Thursday, January 6, 2011

Gaming Today

Gaming Today

Torchlight Heading To Xbox Live

Posted: 05 Jan 2011 08:16 PM PST

Did I miss something here? Torchlight is a hit PC game coming to Xbox Live, and it’s announced basically as a footnote in a press release right after Microsoft had a 1.5-hour keynote address? Really?

But yeah, Torchlight is coming to Xbox Live, which isn’t strictly a surprise considering Runic has said they wanted to put it on Xbox Live (even through they’re already working on Torchlight II), but there hasn’t been any talk of that in about five months. But yeah, here it is. It’ll be out in February or March as part of this year’s Xbox Live House Party.

The House Party, which they did last year as well, is five weeks in which they put out and really promote a big game every week starting February 16. The first game is Hard Corps: Uprising from Konami, a new old school Hard Corps game, and followed by, in some unknown order, Full House Poker (also on Windows Phone 7), Beyond Good and Evil (yes, it’s the real thing), Bejeweled Blitz Live (weird, since Bejeweled 3 is out on PC) and, yes, Torchlight. The release I got about this did not say what order they’d be coming in aside from that Hard Corps: Uprising is first, so we’ll have to wait for a date.

One last note: Runic also said back in August they want to put Torchlight out on PSN, too, so you can probably expect word on that soon.

Fable Coin Golf Coming to Windows Phone 7

Posted: 05 Jan 2011 08:09 PM PST

The Windows Phone 7 portion of Microsoft’s keynote address Wednesday at CES 2011 sounded a whole lot like a product pitch full of information we’ve already heard, but there was one standout tidbit: a Fable III crossover game will hit the platform…sometime.

A press release followed the keynote that gave the following description:

The best-selling "Fable" franchise is coming exclusively to Windows Phone 7. "Fable: Coin Golf" combines the fun of traditional British pub games with the logic of modern puzzle games to create a rich and entertaining "Fable III" companion experience, allowing players to earn gold and unlock new skills and abilities that can be transferred back to "Fable III" for Xbox 360 and the PC.

We saw a shot of it on the screen during the speech, and it looked basically like minigolf. According to Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, the game connects with Fable III, and any gold you win on Coin Golf (and apparently you win gold there) transfers to your player profile on your Xbox 360.

Halo: Waypoint is already represented on Windows Phone 7, as is Crackdown. Neither of them, however, has minigolf. Well done, Microsoft — niche filled.

Avatar Kinect is a Cartoon Chat Room Like We Thought

Posted: 05 Jan 2011 07:48 PM PST

Turns out, Avatar Kinect is exactly what we all thought it would be: a virtual social networking service that’s coming in an Xbox Live update.

During its keynote address Wednesday at CES 2011 in Las Vegas, Microsoft showed a (kind of short) video about Avatar Kinect, showing exactly how it works. You sit in front of your TV and Kinect sensor, and the camera maps your movement and facial features — a new development — onto your avatar. Then your avatar can sit in a virtual room on your screen with other friends avatars, where you can have conversations.

There are multiple “sets” where you can sit with your friends, and Avatar Kinect will include (some kind of) Facebook compatibility as well — in the video, the actors were using Windows Phone 7 to access Facebook.

Avatar Kinect is free to Xbox Live Gold users in the spring, coming at the same time with the Netflix and Hulu Plus Kinect upgrades, probably in a big dashboard update. The upgrade is free, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft enacts this money making idea Cliffy B tweeted during the keynote.

MS Sells a Ton More Kinects Than They Expected

Posted: 05 Jan 2011 07:24 PM PST

Other news out of Microsoft’s CES keynote, straight from the mouth of  MS CEO Steve Ballmer, is that they sold 8 million goddamn Kinects (that’s over a billion dollars) in its first 60 days of release. They were expecting 5 million, so that number is kinda crazy. On top of that, they had sold about 2.5 million of the things in its first 25 days on the market, so obviously that pace ramped up furiously as Christmas approached. S–t, man. That’s a ton of folks ready to take advantage of motion-controlled Hulu and Netflix.

Kinect-Operated Netflix, Hulu Plus Coming This Spring

Posted: 05 Jan 2011 07:09 PM PST

During Microsoft’s CES Keynote tonight is all about Kinect, and some of our questions about it have been answered. First, the much-asked-for Kinect-controlled Netflix is on the way, and Hulu Plus, which will also be Kinect-capable, is also coming, as we expected. They didn’t provide a date, but you gotta figure it’ll be a part of the spring’s inevitable major dashboard update. So there you go. Be happy.

Sony FAILS to Announce Playstation Phone at CES 2011

Posted: 05 Jan 2011 06:02 PM PST

Even though we all know about it, we’ve seen it about 50 times, and CES 2011 in Las Vegas would have been a great opportunity to announce it, Sony has failed to open the bag and let its Playstation Phone cat come out and play.

Instead, Sony Ericcson announced the Xperia Arc, a new Android 2.3 Gingerbread phone that is, you know, a whole lot like other smartphones. It has some cool features, like an HDMI TV out port, but it doesn’t have a slide-down controller. So who cares.

The Xperia Arc is set to ship in First Quarter 2011 (which is when the Playstation Phone was rumored to ship). We saw supposed shots of the Xperia Play, the believed name for the Playstation Phone, yesterday on Engadget, but despite rolling out a whole lot of products at CES, we still haven’t heard anything official from Sony about it. Boo.

Activision Blizzard Considering Moving Out of UK Because of Taxes

Posted: 05 Jan 2011 05:19 PM PST

Britain recently scrapped plans to provide tax relief for game developers, and Bobby Kotick is pissed. “I think it was a terrible mistake,” bro said (as reported by The Telegraph). “There are so many other places that are encouraging the video games industry.”

Activision Blizzard has a big-ass office with 600 people in Britain, and so moving out of there would not be a small enterprise. It’d be a huge enterprise, in fact, if they were to actually move away, and so this’ll be an interesting story to watch. Of course, the most interesting aspect of this story is not even about Activision, which wouldn’t be hugely affected by this anyway since they’re so freaking rich. More interesting would be how smaller developers react.

Here in the US companies do a lot of slightly odd things for tax breaks, like how every LLC has a home address in Delaware, for example. I wonder if they could do that in the UK, like keep the office in Britain while filing in like Scotland or something.

The First Custom Firmware For PS3 Has Been Created

Posted: 05 Jan 2011 04:36 PM PST

Right behind the recent news that PS3′s root key has been obtained, Sony’s hacker-related headaches continue apace. Today, hacker kakaroto announced on his blog that he has created the world’s first custom firmware for the previously uncrackable console:

“People are asking what are the features of this firmware, it's simple, all it does is to add those "Install Package Files" options to the Game section of the XMB. It doesn't do anything else!

This firmware will not allow you to run the currently available homebrew application. Once the homebrew developers re-package their files in a 'retail' .pkg format with signed executable, then it will work (this should be coming soon thanks to the work of the fail0verflow team).

Since the kernel is left unmodified, this means that this custom firmware is really meant for future homebrew installation, and it will not allow piracy. I plan on keeping it that way.

This is just the first attempt at custom firmware, and it only contains a minor modification to allow you to install pkg files directly, eventually we'll get some more options added to it in the future. This is just starting to get interesting!”

Pretty cool, but if you want to find out if it works, you’re going to have to put in a little effort of your own. To protect himself legally, instead of releasing it Kakaroto is subjecting his process itself to what amounts to peer review instead:

Because of legal/copyright issues, I will not provide the custom firmware to anyone, however, I've made available all the tools necessary to transform an Official firmware update, into a custom one.

You can read all the details at his site. We’ll keep our eyes on this story to see whether or not it actually works. If so we can hopefully expect a lot of custom content for the PS3 soon, at least until their legal team decides on a strategy, which may or may not be under development. See here for why.

Via Slashdot.

Activision, Zynga Sued Over Gaming Tournaments Patent

Posted: 05 Jan 2011 04:32 PM PST

Walker Digital, a company by Priceline.com inventor Jay Walker has this patent for online gaming tournaments. It used this patent to do Priceline.com contests. Now it’s using this patent to sue Activision, Blizzard and casual gaming powerhouse Zynga because it says they’re doing online gaming tournaments, too, and that’s infringing on Walker’s intellectual property.

Here’s a copy of the patent, which is titled Database Driven Online Distributed Tournament System and dates back from 2002. According to TechCrunch’s report, Western Digital claims the patent basically covers online matchmaking systems, it sounds like. From TechCrunch:

Walker Digital argues that this gaming patent concerns a product and method of distributed electronic tournaments for a plurality of players that exchanges information with a central controller to influence game play while a player plays in the tournament, and stores player information to influence game play in a subsequent tournament.

World of Warcraft, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Wolfenstein, and Zynga’s Mafia Wars are all mentioned in the suit. A closer look at the patent, however, makes mention of entry fees and defines the “tournaments” in question as being the kind where players pay an entry fee and can win a prize at the end: not exactly what you get when you fire up Black Ops, although Blizzard is known for putting on StarCraft II tournaments.

Walker Digital hasn’t specified how much money it wants for the suit, but I would expect it to be a lot, based on Black Ops’ sales.

Fight Night Champion ‘Losing Everything’ Trailer

Posted: 05 Jan 2011 04:13 PM PST

This trailer focuses on Champion Mode, and showcases the darker side of the story, including: Bare knuckle fighting, the corruption behind the sport, and the rise and fall of Andre Bishop. You can download this video here or watch it below.

Lost in Shadow Launch Trailer

Posted: 05 Jan 2011 03:57 PM PST

This is a new trailer for Lost in Shadow, a game developed by Hudson Soft exclusively for Wii and now available in North America. You can download this trailer here or watch it below.

Hacker Releases Purported PS3 Root Key – UPDATED

Posted: 05 Jan 2011 03:40 PM PST

UPDATE, 12/05/2010.

When we wrote our initial post on the subject, we contacted Sony for a statement. After just over a day, we recieved the following terse statement from their Public Relations team:

“We are investigating the news and have nothing to comment at this point in time. “

We’ll concede that, sure, this non-statement could be an indication that they’re not going to really do anything. But do we really believe that they’re not going to be thoroughly exhausting all options? I don’t, especially since, and I know I’m a broken record on this, but especially seeing as how Microsoft almost destroyed Matthew Crippen’s entire life over this kind of thing. We’d have to believe Sony exists in some kind of magical fantasy world apart from the way business is practiced by every company on Earth to simply assume they don’t care.

Either way, we’ll obviously be keeping our eyes out for anything more substantial from Sony. And, of course, for proof that the Root Key is legit.

ORIGINAL Post, 12/03/2010.

Huge news for everyone who owns a PS3. Celebrated hacker George Hotz, AKA geohot (who was instrumental in cracking the iPhone and who, just to make you feel really old, was born in 1989) made Sony wince yesterday by posting what he claims is the metldr key for the PlayStation 3 on his personal site. Accompanying this potentially Sony-shattering news was the following message:

props to fail0verflow for the asymmetric half no donate link, just use this info wisely
i do not condone piracy

(emphasis mine)

Smart kid to be sure, but it gets better:

if you want your next console to be secure, get in touch with me. any of you 3.
it’d be fun to be on the other side.

Click that link above to see the key for yourself.

Meanwhile, that’s pretty goddamned ballsy, as resume cover letters go. (In fact we can think of only one better, off the top of our heads). But before Sony considers his offer, they’re probably consulting their lawyers who, no doubt, are currently dropping like flies from strokes as I type this. Because the fact is, no matter how you spin this, if Geohot is correct and this actually is the PS3 root key, then as Kotaku points out, Sony’s kind of F’d with this.

Here’s why: to oversimplify things way too much, the metldr (root) key is a program that allows software to interact with specific hardware. Like knowing the password to get into the castle at night. It’s why you can’t play Wii, Xbox 360, even PS2 games on your PS3, or make your own PS3 compatible game. However, if you were to insert this key into the game (via that game’s source code), then burn that game to disc, assuming you do everything right, the hardware would recognize the game as authorized. Voila! Instantly feel like you work for Ubisoft!

Better still, since you didn’t actually mod the machine, there’s no way to detect if you’ve been making use of the key. And worst of all (for Sony), there’s very little that can be done. Sure, Sony could try releasing a firmware update to change the key on all current consoles, but assuming that would actually work, it would also instantly render all games currently using the old root key inaccessible. That would kill this particular kind of PS3 piracy deader than disco, but would also seriously inconvenience (to put it mildly) their millions of legitimate customers. Furthermore, it would likely impose a significant financial cost on them, one they probably wouldn’t be able to cope with for a long time.

While it’s doubtful they’d be willing to recompense Playstation 3 owners for the games they already have in their homes, you can bet your entire house that the lamestops and best lies and other places currently carrying their wares will be treating a root key change like the massive recall it most certainly would be, and subsequently shipping their now-useless copies back to their makers, and Sony (and their second party and subsidiary developers) would be taking the world’s largest bath on their current stock.

A possible solution would be to take this action and release DLC that would allow older copies of legitimate games to play, similar to Xbox games on the 360, though it might be time consuming and it’s likely they wouldn’t be ready for all games fast enough to make the effort matter. My guess is that their only option is to change the root key for the next version of PS3 console and suck it up until then. For all intents and purposes, Freak Geeks put it best: Playstation 3 ismight be hacked for good!

This doesn’t have to be a bad thing. There are plenty of legitimate, non-piratey things one can do with this information. For instance, authorized indie games, or even homebrew games. While GameFront (and myself) would never condone piracy in any form, the possibility that this information might spark the development of indie content for PS3 use is very, very exciting.

However, this definitely has staggering legal implications. As we’ve seen with Microsoft, Console makers are going to do everything they can to secure control over how their IP is used right up until the moment the Library of Congress finally realizes that console modding and other, similar uses of legitimately purchased Hardware are functionally equivalent to Jailbreaking. However that battle plays out, guaranteed that Sony now has a much bigger dog in the fight.

NOTE: Discussion with a programmer friend of mine, who insists he does NOT know anything about PS3 software, yields this: it might be easier than we think for Sony to get around this. In layman’s (I.E., me) terms, it depends on whether or not they planned for this contingency.


Bioware Giving Free DLC Armor for Mass Effect 2 on PS3

Posted: 05 Jan 2011 02:45 PM PST

Bioware announced on its official Twitter account yesterday that a couple of pieces of Mass Effect 2 preorder downloadable content on Xbox 360 will be free on the Playstation Network until Feb. 23.

The Terminus armor and Blackstorm gun, which Xbox 360 owners were able to get as exclusive bonuses for preordering the game, can be downloaded for free for about a month following one of 2010‘s best RPG‘s Jan. 15 release on PS3.

Wearing the Terminus armor grants you a boost to Shepherd’s running speed and shields, as well as the ability to carry more ammo. The Blackstorm is a heavy weapon that creates mini-black holes, not unlike the Warp Biotic power.

If you’re an Xbox 360 player and you didn’t get the armor when you preordered, sucks to be you, because it’s not available on Xbox Live.

Sifteo is This New Mindblowing Gaming Platform

Posted: 05 Jan 2011 02:33 PM PST

Look, this Sifteo thing is so esoteric to how we normally play games that I’m not entirely sure how to describe it. You’ve got three 1.5″ blocks with TV screens on them and you play games and yeah I give up. You’ll need to just watch this video for true understanding or else you’ll get a headache trying to figure this out.

Gah, that seems really cool. The story goes that some MIT kids — or, rather, people who once were MIT kids — wanted to make a new system for gaming that melded video games with the tangibility of board games. And this is what they came up with. Man.

They’ve got an “Early Access” thing going where you get three cubes for $99 (regular price will be $149), but it’s full up for now.You can sign up for a mailing list, though, and you might be able to get in on it once they make some more of these things. Head over to sifteo.com for more detailed specs on this thing.

Lost in Shadow Walkthrough

Posted: 05 Jan 2011 02:33 PM PST

Known as A Shadow’s Tale outside of North America, Lost in Shadow is a puzzle/platform game exclusive to the Nintendo Wii. Separated from your human form, you play a shadow who can only interact with other shadows. Manipulate light sources and real-world objects to change the landscape you stand on, and pick up a sword (or, rather, the shadow of a sword) to defend yourself against an increasingly aggressive host of enemies. Your realm is in the distorted background, and Lost in Shadow never lets you forget that! It’s a creative and unique game that utilizes platform, puzzle, and some RPG elements quite well. And we’ve got the full scoop on how to climb to the top of the Tower of Shadows!

PLEASE NOTE: This game guide is currently in-progress. It will be updated with new content as we work through the game.

Table of Contents

Garden

Well Yard

  1. Head right from the start of the Well Yard and read everything you come across.
  2. At the impasse, point the Wii remote at the Z-shaped object and press B.
  3. When you reach the shadow wall, backtrack to find another memory as well as the third monitor eye.
  4. Go back to the shadow wall and unlock it.

Outflow

  1. Head right. Use Spangle and find the movement point at the base of the bridge structure blocking your way.
  2. Lower the second obstacle, then stand in the small gap. Move it twice more, then hop up and to the left for the first monitor eye.
  3. At the third obstacle, move it, stand on top, and hop to the right for a memory.
  4. Stand on the X-shaped block again and move it so you’re higher than before. Use Spangle to activate the small platform in the air to the left, then climb up.
  5. Grab the second monitor eye up top, then flip the lever. Climb back down and cross to reach the shadow wall.

Station’s Lower Structure

  1. Go right and hop on the moving platform. Keep running right and use Spangle to open the way to a lever. Flip it.
  2. Drop back down and crawl to the right.
  3. In the Shadow Corridor, run right and flip the lever to open the exit.
  4. Back in the light, grab the first monitor eye and return to the raising/lowering platform.
  5. Go left from the horizontal moving platform above, climb the tall ladder, and grab your second monitor eye.
  6. Climb upwards using the platforms and hop left at the top for your third monitor eye.
  7. Head right and unlock the shadow wall.

Tram Station

  1. Enter the shadow corridor. Stand on the spiral and rotate the level once to the right.
  2. Climb the steps and rotate the stage once to the right again.
  3. Back outside, go right and hop on the tram to take a little ride.

Gate

  1. Enter the shadow corridor and point the Wii remote at the lightbulb. Hit B to swing it and jump across.
  2. Outside, head right and go through Pillar Path.

Lower Tower

First Floor

  1. Turn the three “keys” to climb up and around for your first monitor eye.
  2. Turn the next key and enter the shadow corridor.
  3. Climb through the corridor and turn the level right one time for each spiral you activate.
  4. Keep going right and activating key platforms when you must.
  5. A sword! Use it to kill the spider, then open the shadow wall.

2F – Large Stairway

  1. Fight your way to the right, killing the spiders in your way. Enter the shadow corridor.
  2. Avoid the smoke blasts in the corridor and work your way right.

3F-5F – Tower Base

  1. Climb up and kill anything in your path. Grab the first monitor eye and read the sign on the right.
  2. Drag the light slider to the right to create a stairway.
  3. At the top, slide the slider left to grab the second monitor eye.
  4. Move up and start running left. Kill the spiders and their spawn points with three hits from the sword.
  5. Slide the light source all the way down to make it through the next area.
  6. The big spider takes several hits to slay. Hop in, take a few swipes, and back away to stay safe. Unlock the shadow wall when you’re finished.

6F-9F – Low Outer Wall

  1. Crawl under the blue-eyed spiders and hit the switch once to turn on the arrows. When the spiders are defeated, hit the switch and proceed.
  2. Work your way right and down. Defeat another big spider to open the gate.
  3. At the “dead end”, move the steel contraption out of the way with Spangler, then flip the lever.
  4. Go left and climb the stairs up and right.
  5. Smack the switch to send the platform upwards. Defeat spiders along the way and watch for arrows.
  6. Grab your first monitor eye and fight your way up the platforms.
  7. Two big spiders trap you at the top. Put a wall to your back and take them down one by one.
  8. Another platform ride. This time, avoid getting squashed while staying out of the way of the arrow traps.
  9. At the top, grab the third monitor eye and defeat another big spider before opening the shadow wall.

Factory

9F – Fan Passage

  1. Defeat a spider and enter the shadow corridor. Inside, slide the light bar all the way left and right to continue.
  2. To defeat the blue-eyed floating monsters, move the vertical platform in the foreground horizontal. Then, climb the ladder to the left.
  3. Go left at the top of the corridor and defeat a group of spiders. Hit the switch, then go right.
  4. Hop down for the second monitor eye, then loop back and go down and right to continue.
  5. Head right and clear the spiders for the final monitor eye and the exit.

Elevator

  1. Just pass this floor and climb up to the next for now.

Factory Section 1

  1. Go left and use the light slider to get the first monitor eye.
  2. Keep going forward. Hit the lever above and ride the platform across. Move the girder near the memory to the side and continue across.
  3. Enter the shadow corridor. Rotate the level once to the right for each spiral you encounter, but turn the last one left once to reach the exit.
  4. Climb up and go to the right. Fall through the bridge for the second monitor eye, then work your way to the left.
  5. Continue forward and hop behind the sawblade for the final monitor eye.
  6. Drop and hit the switch to freeze the vertical blade in place, then quickly cross and climb upwards.
  7. Go left, defeat a few enemies, and open the shadow wall.

Factory Section 2
Coming soon!
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