apple macs and desks made of money.

They're not just expensive, they're stupid expensive, so much so that I can't imagine why anyone would ever buy one and how any foolish investors could keep the company afloat.

This concept uses just one screen that in some magical way shines through all the keys. This video is fairly dull, but does eventually show how cool this concept is. Concept, yes, apparently they won't be making these any time soon. Sniff.

Some very nice ideas highlighted in the video. The keyboard is being used at some kind of innovation contest to see what budding little hackers fresh out of their first year can do with it. Hopefully one of them will find a way to sell it to the mass market for a hundred bucks a piece.

hackaday.com

artlebedev.com

New Street Fighter X Tekken video

2010-08-20T17:03:00.001+01:00

As ridiculous as beat 'em ups can get, this one seems to pushing the envelope even further.

APB creator goes bust, crap game likely cause...

2010-08-17T23:15:00.004+01:00

Pioneering Dundee-based computer games company Realtime Worlds has gone into administration putting hundreds of jobs at risk. The company, founded by the creator of Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto, is based at a former jute mill in the city.

It employs about 250 people and was seen as one of the biggest players in the global computer games market. Its newest title, online role-playing game APB, launched a few weeks ago but has experienced "lacklustre" demand.

Lacklustre indeed. Even the boxart is enough to show you how shit the game is going to be, no wonder it didn't do well.

Now this is a game I would play.

Still, shame.

bbc.co.uk

Bioshock Infinite has a creepy trailer

2010-08-14T15:03:00.002+01:00

And here it is.

Tropico 4 announced

2010-08-13T19:06:00.000+01:00

I love Tropico 3 (never played an earlier one), if only to make the life for my minions shitty while making myself filthy rich. It's a bit like a dictatorship simulator (if you choose to play it that way).

Tropico 4 is coming and I can only assume it will just be prettier and make my PC seem even older. In fact there seems little point, although we can but hope for some actual gameplay improvements.

The last part of this little preview, however, is terrifyingly sickening.

The game is being developed by Bulgarian video game developer, Haemimont Games. Tropico 4 will see the return of El Presidente to the paradise Island of Tropico in an attempt to establish the small nation as a worldwide superpower.

Tropico 4 will feature 20 missions on 10 new maps and introduce a number of new features including the ability to elect ministers, who can be used to push controversial decisions through the government.

The game will also feature social interaction with Facebook and Twitter integration.

What a horrible world this is.

computerandvideogames.com

Mafia 2 trailer

2010-08-12T01:16:00.000+01:00

Legend has it this is going to be shit. Shame, I liked the first one a lot (except the boring long unskippable drives).

It's out in a couple of weeks, I'm sure there'll be a few good reviews along soon.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

2010-08-10T14:35:00.007+01:00

This looks like being the most Infinity Ward-y Treyarch COD game yet. Have they finally caught up? Or did they just take the engine and a load of graphics and borrow one of the set-piece scripters from the MW team?

Whatever, it looks pretty decent. Mostly though I want to know how much interaction I get with the SR71!

Get your pre-orders in pronto.

Don't forget this very early sneak peek, since which time things have changed a little.

How to play Syndicate on Windows 7, FREE!

2010-08-05T16:26:00.009+01:00

Since that last post I was inspired to see if there might be any way to get this game... amazingly, it's pretty bloody easy AND it's entirely free! What a treat!

First you need the game (shock). Download it here

freegameempire.com/games/Syndicate

Then you need this natty bit of software called DOSBOX, get that here

dosbox.com

You will need the win32 version... don't bother with a 'front end', it's not complicated and it might teach you something about how us old folks had to get our games working.

For the benefits of this 'tutorial', I will be using some drive names and folder names which may differ to yours, hopefully you will be intelligent enough to substitute.

Extract the files from the syndicate download (zip file) to your preferred disk, for me that's E:\, and into a folder, I put it in E:\DOS\SYND. I recommend having a 'DOS' folder to collate the other old games you will doubtless seek out after this one. For the actual game folder, stick to a folder name under 8 letters (hence SYND not SYNDICATE), it makes things easier (back in the old days, we couldn't use more than 8 letters for anything...).

Next install DOSBOX, I installed it to E:\DOSBOX but you can put it where you like really.

Now we have a few settings to fiddle with in DOSBOX. Jump through the start menu and find DOSBOX, and find the shortcut for 'options'. The configuration file will load up in notepad, don't be scared, go to the bottom where it says [autoexec] and, below the comments, add the following:

mount c: e:\dos
c:

This is to make things easier when we come to running games. Oh, and this is where you need to make your relevant substitution for 'E' to the drive you used. Leave the C intact.

Almost done... navigate to your SYND folder and edit the 'synd.bat' file. This may just show up as 'synd', if you have filetypes hidden (which is normal). To edit it, right click and hit 'edit', notepad will load. Change the '/iirq5' to '/iirq7', save and quit.

Still in the SYND folder, copy all the files (not folders) into the folder inside it called DATA. If it asks to replace choose yes or no, it really doesn't matter. Don't ask why we do this step, I don't really know, but the sound won't work otherwise.

Apparently these steps are no longer necessary (ignore the image also). Not sure whether that's due to advancements in DOSBOX or a change in the Syndicate package.

We're ready! Run DOSBOX from it's shortcut, and you will be presented with this:

Type the following commands

cd SYND [enter] (assuming you unpacked to this folder)
START [enter]

Away we go! Hit alt+enter for full screen, and enjoy some nostalgia.

Be sure to visit freegameempire.com and show them your support, God bless 'em!

Updated 20/12/11

Syndicate remake on the cards?

2010-08-05T11:18:00.003+01:00

Gamespot thinks so.

Evidence continues to mount that Electronic Arts and Swedish developer Starbreeze are at work on a reboot of Bullfrog Productions' classic cyberpunk tactical action game Syndicate. The latest comes by way of a trio of new trademark applications that surfaced in the US Patent and Trademark Office yesterday.

As for Starbreeze's involvement in the franchise, EA announced a partnership with The Darkness developer to "reinvent" one of the publisher's "most acclaimed classic franchises" in February 2008. That game, which currently bears the title Project RedLime, was one of two commissioned by EA.

This was an epic game. I played it at my mate's house on level-by-level because my PC wasn't fast enough to run it, sniff sniff. He had a 486DX2, the posh twat. An almost straight remake (new missions I suppose) with today's graphics could be pretty cool. Not sure if it would interest any of the kids though. My current PC probably won't be fast enough for the new one either.

Just please don't fudge it up, EA... maybe I should head to their offices with my persuadatron...

uk.gamespot

NFS Hot Pursuit looks a bit nicer than the old one

2010-07-31T11:54:00.009+01:00

How lazy are they that they couldn't think of a new name? Hot Pursuit 2? No they already made that, too. Nothing wrong with Hot Pursuit 3 though. It's like movie makers. You can't just remake something and give it exactly the same name! Hot Pursuit 2010? No sorry that's really lame.

Anyway, it looks pretty good, albeit a bit like Burnout Paradise crossed with Test Drive Unlimited with an added police mode.

EDIT: This is a much nicer version of the first part of the video:

Apologies (on someone else's behalf) for crappy sound but it is the best video.

It's made by the Burnout Paradise guys, which might explain the rather stark similarities in ridiculously over the top crashes, so hopefully it will actually be half decent. The crashing-until-the-other-car-is-buggered looks excellently reminiscent of Chase HQ, which is pretty much one of my favourite games ever.

gamehounds

A very sad BBC article about PCZone

2010-07-29T16:05:00.004+01:00

Good times.

You may have to read the article to understand the basis for that hilarious animal cruelty...

Sales of the magazine started a slow decline, old staff started to drift away and puerile humour was no longer in vogue.
In 2004 the magazine was sold to Future Publishing, who imposed stricter budgetary controls, brought in new staff and redesigned the magazine.

"The closure of PC Zone is the end of an era," said Mr Brooker.

Puerile humour will always be in vogue. Took me a few times to spell it, mind.

Damn you all to hell, Future Publishing.

bbc

Goldeneye on Wii is going to be shit

2010-07-27T19:01:00.004+01:00

I was excited! Maybe you were excited too! I tried to make you excited! How could you not be? Goldeneye, possibly the best fps on console and definitely the best four player split screen fps ever, revamped for a modern (well, -ish) console! Yes! Yes! YES!

Well, I was wrong. By all accounts it appears that this is actually going to be a steaming pile of turd.

Eurocom have been big fans of Bond for many years, and we were privileged to develop 'The World is Not Enough' on the N64, followed by our work on 'Nightfire' (Gamecube, PS2, Xbox) and then later by 'Quantum of Solace' (PS2). After our work on 'Quantum', we began to talk with Activision, and the licensors Danjaq, about a new Bond game development. It was during those discussions that the idea of reinterpreting the film GoldenEye on the Wii came about.
The first thing we need to point out is that we're approaching this with a fresh perspective. As such, the main beats of the storyline remain, as well as most of the iconic movie settings you'd hope to see.
We're basing it in the world of Daniel Craig's Bond, rather than Pierce Brosnan's Bond and this means a grittier, more cinematic feel with large explosive set pieces and more emphasis on Bond's physical strength.
It also has to stand alongside other contemporary first person shooters - it's a new, fresh game in it's own right.

So.. it's made by the team that made all the rubbish Bond games, and it's an entirely new game based on the Goldeneye movie but with the wrong Bond in it.

Idiots. If they just remade Goldeneye N64 scene for scene with sexy graphics they'd make billions. Sigh.
Release it on XBL you bastards!

officialnintendomagazine

Give the people what they want.

2010-07-27T13:30:00.002+01:00

Ok so here's more tits.

Actually, credit where it's due, this is a really nicely put together video.
It's probably one button in Apple iYoutube or whatever, but still it's nice.

Comic Con Booth Whores

2010-07-27T13:15:00.003+01:00

Now now, don't be upset. I'm using the word 'whore' in it's truest sense, selling your body for money. Nothing wrong with that now. These girls are basically human billboards.

To all those 'booth babes' who are actually massive fans of the things written in big letters across their tits, I am willing to retract the statement. But, again, it's nothing to be ashamed of, ladies. If I had massive tits I'd get some corporate sponsorship for those puppies.

Street Fighter X Tekken !?

2010-07-27T13:10:00.003+01:00

This actually is a bit exciting, provided you're about as old as I am and spent all your pocket money as a kid on a slightly broken Street Fighter 2 arcade machine.

Yoshinori Ono from Capcom and Katsuhiro Harada from Namco played against each other in a quick match. During gameplay, Ryu called in Chun Li to help him out and Kazuya called in Nina Williams for a ridiculous team-up attack. They fought on a futuristic battlefield with giant mechs roaming in the background. The game was running on a PlayStation 3. Visually, it looked very similar to Street Fighter IV with 2D gameplay and 3D rendered character models.

Street Fighter X Tekken is being developed for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. When will it be out? Capcom says "not for a while." Namco also said it is creating its own version of the game, Tekken X Street Fighter, but details on that aren't available at this time.

What's that last bit all about?

Halo: Reach has a forklift in it

2010-07-27T12:45:00.000+01:00

Yep, this is today's exciting news. Lap it up.

A Bungie representative told IGN that originally the forklift had the ability to raise and lower, but that feature got cut because it was just too crazy and pointless.

That's right folks, it doesn't even work. Excited yet?

uk.xbox360.ign

Starcraft 2 is not exciting

2010-07-23T11:32:00.001+01:00

Yes it's called Starcraft 2, not Starcraft II. We finally got rid of those pesky Romans years ago, why honour them by using their silly number system?

Anyway, I remember Starcraft fondly. It was good fun. Not amazing, but good fun. Clicking on those little dudes, sending them off to their death and then being raped by annoying little reptile type monster things. Good stuff.

But somehow the PR machine at Blizzard has the world foaming at the mouth for the sequel. No surprise, these people are clearly masters of mind control (see World of Warcraft for details), but c'mon... really?

They release exciting trailers like this...

.. but don't let it fool you! It's still just a top-down fake 3D 2D C&C'em up. Really, it looks like... Starcraft! With sharper graphics! Shocking.

Don't believe the hype!

Unless you're Korean. In which case this is like crack for you. I know you can't resist buying it. Get help.

Valve giving away their new game 'Alien Swarm'

2010-07-20T13:20:00.002+01:00

It looks kinda like a cross between a top-down Left4Dead and the old classic Alien Breed games.

There's plenty more videos to check on the site, in case you're not sure if you want to download it. However, it's FREE so there's not much to complain about. I guess they want to up the numbers of people playing on Steam.

store.steampowered

No more PCZone!

2010-07-15T19:07:00.000+01:00

super lo-res logo

What the cock? PCZone is being cancelled!

I always bought this magazine until the internet made it easy for me to get all the information for free and much more quickly. Why on Earth would they possibly think about cancelling it?

If you are/were a PCZone lover/reader/hater then you have an opportunity to have an effect on the final episode, be it with an article or a mention or with a personal insult in reply to your retarded letter.

You can do it by looking here.

It went downhill when they dumped Culky anyway.

Brooker had this to say: "PC Zone was a cross between Viz and Which? magazine. It never took anything too seriously, least of all itself. It was also where I learned to write, so if you hate my flippant, manic-depressive 'style', blame PC Zone.

"Often the reviews were quite long: you'd have to write four or five pages on Tomb Raider, say, which offered plenty of scope for going off on tangents or penning lengthy nonsensical screeds. There was an attitude of 'anything goes provided it's funny'. It was as much comedy mag as games mag.

"I guess its demise is inevitable. Actually, I'm impressed it lasted as long as it did, given the dominance of consoles, and the sheer wealth of reviews and so forth you can find for free online. The mag itself may have died, but the general tone and character of PC Zone lives on in British gaming sites and forums, and in Ben Croshaw's Zero Punctuation pieces and the like."

guardian

New Xbox reviewed

2010-07-15T18:55:00.000+01:00

The shiny new xbox comes out tomorrow somewhere (perhaps even here?), so here's CVG's review of it.

Speaking to Microsoft reps at the unboxing event, we were told repeatedly that the firm believes this is the best console it's ever made. We make them right. This is the solid, polished machine it should have been to begin with. If PS3 had one undeniable advantage over 360 in the past it was in the hardware stakes, but MS has truly stepped up its game.

We want one. You should too.

cvg

How the 3DS works

2010-07-14T21:04:00.000+01:00

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh...

Stereoscopic 3D has been around for a very long time. Many of us had toys that used the effect when we were kids in the form of a View-Master. The way the 3D works is that two nearly identical images are presented, one to each eye. Your brain combines the images into a single image, which creates depth in the single image. The reason the depth effect works is because each image is slightly different from a perspective standpoint, and when the image is fused in your brain, both perspectives are preserved, making the scene look alive.

Below I have a good example piece. To make it work you’ll have to cross your eyes until you see a 3rd image between the two. Focus on that 3rd (middle) image and it should come into focus. You may have to get closer to your monitor (10 to 12 inches) to make it work. If you do it correctly, the image should clarify and show depth to it. Try it now.

I may, possibly, have used a different example image.

stupidgamer

Ok I think I have to buy Red Dead Redemption

2010-07-13T14:58:00.001+01:00

I hate admitting that popular games might actually be good, and I hate agreeing with RICHARD about anything, but the hype and the chatter has all gotten too much now. I need to play.

No-one seems to remember Red Dead Revolver though. Maybe I'll pick that up and dust off the ol' PS2...

Oh, praps the 360 would play the old xbox version?

Pro Evo 2011 looks... I dunno, pretty?

2010-07-13T14:35:00.010+01:00

I love Pro Evo. No matter how much better FIFA might get, I'll always claim Pro Evo is superior. But I still play '08 because I absolutely hated the shit they changed with '09 and '10.

This video for '11 looks pretty slick, but I can't tell how much is game options/settings and how much is video frill (I think it's mostly the latter).

Have a look courtesy of gamespot.

More games need big heads

2010-07-13T12:01:00.000+01:00

I was reading some IGN (yes I was bored) and came across this marvellous looking gem called 'Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2010'.

As with all crazy games like this it seems to have some form of Pokemon esque boring conversation pieces, although this might be the team talk or something. The next bewildering part is probably a lot less bewildering if you understand Japanese. Plus I think this is an old crusty PS2 version or something.

Anyway, it made me think. Big heads are, obviously, the most heart-warmingly hilarious thing in the world. So why are they so horrifically underused? The best we get is 'big head mode', which of course you have played in Goldeneye.

Sorry about the Scottish twats (thanks for the video guys!)

Super Mario Crossover

2010-07-09T00:01:00.002+01:00

I just spent ages looking for a NES on ebay so I could play super mario bros, then I found this. It's a pretty awesome remake. Plus you can play as the dude from Contra... complete with gun.

PS it takes AGES to load, and then when it has it takes AGES to load AGAIN for some reason. But it's worth it. To be this good takes ages!

AAAH HE SAID IT!

SuperMarioBrothers.org

PS Move much better video

2010-07-08T16:28:00.000+01:00

Those crazy japanese marketing people have come up trumps.
Don't forget the strapu!

PS Move FAQ

2010-07-08T15:55:00.001+01:00

Since I devoted a few posts to Kinect, it only seems fair to take a look at the daft looking stupid coloured balls of Playstation Move.

The PlayStation Move is coming to a PS3 near you, and it's bringing a brand new way to play. The next sword fighting game you play might require you to get off the couch and pick up your weapon, and a future level you dive into in LittleBigPlanet might need you to rotate the world with your hands.

We at IGN aren't going to abandon you as motion makes its way to the masses. Here, we've gathered the most common PlayStation Move questions and paired them with the answers we know. As we get more and more information, we'll update this FAQ.

I can't tell if their 'FAQ' is wrong/rubbish or if specs have changed, since both these Sony videos have two silly little balls on the controllers but the article says only one hand gets one. Maybe it's just because the video is 100% faked and the marketing company making it wasn't briefed properly.

Apparently the future of video games unavoidably involves looking like a twat.

uk.ps3.ign

'New interface' coming to XBL

2010-07-07T10:29:00.002+01:00

Not so much a total overhaul (a la 'NXE') but basically it seems just a new Arcade browser.

There are over 250 games available on the Xbox Live Arcade, and more come out every week. It's easy to find new titles, but browsing the XBLA library to find something to play isn't fun, and older content is hardly featured. Microsoft is going to try to fix that with the Destination Arcade visual browser, launching next week.

Major Nelson has the scoop. "Destination Arcade will allow you to discover new games and content you enjoy through an easy-to-use visual browser. You’ll have the ability to sort by price, community rating, and more! Also, stay up to date on the latest arcade releases through a news feed and also find out what games your friends like and recommend."

There's a brief little look at it in this video, I hope you can stomach the boredom of the voiceover. Video should start at the relevant point (1:01).

arstechnica

Vanquish looks fun

2010-07-06T20:34:00.001+01:00

It's as if SEGA made Gears of War. Wait. It basically is SEGA making Gears of War, but complete with all the stupid effects and jetpackiness you would expect from those lovely folk.

In Vanquish, the story is set in the near future. Russia and the United States are vying for ownership of the world’s fast-depleting energy resources and the US has constructed a space station in order to harness energy from the sun. Russian forces capture this space station and divert its harvested solar energy into a blast wave that destroys San Francisco, aiming to force the US into a total and unconditional surrender. In response, the US tasks its armed forces with recapturing the space station before the Russians can annihilate their next target – New York. The player will take control of Sam, a government agent kitted out with a futuristic battlesuit.

Blimey. Bullet time looks fun. It's still basically Gears though, innit?

gameranx

14 Saturn games UGO want to see again

2010-07-06T20:26:00.002+01:00

Seems UGO are excited about the Saturn back catalogue too. They made some good suggestions as to what they think should be re-released onto XBL and PSN, including the amazing Fighters Megamix! You could play as the damn Daytona car. How good?

And Radiant Silvergun for those of you who like having their EYES BURNED OUT.

UGO

Am I doing it right?

2010-07-06T20:06:00.001+01:00

I'm trying...

xkcd

"Hottest girls playing video games"

2010-07-06T18:46:00.001+01:00

Spreading this does make me feel a little bit dirty. I'm certain I'll get over it though.

PUNCHAFISH.COM (really?) introduces the Top 10: Hottest girls playing video games!
Rather amusing in it's ridiculousness, although I can't say that I didn't enjoy it just a little.

The girl playing counter-strike with no mouse is pretty amazing (wow!). And it should come as no surprise that all of these girls (and all girls everywhere, right?) play their games in some varying state of undress.

That's number 10 that is. Sets the bar.

She's number 7. Quite a lot of missed gates, disappointing.

I think perhaps the count-down is backwards, or number 1 is the author's girlfriend/wife. You'll understand if you bother to look at them all.

Anyway, pretty daft but gotta be a good crowd puller. Well done punchafish!

punchafish

Console wars 2010 style

2010-07-05T20:16:00.003+01:00

It used to be so simple. You chose one, then had a fight with anyone at school who chose otherwise. Unless you were a dick you chose Megadrive (or Genesis if you were geographically challenged). DKC was pretty good though... oooh and mario kart...

Anyway Gamesradar has pit the modern day big hitters (MS, Sony, Ninty and 'PC') up against one another. Guess what, the PC wins! Oh wait, I mean SPOILER ALERT: the PC wins!

That's the new fallout that is, which will be sexier on the PC. It'll still be fucking annoying when you're lost in the desert with only a shitty gun with 3 bullets and some fat bastard animal that keeps killing you because you replaced your really comfy quicksave with the one you made 10 seconds ago when it spots you walking by. Definitely. But the graphics will be nicer.

Since when is 'PC' a console, though?

gamesradar

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II

2010-07-05T19:03:00.001+01:00

Force Unleashed passed me by, I'll be honest (the last Star Wars game I really got into was X-Wing vs Tie Fighter... maybe Dark Forces...) but apparently a lot of you fans were a little disappointed by it.

Well, this sequel certainly looks pretty "kick-ass" and according to IGN it looks like it will play that way too.

Combat is designed to be flexible, so Starkiller can combine powers in a variety of ways. The Lightning Grenade, for instance, allows him to Force Grip an enemy, charge him with lightning and then throw him at other enemies for explosive results. Lightsaber attacks and Force powers can also be combined, so players can do things like charge up their lightsaber with lightning for extra attack power.

Shiny!

We mentioned earlier that the team sees this game as its Empire Strikes Back, and this is a theme that Blackman returns to a number of times. "Not only is it the second in what we hope to be a saga," he says, "but it also is a much darker story, just like Empire Strikes Back is a darker story than A New Hope, and it's a much more personal story – Starkiller's on this quest to be re-united with Juno and figure out who he is, much the same as Empire Strikes back is a more personal, character-driven movie than the first Star Wars." Here's hoping LucasArts delivers on The Force Unleashed's full potential second time around.

Lovely closing paragraph. Nice work.

uk.xbox360.ign

Nintendo 3DS: Your Questions Answered

2010-07-05T11:33:00.001+01:00

Thanks, IGN!

The way the 3D screens work, it's sending independent views of the action to each of your eyes. It definitely has to be held straight in front of you for it to work, so no looking on at an angle. The screen must also be held at a specific distance from the eyes and pretty straight on otherwise the two screens won't merge and you'll just see double images.

Coming soon, the new 3DS Head Stabiliser.

Anyway, hasn't this all been done before?

ds.IGN

Guy puts a camera in his eye

2010-07-02T11:16:00.002+01:00

Eyeborg Phase II from eyeborg on Vimeo

At face value this is a pretty cool idea. So far it doesn't look as if it works very well though.
Plus, as much as I wish I was in awe of this guy, he seems to be a bit of a tit. I guess 'Canadian film-maker' (especially the second part) should have been a clue.

Still, kinda funky.

boingboing

Not just Dreamcast, Saturn coming to XBL/PSN too?!

2010-07-01T09:29:00.002+01:00

After finding out that Dreamcast back titles could be on the way, it seems maybe some Saturn classics could come too!

"When you look globally the Genesis and Dreamcast are well known," explained SEGA's Yosuke Okunari to Japanese site Impress Watch (translated, as ever, by Andriasang).

"But Saturn is unknown. During that period, PlayStation and Nintendo 64 were a success overseas, but to be honest Saturn was not a success. Because of this, we decided on Dreamcast.

"What we announced this time is a project where we will have consecutive releases of titles that were debuted on Dreamcast. Separate from this, we're of course thinking about ports of Saturn games. It's the same as how SEGA Ages and Virtual Console were separate existences. It's not that we have no intention of porting Saturn titles, so please share your requests."

NiGHTS!!!

And I guess stuff like Panzer Dragoon, and the million beat 'em ups that were out on Saturn.

eurogamer

EA wants to top-kill the pre-owned games market

2010-06-30T15:32:00.002+01:00

The publisher has been one of the leading lights in the DLC code movement that sees those who buy pre-owned games locked out of certain in-game content.
In EA’s case, this will soon include online multiplayer. Those who buy a used game will have to fork out for a new code directly from the publisher to access the blocked content.

I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that EA can just go fuck themselves.

mcvuk

Gears 3

2010-06-30T15:13:00.000+01:00

A whiny voiced 'j o o' (to quote Herr Cartman) interviewing an oddly pumped up looking game production type, all introduced by an attractive girl who presumably doesn't know where she is.
It can only be an IGN video.

Warning: very annoying voices, like, totally.

Looks fun. Looks quite a lot like GOW1 and GOW2.

Kinect costs as much as an xbox?

2010-06-30T14:34:00.002+01:00

The pissed off CEO of 'ShopTO' (maybe he's pissed off because no-one has heard of his shop?) has his knickers in a twist over the prospective £130 price tag on Microsoft's souped up webcam.

The store lists the device at £124.86, with a Recommended Retail Price of £129.99 along with a launch date of 19th November. CEO Igor Cipolletta told Eurogamer that, while these figures are but a mere "placeholder," that Microsoft's rumoured U.S. pricing of $149 is correct and that ShopTo's prices simply reflect that.

Cipolletta said of such intended price points; "It's too high. We believe that with this current economy it should be around £70. For £140 you can buy a Wii." He adds that pre-orders for the device are "very low."

Sod a Wii, I certainly paid less than £140 for my 360 and that was quite some time ago. That kind of money for a fairly gimmicky looking (for now at least) add-on is pretty horrific. I guess I'll have to wait a while until I can flail my arms around wildly in front of the television, or navigate my movies like Tom Cruise.

Some good news is that the annoying little kid tech demo 'Milo' that they used for all their promo videos seemingly will be released. Phew!

news.spong

The whole BP thing will be fiiiiiiine

2010-06-29T23:01:00.002+01:00

OK so this is a bit off topic but I've got a bunch of BP shares and I'm getting tired of hearing how evil they are and (moreso) how much money I'm going to lose.

xkcd

Dreamcast classics coming to XBL / PSN

2010-06-29T21:48:00.002+01:00

“The Dreamcast is fondly remembered by a large community of dedicated fans as a console that was ahead of its time in terms of graphics, quality and online gaming” commented Haruki Satomi, VP of Digital Business at SEGA of America and SEGA Europe. “There are few things that are more requested from us than making Dreamcast classics available for download in today’s digital market place. We’re very excited to begin offering gamers our beloved Dreamcast titles again on the current console systems.”
Sonic Adventure will be available for download in Autumn 2010. Both Sonic Adventure and Crazy Taxi will be on display at SEGA’s booth (#2023) at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Damn straight ahead of it's time. 18 Wheeler looked way better than Halo 2 on the 360.

Anyway, this can only be described as good news. 18 Wheeler is one of my all time favourite games - parking challenge mode is the most exciting piece of gaming ever programmed YES IT IS YES IT IS I CAN'T HEAR YOU. So let's hope that comes out... and it doesn't cost too many points...

And for all the 18 Wheeler hating fucktards there'll be stuff like Crazy Taxi, Sonic Adventure, maybe Daytona USA if we're all very good boys. Sega Bass Fishing? Doubtful. Did you know you can use the fishing rod controller as a sword in Soul Calibre? Can we just re-iterate... AHEAD OF IT'S TIME!

blogs.sega