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Concerns over the FilePlanet open Beta for Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures have led some gamers to question whether the game will be ready for launch. A Q&A with Funcom’s Age of Conan Product Director Jorgen Tharaldsen answers the hard questions on the state of AoC and its readiness for launch.

The MMORPG Q&A covers the FilePlanet Beta build as well as questions on loading screens between zones. There is also talk about some systems experiencing poor performance on systems meeting the minimum requirements.
Tharaldsen also talks about the May 10 grand finale to the Open Beta as detailed earlier this week on Gaming Today.

via MMORPG

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The fourth annual Games for Health Conference will be showcasing the expanding role of video games in the Health profession. Video game technology is being applied in the field for rehabilitation, training and to encourage exercise.

Some highlights of the conference will be familiar to most gamers. A new version of Activision’s Guitar Hero is being introduced, which will be used in the rehabilitation of arm amputees. The results of studies based on the “Corrupted Blood Syndrome” form Blizzard’s World of Warcraft are also being presented.

Attendees will have the chance to play training games like 3DiTeams and the K.I.C.K. (Kid’s Interactive Creation Kiosk). 3DiTeams offers emergency health care training to medical professionals in virtual worlds. The full press release follows the break.

Read the full article

A new guide up on TechARP shows PC gamers how to soft-mod their NVidia Geforce to a NVIDIA Quadro professional graphics card. The hardware difference between the NVidia GeForce and Quadro graphics cards are negligible. Despite the almost identical make up, customers pay up to 2-5X more for the Quadro.

It all revolves around the driver support for professional 3D applications like 3ds Max or Maya. Quadro drivers allow the Quadro to be used to accelerate the rendering operations of such professional 3D applications while GeForce drivers do not. This is the basis for the premium prices NVIDIA (and ATI) charge for their professional-grade graphics cards.

This new guide will walk you through modifying your software to essentially turn your NVIDIA GeForce desktop graphics card into a NVIDIA Quadro professional graphics card. This will NOT improve your gaming performance, but it will greatly improve your performance with professional 3D applications like 3ds Max and Maya. Get the NVIDIA GeForce To Quadro Soft-mod Guide on TechARP.

When Mad Catz announced it would be producing a line of Arsenal Football Club branded peripherals, it wasn’t hard to predict more of the like would follow. The latest team to sign up is Manchester United Football Club.

“Manchester United is one of the world’s most popular and historic sports teams, with millions of dedicated fans worldwide, and we look forward to providing retailers and customers across Europe with entertaining accessories that bring the excitement of Manchester United to the gaming experience of its fans,” said Darren Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mad Catz. “The addition of the Manchester United brand further strengthens and diversifies our growing portfolio of high-profile licenses and allows Mad Catz to continue building on its success and product penetration in key European markets.”

Manchester United fans can expect to see videogame controllers, faceplates, Console Skinz™ and carrying cases featuring the Red Devil for the PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, PSP, DS Lite, and Wii gaming consoles.

via Business Wire

Yesterday I told you all about the new Sierra movie/game tie-in for The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Today, they sent us some screenshots for the game and after looking at them I came to the same conclusion I did yesterday when I heard the news. So what.

Sorry Sierra, but I just cannot get excited about this. But, if any of you out there are, you can look at more screens for the game by clicking here.

The SCEE blog Three Speech, had its readers send in some questions for Naughty Dog’s Evan Wells about Uncharted or anything else they felt would pass the site’s censors. Most questions ran the usual gambit of gaming related queries, but one in particular stood out a bit from the rest only because of the answer Wells gave.

Question: There are beautifully animated fish in the water, but I can’t shoot them?

Answer: We had hit reactions and even some death animations for the wildlife in the game but we chose to remove it. It was flagged as a potential issue by the ESRB and it seemed like a small concession to make in order to maintain our “Teen” rating. It may have also affected the rating in Europe.

Basically what the ESRB would have implied if these abilities were added to the game, is that it is okay to kill your fellow man any which way you can, but you can’t kill the fishies.

While some of us may argue about this strange sense of morality, I for one can kind of see the ESRB’s point on the matter. Granted, there are many games in which you have to kill an animal be it a dog, bear, wolf, or crazed hart, but usually these animals are attacking you. If you were allowed to kill an animal in the game just for the sake of killing it, what kind of message is being sent? I myself, have a hard time when playing RPGs, killing a wolf, bear, or boar for its meat or fur to complete a quest. This is mainly because I hate the “crying” sounds they make when you are slashing them with your sword or shooting them with your bow. I especially hate it when I have to kill a wolf because not only are they one of my favorite animals, but they are basically a dog, and being the huge dog lover that I am, it makes me feel dirty.

Maybe I feel this way because I am what you would call a softhearted female. Maybe it is because I rescue animals in real life, or maybe it is just because I don’t usually kill gratuitously in games anyway. Sure, it is hilarious in the GTA games when you accidentally run over a pedestrian - but I try to avoid it and if it was not so comical of a death for them, it may even make me feel bad in some sense. Sure, I love to slaughter demons, bad guys, orcs, and rats in games, but I like to kill BAD GUYS. Usually animals in games are there for the scenery, and unless one is attacking me I usually just ignore it.

I do not know the reasons why the ESRB would have given Uncharted an “M” rating for being able to kill fish, but I have a theory of my own which may give us a clue to their way of thinking on the subject. First of all, animals - like the elderly and children - are considered innocent beings. I am sure we all know an old fart who is as mean as the day is long, but that particular person non-withstanding, capping old ladies just isn’t nice. Neither is a hurting child. While it may be acceptable to kill humans in games, usually there is a good reason we are doing it. They are evil and out to conquer the world or put your head on a spike. Therefore, it is okay to slaughter them endlessly. Most people who play games, know that it is not socially acceptable to go around running people down with their cars, shooting them, or shoving a broad sword to their chest cavity, but there are plenty of sickos out there who think it is “okay” to kill animals for their own sick perversions.

It is a commonly known fact that most serial killers started out torturing animals. Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ed Gein and many others from Wisconsin (kidding people) all started out hurting little furry creatures before moving on to human territory. Maybe this is another reason why the ESRB would have found fault with a “T” rating for a game where you kill innocent fish. They are afraid that we will all start wearing suits made from cadavers someday, or cannibalizing our neighbors. Not really sure, but no one likes to see innocence being murdered, no matter if it is in a game or real life.

Whatever their reasons, I am sure it has to do with the mental stability of our future generations - and while it may seem strange to give the green light to shooting dozens of people and not giving a thumbs up to shooting cats off the sofa, it is not such a bad thing really.

Flagship Studios has released another trailer for its upcoming Mythos MMO. The project from the original Diablo team is a free to download, free to play MMO that is currently is closed Beta testing.

The Diablo-esque game started out as a test for Hellgate: London and has evolved into a separate entity. This video is the fourth in a series of gameplay videos and heralds the imminent start of the open Beta and the New “Overworld.”

You can view the first three gameplay trailers a trailer on class introduction for Mythos on FileFront.

8bit Games has released a trailer for its upcoming PlayStation Network title Elefunk.The game is a side scrolling platformer with puzzle elements. Basically your elephant herd has been kidnapped and you have to help your elephant lead them back home. The title reminds me a lot of Lemmings or The Incredible Machine; both fun and somewhat challenging games.

Check out the gameplay examples in this trailer featured on FileFront:

via FileFront

Developer, Rebellion, and publisher, Reef Entertianment, have announced a partnership to bring Rogue Trooper to the Wii. The original game told the story of a genetically-engineered soldier fighting a planetary civil war on “Nu Earth.” His whole squad dies in the first mission, but live on after he applies their “biochips” to his weapons and gear. After that, they provide him with several special abilities and upgrades, plus helpful advice from time to time. The game was surprisingly pretty good, and actually gained some acclaim from critics.  The new Wii version will be titled “Rogue Trooper: The Quartz Zone Massacre” and will include enhanced Wii controls, plus a few tweaks from Rebellion. The game is expected to ship in Q4 of this year.

Okay, Rogue Trooper was a pretty decent game and all, but could we just stop with all the Wii ports of PS2 games? Please? Besides, if you want to try out this game and save yourself some cash, the original Rogue Trooper is available to play on GameTap for free.

Via VideoGamer

CCP is proudly celebrating EVE Online’s fifth year. The sci-fi based futuristic space MMO has a very loyal niche following. CCP is honoring the occasion by offering its subscribers a surprise in-game gift. Just log on to claim your loot.

“As the EVE universe has evolved into a sophisticated society, it has attracted and maintained the interest of highly skilled, enthusiastic players at steadily increasing growth rates,” said Nathan Richardsson, executive producer at CCP. “Looking ahead, CCP is focused on making EVE Online even more immersive and invigorating, and advancing the online gaming industry as a whole.”

The latest free expansion, Empyrean Age, will introduce Factional Warfare. Players can expect EVE Online: Empyrean Age sometime this summer.

via Business Wire

2K Sports and Konami are teaming up once again to hit MLB Power Pros 2008 out of the park. This game depicting super-deformed caricatures of Baseball greats is a favorite in Japan, and will be making its second appearance in the US.

Players will be able to choose from ten different game modes including Practice, Exhibition, League and Home Run Challenge. They can also choose to play the part of a team’s General Manager in Season mode.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Konami again, and with the Baseball™ season now in full swing, we’re proud to offer our fans a refreshingly smart and exciting baseball game that is easily accessible for all ages,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “Baseball enthusiasts will appreciate the variety of newly added features, intuitive game modes and improved overall feel, and we look forward to hitting one out of the park this season with MLB Power Pros 2008.”

Gamers can catch MLB Power Pros 2008 for the Wii and the PS2 this July. The game will be available for the DS this fall.

via Business Wire

Virtual Worlds Management has announced that Linden Lab and The Multiverse Network have sign on as eaerly sponsers for Virtual Worlds London. The conference and expo for European companies looking to use virtual world technologies for enterprise or consumer business opportunities is scheduled for October 20-21 2008 at The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre.

“We are pleased to welcome two virtual world technology leaders,” said Christopher Sherman, Executive Director of Virtual Worlds London. “The United Kingdom and Europe are extremely important markets for virtual world technology. Additional sponsors, supporters and exhibitors will be announced shortly.” 

Corey Bridges, co-founder and executive producer of Multiverse, believes this is the breakout year for virtual worlds. “Not only will we finally see deep integration with social networks, which will bring virtual worlds truly into the mainstream, we’ll also see ultra-useful ‘killer apps’ for the enterprise, with measurable ROI,” Bridges said. “The innovators who are building this future will be in attendance at Virtual Worlds London this fall.”

Both companies are also signed for the Virtual Worlds Expo in Los Angeles, California which is scheduled for September 3-4 2008.

The push for the integration of social networks into MMOs is the current trend. These expos are gaining in importance and popularity as the emphasis grows. I think we’re bound to see more of this type of direction in other video game conferences over the next few years.
via Business Wire

Looks like Tony Hawk is taking a break from the game business for a little while. Activision recently confirmed that there is no Tony Hawk game set for release in 2008, making this the first year without a Hawk game on consoles since the first one came out in 1999. Well, there will be one coming out for the DS sometime this year, but that doesn’t really count — though Activision is saying that it will “utilizes new technology not yet seen on the DS.” The publisher claims that the extra development time will be used for “reinventing Tony Hawk from the ground up.” We should see a new Hawk game in fiscal year 2010, which begins in April 2009 for Activision.

Oh no. No new Tony Hawk game in 2008? That’s…just…terrible…you know, I can’t even fake disappointment here. It took me hours to wash out the stink that Proving Ground left in my 360, and it still kind of lingers there a little. Sometimes there just isn’t enough Febreze.

Via DarkZero

They may have launched a teaser site for Quantum of Solace recently, but the one thing that Activision failed to mention about the game was that it will run on the same engine as CoD4.

While sitting here at my computer listening to the boring audio from the conference call - and wishing I had Irished up my coffee just to make it through the thing, I heard this interesting tidbit after the news that the game would launch the same day as the movie.

According to Chief Executive Officer of Publishing Mike Griffith, Quantum of Solace, “uses the Call of Duty 4 engine and technology to bring Bond games to a new level.” Since the game will be released onto multiple platforms, it will be interesting to see how it will differ from port to port. CoD4 was not released for the Wii, so I imagine (correct me if I am wrong) that either they will have to tweak things a bit or use a different engine for the Nintendo Console. Plus, a myraid of developers will be creating the game for different versions. Treyarch (Xbox 360 and PS3 developers), Vicarious Visions (handheld developer), Beenox (confirmed as the developer for the Wii) and Eurocom (PC devlopers.)

What this means, is that like most multiplatform games, you can expect each one to look drastically different from the next. Unless of course you are looking at PC/PS3/360 comparisons, which mainly just differ in matters of clarity - or so I have found. Of course, this could be because I added a bit of whiskey to my espresso earlier.

For more information on the Activision conference call, check out all the posts related to this bevy of information by hitting this link.

Apparently Microsoft will give Banjo-Kazooie 3 fans what they have been wanting come Gamer’s Day. Microsoft UK confirmed to Videogaming247 this morning that assets will be released on Tuesday, May 13 at 8am PST - which is noon for those of us close to the Eastern Seaboard, stuck in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains, or fighting off mosquitoes in the Mississippi Delta.

Not only will Banjo-Kazooie 3 (working title) assets be shown, but a plethora of other Xbox 360 related goodies will be released as well, so please be sure and look us up four days from now.

Thanks: Videogaming247

Sony announced today that the cumulative worldwide shipment of the Gran Turismo franchise has exceeded 50 million units as of April 30, 2008. This sales figure was achieved over the past 10 years and 4 months since the launch of the first title in the franchise - Gran Turismo, in December 1997.

The Gran Turismo franchise, from the original Gran Turismo to the latest Gran Turismo 5 Prologue has received high regard not just from game fans, but also from professional racing drivers and people in the automobile industry.

The seventh installment, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, has recorded strong sales since the first launch in Japan in December, 2007, followed by North America and Europe in Spring of 2008, with more than 2 million units of cumulative shipment worldwide and contributing to the further expansion of the PS3 platform.

Title Release Dates in North America

• Gran Turismo - May 12, 1998
• Gran Turismo 2 - December 23, 1999
• Gran Turismo 3 A-spec - July 10, 2001
• Gran Turismo 4 - February 22, 2005
• Gran Turismo 5 Prologue - April 15, 2008

Via: Press Release

According to a recent GamesIndustry interview with Josh Drescher, EA Mythic’s senior designer, Warhammer Online has been built to contain five years of content.In the interview, which will be published in full next week, Dresher discussed the challenges the development team faced when creating Warhammer Online and also discussed the MMORPG’s longevity:

“All the under-the-hood numbers all actually scale through the next five years. What you don’t want is when you launch the game you’ve got 40 levels - and it takes however long it takes to get to level 40. You then launch an expansion and it now takes two weeks to get to level 40 because now we need everyone to spend six months to get from level 40 to 50. So you need to spec the game out in such a way that you actually have those progressions in mind for later - so you don’t wind up trampling all over the earlier experiences every time you expand the game. We have actually five years’ worth of numerology out in front of us in terms of all that.”

Sounds like loads of content can be expected when Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning launches sometime this Fall. No wonder it has taken so long.

Via: GamesIndustry.biz

We have known for quite some time that Activision has planned to release Guitar Hero IV sometime close to the holiday shopping extravaganza, but during their conference call yesterday they confirmed that it will be made available for all three major consoles plus the PS2 and DS. Still, that is no surprise.

What is surprising though, slightly at least, is that this yet unnamed title will provide what Activison calls a “significant leap forward in innovation” for not only the franchise but for music simulation gaming as a whole. Could this be the extra instruments they have been talking about recently? Who knows at this point, but during the call it was stated that information would be forthcoming soon.

As far as new concerning Guitar Hero: On Tour for the DS, Activision announced that the company and Nintendo are planning to release a bundle which will include a Nintendo DS, Guitar Hero: On Tour and the DS peripheral. Also, an add-on pack of new music will be released for Guitar Hero: On Tour sometime this year but contents, release date, and price was not given.

Stay tuned for more information on the ever growing assortment of Guitar Hero titles. I am sure Guitar Hero: Fergie is next somewhere down the line. God I hope not.

Thanks: Videogaming247 (here and here)

The GRID PC Demo that was slated to be launched today has what looks like a serious multiplayer issue. A black screen, dead state has been seen about once an hour in online testing.

Due to this issue, Codemasters has asked FileFront to pull the demo and if you have already downloaded it we apologize for any inconvenience and will keep you updated with the latest news as soon as we have it.

Hopefully a fixed version will be released shortly, so check back often.

***UPDATE***

We just received word from Codemasters that the PC demo is being fixed and will be up and running sometime Monday morning.

“Pirates of the Caribbean” director Gore Verbinski is slated to direct the film adaptation of BioShock. According to Variety, the film will be developed by Universal Studios, which subsequently handed over a multimillion-dollar advance to Take-Two for the film rights.

Screenwriter John Logan (Gladiator, The Aviator) will be the scriptwriter and while Universal has not announced a release window, Verbinski said that pre-production will begin as when the script is finished and approved.

Strauss Zelnick, chairman for Take-Two and former President of Fox said the deal was structured to prevent any pre-production hang ups:

“The reason I structured it the way I did is to make sure it gets made. One of the things we decided early on is that we didn’t want to go through a producer. It’s terribly important to us to have a meaningful influence on how this project is produced.”

The Variety piece also mentions that BioShock creative director Ken Levine has been “regularly consulted” but having a formal role in the film’s process remains to be seen.

Let’s all keep our fingers crossed that it does not suck. Verbinski is a decent director, and even though the last Pirates film was awful in my opinion, you can’t totally blame him. He did the best he could with a shoddy script.

Via: Variety